Giggett hides, and sees that when the Orc looks over his shoulder he is confused as to where she went-- and then the heroic arrow shot hits him in the back of the neck!
Giggett feels the stars are aligned--
--but the Orc does not go down.
The arrow hurt him, but he does not seem to be at all close to passing out.
Giggett did see him healing himself once...
Giggett stops the chase, her quiver is empty anyway.
Hit by Giggett's last arrow, the Gnome watches the Orc race off into the forest, managing to escape.
The Blood Ooze keeps on coming after Sitril, never faltering, never "looking" at anything else.
So, the Dwarf keeps on pulling it after him--
--while Giggett moves around the enemy, keeping her distance and sending a never ending flow of electric arcs against the Ooze.
While Tamerius, seeing how the fight is now in hand, rushes off to see if Natsume has left this Plane, or is stabilized and out cold on the floor of that red room.
Sitril, tired of moving around the weeds outside the hedge, circling over and over--
--sees Giggett give the final electric arc at the Ooze that finally dissolves into a puddle of blood... dead.
At the same time, from deep within the tunnel and the hold you entered, from the room bathed in eery red light, comes the sound of Tamerius' voice:
"Noooooooo!!!"
Soon, all three of you are joined, there at the top of the steps, looking down towards the rack, with the dead body of some farmer strapped to it, and, beside that where Natsume Ren fell, with her flail and shield on the floor, lying in a large pool of blood--
--lies some sort of anthropomorphic fox!
After finishing the ooze in a certain amount of time, Giggett turns to Sitril:
"Follow Tamerius. I won't. I just can't face it again. I'll wait for you here."
Tamerius and Sitril will most probably call out for Giggett, to come see what has happened...
Tamerius moves next to the fox So, she was the one marking for this tian divinity! I've never suspected her... clever.
After a short moment of silence he adds May you repose in Peace, Natsume. You were a good comrade and a faithful ally.
I will miss your humor and willingness to do good.
Turning to Sitril he says, almost sadness in his voice Nothing to do here, she's dead.
Giggett won't come. She's waiting on the outside (avoiding the fumes from the acid pool).
Tamerius starts looking around, trying to find some clue about what was going on here.
Exploring the Forest Laboratory, Tamerius sees that the room with the rack, the room of the True Experiment, is rather empty... besides the two bodies, one of some human farmer, and that of Natsume the Kitsune.
There an old set of delivery instructions pinned to the north wall of the room, seemingly placed there to help the Orcs find their way back to some lair in the hills to the West.
It includes directions to this place from what is noted as “Hallod’s drop-off stump”.
Moving back to the room before, the Lair of the Sculptor, and taking some time to look through the boss Orc's stuff, Tamerius will find:
• a small stash of coins worth 18 gp
• and a fine set of silver scales worth 30 gp
• and a whole trove of valuable information.
Most of the texts are written in Orc--
--as they are obviously the Sculptor’s notes on the various experiments he has been asked to perform over the past few months.
Almost all of these involve evolving permanent mutations in creatures by exposing them to energy mutagens. While many of these experiments were ultimately successful, they had an unintended side effect: the creatures became far too bestial and unreliable to use as minions.
About 2 months ago, something changed, and the person stopped asking the Sculptor to perform experiments without offering an explanation.
The Sculptor took it upon himself to continue the work, with varied and unpredictable results, and a number of creatures escaped.
One of the most recent notes says, “The coagulant thing is finally taking shape. It might not be what she asked for, but she is sure to be impressed! When it is ready, I will take it to Spite’s Cradle and show it to the mistress myself.”
One unusual entry you will notice, later, at the caravan is that, about 3 years ago, V. commanded the orcs to capture a human.
This person was placed in a covered pit in the woods and exposed to something that the Sculptor refers to as the viridian vapor.
The last note on this experiment reads, “The human died in agony in less than a day. We burned his body and filled in the pit as instructed.”
Going back through the main room where the two dead Orcs lie, you remember Sitril collected: lesser acid flask (2), lesser alchemist’s fire (4), lesser bottled lightning (4), minor elixir of life (4).
