Swamped

For crying out loud, is that a breather mask?

You think it looks like a breather mask. Your first instinct is to glance around for the person you spotted with a mask strap earlier.

It looks like they've got a hand on their chest. So they might be getting ready as well.

And they're sitting down next to the old lady. You're not sure what that means. But you have a bad feeling about this. You pull the mask out of your pocket and put it on carefully, trying not to draw attention to yourself.

What you're beginning to suspect is that the booing was a signal. An indication that something had gone wrong. Maybe the informant played a role in it, or maybe it was sheer coincidence. You don't really have a way to know.

But if your guess is right, whatever happens next is the backup plan. And it involves masks. You could wait for it, since your own mask should protect you, but you can't be sure how safe that is. So maybe you should be a little more proactive.

Better make sure you've got a clear route to the exit, if you can do that without being conspicuous.

The first thing you want to do is make sure you have an escape route, in case you need it. Unfortunately, the front door is too far away, though, as is the kitchen.

This is what you get for trying to give yourself a quick route backstage. You suppose you could go there - it would be risky, but so would every other option at this point.

Maybe it's best to make your move now, then. Most eyes are going to be on the stage, and the ones that aren't will be preparing for whatever's about to happen. You slip away from the table, and keep close to the wall, quietly approaching the door that leads backstage.

You slip in, hoping you haven't been noticed. But just as you do, you hear a surprising sound coming from the stage.

Sounds like a muck beast!

It's the distinctive roar of a muck beast. At first you wonder if it's part of the show - perhaps they've got someone who can mimic its call - but the screaming a moment later suggests otherwise.

"Now!" someone shouts. "Before that damn thing gets us!"

The voice sounds very close. It's somewhere backstage. Which means you might just be able to stop whatever's about to happen, if you act fast.

You see a door open a crack, and you hear another voice.

"This stuff takes time before it's potent, and there's nothing I can do about that. I'm a chemist, not a magician. Maybe if we could use the kitchen instead of a damn dressing room..."

"Well, can't we do something? If the muck beast scares everyone off, it could mess up the whole scheme!"

"It'll be ready in three minutes. Find a way to stall until then."

"Easy for you to say! What am I supposed to do, tell them it's part of the show? They've already started running off!"

"I'm sure you can figure something out. Anything you do is bound to be more useful than distracting me."

"Fine! But you'd better not waste any time releasing it once it's done."

Oh dear. Whoever that is, they're probably heading your way.

Okay, so you might not need the mask for a minute or two. If you take it off, you can pretend that you're looking for a toilet or maybe trying to get the Laikenne actor's autograph.

Perhaps you can pass yourself off as an overzealous fan... though the mask would be hard to explain in that case. You quickly take it off, and rather than running or hiding, try your best to look lost.

"Who in the hells are you? You're not part of the troupe."

It takes you a moment to think of a reply, mostly because you're struck by how much the man before you looks like Mortimer Flame. Is this his father?

You decide to play off your shock as best you can.

"Are you one of the actors, then? Oh, this is so fortunate. You could help me get a signature!"

He seems thrown off.

"A... signature?"

"Why, yes. A signature from one of the actors. The one playing Matilda Laikenne seems talented... though I suppose it would have to be one who can write. But perhaps you'd know which ones can and can't?"

He grumbles.

"I don't have time for this now. Just go back to your damned seat."

He then rushes off. Probably too busy to worry about some addled old man.

And you suppose you're too busy to worry about him, for that matter. After all, you've got less than three minutes to figure out what you're going to do about the fellow mixing something up inside the dressing room.

Scope it out (mask back on) and be ready for fisticuffs!

Well, whoever it is likely isn't expecting you. Maybe you can catch them by surprise. You slip your mask back on, and open the door as quietly as you can.

You see a cauldron, but you don't see anyone else around. That worries you - the chemist may have heard you and gone into hiding. Then again, they may have gone to grab something for the mixing. You need to be on guard.

You can also see at a glance that this isn't the same mixture you saw at the fishmonger. But it's an odd shade of red...

The same shade the ooze turned when Mortimer went wild, now that you think about it. Is this that same ooze? Is the plan to send the audience into a frenzy?

You should probably stop this. But you're not sure how it even works. There's no sign of a flame, so it's not going to spread by heating up. And you're not sure where the chemist is, so if you don't act fast, they might ambush you.

Whatever you're going to do, best to do it quickly.

Perhaps you use something to neutralize the mixture. Maybe some nearby cleaning supplies
Turning it over seems the easiest way to stop whatever happening but knowing it's effects that seems like a bad idea if gets on you or someone else nearby besides are you even strong enough for that?

The ooze seemed to react when Mortimer was angry. It went back to normal when you flung a bucket of spit at him, though he also dropped the boot with the ooze on it.

So you spit in the cauldron. Nothing seems to happen - if that even works, you probably need more spit. But you're not going to be able to produce that much in a hurry. Maybe the bar has a spittoon somewhere?

