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There are hundreds, possibly thousands of noble serpentfolk active on or beneath the surface of Golarion. (PF37 p. 66) Vyr-Azul is the high priest of their god, commanding the respect and authority to mobilize thousands of degenerate serpentfolk to do his bidding. What are the other purecast serpentfolk up to?
Yarzoth seemed to be acting independently of Vyr-Azul, trying to track down the location of Saventh-Yhi on her own initiative. (PF37 p. 7) In a way, the fact that the PCs get involved at all is her fault, since Vyr-Azul was completely on top of finding Ydersius' skull without her involvement.
Any purecast serpentfolk in Ilmurea "serve as Vyr-Azul's lieutenants and enjoy high positions of prestige and power". (PF41 p. 37) Aside from those awakened from suspended animation, this consists of Sskhavo (who is disgraced and trying to redeem himself in Vyr-Azul's eyes) (PF41 p. 48) and Khavith (who has sequestered herself in her lab and tries never to interact with other serpentfolk) (PF41 p. 50). So there are three contemporary purecast serpentfolk in Ilmurea, total.
There had been lots more, though; Vyr-Azul just got rid of them all. Vyr-Azul sent three up to the Overburn to find Juliver. (PF40 p. 36) When they weren't immediately successful, he sent a group of four, a group of eight, and a group of twelve purecast serpentfolk up to Saventh-Yhi, with no way to return. (PF40 p. 79)
Prior to this, he had convinced four purecast serpentfolk to ritually commit suicide and become the coils of Ydersius. (PF42 p. 26)
So including Vyr-Azul, there were thirty-four purecast serpentfolk behind this plot (only three of whom are named). When I started reading the AP I'd somehow gotten the impression that a majority of the noble serpentfolk were in favour of the return of Ydersius. Have I missed something, or are most of the purecast completely uninvolved?
A side effect of this is that once the players finish chapter four then their characters have encountered almost all of the purecast serpentfolk they're ever going to meet. This feels wrong, somehow.
Eh just do what i'm gonna do. Fill in the blanks yourself.
In my take on the AP, the 'coils of Ydersius' are a secret organization that have purecaste infiltrators acting independantly to look into various leads. Yarzoth was merely the first, and I've hinted to the group through events that she was not alone. In the articles and Ap's I've read there does seem to be a lack of a overall coordination in the Serpentfolk, but in that makes them more interesting as villains in my eyes. I've tried to give each of these purecaste infiltrators their own agendas, based on the incomplete information they possess.
But in answer to your question of 'where are the Serpentfolk'? The largest population of the Serpentfolk are present in Sverenagati, in the Sekamina level of the darklands. The rest are hinted to be in a state of hibernation in hidden 'vaults' in abandoned cities. Theres a sizable population of the aapoph in Saventh-Yhi who know nothing of their own history, and the Ghast Slazolor is awakened as a contigency plan and he thinks Ilmurea was destroyed. There could be other populations of degenerate serpentfolk out there in the expanse or wandering the darklands that could give rise to the occasional purecaste. These more intelligent Serpentfolk often end up at cross purposes, coming from different backgrounds and having accesss to different information. I've interpreted both Yarzoth and Issilar as exiles looking to find their way to Saventh-Yhi. Yazoth from studying the ruins at Serpentgate in Varisia and the temple of Zura, believes that the head of Ydersius is in Saventh-Yhi. While as Issilar was cast out from leading the aapoth in Saventh-Yhi and is merely trying to find his way back with an army to retake his little kingdom.
I've kinda been using the general figure of around 5% of the active Serpentfolk being Purecaste, the rest being aapoph/degenerate caste. Vyr-Azul and his followers represents to me the strongest group in that they retake Ilmurea. I think he sents a few serpentfolk to their doom in order to get rid of some dissenters, or else things just aren't going well for him due to the adventurers. My party knows nothing of Ilmura yet, but I have been foreshadowing that there is at least one other Serpentfolk infiltrator within the Pathfinder Society who had posed as the scribe who translated Yarzoths notes. This Serpentfolk, who I've been calling 'S', is one of Vyr-Azuls faithful who followed Eando Kline back from his own trip to the serpentfolk city below Varisia (implied to be Sverengati). This particular infiltrator has been worming his way into Sargavan society with multiple identities and skins that he kept in pickle jars (component for disguise self). Waiting for a sign of his gods reawakening.
