Interlude - The Clutch of Dendar

The Stormbrewers had charged forward onto a precarious rope bridge in the Serpent Hills in order to confront the two Yuan-Ti who had greeted them. As the front-liners engaged the relatively weak Purebloods, Kassodar was caught straggling back on the ledges by a squad of Malisons who pounced down on him from the cliffs above. As the poison coursed through his veins and his body was crushed in their constricting grasp, Zeela and Harlan rushed back to come to his aid, but feared they might not make it in time.

Help arrived unexpectedly in the form of the Oontax Elder of Irthos-Aujir, who revived the young Drow with her healing magic. She told Alegard that the quest at hand, the rescue of the year's youth, took precedence over his exile, and that they must venture into the Yuan-Ti lair together immediately.

Resting up with a quick Catnap, the Brewers proceeded into the cavern at the end of the canyon, a yawning stone snake maw. As they groped blindly through the darkness within the cave, they came across some small misshapen Yuan-Ti mutants. Slaying these foul beings, they proceeded to the easternmost cavern, where Tilly Tranche had sensed the presence of a thin spot in the planar fabric.

As Zeela turned the corner, her gaze fell upon the broken and discarded eggshells of the Irthos Aujir clutch. The supposed Oontanx revealed herself to be a Yuan-Ti in disguise, mocking and taunting Alegard, calling him a kinslayer for having dispatched the Yuan-Ti mutants which were all that remained of the dragonborn hatchlings, transformed by vile magic and alchemy.

As Alegard raged and poured forth wild magic, he provided the final catalyst required to complete the Yuan-Ti ritual to bring the avatar of Dendar, the Night Serpent through the planar void and into the world. But as the avatar began to tear into the adventurers and all hope seemed lost, the tear in the fabric of reality combined with the wild magic set off a chain reaction that sent the unconscious Stormbrewers hurtling across the planes.

They awoke in a strange woodland clearing, the air hanging heavy with cold, clinging mist. As they picked themselves off the ground and looked around for any sign of where they were, what had happened, and where the Yuan-Ti were, they heard the howling of wolves carried on a wind that whipped dead leaves over their heads....