WARNING: Semi-long read ahead but I think it is important to talk about the before and after in fleshing out certain pieces. I will ask my question upfront with the meat below:
The primary place I need help is with the thieves’ guild and how I can get a party from levels 3-7 in a town of 14,000 with a guild numbering only 21 (though thugs and Yuan-Ti would boost these numbers). I was thinking of initially having the party be attacked as potential victims since they are new. That would lead them to perhaps a few other captives (some sort of holding area before moving to Najara) as well as some clues that could lead back to involvement from the guild. Reporting this to authorities could uncover other missing people that were already moved to Najara. Being as it is a thieves’ guild, I expect them to have agents within the authorities and maybe one or more merchants. I was also thinking a member of the guild could be assisting law enforcement (a member that left once the Yuan-Ti infiltrated the guild and began changing the core actions of the guild i.e. from extortion and fencing to slave trading) with pointing the players to the locations of some of the safe houses and location of prominent members. Any helpful thoughts?!
As a bonus, any thoughts on Fort Morninglord that could lead the players to some cool encounters and point it back to the Yuan-Ti? I went undead since it is ‘sealed’ though I know there could be secret underground passages etc.
Campaign Idea:
I am writing a campaign which will take a balanced group of four players from level 1-20. The campaign takes place with each character having a solo adventure that brings them to Baldur’s Gate and gets them to level 2. From there, the players are hired to escort a caravan to Scornubel which gets them to level 3.
Upon arriving in Scornubel the party is approached to investigate the disappearances of a couple of town members as well as caravan guards. My intent here is to have the characters go from level 3-7 adventuring in the town. In the SCAG it mentions the Thieves’ Guild and some merchants in Scornubel causing issues for The High Observer in Elturgard.
My idea is that the Yuan-Ti of Najara have infiltrated the Thieves’ Guild in Scornubel (and perhaps corrupted one of the merchants) and have begun kidnapping people (primarily those that will not be missed) to be used as slaves or sacrifices. In looking at some old AD&D material, a town (Scornubel) of 14,000 people would support a Thieves’ Guild of approximately 21 members, not counting some thugs and the like. This number could increase even more considering that the guild has been infiltrated and largely taken over by Yuan-Ti operatives.
Defeating the Thieves’ Guild will gain the party the attention of The High Observer who wants the party to investigate what happened at Fort Morninglord several years ago. I am thinking of a couple of undead encounters (maybe a Deathlock Mastermind, Allip’s, Ghasts, and Ghouls).
The idea here is that the captain of the fort was a Paladin/Warlock (so access to fireball) and was blackmailed by Yuan-Ti to betray his comrades but at the last minute destroyed them all and himself (thus becoming a Deathlock). Some of his lieutenants found out about his betrayal and were transformed into Allips while the remainder of his comrades became Ghasts and Ghouls. This does not fully explain how the fort became blackened and sealed but I am trying to think of how to tie in the Yuan-Ti and these are my current thoughts.
At any rate, upon discovering what happened in Fort Morninglord (from some documents and thoughts from the Allip), and the previous discovery regarding the thieves’ guild, The High Observer commissions the players (level 9 at this point), to head to Najara and investigate matters there. The players will hopefully overthrow the Sprit Naga in Najara, which sets in motion the elevation of another Yuan-Ti to become an Anathema and begin mobilizing the empire to be more aggressive. This results in Najara alliances (lizard folks in the Marsh of Chelimber and the Zhentarim of Darkhold) and the players seeking assistance from countries other than Elturgard.
The Yuan-Ti goal is to summon Merrshaulk with the assistance of the Yuan-Ti Pit Masters. The Yuan-Ti Anathema secretly hopes to destroy Merrshaulk and assume his role as a god.
Um maybe the Yuan-Ti had sealed it off, then a couple dnd teenagers playing with fire* a few years ago have scorched the exterior or necrotic energy eroded the stones?
* Teenagers are always the same, regardless of the realm. :)
Hi again! Pretty interesting to hear more details about your campaign, sounds very cool!
