Hakon, yielding to the primal call of battle within, begins an Ulfen warchant.
Combat surprise round
Bold can act
Spider, they´re so surprised of being spotted than are unable to act
Kyra casts a shield of faith over Poog
Poog rush foward to cut the nearest spider in half
Oloch rush to catch Poog
Rixian and dragon throw a magic missile to the last spider
Kess
Hakon inspires rage in some of his companions
The giant spider spites a web over Poog entangling him with its sticky threads.
Combat round one
All can act
Spider, spites over Poog, covering him in a sticky web
Kyra
Poog is entangled in a web
Oloch
Rixian and dragon
Kess
Hakon
Kyra manages to catch up to Kess, and draws her rapier.
"I think I prefer the ones with two legs." She says.
Combat round one
Bold can act
Spider, spites over Poog, covering him in a sticky web
Kyra moves toward the spider unseathing her scimitar
Poog burst the web and complains about her hair
Oloch
Rixian and dragon
Kess hits at the spiders flank, breaking his quitinous armor.
Hakon
And Rixian win the race to kill the spider! Whithout spider silk of his hair and no neccesity to move behind his bush.
Harvest time
The central orb of web is a newly laid egg sack. The eggs are worthless in Daggermark, but the webbing holding the sack is covered in fresh adhesive. You may also try to collect a silk gland from a spider corpse with a successful DC 15 Heal or Survival check. Only one attempt for each corpse.
Kyra will study with dead arachnids for a moment
"Well, I can't imagine they're much different then their much smaller cousins." She says hesitantly.
"At which point it just a surgery, like any other, right?" She adds, clearly not quite convincing herself.
Still, she gets down beside one of them to give it a go.
Between Kyra and Poog, and with a little help from Kess, you recover the adhesive from the egg web and the glands of both spiders. With your newfound "tresure" you arrive to Daggermark to sell it as only a city with a thriving trade in poison has buyers for the adhesive.
You can go directly to sell it to Vox, or try to find another buyer, if you search for another buyer:
A gnome would-be apothecary, Ezmerlilly Vanderpoof, recently failed to deliver some promised goods to the Poisoners’ Guild. She needs something to appease the guild before they decide to drastically renegotiate their contract.
Though he has a reputation for being a fierce negotiator, dwarven merchant Narngar Ninefingers has run up quite the gambling debt. Debtors tend not to last long in a city of assassins, and Narngar is growing desperate for something he can sell to important patrons to prove that he’s worth keeping around.
In either case, when you go to the merchant is possible to have a hunch about him with a DC Sense Motive check (up to three atemps, DC 17 the second and DC 19 the third).
"Ulisha seems to distrust Vox lately ... I say we see who else will buy this stuff."
"I heard rumor of a gnome might be in the market for such venom – Ezmerlilly Vanderpoof, or some such. Got in debt to the Poisoner’s Guild, and has to make good... soon."
"Ulisha distrusts everyone." Kyra responds with a snort. "Given the run around she's giving us, I can see why. Wouldn't doubt most of her contacts want to wring her neck to some degree."
"Some folks back there were talking about a dwarf who might have some interest as well." She adds, to Hakon's comment about other merchants.
"Supposedly a fierce negotiator, but currently in some debtor trouble, much like the gnome Hakon mentions. That might force his hand towards better pricing as well, so he has some product to show."
"Why not both?" Poog suggests, not knowing much about both merchants.
A fair point, but we'd likely need to harvest another venom gland. Care to go poking about to rustle up more spiders? I'm game."
Oloch shrugs, "Play'em off each other. Supply and demand and all that."
Kyra frowns. "I don't feel any desire to jump through any more hoops than Ulisha is already making us." She says, slightly annoyed.
"Let us just unload these things, and move on. Either this gnome, or the dwarf, seem like they should be amenable to decent prices."
"I see no reason to try to eke out even more coins for Ulisha's sake."
"Then let's go see this dwarf. Desperation makes folks more malleable."
You go the Nrngar Ninefingers store. When you enter, the dwarf almost run away, but seeing you´re not from town he relax a little and assist you.
Ye, yes. What Can I do for you? His voice tremble a little as he talks.
Narngar is terrified that his debtors will come to collect. He’s already on edge, so intimidation is effective. He’s in a rush to make a deal, though, so diplomacy is difficult. You can also try to bluff him, it´ll be easiest than diplomacy but not as to intimidate him.
Kyra gives the man a friendly smile.
