S1 E13: The Call of Camazotl

General Summary

In which the gang questions a captive, resists the urge to join up with the cult, and faces a variety of adversaries in their quest to thwart the schemes of Camazotl.
"Take us to Naphan!" Lorfel demanded of the cowering and rapidly recanting cultist. But then he hesitated - he knew it was worth finding out more, before marching in to deal with the high priest who was the focus of all this, and who was certain not to go down quietly.
The cultist babbled about wax people coming out of the walls and that the original keeper of this place - a beautiful woman, he claimed, but couldn't go into more detail because he didn't have words for what she was, he said. But she had been down in the cell beneath the Sow Creche where the new piglets were raised for like a month without being fed any food or water, and was still down there yelling and cursing and fuming, or weeping, or cooing for the guards to get closer. "I know, it's crazy, but she's there and she's very angry." The captive was generous with information about the missing wizard, too. "Willow left down the tunnel but it moved around her and she left wax people here. And she said Quindarin knew how to open the doors to other realms and that the tablets are the key."
He tells them where Naphan's room is - up the hall around the corner, two doors in the right-hand wall. After a bit of discussion and not unanimous support for the idea, they let him go.
In the hall, Xi Shi pulls down tapestries to reveal the whole 'Dendar Entwined' myth that she recognizes easily from her studies and from childhood stories - specifically this art starts from seizing Danu, biting him, entwining his bones, he turns into a mountain that she bites and breaks her fangs upon, and pieces of the fangs become relics, one embedded here in the altar. The group realizes that it makes sense that light through the staff landing on the relic, an actual piece of actual Dendar's actual fang, could maybe open a portal through which Camazotl can communicate and possibly even come into the world in some physical form. On the one hand, he may be massively powerful, but on the other hand the dude seems to eat an inordinate amount of ham, suggesting this is a living and hungry avatar of some kind rather than a body made of fiendish stuff that needs neither food nor air. Regardless, Xi Shi gets a thought in her head, and thinks the best thing she can do is merge the Dendar relic with her +1 Scimitar somehow, though the way to accomplish this is unclear; It occurs to her they haven't talked much to the smith in the Keep, so maybe she can do it, and from living in the Keep a while and listening in, she knows that an even more experienced Smith works for the Castellen and lives in the upper bailey. And if they find Willow, maybe she can do it, since that seems right up her alley. Either way, the best way to be sure the fang splinter can't be used for nefarious things by some mad cultist is to use it for totally not at all nefarious things herself. She keeps this idea to herself, nevertheless.
On the way to Naphan's chambers they decide to investigate the chapel at the south end of the hall to avoid having unknown adversaries catch them from behind, They find brass yuan ti sacred vessels, with some kind of mild possession curse, blood stained. Xi Shi wants them, but recognizes that irrational desire IS the curse, and thinks that perhaps these items are used to brainwash cult followers since someone clearly is using them who's fine with just leaving them here - like a trap. Mae's deeper investigation reveals more Yuan-Ti engravings behind the tapestries on the wall, but also a pair of wax feet, just from the ankles down. They fiddle with them, speculate a bit, but then move on.
Reaching what they think is Naphan's room, they open the door to discover a few important things. First, the guy lied - these aren't Naphan's quarters, this is the room where the elite warriors train. Second, they find coins floating in midair, Claude tries to go in the room but boinks off a gelatinous cube. Mae gives it a big nope and shuts the door. The party dithers, but doesn't try to hide; the monks come out to investigate, see these intruders and attack -- and they hit hard. All are tattooed in bat motifs, and unarmored, and fast, attacking bare-handed or with a flurry of darts. Luckily they had already been doing a bit of sparring so they were winded, but they still attacked fiercely and seemed to have the upper hand at first, until after the gang landed a few solid blows they began dropping. Once one went, the others weren't far behind - two were killed by combat, one was in the wrong place and was inhaled into the gelatinous cube, and the last one with the fewest injuries back down the hall the way the party had come, presumably out of the entrance. Mae could have caught her on a long enough chase, assuming they were in a flat out run without obstacles, but doing the math in her head it would have taken too long and the two of them would leave the rest of her group far behind. Most likely the bat-cultist-monk would only have ducked into some other cave to make her escape or spring an ambush, and Mae's original 'nope' was still in effect.

This leaves the group vulnerable after taking some damage and using several spell slots up, but on the other hand these were elite fighters and having eliminated them, perhaps the rest of the temple will be a little more easily conquered. A long rest will definitely be in order before taking on any tougher opponents, but a safe place to take one isn't obvious unless they fully leave the temple - which would give the cultists time to recuperate, especially if the monk made it back to report on their tactics and potential weaknesses. In fact, the lack of response itself seems a little suspicious, because surely if the cult were searching for the staff, they could find it now by magical means, and mount a more aggressive attack rather than being passive and waiting for the fights to come to them. Then again, if they keep coming, then the gang will in fact be bringing the staff right to them. But was it Willow, looking for the staff? If so, why did she run off down the tunnel? But then that information came from the captive who had lied and sent them to fight the cult elites. Perhaps he'd made all of it up, and the bits about Willow leaving and the mystery captive in the piglet nursery were also fabrications.
Without more investigation and likely more fighting, there's no way to do anything but speculate. But the party has the advantage of being able to attack any point, at their desired time, while the temple cultists must be forced to defend their entire complex. If there aren't enough cultists to go around, maybe they're concentrating their defense on only the most critical areas. Or perhaps, like the Orcs had been, some attendant curse is affecting these cultists as well.

Rewards Granted

XP

1900

Missions/Quests Completed

• "The Call of Camazotl"
• "He Lied to Us"
• "Camazotl-Fu"

Report Date

26 Jun 2022

Primary Location

The Caves of Chaos

Secondary Location

The Borderland Marches