Immediate Thoughts: The Yuan-Ti had a mole in the Fort when the blackmailing was going on to watch their activity - let's call him Tyrosk for now, and say he's a Yuan-Ti Pureblood, perhaps who had a Circlet of Human Perfection to hide his few serpentine features from others. When the Fort was Fireball'd, Tyrosk escaped, and next made his way to the Thieves' Guild as instructed to begin infiltrating them. Now, once the dust settled on the Fort, a few yuan-ti moved in to make a base of operations. They were there for a few days, making notes on some grisly experiments and such, before the dangers of the place got to them - but they managed to seal those dangers off in a specific part of the fort. Perhaps a few months later, a group of lepers or small family who lost their own home not far off, find the Fort abandoned and move in, unknowning of the danger. They find these notes and over time grow to believe that there is some sort of "snake god" and become basically a Cult of the Serpent.
When Tyrosk revisits the place later in secret, he finds the group moved in and worshiping serpents, and shows them his true form - and convinces them that the path to being a true follower of this god is to become more serpentine. But he also convinces them that in order to do that they must undergo drastic surgeries which are imperfect yet - and he needs them to perfect them, doesn't matter that they have no prior medical knowledge, he will acquire texts and someone to teach them.
It just so happens that they haven't gone into the sealed-off area of the Fort yet, because it's - yknow. Sealed off. Perhaps physically locked. Maybe the family believes the strange noises coming from within are spirits of serpents or the imprisoned snake god they need to free. Whatever floats your boat.
Tyrosk tells them he will bring them suitable "human scum deserving of a worse fate than death" to experiment on - which could tie directly into why people have been going missing and how it relates to the Thieves' Guild. Tyrosk has infiltrated the Thieves Guild at this rate and has brought in more of his own agents into it in secret, but he is still working for his Yuan-Ti Masters, who is where he is getting the knowledge of grafting and surgery from.
By the time the PCs arrive, it could go a couple different ways:
The family is still working on perfecting the surgery and could be somewhere in the middle of grafting serpent skin onto their own selves to make themselves more snake-like, possibly through some grisly means such as burning the flesh and grafting on shed snakeskin. Various members of the family (which is probably large and mostly adults and may not actually all be related anyway) are in various stages of this gruesome process. There are still plenty of remnants of the grisly process, perhaps even living survivors from being kidnapped that may or may not be better off dead. The family has not yet gotten into the sealed portion of the temple where the haunts are.
The family has perfected their grisly methods and have all become pseudo-yuan-ti through surgery. The surviving kidnapees are their slaves and treated as scum and made to serve them. They are in the process of getting the sealed portion of the Fort open and may have already unleashed something that is actively causing problems and slowly killing them off. They may try to even enlist the PCs' help in killing this spirit.
The family has long since released the spirits in the sealed-off portion of the Fort, and have all been killed. All that remains are notes and dried-up, desecrated bodies in various stages of yuan-ti-making, all the gruesome experiments merely hinted at through environmental storytelling and perhaps the stories of any of the spirits they can manage to speak to if at all. The spirits are free throughout the fort.
"The Yuan-Ti goal is to summon Merrshaulk with the assistance of the Yuan-Ti Pit Masters. The Yuan-Ti Anathema secretly hopes to destroy Merrshaulk and assume his role as a god."
Best GM advice for designing an adventure that I've ever heard is "Someone wants something badly but is having trouble getting it" (Guy from HowToBeAGreatGM). It sounds like you've already got a large part of that sentence ready, which is awesome! Guy also explains some other great tips revolving around this sentence and how to flesh it out to produce your master plot here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaPDove54mw&list=PLsHhMRkG9uA4Rq1rfKg067ktUa1Bj6iQu&index=3&t=1665s
That whole playlist offers some AMAZING advice for building a campaign, but I've gotten the most out of those two videos for sure.
So, Yuan-Ti Anathema (who needs a name, will call him YTA for now) wants to kill Merrshaulk by a certain time (let's go with Guy's "By the next planetary alignment") but is having trouble getting it (using his yuan-ti followers) because Merrshaulk needs to be summoned first. Merrshaulk can only be summoned by (insert ritual name here), which requires (insert ritual requirements here, such as blood sacrifices and a mystical yuan-ti artifact that is kept in a museum in Baulder's Gate). YTA needs the Thieves' Guild on his side in order to steal (artifact), but can't risk his operatives that have infiltrated the guild, so needs to get the guild to hire outside help.
