>>370939
You find Hom and Eva in one of the basements, the room still miraculously untouched. Hom is in his human form and Blue is there as well, the snake sitting next to Eva.
When Blue sees you show up, she shrugs and passes a small handful of signets to Eva. The homunculus just nods.

"We've been waiting for you. What are our instructions?"

“For now, everyone is on experiment duty. And aren’t you supposed to have a chaperone, Blue?”
Last you checked, she had only been let off her wishbond with the idea that Elle would watch over her and make sure she didn't do anything. You’re not sure how comfortable you are with the idea of her having been so close to your homunculi without oversight. That’s nearly killed you before.

Blue just shrugs a second time.
“Elle’s not a very effective guardian. That’s your fault. And I figured that with all these Quedeshi and spirits attacking that it stopped mattering. I mean, what are you gonna do?”

"Don't tempt me. Eva, are you sure you're okay with this?"

"It's fine. I was never really angry at Blue anyway, she's still my friend. We talk about a lot of stuff that nobody else wants to talk to me about."

That's true. For better or worse, Blue seems to be one of the few people immune to Eva's aura of unease. But that doesn't really comfort you. Last you checked their talks had consisted of Blue encouraging Eva to kill Hom.

"aaaaaaaaa."

"Whatever. You can stay if you want. Now, we're going to be doing some experimenting!"

You have one day before the Gatekeeper kills you. It’s up to you to spend that day wisely.

>Experiment with spirit brews.

>Experiment with reagents.

>Experiment with wish-related brews.

>Experiment with Caster brews.

>Improve an already existing brew.

>Tell them to go work on their own thing.

>Work towards a specific brew (Specify)

>Other

Options can be selected for Cennen, Eva and Hom.

>>370944
Will any brews we have hom work on be lower quality than normal?

>>370944
Hom
>Experiment with spirit brews.
Specifically changing soulguise to spiritguise

Eva
>Improve an already existing brew.
Improve bloodkin with ishmin bits for synchronization between spiritguise homunculus and Cennen

Cennen
>Experiment with reagents.
That deep priestess head

>>370949
Yes but he's still capable.

>>370944
>Experiment with spirit brews
Cennen
>Experiment with reagents.
Eva
>Experiment with Caster brews.
Hom

>>370952
This works for me for now. How many rounds of brewing are we gonna get?

>>370944
Cennen
>Experiment with spirit brews.
EVA
>Improve an already existing brew.
Soulguise
Spirit damaging explosives
Better buffs
HOM
Deep pristess head

Rolled 3 (1d6)

Okay so there's a majority to put Eva on improvement and Hom on spirit brews. But there's a tie for Cennen to either help with spirits brews or work on the Deep Priestess.
Evens for the former, odds the latter.

So my main goal for now is a spirit homunculus that wraps around cennen like a soulguise so we can gain spiritlike invulnerability and level the playing field against the spirit. Do you guys have any crazy plans to add?

>Put Hom to work on spirit brews.
>Ask Eva to improve your current brews.
>Experiment with reagents, namely the severed head of the Deep Priestess.

"Hom, I need you to work on this for me. Do you know how to make a Soul Guise?"

He wordlessly shakes his head and you sigh. Of course he doesn't. It hadn't seemed important to teach him at the time.
"Alright, give me a minute. Eva, while I teach Hom about Soul Guises I'm going to need you to work on improving the Bloodkin."

"I don't know how to make that!"

"Oh, right. Uh."
Is the plan really starting to come apart already?

>Teach Hom the Soul Guise first.

>Teach Eva the Bloodkin first.

>Rush them through the process of both quickly.

>Put them to different work.

>Stop. Teach them everything first.

>Other

>>371018
>>Teach Hom the Soul Guise first.

>>371018
>Teach Hom the Soul Guise first.

>>371018
>Put them to different work.
Have them experiment with the deep priestess and gather other reagents while we make those other brews. Teaching them how to make a brew that we only need like one of seems like a waste of time.

>>371042
Changing my vote to this actually. Have them make spiritbanes/snakebreakers too if they have time.

>>371010
Maybe we could make a brew using the Deep Priestess reagents that will drain mental energy instead of Art?

>Teach Hom the Soul Guise first.

"Eva, start brewing spiritbanes instead! Lots of them!"

"How many?"

"In this time, in this place, I don't think we can have too many."

"Understood."
Eva goes to work immediately, focusing everything on pushing out potions with mechanical precision. You shouldn't have to worry about her on this, mass-producing potions is literally what you made her to do. Even when you and Hom had left her behind and she'd stayed back at Snakehome, she had never stopped churning out Serpentbanes. She'd singlehandedly proofed Hiss' entire army against the wishbond.

You sit down with Hom and walk him through making the Soul Guise, using a hapless Blue as the reagent source. Halfway through draining blood from her left arm, Eva grabs her right arm and opens an old wound along that one too. Blue just sighs.

It takes you almost thirty minutes to make sure Hom is familiar enough with the Soul Guise that you're sure he can begin working on improving it.
"Alright Hom, now we need something like this but for spirits! Something that can latch onto spirit-stuff and grow a fake spirit. Okay?"

"aaaaaaaaaa"

"You're worthless as ever. Why am I on production while YOU get to experiment?"

You leave them to it. Now where did that damn head go? You dropped it back when you were fighting the crab spirit so it should hopefully still be out on the street. You're just about to leave to search for it when Orange barges down the stairs, the giant head clutched in both hands.

"The Queen said that you might be needing this."

"Thanks Orange."
You take the head from him but as you do so, his newly freed hand clutches yours for just a moment.
"Is something wrong?"

"Have you seen Ziggy anywhere?"
Orange looks you in the eye. He sounds afraid.
"She hasn't come back."

>"She's safe. Don't worry about it."

>"The last I saw of her, she was flying off into the sky."

>"Your guess is as good as mine."

>"She was lost in the Dream."

>Other

>>371088
>"The last I saw of her, she was flying off into the sky."
Hopefully she falls back down soon. We were really high and going really fast.

>>371088
>"She's safe. Don't worry about it."

>>371088
>"The last I saw of her, she was flying off into the sky."
>"She's safe. Don't worry about it."
>Ziggy is really hard to hurt. She'll turn up sooner or later hungry, horny and/or grumpy.

>>371102
Also apologize for failing to save her.

>>371088
>"The last I saw of her, she was flying off into the sky."
>I'm sure she'll fall down... eventually

>"The last I saw of her, she was flying off into the sky."
>"She's safe. Don't worry about it."

You wince.
"Can't help you, I'm afraid. Last I saw her was when that thing threw us into the sky. I got caught by the Gate but she just kept on going."
You pat Orange ineffectively on the shoulder.
"Don't worry about it! You know she can't be hurt. She's probably fallen into the city somewhere. She'll turn up sooner or later."

Orange still looks a little uncertain but he takes your reassurance in the spirit that it was intended.
"Thanks. And good luck."

He slinks back upstairs. You think that's the first nice thing he's said to you since you hit him.

But you don't have time to waste thinking about Zigzag now. The girl's indestructible and the city is clear of spirits, what's the worst that could happen? You have work to do!

You manhandle the head back to your cauldron, taking care not to stumble on your wooden leg in the process.
As you expected, the Priestess' reagents have different properties entirely! If only you could have grabbed more of her.

Her scales, instead of helping a brew affect snakes, help a brew affect Art instead.

Her blood, instead of helping a brew affect spirits, help a brew affect spiders instead.

She doesn't have any venom and you'll probably never be able to get her shed skin so those reagents will forever remain a mystery. But...since she's already dead, that means you can get to work on her more vital processes instead!
Every snake has more reagents to them besides mere scales, skin, venom and blood after all. There's flesh and blood and bone and eyes. You'd just never been able to harvest them without alienating Hiss or the other serpents.
But you need to keep in mind that unless you're willing to go search for the rest of her body, these reagents are limited. And you'll probably never able to substitute them either.


>Make a brew using her blood. Snake's blood helped make Soulform, what will this do?

>Make a brew using her scales. A basic snake scale blood should make Snake Oil, what will this do?

>Experiment on adding these to other potions.

>Get to work on extracting her other reagents. This'll be messy.

>Other

>>371201
>Get to work on extracting her other reagents. This'll be messy.
I want to get me a snake brain

>>371201
>what's the worst that could happen?
Cennen pls


>Make a brew using her scales. A basic snake scale blood should make Snake Oil, what will this do?

>>371201
>Experiment on adding these to other potions.
Substitute it for the snake blood in soulgrasp. Maybe it will let us manipulate art somehow?

>>371218
Substitute the snake blood with her scales I mean.

>>371201
>Make a brew using her scales. A basic snake scale blood should make Snake Oil, what will this do?

