The Newt and Demon - Chapter 5.19 - Sulvan Flametouched

Shafts of sunlight filtered through the boughs of the cypress trees overhead. Theo and his group landed on the walls of Broken Tusk, right behind the dutiful marshling. Tresk turned, eyes narrowing the moment her sight locked onto Sulvan Flametouched. The alchemist expected her daggers to appear in her hand, then the attack that would follow. But she remained where she was, looking more puzzled than angry.

“What’s he doing here?”

Sulvan stood, slightly less tall than he was before. His normally imposing demeanor had been drawn out of him by Glantheir. Now he seemed just as likely to provide comfort as an inquisition. With a slight bow of his head, he regarded Tresk. “Through sacrifice, I have been given another chance.”

Tresk crossed her arms and snorted. “Didn’t think you were gonna bring him back so quickly. Thought you’d make him squirm.”

“Uharis can do squirming enough for the both of them,” Theo said, dismissing the tension in the air with a wave of his hand. “How many people remember how much of a dick Sulvan was?”

“Almost everyone who was here when you arrived remember him,” Sarisa said, making herself known. “Just another dickish bully from the outside.”

Theo grunted a response, his mind drifting away from the problem. People would accept Sulvan because they needed to. He doubted that there were many holders of a Glantheir core outside of Tarantham. And once the cleric got some levels in his new core, he would be vital to fighting the undead. In the alchemist’s mind, all was forgiven. Things lined up perfectly to bring Sulvan here. Transporting someone from the moon to planet below was a massive feat. It required the approval of both Uz’Xulven and Khahar.

“Let’s go,” Theo said, turning on the spot. Sulvan fell in line behind him.

It was a quick walk to the Adventurer’s Guild. The place was bustling with people from Broken Tusk, Gronro, and Rivers and Daub. Theo pushed his way through those people, finding Aarok in his office on the floors above. The half-ogre’s mouth hung open as Sulvan took a seat, folding his hands in his lap as though he were an attentive student.

“All right,” Aarok said, mouth hanging open. “This is a development.”

Theo forestalled each coming question, explaining the situation. As always, Aarok listened to the newest string of weird circumstances the alchemist presented. He nodded along, eyes never leaving Sulvan.

“So you can teleport to the moon?” Aarok asked, scratching his head.

This was the complicated part. It wasn’t really teleportation. Theo had borrowed the authority of Uz’Xulven and Khahar to poke a hole through reality using the Bridge. He then invited Sulvan to step through. This was an act only accomplished because of their connection. Khahar or Uz’Xulven could have denied the transport. The alchemist had a feeling that the other throne-holder in the world, Fenian, had a say. Whether he could say anything was still a mystery.

“Yeah. Kinda.”

“Are you certain he’s on our side?”

“I’ve been reduced to Level 30,” Sulvan said. “Each personal level I gained while in the Eye’s service has been stripped.”

“Oh. Okay.” Aarok leaned back in his chair, smiling. “I could take you, then. Half the town’s adventurers could take you. That works.”

“I doubt he started with an ability to help with Balkor’s magic.” Theo drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair, staring into the middle-distance. “But this is a start.”

“Alise won’t have a problem with it.” Aarok gave a massive shrug. “She’s from… Veosta or whatever.”

“Alise is from an area north of Qavell,” Theo corrected. “She wasn’t here when Sulvan was a problem. Sorry, Sulvan.”

Sulvan shrugged.

“We’re going to sign a contract, then I’ll introduce him to the administrators,” Theo said, pulling up his [Contracts] ability. He began drafting his standard contract. “After that, we’ll get him a place to stay and a stipend for his healing abilities. You can heal, right?”

“I was gifted two spells by my lord. [Cure Wounds] and [Purge Disease].”

“Perfect,” Theo said, typing away. “We’ll work out the details, but you’ll have enough to live on. I suppose I should ask. Do you have any plans?”

“My plan is to follow the word of Glantheir. Once I have atoned, I have business to settle elsewhere.”

