Slaving Away (Group 1) [Closed] [Finished]

Kestrel had been waiting for something to happen, and watching someone willingly put on a slave collar made him growl again. Dammit, why wouldn't the medic just do her damn job and not try and compromise everything like this. If she had lost it then that would have left Kira and himself alone out here, and right now both were barely standing.

These slaves, something was obviously wrong with them, and were the situation different, Kestrel just might have tried to figure out what was going on. Were the situation diffrent, he would have tried to help the slaves, to free them, to give them what he had to fight for for 19 long, hard years. But this mission had not gone according to plan, and they had just threatend him with the one thing in these wide wastes that actually made him react.

Slavery.

They had just sacrificed all hope in Kestrel's eyes. They wanted to stay slaves, to be turned into little more than broodmares and beat-down underlings. They wanted to be beaten and scarred, and hurt, and stripped of everything that made them free. And apparently, most of all, they wanted their 'Silver' back.

And while all this was going on Kestrel's father was in a bed in Stableton dying as his son was stuck here dealing with this.

If they really wanted to see her again so much, Kes would bring her back. He'd deliver her dead, rotting corpse to their damn doorstep, along with the heads of every other slaver in this camp. Free of charge.

"Come on Cuppa." Kestrel growled darkly. "We don't have time for this. They want Silver so bad, let's go get Bakewell and Dash and find her. I don't see her body in here, so she must still be alive." the griffon seemed to spit the last word, as if its very flavor was the most foul thing to every touch his tongue in his life.

(Defending)

The collar clicked into place and nothing happened... Well she could accept being wrong. But now her worry was about what had actually made the slaves like this.

Quickly lighting her horn to cast a healing spell on Kes, if only to try and lighten his mood, Cuppa then gave a nod. "Ya'll stay 'ere, we're gon go find Silver an' bring 'er back." She said sourly, levitating out her shotgun and moving for the door. Surely they'd let them past if it were to find their precious Silver... Stupid babies, relying on somepony who could die at any moment. Cuppa hated this mare more than before.

Once they got out, Cuppa looked around before taking a deep breath to call for the two ponies not currently here. "Bake! Dash! Get out 'ere, we gots ta find Silver!" She'd call out loudly before looking for hoofprints that were recognisable as Bake's, in case she didn't hear her.

(perception 7, looking for Bake's hoof prints in the dirt.)

Lightning's quick entry into the room to face Mad Komodo didn't end the way he expected as he expected his team to be right behind him to back him up. Sadly though, his team was not behind him and after swinging his sword wildly, only barely nicked the zebra. This zebra was very skilled in martial arts which the pegasus expected but sadly for Lightning, he had his tail thoroughly kicked and effectively knocked him out of the battle for who knows how long.

Now, Lightning began to stir and as he slowly began to move his body, pain shot through his body making the pegasus groan in discomfort. Opening his eyes, his vision was blurred until he blinked a few times, the image of Cuppa and Kestrel soon coming into focus. But so did the angry crowd of slaves. Lightning blinked a couple more times to make sure he wasn't dreaming then quickly, he leapt up to his hooves, picking up his broadsword next to him, "Kes! Cuppa!" He winced a little from his injuries but he glanced towards the griffon in order to ask, "What's going on? What's happening?"

Kira was confused about these slaves, they clearly looked to the pegasus Silver like some kind of mother figure or something like that. It was kind of stupid to do this but she could understand why they did it, with such a bleak life ahead of them they needed something to make them feel safe and they had done that with this Silver. But still to keep doing it now that they where as good a free and was promised a somewhat safe haven that was not that far off and they still keep clinging to they 'mother' it was just stupid.

As the others started to move did the spotted gryphoness do so as well. Her entire body feeling stiff, sore and otherwise in pain it did not feel like she could take on anything for at least not without a week of rest. Still their where right if they were going to get these... slaves to cooperate in some way they had to get Silver back, even if she just thought that they should leave and let the ponies fend for them selves at this point.

Hearing the blue pegasus known as Lighting groan as he returned to the world of the awake. It was actally good to know that he was as all right as he could be after getting knocked around by the zebra. "We are going after the rest of the slavers, we are going to find some pony named Silver Mist."

