Hessatal

An old Yuan-ti priest, Hessatal was one of the few Yuan-ti in Rintata who emerged from the jungle, rather than being raised in slavery. Born a malison, Hessatal occupied a high position among the people of Obara'sar and was inducted into the priesthood of Mersshaulk at a young age. REDACTED Believing the best way to bring this about was to be present among the humans, Hessatal left the Secret City a decade after ascending to the priesthood and joined his enslaved kin, ministering to their needs and preaching. REDACTED As few priests saw fit to minister to the Yuan-ti in bondage, his presence was considered a great honor and for decades he held a high place in the community of serpentfolk. Occasionally, he passed along graven bone trinkets to the faithful, describing them as holy symbols bestowed only upon the worthy. REDACTED Sethir, a yuan-ti pureblood who escaped slavery by serving as a deckhand and occasional informant, received his Bone Talisman in this manner, before losing it in a drunk bet to Captain Jarzon years later.

Encounter with Squad 13
When Squad 13 traveled to Rintata seeking knowledge about the Bone Talisman which Trindak had recovered from Captain Jarzon's corpse, they spoke to Hessatal about its original owner. Hessatal informed them that Sethir had drunk himself to death REDACTED. Nevertheless, he agreed to bring the party deeper into the interior, where he promised them they would find answers. After a journey of five days through sweltering jungle and malarial swamp, the party finally found themselves in the ruins of Se'shara, where Hessatal told them the story of his people's conquest and bondage. He led them deep within the city, past the ruins temples, beneath the shadow of the great volcano, until the party came at last to a door which Hessatal told them contained their answers. There he betrayed them, calling upon the dry bones of his ancestors to seize Orentha, Nix, Sirenixia, and Jamra and carried them off down a secret tunnel into Obara'sar. Once inside the city, he called forth Yrina, High Priestess of Bakrimanthys, and pledged to sacrifice three of them to her hunger and imbue the survivor with the Bone Talisman to REDACTED. As Orentha's chest was sliced open and the talisman fused to her breastbone, the rest of the party emerged from the Great Obsidian Pyramid, having completed the trials within. There they dueled above the heart of the mountain until Hessatal and Yrina fell, defeated, into the lake of magma below. However, it seems that the completion of a portion of his ritual ensured that this would not be the end of Hessatal. When she slept, Orentha beheld a vision of a great, many-headed serpent dragging itself from the lake of fire, before turning to look at her, buoyed by the cheers of thousands of Yuan-ti.