Shrine of The Snake

Lorcan had finally done it:  a tranq poison.  He'd made 2 doses now, and thought it was going to come in sooo handy.  But it was pricey to make; now he needed to take more missions to fill his depleted coffers.  He looked around the back tavern, and saw a Wild elf he didn't know, talking to the Rock sagani Peb, whom he did know.

The Wild elf was Petrichor, and she was explaining to Peb how she'd decided she would be more helpful to others as a monk than as a rancher, and that is why she was in Freelancers.  Peb noted Freelancers was most profitable, but they were convinced there was an "exotic dung market," their collection for which was facilitated by being in Freelancers.  They mentioned to Petrichor, by way of drawing him into the conversation, that they and Lorcan made a complementary team.

That seemed a cue and the three of them went to Arnari's office to see what missions there were.  Arnari was at her desk strumming her harp, and looking out the window, her blue-and-gold duster thrown over a corner of the mahogany desk, otherwise cluttered with papers.  A big bearskin rug separated the desk from a couple rows of guest chairs.

As was normal for him, Lorcan took a chair front-and-center, and gave Arnari his polite and steady attention… 

…which unnerved Petrichor, who had also started doing that.  She hesitated, then sat nearby.  Lorcan, glancing at Arnari, offered to move, which flustered her more.  "No, no," she demurred, and Peb sat in front of them both on the big bearskin rug.  They hadn't realized how big and soft it was, and they pet it in surprise.

Arnari sorted through her papers as this scene played out, and pulled out the most-dog-eared ones first.  "So, there's the hippogryph egg mission, 100gp/egg," she started, and looked at Petrichor consideringly.  "Since Peb has Bettula, and Lorcan has Bandit you might be able to steal gryphon eggs."

The half-elf pulled out another dog-eared paper, that Lorcan and Peb recognized as the one describing the parameters for the pollution cleanup along the Pirates River.  But before she could say anything, there was a commotion in the hall, and a knock at the door.

"Sorry to interrupt, uh," Valan said, "Arnari, uh, need you right now."  They could hear, down the hall, Nohea's voice, uncharacteristically placating someone.  Arnari listened a moment, then rose, flinging on her duster and grabbing her harp.  They saw she also was armed with a rapier, as she moved towards the door.

"Why don't we all go see what's going on?" she said, almost conversationally, as she swept out of the room.

Petrichor, Peb, and Lorcan followed her to the double doors of the big meeting room with the green dragon head, peering down at any visitors.  Nohea was talking to a human with brown hair not-quite shoulder length, green eyes, a short well-kept beard.  He was wearing good-quality traveler's clothes, and armed with a daggar and a bow.  His attitude was entirely hostile.

Nohea:  calm down, everything is fine
Arnari:  good sir, please calm down.  How can Freelancers help you?
Human <glared at Arnari>:  I need this dragon head.  It isn't right you are displaying it, and I'm extremely offended.Arnari:  why are you offended?  The Freelancers destroyed this dragon, who was impersonating The Snake and terrorizing the kobolds nearby.
Human:  it's not that I care you murdered Karpalor, but I can't let you display his head like a common trophy.

Now, Peb, Petrichor, and Lorcan had not entered the room, but were instead peering around the corner of the doorway; their relative heights made the comical sight of three Freelancer heads peeking along the doorjamb.  They all noticed that this person seemed abnormally confident in their aggression next to the 7'5" Nohea.  Lorcan shifted, ready for an imminent attack, but Petrichor and Peb had noticed that the human's hair flashed a little green as his head moved in the light.  Peb, uncharacteristically, moved to block Lorcan, who was annoyed because he couldn't see past the big Rock sagani.  He shifted.

Arnari saw none of this, but her eyes narrowed.  The plaque under the green dragon head did not have his name.

Arnari <snapped>:  exactly what should we have done, or do you want us to do, with this taxidermied head.  <recovered>  But, please, allow us to know who we are dealing with.
<The human tilted his head, more like a komodo would than a human.>
Human:  My name is Mazandyth.  <waited, but no reaction from the Freelancers.>  I am owed for your display of Karpalor's head as a trophy.  You will give me the head, and you owe me a favour for this unseemly display.

Nobody had heard of Mazandyth, not even Lorcan.  The Freelancers knew about the red dragon Daelach, the Blazing Terror, in the outer reaches.  Petrichor was confused at this exchange, and Peb looked anew at the green dragon head, freshly uncomfortable with it.

Tomtom came out of his office, saw Petrichor and Lorcan, and stuck his own head in.  The warrior saw the tableau, and joined the group in the meeting room.

Lorcan turned to Petrichor.  "Go open the windows in Tomtom's office."  Petrichor, even more confused, said, "...right," and promptly did so.  "Why?" she asked, and Lorcan nodded at Mazandyth, who had started to speak, and murmured, "Poison gas…"

Mazandyth:  I would like the Freelancers to go restore a shrine to The Snake.  Karpalor was foolish at best and stupid at worst.
Lorcan <stepped into doorway>:  where?
Mazandyth:  a decrepit and rundown shrine to The Snake is at the fork of the Haven River.  Go there, and restore it, and we'll be even.
<Arnari's eyes narrowed with calculation.>
Arnari:  we apologize for the insult of taxidermy; you may have the head back.  We do not have an appropriate cleric, but can restore the physical part.
Lorcan:  how can we trust that it's not trapped?
Mazandyth:  I am interested in restoring a shrine to The Snake.  Sure there are traps.
Peb:  how can, uh a
<Mazandyth looked at Peb, unnerving them.>
Peb:  Ah apologise, Ah'm just curious then.  What sort of restorative are you talkin' about?  My line of work, different people have different notions.
<Lorcan's eyes narrowed, as he thought about Raquelle Mais-quand.>
Mazandyth:  I do not expect Freelancers to provide trappings for the altar.  <started ticking off fingers>  fix the architecture; non-snake creatures destroyed or driven out; want it to be safe for priests to be there without being attacked.
<Peb raised their hand.>
Petrichor:  so, someone else can sanctify it?
Arnari:  it might take a while to organize, but I can send these three initially, and then Evvie, Laki, Aleki.  <to Peb, whose hand was still raised>  m-hm?
Peb:  apologise, you said "just snakes in the temple" and mah Poo-poo always said, "everything got to eat and everything got to shit" and Ah was wonderin' if you needed prey.
Mazandyth <closed eyes whilst recruiting patience>:  just snakes, they can take care of themselves.

Somewhere in there, Lorcan had steepled his fingers again, and started rolling them in thought.  Nohea lifted the green dragon head off the wall, and handed it to Mazandyth, who put it in a bag of holding.  Lorcan's fingers stopped.

Lorcan:  didn't they call him "the Fake Snake"?
Mazandyth <sighed>:  yes, Karpalor was very stupid.  This is my attempt to placate The Snake.  <looked directly at Lorcan>  using you.

At his words, Arnari relaxed.  The Freelancers would negotiate with this person, not fight ‒ she gave Tomtom a hand sign to stand down.  Without another word about it, all the Freelancers also relaxed, and concluded that Mazandyth was Karpalor's parent.

Arnari:  well, we will arrange for that to happen?
Lorcan:  is there a way to contact?
Mazandyth:  don't worry about contacting me.  I'll drop in from time to time.

Arnari bowed formally, impressing Lorcan, who had about concluded nobody in Cliffshadow had formal manners.  "Please, allow us to arrange this," she said graciously, and turned to the door to show Mazandyth out; but Lorcan was still in the doorway.