Dash opened his eyes slowly and groggily. He groaned slightly and went to rub his back and head, but found, to his terror that his wings and hooves were all tied down to the point of immobility. Dash struggled a bit, and managed to move himself to look around. He was still near the window. And didn't seem to have any slave collar around his neck. That was a huge, HUGE relief. He sighed heavily and listened intently to the sounds coming from the building and outside. Quiet for the most part, but from his position not inside the slave pens, Dash could only assume that his friends were still nearby.

"H-hey!" Dash called, "Anypony? Can you hear me!?" While calling, he attempted to free himself.

(Agility 9, reaching for his knife if he can. Strength 6 or Melee 22, trying to free himself. Perception 6, listening for his teammates.)

Even though more of the group from Stableton were awakening, the slaves seemed to be largely untroubled by their presence. They did seem pleased when Cuppa put the collar on, though, and a couple even hugged her.

A couple of slaves gave Lightning a half interested glance before turning their attention back to Cuppa.

“You’re going to bring Silver back to us?” an orange colt asked Kestrel, his eyes full of hope. “Thank you, Mister Birdy!”

Cuppa exited the building but couldn’t find any hoofprints that might have belonged to Bakewell. The myriad overlapping hoofprints from all the slaves made it practically impossible to even tell them apart. As she stood in the doorway around the side of the house, she heard the distressed cries of somepony who needed help – after a second, she recognised the voice as belonging to Dash.





When Dash reached for his knife, he found the holster empty. In fact, all of his weapons seemed to be missing. He was still wearing his armour, though. He was unable to get himself out of the bindings, but he could very slowly shuffle across the ground.




On hearing Bakewell’s answer, Dash smiled again. “I appreciate your honesty. Perhaps, then, you can face your punishment with dignity.”

His foreleg blurred with motion, and a tiny glint of light flew at Bake; she managed to duck it, but by the time her eyes were forward again, Dash had jumped backwards through the door, and slammed it shut. There was a muffled sound of something being wedged against it.

“You two, help me with that desk. This pony has been very mean.” After the sounds of a few hoofsteps, the audible shimmer of magic could be heard. After a while, the sliver of light between the doors was muffled by somepony outside, and Dash spoke, his voice sounding much closer this time. “I bet you don’t even know what you’ve done wrong, do you? Well, allow me to paint you a picture.

“Bake, do you know the meaning of investment? Determination? Do you know what it means to dig your hooves into the ground and weather years of hardship and desolation in the hope of building yourself a better future? Do you know how it feels to have all of that torn down in front of your eyes by a bunch of self-righteous idiots playing cowpony?

“Nine years,” he said, his voice lowering almost into a growl. “Nine years of work up in flames because of you. If I still had Komodo, I could just start over somewhere else, outside the reach of your stupid little town. I spent nine long, painful, exhausting years building the cold-blooded monster you killed today, and for every day of progress, for every splinter I chipped away from his heart, I grew weaker, hungrier. I can’t go through that torture again.

“Do you see, Bake? You’ve ruined me in more ways than you could possibly realise. You’ve destroyed my home and killed my workers, but most of all, you’ve deprived me of my hard-earned means of sustenance. So in return, I do the same to you.”

A loud thud shook the door for a moment, and the sliver of light between the doors disappeared.

“Enjoy the rest of your life, Bake.”

Cuppa let out a frustrated sigh as she couldn't pick up on any trail that could lead to Bake. This was bad, neither Bake nor Dash could be found and apparently they didn't hear her at a- what was that noise?

The sound of somepony calling for help? Wait, that was Dash's voice! Where was he then? Ears perking up for maximum noise pick-up, Cuppa would follow her ears until she could locate Dash. But she still wondered where her beige-coated friend had gotten to. "Kes, can ya hear tha'? It's Dash." She said whilst using a healing spell on Kira now to help with her wounds.

(Magic 50, medicine 70, healing spell again, on Kira this time)

The little orange colt would find himself totally ignored, Kestrel's on edge nerves not even registering the little pony's comment. Even if they had, one had to wonder, would Kestrel have listened? Would he have perhaps smiled, and patted the kid on the head and gave some long winded speech about how sometimes to apologize you had to make up for your sins?

If your mind was in fact entertaining this motion, there is a lovely assortment of knowledgeable therapists in Tenpony and if rumor has it a full on institution up in Hoofington somewhere.

For the safety of both yourself and possible loved ones, it would be wise to quickly admit oneself to one of the aforementioned locations as soon as possible.

