In the middle of the vast Hool Swamps lies a nation of vile snake-men.  Perverse beings that were once human, the yuan-ti are now dedicated to demonic patrons and serve as the brokers of foul toxins, assassins, spies, and kidnappers.  This city is a true nest of evil and a poisonous blight on the southern lands.  Let those who dare to tread in the lands of H’Thiss Kaa beware!

The City-State of H'Thiss Kaa 

The city-state of H’Thiss Kaa (the name is an onomatopoeia for a snake’s hiss) is dominated by a faction of yuan-ti that stand apart from the groups of snake-men that live in Hepmonaland and the Amedio Jungles.  These yuan-ti do not follow the religious practices of their fellows in those places and may indeed represent an entirely different strain of that evil race (Note 1).  The city that houses the yuan-ti is that of faded, crumbling magnificence.  The frescos and artwork in the stone walls of the city hint of origins from another exotic land.

Further cementing the idea that this particular city of yuan-ti is a race apart from the other species, the cultural and religious practices of H’Thiss Kaa favor the worship of Abyssal powers such as Sch’theraqpasstt and the god Merrshaulk.  The yuan-ti of the Amedio and Hepmonaland  favor the Olman deity Tlaloc or are worshippers of Meyanok.

In truth, the origins for the yuan-ti of H’Thiss Kaa come from lands far to the south of the Flanaess.  The jungles of Zihindia hold legends of snake people that live with the nagas of that land.  While the current relationship of these yuan-ti with their southern counterparts is unknown, it seems evident that H’Thiss Kaa is a colony of this variety of snake men that had settled in the Flanaess centuries ago.  It appears that H’Thiss Kaa was once a much larger city of evil, but the yuan-ti empire collapsed and all that remains is a ruined metropolis sinking slowly away into the Hools (Note 2).

The City:  The city itself is largely either crumbling ruins or sunk under the waters of the Hools. H’Thiss Kaa is situated on a rare patch of solid ground in a corner of that vast swamp.  Dominating the city is a black basalt pyramid which serves as a public temple.  In the shadow of the pyramid is the Grand Market, a series of temporary open air vendors and permanent shops in which low life criminals of the southern Flanaess can barter for all manner of illegal and dangerous exotics.

The style of the architecture and artwork is a bizarre mixing of certain human cultures.  There are aspects of Olman, Zihindian, Suel, and other unidentifiable cultures present in the murals and art of the city.  All human features, however, are marred and twisted by the domination of reptile sensibilities.  Portraits of nobles and commoners are grotesque parodies of humanity, with apparently human beings depicted in sick rituals and acts that no warm-blooded being would contemplate.  The degenerate alien nature of the yuan-ti becomes more evident the deeper one goes into the city, with the pyramid itself adorned with disturbing images of snake-men indulging in all manners of iniquity.

While the city is still impressive, in a faded grandeur sort of way, the majority of the yuan-ti live under the ground.  The undercity of H’Thiss Kaa is more suited to the serpentine than the bipedal.  The design of the subterranean locations focuses on ramps, tunnels, curving passageways, and twisting halls that confuse and unnerve humans and other visitors.  To any other than a snake-like mind, exploring the undercity leads even seasoned dungeon crawlers becoming disoriented.  It is in the undercity where the true center of yuan-ti power resides.  There are grand chambers, underground temples, poison laboratories, and nests of snakes spread out through interconnecting tunnels all throughout the area.  The great hall of the Serpent King is where the leader of the yuan-ti holds court, although most interactions with other races occurs in buildings on the surface.  Warrens of troglodyte servants, private suites for the nobility and priests, treasure vaults, and a major temple round out other locations under the ground.

Activities of H’Thiss Kaa:  Usually, the nature of the yuan-ti is that of lethargic, sleeping evil.  The gods of these snake men themselves are torpid, insane, or both; therefore, these traits are generally exhibited by their worshippers, making their race one of continual decline and degradation.  However, H’Thiss Kaa has been seeing a resurgence of activity in the past century or so.

Poison making is the chief industry of the yuan-ti.   Their greatest triumph is the creation of a stable ophidian poison that can spread the transformative aspect of the venom.  Usually, this poison becomes inert after short exposure to air, but the yuan-ti have found a way to make it last longer and typically use it for their own local defense (Note 3).  The Grand Market of H’Thiss Kaa is full of major and minor poison crafters trading in specific techniques and samples.  Just about any toxin that can be ingested, injected, absorbed through the skin, or breathed in can be manufactured and sold here.  The yuan-ti scour the world for ingredients and recipes for new poisons (indeed, for the yuan-ti, the act of doing so is akin to religious worship) and even trade with other races for the means to make the most exotic poisons.

The Grand Market is a very large source of the city-state’s wealth.  This may be the best criminal black marketplace in the entire southern Flanaess, with all manner of vice and illegal activities being funded and sourced here.  Over the past few decades, some of the major thief and assassin guilds in this part of the world have been given secret directions to this market and either directly or indirectly make purchases of all manner of illicit materials herein.  Poisons, magic items, smuggled goods, drugs, monsters, slaves, and killers for hire all are openly traded within the marketplace.  The market also allows for various evil organizations to meet in a neutral setting.  For example, the Monks of the Swamp (a Wastri cult based elsewhere in the Hools) often bring in their kidnapped victims to be auctioned off or ransomed here.  Only the most evil and corrupt organizations know the way to H’Thiss Kaa, its existence is almost an urban legend amongst the lesser thieves guilds.  So the chances of someone getting information about H’Thiss Kaa’s location, outside of official membership in an evil cult or organization, is very unlikely.

Another activity that nets the yuan-ti some infamy is acting as brokers for other evil races.  By having purebloods act as agents, these other evil nonhuman beings are able to get established in human cities.  Pureblood yuan-ti scout out areas in which their clients can establish their own base of operations.  For flat fees or a cut of potential future spoils, the purebloods will then escort their clientele to appropriate locations and assist in establishing their new lairs.  Spirit nagas are thought to be the principal beneficiaries of such arrangements, with two names bandied about as possible clients - Explictica Defilus and Iysix Ssloll (Note 4).  Other possible clientele include drow and other underdark races, humanoids, undead, and even dragons.

When all else fails, the yuan-ti do engage in legitimate trade.  So long as the source is kept concealed, many purebloods work in merchant guilds and export and import every variety of strategic and luxury resource.  The Merchant Lord Sythos Quimn and his flagship The Golden Shrike is an example of such a pureblood trader.  He actually excels in legitimate trade as well as smuggling and also serves as an envoy to the other yuan-ti communities.  It is likely that there are many other such individuals in important trading positions secretly guiding funds and goods to their hidden city.

All manner of things are available for sale in the Grand Market.  Magic items and spells dealing with scaled and venomous creatures are all up for barter.  The yuan-ti will hire themselves out as assassins or kidnappers.  The possibilities are endless, although not that many human clients personally visit this city, instead using intermediaries such as pureblood contacts to make their purchases.  It seems that, in spite of the potential benefits, humans tend to become unnerved by the alien nature of the yuan-ti.  Even the purebloods tend to show their reptilian natures more openly when in their city.  Even hardened mercenaries and professional thieves blanch at being openly regarded as potential meals by the snake-men.

Relations with others:  H’Thiss Kaa has been aggressively sending their pureblood spies out into the wider world for decades, contra to the otherwise lethargic and passive characteristics of the race as a whole.  These yuan-ti also seek to coordinate between other reptilian races.  In particular, this city sends envoys to yuan-ti enclaves in Scuttlecove, the Amedio, Hepmonaland, and even far off Zihindia and beyond (Note 5).  Envoys to the lizard kings of the Hools, evil cults, and the black dragon Aulicus, have all gained alliances for the yuan-ti.

H’Thiss Kaa has a permanent embassy of the Scarlet Brotherhood openly in its confines.  Manned by priests of Pyremius, this building serves to broker agreements between the yuan-ti and the men in red.  The Brotherhood respects the abilities of the yuan-ti to make the best poisons in the world and are the best customers of their products.  Assassins of the Brotherhood occasionally learn specific techniques from the yuan-ti and vice versa.  This mutual understanding makes the Scarlet Brotherhood H’Thiss Kaa’s greatest ally, at least to the extent that any evil race can be an ally (Note 6).

Knowledge of the expertise of H’Thiss Kaa’s poison making has secretly spread to most of the assassins’ guilds in the greater Flanaess.  Some freelance assassins and individuals representing guilds make the trip to this land personally in order to secure some of the more exotic poisons, belying their general aversion to their hosts.  There is a structure used as a general-purpose Assassin’s Guildhall at the edge of the grand market.  Visiting free lance and guild assassins from around the globe are able to reside in this building for the duration of their business and be secure; knowing that in H’Thiss Kaa all assassins visiting for this purpose will be afforded respect and be allowed to conduct such business undisturbed. The yuan-ti strictly enforce this neutrality towards the different assassin groups, as poison brokering is one of their greatest exports and any interference with this trade would have great effect on the economy of H’Thiss Kaa.

Special locations:

The Black Pyramid.  Dominating the center of the city is a black rock ziggurat that is obviously some sort of religious temple.  This is a bit of a bluff, in that while it is a functioning temple, it is reserved for the pureblooded yuan-ti and therefore a minor temple as far as the city inhabitants are concerned.  The ceremonies conducted here are largely designed to impress the visitors rather than have any significant religious purpose.  The exception to this practice is the Night of Venom, a holy day of Sch’theraqpasstt that is conducted at this public temple.  That ceremony involves consecrating a vile brew that transforms human beings into creatures known as histachii.  It was believed that histachii were vital to the yuan-ti because that was how they reproduced.  But that process was evidently only done in their race’s infancy.  Now, it is unclear as to what purpose the histachii serve, as the yuan-ti seem able to breed without these beings.  It seems likely that this ceremony is largely symbolic of the desire of the yuan-ti to corrupt the human race.  In any event, the holy ceremony is still observed by the yuan-ti and is conducted every century or so (Note 7).

Snake Pits.  Pockmarked throughout the city are numerous pits.  Within the pits are cracks through which poisonous and constrictor snakes will pass through searching for captives.  These snakes expect to find easy meals, for the yuan-ti will often throw an unfortunate into these cavities as soon as they are captured. This may actually represent some hope for the poor captive here, for the yuan-ti will often throw a prisoner in the pits and then simply leave and forget about them.  Watching the snakes slither through the holes in the pit walls to eat the captives has long since ceased to be amusing to the jaded snake-men, making this method of execution a potential weak spot in their city defenses.

Ambassadorial Suites.  As mentioned above, the current leadership of H’Thiss Kaa has been making a concerted effort to reach out to other evil organizations.  There are permanent spaces for visitors from the Scarlet Brotherhood, Monks of the Swamp, the Lizard King Sakatha, and the Assassin’s Guild.  On an ad hoc basis, there are visitors from other places to include rakshasa, medusae, nagas, and even drow.  The yuan-ti are currently sheltering a cult of Incabulos in the city, with the understanding that they can stay within the city so long as their actions are focused on human lands and cannot be traced back to them.

The Deadly Gardens.  Outside the confines of the city are several plantations    Natural venoms from snakes, amphibians, scorpions, spiders, fungus, plants, minerals, and other sources are harvested in any of a number of farms set aside for that purpose.  The Deadly Garden refers to an exceptionally large farm that raises so many varieties of poisonous plant life that the air is thick with toxic pollen, making even breathing the air around it dangerous.  Effects include hallucinations, numbness, loss of vision, and death. Yuan-ti are immune to this effect and often try to lead intruders into this area and watch them slowly succumb to the toxins.

