With a nod back to Bhoors, Shaldinari turns away from the harper and back to the caged victims found by Davin and Bjorn.
"Well...I agree, it is probably safest to leave them where they are for the moment, since we don't know what is afflicting them. I could see if the amulet has an affect, but instead of healing them it could also complete or speed up whatever transformation is already occurring."
Nerissa shakes her head "No...these are not the Ytepka..." she chi strikes him again with an ankle dropper "...they were only pretending to be."
The deathly tabaxi croaks "...pleassssse hurry...the sssame creature that did thisss might have a cure...they brood in the moonlight in a courtyard behind this placssse..."
Bhoors looks relieved, but he turns and hides his reaction. Thank the goddess of blessed luck. They aren't Ytepka. They weren't after the coin.
Davin moves towards the courtyard behind the building to see what he can see of these "serpent" people.
"Hurry, let's see if we can catch whoever did this to those poor people."
Nella ensures that Damissar and Nerissa are secured. Then she returns to her halfling form and moves upstairs to investigate these sick people, lending aid if she can.
After that, she will join her comrades near the north door, prepared for the worst, she hopes.
Bhoors follows Nella to rejoin the others.
With Nerissa and Damissar securely bound, the party advances out the back of the warehouse into a large courtyard. This area is lush with overgrown flora. The land dips slightly into somewhat of a bowl shape. In the center is a circular dais with a gigantic serpent carved into its base...
You find a woman with vaguely snakelike features proceeding over 3 humanoids who seem to have reached the conclusion of the strange affliction plaguing the caged victims: half man, half snake abominations. 2 very large obviously poisonous snakes also slither in the bushes.
Immediately Nella recognizes a patch of poisonous flowers near the door, Olarubu or 'Vile Beauty', ash colored dandelion-like patches that emit poisonous spores when stepped on...there is no way to walk around them.
The group smiles an evil smile of sick twisted pleasure at your arrival, raising their weapons to attack...
Round 1:
Enemy <--UP
All PCs
The woman shouts "Ah, thank you for returning our gift!" and with that, the amulet starts to rattle within Shal's box before it flings forth, flying through the air at incredible speed as if magically summoned. She quickly throws it around her neck and begins to glow with a black light...
The apparent snake-charmer woman looks at you all through the door and whispers something while twiddling her fingers to and fro...
...and the halfbeard crumples to the ground before he can raise his axe, snoring the snores of the damned.
The others take a defensive stance, as if preparing to strike.
Round 1:
Enemy
All PCs <--UP
Bhoors jostles Dwalar awake, "Come on Halfbeard. We've snake people to send to the Abyss." As he helps Dwalar to his feet he grabs him by the shoulders and looks him in the eye, "Your axe crys out for blood. Sate it." Bhoors then turns him toward the fight.
Nella mutters quickly to her companions.
Try not to step on the plants.
She then calls vines to entangle the enemy spellcaster and two of her serpentine minions, one large, one small.
She then moves to the side to allow her comrades access to the courtyard.
Drawing arrows from his quiver, Davin fires at the snake-woman.
Attack:
Damage;
Nella entices the moonlight soaked tendrils to overgrow and snap, twisting and grasping up at the enemies.
Cursing as the artifact flies from her hand, Shaldinari moves closer to the door where she can get a better view. Seeing there is no hope for the victims of the spell casters poison, she ignores them and cuts right to the source of the trouble by sending a blast of energy toward the woman.
Dwalar and Bjorn leap over the poisonous flowers and begin their assault of the gatherers, as Davin's arrows and Shal's mysticism stream overhead, hitting their mark. Dwalar crushes the broodling's scaly skin but it is more resilient than expected while Bjorn misses the mark.
lekhet -9-8
orange -11
The snake woman grasping the amulet scoffs at Dwalar "Don't test death, little mouse, you are within the jaws of the anaconda!" a burst like starfire is emitted from the amulet streaking straight past the dwarf into Davin's earholes, filling his head like the throat of a frog...
The Red snake struggles in the grasping vines...
...bursting free violently and slithering toward Dwalar, almost ready to bite. The wounded and entangled broodling (orange) bites and claws at the halfbeard...