Back in reality with the group, Cuppa had just asked Kestrel about Dash's voice. In all truth, she hadn't needed to ask really, even without being as on edge as he was right now Kestrel had managed to hear that sound. Still he gave a curt nod and growled out a quick "I'll get him" before he focused his senses, trying to find the source of the noise and then move towards it.

He'd heard Lightning calling out too, the kid could have been up before now if Dash hadn't...well dashed off. He was here now though, and that was good enough.

With Cuppa healing Kira up that would leave Kestrel alone with naught but a swiftly drawn blade as he moved towards the sound of the bucks voice; assuming he'd been able to locate it. Well...unless any of the others decided to follow him.

He was sure to keep his guard up this time as he prowled across the ground, looking for both the buck and any other form of danger his currently hyped senses could find. He didn't want Silver to go sneaking up on him again. Last thing he needed was a few more broken bones. Cuppa's spell had done its job well enough, but he'd need a bit more touching up before he started getting beaten down again.

Why oh why hadn't he just brought his Riot Gear with him instead of this suit of stealth armor...

(Drawing Vakara, moving towards Dash if I can locate the direction of his call. Defending with all remaining AP.)

Bakewell’s eyes widened as the door shut. She charged forward, attempting to get through before “Dash” could close it but only managing to slam her face against the exit for her trouble. Bakewell had a sudden realization of who this pegasus really was. No wonder the slaves had gotten free so quickly. No wonder they had given chase. But how was it even possible?

“No! I-I haven’t been! Let me out, Silver! Please!” She begged, pressing herself against the door, holding a hope that they could be reasonable for all of ten seconds before the marebuck started lecturing her in Dash’s form through the solid unshakable slab of her prison.

“Silver, No, please.” She begged. “Komodo was the only one I even touched. I didn’t want to, but I had to kill him.” She pleaded as the light disappeared and she suddenly realized exactly what was going on. “B-but I spared you and the others… I’m a good pony…” she whimpered, her heart plummeting within her chest. She didn’t want this. She didn’t want to die, especially didn’t want to starve to death. Oh, why had she even come on this stupid slaver hunt? What was she going to do with caps? Get a surprise for Scrap and make him happy? Wouldn’t he have preferred just have her by his side instead of slowly dying in some stupid slaver camp? She was so stupid. As if that wasn’t enough, Bakewell had gotten a quick, horrible followup thought. What if Silver dropped Dash’s appearance and took up the beige mare’s own? What if she went back to Stableton with the others and found out about Scrap. What if she took advantage of her spouse and did whatever horrible garbage she had done to Komodo to her little red maned unicorn? All while she was trapped down here, slowly dying alone. Nopony would even know that she was gone. Nopony would even miss her. The thoughts combined were enough to bring yet another batch of tears flowing from her eyes. She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want to be alone and unloved and forgotten. She wanted to go home. Stableton wasn’t perfect, but at least she could be happy there, if only for a short while. She longed to see those ramshackle pre-war buildings once more. Her heart tugged for her little one room storage closet of a home.

“No!” The earth pony desperately screamed at the top of her lungs, bashing against the door and attacking it with all of her might, Trying to bash it down while screaming a plea for help. Trying to make noise. Something, anything to bring attention to herself. Even if all her noise served to do was draw Silver back to taunt her it was better than being completely alone.

If the door revealed itself too sturdy for her to break she would lean against the door and slide hopelessly down it, take a few breathes to try and calm herself, and look around the room for something, anything, everything. What were the walls made of? The door? Were there any potions or talismans or anything like in this room, were they labeled? Bakewell would have to shut the lamp off before much longer; while she doubted that the desk could create a good seal it still would reduce the amount of oxygen getting into the room. Oxygen that she needed. Maybe if the door was flammable and the walls weren’t she could burn it down and escape?

Dash growled in frustration, he shuffled himself closer to the wall of the building. His back felt like he had crash landed on it. The feeling that he had just totally and utterly failed wasn't helping him, either. If he had been alone, he would be in the pens right now with a bomb around his neck. The closest thing he had to a best friend may have been killed by now. And all he could do was shuffle around like a newborn foal. Dash leaned himself against the wall of the shack and let a few tears drip from his eyes, "Lightning? Kes? Bakewell? Anypony?" Dash asked through his sniffles.

