======== Battle for Shagambi's shrine ========
After the fight with the Kamadan pair the group enter the shrine itself.
from the entry they descend into a tall moss-covered room. Four statues of Chultan warriors stand overlooking a barred gladiatorial pit beneath the floor of the room. Each statue is designed to hold a weapon, but its weapon is missing. On the far side of the chamber, a stone pedestal stands conspicuously bare before a relief on the wall showing a monstrous jaguar with six snakes protruding from its shoulders, fighting off a squat, frog-like humanoid armed with a spear. To the left of the relief is a narrow tunnel with stairs leading down. The party quickly discern that there is a trap in the mosaic and remembering the motto "Fight with Honor" they decide to go downstairs and see what there is to fight. Freya and Kylorin head down keeping covering each others backs while the others stay above watching the pit.
Entering the fighting pit activates some form of alarm and soon after entering Freya is faced with a clay gladiator reminiscent of the fighter that kicked her but in Port Nyanzaru but times are different now and while the gladiator is tough it gets downed pretty quickly but 3 more gladiators have entered behind it and the party barely get the spear from the first back upstairs before a portcullis drops somewhere deeper in the building. Another gladiator is dropped but it manages to march back in and recall its spear before the party can get it upstair. The party then proceeds with a brutal fight of attrition. Freya is an absolute beat soaking a truly staggering amount of damage while the party pull the stops out healing and lending support. A second spear is eventually installed but both Freya and Kylorin are almost taken down at points. Kylorin deflects a ton of attacks on Freya and anytime they attack Kylorin Freya just smashes a statue apart.
Given the tight confines of the pit Eddie is reduced to cantrips or he will damage his party as much as he damages the gladiators but at least once he fireballs anyway knowing that the gladiators are just too tough to beat without throwing everything at them. Lindal runs down and uses all of his his speed to dash one of the last spears and a coordinated effort of Eddie Celadon and Lindal get the final spear up and installed unlocking the first puzzle cube which comes with a surprise fragment of Shagambi's soul.
Croc want to eat it and says it would give him much power but Celadon objects and Croc just laughs calling out that the god is too weak to offer any real power it would need a willing host and weakened as it is it could hardly grant any powers. It si a sucker's bargain. But when Celadon appears sincere croc offers an alternative. Perhaps a pact with the pantheon including him would work. Croc will act as a battery of sort, Celadon as the channel and an item like Celadon's sword as the focus for storing these god fragments. Croc gets some legitimacy and another follower and Celadon gets to help restore the fallen gods of Chult to their traditional place.
======== Assassins in our Midst ========
As the group is recuperating two damaged to do much more than rest plans are made to just pack it in and try to recover but Freya notices something shifts about the way Salindra is moving when she joins the party in the shrine. Ripping open her cloak she reveals that Salindra's body is wrapped with snakes that turn into Yuan-Tsi Assassins. Anothe rbattle is fought but without the advantage of suprize and with most of their allies not yet in position Salindra and her allies fall quickly. The Yuan-Tsi prove resistant to magic and try mind tricks on the party but Kylorin's Aura defeat the attempts.
The party them move off into the ruins to flee from other Yuan-Tsi and hid in an old crumbling house to recover for the night finally gaining the benefit of a level.
Inspiration
Freya - for being an absolute combat monster
Everyone else - for reaching 7th level and retrieving one of the puzzle cubes
Experience (challenge based) 1800 Individual => 25031 cumulative
Gladiators - (deadly) 1440
Yuan-Tsi - (easy) 350
Challenge based XP notes from - https://dmdavid.com/tag/using-experience-points-to-make-your-dd-game-more-compelling/
Allies
Seraph
Lava chicken
Imbok - grung grandson of chieftain Yorb
Treasure
Shagambi's Puzzle Cube
Salindra's Sending stone