Lorcan stepped back and to the side with court manners.  Mazandyth grinned, and a wisp of green mist escaped his mouth.  "Looking forward to seeing our progress," he said condescendingly, and Nohea, Valan, and Tomtom escorted him out.

"Send Evvie, Laki, and Aleki up to my office," she told them.

Lorcan, Petrichor, and Peb followed Arnari to her office and sat down, gingerly, in the front row of chairs.  Arnari sat back at her desk, and pushed papers to the side.  She got fresh sheets of paper from a drawer, and a quill, and started writing things down.  As she did, Laki, Evvie, and Aleki filed in, and seated themselves in the back row.

Arnari:  will be pulling funds for this from Freelancers discretionary funds.  WIl explain to Tanglar later.
Aleki:  what was that all about?
<Arnari explained about Mazandyth, the green dragon head, and the shrine to The Snake.>
Arnari:  …don't know, exactly, what sort of shrine this is, wood, etc, that is what these three will find out.  You three will get supplies, and follow a day later.
Petrichor:  how long does it take to get there?
Arnari:  depends on how you get there.

Everyone rose and looked at the map.  "The fork in the Haven River" was a big area to search.  Perhaps, if they were on flying mounts, could get to the general area in a long day?  They'd have to scout around to locate the place, and that left the three with the supplies trundling along.

Laki spoke up, and mentioned he could infuse sending stones, so the two groups could keep in touch.  He created the stones, and handed one to Lorcan.  "Let us know what supplies, and we'll figure out how to get there," he said confidently, "depending on how heavy it is."

Arnari said they could get there at a decent time if they left now.  The Freelancers looked out the window; it was spitting rain.  Petrichor suggested flying most of the way and camping, then the next day it would be easier to search.  Peb and Lorcan agreed, and they took their leave of Arnari.

Considering where they were going, Lorcan dropped another 50 eagles at the quartermaster, for the materials for a potent poison, on his way out.

The rest of the day was nothing noteworthy; Peb was on Bettula, their owl gryphon, with Petrichor riding pillion, and Lorcan was on Bandit, his pony-sized courser pegasus stallion.  They didn't get far before they were all soaked.  Peb had started down a druidic path, and learned shape water; they made use of it to keep the unhappy Bettula somewhat dry.  The Freelancers got to the eastern fork of the river before dark, and Peb easily found good shelter in a copse of trees.

They set watches overnight.

Petrichor took first watch.  The weather wasn't great, which was perhaps why nothing bothered their little camp.  She tapped Peb on the shoulder next.

Peb took second watch.  They were still using shape water to keep Bettula dry, and were engrossed by how detailed the cantrip's effects could be.  Bettula was looking around a lot, and would sometimes start forward, but then settle down.

Lorcan took third watch.  It was extremely uneventful, but overcast and expectant, and after a while, Lorcan got out his kit and made a potent poison.  Just before dawn, lightning splintered down onto the rolling hills to the north, startling everyone awake.  Bandit, feeling challenged, let out a bugle scream, and Lorcan could not calm him down again.  <Narrator voice:  because Shari rolled a nat 1 for Lorcan's watch.>

Everyone was very awake, and looked around, but saw nothing nearby.  Bandit remained agitated.  Peb asked Lorcan, "May I?"  Lorcan, at a loss, just said "Sure."  The big Rock sagani did their best to sooth the little pegasus, but Bandit would not be mollified, so everyone just tried to sleep as they could.

By the time morning arrived the clouds had started to break up, and a brisk wind had replaced the spitting rain.  It was good flying weather, and the Freelancers flew downstream, which led northwest to the fork.  Peb and Lorcan were preoccupied with guiding their mounts, and saw the fork, but Petrichor was diligently looking for any sign of something that could be the shrine.

500' back from the fork, Petrichor noticed a hill with a cave entrance.  She pointed it out to Peb.

Petrichor:  think that could be it?  Seems in the right spot.
Peb:  worth checking out
<Peb peeled off and started descending, waving at Lorcan and pointing.>
Lorcan <cast message>:  beware of traps!
Peb:  it is the message response!  Uh, Petrichor, are you particularly good at trap detectin'?
Petrichor:  haven't particularly come across any; but maybe I dodged.
Peb:  you go around them, Ah'll go through them.  Lorcan can disable them, Ah dunno how or what Lorcan does.

As they approached, they saw a sloping hillside with a cave entrance; grassy slopes dotted with trees.  From above, it looked like it had originally been a colonnade to a courtyard.  Over time, some trees had perished, some new ones grew.

Since that was about what they could determine from the air, the Freelancers landed near the entrance to have a better look around.  The entrance looked like it was nice, once upon a time; now it was in disrepair, and was surrounded by bones.

Big bones.

The Freelancers dismounted and looked at the bones, without getting too close, and concluded a carnivore that preyed on large creatures might live in the cave.  Peb tried to figure out what are the bones, but Lorcan said, "I'll try to talk to a small creature," and pointed at the squirrels running around the trees.  He headed towards the trees.

Peb:  Ah'll wait to go to the cave, Ah'm gonna look for tracks.
Petrichor:  I could sneak up to the bones and have a look, if you'd like
Peb:  no, let's find out what, uh, Lorcan learns first.

Peb and Petrichor both looked for tracks, but not until Petrichor high-fived Peb and exclaimed, "you got this!" casting guidance on Peb for finding them.  The two Freelancers quickly realized they were seeing many weird tracks.  They were treading carefully, not to mess them up, but it looked for all the world like there were potholes in the mud.  After examining a few of them and noticing a pattern, they realized it was very big person tracks.  The tracks had been confusing because of very shitty shoes.  It appeared the feet making the tracks were wrapped, but not the toes and heel.

Lorcan found a squirrel who was disinclined to run away, and spoke to it.

Lorcan:  there's a lot of bones there, what lives in the cave?
Squirrel <flipped its tail>:  big person.  You're a small person.
Lorcan:  a person?
Squirrel:  yes!  Yes!  <flicked its tail again>  mean.
Lorcan <pointed at Peb>:  bigger than that person?
Squirrel:  yes!  Yes!  That's a medium person, a big person lives there.  Big and mean.
Lorcan:  do you know how long this person has lived here?
Squirrel:  many seasons?  My parents warned me about this large mean creature.

Lorcan looked at Peb and Petrichor pointing at the ground, and glancing around for him, then thanked the squirrel and gave it some rations.  The squirrel accepted the rations, but still rudely flicked its tail before it ran off.

Lorcan walked back to the others, and they ascertained the squirrel's information matched what Peb and Petrichor concluded from the footprints.  They considered what to do.

Lorcan:  how fitting would it be, to start our adventure, would be to ambush this interloper and remove it from The Snake's holy place.
Peb:  it would be fitting, but are we sure this is the place?
<They looked around at the courtyard, the colonnade of trees, the entrance.>
Petrichor:  if we're unsure, I could go in and take a look for snake iconography, and if there happens to be a giant, I could probably outrun a giant.

The Freelancers looked at the door again, and made out, just barely, a stylized snake: a pit viper, with its hood out.  Lorcan suggested using the sending stone, to let the others know.

Peb:  then can't use it 'til tomorrow 
Lorcan:  Arnari will follow up
Petrichor:  how confident are you in this read of Arnari
Lorcan:  totally
Petrichor:  they know where we are
Peb:  Ah've no opinion.  But, maybe we should get on our flyin' mounts, and fly "away", because yonder cave is dark, and we're lit up.

Lorcan and Petrichor looked in the opening, which wasn't all that dark to them, and Petrichor described a circular sort of room, rather filthy, with more bones as well and broken stonework on the floor.