Lightning paused and looked over these slaves with...a confused look. Why were they angry? Who is Silver? What do they want with her? Where is the rest of their group? So many questions and not enough answers. He would slowly turn and run out the building, scanning his eyes over the group. Kira, Cuppa, and Kestrel were all here. But...where was Dash and Bakewell?! The pegasus noticed Kes with his weapon drawn and moving slowly. With no other places to turn to for now, Lightning kept his sword drawn and began to follow Kes, hoping that wherever his friends were, they'll be alright.

Cuppa and Kestrel and Lightning followed the noise of shouting, rounding the edge of the building to find a bound heap of black pegasus on the ground. He seemed mostly uninjured, except for a lot of tiny wounds on the underside of his barrel, and a large bump on the back of his head. There was no sign of who had tied him up.




Down under the building, Bake pummelled fruitlessly at the trapdoor. It seemed to be built quite ruggedly. Nopony seemed to hear her cries for help, or if they did, they didn’t respond.

Once she’d given up her assault on the door, she looked at other options. The walls seemed to be packed earth or stone; it would be hard, but she could start chipping her way through them. The door was thick wood bound with metal, but would probably require a very hot flame to burn through.

She descended the stairs to look around; at the bottom, lying on the floor, she found the thing Fake Dash had thrown at her: an empty healing potion vial.

Looking through the alchemical stuff she’d looted, most of it was unlabelled, and the few items that were seemed to be written in zebrican, much like Zestari’s alchemical items were. Still, some of the potions might contain something corrosive or flammable if Bakewell was willing to partake of a little practical experimentation.




Kira waited inside the room she’d woken up in, taking time to recover from the dash floating around in her mind. Suddenly, a grumpy figure entered the room from deeper in the cottage. Bakewell had returned, and for some reason the slaves seemed no longer interested in her.

“Seems you’re all awake, then,” she said, her shoulders slumping a bit. “Well, I guess you should rest and get better. I’m gonna head outside and get some air; it’s been a long day.”

Kestrel rumbled out a growl and moved forward towards the buck. Quickly, and with a rather frightening precision, Kestrel swung his blade and sliced the ropes holding Dash's limbs in place.

"The hell happened? Where's your gear?" the griffon asked, looking down at the stripped pony. He had his armor on...but all his gear was missing. Something, no somePONY must have taken it. The Slaves hadn't had any weapons on them, so who did that leave?

Silver? Some other new slaver?

Kestrel was not in the mood for games. He wanted an answer to his question now.

“Bakewell was growing more desperate by the second. She had to get out of here. She couldn’t let whatever Silver had done to Komodo happen to Scrap. She had promised him better than that. As potent as her need to prevent Silver getting to her family was, The mare was far more driven by a more selfish goal.

She didn’t want to die.

Starving to death, or more likely dying of dehydration, was one of the more horrible deaths she could think of naturally suffering. It was slow, lonely, painful and agonizing. She would leave the world alone with nopony to comfort her as she slowly faded from life or to bury her body once she had gone. The only thing worse would be dying with everypony she knew and loved actively hating her and wanting to see her gone, relishing in her pain and misery.

The door obviously wasn’t going to budge on its own, and whatever Silver had placed atop the hatch was heavy enough to keep Bakewell from breaking through to freedom. Burning the door with the lamp would likely cause more harm than good. And while she could surely start digging through the walls it would take forever to get out; so long that she would probably die first. It was a last resort effort to keep herself busy during her final hours more than it was an escape plan.

Unfortunately that was about it for escape plans. Bakewell picked up the empty potion vial, but it was more for the sake of doing something while she thought than anything else. The mare was so desperate that she was almost to the point of collecting as many pieces of junk as possible in the hopes that she could combine them in clever ways to ensure her escape.

There was only one other idea she could think of; the potions. She couldn’t read any of them, and wasn’t quite willing to guzzle them all down. What if one of them did something like make her immortal? She would still be trapped. But just for much much longer. This just wasn’t fair! Why her? Why like this?! Sure, she deserved it, but what about all the other ponies who had done much worse and gotten off scot free? What about the slavers she had just spared?

Her voice hoarse from screaming for help, Bakewell let out a cry of frustration as she grabbed a random potion and hurled it at the door. She had been through so much, “Why couldn’t I have just died in the stable? It would have been better than this!” She picked up another potion and hurled it after the first. “Why didn’t I just let Cream kill me?” Another potion. “Why didn’t I just end it myself in the Mohoofe?!” and another. “Why did I go through all of that, just to starve alone in a basement?!”

