with addendum by Brandi Weed
Name: Serpent People
Set: Mythos Limited, Starter Array
Type: Monster
Subtype: Lesser Independent
Value: 3
San: -1
Special Effect Box: Joins with other Serpent People and with Weapons.
"The serpent-men were busying themselves with a multitude of
tasks...
there was a loud and constant hissing of formulaes as they went to and
fro. Some were smelting the black nether ores; some were blowing
molten
obsidian into forms of flask and urn; some were measuring chemicals;
others were decanting strange liquids and curious colloids."
-- "The Seven Geases", Clark Ashton Smith
The serpent people are ubiquitous, perhaps appearing more frequently than any other Mythos creature. Robert E. Howard's heroes, Conan and Kull, both fought them. They dwelled below the ground in Clark Ashton Smith's Hyperborea. Howard Lovecraft mentioned them peripherally. We met their god, Yig, in "The Mound", and we saw their beastly descendants in "The Nameless City." In more recent years they appeared as the dragon kings of Lin Carter's Thongor novels, and elsewhere.
Sometime after the earliest alien invasions by the Yithians, star spawn, Elder Things, and others, the serpent people rose to prominence. They ruled much of the world from ancient Valusia for a time, but in the end their civilization fell. In the present day, they exist only in the tiniest conglaves, hidden from those who would destroy them.
The three words "Joins ... with Weapons" cause some confusion and work awkwardly with Mythos mechanics. Here are a few clarifications for that triad of words.
The first thing to note is the definition of Joining. According to page 67 of the Dreamlands rulebook, "Cards that Join can be played together, as one play during one Turn. You must still meet all the normal conditions for playing these cards." This means that if you want to play Serpent People and a Weapon at the same time, you must meet both the conditions for playing Serpent People (i.e., be at an unused gate) and for playing a Weapon (i.e. be an at Artifact Location).
The definition of Joining causes another quirk in the way that Serpent People work. The rules further state, "Two cards may Join as long as one of them allows this in its Special Effects box. More than two cards may Join as long as every combination of two cards in the group Joins." The first sentence means that you can put down a Serpent People card and a Weapon, even though the Weapon doesn't say it joins with Serpent People. The second sentence causes some problems, though. Consider two cases where you put down multiple cards. In the first case you want to play two Serpent People and a Weapon. This works because every set of two cards in the group Joins. That is, the two Serpent People can Join, and each Serpent People can Join with the Weapon. But in the second case you want to play two Serpent People and two Weapons. The two Serpent People can Join. Each Serpent People can Join with a Weapon. Unfortunately, the two Weapons can't Join with each other, because neither of them allows it in its Special Effect box. This, this is not a legal play.
There's one more quirk in the way that Serpent People work, and that's due to the definition of Weapons. According to page 20 of the Dreamlands rules, "The two cards, Weapon and Ally ... function as one card." This means when you Join a Weapon and a Serpent people to your Threat, you need to declare they're one card: "This is one card I'm playing, and it costs me -2 Sanity." This gives away the game, but players need to know the actual number of cards you have in your threat for Instability In the Mythos and other such cards.
Q: Can I play Serpent People Joined with War Horse and some other Weapon?
A: No. The two weapons don't Join, and thus you can't legally play them together.
Q: If I play a Serpent People as an Ally using the Kitab Al-Azif or the Sardonic Serpentman Investigator can I Join a Weapon with it?
A: As long as you're at an Artifact Location. All this power does is change where you play your cards, not how you play them.
Q: Can I summon a Serpent People and Join a Weapon to him as he attacks?
A: No, you can only summon a single non-Joined monster.
Q: What happens when I try to Control a card from a Threat containing a Weapon?
A: Remove the Weapon from the randomization. If the monster wielding the Weapon is chosen, the Weapon is automatically chosen as well.
Q: Can I Join a New AEon Serpent People with a Waking World Serpent People and a Weapon?
A: No. Remember the Joining Rule! New AEon Serpent People cannot join with Weapons.
Get Your Weapons Out - Sometimes it's hard to play Weapons necessary for Adventrues because you don't have Allies out. Serpent People can be used as alternatives. Consider this for Adventures like Arkham Horror and The Unspeakable Oath, which both require multiple Weapons. Don't do this with Dynamite you need for an Adventure, since it'll go from the Threat to the Discard Pile, and can thus rarely be used for adventures. Even better, by playing a Weapon with Serpent People you save a valuable Turn. For Adventures like Arkham Horror and The Theron-Marks Society, which requires Monsters and Weapons, this is a particular boon. You get to meet two requirements on one Turn.
Serpent People work particularly will with certain weapons:
Serpent People don't work well with most Enchanted Weapons. Avoid mixing them when you can. Enchanted Weapons are typically more costly than comparable un-Enchanted Weapons due to the fact that they have two special abilities: Their wielders can be added to the Threat and can see Invisible Monsters. Unfortunately, these abilities are totally useless to Serpent People already in the Threat, so all you're doing is giving them a less powerful or more costly weapon without receiving any benefit. Save Enchanted Weapons for Allies not in the Threat, except maybe for the exceptions noted above.
Serpent People are pretty easy to Counter:
Summon/Control Lesser Independent - If your opponent is sitting at an Artifact/Gate Location, plays two (or more cards), and points to two in the set, and says "These count as one card", you know what's going on. If you cast a spell to Control a Lesser Independent, it is guaranteed to work. And, you might get lucky and get the one with the Weapon.