Fortress of the Yuan-ti
The Surrounding Countryside
After resting a few days in Pedestal and re-supplying, the Party headed back into the Spire to brave the portal they had found. Presenting the portal key they had retrieved from Fadheela, they passed through.
The immediately found themselves in unaccustomed broad daylight, in a pastoral landscape, a series of huts surrounded by fields sat a cleared area in front of a huge cliff. A staircase ascended up the lower part of the cliff to a huge doorway protected by flanking towers. In the distance, and atop the cliff they could see what looked like thick forest or jungle. The fields of wheat in the cleared area were being tended to by what were obviously human and halfling slaves. In the distance they could hear what was presumably an overseer berating someone.
Charging forward they could see near a pavilion in front of the village well, a naga dressing-down a cowed group of humans. Elred immediately charged forward and fired an arrow at her, only for a huge snake to unwind itself from round the well and attack him. While Truldan charged in to help Elred, Talonux quickly cast invisibility on himself and Lefrassa, and then began casting multiple lightning bolt spells. The naga retaliated in kind!
When the huge snake was slain, the naga cast invisibility and headed for the great stairway, but arrogantly turned at the foot of them and cast another lightning bolt - which proved to be her last mistake as the spellcasters retaliated!
The Great Hall of Serastis
As things had calmed down the party were approached by a
nervous group of villagers, the leader of them introduced herself as
Clora, She asked them back to their quarters and offered food an drink.
They seemed pleased at the death of their overseer, and even more
pleased when Lefrassa offered healing to anyone who needed it in the
village - finding mostly malnutrition and signs of ill-treatment.
They quickly discovered they were very far from home, deep in the uncharted depths of the Amedio Jungle and that the fortress was known as castle Serastis and was indeed a Yuan-ti stronghold. They were also told them that for many years the castle had been relatively quiet but over the last few months had suddenly become a hive of activity! They decided to stay with the villagers that night and enjoyed an undisturbed rest.
Next morning, Elred led the way up what the villagers referred
to as "The Serpent's Stair", his eyes constantly scanning for traps.
They reached the huge brass doors without incident, but could find no
way of opening them, so Lefrassa used stoneshape to
create a doorway in the stone wall to one side. They entered into an
enormous hall as large as a castle keep. Much of the chamber was open
to the level above, allowing anyone on the floor above to look down
upon it. Two large winches, their handles carved to resemble striking
cobras, flanked the double door. Across the chamber, clear water
glinted within a circular marble pool, but their gaze was drawn
to a massive reptilian skeleton at the back of the hall. Suddenly a
voice called out "slay the intruders!" and the skeleton lumbered into
life , charging forward and attacking Truldan!
As Elred broke to the left, drawing his bow, he was attacked by a heavily armed cleric darting from the shadows. Lefrassa tried to turn the skeleton, to no avail. However Talonux had more luck with a command undead spell, before Truldan unfortunately smashed at the dinosaur with his flail and broke the spell. As Elred engaged the enemy cleric and Lefrassa moved to support him, Talonux again cast command undead, ordering the skeleton to attack the cleric, who was swiftly despatched.
While they were searching the body they were attacked by a group of guards emerging from a nearby room, but they proved little challenge. They dragged the bodies into the room they had come from, a dining room, while Truldan explored the nearby kitchen. As they stacked the bodies, Elred's elven senses spotted a secret door in the wall.The Dungeons of Serastis
The Party began exploring the secret passageway that Elred had discovered, finding that it wound it's way up through the cliff. Eventually they emerged through a secret door into a huge chamber containing an ominous black ziggurat. The area was guarded by two half-bloods and an abomination that were swiftly dealt with, thought eh abomination did prove troublesome for a while. None of them liked the feeling of palpable evil and icy dread radiating from the black ziggurat, so they took care not to get too close while they explored the area, finding what looked like two portals. Truldan eventually got a little too close to the ziggurat and (probably wisely) fled when he felt what felt like icy fingers reaching out to grasp his soul! The others followed the barbarian and after a brief debate, headed back to the lower levels.
They emerged to to discover that the giant dinosaur skeleton Talonux had taken under command undead had been destroyed, though from the signs of blood in the Hall, it had taken a few guards with it! They found what looked like a chapel nearby where they swiftly dealt with a lizardfolk druid and moved onto a huge audience chamber, where Truldan managed to fall down a pit trap!
Lefrassa and Talonux had a few abortive attempts to disable the pit trap and free their friend before deciding to find another way down, accompanied by the sound of Truldan trying to bash his way out of the cell he found himself in! En route to finding a way down they killed some more pure-bloods they found torturing a prisoner. The prisoner pointed out the way down to the dungeons and warned them about the ghostly warden there, before fleeing back to the village.