Perhaps part of the PCs' goal given to them somehow is to infiltrate the Thieves Guild themselves, and to do so they need to pose as potential new applicant members - and after a couple of minor heists, they are sent to get (artifact) from the museum as a final show of their skill before they can meet the "big boss." But in reality, the TG probably has figured out they're spies, and the PCs might not want to steal this artifact for reasons they may or may not come up with on their own - so Tyrosk has made it so that whatever the PCs do to steal the artifact is only a front for the actual theft of the artifact that his own agents or himself are going to accomplish while the PCs and everyone else are busy, using the cover of night to deliver this artifact to his bosses and maybe replacing it with a false one (which is something the PCs themselves could have been suggested to do; double trick swap! the one they get if they do steal it is also an excellent fake! but the guild won't tell them that if the PCs DO fetch it for them, so as to not let them know what's going on).
YTA might also be leading his followers into a purposefully bad ritual - one that will summon Merrshaulk, but in a weakened state, so that he will have an easier time killing him to assume his godhood. During the "Testing Stuff" stage perhaps one of his goals is to kill a lesser demigod somewhere in the area and devour the body in order to gain more power so that he'll be powerful enough to take on Merrshaulk - which is yet another quest the PCs could be involved with, such as trying to stop or get roped into helping somehow by secret agent questgivers that are actually evil the whole time.
Anyway, there's a lot of ideas I've spewed down. Hopefully at least a couple things are helpful and give you some ideas of your own. This campaign sounds super cool and like it'll be a ton of fun to run. Good luck!
Thank you for the very informative tips and ideas! I am pulling most of my ideas from some areas of the SCAG that are not completely fleshed out so many of the names are already there. I like the region because, in all of the D&D novels I have read, none have taken place in that region. I have watched some of the videos on "How to be a great GM" primarily concerning campaign arcs, but I clearly need to watch the series you linked. I have played D&D since 1988 (I was 8 years old) but joined the Army in 1998 and have only played a handful of times in the past 22 years. Fortunately, I have gotten almost all of the books for each addition since that time, and I still read the novels. That being said, I am rusty and these videos will help formalize my thoughts.
Right now I have begun breaking the thoughts into sessions, but I need to first break them into arcs for each tier of play. I think that will help me formalize my plan which I will need as the PC's level up in order to design encounters that are meaningful and challenging enough for the players. I may have the group escort the caravan from Baldurs Gate and experience a heavy ambush near Fort Morninglord (which is a day ride from Elturel and probably four more days from Elturel to Scornubel) where some NPC members of their caravan are captured and drug off to be enslaved or whatever. The party could then seek permission to explore Fort Morninglord and that would end that arc by the players going to 4th or 5th level.
Afterward, the party could continue to Scornubel and become entangled in the Thieves' Guild activities which lead them to uncover additional information and similarities regarding waylaying caravans, taken people captive, the tactics, and procedures (involving poison, nets, etc) that they experienced near Fort Morninglord. The engagements with the Thieves' Guild would take them through tier 2 (levels 5-10) and have them on the verge of engaging the real Yuan-Ti threat in Najara.
I really like your idea of some cultlike activity in and around Fort Morninglord and especially your idea about an ancient Yuan-Ti artifact from Baldur's Gate being required for a ritual. I may make that the ritual for Dhosun Silverscale (the spirit naga Jarant's yuan-ti purebloods councilor) to transform into a Yuan-Ti Abomination or for his next goal of a Yuan-Ti Anathema. I also like the idea of Dhosun practicing his ritual to summon a lesser diety (there are several lesser demi-gods mentioned that the Yuan-Ti worship) which may have been summoned in error (an unweakened state) and the PC's have to deal with it.
This could indicate to the PC's that Dhosun can in fact summon a diety and perhaps give them some idea of what his plan is (summon a deity in a weakened state so he can defeat it). My thoughts for these transformation rituals, as well as summoning a diety are the requirements of many sacrifices (like in the thousands). I got some killer dungeon tiles from (https://lunesdargentworkshop.com/) that fit my Aztec and Egyptian themes I find fit perfectly for the Yuan-Ti. I am imagining mass sacrifices practices by the Aztecs to feed these ritualistic actions which force the Yuan-Ti to expand their aggressive actions to their neighbors and even their allies (lizard folks in the Marsh of Chelimber and the Zhentarim of Darkhold) as the good folk begin mobilizing against them.
