This is an excerpt from a post-game writeup I made during the campaign I am currently running for my son and his teenage friends. It is from the finale session of an eight-game adventure set in the classic D&D adventure module, Dwellers of the Forbidden City. I updated the module for 5e, and made a number of content updates and changes.One of the most significant changes was the addition of a large temple to the Yuan-ti district of the city, where the action described below takes place. If you wish to delve deeper, with my hand-drawn maps and notes, written on the fly during lunch breaks, please see below. They are the bones of the story that the players told with their choices in the following weeks of gaming.

Additional writing samples of D&D flavor text and post-game writeups available upon request.

… Puff the Magic User ran out onto the terrace, and told the group their cover was blown. Using several swords to force down some of the downward-facing spines, Dell was able to remove his leg from the trap with modest damage, but in the process accidentally discovered the bottom of the leg-hole was a pressure plate – pressed down by one or more swords, it clicked, and was followed by the mishap of three more traps being set off in the foliage, firing three spinning blades straight up into the air, further compromising their cover, and injuring Garow.

They quickly split into two groups, with the druid Tibbles, his Onyx Dog Idu, Amber the dwarven warrior, Ferox the Dark Elf archer, Gunga the fighter-rogue, Xanthar the Dragonborn cleric, Dell the monk, Neo the Gnomish scout, and two freed prisoners vaulting onto the north-facing temple staircase and running up. Meanwhile, Magnar the barbarian, Garow the Elvish assassin, and Puff the Elvish mage  ran for the interior spiral staircase, running up that through the room of construction materials and machinery to the summit.

The group on the north staircase faced the following:

Near the apex of the temple – dangerously close, seemingly, to the glowing, humming metal column at the summit of the temple – a powerful Yuan-ti resides, regarding the crowd below, with muscular, scaly humanoid shoulders and arms, but otherwise entirely serpent-like, from his flickery-tongued, angular snake’s head to his thick constrictor’s tail. His neck and arms glisten with golden jewelry. To his right is a humanoid Yuan-ti with serpent’s eyes, and a body entirely covered in scales, holding in one hand what seems a wide-bottomed metal pole that flares out on the other end like a fan, yet lacking all feathers. To his left stands the jet-black, cobra-headed humanoid Yuan-ti you briefly fought when you attacked the jungle mansion – poised near the glowing altar — as well as additional snake-headed Malison guards nearby. Close to the Yuan-ti Abomination coils the most enormous snake any of you have ever seen, clearly the pet of the high priest.

High priest Senthapsis seemed oddly amused at the adventurers’ inconvenient interruption, and he and Tibbles hurled insults at each other.

“You bore me,” hissed Senthapsis. “Guards, rid me of these vermin.”

“We are the Nat Wonders!” Tibbles announced, giving the adventuring group a name, that for better or worse, was to stick with them. “We are not so easily dismissed!” With that, he and his friends charged with well-nigh foolhardy bravery up the temple steps.

Gunga, cursing himself for the greed that landed him in a life-or-death battle on a Yuan-ti temple (as opposed to his comparatively cushy, part-time job under Sheik Arslan as desert tour guide), loosed two arrows, striking the giant snake. Glancing back down the temple staircase, he saw a mob of the lower-caste Pureblood priests and acolytes in the plaza below making for the stairs, shouting their support for Lord Senthapsis … and muttering something under his breath about slowing their charge, drew his sword and buckle knife and clattered down the steps towards them.

Senthapsis shouted, “Zhusa kill!”, and the giant snake lurched forward as the adventurers on the stair closed with their adversaries. In seconds the whole staircase was embroiled in battle. Four adventurers mobbed the giant snake, quickly dispatching it; the cobra-headed Malison Hessatal used some sort of vicious psychic attack, and Dell and Tibbles found themselves tangling with the Malison wielding the metal pole — which, when the weapon’s butt was struck on the ground, sprouted a fan-shaped blade of cleaving flame. Two more snake-tailed Malisons rushed the group, one striking down a freed prisoner before coming to grips with Amber.

Meanwhile, the adventuring group that had climbed the interior staircase was having troubles of its own. Magnar emerged from the staircase into an ambush led by the Yuan-ti Pitmaster that Puff had earlier shot. Tilshul, the Pitmaster, slashed with his scimitar, then released a spring-loaded knife from his metal armguard, stabbing Magnar with the envenomed blade, while his two snake-tailed Malison companions rained additional blows down on the barbarian. Seeing Garow and Puff bottlenecked behind Magnar, Tilshul scoffed at them – too soon. Magnar dealt back more punishment than he had received, and Puff Magic Missiled Tilshul yet again. Garow, in an epic moment, slipped a slender blade past Magnar and skewered Tilshul, who dropped, still looking surprised, to the ground.

Magnar eventually thought to drink off a Speed potion he had found in Senthapsis’ laboratory … and when he did so, with support from his friends behind him, he dealt a dizzying number of blows to the two remaining Malison guards, and they soon joined Tilshul on the flagstones. Magnar dashed out of the staircase and across the summit of the temple to join the larger battle on the far side, while Garow dragged Tilshul’s body into the stairwell and Puff began leveling spell after spell at Senthapsis’ summoning apparatus, the sixty-foot column of metal, mirrors, and light.

On the other side of the temple summit, after a few moments of fierce fighting, there was a temporary impasse; Hessatal, the high priest Senthapsis, and the flaming polearm-wielder Nihelish fell back to protect the altar, all firing away at the adventurers with multiple Eldritch Blasts. Tibbles pressed the attack, and Neo injured the flaming polearm wielder with a sneak attack. Idu, charging in to help his master, chanting “Big dog, big dog” (as had been his habit in every fight since the warping energies of the Abyss had once made him temporarily the size of a small house) – suddenly got his wish: Maybe it was the strange, otherworldly energy emanating from the summoning column, but as he drew abreast of it, Tibbles, glancing to the side, saw that his dog had suddenly grown to the size of a horse.

Idu lunged at the cobra-headed priest Hessatal, and crashing into him between the altar and the towering summoning device, hurled the devious Yuan-ti priest heavily to the ground before leaping at him again, all teeth and flashing eyes. Hessatal desperately strove to defend himself from the giant pharaoh hound. Unable to easily hit Idu while prone and being mauled, the priest rolled clear and scrambled back to his feet, facing off against his oversize adversary by brandishing his scimitar.