>Make a brew using her scales. A basic snake scale blood should make Snake Oil, what will this do?

The scales are probably your best resource here, the head really doesn't have all that much blood left in it. Luckily your cauldron should catch all of the leakage.

You spend several minutes scraping off scales and getting ready to brew. You'll try a basic Snake Oil first, see what that gets you.

Twenty minutes later and you have your result, the brew boiling away in the cauldron to reveal an oily residue that, in Zigzag's words, could be called 'gunk'. It doesn't smell like Snake Oil though and Blue seems disgusted by it.

After checking it over with a quickly brewed Identification Potion, you discover that this substance appears to be naturally Art-absorbent. But what would that actually do to someone?

It has been one hour since you began. Hom is halfway through his experiment. Eva II has produced six Spiritbanes.


>Test it out on yourself.

>Give some to Blue.

>Call for Orange to come back.

>Leave it for now.

>Other

>>371278
>Leave it for now.
We really can't afford to lose any art here boys

>>371278
Does it absorb art and store it or just destroy it?

>>371303
The former.

>>371278
>Leave it for now.

>>371278
>Call for Orange to come back.
Also have Eva work on a new anti spirit brew. Whatever she thinks will work best. Explain how mental energy works in relation to spirits too.
Having some serious captcha issues

>>371278
>Call for Orange to come back.
Having serious posting issues right now.
Let's get Eva working on some experiments. Maybe just let her make whatever anti spirit offensive brew she likes. Explain to them both how spirits need and use mental energy

>>371278
>>Leave it for now.

>>371324
Huh. This post took a few minutes to show up for me. Weird.

>Leave it for now.

That might be useful but you can't afford to inconvenience anyone with it. And besides, maybe you can use this for a potion anyway? You probably don't need to actually test it out.

You probably don't want to interrupt Hom either and Eva's really starting to pick up steam. You don't want to let the team down.

>Start brewing with the scales.

>Work on the priestess blood.

>Crack the head open for more exotic reagents.

>Help Hom.

>Get back to experimenting.

>Other

>>371352
>>Crack the head open for more exotic reagents.

>>371352
>Crack the head open for more exotic reagents.
Warn everyone this may hurt their sensitivities

>>371352
>Start brewing with the scales.
Combine them with ishmin bits and bloodkin to make a bloodkin that connects our art and synchronises our mind with the spiritguise homunculus very closely.

How much time do we have left? Like 23 hours?

>>371352
>>Crack the head open for more exotic reagents.

>>371352
>Crack the head open for more exotic reagents.

>>371382
this
can we get a countdown clock plz

>>371352
>Get back to experimenting.
Could we make a poison that harms spirits?

>Crack the head open for more exotic reagents.

"You might want to look away Blue," you say as you unsheathe your sword.

"I'm fine, I'm not even tired yet."
She's starting to look a little pale from the repeated bloodletting.

With great effort, you slowly carve the head in half down the jawline. What's left of the Deep Priestess' blood spurts into the waiting cauldron as you take the head apart for more reagents. This might be just what you need!

The bones and teeth appear to strengthen Art and will empower any brew that uses them.

Her eyes, if swallowed whole or dissolved into a brew, seem to be a natural homunculi agent.

Her brain, if the entire thing is shredded and brewed, will impart a potion's Art with a sense of purpose. This can allow brews to be selective or to choose certain outcomes themselves. Really edges along the border between potion and homunculus but you suppose the Priestess was practically a homunculus herself.

You wonder what the eyes and bone and brains of normal snakes do. You'll have to find out someday.

You have twenty two hours and thirty minutes remaining.

>>371432
Alright, so going through a whole day's worth of this step by step is going to take all day. How about you just prepare a list of your alchemical goals and we do some timeskipping?

>>371437
Spiritguise homunculus (sent to the dreaming and returned), maybe use the eye and bone for it
Improved mindmeld bloodkin/Art share to link us
Spiritbane snakebreakers
Spirit poison
Art absorbing champion brew

>>371432
People or person, hard to tell had the idea for a spirit homunculus? One we could wrap around our bane for reasons.

Personally, I would want a "spirit solvent", something that would unglue spirits that the Gatekeeper had absorbed from him. This might require neutralizing his halo first unless spirits precipitating from him isn't considered something that affects "him" as far as the halo's effect is concerned.

>>371437
Lets work with Eva to make
>Super Buff/Debuff brews (Things like Champion brews and damage over time stuff for spirits)
>Super Spiritbreakers
thats all i got

>>371450
This would be cool actually

>>371437
A seeking anti-spirit poison that will hit our foe no matter of far he goes.
Something that'd give us the halo of a spirit temporarily.

>>371432
>A sentient spiritbane using the brain sounds pretty dope
>find a snake with dragon scales to lend us their art

>>371437
>>371450
>>371452
These would be fucking perfect
New Homunculi
And lets try to work with EVA
We really need to spend more time with her

>>371437
Mental energy sapping brew
Spiritbane tanglebrew that won't effect our spirit homunculus but will freeze other spirits
Weakening brew that weakens a spirits art
Spirit poison
Antimagic+champion brew+art absorbent?
>>371452
I like this okay. Taking it a step further, maybe we could hijack the connection between them and assimilate them personally?

>>371450
Oh and can we make the spirit homunculus generate its own mental energy somehow? I remember we had a few options for brews like that a while ago.
Also massively improved regen, use some bone if needed for both us and the homunculus

Also I think it's really important to make brews that supply us with mental energy and take mental energy from the gatekeeper. We can also just store a bunch of hiss' souls in our pack to use.

Okay so we're looking at a list of something like:

>Spiritguise
>Use the spiritguise to create a spirit homunculus
>Send it to the Dream and back so it can get a halo and invulnerability.
>Improve the Bloodkin with Ishmin pieces.
>Anti-spirit bombs.
>Spirit poison.
>Improving the Champion's Elixir with Priestess gunk.
>Spirit solvent.
>Potions that interact with mental energy, something you already know how to make.

I believe these are all the options that multiple posters agreed on. Which is great because all of this stuff is a tall order, it's already going to take all day.
Is this fine?

>Yes

>No

>>371513
>Yes

>>371507
How about a brew that destroys mental energy? Could probably make one from priestess stomach acid

>>371513
>Yes

Do the Spirit poison or spirit solvent incorporate priestess brain?

>>371513
>Yes
Well I can't think of anything else. I'd like to see what we could brew when we have the art of a spirit homunculus helping us too, maybe we can get one more chance to brew once we have it?

>>371513
>Yes

>>371513
Sound good
i would also like to take Eva off mass production to help us make the new shit and
then put her back on mass production to make as many Spiritbreakers and Spirit poison as she can

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We'll timeskip through the day with occasional stops to make decisions.

>WORK

A fight between mortals and spirits is one that is never at equal terms. But maybe you can find a way to change all that! You remember what you and Hom once worked out long ago, the relations between souls and spirits and spiders.
According to that, you've had a chunk of spirit attached to your soul for ages! Isn't that what a Bane is, after all? There's spirit-stuff clinging to your soul, freezing it and marking you for life.
Like your soul, it's intangible and invisible but that shouldn't deter you from treating it like you would any other ingredient.

You take Eva off production to help you work and Hom soon provides the experimental new Spiritguise brew. If you drink this, it should use your Bane to create a false spirit shroud much like how the Soul Guise created a false soul shroud.

And now all you need to do is to actually get it out of you.


>Get Hiss to trance you so she can pry it off.

>Give a Soulgrasp to one of your homunculi and ask them to pry it off.

>Drink the Soulgrasp yourself and self-operate. You don't trust anyone else with your soul.

>Other

>>371558
>Get Hiss to trance you so she can pry it off.
I'm sure she wants to contribute

>>371558
>Get Hiss to trance you so she can pry it off.

>>371558
>Drink the Soulgrasp yourself and self-operate. You don't trust anyone else with your soul.
We did this while using souldrift once already. So we're stuffing our bane into a brew to make the spiritguise and then making that into a homunculus?

>>371558
>Get Hiss to trance you so she can pry it off.
Kind of like getting your girlfriend to scratch your back, only with your soul condom

Wait shouldn't we make that improved bloodkin first so we can use it as an ingredient in the homunculus?

>Get Hiss to trance you so she can pry it off.

You send Eva upstairs to find Hiss while you drink the spiritguise. If your and Hom's calculations are correct, you need to manifest it while it's still attached to your soul first so it can still use your mental energy for power.

The brief stab of cold sends you to your knees and you need Hom's help to stand again. There's a lingering presence, a chill that won't leave. It is only dispelled when Hiss swaggers into the room.
"I remember having to midwife the first abomination like this," she says, gesturing to Eva. "How's this going to work?"

"With my Bane currently forming part of the spiritguise, I should be vulnerable to you again. I need you to get into my soul and eat the guise. Just the guise."

