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chronicles:serpents_skull:chapter5

The Thousand Fangs Below

Dramatis Personae

  • Tabansi - Half Elven Ranger
  • Atieno - Tabansi’s Leopard Companion
  • Athazog - Half Orc barbarian
  • Arkin - Halfling Rogue
  • Ek’tura - Bekyar Wizard (plus Vanyolich, his Nosoi familiar)
  • Derek- Cleric of Sarenrae
  • Juliver - Pathfinder Rogue who we healed

Others

  • Eando Kline - Pathfinder who Juliver worked for
  • Yudara - Leader of the Morlocks (allied with Kline)
  • Ixolan - Previous warlord of the Morlocks, now fighting against Yudara

Session 48 (2018/08/25)

We go shopping… Tabansi finds a friend, a leopard named Atieno.

We head to the room which had slots to place the blue gemstones. We put the gemstones in the slots, and things glow blue.

Touching one of the glowing carvings teleports us to a dark cave. We cast some light spells so that we can see. There are glowing runes here, and touching them takes us back to where we came from.

We follow natural tunnels, tracking the route that Juliver came from. There are also tracks of serpent folk that came after her, but no sign of them going back.

There is a large chamber full of spider webs, covering buildings. There is a rumbling of water, and the ceiling is beyond what we can see. There are spiders everywhere. Tabansi reckons that they’re harmless, but that their mother is probably much, much bigger and somewhat less harmless.

Heading further in, we think we see movement at the edge of our vision. As we head inwards, a colossal spider comes out of the darkness towards us. Then a second one appears.

The first bitesAthazog with its oversized fangs, but he shrugs off the poison. Derek summons a blade barrier on top of them. Tabansi shoots one of them a couple of times, then Athazog leaps at it, though is bitten at my both spiders as he charges in, but he slays it.

The second bits at Derek, sinking its fangs deep into her. Arkin and Athazog charge into it, and with a bit of help from Tabansi manage to slay it.

XP: +5,120 XP

There is a rush to stop Athazog and Arkin from dying from the poison, but they manage to survive.

200gp coins A very nice warhammer (+1 flaming burst throwing warhammer) A live body - it is a morlock

The Morlock recognises Juliver as a friend of Eando Kline, someone who will rescue them from the serpent people. We must go to see Yudara, apparently she knows what is happening and was expecting Juliver to return.

Apparently there are vampires. But they need help against their ex-warlord, Ixolan. He has Yudara trapped in her home.

The Morlock takes us to the edge of a large body of water. The cavern glows with a faint light which comes from the walls. Following the edge of the lake for about half a mile, and then come to a massive column of water falling from the ceiling into the lake. There are islands in the lake, but apparently the vampires ‘live’ there.

We come to a part of the ancient city were Morlocks are living. The architecture is very serpent-folk like.

We come to some gates flanked by two statues. The Morlock runs through, but the stone golems animate and attack us. Athazog quickly smashes one of them to rubble and Ek’tura creates a pit under the other, which falls in. For some reason this really annoys Tabansi , who then finds it very difficult to shoot the golem in the pit But eventually we kill it.

XP: +5,120

Apparently the statues have never attacked the Morlocks, and our friend seems to have been somewhat surprised by the attacks.

There is an old temple that is guarded by things that come out of the earth. So they don’t go near that. There is a large domed building at the far end, which we sort of head towards. There is a huge statue of a serpent at the dome, which is cracked.

There is a manor, where Ixolan has Yudara imprisoned. There is a crude Pathfinder symbol on the doors to this place. There are three Morlocks guarding the front doors.

We walk up to them and demand to talk to Yudara. They insist we drop our weapons, we refuse. One of the Morlocks vanishes. Arkin starts walking up the stairs. A fight begins. The first Morlock leaps and attacks Arkin, and is hit a few times and killed by Atieno. The Morlocks have a lot of hit points but don’t seem to do much damage in combat.

The fight continues. An intellect devourer scurries out of the first one’s brain. We kill it, though Atieno doesn’t want to eat it.

Apparently more invisible brains come out of the morlocks when they die. Tabansi uses a wand to cast gravity bow.

XP: +5,760

While the party are mopping up the intellect devourers, Ek’tura climbs the steps and has a look through the doors. In the next room is a strange alchemical golem. Ek’tura decides to wait for the rest of the party to catch up, as he knows golems are immune to most spells.

Session 49 (2018/09/29) … There are two alchemical golems in the room, one of which is trying to smash through a door.

Tabansi moves up to the doors and looks inside. The room is full of columns, and there are serpent motifs on the walls. There are two golems, and a glowing magical wagical globe in the corner of the room.

One of the golems comes up to the door, and chucks a ball of exploding cold at Derek, which splashes over Tabansi and Arkin as well. Athazog runs in, dodging its blow as he closes and smacks it one. He damages it, and some fire splashes onto him. Arkin tumbles in, stabbing at its legs and dodging away safely, but is then confused.

Tabansi moves into the doorway and starts providing arrow support, whilst Atieno hangs back, not liking the look of the magical things. Athazog continues to hack at the golems, and one is taken down,

Ek’Tura casts grease beneath the other golem, but it doesn’t fall over. Moving into the doorway, he recognises the magical wagical thing as a globe of invulnerability, with an invisible morlock inside it.

Athazog is confused. Tabansi shoots at the remaining golem, but mostly misses. In his haze of confusion, Athazog swings at the golem that is fighting him, and takes it down.

Arkin attacks Athazog, but misses. The morlock in the globe becomes visible. He has a mace with a scorpion tail. Ek’Tura casts possession, his body falls down and he takes over the Morlock. Unfortunately no-one else is aware of this.

Tabansi steps into the doorway, sees Ek’Tura laying on the floor and the Morlock in the corner. He shoots at the Morlock, and hits it once.

Athazog pounces on Arkin, killing him. The Morlock, which is actually already possessed by an intellect devourer, falls over and the devourer that Ek’Tura has possessed crawls out. Derek comes into the room. Tabansi steps out of the room to let Derek dispel the magical effects.

Athazog gets a moment of clarity, and pounces on the devourer, but fails to kill it. Derek wanders up to Arkin, sees that he somehow survived by some twist of heroic fate, and cures him. Arkin comes round, feeling better and no longer confused.

Ek’Tura, whilst possessing the devourer, attacks Athazog to keep him distracted. Vanny tries a Protection from Evil on Athazog, but is resisted. Athazog attacks the brain, and kills it.

Derek and Arkin flee the room, and Tabansi and Atieno run down the stairs, all keeping away from the confused Athazog. Ek’Tura then dispels the confusion.

XP: +5,540 More Morlocks come charging out of one of the doors, attacking Athazog. Tabansi moves back, and casts Gravity Bow again before moving into the room. Atieno follows.

Derek flame strikes them, and Vanny sonic blasts them. They continue to swarm over Athazog. He kills one.

An invisible brain crawls out of one of the dead ones, and Derek flamestrikes them again. Tabansi downs one, and badly hurts the last one. Atieno darts in to bite it, but misses, and springs back to safety.

