Part 13: Wherein saboteurs are brought to justice

: The hour is upon us.
: I've been looking forwards to this.
: Time to bring this saboteur to justice!
: Actually I was thinking more about being free of our effective indentured servitude, but why not?



: So we have deduced the choke mist murderer lives on the western side of the continent in the mountain. Consistent with the habitat of the choke mist plant, I suppose.
: If this poisonous plant is truly as deadly as they say, any advice for avoiding the harmful effects?
: Just don't eat any and you should be fine. Although in your case perhaps, you should wait outside.
: I have… sensitivities, true, but I am not make of glass.
: Fair enough, I suppose - is that a bee?
: Where?! Stay back, foul insect!



: Oooh! Lost tower! Lost tower!
: Can we go see lost tower? Puh-leeez?
: No. We are already running late for the traitor's date with revenge. No more detours.
: I'll put it on the map and if you're very good maybe we'll explore a forgotten tower full of traps and treasure later.
: Awwww! We never do what Beef want do.



: Those are definitely choke mist spores around the cave mouth.
: And these tracks are unmistakable. We have our prey at last.



: Delightful. I suppose it was too much to ask that our traitor have tidied up his squalid lair for guests.
: Waaaaagh! Poison veggies getting in Beef's brain! Can't see! Or breath!
: Choke mist's no big deal, Beef, just don't touch any. Agda heard a story about a chef who accidentally grew choke mist instead of chives.
: Here it comes…
: The crab cakes were to die for!



: So, it was Luaire all along.
: Uh, duhhhhhh.
: Oh no! Not little scaredy-man! Beef made point of not squishing man on beach. Fear was cute!
: Stand ready, pompous boasting approaches.
: Nice of you to warn us for a change, Cornelius.



: He could hardly stand his ground against a few emaciated Batari, I don't know what he expects to-



: Evidence for at least a god of ironic punishments continues to accrue.
: I'll take my time forming a rebu-



: _{mmmpfh! mmm mmfm mmffphf} - *ptooie* Yuck! My mouth was open! Filled to bursting with the outpour of a half-dozen spider rears!
: For that mental image alone, Luaire dies today.
: You know, as soon as we can move again.



: The spell casters are incapacitated, but strength of arms may still prevail. Do not let some spiders stop us! Beef, keep Luaire from escaping!
: Is too hard for Beef! Not sure what do!
: Beef! We're playing red rover! Don't let Luaire through!
: Beef king of playground! Waaaaagh!



: Haha! Another spider squashed.
: Eargh! It spat webbing in my eyes, I'm blind! What's going on? Are we winning?
: Sure! And Agda's the most valuable player of "keep spiders from eating whingy wizards".



: And there we have it. The killing blow.
: Justice is served, our obligation is fulfilled. Let us depart before somebody chokes to death on an incurable toxin.
: Where is everybody - *oomph*



: Oh gods, that's it isn't it? That was the lethal incurable toxin.
: _{Should we tell him he just disturbed a fungus cluster?}
: _{Yes… eventually}
: I just want you all to know that I hated you all and was only in it for the money!

Editor's Note:

The choke mist cave was sealed as part of an investigation into yuan-ti involvement in Samargol. This incredibly dangerous poison is since thought to have been exterminated entirely, although dark rumours of hidden crops in the lairs of vile assassin guilds stubbornly persist. Already in decline at the time of the party's passing, news of the toxin's availability spread like wildfire amongst the elite of the Samarachan government who feared for their lives. The compound produced from its spores is truly impossible to cure and incredibly difficult to detect, exactly the sort of thing to cause panic in the world of entrenched nobles.

Panic can also prompt opportunism, and although Luaire's body was supposedly cleanly disposed of and the crop of choke mist exterminated, statistics data gathered from Samargol indicate an uptick in the death of important nobles, dignitaries, and other public figures in the months following the investigation. All, allegedly, due to 'natural causes'.



: Be careful when we break the news about Luaire's betrayal. The Samarachans are paranoid in the extreme about Yuan-ti infiltration.
: Thank you for that reminder, it was so easy to forget the imagined charge that almost saw us executed as spies.
: Still tetchy about the mushroom thing?
: Does it show?
: What a Yantee?
: S'a kind of tent.



: Right… delicately, delicately…





: Shit.





: I just want to go on record as saying that couldn't possibly have been my fault.
: Does this mean we outta work?
: It means we're out of time. Foreigners without a patron's protection in Samargol are as good as dead. The same could be said of my book now, probably.
: We have until nightfall tomorrow to decide what to do. I propose we sleep on it.
: I don't see the problem. We're weighed down with cash, high on revenge, and finally have a free pass to get out of this wretched country. Sounds like the perfect time to part company.
: Agda had fun! Things worked out pretty well.
: Except for the whole deported thing right?
: Not the first country Agda's been thrown out of!
: Enough! We shall discuss this further tomorrow.
: And… this may be nothing, but perhaps we should post a guard tonight. I am not so sure we can sleep soundly in Samargol again.

Editor's Note:

Until this point the chronicles of this particular adventuring band have been fairly mundane. This is also the period of the party's history easiest to reconstruct, heavily documented and open to scrying. The incident with Luaire was to change all of this and set into motion the events of import that prompted this scholarly work.

Luaire was indeed a Yuan-ti, but all evidence suggests the party truly was unaware of this connection and were in no way complicit or willing agents of the snake-men. At least, up until this point - as I have indicated, shortly the trail of evidence becomes badly fractured. Some entries may be mired in speculation or less than reliable accounts. I will attempt to keep things as clear as possible and present differing accounts when possible, but my research has outlined a central core of facts about the party's affairs that we will be focusing on.

Going forwards, we can only say for certain what happened on the party's last day in Samarach. Let us begin our examination…