For the overall tiers of play here are my loose thoughts:
Tier 1: Levels 1-4 - Local Heroes. (Session 0 to meet in Baldurs Gate, escorting the caravan, exploring Fort Morninglord)
Tier 2: Levels 5-10 - Heroes of the Realm. (Arrival in Scornubel, conflict with the thieves' guild, uncovering the yuan-ti linkage, initial engagements with the yuan-ti)
Tier 3: Levels 11-16 - Masters of the Realm. (Assaulting the yuan-ti, "killing" Jarant, Dhosun's Abomination transformation, acquiring a wish item from an Ancient Green Dragon, killing Jarant again with the required wish, Dhosun's Anathema transformation, aggressive expansion efforts to acquire sacrifices, summoning of minor yuan-ti demi-god)
Tier 4: Levels 17-20 - Masters of the World. (Formalizing alliances against the yuan-ti, maybe facing strong summoned allies of the yuan-ti, ultimately facing Dhosun as he either defeats or unleashes Merrshaulk)
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Hello!
WARNING: Semi-long read ahead but I think it is important to talk about the before and after in fleshing out certain pieces. I will ask my question upfront with the meat below:
The primary place I need help is with the thieves’ guild and how I can get a party from levels 3-7 in a town of 14,000 with a guild numbering only 21 (though thugs and Yuan-Ti would boost these numbers). I was thinking of initially having the party be attacked as potential victims since they are new. That would lead them to perhaps a few other captives (some sort of holding area before moving to Najara) as well as some clues that could lead back to involvement from the guild. Reporting this to authorities could uncover other missing people that were already moved to Najara. Being as it is a thieves’ guild, I expect them to have agents within the authorities and maybe one or more merchants. I was also thinking a member of the guild could be assisting law enforcement (a member that left once the Yuan-Ti infiltrated the guild and began changing the core actions of the guild i.e. from extortion and fencing to slave trading) with pointing the players to the locations of some of the safe houses and location of prominent members. Any helpful thoughts?!
As a bonus, any thoughts on Fort Morninglord that could lead the players to some cool encounters and point it back to the Yuan-Ti? I went undead since it is ‘sealed’ though I know there could be secret underground passages etc.
Campaign Idea:
I am writing a campaign which will take a balanced group of four players from level 1-20. The campaign takes place with each character having a solo adventure that brings them to Baldur’s Gate and gets them to level 2. From there, the players are hired to escort a caravan to Scornubel which gets them to level 3.
Upon arriving in Scornubel the party is approached to investigate the disappearances of a couple of town members as well as caravan guards. My intent here is to have the characters go from level 3-7 adventuring in the town. In the SCAG it mentions the Thieves’ Guild and some merchants in Scornubel causing issues for The High Observer in Elturgard.
My idea is that the Yuan-Ti of Najara have infiltrated the Thieves’ Guild in Scornubel (and perhaps corrupted one of the merchants) and have begun kidnapping people (primarily those that will not be missed) to be used as slaves or sacrifices. In looking at some old AD&D material, a town (Scornubel) of 14,000 people would support a Thieves’ Guild of approximately 21 members, not counting some thugs and the like. This number could increase even more considering that the guild has been infiltrated and largely taken over by Yuan-Ti operatives.
Defeating the Thieves’ Guild will gain the party the attention of The High Observer who wants the party to investigate what happened at Fort Morninglord several years ago. I am thinking of a couple of undead encounters (maybe a Deathlock Mastermind, Allip’s, Ghasts, and Ghouls).
The idea here is that the captain of the fort was a Paladin/Warlock (so access to fireball) and was blackmailed by Yuan-Ti to betray his comrades but at the last minute destroyed them all and himself (thus becoming a Deathlock). Some of his lieutenants found out about his betrayal and were transformed into Allips while the remainder of his comrades became Ghasts and Ghouls. This does not fully explain how the fort became blackened and sealed but I am trying to think of how to tie in the Yuan-Ti and these are my current thoughts.
At any rate, upon discovering what happened in Fort Morninglord (from some documents and thoughts from the Allip), and the previous discovery regarding the thieves’ guild, The High Observer commissions the players (level 9 at this point), to head to Najara and investigate matters there. The players will hopefully overthrow the Sprit Naga in Najara, which sets in motion the elevation of another Yuan-Ti to become an Anathema and begin mobilizing the empire to be more aggressive. This results in Najara alliances (lizard folks in the Marsh of Chelimber and the Zhentarim of Darkhold) and the players seeking assistance from countries other than Elturgard.