Hiss laughs.
"I don't know. Maybe I should make some renovations while I'm in there."

"We've talked about this, Hiss."

She pats you on the head and pushes down, buckling your false leg beneath you and sending you back to your knees.
"Be grateful for a lenient Queen. And besides, either way it's not like you'd ever be able to tell the difference."

Those are the last words you hear for some time.

Hiss is sitting beside you when you wake, a bottle of soul solution in her hand.
"I spat it out into this. Feel free to work your magic."

"You better not have put anything funny in me," you grumble as you do your best to regrow the wooden leg.

Hiss just laughs again, more of a giggle than a cackle.
"Come on Cennen, would I betray the trust you placed in me?"

"That's not as reassuring as you think it is."
You transfer the stolen spiritguise into a soulbrew before it can wither. That should help keep it fed for now.

>Add bone to strengthen it.

>Add one of the eyes to strengthen it.

>Add the brain so it'll know what to do.

>Just begin the process already.

>>371626
>Add bone to strengthen it.

>>371626
I don't think I understand what the brain would do if we added it

>>371626
>Add bone to strengthen it.

>>371626
>>Add bone to strengthen it.
>>Add one of the eyes to strengthen it.

>>371626
>Add bone to strengthen it.
>Add one of the eyes to strengthen it.
Why not both? We won't be needing the eyes for anything else. We need this to be as strong as possible.

>>371626
>>Add one of the eyes to strengthen it.
We need the bone for the other brews

How many more brews could we use the bone with if we use some now?

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Sorry guys, I'm starting to feel a little sick. Yes, I know. But I'll be back to finish this off and do the spirit fight tomorrow.

>>371671
well night then ouro, get better.

>>371671
Damn. Thanks for running

>>371671
Once again your flakiness saves the day, I've to be up early tomorrow

inb4 another flake

Thread in an hour.

>Add bone to strengthen it.
>Add one of the eyes to strengthen it.

Now that the spirit-guise has been isolated, the actually tricky part of all this can begin. You, Hom and Eva all work together on brewing up the Soulbirth brew, reducing the complex task to just a mere hour or so. Halfway through the process, Hiss yawns.
“This is boring. Call me if you need me.”

“It’s not like you have anywhere else to be right now.”

Hiss sniffs.
“You’d be surprised. My people need to see me. They’ve come too far and lost too much to lose heart now. But as long as I am there, Snakehome will not falter.”

You hadn’t thought about that. It’s easy to forget that Hiss’ snakes aren’t just an army or a court. They’re an entire population and culture of people and this war but a migration. If the Quedeshi or the spirits win, it’s not just the end of Hiss’ crusade. It’s the extinction of an entire people.
“Hey Hiss, couldn’t you ask them to scatter or something? So if Taldenral is destroyed-”

She clenches a fist.
“If this Gatekeeper wins that won’t matter. I just want you to remember that Cennen. If this plan of yours fails, I will have broken my promise to my people. And too many of my kind have already died for this to fail now.”
She stops and turns back for just a moment as she climbs up the stairs.
“So don’t fuck this up.”

An hour later, the spiritguise homunculus is ready. Or as ready as it’s ever going to be anyway. You’ve added the Deep Priestess’ jawbone and one of her eyes to the soulbirth brew so it should be ready to be birthed. There’s just one problem. It can’t be birthed in the real world. It NEEDS to take form in the Dreaming!
Once the soulbirth brew enters the Dreaming, the Art in the potion will fail and the incubating spirit-thing will be released from its liquid confines. It then needs to return to you to gain the halo and the invulnerability you need it to have.

So what’s the best way to do this?


>Expose it to a Journey brew and hope.

>Drink the Journey brew yourself and take the bottle with you.

>Send a different helper in your place (Specify)

>Spend time improving the Journey brew first.

>Send it through the Gate in the sky. It’s right there!

>Actually maybe this is a bad idea.

>Other

>>374479
Can we add some brain to the homunculus or the journey brew to make sure it knows to return to us?

>>374479
>>Spend time improving the Journey brew first.

>>374493
Yes.

>>374479
>Spend time improving the Journey brew first.
Did we make that improved bloodkin yet? It should be mixed in with the homunculus brew. If so we can instruct it once it's formed unless the connection doesn't work in the dreaming.

>>374499
Okay let's do that then.

>Spend time improving the Journey brew first.

An easy enough task, even if it consumes time that might be better spent elsewhere. But how best to do it?

>Just add the brain to the Journey brew.

>Try and make a stronger Journey brew.

>Try and make a stronger Journey brew which allows for a return trip.

>Try and make a stronger Journey brew which allows for a return trip and does so immediately.

>Other (Specify)

The more advanced the option, the more time is spent.

21 hours remain

>>374525
>Just add the brain to the Journey brew.
Couldn't we make this send the homunculus there and back immediately pretty easily?

>>374525
>Try and make a stronger Journey brew which allows for a return trip.

>>374525
>Just add the brain to the Journey brew.
>>374544
Based on my admittedly mediocre understanding of it, yes.

>Try and make a stronger Journey brew which allows for a return trip and does so immediately.

>Just add the brain to the Journey brew.

It takes some work but you extract the giant serpent's brain in more or less one piece. You and Eva immediately set to work slicing and dicing until it has been finely shredded and ready for brewing use. It's a messy technique but it's quicker than actually taking the time and effort to refine the Journey brew itself.
The Journey brew bubbles as the meaty strands slowly dissolve and becomes a lot sludgier but there's no other outwards change. You can only hope it'll work.

And with that, you should be ready for launch! Hom pushes the soulbirth cauldron over and you prepare to expose it to the simmering Journey brew.

"Are we ready?"

"aaaaaaa"

"The Soulbirth is still stable," Eva says. "The homunculus is gestating as planned."

"Alright. Let's give it a shot."

There is a brief flash and an acrid stench hangs in the air, one nearly strong enough to make you gag. Once the spots in front of your eyes have cleared, you can see that there's been no obvious change. The soulbirth brew is still there.

Eva nods.
"The homunculus is gone."

"Yes! Job well done, you two!"
You can only hope that that means that the Dream transfer was successful, not that you've vaporised the soul on the spot.
Unfortunately there's no way to know of its progress or what its doing right now. The Bloodkin is useless, unable to penetrate dimensions even when a Gate to the Dreaming is tearing open the sky above you.

Eva looks around uncertainly.
"How long will it take?"

"Time in our world and in the Dreaming don't flow together, nor at the same speed. It should take a while. A few hours."
And until then, you have no way of knowing how successful it's all been.

>No point worrying. Back to brewing!

>Set Hom and Eva to brewing. You need some fresh air.

>You need to go in after it to make sure everything is fine!

>Other

>>374633
>Set Hom and Eva to brewing. You need some fresh air.

>>374633
>No point worrying. Back to brewing!

>>374633
>>You need to go in after it to make sure everything is fine!
Its dangerous out there
we need to make sure the baby is safe

>>374633
>No point worrying. Back to brewing!
I'd like to make way more progress before taking a break. Maybe at the halfway point.

>>374633
>No point worrying. Back to brewing!
We get two more brews done then go after it

>No point worrying. Back to brewing!

"There's nothing we can do about it now, we need to get back to work. Eva, you get to work on updating the Snakebreaker. Hom, I need the spiritbane to be poisonous as well as acidic. Get on it."

"aaaaaa"

Hom gets to work immediately but Eva hesitates.
"You never told me how to make the Snakebreaker."

This again?
"Right. Well I'll help you with it, I guess. It's a pretty simple recipe."

Eva grasps the Snakebreaker Flask quickly and you leave it to her to combine it with the Spiritbane. That shouldn't pose a challenge to her.

And that just leaves you to work on the Improved Bloodkin. You call Orange back down and ask for some snakes to collect some dead Ishmin for you. And while you wait for that to happen, you occupy yourself with overseeing your homunculi and making sure that the Bloodkin brew is coming along perfectly.

Twenty hours remain.

The Improved Bloodkin is finished. Eva produces the Spiritslayer Flask, a Snakebreaker packed full of Spiritbane solution instead of water. Hom is also done with a brew he cannot name, one that you decide to call Spirit Poison.
Yes, there's no time to make up good names. You're all working against the clock here.

Nineteen hours remain.

It took a lot of effort but the three of you finally manage to get the equally volatile Spirit Poison and Spiritslayer Flask to play nice with each other, producing the Improved Spiritslayer Flask. It has the explosive power and lethal shrapnel of the Snakebreaker combined with the acidic effect of the Spiritbane brew and, to top it off, is now naturally poisonous to all spirits.

Well, poison is probably the wrong word. Spirits can't get poisoned, not in the way that humans understand it. But the Spirit Poison disrupts their corporeal bodies over time and weakens their bonds. 'Poison' seemed like the best analogue to that effect.