“Excellent. Very mysterious,” Theo said in monotone as he copy-pasted most of his old contract. He made sure to change the names. Once he was done, he sent the contract over. Sulvan didn’t read it. He signed it immediately.

“Time for introductions,” Theo said, rising to his feet. “Don’t glower at Alise too much. She’ll take it personally.”

Theo and Sulvan bid farewell to Aarok. They headed over to the Town Hall, finding it even busier than the guild. Seeing so many people coming here to solve their problems gave him pause. He didn’t want to be the sole person these people came to. The alchemist had built his administrative team to sort those things out, leaving him to work on projects like this. He heard the cleric beside him muttering a prayer to Glantheir.

“Better than worshiping demons, I guess,” Theo breathed, ascending the stairs to the third floor.

Theo cracked the door to the meeting room open, spotting Alise, Gwyn, and Gael lounging. They all looked exhausted. The alchemist entered the room, putting on his best smile.

“Guys, this is our new cleric,” Theo said, gesturing to Sulvan.

“Awful big for a cleric,” Gael grumbled. “A cleric of which god, archduke? We’ve had just about enough of Spit’s magic.”

“Tada! He’s a follower of Glantheir.”

Gael sputtered. “I think not. He’s hardly an elf.”

Alise narrowed her eyes at the cleric. “Sulvan?”

“She wasn’t supposed to know about you,” Theo whispered.

“Isn’t he supposed to be on the moon?” Gwyn asked, still slumped in her chair.

“He was. But I went and got him. From the moon. Now he’s here to help.”

The administrators all shared looks, then shrugged collectively.

“Whatever. Weirder things have happened,” Alise said with a sigh. “Like the dragon? The dragon who still refuses to make a solid trade deal.”

Theo let out a slow breath. He thanked the town and its tendency to produce weird scenarios. The administrators broke off into their own conversation, complaining about various things. The lizard-folk from the south were hard to work with. Bantein had sent a representative, but the requirements for trade were arduous.And, of course, there were the frogs. Well, frog-like creatures. After Bilgrob, follower of Spit, healed Salire when she got her demon cores, the frogs approached.

Once the group had settled down, Theo excused himself and Sulvan. After a quick tour, the cleric seemed eager to do anything else. True to his devotion to Glantheir, he went off to heal citizens. That left the alchemist recalculating his day. His mind landed on the lab in an instant, and he was off to meet with Salire. After pushing his way through a field of toad-rabbit hybrids, he entered the Newt and Demon.

“We’re gonna need something to wipe our feet on,” Theo said, noticing the trail of slime he left. After splashing the ground with [Cleansing Scrub], he made his way upstairs.

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Salire seemed less frightened by the frogs by the day. She stood in the lab, taking notes on something. When she turned and spotted Theo, she smiled. The next batch [Greater Hallow the Soil] was ready for brewing, along with 500 units each of the standard restoration potions. The stock in the shop downstairs was filled with low-tier potions, but the citizens didn’t seem to mind. Still, it was good to have some good stuff waiting for a high-roller to buy.

“Nothing to report,” Salire said, turning to jot something down. “Less requests for attribute potions, with more requests for weird stuff.”

Theo joined with her, checking the stock of essence in the building’s magical storage. This batch had produced less essence for the undead, but with Gronro purged they didn’t need as much. Until Throk figured out his floating platform thing, the alchemist considered them in a holding pattern. He worked with Salire to create barrels of the brewing [Greater Hallow the Soil] potions, burning some of the day away getting those sorted.

During the bottling process of the restoration potions, Theo had some time to think. When they had finished the task, he turned to Salire. “Let’s leave a few stills empty this time. Should give you room to work on leveling your core.”

Salire offered him a sheepish smile. “Thanks. I was about to ask Thim to build me a few stills for myself.”

