Session 39: Tork & Vikrit: Snake in the Grass

''Because of what went down at the Gala and the fact that the party is now operating under the protection of the Dark Lanterns (the Brelish secret service), the Reef has been temporarily shut down and everyone has been asked to get of Sharn for a few weeks until they can calm things down in the city. Tork decides to follow up on the letter he got from Fola Rin and tracks down Ulfur d'Tharashk, the half-orc who had written a book about the town of Dhevin's Port. When Tork found him, Ulfur didn't recognize the name of his childhood village and couldn't tell him more about it, but described enough of the locales around Dhevin's Port that Tork was sure they were talking about the right place. Disappointed, Tork was about to leave when Ulfur mentioned that he did hear about a woman who lived in an abandoned monastery used by a sect of the Gatekeepers. While the name of the temple didn't mean anything to Tork, the name of the woman did: Esther. Tork suddenly remembered a human woman with the same name, about 5 or 6 years older than him, who took part in the rituals with your parents and the other villagers. Tork never spoke to her much as a child, but he remembered her appearance and felt that this might be his only chance to find out more about his family. Unfortunately, Ulfur could not give Tork any better directions than vague descriptions of landmarks and natural features. Knowing he would need an expert tracker to navigate the Shadow Marches, Tork asked Vikrit to accompany him on the journey as they both needed to get out of town anyway. Vikrit agreed, and the two of them set off for Dhevin's Port. ''

''Because of what went down at the Gala and the fact that the party is now operating under the protection of the Dark Lanterns (the Brelish secret service), the Reef has been temporarily shut down and everyone has been asked to get of Sharn for a few weeks until they can calm things down in the city. After ensuring that Jusk had a place to go and reluctantly giving him some coin, Vikrit realized that he didn't really have somewhere else to go. Vikrit had burned his bridges with most everyone he knew back in Aundair, and returning to Q'barra without finishing his walkabout was out of the question. As Vikrit was packing his bags in preparation for spending the next month or so hiding out in the woods, he ran into an excited Tork clutching a piece of parchment in his hand. Tork had tracked down Ulfur d'Tharashk and learned something very interesting about his childhood village. Tork explained that Ulfur described a woman living out in an abandoned monastery named Esther - a woman that Tork recognized from childhood. This was the first clue Tork had found about his family's past and he was desperate to follow up on it; however, Ulfur could only give him a vague description of the location of the monastery. Knowing he would need an expert tracker to navigate the Shadow Marches, Tork asked Vikrit to accompany him on the journey as they both needed to get out of town anyway. Vikrit readily agreed, and the two of them set off for Dhevin's Port. ''


 * Tork has spoken with someone in House Tharashk who gave him directions to find the village he grew up in. Since he'll be going out into the boonies, he decides to take Vikrit with him to navigate.
 * We take a boat to Dhavin's Post and arrive in the evening.
 * Tork & Vikrit go to the general store to get supplies: dried meat, waterproof clothing, etc. The shopkeeper is a half-orc named Nigella.
 * Tork asks for a map of the area, and she says they don't have one… Vikrit asks if there is any area to avoid. She mentions "Jenny of the Woods", some kind of monster guarding the Dismal Swamp who all the villagers are afraid of. Vikrit asks what she is, she says she thinks it's some kind of spirit/faerie thing.
 * She mentions "a group of loonies" she heard about when she was a kid living in the swamp, mostly humans. This might be Tork's village?
 * Vikrit asks if anyone else would know about them. She says maybe Anslem would; he works for House Tharashk. She says he's an old elf who is an asshole. She gives us some kind of weed and tells us to grind it into a powder between white stones for a poison remedy; probably folk medicine.
 * Tork is fixated on asking for wooden shoes because he thinks that's what galoshes are and he heard Vikrit ask if they had them.
 * She seems concerned that she'll get in trouble if we don't come back because she sold us supplies.
 * Vikrit asks re: healing potions, she brings out what looks like a 2-liter bottle full of liquid and waffles, saying it's worth about 10 gp. Vikrit trades his drow knife and some gold for it. Cost of all stuff = 5 gp.
 * She says to say hi to Anslem from Nigella.
 * We head to the House Tharashk warehouse; Anslem is in the back.
 * It smells very sulfurous in here. There's a big pit looking almost like a boat hull built into the ground with a LOT of dragonshards in it. Vikrit is pissed despite knowing he should expect this and tells Tork to do the talking. Tork knows Vikrit thinks taking dragonshards out of the ground is bad, but that's it.
