Poison

The Acquaintances With Weapons take on the merchant princes Leliana Whyte and Arachne Sana.

## Major Plot Points

* Syndra Silvane asked Neuriel, Voloth, Olivia, Dani, and Calypso to go undercover as the palace’s help to find spies.
* After speaking with Alice, Mary Poppers, Jeeves, and Mrs Doubtfire, the group deduced that Mary Poppers was the spy. She confessed that she meets a Merchant Prince liaison at the Manhole to give him daily reports on what she sees going on around the castle, especially regarding the queen and AWW.
* Dani turned the party invisible and followed Mary Poppers to her Manhole meeting. Calypso refused to enter the establishment.
* When May Poppers arrived, she warned her contact AWW followed her and a fight ensued. Out of the steam of the manhole sauna came Belvedere, the party’s old Yuan-Ti nemesis.
* The party knocked Belvedere out but not before he revealed his secret weapon. He came with the urn of Thiru-Taya, Zalkore’s old guardian/lover, who was magically bound to Belvedere.
* The group fought Thiru-Taya and quickly realized his spectral form was resistant to lightning, poison, fire and non-magic weapons. They were able to overcome this and return him to his urn. Olivia removed Thiru-Taya’s curse and destroyed his urn, which let him join Zalkore in the afterlife.
* AWW interrogated Belvedere by tying his snake arms and hair into knots. He seemed very attracted to Neuril in his were-cheetah hyrbid form. He shared that he worked for Leliana Whyte, the Merchant Prince of Subterfuge, who was based out of Port Nyanzaru’s abandoned Northside High School.
* After the battle, the group saw a portrait of Calypso in the Manhole with a sign that said, “Do Not Allow Back Inside”.
* AWW went to Northside High School and met Baron Smith, a teenaged drag queen. She wouldn’t let them enter until they answered her riddles.
	+ Is it raining?
	+ Spell orange
	+ I can fit my whole fist in my mouth. Want to see?
* After solving her riddles and knocking out Baron Smith for no apparent reason, the party went to the school’s cafeteria. They found Catty Puron, Ragina George, and Stretchin Weiners sitting at a center lunch table.
* They called Olivia pretty and thought Voloth’s muscles were hot.
* The group quickly killed Stretchin Weiners. Catty Purron’s poisoned claws did a lot of damage to Neuriel. But she and Ragina fell soon after Stretchin.
* Olivia stole Ragina’s burn book, which gave her the following spells. Each can be cast once per day.
	+ **Plastic Crown of Madness:** One humanoid of your choice that you can see within range must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become charmed by you for the duration (1 minute). While the target is charmed in this way, a plastic tiara appears on its head. As a bonus action, you can command the charmed target to make melee or melee ranged attack against a creature other than itself that you mentally choose. The target can act normally on its turn if you choose no creature or if none are within its reach. The target can make a Wisdom saving throw at the end of each of its turns or when it is injured. On a success, the spell ends. You can only control one target at a time.
	+ **Passive Aggressive Mockery:** You unleash a string of insults laced with subtle enchantments at a creature you can see within range. If the target can hear you (though it need not understand you), it must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or take 3d8 psychic damage and have disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn.
	+ **Boo, You Whore:** One humanoid of your choice that you can see within range must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become frightened by you for the duration (1 minute). While frightened by this spell, a creature must take the Dash action and move away from you by the safest available route on each of its turns, unless there is nowhere to move. If the creature ends its turn in a location where it doesn’t have line of sight to you, the creature can make a Wisdom saving throw. On a successful save, the spell ends for that creature.
	+ **Awesome Face Punch:** A phantasmal fist wearing heavy rings springs out of the ether and punches a creature within range (60 feet). Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 2d10 force damage.
* Leliana Whyte then appeared and tried to kill the “fugly sluts” who murdered her click. She used her magical hair extensions to whip and entangle Olivia. The party rallied and killed the Merchant Prince of Subterfuge.
* Olivia was able to take one of Leliana’s extensions, allowing her to use Hair Whip.
	+ ***Hair Whip.*** *Melee Weapon Attack:* (Dexterity + Proficiency) to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. *Hit:* 1d8 + Dex slashing damage and 1d4 piercing damage. A creature hit by this attack must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw or be restrained by Olivia's hair. A restrained creature can use its action to attempt to break free with a DC 17 Strength or Dexterity check.
* The party then found Leliana’s secret intel.
	+ The country of Thay has allied with the Merchant Princes. Thay bought slaves from the Princes and provided Leliana with her magical extensions and shipped goods to Arachne Sana, the Merchant Prince of Plants, to her farmhouse outside of Port Nyanzaru.
	+ The Yuan-Ti of Chult have fallen into in-fighting now that Varysss and Belvedere are dead. Much of their help has been rescinded.
* Neuriel consulted Ivy about Arachne. She said Arachne was the daughter of the former Merchant Prince of Poisons and Assassinations. Arachne lacked a natural gift for botany, herbalism, and poison making, so she wasn’t surprised she relied on magic items.
* Neuriel and Olivia helped the party prepare for the fight by giving them temporary HP and resistance to poison damage.
* The party found the Yuan-Ti poison maker, Xopal, milking venom out of a giant spider in a stable. They killed Xopal and Dani convinced the spider to leave peacefully. Neuriel then freed the other five spiders.
* AWW entered the farmhouse where Voloth and Olivia kept touching things and triggering poison traps.
* Neuriel found three poison potions and gave two to Voloth.
	+ 4D4+4 damage
* Eventually the party found Arachne who had shifted into a spider-human hybrid with six spider legs protruding from her back and a set of spider eyes.
* Dani’s disintegration ray nearly killed Arachne and Calypso finished her off with a shocking grasp.
* Olivia found a half-written note to Captain Eurin Gayjoy asking him to set sail from Refuge Bay.