Lorcan:  we could combine plans.  Petrichor, run into the cave, we mount.  Petrichor provoke the giant, run out, mount Bettula, we fly away, then can either attack if feeling confident, or also run away.
Peb:  ah uh hm Ah did learn a spell from my Pe-Pe who, uh, showed me how to make use of a length of rope to, uh, good purpose and thus Ah could put a snare.
Petrichor:  that works, I can jump over the rope
<Peb looked at Lorcan.>
Lorcan:  I love it

Peb pulled out a length of rope, and measured it out, and started to move stealthily to the entrance.  Petrichor again high-fived Peb and exclaimed, "you can do this!" casting guidance on Peb for their stealth.  That reminded Peb to cast pass without trace and then they rather quietly moved to the entrance, and cast snare with the rope.

Petrichor, also affected by pass without trace, snuck up to the entrance, jumped over the area with snare, and then went into the cave.  As her eyes adjusted to the change in light, she murmured to herself, "It's just a giant, how bad can it be?" and yet she still did not move, until she told herself "You can do this!" and cast guidance on herself.

As she moved forward, Petrichor saw the bones on the floor close up, and reaffirmed that a carnivorous creature lived within.  The corridor was 10' wide with a tall ceiling, and then she was at the entrance to the circular room and she paused, pressing to the right side of the wall.

An ogre was pressed to the wall in the room left of the doorway, snoring.  A couple snores was all it took to ascertain the ogre had sleep apnea.  Watching it, Petrichor found herself wondering about its sentience, and decided she was not comfortable attacking a sleeping sentient creature.  She looked around the room, and noticed many quarterstaves with sharp ends – probably, it considered these javelins – and a club.  A very big, ogre-sized club.

Petrichor retreated back out to the others and relayed to Lorcan and Peb what she'd seen, and her reluctance to attack it.

Peb suggested, mildly, that they should steal the weapons.  Lorcan was less mild, and was very clear he had no compunction at all about ambushing and killing an ogre.

Petrichor:  it's a sentient creature who has not hurt anything, am not comfortable initiating an attack on it
Lorcan:  it does not respect the laws of civilization
Petrichor:  it's no different with laws
Lorcan:  we did promise to kill it
Petrichor:  it's just preying on forest creatures
<They looked at the bones again.>
Peb:  no it's not; <pointed> deers, horses, cattle.  <paused>  if you're uncomfortable, we can disarm it then, and have a conversation.  <glanced at the snare>  perhaps, upside-down.  So, talk to it from a place of safety.
Lorcan:  best to get the javelins.
Peb:  Ah can get the club.

Peb dismounted, and had Bettula move west of the cave entrance.  Lorcan had Bandit back up; he would be useless trying to pilfer an ogre's weapons.  Then, with their pass without trace still in effect, Peb went with Petrichor back into the cave with the snoring ogre.

Petrichor grabbed the club right next to it, then Peb grabbed the javelins which were to their left.  They got these items out of the cave and Peb mounted Bettula and flew 40' up the hill from the entrance, then dismounted and sank all but two of them into the ground.  The two remaining ones, they strapped to their body.  While Peb was doing this, Petrichor hid the club in the trees to the west.

Petrichor produced a whistle and blew it, shrilling.  Peb flew back and Petrichor mounted behind them on Bettula.  Lorcan tensed, ready to dash away.

The snore startled awake.

An ogress charged out the entrance, ignoring the triggered snare as if it wasn't even there.  Lorcan flew up out of reach on Bandit.

Ogress <in Trade>:  what's all this noise?  Why are all you tasty things up in the air?  I need to hit you and eat you!  <squinted at everything in the air>  Ooh, elf!  I haven't had elf in a while!  I'm gonna eat you!
<The ogress threw a rock at Bettula, which went wide.>
Petrichor <to Lorcan>:  yep, not conflicted any more.  Good thing we hid the weapons.  <to Peb>  I think we both want to be on the ground for this?  I can't survive a fall.
Ogress:  wait, where's my club?  <looked around and picked up another rock>  whatever, come here tasty elf!

The ogress threw another rock at Petrichor, but Petrichor was mostly behind Peb, which threw off her aim and she missed.

• Petrichor didn't have many options, since they were 20' up, so she pulled out a sling and sent one of Peb's mule pellet sling bullets at the ogress.  It shattered harmlessly on her dirty leathers.
• Lorcan flew over to Peb and handed them a potion of fire breath.  "This will make you breathe fire," Lorcan told them.
  • Turning back to the ogress, Lorcan applied his potent poison to 3 blowgun needles.  Then he crit the ogress with a blowgun needle, and she was stung by the needle, and poisoned.
• Peb looked at the potion in their hand, frustrated.  "Uh, Petrichor, Mr, Mrs, this is a potion of fire breathing," they handed the potion to the Wild elf.  "Bettula will drop you off a bit back, uh, so, okay."
  • Bettula flew down and dropped Peb 5' away from the ogress, and flew up back the other side.
  • Petrichor was having none of that and dropped off Bettula about 10' away from Peb.
  • Peb raged, pulling out their shovel and recklessly attacking the ogress.  The strike easily sliced through her dirty leathers.

Lorcan circled behind the ogress on Bandit, ready to shoot her again with the blowgun if she engaged either of his two compatriots.

• The ogress moved to Peb, and Lorcan shot a blowgun needle at her and missed.
  • The ogress tried to smash Peb with her fist, and missed.
  • She shook off the poison, and said to Peb, "You're not as tasty as the elf, but hold still, I eat you anyhow.
• Petrichor quaffed the potion of fire breath, then stepped up to the ogress to smash her over the head with the monk's shepherd's crook.  However Petrichor underestimated the ogress' height, and her swing barely reached to her nose.
• Peb replied to the ogress, "ah-ah-ah very kind of you for your consideration, but Ah'd like to stay at this end of the digestive tract."
  • They again hit the ogress with their shovel, wounding her badly.
  • They called Bettula to attack, and Bettula dove in, piercing the ogress with their beak, then slashing the ogress with a critical hit, and the ogress sank to the ground, dying.
  • "Wanted to eat you too," she said, faintly, "never tried owl gryphon."
• "Noooo! We s'pose to eat you!" Another ogre charged up; he had only one arm, but a large club in hand.  He clobbered Peb with the club, although Peb's rage shook off most of the damage.

Lorcan flew behind the ogre on Bandit and shot him with a poisoned blowgun needle.  The ogre had been focussed on Peb and Lorcan's strike wounded him badly and left him poisoned.

• Petrichor breathed out fire at the ogre, burning him badly, then applied her shepherd's crook to the side of his knee.  The ogre collapsed, unconscious from his injuries before he even hit the ground.

WIth the ogres out and dying, Lorcan landed.

Peb:  want to check the cave?
Lorcan:  what if there are more?
Petrichor:  I have more fire breath; it seems to be potent.

The three went in and looked around.  Behind the cave (room?) where the ogres had been living, a little bit blocked off with debris, was a stairway down.  Petrichor pulled out some chalk, and drew a big arrow down above it.

Then the Freelancers started looking around.  They checked the cave, and sorted through debris and bones.  Petrichor became very distracted when she found an elven skull in the bones, and Peb was looking more for what they considered collectible poo than anything else.  Lorcan, however, found a couple 25-eagle gemstones, a rhodochrosite and a blue quartz; and various gold and silver coins totaling 200 eagles.  The cave also had some hides, but they were terrible and worthless.

Outside, the ogres had nothing of note beyond their weapons, although Peb found ogre poo behind a tree and carefully put it in a mason jar.

The Freelancers went back into the cave, not looking for loot this time, but to assess materials.  The caverns seemed natural, but had been dressed and shored up in part with timber supports.  Sifting through the debris, they found no evidence of mosaics.