Ek’Tura magic missiles the remaining Morlock, but it is still standing. It runs back through the door.

One of the devourers becomes visible as it tries to cast something on Atieno, and Athazog runs in and hits it. Derek channels energy and heals everyone. Ek’Tura casts a glitterdust over the brains, making them visible and possibly blinded.

One casts globe of invulnerability, but Athazog steps in and kills it, then hurting the blinded one. Arkin and Tabansi both attack the now shining brains.

Ek’Tura: “Everything looks under control.”

One devourer tries to cast a spell, and Athazog kills it. The other puts up another globe, and tries to crawl away, but Athazog follows and chops it to death.

Tabansi looks through the doors the Morlocks came from, and ran back through, but there is just a small room with some closed doors. There is the sound of spell casting from through the room.

Tabansi moves into the room, and thinks there is an invisible Morlock in the corner. He shoots it successfully, then Atieno follows in and also manages to bite it. It hits back, becoming visible, allowing Athazog to come in and kill it. We wait for the brain to drop out.

It pops out, we kill it.

XP: +7,680

Morlock treasure:: +1 breastplate +1 Morningstar of Venom AMulet natural armour +1 Masterwork Kukri 4x +1 Hide Armour 4x Mwk Great Clubs Ther Morlock in the globe of invulnerability (the one Ek’tura possessed) was Ixolan.

Explore some of the rooms, nothing special.

Go up to iron doors at the top of the stairs. After a lot of effort, we get through the iron doors.

In the room beyond are 15 Morlocks. One of which seems to be blind and bleeding. They chuck rocks at us as the door opens, which do nothing. The blind one recognises Julia, and they stop attacking. The blind one is identified as Yudara, the pathfinder ally we have been looking for.

They come out, and we have a feast (or two) to celebrate..

XP: +5,120

They are at war with both the vampires and the serpent folk. Klein went to talk to the vampires to try to ally with them against the serpent folk. Klein thought that the serpent folk are trying to do something that would cause much destruction. The vampires came here after her people. Their skin is transparent, their mouths over too wide and they drink blood and ride on giant bats. When they die, they take others with them. They are the Urdefhan.

They would like us to go to the Urdefhan and find and rescue Klein.

Map of the region:

Urdefhan warrior:

Ek’Tura goes to scout out the Urdefahn.

He makes it back, they seem quite tough, and fly around in groups of half a dozen on skavelings (giant undead bats). They use bows.

That night, there is a large Cloaker skulking around. We let it go past.

In the morning, we discover a much better map of the region, and decide to take a look at the gateway to the Darklands near to where we are. It is a 500ft diameter dome, with a portcullis that leads inside..

Ek’tura scouts inside the dome with an Arcane Eye. Inside the dome is a smaller 150ft diameter dome which has some double doors which lead to a is a spiral staircase that goes down, and a few other closed doors to investigate. The Arcane Eye sees no creatures inside (but there could be some behind the doors).

Session 50 (2018/11/10)

Derek casts Fire Seeds creating acorn grenades and gives them to Arkin. Derek casts Status on the other members of the party. Derek casts Helping Hand and I can see it head off and turn left past the headland. Derek casts Wind Walk on himself. Derek casts Water Walk on the party.

The plan is to go and investigate the Urdefhan, and try and find the pathfinder Eando Kline. We decide to take Juliver with us so she can recognise Eando, and let him know that we are friends.

We use water walking to get across the water to the Urdefhan’s settlement. After getting across, we are spotted by an Urdefhan patrol. There are five of them, and they are carrying strange swords and longbows.

Ek’Tura casts a slow spell at them, opening up hostilities. There are a few arrows shot in our direction, and Athazog charges in. As they surround him, Derek uses Flame Strike on them, killing one. It explodes in a burst of negative energy. Tabansi and Juliver start returning shots. Arkin moves up into melee with them as well.

One bites Athazog, and his skin goes translucent for a moment. There is a bit more back and forth, and a third Flame Strike hits two of them. Tabansi seems to be having difficulty hitting them.

One starts running off, as Arkin finishes off the penultimate one, and Athazog charges him down and slays him. He explodes.

XP: +4,800

Loot: 40x +1 arrows 5x potions inflict serious wounds 5x +1 scale mail 5x masterwork Rhoka swords 5x masterwork composite longbows (+5 strength)

Tabansi casts Carry Companion on Ateino, since she won’t want to attack outsiders or undead, which are probably the only things we’re going to be meeting. He also casts Darkvision on himself.

Ek’Tura does some scouting around with Vany, and then sends an arcane eye into the domed building. It seems deserted.

We head into the dome to begin exploring. Tabansi keeps an eye on the two doors at the top of the stairs. Derek keeps an eye out behind them.

Arkin checks the door in the recessed opening. It opens up easily into a corridor. There are a number of doors into empty rooms, and there is a long spiral staircase that heads down into darkness. The entire dome looks like it was abandoned a long time ago.

We head down the stairs about 400ft, with Tabansi scouting ahead, to a natural looking tunnel about 20ft to 60ft wide. There are no signs of tracks here, but there is a scraping noise, and then a roar from up the tunnel. Tabansi moves back up the stairs towards the group.

A 16ft tall black humanoid creature, with two limbs that split into two arms each, and its mouth is split down the middle of its torso. It is possibly a Gug. Derek puts up a blade barrier between it and us. A second one appears out of the darkness, and Derek dumps a wall of fire through it. They both retreat back.

People start moving back towards the stairs, as a gargantuan slime covered worm suddenly appears in the middle of the tunnel. Tabansi retreats back to the stairs. Arkin also tries to retreat, but it grabs at him with tongues - fortunately he is able to dodge.

Athazog retreats back to the stairs as well. Derek cats Chains of LIght on it, binding it and holding it in place. Since everyone seems to be running, Tabansi takes a final shot and heads up the stairs.

It breaks free from the spell, and moves to the stairwell, and begins floating up the middle of the stairs. Tabansi shoots at it, Athazog tries to move up the stairs but is grabbed by a tongue. It then breathes acid on us. Arkin leaps on it, stabbing it in the side, then bounces off it and back to the stairs. Ek’Tura takes sonic form.

Derek castes Blessing of Fervor on us. Ek’Tura triggers his Getaway, and we all get teleported back to the beach outside the Morlock camp (apart from Juliver and Vany, who were too far away to be affected and will have to make their own way back).. The worm tries to follow us through the teleport (!), but Ek’Tura is able to sense and block it, yelling out that it was trying to follow us.

Tabansi moves back away from the party, and Derek heals Athazog. Ek’Tura casts mirror image. The worm them tries to follow us again and succeeds, appearing close to us.

Tabansi shoots at it, not bothering to aim for its weak points, but his arrows just bounce off. Derek uses a scroll to cast a flamestrike, but it resists the magic.

Ek’Tura shouts at it, asking for negotiation. It breathes acid over him. Tabansi goes back to shooting at its weak points, and manages to scratch it. Ek’Tura vanishes and tries to move away, but it is still able to see him, and it strikes at one of his images (which is still visible). He then tries to cast a summon monster.