But, back in the storage room, you know that the equipment there is old but quite valuable to the right buyer.
It would probably be a good idea to come here with a wagon, so Tamli could load it all up and sell it.
She could probably get close to 100 gold coins, but would have to travel to Almas or another large city to find such a wealthy buyer.
Tamerius refuses to enter the refuse pit.
But Sitril, who knows that where there is muck there is gold, and who already found some nice dagger and such, goes back looking--
--and finds something hard to see at first, and quite strange.
It is a large femur bone, of some animal bigger than a horse!
And it has a sort of little door--
--inside which two shiny diamonds are stored, rolled up in a parchment.
The parchment has dark words of power upon it.
Later, Tamerius can see it is a Ritual from the Clergy of Asmodeus.
Returning to the experiment chamber Tamerius says to Giggett, lets explore the only place we've not searched yet.
Sitril has found somehthing that could help us resurrect ou dead comrade.
Meanwhile, remaining outside, Giggett remembers that to the south there is an empty cage, but at the back of it, a crevasse opens up into--
--the Black Cave.
Passing the empty cage, Giggett sees some kind of torch light flickering.
Stepping inside the cave, a cloud of smoke hovering around the ceiling becomes visible.
Curled up in the back of the cave is a cat that looks to be on fire.
It glares at the sight of another creature entering, letting out a weak snarl that fades into a plaintive yowl...
What does Giggett do?
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"What idea did I got to explore this cave..."
Giggett gets back slowly, without upsetting the "cat", and closes the cage door.
Giggett hears a whimper... the kitty had big black eyes, it was so cute!
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Sitril rushes through the room, looking around the body for where Natsume has gone. After a couple of seconds when the realization comes to his dwarven mind, he falls on his knees and stays like that for a couple of seconds.
"I don't know what you were, but for me, you were a great ally. You will be missed." Thinks to himself.
Later on, he puts her body on her shield. With her weapons.
Sad and depressed Sitril collects all his weapons and helps to look through things in the other chambers.
When he and Tamerius find the scroll, the dwarf is all over the place. He looks at the scroll from different angles hoping for it to help him read it.
"What is it? What is it Tamerius? Will we bring Natsume back? Will she come back as Natsume, or the way she is now? " asks Sitril.
The dwarf is in need of serious patching, his face was cut, burned, frozen and mauled. His clothing bears marks of all those hits. After he gets over himself he looks at Tamerius saying seriously
"You saved me back there Tamerius! Thank you. I will not forget that!"
Giggett hears a whimper... the kitty had big black eyes, it was so cute!
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When Sitril discovered the ritual, the first reaction Tamerius had was to keep it secure and use it as an emergency for himself. But, the realization of its power on the inhabitants of Plaguestone when he will raise Natsume from the dead makes him rethink of such thing.
This feat of power will definitely secure the souls of the people of Palguestone to the Great Asmodeus!
Tamerius smiles at Sitril Of course! Asmodeus is Powerful and as His servant, he will give me the power to raise Natsume from the dead.
Then, when the dwarf thank him for saving him he adds I do my best to ensure the survival of our team. You bear the legacy of Bort and Dragh, I can’t let you down or I will fail a second time.
As Giggett comes back he says And the creature didn’t attack you directly?! That’s a first. Lets see what we have.
And Tamerius moves to the cage.
"Can we rest a bit before going after this beast?" asks
First, we will need to get back to town. I need assistants to realize the feat of raising Natsume from the dead.
But I will heal you first.
After spending some time gathering your breath and wits, and while Sitril recovers from his tiring rage, Tamerius heals you all up well enough to continue.
Then, back in the far cave, to the south, amidst the smoke, you see the cat that looks to be on fire.
Tamerius observes the animal. Is it blessed by Asmodeus' Fire?!
Come, come little one.
Is it when it hears the name of Asmodeus, or just the gruff sound of Tamerius' voice, but the animal reacts to the cleric and crawls slowly up to him, calming down...
