The Ossuary

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

Harley lets out a strangled whoop as the spider is ripped free, taking some bits of his flesh with it. Shaking his head to clear it, he quickly realizes that their attacker has turned on Raheeda. Worse news indeed.

Realizing that if it gets a hold, ripping it off her arm would probably do more harm than good, he wracks his brain for an idea. "Try to pin it to the ground- we can work on breaking the bones one at a time!" Using precision might be more effective, but if the animating force is able to hold together the bone shards then that's also doomed to failure.

[Shadowcaller]

[The Tome of Eliander]

Okay, so.

Good news and bad news.

The good news is that Raheeda has managed to pull the spider off Harley. The bad news is that this probably scratched Harley up a bit.

The WORSE news is that the spider is aiming to wrap all its legs around Raheeda's arm and refuse to let go. Whatever force is holding those bones coherent is now acting on ALL the bones to make it function as if it were one big bone sleeve.

Pulling it off is doable.

But it would require pulling hard enough to break bones.

The Tome of Eliander

Harley lets out a strangled whoop as the spider is ripped free, taking some bits of his flesh with it. Shaking his head to clear it, he quickly realizes that their attacker has turned on Raheeda. Worse news indeed.

Realizing that if it gets a hold, ripping it off her arm would probably do more harm than good, he wracks his brain for an idea. "Try to pin it to the ground- we can work on breaking the bones one at a time!" Using precision might be more effective, but if the animating force is able to hold together the bone shards then that's also doomed to failure.

The Tome of Eliander

Raheeda don't react with the same kind of panic that should be warranted here once the spider attempts to attach itself to her arm.
"Hold on now, maybe it just wants to be friends?" She suggests to Harley as she holds up the arm. Poking the 'spider' hesitantly. "Can you talk?"

[Earl of Purple]

The Edge

A necromancer arrives. Or, more accurately, a Necromancer arrives, a Vile one to be precise. They're a stooped and hunchbacked figure, shrouded in old, tattered robes and leaning on a gnarled wooden staff. They have their hood up and they stumble forward, exhausted and out of breathe. They'll need more dead to achieve their aims, especially now that cursed reptile destroyed their previous minions- including the Electrified Knight. Finding *that* body was rather useful.

[Rebonack]

[The Tome of Eliander]

Surely the skelespider just wants a hug.

Is that really so wrong?

Harley's wounds probably sting really badly, but that is just because of the salt. Not because of any weird flash mummification necromancy or whatever. Probably.

Anyway, Raheeda asks as question. The skelespider replies by vibrating it's bones together really quickly, making a high pitch rasping sound.

....

And that's it. Nothing else appears to be happening. The spider is just clinging hard enough to Raheeda's arm that it would leave a bruise on your average human.


[The Edge]

The Vile Necromancer, approaching from the east across the salt flat, will discover an interesting sight. Surrounding the Ossuary is a wall of bones. And in that wall of bones are a number of gates. Each gate, in turn, has guardians.

Sometimes the guardians aren't terribly powerful creatures. Something they are.

This particular gate's guardian is a horned bone giant about twelve feet tall and encased in heavy dragon bone armor. Truly a formidable sight.

It has been embedded in the necropolis wall, its form limp and the bones around it shatted and cracked. A huge dragon bone bardiche lies discarded in the salt nearby.

Clinging to the breastplate of the skeletal giant is a much smaller monster that moves like a shape of mist and sleek fur in ashen grey, bloody crimson, and the pale white of death. The monster has plunged one claw THROUGH the breastplate, frost spiderwebbing across the armor in spite of the oppressive heat.

It would appear as though the Vile Necromancer
isn't going to have to worry about the gate guardian. But the malignant spirit that struck it down may be even worse.

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

The pain from Harley's wounds is certainly intense, but he has a very strange relationship to pain in general. Since he's not exactly used to this mortal body, it's not too different from any other strong sensation, which means that his tolerance is far beyond that of most people.

In fact, right now the stinging is serving to invigorate him more than anything else. He stares at the bone spider wide eyed, then looks back up at Raheeda.

"How bad is it? Should we try to smash it?" He doesn't want to assume, since Raheeda is supernaturally tough, but that does look very tight.

[Shadowcaller]

The Tome of Eliander

Okay, now it wasn't answering and hurting her?!
Either it was just rude or simply mean. Neither a trait of a friend.