Dell, battling Nihelish, announced “I’ve got this!’ an instant before being laid low by the Malison’s cleaving flame weapon; Neo quickly dragged the monk smoking and unconscious from the fight. Tibbles scored a fiery blow on Nihelish with his own Flame Blade, and the two continued to trade blows while Xanthar and Puff hammered away at the summoning tower with spells – the former using Spiritual Guardians, and Creating Food and Water in vast quantities within the column of mirrors, trying to disrupt the image being brought into existence inside of it. As he did this, Puff attacked the apparatus with cold and fire, to alternately freeze and boil the mess that Xanthar was creating inside of it. Garow, entrusted with Amun-re’s mighty Staff of Ruling, leveled thunderclap after thunderclap at the glowing column, the huge blasts shaking the temple summit, and causing hundreds of Yuan-ti and bugbears in the plaza below to flee in terror.

On the stairs below, Ferox and Amber battled a snake-tailed Malison guard armed with sword and shield; with a decisive blow from her axe, Amber slew their very able opponent, and its body slid off the stone stairs and fell into the planted terrace area beneath them.

Further down the stairs, things were going poorly with Gunga. Initially he had leapt down the stairs accompanied by three Mirror Images of himself and an illusionary owlbear for good measure, and it seemed he might fare well – the fanatical cult leader of the charging knot of Yuan-ti Purebloods struck one of the illusory Gungas, causing it to disappear … just as the real Gunga slid up behind and ran her through. However, the Purebloods, far from losing their will to fight with the fall of their leader, attacked from all sides, dispelling Gunga’s illusions within moments, and then raining down blows on the unfortunate birdman.

Xanthar ran down the stairs to Gunga’s aid, causing a localized storm of blowfish to rain down on his attackers. The Yuan-ti Purebloods fell back under the highly prickly assault, and Xanthar moved in to heal the crumpled birdman – only to realize that Gunga’s corpse on the staircase was yet another illusion, and the real Gunga was nowhere to be seen.

In apparent irritation that the adventurers weren’t dead yet, at the temple summit Senthapsis drank off a Speed potion from his harness, and charged into the fray at the top of the stairs. Making mystical passes, he created a wide nimbus around himself of black, smoky tentacles that lashed out every which way, pummeling four of the Nat Wonders at once. With that, the Yuan-ti Abomination waded into the battle with two scimitars, striking out with the blades and his constrictor tail at blinding speed … the last of the prisoners freed from the cell block was cut in half before he even had time to react. In a moment the high priest was upon Ferox and Amber, who fought bravely but in moments were cut down and lying bleeding on the stone stairs of the temple as well.

At this moment Magnar, in his own Speed potion-enhanced frenzy, crested the top of the staircase above. Senthapsis looked up, hissed, “You’ve robbed my lab!” as Magnar charged down the stairs, yelling “Yes, yes I did!”

The two clashed in a dizzying web of flashing swords, with blows given and taken so rapidly that the eye could scarcely follow, while Xanthar moved in to try and bandage his comrades bleeding out upon the stairs. Magnar’s battle frenzy carried the combat — with the Speed potion running through his veins he was marginally faster even than Senthapsis (And, did Magnar’s special ring from Martek’s Tomb de-magic the high priest’s particularly nasty scimitar? No one may ever know). He struck the head from the high priest’s shoulders, and the Abomination collapsed slowly to the stones.

Looking up, Magnar and Xanthar realized that an even greater danger was upon them: At the temple’s summit, Senthapsis’summoning apparatus, its mind-wracking hum now risen to a piercing shriek, shuddered like a living thing. Painfully slowly, one of the huge baroque metal panels, showing a multitude of fine cracks through which leaked its blinding, unholy light, began to sag amidst sounds of twisting metal and shattering crystal, and the entire structure seemed to list a little to one side.

At that moment, on the far side of the temple summit, Garow fired the last in a long succession of thunderbolts from Amun-re’s Staff of Ruling. There was an enormous crash of thunder, followed immediately by the sounds of shattering crystal and metal from the summoning apparatus, and the almost imperceptible snick-snick-snick sound of cracks in the Staff of Ruling, starting at its carven cobra’s head and quickly running down the shaft.

The panels of the apparatus, some yet whole, others in a cascade of shards, suddenly flew apart, creating a sort of halo of fractured crystal, metal, and less identifiable materials – because after exploding outward, they all abruptly stopped and hung in midair, centered on the light-washed summit of the temple like an enormous halo.

For just a moment only, a titanic reptilian monster of terrifying aspect was visible in the center of the disintegrating enclosure – and yet it was somehow a bit gauzy and insubstantial, as if a stiff breeze might carry it off despite its great size. More Yuan-ti Purebloods, arriving unopposed at the temple summit from the temple’s three other staircases, stared in wonder at the amazing apparition … while near the altar, the battle between Tibbles and the flaming polearm-wielding Malison — and Big Dog Idu and Hessatal — raged on.

Amun-re’s Staff of Ruling exploded; numbing Garow’s arm; coming to their senses, Garow and Puff  half-fell, half-fled pell-mell down the staircase through the room of machinery and building materials below, and just made it to the floor with Senthapsis’ personal chambers when the end came above.

Perhaps instinctively sensing this as well, Magnar and Xanthar flung themselves down and away from the cataclysm at the temple’s summit, crashing down many stone steps in their haste; Neo rolled, with Dell’s unconscious body, off the side of the staircase, dropping into the shrubbery on the wide terrace step below.

Overhead, the huge, spectral monster standing on the temple’s summit seemed to fall, but not in a way anyone present could understand – rather, it was as if it was falling into a hole or shaft in the sky at an angle that couldn’t exist, dwindling in size as if it was being seen from miles away, not the mere hundreds of feet that the cliffs behind the temple would actually allow for.

The circle of apparatus shards suddenly hurtled inwards, disappearing into the hole in the sky like a whirlwind of leaves caught in a gale; all of the recently arrived Purebloods, as well as Tibbles, Nihelish, Idu, and Hessatal — still locked in combat — were whisked away with them, falling into the impossible rift in the shuddering air.