Well, you don't have much time to look for one. If you're in a rush, you're better off finding the chemist...

A grebling suddenly charges violently at your leg. You see the same blank look in his eyes Mortimer had. Now you're starting to wonder if something's gone wrong with the plan.

Even in your advanced age, though, a grebling isn't much of a threat unless they've had training. They can be quite dangerous, but not so much if they're just flailing around if this one is. You grab him by the collar and try to figure out how to calm him down - preferably not by spitting on him.

The way he's dressed suggests this is the self-described chemist you overheard earlier. Maybe you simply didn't notice him because of his small stature. It's hard to say. You take a quick look around the room in hopes of avoiding other surprises.

You don't see anyone else. You do see something that gives you a hint as to just what the grebling was doing when you came in.

Is that a spiky terror? You heard about them about six months ago when the Captain made his proposition you decided to learn whatever you could about the east nations and what could you find out in the sea, nothing much of course but you remember these little guys,sea living creatures that move about the ocean with their 'spikes' brought to the aedran empire centuries ago from a nation of wizards? something like that they suppose to produce a toxin that causes panic but last you heard they went extinct in this continent years ago due to them being used in smoke bombs, the book hints to a Kandrian small creation of them in noble families due to them being a pretty blue hue, but that book was fairly old and even still they would cost a fortune! Besides the effects are all wrong... Wait you think of something that would make some sense regarding it's effects, swamp beast muck

It's a strange, blue... thing, covered in sharp spikes.

Actually, you vaguely remember something like it. You prepared for the voyage by researching what little you could about the eastern continent. Most of it amounted to stories from the days of the Aedran Empire, so little better than hearsay - but it was all you had, and there was a chance that some of it might be true.

And you saw a picture that looked much like this, of a sea creature known only as a "spiked terror" . The harm wasn't from the spikes themselves, but from the strange substances inside. It was said that they could drive you mad with fright, or into a rage, or render you unconscious, or even kill you.

How would such a creature even get here, though? Any that made it to Aedra would have died long ago. And none of the voyages to the east preceding yours had returned.

Perhaps someone was breeding them intentionally all this time. Or perhaps the east has another means of contact with the west.

One thing is clear. The creature is hooked up to a number of syringes, filled with the ooze in transparent form. It must be involved in the mixture somehow.

Then you think your main question is, what's turning it red. But all you notice is that one of the syringes is leaking... and there's a little red ooze on the grebling's sleeve.

Is that much honestly having an impact on him? Could it affect you?

Well, he certainly seems upset. You pull his coat off and throw it aside, trying your hardest not to touch the ooze yourself.

For a moment, he seems to calm down. Then he simply cries out "Mask... mask!" and then gets agitated again.

It seems he needs a mask. But you can't find one here... other than your own, and you're not sure how safe it would be to remove it now.

given that everyone in this ploy had a mask so far his might not be that far? search around but don't let your guard down

Yeah, you'd think the chemist would have one nearby. Did it fall off... or break?

It frankly strikes you as strange that he wouldn't have a mask, given how many you've seen or heard about lately. And if he was working with this substance, why wouldn't he? Did he assume he was careful enough?

Well, your first thought as to where a mask might be is the coat you discarded. You shove him in the wardrobe as you take a look.

He starts knocking on it. Might draw attention, but you just don't have a lot of alternatives. You carefully approach the coat.

Here you go. A grebling-sized breather mask in the pocket. Doesn't look very high-quality, though. You open the wardrobe, standing to one side so he hopefully doesn't leap at you, and grab him as soon as you can. You then wrestle with him to the best of your ability until you get the mask on.

It takes a few minutes before he calms down.

"I suppose you're wondering what this is all about," he sighs.

"I was curious, yes."

He sighs.

"Money, mostly. This particular type of terror toxin mixes with alcohol to make a very distinctive liquor - very flavorful, or so the humans we've sold it to it tell me. But terror breeding isn't exactly on the right side of the law, what with the various toxins and what they can do to you if you don't neutralize the effects properly."

"So if it's that dangerous, why were you messing it without a mask?"

"They didn't give me a good mask. I can barely see out of it. Had to do some particularly sensitive operations, and I couldn't exactly do them blind. Seems I messed up anyway, though."

You give the fiercest face you can manage. Maybe if you're lucky, the mask strengthens the effect.

"In more ways than one."

But there's a lot that doesn't add up. If it's just illegal liquor, why do so many other criminals have these masks? And one more thing is bothering you.

"Who was in here with you a moment ago?"

"The buyer. I don't know his name, haven't even met him before now. He was going to arrange transportation, I don't know any details of that either."

Hmm. So no confirming your suspicions as to his identity just yet. Maybe it's better to focus on the ooze itself for the moment.

"How does this stuff work, exactly?"

