Session 15

Fact Sheet: freeing the Sable Serpent's prisoners

Date: 01-02-23

Date in-universe: an unspecified Monday late afternoon

Players present: Ecchima, Marty, Meinhart, Tuur and Vinnie. Dins was our GM.

Major developments

the Sable Serpent built their headquarters in a desecrated Lunaire temple. Unclear how Hali feels about that
we killed 4 snakes, 4 guards and a huge constrictor serpent & freed about 12 prisoners including Soufiane, Miriam's husband. They are underway back to Koh'Shar, accompanied by Basri and his 3 guards
Basri (and the 3 guards) are now aware we're all magic users, casting doubt on our intentions and our actions wrt Nasser and the Rosarian draft
we found Na'Dir in the middle of a sacrifice (hopefully not Soufiane and Miriam's son) & identified the serpentine being as a malison Yuan-ti of unknown age (but clearly old) and unknown magical skill
Na'Dir taunted Fyllion with a trap it's planning to spring on Simeon & hinted it's been scrying on all of us, planning to devour our magic as soon as it kills us

Notes

While he's scouting out the corridor, Fyllion feels an uncomfortable vibration coming from his waterskin... before long, he hears Virgil's snarking underwater voice complain about the risks Fyllion is taking with the totem, either by risking it gets swallowed by bugs or by taking it into the sanctum of another god, in this case Sangrün. He does add Fyllion's party is more useful to him alive, so if the situation is dire enough, Fyllion should throw the totem out of the waterskin & then just hope Virgil can do something to help us.

Hali calls up to Fyllion and Frei if they're okay. Fyllion responds by throwing down a rope. We debate about the route to take. When Hali turns around to check what the others think, we notice Basri has his crossbow trained on Eldrin!

Thanks to all the starlight glittering and the eldritch blasting and stuff, he's figured out we're all magic users! He rants a series of accusations at us:

You tricked Koh'Shar into arresting our King of the Oasis, causing a drought, you just led this party into the lair of another known magic user, are you in league with the Sable Serpent, why did you avoid the Rosarian draft?!

Through a combination of honest persuasion & our habitual bullshitty babbling, we convince him we're just trying to save Enza's neighbours from Nawa.

.

When we all join Frei and Fyllion in the room above, we notice a statue. It used to show Lunaire, but the face has been crumbled off. Behind it, there's a red sun with a black serpent coiled inside it. Fyllion explains it's the sigil of Baboon, a god we don't appear to know.

Basri stations 2 guards in the room, they'll help evacuate the prisoners. Hali sheds her starry form, so we maintain stealth. When Fyllion checks the corridor again, he notices:

another guard has joined the patrol
the closest prisoner, a girl, has noticed Fyllion and nervously signals there's 2 more guards out of sight
1 small dark alcove on the side & 1 larger alcove from which light emanates, and one door that doesn't appear to have a lock

We plan a pincher attack: Fyllion and Storm will lure the guards in with a dazzling performance, after the others sneak into a position where they’ll be behind the guards.

Eldrin sneaks into the first, small alcove: it opens to another natural tunnel, which looks like the burrow of some creature. There's a human skeleton, long ago someone bled out here. Among the refuse and rubble, Eldrin spots a shed snakeskin. From their position, Eldrin casts a minor illusion showing the empty corridor. Eldrin signals to Ezra to advance & through a mental message Eldrin reassures the closest prisoner: the girl confirms the 2 guards we can see, 2 extra guards somewhere out of sight, one guard near a cart and earlier she heard a lot of hissing from the far left.

Ezra notices the alcoves are connected & informs Eldrin.

Hali tries to join Ezra but trips over a handful of loose pebbles. When the guards come to check on that noise, the prisoner girl distracts them by complaining. One guard slaps her around and they decide to start loading all these prisoners onto their cart (out of sight), with plans to sell them as slaves.