Kira looked tiredly up and Bake as she came into the room she was still in surrounded by the now what it looked like much calmer slaves now that they had said they would get back the one they desired. The earth pony mare looked a bit grumpy as she passed by to get some air, air that sounded nice.

"Hey Bakewell wait a minute I will join you, I need to get some air as well." The gryphoness rose from where she sat on shaky legs, taking dash and getting hit senseless in a short time really took a lot out of her, but fresh air would be nice.

Dash looked up quickly when he heard something come around the corner. To his surprise and relief it was Kestrel and Lightning! Dash's ears instantly perked up, "Lightning! Kestrel! Thank the Goddesses!" But his happiness was short-lived after Kestrel freed him but was evidently displeased with him. Like he had done something wrong. Kestrel being who he was in Dash's mind, he was instantly scared, "I-I uhh..." he stammered, but regained control over his voice, "I-I don't know. One minute I was about to enter the building and the next somepony was beating me with something and a windowframe. I just woke up, like... Like a minute ago!"

Dash took this chance to rub his wounds a bit. Although he was scared by Kestrel being angry, the laces where he had been hit were still quite painful. He felt blood roll down through his mane and was grateful that he at least didn't have a concussion, "Wh-why? What happened?" he asked worriedly.

"Komodo Died, Bakewell vanished. The slaves are apparently brainwashed or just stupid enough to believe that life as a slave isn't a fucking living hell." Kestrel said, still not sheathing his blade or making any moves. He wasn't upset with Dash specifically persay, but it would be foolish to say that he wasn't upset at something.

He continued talking a moment later, voice getting steadily colder and more intimidating by the second. His blade slowly coming around to glean towards Dash.

"They want Silver back, so they can go back to living in their little dream world. So now the job is now to find Bake, then Silver. Then we get our evidence, and leave this damn place. You'd have known that if you didn't run out the damn door with a health potion yo-" Kestrel stopped his insult half way through.

Wait, what the fuck? When Dash was back in the main room, he'd been fully equipped and moving around. He looked nothing like he did now. He'd been ordered to give a potion to Flash before bailing and leaving them all. And more importantly, he hadn't been tied up.

Looking down at the buck before him, that story didn't add up. Not. One. Bit.

"You say you just woke up here? Right now?" Kestrel asked, leaning down towards the stallion on the ground. "Where's the health potion you had? When did you say you passed out?"

Bakewell turned and looked at Kira. “That’s fine.” She stepped outside and smiled at Cuppa. “Guess we should look for a way to disarm the slaves bomb collars, unless our resident explosives expert thinks they can disarm them, hmm?”

“I’ll go and take a look in the two-storey building. Must be some way to disarm the collars here somewhere.” She started trotting off in the direction of the two-storey building.




Bakewell began throwing potions at the door, most just ending in a glassy heap, oozing their liquid contents onto the floor. One however, made a sizzling noise as it hit the door, almost like the sound of cram in a frying pan. Soon, a tiny speck of light shone through where the liquid was sizzling away. A few drops of the liquid dripped down and began forming a tiny, sizzling puddle on one of the uppermost steps.

Dash rubbed his head again to make sure he had heard the big griffon correctly. Now he was really freaked out because he didn't remember anything that the griffon mentioned, "What?" Dash said, raising an eyebrow, "A health potion?... I... No, I just woke up right here. The last thing I remember was getting knocked out while trying to get into that window over there. Somepony jumped me with a hoof weapon. It felt like power hooves... Then hit me with the window."

Dash was quite worried now that maybe he had been controlled. That maybe he had gone off and done something terrible. Could he maybe end up under the slaver's control again? After they re-arm him? Dash looked between the two, "I.. I might have been under somepony's control... Maybe you should... Tie me up again. In case I try to do something bad."

Cuppa had a worried look on her face as Dash didn't remember a thing about her giving him a health potion for Flash, and that all he remembered was being hit with a window. "Musta been some kinda Anti-Material Rifle, 'cept it was a Window Edition." She remarked before Bakewell stepped outside, seemingly having found her way to safety.