"Well, basically, a terror is constantly producing a colorless ooze, which is totally harmless on its own. But it's got some structures... glands isn't quite the right word, but it's close enough. The glands are what produce the actual toxin. When it's in the ooze, it doesn't travel very far - but just a little whiff of it can drive you wild. But when the terror's opened up like that, if you hit the glands wrong, they spray fumes of the toxin all over. And it's only visible when it's stuck in the ooze."

Hmm. That doesn't quite make sense with what you observed with Mortimer. He went into a rage and you didn't, and you weren't wearing a mask at that point. And the ooze returned to normal when he did.

Maybe there's more to this line of questioning, or maybe you should focus on a different one.

Fancy booze, eh? Well, what's up with the muck beast out there?

"And does the muckbeast on stage have anything to do with this illegal distillery of yours?"

You aren't really expecting an answer. More of trying to throw him off his guard.

"I... I don't know! I'm just a chemist. I wouldn't even be here if the church hadn't kicked me out of my colony. I do what they tell me to do, and otherwise I keep to myself as much as I can."

Right. You forgot just how bad things were with the greblings back in the day - you weren't attentive enough in your youth. It wasn't just grebling-human relations, but the Church of Reth taking a rather expansive view of heresy. As you recall, you were born only about a decade after they'd shifted from execution to exile as the main punishment - not that it made a lot of difference when the only places you could be exiled to were human lands.

So it's entirely possible this poor grebling is nothing more than a slave to the troupe, and keeps his head down. But if that's true, then something strikes you as odd.

"And yet, you were left alone with the buyer," you note. "Seems a little strange to me that they'd let that happen. You're the one who knows how to actually make the drink, after all. What's to stop him from stealing the mallow that lays the silver egg?"

"Simple," says a voice from behind you. "When you're getting a large enough share of the profits, it doesn't make sense to disrupt the business model."

You realize you may have let this interrogation run a little longer than you should have.

You also realize that there's a crossbow pointing directly at you.

bluff, you don't have ways to protect from that bolt but bluffing is perhaps the best option right now just don't push that guy too far and look for a opening, also pray very hard for Numal that muckbeast distract him for long enough for that to happen, you're running against the clock here no time to get captured

You can't do a whole lot here except bluff. Although, you do have a hostage. You just lack options for doing much about said hostage.

"I should think it would disrupt the business model if you had to find another chemist," you note, backing away slightly.

"That might be a more effective threat if you had a weapon. At your age, I doubt you could hurt him that badly with your bare hands."

"I'm a wizard," you reply.

That makes him pause. Which is enough for you to adjust your position and get the chemist in front of you. If nothing else, you can make his shot riskier.

"You're bluffing," he says finally. "If you had magic, you could have done something by now."

He doesn't sound entirely convinced. Maybe you could pull a little trick to scare him off.

Then again, you do have a decent negotiating position right now. Perhaps you just need to convince him you're not a threat.

Well again we don't know how much time we can waste, perhaps we can find out if our traidor priest is financing whatever is going on with the guilt or not, so might as well go all out and watch out for reactions

Circumstances make that I have to be more careful than normal I'm on a... mission for Nual and you see how a wizard with hat and cane doing magic tricks might draw attention, I don't personally care for whatever dispute is going on between the Flame's as long as it doesn't interfere with the celebrations. Now tell me why are producing such a rare toxin? Hopefully you will more honest than this fella

I'm not here to disrupt your operation, but I've run into terror toxin several times today and I need to be sure it's not a coincidence. But, "you'd better not waste any time releasing it once it's done" doesn't sound like something you'd say to a guy cooking up innocent moonshine.

"I don't have a particular need to use magic yet," you reply. "If your chemist is telling the truth, I've got no real quarrel with you. Got bigger problems than moonshine."

"Then why exactly are you here?" he asks, clearly suspicious.

"Because I've run into this toxin today and I can't help but wonder if your little operation is connected to it. Maybe you can clarify that for me. For instance, I thought I heard you say something about 'releasing' it. Which sounds like you might have plans involving the toxin's effect."

"Damn!" he suddenly shouts. "We can't risk losing everything at this stage!"

He fires suddenly. You have just enough time to duck, but you also drop the chemist. He runs off and throws a stool onto your leg.

Meanwhile, the man rushes directly for... the terror? And starts pulling the various instruments out?

"We don't have enough distilled yet!" the chemist shouts.

"There's no time! Nual's becoming more aware of this thing! Our only chance is to get it back in the water!"

The stool is just heavy enough that you have to work to move it aside. By the time you free your leg, they've shut the door. They even left the cauldron behind.

The terror is gone. You have more than a few questions, but you think they'll have to wait until you can catch up with those two. So you rush out to follow...

And find a muckbeast. The human scrambles over it and the grebling scrambles under it, but its attention seems fixated on you rather than either of them. And you don't think you have the agility to do what they did, so you'll need to get past it some other way.

Well one option out bolt out the window but wait it's that Mortimer at the door and why is he waiving at you?