Backrooms and laboratories.

The other group having left, we decide to start heading to the butler's quarters. That means going through the mansion to get there and actually finding the damn place. The nobles had already long left through the large door while we rested, hurrying back to their own mansions I'm sure. The guards that were on the other side are slumped down, not breathing, just corpses, as I guess they always were? Zombie guard is pretty specific about what it means to be a zombie, their controller the only reason for being alive.

"Hey Keeks, do you mind if we end the stream? If it's a laboratory I think it's going to be a rough time for me mentally and I don't want the world to see that, maybe I can just take some video and edit it for later or something moo?"

She thinks for a moment before turning the camera to her "Hey you fucks we ending stream its been a fucked blast but were going to get kinky in a torture dungeon, maybe I'll let you all in on it later! I'll send you over to lord Squidington for all you lovers of tentacle porn and RPing nyehehehe"

< Chat Disconnected >

< Raiding Channel 'Lord Squidington' - Current Title - Consider the following 'eggs' - >

< Stream Ended >

"Thanks, it means a lot, I'll throw up a video call so that Zelia can watch us down there, I could use the support"

<Calling Zelawoo>

< Call Accepted >

A beautiful blue and white wolf girl with horn-rimmed glasses appears and I change the call into a 3 way video call. I move the call behind us so that she can see what we are doing.

"Hi~ I have to be quiet since I'm in the library but unholy hell what a fight! All the blood and guts and flesh, omg the flesh! The graphical fidelity of this game makes me want to go into overdrive for more research! Why do I have to be stuck here and not in Utor? I could spend days in that horrifying place, with company of course, I think I would die in there alone from terror heh wan!"

A shhh comes from nearby and she flinches, Keeks starts laughing, should never take her to a library, might fight an old lady, authority is authority even if they are 80.

"Heya wolfi girl~ good to put the name to a face! Moo girl was right your pretty as fuck! Not in the crush my head kinda way but still, I would like to turn that white fur red! Nyehe" Zel looks at me blushing a bit, I cough and slap Keeks across the back of the head, sending her flying a bit, opps, my strength is a lot higher now, I've got to be more careful not to break her… not that she wouldn't mind. I pick up a smiling Gnoll from the ground and they give me the thumbs up, damn one day a smack to the head might fix her.

"Hey Zel love, keen for a visit to the spooky laboratory? Cause I sure as fuck ain't moo!" We banter a little bit more before heading out past the large doors. A personal stream just for Zel in the background, she gets to enjoy being close to us without even being there. Her whispers of excitement growing, exclaiming at things constantly in the mansion.

Upon passing around the corner outside of the ballroom beyond its view, a familiar maid is slumped against the wall looking dazed. "Oh it's you… I'm so glad you're alive…" Tears start rolling down her furred face, she looks shocked at everything, "The memories, I don't want to know these things, oh my poor baby Anastasia, what did they do to you… what did I let them do to you wan…" She was in shock, she must have been drugged to forget so many things. Now that he was dead her memories were returning? It's not some drug that I know of but maybe it's a power of theirs, I mean everything that they did was not human, this place has magic so maybe they created a seal on their memories that broke, easier than drugging a person over the years, unless they enjoyed it, which… very possible. Mr big crazy scientist is very much the kind of person to enjoy it, like against the Duke.

"Hey Natasha wasnt it?... You're going to be okay, they are dead, Anastasia is gone, put to rest, you're free to go, leave this place Natasha moo…" She nods her head slowly looking me deep in the eyes. Brushes the tears away and stands up, I lend her a hand, as she pushes off against the wall into my chest, I give her a small hug and let her go, she runs off, her feet pattering down the corridor, hopefully to a better life.

"Hey… could you have asked where the butler's room was, wan?" Keeks and I look at each other in shock, oh!! goddamnit!

…

Half an hour later we finally find a door with the butler's name on it, carved and curved delicately on a plaque on its front.

"Fucking shitty ass mansion! Who built this fucking thing nyaaa!" The endless corridors are made so much worse by how empty they are. Desolate and never ending, makes it feel like we were trapped in the backrooms, that old tale of people falling through the cracks of the world into some messed up place of constantly repeating rooms.

"I bet if we went through the smaller door in the ballroom we would get to this side of the mansion wan…" I smash my face through the butler's door ruining his nice plaque. We really need to get all together, need that extra puppy braincell so we dont keep making fools out ourselves. "Well… we're here now! Too late to make more fools of ourselves… right moo?" I'm sure I have the rest of my life for making a continuous fool of myself.

"Fools for life! Nye!!" Keeks puts up her hand for a five high, I reluctantly slap it back to her utmost happiness.

"Alright my minions of doom we are looking for a trigger to open to our secret hideout wan!" I shake my head, adorable, thankfully we have our evil mastermind to guide us.

We start touching things around the room, the classics, the books, paintings, ahhh of course, The o'lll candlestick! Being pushed to the side a hatch opens in the floor with a ladder leading down into the darkness.

"Hey Keeks, I uhh will need you to hold my hand when I get down there, I have some possible bad trauma that I'm going to have to deal with and I can't do it alone moo…"

"Oh phew! I fucking hate scary things, I was gonna ask to be planted between those titties but hand holding works too nyehe" She moves towards the ladder and goes down it, winking at me as she descends.

I follow down after her and feel something squish into my butt, a muffled scream between my cheeks quickly turning into happy sounds instead, scaring me I slip down the ladder nearly falling over, just missing Keek's now prone body, I hold myself against the wall to catch my balance. Shink.