They arrived in the dungeon just as Truldan burst open the door of his cell! Almost immediately the other prisoners there started shouting to be freed. They had just started doing do when a ghostly yuan-ti half-blood manifested, his ghostly touch reaching out for Talonux. Lefrassa managed to use turn undead to send the ghost packing and they set about trying to free the other prisoners, Truldan searching for keys but being thwarted by locked doors at every turn, much to his frustration. Their efforts to free the prisoners were frustrated by occasional reappearances and attacks by the ghostly warden, forcing Lefrassa to use turn undead again.Gift of the Ancient Foe
The ghostly jailer having been turned again, Elred set about
releasing the prisoners and investigating the locked rooms on this
level. Once the prisoners were freed the rest of the rooms turned out
to be storage, filled with mundane equipment. In one room however they
found an exquisite set of scale mail made of overlapping layers of
darkwood carved to resemble leaves. Its dark hue was broken by a
leaf-and-branch pattern in dull gold. The Party speculated, this was
one of the missing legacy items that had belonged to one of
the King's Companions, and two Pearls of Power. Talonux
used identify to confirm that the armour
was in fact Nanietharil - “Gift of the Ancient Foe”.
After Lefrassa used turn undead yet again
to get rid of the
pesky jailer once more, Elred found a secret exit from the complex
which the prisoners used to escape back to the village.
The Tower of the Way
Elred opened a locked door to reveal an ascending stairway, the top of which guarded by two poison disk lizardfolk, who immediately ducked behind a barrier. While Elred and Talonux peppered the guards with arrows, Truldan and Lefrassa charged up the stairs and quickly disposed of the hapless guards. The door they had been guarding opened onto an oddly shaped chamber which appeared to take up half of an octagonal space of one of the towers they had seen from the exterior. Stairs and landings spiralled upward above them, and a pair of doors beckoned from the far wall.
Almost immediately however they came under magical attack from the balcony above. Truldan, as ever, led the charge to the balcony, which was lit by strangely glowing alcoves, revealing their assailants to be a Yuan-ti pureblood sorceress and a dragon! The combat was rendered more difficult when both Elred and Lefrassa were hit by ray of enfeeblement spells, making it difficult to even wield their weapons! The dragon took to the air alternating his breath weapon with flyby attacks, but when the sorceress was slain it fled, up another stairway to the heights of the tower. As the Party pursued it, they came under attack by a yeth hound and some sailsnakes, but a fireball from Talonux soon put paid to them, and from the ramparts, they saw the dragon heading out towards the jungle!
After examining a map-room where, amongst many others they found maps of Barrow's Edge, Kingsholm, and Pedestal, the party decided to rest in the sorceress' chambers. Next morning, refreshed they headed back down, only to immediately run into a lizardfolk patrol, which was swiftly dealt with.
The Tower of Worship
The Party began exploring the many secret passages that traversed the fortress, eventually finding their way through a series of barracks and a confrontation with some abominations on the roof, to one of the other towers. Initially all was quiet, but as they moved down the tower they were attacked by baboon wights. Lefrasa managed to use turn undead on them but not before Truldan was severely level drained. They decided to chase the baboons down, Talonux eventually destroying them with a fireball a couple of levels down. Most of the doors on this level were locked but judicious application of brute strength from Lefrassa soon solved that problem.
The first door they broke open revealed a chamber that occupied the entire centre of the tower, it seemed insufficient to contain the horrors within. Foul art objects, demonic weapons, bloodstained bones, severed hands, and standards bearing sigils of chaos and evil lined the walls to all sides. Six shackled prisoners cowered in one corner while two women, one with bound hands, the other armoured with a dagger, struggled in the centre, near a bloodstained altar. With a shriek of rage, the armoured woman dropped the ceremonial dagger, grabs her shield from the floor, and charged as she drew her scimitar. The prisoner she had been struggling with snatched up the fallen blade as she shakily scrambled back. After a brief combat, in which t he bound woman helped as best she could, the attacker was slain and the prisoners freed.