It moves up close to Ek’Tura, and does a Mind Thrust at him, shredding his mind and almost killing him. Tabansi shoots at it hurting it a little bit. Arkin runs in and chucks an exploding acorn at it.

It moves down and stares at Tabansi, using its mind crush power. Tabansi drops unconscious and at -1 hitpoint.

Derek does a cure on Tabansi, bringing him back to consciousness, to see the rest of the party in hand to hand combat with it. Ek’Tura punches it whilst in sonic form. Tabansi manages to grab his bow and struggles to his feet, moving out of range a bit.

Arkin manages to get behind it, and stabs at it in a stealth attack and hobbles it. Athazog stabs at it as well. It concentrates its attacks on Ek’tura, destroying two more of his images, but can’t affect him because of his sonic form. Ek’Tura punches it again and it crumples to the ground, dead. We congratulate ourselves on our narrow victory over our toughest ever opponent (a Neothelid) and Derek heals everyone. XP: +20,480

Session 51 (2018/11/24) We head back to where we teleported from, to try and find Athazog’s sword and Juliver. We head back over the using our water walking, when a patrol of five undead bats (Skaveling) being ridden by Urdefhan spots us and heads in towards us.

Ek’Tura opens up with a Halt Undead, and one of the bats stops flying and plummets down into the water. Before it reaches the water though, it starts floating gently, probably due to a Feather Fall. One of them shoots Tabansi with a lucky shot, which hurts.

Tabansi shoots back at the Skaveling bat which the archer was riding, and hits it with three arrows. Derek puts up a Silence around some of us, to protect us from the Skaveling sonic attacks. Several more arrows are shot at Tabansi, but they miss.

Ek’Tura steps back out of the Silence area and casts Fly on Athazog, who flies up to meet the first Skaveling in a counter charge, and kills it.

Tabansi puts another couple of arrows into the next nearest bat. The Urdefhan shoot back, hurting him badly. Fortunately Derek channels healing to heal him, but more arrows continue to hit Tabansi. Arkin charges in at one of the Urdefhan bobbing in the water.

Another Hold Undead hits another bat, which falls into the water. The rider floats gently downwards. Athazog kills another bat. One of the bats in the water manages to fly up out. Tabansi shoots at the remaining bat with an archer, and is then healed again by Derek.

Another Skaveling does a screech. One of the Skaveling’s turns round and starts to fly away. The last feather falling Urdefhan drops into the water, missing Tabansi with his shots before doing so. Ek’Tura casts Slow on the swimming Urdefhan, and Athazog charges the escaping bat, killing it.

Tabansi shoots and kills the nearby Skaveling, killing it, and shoots at the one remaining one. Derek throws the Silence effect away, and casts a Cure spell on Tabansi, making him feel a lot better. Arkin springs in and kills one of the sinking Urdefhan. Athazog kills the last Skaveling. Tabansi starts trying to pick off the bobbing Urdefhan.. The last feather falling one casts a spell at Athazog and drains his strength. So Athazog chops at him and kills him. The last one sinks.

XP: +6,400

We manage to prevent one of them from drowning, and take them as a prisoner. We continue over to land, and to the dome that leads down into the underdark, and spot Juliver heading back up. Apparently she didn’t recognise the big wormy thing, but has seen the gugs before. She reckons that the gugs are still down there.

Ek’Tura argues for going down to kill them, in case the wormy Neothelid has a lair with loot.

We head slowly down the stairs, and a Gug suddenly charges up the stairs and tries to bullrush Athazog who is in the lead. It slams Athazog back up the stairs. A second Gug moves up, and knocks Athazog off the stairs. The first moves up and smashes Arkin off the stairs.

Ek’Tura vanishes and casts a Create Pit between him and the lead Gug. Tabansi casts Gravity Bow and moves up the stairs. There is a thud as Athazog hits the ground below. There is a second thud as Arkin hits the floor.

Derek chucks a firebolt at one of them. One Gug climbs past the pit and knocks Derek off the stairs, but he is left floating because of his Air Walk. Tabansi moves up the stairs out of the way.

Down below, Athazog stands up and sees another one down in the tunnel. He charges it and takes it down. Arkin springs at another one, but fails to hit it. The two on the stairs run up the stairs after Tabansi. Arkin is attacked back, rended and taken down, killed. Tabansi continues to run up, pursued by Gugs. He shouts up the stairs to “prepare the trap”.

Athazog takes out another Gug. Tabansi reaches the top, then dives off the stairs and hurtles down, using Raven’s Flight to swoop down and land at the last moment.

Ek’Tura summons an Ankylosaurus to attack the last Gug at the bottom, stunning it. Tabansi lands safely at the bottom, just as Athazog kills the last Gug.

There are still two Gugs up the top of the stairs though.

We head down the tunnel a couple of hundred feet, but there is no sign of any lairs. EK’Tura’s familiar starts giving off signs of agitation, so he Dimension Doors us to the dome at the top of the stairs.

At the far end of the chamber, we see the two gugs. Ek’Tura summons some black tentacles around them. Athazog moves up towards them, as does Tabansi. One of them moves off into another room, and Tabansi shoots the other one.

Athazog attacks the visible Gug, then Tabansi shoots it and kills it. Ek’Tura dismisses the tentacles.

Derek goes and finds the last one, and comes flying back out of the corridor as it smashes her back. Tabansi gets into line of sight and shoots it. Ek’Tura magic missiles it, and Athazog moves in and starts attacking. Tabansi shoots it and kills it.

(XP was given in the previous encounter with them). Session 52 (2018/12/29) Arkin is dead. We teleport back to the surface city of Kalabuto, in order to get a diamond to raise him. We do a bit of shopping, and Tabansi picks up a new cloak of resistance. Arkin picks up some +2 amulet of natural armor.

We teleport back to our surface camp, and appear outside of the valley. Derek raises Arkin at this point. Tabansi finds the way back into the valley, and we head to the camp to find that it has been recently attacked, but is holding together.

We head south to the Artisan District, and to the portal that takes us down to the Darklands. Derek casts Fire Seeds and gives them to Arkin. Derek also casts 2 Status spells. Air Walk on himself. Ek’tura casts his usual spells - Mage Armor, Overland Flight, Merge with Familiar.

We encounter a patrol of Urdefhan, and rather than attacking us, they request a meeting with their leader. We accept. Several of us (who are unable to fly) hitch a lift on the Skavelings, and are taken to one of the large domes in another part of the ruined city.

We are taken into the inner dome, to a room guarded by some Piscodaemons, who open the door to let us inside. Within is a chamber lit by glowing blue crystals, and lots of paintings of Urdefhan armies causing an orgy of bloodshed and destruction.

There is a bone throne, sitting on which is an Urdefhan with big blue wings and demonic tail.

He is Izon. He asks how we got here, but he speaks only Aklo which none of us other than Ek’Tura speaks. So they have a conversation, and we hope Ek’Tura doesn’t say anything too foolish. Some hope!!!