Eighteen hours remain.

The search for a 'spirit solvent' continues, something that might be able to break apart the Gatekeeper into his assimilated parts. It's a long and painful process, made worse by the fact that none of you really understand just how the ancient spirit does it.
You leave Hom and Eva to it while you get to work on mental energy brews. That branch might give you the insight you need.

Seventeen hours remain.

You've prepared a brew that should stimulate mental energy. It wasn't that difficult, just the work and theory you'd already developed for the Soul substitute along with some Thoughtbrew and a pinch of inspiration from that poor alchemist that Hiss tortured to death. His theories on increasing mental energy were quite useful in the end. This brew should let you sustain the spiritguise homunculi nearly indefinitely. You're not really sure what to call it yet.
1/2

>>374758
Eva and Hom have yet to crack the spirit solvent themselves but their work has produced an accidental byproduct. The Solidification brew is based on reverse principles of the Spirit Poison and Spiritbane brews, hardening spirit matter it touches and rendering it brittle and inflexible. Eva believes that it should be able to nullify most forms of elemental invulnerability that the Dispel Elixir cannot remove.

Sixteen hours remain.

It's long hard work and takes several detonations but the three of you finally manage to get the Extra Improved Spiritslayer Flask stable and not prone to igniting whenever it feels like it.
Thankfully Hom is excellent at catching shrapnel with his regenerative true form and was a capable meat-shield for both you and Eva. The two of you might not have survived brewing up such a temperamental brew otherwise.

This bomb takes on all the qualities and powers of the Improved Spiritslayer Flask but also incorporates the Solidification brew. Having so many opposing principles and forces in a single potion is a little rough and it took a long time to refine but it should be able to kill whatever spirit it so much as touches now, bypassing elemental invulnerability and poisoning, dissolving and shredding through their now solid forms.

You're starting to feel rather drained but Eva and Hom show no signs of stopping. Their Art is bottomless and outstrips your own.

>Keep going!

>Set them to continue your work while you take a break.

>Maybe you should head to the Dream and check on the homunculus?

>Other

>>374776
>Maybe you should head to the Dream and check on the homunculus?
Shit, we should've just gone with it in the first place. I'm getting worried.

>>374776
>Set them to continue your work while you take a break.

>>374776
>Set them to continue your work while you take a break.
Let's see how everyone's doing. Oster and Zukhdeep specifically. I'm willing to wait a bit longer. Is our spiritbane back where it should be or is it still a part of that homunculus?

>>374776
>>Maybe you should head to the Dream and check on the homunculus?

So we just have like three brews left that we planned to make right?
I think all we need is the improved champion's elixir, spirit solvent, and brews that can drain a spirit's mental energy. Of course we can always come up with more if we have time left over.

>Set them to continue your work while you take a break.

"Eva, Hom, you two keep at it. I'll just pop out for a moment alright?"

You climb up the stairs and sit yourself down in the ruined mansion. As you do you are hit with a sudden wave of fatigue. Shit! Have you still been awake all this time? Night has passed and morning has well and truly begun, the Gate looking strange and washed out against a bright blue sky. You haven't slept since Tanni broke out and even that was more of a nap.
And now that you've lost your focus, all that lost sleep is coming back with a vengeance.

The corridor wavers in front of you as you stumble. You catch yourself by dragging your right hand along the wall, frowning as you look at the wooden limb. It's easy to forget that it's there sometimes.

Look at you! Wooden hand, wooden leg. How much more can you afford to lose? You're a half-man and frankly, it's a wonder that you can do anything at all.
So surely it won't hurt to sleep just a little...

>Get some good sleep. You'll need it.

>Drink a restoration brew and keep going.

>Sleep but only for an hour or so. Control yourself.

>Get some outside help.

>Other

>>374836
Oh shit, sorry dude. Didn't update in time to see your comment.

>>374853
>Get some outside help
need more alchemists
>Drink a restoration brew and keep going.

>>374853
How good is the restoration brew as a substitute for sleep?

>>374859
>>374853
>Drink a restoration brew and keep going.
no problem mate
this is fine too i guess
I hope

>>374879
It'll keep you going and drive away fatigue but it won't make you feel better really.

>>374853
>Get some outside help.
get someone to let us sleep for a bit and wake us up in an hour

>>374853
>Get some outside help.
We have 16 hours left right?

>>374905
Adding to my vote here, we could just catch a quick nap in the makeshift alchemy lab and have the homunculi wake us up

>>374853
>Sleep but only for an hour or so. Control yourself.

>Get some outside help.
Have Hiss prune the shit out of a couple of alchemists, preferably ones that are belligerent to human-snake unification and have them work under our homunculi while we nap. Afterward they can assist as art batteries so we aren't completely drained when its go time.

>>374905
>>374913
Um im sorry if im being presumptuous...but are you trying to samefag
Because its not working

>Drink a restoration brew and keep going.
>Get some outside help.

No, you can't afford to sleep right now. Haven't you seen how much work you have ahead of you? So instead you'll settle for the next best thing.
You go through the motions of brewing up a restoration brew, one of the first real brews that you ever learned how to make.

It doesn't really make you feel less tired but it gives you the energy you need regardless. That's more like it!
Properly reinvigorated, you head down the corridor only to be stopped by Hiss stepping around the corner.

She almost doesn't see you and her eyes widen when she sees you in the hallway. What is she doing here anyway? Was she heading in this direction to check up on your progress?
"Cennen! Aren't you supposed to be working?"

"I am, just taking a little break."

"Why? What's wrong?"

"Tired."

Hiss doesn't look impressed.
"You can fix that, can't you?"

"Mentally tired, I mean. I just feel drained. Like I can't do anything more."

Her face softens.
"I understand completely. But I might be able to help you out."
She steps closer and closer, tracking your eyes into her own.
"How's your bane?"

"Still gone," you say, a little drowsy and not immediately following her intentions. "The spiritguise borrowed it and no, please don't hypnotize me or whatever you're thinking."

She stops, folding her arms.
"Oh come on Cennen, let me try. It'll make you feel better."

"Can you actually make me feel less tired?"

"Oh I can more than that," Hiss purrs. "You'll still be tired but I can make you less capable of caring about it. I can give you the drive to keep working until your fingers are driven to the bone! Just give me the permission Cennen and I'll eat your weaknesses away."

She's standing right in front of you now, pushing you up against the wall.


>Agree.

>Disagree.

>Flee

>Nobble

>Other

>>374936
He is adding something to his previous vote. Read a little more closely.

>>374941
Oh ok i had a feeling i was fucking up
Ive had a long day

>>374905
>>374913
Sorry for being an ass anon
No hard feelings

>>374940
>Disagree.
Just ask her to wake us up in an hour and we'll be right as rain

>>374940
>Disagree.
>I'd stop being myself Hiss. If you want to kill me there are easier ways.

>>374940
>Disagree
Lets just take that nap and have Hiss wake us in 4 hours

>>374940
>Disagree.
"I am going to need every bit of me intact in order to beat the gate keeper. Even the weakness. Alchemy could be said to have even been created because we humans are weak; at this point trying to cheat my way out of that particular aspect of humanity would be a jinx at best and our undoing at worst."

>>374940
>Disagree.
It's not a question of drive, it's a physiological need for a nap. Plus I'm gonna need every possible bit of my mental energy for this spirit battle. And also a bunch of your souls probably.
>>374943
It's cool man, no worries

>>374943
>Ive had a long day

Me too brother. Not looking forward to a 12 hour shift Sunday, so lets enjoy ourselves well while we can.

>>374940
>Disagree.

>Disagree.

You blink, not letting yourself feel even the smallest hint of fear. The moment you let her intimidate you is the moment she wraps her coils around your soul.
"Thanks but no thanks. I'd stop being myself. Or human, even."

"Oh come on," Hiss says. "It's not just your life on the line here. You can't afford to be selfish."

"And if you want to kill me, there are easier ways."

"Now you're just being pointlessly dramatic. You know Cennen, I could just order you to give me permission and you'd practically beg to let me into your head. You're sworn to me, that's how this works."

"That's...true."
You don't like thinking about it but you can't deny her tangible authority over you.
"But I'd appreciate it if you didn't."

Hiss sighs.
"I think you're being a bit silly about all this. Improving your work ethic is hardly 'losing your humanity'."
She says the last few words with just the right amount of disdain.

"Nevertheless, you're going to need all of me for what's coming. I'm going to take a little nap instead, I'd appreciate if you could wake me in..."

>1 hour.

>2 hours.

>3 hours.

>4 hours

>6 hours

>8 hours

>10 hours

>12 hours

>13 hours

>14 hours

>When the Gatekeeper gets here.