Raheeda frowns and then nods to Harley. "Mhm, think we're gonna have to. But first I'm'a do a thing." She holds up the spider to her face and then in a sudden burst of movements extend her jaws to a degree that isn't possible for a human. With her now exposed serpent-like canines as she delivers a venomous bite to what she's determined to be the most central-looking part of the spider.
They sink into its bones as if it had been butter and extract just as easily. Allowing her to bite it not only once but twice before her jawbone returns to more human proportions.

The bone spider had no blood, no veins. But there was a system of magic holding it together and this venom had been injected directly into it. It could attempt to eject the bones which had been injected but the venom was spreading extremely fast and she had also bitten it twice for this reason.

[Rebonack]

[The Tome of Eliander]

The bone spider is unable to evade the bite due to clinging tenaciously to Raheeda's arm!

This makes it easy to bite.

But it also makes it pretty annoying since it's clinging to her arm. That's the problem we're trying to solve here though, isn't it?

So! Raheeda Bone-Biter bites some bones! Almost immediately there are... sparks? Little little flashes and pops of light as something is definitely coming apart. The spider's grip starts becoming slack as individual bones begin falling off it! Looks like the bite worked!

Which is just about the time there come some more high pitch rattling sounds as even MORE bone spiders begin burrowing up out of the salt.

Wuh oh.

There are about a dozen of the things all skittering toward our heroes!

Apparently there are a bunch of skeleton monsters here! Who could have anticipated this!?

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

Harley stares wide eyed as Raheeda unhinges her jaw to deliver the poisonous bite. He hadn't known she could do that. That's quite something. Of course, it's not surprising that she continues to be full of surprises.

He's so entranced by the bone biting spectacle that he doesn't immediately notice the other skepiders begin their advance. When he does, Harley hisses in agitation, whirling to face them and quickly backing away. Could they take on a dozen of these things? Maybe, but doing so wouldn't help them accomplish their goals, and the wounds they'd no doubt sustain would almost certainly make the mission harder. Perhaps discretion is the better part of valor here.

"Might I suggest we run for it?" he says, glancing over to make sure Raheeda doesn't do something crazy like charge the skepiders. Reaching into his coat, he withdraws a heavy steel kitchen knife. When had he gotten that? Who knows, but its certainly sharp and tough enough to cut through a few bones if needed.

[Shadowcaller]

[The Tome of Eliander]

Raheeda felt sorry for the spider as it appears to die, but she really needed that arm!

Of course, that's when she heard the same sound as Harley and turned around.
"....yeah, good plan!" She agrees with a nod. More than familiar with the ancient tradition of running away. She attempts to shake off whatever bones that remained on her arm and then turns to run once she's made sure Harley is in front of her.
Couldn't leave him behind!

[Rebonack]

[The Tome of Eliander]

Ah yes.

The ancient art of RUN AWAY!

As our heroes begin running the bone spiders begin skittering after them! It turns out the bone spiders are a little bit awkward in how they're assembled. Great for leaping and hugging, not so great for long distance dashing. Before long our heroes have put a pretty solid distance between them and the spiders and as soon as they get out of sight the undead apparently totally forget they exist.

They aren't very smart, yo see.

Really, all they need to do is hide behind a mound or a crypt or that grove of dead trees over there and they'll be totally safe!

...probably.

Are they going to hide behind one of those things?

Or do they have some other plan for evading the spiders?

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

Harley is very good at running, even with a painful salt wound. And although the numerous bones make for some uneven footing, it's certainly easier than, say, piles of garbage would be.

And as a former rabbit, hiding is second nature to him as well. A quick glance tells him that the grove of trees is likely the best spot, since it would conceal them from all directions instead of just the way they've come from. Motioning to Raheeda he takes off towards the withered grove, moving in a low zigzag pattern until he's out of view of their pursuers.

[Shadowcaller]

The Tome of Eliander

Raheeda follows Harley though isn't quite as good at running as him so she's just moving straight instead of going zigzag. As they're within the trees she isn't feeling nearly as safe within them as he though. This place was all death so what was a bunch of very much alive trees doing here? It was against all her outdoors experience!
Also, trees were the place fey stole you away into. Very suspicious.
"Phew, good running. I think we lost them." She declares as she glances back in the direction they came from "Not sure if we're safe within here though. Maybe we should keep moving."

[Rebonack]

[The Tome of Eliander]

Now that our heroes have gotten closer to the grove of trees they'll discover that they are very much NOT alive.

