#hlondeth

The Truth

The roiling tides of Churning Bay wash occasional rags and sail-scraps to the wharves of Hlondeth, but never anything larger or heavier. Wise old salts say this means neither tides nor currents scour the bottom, and instead these tides and currents rage well above the shattered wrecks. If they could breathe water, they'd be out there in a trice, dragging forth chests of gold!

Those wise old salts are correct about Churning Bay. Despite its furious tides and surface waves, the waters from its bottom up to about the height of two tall humans remain fairly calm at all times, making for good visibility. The bottom is thin sand over flat, exposed bedrock, studded here and there with "wavegrass" (inedible-to-humans, horribly salty and tough marine plants that look like tall tufts of grass that cling to rock fissures). Every other surface has the broken ribs, spars, and planking of shattered ships often piled four deep.

Many aquatic monsters lurk here, drawn to the abundant food (eagerly visiting Sssrathluth). Sharks and giant squids are common, and giant octopi and even scrags lurk in flooded holds and beneath riven decks.

The Laughing Lass sits apart from the general tangle, its two upright halves looking astonishingly intact, as if the carrack had sunk only yesterday. Powerful wardspells keep it that way, holding the wreck intact, preventing magical scrying into it, and foiling spells that might detect the trio of portals hidden in each half.

The portals exist because the Lass is indeed a lure for adventurers.

The Mrastaress of Hlondeth, Dediana Extaminos (legless but having a serpent tail), has for some time sought a counter to the activities of her son Dmetrio, and she believes she has at last found a way to increase her reach and power, and win herself a private army.

The keys to Dediana's plan were two now-dead yuan-ti who fell into her power: Sriss Lavoenroes of Hlondeth, who devised the poison known as "aumrara," and the wandering "mystic" Haunta Dreen, who acquired spells (or found and mastered a magic item) that could create portals.

Dediana found it easy to strip Sriss of his alchemical secrets and then dispose of him, but Haunta was far more wily and dangerous. Dediana had to slay him after he crafted the Laughing Lass portals, when her attempts to learn exactly how he made portals caused him to threaten to assist Dmetrio against her. She exhausted several magic items in a narrow victory over Dreen.

Dediana has caused hundreds of gold coins to be scattered all over the wreck, and several open, empty chests are artfully arranged in its cabins, situated so that searchers are almost certain to fall through one of herportals.

All of them take creatures to the same place: one end of a cellar deep under the soaring castle of the Mrastaress.

The portals cause a chime to alert the Mrastaress whenever they operate, and then they deposit creatures several feet above the amber-hued tiles of the cellar floor; if they can't start to fly instantly, they'll fall a short distance to the floor -- which is slick since an amber oil that contains aumrara coats it. Aumrara is a contact poison, and there's more of it in a dozen decanters of wine on a stone table at the far end of the cellar, which is otherwise empty.

The Mrastaress can see and speak down into the cellar through scores of small holes in its ceiling, which is some 30 feet above the floor. The cellar is 60 feet wide and 200 feet long.

Sounding concerned, Dediana Extaminos will ask "guests" if they feel a burning sensation. If any say that they do, she'll not reveal what has afflicted them or how, but she claims that all of them have been poisoned by aumrara and must obey her henceforth or die -- since only she can provide them with the antidote.

She'll then issue orders, telling them to accomplish a particular thing, such as overcoming all opposition to seize specific items (magic items held by a wizard, temple, or ruler elsewhere in Faerûn). Sometimes they'll be sent to slay allies of Dmetrio or her many other foes.

If they return to the exact spot her "magic" (another portal that can take any living creature within 20 feet of the table when she activates it) took them to, she'll bring them back, and they'll then receive their "first dose" of antidote.

Captives who refuse are left to starve. Those who obey are paralyzed with spells when they return to the cellar, and the items they seized are taken from them (this paralyzation, they're told, is the antidote).

The City of Serpents lies on the northern shore of the Vilhon Reach, opposite Sespech, in the shadow of Mount Ugruth. This port city is linked to Alaghôn via the Halondar, and to Ormath via the Pikeman’s Folly. Hlondeth claims all the lands within 50 miles of the city’s walls, including a dozen or so minor villages and seemingly endless vineyards.

 Despite the omnipresent influence of the serpentfolk, life in the City of Serpents is not unlike that in other cities along the shores of the Vilhon Reach. Trade is king, ritualized combat is glorified, nature (particularly all things serpentine) is accorded its due, and arcane spellcasters are regarded with suspicion. Members of the kobold underclass are treated as either slaves or vermin.

 Major Geographical Features

The area around the City of Serpents is particularly rugged.

Churning Bay: The city of Hlondeth lies at the head of a froth-filled, narrow gulf. Its powerful tides challenge even skilled navigators except at slack tide. Numerous wrecks line the floor of Churning Bay, attracting brave explorers who are willing to risk the dangerous waters.

Mount Ugruth: This long-smouldering volcano looms high above the City of Serpents. Despite a few rumbles in the Year of the Serpent (1359 DR), Mount Ugruth has not erupted since the Year of the Speaking Mountain (257 DR). Nevertheless, the recent volcanic activity was sufficient to briefly open a portal to the Elemental Plane of Fire and release dozens of magmins into the volcano’s steaming heart. Some of these creatures emerge to cause havoc in the surrounding area from time to time. At the base of the volcano is a prominent Talassan temple called the Sacellum of Slumbering Fire.