Eando Kline is mentioned, and that they have met with him. Izon asked Eando to do a favour in return for an alliance. Eando was asked to go find a defecting general (Belkor), or to kill him or bring back proof of his death. He has not been seen since. Izon tells us that Belkor can be found on the large island with a huge statue of a serpent on it in the serpentfolk zone. The Urdefhan have no love for the Serpent Folk. Ek’Tura offers to extend the agreement to us. If we can kill Belkor, he will ally with us against the Serpent Folk.

XP: +10,240

Ek’Tura scouts out the Serpent island to the north of the city with divination magic. The whole island is covered with a gigantic coiled serpent over 100’ tall. There is a dock at the base of the serpent and the serpent’s mouth is open and could be entered. There is a part of the serpent that has crumbled, leaving a hole into it. It seems to be a safer option than the other more obvious entrances.

We prepare to storm the Serpent. Tabansi casts Longstrider and Darkvision on himself, and uses his wand of Darkvision on Derek and Arkin. Ek’tura casta Telepathic Bond and Tough Crowd on the party. Derek casts 2 Status spells and Fire Seeds (gives Fire Seeds to Arkin).

Ek’tura flies to the island to scout it out first, leaving the rest of the party behind until he has ensured it is safe. He quickly scouts the island and uses two Locate Creature spells to locate a human (possibly Eando) and a Urdefahn (Belkor) within the island. He checks out the hole in the serpent to find it opens into a tunnel following the shape of the snake on the island itself. Using the Telepathic Bond, he invites the rest of the party over.

We fly to the opening in the side of the serpent, and de-cloak from wind walk. Sneaking round, we ignore a lot of doors and a room containing a working forge until we come across a widening of the tunnel containing a smaller building in the centre. Arkin sneaks up to the door, but is spotted. Half a dozen serpentfolk come out, and battle is joined. SOme fight with flails, others use powerful bows. Arkin retreats, leaving Atieno alone until Athazog turns up. Atieno falls.

Derek calls down a flamestrike. Athazog kills one, and an Invisible Ek’Tura summons a Celestial Ankylosaurus behind the Serpentfolk using bows.

Athazog takes down another one, and sets up a second for Arkin to flank… which he does. Derek casts blessing of fervour, then Athazog takes down another, and then another.

Tabansi takes down the last one.

We quickly heal up, and check the bodies and room. 12 x cure serious potions. 6 MW breastplate 6 MW heavy flail 6 MW composite longbow (+8 strength)!

XP: +7,680

We wait to see if any more serpentfolk are going to arrive to investigate the sounds of battle.

Session 53 (2019/1/26) There is a portcullis that leads into the structure. Athazog opens it for us. There are intricate carvings on the walls, seem to be of serpentfolk life. There are two large metal statues of serpentfolk.

Tabansi uses a wand to give Arkin Darkvision (for 3 hours). Tabansi and Arkin creep up, and Tabansi shoots one with an arrow. They come to life, and one breaths gas on Tabansi which has no effect, then the other smashes Tabansi on the head.

Arkin retreats back, and Derek comes forward and provides healing to Tabansi, for which he is very grateful. Athazog runs forward and attacks them. Derek casts Chains of LIght on one, paralysing it, and Arkin runs in to try and finish it.

Tabansi uses pinpoint targeting on the one fighting Athazog, and takes it out with a well aimed shot to its criticals. Derek provides Tabansi with some more healing.

Arkin manages to coup de grace the one bound by the chains of light. Derek does a healing surge on everyone. Derek converts a 4th level spell to heal Athazog once he has stopped raging.

XP: +10,240

The room beyond has its two sides covered by hanging curtains, and there is a double door at the far end. Arkins looks beyond one of the curtains, and there is just tables behind them. It just looks like a servants area. Derek casts Restoration Lesser on Arkin.

Arkin and Athazog open the large doors, and beyond is a huge octagonal cavern, which has a 10ft high raised area in the middle, with a building on top of it. The building seems to be maybe 100ft across. The ceiling is about 50ft up. Tabansi creeps around the wall, and Derek flies up to provide a bird’s eye view of the cavern.

There are two huge giants the other side of the building. They are wearing hide armour, and carrying rocks and a big club.

Tabansi assumes they are hostile, and takes some shots at the first one, hitting it once.

Ek’Tura decides to do something, and casts hastes on all of us other than Derek. Derek flamestrikes the other, who runs around to join his friend. Now they are closer, we can see that they each have a single eye. Tabansi recognises them as great cyclopses, which become enraged if they are injured.

Arkin springs in against the second one but fails to hit. However, it swings back with its club and smashes Arkin twice. The first hit smashes him hard, and the second leaves him barely standing. It then gores him, knocking him to the floor. Tabansi tries to shoot the one that hit Arkin, and misses completely.

Derek fireballs the two of them. One of them chucks a rock back at Derek. The other one charges at Tabansi, and gores him, hurting him badly. Athazog charges at the cyclops, pouncing on it.

Tabansi tries to shoot at the close one again, and hits only once. Ek’Tura casts an enervation on it, weakening it slightly. Derek flamestrikes the other one.

The one in melee fights back at Athazog, hitting him a couple of times. Athazog hits back, hitting the cyclops hard, then a second time and takes it down, hacking him apart after it falls.

The other one, enraged at the loss of his friend, charges at Athazog, leaving him dazed. Tabansi shoots at it, getting a shot directly into its eye which takes him down.

XP: +7,680

We quickly heal up. A serpentfolk opens the door to a balcony up in the corner of the room, and shoots at Ek’Tura with a bow. Another couple step out, and also start shooting at Ek’Tura. Ek’Tura puts a fly in Athazog, and vanishes.

Arkin moves into cover an quaffs another potion. Whilst he is doing that, he hears movement from the balcony in the other corner of the room. Tabansi shoots at them, hitting one of them four times but he is still standing.

The serpentfolk shoot back at us, and then Athazog charges at them, taking one out. There is a bit more fighting, Tabansi casts Gravity Bow and moves to be out of range of anything coming from the other balcony.

The second balcony door opens, and another serpentfolk comes out, shooting at Arkin. Derek summons a wall of fire across the second balcony, blocking the sight of any serpentfolk there. Athazog moves onto the balcony to fight them in close combat. Ek’tura summons a shadow demon, which joins Athazog on the balcony.

Tabansi puts four arrows into one of the serpentfolk, and takes it down. Derek drops another flamestrike on the balcony, frying three of them - though they are all left standing at the end. Athazog and the shadow demon manage to flank and take down one of them.

Ek’Tura casts sonic form. Tabansi takes out another with a couple of arrows. The remaining ones continue to fight Athazog, biting him and taking him down. Ek’Tura flies down to stand above Athazog between the two remaining serpentfolk. Tabansi takes down one of them, and injures the last one.

A serpentfolk spellcaster appears behind of us, shrouded with two images, and there is a sound of the portcullis opening. Derek heals Athazog, and brings him back to consciousness. The serpentfolk tries to hit Ek’Tura, but is unable to hit his sonic form, so it goes for the still prone Athazog, who then proceeds to try and bite his knees off.

The shadowdemon charges down at the spellcaster, pouncing on him. Ek’Tura then summons up black tentacles up from the ground, grabbing at the spellcaster, but fails. Tabansi takes down the last serpentfolk near to Athazog.