...most ineffective thanks to ghostwise forest magics.
Finally the other 2 broodlings and the giant poisonous snake (yellow) swarm the gladiator aggressively at the bidding of their master...
...a flurry of blood and sinew unfolds that would've killed lesser men. Bjorn yet stands, triumphant.
Round 2:
Enemy
All PCs <--UP
Bhoors casts a spell, "Lucky Lady light up the night."
Bhoors nimbly hops the foliage at the door and circles around the snake man thing (Yellow).
WIS Save:
Shaking off whatever effects the snake-woman's spell might have had on him, Davin aims and fires again at the woman.
Attack:
Damage:
Shaldinari watches to make sure Davin shakes off the woman's spell. Seeing that he does, she tries to send another blast slamming into the charmer only to see it miss and fizzle out with little effect.
Nella surges forward to attack serpentine foes, taking on her lupine form and leaping over the noxious flowers as she lunges, jaws snapping, at the serpent threatening Dwalar.
Bhoor's bardic illumination weaves itself under the scales of the snake woman and one of her broodlings, the other 2 near Bjorn reflexively dodge the encircling light however. Davin shrugs off the amulet's magic and projects another finely crafted arrow into the woman. Shal's magic unfortunately goes wild into the night sky, Titania perhaps has some sympathy for this creature.
Dwalar turns his attention to the giant poisonous snake and cleaves it in half instantly, its 2 parts hopping around in a bloody dance after.
Nella-wolf runs up and tackles the entangled, illuminated broodling to the ground, snapping the snakeman's backbone in multiple places with a *crunch crunch crunch*.
Round 2:
Enemy
Nella, Davin, Shal, Dwalar, Bhoors, Bjorn <--UP
lekhet -9-8-6
1d3 = Dwalar
It ends early if ... your turn ends and you haven’t attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.
Bjorn grasped the snake's neck with his two bare (bear) hands...well, its mostly all neck but the part closest to the maw anyways. He chokes it to within an inch of his life...
...and despite its best attempt the snake can not wrest free. It would seem the tables have turned on the snake and mouse idiom.
The snakey woman tries to break free of Nella's spell, clawing down at the vines and shaking up out of them like a pair of pants...
...she then flees to cover behind the bushes.
Her minions again seem focused on Bjorn...
Round 3:
Enemy
Nella, Davin, Shal, Dwalar, Bhoors, Bjorn <--UP
Growling ominously, Nella allows the vines to blow away in hazy whisps of the magic of her people. She then surges around the statue and lunges at the evil mistress with her great white teeth flashing.
Nella-wolf's paws pitter patter on the grassy courtyard as she tears around the snake dais, leaping at the woman with teeth blared, snarling and drooling like mad.
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Sliding to the other side of the door, Shaldinari takes a quiet breath to calm herself and regain her focus. This time her blast of energy strikes true. But the eldritch power losses some of its potency when the woman tries to free herself from Nella's ferocious jaws.
Davin once agains draws back his bowstring and let's fly an arrow at the snake woman.
Attack:
Damage:
Crit damage
Bhoors uses this moment to stab the grappled snake man with his rapier.
Bhoors grits his teeth making eye contact with the pinned snake man thing.
He notes Bjorn's wounds and offers encouragement suplemented with healing goodness.
Shal and Davin take down the snake woman in a final burst of magic and feathers, she screams "...useless...pointless...*cough*...you will all fall sway to the endless dreams of oblivion! *urk vomit dies*" Her forearm grasping the amulet explodes in blood and a bright purple light, and some wispy form or spirit seems to race into the night sky, to the moon.
Meanwhile Bhoors somehow instantly decapitates one of the broodlings while trying to stab it with his rapier...apparently the death of the snake woman had some odd effect on its physiology.
The remaining broodling (Green) seems to lose his mind before your eyes babbling and slithering incoherently, running in random directions and walking into walls oddly. It would be an easy kill to put the poor sod out of his misery.
Bjorn yet grasps the giant snake .
Bjorn strangles the life out of the snake authoritatively there in the moonlight, until it becomes nothing but limp meat.