Under the Palace

Session 15 of Tomb of Annihilation

The PC's:

Shaun the Kobold, Cleric (Light of Kossuth) 6, Criminal from streets of Port Nyanzaru, Zhent
Varis, High Elf Wizard 6 (evoker), acolyte of Oghma
Adran, Wood Elf Bard (Lore) 6, Entertainer and Bagpiper from the cold northern forests, Zhent
Angry Agatha, Half-Orc Barbarian (Totem Bear) 6, Harper, bodyguard and long time associate of Sembian Sam
Shummp, Half-Orc Fighter (Champion) 6, Soldier from the North seeking wealth in Chult
Are, Moon Elf Druid (Circle of Moon) 5, Young refugee from overrun northern village, now travels in company of Darius Foreshot
Darius Foreshot, Human Fighter (Eldritch Knight) 5, Outlander/Hermit, Seeking fortune in Chult
Sembian Sam, Human Rogue 5 (thief), Ranger 1, archaeologist, Harper

PC's Not Present:
Farout, Tortle Druid (Circle of Land - Beach) 5, Traveling up from Snout of Omgar in far southern Chult, following rumors of source of death curse.


NPC's:
Vorn, a Shield Guardian found in the jungle now under the command of Varis, who promised to eventually return the shield guardian to Wakanga O'Tamu in exchange for a spell book.
Itch, the kobold who introduced party to kobolds of Omu.
Cormyran Kandy, a rival archaeologist and former lover of Sembian Sam, had been hired by the Red Wizards but now working with the PC's.

Sembian Sam and Cormyran Kandy follow after the party, finding a pile of bodies (some headless) dumped beside a shrine dedicated to a zorbo diety. They also note from hiding a kamaran feasting on the bodies, a giant bloated snake that had already apparently consumed one or two, and a man with snakes for arms talking to another snake about how somebody had apparently killed the Red Wizards and taken their cubes. They waiting for the snakes and the cat to move along before approaching the shrine and reuniting with the party. Everyone then got in a long rest and they move on after the Yuan Ti who had apparently taken the zorbo puzzle cube, as the party now has the other eight. Itch shows up in the morning to comment on the damage done to the shrine, and the party denied responsibility, blaming the Red Wizards and Yuan Ti. Itch mentioned the Yuan Ti being dangerous, and mentioned again the nearby back entry into their lair when the party mentioned that they were looking for the last cube that appeared to have been taken by the Yuan Ti.

Entering the palace quarter through an opening in the wall Shummp, Sam, and Agatha led the way stealthily ahead of the rest of the party. To the left they noted an opening to a courtyard that appeared to have had some traffic into it, and they investigated, thinking it in the neighborhood of the secret entrance. They noted some large snakes hiding in the vegetation growing in the courtyard. Agatha immediately raged and charged to attack the nearest snake and the others followed as the two farther snakes turned into men with the heads of snakes and pulled out bows while the snake Agatha was attacking bit her. Shummp, Agatha, Sam, and Kandy combined to kill the one snake as the rest of the party moved up; Vorn charged in to smash a more regular size snake that came out of the bushes to bite Agatha as well. As the rest of the party closed in another snake man quickly fell and then they chased down and slayed the last before he had a chance to get away. In the fighting, Sam stumbled past and noted a hole behind some bushes leading into a passage into the earth.

They soon reorganized and made their way down through the passage, with Sam taking the lead using his blessing from Saja N'baza to see in the dark. The first few party members rolled high on their stealth roles and they noted lights ahead and closed in on four Yuan Ti broodguards, foul creatures transformed from regular humanoids to serve the snake men. In the surprise round and the two rounds immediately after the party dropped the broodguards, with a third level shatter from Adran being particularly effective (he rolled high damage while the broodguards rolled poor on their saves), though the party got a bit scattered and the shatter sunk a rowboat and caused some bells on the boats to ring... drawing the attention of the hydra living in the lake! It popped out of the water near Shaun and Varis, severely injuring the cleric. The half-orcs then charged it, doing a substantial amount of damage, killing a head and causing two more to appear. Varis then starting throwing firebolts to prevent the head growth, but switched to a lightning bolt one round and there was a seventh, and eventually an eighth head. As most of the party battled the hydra, several noticed someone open a door across the cavern and stare in surprise (with wide snake-like eyes) at the commotion. Soon Sam, Kandy, and Darius were on the Yuan Ti pureblood, with Darius grappling him to hold the snakeman in place while the others pummeled him and he called for help from his minions who started to shuffle forward from the room behind him. Darius then shoved him back and unleashed a burning hands spell to hit the zombies and inadvertently cause some explosions in the flammable poisons stored in the room as well, unleashing a cloud of toxic gas. The snakeman soon dropped and Shummp moved forward to engage the zombies after finally dropping the hydra (Varis eventually used a flaming sphere to pin it between the sphere and the party, which was an effective tactic though the monster had taken a substantial amount of damage by that point as well). Shummp took some poison damage from proximity to the toxins as he attacked the zombies but eventually the zombies fell and the gas cleared out. As the party checked out the room full of poisons to see what had survived Are noted a stopper in a brass jug and pulled it out, releasing another gas. Fortunately the party members in range made their saves and everyone retreated from the room again. Shaun used a prayer of healing to patch up the damaged members of the party, and both during and after the fight Are used most of her spell slots on cure wounds to help members of the party as well. They felt well enough restored to work their way back through the unworked cavern the last broodguard had started making a run toward and they closed to door to the poison lab behind them. Adran led this time, a bit ahead of the rest and he was quite stealthy, and came upon nine slaves (humans, albino dwarves, and goblins) holding sticks and shovels as they rested by a fire, watched by three broodguards and full fledged Yuan Ti with a human torso and head and a snake tail instead of legs. The party quickly dispatched the guards, looting the Yuan Ti, but it took some work for the party to convince the slaves to leave, but finally they talked them into leaving through the passage the party had entered. The vain Yuan Ti who was in charge had a key that opened the door leading out of the cave system into a worked stone room. Sam led the way in and was attacked by a talking snake who asked him who he was and what he was doing... Darius tried to have a conversation with the snake as it held Sam in his coils, but Sam yelling "Kill it!" led the half orcs to charge in with Kandy and between their efforts the snake was soon dead, with Sam injured. Shaun was able to help with Sam's injuries, and they hauled the dead snake back into the cave, locking the door behind them after looting a bit from the store room, locking it behind them; nobody was able to come up with a use for the crates of bronze bares, however... They then proceeded to have a snake roast for lunch, getting a short rest in.

After their break, they continued through the store into a more worked passage, following to the left as the passage started sloping up, and they found their way into a room full of relief carvings of Yuan Ti and Dendar the Night Serpant, and they didn't miss either the small holes in the walls or the button in the Yuan Ti's crown in one of the reliefs. Adran of course pressed the button, unleashing a gas that knocked out Sam, Kandy, Agatha, and Adran himself. The conscious party members quickly scrambled to pull the unconscious party members back down the hall way they had entered through. Then they heard a searcher above and some comments about how somebody had set off the gas. Slapping the unconscious party members and pouring water on them did not seem to help; Shaun, fearing for his life with more protection, cast a lesser restoration on Agatha, waking her. Shummp then decided that he would yell back at the searcher above, causing some further running and yelling. We left off as the party began to engage three broodguards backed up by a Yuan Ti and two basilisks, with a third of the party still unconscious and many spell slots expended, and then a gong sounded in the distance, somewhere further off in the Yuan Ti lair...