The demon and sorcerer continue to fight, and the tentacles fail to grab hold of anything. There is the sound of many footsteps coming through the portcullis, so we decide to run to Tabansi and teleport out. Tabansi moves forward heroically, and takes shots at the sorcerer, hitting him once. Tabansi shrugs off some spell attack. Derek throws a silenced pebble at the sorcerer, then flies towards Tabansi. Athazog joins us.

Ek’Tura does something, then flies over to us. We all gather together, and Tabansi gets a couple of hits on the sorcerer. At this point a couple of dozen serpentfolk archers come charging into the room.

Derek does a word of recall, and we get taken back to the Morlock house.

XP: +7,680

Session 54 (2019/2/23) We plan to return to the island and try again to rescue Eando Kline. The plan is for Ek’Tura to fly ahead to scout out the area, whilst the rest of us follow up later using wind walk.

Derek casts Status spells on people and casts Fire Seeds. Gives the Fire Seeds to Arkin. Ek’tura casts Tough Crowd and Telepathic Bond on the party. Derek casts Scry and tries to find Eando Kline. He gets nothing back.

Ek’tura casts Fly on himself and flies off over the island. He casts Locate Creature (Human) and tries to triangulate where on the island the human is. Ek’tura casts See Invisible to try and spot any invisible defenders. Ek’tura casts Invisibility and flies into the tunnel. He lands and takes cover inside the tunnel.

Derek casts Wind Walk on the party (except Ek’tura). Tabansi uses a wand to give Derek and Arkin Darkvision.

Ek’Tura calls us over to the hole in the ruins. As we turn up in mist form, Tabansi notices something else invisible nearby, and Ek’Tura checks it out and notices something that looks a bit like a Naga - a serpent’s body and human head.

We try to sneak into the rubble opposite from where the snake thing is coming from, and de-mist ourselves into solid form. We hear the sound of spellcasting coming from the direction of the snake.

Something from behind us drops a fireball on the hiding members of our group. Ek’Tura summons in a greater air elemental, which starts forming into a whirlwind. The second snake chucks some magic missiles at Derek.

More of them turn up - two coming from each direction. The ones to the left are invisible, until the one at the front fireballs the elemental. The elemental then roars across the floor, across both of the snake creatures, then back across to the other side and catching a third. It tries to pick them um but they are too nimble for it to grab.

Tabansi finally de-mistifies, and shoots at the first snake creature., all hitting the same spot. Arkin, Derek and Athazog head off to the right most enemies. Tabansi finishes off one on the left.

Arkin does some damage to the snake with a human head (long hair) in front of him. Derek casts healing on himself and draws his scimitar, then moves to a flanking position. Atahzog charges in and kills it.

The remaining one on the left turns invisible and starts to try to escape, slithering up the passage. The air elemental continues to follow it. Tabansi tries to follow it, calling it for some Glitterdust, but Ek’Tura runs back to the fight at the other end of the passage, taking the air elemental with him to fight some Gugs found in a room off to the side of the passage.. Tabansi continues to try and track the creature, but it seems to have moved well beyond sight.

There is the sound of a door being opened, and many weapons being drawn. Tabansi starts moving back, mentally calling out ot the others that we have more attackers coming in.

There are about half a dozen booted individuals coming down the passage, so Tabansi casts Gravity Bow and gets into cover.

On the other side of the hall, Derek, Athazog and Arkin have gone through a short tunnel into a room. There are 5 gugs in there. Ek’tura’s air elemental moves into the middle of the room and stops the gugs closing on the party. Derek casts a Fireball, then 2 Flame strikes and takes down a gug (and badly injures another gug). Atahzog goes toe-to-toe with a gug and it does an awesome strike and knocks Athazog into the wall. Athazog climbs back to his feet to continue fighting. Arkin spring attacks in and kills a gug. He then moves to a flanking position on another gug. The air elemental takes steady damage but stays on its “feet” and continues to strike at the gugs. Athazog lunges in and kills another gug. Arkin takes down the fourth gug. Derek converts a spell and heals the air elemental. The air elenmental attacks the remaining gug. Athazog walks up and attacks the last gug giving it a solid thump. It hits athazog back and claws and rends him doing a little damage. Arkin moves around to flanking position and does a clever blow killing the last gug.

Five serpent folk come into Tabansi’s view, moving slowly through the rubble. Tabansi casts Iron Skin, and Ek’Tura flies back (invisibly) and summons a large earth elemental to attack them. He then casts slow on the serpent folk.

Tabansi dumps a cluster of arrows into one of the serpentfolk, though it doesn’t go down. The snake thing returns, dumping a fireball on Ek’Tura since he is now visible.

Derek rushes out of the room and heads towards Tabansi and Ek’tura.

One of the serpents tries to engage Tabansi in melee, and clobbers him with a flail. Ek’Tura sbasts boneshatter on the naga, which fails its save but survives. Finally Tabansi takes down the flail-wielding serpentfolk, as Athazog and others turn up. Most of the serpentfolk are slowed, but their attacks on the earth elemental are still powerful and it loses over half its HP.

Tabansi suddenly realises that the snake woman thing is our friend, and that she’s obviously here to help us. Ek’Tura creates a pit beneath it, but it slithers to the side. She then goes invisible and slithers off.

Derek does a healing surge and heals all the party and the earth elemental. Ek’Tura takes down the pin cushioned serpent folk with some magic missiles. Athazog takes down another one, and then the final one.

XP: +17,920

5x Masterwork flail 5x Masterwork Composite longbow (+8 strength) 10x Potions Cure Serious Wounds

Ek’tura goes back to the gug cave to check to see if there is any magical treasure there, but he can’t find any. Meanwhile, there are some noises from behind the wall of ice, then a sudden burst of fire from behind it, though it is still there. A few more fireballs finally take down the wall. There are about a dozen serpentfolk archers, plus the leader we met last session and another naga - however most of us can’t see them because they are in darkness.

A few arrows come in, then Derek casts Daylight and reveals their location. Ek’Tura (now invisible) flies up to the top of the wall of ice that remains on one side and starts summoning another monster. Since Derek is all lit up, he bravely takes a lot of arrows from the enemy archers.

Ek’Tura summons a gigantic brachiosaur, which begins trampling the serpentfolk archers. The naga tries to cast invisibility defensively, but fails. The leader casts mirror image on himself, and attacks the dinosaur. The serpent folk mostly drop their bows and draw flails and are doing a good job in starting to take down the dinosaur, whilst most of us shelter waiting to recover fatigue and other things. A few of the serpentfolk keep their bows and continue shooting at the party.

Tabansi shoots the naga, killing her. Tabansi, Derek and the dinosaur continue to suffer arrow shots from the archers. Ek’Tura drops a Slow on the leader and surrounding serpentfolk. Athazog moves into combat. The leader saves but 6 serpentfolk are slowed. The dinosaur is finally killed. The infantry all start concentrating their attacks on Athazog and Arkin, whilst the archers continue to target Tabansi. Arkin charges in and hits a serpentfolk, but then gets trapped in the corner by a couple of serpentfolk and takes some hard hits.