Moving up a level they found a greater challenge after Lefrassa broke down the door. Chains suspended a coiled serpentine idol of polished brass from the ceilingof what is clearly a religious sanctuary. Rows of cushions covered the floor in concentric circles, surrounding the hanging idol as if worshippers were meant to look up at it in prayer. Two yuan-ti skeleton immediately attacked them. Truldan charged into the room only to be attacked with a blindness spell by someone hovering in the air just out of sight from the doorway. Talonux cast invisibility on himself and stole into the room while Lefrassa used turn undead once more. Lefrassa turning the skeletons enabled them to focus their attacks on the hovering necromancer. Talonux hit him with a lightning bolt and fireball while Lefrassa used a searing light. Truldan, still blind, hacked away at the cowering skeletons, mostly missing but occasionally getting in a solid hit. The spellcaster retaliated with a summon swarm on Talonux and a ray of enfeeblement on Lefrassa. Eventually the necromancer succumbed, leaving them free to finish off the skeletons. After this bruised and battered, they decided to head back to the bedroom they had rested in the night before to recover.
The Tower of the Word
Having rested the Party decided to try and find their way into the third tower. A search for a secret door turned up nothing, so eventually they decided to try one of the portals they had found near the Black Ziggurat. They lucked out first time - the crackling green portal transported them into an oddly shaped room, something like a distended triangle or abbreviated square. Five doors lined the walls, and a large pit opened up in the middle of the floor. A scale golem guarded the area which proved initially troublesome, but Merthuvial seemed particularly effective against it. The guardian destroyed, they searched the area finding an alchemical storage cupboard and some living chambers where they retrieved a magical circlet and a helm.Truldan and Lefrassa lay on the floor and peered down the pit where they could see another room, shaped much like the chamber they were in, this room resembled an experimental laboratory. On one table lay a bizarre humanoid with six arms and a beaked face. It had been neatly sliced open, and a number of organs lie piled beside it. On a second table stood beakers, burners, and other alchemical paraphernalia. An ancient crown, tarnished with age, lay nearby. Elred began readying a rope, but Truldan forestalled the matter by stepping off the edge. Unfortunately for Truldan, the floor below proved to be illusionary and he passed straight through it, crashing to the ground some forty feet below!
Truldan landed with a thud in an octagonal chamber. Cushioned chairs were spaced throughout the room, and the walls were lined with heavy bookcases. A narrow balcony overhung the southern wall, though there were no stairs or ladders that might give access. On it stood a yuan-ti abomination, its massive form dwarfing the railing it leaned on. Its eyes gleamed with a fiendish light as it watched him. As the rest of the party descended through the illusionary ceiling, courtesy of a feather fall spell from Talonux, the abomination spoke in a deep voice called out. “I have wondered if you would show up here. I believe we should talk.”
Although
somewhat surprised, the Party agreed to
hear the abomination, who introduced himself as Zoldathra, Master of
the Word. Zoldathra it appeared, although high-up in the Vanguard, was
opposed to the current leadership's plans which involved, rather than
waiting or the appointed time for Sertrous to return,
basically
summoning a portion of the sleeping god into the remains of the
Forgotten King to use as a puppet not to rule the world, but to help
destroy it. He told them that in the Tower of the Worlds, which is
located out-of-phase with our reality, the Sacrament of the Risen Abyss
had been underway since the dark of the moon a week ago and would take
till the next dark to complete. Agents had been sent to
seek components needed for each phase of the ritual - the
king’s
sceptre; the phylactery of his greatest enemy, the blood of a
fey whose family once blessed the king’s line;
and an object touched by Sertrous himself. He informed them that the
portals in the Tower of the Way were attuned to the destinations where
the components were located, seizing those items would disrupt the
ritual. The Party decided to use this intelligence and headed for the
Tower of the Way.The Party passed through the first portal, finding themselves near a wide range of steep hills stretching to the horizon, several sharp ravines cutting through them to form narrow valleys. Only scattered foliage broke the monotonous brown of the landscape. From where they stood, two separate ravines reached out ahead of them, each featuring a number of small caves at different heights. The moved into the ravine, almost immediately coming under attack by a gauth from a ledge above. The managed to drive the gauth off and then began exploring the first cave. Lefrassa, Elred and Talonux climbed up to the cave entrance when Truldan came under attack by a red-skinned giant serpent with a humanoid upper body. Similar to an abomination, however long horns crowned its head and its tail ended in sharp hooks. Its scales shifted from dull brown to dark red and a haze of heat surrounded it, as he came under a vicious attack each blow burned as it hit.
The Wretched Swamp
Fortunately for Truldan Elred and Lefrassa arrived in time to
save him from being pummelled into oblivion, and with there help the
Yuan-ti ignan was slain. After partaking of several healing potions
they moved on to explore the cave complex, heading down a scree ramp to
a lower tunnel and then up through a chimney in the roof to a wider
cave where they encountered another Yuan-ti ignan searching the area.