The Yuan-Ti goal is to summon Merrshaulk with the assistance of the Yuan-Ti Pit Masters. The Yuan-Ti Anathema secretly hopes to destroy Merrshaulk and assume his role as a god.
Thanks for any help!
Um maybe the Yuan-Ti had sealed it off, then a couple dnd teenagers playing with fire* a few years ago have scorched the exterior or necrotic energy eroded the stones?
* Teenagers are always the same, regardless of the realm. :)
Enjoy my magic items, spells, monsters, my race, and a few feats. And GIVE ME FEEDBACK... or else.
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Hi again! Pretty interesting to hear more details about your campaign, sounds very cool!
Immediate Thoughts: The Yuan-Ti had a mole in the Fort when the blackmailing was going on to watch their activity - let's call him Tyrosk for now, and say he's a Yuan-Ti Pureblood, perhaps who had a Circlet of Human Perfection to hide his few serpentine features from others. When the Fort was Fireball'd, Tyrosk escaped, and next made his way to the Thieves' Guild as instructed to begin infiltrating them. Now, once the dust settled on the Fort, a few yuan-ti moved in to make a base of operations. They were there for a few days, making notes on some grisly experiments and such, before the dangers of the place got to them - but they managed to seal those dangers off in a specific part of the fort. Perhaps a few months later, a group of lepers or small family who lost their own home not far off, find the Fort abandoned and move in, unknowning of the danger. They find these notes and over time grow to believe that there is some sort of "snake god" and become basically a Cult of the Serpent.
When Tyrosk revisits the place later in secret, he finds the group moved in and worshiping serpents, and shows them his true form - and convinces them that the path to being a true follower of this god is to become more serpentine. But he also convinces them that in order to do that they must undergo drastic surgeries which are imperfect yet - and he needs them to perfect them, doesn't matter that they have no prior medical knowledge, he will acquire texts and someone to teach them.
It just so happens that they haven't gone into the sealed-off area of the Fort yet, because it's - yknow. Sealed off. Perhaps physically locked. Maybe the family believes the strange noises coming from within are spirits of serpents or the imprisoned snake god they need to free. Whatever floats your boat.
Tyrosk tells them he will bring them suitable "human scum deserving of a worse fate than death" to experiment on - which could tie directly into why people have been going missing and how it relates to the Thieves' Guild. Tyrosk has infiltrated the Thieves Guild at this rate and has brought in more of his own agents into it in secret, but he is still working for his Yuan-Ti Masters, who is where he is getting the knowledge of grafting and surgery from.
By the time the PCs arrive, it could go a couple different ways:
"The Yuan-Ti goal is to summon Merrshaulk with the assistance of the Yuan-Ti Pit Masters. The Yuan-Ti Anathema secretly hopes to destroy Merrshaulk and assume his role as a god."
Best GM advice for designing an adventure that I've ever heard is "Someone wants something badly but is having trouble getting it" (Guy from HowToBeAGreatGM). It sounds like you've already got a large part of that sentence ready, which is awesome! Guy also explains some other great tips revolving around this sentence and how to flesh it out to produce your master plot here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaPDove54mw&list=PLsHhMRkG9uA4Rq1rfKg067ktUa1Bj6iQu&index=3&t=1665s
He then also has a video explaining how to break this sentence down into 4 arcs here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFLt44fmVCk&list=PLsHhMRkG9uA4Rq1rfKg067ktUa1Bj6iQu&index=5
That whole playlist offers some AMAZING advice for building a campaign, but I've gotten the most out of those two videos for sure.
So, Yuan-Ti Anathema (who needs a name, will call him YTA for now) wants to kill Merrshaulk by a certain time (let's go with Guy's "By the next planetary alignment") but is having trouble getting it (using his yuan-ti followers) because Merrshaulk needs to be summoned first. Merrshaulk can only be summoned by (insert ritual name here), which requires (insert ritual requirements here, such as blood sacrifices and a mystical yuan-ti artifact that is kept in a museum in Baulder's Gate). YTA needs the Thieves' Guild on his side in order to steal (artifact), but can't risk his operatives that have infiltrated the guild, so needs to get the guild to hire outside help.
