Sessions 23 & 24 - Into the Serpent Hills

 

Having uncovered a plot to spawn Kyuss Worms in an egg chamber in the bowels of the Godsdeath Brewery at Boareskyr, the party consider what to do next. After a troubling nightmare Mesmer has of some sort of dream snake going after the Librum Mortis, they have enough hints now that these foul workings are coming from the northern Serpent Hills. Against some warnings, they resolve to investigate, at least checking in at Blackwall Keep to ask what those knights had seen.

The Monks supply them with rations and ale and the Abbess provides a Letter of Introduction to Sir Celbion, and the party begins traveling into the foothills that the Winding Water spills from. The land begins to turn desolate and quiet and by the time they turn up towards the Serpent's Tail stream they see the vast stretches of the High Moor lay desolately to the northwest. They fight off some Kyuss spawn wearing the livery of Blackwall, and worry for the keep.

The worries are legitimized as they find it in ruins, scorched and melted by dragonacid and wormspawn. A huddling orcish party is easily chased off and they find Kyuss zombies dwelling in the catacombs below, along with a sigil of Sertrous, an Oberynth (ancient demon) of the Age before Ages.

They leave the ruined keep and travel further, following a rumor that past a petrified arch over the Serpent's Tail Stream lies an ancient castle known as Serastis. They find remains of roadwork and long-abandoned structures and eventually encounter a pitiful and impoverished tribe of lizardfolk cowering in fear and betrayal. Coaxing a story through broken common and rough draconic, they learn that a dragon stole the tribe's eggs months ago, and the poor community is now enslaved to the masters of Serastis, the guardian of which then fiercely introduces herself, a large lightning-breathing naga that takes quite a bit of effort for the party to defeat.