There was a last despairing howl from Idu, a loud popping sound that echoed for miles around, a stale metallic smell in the air … and abruptly, the rift was gone, and all was unnaturally still. A few moments went by, and with a dull rumble, what was left of the temple summit itself collapsed inward … and as if on cue, all of the Lucifer-lamp streetlights lining the plaza and nearby streets winked out, plunging the entire district into the darkness of early evening.

Dwellers of the Forbidden City, hasty notes for added area N: Temple of the Yuan-Ti

Rising before you is a magnificent pyramid-like structure, ascending in a series of huge steps to an apex, upon which stands an odd, redly metallic geometric structure some twenty feet in diameter, and what is probably an altar glinting of gold even in the shadow of the beetling cliffs above. The huge, regularly-sided yet eccentric-looking finial is static, yet the air around it is not, as if it were giving off heat. If it does give off heat, the four Yuan-Ti Malison guards around it don’t seem to care — each stands on a corner of the temple mount, two facing the great metal structure and altar, and two facing outwards.

The mighty steps leading up to the anomaly atop the temple are parted down the center on each side by a long stone staircase sized for regular humanoid traffic; two Malisons stand on guard at the foot of each of these staircases. Each step level of the pyramid spills over with luxurious, blackish and reddish-green jungle growth, with trailing vines hanging nearly down to the next level below. At the four corners of each great step level are statues of rearing snakes, glinting gold like the altar far above.

Impressive and oddly beautiful, this stepped pyramid seems to ooze power – so much so you could swear the clouds in the sky appear to ripple and eddy when passing above its location down in the rift valley … almost as if a giant were standing on top of the pyramid and blowing straight up at the clouds to disrupt them as they drift by. At first this feeling seems rather fanciful, but the longer you watch, the less so this seems, and the more sure you become that the temple really is having some sort of localized effect on the weather.

 

Notes: The hanging gardens are crawling with normal poisonous snakes. These won’t attack Yuan-ti, but certainly will attack anyone climbing up through the step gardens and not using the stairs. Of course, using the stairs would be highly conspicuous … the guards on the temple mount are all Malison Type I. If they spot characters ascending, one will immediately raise an alarm (ducking inside to do so, and returning in a round), and the other three will use their Suggestion ability and longbows to slow and soften the party up, unless a character makes it into charge distance, in which case they will instead close for hand-to-hand combat.

In addition to the snakes, the temple steps (not the staircases) are riddled with small traps. On the top level apartment where only the Abomination is supposed to enjoy the terrace these traps take the form of foot maimers, for the benefit of creatures that have to get around on legs. These take the form of thin clay tiles that resemble structural stones, but when stepped upon break, causing the victim’s foot to plunge into a foot-and-a-half deep hole with downward facing spines. The spines – organic in nature, probably harvested from some unknown jungle beast —  naturally have a little flex that easily allows a foot and lower leg in –but make it difficult indeed to remove. (1 hit point damage only to step in, but 1d8 damage to withdraw the limb, unless the spines are flattened in some way to make egress less painful.)

On all other levels, the overgrown terraces have intermittent, simple poison dart pressure plate traps – Dexterity DC `13 save or take 1d4 hit points from a small dart … followed by a Constitution DC 15 save or suffer the Poisoned condition and take 2d8 additional hit points damage.

For every turn spent in the garden terraces of any temple level, roll 1d4; any “1” result means that a poisonous snake or trap has been encountered, 50/50 chance of either.

 

 

Dungeon/Arena Level

All of the hallways and rooms are built of rough but well-fitted, mortared stones. There are no adornments here, just hallways and cages that give out into the arena the Yuan-Ti use to keep the commoners entertained, and dispose of prisoners they don’t sacrifice, experiment on, or eliminate in some other manner. Food is supplied mostly via a nearby building being used as a warehouse or staging area. All of the ‘G’s on the dungeon map are Pureblood guards. The halls are dimly lit by fire beetle cages built into the walls near the ceiling, every 30-40’. There is one beetle/cage, lending a lurid red glow to the area. The cells are not lit, but get indirect light from the arena, which is brightly lit by highly placed torch sconces when in use, and otherwise by fire beetle cages.

N1 – Mongrelfolk (6)

N2 – Outcast Bullywugs (4)

N3 – Human tribesmen; warriors captured in the jungle somewhere outside the Forbidden City’s huge gorge (2)

N4 – Hydra (1)

N5 – Vegepygmy warriors captured in the jungle somewhere outside the Forbidden City’s huge gorge (8)

N6 & 7 – empty

N8 – Giant crocodile (2)

N9 – Ankheg (3)

N10 – empty

N11 – The arena itself has smooth, 40’-high walls with downward-facing spikes at the 20’ and 35’ level. The floor of the arena is loose dirt and sand, with scatterings of broken gear and dark patches of fresh and dried blood.

N12 – Foyer area/landing, where a wide staircase from outside intersects with the hallways leading to prisoner cells and the arena, as well as two staircases going up to the Base level.

 

 

Base Level

This is the storage area for most of the temple, and offers worship areas for low-caste Yuan-Ti and non-Yuan-Ti devout … bugbears, tasloi, one or two renegade bullywugs, and the occasional human type. The central feature of this level is the arena viewing area, where inconvenient prisoners are disposed of to entertain the masses. Mongrelfolk are not allowed … except as arena contestants. All halls are dimly lit with fire beetle cages mounted on the walls near the ceiling.

N13 Shrine storage – A room lined with storage shelves full of materials to supply the shrines on this level. Literally hundreds of candles, big stacks of prayer rugs, boxes and boxes of incense, offering bowls, braziers, jars of scented oil (flammable, but not spectacularly so), and various statuettes that are sold to worshippers seeking a boon.

N14 Shrine – You look into a wide room with the large statue of some sort of serpent-god on the far wall – humanoid, but with a snake’s tail, clawed hands and feet, and a snake’s head atop a fringed neck. The image reaches almost to the ceiling, perhaps some 15’ tall, and there is a scattering of offering bowls and little statuettes around its base. Further out in the room, prayer rugs are liberally placed about on the floor, in no particular pattern; the whole area is lit with fire beetle lanterns that lend a reddish glow to the scene – one in each room corner, and two flanking the statue.

The statues are of stone or base metal, and not worth anything of note. In the offering bowls are assorted currency gems – 87 10 gp gems, 15 25 gp gems, 8 50 gp gems, 1 100 gp gem, and a small jade snake statuette worth 55 gp.

