2024-06-29 Solaki's Snake Pit
- Date: 2024-06-29
- Region: Solaki - Risu
- Session #: 84
Player Characters
- Malivette
- Val and Soonie
- Furifuru
- Tarhun
- Magoo
Allies
Summary
Malivette briefed a group of Inkpot Gods members about the issues between the Solakian noble houses and the yuan-ti in a meeting held in Verdaburg.
A fiery portal appeared, and Mazlataz stepped out with two devils. He warned the party not to interfere further with matters in Solaki. Mal and Maz discussed an exchange of information about the Destroyer's plans for Mal's soul. Magoo suggested that Mazlataz could supplant Authizyr, which Maz facetiously declared as ridiculous, noting that loyalty was important to the devil hierarchy. When he departed through the portal, Val read his face carefully, and detected the devil was satisfied with their interaction, as if he got what he wanted out of it.
Mal spoke to Torrace about relocating the Inkpot Gods entirely into the Bastion of Dreams. Torrace suggested putting up protections here instead, and expressed a distrust for Wiznt, the Bastion's owner and creator.
They flew to the town of Risu, riding Ollinox, a wyvern, and three hippogriffs from Val's Ark.
They landed in front of the north entrance to the town. Two guards in bark armor with the emblem of House Quarion halted them. Malivette informed them of the party's intent to confront the noble house about their connections to the yuan-ti. The guards told them that the snake people were welcome residents of Risu and friends of House Quarion. The guards deemed the party hostile and refused their entry.
They flew over the guards to enter the arboreal village. The guards sounded a horn.
They flew through the thick trees, between treehouses and over bridges and boardwalks. Along the way, they fought past archers and druids who tried to slow their progress with plant growth and watery sphere. Ollinox's acid breath and Tarhun's fire breath burst through rapidly-grown walls of tree branches.
They flew over the fence around Lunemi Hall and landed within its surrounding courtyard. Town guards, yuan-ti, and Quarion elite druids confronted them there. The druids wore hardy wooden armor with a bramble motif carved into the pauldrons, decorated with colorful plumage. Malivette reiterated that the party intended to speak with Selevia, not to cause harm, and indicated that the party had proof of evil acts of the yuan-ti. Yotheran, the speaking archdruid, commanded the party to wait while he contacted the noble lady.
While waiting, Val talked to a rat who spoke common. She fed him and asked him what was going on with the wildlife here. The awakened rat told her how the yuan-ti had brought snakes into the city, which had been hunting the woodland critters. The awakened critters used to be closer to humanoid residents of Risu, exchanging news often at the Flockswift Forum, but hadn't had much of an audience recently. Many of them were in hiding, trying to survive the serpent onslaught. Val gave him extra food.
As the rat scurried back toward the tree's roots, they saw a small snake sneaking up on it. Magoo killed the snake. A yuan-ti hissed a complaint about this, saying that the rodents existed to be snake food and that the party shouldn't meddle.
Yotheran returned, and informed the PCs that Selevia would hear what they had to say. Mal requested to talk to Izumi, her younger sister, as well.
Yotheran brought them into Lunemi Hall to the main audience hall. Selevia sat upon a central log-crafted throne, with an empty throne on either side of her. The thrones were on an elevated platform over rows of pews, with two other balconies at the back. Many archdruids stood guard around the chamber.
Malivette asked Selevia Quarion about her family. She told that her father was missing and sister had voluntarily locked herself in her quarters under stress. Val could tell this was a lie, however.
Mal called out Selevia's connection to a yuan-ti named Ssalavan. She said that Ssalavan had been killed recently while residing among the Suntouch Spires. Mal took the credit for it, thinking back to 2024-04-13 Among the Spires. She declared him an enemy of House Quarion and demanded the party surrender.
As the tension rose, the party told Selevia how there were devils present in Solaki, sowing discord and distrust between the houses. Selevia called it nonsense, but Val sensed that she knew much more than she let on. Val called her a liar, offending the noble scion. Selevia gave the command to fight.
Furi banished her, giving the party a chance to fight off the elite druids, who turned into bears and unleashed firestorms.
When Selevia returned, she activated glyphs of fear (symbol spell) and invulnerability, but Furi and Tarhun dispelled her high level spells. Magoo and the mounts were successful terrified by the symbol glyph, and flew/ran up the walls to the glass dome ceiling of the hall.
