Hareton's thumb lowers to the button on a trigger device. If you don't act now, the needle punches and Agnes will be lobotomized.
"Take him, Quinn!" Calling on his luck, Ianez leaps towards the examination table in an attempt to at least put his chain-gloved hand between the descending needle and Agnes' head. If the table will move independently of the lobotomy device, he'll try to shove one of them away from the other.
Sandru's mercy costs him precious time.
Ianez makes a valiant attempt, but it's too late. The battle is on!
Round 1:
"Ianez.... get the girl off the table." Quinn concentrates at a single point and unleashes 4 of his arrows towards Hareton.
The arrows speed towards Hareton, and most of them appear to strike him. But he just levitates and remains curiously unharmed.
Hareton presses the trigger. The huge needle punches down deep into Ianez's hand!
Olivia was made undead.
...
Now that's unusual. Can't say that I have ever seen anything take NO damage from one of Quinn's volleys. Some trickery must be at work here.
If Sandru's statement registers, Hareton gives no sign. He stares straight ahead unperturbed, his face fixed stoically in an expression of hate.
Left in the frozen night...
Caromarc runs forward, vanishing mid stride, then reappears next to Agnes. Laying a hand on her he vanishes again - as does she.
The Manservant looks at "Unruhue", then at the Earl, then Agnes.
Midfwife, she said. But she didn't understand.
"Hareton. You walk the Dark Road. It is never too late to turn back."
Left unsaid, the poem he references continues "But every easy step taken down that dark road must be re-tread in pain to return to the light."
As he speaks he walks to La Siréene. He opens his chest towards her and a flood of water rushes out, Elspeth's limp body with it.
"I haven't given up on the man who fought along side me."
Inside the cavity, protected by some sort of glass case is a small book. The glass case is covered in conduits and wiring.
"La Siréene. This body is mine. I give it to Olivia. I hope you understand - Jornel never would. Please replace my heart with Olivia's,"
It was enough to confuse and evade the monk.
Agnes appears with Caromarc away from the table, her body limp in his arms. She's saved from immediate danger!
La Siréene grabs her pendant, almost defensively. No. Mine.
โอ้? และทำไมคุณต้องการหรือไม่ โล่ร่างกายได้อย่างไร
La Siréene hesitates. No… it’s always there. Where my mind is, where my consciousness is, it is. It… is an anchor, for my existence.
Yet… this construct wants to give his body to the mind of another being. He asks if I can understand that.
La Siréene slips of the pendant, holding it up for but a moment, considering it.
”Yes, I do. I understand.”
La Siréene places Olivia’s heart within the manservant.
Which, combined with good fortune, he was able to avoid the attack.
Understanding Hareton’s defense, La Siréene raises her hand.
"Do not attack Hareton - he's protected - wait for my signal."
With the exchange of the heart, the Mechanical Manservant's shoulders slump forward and it bows its head. The light wanes from its eyes, as if the construct is relying on a back-up battery mode. The systems are recharging...
As the lights in the eyes dim the construct's voice slows and slurs
"Sandru... Sand...ru... sor...ree...so..so..."
The construct falls silent. The lamps in the eyes go out completely, then turn back on with a different light, indicating a switch to running only core power circuits. Gears turn, clicking orderly in the chassis. It's almost as if the machine appears to be slumbering.
But, of course, he isn't. The Manservant as you knew him is no more.
Blackacre hesitates, shooting a glance in La Sireene's direction.
Protected? What do you mean?
He looks back and forth between La Sireene, the doctor, and the arrows stuck in the wall behind him.
He mutters, Ragathiel, help me to find and dispatch this foe.
"You won't harm Agnes!" Phoebe roars. She holds her chin high defiantly against Hareton. She hovers just off the ground, and glides towards him . Her flames crackle around her. She waits for the signal from La Siréene.
La Siréene casts at Hareton, surrounding his real body with a pale blue glow, outlining him.
"He is displaced, his image and his body at separate locations. That won't protect him, now. Attack."
"Excellent," Phoebe compliments the druidess. She reaches toward Hareton and casts burning hands. A cone of searing fire bursts from her fingertips! Hareton dodges, but takes some damage from the flames.
Some of the alchemy lab equipment catches on fire and starts to burn.
I rush to meet the self-made god...
Sandru leaves silvery-blue flames in his wake as he charges at Hareton .