The Daystar was westering, so they brought out the sending stone, and sent to Laki.

Got to cave at fork of river, dispatched two ogres.  Need mason tools, stonework, lumber.

* * session break * *

• Petrichor → lvl 3!

Laki and Evvie went with the Scheppen sisters, Zannawocket and Waywocket, to get the needed supplies.  Given that they needed stone facing, timber supports, as well as supporting masonry, they ended up with two largish carts and four mules to haul it all.  They decided, with Aleki, to sleep at Freelancers and leave first thing in the morning.

Kaladan, meanwhile, had been telling everyone how to properly handle the green dragon, since he was a Green dragonborn and moreover felt he knew better than everyone how to do anything properly.  After a day and a half of this, Arnari finally told him that if he was so sure of himself, he could also go help at this shrine.  More loudly, she wondered who else could go and join the other three.  Her voice held a clear subtext of and make sure Kaladan doesn't die, but Kaladan missed that nuance.

The hanyou Manu and Dominic, a human druid, said they could go, so Arnari pulled them into her office, explained what had to be done, explained that Laki, Evvie, and Aleki were travelling there with carts full of supplies, and pointed things out on the map.

Manu:  what to do, join directly, or escort the cart?
Dominic:  will ride Grgnak.
Kaladan:  why walk, when carts are available?

They looked at the map again, and decided to travel directly there.  Manu told Kaladan that he was welcome to ride pillion on Nāhōkū, and uncharacteristically, the Green dragonborn assented without dispute.

After they left Arnari's office, she cast sending at Peb.

They are coming cross-country:  Manu, Dominic, and Kaladan.

Peb responded:

Petrichor will meet up with the caravan, Evvie and them.

Peb, Petrichor, and Lorcan did not have much time to do exploration; they had their hands full with dead ogres.  Peb decided the best thing to do was to start a compost pile with the ogre's corpses, so they hauled the bodies a bit into the trees and got that going.

The ogres didn't smell too great when they were alive.  The next day, Petrichor decided her best contribution would be to join Aleki, Evvie, and Laki to guide them to this site, and took off to go meet up with them.  A day later, Peb started circling on Bettula when Manu, Dominic, and Kaladan were supposed to arrive, while Lorcan stayed and kept an eye out.  They arrived in the mid-afternoon, and by then the ogres were smelling pretty strong.

Lorcan showed them their cave discoveries:  a 10' wide corridor, 15' long, 20' diameter cave room where the ogres had been living, with a partially blocked entrance to the right which apparently led down the hill.

Peb explained the mission as they understood it.  "Find and restore the Shrine of The Snake," and they counted on their fingers for the rest, "don't need to sanctify, he'll take care of it; remove traps; only thing living is snakes."

Lorcan suggested clearing the rubble before sleeping, but the others objected, thinking it would open the way for creatures who were unlikely to be friendly.  Lorcan pointed out that Peb had snare, and he had a blowgun of warning.  However Manu wanted to get some sleep that night.

Instead, Lorcan spent the time using mage hand to clear off the dirt and growth that were obscuring the snake sigils over the entrance to the cavern.  When he saw what the Pastoral gnome was doing, Manu joined him, using prestidigitation to clean things up.

Kaladan started piling up the bones, moving them to the ogre compost pile.  With enough of them, maybe the smell would diminish.  Once he'd relocated the bones that were outside, he moved those from the floor of the caves as well.

Dominic and Peb went to the edge of the clearing and looked around.

Dominic:  I want to speak with animals, to find a creature that used to see the shrine.
Peb:  Lorcan asked a squirrel.

<Narrator voice:  Matt H rolled a nat 1 to find a different creature.>

Dominic cast speak with animals, and ended up talking to the same squirrel Lorcan had.  It flicked its tail at Dominic, so very rudely, and told him, "Ogres have been here since my parents' time.  I'm glad they're dead.  They were rude."

Disappointed, Dominic replied, "glad you learned your manners from an ogre."  The squirrel flicked its tail and ran off.

Peb, inspired by Dominic's idea, tried to find some sort of burrow animal or a small animal bold enough to enter the caves of interest.  <Narrator voice:  Seamus rolled a nat 2, for 6, to find such a creature.>

They ended up finding a gopher, with the same personality as the squirrel.  "Why would I go in there, there's nothing to eat!  Go away."

The Freelancers set watches that night:  Dominic & Kaladan, Manu & Peb, then finally Lorcan.  Nothing of interest happened.

The next morning, it was time to clear the rubble.  Fortunately, Peb had their large shovel, and they started making use of it.  They were basically just moving it aside, and Lorcan mentioned there were sacks if the Freelancers wanted to remove it.  Peb replied, "Ah prefer to keep it near th'entrance, in case of need to be, uh, hastily blocked."

The rubble was partially dirt, rocks, some rubble from the wall dressing, and as Peb shoveled, Manu and Kaladan started separating the wall dressing out.  That wasn't too bad since Kaladan had removed the bones the prior day.  Dominic tried to help with the shoveling, with dubious success, and Lorcan used mage hand to hold up a torch so everyone could see better.

Manu found some sparkly rocks, and Kaladan found many curved rocks with snakes.  These distracted Lorcan, which manifested in the torch wobbling a lot.  Some of the dressing was obviously for the lintel over this door, and was really large.

All in all it took an hour to clear the door enough to even look down the stairs.

Peb, Dominic, and Lorcan peered down the corridor?  stairwell?, with Lorcan's mage hand still holding up the torch.  It looked like a couple runs of stairs, perhaps, before a turn.  Abandoned for quite some time, the support beams had fallen in places.  They didn't fully block the way, but a person would need to duck around.

Peb cast detect magic, but apart from the mage hand, nothing lit up for them that wasn't worn by a Freelancer.

Lorcan suggested he go first, and as he was talking, the torch gutted out.  He shrugged, and started moving forward, alert for danger or traps.  Behind him, Dominic cast darkvision on himself.  The corridor walls were rough, the floor a bit damp.  It needed shoring up.  "Not a place to use shatter," Lorcan murmured, but it was unclear if the others heard him.

Lorcan had only gone 15' before the wall curved, and the stairs flattened out… sort of, into a half-triggered slide trap.  Because of the damp, the downward slope was covered in slimy mud.  Lorcan stopped and waved the others forward.  Everyone came, and Lorcan pointed out the danger, and warned everyone to move cautiously.  The tunnel here had widened to maybe 8', and Lorcan moved up to where it ended.

A pit stretched across the tunnel, which perhaps had once been covered, and was 5' across.  Lorcan peered down in it; there were spikes.  He spotted a lever, which he guessed would have pulled the no longer existing cover.  Lorcan checked the lever to see; it was fouled.  Lorcan made a face; he was stymied how to get across.

Peb ran up to Lorcan and jumped across, a paragon of grace.  Manu, inspired by this, did the same, looking a bit like a ballet dancer with horns, floating over the spiked pit.  <Narrator voice:  both Seamus and Matt B rolled nat 20 on their Dex save.>  Kaladan, witnessing the mastery of beings inferior to him, took a standing jump over the pit, as did Dominic.

That left Lorcan still hesitating as the other Freelancers were watching him from across the pit.  Pressing his lips together, he took a running jump, and slipped on the edge of the pit.  Flailing in the air, he managed to get his feet barely on the edge of the other side, spin almost-gracefully, and finally keep his feet almost in an "I meant to do that" set of moves.

The Freelancers looked around.  The tunnel kept turning, and went down; 12' beyond where they were, a beam had fallen across.  Just beyond the beam, a swinging blade stuck out of the wall.  It looked jammed.  Dominic muttered something about a penitent man.  Peb lit another torch.

