Xopal is a yuan-ti pureblood who serves as the temple’s poison master, operating a venom distillery within the Fane of the Night Serpent.
Role and Location
Xopal oversees area 14 (Venom Distillery), where he extracts and blends snake venom to create deadly new poison strains. He commands five human zombies as laborers and occasionally ventures to the fungi cavern (area 22) to harvest poisonous toadstools from the corpse of a former colleague named Kukuga.
Characteristics and Motivation
Xopal is driven by a singular obsession: he believes his destiny is to transform into a much more powerful form of yuan-ti through his poison research. He seeks to develop a poison so virulent that even creatures with innate immunity to poison cannot resist it. This metamorphosis-focused ambition shapes all his work.
He uses his zombie servants as test subjects, planning to overcome their poison immunity first before conducting further experiments on live yuan-ti.
Combat Abilities
Bronze Syringe: Xopal carries a bronze syringe containing three doses of his poison cocktail. As an action, he can make a melee weapon attack (+3 to hit) that deals 1 piercing damage and injects one dose on a hit.
Poison Effect: Victims must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw, taking 10 (3d6) poison damage on a failed save (half on success). The target is also poisoned for 1 hour regardless of save result.
Treasure
- Brass key that unlocks the south door to the venom distillery
- His laboratory contains 20 doses of serpent venom, 5 doses of essence of ether, and 5 doses of torpor
Adventure Hooks
Characters performing labors for Fenthaza might be assigned to assist Xopal in the distillery. If so, Xopal may send them unescorted to area 22 (fungi cavern) to gather materials—providing a potential escape opportunity.