The alchemist tries to fend him off, but buckles under the avalanche-like force of the blow! The cutlass cuts especially deep, cutting deeper than the accusations and entreaties he refuses to hear. Only by utmost force of will does Hareton remain flying. He rallies, and with reserves of ghoulish vitality presses on.
Round 2:
"Thank you Lady La Siréene."
Quinn attacks the figure with the blueish flames.
Quinn's second arrow finds the heart. Hareton cries out in pain, and falls to the floor. He raises himself up on his arm, and reaches out with his hand, fingers twitching. He winces as all the blood pumps out of him.
Hareton groans and clutches his chest. His face is ashen.
A crackle of residual arcane energies around Caromarc. His hair stands slightly on end.
A gasp from Hareton. He slides to the floor, and dies.
Agnes blinks and comes to in Caromarc's arms.
Phoebe looks at Hareton's corpse scornfully. "The poor fool," she says.
Another spark of arcane energy. Lights on the wall start blinking.
Agnes sits up, looks at all of you, then at Hareton, her expression one of stunned relief.
A panel in the wall opens, and reveals an upright metal coffin-like chamber. The coffin opens with a gasp of hydraulics. An alchemical golem emerges and steps into the room...a rickety construction of glass tubing, metal, and wood convey the brain and two eyes afloat in the figure's glass skull.
Agnes whimpers in fright. Her eyes roll back. She faints in Caromarc's arms.
The alchemical golem laughs. Streams of binary float, spinning around the globe of the brain case. When it speaks, the voice is smooth, synth tones. "Hello again, so-called friends. You didn't think yoU WeRe GeTtInG RiD oF Me ThAt EaSiLy, DiD yOu?" With booming steps, it advances.
Ianez tears the needle loose from his hand and retreats from the golem.
Hareton surveys the laboratory, the preserved brain swimming loose behind the unnerving, floating eyeballs. He reaches into a compartment on his new frame, and pulls out a small metallic sphere.
"TiMe FoR sOmE PaYbAcK," he says. He gives the sphere a shake, mixing its reagents into a bomb. "WhAt'S tHe SaYiNg? Oh, YeS...aN EyE fOr A dEaDeYe." He hurls the bomb directly at Quinn! It detonates on impact, releasing an explosion of shrapnel and frigid blue energy. The policeman takes the brunt of the damage, but Blackacre and Elspeth catch some of the splash too.
Quinn sees the bomb coming towards him. He has no options but to take the full brunt of the explosion. Other members of the monk order are known to come away from such a blast such as this one without a scratch. Those monks train in the art of hand to hand combat and use their uncanny agility to completely evade the blast, but a Zen Archer monk devotes his life to the perfection of the bow, to be one with the weapon, the chosen weapon of Erastil...good Old Deadeye. This creature will pay for such blasphemous words.
Quinn doubles over to protect his core as much as he can. Such strategy proves to be beneficial as the shrapnel punctures and gouges into his arms and legs. The stinging metal penetrates his flesh but it's either human stubbornness, zen training or just sheer force of his will that keeps him going.
- You recall what you've studied about constructs, particularly alchemical ones (the most recent being your "autopsy" of the dragon, Harbinger). This proxy body of Hareton's can inflict very strong slams, and mix and throw bombs. The animating force is a curious combination of alchemy and elemental spirits bound into the fluids and metals of its body. The alchemy swirls and transmutes with different energies that splash random types of energy damage or conditions. The golem is hardy and resistant to damage, except from adamantine or bludgeoning weapons. An alchemical golem is immune to spells or spell-like abilities that allow spell resistance (including lightning), except for spells with the sonic descriptor. Shatter and similar spells damage the golem as if it were a crystalline creature.
It occurs to you, however, that if you wanted use a spell like lightning bolt...Phoebe has set fire to the room, and manipulating the surrounding environment of the burning lab might be useful.
I believe there are two Elspethes. Urgathoa-Elspeth and octopus-Elspeth (which is "dead" - for tax reasons)
Damage to the statue only damages the statue.
Damage to the octopus actually damages Elspeth
Caromarc sees what his manservant is doing
"No!" - but it is too late. As the shapechanger installs Olivia's heart another item - a battered journal - falls free.
A strange look comes over his face "Why?". And then he looks at Hareton.
"You madman. You still think there's hope?"
As he gathers his breath to yell Quinn's arrow takes Hareton's life.
"No! Not for nothing!" All but screaming in anger Caromarc watches helplessly as - predictably - Hareton, master of reanimation, returns from the dead.