 * We go upstairs to Anslem's office; he is an old, short elf who thinks we're warehouse workers (to be fair, one of us used to be). Tork says we're friends of Nigella, and he responds that he can't stand her. Tork asks about the "loonies in the swamp"; he's not sure if we mean orc tribes. Then he remembers there was a human-looking man who would come to get food supplies and paid with old pre-war coins (Galifarian) about 40 years ago.
 * Tork asks about Jenny of the Woods - whatever it is wasn't there 100 years ago. 5 years ago a few boys disappeared in the swamp, then a couple people on patrol, then someone found the corpses cut up and displayed.
 * He mentions there are feral lizardfolk tribes in the swamps that throw rocks at the dragonshard miners. Vikrit is confused because he's never heard of lizardfolk--let alone full tribes--out here. He says there's a tribe to the northeast; the house has sent mercenaries to "deal with them" before. It almost makes Vikrit homesick.
 * He grabs Tork's face and says he looks familiar, sort of like the human who came to town.
 * Vikrit asks about Gatekeepers, he thinks it's another old story (was more commonly spoken about when the human used to come to town). He hasn't heard much about them recently.
 * We go to leave; he goes back to his desk where there are a ton of hourglasses lined up and says he's going to deduct our pay for the time we spent; Tork is sad until Vikrit reminds him they don't work for him.
 * As they leave, Tork asks Vikrit if they should rescue the dragonshards here or attack them. Vikrit tells him that while he would like to, House Tharashk is extremely adept at tracking things and people down and it would be a bad idea.
 * Tork discusses his plan to use dragonshards as a beacon to get House Tharashk to rescue them while they are in the swamp.
 * We head to the inn and get some food ("rabbit" with a soup to dip it in) and sit at a table to talk.
 * The ruined temple was at least 4-5 days away, up a mountain path. It's marshy, probably lots of wild animals and jungle creatures.
 * Tork takes out his spellbook and starts doodling.
 * Vikrit notices the dwarven woman sitting (Briony) nearby listening. She looks like a House Tharashk tracker. He asks her if she's been in the swamps and to come sit. She says she overheard us talking about lizardfolk.
 * She says that lizardfolk have been harassing men at the mines. She last saw them about a month ago near "Mother and Child Rock" and attacks have decreased recently. Vikrit gets extremely angry when she describes the area lizardfolk as stupid savages and has to go outside. She and Tork talk about the possibility of us killing the lizardfolk for her, he says probably not but she'd pay for us to
 * Vikrit explains his take on the dragonshards and what House Tharashk is doing to Tork, and says he's not in the mood to chat with someone complicit in the genocide of his people.
 * We go to bed.
 * We set off the next morning.
 * We spend the first day traveling with little event, seeing plenty of animals with nothing weird. We swap off watch with Invisible Servant, Venga, Tork, and Vikrit.
 * The next day, it's raining hard. Towards the end of the day, Vikrit notices what looks like they could be Mother and Child Rock. We head over, and Vikrit finds lizardfolk tracks to the east - where we needed to go to find Tork's village.
 * We head over to the mine to rest for the night. Vikrit notices some kind of big (but medium) cat in the woods for a second during a lightning flash. We find a workers' bunk and hide in there overnight.
 * When we wake up, the rain has mostly stopped. Vikrit can't really find any tracks; following the directions, we arrive at a spot with a lake in the bamboo forest.
 * We start heading around the lake when Vikrit hears some rustling from 2 places south of them. Vikrit starts sneaking around and rolls a 1; his foot slips and he falls face-first into the bog. Suddenly a huge Blackscale lizardfolk Blackscale lizardfolk.jpg emerges out of the water right in front of Vikrit - there are a lot more medium lizardfolk hiding around the lake.
 * An arrow whistles past Vikrit but Tork gets hit by another. A bunch of the lizardfolk rush toward us. The Blackscale tries to hit Vikrit with the club twice and Vikrit rolls out of the way just in time.
 * Vikrit screams in Draconic to stop and that we're not here to hurt them. Tork acts like he's surrendering, but they don't stop charging. Tork casts Mage Armor and moves his floatyhand next to Vikrit. Vikrit jumps onto the hand but Tork rolls a 1 on his concentration check and the hand disappears, lifting him several feet before flickering and dropping him, and he once again lands face-first in the mud.
 * This time the Blackscale slams Vikrit with his club for 26 points of damage. Tork edges toward Vikrit as the other lizardfolk point him that direction with their spears. The Blackscale lifts Vikrit up by the tail and tells him to surrender in Draconic; he does. He throws Vikrit onto the shore.
 * Vikrit notices a poison dusk lizardfolk with a nice scimitar and some strange shiny armor emerging; he also sees what looks like the same big cat across the lake for a moment. Tork is preoccupied.