This ignan proved a slightly easier combat than the previous one, and
having despatched him they moved on exploring the cave complex until
Elred blundered into the gauth they had met earlier almost
immed
iately went down to a
hail of eye rays!
Lefrassa rushed forward to heal the fallen rogue while, Truldan attacked the floating aberration, taking hits from several eye rays. Lefrassa also charged forward, leaving Elred to retrieve his weapons. Things took a turn for the worse when Truldan was hit by a ray of exhaustion and then a suggestion that he should take a step back, only to find that the seemingly solid wall behind him was an illusion placed over a cave mouth and fall to the ground thirty feet below. Fortunately Elred and Lefrassa managed to deal with the gauth between them while Truldan climbed back up. Searching the cave the found a curious brass sculpture, the centrepiece of which appeared to be the sceptre they were looking for. Getting out his trusty hacksaw, Elred began carefully disassembling the sculpture to recover the precious artefact, after which the Party decided to rest for the night.
Next morning the Party returned to the portal and then to the Tower of the Ways. Deciding to press on, they activated another portal and stepped through, finding themselves knee deep in a swamp! Elred moved on ahead while Truldan and Lefrassa made theor way towards what looked like slightly more solid ground on a nearby rise. Elred's decision proved to be the wrong one as he stepped into an area of quicksand-like mud and began sinking, causing his friends to have to rescue him.
As they caught their breath the Party heard what sounded like a magical battle coming from the direction of some nearby ruins. Lefrassa found a raised path that looked like led towards the ruins and they made their way forward heading towards the magical energy discharges. As the Party neared the ruins, they could see a naga casting spells at what looked like a hag sheltering in the ruins. Almost immediately the hag spotted them, and assuming they were reinforcements for her enemy, attacked Lefrassa with a phantasmal killer spell. At the same time the naga made the same assumption and attacked the Party with a fireball. A strange three way combat ensued, Truldan charged forward to attack the hag while Elred and Lefrassa target the naga with a flurry of spells and arrows. While the hag avoided Truldan's initial attacks using dimension door, causing him to chase after her through the ruins, the naga cast invisiblity.
The Blasted Land
Truldan finally managed to close on the hag, after which she did not last long. Talonux and Lefrassa managed to target the invisible naga by tracking her movement though the swamp and a series of fireball and flame strike spells soon put paid to her as well. The naga had nothing of interest on her but Truldan recovered an ornate spell-book book and the phylactery they were seeking from the body of the hag. They returned to the Tower of the Ways and rather than rest decided to press on heading through another of the portals there.
They found themselves in a sunlit glade of deep green. Great trees
towered above them, and the smell of growing things filled the air. Over
it all, however, the coppery scent of blood came faint on the breeze.
From ahead, they could hear the sound of falling water. There were
bodies everywhere, even floating in the pool beneath the waterfall. Over
the roar of water, Lefrassa suddenly heard what sounded like faint
whispering. A gentle voice spoke her name, begging for your assistance.
As she tred to get a bearing on it, she sensed that it emanated from the
grotto and the falls themselves. Lefrassa stepped into the shallows and
the shimmering mists of the falls suddenly took the shape of a woman’s
face. Her features marked her as one of the fey, but her eyes were
glazed over with sadness. “I fear you are too late to aid us,” she
whispered to your mind. “Yet you have the chance to avenge us.” After
agreeing to avenge them, Lefrassa felt the calm blessing of the slain
fey settle upon her. After burying the bodies with due respect, they
headed back through the portal, returning once more to the Tower of the
Ways.
They decided to press on further, stepping through the next portal into a very different landscape. Every inch of their skin felt lanced by white-hot needles even as their bones froze from the inside out. With a start, the Party found themself standing on cracked and broken earth. The portal behind crackled and spat violently, its green light shot through with streaks of red. Huge boulders tower around them, half buried in the desiccated earth. However, as they moved forward, they noticed that no shadows marked the ground in this barren landscape. Above them, the sky glowed a dull rust-red with no clouds or sign of the sun. A few dead trees dotted the landscape, while a dry stream bed strewn with rocks cuts through the ground ahead of them. Far beyond, sporadic hills mark the foot of a jagged black peak. As they moved forward, the chaotic nature of this strange place quickly manifested. Individuals suddenly found themselves wrenched sideways randomly across the area, pits opened in the ground beneath them and just as quickly disappeared, walking on the dry stream bed they could occasionally fell the drag as if they were wading through swift flowing water.