Kaladan was peering down into the pit.  Where Lorcan had seen spikes, he saw splinters.  Manu also peered down, looking for snakes.  The hanyou saw no snakes, but something sparkled, and he used his mage hand to scoop up dirt, splinters, and a 25-eagle orange carnelian.  Notably, there were no bones to be seen in the pit.

Manu looked over at Peb.  "You already had a compost pit!"

Lorcan went up to the beam across the tunnel, and started checking for triggering mechanisms for the swinging blade.  He thought maybe it was a pressure plate.

Lorcan:  I can't tell the triggering mechanism.  <made a face>  the floor is too gross
<Dominic walked over and looked.>
Dominic:  same.  Get back, Lorcan.

Lorcan stepped back while Dominic used his quarterstaff to poke at the floor around the beam.  Nothing triggered, and Dominic moved a little forward.  Lorcan eyed the big blade – 20 or 30 years ago, that was good steel, he thought – but didn't see it move.

Dominic's shoulder brushed the beam, and it creaked ominously.  The druid and rogue froze as pebbles fell, one bouncing off Dominic's head.

Dominic:  Lorcan, you wanna take over?
Lorcan:  sure.
Peb:  what if I brave it, with my body?
Dominic:  uh
Lorcan:  what if we try mending?

So none of the Freelancers had mending.  After some more discussion, Peb and Dominic worked together to push the beam back to its original place.  It was probably sturdier in its past but it held okay.

Lorcan:  should we mark it?
Dominic:  no.  need advance warning.

Lorcan again looked for the trap trigger to the big blade.  The Pastoral gnome found moss on the walls, and saw two more such traps further down the tunnel, with obvious pressure plates.  Lorcan pointed them out, and also that to avoid the pressure plates, one must walk a serpentine pattern.

Single file, the Freelancers followed the pattern down the tunnel, and no big rusty blades sprang out of the wall to slice them in the torchlight.  They rounded one final corner, and the way opened up into a really big chamber, perhaps 60' wide.  The group stopped in surprise.

Peb held the torch up high, so they could see.  The cavern was mostly natural, with stalactites hanging from the arched ceiling 20-25' above, many of which were carved to look like snakes were climbing them.  Some of these were natural pillars, reaching the floor.  The walls had carved snake motifs as well, which appeared to move in the torchlight.  Any paint they'd had was mostly faded or gone.  As for furniture, there were broken-down wooden benches, hinting that this cavern had been used for a gathering room.

Kaladan was staring at the ceiling, and the others followed his gaze.  There were many bats amongst the stalactites.  Dominic noticed the creatures weren't all bats; some were stirges.  They all were stirring, disturbed by the Freelancers and their unwelcome torchlight.

Lorcan was the last to notice, and when he did, he called out to the small creatures, "Get out of here!  Shoo!"  The stirges dropped from the ceiling; there were 5 of them.

"What the–" Manu said, then clutched his daggar hilt, and continued "No no, sleep, sleep, shh shh" as he cast sleep on them.  This succeeded in putting all the stirges to sleep, at which time they fell the rest of the way to the cavern floor, and died.  

• The bats were also dropping from the ceiling, grouped into several cooperating swarms.  Kaladan cast eldritch blast at one of these, knocking out many of the participating bats.  The blast looked almost like smoke, barely catching the torchlight.
• Dominic emplaced a floor-to-ceiling moonbeam on a cluster of overlapping bat swarms.  <Narrator voice:  except there are no moons in Skyway.>
• Lorcan also cast sleep, centered on the swarm Kaladan had hit with his blast.  Many bats fell asleep and dropped to the ground aimlessly, most from that swarm.
  • Lorcan then hid behind a nearby pillar.
• The remaining bats in the swarm Kaladan had hit succumbed to the moonbeam.
• One of the other swarms flew to Lorcan, surrounding him and biting.
  • Lorcan:  get off me!
    Bats:  we're hungry!
• The two swarms of bats in the moonbeam flew over to Peb, perhaps because they had the torch; but also perhaps because of the torch, they failed to bite the big Rock sagani successfully.
• The last swarm peeled off and surrounded Manu, biting him.
• Peb tried casting animal friendship on the bats around them, but the bats chittered angrily at them instead.  <Narrator voice:  the GM rolled a nat 20 to save.>
  • Peb equipped their shield.

Manu, who was tired of encounters with bats, cast chill touch on the swarm surrounding him.  As the skeletal hand started afflicting them with necrosis, he exclaimed, "Get off me bats!  Just no!"

• Kaladan, drawn by Manu's exclamation, cast eldritch blast on those bats.  The blast avoided Manu but did slam into the bats with force.  With the addition of the light from moonbeam, the others could see the blast almost looked as if it were poison gas turned into smoke.
• Dominic moved the moonbeam over Peb and the surrounding bats, drawing a surprised and hostile glare from Peb.
  • The druid transformed into a dark translucent form, with the archer constellation glowing in sullen stars.  A shooting star leapt out from him, striking the bat swarm surrounding Lorcan and clearing 4 of the bats.
• Lorcan cast infestation on the bats surrounding him, trying to get them to move off.  The hungry bats just ate the insects.
• The two swarms of bats on Peb were burned with the moonbeam's radiance.
  • Dominic:  you need me to drop the moonbeam?
    Peb:  yes, please.
  • Dominic let the moonbeam go dark, leaving only Peb's torch and his own form lighting the cavern.
  • The bats tried to bite Peb but again failed.
• The bats surrounding Lorcan bit him again.
• The bats surrounding Manu also bit the unhappy hanyou.
• Peb stood there with arms out, trying to befriend them with animal friendship again.  This time it worked on one of the swarms, and they tried to shoo the swarm outside.  They backed off.
  • Peb moved to where the bats had been, looking for guano.  The other swarm tried to bite them but still failed.

Manu had four bats flitting around his horns, and was swatting at them ineffectually.  He cast mind sliver on them, apparently giving them little bat headaches.

• Kaladan, perhaps unable to bear watching Manu's swatting, cast eldritch blast on the bats on Lorcan, killing them.
  • The Green dragonborn moved forward towards a corner of the room, looking for more bats.  He saw stairs wider than long, descending into another big room.  He heard water beyond, but saw nothing coming up.
• Dominic cast thorn whip on the bats flitting around Manu's horns.  As the whip pulled them away, the bats died.
  • The human sent another shooting star on the bats that still weren't Peb's friends, and they succumbed to it, falling to the floor.
  • He moved to look down the stairs.  He saw the big room, with a cluttered floor, water reflections in the distance, some vegetation that did not need light.
• Lorcan called out to the remaining bats.
  • Lorcan:  are you leaving?  You should leave.
    Bats:  don't think it's a good idea to be here anymore.  Will look for a new place to live.
    Lorcan:  what's in the next room?
    Bats:  pool of water, gross plants, the water tries to eat you.
    Lorcan:  thanks
  • Lorcan moved between Dominic and Peb, and saw the same things Dominic did.

The bats fluttered over the Freelancers' heads and into the room down the stairs, then up and away somehow.

Free of the pesky bats, the group looked around.  Dominic and Manu were looking around together, Lorcan was checking the ceiling and the walls, and Peb was still looking for bat guano and stirge poop.

Now they had more time, they realized all the ceiling and walls were carved so it looked like snakes moving in the torchlight.  Lorcan thought the effect was very cool, but did not let these thoughts show to the others.  The carvings were filthy and damaged, and they realized the flagstones were also carved as such.  Flecks of remaining paint indicated they were painted to look like snakes.

