The Dauntless III: Revenge of the Sith

"What did you cook? Can we investigate your pantry?" Antoinette asks.

After a search, Antoinette finds the source of the poison. Somebody poisoned the salt grinder. She heads back up to Stral. "Your salt grinder was poisoned. Who supplies your salt? Who might have had access to the grinder?"

"My salt grinder? Weird." Stral thinks for a moment. "No one has access to my stuff. My groceries were delivered yesterday, same as normal, and no one touched the grinder after I got the bag in."

With that promise given, the group heads to Hiarmis Deliveries' office to seek out this deliverywoman.

When you arrive and explain the situation to the manager at Hiarmis, they're confused but agree to check the records.

"Alright," they say, looking at yesterday's log. "Seems that Sam called in sick, and that delivery was covered by an unnamed Garundi woman. I actually think I remember her coming in and picking up the slip now that I think about it."

"Can you tell us anything about her?" Dorrak asks. "Anything identifying?"

Dorrak furrows his brow, "Is it normal for people you don't even know the names of to cover deliveries?"

"Thank you for your time," Antoinette states. As soon as the group has left the building she shares her concerns with the group. "Absolutely bizarre that she should have no suspicions about a strange figure showing up and taking over a delivery without even stating who they are. Seems some magic may be involved here."

The group then heads to meet with the Poison Maker's Guild. Antoinette steps through the familiar edifice and looks to the secretary desk. "Hello again. I need to find the maker of a specific poison. Where can I get this information?"

The secretary smiles brightly. "Of course, I'd be happy to help. Do you have the name of the toxin in question, or a sample that I can use to compare to our files?"

Antoinette places the sample down on the desk. ”It appears to be a unique, more deadly variant of a more common poison. Depending on the nominative creativity of the poison’s inventor, I would hazard to guess it may be called nightmare salt.”

The secretary picks up the sample, and her eyes momentarily glow blue. After a second she speaks. "I can find no record of an original poison, venom or other toxin in our files matching this signature, either created by us or catalogued. Whatever it is, it is very new, and most likely has not been used publicly before. One moment please." She cocks her head to the side.

"... Guildmaster Hrann would like to see you now."

The secretary leads you through a fairly boring office building to the largest and nicest of the offices here. The interior has wood paneling, a mahogany desk, and a wet bar as well as many lovely potted plants. Behind the desk a slightly overweight man with a walrus mustache and a rosy complexion smiles jovially at you.

"Ah, the famous Dauntless. Thank you Evelyn, that will be all." The secretary gives a small bow and returns to the front. "Please, come in, come in, have a seat. Can I get any of you a drink?" He picks up his own margarita and takes a sip.

Briefly considering that they're dealing with an ingested poison crafted by a master poisoner, Dorrak shakes his head at the offer. "No thank you."

"The offer is appreciated, but we need our wits about us," Antoinette replies. "According to your secretary the poison we encountered isn't on record. That worries me. We need to find who made it if we are to have any chance of finding out who bought it. We also desperately need an antidote. Guildmaster Stral of the Bakers and Butchers was poisoned with it. I doubt you care much for the lives of the other guildmasters on a personal level, but I'm also sure you understand what kind of crime it is to assassinate one of them."

"Smart of you to refuse," Hrann chuckles. "I am, of course, a master poisoner. But yes, I find this all very troubling as well. Also, fascinating. Rare is it that a poison comes along that I'm unfamiliar with. Not to fret, my dear, I've already decided to take on this case personally. I'm interested to see this variant on nightmare vapor, and I would also hate if dear Stral were to pass from this. She makes the best pork buns in the city after all!"

"Most appreciated, Guildmaster," Antoinette replies. "I'm sure you're already more than aware that you should check anything you consume if you want to involve yourself in this. I should also note some helpful info we've found. The poison was slipped into Stral's food deliveries by an unnamed, nondescript Garundi woman who somehow managed to replace the usual delivery woman for Stral's groceries. I suspect magic and charms may have been involved as neither Stral nor the manager of the delivery company found this the least bit suspicious, even knowing of the poisoning that resulted. Additionally, the poisoning came after she investigated the Scarlet Triad due to issues I raised with her and agreed to support their censure as a result of said investigation. While I doubt a solid connection to them will be findable due to their usual modus operandi, I am 100% certain they are responsible for this in some way. Getting involved in this almost certainly means going against them."

"The warning about magic is appreciated, but really, what do you take me for? I have been doing this for far longer than any of you have been alive." Hrann's tone is more amused than warning, though. "In any case, with just the small sample you brought to work with it will take some time to analyze its components and come up with an antidote. In the meantime, I suggest you continue pursuing the culprit."

"We're pretty much at a dead end on that. The delivery company couldn't give us a useful description, nor could Stral. Our last hope was finding who made the poison so we could see who they sold it to," Antoinette replies. "Without that, the culprit has done far too good a job hiding their tracks."