"Bake! Wha' happened? Last ah saw ya, ya were runnin' from th' slaves. Did ya manage t' talk 'em down?" Afterwards she registered what Bake had said. "Ah think either we all go, or we all stay 'ere an' recover a lil' bit first. We need t' find Dash's stuff too, an' we should go over th' rest o' this place, in case we've missed anythin'." Cuppa said, pausing as she thought. "An' we need t' find Silver. The slaves ain't doin' without her, by the looks o' things."

Kestrel narrowed his eyes, a low growl coming from him. Something was strange here, something was very very strange, and right now he was not in the mood to deal with such things.

"Get up." Kestrel said pulling his blade back and then frowning down at Dash. "You are of no use to us whimpering on the ground like a scared foal. Help us find Bakewell. She's probably in this building somewhere." the big black bird finished and then began moving towards the back of the building where the window that took out Dash was.

Kestrel wanted to get inside without causing a ruckus or going through the slaves, and a window seems like just what he needed to do so. If Dash and Flash were gonna follow him, so be it. If not? Well looks like he was going in solo again.

(Looking for a way into the building, preferably a window or whatever.)

Bakewell froze as the sizzling liquid began eating through the door. It must have been some sort of acid. The mare mentally congratulated herself for not drinking the strange mysterious potions that she had known nothing about simply because they had been sitting around. That sizzling door could have been her insides, which would have been… very bad. Very bad indeed.

Bakewell pressed herself against one of the walls as the acid continued to eat through the hatch blocking her from freedom. She didn’t want to be in the way of an angry piece of furniture once it broke through the weakening door and hopefully made its way down the stairs; Oh she hoped so, so much that it didn’t get stuck on the way down and serve as death sentence door number 2.0. She also hoped that the acid wouldn’t be hard to avoid once it was done dripping, the mare got the feeling that she didn’t really want her hoof to come into contact with this stuff.

She also made a mental note to learn how to read zebra after all of this was done, just in case getting trapped in an alchemy basement with only labeled potions to aid her became a re-occurring event.

Dash gritted his teeth as Kes ignored his thoughts about what may have happened and told him to get up. Although he could appreciate that he was being given the chance to fight once again, he was worried there was a hidden, 'If you do randomly go crazy, I'll kill you.' in there somewhere that terrified Dash to no end. Although that was a fear he always had. Ever since back in Harmony, when the incident with Blazen had made it abundantly clear that if a member of Kestrel's party wasn't worth their weight, they were as good as dead.

Along with those feelings was that Dash didn't like being called a foal.

The charcoal-coated Pegasus buck pushed himself up and dusted himself off with his wings, as he always did. He hesitated with asking for a weapon because he definitely wasn't worth his wight with naught but his hooves. But if something was capable of controlling him, hading him a gun might as well be his own death warrant. He forced himself to buck up and gave the best confident look he could, "I'll need a weapon."

Kira looked at Bake and Cuppa as she took a deep breath of the fresh air that really helped her head clear some more, and her hurting limbs did not hurt that much any longer. She let out a sigh happy to be out of the building and not have angry slaves breathing down her neck.

"You know I might be able to disarm them." The gryphoness said as she thought about it. Explosives collars was probably not that much different then disarming any other explosives, except it was around the neck of a living pony and if she did something wrong they all would explode...

"But just do be safe it might be good if you search for the detonator as well."

Just above Kestrel was the window that had been involved in knocking Dash out. It seemed pretty quiet within, too, so that seemed like the most straightforward option, both figuratively and literally.



Bakewell turned and looked at a couple of bored looking slaves, then gave Cuppa a slightly confused look, “That’s a good question. They just seemed to stop. Something weird’s going on there. Uh... Why are you wearing a slave collar?” she said, a look of either confusion or concern on her face, before turning to face Kira. “Good idea. You have a look at the collars while I look for the disarmy thing. That way, if I can’t find anything, we should still be able to free the slaves.”



Down in the basement, Bakewell was disappointed to see that the acid’s progress seemed to be petering out, the bubbling and hissing losing much of their ferocity. Nonetheless, there was now a hole perhaps the size of her hoof in the door, and through it she could see the underside of something wooden, presumably the heavy desk.

Other than that, the dripping liquid had also produced a small hole in one of the upper steps, and there were several glass fragments and a few unknown alchemical substances strewn around under the trapdoor. They weren’t fizzing or smoking or anything, at least.