Tabansi casts arrow eruption, hitting six of them. Derek puts up a wall of fire to block off most of those at the back. Ek’Tura drops a glitterdust on some of them, trying to help out Arkin. Athazog is trading blows woth the serpentfolk, but he can’t rage so it is a tough battle and he is running low on hit points..

The leader manages to disarm Athazog. Arkin takes down a blinded one, and Tabansi takes down one of those attacking Athazog. Derek rushes up and casts heal on Athazog, which brings him back to full HP and cures his fatigue. Ek’Tura casts enervation on the leader, but fails to affect him. Athazog rages.

Arkin is taken down, then bounces back up. He tries to get up behind the leader, but fails to land a blow. Tabansi declares the leader as his quarry. We keep expecting the 6 serpentfolk behind the wall of fire to come through and join the battle but they don’t. The leader is now fighting us alone, but we haven’t even hit him yet.

Derek casts Destruction on the leader, heavily wounding him (130 HP damage!). Ek’Tura drops some magic missiles into him, and Athazog claws and bites at him. It is parried, but a later attack manages to hit. The leader steps back and tries to teleport away, and Ek’Tura manages to block the attempt (Steward of the great beyond). Arkin leaps in and takes him down. Tabansi shoots him just to be sure. An epic battle!

XP: +30,720

Session 55 (2019/04/06) The fight is over.

Tabansi heads over to the wall of fire, and hears footsteps retreating down the passageway. We take a breather to heal a bit (Derek converts spells to heal Arkin and Tabensi) and loot the bodies. The leader has: Magical leather armour +2 Magical belt, giant strength +2 Magical composite longbow +1 (+3 str) Magical short sword, +1 keen Magical amulet, natural armour +2

There are also 10x potions of Cure Serious Wounds. Derek, Arkin and Ek’tura have lots of CSW potions now. We head up the corridor, back towards the guard post we fought our way to the first time we were here.

We find the blacksmiths, and head in to look around. Arkin checks it for traps and opens it. It leads into a large room about 30ft across and extends into darkness after 60ft to the left. There are weapon racks and sparring dummies. The alcove contains a lot of masterwork weapons, and a secret door at the back, which opens up into the room which had Gugs.

Arkin checks the other door, and can hear creatures behind the door. We prepare to charge through…

Beyond the door is a barracks, and there are five serpentfolk in there. They shoot at us, so we respond in kind. Tabansi puts three arrows into one up on a balcony. The guards move towards the door, attacking Athazog and Arkin, whilst the ones at the back shoot back at Tabansi.

Derek draws his flaming scimitar and stabs the one in the doorway. Tabansi takes down one on the balcony. The ones in the doorway step back, allowing Athazog to step through risking flanking to try and take them down, but is unlucky.

Arkin tumbles through the door, dodging the two guards and ends up behind one of them, but fails to stab him in the back. The guard in the middle of the room drops his bow and draws a flail, stepping forward to attack Athazog. He does a little damage.

Derek casts Prayer and benefits all his party except Arkin, and 3 of the enemy.

Tabansi shoots one of those attacking Athazog, softening him up enough for Athazog to take him down. The survivors move round to flank Athazog, allowing Arkin to flank another, stabbing him in the back. Derek steps through the door and hits the unconscious creature on the floor. Derek crits and the serpent folk dies.

Tabansi shoots the one he can see, and critically injures him but he’s still standing, until Athazog finishes him off, and also finishes the one still hobbling after Arkin’s attack.

The last remaining guard runs off. Arkin chases him, and we catch up with him and kill him before he can escape.

A couple more serpentfolk come charging in from the other end of the room, and they attack Arkin. More are behind them.

Another one comes in, carrying a bastard sword and heavy armour, he runs towards Tabansi. Another guard adds to those surrounding Arkin. Another heavy guard comes up towards Athazog, and Athazog leaps on the first one., Arkin retreats back to Derek for healing.

Ek’Tura summons some black tentacles to try and grab all the serpentfolk. One tries to move up to Tabansi, so Tabansi shoots him and move back.

One guard tries to sneak round behind Athazog, and gets smacked by Athazog, who takes him down. Ek-Tura drops a slow on the remaining ones, but they resist. He then triggers his escape spell, taking us all with him.

XP: +10,000

We heal up and rest overnight. Derek casts Fire Seeds and gives them to Arkin. Derek casts 2 Status spells so that he knows the condition of the party at any time.

Ek’tura teleports the party into the Gug cave. We cast our necessary spells and try to sneak further down the passage this time.. We spot a secret door in the wall, and Arkin makes sure that it is safe. Beyond is a short corridor and a circular room.

Inside is a serpent folk, Tabansi shoots him a couple of times before he can react. Arkin runs in and spots another five. One runs at Arkin, hitting him with a flail, followed by another couple. Athazog charges in and takes down one attacking Arkin. The last one attacks Athazog, blocking him at the door.

Arkin dances around them, and stabs the one in front of Athazog in the back. However, he is outflanked by another and crushed in the head by a flail, falling down. Another steps up and tries to finish him off, but he luckily survives.

Ek’Tura summons an Earth Elemental, then triggers a Get Away.

Maybe we need to rethink our strategy…

Next day…

We wind walk over to the mouth of the serpent. A large silvery lens floats above a pedestal in the mouth, turning slowly. Beyond is a set of double doors that lead into the body of the serpent. The lens is highly magical, and about 8ft diameter. There are a large number of powerful magical effects on the lens and the room.

Ek’Tura summons an outsider into the mouth, but it fails to appear.

We dimension door back to the gug cave. One of the dead bodies looks strange, Tabansi tries to shoot it but misses, it leaps up and runs out of the room. The enemy had left a sentry hidden in the room who got a warning off to his people. Tabansi puts up Gravity Bow.

Realising the futility of trying to sneak in when everyone is now aware we are here… We Get Away.

Session 56 (2019/04/27) Ek’Tura scouts into the Fortress of the Thousand Fangs alone, and returns to fill us in. We finally have a rough map of the layout and some idea of how the different parts connect, but are still unsure where Eando Kline is. Ek’tura did find a temple to Ydersius, with priests actively worshipping there. That is at the top, on the other side of the mouth. The eyes of the serpent are windows into the temple.

Eando Kline might be somewhere in the middle.

Using Forests Sense and Scry doesn’t work.

Derek casts Commune: to talk with his god Sarenrae: Is Eando Kline alive? Y Is Eando Kline conscious? Y Is Eando Kline being held prisoner? Y Is Eando Kline being held prisoner in Illmuria? Y Is Eando Kline being held prisoner on an island? Y Is Eando Kline being held prisoner in the snake structure? Is Eando Kline being held prisoner in the top quarter of the structure? Unclear Is the god Urdersius alive? Unclear Are there active Urdersius worshippers? Y

We decide to launch a raind against the priests’ quarters, which we think are next to the temple, on top of the island. We mega-prep, load up with spells, then dimension door into the heart of the serpent’s domain. We appear in a 70ft wide corridor outside a big door which Ek’tura saw some priest coming out of when he scouted the island earlier. We go through into an alcove, then another door and a barracks which is empty. There are prayer mats, and prayers to Ydersius on the walls. There are twelve beds in this room. There is a single door at the far end. There is a vestry with no exits which contains cabinets full of scrolls and religious paraphernalia..