"We hear that you are in the market for some new inventory." She says, producing the spider parts. "It just so happens we are looking to unload some of the very same, acquired at some great risk only this morning! If we could come to some sort of mutually beneficial arrangement, we might all profit this day!"
She glances back at her rather forceful group of companions, and continues conspiratorially, "Now my friends here have been getting grumpy, and I would not want to have to tell them you were not willing to negotiate in good faith."
"For then we would have to take our business elsewhere." She says, looking sad. "Our pockets would still be empty, and your shelves would still be sparse... when the next folks came in to do business and end up disappointed as well." She lets his mind create who those next folks are, and just how disappointed they might be (hopefully his debtors).
lancing at the dwarf's hands, curious if he really has only nine fingers, Hakon squares up to bolster Poog’s blockade.
Oloch flexes like a boss.
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"C'mon Kyra," Kess joins in. "Are we amking a deal with this guy or what? It's a seller's market now: if he doens't want to take these goods if sure there's plenty of alchemists, guildmembers or bookies who would be very interested in finding some new reagents."
Kess tries to put some subtle emphasis on the 'bookies' part of her statement, hoping to throw Ninefingers off of his game.
The dwarf opens wildly his eyes, suddenly seeing the debt is not her most pressing problem.
Good faith is the best faith, I allways said that. An I´m plenty of good faith. so we can make an agreement.
I only have 200 gold coins. But wait, there´s no need to go away with the adhesive.
He reliefs a little seeing how the group don´t go out offended by his offer.I can also offer you two flasks of alchemist’s fire and three potions of cure light wounds.
And, a fair trade’s a fair trade. There was a half-orc blathering about some important blade or sword or something she found. Moonsilver, Sliverhex, or somesuch. Kept going on about its history to any who would listen. The merchant leans in conspiratorially. Well I have it from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, that she won’t be needin’ that sword where she’s headed. The merchant draws a hand across the neck, making an unpleasant sound. The Vessels Between will have that one soon enough. You just need to go out there and grab that sword once they’re through, and I happen to know where they found her little camp.
Oloch's eyes light up, "A fight? Let's go, then!"
If you want more information about the assassins:
15+ The assassins of Daggermark are more affordable than other hired killers. They refer to themselves as the Vessels Between, as they take targets from life to death.
20+ The more one is willing to pay, the more highly trained the assassin he can hire. The guild doubles as a school for assassins in training, and even these neophytes are available for hire.
25+ Assassins sent on missions outside of the city often work in pairs so as to better protect one another.
The group rushes to save participate in the fight and quickly find the cave where Ulisha is supposed to be hiding. There´s no sounds of fight, so you have came before the assassins, or too late.
The hill ahead is not much to look at. It gently slopes away from the river. A shallow cave is near its top, smoke from a campfire curling upward in the gentle breeze. The grass wafts slowly along a gently curving path up the southern face of the hill, ending in a few switchbacks as the hill grows steep near the top.
Oloch marches up the hill, blade in-hand, eyes scanning for Ulisha or the oncoming danger.
"Well, whoever she owes money too, I hope they're resources are not too bountiful." Kyra says, as they approach the cave, looking around nervously.
"Or that we're not too late." She adds.
A voice comes from the cave: Kess? Is you? Then, Ulisha appers in the entrance of the cave. All of you here? Why? And how had you found me? She seems surpresed of you having found her and not the other way.
Kyra smiles ruefully. "Would appear you were not quite as good about concealing your location as you may have hoped."
"Word in Daggermark has the Vessels already on your trail and heading here. One of those nobles you crossed apparently grew tired of waiting for his compensation." She looks around carefully.
"We were not sure if we would get here before they located you or not, to be honest. You sent us on quite the expedition." Her tone indicates being somewhat displeased at that last.
"Yah ... and what you got against folks adventuring for ale money?"
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"Yeah, so we skipped ahead of the breadcrumbs from your journal. We're great. Go us." Even given the ominous circumstances of their meeting, Kess can't help but crack a grin. "What's important now is we be somewhere else before the other people after you catch up."
"Have you found this blade you're looking for yet? Becuase if so, I'd suggest we leave. Now."
Thanks all for coming to help, but I really doubt leaving is the best course of action. If I flee, they´l continue going against me until I´m dead.
But, if they send assasins to me and we defeat them, them they´ll think twice about sending more again. What if you hide near, and when they appear, we strike together?
Kyra sighs. "Was this course ever in any doubt." She mutters.
Nevertheless, she agrees to help.