Lefrassa was first to find what they were looking for as a hideous form suddenly emerged from hiding in the dry stream bed. It must once have been a yuan-ti, but its eyes were empty pools of blackness, its limbs abnormally long. It held a bow in it's hand and fired, before being suddenly transposed to the ridge above. A most frustrating combat ensued where they tried to get to grips with their opponent while the chaotic forces governing this plane tossed them around randomly. Talonux, unable to get near eventually tried to return to the portal, only to be attacked by a roiling darkness rises, sprouting a writhing mass of tendrils that lashed at him. Eventually after much frustration, Truldan and Lefrassa managed to defeat their opponent and recovered a tablet of stone seeped in chaos and evil, and they returned to the portal. Fortunately Talonux had dealt with the writing blackness and they were able to leave this blasted place.
There were two portals remaining, one took them to the area of the black ziggurat, while the last took them to a strange feeling octagonal room. They barely had time to look around before a mass of hairless, blubbery flesh surrounded them on all sides. Countless screaming mouths, rending claws, and bloodstained teeth were all they could see.The Risen King
Just when things were looking desperate - especially for Truldan as the mob of dretches bit and clawed at him, Lefrassa suddenly hit them with a dismissal spell, sending the wretched horde back to the Abyss. Taking time to rest and recuperate, they searched the area, finding a dusty rose ioun stone on one of the corpses hanging from chains. After resting they headed down the staircase that exited this room, passing through what felt like another portal at the bottom. A great stair extended upward and outward into darkness. Though they could not be sure, the flight of steps looked longer than the tower appeared to rise when they had viewed it from outside the castle. The strange stairway led to a set of double doors that were inscribed with strange writings. Moving forward, Lefrassa used magic to translate the words - "I spill my life for Sertrous.” While they pondered this, Talonux used knock to open the door!
The chamber beyond glowed with the light of demonic fire that seemed
to burn the air itself. Three stone biers covered with serpentine
imagery stood across the chamber. Two contain what appeared to be bodies
wrapped in funeral
shrouds. On the third, central bier was set a
careful arrangement of yellowed bones. Three yuan-ti in ceremonial robes
and hoods stood in a triangle around the biers, chanting in sibilant
tones. Brass braziers emitted a noxious purple smoke. A fourth yuan-ti
stands before the central bier and gave true meaning to the term
abomination. He was monstrously obese, with multiple folds of scaly skin
hanging from his jowls to hide his neck and chest. Rivulets of blood
bubbled up from beneath his black eyes and flowed freely down his face.
The hooded figures seemed oblivious to the Party's presence, but the
bloated yuan-ti spun with surprising grace. With a flick of its tongue,
it began to slither toward them.
Truldan charged forward, attacking one of the hooded figures, while Talonux began tossing fireball spells about with abandon. Lefrassa meanwhile engaged the bloated abomination, who swung a great scimitar at her. The battle raged for some time. Truldan cut his way through the chanting priests while Talonux, his fireball spells finally drawing the attention of the abomination was nearly killed before Lefrassa and Truldan managed to kill it. Lefrassa barely had time to cast a healing spell on the mortally injured sorcerer before suddenly a dull thrumming filled the room as the floor began to shake and crack. With a sound like thunder, the central bier shattered and exploded, filling the chamber with a cloud of dust and rock. Slowly, the dust cleared to reveal a gaunt humanoid figure, its leathery flesh was split to reveal bone beneath. An ancient bastard sword was clasped in its hands, and its empty eye sockets glowed with a gangrenous light.
Truldan moved forward to attack, but found himself strangely unable
to do so. Talonux also found himself unable to target his spells at the
Risen King, Lefrassa meanwhile cast a flame strike as the king stepped
forward, gazing at them impassively. As the Risen King, pointed his
finger at Talonux and uttered a single word, vipers exploded from inside
the sorcerer's chest, causing the already injured elf to drop once
more. Suddenly Lefrassa remembered the astral deva they had freed from
it's stony prison back in the Spire and it's promise to come to their
aid. In desperation she invoked it's name.
The angel appeared immediately and attacked the Risen King, it's mace of disruption
swinging mightily. The appearance of the angel somehow turned the
battle, Truldan managed to over come his seeming reluctance to battle
the Risen Kin and joined the fray though his weapon seemed to have
little impact. After healing Talonux, who immediately summoned a large
air elemental, Lefrassa began attacking with spells. The Risen King
seemed unperturbed by these attacks and focused his attacks on the deva.
Elred, unable to attack the King, tossed Merthúvial to Truldan.
The introduction of the King's own sword seemed to turn the battle
turned once again, and though it was a brutal fight, Truldan eventually
struck a telling blow with Merthúvial transfixing the Risen King who collapsed in a pile of dust and bones.
.