Session 39: Temple of the Black Mist

General Summary

Venturing into the cave, the party agreed to let Nakor make all of them invisible, providing some safety as they delved into the temple. As soon as they entered they realised that the entire complex seemed to be lit by torches. Torches that someone was lighting. Thusly, they concluded that there was most probably some inhabitants of this place. Together they followed the sound of Um to the room where they had found the statuette. They grabbed it and proceeded to look in the chest upon which it had stood, where they found a cobra. They realised that the snake was following the movements of the statue as if it was entranced by it. When Um threw it to Nakor, it lunged after it, and the spooked Nakor answered with a ball of flame which left nothing but ash. This, however, made him partially lose concentration and he became visible.   In the meantime, Conn had managed to find a secret door with the aid of a magical wand. Inside they found three baskets. To investigate the possibility of more snakes Conn took out his flute to try and charm them. He began to play and noticed movement from two of the baskets. The party looked in the third basket and found a key. They also looked inside the other two just to confirm that there were just snakes in them. The group then moved on to explore other pathways of the temple. They immediately found a laundryroom with three women washing clothes. They reacted to the door opening on its own and looked for a sign of life, and thus noticed the secret door being opened. However, not checking for the key, but just petting the snakes before closing it again, the woman didn't think too much about it.    The party carried on and found a large hall with two snake-headed guards visible through the keyhole. They were Yuan-Ti according to Jeanne. They also managed to enter a side room to the hall where there had been a collapse. Through this path, they also noticed a large abomination. A large snake with muscular arms and a large blade in its hands patrolled the hall. A discussion began and unlike the norm, Jeanne was proposing the use of violence, as it was according to her imminent. Nakor on the other hand was advocating for the use of diplomacy. Jeanne relented and a plan was made, as they all became visible. Nakor would make Jeanne and Um invisible again and the two would follow the group as they tried to negotiate.    Nakor and Conn entered the hall, much to the confusion of the guards, who asked them who they were and what they were doing there. After some slick and charismatic introductions, they were taken through the corridors of the temple up to a room with an altar filled with blood and two big jugs. There they were introduced to a woman. She was called Thervania of the Hidden Scales. She and Nakor had a long discussion and they learned that she and her kind were working to retake what they deemed to be rightfully theirs. When she asked for Nakors aid, he refused and grabbed Conn and with two thundering booms, they blinked through the halls back from whence they came. Conn, however, turned around and a fight broke out as he blew his horn.    The halls were filled with the spirits of Killbarrian ancestors. Jeanne and Um, who had been hiding by a side door leapt into action. Nakor and Um held the rear as a raged fueled behemoth of a Yuan-Ti ran through fire to get to and poison Um. The changeling easily healed this, however, as Nakor turned angelic and blasted the creature with holy flames until it fell to its knees and died. Conn was almost disintegrated by Thervania as he burst back into the room. But just as the beam shot toward him, he raised his magical shield and managed to deflect it. Terrified of the half-elf's resilience, the mage vanished along with her book. But just as they thought they might have won, a yuan-ti guard grabbed a jug from the altar and chugged it. He then transformed into a huge five-headed snake monster, like a hydra with arms.    Jeanne and Conn engaged the being, which ended in Jeanne being grabbed, slashed, and bitten. Grappled by the creature, it squeezed her with its acid-dripping body until the life seemingly left the consular vicariate. She fell to the ground. Nakor and Um, who had made it up to the others, saw this and as Um engaged the beast, trying to slow it down, Nakor blasted two of the yuan-ti guards with holy fire before arriving to heal his friend. Jeanne awoke with Nakors angelic hands on her back, and she immediately turned back to the fight. As the monster thrashed and grabbed, it got a hold of Conn, and just as it pulled him towards itself Nakor trapped it in a circle of fire. It pulled Conn inside, but the strong rebel managed to escape and ran out to punch Nakor in the face.   Starting to grow weak the beast began to swell from the intense heat. Um, fearing an explosion like a stranded whale, ran out of the room. Jeanne took a step back before shooting a bolt through one of the beast's throats. It popped like a balloon and covered the room and Jeanne in hot acid. This made the weakened woman fall unconscious once more. The last of the guards took their own lives to avoid capture. Conn ran with his spiritual guards to find the mage. They instead found an ambush, and Conn left the warriors to fight for him as he retreated to fetch the others. He managed to get Jeanne with him, as Nakor and Um stayed to secure the altar. The prince managed to find two chests, one with some magical oil and one with a scroll made from snakeskin.    In the meantime, Jeanne and Conn managed to get back to where Conn was ambushed and found nothing. They carefully tried to explore but found that the yuan-ti had regrouped and were now employing guerilla tactics, utilising their superior knowledge of the layout of the temple. As the group met up again, Conn heard something through a locked door. He looked inside and saw another huge snake monster entering the room. When it turned towards him, they decided to run, despite previous protests. Only with the aid of Um's powerful dark blasts, which slowed the creature down a bit did they manage to reach the exit and leave the temple. The creature did still almost catch up to them, but Nakor managed to throw it off their trail with some illusions. They reached the beach and their camp, where Jeanne and Conn wished to hide, but Um and Nakor wanted to get back to the ship. When Conn heard the creature closing in on them, he agreed with the prince and they quickly rowed out towards the mermaid.    The creature came upon the beach but stopped by the ocean's edge. Nakor pulled out the statue again and noticed that the creature followed its movements just like the cobra had. When the creature was joined by the yuan-ti, he tried the same with them, but they merely opened fire toward them. In the end, they reached the deep waters and felt something knock on the underside of their landing craft. With the help of the crew, they boarded without the ship breaching the surface. Safely back on the Swift Mermaid, the party began to rest and discuss what to do next.