Deciding they can’t wait any longer, Fyllion and Storm start their show!

we hear the guards exclaim in surprise and alarm
we hear skittering from the inhabitants from the tunnels who’re suddenly woken up
we hear snake noises from behind Fyllion and Storm, with human pleading mixed in
Fyllion, Storm, Frei and Basri hear an inhuman androgynous voice from down the hole: do feel free to join me, my dear wet bandits, I can divide my attention between what I’m doing and you

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1. Eldrin eldritch blasts a guard and kicks in the door of the last alcove, revealing a sturdy built-in ladder. They warn the rest of us about the snakes in the tunnels behind the other alcoves

2. the guards raise the alarm: one runs towards Fyllion & Storm, but notices Hali and Ezra so he pivots to attack Hali, but misses. The second joins his colleague and attacks Ezra, and also misses. A third guard appears in the natural tunnels, behind Hali and Ezra

3. Storm charms the guard attacking Hali, ordering him to stand down. Then he beguiles the one bothering Ezra, making him less effective in the battle

4. Fyllion asks the voice at the bottom of the hole why they aren't dead, to which the voice replies with an invitation to come check. Fyllion launches hold person on the guard bothering Ezra... but thanks to a NATURAL TWENTY the guard resists. With "I believe in you/ I think you can all do/ this" Fyllion gives 5 hit points & a movement as reaction to Ezra, Hali, Storm, and himself.

Immediately, Ezra slips past the guards and takes a better position. Fyllion slams the door behind Storm, hoping to keep the creepy voice from the hole from reaching his friends

5. One snake heads to Hali, two others head over to Storm. Hali gets bitten but only takes half damage, the others aren't close enough yet to attack Storm

a young half-orc prisoner further down the corridor shouts "watch out, there's a monster coming"!

6. Ezra slashes at the guard under Storm's control with their sword and simply cuts him in half. The prisoners cry out in shock and hope

7. Hali lunges at the snake with her scimitar, but it's a NATURAL ONE. Still, she moves a better position

8. With a warning to Fyllion to keep away from that voice down the hole, Frei slams open the door again and attacks the snake in front of Storm. She claws at its eyes and it's badly wounded. Basri leaves the wounded snake to Storm & Frei & sends an arrow hurtling to the remaining guard in the corridor, hurting him with NATURAL TEN

.

A gigantic black constrictor snake arrives in the corridor from the left... It easily takes up 5 meters of the corridor, despite its body being coiled as it slithers past the prisoners towards Ezra and Hali.

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1. Totally terrified by the constrictor, Eldrin casts both hex and eldritch blast. Despite its natural scaling, it's basically a tube of meat so it's easy to hit. Eldrin hurries back to the alcove with the ladder

2. Unnerved by their creature’s presence, the guards run up to Ezra & orders the snake to do the same

3. Storm fails to charm the gigantic snake, but beguiles it (with only a NATURAL ONE)

4. Fyllion peaks from behind the door & spots the snake whose eyes Frei just clawed out. Though he’s shaking and pale, he stabs it with a NATURAL TWENTY. Taking heart from his victory, he gives Hali some inspiration "It's the eye of genasi, it's the thrill of the fight, rising up to the challenge of this serpent" & then hurries back behind the door. Frei is relieved he's out of the way

5. Another snake attacks Frei but she manages to evade most of the damage. The last snake lashes out at Ezra, but they manage to evade the hissing beast, thanks to their increased familiarity with Baaloo

6. Ezra kills the snake that just attacked them & repositions

7. Hali enters her starry form, casting starlight everywhere. Eldrin is worried about getting blinded, but Hali continues her prayer to Lunaire to activate a moonbeam on top of the constrictor & shoots a starry arrow at the snake between Storm & Frei, singeing it badly

8. Frei kills the snake Hali hurt & runs up to the guard in the natural tunnels. Basri shoots a deep gash into the constrictor

9. The constrictor takes damages from the moonbeam & leaps towards Hali to both avoid the beam & stop Hali. It snares Hali in its coils & she feels the crushing pressure as the creature grapples her

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1. Eldrin joins Storm & casts another Eldritch Blast, with the gods' favour, hurting the constrictor, after which Eldrin repositions themselves on the battlefield