>Other

>>375001
>>6 hours
This should be fine

>>375001
>4 hours
I'm pretty sure that's a complete sleep cycle. We can chug some restoration brews afterwards too

>>375001
>2 hours.
We need to leave enough time to make sure we get our spirit homunculus back or worst case scenario we make a new one and go to the dreaming with it. I'd like to get some time to practice it's powers too.
might be hard to get a consensus with this many only slightly different options

>>374970
Dude, I know that feel. Though I do find it oddly funny that you're here helping a character play out the equivalent of such a shift however.

>>375001
>>3 hours.
to
>4 hours

I'm thinking maybe we should try to move the big fight outside of the city. The gatekeeper could probably level it if he really wanted to.

Sorry about the delay on this one, I was eating lunch as well as getting a phone call from work. Finished eating now though!

>4 hours

Hiss steps back as you stumble around a bit more before finding a mostly intact bedroom and lying down. You're asleep practically before you hit the sheets.

...

You wake to a pungent aroma wafting around the room. What the hell is that? When you open your eyes, belatedly noticing that Hiss must have tucked you in and made the bed while you slept, you spot a familiar figure leaning against the wall.

"Oster!"

"The very same."
He's very pale and he has yet to shake his emaciated look but he's alive and awake and all seems to be well. The side of his face is mottled and blistered all the way down his cheek where his brand used to be. He has bottle of something black in his hands, the source of the smell.
"It's been four hours or so I'm told. You awake yet?"

"Nearly, nearly," you mumble.

"Here, try this. It'll wake you up."
He walks on over and passes you the bottle. It's nice and warm so you take a sip without questioning it only to immediately cough it all back up.

"What the hell is this?"

Oster chuckles.
"It's called coffee. Don't you remember? It's a bit of an acquired taste."

You mind wanders back for a moment to your first meeting and the merchant guise he'd been wearing.
"Huh...so I guess Ophi was right about coffee all along."

"Seems so. You'd be surprised how much of it you can find in Taldenral, even now."

"Can't fathom why, tastes terrible."

Oster shrugs.
"I like it. Now, you know why I'm here, don't you?"

"Hiss sent you to wake me up?"

"That too. But I'm here to thank you for saving me. Again."

"Oh, it was no big d-"

"Shut the fuck up, cunt. It was a big deal. So thanks for getting me out of my own mess, I probably didn't deserve it."

"It's good to see you up and about, Oster."

"You too. Though not all in one piece I see. You've been through the wringer since I last got a good look at you."

You look down at your arm and leg.
"I guess I have. Can't help it though, it's been hell."

"Hell and a half, mate. Hell and a half. But you take it easy tomorrow alright?"

"I'm fighting a giant spirit, I don't know how if 'easy' is even possible."

"Well just try to not lose anymore limbs."

"Yeah, that's what I need. Self-preservation advice from you of all people."

"It means you know I've learned from experience, don't it?"

"I guess so."
You lever yourself out of bed.
"I've got to get going."

"I'll see you later Cennen. Just remember, you don't have to do all of this alone. We've all got your back here."

"Even if I don't want you to?"

"Especially then. Now get going."

Twelve hours remain.


>Alright, get back to work.

>You need to find somebody else first (Specify)

>Ask Oster something (Specify)

>Other

>>375126
>Alright, get back to work.
Fuck man where's our spirit armor homunculus at?

>>375126
>>Alright, get back to work.

>>375126
>>Alright, get back to work.

>>375126
>Alright, get back to work.
It's been 9 hours since we sent the homunculus off to the dreaming. Might have to go looking for it. We really should have been there for its birth now that I think about it.

>Alright, get back to work.

As you walk back down through the corridors you can't help but worry about the fate of your spiritguise homunculus. It's been nine hours since you sent it off!
Even taking into account that Dream time is slower than real time, surely that's just too long! What if it never birthed or was attacked or its mechanism for getting back to you failed?

You have a surprise waiting for you back in the makeshift laboratory too. It's full! There are at least four other snakes sitting around offering their reagents, allowing an exhausted but satisfied looking Blue to sleep curled up in the corner. And working alongside Hom and Eva are what appear to be three ordinary humans.

They turn as you enter, the two men and the woman nodding in almost perfect unison.

"Who the fuck are you?"

"We are from the Potions College," the older man explains smootly, not even remotely put out by your tone. You can't help but notice that even as they're looking at you, they're still working.

"The Queen sent them down to help us," Eva says. "She's bitten them quite badly I think, they all feel like her."

The three alchemists smile woodenly. It's the woman who speaks next.
"The Queen was kind enough to educate us on everything we need to assist you. We will do anything you ask of us."

She has the same tone as the other two and the exact same impression. It's obvious what's been done here. Hiss has scooped them out, reached inside and devoured their personalities whole while leaving the rest of them intact.
Three master alchemists and yet they might as well just be toys to her.

"It took some time to learn about all of these reagents," the other man says. "And some of these potions are quite extraordinary. But we are ready to follow your commands."
There's no excitement, no sense of wonder that any right-thinking alchemist would have if somebody had given them snake reagents. They feel less human then your homunculi.

>"Uh, thanks." Let them help you.

>Put them to work somewhere else.

>Tell them to leave.

>Other

>>375211
>"Uh, thanks." Let them help you.
the damage is done, we might as well use their help

>>375211
>"Uh, thanks." Let them help you.
Welp looks like this was the price for our nap. Lets make their sacrifice worth something.

>>375211
>>"Uh, thanks." Let them help you.

>>375211
>"Uh, thanks." Let them help you.
don't look a gift alchemist in the mouth

>>375211
>"Uh, thanks." Let them help you.

At some point we should also tell Hom and Eva that not only are they our finest work, but also our beloved children and we're sorry everything has been so messed up and hectic since they were born, and that after this we would like to spend some family time with them. If we, you know, survive. There's more to being alive than brewing and they should get to experience that.

>>375251
Thing is they're art spiders. We don't know how they think and feel and can't expect them to do it like humans

>"Uh, thanks." Let them help you.

You can't help them right now and sending them away would make their sacrifice worthless. You might as well use them. Was this the price of your little nap back there? Did Hiss do this as a way to remind you who's in charge? Or is this just her genuine attempt to help?

"Eva, what's your progress?"

"The Extra Improved Spiritslayer Flask is still contained. We've studied the mental energy brews you left behind and have done our best to improve them. We now have brews capable of diminishing mental energy and with the help of the Spirit Poison theory, brews that can help disturb the link between spirits and their halos. The spirit solvent remains unsolved. We have also created the Empowered Champion's Elixir with the rest of the head you left behind. It should absorb all forms of magic and make you stronger in the process but there is only one and we lack the reagents to make more. Did you sleep well?"

"Well enough. What have these three been doing then?"

"Restocking," one of the hollow alchemists replies. "We have been further duplicating the brews that you call spiritbanes, snakebreakers and dispel elixirs."

"Right."
Amazing. With the help of Hiss' little crew here, your creations have hit the rest of your experimental goals without you!
"Eva, Hom, I just want you two to know that I'm proud of you. Even now, you remain my finest work and I'm sorry that circumstances have been so terrible since your creation."

"We know," Eva replies, her semi-liquid teeth dripping in long, wet strings from her lips. "We are both functional masterpieces. Pride is assumed."

"Of course. Now this is where the real work begins."

>It's time for the final iteration of the Spiritslayer Flask.

>You need to find a way to check on the spiritguise homunculus.

>It's time for mass-production. Everyone needs these brews.

>It's time for different experiments.

>Other

>>375294
>You need to find a way to check on the spiritguise homunculus.

>>375294
>You need to find a way to check on the spiritguise homunculus

>>375294
How much time is left?

>>375308
Still 12 hours.

>>375294
>It's time for the final iteration of the Spiritslayer Flask.
Keeping track of this inventory is gonna be a nightmare

>>375294
>You need to find a way to check on the spiritguise homunculus.

>>375294
>>You need to find a way to check on the spiritguise homunculus.
Also can we get the names of the Hollows please
feels kinda weird having helpers and not knowing their names

>>375328
There's a good chance that they don't know their names anymore

>>375334
then we name them
i could care less about their past but they are now are responsibility and they need names

>>375345
Tommy, Barry and Joe

>>375352
One of them is a girl anon

>>375355
Joe is a girl name too

Apologies for the delay on this one. Just hit a weird writer's block.

>You need to find a way to check on the spiritguise homunculus

"The homunculus we've sent off has taken much too long. We need to figure out a way to observe his progress or at the very least, get him back."

Eva taps her fingers impatiently along the rim of a cauldron.
"Is there a way we can use the principles of the Journey Brew to make some kind of window? So that we can view the Dreaming without accessing it?"

