Matt looks around exploring the full space for threats. That being what he does and not the thinking and talking his clients seem to be all about. His only concern is to keep them from jumping on the baby alien monstrosity that successfully lured them into his egg chamber with a sparkly web.

This is good for a first recon. Let's go back and set a barrier - while you consult your arcane knowledge

Esmerelda wracks her brains, but all she can think of is her recent research in the library.

Digging further, Esmerelda finds information on a number of creatures, including

• The Astradaemon - A large and ugly daemon
• Dragon Horse - looks a bit like a horse, solitary, possibly helpful.
• The Astral Shark - a voracious predator
• Corpse Spinner - a  gigantic silver spider that hunts across the planes.
• The Soul Spider, although its 'proper' name is the Soliquid Astralis.

The Soul Spider is probably the best fit, it spins a long thin filament, much like a strand of spider's web, and casts it into the river of souls.  Sticky beads on the thread bind to a soul, and allow the spider to draw it back to itself.  However, there is little detail. Some speculate that a Soliquid is an immature version of a corpse spinner, others that it is a different, but related species.

Nodding Jackie considered their current information and what they really needed to figure out. "The immediate question that needs answering, if you ask me, is: Are these creatures a threat to our citizens and visitors? If yes, they need to be removed. If no threat, how fast do they replicate and how long until that threatens the people here?" she summarized, comparing the arachnid-kin to rodents. A couple of rats were no big deal, but they became a problem if they were too numerous.

"Any suggestions on how to determine that?" the tiefling asked the other two.

"The potential for harm is great indeed.  We should test the silk we collected and see the best way to remove it, fire, acid, or something  else.....Oh dear."

Still concerned about the safety of his clients Matt tries encouraging them to head back for this conversation.

Sounds good - let's take our web back figure out what destroys it and drop bombs of that in the hole.

he tries to encourage the movement back while keeping alert for threats.

20:51, Today: Nether Security Agency rolled 22 using 1d20+7.  perception.

"We should dig into the lore, as  the potential is great tthat the set of clues is rapidly narrowing to two creatures the ecology of which is so vaired that thay may indeed be different stages of the same creature...."

The tiefling pursed her lips as she considered their options, then pulled her dagger from its sheath. "I get that we should not meddle with the babies, but that doesn't mean we have to leave empty handed." she mentioned and went over to the open, empty bag. Taking care that she was not cutting into the pillar but rather cutting the remains of the eggsack from the 'stem' and removed the item. "To give Lilianne something to study." Jackie commented with a lopsided grin.

ooc: I assume that the empty eggsack has no more life-giving connection to the pillar/stem, so where the connection goes dry is where she will cut.

As Jackie inspects the open bag, she realizes that there is no  dry part of the empty sack's stalk, nor that there was ever any connection between the 'stem' and the empty sack.

"Curious." the woman remarked but did not dwell on it long, instead she removed the empty sack carefully, not willing to spill anything that might remain inside.

I am not quite sure how you wish to proceed.

ooc: Jackie wants to take the sack with her, what does she have to do? You said it has no connection to the stem/pillar-thingamagic, is it lying on the ground?

ooc:  Let's assume that you held it in one hand (gauntleted if you prefer) and cut it with a dagger.  So the sack is now in your hand  :)

Are we heading back to the Library?

ooc: Sounds good to me. I'm fine going back to the library.

“Might be good to take that sack to be inspected by someone who knows something more, we should update the keeper…”

A couple of the security men, stopping people entering the orchard, nod to Matt as you make your way back out into the netherworld gardens - and from there it is just a short walk back to the Library.

Both the Librarian and Lilianne are there -  deep in discussion about some minor point, or another.

Matt shakes hands with one and let’s the ladies go first as they move to the Library.

Whatever that hole is I would stay back and keep an eye on it. He warns his fellows.

"Well we have a bit of a larger issue than we thought, take a gander at this thread and the sketch, along with what we think might be an egg sack....We might want to let the keeper know unless he already knows, what is going on."

Esmerelda thinks about the mantis men of the wastes and wonders if this is related to the thri-kreen rather than the spiders.....

The Librarian takes the thread  and looks at it briefly, then finds a cloth to wipe the stickiness from his fingers before he looks at  the sketch.

"That is quite an impressive structure." he comments, "And clearly detectable from outside.  The keeper must be badly distracted, not to notice something like that, so it is up to us to resolve the problem."

He pauses for a moment as he wipes his hands again, before handing the sketch back.  "Sorry." he comments casually as he indicates the  stickiness  transferred from the thread to the map.  "When I investigate outside, it looks like an accretion of astral matter. You know, the dust and detritus that hangs around on the astral plane?" he half by way of a brief explanation.

"From the size of it, it must be a large Astral creature, perhaps the Corpse Spinner or Soliquid Astralis that we spoke about earlier.  If so, you must destroy any remaining egg sacks, and fairly quickly.  We don't want either of those gaining access to  Netherworld.

While you do that, I will think about how we might remove the whole structure."

Jaqueline went without any other comment to the library, giving Lilianne an acknowledging nod, bowing slightly in greeting to the librarian. She listened to the comments made and nodded, filing away the information in her notebook.

When it was clear they had to eliminate the egg-sacks the tiefling felt her initial feelings confirmed, it was dangerous to the citizens of the Netherworld. "Sir, may I point out that one of the eggs has hatched, thus we have one small creature roaming around already and I can only guess about the mother-arachnid." the woman said, looking from the older man to her employer.

"Then we shall have to search the whole of the netherworld," the librarian responds to Jacqueline.  "But before that, we must deal with the threat that is before us ...  that thing attached to our orchard."

Then more lightly he adds, "Think of all of those poor pears that won't get brewed into perry ..."
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 12:48, Tue 22 Mar 2022.

“We have the thread but the web heals so we should try some brute force removal acid or fire….”

I somehow expected one of you to use glasses full of acid and fire and whatever right here and figure out what works best

"You expect rightly, if our hast has such things here, if not we can go to the brewery.  Weak acid might remove the coasting, but also make it harder to burn, the strands we collected seem different than the inner, as the strand did not heal.....  Though the right place to sever might be the real way to be rid of the problem."

The tiefling listened and pursed her lips as she contemplated the new information, before asking her employer: "Lilianne, do you think you could provide us with some flasks of alchemist's fire to resolve this situation?"

Lilianne nods and provides a flask of alchemist's fire and another of acid.  When you take them back to Esmerelda's farm to test the thread, you find that both of them work, to some extent. While the stickiness is burned away, you are left with a fine grey dust, although it clearly isn't ash of any sort.

The whole process, acid or fire, produces a thick acrid smoke, that makes you cough.  And that is just a small amount of the thread ...