| 2 | Show Tane the Samples
Show Tane that you have collected the samples he requested.Show Tane the samples you've collectedNPC: Tane Octavius Pound of Flesh: These samples you've salvaged, though gruesome, hide within them countless secrets. Flesh and blood and bone and sinew, all but a veil, a mask that hides what truly drives us. I speak of the Intrinsic Darkness. The base desires and instincts that we all fight, yet rarely defeat. This Darkness hides within us, waiting for a moment of weakness -- a moment when it can take control. A cruel and invisible slave driver.
But we can coax it out...
My master called it Sinner's Water. A concoction he spent much of his life perfecting. He would give it to his children and scribble notes as they beat me. In truth, I do not believe his concoction worked any more than his elixir of immortality, but that did not soften their blows.
His formula was wrong, but his idea was sound. My formula works, as you will see.
Please, drop the samples in the jar, and ready your weapons. You are about to witness the darkness that drives us. |
| 5 | Talk to Tane
Speak to Tane about the monster you defeated.Talk to Tane about the monsterNPC: Tane Octavius Alchemy: My master called Alchemy the science of turning learned men to fools. Every half-wit with an alembic would try to turn lead to gold, or formulate an elixir of eternal youth, and Master Lucan was no different. But men like him rarely saw the magic in alchemy up close -- the sudden bubbling of a liquid, the heat growing in your hands, the vibrant colours and foul odours. Much knowledge is lost at a safe distance.
In truth, the power of Alchemy is not in turning one thing into another, or creating miracles. It is in isolating and extracting. It is about finding purity within the confusion.
Tane Octavius Alchemy: My master called Alchemy the science of turning learned men to fools. Every half-wit with an alembic would try to turn lead to gold, or formulate an elixir of eternal youth, and Master Lucan was no different. But men like him rarely saw the magic in alchemy up close -- the sudden bubbling of a liquid, the heat growing in your hands, the vibrant colours and foul odours. Much knowledge is lost at a safe distance.
In truth, the power of Alchemy is not in turning one thing into another, or creating miracles. It is in isolating and extracting. It is about finding purity within the confusion.
Tane Octavius Pound of Flesh: Do you see now what we face, Oriathan? That was what slept within the creatures just near here. What darkness sleeps within me? Or within you? And if we can draw out that darkness, might we then be able to draw out that which makes us... us?
Think on this, when we next meet, we shall begin to seek the answer.Tane Octavius Creating a Metamorph: I've readied another darkness isolation trial. All we need are the samples. Separate them from the bodies they're attached to and we can begin.Tane Octavius Creating a Metamorph: Slow progress is still progress. Do not lose sight of what we work towards.Tane Octavius Creating a Metamorph: You have the samples? Then please, place them in the jar and steel yourself. If the inoculation fails, the darkness will manifest quickly and violently.Tane Octavius Goals: The task I have given you is dangerous. To face the cruelty that dwells in the living, distilled and manifested, is not a task I wish upon anyone. Yet it is what I have asked of you. So you may be asking yourself, for what purpose do I seek to isolate this darkness?
I once thought it was a symptom of the corruption that pervades Wraeclast, but now, now I believe it to be something more primeval and universal. An element of our very beings hitherto unknown. To better understand it is to better understand life as a whole. Is that not enough?
Very well. There is more to this story, but it may take some time.
Tane Octavius Goals: The task I have given you is dangerous. To face the cruelty that dwells in the living, distilled and manifested, is not a task I wish upon anyone. Yet it is what I have asked of you. So you may be asking yourself, for what purpose do I seek to isolate this darkness?
I once thought it was a symptom of the corruption that pervades Wraeclast, but now, now I believe it to be something more primeval and universal. An element of our very beings hitherto unknown. To better understand it is to better understand life as a whole. Is that not enough?
Very well. There is more to this story, but it may take some time.
Tane Octavius Tane's Master: In Oriath I served a man named Lucan Octavius; a wealthy alchemist of high-status. I call him my master, for I was both his apprentice and his slave. Lucan's work required handling extremely dangerous, often very hot, materials. Not the sort of thing becoming of a man of stature. So it came to be that a slave like myself learned the nuances of the alchemical arts firsthand.
As for Lucan, he was... not the man he portrayed himself to be. He was more dangerous, more explosive, and more unstable than any material I had to handle. In public, he was fatherly and genial. In his home, he was violent and lustful.
I do not regret what happened to him; only the part I played.
Tane Octavius Tane's Master: In Oriath I served a man named Lucan Octavius; a wealthy alchemist of high-status. I call him my master, for I was both his apprentice and his slave. Lucan's work required handling extremely dangerous, often very hot, materials. Not the sort of thing becoming of a man of stature. So it came to be that a slave like myself learned the nuances of the alchemical arts firsthand.
As for Lucan, he was... not the man he portrayed himself to be. He was more dangerous, more explosive, and more unstable than any material I had to handle. In public, he was fatherly and genial. In his home, he was violent and lustful.
I do not regret what happened to him; only the part I played.
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