The rogues hurt Selevia badly, but the druids began repeatedly healing her. Mal grappled her and used his cloak of billowing to cut off the line of sight required for further healing. Bunny rex (Furi polymorphed) and Tarhun's summoned construct grappled others to try to prevent them from reaching her. The party managed to knock her out. Mal shouted at the druids to stop fighting, and they did.
Mal healed Selevia slightly after Yotheran cast zone of truth from a scroll the party had brought.
She admitted to talking to a devil recently.
She tried but failed to hold back that the devil in question was named Authizyr. She admitted that she had trapped her family. She believed that what she was doing wasn't wrong, that the end justified the means: Solaki ruled by House Quarion would be salvation for the land and its spirits. Her contract with Authizyr was a model tree sitting in her quarters. She believed that Authizyr meant well, and that the contract couldn't be twisted against her. The yuan-ti were meant to be Quarion's allies as part of that deal, but the party had ruined that alliance.
Malivette and Tarhun were voluntarily affected by the zone of truth, and offered to answer questions. Yotheran asked Mal about the mission of the Inkpot Gods, and Mal filled him in about the Destroyer, the cycle, and the apocalypse.
They knew that the yuan-ti were closing in to fight and seize control of the situation. The druids gave the party a choice: they could request help from Dreamantha the unicorn, or they could search for supplies.
They met flamboyant Dreamantha in her own colorful private quarters, sitting next to a fountain. Dreamantha seemed to know what was happening, and offered the PCs a gift of their choosing to aid agains the yuan-ti. Malivette and Tarhun were blessed with a much-needed short rest, and Magoo got a divine portent.
Dreamantha liked Furi and invited him to stay with her. He returned the invite, asking her to come join his religion. He showed her visions of his underground cult temple, which she found unappealing. He requested one sculpted spell for the day, which she granted. He also left her a manifesto of the Cult of the Rabbit.
Dreamantha recognized Val's spirituality as well. Val asked for poison resistance for her wyvern.
Ollinox stepped forward, asking for treasure. She asked what he wanted other than gold, and he asked about the thing his father wanted, though he didn't fully understand it. He described wanting to be part of an important group of dragons, and the party realized it was the Dragon Council. They recalled back to 2023-02-18 Hunt: Zelvinox the Zealous, where five pedestals held dragon sculptures and a sixth held an not-yet-sculpted block of obsidian.
Dreamantha told Ollinox he must fight against his evil nature, but that he could succeed if he tried. She tapped her horn to his forehead, and one of his scales turned gold.
Yotheran then led them into the dungeons below ground where huge tree roots poked out of the dirt walls. The druids chanted to the magical roots functioning as jail bars, which receded. The druids apologized to Izumi and Grondominius for their mistakes. Grondominius stayed back, but Izumi, angry at her sister's betrayal, stepped forward to help.
They prepared for battle in the underground, preemptively casting webs and fog clouds. The yuan-ti upstairs simply waited for the spells to end.
Furi cast mirage arcane, turning most of the town into an icy tundra. A single yuan-ti marched down the stairs, hands raised, and declared the snakefolks' surrender. Magoo tricked him into believing that Authizyr had given up on them and yielded greater power to Furifuru. Furi intimidated the messenger with major image, saying the world was his to control. The yuan-ti bitterly agreed that their people would leave Solaki, but said that they would not forget their time there.
As the snakefolk left shivering, Grondominius led the PCs to Selevia's quarters. They saw the tree contract, and translated the infernal writing on the leaves. They criticized Selevia for falling for such a vaguely worded pact, but she simply complained that they had ruined everything, reiterating her beliefs discussed earlier.
Mal suggested that House Quarion apologize to the rest of Solaki for their involvement with the yuan-ti. Grondominius agreed, then named Izumi as his heir instead of Selevia. Izumi was still burning with anger about the situation, but thanked the party for their help.
Selevia was imprisoned. Grondominius puts Izumi in charge, and they prepared to contact the other noble houses about recent events.
Over the next few weeks, the yuan-ti withdrew from Solaki altogether. They used snakes as messengers throughout its forests, and snakefolk filtered out of their hiding places in secret camps and undercover in the region's towns. They purchased ships from a dock vendor in Pearl Cove who they already seemed familiar with, and sailed toward the east horizon to return to Feather Island.
Malivette offered assistance to House Quarion for future endeavors. Izumi said they would stay in touch if need be. She rewarded the party with plenty of gold, a compendium of technique, and a bag of tricks.
Documents found
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