Session 59

# January 14th, 2021 - Deceiver and the Dwarf

## Deceiver and the Dwarf

The session began right where it last left off (months ago in real life), with the group approaching the innermost section of the yuan-ti stronghold. Rachen was first to go down the full length of the hallway in front of the group, just past the undulating hall. Directly at the end of this new long section of hallway was a closed door, and an opening to a chamber to the right. Sounds of numerous snake people could be heard coming from the chamber, and as Rachen rounded the corner he could see why.

The space was the largest of the underground stronghold, with higher ceilings, three large snake statues spouting fire on either side, lighting the dank smelling chamber in a dim light, and a large stone dias with altar atop at the far end. The room was filled with all three types of yuan-ti the party had seen so far - males, females, and the abominations. The abominations' lower bodies no longer had legs, just a long snake tail, and their heads were also elongated and fully resembled a snake. At the rear of the chamber, one of the abominations looked to be holding a severely wounded and unconscious dwarf wearing ragged and bloody purple robes - their wyrmspeaker, Varram.

Rachen retreated as he thought the snakes saw, or surely heard, him; however, they didn’t move forward. He told the rest of the group what he scouted, and it was Cadmus who volunteered to try and parlay with them for the dwarf’s life. With Rachen standing behind him, the half-orc cleric stepped around the corner into the open entrance of the temple chamber. He had his hands in the air, with all of his weapons stowed. Using his *thaumaturgy* spell he caused his voice to boom and echo while also giving the illusion of shaking the ground with his every word.

Being as intimidating as possible - his specialty - Cadmus said how the party have clearly proven they can slaughter the yuan-ti’s kind if they oppose them. He offered to spare their remaining lives if they turned over the dwarf alive.

Realizing this particular abomination was more exuberantly dressed, and clearly their leader, it spoke in a very broken and slithering common. Sounding female, the abomination said the dwarf promised those who would come for him would bring great treasure for his life. She demanded this great treasure from Cadmus. Thinking quickly, the party hoardsperson pulled from his *bag of holding* a number of black gems that they pried from yuan-ti statues in the lair of Iymrith, the Doom of the Desert. He threw them upon the ground and used his booming voice to demand the dwarf in exchange. At this time, Rufus and Alburt moved around the corner to join Rachen in a show of force. Thia and Lachlan were still yet unseen around the corner down the hallway.

The yuan-ti priestess commanded one of the males to creep forward and retrieve the gems, bringing them slowly back to the altar for inspection. The yuan-ti seemed very impressed with the black gems, and quickly two females were dragging the dwarf’s barely living body across the temple towards Cadmus and the party.

It all seemed to be going so well.

About fifteen feet from them, the yuan-ti stopped with the dwarf. Cadmus realized all the snakes in the place were looking at them, and then all the bright red eyes flashed and it dawned on him what was happening. Both Rufus and Rachen succumbed to the *suggestion* magic, and turned on Alburt and Cadmus, respectively. While Cadmus tried to dodge and wrestle with Rachen, yuan-ti abominations and males came running towards them. Others were firing arrows down the hallway at them, but when the entranced party members both snapped out of it they snakes were upon them.

Rachen and Cadmus tried to hold their ground at the entrance to the chamber, shielding their companions behind who were firing magic and projectiles around them. The group was already quite wounded, exhausted, and depleted of their magical resources. Cadmus and Alburt both sustained wounds bringing them on the brink of consciousness. Not long into their battle, the doorway next to them burst open and a few lizardfolk charged them. At the same time, three more lizardfolk ran around from behind them down the hallway.

Unfortunately for those lizardfolk, Thia was keeping her dragon, Kiruna, in the rear and she quickly engaged and dealt with them. Rachen, Rufus, and Alburt made good work of the swarm of yuan-ti blocking their way into the temple chamber. Lachlan used his new vorpal sword to great effect protecting those in the rear from more lizard and snake folk, helping to take down a number of foes.

All the while however, the rest of the yuan-ti in the temple chamber were making their escape. The abomination priestess had pushed aside one of the six giant snake statues revealing an escape tunnel. The remaining yuan-ti fled down the tunnel, even taking Varram the dwarf with them, by the time the party finished killing the swarm blocking their way. The group pushed forward as fast as possible with Rachen first to the tunnel, charging down into the darkness he couldn’t see. However, still in the dim light maybe ten feet down the dark stone staircase a yuan-ti male was holding the dwarf upright, with his claw around the dwarves neck.

It looked as if the rest of the snake people were gone down the dark and deep tunnel. Rachen tried to intimidate Cadmus’ voice and said he would spare the yuan-ti’s life if he left the dwarf alive. The yuan-ti male looked behind him once more, hesitated for just a second, and then dropped the dwarf to the floor and ran down the tunnel. Rachen carried Varram back into the temple, and the party quickly decided to retreat the way they came out of this terrible place. Before they left however, they did loot the yuan-ti’s treasure stash, which was hidden in a nook within the escape tunnel - the snakes just evacuated without it. It had a moderate amount of mixed coins and rare gems.

Making their way carefully back through the complex, they eventually found themselves outside under the night’s cold sky once again. They had spent most of the day in that place. They would rest and patch their wounds, and of the dwarves, before interrogating him in the morning.

And that is where the session ended, having succeeded in recovering the white wyrmspeaker Varram. It was the early morning of the two hundred fifty second day since the raid on Greenest.

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