The grove is stripped of bark and leaves, leaving nothing but salt-bleached wood behind. The only reason the trees appeared to be alive from a distance is the fact that great masses of hair have been snagged in the gnarled branches, giving the illusion of foliage from a distance.

Which is...

Really gross.

In the middle of the grove it appears as though an effigy has been fashioned wholly out of hair and strips of wood used to make simple rope. This is, also, really gross.

In spite of its uncanny appearance nothing in the hair grove appears to be threatening our heroes.

Yet.

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

As the two catch their breath, Harley takes the time to examine the grove more closely. It's much nastier than expected. The hair is also worrisome because it had to have been placed here by someone or something. Hair, if you'll pardon the expression, doesn't grow on trees.

Plus there's the matter of that effigy. That seems like some horrible form of witchcraft, and although Harley can deal with physical threats, the eldritch is something he has little way of overcoming.

"Yeah, uh... we should definitely keep moving," he says, nodding at Raheeda. This land is full of horrible things; the questers need to stay focused on their goal.

[Shadowcaller]

The Tome of Eliander

Hair?
Oh, human hair.
Yeah, that was pretty strange.
It would probably have been cuter if they all had golden feathers like her. Instead of just looking like a bunch of old dried up hairy, gross, mummies.

Raheeda did have an urge to investigate this weird phenomena closer but that also seemed like a bad idea.
She will instead settle for poking the closest tree with her spear.
Since that was something she would never stop doing.

"The goal is still the obelisks, right? Since I do wish the quest had been more clear on those cultists whereabouts. This place is huge."

[Rebonack]

[The Tome of Eliander]

Come on you two. You decided to come here at night. That means that you get to deal with problems. And did you really think that you would be able to walk into a spooky grove like this to hide and then just walk right out again?

Please.

As our heroes are talking they will hear a rather disquieting slithering sound. Like something sliding and sloughing against the bones of the trees.

It is very likely that this is not a good sign.

Something is moving in the dark, circling around them.

[Earl of Purple]

Edge, Heading West

Well, the gate guardian is certainly proof that this place is all those panicked refugees said it would be. The Vile Necromancer almost regrets letting them live at the sight of the spirit, though; that's something that is trickier for their magic to affect. Still, they might have a chance at getting past it, if necessary, though given its ability to destroy undead as impressive as the deceased gate-guard, it will need dealing with sooner or later.

Conjuring a ball of flame, the Vile Necromancer hurls the spell at the malignant spirit. It's a reasonably potent attack spell, though not the Vile Necromancer's focus. Mostly they're trying to figure out how it responds so they can work from there.

[Rebonack]

[Edge, Heading West]

When faced with a problem throw a fireball at it.

That's a pretty standard means of solving problems for mages that aren't very concerned with collateral damage. But then again, why not? If you've have what amounts to a magical rocket launcher why not employ it?

The fireball goes whizzing toward the spirit right as it rips what looks like a ghostly heart from the chest of the bone giant, yawning its jaws wide to devour it whole. This motion pauses suddenly, one ear twitching toward the Vile Necromancer followed by the creature's whole head. Releasing the ghost it had torn from the undead guardian, the spirit dives off the giant and into the ground, vanishing in a spray of churned salt and earth right as the fireball explodes.

Released from the spirit's grip and torn free from the necromantic magic that had bound it to the bone giant, the 'heart' begins taking on the vague human shape of a ghost. With nothing binding it to the world any longer it begins to slowly fade from the mortal world.

Now, from a slightly different perspective...

This place was definitely on the list to check out for two big reasons.

One?

It's a treasure trove of archeological wonders protected by gross spooky curses! And gross spooky cruses really don't stick to her that well.

Two?

It's full of undead. And the anima of undead is very much edible.

So a place that's a historical interest AND a snack-bar all rolled into one? Okay, yeah, count Khannie in. Allegedly there are more than a few really nasty undead tromping around so she needs to be on her guard, but she's pretty confidant that she can handle it.

Turns out she ran into one basically right at the gate.

Towering in front of her, guarding the entrance to the Ossuary, was a pretty intimidating looking bone giant. The undead scowled down at the apparently human girl with a big pony tail and not a single weapon. "Who are you?" it rumbled at her. "Another necromancer? Be gone. This is a city of the dead and the dead shall keep it."

"I just wanted to loo-" is all she managed to get out before it strode forward with shocking speed and tried to cleave her in half with its bardiche.