< Spear Trap deals 44 piercing damage after Armor reductions >

"AAAAAAAA really!? Fucking spear trap… I should have known, it's how Margrette died moo…" I smash through the middle of the spear and pull it roughly out of my chest, we've got to be more careful, and that means keeping Keeks out of my ass.

She's still lying on the ground in a heavenly state, muttering about cow girl farm or something, there are small whines coming from the video call, first of jealousy of being squished and then of worry from me being impaled, not that Keeks hasn't even noticed in her daze.

"Keeks! I got fucking stabbed! Get up, I'm going to need your eyes and your hand so I don't get fucking stabbed again moo!!" She finally realises somethings happened and is shocked, I dont think my ass is that good, fuck.

"Oh… so there was traps?! Huh crazy! Maybe you should wait for me to use trap detection next time nyehehe" AAAAAAAAAA I'm so close to throwing myself against another wall, end it with a quick stab through the head, if I get lucky enough with another trap.

I pull her up and motion for her to activate her trap sense, we step carefully forwards eventually finding a button on the wall.. "Pleasepleaseplease be a light moo~" A glow from the ceiling starts up all the way down the long corridor, 4 rooms lining it ending in a much larger room, finally some good news!

There were no labels on the rooms, which makes sense since it was a one man show, the entire thing is carved from stone, I can only guess how long it all took, expanding over time, what kind of potions they had to take to actually go through it all.

The first room on the left seemed to have been a storage room, we go through the shelves and find a few vials. Analysis doesn't show anything promising. The room across the way is another storage room, this one has a cold storage container, a fridge lying on the ground. It has lots of slots for potions, only a few are left.

< Hunger Potion > x 2

< Flesh Growth Potion >

< Herculean Strength Potion > x 2

< Mixed Recovery Potion > x 2

< Regrow Limbs Potion > x 2

< Activated Analysis Level 2 >

< Hunger Potion > x 2

'Gives the drinker insatiable hunger for 24 hours, the more they eat the more their body grows in size, additional stats are gained depending on what's eaten, if nothing is eaten for over an hour in the 24 hour time frame they will lose the ability to discern people from food and gain the 'overpowered hunger' state'

< Flesh Growth Potion >

'The drinker will grow flesh from their bodies in random ways, it's impossible to control, can be a detriment or a benefit depending on chance'

< Unstable Herculean Strength Potion > x 2

'Strength increases by 10 for an hour, unstable potion, may have unintended side effects'

< Mixed Recovery Potion > x 2

Recover health, mana and stamina by 100.

< Regrow Limbs Potion > x 2

Drinkers Body parts will regrow for the next 10 minutes.

I read out what each potion does, Zelia starts to speak about what she thinks it's all about and I quickly stop her, "I think I know, and if I say it out loud I think i'm going to vomit, so, lets hold this one in moo…"

We move to the next room which seems to have a desk, chair and some bookshelves. There are some charts on the walls that I don't understand but prompts a mnnn from Zelia. A worrying noise instead of a 'oh boy that's neat' noise so I don't look too deeply at them.

On the desk are some potion formulas which I scoop up as well as a book which looks to be handwritten. On the outside in bold handwritten words is, 'Alternate Alchemy for the Aspiring Mad Scientist', the inside cover reads 'for my dearest Anastasia', in a fucked up sense he cared about her, which makes this all the more horrifying.

< Mixed recovery potion formula >

'A formula to help in the making of the mixed recovery potion'

< Unstable Herculean strength potion formula >

'An incomplete formula with side effects, maybe one day it can be perfected'

< Flesh growth potion formula >

'Formula for the flesh growth potion, can have negative or positive side effects, how lucky do you feel?'

< Alternate Alchemy for the aspiring mad scientist by Edgar Malsted >

'A hand written alchemy textbook that teaches the basics in a not so conventional way, this would be banned by most alchemists as the guild restricts teaching without a mentor'

Zel starts flapping her hands in excitement "Oh oohh! I need that!! Perfect for witchery! Now where do I get a big cauldron wan…" Well that was an easy find, hopefully she gets some more… conventional potions out of it, although the mixed recovery potion is amazing!

I look at Keeks for permission, oh… she's just quaffed a potion, I snatch it out of her hand and see the scribbled name on the front, 'flesh growth formula'.

"I might get another hand!!! Could you imagine!! 3 guns!! Nyahah '' She promptly feels her ears growing a bit outwards, becoming more floppy, she's looking up and down her body for that extra hand she so desperately wants.

"Uhh it just gave you cuter floppier ears moo…" She feels them with her hands, she shugs and checks her ass, grins and shows me her tail, it has now poofed up even more, maybe should rename it cuteness enhancing potions, though I can bet she got lucky, doesn't seem like the kind of place that aims for cuteness.

"Alright give me the rest of them moo!", she looks ready to quaff another, can't be trusted, like a cat ready to push things off the shelf. Never put something breakable in front of Keeks, or food of unknown origin.

Having cleared out the room, there is one more room in the corridor. I can feel the cold coming from it and soon find out why, walking in nearly vomit. Even without the bodies I can tell there used to be some in here, how could you have your desk just next to this room.

The diagrams on the walls are much more clear this time to my dismay, they show the optimal places to cut, using people as meat factories, the potions all falling into place in my brain, the way Zel would have helped doing it, I wish my brain could rip it out. Where's a memory wiping potion when you need it.

Keeks see's some books that have value with a quick scan of investigate and bring them out of the room, observation diaries, biology books of those that were taken apart, cook books… fuck nope.

Finally we get to the last room, it's very possibly the worst, just in different ways…