Theo nodded. The rush to get the anti-undead potions together had left her floundering. He picked three stills for her to work with, then prepared to load the other seven for another round. Working near the stills drew beads of sweat onto Salire’s forehead. The alchemist was comfy in his coat and avoided bringing the topic up. It was never a good idea to gloat about a coat.

After the stills were running, Theo retreated to the second floor of the building. It had become a storage area, but was also great for experimentation. While Salire ran downstairs to work with customers, he went through his long list of reagents and their effects. During downtimes, he liked to experiment with unused reagents. It often resulted in new, exciting potions.

There were more spirit fruits to consider, but Theo didn’t have the desire to discover those. The results of spirit fruit distillations were often something too impractical to use. Even [Dragon’s Dance] was risky. The alchemist withdrew a vial of [Grimeling Ooze] from his inventory, setting it down and leering at the contents. The sooner he forgot about those disgusting little creatures, the better. With no desire to eat the ooze, he deconstructed the reagent to discover its properties. True to the item’s description, the cloud of smoke it produced smelled of rotten eggs. He inspected the ooze.

[Grimeling Ooze]

[Alchemy Ingredient]

Uncommon

The stinking goo left behind by a grimeling.

Properties:

[Sludge] [Filth] [Rust] [Deteriorate]

Every property was disgusting. Theo waved his hand through the air, desperate to clear away the foul stench. Nothing worked, so he abandoned the idea and left the lab. Salire shouted something about ‘vile smells’ as he left, forcing him to pick up the pace. The alchemist picked a lazy path toward the harbor, excitement flooding him when he spotted a trade vessel. Foreign traders had become common enough in town that it wasn’t news. That was a great thing for Broken Tuskers and Broken Tusk. He dangled his legs over the harbor’s edge and watched the folks from town visit the trader’s stalls.

If Theo could get a few more boats in their fleet, the Southlands Alliance could become a trade powerhouse. Once again, it was a problem of production and consumption. The alchemist didn’t know if that’s the road they were going down. He only ever wanted this place to be a safe spot for people to live. A harbor in a storm. But the decision didn’t rest solely with him. The administrators handled most of the trade deals and there were people in town who had spent their entire lives here. They had more of a claim to the alliance than him.

“I’m just the figurehead,” Theo said, withdrawing a [Reanimated Skeleton Fragment] from his inventory. Continuing with his discovery of new properties, he decomposed the fragment in his hand. The smoke rose into the air, leaving behind a pile of primal essence in his hand. “Guess I’m okay with that.”

“Are you talking to yourself?” Alex asked from somewhere above. “Is that healthy?”

“You tell me.”

“What are we doing?” Tresk asked, joining in the conversation. “We being sad today?”

“I’m not sad,” Theo said. “I’m proud of all the Broken Tuskers. They’ve accomplished a lot.”

“Oh. Yeah. I’m super proud. Yay!”

“Me, too!” Alex said.

Theo smiled to himself, pulling another skeleton fragment from his inventory. Alex and Tresk carried on about how proud they were about different things. He really was happy with the way Broken Tusk was going. Khahar’s little experiment was going well, and all Theo had to do was ride until the end. He inspected the fragment.

[Reanimated Skeleton Fragment]

[Alchemy Ingredient]

Common

Skull fragment of a skeleton reanimated by necromantic powers.

Properties:

[Withering] [Hone Edge] [Assail] [Animate Dead]

Theo groaned. This was a common reagent. Why did it have the [Animate Dead] property? He returned the fragment to his inventory, scratching his chin. [Assail] was a new property to him, so that might have been useful. But a property that animated the dead? That was dangerous. The only positive use he could think of for the property was in suffuse potions, or through linked wards. Both approaches would produce a different effect entirely, and might provide another anti-undead weapon. It was a longshot, so the alchemist invested little thought into it.

A small cluster of frog-octopus-things swam in the water below. They suctioned half-way up the seawall before falling back into the water. Once again, Theo was left to think about anti-frog measures. And once again, he drew a blank. The only potions he could brew that targeted a type of monster were his anti-undead potions. He pushed himself to his feet, heading over to Town Hall. Alise and the gang were too busy with their duties, so he pulled a junior administrator aside.