 * The poison dusk lizardfolk approaches us and says Vikrit's not from here; Vikrit he's from Q'barra and heard what House Tharashk is doing to them. He says sit's not House Tharashk who they're hunting, Vikrit asks who and if we can help. He says the they are hunting (and being hunted by) something similar to them. They follow the old ways but they are "false" and lost their legs - snake people. He says they are bearing witness to a false prophet, but holds back on telling Vikrit more. He tells us to go, and we leave.
 * Vikrit drinks 1/4 of the healing potion (it's actually a pretty good healing potion!) and manages to find the big cat's tracks with a 30 on his Survival check. It looks like it bolted from where we were, possibly when the lizardfolk emerged. We track it to a bridge that has lanterns--signs of civilization. Vikrit thinks we're actually close to where the ruin is.
 * We notice a stone statue across the bridge, and Vikrit sees the panther for a second again before it disappears. We get swarmed by gnats briefly.
 * Tork casts Detect Magic. No magic on the bridge, faint aura of divination magic on the statue. We start crossing the bridge. The statue is of a bald man wearing robes - it's an altar. Tork suddenly remembers seeing this statue before, and that it's called Godara.
 * Tork examines the statue; there are a couple raw gems scattered around the alter. He gets a flashback: this statue is asked for guidance. People would sacrifice to Godara if they'd lost something. He's not sure if it's a god. He puts a lapis lazuli gem onto the statue thinking about finding his village; as he takes his hand away, purple flame engulfs it and it disappears. Then Tork suddenly knows the way is south.
 * Vikrit sees something out of the corner of his eye behind them but doesn't know what it is. He starts climbing up past the statue, when a tree suddenly comes to life near Tork and starts slowly moving towards him. Vikrit hears a roar and suddenly there's a gigantic bear on the other side of the bridge. It doesn't look like a normal bear.
 * Tork starts moving toward Vikrit but the treant catches him with its vines. Vikrit shoots it but it doesn't do much, and it grabs him too, such that they're both hanging upside down. The bear starts crossing the bridge but it's too big to cross, and then it turns into a human woman. Tork recognizes her: it's Esther. Esther.jpg
 * She walks up, touches the treant, and it drops us. She recognizes Tork and says she can't believe he's here--hasn't seen him since "it all ended".
 * We follow her to Esther's cabin deep in the woods. She asks us to sit at the table.
 * She asks Tork, "it brought you here, didn't it? I couldn't stay away either." She says something called to her to come here; spent the last 20 years trying to figure out where they came from--her memory has also been tampered with. She says Godara was an ancient Gatekeeper; Vikrit asks if she's one, she says she is a druid and follows some of their ways.
 * She says she's been here for about 5 years, trying to figure it out. She asks if Tork has heard about "a second temple". She says there were offshoots of Gatekeepers that became isolated after the Age of Demons ended, and they erected a temple here. Over time they built up their own customs and traditions; she thinks they were trying to make sense of what their parents had done. Tork and Esther's parents were in the remnants of a Gatekeeper cult. She says they call themselves that but likely don't have much in common with Gatekeepers.
 * She says there were other kids in the village who were used as sacrifices. Tork remembers seeing the body of a childhood friend splayed open. The sacrifices took place in "the second temple", not in the village. She thinks their families were under some kind of enchantment.
 * She says she found the second temple and recently it's been occupied by "new acolytes" that are snake-people. She takes out an incisor of a poison dusk lizardfolk and says they've "found another kind of sacrifice". These are who the lizardfolk were referring to.
 * She says the Yuan-ti displayed the bodies of the missing villagers to scare her off, and it also worked on House Tharashk. She says she's been referred to as Jenny.
 * She calls the panther (Bagheera) and it comes over; Vikrit greets it and Tork gives it some salmon jerky. It approves.
 * Tork tells her what he's been up to. We tell her about The Stargazers and Tork asks about "a fish god" - she says Mavadtorop sounds like an aboleth ("they remember everything") and they usually live very deep in the ocean where they have some kind of city. It would be weird, although technically possible, for an aboleth to live in a cave. She says maybe he was a kopru - an eel-like sea monster good with illusion magic.
 * She asks for Tork's help clearing out the temple and seeing what's there; we agree to help.
 * We head out; we request that she let us rest even though she wants to continue, and then we head out early.
 * We make it to a clearing where three stone heads protrude from a cliff face. Tork remembers pain here -- she says they would make the kids fight each other here, and some died. They were all afraid of Tork because he could use magic, and he was told to use it on other children.
