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Khawaji and Solomon will stand watch as Hazrahi destroys the altar.

Aghilas will remain above ground, taking cover in the brush or rocks if possible, to watch for anyone who may have followed the group back to the spiders' lair.

Willow will also remain above ground although not making effort to hide.

Hazrahi takes one last look at the ground around the altar. Does it look like it moves?

If not, he gets to chopping and hacking.

He is on the lookout for any secret compartments in the altar which his tools may reveal.

There is no sign of a secret compartment, or of a secret panel. Hazrahi begins hacking the altar apart. Bits of black wood fly from his axe blows, and copper bars clang onto the ground. There is a large carving on the top of the altar, with an image of a giant black widow spider surrounded by its web. The red "hourglass" on the spider's back pops out and bounces across the room... some kind of stone or gem. Reducing the altar to splinters doesnt, in the end, take all that long.

Once he's done destroying the altar, Hazrahi sprinkles the vial of holy water on the remains.

He is curious to see what the spider gem looks like.

After sprinkling the altar with holy water, the place seems noticeably less oppressive. Though filthy and full of cobwebs, it seems more like a basement or animal den.

Locating the stone, it seems to be two rubies, joined together in a setting to make an hourglass shape, like the symbol on the back of a black widow. You estimate that, if a buyer could be found, it might sell for 1000 gp, though you wonder what type of buyer might want this jewel, if they knew it's history.

Hazrahi uses his Detect Evil ability to see if anything else in the spider den, including the hourglass gem, is radiating evil.

"Rrrmm." Aghilas leaves the cover to stand near Willow, although not too close to the Kuntani sorcerer.

Hazrahi finds that nothing else in the den, including the ruby, radiates evil.

Outside, Willow and Aghilas note that it is getting dark. It will be night, soon.

Hazrahi says, Should we fire the webs or just get out of here?

Khawaji: I like the idea of firing the web.

Solomon: Agreed, we have the missing children out.

Willow calls down "Make sure to fire the webs before leaving!" she heard something about webs.

Jaskar says Let's burn what we can and try to make town by dark.

The webs are easily fired. They ignite easily, and the fire spreads through them quickly, but they release an acrid smoke that makes staying down in the space with them difficult. Sensing that your work here is done, the group makes its way out of the underground space and back to the tiny village as the sun goes down on a moonless night.

The villagers put you up for the night in their homes, giving you the beds while they sleep on the floors, as is their custom with guests deserving of hospitality. You awaken, and are fed a hearty breakfast which invigorates you.

(Willow and Khawaji regain 1 hit point, Jaskar regains 3. I may have messed up the damage totals before, but everyone is healed except Khawaji, who is down 1 hp)

There was some talk about hanging around to see of cultists show up... do you still wish to do this, or something else?

Celebrating their victory, the group heads back up the road to the big city. They arrive without incident at about noon, and pay a visit to Aderfi, who is pleased to see see you, and gives you a purse full of 100 gp. He offers to take you out on the town to celebrate, as well, if you like...

Hazrahi politely declines the offer to party and heads to his temple, where he asks the elders what they know of this spider cult they've encountered.

Jaskar and Hamiya agree to meet up later for a celebratory night out.

Jaskar will stop by Polson's store and let him know what they discovered out at the village.

Willow offers to sell the loot if no one else wants to haggle with the merchants. There is a lot of money to be had in that ruby and those pendants! Anyone object?

OOC: Willow has bargain.

Hazrahi goes to his temple to ask the elders about the spider cult. He finds that the priests he talks to are largely preoccupied with other matters... the tithes are down, and people are not really packing into the pews the way the high priest would like. They are generally skeptical that ant spider cult would ever pose a real threat, though one gives him an "attaboy" after hearing his story.

His friend, Mahmoud, offers a more sympathetic ear. He tells Hazrahi that these demon cults pop up from time to time, and must be stopped. He does believe that there is some kind of dark energy on the march... oracles have said that a dark force is rising, but he thinks it is a human one... the worship of the Kuntani and their devotion to lesser godlings (and questionable loyalty to the king). He promises to keep an eye out for signs of the spider cult, but he suggests that they must operate in secret, so they may be hard to track down.

Jaskar stops by Polson's store and tells him what they found. Polson is not shocked about how dangerous the spiders were, but he is made quite nervous when talk turns to the cult. "Do you know how many of those spiders we have in Kuntan? Hundreds... including smaller varieties, there are thousands. The silk trade depends on them." He knows about the aggressive spider behavior, which he says is pretty widespread in the spider farms, but had thought it was some sort of disease that would play itself out. He offers his help contacting other farms, if you want to explore others.

Willow goes out alone with the ruby to an area with several gemsmiths. After shopping it around a bit, she finds a mercant named Lurgan, who is genuinely interested. He inspects the ruby several times, and asks about where it came from. Hearing of its dark past, he at first seems put off, and lowballs the price, but Willow senses she has him on the hook, and gets him to agree to a price of 1100 gp for the ruby. Does she take it?

The group begins to search for an honest locksmith. To get the word out, they'll need to spend 7 gp, and picj someone to interview candidates.

Jaskar and Hamiya express an interest in going out on the town. Are they looking for anything in particular (romance, a wild time, to do some kind of business, or...?)