Temple of the False Serpent


 * For the episode, see Temple of the False Serpent.

Inside the small snake village on the island of Urukaxl is the Temple of the False Serpent. It was built in honor of Uk'otoa and later taken over by yuan-ti who rededicated it to The Cloaked Serpent.

Description
The temple is a five-sided pyramid with 3 different levels. The top layer is in the form of a pentagram with a fountain, the second holds a small orchard and in the last lives the warden.

Exterior
The temple is a five-sided pyramid that levels at top, on each side is a stair to the top and a massive stone structure on the bottom. The stonework and the construct of this entire temple is very old and very simple. At the top of the temple is a worship terrace with statues, a tablet, a table, and a trap door. The torch-bearing statues of snakes are sitting near the corners. On top of the statues is a golden idol with a carved divot on the inside where the torch burns and where ceremonial sacrifices take place. The heavy stone tablet is about 12-foot by six-foot and rests directly in the center. There are metal rings bolted with metal rivets to the sides. The stone itself appears to be stained with a variety of various shades of stain. The trap door has a handle built on it and a latch that locks behind itself. It leads to the inside the temple into a pentagram chamber.

Pentagram chamber
This chamber is partway down from where it is on the surface. It is built in a diamond-shape with green growth in the corners. There are six-inch hole in each corner in the walls that leads to a tunnel that slowly descends downward. Inside the chamber is a staircase, a fountain, and two designed load-bearing pillars. The walls are decorated with a lot of intricate carvings and additional stone to represent snake creatures surmounting and a great snake god. The iconography in this chamber is based on Zehir, the Cloaked Serpent, and the imbuing of their power into the snake followers and giving them mutations. There are people going into this metamorphosis and transforming into a number of the larger snake. Underneath the carvings there is the older stone of the temple.

One of the steps is trapped turning the stairs into a 45-degree angle slide, after a few minutes it reverts to its initial state. In the center, is a raised platform with a two-tiered fountain with brackish and green water trickling off the sides trough four small little grooves in to holes through the floor. The fountain basin, has two reliefs of coiled snakes sitting underneath the water. One has empty eyes, the other has an empty eye socket and a dull gray eye that remains. When the eye sockets are filled with rubies the fountain shifts and reveals a staircase that slowly spirals down and gives way to two feet of smooth pillar, and a thin stair that continue to spiral down to the chamber below.

Small Orchard
The orchard is a four-sided chamber that is 70 by 50 by 40 feet tall with no access to sunlight but it has a bright orange-yellow color. The smell is a fresh earth, vegetation, with fermentation and rot. The small orchard consists of a singular type of tree that is repeatedly planted throughout the area. The treescarries bared green-yellow colored fruits a lot are beginning to ferment on the ground and rot. It has a thick mass of jungle vines, roots, and damp earth. The fruit tastes good but with an iron aftertaste to it and it causes someone to trip balls.

On the south, western, and northern wall, are large eight feet wide, ten feet tall stone tablets that are affixed to the wall. Two feet off the ground are holes pushed in against some of the vines and where some carvings are. On the tablets are inscriptions that mirror the same vision of Zehir as in the pentagram chamber. On the bottom of each of these tablets is a hole that's about 12 inches wide and five inches tall that leads to other chambers. When the fruit is eaten beautiful extremely bright symbols can be seen glowing.
 * Eastern wall, “The sacrifice feeds the fountain”.
 * Southern tablet, “The fountain feeds the garden”.
 * Western tablet, “The garden feeds the warden”.
 * Northern tablet, “The warden guards the false serpent”.

Southern and Northern rooms
This room is used as a hatchery with a strong smell of fermentation. Along the ground are clusters of one-foot tall reptilian eggs. They've been placed in various edges, nestled in soft dirt and molding fruit. There is a decomposed broken humanoid corpse in this room, by one of the egg clusters.

Western room
It is a relatively simple 15 by ten feet chamber. There are elements of stonework with carvings along the walls, a lever, and stairs. The carvings depict the temple and the city that surrounds it. The lever opens all the tree rooms and moves the fountain back up. The ten-foot wide set of stairs slowly spiral downward for 60 feet in to the next chamber.

Warden's chamber
The chamber is 60-foot high and filled with two inches of water. It has three large intricately carved load-bearing pillars, a small well, and a couple of raised platforms. This chamber is a lair for the guardian of the temple.

The Mighty Nein, Avantika, and Jamedi enter the temple in their search for the next stage to release the seals of Uk'otoa. Upon entering Nott triggers the trap on the staircase and they all start sliding down. When they land they are immediately noticed by four snakelike creatures.

After the Mighty Nein, Avantika, and Jamedi dealt with the four snake people they try to find their way further down in to the temple. Nott decides to put the rubies they found into the eye sockets of the depicted snakes in the fountain using Mage hand. The fountain shifts and reveals stairs that spiral down below to the lightless internal orchard.

They find the decomposing fruit and Nott decides to eat it and soon after she is tripping balls because of it. Based on the shape of the temple they saw, they conclude that there should be more space on the sides and the front the orchard and it looks to be a central chamber of this floor. Tripping balls Nott is able to see the symbols on the tablets and sketch them, so everybody can see it. Trying to understand the symbols better Caleb eats the fruit and decipher the symbols Nott gets entangled by the vines and eventually knocked out. They managed to dispatch the attacking vines and go back to investigating the stone tablets. Looking into the rooms Nott decides to crawl into the Western chamber. Looking at the cravings along the wall Nott grabs the lever that opens all tree rooms and moves the fountain back up. When the party joins Nott, Beau leads the party down into the next chamber.

In the subterranean warden's chamber, they found a yuan-ti abomination that was laying guard to the true guardian: a large hydra. The hydra had turned around and laid waste to the party, but they managed to cleave all the heads from its body and kill it just in time.