The overly-excited half-elven man had a lot of information about frogs. Since Bilgrob’s casting, Alise had invested a lot of junior admin time into frog research. The most interesting part of that research was that there was a race of frog-people in the world. The records they had didn’t say where the frog-folk were from, but it was good to know. Through experimentation, the administrators had discovered that frogs didn’t like being near spicy things.

“Hardly helpful,” Theo muttered, flipping through the notes. “We can’t spice-bomb the town.”

“Lady Plumm was certain you would find a solution.”

Theo looked up over the notes. Alise had too much faith in him. There wasn’t an anti-frog property he could cast. “We may just need to wait for it to pass…”

“Ah.”

Of course, that got Theo thinking. He handed the notes back to the administrator, then walked off deep in thought. When he arrived back at the lab, Salire was dealing with a customer. He went upstairs, grabbed a few things, then headed back down toward Throk’s workshop. The grumpy marshling was banging a hammer on something, but the alchemist spotted what he was looking for.

“I’m taking this,” Theo said, snatching the backpack sprayer the artificer had been working on.

“I don’t care,” Throk grumbled, not looking up from his work.

Theo didn’t use it often, but he had a mortar and pestle in his inventory. He withdrew it, sitting on the side of the road to grind a pile of red eggshells. After combining a unit of ground shells with normal drinking water, he snatched up a nearby frog-lizard hybrid. A single drop of the liquid sent the creature squirming in his hand. After setting the frog on the ground, the alchemist watched as it ran as though its life depended on it.

“Excellent,” Theo said, grinding more eggshells. He created more of his non-alchemical mixture, loading the sprayer until it was filled. Citizens were watching him with curious expressions as he loaded the sprayer on his back. He cleared his throat, approaching the field of frogs outside of his lab. “Begone!”

With a pull of the trigger, Theo released a misting stream of spicy water. The frogs squeaked in chorus, dashing in every direction to get away. Notably, it didn’t seem to harm the frogs. Perhaps they absorbed the liquid through their skin, sending a burning sensation throughout their body. A Wisdom of the Soul message appeared, confirming with certainty that the frogs wouldn’t be harmed.

“I got a present,” Theo said, entering the shop. Salire was still dealing with a customer, so he bottled his excitement and took a seat.

The transaction took longer than he expected. The alchemist sat awkwardly as Salire sold some potions. Once the customer was gone, she shot him a confused look and faked a smile.

“Yay. A sprayer,” Salire said, clapping half-heartedly.

“This is a spicy sprayer,” Theo said, unclasping the backpack and setting it down. “One-to-five ratio of fire salamander eggshells to regular water. It makes the frogs run.”

Salire grimaced. “Uh-huh.”

“Oh, come on. Strap it on. A demonstration will ease your mind.”

Salire pulled the sprayer on, tightening the straps while giving Theo a concerned look. “You sound like a crazy person. You know that, right?”

“Just test the sprayer. Some functionary at Town Hall had done research. No idea how he found out that frogs hate spicy stuff, but he did. Look! Frogs! In the distance!”

Theo and Salire exited the lab. Sure enough, there was a scattering of frogs in the distance. They hopped along the ground, their little eyes going wide when they spotted the poor half-ogre. She held the sprayer wand at the ready, doubt still lingering on her face. She pulled the trigger, releasing a stream of water that splashed against the creatures. They emitted the same squealing sound, and retreated the moment they were hit.

“Woah. It worked?”

“I tested it!” Theo shouted. “Why is this the one thing you doubt me on?”

“Because I look like a nerd,” Alise said, looking over her shoulder at the pack.

“Yeah, but you won’t be accosted by frogs.”

Salire sighed. “Yeah. You’re right. Thanks, boss.”

“You’re welcome. Let’s go squirt some frogs.”