N15 Bath storage — This chamber is primarily used for storing stacks of uniformly split, dry wood. Immediately to your left is also a shelving unit holding hundreds of large, fluffy, folded cloth squares.

N16 Bath – This room contains a wide, rectangular pool or bath. In front of you, the walkway you are on descends gradually into the water, which laps gently against the sides of the ramp and walls. Elevated on shelves upon the wall are small metal firebowls, which are being used for light here instead of the cages of large, glowing beetles common elsewhere on this floor. They also emit a certain amount of warmth in what would otherwise be a clammy-feeling room.

N17 Kitchen Storage – This room contains dozens of glass enclosures teeming with small mammals of various kinds, and racks of equipment to prepare meals with – utensils, boards, washrags and basins, huge platters, what have you. The air smells faintly musky due to all of the cages of rodents, but it is very evident that they are in general quite clean and well-cared for.

N18 Kitchen – This is a large, fire beetle-lit kitchen and serving area, with a long counter separating the kitchen proper from an open area with tables, chairs, and cushions scattered about. From the tools and equipment, it seems that very little cooking actually occurs here; it looks like this area is used mainly for high-volume assembly and plating.

N19 Guard Storage – This room contains mostly military equipment – racks of spears, maces of unusual design, morningstars, the curved swords favored by the Yuan-Ti, battle harnesses, and round metal shields. In the room’s center is a sunken, bare-bones forge area with an anvil and some tools for making simple repairs … though currently, the forge is unlit and cold.

N20 Shrine – Same as in T14, except: In the offering bowls are assorted currency gems –  62 10 gp gems, 33 25 gp gems, 11 50 gp gems, a small ivory tusk carved with intricate designs and worth about 85 gp, and a small, green-dyed leather pouch containing 20 gp.

N21 Bath – Same as for T16, except there is one large, especially-grumpy looking bugbear in the bath scrubbing his arms; the water around him is visibly grayish, with little floating mats of scraggly brown hair.

N22 – Storage – Same as for T17

N23 – Kitchen – Same as for T18

 

 

Pureblood Level

N24 Egg Chamber – There are piles of dry grass throughout this room; in each mound of grass are several large, yellowish eggs. The warmth of the room is stifling, and the floor is noticeably warm to the touch.

N25 Heat Room – The short hallway leading to this room descends sharply down for several steps, and once inside this sweltering room it becomes apparent why: On either side, the wall of the room is open for 2-3’ above the floor, resuming at above waist height and continuing on up to the 10’ high ceiling. The open areas thus created to your left and right extend quite some ways — clearly under the floors of the two rooms to either side of this one. Various small fires smolder in these crawlspace areas, and at least some of the fumes probably dissipate through several small holes in the ceiling and back wall.

N26 Heated Bath Room – A short stairway leads to this room, but once inside you find yourself on a half-circle landing of sorts, the only dry floor in what turns out to be a large, heated public bath chamber. There are also stone benches at just above water level on the walls, but the majority of this 30×30’ room is taken up by a warm pool that is probably about 3’ deep.

N27 Pureblood Common Room – You look into a very large, open room. The walls are painted with colorful, serpentine patterns, and scattered about on the stone floor are large plush cushions, low, round tables, and the occasional settee. There are also a few small tables in odd, asymmetrical shapes; some of these have upon them decorative items like inlaid bowls and metal statues, pieces of parchment and quills, or folded pieces of cloth. The whole is lit with the lurid reddish light of fire beetle lanterns.

N27.5 Storage – This room contains spare sleeping cushions, blankets, lanterns, empty and clean fire beetle cages, as well as an unusual amount of glassware – beakers, retorts, dishes calibrated to an unfamiliar scale, and a variety of small but rather wicked-looking metal tools … pincers, forceps, awls, fine saws, clippers, and so on. Most of the items are in and of themselves innocuous-seeming, but taken as a whole, produce a most unsettling feeling.

N28 Kitchen – This spacious area is a kitchen, clearly equipped to serve many dozens, if not hundreds, of diners. Large, heavily used prep tables and counters are scattered everywhere. From the types of foodstuffs and their widely varying methods of preparation, it appears the Yuan-Ti enjoy greatly exotic and decadent dishes, but yet also have a perhaps even stronger liking for very minimally processed meat dishes, where the majority of the effort is simply expended on the fancy plating and presentation of what could be raw or live food.

Supporting this impression, cages of live creatures – mostly small mammals – are prevalent here, as well as raw joints that look suspiciously like they belonged to one humanoid race or another when still alive. The place is bizarre, bloody, and opulent, all at the same time – and makes your flesh crawl.

N29 and N31 – Broodguard quarters. T31 will have 1-6 Broodguard, the smaller T29 will have 1-4 Broodguard – but in both cases, only as long as no alarm has been sounded. These rooms are mostly a litter of the rude nesting materials used by their brutish occupants when off-duty. There are no amenities in these chambers other than a metal bowl of several live jungle rodents – each such creature firmly leashed to a loop on the side of the bowl.

N30 – Slave Masters. This room is the well-appointed quarters of 3 Yuan-Ti Pit Master Malisons. The Pit Masters direct the Broodguards, who in turn help them manage the slaves and perform the menial tasks in the laboratory – or those requiring great strength, such as wrangling terrified slaves, animals, etc. into the various devices there.

There are three large, circular cushion beds and scattered pillows, a central table and chairs with some dice cups, goblets, knives, and other everyday tools on the tabletop, as well as a variety of weapons –polearms, curved swords, and whips – stored neatly in racks on the walls.

In the far end from the entrance is an alcove with a shared writing desk, tall with stacked cubbyholes – most of which contain scrolls. The majority of these detail orders received for the incarceration, torture, and/or interrogation of one or another prisoner; others – even more offputting – describe in detail various experimental operations performed upon unwilling subjects.

Unless an alarm has been sounded, there will be 1-2 Pit Masters in this room.

N32 – Armory/Smithy – This large forge room is very well-equipped, and is clearly capable of producing the majority of the arms and armor you have seen in the temple area. Great black anvils, hammers, tongs, buckets, rags – all tools and materials are carefully organized in various work stations around room, with finished items hanging or stacked in two alcoves adjoining the working area.

