Sessions 8-9: 19/11/23 - 26/11/23

• PCs agree to help the Wizarding Academy recruiter Oby retrieve Great Teloorg samples and associated research notes from the Ebaren Institute of Botany (EIB).
• PCs run into Vangurn at the EIB’s greenhouse. He takes control of operations there.
• PCs infiltrate the greenhouse and steal some Great Teloorg samples.
• PCs learn about the Drow, The Crescent, and some adventuring opportunities around Ebaris.
• For the partial completion of Oby’s job, Reginald receives intensive magic training.
• Demi travels to Shadow Hill and becomes wiser while training under the monks there.

Wizarding Academy

The PCs explore Ebaris, and visit the Wizarding Academy there. The recruiter Oby Obelisk offers a job: retrieve fresh samples of the Great Teloorg and research notes about this new organism from the Ebaren Institute of Botany. In exchange, they’ll receive several magic items and intensive magic training for Reginald. Oby casts invisibility on the PCs so they can get to work immediately.

Ebaren Institute of Botany (EIB)

The PCs visit the EIB’s busy greenhouse west of Ebaris. They infiltrate the greenhouse, and find a newly-dug pit where some Great Teloorg roots are being cultivated.

The PCs experience various hallucinations. Reginald sees Vangurn first standing on the ceiling glass, then on the ground outside, then entering the greenhouse, and finally being stopped by a researcher annoyed by the apparently real armoured intruder.

Increased security

The PCs evacuate, but keep watch on the greenhouse. They see some researchers leave, and return with mercenaries - apparently hired to guard the greenhouse. Vangurn also seems to take charge of operations, and the researchers and mercenaries appear willing to follow his orders.

The PCs visit town to buy a glass cutter, and at night they cut their way back into the greenhouse. Reginald makes a distraction with a decoy grenade, and Demi enters the Teloorg pit. She fills her bag with root cut-offs, overcomes a sudden desire to remain in the pit, and then climbs out of the hole.

Still invisible, the PCs escape the greenhouse. Vangurn remains behind, apparently aware of their presence but making no move to pursue.

Preparation

Back at the Wizarding Academy, Oby dispels the PC’s invisibility. For retrieving root samples without research notes, he offers partial payment: intensive magic training for Reginald, and a discount on future magic items.

The PCs visit one of the many Ebaren libraries, and learn some details about the Drow:

• There are several Underdark entrances throughout the northern mountains.
• The drow worship the cruel spider goddess Lolth, whose favour they are desperate to win.
• Some believe a huge drow city exists directly beneath Ebaris.

The PCs also learn some details about The Crescent:

• It was indeed the site of an ancient dwarven battle, just as Wake claimed.
• A potion granting immunity to carcass crawler paralysis can be created, although the key ingredient is a carcass crawler brain.

The PCs hear of two potentially lucrative opportunities in the surrounds of Ebaris:

• A newly built frost giant fortress.
• A mage’s tomb guarded by frost salamanders.

Training

Reginald trains for 6 weeks at the Wizarding Academy. Meanwhile, Demi travels south to Shadow Hill and studies for a month under Brother Salen and his monks. She learns their ways of self-sufficiency, and feels herself grow wiser as a result.