I know that in the last chapter the four 'Coils' get active infiltrating the factions. I have interpretated them as acting in multiple cells worldwide. Gathering information and waiting for the time when their god returns. This has made my group veeeeery paranoid as any npc in the campaign could conceivable be one, or even one of the party themselves as a 'sleeper agent'.
I know that there are lots of serpentfolk in Sverenagati, but there's only one purecast born there every few generations. (Into the Darklands, p. 42)
I guess I hadn't been considering the Saventh-Yhi purecast to be part of the "under a thousand" who are active, but that was just me assuming that this number was a reference to those who knew each other. Issilar is a good example of this; he's certainly never heard of Vyr-Azul. Upon reflection though, I think that you're right and these isolated groups count toward the total.
I've been using the 5% purecast too, which is what has led me to be so puzzled. It seems like there are a lot more degenerates defending Ilmurea against the attacking army in chapter six than 95%, particularly once you add in the degenerates from the Fortress of Thousand Fangs and the temple of Ydersius. Maybe I'm wrong, though; that's still six hundred and forty-six, and we might not have exceeded that.
I absolutely plan to fill in the blanks myself. :) I just want to make sure that I haven't missed anything before I start doing that.
Thanks for the response! I like your idea about worldwide cells and sleeper agents. I'd enjoy hearing more about 'S'.
This is the last implied identity of 'S' in my campaign:
http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/33877/characters/wikus-van-der-waal
For context, in my game the Serpentfolk 'Disguise Self' ability works by the serpentfolk shedding their skin to reveal a new persona underneath but can only transform into an individual they've 'tasted'. Once they are done with that identity they shed the skin, and then store it to use as a focus for later disguises.
The group is about to receive a full report on the investigation of this guys death, essentially the skins in his collection that could be identified by birthmarks or tattoos were are of missing persons. The muscular atrophy and malnutrition of the body implies that he was kept alive for some time in order for 'S' to get the info he needed to impersonate him. The liver failure is a result of continuous dosages of paralytic venom that have accumulated to toxic levels over the course of several bites.
'S' just stands for Serpentfolk as a code in my own notes. In game, Sasha Nevah has also used the initial for identification but there's no connection. 'S' is just a placeholder for now, and would be accurately defined as 'S3'. S1 being Yarzoth, S4 being Issilar. I have players who browse these boards so I can't refer to specifics just yet.
Incidentally, where are you up to in your game? If your behind me take a look at my Obsidian portal page(s) for inspiration if you like. But it looks like your ahead of me if you know specific page references. I haven't bought the last book yet myself...
The disguise self tweak wouldn't work in my campaign at all, but it's a cool idea!
My players have just left the Screaming Jungle in the middle of Racing to Ruin. I see you've posted audio recordings of your gaming sessions, but I'm not sure I have the time to wade through those. How far are you through the adventure path?
We had to go on a 3 month Hiatus cos of my course (doing a masters degree in Bioengineering), we're doing medium progression with lots and lots of side adventures (I'm a compulsive world builder). Just reached Kalabuto but we've been going for over a year. Problem is with all the other commitments our group has we're lucky if we can fit 3 hours of gaming in a week.
Ah yes the recordings... yeah we only did 3-4 of theme before the guy editing em got fed up. They can be funny tho. The Expedition pavilion item has some basic info on sessions. In the other chapter page, I used to write em up in the adventure log...until I got 8 sessions behind and figured hell with that.
What did you do with the Screaming Jungle? I have pages of notes on potential encounters. Practically rebuilt the entire ecosystem up from scratch (was bored one day). And I have a fondness for the Map features.
Methinks I will favourate and read up on your adventures later, your welcome to do the same.
Haha! Thats a very different approach to the sunject matter! Hehe. I can see why some of my ideas wouldn't fit for your game. Serpentfolk pc's! Brilliant!