Perhaps part of the PCs' goal given to them somehow is to infiltrate the Thieves Guild themselves, and to do so they need to pose as potential new applicant members - and after a couple of minor heists, they are sent to get (artifact) from the museum as a final show of their skill before they can meet the "big boss." But in reality, the TG probably has figured out they're spies, and the PCs might not want to steal this artifact for reasons they may or may not come up with on their own - so Tyrosk has made it so that whatever the PCs do to steal the artifact is only a front for the actual theft of the artifact that his own agents or himself are going to accomplish while the PCs and everyone else are busy, using the cover of night to deliver this artifact to his bosses and maybe replacing it with a false one (which is something the PCs themselves could have been suggested to do; double trick swap! the one they get if they do steal it is also an excellent fake! but the guild won't tell them that if the PCs DO fetch it for them, so as to not let them know what's going on).
YTA might also be leading his followers into a purposefully bad ritual - one that will summon Merrshaulk, but in a weakened state, so that he will have an easier time killing him to assume his godhood. During the "Testing Stuff" stage perhaps one of his goals is to kill a lesser demigod somewhere in the area and devour the body in order to gain more power so that he'll be powerful enough to take on Merrshaulk - which is yet another quest the PCs could be involved with, such as trying to stop or get roped into helping somehow by secret agent questgivers that are actually evil the whole time.
Anyway, there's a lot of ideas I've spewed down. Hopefully at least a couple things are helpful and give you some ideas of your own. This campaign sounds super cool and like it'll be a ton of fun to run. Good luck!
Thank you for the very informative tips and ideas! I am pulling most of my ideas from some areas of the SCAG that are not completely fleshed out so many of the names are already there. I like the region because, in all of the D&D novels I have read, none have taken place in that region. I have watched some of the videos on "How to be a great GM" primarily concerning campaign arcs, but I clearly need to watch the series you linked. I have played D&D since 1988 (I was 8 years old) but joined the Army in 1998 and have only played a handful of times in the past 22 years. Fortunately, I have gotten almost all of the books for each addition since that time, and I still read the novels. That being said, I am rusty and these videos will help formalize my thoughts.
Right now I have begun breaking the thoughts into sessions, but I need to first break them into arcs for each tier of play. I think that will help me formalize my plan which I will need as the PC's level up in order to design encounters that are meaningful and challenging enough for the players. I may have the group escort the caravan from Baldurs Gate and experience a heavy ambush near Fort Morninglord (which is a day ride from Elturel and probably four more days from Elturel to Scornubel) where some NPC members of their caravan are captured and drug off to be enslaved or whatever. The party could then seek permission to explore Fort Morninglord and that would end that arc by the players going to 4th or 5th level.
Afterward, the party could continue to Scornubel and become entangled in the Thieves' Guild activities which lead them to uncover additional information and similarities regarding waylaying caravans, taken people captive, the tactics, and procedures (involving poison, nets, etc) that they experienced near Fort Morninglord. The engagements with the Thieves' Guild would take them through tier 2 (levels 5-10) and have them on the verge of engaging the real Yuan-Ti threat in Najara.
I really like your idea of some cultlike activity in and around Fort Morninglord and especially your idea about an ancient Yuan-Ti artifact from Baldur's Gate being required for a ritual. I may make that the ritual for Dhosun Silverscale (the spirit naga Jarant's yuan-ti purebloods councilor) to transform into a Yuan-Ti Abomination or for his next goal of a Yuan-Ti Anathema. I also like the idea of Dhosun practicing his ritual to summon a lesser diety (there are several lesser demi-gods mentioned that the Yuan-Ti worship) which may have been summoned in error (an unweakened state) and the PC's have to deal with it.
This could indicate to the PC's that Dhosun can in fact summon a diety and perhaps give them some idea of what his plan is (summon a deity in a weakened state so he can defeat it). My thoughts for these transformation rituals, as well as summoning a diety are the requirements of many sacrifices (like in the thousands). I got some killer dungeon tiles from (https://lunesdargentworkshop.com/) that fit my Aztec and Egyptian themes I find fit perfectly for the Yuan-Ti. I am imagining mass sacrifices practices by the Aztecs to feed these ritualistic actions which force the Yuan-Ti to expand their aggressive actions to their neighbors and even their allies (lizard folks in the Marsh of Chelimber and the Zhentarim of Darkhold) as the good folk begin mobilizing against them.
For the overall tiers of play here are my loose thoughts: