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The Cathedral of Emerald Scales was a temple to Varae, the beast cult aspect of Sseth, located in the heart of Hlondeth in the Vilhon Reach. It was a huge green dome squeezed by a spiraling constrictor snake sculpture with an upturned head that spouted water. The fountain not only kept the surrounding swatch of jungle misty, but water filtered through the porous dome to create a constant gentle rain beneath. The dome was held up by 30 massive pillars carved with snakes, giving the area under the dome the name Forest of Serpents. Outside, the jungle garden was ensorcelled so that trespassers got lost for days in a steamy trap filled with tropical animals, birds, insects, and plants, many of them deadly. The entire compound was surrounded by a high, hollow wall known as the Wall of the Amphisbaena because it was sculpted to resemble a gigantic snake with a head at both ends.

Below the Cathedral were catacombs designed to be traversed by bodies with serpentine features and impede bipeds. Here were living quarters for the priests, staff, and ophidian guards; brood chambers tended by histachii; laboratories for bizarre experiments that produced things akin to mongrelfolk; "prison pantries", where a menagerie of creatures were grown for food (including a deepspawn or two); and the lavishly furnished chambers of the high priestess, a yuan-ti abomination named Medusanna Mhairdaul.

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