There are no Yuan-Ti here currently, but the area is being worked by 6 Firenewts. Whether the Firenewts are working willingly or have been coerced is not immediately apparent, but they are diligently hammering out a few round metal shields at the moment, and don’t appear to have heard you.

N33 – Lab – This large room looks like a cross between a torture chamber and a wizard’s laboratory – it is littered with all manner of strange devices, some clearly intended to hold a restrained humanoid figure. Some of the other devices, while probably intended to deliver torment, are so exotic in appearance that their function is completely inscrutable.

The walls are largely occluded with shelves and tables, rank upon rank of jars and tubes, and a wild variety of menacing-looking, additional metal implements. The ceiling is a morass of hanging cables and colored ropes; it is oddly reminiscent of looking up into a jungle canopy – granted, a wholly artificial one.

Unfortunately, any place containing this much rare equipment is likely to be guarded, and this laboratory is no exception; you instantly spot the Yuan-Ti guards patrolling this place and the adjoining cell block – and with a hue and cry, they spot you as well.

If the shelves are searched, the following could be useful:

• 5 vials of acid (single dose each, splash damage of 2d8)
• 7 pairs of sharp scissors
• Assorted small knives, quite sharp, but none particularly combat-effective
• The equivalent of chloroform in 8 stoppered glass tubes – 1 dose/tube. if inhaled, the victim must make a Constitution DC 15 save or Sleep for 1d4 hours, no effect otherwise.
• 6 jars of prep fluid for beginning the transformation from human/oid to Broodguard.
• One large flask that glows with brilliant green light — It acts as a normal lantern, but lasts indefinitely, and never needs fuel. The flask itself, however, is easily broken. If it is broken, all within a 5’-radius need to make a Constitution DC 16 save or take 1d4 hit points of damage immediately, and 2d10 more, at the rate of 2 hp/hour thereafter until all of the damage has been taken or has been countered in some way.
• Stretch Potion: 2 doses, each dose lasts 1d4 turns. Drinker can stretch individual limbs up to 3x normal length with no loss of strength, or stretch body to become twice normal height (though very thin). Can also flatten and spread out body to pass through gaps a mere ½” wide.
• 2 doses of clear, somewhat viscous fluid in stoppered beaker – if injected (or used as blade poison) the toxin causes 1d4 damage every round for 1d4 rounds, and the victim is in the Poisoned condition for a full turn. A successful Constitution DC13 save halves the duration to 1-2 rounds of damage, with the Poisoned condition only lasting as long as the damage is still being taken.
• Elixir of Mutation: Drinking this experimental potion causes gradual but permanent change in the imbiber; all changes take 3d6 days to become fully realized. If Healed before the change is complete, the effects can be undone, but lower level healing spells of any kind will not prevent or even slow the change.
  1. Grow tail (or a second one, if character already has one)
  2. Grow eye (dice for body location)
  3. Grow extra arm
  4. Ears enlarge, or are absorbed and replaced by drum ears
  5. Gain Darkvision
  6. Gain Tremorsense
  7. Sprout tentacles
  8. Grow 2^nd Head
  9. Grow wings
  10. Tongue becomes forked
• Light Potion: Imbiber glows brilliantly for 1d6 turns; any room/area they are in counts as brightly lit. All checks involving stealth are at Disadvantage.

 

N34 – Prison block – The single aisle passes between eight cells – four cells per side, with metal box grid bars. Considering that it’s a prison, this area is strangely clean – more so than in most prison blocks run by non-reptilian humanoids. The area smells a little, but not greatly; the floor of at least the aisleway appears slightly wet from a recent scrubbing.

The cages, however, hold a variety of humanoids as dejected, listless, or crazed as you’re ever likely to see. Some bear the scars of what appears to have been some sort of surgical experimentation. In a few cases, the subjects are still very much healing, and one, lying inert on his hard cot, appears to have deceased from the experience. Each cell holds a single occupant.

N34a – A female Mongrelfolk, currently unconscious. It is unclear if she has been subject to an experiment or not, given her already strange appearance – her features appear to be the product of some sort of goblinoid-canine cross. (If freed, she has normal mongrelfolk stats).

N34b – This cell contains a Tasloi that was caught stealing from the temple – it has been exposed to a mutating substance, and has four arms, though the new ones are slightly smaller than its original arms. (normal Tasloi stats, except that it gets an extra attack).

N34c – A human tribesman from outside the rift city; he appears to have had some sort of operation to his throat – he cannot speak well at all, making mostly inarticulate noises. (inspection reveals that he has a purplish snake tongue).

N34d – A bullywug, so far unaltered and conscious. (normal specimen)

N34e – A large (7’) lizard. It is not apparent, but it is currently undergoing a series of treatments to induce growth and make it even larger.

N34f – A male Mongrelfolk with a snake tail (It still has legs). Another mutation experiment of the Yuan-Ti. The tail offers it no advantages, and otherwise it has normal stats.

N34g – A bugbear that is here for killing and robbing a Yuan-Ti pureblood. If the characters speak with it, it will offer to help them if released, but sneak off at the first good chance it gets.

N34h – Another human tribesman, this one gibbering and violently insane, it has the multifaceted eyes of a huge insect. If released will immediately attack.

N35 – A barracks for Pureblood soldiery; this room has bunks, chests, etc. for no less than 24 guards. At any given time there will be 1-8 guards here, each with 1d6 gold pieces on their person. There are currently 15 small metal shields, 10 scimitars, 5 bows, and 4 dozen arrows stored here, ready for use.

N36 – Shrine – The high, arching ceiling of this grand chamber is supported by dozens of thin, decorative columns, spaced 10’ apart on every wall, and throughout the room itself, except towards the far end, where they give way to a wide, 2-step dais. On this dais is a stone altar; the stone floor around the altar is incised with intricate, winding designs that form an elegant circular, medallion-like image. On and around this carved medallion is a scattering of bowls, probably for offerings.

About 10’ behind the altar is a very large stone statue of a vaguely humanoid serpent that towers as high as the pillars to either side of it – and like them, the top of its head touches the ceiling. Arms upraised, it glares down upon the room below it with an intense, unsettling stare made all the more so by the flickering light from torches set in the walls between each of the pillars … its features seem to move and twist about in the unsteady illumination, and light gleams in its dark eyesockets.

Notes: The eyes are set with crystal orbs – of no great value, but they admit light from outside (a thin vertical shaft runs from the back of its head to the exterior of the temple) to give the statue’s eyes something like the appearance of life.

