======== Wongo's puzzle cube ========
Kylorin seizes the puzzle cube and interrogates Celadon on what he is doing with these spirit fragments he is gathering. He explains that they are native spirits of Chult and he is giving them shelter and hoping that they can be nurtured and given back to the Chultan people. Also perhaps these spirits might be convinced to help the group deal with the interlopers in the city after all the Lich destroyed the gods and made their temples into set pieces for his puzzle cubes.
Appeased Kylorin gives the most recent cube to Celadon and he extracts the newest god a gibbering monkey with savage carnivorous teeth.
Wongo: (In Celadon's Head) "Blood! You killed my temple guardians! Wait - when they raise as undead you can do it again! More blood! They were disappointing to me - they didn't even wound you. But you all smote them mightily. I decree you are my new guardians! Much blood will be shed until you come across something stronger! Then I will have new guardians MOAR BLOOD"
The cries of the god ringing in his head Celadon distractedly starts dragging one of the monkey corpses outside.
======== Yuan-Ti Ambush ========
Fairly tired from their battle - the group stumble out of Wongo's shrine dragging the corpses of the su-monsters to burn outside. But as the group walked outside Celadon felt something odd maybe it was his attainment to the guardian of the shrine but somehow he sense intruders even though they were hidden out of sight. Looking at Imbok he noticed a strange glassy look in the Grung's eyes as he stood unmoving and he also saw furtive movement of shadows cast by figures hiding behind the stone wall. His whispered warning kept the party from walking into a ambush. Celadon immediately threw a hypnotic pattern dazing a half dozen archers on the eastern flank spoiling the ambush and ruining the enemies element of surprise.
Upon leaving the temple the group un-forewarned would have been momentarily blinded by sunlight but as your vision adjusts you see a human like Yuan-Ti whose flesh is entirely covered with scales calling out "Capture them. Our lord Ras-Nsi wishes to put the question to these Barachni personally. We must take as many as we can to be our slaves and offerings. Only kill the weak."
Half a dozen archers mostly human follow her command. Meanwhile small groups of Yuan-Ti close in from gaps in the walls to the east and west. The group to the west lead by a male Yuan-Tsi with snakes instead of arms. Meanwhile to the east another male snake headed humanoid commands another group mostly comprised of archers.
Celadon somehow overcomes the magic resistance of the Yuan-ti and dazed six of the archers behind the snake headed Malison but the leader himself shook off the magical effect easily and Kylorin moved up to engage the snake headed figure in battle.
Eddie came out fireballs flying - torching the Malison with snakes for arms as well as his scimitar wielding colleagues but their magical resistance means his spell is much less effective than he would have hoped. Lindal darts out to engage the snake skinned leader of the main force. Lastly Freya who was bottled up in the rear of the group dealing with her mess form the previous fight finally makes her way out cutting her way through any assassins in reach.
The leader entrances Lindal but Lindal digs deep and resists the hypnotic charm. But while the magic is shaken off the archers who were not incinerated or entranced start peppering the party with poison arrows and these arrows HURT a lot. Freya and Kylorin are mostly able to shrug the arrows thanks to their superior armor but the lighter armored party member are forced back into the hallway and Lindal - far out in front - takes a pounding especially given his small stature.
Eddie seeing the Yuan-Ti resistant to most of his and Celadon's magic and noticing Lindal cut off from the main group - choses to use his biggest spell to make Lindal into the biggest creature imaginable - a huge ape which then turns and grabs the Yuan-Ti leader using him as a weapon to smash another Yuan-Ti into the ground.
Lindal now clearly the biggest threat draws the archer fire and arrow after arrow plunges into the giant ape but massive as it is they are just pinpricks. With Lindal attracting fire the others regroup and Freya and Kylorin cut down the other leaders in quick succession. Even Eddie and Celadon lend magical blasts from the entryway since the archers are focusing fire on the giant ape. Soon with their leaders dead the Yuan-Ti flee into the city but thanks to Eddie's magical horses the party is able to chase down and cut down the would be assassins with little difficulty.
The group gathers a small amount of loose coinage from the dead assassins but decide to move off to find shelter elsewhere before the noise from the ambush attracts anyone else. But Lindal - enjoying his ape form - choses to stay behind for a bit to cause some havoc and draw eyes away from the rest of the group.
========= King for a day =========
While the others slip away to find shelter Lindal climbs onto the shrine roof and looks around only to find that apes have much worse vision than he does as a halfling. Feeling safe in his giant ape form Lindal decides to hurl sections of masonry at various points in the city to see who responds and what happens.
Throwing first at the amphitheater then the obelisk, then the trapped marketplace. But his wild ape routine attracts attention almost immediately. A cloud of icy cold coalesces around the shrine and starts pounding the ape with hail forcing him to rapidly descend or risk slipping and falling. Fearing too much attention Lindal dismisses the giant ape form and skulks into the shadows away from the temple but waits to see whose attention he drew. Almost immediately he feels the ground rumbling and a moment later a giant feathered T-Rex bursts into the area coming from the direction of the amphitheater.
Lindal remains still and silent and witnesses the T-Rex searching the shrine and its environ before it sees some movement in the old marketplace and Lindal is shocked when it winks out of existence appearing deep in the market attacking someone by surprise. Lindal seeing the lizard exhibit magical powers decides to go back and tell the group immediately but on his way back to rejoin the group he is pelted by a flying acorn thrown by a Chwinga near where teh group said to meet up. Avoiding entanglement he lets the others know what he has seen near the shrine before he goes back to look at the Chwinga only to find it is no longer in evidence. Lindal does find a half buried ancient wheel bearing cuniform script which he brings to Eddie and Celadon attention. Eddie and Celadon rest for an hour then bring up some divination magic before setting out to see the wheel which talks about some Queen and her royal pronouncement.
Queen Napaka proclaims that the free people of Omu fear nothing. Brave new gods protect us, as Ubtao did before but does no longer. Omu will rise again, and Napaka shall reclaim all that is hers by right of conquest.
The writing is notable in that it both has cuneiform and in a secondary script but when Eddie deciphers the message is the same message in each script just written in two different alphabets. While Eddie doesn't get much out of it Celadon realizes the second script resembles rubbing he studied back in Mezro and is a old Chultan dialect he vaguely understands. The wheel appears to weigh a few hundred pounds so the group leave it where it is buried and chose to rest for the night having had an exhausting day visiting several shrines.
Inspiration
Lindal - "Ok I fail my will save I am totally going to go check that out"
Experience (challenge based) 800 Individual => 29631 cumulative
Yuan Ti Ambush - 800
Allies
Seraph
Imbok - heir of Yorb's line - intent on revenge against Eddie's family.
Treasure
Collection of Small coinage
Queen Napaka's royal pronouncement