======== Mathilda Zagmira ========
Last time we met off with Kylorin and Eddie meeting Eddie's (great?) Aunt Mathilda Zagmira who was currently in possession of Eddie's younger sister's body.
Aunt Zagmira : "Oh Valindra I was wondering if we would see you after I killed all your minions. You know the family's policy on anyone who breaks ranks with us. personally I didn't think you had the guts to step in the city yourself with the effect it has on your kind... But I see I was wrong."
She turns to several mages behind her - a cadre of the most powerful casters from the family and she barks, "She is probably immune to cold and lightning. Counter-spell anything she does - take turns to neutralize as much as possible. Force and fire are the best weapons to use against my dear aunt here..."(This signifies that Zagmira is probably his great aunt and not just his aunt and has probably taking a new form from each generation.)
Zagmira: "Now Valindra I know your mage teleported away to your little floating fortress with all of those puzzle cubes your men had collected. We had him cornered and I really thought we had him dead to rights. It was clever of you to give him a way to recall that we could not counterspell. We have gathered the ones you hadn't gotten yet. Maybe we could make a deal. You give us yours and we collect the Atropal for the family. Maybe you can buy your way back into our good graces. Maybe we can share our notes. But dearie you never should have abandoned the family. We have zero tolerance for deserters."
Eddie as Valindra Shadowmantle - "Oh dear niece you don't thin kI would come here unprepared? ha ha ha ha ha haha. Its no wonder you have never amounted to much. I came because I have something to trade. The brother to the girl you wear is now heading to the city"
Zagmira: "You mean Eddie? He was a nothing on his sister as it turns out."
Eddie/Valindra (bristling): "Then you are more of a fool than I thought. His drug addled attitude was just a ruse to get contacts in the underworld which he used to rob the family of the Staff of Orcus. Did you know he even sought me out and wanted to make a deal with me? He gave me some spellbooks from a lich he bested in return for me teaching him a ritual which will allow him to control the King of Feathers. So just go on ignoring him then, he has played you for a fool every step of the way dear niece. And now you owe me some info on what you know of the remaining cubes"
Zagmira: "Well there is a bit of a complication. We got one and we know where the last cube is but we don't have it yet. The damn yuan-ti took it out of this shrine - leaving a note that we have to go to speak to some Ras-Nsi fellow to get it - they expect us to just walk ourselves into their very stronghold. We've infiltrated his court though and have an assassin in place waiting for the right chance to strike. Ishmakhal is after your time but he is the perfect tool for a job like this. It is just taking him longer than expected, but it should only be a matter of time until we get the final cube back and can open the door if we had your seven cubes. Between us we have eight now so we could take a gamble on that we have the right ones already if you have the cubes on you..."
Eddie/Valindra: "Oh you don't think I would bring them with me? They are safe in my fortress. Well well I guess our business is done here then. I will be leaving you to try to reassess your Eddie problem. Toodles"
(there are a few tense moments as the groups split but clearly Eddie has done a great job imitating his great great aunt - Aka the founder of his Family and currently the living agent of Besmira. And Zagmira is confinced he is packing some magic items that would neutralize their remaining spells and none of their ice spells are effective against Valindra so Eddie walks away and rejoins the group.
========= Walk in the woods =========
The group choses to make sure to head away from Eddie's family and does everything in their power to stay out of sight of the other group. Eddie changes his looks to look like he is carrying the staff of Orcus just incase they are spotted by the family but then they group goes back past Bag of Nail's ambush spot to head to the nearby shrine.
But as the group moves through the overgrown verdant in the city Freya feels eyes upon her and Celadon spots a feral dryad gesticulating and stepping away through a tree and out of sight. Lindal immediately sets out in pursuit while Freya seems excited at the prospect of fighting tree people. But the dryad animates ALL the trees in the park to attack the group. The wooden behemoths plod up but Kylorin shields others from attack and Freya sets to hewing with her axe which burns red as she places Moradin’s blessing upon it. Eddie also summon balls of flames and some truly destructive fireballs which turn entire trees to ash. Finally the dryad moves forward to engage kiting Lindal back to the group but Freya manages to crit and the axe splits the dryad from head to toe before turning her into ash. The party having made a bit of noise moves on to the nearby temple to plumb its secrets.
========= Unkh shrine =========
Croc tells lindal that Unkh was a Total looker and knew it. He also described her as conceited and prone to take forever getting dressed or picking out where to go out. But once out she drinks like a fish if and when she ever goes out with you. Lindal notes the description is ore of an internal dialog and not croc speaking out loud so he does not relate it to the group waiting to see what else croc may leak.
The shrine has an inscription over the gates "Unkh urges us to contrast all options before acting" and so the group searches the temple grounds. There is a collapsing storage house that if filled with old keys in hundreds of styles.
Upon entering the shrine itself they are confronted with a crystalline statue of a flail snail and a number of different keys and a single keyhole. While investigating the group is attacked by some ghasts that were corpses of Lothian guardsmen. The group kill the ghasts and solve the puzzle by magically superimposing images to make a composite image of the key they needed. Having found they key the group bypasses the traps and the fiendishly difficult lock.
Recieve sending from real Valindra Shadowmantle who was amused at Eddie's ploy. Zagmira had sent to her with new clauses to work out details of "their alliance" but she played along because she figured Eddie was probably pulling one over on her niece. She warns Eddie that there is a pair of scrying censor on him and only one is hers.
The group then goes outside to rest and recover under the concealing water of the river nearby thanks to their water-breathing. Getting a short rest they are recharged and make their way across the city walking upstream and avoid the Ambush by the family targeting the shrine they just departed.
========== Papzotl's shrine ============
Walking for quite a while the party gives the entrance to the Yuan-Ti city a very cautious avoidance which brings them near a temple Croc dismissively identifies as Papzotl's a stuck up bossy lying backstabber. But several of croc's relatives are lurking in the waters around the temple Shegambi having asked Papzotl to watch over them in return for her vote for his leadership over the Omuan gods. Croc decides to stay behind with his family for a time. During crocs discussion at the shrine it is revealed that the armor of the paladin makes her too hard to chew giving her dreams of resting in her goods mouth a few night before a different perspective.
========== Nangnang's shrine ============
The party move on to Nangnags shrine where the grung live only to find that the family clearly came through first and butchered the Grung en masse. The abundant treasures Imbok had described is all gone. Imbok find the body of his father Yorb and upon wiping Yorb's blood on himself changes color from green to gold signifying that he must be the closest living successor. He is devastated at the destruction of his family and the sacking of the temple that was their home. But the gold grung powers appear to secrete a poison that grants the ability to speak grung so he is now able to talk with the party so long as they don't mind being charmed by him. (Which Kylorin's aura nicely mitigates the effect of.).
Imbok wishes to join with the group until they can get revenge on those that killed his family
Inspiration
Eddie - for selling himself out to his family
Experience (challenge based) 1500 Individual => 27031 cumulative
Unkh's shrine - (Med) 750
Dryad Encounter - (Med) 750
Challenge based XP notes from - https://dmdavid.com/tag/using-experience-points-to-make-your-dd-game-more-compelling/
Allies
Seraph
Imbok - heir of Yorb's line - intent on revenge against Eddie's family.
Treasure
Unkh's cube