The Danger Gang Learns About A Church Full Of Snakes
After a few days of sailing, the Danger Gang arrive in Ilyrea. There are jets of flame shooting out of the ground on shore, so they sail a bit further, reaching the port town of Doracheon.
The harbormaster has them write their names on some pottery. There's a statue of Jabili Alhama, a former compatriot of the prophet until they had a falling out, and then he went on to become the founder of modern Ilyrea. They also notice there are no women in town, but a barkeep explains that they all stay home because they're modest.
They head over to the monastery of St. Asteos to see if they can get into the crypts, where all the rich stuff is always kept. The friar there asks the Gang if maybe he can do them a favor. It seems a church just outside of town hasn't been tithing or paying taxes of late, and he was hoping the gang would go look into it. They owe about 750 gold. Also, no people are in this church full of snakes. The snakes owe taxes. The Gang tries to wrap their mind around this, and the friar goes on to explain that snakes are a very important part of the community around here. Every household has a snake (to deal with the poisonous newt problem). They collective shrug their shoulders and agree to look into it.
Upon arrival, Martialis summons a few snakes from within the church and sets about interviewing them. Turns out, they don't want to pay taxes. Marty tells them to leave and never come back. That's when he has an idea.
They rest for another couple of hours, then Marty casts another six Animal Summonings, getting forty-eight snakes. He asks one of them to go get the boss snake. A Two-headed hypno snake along with 200 of his closest friends. There is a lot of talking. Snakes seem to think they don't owe taxes for some reason. However, Marty convinces them to allow them to fix up the church in exchange for 100 gp. They take a 50 gp down payment while the rest of the Danger Gang gripes about Marty's snake hugging ways. They go back to Doracheon to rest.