Ek’Tura is certain there are secret doors, but we find none. Tabansi and Athazog head back out and head up the passage towards the head of the serpent whilst Ek’Tura tries using magic to detect doors without success.

At the top end of the main corridor is a large temple with a dais at the back lit by candles. There is a huge three headed snake thing. There are reliefs engraved into the walls of serpent folk subjugating other races. It’s a temple to Ydersius!

There is a bad feel to the place, which harms Tabansi. Wind Walk goes down. The three headed snake slithers up to Tabansi and bites him. Derek moves up close to Tabansi, and Athazog moves up and starts raging.

Tabansi puts three arrows into the creature. It hits Tabansi with a tail, and grabs him. It crushes and bites at Tabansi, almost killing him. Derek Heals him.

Athazog charges in and loses his haste. Fortunately he is able to hit the thing. Tabasnsi tries to struggle free, but is unable to, so draws a dagger. Arkin charges in as well.

Ek’Tura casts Bone Shatter on the thing. It continues to crush Tabansi, and then another tail grabs Arkin. It also manages to grab Athazog. It continues to bite at Tabansi, chewing him up.

Derek flamestrikes the back of it.

Tabansii tries to stab it, and doesn’t do much effect. Ek’Tura uses enervation on it.

Derek casts Destruction on it, and it is utterly destroyed in holy fire. We move to Derek seeking healing, which he provides.

XP: +10,240

Tabansi moves into the temple, and loses his Haste spell. There is a bowl on the altar, which is blood stained. Athazog thought he saw a secret door, and Tabansi can see where it is behind the altar. Ek’Tura has gone off by himself to raid the vestibule of magical scrolls, potions and anything else not nailed down. There is too pmch to pick up quickly, so he just grabs the magic stuff and vows to come back later for the dozens of scrolls and pick packets of powdered silver.

Tabansi goes up to the altar, sees that the bowl is filled with blood. The candlesticks are some sort of dark brown wax, the holders are serpent in form with the candles in their mouths. Arkin checks for traps and doesn’t find any, so Tabansi opens the door.

Behind is a tiny cupboard in which there are candles, religious relics, daggers, knives, a gold cloth and other gold things. We grab the stuff.

We head down the passage, and come to a single door. About 30ft down is a double door which leads to a guardroom. Beyond that is a crumbled gate. This door is recessed into the wall, different to the others. The door is locked, so Tabansi lets Arkin try to open it, but is unable to since it seems to be magically locked.

Tabansi sneaks down to the other set of doors, and a Serpentfolk comes out. Tabansi shoots him and gets a critical. It doesn’t go down. Ek’Tura summons a Celestial Tyrannosaurus which appears next to Tabansi and bites at the serpentfolk. A second comes out of the doors, and decides to go back inside.

A third comes out, and shoots at the T-Rex. Tabansi tries shooting at him… sticking three arrows into him. Several more guards come out, including one that runs up to Tabansi. Derek dumps a fireball on those clustering outside the door, filling the doorway and hopefully the room beyond with fire.. It also scorches the Tyrannosaurus slightly.

Athazog moves up to engage the serpentfolk near Tabansi. The T-Rex swallows the serpentfolk. Tabansi shoots one of the folk, and steps back to shelter under the T-Rex. The folk steps up and hits Tabansi with a solid blow, and Derek steps up and cures him.

The T-Rex bits and grabs another guard, and Ek’Tura drops a Slow on the remaining guards. More guards move up, Arkin stabs one. More of them move up - the T-Rex is too busy eating to pay much attention to them. Derek flame strikes the archers, killing one of them.

Athazog kills one next to him, as well as the next one, and moves towards another, just as the T-Rex finishes swallowing it and trundling forward. Athazog darts between the legs of the dinosaur and pounces on one of the guards, taking it out, leaving two remaining.

The T-Rex bites and grabs one of them. There is the sound of more guards coming up the passage. Athazog kills the standing one, and the T-Rex swallows the last one. The room they came from has no exits and was just a guards room.

A blue skinned serpentfolk comes out of the magically locked door behind Tabansi and casts a spell at him. Tabansi shrugs off the effect. It has a number of mirror images around her. Tabansi shoots at it and takes out an image.

Athazog runs up and cuts through the images, hitting the mage. More guards come through the gap down the passageway. Derek heals the T-Rex, just it charges down towards them. Ek’Tura drops a glitterdust on the magus, outlining her in glitter. She puts Tabansi and Athazog in mass hold person. She quick casts a scorching ray at Ek’Tura,, hitting him three times. Tabansi manages to shrug it off, Arkin starts moving up as she ducks back into the doorway. Athazog breaks free and steps up next to her.

The new set of guards charge at the T-Rex, taking it down. Derek puts up a holy wall of ice between them and us. Ek’Tura starts summoning another monster. The serpertfolk wizard creates a hungry pit beneath Athazog, who dodges back, then realises he didn’t need to since he is floating. She also drops 5 quickened magic missiles into him.

Arkin leaps across the pit, fails to stab her. Athazog walks over and tries to hit her. Tabansi tries to hit her. Ek’Tura summons a Brachiosaurus. And activates his foretell ability. Derek casts Prayer.

The serpertfolk wizard puts up a forcecage in the door to her sanctum, forcing Athazog back.

The guards smash their way through the wall of ice, and run into the Brachiosaurus, which they start killing with their flails. They score several criticals and drop the brachiosaurus to half hit points very quickly. Ek’Tura drops a slow on the guards and the brachiosaurus hits three of them with its tail.

Tabansi shoots one of the guards, whilst Athazog tries to smash through the forcecage. Ek’Tura tells people to get together to try and dimension door through the force cage. The guards continue to bash the Brachiosaurus. More pour through, and the dinosaur strikes at one with its tail, but it is overwhelmed and goes down.

Derek summons a hound archon, and summons a wall of fire, all to slow down the guards. Ek’Tura dimension doors Tabansi, Arkin and himself into the sanctum along with the serpentfolk sorceress.

She tries to cast Unwilling Shield on Tabansi, but he resists. Arkin jumps her. Tabansi shoots her and takes down three images. The guards take down the Hound Archon but don’t come through the wall of fire..

Ek’Tura tries a chains of light on her, but she resists. We take down the last of her images, and hit her with an arrow.

She casts a prismatic spray, but we mostly avoid the effects except Ek’Tura who is slightly poisoned. Arkin tries to trip her, Tabansi becomes heroic and declares her as a quarry, then shoots her, one of the arrows missing because of displacement.

She tries to teleport, and Ek’Tura cancels it. Arkin tries to trip her and then moves back, allowing Ek’Tura to move in using his sonic form and punch at her. Tabansi shoots her once.

She vanishes using a teleport which Ek’tura is unable to prevent. We search the room whilst Athazog and Derek wait to see if the serpentfolk are going to come through the wall of fire. For some reason they don’t (possibly because they had taken quite a bit of damage from the brachiosaurus earlier).

