Stew the Right Thing
…Molish rushed forward to tend to Fell, curing him of the poison from the arrow. As Leo crossed the log, he lost his footing and fell to the rapids below… bursting from the waves a moment later as a giant bird of prey. Leo rose high into the sky, scouting for their attacker. Pix moved forward to the tower, joining Shady in searching for any clues about their attacker or his whereabouts. Thaminor crossed the log and stood guard over the cleric, scanning the rooftops.
Leo spied the tabaxi archer duck into a window of a building north of the raised boulevard, and screeched out to the party while circling over the building. The Regulators regrouped and moved towards their target. Shady moved ahead into the building, calling out that the party came in peace and only wished to talk. Outside the building stood a gargoyle, which they discovered was crying. The tears formed a puddle of water around the pedestal that the gargoyle sat upon. When they came close, the gargoyle animated and spoke these lines:
“A traveler who here got lost
Took his precious jacket off
It fitted me well, but now you see
Me naked as a rock can be
The evil one who wraps himself
In the jacket of the purple dragon
Fears death coming for him
A retribution for his treason.”
Pix joined Shady in searching the building and tracking the elusive tabaxi down a tunnel off the basement. The monk moved forward, trying to close the gap, evading arrows fired from ahead. Shady stepped through the shadows, grappling the other tabaxi and giving a final warning for him to stand down. Finally, the archer relented, stating that he was only attempting to defend Omu from those seeking to pillage it. He invited these newcomers to join him for some stew so that they could share their tales. Pix retrieved the Regulators (although it was some time before Leo would join).
Bag of Nails had come to Omu in search of a magic item called the Navel of the Moon, with the hopes that it would help him find his lost son. He learned, however, that it had been plundered from the city by fortune seekers already, and the trail went cold. With nothing else to do and nowhere to go, he took it upon himself to defend this city against such plundering. When asked about the giant feathered dinosaur that they had been tracking (which Leo last saw back to the northwest, heading towards the amphitheater), Nails shared that the legend says the “King of Feathers” was once a gladiator who had been cursed to immortality in this present form, roaming most of the city as if it was his… most, because he apparently could not enter the Palace grounds. The Regulators explained why they were there, and pledged to wipe out Ras Nsi‘s Yuan-ti clan. They promised to not plunder the city, and asked for Nails’ help in their mission. Nails promised to lead them to a way into the palace grounds, but promised only to support them from a distance.
As the party considered their options, and decided to take a long rest for the evening, Bag of Nails confessed that the stew he had fed them had been poisoned. Having determined that they were not the threat he initially thought, however, he offered them the antidote to the Midnight Tears. Those Regulators that were susceptible to the poison took the antidote… and decided to set a watch order for their rest.
The next morning, Bag of Nails led the party through winding streets to a break in the wall of the palace grounds. Shortly after climbing through, the Regulators heard the sounds of a patrol on the main road, but they were able to easily remain undetected. They traveled first to the ancient stairway to the underground temple that the Yuan-ti had claimed, only to find it buried and flooded. Moving on to the main Palace, they found the circular building to have no visible entrances. After some mishaps, they managed to scale the first 20 foot wall to the overgrown roof. From there, Pix levitated over the next 10 foot wall and down into the palace…
The wizard levitated down onto the edge of a murky pool, in the middle of a circular courtyard. The pool was surrounded by eight pillars holding up the wall above, four defunct fountains, and four stone benches. Hallways led to the four cardinal directions, from which the sounds of chatter and creatures walking echoed towards him. Pix checked out the fountain to the north east, jumping in and hiding when he found it dried up. A moment later, two Yuan-ti Malison came in through the west, and headed out to the south. Pix overheard them talking about some new group that was seen briefly in the city to the south, where they were attacked by the crazy old cat man…