Hom shakes his head and the female hollowed-out alchemist seems to agree with him.
"There is no alchemy that can accomplish that, soul or no soul. We'd need a Seer."

"Right. We probably don't have time for that. And uh...what was your name again? All of your names?"
They might be bereft of identity now but it's making you kind of uncomfortable to think of them as just machines. That's how Hiss thinks.

"Anya"

"Ceth"

"Domin."

"Okay, thanks. Anyway, doing something about the Dream situation has to be our first priority."

"...How?"

>"I'll go in after him."

>Send one of the homunculi.

>Experiment with the Journey brew some more.

>Access the Gate itself.

>Other

>>375370
>"I'll go in after him."
Have them start the prepwork for a second one just in case. And work on that spiritslayer flask.

>>375370
>"I'll go in after him."
Would drinking a soulguard before we go do anything for us? Last time we visited we had the bane but I'm not sure how vulnerable souls are in the dreaming anyway.

>>375370
>>"I'll go in after him."
>him
>not her
ill take it but id like to keep things even

So the gatekeeper is probably assimilating shitloads of spirits to prepare for the battle right now. Maybe we can send a second spirit homunculus up there but include a few nasty brews in its creation to weaken the gatekeeper when the spirit homunculus is assimilated.

>>375388
That's a really good idea. And even if we loose we might still kill him with spirit cancer

>"I'll go in after it."

"I'll go in after it. I won't be long, I swear."

"But how will you know if you end up in the same place?"
Eva doesn't look happy with this plan at all.
"Does the Dreaming map to our reality in a linear fashion?"

"aaaaaaaaaaa"

"You know what? I'm honestly not sure. But it's been gone for so long that we have to do something. So pass me the Journey Brew and-"

-Were you waiting for me?-

A brain-rattling wall of cold passes over you as the light in the laboratory shifts, illuminating something that had always been there and yet had only just manifested itself.

The halo forms first, two silver semi-circles that face one another in a poor imitation of a perfect ring. Beneath it is...is an impression of a thing. It doesn't so much have a proper physical form as the indentation of one, outlined in fog and condensation. It's as if someone breathed onto a pane of clear glass. And if that pane of glass was reality itself.

"Is that you?"
You already know the answer.

-Would it not be?-

"Why now? What have you been doing?"

-I returned five hours ago, taking up the usual intangible dormant state and awaited my next instruction. I was unaware that taking physical form was required.-

You sigh, all of your previous tension and worries evaporating.
"Nothing went wrong?"

-No-

"Well then, thanks...uh..."

You haven't given it a name. Or a gender.

>Choose a name.

>>375430
I am terrible with names. Maybe Aegis? It's kinda like our shield in this fight.

>>375430
Haha damn Ouro don't fuck with us like that. I can't think of a name and spirits don't really have a gender. Aegis is fine. I always feel weird using mythology that doesn't exist in the setting though.

>>375430
AGGIE
female

>>375430
Aggie is nice

>>375430
Cyra
Male
Ice/waterform made up of sharpened fractal line crystals outside and pressurized water on the inside that can rush to heal the spirit.

>>375462
female*

>Aggie.

"Thanks, Aggie."

-Is that my name? Does that make me a girl?-

"I guess? If you want to be. But now that you're here, we can really-"

The ground shakes, throwing people off their feet and upending cauldrons. You watch one of the Extra Improved Spiritslayer Flasks teeter and fall...only for Eva to catch it before it hits the ground.
Another tremor follows, the sound of a loud crashing reverberating across what must be the entire city.

You flee the basement and run up through the mansion, pushing a pint-sized Sarminda out of the way as you find the closest window. She hits the ground with a curse and a muffled sob but you barely even notice she was there.

The Gate is screaming, some kind of high-pitched tension between realities echoing as a keening wail. It wobbles and the edges waver as something rips it open even wider.

Long red hands reach through the barrier and grip the Gate from both sides, holding it stable. A single vast red hand-print overflows from one horizon to another and the city is doused in red pigment as drops of liquid ochre fall from the hand like rain.

It's a living storm, a maelstrom of colour that coats everything red. And...then it stops, the storm vanishing as quickly as it came. But you can see what it left behind from the mansion's high vantage point.

Taldenral itself has been branded, an enormous red hand painted over the city. Each finger stretches across blocks and streets. And even as the Gate in the sky sprouts more and more gesturing hands, something sprouts from the great handprint embedded into the city.

The pigment flows back upwards in a column of smoke or mist, a long bent pillar stretching itself out of the hand as if it were an ocean. The figure is hundreds of feet tall and yet barely even ten feet wide, a poorly-drawn stick figure of a man.

It has no arms or legs or any other limbs but instead, behind it, tens of thousands of crimson hands push against the air as if it were a wall, leaving smeared prints constantly repeating themselves. The arms from the Gate reach down and arrange them into a crooked looped halo, the rest of prints bulging in the air in the vague shape of wings.

The top of the pillar burns as another arm extracts itself from the Gate and is swallowed entirely. The beast is headless, a floating insignia of a hand rotating constantly above its shoulders instead.

Eyes open but not in or on the monster itself. The eyes are floating in the air or on the streets or the walls and even in the ocean. Anywhere the storm of pigment touched.

The Gate calms itself and even now, there are still so many arms left protruding from it that haven't even touched the soil yet.

-I have come as requested, mortal.-
The Gatekeeper's presence can be felt throughout the entire city and beyond.
-Though I am too large to fit through even this Gate, this fragment should suffice-

"It's not time yet! It hasn't been a day!"

1/2

>>375534
aw fuck

>>375534
There's an eye in the mansion garden below you, set in the grass and the moss. It has to be twice as large as you. It swivels to look at you through the window.

-It is time. One day has passed-

"No it hasn't," you protest. "It's only been twelve hours!"

-When we first spoke it was night. And now the sun is shining again. That is a day. That you took my promise to mean some arbitrary amount of hours is your own fault-

No, no fucking way. That's bullshit. He wanted you to think you had twenty four hours. He did this to trick you and because...well, it's not like you can actually stop him from just doing it whenever he wanted.

He'd been toying with you this entire time.

The already-broken doors of the mansion explode outwards, shattered forever. Hiss steps out of the mansion. You don't even need to see her properly to know that she is livid,

"Fuck you, you traitorous piece of shit! Are you still here for a one-on-one duel? Too fucking bad because now all of us are going to kill you!"

She stomps on the eye and it bursts in a spray of red mud.
She's right though. You've already done most of your work. All coming early has really done is make things HARDER for the Gatekeeper. So why?

A thousand more eyes grow from the one Hiss destroyed, surrounding her in an instant.

-That's the plan, yes. I was never interested in the promise of a single human. It has always been about dragging you out, snake.-

The world runs red.

File: maxresdefault.jpg (64 KB, 1920x1080)

64 KB JPG

>>375534

Alright, that's that for the thread today. Just archived the thread, check the twitter, etc etc. I'll be back tomorrow to finish Thread 103 off. Expect lots of spirit-fighting. Lots.

I hope you had fun and I'll see you tomorrow!

>>375556
This fuckin guy. Can't wait to kill him.
>>375575
Thanks for running! I always liked these alchemy threads.

>>375575
>glass the cunt

>>375575
Thanks for running boss, we are gonna fuck this spirit up so hard.

>>375556
Well. At least we're well rested.

A thousand eyes erupt from the stain of pigment left behind from Hiss' attack, sprouting from the dirt and the rock and the tree-trunks around her.
Hiss skids to a halt as a spiral unfolds around her, the eyes flipping over to sprout backwards-jointed arms that reach for the sky for just a moment before they all collapse down on her!

She is buried in a spray of red, a pool of ochre opening up beneath her. Even as she pushes the arms up away from her, the colour underneath her feet suddenly stops being a mere coat of paint and grows deeper. Her feet begin to sink.

With a scream of anger, she somehow rips one boot free and grabs hold of a newly-formed arm. It sprouts more and more joints in an effort to escape as she bends it back over itself and it pops in a spray of red.
The pool deepens as a result and Hiss' trapped leg is pulled down to the knee.

This is more than you can bear. You throw the window open and prepare to climb out and help her. Across the mansion you can see others doing the same thing.

"Idiots!," Hiss snarls. "Get back inside. I have this perfectly under control! And you! Cennen!"
She rips another arm apart, stomping her one good leg to flatten half a dozen eyes.
"Forget about me! Do your damn job!"


>You need to go help her!

>Equip Aggie.

>Get back down to the basement and grab all the brews you can. It's time.

>Get back down to the basement and keep on brewing. Hopefully the rest can buy you time.

>Other

>>378258
>Equip Aggie.
>Get back down to the basement and grab all the brews you can. It's time.
We got this.