2. Atop the ladder in the alcove, another guard has heard the commotion & shoots blindly with a NATURAL TWENTY, hurting Storm. The guard clambers down the ladder. The guard at the “foot” of the constrictor attacks Ezra and hacks at them. In the dark of the natural tunnel, the 3rd guard has a stand-off with Frei

3. Storm beguiles the new guard & hits him with his whip

4. Fyllion hears the voice from the hole again: in Saatia’s seductive accent they implore Fyllion “why don't you step closer”. Shuddering, Fyllion slips through the door & sings "this is Fyllion to everyone, you're really in the shit, but now a little less", giving temporary hit points & a free movement. Next, he tries to overpower the beguiled guard's will, but fails

5. Ezra attacks the Serpent with 2 swords and despite a NATURAL ONE they manage to kill the constrictor and free Hali. The prisoners cheer, though they're also still terrified.

6. Hali clambers over the dead constrictor, closer to the prisoners. She puts her moonbeam on the guard fighting with Ezra and kills the guard in front of Storm with her starry arrow. With his dying breath, the guard groans "warn Na'Dir"

7. Frei claws at the guard in front of her and hurts him twice, badly. She squeezes aside to allow Eldrin more space. Basri hurries into the hallway, and kills the guard in Hali's moonbeam

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1. Eldrin leaps past Frei and attacks the last guard with both hex and sword, killing him where he stands. While the blood splatters everywhere, Frei notices Eldrin is at first maniacally elated at the kill, but sobers quickly as the blood on their dark blade rapidly ages and turns to powder... as the red dust disperses, only a darkly gleaming, clean blade is left in Eldrin’s hand

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There's a lull in the corridor as the fight ends. Soon, the prisoners clamour for their release. Hali and Eldrin move closer & see the cart the girl mentioned, with 3 more prisoners loaded onto the cart. Ezra and Eldrin check the tunnels, spotting a way outside, seeing dusk is setting. The others search the dead guards for the keys.

Only one prisoner on the cart is hurt, though not badly: these people were merchandise, ready to be sold into slavery by the Sable Serpent. We reveal Enza, Miriam, Hamza and five kids are waiting for them in the inn The Slumbering Sands in Koh’Shar. The man with the hurt ankle introduces himself as Soufiane, Miriam’s husband. Frantically, he implores Eldrin to save their son, he thinks his son will be sacrificed. It'll happen in the room at the bottom of the hole where Fyllion heard the creepy voice. Eldrin quickly messages Fyllion.

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Fyllion checks with the voice in the hole: can he see a sacrifice or hear ritual chanting…? At first, all he hears is the smooth slithering of snakes sliding over stones… Then the voice whispers seductively:

just come down and fight me...

who are you, you can't be who I think you are... how many earrings do you have?

can you first do me a favour? Scream for me…

Hesitantly, Fyllion screams down the hole. Tersely, he listens to the echoes and a strange swooshing noise underneath the echoes, like viscous water sloshing… Then, suddenly, his original scream leaps back up at him! The voice follows, gloating: “I’ve only got one earring”.

Fyllion lights a torch & checks the chute, but he can't see much. He informs Eldrin that someone with a sexy accent is challenging us! Eldrin arches an eyebrow at that reply.

.

Basri summons the guards and starts organising the release of the prisoners. They think

the wounded and the young are taken down there and no one returns. They figure their friends are sacrificed there
there's probably patrols outside

Ezra voices our thought: since these 12 healthy-ish prisoners are able to walk, Basri and the 3 guards should lead them through the tunnel we walked through. When these Nawa survivors arrive in Koh'Shar, Basri & the 3 guards can return to check on us. Meanwhile, we’ll look for the other prisoners (with Frei’s aid). Should we be able to free them, we’ll use the cart and horse to transport the wounded. Before we send them on their way, Hali creates 10 goodberries.

Hali explores the other rooms:

a large ceremonial room with sarcophagi with a large hole in the ceiling & a lot of rubble. There's a snake snoozing, but thankfully it keeps sleeping
another outdoor section with sarcophagi & a lot of footprints in the sand, this is probably where the patrols pass

.