 * As the 2 of them talk, Vikrit notices a large head poking out of the greenery above - a gigantic snake. Vikrit edges over and elbows Esther so she and Tork notice it. Vikrit dives into a bush and lands at the feet--or rather, lack thereof--of a yuan-ti holding a scimitar looking down at him, hissing. There are two others close behind.
 * Esther takes out a huge machete and walks toward the Yuan-ti. Bagheera gently headbutts Vikrit and gives him Bear's Endurance. Vikrit get hit by 2 arrows and the scimitar guy misses. Tork zaps 2 of the yuan-ti, hitting one badly and frying the other. Esther engages one of the remaining ones and Bagheera tackles the other. Vikrit shoots dead the one Esther is attacking and sees a glimpse of her rage. Tork magic missile fists the last Yuan-ti. Esther beheads it, and the big snake retreats.
 * Vikrit points out the snake stayed there during the fight, so it probably wasn't a normal animal. Esther heals Vikrit. Tork suggests that we should call snake-people "sneeple".
 * Esther says the temple is about an hour away. It was odd that there were yuan-ti all the way out here. We head up toward the Second Temple.
 * When we approach, Esther stops us and she points out that at the top right tower is a yuan-ti archer. She's seen about 12 total here while scouting. Vikrit listens at the door and determines the unlocked door has 2 yuan-ti speaking in a language he doesn't understand behind it, and the other door is locked. We set up to ambush the Yuan-ti, with Tork using his mage hand to knock.
 * Nothing happens, then Tork tries again and the doors swing open, one of the yuan-ti hiding by the side of the door. It doesn't come out so he sends the hand past it to knock at the other, locked door. The yuan-ti leans out and Bagheera tackles it; the other one goes back and starts ringing the alarm bell. Esther beheads the yuan-ti and we rush inside. Tork acid arrows the yuan-ti up on the tower, but doesn't know the impact of the hit.
 * Tork sends his mage hand to fuck with the apples on the tree the yuan-ti is hiding behind. Bagheera runs out and chases him; Tork manages to get an apple to fall on his head just as he passes. Bagheera gets hit with an arrow and Esther yelps in pain. There are archers above us. Vikrit dashes around the corner into cover and shoots the yuan-ti being chased by Bagheera, who finishes it off. Esther tries to shoot at one of the archers on the ledge and misses; Tork magic missiles him to death.
 * Vikrit dashes across the courtyard behind a shack, seeing the other archer up on the wall, and points him out to Tork, who it turns out successfully acid arrowed him before. Tork finishes him off with magic missiles and we regroup.
 * Vikrit checks the opposite side of the courtyard where there are some buildings full of hay and rotten supplies.
 * We go to a building to the left. Tork opens the door with his mage hand and scimitars come whirling out, hitting nothing; there are 2 yuan-ti in the room. Vikrit shoots the first one out and Bagheera and Esther take it down. The other one tries to move back but Tork Scorching Rays it.
 * Inside, we find a hallway with lots of doors coming off it. There are a couple gold statues in here.
 * Vikrit smells something floral, like living plants, down the hall; he goes up the other way where there is a tower and looks over the courtyard--can't go that way.
 * Tork gathers up some rotten apples and has a plan to throw them down the hall to make it seem like someone's walking down the hall; Vikrit points out that Ghost Sound might be more realistic-sounding. Nothing happens, so we check all the rooms; this seems like a dormitory, lots of bedrooms.
 * We also find an atrium with a new statue: a man casting a spell in one hand with the other raised in a "stop" motion.
 * We go down the hall and Vikrit opens the door. There's a big alter with tons of bouquets of flowers… and what looks like a wingless couatl there. Its voice speaks in our heads and ; we all feel compelled to go in. Totally real couatl.jpg
 * We all roll will saves… and Vikrit rolls a 1. It says its yuan-ti followers' sacrifice was not in vain--"you've brought me the chosen one". Vikrit starts to glow, and he's bewildered and overwhelmed; couatl are holy figures like angels in his religion. Vikrit says, "But I thought you all died," referring to the couatls' self-sacrifice to end the Age of Demons over 100,000 years ago. It tells him that some of them survived. Tork casts detect magic and gets a ton of illusion magic before a flash of darkness. Tork, Esther, and Vikrit pass out.
 * The next few days pass in a blur for Tork; he doesn't feel in control of his own body, he and Esther follow the orders of Yuan-ti to do menial tasks. When he comes to, they are cleaning the area the yuan-ti use as a bathroom. Vikrit is nowhere to be seen.