The Freelancers gathered at the top of the stairs to peer into the next cavern.  Peb's torch was not all that illuminating of the big area, which was at least 60' wide and stretched further than that.  Beyond the ring of torchlight, there was a glint of water, indicating some sort of daylight was penetrating somehow.

Dominic sent another shooting star to light up the far end of the room.  A giant statue of a snake was at the other end of the room, coiled, with a hood extended.  The shooting star went past it, into a cavern beyond.  This was definitely the main part of the shrine.

Peb:  Ah'm out of spell slots
Manu:  god of surprise hugs!  Just go in there!

The Freelancers all looked at Manu, and without another word, retraced their steps back out to the courtyard.  A man was sitting there; brown hair, green eyes, oiled beard, armed with a daggar and a bow.  Mazandyth.  He stood up.

Mazandyth:  how far have you gotten?
Peb <to Manu, Dominic, and Kaladan>:  this, uh, is uh Mazandyth who we're doin' this favour for.  <introduces these three to Mazandyth, whose haughty indifference wasn't really that different than Kaladans's.>
Manu:  we got to the third room, with the snakes.  <Narrator voice:  sadly, I didn't write the next sentence down.>
Mazandyth:  good god
Manu:  they really know how to stitch a motif.  The pillars, walls, ceiling, floor, covered in them.
Mazandyth:  it is the Shrine to The Snake.
Manu:  they won't let you forget it!
Mazandyth:  …
Lorcan <neutrally>:  that statue is big enough to take you out.
Mazandyth:  what statue
Lorcan:  that big statue of The Snake
Mazandyth:  is appropriate for a shrine, don't you think?

Lorcan's eyes narrowed slightly, and he became very still, as the Pastoral gnome glanced at the nearby forest and realized that Mazandyth wanted to make these caverns his lair, not a shrine.  <Narrator voice:  Shari rolled a nat 1 on insight.>  Dominic, on the other hand, relaxed a bit on this exchange, convinced the green dragon seriously wanted to rededicate the shrine.  The druid thought if the dragon intended to inhabit it, he would not have let Freelancers know the location… and had no doubt Arnari had informed other Freelancers.  <Narrator voice:  Matt H rolled a nat 20 on insight.>

Mazandyth noticed the cleaned-off lintel but said nothing, instead asking about what the Freelancers had found thus far.

Lorcan:  the traps are really broken; are we to restore those?
Manu:  the parts are in really bad repair, you probably need more wyrmgears.
Mazandyth:  any efforts to repair those would be appreciated,  the artificers will help.  It's not a shrine to The Snake without traps.

The conversation continued, until Mazandyth was satisfied and left the Freelancers to set up camp for the evening, surrounded by the smell of rotting ogre.  Thus we learned that Kaladan's idea on how to properly handle a green dragon is to be quiet and not draw attention to one's self.

* * session break * *

• Kaladan → lvl 2!

Aleki, Laki, Evvie, Mia, Murai, Minji, and Tim were making their way west, then southwest, on the road to Haven with two laden carts of construction supplies for this shrine.  The trip was neither eventful nor fun; it was raining and windy, the water coming down at a 45-degree angle.  However with so many Freelancers and two mules each, the carts did not get stuck in the mud, despite their weight.

On the 3rd day out, Petrichor found them, and started leading them up the Haven River.

The Freelancers that were at the shrine took some thought, and decided that tackling whatever was in the main room with the large statue of a snake could be done with more confidence if they had a safe route of retreat.

Lorcan wanted to address the stair-sliding trap.  Manu wanted just to fix the top of it.  In the end they brought some of the more reliable boards from the smashed benches in the bat cave, and put them across the top.

However that meant walking a serpentine path past all those rusted blade traps.  Manu disliked this situation and wanted to wedge them with pitons, so that was the next project, carefully doing so, and then checking the success.  Kaladan supervised this work, explaining to Manu and Lorcan exactly the way to wedge the pitons, and not noticing how poorly received his directions were.

Once they could walk along that tunnel without worrying about getting cut by rusty blades or falling into a pit, Peb started carting out any dung in the bat cave (which did have a lot of bat and stirge guano) and also from where the ogres had set up shop.  They were also keeping an eye out for the back entrance the bats had used to fly out.  Seeing nothing, they flew around on Bettula, and finally found a rock formation which could be a natural chimney.

Peb landed and inspected it; it was indeed a natural chimney, plenty large for bats, too small for large-ish Rock sagani.  After some thought, Peb weighted an end of a rope, and dropped it down the chimney, securing the other end to the top.  Then they rejoined the others.

Dominic kept watch outside.  Dominic didn't see much, although there were sometimes impressions in the grass of the courtyard, of an indeterminate, dragon-sized shape.  Kaladan joined him once the blade traps were disabled.

Late in the day, the other Freelancers arrived with the wagons, under Petrichor's guidance.  They made camp and relaxed for the evening, as far away from Peb's ogre compost pile as they could.

The next morning, on Vrontag, last prime post-Tumultuous, Kaladan, Petrichor started helping Aleki, Evvie, and Laki, while Lorcan, Peb, Manu, and Dominic discussed the situation of the main shrine with Mia, Murai, Minji, and Tim.

The group kept talking as they made their way down the trapped hallway and into the bat cave.  The first thing they discovered was none of the Freelancers present had the light cantrip.  Once they got to the bat cave, Peb pointed out where they'd cleaned and noted they didn't hear or smell anything unusual for a damp underground.

They walked to the entrance of the next cavern and looked in, at the darkness beyond, with little glints of light from water just teasing the eye.  They peered at what they could see, and Lorcan, rather curious to get a closer look, offered to stealth in.

Mia:  no sense of style
Murai:  no glitter anywhere
Mia:  they could have gilded it
Manu:  we found evidence of it!
<Lorcan glared at their impertinence.>
Lorcan:  who has a torch?
Peb:  I have a torch
Mia:  I have several.
Lorcan:  give me a torch

Peb handed Lorcan their lit torch, and the latter carried it aloft with mage hand.  Dominic cast guidance on Lorcan, who stepped down the stairs and into the room, torch high over his head, and as far as the other Freelancers were concerned, vanished into the gloom.  The Pastoral gnome carefully moved forward, checking for traps as he went, and tried to position the torch for maximum lighting for the others to see.  Back on the steps, Mia lit her own torch.

25' in and he didn't see any traps, but a lot of half-rotten vegetation, lots of vines growing.  The light over the water in the far end was clearer, but Lorcan didn't see the end of Peb's rope.  Behind him, the others were looking as well; they saw vines growing through the side walls, which needed repair; random piles of wood which could have once been benches.  The statue of a pit viper was 25' tall, and missing an eye; the extant eye had a green glint.

Lorcan sent a message to Dominic:  "Where do you want the torch?"  Dominic looked closely, and saw moss growing on benches to the side, a clear area on the center, bat droppings everywhere, carved flagstones buckling up,  "Would like a tour of the perimeter," he replied.

The mage hand with the torch went in a big circle around Lorcan, lighting up the sides of the room and the statue.  Nothing else stirred, and Dominic saw nothing else of interest.

Lorcan sent a message to Mia:  "I'm 45' in front of you."  Mia grinned and replied, "Want me to join you?"  Lorcan sent back, "Come on down!"  Mia started forward and Peb grabbed her arm.  "Wait," they said, and cast pass without trace.  "Okay," Peb said.

With pass without trace active, all 7 of the Freelancers moved into the room, like a silent ballet of stealth.  Nothing else moved, nothing else saw them.  When they got to where Lorcan was, Manu rooted around in a beltpouch.  He pulled out a smaller bag, then cast his own mage hand, and noisily spilled hundreds of ball bearings to the right hand side of the room.