U.N. Owen’s Island.  The yuan-ti maintain a private chateau on a lake island in an isolated corner of Keoland.  Usually, it is used as a safe house for various traveling yuan-ti agents.  But recently, the yuan-ti got a dark revenge on a group of adventurers who stymied one of their plots.  Agents of H’Thiss Kaa invited the adventurers to a fake social event at the chateau,  only to sadistically torment and murder them one by one using taunting riddles, anti-magical traps, and poisons of all varieties.  The false front for the chateau is an alleged minor noble named “Ulster Naavik Owen”, an alias for a particularly clever and dangerous pureblood assassin.  Any party who attempts to confront the plots of the yuan-ti may likewise get an invitation from this enigmatic adversary.

Personalities of the City:

The Serpent King.  The self-titled cambion half-demon/half yuan-ti brute dominates the city-state (Note 8). Typically, the priest caste of the yuan-ti serve as rulers, but in this case, the ruler is a powerful warrior and mastermind. King Ydiss looks bipedal, but has a snake’s tail, fangs, and a generally scaly skin.  He claims that his demonic heritage gives him extraordinary powers, but carefully does not exhibit them unless he absolutely has to, in order to keep his rivals guessing about the extent of his abilities.  The king wields a dreadful, evil sword called Manflayer that has the power of causing weakness in humans.  Ydiss has personally led raids and ambushes throughout the Hools and even into the civilized lands beyond on occasion.  It is the charisma and drive of this leader that has resulted in the unusual level of aggressiveness from H’Thiss Kaa in the recent years.

The Royal Guard.  What sets King Ydiss apart from other yuan-ti despots is his most loyal company of bodyguards.  He has a cadre of about a dozen halfbreed yuan-ti that act as his personal guard and serve as special agents in missions abroad.  This is a true collection of freaks, with each member of the Royal Guard having some unique ability or attribute beyond that of normal yuan-ti.  Some examples include a member that is especially strong in psionics, one that can breathe fire, a few with magical skills, and other powers.  Encountering a member of the Royal Guard is an opportunity to catch intruders by surprise if they expect standard yuan-ti behavior.  The source of these powers seems to be the experimentation of a mad yuan-ti alchemist, who delights in mutating common yuan-ti stock in order to improve the race as a whole.

The Potion Master.  This yuan-ti halfbreed is a crazed genius who is an experimenter par excellence in the field of potion brewing and alchemy.  The obsession of this being is to mix potions in his fellow yuan-ti to get spectacular results.  Often, this ends in failure, but several members of the Royal Guard have unique abilities due to the experimentation of this chemist.

The Poison Court.  In a mockery of the chivalric courts of the good aligned nations, the corrupt pit of H’Thiss Kaa has an audience chamber in which the dark aristocracy of the yuan-ti conduct their business of politics and vice.  The various visitors of the city-state meet and conduct their negotiations with the snake men here.  Much illicit trade, information, and money changes hands with the daily negotiations of the court.  The yuan-ti aristocrats of H’Thiss Kaa consists of a motley crew of priests, smugglers, assassins, and criminals, each faction being indulgent and chaotically self-seeking.  King Ydiss’ primary work is attempting to keep these disparate interests aligned in some semblance of unified action.

The Generals. The yuan-ti do not have a standing army per se, there is a large contingent of pureblooded and halfbreed assassins that are organized into “armies” under command of a “general”.  They will carry out raids and ambushes far from the lands of the Hools and bring back as much treasure as they can.  Their success is measured by the wealth they capture, so much banditry attributed to other sources actually are these armies plying their trade.

Queen Visala.  A rival to the Serpent King, this abomination is the greatest high priestess of the city.  Skilled in the ways of magic, she is rumored to be the protector of a spellbook of great power, the Volume Veneficus.  This gives her great status among the wizards and priests of the yuan-ti.  She keeps to her side a group of spell casting yuan-ti who espouse a more conservative and insular approach than that of the Serpent King.  They worry that by having more outsiders visit the city, they are opening themselves up to discovery by the goodly aligned nations and thus hasten their destruction.  To date, there is only political intrigue between the two factions, this may erupt into actual combat should circumstances dictate it.

In summation, this city is achieving a legendary status among the criminal underworld.  By becoming more active, the yuan-ti are risking discovery, but in the short term, they are becoming exponentially stronger.  Let the good aligned peoples of the world beware of the potential danger that this city represents and be prepared to oppose it whenever possible.