The axe only found mist.

When the swirl of vapor reformed it was already in the shape of a terrifying fox-spirit hauling back to deck the towering skeleton. Turns out the fight didn't go quite as the giant had anticipated. Once the giant was suitably smashed into the wall Khannie moved in. She could smell the ghost that had been conjured up to animate the construct of bones and frankly she was hungry after the tussle.

But then she heard the tell-tale sound of a slung fireball...

Back in the now...

The spirit doesn't immediately reappear, but the low rumble from the earth suggests that it isn't gone. Judging from the sound it doesn't seem to be approaching the Vile Necromancer. But being too reliant on seeming with this creature may be a mistake.

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

Hair?
Oh, human hair.
Yeah, that was pretty strange.
It would probably have been cuter if they all had golden feathers like her. Instead of just looking like a bunch of old dried up hairy, gross, mummies.

Raheeda did have an urge to investigate this weird phenomena closer but that also seemed like a bad idea.
She will instead settle for poking the closest tree with her spear.
Since that was something she would never stop doing.

"The goal is still the obelisks, right? Since I do wish the quest had been more clear on those cultists whereabouts. This place is huge."

[The Tome of Eliander]

Come on you two. You decided to come here at night. That means that you get to deal with problems. And did you really think that you would be able to walk into a spooky grove like this to hide and then just walk right out again?

Please.

As our heroes are talking they will hear a rather disquieting slithering sound. Like something sliding and sloughing against the bones of the trees.

It is very likely that this is not a good sign.

Something is moving in the dark, circling around them.

The Tome of Eliander

"Obelisks, yeah," says Harley, without much confidence. For all he knew, the obelisks might just be some unrelated undead cult. Who knows how many bony menaces there were out here? Maybe the two of them would be lost here forever, battling endless horrible beasts until they eventually succumbed to exhaustion and flesh wounds.

Focus, Harley. No use worrying, it hasn't been that bad so far.

But there is that sound. Harley tilts his head, trying to pinpoint the origin of it.

"We've got company," he says quietly, dropping into a half crouch. He brings up his fists into a boxing stance, knife held point down in his guarding hand.

[Shadowcaller]

The Tome of Eliander

"It must be one of the fey trying to steal us into the tree-tops." Raheeda mutters under her breath as she hears their stalker moving around out there.
"We should have gone here during the day." She really should have voiced her opinion on that.
Nights were always so spooky, especially when you were in a big undead-filled graveyard

She had an idea though.

"Okay, we need to pick a direction and run for it then. Shortest route out away from these scary trees or whatever they are preferably." Harley seemed pretty good at running away from stuff so he could probably pick that out. Meanwhile, Raheeda takes out two tiny items out of her robes and starts to tear one against the other. Creating a soft orange glow.

It's a little firestarter kit.
"Since I'ma gonna make a fire."

[Earl of Purple]

Edge, Heading West

Well, that's... not good. It didn't seem the kind of entity that would flee when challenged- the fact it had taken out the gate guardian proves that, unless something else did that and it was merely a scavenger- and yet it seems to have gone. The Vile Necromancer sharpens their senses, and stays where they are whilst making some haphazard gestures and whispering in the magetongue to raise some personal shields.

[Rebonack]

[The Tome of Eliander]

Our heroes discuss their options.

Those options appear to be 'run away' and 'contemplate the wisdom of coming here at night'.

Of the two, the former is more likely to provide our heroes with more of a benefit since wishing usually can't reverse time. Usually.

But!

There's some good news!

No fey come swooping down to carry either of our heroes off into the treetops! That's good, right? No, it's just a huge snake made of hair with wooden thorns for teeth. That's much better, right? The abomination is slithering toward our heroes, no doubt with malicious intent. Thankfully it isn't moving very quickly and it can probably be out-run without too much trouble.

If they had a fire already that would probably be useful against the hair-snake. Hair is really flammable.


[Edge, Heading West]

The Vile Necromancer isn't the only one who's a bit uncertain.

What's this guy's deal? He looks like a complete creeper, but it might have just been an understandable mistake. After all, she was in scary zoroark eating mode on the edge of a scary graveyard so that's totally understandable. He might just be the throw fireballs first and ask questions via Speak With Dead sort of guy.

May as well try something and gauge how he reacts, right?

