The next morning you awake and look out over the water. While it was only to knee height in Nangnang's Shrine, you can see it gets much deeper further out - potentially over your head. You decide that there are other places to explore first. You decide to skirt back around the palace, over the log and north up to the main part of the city. However Grizz Lee is keen to see what is in the palace area, so while you make your way back round, bashing your way through the undergrowth, he climbs up the side of the palace wall. On the other side he sees thousands of bats swirling above a great ruin. From his vantage on the east side of a huge 15-foot-high circular wall, he looks at crumbling arcades, vine-choked statues, empty plazas, and buildings overgrown with banyan roots. Streets that aren't flooded are choked with rubble. However he sees that in the city directly below him are snakes, lots of snakes which he realises are watching him. He starts to move clockwise around the top of the wall and watches as the snakes immediately start following him along the inside of the wall. However he has a clear path and is able to move faster. He catches up with you and warns you of what is happening. When you reach the southern gate of the wall you move into an ambush position. Besh, Orvex and his followers find a good vantage point in a ruined house, Trayzeal climbs the wall and finds a good sniping position and Grizz Lee stands in a waiting position in the entrance. Suddenly snakes pour out from many streets. Some move towards the entrance, but many also continue onwards into other alleys. However from his vantage point, Trayzeal sees the others pour into some bushes, which he realises must be a concealed entrance to something. The snakes at the entrance to the palace transform into Yuan-ti, with the bodies of Chultan Warriors and heads of snakes. One approaches Trayzeal. "Welcome to the palace of Ras Nsi", he says in Chultan, "our master has been waiting for you and wishes to speak with you and your wizard friends". "Why does he want to speak with us?", asks Grizz Lee "He would discuss why you are searching the shrines of the trickster gods. He knows you seek the puzzle cubes, but he wishes to know why. Come, we will take you to him". "Tell him to come to us", says Grizz Lee "If my master requests your presence, then you must comply. Don't worry, the journey will be well worth your while. If you give my master what he wants, and he decides he likes you he may grant you the honour of being transformed. You will know power beyond you current imagining". "Nope", says Grizz Lee, "we are not going". "Oh, but you are", says the Yuan-Ti. And then suddenly they all attack. It is a tough battle, and Yuan-ti reinforcement come out from the hidden area, but the advantageous position that you had all taken up plays to your advantage and you are able to defeat them. You decide to quickly move on before more Yuan-Ti appear and quickly make your way to the log and over the river. You then find a building to take a short rest and to bind your wounds. You then start exploring a part of the city you had not been to before. You find the abandoned campsite of the company of the yellow banner that Selu and Wesktek had mentioned and find that all the buildings in this part of the city have already been thoroughly explored. You keep on moving though and before long you find yourself at another shrine. By this time Selu and Weshtek are grumbling. They have been with you for days and found no treasure at all. Cracked monoliths flank the entrance to this ruin. Saw-edged ferns grow in the courtyard between broken flagstones. A pair of stone doors provide entry to a large, flat-roofed ruin. Grizz Lee spots a small horned rabbit in the courtyard -and Almiraj, so transforms into one and hops around exploring the courtyard. The almiraj is very interested in him, but when he does not return the interest soon hops away. Sculptural reliefs decorate the doors of this shrine. The carvings show a horned rabbit charging a small, feral-looking bear with sharp claws. A cuneiform message is etched above the doors. Seeing no immediate danger, Grizz Lee returns to his own form and calls the others in. Orvex translates the inscription which reads "I'jin teaches us to take the path least expected". There are also small inscriptions under the carving which tell a story.... One morning, a wise zorbo emerged from her hollow tree and spoke to the dying Omuans. To convince Ubtao of their worth, she decided to cook him a stew made from all their good qualities. Catching such virtues wouldn't be easy, so she asked a wily almiraj to help her. The almiraj snuck recklessness in the pot, which she saw as a virtue, and Ubtao spat out the stew when he tasted it. From that day on, Obo'laka the zorbo and I'jin the almiraj became terrible enemies. You open the doors to the shrine. A ten-foot-wide hallway strikes off into the gloom. Carved tiles depicting various beasts decorate the hallway floor. Trayzeal figures out that the path to follow is one that avoids standing on the same animal carving twice and you all make it to the other side. You then find your way though a labyrinth of tunnels, trapped with swinging blades until you find a room where a puzzle cube rests on a pedestal. Unable to find any traps you pick up the cube. Nothing happens. There were no traps. You now have I'jins puzzle cube. You make your way back to the entrance, but as Trayzeal is about to walk out into the daylight he spots movement at the top of the courtyard walls. A group of Yuan-ti have set an ambush. He retreats back into the shrine but has been spotted and is peppered with arrows as he flees. As he looks behind him he sees some Yuan-ti with snake heads, but also Yuan-ti in human form, but with a reptilian aspect. The Yuan-ti rush into the shrine, but they do not pay any attention to the tiles on the floor. As they run forward they set off dart traps, weakening them. Then they run into a moon-beam that is cast into the entrance way by Grizz Lee, and a fireball cast by Orvex. Despite all this damage they keep coming and you all flee into the labyrinth in different directions, pursued by Yuan-ti. It is a stressful flight, and two of you are nearly killed but eventually you all make your way to the room where the puzzle cube was and slam the door behind you. You hear a voice coming through the door, speaking in Chultan. "There is no point in resisting us. Our reinforcements are coming. You can either choose to come with us now, or you will die in this tomb waiting for us to leave". You decide to resist and summon swarms of insects that you send under the door. You hear screams and then nothing. You emerge, finding Yuan-ti corpses scattered throughout the shrine. You make your way out, then find a safe hiding place to rest another evening.