The statue’s mouth is closed, but hinged – so if some enterprising adventurer climbs the statue and tests it, they will find it can open. There is nothing of value in the mouth save a forked tongue carved from a single large piece of red coral, and two thin metal pipes that will spew a potent knockout gas when the mouth is opened (Save DC 18 or immediately lose consciousness). This affects only someone who has climbed the statue; a knocked-out character not otherwise secured will fall 20’ and take 2d6 damage. Opening the mouth also causes the floor 10’ around the statue to fall away in hinged sections a few seconds later, so unless an unconscious character lying on the floor is quickly retrieved by companions, they will be dropped an additional 20’ – this time into a pit studded with sharp bamboo stakes, for 2d6 plus a 50/50 roll to see if they land on any stakes – if so, they take 4d6 more. (Any characters loitering around the base of the statue when the mouth is opened get a Dex save, DC14, to leap to safety; otherwise they fall into the pit as well.)

The floor of the whole room is of 3” thick marble tiles, which have a 1” gap between them and a subfloor. The marble tiles are supported by a metal framework that rests on the subfloor, but observant characters may notice the whole floor of the shrine has a somewhat hollow ring to it when walked upon. Consequently, they may be less quick to notice the hollow ring of the floor/pit cover if they walk around the statue. The tone is a little different there, but not much. There is nothing of value in the pit, but 100-600 gold pieces will be found, in total, if the various offering bowls are emptied, as well as 5 25 gold piece gems, 1 50 gold piece gem, and 1 75 gold piece gem.

N37 – Storage – This room contains hundreds of spare torches, a stack of hammered metal offering bowls on a wood table, brooms, mops, rags, and buckets for keeping the shrine area spotless and clean. There are a few ceremonial knives in the table drawer of some little value – each has a gold-plated handle, and is studded with a few semi-precious gems: 15 gold pieces, 28 gold pieces, 80 gold pieces, 85 gold pieces, and 130 gold pieces, for the fanciest of the lot.38

 

 

Malison Level

N38 – Grand Hall —  Many hallways  open out into this huge, luxurious chamber– clearly a gathering area or social hall. A stunningly crafted fountain commands the center of the room; the central sculpture is composed of dozens, even perhaps hundreds of snakes of all sorts, intricately carved in stone right down to the tiniest scale or sharpest fang, and all of them spit water out of their mouths into a wide bowl decorated with brightly pigmented mosaic patterns, all the more lustrous in their beauty for being wet.

Scattered around the room are benches, plush purple and gold cushions, and small, inlaid tables of black wood. Stationed near the entrances to the room are six Yuan-Ti Pureblood guards, equipped with studded leather armor, small metal shields, and scimitars.

 

N30-40 – Apartments — These are apartment complexes the characters in their haste went nowhere near, so I did not develop them. They would have belonged to named Yuan-Ti Malisons that the adventurers eventually battled on the temple exterior.

 

N41 – Hessatal and Shalkashlah’s Aparment, Sitting Room — This is a sitting room in which Hessatal and Shalkashlah receive and entertain guests while acting in their official capacities as sub-priests at the temple. There are a number of low cushions, and a large, round brass table with several wooden cups covered in gold leaf scattered across its surface (5 gold pieces each, 6 cups in all), a crystal decanter containing a fiery, herbal-tasting liquor, and an empty wire basket with a shutting wire lid, with a simple latch mechanism (used to serve live rodents, currently empty).

N41a — Hessatal and Shalkashlah’s Private Aparment, Private Room 1– This room contains more cushions, but larger ones than in N41. Hessatal and Shalkashlah rarely stay over in the temple, preferring their own quarters, but occasionally they lodge guests here. On the wall nearest the secret door (kitty corner to the right) is a weapon rack with a couple of bows and several scimitars. Hung on the wall with the secret door is a Guardian Portrait (of Shalkashlah). The act of searching the wall causes it to activate in order to prevent or distract the search. There are several other framed paintings on the wall, including a portrait of Hessatal, but none of them are magical.

 

N41b — Hessatal and Shalkashlah’s Private Aparment, Private Room 2– The other end of the Portal painting at H8, described elsewhere — and functions just like it:

The room otherwise is set up as a private work/study space for its two regular occupants. It contains a simple desk, some cushions, a rack of ceremonial robes and vestments, and another low table.

Painting: For Hessatal and Shalkashlah, this is a secret portal between the Malison level of the Yuan-Ti Temple and the Study in their own, opulent estate elsewhere in the Yuan-Ti district of the city. For everyone else, this is a DC18 Wisdom saving throw: Success means that the painting will function as a portal for them as well – but beware, the check is made for each character, each time they use it. Once through, a character will have to test again successfully to get back, and if some characters fail their saves, the adventuring group is now split. A failed save results in Invoke Nightmare, as per the Yuan-Ti Nightmare Speaker ability; they see their deepest fear in the painting, and must make additional save/s or take psychic damage:

 

N42: This is a Yuan-Ti Malison’s private apartment. The walls are brightly, almost garishly painted with a collage of jungle scenes; the room is scattered with opulent cushions and a couple of round brass tables incised with flowing, asymmetrical designs. A very large green cushion with heavily embroidered designs encircling its circumference appears to serve as a bed. Like of the rooms in the temple, one wall has a secret panel that allows the occupant to slip in and out unseen by its peers – or simply to use as an escape route.

 

N43: This is another Yuan-Ti Malison’s private apartment, similar in most respects to that described at N42 … The walls here are painted, but the paint has been applied over shallow geometric designs that have been lightly chiseled into the walls and ceiling. The table here — of a very dark wood inlaid with pieces of shell — has laid upon it a whetstone and other implements for cleaning and sharpening bladed weapons. The great round cushion that serves as a bed is upholstered entirely with panels of silk.

 

N44 – Council Chamber – The walls of this room are, somewhat uncharacteristically, unadorned save for a huge, detailed map of the Forbidden City and the jungle surrounding it on one wall. This map, and the rest of the room, are lit by the ubiquitous fire beetle cages that bathe much of the temple’s interior in lurid reddish light. A hodgepodge of small tables, all made of luxurious woods or beaten metal, are scattered around the room’s perimeter; no two are alike, and a few even have little wheels instead of feet, so they can be pushed around the room with greater ease.