"Ugh. Now the stupid ghost got away," says Khannie, the teen girl having suddenly appeared maybe ten feet behind the necromancer. She's standing there arms akimbo, looking in the general direction of the bone wall further away. And looking like a rather normal human teen girl.

Of course, neither of those things are actually true.

She isn't a normal teen girl NOR is she actually standing there. The zoroark is still burrowed underground via the incredible power of DIG! As a result the illusion isn't looking straight at the necromancer because she had only popped her head up briefly to get a quick look at him. She can't tell exactly where he is.

"Listen, I'm just here to take pictures and maybe grab an artifact or two. I don't want any trouble so I'm not gunna hold the fireball against you, okay?"

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

"Oh no. I also wanted to come here during the day. We need to work on communication a little, huh?" chuckles Harley nervously. Never a bad time for self improvement. Well, actually now might be a bad time.

Running is definitely a good idea. And yet, this horrible hair grove does seem pretty evil. In way that seems a little nastier than the standard walking bones type undead. So maybe destroying it would be a better idea.

And the hair-snake really doesn't help. Harley intakes a breath and stiffens as he sees it, the hair on his neck standing on end. He's been forming such positive associations with snakes lately that this abomination is especially shocking.

Glancing at Raheeda's firestarter, he considers for a second, and then makes a bad decision.

"Get that lit, burn this place down! I'll keep the oversized drain cleaner busy," he says, a wild glint in his eyes. Without waiting for confirmation, he charges the hair-snake, bounding forward in an erratic zig zag that ends with a leap, knife swinging down towards the ophidian head.

[Earl of Purple]

Edge, Heading West

The Vile Necromancer twirls around and conjures a ball of fire as Khannie starts to speak, surprisingly adroit for someone as hunched as they appear. "You should avoid startling your elders, child. I could have had a heart attack, and then where would we be? Middle of nowhere with yet another corpse to wither in the sun." The ball of flame remains, as the Vile Necromancer is aware they're being tricked, just not how. It's not often a spirit destroys an undead giant then appears as a human, in the Vile Necromancer's experience, and they aren't convinced of Khannie's claims of benevolence. either.
"I am... also not looking for trouble. And neither pictures nor artefacts interest me as this location's other resources. If you truly mean me no harm, you may enter first. You did beat me here, after all, and dealt with the guardian most effectively. Although how do I know your words aren't as much a lie as your appearance, spirit? You may be seeking to distract me and lower my guard before striking." The Necromancer's wards are still maintained, even as they reach out with a more esoteric sense, their Name sneaking to any skeletal remains lurking nearby and marking them as such ready for the Vile Necromancer to invest them with power.

[Rebonack]

[Edge, Heading West]

At the retort Khannie seems unimpressed. "You don't seem like the kinda guy that's gunna keel over because something spooked him."

Honestly he seems more like the kind of guy that's going to do the spooking.

Khannie is already popping out the ground again near the downed giant, shrouding the area in an illusion to make it appear as though nothing had changed. She sniffs around a bit to confirm it. Heck. Yeah, the ghost is long gone. Shoot, that woulda been a nice snack, too. Oh well, there are probably others.

With the necromancer's attention on the phantom Khannie conjured, he probably won't be noticing the shadows under the gate stretching to shroud the actual Khannie in a more substantial illusion as she waves away the mist obscuring the actual her.

"I mean, I guess that's fair?" the actual Khannie says as her phantom double fades like frost under the harsh glare of the sun. "Imma fox spirit so tricky stuff kinda comes without thinking. I guess you can't know, so take it or leave it and Imma just hope you don't decide to lob some more fireballs at me. I'll be pretty cross if you do that again, just saying."

Then?

She gives the ruined bone giant a petulant kick before heading through the gate.

Khannie is immediately set with quite the sight, mausoleums and monuments as far as the eye can see. Temples of huge salt blocks rise stark above the playa surface. Buildings of stacked bones abound. Groves of dead, salt bleached trees with what looks to be hair growing from their branches wavers in the sun.

"Gotta say this place is pretty neat AND pretty gross," Khannie mutters to herself as she sets out toward the nearest salt-block temple.

The necromancer's probing of the surroundings will find something rather interesting. Usually the process that creates undead isn't gentle when it's extinguished and reduces the destroyed construct to an unusable mess. But in spite of the damage the spirit had caused to the bone giant salt is forming within the broken, shattered bones and gradually pulling them together again. ALL of the remains here have a subtle investiture of power in them and a great prison full of restless spirits below the lakebed appears to serve as a repository for anima.

