Page 172 - Serpent Kingdoms

ADVENTURES

The altar chamber is 50 feet square and 20 feet high, and the Creatures: There are no creatures present when the PCs
tunnel opens into the central 10 feet of one wall. The pile of arrive, but their actions may summon sixteen Huge vipers.
stone rubble marks the location of the human access tunnel that Huge Vipers (16): hp 33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 36, 36,
once led down to this cellar. 36, 36, 36, 38, 44, 50; see Monster Manual page 200.
Trap: The entire statue is coated with malyss root paste, a Tactics: Each viper immediately moves to attack the creature
strong contact poison. that disturbed its stone. If that individual dies or moves beyond
Poisoned Statue: CR 3; mechanical; touch trigger (attached); reach, the snake attacks any other non-Yuan-ti in the altar
manual reset; poison (malyss root paste, DC 16 Fortitude save room.
resists, 1 Dex/2d4 Dex); Search DC 22; Disable Device 20.
Market Price: 4,400 gp. Concluding the Adventure
Development: The humanlike hands of the statue are 16
feet off the fl oor and positioned as though to hold small items, Once the PCs overpower the resident lizardfolk and locate the
but they are empty. The coils of the statue conceal an unlocked treasure behind the ceiling boss, the complex contains nothing
door that opens to reveal a small storage niche. Inside are sixteen else of interest. If they desecrate or destroy the altar, they may
human skulls (relics of memorable sacrifi ces). be rewarded by their own churches (if appropriate), but they
will certainly draw the ire of the yuan-ti, who will go to great
CEILING BOSS lengths to hunt them down and destroy or enslave them.
Examination of the ceiling boss (Search DC 10) reveals that
most of it is covered with a fi ne layer of soot, probably from Adderposts
altar fi res. The only portions of the boss that remain clean are
several carved snake bodies that arch down to form handles of a In the town of Essembra in northern Battledale, just a few hun-
sort. Numerous small holes artfully concealed within the design dred feet south of the central Battle Court (marshaling ground),
can also be seen. stands the infamous junk and pawnshop known as Adderposts.
Anyone grasping the handles can rotate the boss counter- Named for its odd, serpentine-carved, spiraling door pillars, this
clockwise, though it moves slowly and with considerable creaking. notorious shop nominally deals in secondhand goods, though
This motion releases a catch that allows the boss to swing down- its proprietor makes most of his money by serving as the local
ward on stone hinges. A counterweight block, positioned above fence for stolen property. Customers come to Adderposts from
the boss to prevent it from falling down the circular hole, moves as far away as northern Sembia to conduct shady transactions
with in tandem with it by virtue of six smooth-carved, oiled outside the purview of their peers and to purchase mordayn
stone spheres that serve as wheels. Moving the boss arouses the powder for conversion into the drug known as dreammist (see
vipers that are resting atop the counterweight block (see Crea- Lords of Darkness page 183).
tures, below). This adventure is suitable for four 13th-level characters.
Creatures: Eight Small vipers rest atop the counterweight
behind the ceiling boss. Background
Small Vipers (8): hp 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4; see Monster
Manual page 200. Millennia before the founding of Essembra, Adderposts was
Tactics: The vipers thrust their heads out of the concealed the site of a minor sarrukh temple of Sss’thasine’ss, and the
holes to strike at anyone within reach. catacombs beneath it still hold several dark relics of that evil
Treasure: When the boss swings down, it reveals a circular god. After the fall of Myth Drannor, a chance discovery of the
hole in the ceiling that offers access to a storage chamber above, long-buried sarrukh ruins led to the open establishment of a
where the counterweight block turns. The DM’s choice of temple temple of Sss’thasine’ss in which the long-forgotten deity was
treasure may be found here. Alternatively, the temple complex venerated as a totem of venomous creatures, including scorpions,
may be expanded with additional chambers, tunnels, and foes. snakes, spiders, and the like. (In truth, it was Talona, the Lady
of Poison, who backed the beast cult.) The temple’s motto, “The
BLACK VIPER ALTAR Serpent Never Sleeps,” has since entered the local lexicon of Bat-
The stone disc in the middle of the room is an altar to Sseth. tledale, although it has lost its original attribution. This phrase is
The Black Viper Altar stands 4 feet high and measures 12 feet now understood to mean “the forces of evil never rest.”
in diameter. Several circular depressions are carved around the The cult of Sss’thasine’ss faded away within a few decades
6-inch-wide lip of the bowl, and in one of these is a heap of six- of its establishment. Its former temple, which had come to be
teen glossy red stones. Though they resemble gemstones, they are known as Adderposts, was used for a variety of other purposes
merely pieces of red glass bearing a spell. Disturbing any one of in the years that followed, until at last it became the shop it
the “stones” causes it to vanish and be replaced by a Huge viper is today. In the Year of the Worm (1356 DR), Duskar Flame-
that appears within 20 feet of it. If the entire heap of stones is haern, proprietor of Adderposts, chanced upon a secret door
swept into a sack, all sixteen snakes appear simultaneously, some leading to the catacombs below and began using them to store
positioned so as to block access to the tunnel mouth. the stolen goods he had agreed to fence.

171

620_96566_SerpentKi168-192.indd 171 5/13/04, 8:12:51 AM