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Jaq will watch everyone cast magic, watching Lurm, Joe, and the Alchemist. No funny Business!

"...I don't have a good feeling about this any of this."

Ves stays put, opting to guard the alchemist with Jaq.

Joe stops her ritual and nods. "Ah dinnae know exacly wh're 'e went, but Ah can summ'n 'im again." Joe resummons her bird. "What did ye need 'elp with? Me spell prob'ly willnae make a diff'rence, it'd be detect magic."

((So I assume everyone followed the alchemist out to the side door to the vortex room.))

The alchemist opens a door (with a key) you haven't been through in the corridor and the familar whooshing sound greets you with the same vigor you remember. The alchemist turns and hands Lurn the black oily fluid and says,

"Best you hold this, too close to the concentraters and it would loose it's effectiveness!"

He then pulls off his oiled leather gloves revealing long fingered elven hands completely covered in burn scars. A muffled grunt escapes the mask before he turns and walks towards a vortex your group hadn't seen and raises his hands and begins whispering.

A moment after the alchemist starts Jaq and Ves need to squeeze to the side as a pair of collectors clank south, ignoring them.

After about five or six minutes the vortex flickers and fades. The alchemist shakes his hands and opens and closes them like they are chilled. He moves down to the second vortex and before he starts the process tilts his head before looking back at Ves and calling loudly,

"I see you've had an encounter with this concentrator? It's filled with human essence."

He turns without waiting for a response and starts the process again, hands extended forward.

Before he has finished Joe and Lurn complete their rituals. Lurn detects nothing in either bottle while Joe sees that the oily liquid is absolutely filled with magic and sees some sort of intense magical exchange happening between the alchemist and the vortex.

Ves replies cooly:

"Can I have it back?"

Jaq is sure this would all be fascinating had he any knowledge of magic, but he is totally over his head here, so he just watches the process, feeling more secure in the thought that the alchemist meant him and the others no harm. Although if it came to part of his 'job' he quite believes the Alchemist would be open to doing whatever... So he continues to watch, just in case.

As the final vortex blinks out the alchemist shudders and turns. His heavy breathing audible through his mask. His right hand is closed in a fist palm up and at waist height he slowly approaches Ves.

To everyone but Ves and Joe the closed hand looks just like that, to Ves and Joe it has an odd white glow. He extends his closed fist to Ves.

"As requested, a piece of you back, purified and concentrated."

Ves is slightly surprised that the alchemist agreed to her request.

"I- Thank you.

...How do I take it?"

She gingerly holds out a hand, but really has no idea what she's supposed to do with the odd glow.

"Ah dinnae like tha looks of tha transf'r. Ye sure it'd be safe? And it took som'thin' from me too."

Arcana on the magic transfer and the glow.

arcana: 1D20+4 = [1]+4 = 5

Halfling powers activate!
arcana: 1D20+4 = [12]+4 = 16

Joe sees the transfer and it isn't like anything she's seen before but it seems like the alchemist is taking a mixture of schools of magic into himself. The glow seems to be...radiant?

The alchemist turns his closed fist over and opens it into Ves' proffered palm.

At first she feels nothing then a warm tingling starts at her finger tips and quickly speeds up her arm and through her. Everything seems to glow around her briefly and she hears a clear, resounding but vaguely familiar voice,
As the glow fades and her surroundings dim she finds she feels much better. Her headache is gone. ((Restored 1 HP and get 4 temp hp))

The alchemist has moved off to Joe and Lurn and asks with tired humor,

"Well, is it poison?"

As he stands waiting, a dark, red liquid dribbles from his finger tips to the floor. Ves' palm in also smeared in what is clearly blood.

Ves spins around, looking frantically around her for... whatever that was.

"What the hell? Where are you?!"

The alchemist looks over at Ves,

"Me?"

"No... The other thing. There was a voice! What did you do?"

"I gave you back the essence the concentrator took. You should be feeling quite invigorated? Was it not your essence? It looked right..." He raises his hand to his covered chin and rubs it thoughtfully, smearing blood.

Jaq is clearly over his head here with magical stuff happening. He is happy he ran into these other three to assist. They at least have some sort of training with magical goings-on.
He stays quiet, and lets them do whatever they are doing.

"No, I feel great! It's just... Are you sure it was only me in there?"

"Well there was a smidgen of evocation and necromancy in there but it was easy enough to separate."

He glances at his hands, in the light they look like they have been both burned and pitted. "Well fairly easy. Your essence is very distinctive."

He shakes his masked head and pats at his pockets until he finds some linens which he wraps around his palms. The whole operation causing his robes to be thoroughly covered in bloody hand prints.

"This is also why we use the collectors." He comments conversationally as he wraps before pulling his gloves back on.

"So, are you two satisfied with my mixture there?"


And the map.

"I dinnae 'ave det'ct pos'ons. Ah 'ave det'ct magic, that what Ah cast'd ta see wha was goin' on. Tha trasf'r seems ta be dang'rous. Tha ess'nce ye had be rad'ant in nature.

Why do ye need tha vort'x anyway?" Joe looks at with with curosity. "'ow are ye goin' ta move it?"

(I can't really post much because I am at work)

"Oh yes, very dangerous. I used to have much more skin and fewer scars!"

He moves past you and looks up and down the hallway.

"They are perfect for making the purest alchemical mixtures with magical elements! The concentraters are sadly not mobile. I will need to make new ones."

((Sorry, got so into Ves' essence exchange that I didn't discribe it better - the vortices are gone.))

Now that the concentrators are gone the cave is much, much quieter. The wind has also stopped.

You can all hear clanking from the west, north and south now. Also everyone is talking a bit too loudly out of habit.

The alchemist looks back towards Joe,

"Trade secret, there is a reason my services are sought after all the way here!"

"Unfortunately it is a side effect of closing the collectors quickly, the energy has to go somewhere! Nothing permanent and I will see to it more when I get a chance."

He yells down the hall,

"Are we ready Ertyl?"

((Any input from the group here?))

Ves is still confused and somewhat in shock by whatever just happened to her, and just looks to the others:

"Are we just going to let them do this? No tests, no checks, no nothing? Just... gas the town...?"