In the jungles of Xen’drik, miles outside the relative safety of Stormreach, a band of dark elves stalked their prey.  Qulashtaq, or “dream serpents” to the foreigners, were both aspects of the Devourer, and valuable prey as well.  Their hide and scales made tough armor, their fangs strong and sharp weapons, their bones and eyes were ground and consumed in religious rituals, their flesh fed the tribe, and their unique and valuable venom poisoned their blades.  The hunters and adventurers came out of the city-ruin, so-called “Stormreach” to clumsily slaughter the beasts as cowards, stripping them of merely their hides and largest fangs, leaving the valuable remains to rot in the jungle.  That is not how things were done with the Bloodsting tribe, how they would be done tonight.<br/><br/>Kaxxar had grown up among the hunters and warriors, learning their ways and craft, becoming one with the jungle and the beasts within.  Soon he would be worthy of joining the hunting parties, of scouting out new hunting grounds, and tracking the breeding and migration of their prey.  But tonight, he had to prove his worth by tracking, stalking, and killing a dream serpent himself.  Of course a fully grown and mature serpent was a challenge even for a hunting party, and they also defend nests as groups, but a scout found a juvenile that would provide a suitable challenge for the new to-be ranger.<br/><br/>Padding through the jungles behind the young Kaxxar (http://imgur.com/Wf75oTH) were three of his superiors of the tribe, Ek’ann, Xen’va, and Eshira, to witness and confirm the kill, and also keep an eye out for any unexpected challenges that might interfere with the test.  While a drow warrior was expected to hold his own or die, they did not need to simply throw away a promising future hunter to a stray monster or rival tribe’s ambush.  Ek’ann (http://i.imgur.com/2fwwnsG.jpg) was something of the tribe’s champion, bearing the might and presence of Vulkoor, especially his role as protector of the drow.  Xen’va (http://i.imgur.com/cf33M1p.jpg) more directly channeled the succor of Vulkoor, providing comfort and healing, as well as standing as an example of what role (http://imgur.com/5eHsMvH) a male might take if he didn’t pass his rites of manhood.  The local plants the Bloodsting tribe subsided on had side effects on the birthrate and physiology of the tribe.  At normal amounts, fertility was inhibited, requiring multiple matings, often with multiple partners, and over several days, to maintain the tribe.  The women were also granted very comely figures as well, filling out more than the normal slight elf frame to rival the hourglass curves of humans and more fecund races.  If concentrated in poultices and potions, however, the herbs could lead to a nearly-complete feminization of a male to become nearly indistinguishable from a healthy fertile female.  Sometimes this lead to an impotence of the former male as she accepted her new role, but others, like Xen’va, took on the role of female and breed-partner willingly and with gusto, maintaining their virility.  So while they may not directly contribute to the tribe’s birthrates, they were often excellent supporters in the common orgies (http://i.imgur.com/yHszXgw.jpg) held to encourage pregnancies.<br/><br/>Now however, they were approaching the area the scout had given them of the dream serpent.  As a juvenile, its nest may have been destroyed by humans, and as such was probably on the hunt for a new nest of its own to settle.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Arcana 10</div><div class="spoiler_body">Dream serpents are magical beasts named for the hallucinatory effects of their venom.<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Arcana 15</div><div class="spoiler_body">A dream serpent has a venemous bite that numbs its victim’s insticts.  However, it prefers to use it sleep gaze before resorting to melee.</div></div></div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Nature 10</div><div class="spoiler_body">The drow hunted dream serpents long before explorers came to Xen’drik.  Now competition for the serpents means that hunters must be wary of drow retaliation, as well as the threat from the serpents themselves.</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Religion 12</div><div class="spoiler_body">The drow and yuan-ti of Xen’drik both revere the dream serpent, but the yuan-ti present the greater threat to hunters.  They worship the serpents as an aspect of the Devourer and consider killing one to be an act of deepest sacrilege.<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Religion 17</div><div class="spoiler_body">The drow practice of using every part of the dream serpent, however, earns the yuan-ti's truce in this matter worthy of the Devourer's respect.</div></div></div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Survival 15</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Pass</div><div class="spoiler_body">You pick up the trail of the serpent, fallen twigs on the jungle floor and foliage above smothered from a heavy, serpentine slithering.  This leads your gaze up to the temporary nest of the dream serpent<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Perception 14</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Pass</div><div class="spoiler_body">You see the dream serpent gazing down at you, its eyes iridescent and almost hypnotic, but your fey heritage is at one with such things, and you may warn Kaxxar of the beast, allowing him to strike first.</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Fail</div><div class="spoiler_body">After a long moment of staring up and around, a man-sized green serpent with glistening silver scales falls upon Kaxxar with a heavy thud, striking and biting with dagger-like fangs.<br/>[Bite 20:  6 damage, 5 Wis damage to Kaxxar<br/>The dream serpent acts again on initiative 14]</div></div></div></div></div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Fail</div><div class="spoiler_body">You continue following Kaxxar through the jungle, following the tracks of broken underbrush and scraped trees<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Perception 10</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Pass</div><div class="spoiler_body">Instead of a giant snake, the exhibitionary hunting party suddenly becomes a raiding party as they come across an encampment of human poachers.  With a single night-blind watchman siting by a bed of coals and surrounded by three sleeping figures, they're easy pickings.<br/><br/>"Notice their sacks, Kaxxar.  No doubt filled with our people's property and rightful treasures.  We must kill them and let them feed the jungle." Xev'na whispers to the young ranger, readying a shortsword.</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Fail</div><div class="spoiler_body">Turning a corner of a secret grotto hidden in overgrowth, the hunting party is suddenly face to face with the stunned face of a human watchman who stumbles up from the meager remains of a campfire to studder "D-drow!" as he kicks one of his three other comrades awake.<br/>[Humans act on ititiative 11]</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>