Into the Stone Dragon & a Heart to Heart

The party enters the Stone Dragon, where they find an alter devoted to Paladine - Cinder is blind and thinks it is the real Paladine due to the detail and bends down to worship. He is divinely blessed, much to everyone's surprise. They continue, where they find a false treasure room with traps - Cinder and Vinoth deactivate the trap, however when Alphy goes in, he accidentally triggers one. He ends up getting stung by a scorpion that emerges. At first, he attempts to shrug it off, but then he realises it's a scorpion that kills fast and wilts the body. He panics, as being stung by one of these means death. He ends up bolting out of the stone dragon and back to the Aaracokra village, where they attempt to help but realise it can't be cured. Cinder saw Alphy leaving and quickly follows whilst the rest of the party continue through the Stone Dragon. Alphy is in trouble, his whole arm and parts of his chest are completely black and withered. Cinder finds him sitting on the grass and having a moment of reflection at his circumstance. They pick his brain and the Aaracokra's, where they work out that whilst the poison can't be cured, it can be outlasted, and that if they kept on healing Alphy with spells, he could potentially outlast it. Cinder moves them to a better spot and begins the process with Alphy, the two going through the grueling process of letting Alphy reach death's doorstep before healing him. Cinder tries to take his mind off it and the two have a heart to heart, where Alphy reveals some things about himself, and that he wants to die, but not like this. Laurana and Elistan come up to help Cinder with Alphy as him and Cinder have been gone for a while. Cinder continues to talk to Alphy and the two end up getting on the topic of Alphy's dad - Cinder learns Alphy's dad is an enchanter, a potentially high level one, and may be in a position of power, however Alphy was delirious and rambling, so Cinder disregarded this. Alphy ends up asking an oddly specific question, listing some symptoms and asking Cinder if an enchanter could cause those. Cinder says yes, but adds on other things could. Alphy asks his opinion about enchanters, which Cinder leaves vague but suggestively negative. Alphy seems distressed by this, and Cinder clarifies that that may not be the case, and you can't judge an individual by what they are, and Alphy shouldn't assume the worst just because his dad's an enchanter. Alphy ends up reaching the final stage of the poison, taking one last nasty hit of its damage before it clears. He has to rest as he's in a bad way but won't die. Vinoth, who was still exploring the Stone Dragon, ends up getting stung too and rushing up, however the party is out of healing spells as they used them for Alphy. Alphy ends up having a moment of clarity and remembers the candy Bensoldi gave them being an antitoxin, however him and Vinoth had been having conflicts, so he waits until Vinoth is almost dead before letting the party know. The aaracokra kids who he had been playing with earlier appear and he gives them candy too before passing out. The party decides they need to long rest before returning to the tower.