Lorcan hissed, "What are you doing?"  Manu replied in his normal voice, "There's light and vines‒"  His voice faded out as he realized the vines had started moving.  He backed up to the foot of the stairs.  Dominic also moved to the stairs.

Mia moved towards the ball bearings, and Tim shifted towards her.  Peb cast longstrider on themself and moved forward, almost stepping on Lorcan, to stand 10' from Mia.  Lorcan, who was still hidden, moved the torch to the base of the snake statue, silently sending a prayer to The Snake.

Murai did not move, but cast enhance ability to give themself Bear's Endurance.  Minji was standing behind them, content to watch what would unfold from Manu's ball bearings.

The vines on both sides of the room next to the Freelancers rose up, forming vaguely humanoid shapes.

Tim immediately cast chromatic orb on the one to the right, which was next to Mia.  The orb flew from his hand and settled on fire before it struck, but the mound of vines was moist, causing much of the fire to fizzle before it burned the plants.  "Well, at least we know fire is ineffective now," Mia observed.

• Peb looked at Mia, and waved their hand as if to say, "you got this?"  Mia rolled her eyes, and Peb moved to the mound on the left, stamping their feet in rage.
  • They pulled out their shit-stirring stick, and struck the mound in the middle of the vines with its prongs.
• Lorcan cast infestation on the mound next to Peb, and little bugs merrily attack the vines, chomping away.  It moved towards the door to get away.
  • Seeing that it was susceptible to poison, Lorcan applied poison to some blowgun needles.
• The mound on the right moved up to Mia and slammed its "arms" down on her, but she adroitly avoided them.
• The mound on the left moved up to Peb and slammed them too.  Peb avoided the first one but was caught by the second. 
• Mia carefully set her torch down, before she lost her temper and raged, drawing her longsword and slashing twice at this pesky mound of vines.  The first swing went wild but the second sliced through.
  • The air shimmered as Mia's ancestors appeared to interfere with this mound.
• Minji cast toll the dead on the mound Mia slashed, to no effect.
• Manu looked over the cavern, as Peb called out angrily, "You gon' apologize?"  Manu looked over at Peb and replied, "I do not have ball bearings that make no noise!"
  • Since he was looking there, Manu cast mind sliver at the mound of vines facing Peb, giving it the plant equivalent of a headache, interfering with its ability to avoid damage.
• Murai joined Mia and crit the mount of vines with their boat hook.  The weapon shone with glitter as it struck and the place where it pierced looked like a glitter bomb as the divine smite took effect.
  • Murai struck a second time, which was far less spectacular, but still pierced the mound.
• Dominic transformed once more into a dark translucent form, with the archer constellation glowing in sullen stars.  A shooting star leapt out from him, lighting the area briefly and striking the mound of vines facing Peb, burning it with radiance.
  • Dominic cast moonbeam on the mound as well.

The vines on the floor came alive!  They writhed and wriggled and all the Freelancers struggled to keep their footing.  They rose into 4 awakened vine plants, and in the process made the floor pretty treacherous.

Tim cast another chromatic orb on the mound in front of Mia.  It settled on sickly yellow-green acid before it struck and splashed and sizzled, spreading chemical burns.  He decided it was unhealthy to be so close to the vine-thing that just stood up, and moved away; to his surprise, a vine lashed out at him, but missed.

• Peb looked at the mound thing, and the vine-thing nearby, and stepped back towards the latter.
  • The mound of vines struck at them and missed.
  • Peb poked at the vine-thing with their shit-stirring stick, and pierced it.
• Lorcan had a vine-thing right next to him, so he disengaged and moved further away than Tim had when Tim was struck, closer to the statue and more to Mia's side of the cavern.  Then he sent a poisoned blowgun dart into the mound of vines attacking Mia.
• The mound near Peb was burned by the moonbeam's radiance, so it moved up to Peb and hit the Rock sagani twice.
  • The other Freelancers watched in shock as it pulled Peb inside its "chest".
• The mound attacking Mia did the same thing to her.
• Mia burst out of the mound, yelling, "Fuck you!!!"
• Minji, concerned about Peb, cast toll the dead on the mound enclosing them.  Some of the vines withered, but the raging druid did not emerge.
• Manu used his sorcerous abilities to twin cast mind whip on both mounds, giving them vine-y headaches, interfering with reactions, and causing a surge of wild magic, turning the hanyou's normally pearly, translucent skin a brilliant blue, so that he somewhat resemble Nebula from a different universe, except with black horns.
• Murai, having enjoyed dealing a crit glitter smite, did it again to the mound of vines, which fell apart into a glittery, viney mess.
  • They turned their attention to the nearby vine-thing and pierced it with their boathook.
• Dominic moved the moonbeam back onto the mound enclosing Peb, then burned the vines with another shooting star.

The vine-thing nearest the snake attacked Lorcan, missing.  The vine-thing Murai had pierced crit the paladin, wrapping them tightly and holding them fast.  Closer to the door, the vine-thing Tim had moved away from tried to hit blue Manu, but missed.  The vine-thing Peb had attacked struck Minji and wrapped the nekomata tightly.

• Minji exclaimed, "These vines are the weirdest kind of hug, but I don't know how I feel about that."

Tim cast toll the dead on the mound enclosing Peb, but it had no effect.

• Peb, inside the mound, attacked recklessly, and crit.  Everyone not otherwise preoccupied saw the triple tines of their shit-sitirring stick poke through briefly.
  • Since Peb was fully enclosed, the moonbeam did not touch them.
  • They called out, "Ah'm fine! Everythin' is Okay!"
• Lorcan cast infestation on the vine-thing with Murai in its grasp, to no effect.
• The mound tried to squeeze Peb within, but to no avail, and was burned with the moonbeam's radiance while it did that.
  • It shambled over to where Minji was held and blue Manu was standing.
• Mia looked over at the paladin.
  • Mia:  you want help Murai?
    Murai:  I'm okay for now
    Mia:  going to mound!
  • Suiting action to words, Mia went to the mound and slashed it twice with her sword, but since Peb was inside, she was taking care, so the second slash missed.
• Minji frowned at the vine-thing still holding her, and cast toll the dead on it.  Necrosis withered some vines as the bonnnngggg rang out.
  • Minji observed, slightly louder than one would expect from an objective study, "It's interesting how the vines shake in response to the sound of the bell."
• Manu – still blue – cast mind sliver on the vine-thing that had attacked him.  Then he moved away from it.
  • Vines lashed out at him, beating the hanyou soundly.
  • Manu said, "Ooof," and cast hellish rebuke, burning the vines.
  • The sorcerer then drank a healing potion.
• Murai attacked the vines restraining them with their boathook.  The first attack missed but the second pireced.
  • The paladin invoked peerless athlete, and started sparkling a little, though not as much as faerie fire.
• Dominic moved sideways, skirting the vine-thing, and moved the moonbeam over the mound with Peb and the vine-thing near blue Manu.  He burned the mound's vines with another shooting star.

The vine-thing in the moonbeam was burned by its radiance, so it moved out and tried to whip Dominic with its vines and failed.  The vine-thing near Lorcan tried again to his the Pastoral gnome but he easily evaded it.  The two vine-things with Freelancers in their grasp squeezed them, hard, and it hurt.

Tim, unhappy at seeing Minji squeezed, sent another chromatic orb at the vine-thing grappling her.  This orb also settled on sickly yellow-green acid before it struck, and the chemical burns killed the vine-thing, freeing Minji.

