This week we meet 2 very interesting characters. We are introduced to Phantaza Fentaza who is a warlock. The other character is hard to describe, but female, nude, British accent, wizard, rude, those are all words that can help paint a word picture. Thank you Eric for writing this up. We are almost done with finding the cubes. That’s crazy!!! Oh, if you don’t know me well, my name is Kent and I am a horror fanatic. With a character named Phantaza, well I think Eric already knew what this week’s video was gonna be. Ahhh Angus Scrimm, we miss you buddy. Oddly enough, Angus had a role in a Masters of Horror where he was named Buddy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm3QkHapg3Q
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Tomb of Annihilation
Chapter 19 – Snake Women are Untrustworthy and Unappreciative
With most of the city explored, the party decided to revisit the temple that had been guarded by the Grung toad-people. Upon arriving they were again set upon by a hoard of Grung, including some especially tough looking customers. Realizing that this would end in a bunch of dead Grung, a bunch of dead party members, or both, the two sides attempted to surmount their communication barriers and negotiate.
Through various grunts, gestures, and pictures, the party was able to communicate to the toad-men that they were looking for a puzzle cube that was stored in the temple. The big Grung, however, insisted that there was no such object in the temple. The party asked to be let in temporarily to investigate, but the Grungs didn’t want anyone trespassing in their holy frog temple.
After discussing the matter in a team huddle, the party agreed that it was entirely likely that the puzzle cube had already been removed from the temple and was likely in the possession of either the Yan-ti in the castle in the center of the city, or the red wizards. Not wanting to unnecessarily shed any toad-blood, the party took their leave and headed to the castle compound.
Entering the castle section of the city was easy as most of the formerly protective walls were broken and had crumbled away over the years. As they searched the area near the castle, they eventually found giant snake tracks leading to a mineshaft. It appeared that the mineshaft led under the castle.
As the party prepared to enter the mineshaft, they suddenly heard the sound of a D-bag being dragged in chains by a Yan-ti escort. To their mild surprise and displeasure, Arte and company had been taken prisoner by some Yan-ti who where on their way to the mineshaft. The party set an ambush and easily dispatched the Yan-ti slavers. Arte thanked the group but told them that everything was well in hand. He had simply let himself be captured in order to get a free ride to Omu.
With the Yan-ti taken care of, the reunited group headed into the mineshaft, and quickly found themselves standing before a giant stone door. Upon inspection, it appeared the doors led to a temple dedicated to “The Night Mother,” an evil murdering death goddess worshiped by Yan-ti and assassins.
As the party isn’t exactly known for their stealth, upon entering the temple they were immediately set upon from two different directions by a horde of Yan-ti and their pet basilisks. Compounding their misery, one of the Yan-ti groups had a warlock who began lobbing spells directly at Hertz’s face.
Despite some close calls, and after using up their remaining spells and other resources for the day, the party was able to defeat two groups of enemies. However, as they were about to strike down the warlock, she asked that the party spare her life in exchange for her help. Hesitantly the party agreed to hear her out.
The warlock introduced herself as Phantaza Fentaza. She explained that their leader was known as Rastne, and that she didn’t particularly like him. She thought that she would make a much better leader of the local Yan-ti. While she would continue abducing humanoids and sacrificing them to the Night Mother, she would do so in an environmentally conscious way. In exchange for her life, she would provide the party with directions to Rastne’s chambers, where they could slaughter him at their leisure.
As the party took down the information and was about to leave, Phantaza had one last gift to offer. She asked Hertz if he would be interested in becoming a Yan-ti, as the transformation would greatly increase his powers. Hertz shut her down definitively, saying that Talos doesn’t give a crap about snakes. Its sea serpents or nothing.
While the party was eager to continue exploring the dungeon temple, as they had burned through all their spells and had taken a significant amount of damage, they decided to retreat into the city and find a house to sleep in for the evening. After finding relatively secure accommodations, the party assigned watches and took turns sleeping.
The evening seemed to pass by without incident, however, upon waking and packing their gear, the group was ambushed immediately upon exiting the front door of their temporary home. It was clear that the party had been followed from the dungeon temple. While the Yan-ti ambushers pulled their ambush off perfectly, they failed to account for the fact that the adventurers were well armed and very skilled.
In very little time, and with the expenditure of very few resources, the party had killed eight of the ten ambushers. The remaining two attempted to flee, however Compassion, who was a lot more emo these days, determined that the Yan-ti could not be allowed to live and warn the other snake-men that they were coming. Compassion jumped on Ducky, charged at the fleeing Yan-ti, and ran them both through with his lance.
Upon returning to the temple-dungeon, the party heard the sounds of chanting and struggling from the hallway that had led to Phantaza Fentaza’s room. Curious, the party headed in the direction of the chanting. Upon reaching the room with the sounds, they found a middle aged woman chained naked to a stone alter. Standing above the woman, holding a sacrificial stabbing knife, was Phantaza.
Consulting the agreement that had been drafted at the time of Phantaza’s surrender, the party determined that this was not an “environmentally conscious” sacrifice to the Night Mother. As such, the party burst into the room and attacked Phantaza and her guards.
Using her curse magic, Phantaza sapped the party of its strength and had her room guards beat and stab the weakened adventurers. Just as all seemed lost, Compassion let out his “Ducky Distress Signal” cry. Hearing the call, Ducky entered into dino-rage mode and charged into the temple, ignoring the fact that most of the hallways were too tight to allow a dinosaur to pass through. Busting into the room, Ducky jumped over the stone altar, landed on Phantaza, and proceeded to smother her to death. With Phantaza and her magic gone, the party made quick work of the remaining mooks.
With the danger passed, Tempest went over to the altar and set the naked woman free. The woman sat up and cast the spell Summon Red Wizard Robes. Realizing that this might be the missing leader of the Red Wizard contingent in Omu, the party attempted to strike up a conversation with the woman. The woman, in a British accent, politely thanked the party for the rescue and then told them to go screw themselves as she Teleported herself out of the dungeon.
Who does that witch think she is? I mean really? Also, what else is in the dungeon temple? But again, screw that witch! See you next time on Tales from the Plunderbund Consortium!
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I also found this delightful commercial for Fangoria.
Also, here’s a pretty solid cover of Enter Sandman featuring the singer from Ghost, so I am still tying in the Phantaza thing. You’re welcome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgiilBj11uk
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