As we gather around the hole, the voice mockingly suggests they can finish this batch of sacrifices if we're going to dilly-dally this long... So, with a little persuasion from Fyllion, Eldrin and Storm, we jump down the hole (disregarding the ladder leading down) using Fyllion’s cloak of feather fall.

We land on a platform at the edge of a star chart room. The star charts have been chiselled off and painted over with white figures with red eyes, praying to a red sun.

In the middle of the room, in a lowered section of the floor, there's a desecrated moon pool, filled with swirling blood. Along with the star charts and the statues we saw on top of the sarcophagi & in the various rooms, this confirms we’re in an old Lunaire temple
On the altars at the edge of the room 3 prisoners are tied up, they look wounded and in pain
Opposite from us, an altar juts out high above the section with the moon pool. A badly hurt man is slung over the altar, and next to him, a huge, hulking figure stands wearing a dark cloak.

When the figure removes their hood, we see an incomprehensible, monstrous entity, appearing half snake and half dragon or lizard, vaguely humanoid with huge crocodile teeth gleaming in a terrifying smile and with horns and spikes everywhere. It's impossible to tell who or what this is. They welcome us in their smooth voice and the same mysterious accent Saatia had:

I'm glad your magical potential isn't lost, though of course, I’ve been keeping an eye on you, so I could retrieve your corpses if necessary. Still, I appreciate you came all this way to fall under my blade, so I can drink your magic down!

At the creature’s words, the moon pool’s surface becomes unnaturally still, and right underneath the surface we see scenes the creature scried previously: our battle with Saatia, Nasser angrily negotiating with a bandit, one of the bandits dying in the tunnels… the visions end with a glimpse of Simeon galloping in a panic, causing Fyllion to blush a little. The creature keeps regaling themselves with their plans:

Had I known you’d come running for a simple handful of singed prisoners, I mightn’t have expended Saatia so casually… Still, she’d reached the end of her usefulness, so I regret nothing.

As soon as Eldrin hears Saatia’s name, they launch an eldritch blast at the creature, opening several long scratches on their chest, causing blood to seep from between its scales. We’re now quite certain this is Na’Dir. The way they shrug off the impact of the blast, confirms this is a seasoned magic user and frightful enemy. They dip a claw in the blood dripping down their chest and lick it clean, with a nod of thanks to Eldrin:

I haven’t tasted Sangrün's gift in so long, how delicious. You know, warmbloods are easy to acquire and motivate, but in the end you're also easily used up. Saatia had her uses, from the time she joined the Sable Serpent as a child, killing her father to earn her place here… till the way she revealed your magic to me! And with your scream, darling Fyllion, Simeon is returning here at break-neck speed. I reckon he’ll be just in time to find your cooling corpse on the floor, and then I’ll drink the magic from his blasted tattoo. Isn’t that a wonderful repayment for the betrayal he offered me?

When Eldrin growls at the scaley being, they chortle Eldrin shouldn’t be hasty. After all, they're pumped full of Nawa blood, so they're ready to fight all of us:

Eldrin, the gods’ chosen child
Hali, the hidden pearl from the northern seas
Ezra, the sand weaver with their sand snake
Storm, the heir of the whirling swan artists
Fyllion, that fey pawn

Na'Dir raises their hands to start an incantation, causing a pulse to radiate from the polluted moon pool. Vines crawl to the prisoners & erupt into spikes. The prisoners cry out as they're being bled by the vines. Na’Dir slams their dagger into the prisoner on the high altar. At the man’s death rattle, Na’Dir’s dagger turns onto a disgusting longsword, barbed with cruel hooks and gleaming cursedly.

In their horror, Eldrin and Storm have forgotten everything they ever heard about such beings or such power, but Ezra is familiar with monstrosities, and cottons on:

this is a Yuan-ti, one of the monstrous serpent folk. Though their appearance varies between mostly human and full-on snake, they’re usually of human size. Given Na’Dir stands at a towering 3 meters and has a lot of extra teeth and spikes, we assume they're an ancient being that kept growing and shedding their skin, as reptiles are wont to do
when they see something dead in Na’Dir’s eyes, Ezra reckons they recognize a malison, a magic user in service of the serpentine gods.

Episode Guide

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