Doku arrives at her laboratory still wearing the fitted light armor beneath her plum dress. Her modified parasol rests at her side, with the ammunition case and grappling set secured nearby.
The hospital attendant remains at the threshold, while the apprentices stay behind with the recovering miner and courtier. Doku’s preparation table waits beneath lamplight, cleared for poison work.
the hospital attendant
The quarantined stock is secured, Lady Nohara. Every tainted vial has been isolated, and no further patients have worsened.
Beneath the preparation table, a sealed black vessel pulses once. Violet runes flare across its surface, matching the alchemical signature that marked the contaminated draughts.
The pulse travels through the laboratory floor and answers something far away. Its rhythm resembles the preserved heartbeat within Lady Merrow’s silver-lined coffer, and each beat grows slightly stronger.
the hospital attendant
That vessel was not listed in the laboratory inventory. Its signal is reaching the palace, Lady Nohara, and the royal delay may be becoming dangerous.
The black vessel remains sealed, but fresh runes kindle around its lock while Doku’s empty workbench waits for the toxins intended for her parasol’s ammunition.
✓ Quest Accepted
Contain the black vessel's signal
“"Ugh we need better ways to contain this. Why do we use runes to contain these? I told every staff to stop using them and use more traditional sealing methods. I swear someone is going to get fired for this." I begin containing the black vessel.”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled +3)
Doku Nohara
Ugh, we need better ways to contain this. Why are we using runes? I ordered every staff member to stop and use traditional seals. Someone is going to be fired for this.
Doku clears the table and begins containment at once. She surrounds the black vessel with a ring of coarse salt, binds it in layered treated cloth, and fixes iron clasps over the wrapping, keeping her gloves clear of the violet runes.
the hospital attendant
Understood, Lady Nohara. I will identify whoever returned rune-work to the laboratory and remove the practice from every ward.
Doku presses heated sealing wax into the clasps, then marks it with the hospital’s plain healing stamp. The vessel’s pulse falters, its violet light withdrawing beneath the cloth and iron.
The traditional seal closes completely. The resonance no longer reaches the palace, and a faint gray residue collects inside the outer salt ring, revealing the vessel’s corruption is being shed rather than transmitted.
the hospital attendant
The signal has stopped, Lady Nohara. The residue is contained too. This method has isolated the source without disturbing the patients or Lady Merrow’s coffer.
Identify the source of the black vessel's corruption
Quest Complete
Contain the black vessel's signal