>>378258
>>Equip Aggie.
>>Get back down to the basement and grab all the brews you can. It's time.
"I LOVE YOU"

>>378258
>Equip Aggie.
>Get back down to the basement and grab all the brews you can. It's time.
SO FUCKIN HYPED. Let's toss a dispel elixir at her immediate area to help her out though. Somehow she's bypassing the invulnerability but it should help.

>>378258
>Equip Aggie.
>Get back down to the basement and grab all the brews you can. It's time.

>>378258
>>Get back down to the basement and keep on brewing. Hopefully the rest can buy you time.

We should get a brew --> thrower chain going where we brew as fast as possible and snakes with strength buffs throw them.

Remember, we aren't the only alchemists here.

>Equip Aggie.
>Get back down to the basement and grab all the brews you can. It's time.

You slam the window shut. She's right. And if Hiss can't handle herself, who can? You need to spend the time she's buying for you wisely.
"Aggie!"

-I almost forgot that was my name. Yes?-
Aggie condenses through the floorboards from below.

"You're still a spiritguise right? That's how you work?"

-I believe so.-

"Great. Then rejoin with me."

A long silence follows punctuated only by Hiss yelling incoherently outside.

-How?-

"I...I'm not sure. This is supposed to be your thing! Get in me!"

Aggie drifts closer, latching tendrils around both body and soul. The feeling of cold builds and builds until you stop breathing and you can barely stay standing. You can't stop! Your heart beats faster and faster and faster and then stops entirely.
A numbing fog settles around your mind.

-I am with you.-

Alchemical ice forms around you, freezing mist enveloping your body and solidifying. There is ice all around you and yet you feel unimpeded. It's like looking at the world through faintly cracked glass. Aggie's halo bobs gently above your head.
"This'll do."
You can't quite remember why you wanted this but you feel stronger, more powerful.

You touch the door back to the basement and nearly push it off its hinges. You're going to have to be more careful than that!

The homunculi and the hollow alchemists are waiting for you, none of them looking even the slightest bit perturbed by your change.

"Mass production never quite started," Eva says. "But take what we have now and we can keep supplying you later!"

"aaaaaaa."

"Hom's right. You won't have to worry about any of this, let us handle it for you. We've got your back!"
Eva looks vaguely uncomfortable saying that, as if reading off a script.

You watch blurrily, as if in a dream, as they load up your pack.

>17 Spiritbanes.
>10 Spirit Poison
>13 Spiritslayer Flasks.
>7 Improved Spiritslayer Flasks.
>11 Mental Stimulants.
>7 Solidification Brews.
>5 Extra Improved Spiritslayer Flasks.

You're ready.


>Get out there and help Hiss.

>Head straight for the Gatekeeper's central manifestation downtown.

>Keep brewing some more.

>Give some of your brews to snakes to arm them.

>Instruct the homunculi to spend their time arming the snakes, not you. You'll be fine.

>Briefly experiment and practice with your newfound spirit-armour.

>Use Potion (Specify)

>Other

>>378377
>Give some of your brews to snakes to arm them.
>Instruct the homunculi to spend their time arming the snakes, not you. You'll be fine.
>Get out there and help Hiss.

>>378377
>Instruct the homunculi to spend their time arming the snakes, not you. You'll be fine.
>Briefly experiment and practice with your newfound spirit-armour.
Activate one of those mental stimulants first so our soul doesn't get eaten. We can go rescue Hiss and get some real souls for fuel right after.

>>378377
>Instruct the homunculi to spend their time arming the snakes, not you. You'll be fine.

>Give some of your brews to snakes to arm them.
Mostly the SBs, SPs, and SsFs.

>Use Potion
Mental Stimulant

>Get out there and help Hiss.

>>378377
>Instruct the homunculi to spend their time arming the snakes, not you. You'll be fine.
>Get out there and help Hiss.
I think we should keep what they've made already and let the rest go to the snakes. Did we ever use that bloodkin link with aggie or is it even necessary?

>>378377
>The feeling of cold builds and builds until you stop breathing and you can barely stay standing. You can't stop! Your heart beats faster and faster and faster and then stops entirely. A numbing fog settles around your mind.
This is worrying.

>Alchemical ice forms around you, freezing mist enveloping your body and solidifying. There is ice all around you and yet you feel unimpeded. It's like looking at the world through faintly cracked glass. Aggie's halo bobs gently above your head.
Aw shit, she's like a spirit made entirely of the bane. We're gonna fuck this gatekeeper up.

>Instruct the homunculi to spend their time arming the snakes, not you. You'll be fine.
>Get out there and help Hiss.

You drink one of the Stimulants immediately and the numbness over your mind fades. Looks like you'll have to be downing these all days to stop Aggie from eating your soul. You're not sure how you feel about that.

"Thanks for the offer Eva but other people need your help more. I already have all of this! You two and uh...you three, you all need to be spending your time making these for everyone else too! Got it?"

"Understood."

"I'll see both of you soon. I promise."
And with that you're out, climbing back up the stairs and bursting through the window. Aggie is wrapped around you, making you feel stronger, quicker, lighter. And a hell of a lot colder.

You hit the ground to see Hiss tearing her way out of the pool, her trousers stained with red. She pulls another arm apart and you stop for a moment, a new thought occuring to you. Shouldn't all of these be invulnerable? How is she getting past them?

A thunderclap breaks the air around you and you hear Aqua scream. She's further down with another group of snakes at the mansion's wall. Three spirits have just slammed into the wall itself and are tearing into the mansion itself.

>Help Hiss.

>Help the other snakes.

>Load the caster.

>Throw Hiss a potion.

>Ask Aggie for her opinion here.

>Head straight for the Gatekeeper!

>Other

>>378461
>>Throw Hiss a potion.
>Ask Aggie for her opinion here.
>Help the other snakes.
>Load the caster.

>>378461
>Throw Hiss a potion.
Soulguard and spirit poison
>Load the caster.
Spiritslayer
>Help the other snakes.

>>378461
>Head straight for the Gatekeeper!
Gotta keep the element of surprise. I feel like he's gonna get really pissed when he figures out what we've become and start focusing on us.

>>378461
>>378475
Sounds good.

Sorry about the delays on all this stuff, been feeling kinda gooey today.

>>378511
>delays
bruh your update speed is literally the best around even today

>Throw Hiss some potions.
>Help the other snakes.
>Load the caster.

You trust Hiss can handle herself. The others need you more! But that doesn't mean you can't lend just a little helping hand.
"Hey Hiss! Catch!"

You throw her a Spirit Poison and your last Soulguard. One of the arms reaches for them but she pulls herself up at the last moment, climbing up the arm and catching both potions out of the air!

You don't bother to watch the rest of her fight, you're already confident in her victory. Instead you take the Caster from your pack and crack it open, loading up a basic Spiritslayer flask.
"Get down! Get down!"

Aqua drops to her knees, still overshadowing the ruined wall by virtue of her fifteen-foot tall frame. The other snakes hide behind her.
It'll have to do.

You spin the lever and fire, holding the Caster as steady as you can.

>Roll 1d100 for your aim. Best of the first 3.

Rolled 79 (1d100)

>>378526

Rolled 7 (1d100)

>>378526
we'd better be pretty great at this by now

Rolled 58 (1d100)

>>378526
POP POP POP WATCHIN SPIRITS DROP

>>378532
well this is fine

We should probably drink that empowered champions brew too.

>79

The shot is as true as it can be, the cone of spray and shrapnel arcing harmless over Aqua's back and blasting straight into the first spirit's side. The wooden monster is ripped in half, halo breaking instantly!
The rest of the spray hits the second spirit, a long-legged diamond made from tightly coiled silver wire. It screams inside your head as it begins to melt.

And the rest of the shot also hits the third spirit, an eleven-legged white furred humanoid with a large hole filled with glistening oil instead of a face. You watch, waiting for it to scream or start melting like the rest but the the droplets and the shrapnel just bounce off it.

It drones, not in your head for once but an actual physical sound. A grotesque hum that rattles the bones and makes your skin crawl. The oil oozing out of its caved-in head bursts outwards in a writhing pseudopod of ooze. It lashes around and wherever it touches, the stone of the wall and the cobblestones of the street turn to dust.

The tendril grabs one of the snakes you don't know and her scream is swallowed up as she suddenly flops bonelessly to the ground, looking more like a puddle than a person. They died instantly.

You're still frantically reloading the Caster as the spirit's oily grip vaporises the wall and lunges straight for Aqua!

>Fire at the tendril.

>Fire at the spirit itself.

>Throw a potion instead.

>Throw a potion at Aqua.

>Try to pull her out of the way.

>Lunge in to take the hit for her.

>Other

>>378589
>>Throw a potion instead.

>>378589
>Throw a potion instead.
Solidification brew!