ANY of the remains here could spontaneously spring to unlife. So for any clever necromancer the trouble is less finding remains and more resting control away from this place of fell power.

[Shadowcaller]

[The Tome of Eliander]

Our heroes discuss their options.

Those options appear to be 'run away' and 'contemplate the wisdom of coming here at night'.

Of the two, the former is more likely to provide our heroes with more of a benefit since wishing usually can't reverse time. Usually.

But!

There's some good news!

No fey come swooping down to carry either of our heroes off into the treetops! That's good, right? No, it's just a huge snake made of hair with wooden thorns for teeth. That's much better, right? The abomination is slithering toward our heroes, no doubt with malicious intent. Thankfully it isn't moving very quickly and it can probably be out-run without too much trouble.

If they had a fire already that would probably be useful against the hair-snake. Hair is really flammable.

[The Tome of Eliander]

If there's a fire or not depends entirely on how flammable the hair is since there's already sparks flying off the metal and flint Raheeda is fervently rubbing together.
She continues doing so even as she's looking up at Harley. "Eh? Oh. Uh, just give me a sec!" She turns her attention back to the firekit. Not wanting Harley to risk his own life for this. She had to get this fire started right away!

[Rebonack]

[The Tome of Eliander]

The hair trees are pretty gross, yes. Hair anywhere other than where it's supposed to be is generally pretty gross.

So!

The small sparks aren't sufficient. A torch, however, would be really handy. Raheeda is an adventurer, right? So doesn't she compulsively carry and bundle of torches with her for lighting up dark places? Or is she one of those weirdos with dark vision? Either way, if she can get an open flame going that will be pretty helpful right now. Heck, given how likely they are to encounter mummified undead in this salt-caked hellhole having fire available seems like a good idea in general.

Meanwhile! Knife!

Harley knifes at the hair-snake's head! There's probably SOMETHING in there that's stabable, but he doesn't find it on the first short. Just lots of hair. However, he DOES notice something in the serpent's head that's glowing now that he's close. No doubt a magical weak-point of some kind! The snake coils away from Harley, readying to strike if he continues to advance on it.

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

Whatever the situation with the fire is, Harley isn't stopping to look. Raheeda can handle it! She can handle just about anything. The same can't be said for the ex god, who feels very out of his depth as the horrible hair snake prepares to lunge.

But that glowing thing, now that's interesting. But how to get to it, without his fragile body being punctured or tossed around or squeezed to death? Well... time for an even worse plan.

Although the rest of him is just as vulnerable as the average person, Harley's head is well protected by the indestructible rabbit mask. Why not use that to his advantage? Say by crouching, and then leaping right at the snake's mouth-

Head first.

If this goes as planned and the snake takes the bait, it might find it difficult to attack further with a mouth full of helmet. Possibly buying Harley time to start blindly ripping away at the hair in order to get at that glowing whatever it is.

As previously stated, this is not a good plan.

[Shadowcaller]

The Tome of Eliander

Raheeda did in fact have a torch... somewhere.
But who remembered stuff like that at command? Crazy people, that's who.

She did realize that she needed more than just sparks however. So she reached into yet another pocket of her robes and pulls out- well whatever it was the sound of battle makes her drop it. Slipping out of her hand in dramatic fashion as it spins over 180 degrees in the air while spilling out a liquid all around it.

"Whoops!" She blurts out.

Shortly before those earlier sparks start to ignite the liquid which in part have landed on the yuan-ti's robes.

Whoops indeed.

Since that was a bottle of Skreek's 'vile fuel'. Turning the now quickly spreading flames a hue of green.
Raheeda wasn't sure what the science was behind that but right now she didn't care either as she turned to run.

[Rebonack]

[Tome of Eliander]

Okay so.

Several things happen here.

Thing one: the hair snake bites onto Harley. This isn't great because it will immediately begin hauling Harley back toward the tree it's connected to.

Thing two: Harley begins digging through the gross slithery hair and discovers that there is some sort of deep violet, glowing cube inside it? The cube is tightly bound in place with hair.

Thing three: Raheeda, the group, and the middle of the hair snake are all not on fire. Green fire, apparently. Not sure whether the green is just cosmetic or not but hey! Both ends of the snake detaches from the burning section, leaving Harley with about eight feet of snake attached to him instead of twenty four.