Session 016 - Those that Master Poison

General Summary

Date 10 Larane (5) 720TR (Summer)

Recent Events

The heroes have returned to Coranan after saving the primitive Drûghu and are rewarded for their good deeds.

Yureb takes this opportunity question the Elven Loremaster Erendriel Adneiro about a personal project.

Yureb is interested in gaining a supply of an extremely strong but light rope for use in his larcenous activities and asks the Elven Loremaster, Erendriel Adneiro if he could assist. Erendriel recalls in the middle of the last century, an Alchemist and Fyvria (Life) wizard, Tiberon Regio, researched a strong, magically enhanced spider silk for strings for enchanted harps. Maybe his research could help.

Valmera was asked to investigate and quickly finds Tiberon Regio's Research Journal in the Guild of Arcane Lore. Tiberon was able to alchemically create a very strong light rope from the webs of the feared Giant Hourglass spider. This arachnid is usually found in locations with a magical aura. Further investigation finds that the nearest potential source of the webs is the Spider Lodge found in an old cistern under the Silver Troupe Theater. The theater was closed down over 30 years ago, but Yureb learns where it was previously located, at the end of a city block with the current occupants being the Tabard and Hearth Inn, the Pipe and the Potion Apothecary and the workshop of an old acquaintance Brazzak Ongrid, Dwarven Sculptor.

Investigating Brazzak's workshop, they find no indication of any underground access, but when asking Apothecary Parmen Merros if it would be permissible to look around his cellar of the Pipe and Potion, he refused and became nervous, clearly hiding something. The group leaves and drinks at the Tabard and Hearth Inn next door while Quazzy sends her rat familiar to investigate the Apothecary. In the cellar, the rat finds a trap door, likely leading underground, and an extensive Poisoners workshop.

Rather than breaking into the Apothecary, the heroes investigate the nearby well. At night, Yureb scouts and finds an access passage after some swimming and searching. The rest of the party soon follows, although they draw the guards' attention at the gate. Athena is able to bluff them, saying that she has only jumped in to save an old lady who has fallen.

A gateway blocks the access passage, and Yureb disables a poisoned spear trap but cannot pick the lock. Athena uses the crowbar to gain access. Further on, they find a trapdoor under the Pipe and Potion, and on a barrel, they find a silver tray with four vials of poison, one of them being the deadly White Death. Quazzy quickly replaces them with non-toxic replicas taking the toxins.

As they enter the web-covered Cistern and are immediately set upon by fleeing giant rats, Yureb starts collecting webs.

Quazzy determines that the site has familiar but twisted magical properties. It is a former natural magical transportation portal, a dead Barasi Point. They are set upon by two Giant Hourglass Spiders, who move in and out of the ethereal plane but are quickly dealt with. However, the three more that followed shortly after were much more difficult. Quazzy was ambushed and paralyzed, followed by Yureb. Athena manages to down two of them but groggy with poison, she uses the last of her divine healing and burns the toxin from Quazzy's system. Quazzy then used the Wand of Wails to turn the remaining spider's brain to mush.

The party using various healing potions recovered some of their strength. As they make their way forward, the Mother Hourglass Spider appeared, huge and vomiting forth swarms of lesser spiders. The party fight hard, and just as they think they have the upper hand, Quazzy disappears. Yureb coats his weapon with the White Death poison and springs from the shadows, driving his sword through the Mother spider's head.

Quazzy meanwhile has been transported elsewhere. She appears in a beautiful wooded creek and is met by her patron, the twisted Elven Demigod Desridaen. He explains that the Dead Barasi Point is a place where the walls between the worlds are weak, and he took this opportunity to visit for a chat. He explains what she is seeing is the gateway as it was when he visited it thousands of years ago, long before human civilization. When Quazzy mentions the ceremony they have uncovered, the Rite of Nao-Thian he becomes angry, telling her that she has been given great power or the sole purpose of undermining the actions of Krasula, the Hunter of Sleep. She is angrily dismissed back to the spider chamber after the battle.

The heroes find an old chamber filled with egg sacks, the remains of a few unfortunates, and some treasure. The group travels back up the well and is met by several puzzled guardsmen. Athena is able to pass a convincing explanation for their presence and potentially recruit one of the guard's daughters to the Sisterhood of the Crimson Dancer.

Yureb employs the Alchemist Vasim Ichiron from the Bubbling Flask to make him some rope from the spider's webs and successfully tested them.