>>378589
>Lunge in to take the hit for her.
Grab the tentacle and freeze it.
Can we get a list of our new brews with the explanation? It's a pain scrolling all the way back up and hunting it down

>>378606
Seconding
>>378589

> Solidification brew

@OuroQM 2 minutes ago
Posting on phone. Internet has fallen over. Please hold.
fug

And we're back! Fuck Telstra. Even now it's weird and slow.

>Throw a potion instead.

You set the Caster down and rip your pack open instead, digging through it for bottles. Aqua rolls clumsily out of the way as the tendril disappears the ground beneath her but the glistening appendage doesn't stop, carving through stone like water.
She pulls herself back but the attack keeps on reaching, brushing up against the tip of her hand...

You throw the bottle.

What bottle was it?

>Dispel Elixir.

>Solidification Brew.

>Spiritslayer Flask.

>Spiritbane.

>Other

>>378811
The spiritslayer is the one with spiritbane and snakebreaker combined only right? And this is the spirit that didn't work on?

>>378811
>Solidification Brew.

>>378820
Correct. This spirit is still invulnerable.

>>378811
>>Dispel Elixir.

>>378848
Fuck man I don't know. I don't understand this thing's invulnerability since the spiritbane and snakebreaker bypassed every other spirit's invulnerability. I'm worried that the dispel brew won't stop it from melting Aqua but the solidification brew might do nothing like the spiritslayer.

>>378811
>Dispel Elixir.
I'm just gonna go with my gut and assume that this spirit's invulnerability just prevents anything from actually making contact with its spiritual body so dispelling it is the only option. Totally just a guess though.

>>378811
>>Dispel Elixir.

>>378811
>Solidification Brew.

>>378811
>Solidification Brew.
AHHHH

>>378837
>>378864
>>378893
>>378895
Why? It will no sell it from halo.

>>378909
>>378811

Changing it to

> Dispel elixer

While shouting at Aqua to change to her snake form to dodge.

Yo Ouro did we get any of these brews that Eva talked about here?

>>375294
>We've studied the mental energy brews you left behind and have done our best to improve them. We now have brews capable of diminishing mental energy and with the help of the Spirit Poison theory, brews that can help disturb the link between spirits and their halos.

>Solidification Brew.

The brew strikes the side of the oily pseudopod and the glass vanishes immediately, spraying the brew everywhere. The oil immediately cracks, hardening and freezing into a glassy looking sculpture.
The spirit seems to almost gag as the solidification spreads upwards but it doesn't have much time for anything else as the other snakes swarm it, stabbing it over and over.

You watch the halo crack and then shatter. The snakes are sent sprawling to the ground as the spirit ceases to exist beneath them.

And by that point you've run over, tapping Aqua on the shoulder and trying to help her up. You fail miserably but not because she's hurt, mostly just because she's over twice your size and weighs a ton.
"Are you okay, Aqua?"

"Uh, mostly."
She holds out her left hand. Or at least what's left of it. The arm from her shoulder down to halfway down her forearm is normal but the wrist and the hand itself are strangely flaccid, like something that's been deflated. She waves it around, treating you to the spectacle of it flopping limply.
"I think it ate some of my bones. Can you fix this?"

"Uh, a healing brew will probably eventually grow them back but I can't promise it'll do it right. You might need a replacement."

Aqua grimaces.
"Why couldn't it have been one of my legs? I don't need those!"

In the distance you see Hiss stomp the last of her attackers to nothing. She's completely covered in red smears.

>See if you can get Aqua's arm back to normal.

>Now that the immediate attack is over, muster up everyone you can and prepare for a defence.

>You need to attack now!

>Try to speak with the Gatekeeper from here.

>Other

>>378929
Do our kids know how to make regen brews and heal alls?

>>378929
>Now that the immediate attack is over, muster up everyone you can and prepare for a defence.
Also get some soul donations from snakes to power our spirit to prepare for the big showdown

>>378925
I knew I was forgetting something. 6 Haywire Brews added to inventory.

>>378941
They know Heal-Alls. Internet is refusing to load captchas half the time

>>378929
>> You need to attack now!

Fuck Defense. Let's salt a spirit slug. Dude can just keep pumping spirit bullshit at us anyways until we're worn down.

>>378929
>Now that the immediate attack is over, muster up everyone you can and prepare for a defence.
Send her to the homunculi and alchemists. She can serve as a reagent source while one of them heals her. One of them should be on healing brew duty. Surely one of them has a healing mastery. Let's explain to all the snakes how the anti spirit brews work too.

>>378929
>Try to speak with the Gatekeeper from here.
"I'd have thought one as great as you wouldn't have need of these kind of trickery. You act like a true dragon!"
>Go back to Hiss

>>378950
Do they know regen? If so they might be able to mix them so she can get that arm grown back.
>>378929
>Now that the immediate attack is over, muster up everyone you can and prepare for a defence.
>Talk to Hiss about how she's able to hurt spirits.

Calling it for mustering the defence. Writing.

http://pastebin.com/J4S5mKbd
Ok I think this is every new brew. Hope it clears up any confusion about which brews do what. I can update the count every time a brew is used but that sounds like a pain in the ass honestly.

>>379001
my nigga

>>379001
Good man. Much appreciated.

Internet crapped out again but is back for now. Hold on.

>Now that the immediate attack is over, muster up everyone you can and prepare for a defence.

"Oi! You lot!"
Hiss walks over, her clothes and skin sprayed with earthy pigment.
"That hand looks disgusting. Leave."

"She's probably right, Aqua. Go back to the basement and see if you can get one of the alchemists to help you."
If nothing else they can use her for reagents.

Aqua slouches off as Hiss climbs what's left of the wall, scouting out the city beyond.
"Ice suits you, Cennen. More than being a messy old wood monster does, anyway."

-Thank you-

Hiss doesn't react.

"Only I can hear you, Aggie."

-Annoying.-

Hiss frowns.
"Aggie? Bah, whatever. Everyone, hurry up and get out here! Stop cowering and join your Queen!"

The snakes in the mansion begin to muster but their numbers only make Hiss' frown deepen.
"Cennen! Start praying."

"But the spirits-"

"Pray."
It was not a request. You bow to your head and begin to pray, a plea for help from all who can hear it. A prayer to join the Queen's side.

The sky rumbles.
-There is no such providence here. Only I am here to hear your prayers.-

Hiss just shakes her ochre-stained head.
"Shows how much you know. This world doesn't belong to you. It belongs to me."

And the world came to answer her call.

It started with snakes, trickling in in small groups in both human and serpent forms. Many of them were injured but they still stood tall and nodded to their Queen as they filed passed her and into the compound.
At first it was only scattered groups of them but their numbers kept doubling, the survivors of all Snakehome gathering from across the broken city of Taldenral. And with them they brought human herds. Companies of Hiss’ ever-loyal living dead, shellshocked mercenaries and mind-emptied prey made up most of their numbers at first. But as the city moved, they picked up more and more. People of Taldenral took note.
Guardsmen, looters, what was left of the royal armies. And with them, the great press of what was left of Taldenral’s citizenry. Labourers and merchants and workers of every trade, seeking out safety and certainty in a world that no longer made sense. They hadn’t literally heard your prayer but they may as well have.

Each of them has a different expression for when they pass Hiss up on the wall but none of them defy her. This is the last safe haven in the world.

“Hiss,” you whisper from the corner of your mouth, “what use are these going to b-”

A great stir rises up from the scattered people and you hear a scream. Spirits? You ready your Caster but Hiss simply raises a hand. The gesture alone is enough to quieten the entire crowd, all of which who had accepted themselves into her servitude in heart if not in mind.

A wounded giant steps across the wreckage of the street. Ten feet tall, the Quedeshi is wrapped in ornate and broken plate mail. Long quills stick out from him at odd angles and he leans on a giant bloodcrusted sword simply to stand.
1/2

>>379220
Hiss just nods and lets him wordlessly walk past.

Before long, more constrictors begin to appear from the wreckage of the city. Some look contrite, others defiant, most despairing. With them they bring broken companies of Quedeshi soldiers and sailors, some of the most defeated-looking men you’ve ever seen in your lives. There’s even a small scattering of Ishmin, their once glorious battledresses dented and scorched. They no longer march in unison, each Ismin is alone. Sole survivors of brotherhoods drilled into their heads since birth.

A constrictor draws himself up in front of Hiss, still clad in pristine robes and fineries. He towers over her but only physically.
“The ships are broken,” he speaks in perfect Teln. “We will not bow to you but we will stand beside you.”

Hiss seems to be considering it.


>Ask Hiss to request their servitudes first.

>Advise her that she should accept it.

>Nonsense. Just because the spirits were attacking both of you doesn’t suddenly make the Quedeshi NOT your enemies.

>Attack.

>Nobble.

>Request something else (Specify)

>Other