Currrent group: Thorhilde, Finn, Grey, Lani, Zim, Turia, Roland, Safranna, Dame Klein, Sir Wolf, Sir Keller, Sir Braun, and Brother Chaplain Meyer.
We’ve just taken the two Yuan-ti prisoners.
Thorhilde, Turia, and Zim head off scouting, whilst the rest of us prep the prisoners for interrogation.
Brother Chaplain Meyer is an inquisitor, although he doesn’t have the appropriate implements for interrogating prisoners at the moment.
During scouting, Zim and Thorhilde find a room filled with eggs taller than Zim. 17 are unhatched, four are hatched.
Turia also finds a room full of eggs, and also some garbage. The garbage has been pushed aside by something large to make room for the eggs. Turia finds 5 hatched eggs, and 14 unhatched eggs.
Zim hears glupping noises coming from the eggs.
Scouting further ahead, Zim sets off a trap, causing a portcullis to crash down, trapping him. Beyond, Zim finds an armoury of good quality weapons and armour.
Thorhilde rages, and manages to lift the portcullis so Zim can get out.
Turia and Zim both find corridors that were caved in – Zim feels that the cave-ins were deliberate.
Turia returns, having found nothing else of interest aside from a staircase leading down, and a door. Turia goes to investigate the door, but is hit by a whirling blade trap. The bulk of the party arrives on the scene at the same time that two human-like people open the door Turia was about to look at. Combat ensues.
Despite their appearance, they are not human. They could be pureblood Yuan-ti’s.
We kill one of the enemy with ease, but the other managed to get away. There are no obvious exits, although we do find three small holes in the wall – air vent holes, presumaly.
One of the prisoners awaken. Turia has a little chat with it.
Elsewhere, in the room where the enemy humanoid got away, Zim finds a map, which appears to be of the complex. The cave-ins block the way to much more of the complex.
Zim starts to explore the stairway. Many traps litter the route down.
Turia tells us what she’s found out. The bits of rock that are around here are the remains of their home planet. They killed the former inhabitants of this lump of rock, and then worked magic to keep it warm. Since then, they’ve been growing the shapeshifters, and sending them to Mystara. They need to go there in order to survive. They don’t seem to care about the opinions of the current inhabitants of Mystara.
The eggs contain shapeshifters.
Turia also finds out that this place isn’t particularly senior in the grand scheme of things. Also, when their world broke apart, many died, and it was only because of their priests that they managed to survive. They worship Merrshaulk. Grey only knows that they are the deity of the Yuan-ti. Turia finds out that the Yuan-ti were at war with several other factions before their world broke apart, and that war is still going on. The drow and the illithid belong to other factions (whether the same faction or not is unknown). This guy is only a grunt, and doesn’t know much else.
Lani polymorphs Safranna into a dire badger, and we start digging our way through the southern cave-in. On the other side, we are presented with a hoard of enemies to defeat. Some of them are spellcasters. One casts finger of death at us, another starts casting summon monster IV. The one summoning a monster is a priest. One of them casts silence upon us.
A number of them demonstrate the ability to turn into snakes, and shortly after disappear into air vent holes, only later to reappear on our flanks. The battle is drawn out and fierce. A number of them are also equipped with magic items, including a necklace of firealls, scrolls of slay living, and other unpleasantness. The blade barrier cast in our midst was also most unfortunate (although more so for them than us).
Sir Wolf and Sir Braun are slain by one of the necklace of fireballs. Safranna “fixes” them up.
We win.
Loot (market price values) (most of the loot is
snakelike):
Studded leather +5, glamoured, silent moves (49175gp).
Ring of protection +3 (18000gp)
Gloves of dexterity +6 (36000gp)
Scimitar +3 (18315gp)
5 studded leather +2 (4175gp each)
3 rings of protection +3 (18000gp each)
5 gloves of dexterity +2 (4000gp each)
3 scimitars +1 (2315gp each)
5 otions of bull strength (300gp each)
5 potions of cure serious wounds (700gp each)
3 potions of cure light wounds (50gp each)
3 necklaces of fireballs type II (?gp each)
2 rings of protection +2 (2000gp)
26 masterwork scimitars
20 masterwork studded leather (snake-style armour)
26 masterwork longbows (mighty +3)
200 masterwork arrows
Some strange black fabric (not magical)
In total, five managed to escape us. Furthermore, the entire complex is not yet accessible to us, as we find a third cave-in. Grey summons some celestial dire badgers to dig past the cave-ins, but we find nothing of interest. The escaped snakes must be hiding from us.
In the time we’ve been running around, one of the eggs has hatched. Grey fireballs one egg room, and smashes open the eggs in another room. None are fully formed.
Dame Klein: Init +5, AC 22, HP 57, Att: +12/+7, Dam d10+6, Power Attack, Cleave. Saves: Fort +8/Ref +4/Will +6. Wounds: 0