 * Tork pulls Esther aside and tells her the thing they saw probably wasn't a real couatl. She thinks for a bit--"What if that was a demon? What if it wasn't our families' fault?" They decide they need to get rid of it. Esther grabs a pitchfork and they sneak out.
 * She says she thinks maybe she let Bagheera out in a haze--doesn't understand why she would do something like that.
 * They decide to take out the yuan-ti they can find. They find Bagheera; he looks emaciated and sick.
 * Esther and Tork make their way back to the keep, clearing it out… it appears to be empty--no Vikrit.
 * They eventually find a small door they haven't been through, a small corridor that leads to a spiral staircase. Tork casts Greater Mage Hand and Mage Armor and they head up.
 * They find an elevated courtyard overlooking the rest of the area. There's another statue here; Tork finds some gem offerings next to it. Tork puts a pearl on the alter and pictures finding Vikrit. He feels like his body is being pulled straight down into the earth. He needs to go downward.
 * Tork walks over to where the waterfall is. He notices along the ground where the waterfall ends, there are slithery tracks at the base. Tork and Esther head all the way down and find a cave entrance behind the waterfall.
 * The two of them go in - it looks like a small crypt. There's one open with a skeleton; they look humanoid but not human or elves; there are tail bones. Tork rolls a 1 and thinks they're the bodies of Yuan-ti (despite the legs). They search around.
 * Meanwhile, Vikrit gains awareness that he is sitting in some kind of circle on the ground in the room. Across from him, there's a poison dusk lizardfolk wearing special armor… the one they saw before. He's had the life drained out of him and he seems to be in a coma. Vikrit hazily remembers that he has sat on the circle, not moving for days, while the couatl used some kind of magic on him, experimenting on multiple poison dusk lizardfolk--some alive, some already dead--and transferring their life energy to him via some kind of arcane device that they were strapped into. Vikrit realizes that he feels an unfamiliar kind of energy crackling through him. He finds another rack where lizardfolk had been tortured. Vikrit looks for the biggest knife he can among the torture implements and returns, slumping next to the inert lizardfolk.
 * He hears clicking and whirring coming from down the hallway and hides in the room, clutching his knife.
 * Ester and Tork make their way through the secret passageway. They bust into the room Vikrit is in, ready to fight, and recognize each other.
 * They ask Vikrit what happened, he tells them as much as he remembers. Tork releases the other lizardfolk from the device holding him and he slips down, no longer fitting his armor; he's incredibly emaciated.
 * The "couatl" comes into the room and Tork immediately lightning bolts it. Its body turns black and its image fades… a dark naga is left in its place, looking scorched. Dark Naga.png
 * Tork makes a will save by 1 from adding an action die. Out of nowhere, Vikrit casts a 4th level spell and blasts the naga. The naga casts a spell on itself. The two of them keep attacking it, and it bites and nearly poisons Tork. Tork hammers it with magic; Vikrit manages to bite it once with Greater Magic Fanged teeth, but gets sickened immediately with the naga's next attack.
 * Tork finishes the naga off with one last flurry of magic missiles, and its golden circlet clatters to the ground. Tork picks it up; it has dragonshards embedded in it.
 * In the room around the corner, Vikrit finds a pile of gold and items with our stolen equipment in the other room; some of it is very old and could be relics from ancient Gatekeepers.
 * We head out to the courtyard, and Vikrit asks Tork to carry the other lizardfolk's body so they can return it to the tribe. Esther & Tork talk about the lack of closure, not wanting to believe it was their families' fault. It's unclear how involved the naga was with their families, or how long it was here.
 * Esther asks Tork to stay safe; Vikrit promises her that he will protect him.
 * She gives Tork a red garnet and says if we're within a couple hundred miles of her, it should start glowing if we need to find her again.
 * She says goodbye and turns into a bird and flies away, Bagheera following.
 * The two of us track our way back to the lizardfolk encampment.
 * Vikrit leaves the body of the poison dusk at the feet of one of the lizardfolk who approaches them with a spear and says that the false prophet is dead, and Tork offers a yuan-ti head as proof. He thanks Vikrit for bringing back the body and says, "You did well, little one."
 * They go back to Dhavin's Post and convince Briony (the dwarf from House Tharashk) that it was the Yuan-ti attacking people and they should leave the lizardfolk alone.
 * We head to the docks and wait for our boat out of town.
 * Sitting on the dock, Vikrit is morose and tells Tork that whatever the naga did to him involved killing and torturing lizardfolk. He says that he feels different; Tork realizes he saw Vikrit cast more magic than ever.
 * Tork: "I can teach you about how to write spells down..." Vikrit: "You know what? I think I'll take you up on that."