The fiery leopard does not really move close enough to be touched, and Tamerius feels how touching it would burn him a bit anhyow.
You see that the leopard is wounded, probably from Orc brutality.
And it is thirsty...
"Let's put an end to his suffering and to all those experiments."
Giggett is ready to attack.
The leopard moves closer to Tamerius, and growls at Giggett.
No! says Tamerius, sure that this creature is a gift from Asmodeus!
Turning to Giggett, he says Don't attack this creature. I will find something to appease its thirst.
Tamerius comes back with a bowl filled with water and looks how he could heal the beast without burning himself.
If he don't see anything, fire is the blessing of the faithful of asmodeus and he uses his knowledge of battle wound to heal the beast.
"A gift from Asmodeus? I wasn't expecting that..."
And if I kick your butt, would it be a gift from Iomedae? It's a f***ing flaming leopard, no pet to show off with!
Tamerius wounds himself--
--but manages to heal the leopard up.
It perks up now that is no longer wounded...
It seems very happy to be given water, but as it tries to drink, the water is quickly boiled off by the leopard’s intense heat.
Its fire evaporates the water.
Good cat.
Tamerius tries to think at an idea to help the creature drinking some fresh water.
Sitril looks at how Tamerius plays with the cat which brings a smile on his bruised face.
"Try to feed him something fresh. Food contain water, like fruits or fresh meat." comments dwarf.
How to serve cold water?
Giggett is waiting to try and kill the beast.
Tamerius feels that this is a fine fiery feline sent by Asmodeus.
And Sitril want to give it fresh meat...
Do you try some idea to give it cold water or such?
"Maybe we should head back to the village. Here, we will figure out how to appease this animal thurst."
Tamerius tries with hot water.
Hot water evaporates faster...
"I have only dried food in my backpack. Let us see the Tamerius idea."
Tamerius goes back to the alchemist lab and tries to find something, a big quantity of water.
Some regent able to freeze the water and give time to Asmodeus' gift to appease its thirst.
You find enough reagents that were used to make the freezing potions that Sitril's legs remember so well... and cool the water down.
The leopard, healed up, and now hydrated, happily drinking all it can...
It perks up noticeably and is now intent on escaping.
Tamerius sees it wants to bolt out of the cage, into the yard, up a wall, and out of the Pen into the forest and probably far beyond.
But it looks at its savior, Tamerius--
When you leave the Pen, carrying Natsume's body on a shield--
--you see Noala.
And the body of... Sculptor!
The Sculptor attempted to flee the Pen, leaving through the refuse pit, through the laboratory, past the cages, and out into the wilderness.
"I managed to follow him and slay him with arrows... he seemed to be out of bombs to attack me with, and only had a dagger."
On the corpse you find--
--an orc knuckle dagger, and studded leather armor.
But also a magical eyepiece he is wearing.
Noala is very interested in learning what happened inside the blight.
And she is greatly disturbed by your tale.
Though she says "I am relieved to hear the orcs will be conducting no more experiments in my woods.
Unfortunately, I do not believe that this one laboratory could possibly be responsible for all of the blights I have located.
I implore YOU to bring the alchemist behind this to justice, for Bort’s sake, if not for the sake of the woods.”
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Giggett has really hard time looking at Natsume's body. The fact that she changed to a foxy humanoid helps her, though. She keep on telling herself that Natsume was not what she said she was, and as such, the Natsume she knew is not dead, she just never existed.
When Noala shows herself with the body of the Sculptor, Giggett's relieved.
"Got you, you nasty orc! Vengeance is best served cold. Unfortunately, he's not alive to speak. I hope we will find proper information to follow the lead."
"We lost many to get this orc. I need time to heal once again. Fighting the Bleaching is more exhausting than I thought..."
Sitril is relieved when he sees the Sculptor.
"Damned Orc! He got what he deserved, or maybe still not yet. We will get who is behind it and make them pay!"
Says carrying a shield with a body of Natsume.
Sitril would cover the body to hide the fact of carrying a foxy humanoid. From the outside people would see her weapons when crossing some fields he would pick some flowers.