The search of the bedroom reveals several scrolls but no spellbook (boo!). Arkin finds a secret door, Tabansi goes through and down a passage to another secret door at the other end, Ek’Tura follows behind whilst Arkin collects the scrolls. Tabansi opens the door into a large laboratory full of wizardly stuff. There is a barred cage, and a continual flame lighting the room. In the cage is corpse, a disected urdefhan. Amazingly, there is nothing magical in the room except the door on the far side of the room (arcane lock or magical trap, possibly?).

Tabansi hears the sound of multiple movement behind the door. There is nothing of interest here, so we return to the wizard’s bedroom and the party gets together once the forecage and pit spell expire. We finish looting the bed chamber, then return to the vestry we found earlier to pick up the scrolls and powdered silver. Finally, Ek’tura teleports everyone back to camp.

Collected treasure: Scroll of Clone 12 x serpentfolk scrolls (arcane writings) Texts of Iserdius (1,000gp) Incense of Meditation Silver dust worth 250gp Incense worth 100gp 3 candles of invocation (chaotic evil) Temple paraphernalia worth: 5,000gp

XP: +10,240

Session 57 (2019/05/25) What next? We decide to not chase after Khavith the sorceress, and decide instead to try and enter the middle near where there are some unexplored doors.

Spells up: Longstrider, Greater Darkvision Telepathic Bond Tough Crowd Getaway

Derek casts two Status spells to keep track of the health of his companions. He casts Frie Seeds and gives the Fire Seeds to Arkin to carry/use.

Derek casts Wind Walk and Air Walk Communal on everyone.

We go back into the Fortress of a Thousand Fangs. We used Dimension Door to get into a store cupboard. No sign of any noise, and head out into the corridor. We find a set of doors with a moderate amount of traffic, and go into a large room with a column with serpentine carvings. There are stone benches facing a high stone table. Four ornate stone chairs sit behind the table in the alcove.

There are a couple of secret doors. The tracks go to the door behind the table. The other secret door opens into a circular room full of weapons. 30 masterwork composite longbows 30 masterwork flails. 30 quivers of 20 arrows.

Through the other secret door reveals a set of stairs winding down, and two serpentfolk on the stairs with weapons in hand. They spot us. Tabansi shoots the first one three times, and is hit back with a flail. There is a quick fight and they both go down, though Tabansi and Arkin take some damage which Derek heals with a healing surge.

Tabansi casts Iron Skin.

Tabansi goes down the stairs. There is a large rough hewn chamber with stalagmites and stalactites. There are several serpentfolk, some with bows. They do not notice Tabansi. He sneaks back up the stairs.

We cast spells and come back down. Tabansi sneaks to the bottom and gets shot by a serpentfolk, so he returns fire. Athazog steps out and is attacked by two either side of the stairway, then Arkin leaps out to stab one of those, attracting more arrow fire, then darts back up the stairs.

Derek comes into the room, and summons a wall of fire to block off a lot of the archers. The archers run through the fire though. Arkin pops out again, stabbing at one, and stays outside.

Athazog steps out and kills a couple. Ek’Tura is finally about to make it down the now unblocked stairs and starts summoning something - an earth elemental. Arkin is badly injured trying to flank around the serpentfolk, and Athazog is unable to take down the one by the door, which Tabansi also completely misses.

The earth elemental appears and starts hitting some of the archers. Arkin goes down.

Tabansi has another round of being useless. Athazog finishes off the one by the door, and steps in to hit the one threatening Derek, killing it. This allows Derek to move over to Arkin and heal him.

The earth elemental takes one down, but is heavily injured. The other serpentfolk run forward, Tabansi shoots on near the fallen Arkin, and Athazog finishes him off and moves onto the others. Arkin stands up.

The earth elemental is killed, and the serpentfolk move in to flank everyone. Tabansi takes two of them down, leaving one left which survives Athazog’s and Arkin’s attacks. He attacks Tabansi, hurting him badly and poisoning him.

The last is killed, and Tabansi recovers from the poison, and Derek cures him of the residual effects.

9 x serpentfolk stuff

XP: +13,000

In a room off the cavern: 30 masterwork composite longbows 30 masterwork flails. 30 quivers of 20 arrows. Magical Burglar’s Buckler

There are other exits out of the door opposite, and a third exit which has a thick stench of excrement from it, as well as sounds of moaning and grunting from behind it.

We open the door, and the stench. Inside are dozens of locked up Morlocks. There are Nagas down the passage. They haven’t seen any surface dwellers imprisoned here, though are aware of Kline.

Out the back, there is a cavern with a pool of water, and the body of a human woman floating in the water. There are naga tracks here. Athazog drags the woman’s body out, and notices there are glints of things at the bottom of the pool. She has been dead 4 or 5 days, poisoned. She was tortured previously. In the bottom of the pool are +2 rapier Potion gaseous form Scroll of phantom steed 486gp

Down one of the passages are more cages full of morlocks. Down the other passage, is another room of empty cages, with some serpenfolk sitting around a table and playing cards.

Ek’Tura summons some animate dreams, which make short work of them, with a bit of help from Athazog and Tabansi.

Out the other door, down a passage and a door which feels warm and there is flickering light. Beyond is a large chamber with a pool of water at the far end. There is a large brazier of glowing coals providing warm and illumination. There are cages in the room as well, with chains with curved hooks hanging from the ceiling.

There is a single serpentfolk with a burning poker about to torture a male human chained in the cell. I shoot the torturer with three arrows. Arkin runs into the room, and the torturer reaches into his pocket and vanishes. Ek’Tura comes into the room and is able to see that he is invisible.

Ek’Tura creates a pit under him, but he dodges aside. Something invisible hits Athazog, but doesn’t become visible. Ek’Tura casts Glitterdust, making the torturer visible and temporarily blinding him. Tabansi shoots him. Arkin flanks him and stabs him from behind. Athazog hits him a couple of times, and he surrenders.

Tabansi chains him up. His name Assan, but refuses to give information. The human says he is Eando Kline.

Spiked gauntlet (magical) 3 potions of stabilise 2 dusts of dissappearance +3 leather armour +2 ring of protection Torturers tools A key

We heal Eando Kline., and manage to unlock his manacles, but can’t unlock the cage. Ek’Tura needs to dispel magics on the locks, and Arkin is finally able to unlock the cage. Athazog kills the torturer. We cut off his head to bury elsewhere to make him harder to resurrect.

We find a strongroom with Eando Kline’s gear Adamntine dagger 2 mstrwrk drow handcrossbows 32 bolts 4 mstrwrk silver rapiers of drow design Potion of invisibility 6 doses of drow poison 8 mstrwrk rhoka swords (urdefhan) Ropes + backpacks

We free the Morlocks, but don’t really have a way of rescuing them. We try to lead them out but there are a large group of Serpentfolk guards blocking the way out. The Moorlocks charge them and a battle ensues. We can’t really help much so we teleport out and return to camp.

XP: +28,160

Ding

chronicles/serpents_skull/chapter5.txt · Last modified: 2021/02/08 20:56 by sam