Having helped extinguish fires in Ironfell, Faris seeks out Edvarius for the return trip to West Haven. Unfortunately, Edvarius isn’t quite done with his local tasks yet.
I sought out Edvarius the following morning, to see if he could leave now that the giant had been dispatched. I talked him into an extra bit of coin for dealing with the giant, and he asked me to travel south to see what was poisoning the water. I reluctantly agreed – with a promise of payment – and set off with my mule and boat to explore various branches off the river. I gathered more tasselroot as I was able, eventually finding a small cave with a terrible odor emanating from within.
I gathered some fresh herbs, tucked them into a cloth, and covered my nose before proceeding into the cave. My boat slid quietly through the water into the darkness. I heard a strange noise just before three toothy monsters dropped into my boat from above, and was bitten by one of them. I slayed them and rapidly retrieved my belongings from the sinking boat, leaving the mule waiting for my return.
My animal companions followed me into a series of rooms within the cave. I found a dwarven corpse, reminding me of how perilous this cave was. I stuck close to the river path after that, noting that he also carried a vial of dragon egg ooze, though broken.
Upon reaching the deepest cavern, I found hundreds of slimy eggs in the water. The eggs themselves were transparent, clearly showing some kind of insects inside. The film on the eggs was causing the water to foam, and that foam was flowing out to the river. I carefully transplanted the eggs to the firm ground near the back of the cave, then judiciously set them all on fire to eliminate this plague upon the river. As I finished, a loud screech echoed throughout the cave, and a massive insect came lumbering towards me.
I dashed in, striking the giant beast, dodging its vicious mandibles. It almost grabbed me with its pincers once, but Richard swooped down and stunned it. It spit acid on me; I recovered and slayed it with my next strike.
That done, I retrieved my mule and began the walk back to Ironfell. A man passed me with a rowboat, but refused me a ride. As I walked, I harvested more tasselroot and munched some rations. On my eventual return to Ironfell, I sought out Edvarius again. He paid me the agreed upon amount and we arranged to meet the next morning to depart for West Haven.