• Peb reversed their shit-stirring stick and recklessly stabbed the mound downward through what would be its butt if it wasn't a bunch of plants.  This strike was a killing blow and the vines fell away into a mess on the floor as Peb fell through.
  • "Ah AM the Dung!" Peb exclaimed, as the light from the moonbeam lit them up from above.
  • No longer enclosed by the mound of vines, Peb was burned by the moonbeam's radiance.  They moved out of it towards the snake statue.
• Lorcan again cast infestation on the vine-thing with Murai in its grasp, again to no effect.
• Mia strode over to Lorcan and attacked the vine-thing in his space, which kept missing.  Mia slashed it, then whiffed her backstroke.  Perhaps she needs to practice that backwsing.
• Minji cast toll the dead on the vine-thing closest to her, to no effect.
• Manu cast magic missile on the same vine-thing.  The missiles looked like multi-coloured sparkler balls that fizzled out as they hit, but the vine-thing died.
• Murai, unhappy at being squeezed, broke out of the vine-thing's grasp.  The Wind sagani, and the vines that had been holding them, looked bathed in glittery lube, but it faded out.
• Dominic moved towards Peb, and sent a shooting start at the vine-thing near them.  The vine-thing disintegrated, so Dominic moved the moonbeam onto the remaining vine-thing, next to Murai.

The vine-thing was burned by the moonbeam's radiance, and it reached out to smack and grab Murai again, but Murai avoided the vines.

Tim cast toll the dead at the vine-thing.  The dinnnnggg was a counterpoint to Minji's, and the vine-thing withered as the necrosis took it.

The floor, however, remained treacherous.

Mia picked her torch back up.  Lorcan's torch was at the base of the snake statue, so he walked over there – slowly across the treacherous floor.  He looked at the one-eyed statue, then at the moss at its base, and spotted the large green jewel that was obviously the other eye.  He used his mage hand to put the eye back, before Murai could steal it, or Mazandyth could add to his hoard.

The Snake's eyes lit up, their gentle green glow illuminating the 15' around the base of the statue.  The other Freelancers were disconcerted, but Lorcan was happy.

Behind the statue was water.  Peb and Mia edged around the left side of the statue to look at it.  They realized there was some light on it, and also saw the end of Peb's rope from the other day.  On the water were two islands, which used to have bridges.  The closest one had fallen down.  The further side bridge was intact, and there was a smaller snake statue with an altar.  Peb noticed the closer island had a very flat place.

Minji, edging to the right of Lorcan past the statue, was curious about the island with the bridge, and crossed over it lightly.  <Narrator voice:  Wendy rolled a nat 20 Dex for crossing the bridge.>  Seeing her do that, Dominic also came to the water there, but stayed on the edge.  Manu followed, but took the time to pick up his ball bearings first; he kept the pouch in hand, weighing it.  Tim also came up to Dominic.

Murai hadn't missed what Lorcan did, and came to the statue looking for other shinies or items of interest.  They found some coins, and that the base was pretty damaged.  Perhaps a place for incense or candles.  Peb, realizing what the paladin was doing, looked back at them, astounded.  Murai left the coins.

Minji was checking out that island, while Tim, Dominic, and Manu looked around from the other side of the bridge.  Minji found a nice, ornate altar with 2 statues of snakes, and a place of incense or offering.  One statue was a constrictor; the other was a cobra alongside a water moccasin.  The motif was repeated in the carved stone.

From their vantage, Tim and Dominic saw actual snakes in the water, which were actually very large.  They realized the snakes were… 2, 3, or 4 water moccasins, which were not aggressive, but were watching Minji expectantly.

Dominic:  maybe come back over here now.
Minji:  but, I really like this!
Dominic:  do you want more surprise hugs?
Minji <disappointed>:  okayyyy

She again traipsed lightly along the bridge back to where Dominic and the others were.  She pulled out a stylus and started sketching what she'd seen.

Peb, meanwhile, jumped over to the other island, with the flat place.  Lorcan, done staring at the big statue, came over to Mia to see what was going on.  A couple of snakes swam up to the water's edge and looked at Peb expectantly, and the Rock sagani frowned at this behaviour.

Minji finished sketching, then, disdainful of Dominic's advice, traipsed across the bridge again.  The bridge gave out and dumped the nekomata into the water.

Peb realized the snakes were expecting to be fed.  They cast goodberry.  Looking at the two snakes, they ate one, then put two goodberries out.  The two snakes ate them.

Two other snakes swam towards Minji, who was scrambling up the broken bridge awkwardly.  She made it out of the water, then back from the edge.  Then she sat, cleaning herself off, projecting a strong aura of I meant to do that.

Meanwhile, other snakes had come to the island to eat goodberries, and Peb fed them.  They noticed anacondas and poisonous snakes, all eating the goodberries.  Dominic also cast goodberry to feed the snakes, and Peb jumped back to where they'd been standing next to Mia.  Unfortunately, the edge was not as friendly for jumping.  Peb barely got their toes on the edge, and started windmilling to not lose balance.  Mia tried to catch them, but got bonked on the head for her pains, and Peb fell into the water.  <Narrator voice:  Seamus rolled a nat 1 Dex for jumping across> 

Fortunately for Peb, the snakes were interested in the goodberries, and the big Rock sagani scrambled out of the water before drawing much attention.  They looked at Dominic, and pointed at the water, freezing it with shape water.

Dominic:  no step on snake!
Manu:  cannot step on snake!

Peb unfroze the water.

It was about this time Dominic and Manu realized a tunnel led from the cavern and curved around.  The others looked around as well, and Mia and Peb noticed a small passage in the wall near the statue on the other side of the cavern.  The far side of the pool of snakes was up against the wall.

Everyone but Peb, Mia, and Lorcan went along the curving passage.  Vines hung low and they ducked with some trepidation.  They did not go far before arriving at a small, private shrine, with an ornate altar, and niches in the walls with very nice snake statues.  An altar plate held some coins, and the altar also held a silver incense holder, also shaped like a snake.  Manu shook his head.

Lorcan, Mia, and Peb went through the side passage and up a couple sets of stairs.  They emerged in a living area, with a bunch of rotted cots abandoned for decades, privy, couple small rooms, maybe a cooking area.

"This room is boring," declared Mia, while Peb pointed out "There's also a dormitory or sleeping area."

Lorcan went through it all, finding regalia of high ranking priests of The Snake, mostly rotted silk, with tarnished silver and clasps.  He left it alone.

None of these side tunnels appeared infested with traps, having no need to impress visitors to the shrine.  The Freelancers met back up in the caverns and headed up to where the others were working on restoring the room defiled by ogres.  After all, there was restoration work to do.

• Tim → lvl3 necromancer!
• Manu → lvl5!

For the next 6 days, the Freelancers worked to clean out the vines and filth from the complex, using the wood to restore the collapsed timber supports, replace the bridges across the water, and rebuild the splintered benches.  

They worked to fix some of the stonework too, although they were not that skilled with the carving and such.  At least they got the flagstones flat, and some of the undecorated facing repaired.  Minji made more sketches of the various carvings.

Dominic and Peb fed the snakes goodberries.  Minji was sent to Cliffgate twice for supplies, with a bag of holding; once for cots for the dormitory, once for other items suitable for restoring the kitchen area.

The day before Fulcrum, Mazandyth arrived, with several priests and acolytes of The Snake, who thanked the green dragon for his care, and took charge of the shrine from the Freelancers.  By then Minji had copied all her sketches, and turned the copies over to them for their own restoration.  She did not mention they were copies.

At that the Freelancers took their leave and headed to Cliffgate, and from thence, Cliffshadow.

* * fin * *