Snake Temple

(( Temple of Sloof ))

(( Report on Bharash’s first Expedition into the lands of Katashaka – A copy of which is sent to The Platinum Cadre in HQ in Ruinspoke ))

  Having lost my mentor on the sea voyage to this faraway island, I have found myself alone in these strange lands. This however does not crumble my courage or shake my resolve, as I strive to stay the course and do the work we were sent here to do – reconnaissance and exploration. It was for this reason that as soon as I heard of a mysteriour temple that had just appeared outside the main town of White Moon Cove, and a group of adventurers’ desire to explorer it, I volunteered to join them on this endeavour.

  I was given a strangely filling piece of rock candy by the more unusual of my new companions – a Kobold named Mercury. I later discovered it served both as a satisfying meal replacement as well as aiding in one’s physical recovery slightly. And it came in quite handy, because the temple was far from a safe place to be, it turns out.

  It was mostly comprised of narrow passageways which forced the party to walk along the maze-like structure in single file. Needless to say this complicated violent encounters with the unfriendly snakes within, as we couldn’t form proper formations for combat unless we managed to make it to a wider space – available in a few rooms joined by these passageway. 

  Even worse than the large snakes were, in a particular room, equally large beasts with flames emanating from their serpentine forms. Fortunately my draconic ancestry granted me a little advantage over the element these beasts were seemingly empowered by, so I was not as troubled by their elemental prowess as others.

  That being said, my companions were all somewhat more formidable than myself. Cleatly they have been doing this work for a longer time, forged in the figurative fires of these harsh lands. The party comprised of the aforementioned Kobold Mercury and his curious lizard-like pet he called Hydra, a Gith Paladin by the name of Rhoshar (whom I heard has sadly passed away since although not during this expedition), a Human by the name of Alessio, a Half-Orc known as Dave and a Sea Elf called Mako that could turn into a shark-like creature.

  But snakes were not the only threat to the party during the day or two that we spent exploring this temple. At one point, we had to force our way through and brutally disable a trapped section of the passageways, apparently called the ‘Path of Blades’. It wasn’t just blades that it hid however, as it also included darts and some kind of rune that could instil even the most intrepid of adventurer’s hearts with irresistible fear. I know this because it also affected me personally, and I do not usually run from danger.

  While it was not my main concern, we did find a decent amount of treasures and riches within the confines of the templed, most often hidden in the rooms where snakes of all shapes and sizes lay in wait to ambush us the moment we entered. I will admit I lost consciousness at one point when, after clearing a room and retrieving one of the artifacts from a pedestal, a trap was activated. A massive boulder rolled down into the room on top of us and I, already on the brink of consciousness due to having just found a lot of enemies, had to be revived by the late Rhoshar.

In the end we concluded that an individual calling himself Harrison Ford was either the architect of this pit of traps and snakes, or else had previously adventured in it and left behind some of his things for others to find within its confines. The things we found were as follows:

  A final note we discovered after exploring the whole place suggested we needed to speak the name of the temple as if from a mirror (which we assumed could’ve meant reading it backwards) but I don’t think we ever found out the actual name of the place. And just as we left it, after retracing our steps and leaving through the same door we came in from, the whole temple seemed to disappear behind us. Not a big loss, if you ask me, but I will keep an eye out for another sighting of the temple elsewhere during my time here. Apparently it likes to move around.