"Hareton - are you in there? Listen to me! . He saved her! She's coming back! You've won! Olivia lives!"
Elspeth screams silently inside the statue, runs over to Elspeth and carefully picks her up.
Caromarc's assertion sparks Hareton's curiosity. He looks over at the battered journal and the slumped Manservant, to where moments before La Siréene deposited the necklace...the familiar momento that he once gifted to her himself after the flight from the zombies at the hospital.
"WhA...?" he begins. "cAn ThIs Be TrUe?"
The Manservant's body comes to life. Its eyes glow brightly, and it straightens its posture.
"oLiViA, Is ThAt ReAlLy YoU?" Hareton inquires skeptical...hopeful.
The construct that was the Mechanical Manservant does not reply, but instead awkwardly lifts its feet, and makes its way over to the person who wore Olivia's Heart around her neck...who was gifted the pendant and is now the true owner. It glowers at Hareton and clumsily wields the scythe.
If Hareton Grey had a proper mouth anymore, he would have snarled bitterly. "YoU EiThEr LiE," he yells at Caromarc, "Or YoU HaVe TuRnEd HeR aGaInSt Me!" He continues to fight.
It also occurred to Caromarc that if someone wants to use a spell like lightning bolt...Phoebe has set fire to the room, and manipulating the surrounding environment of the burning lab might be useful.
Blackacre moves around Unruhe, sword held in front of him.
"I don't lie. The smartest Alchemist I've ever known just died to bring her back. And I didn't turn her against you - you did. It seems Olivia is the sort of girl who is against egotistical megalomaniac necromancer murderers!"
"Don't you remember what Ianez said?"
"Hareton, ask yourself: do you think Olivia will love you for what you've done? Do you think she will look at the ruin you've made of the world...at the cored body of a little girl...and smile, and take your hand, and tell you it was worth it? Or will you see the fear and revulsion you surely feel mirrored in her gaze? Unruhe! Let go of this, and take your rest."
"Remember what you said, in your note. That you would give anything to see Olivia again. You got your wish Hareton. A better man than you are now died for it."
"And now you see - that the path you took to get here wasn't necessary. That the terrible things you did twisted you. That your relationship with Olivia is dead because you killed it."The Earl breathes a shuddering gasp of air in
"You can turn back, Hareton. Nym did it. I did it. Abandon Unruhe and just be Hareton."
La Sireene considers what had been the manservant. She considers Caromarc, fighting with all his might to free Hareton from himself.
However, her thoughts are also elsewhere.
"Immune to magic... in his current shape, there is not much I can do to Hareton. Tch. An Aqeous Orb would be perfect right about now. Summoning, then..."
ใช้ฉัน ผมขอปรับเปลี่ยนการสะกดของคุณ ให้ฉันช่วยให้คุณสามารถเรียกรวมตัวกันของโมฆะ.
Once again, La Siréne considers Hareton. Very well. I accept.
Phoebe notes Sandru and Blackacre, ready to make their attacks. "The power of fire strengthen us," she says regally. She casts blessing of fervor. Crowns of hot coals burst into existence and orbit above the heads of Sandru, Blackacre, Ianez, and herself.
Yes!
Hareton! Be still, fiend... I WILL MAKE YOU BETTER!
My eyes blaze with a pure blue flame. I feel the power flow through me, to my arm, through my hand, igniting my blade.
Hareton considers Caromarc's words. In his mind, Urgathoa hangs onto him, and caresses him. A mortal dare challenge a vessel of a god? Her voice is sultry, but an ugly croak at the same time.
Hareton twitches. "But his indictment..."
She puts a finger to his lips. Shhhhh, my prince! Lofty words will never do. You are mine... She opens her mouth. A large constrictor slithers out of her mouth and into Hareton's ear, muffling the sound of Caromarc's voice. The snake exits out through his other ear, then slowly, menacingly, starts to coil around his body...
As if in slow-motion, Sandru leaps into the air, swings his sword high overhead, and brings the full weight of his wrath down upon Hareton. He crashes down on his feet and swipes laterally for another blow. He follows up with another crushing swing. His onslaught snaps the golem's skeletal frame, severs joints, rips out ports, and smashes glass jars! Each hit splashes Sandru with caustic ichors...two splashes of acid, a splotch of cold, a glob of fire. This last one he resists.
"AAARRGH!!"