In the center of the room is a loose circle of about a dozen large cushions. Like the tables, no two are alike, but all are made of costly fabrics and are richly decorated with golden braid, beads, excessively long fringe, or stitched-on trinkets that rattle softly if disturbed.

Note: The map is a detailed representation, and any character that can read draconic will be able to ask basic questions about locations in the Forbidden City they have not necessarily seen yet.

 

N45 — Council Chamber – the description here is identical to that of N44.

 

 

Abomination Level –

Senthapsis,the High Priest, lives here solo in a comfortable apartment, with a few other rooms for storing ritual items, holding councils with upper echelon Malisons, and for endlessly conducting experiments.

Senthapsis, if encountered in his apartments, glides upon a huge snake body and tail, has a menacing snake head, and long, strong, humanoid arms. He wears a harness that allows him to carry two sheathed scimitars on his back, as well as a Speed potion. In other words, a Yuan-Ti Abomination. However, Senthapsis, unlike the standard Abmomination profile, has spells similar to other high-ranking Yuan-Ti.

 

Yuan-ti Abomination Senthapsis (high priest of the temple; Master of the Forbidden City)

Large monstrosity (shapechanger, yuan-ti), neutral evil

Armor Class 18 (natural armor + Shield +2)
Hit Points 127 (15d10 + 45)
Speed 40 ft. (Also has Speed Potion)

STR 19 (+4)  DEX 16 (+3)  CON 17 (+3)  INT 17 (+3)  WIS 15 (+2)  CHA 18 (+4)

Skills Perception +5, Stealth +6
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15
Languages Abyssal, Common, Draconic
Challenge 7 (2900 XP)

Shapechanger. The yuan-ti can use its action to polymorph into a Large snake, or back into its true form. Its statistics are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed. It doesn’t change form if it dies.

Innate Spellcasting (Abomination Form Only). The yuan-ti’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15). The yuan-ti can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:

At will: animal friendship (snakes only)
3/day: suggestion
1/day: fear

Plus:

Spellcasting (Yuan-ti Form Only). The yuan-ti is a 7th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 14, +6 to hit with spell attacks). It regains its expended spell slots when it finishes a short or long rest. It knows the following warlock spells:

Cantrips (at will): eldritch blast (range 300 ft., +3 bonus to each damage roll),friends, message, minor illusion, poison spray, prestidigitation

1st-3rd level (3 3rd-level slots): charm person, Arms of Hadar, Crown of Madness, detect thoughts, expeditious retreat, fly, hypnotic pattern, illusory script

Magic Resistance. The yuan-ti has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

ACTIONS

Multiattack (Abomination Form Only). The yuan-ti makes two ranged attacks or three melee attacks, but can use its bite and constrict attacks only once each (plus 1 scimitar attack) … or can make 2 scimitar attacks and bite or constrict once on the round.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) piercing damage plus 10 (3d6) poison damage.

Constrict. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 14). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the yuan-ti can’t constrict another target.

Vicious Scimitar (Abomination Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Per Hit: 18 (2d6 + 11) slashing damage.

Longbow (Abomination Form Only). Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 150/600 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) piercing damage plus 10 (3d6) poison damage. (If equipped; not when they meet him)

Note: If encountered in his private rooms, Senthapsis will not necessarily simply attack; he may bide his time, waiting for help to show up if the group is a powerful one, talking at length about the tiresome, foolish goody-goody (A Guardian Naga) that he found defending one of the city’s treasure rooms when the Yuan Ti took the city from below. Unable to decisively kill it (kept coming back to life), he brags about the value of undeath both as a means of compulsion when used upon a formerly good adversary, and as a loophole that allowed him to cheat its ability to be reborn at full power soon after death.

If not in his apartments, the ritual to summon Yig from the Beyond will have begun, and Senthapsis will be on the temple mount with Malison guards and priests in attendance – four Malison Type I guards, Hessatal the Mind Whisperer, Shalkashlah the Nightmare Speaker, and two Pit Masters, Tilshul and Nihelish. If this is the case, his pet giant snake Zhusa will be either on temple top with him, or loose in his private quarters to protect them from intrusion, along with the Bone Naga … DM’s call.

 

N46 — Hallway/Foyer – The stairway landing gives way to oddly shaped area. To your left is a hallway with an open archway  breaking off to the right, and a closed door at its end. To the right the hall opens  out into a bare antechamber with two alcoves, each of which contains an 8’-tall statue of the snakelike humanoid depicted in the shrines on the floors below. The back of each statue is flush with the back wall of its alcove, as if pressed closely against it or carved from the same stone as the wall.

However, there is a more pressing concern:  Slithering towards your group as you enter the hall is a very large snake – its flesh sunken to reveal all of its ribs, its scales sloughing away in patches as it slides along the floor, and its neck ending in a decaying, scaly humanoid head instead of that of a serpent. There is an air of tragedy lingering about the sagging face’s expression, as if it would be crying had it any tears left. “Please … kill me,” it hisses miserably, moments before blue arcs of lighting crackle forth from its putrescent mouth and eyes and leap towards you!

Notes: The undead creature is a Bone Naga that simply has most of its flesh remaining; Senthapsis, after vanquishing the Guardian Naga guarding a horde somewhere in the city, prevented its resurrection with necromantic magic, creating the sad, twisted horror that is now compelled to guard his chambers.

The two statues are in fact carved as a part of the wall, and each wall section in question is an untrapped secret door, that pivots inward easily when pressure is applied.

 

N47 – Senthapsis’ (Yuan-Ti Abomination/High Priest) Private quarters —

You push through the pivoting stone door into a richly appointed private chamber, and are immediately confronted by a truly huge snake – from its strange appearance, surely a construct or the unnatural result of some terrible experiment. The monster looms above you with saliva and venom dripping from its fangs, ready to strike!

Notes: The snake in question is Zhusa, a giant constrictor snake with maximum hit points. In addition to its constrictor attacks, this mutant also delivers the same poison bite attack as that of a giant poisonous snake. This bite attack will be at Advantage if against someone already grappled in its coils.

To the left of the door is the huge snake’s pen, its door wide open. The room otherwise contains a large, round bed-cushion with a stand near it covered in scrolls and books, a number of wall hooks holding rich priestly robes for ceremonies, a rack of weapons (a couple scimitars, a longbow and quiver of 24 +1 arrows, and a few ornate but normal knives). The walls are decorated with geometric designs carved into the stone and brightly painted; all in all, the room suggests comfort, learning, and good taste.

Near the door to the bath (N47a) is a short stand with folded, clean towels on it.

 

N47a – private bath – this room holds a warm pool, with a narrow walkway around it to a wooden door on the far side. The walls are opulently covered in vibrant blue and gold-patterned tiles.

 

N47b – This sauna has a raised wooden platform in the center where Senthapsis rests while relaxing here. Senthapsis’ quarters are maintained only by very carefully chosen Type 1 Malisons.

 

N48 – Model Room  – The door opens into a large room that may have once been an area to entertain guests, but now has the air of an improvised laboratory. The walls are decorated with hanging swaths of light green, see-through fabric, but about are scarred work tables that have been drug in with strange tools and devices littered on them; all but the most basic are beyond the adventurers’ comprehension.

In the center is what you first take to be a sort of room within the room. The loosely joined wall panels of reddish metal form an octagon and painted with labyrinthine designs that are meaningless to you. All in all, it appears to be a copy, in miniature, of the strange device or finial mounted on top of the Yuan-Ti’s temple.

If a panel is opened, the little room of panels will be seen to be empty, but the air inside has a strange feel to it, like the air out of doors after a thunder and lightning storm.

 

N49 – Council/War Room – This room is similar to the Council rooms on the Malison level, but as Senthapsis normally keeps his own council, it is rarely used, and is mostly now a storage room for experiments that did not work properly, arcane machinery, and raw material supplies. There is still a large map of the Forbidden City and surrounding jungle on one wall, but the great round sitting cushions and other comfort items have been piled in one corner and are gathering dust.

N50a – Work/Preparation Room – This very large room is a welter of scattered furniture and what seem eclectic projects; while it is clear that ritual religious activities take place here, the place also clearly serves as a sort of laboratory and workshop. Hanging on the walls or left on tables where they have clearly been recently used are numerous tools, most of them so strange that their functions are hopelessly beyond your grasp, rolls of tubing and wire, strange harnesses and google-eyed masks.

There are few other devices in the room, but like many of the smaller items on tables and benches you cannot give a name to any of them … they are not furniture, as you understand that term, but bear some slight resemblences to it … you cannot say. There is another device, more sinister in appearance, in the room as well; a polished metal chair held suspended in an elaborate metal framework, with various orbs and metal spires protruding from the framework in odd, seemingly nonsensical locations. What is all too clear is that this elaborate framework is clearly designed to contain and restrain a humanoid-sized creature – but again, how it might function, or what it might do, is incomprehensible.

On the other hand, the wide array of bottles on various shelves clearly contain chemical and mineral samples, even if the exact substances thus stored are themselves a mystery:

• 1 sealed bottle of powdered Magnesium
• 1 sealed glass bottle of powered phosphorus
• 3 large stoppered flasks of flammable gas – if broken or opened within 5’ of open flame, there will be a momentary flash of fire (5’ diameter ball) doing 2d10 hit points of damage; half that if a successful Dexterity DC 14 save is made.
• Lightning Potion “Capacitation Elixir”: 1 dose – Drinking this potion enhances a magician’s ability with electrical spells for 6 rounds: Advantage on Difficulty Class tests or “to hit” when casting electrical spells. For calculating lightning damage while the potion is in effect, roll the damage dice twice and take the higher of the two combined rolls. If the imbiber is hit, however, by an electrical attack while under the influence of this potion, their saving throw is at Disadvantage.
• 1 bottle Leucrotta Essence; single dose, can perfectly imitate the vocalizations of any being the drinker has heard., for a full turn. Does not convey the ability to speak in a language the drinker does not already know.
• Speed Potion (Senthapsis carries a second on his person)
• Invisibility Potion
• Restorative Ointment: This glass jar, 3 inches in diameter, contains 1d4 + 1 doses of a thick mixture that smells faintly of aloe. The jar and its contents weigh 1/2 pound.
• As an action, one dose of the ointment can be swallowed or applied to the skin. The creature that receives it regains 2d8 + 2 hit points, ceases to be poisoned, and is cured of any disease.
• Invisibility Potion
• Jar of powdered bone
• Any number of mirrors, in various sizes and shapes, none fancy, all of polished metal.
• A clay jar with a somewhat acrid-smelling liquid in it, and several metal prongs attached to the inside of the lid (a partial electrical battery assembly, non-functional)

N50b – Patio – An area paved with warmly-colored, smooth flagstones. There are a few resting cushions here, several little tables, a stand and some painting supplies, as well as a crystalline decanter on a little stand full of a heady liquor, that both smells and tastes of salted raw meat. This is where Senthapsis goes to relax when not dealing with the affairs of the priesthood or conducting research.

N51 – Storage – The stairs leading up from Senthapsis quarters to the temple mount pass through a room of arcane machinery (it runs the street lights in the Yuan-Ti district of the city, automatically turning them on and off at dusk and dawn) and stored construction supplies, such as lumber, dressed stone, and so forth. Also here, and completely inscrutable, is the machinery that powers the huge wardrobe-like summoning device on top of the temple.

 

Temple Mount

On the top of the temple is a large stone altar with a metal top set with strange gemlike knobs and lights. Fires burn in metal basins on the two corners of the temple mount that face the rest of the city. Behind the altar is a huge walled metal enclosure — some 30’ across and 50’ high, inscribed with strange characters, and resting on a wide stone base or cradle. Four guards (as noted elsewhere) are posted at each corner of the temple mount at all times, gazing out across the city from their excellent vantage point.

(4 Yuan-Ti Malison guards, scaled humanoids with snake heads, T1. Armed with scimitars, shields, and longbows, AC13 due to shields; for 2 attacks will always use 1 scimitar attack + bite)

The gate/summoning device is currently inactive; but unpredictable if struck for more than what would normally be 10 hp damage+ or hit with a spell; on a 1 in d10 will open for 1d6 rounds into another dimension. Each time it is struck it must be checked, but the check % is not cumulative. On a further 1 on a 1d4, something may come through (d6 for the round it emerges) from the Shadowfell. The metal gate is nearly impossible to destroy by any normal means, and very difficult to damage by most  magical ones.