Pest Control, Part 2

General Summary

Returning to the hive, the adventurers once again fought off the drow and spiders guarding out front. This time they had a plan that would most definitely, surely work! Ashe turned himself and Belron into a drow. Ashe donned the unform of the guard out front while Belron...maintained his flamboyant attire. Raffyr, being immune to the spell and very much looking like a tree-man, was tied with ropes around each hand giving the illusion of being a bound prisoner. In through the front door they went!
Entering the underground drow city, their disguise seemed to be working. A posted guard sneered at Raffyr and asked Ashe if they were head to "the pit?" Ashe, reaching into his knowledge of languages managed to successfully eek out the word "yes" in undercommon. The guard nodded his approval and watched as they dragged the prisoner off...in the wrong direction. The guard called out to them and gave Ashe a curious look, asking if he'd somehow forgotten the way. Again Ashe responded, "yes."
Leading them through the tunnels and hallways of the Formian constructed underground city, they arrived at a deep pit filled with scuttling, hissing abominations made of nothing but spindly spiders legs. Ashe and Belron pushed Raffyr into the pit to the glee of the drow, giving them enough of a distraction to grapple the guard. Raffyr flew back up and out of the pit as Ashe polymorphed the drow into a penguin. Realizing that walking through the city with a penguin would bring them too much attention, the poor penguin was fed to the pit monsters.
Attempting to keep up their ruse, the party continue back to the city center in an attempt to figure out their way around and find some sort of indication as to the locaton of the formian queen. They ran into yet another guard and the prior scenario at the pit played out again.
Finally, the party was able to get farther into the city tunnels. Walking into the temple they came upon service preparations. Priests and clerics ran to and fro getting things ready. The drow Reverend Mother holding a prominent spot near the altar alongside a rather horrifying looking creature. As the adventurers walked across the room, their fake prisoner in tow, they took note that sprouting from the location of the altar to Lolth were massive, luminescent mushrooms. The same type of mushrooms they had noticed throughout the city but in much denser amounts here. Their presence in the temple seemed to go unnoticed until Ashe and Belron were hit with a whiplike force. Out of a large cave cut into the side of the temple wall came a colossal sized whip spider, intent on getting it's claws into this fresh meal that walked right up to it.
Run away! Turning tide they hurried as quickly as possible away from this spider, drawing it closer to the crowd in the seats. To their surprise, the crowd simply relocated to different seats while the Reverend Mother looked at with contentment as the whip spider chased them down and forced Belron and Raffyr into the small preparation room at the back of the temple. Ashe had the sense to burrow down, avoiding anymore attacks. Using his tremorsense he burrowed toward the direction they all ran and found himself coming out into the chambers of the formian queen herself!
Chained and on the defense, it took Ashe several moments to convince her he was not a threat. He gave her a quick run down of events and then burrowed up a level into the room where Belron and Raffyr had become trapped, the whip spider at the door attempting to reach them. Hearing that the queen was just below them, Belron burrowed down below, appearing as a mass of worms in the queens presence.
Once the queen's suspicions were squashed, they proceeded to relieve her of her chains. Ashe allowing her to change shape, giving her a burrow speed, the three of them then traveled to the one sight they knew could be reasonably safe from prying eyes - the Chwidencha pit. Once out of the ground and back to her old self the queen proceeded to reach out telepathically to her hive. Within moments a formian appeared from a small, hidden tunnel within the pit and beckoned them all to follow him.
Leading the party back to his alchemist office, Zrvkt explained to the queen and to them exactly what had happened since the drow took over the hive. The drow invaded, enslaved the formians, and began building their own Underdark on the backs of the formian workers. Zrvkt, convinced them he would be a loyal taskmasker to save his life, but has been working as a double agent. He had a way to end the drow invasion but needed the help of Belron. Zrvkt provided them with a poison that would be especially effective on drow if they could only get it into the ceremonial wine that would be used as the soon upcoming ritual sacrifice in the temple. The formian queen charged Belron with destroying the drow and restoring their hive to them.
It was at this point that Belron brought up the mushrooms they had seen. Zrvkt informed them that the mushrooms had bloomed upon the first sacrifice to Lolth that was conducted in the temple and from there expanded and spread rapidly as worship of Lolth continued. Belron explained his mission to destroy the fungus and vowed to do so while killing the drow. However, as Zrvkt explained, this would not be possible. The mushrooms were so far rooted into the hive that destroying the mushrooms would destory the integrity of the hive itself causing it to collapse. The queen was not pleased with this possibility and became angry with Belron. In response, Belron took the poison and said he would do what needed to be done.
Leaving the formians to their own devices the party then burrowed underneath the temple altar where they had determined was the source of these evil mushrooms. A casting of hallow was completed, nullifying the evil powers of these evil mushrooms. Then a disentegrate spell saw the mushrooms destroyed - from the hive all the way along the root system back to The Verdant Expanse. Teleporting out of the now collapsing hive the party arrived upon ground to watch the creation of a rapidly forming sinkhole in the location of the former hive. Having filled the hive in via move dirt at an earlier moment, ensuring no escape could be made for the drow or the formians. Both civilizations had been eradicated.
A bugle was heard and both Raffyr and Belron prostrated themselves as the Herald of Mielikki appeared once again. He thanked them all for their efforts. Raffyr was restored to full acknowledgment as a follower (after a stint as a Selunite) and Belron was blessed with an item of legacy as a reward for his zeal.

Rewards Granted

Loot:
400gp
[300 gp] potion/oil of owl's wisdom (CL 3)
[1,125 gp] arcane scroll of teleport (CL 9)
[18,350 gp] +1 flaming corrosive heavy crossbow [sheds light]
[11,250 gp] wand of dispel magic (CL 5)
[18,000 gp] ring of inner fortitude (minor) [no external clues]
[1,125 gp] arcane scroll of blight (CL 9)
[18,000 gp] ring of protection (+3) [no external clues]
[12,000 gp] rod of wonder [no external clues]
[8,000 gp] golem manual (flesh) [no external clues]
[1,125 gp] divine scroll of serenity (CL 9)
[11,250 gp] wand of fly (CL 5)
[4,350 gp] +2 breastplate
[750 gp] potion/oil of rage (CL 5)
[1,125 gp] arcane scroll of cloudkill (CL 9)
[150 gp] divine scroll of summon monster 2 (CL 3)
[300 gp] potion/oil of invisibility (CL 3)

Experience:
Raffyr(ECL 17): 4958xp = 850 (Guards & A Penguin) + 425 (Surprised Guard) + 1700 (Formian Queen) + 850 (Goliath Spiders) + 1133 (Whip Spider)
Belron(ECL 15): 9000xp = 1500 + 750 + 3000 + 1500 + 2250
Ashe(ECL 12): 20800xp = 3600 + 1800 + 7200 + 3400 + 4800

Related Reports

Pest Control - Part 1,

Report Date

05 Feb 2022

Primary Location

Verdant Expanse

Secondary Location

Xiomara

Related Characters

• Ashe
• Belron
• Raffyr

Dungeon Master

Runa (ECL 13): 5850xp/7500gp/5dt