NOTES:

1.  The various enclaves of yuan-ti throughout the Flanaess offers students of biology a puzzle in that while there are some cosmetic differences between the various yuan-ti communities, their basic traits and powers are more or less the same (psionics, high intelligence, their caste systems, etc.).  That so many different races of men devolved into such similar species seems to imply some commonality between both the humans and the yuan-ti that keeps sages who specialize in this sort of thing awake at night.

2.  Early records of Suel refugees from the Rain of Colorless Fire that came into the lands of the Sea Princes tell of encountering a ruined city in the swamps.  If that reference is to H’Thiss Kaa, then the decline of the yuan-ti has been going on for an epically long period.

3.  Guards in H’Thiss Kaa’s most important areas often have their weapons smeared with this poison.  This poison is a little weaker than natural ophidian venom. Natural ophidian venom transforms the victim into an ophidian over the course of about two weeks.  The extract the yuan-ti use in their poison takes longer for the physical change to occur (over a month long period, with an onset time of 1-6 days) and has a saving throw of +2.  But the poison is subtle, affecting the victim’s mind faster, they may not be aware of the danger they are in until it is too late to cure them.

4.  These nagas established cults in the cities of Orlane and Greyhawk, respectively.  What, if any, connection they have to the yuan-ti is up to the individual campaigns to determine.

5.  Different enclaves of snake-men across different continents gives rise to theories among the sages that there is some sort of universal human connection between evil acts and snakes.  Yuan-ti are almost always described in their creation myths as being a group of humans that fell into corruption.  The theme of humans mutating into snake-like beings led some scholars into debating whether there is some sort of ‘universal evil’ character in snakes/reptilian beings.  More than a few myths depict fallen devas as serpents, and having disparate human cultures turn into yuan-ti after experiencing corruption and vice only solidifies the argument that snakes represent an evil that is a universal human truth.  Some scholars counter that this is simply coincidental and unfairly maligns reptiles, citing couatls and good dragons as evidence that the reptilian is not necessarily demonic.

6.  Keoish intelligence has hypothesized that the Scarlet Brotherhood had assistance in their take over of the Land of the Sea Princes.  Specifically, the assassinations of their leadership in the Greyhawk Wars seemed too complete and tidy to have been accomplished entirely by the Brotherhood.  It seems likely that purebloods, who have had centuries more time to infiltrate the Sea Prince society, would have carried out at least some of these killings.

7.  See the article in Dragon Magazine # 151 for the discussion on this aspect of the yuan-ti.  This description is more in line with a species of yuan-ti from a far southern land, such as the Suhfang Imperium or the island of Woguo.  See Dragon Magazine # 305 for another alternate take on the yuan-ti.  Finally, the module Labyrinth of Madness describes yet another group of humans who became corrupted yuan-ti for dabbling in evil magic.  The location of that place is described as a hidden icy mountain glen that is heated by underground magma.  This author would place it in Rigodruok the Rainbow Vale as a possible location

8.  The similarities between this leader and that of King Slithh of Xuxulieto (the “Forbidden City” of Hepmonaland) is remarkable.  The fact that both these cities seem to derive their power from demonic patronage and are starting to increase their activities raises issues of a coordinated effort between these yuan-ti factions.  To what purpose these two city-states would cooperate is unknown.

SOURCES:

Merrshaulk the Serpent Lord « AuldDragon's AD&D Blog

Dragon Magazine Issues 151, 305 on yuan-ti, Issues 32, 59, 81 on poisons, Issue 235 for magic spells and Issue 330 for the Volume Veneficus

Modules I1, I2, Treasures of Greyhawk, The Scarlet Brotherhood, N1 and the WGA series

Greyhawk Grognard for articles on Zihindia and the southern lands

Articles on Canonfire:

Canonfire! - Keoish Intelligence Report from the Hold of the Sea Princes

Canonfire! - Wyrms of the Flanaess: Gouthogg