When last we left our heroes...
Session 47: Pressing the old woman, more closely, the companions at last managed to ring the truth, or at least part of it, out of them: the old woman Yenara, and the much younger woman--scarce more than a girl--Aryanyan had been pursued by the Gaunt Men across the North for quite some time. They had knowledge of the Gaunt Men and Nalshbori who had taken over Kor-Paurja, at first ostensibly because they'd been fleeing from it. Apparently, an old beggar Yuralesh, who another company had encountered in sessions 33-34) had betrayed the village to the Nalshbori, letting them into the stockade. Later, it would be revealed that Yenara and Aryanyan were actually headed back in that direction, as there was something near the village that the old woman wanted. What was more, they revealed that they knew about the "key" that Peibo had spoken of; what was more, they knew why the Gaunt Men had been capturing young women: it seemed that some young woman or other either was the key, or at least knew the location of the key, and for that reason they were being captured. With Yenara's help, the companions attempted to sneak into the village of Kor-Paurja by a back way, hopefully liberating it, but they botched an attempt to sneak past a Nalshbori patrol and were overwhelmed, falling unconscious one by one (with Tengelbur falling last, and only after a prolonged duel with the Nalshbori commander, before which he had felled three of the enemy with his own hand). Yenara and Aryanyan had vanished into the countryside long before the battle was over. When the companions awoke, they found themselves in an ancient subterranean temple, about to be sacrificed by being burned alive in a great brass pan, while the Serpent Woman of legend officiated from her carven throne.
Session 48: Just as they were about to be sacrificed, the companions were freed by one of their Nalshbori guards, who turned out to be Peibo in disguise. Another one was revealed to be Aryanyan, who began firing arrows into the guards and gaunt men surrounding the Serpent Woman's throne, while Peibo freed the others and engaged the Gaunt Men, telling the companions to run. For the most part, the companions chose instead to stand and fight (sans their weapons), leading to Tengelbur falling unconscious again, horribly wounded as he attempted to strike down the Serpent Woman herself and was in turn overwhelmed by two Nalshbori of the Sea Scorpion clan. With a flaming sword in hand, Peibo managed to fell the Gaunt Men and lead the companions (including an unconscious Tengelbur) to an adjacent room, an armory, in which the companions barricaded themselves and tended to their wounded.
Session 49: Having found weapons and armor (including some items of ancient, even magical provenance) in the armory, the companions re-armed themselves and located a secret passageway that allowed them to slip down into the lower level of the temple. Moving through several sacristy rooms full of horrors (including a strange sacrificial knife that Anaris kept for herself, and a coffin used to drain the blood from living victims), the entered the main throne room of the temple, where they found eighteen young woman unconscious, seemingly comatose, under the effects of some spell. They were on the verge of waking these when Aryanyan and Peibo revealed that coming back to rescue the companions (who had been captive for something like two weeks or more before they were awakened for the sacrifice) had only been part of their reason for coming to the serpent temple -- they were also here to locate something, perhaps a scroll or tablet, which Yenara and Peibo believed might hold the key to finding the tomb of the Stone-king that the Serpent Lady was seeking for. The companions agreed to help find the table, then try to find some way to awaken the maidens and flee the temple.
Session 50: Fighting their way through the temple complex (in which some kind of a civil war seemed now to be raging between the Nalshbori on the one hand, and Gaunt Men and Arjagbori servants of the Serpent Woman on the other--why this was happening, the companions never learned), the companions made their way to the Serpent Woman's private quarters, where they discovered a whole cache of scrolls and tablets. Taking all of these, they fought their way back to the throne room and sought for some way to awaken the sleeping women. Thanks to Vanera's keen intuition, they realized that the sleep of the maidens was connected to the huge orbs of red amber which made up the eyes of the two stone serpents coiled around the empty throne at the far end of the room. After some unsuccessful attempts to approach and destroy them, the companions managed to pry them loose--Anaris keeping two of the orbs for herself (despite the protests of the party) and Tanurendal meanwhile secretly keeping a third, which he hid in his gear when the rest of the companions were not looking. Awakening the girls, the companions fled from the temple complex -- which, with the spell of the Stone Serpents broken, was beginning to collapse. They fought their way through the Arjagbori guarding the door, losing two or three of the young women to falling rocks in the process, but made it out with the majority of them safely to the surface world. From there, they did what they could to return the girls to their families, taking the rest (including Thoranrai from the other company) back to Cheykor.
Session 51: Back in Chekor, Vanera found his worst fears unfounded: Talarja had waited patiently for him, and had kept herself busy learning the work of an amber-cutter in the meanwhile. After a joyful reunion with friends and loved ones, the companions took a long-needed and well-earned rest, taking their seasonal undertakings:
- Tanurendal integrated the red amber into his moorland bow, augmenting its power in combat--but has begun to suffer from evil dreams as a result.
- Vanera spent his downtime trying to decode the tablets taken from the Serpent Woman's lair. In addition to a map which he believes will allow him to safely navigate the Serth Hatama and find the Tomb of the Stone-king, he also found a strange inscription on an ancient clay table, now mostly broken.*
- Tengelbur spent his seasonal undertaking tending to his shipping business, which unfortunately seems to have lost a bit of money in his absence.
- Reiana searched for answers regarding the Nalshbori incursions on the West side of the Cheyth, and managed to locate their landing spot -- as well as the information that in the following season (Spring 454), the river would be too flooded to cross at that point, meaning that Nalshbori would be totally cut off from escape or reinforcements and as such could probably be dispatched with a small force.
- Anaris' fate has taken the strangest turn, as a number of her deeds together with the corrupted items she had accumulated in the Serpent Temple had... changed her for the worst. In addition to random fits of animalistic behavior, in which she would throw off her clothes and eat grass like an ox, her weight increased by some 300% as she became more and more anti-social, passing the time by hunting down deserts from the River Legions and turning them in for bounty.
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