Ladle Over Blade

SOURCE

airmusic

GENRE

Adventure/Action

ARC

The Chapter 3 Death Tray

ANCHOR

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DIRECTIVES

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ROLES

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MYSTERY

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The smell hits first. Sulfur, old copper, something botanical gone wrong. Eyes snap open — not the ones that closed over a military bunk last night. Unfamiliar hands grip a clay bowl of something that could dissolve steel. A soot-blackened ceiling stretches overhead, decades of toxic fumes baked into every crack. The novel. Liy Co was reading it between mess-hall shifts. Chapter 3 — the throwaway scene where a nameless kitchen servant mixed Jade Scorpion Extract with Black Lotus Root and choked on his own dissolving lungs. Three paragraphs. No name given. That servant is Liy Co now. That death arrives in about two days. The ingredient vault stands open — iron shelves of lacquered boxes, sealed jars, glass vials vanishing into shadow. Four years of pharmacy school identify six lethal interactions within arm's reach. A sharp voice cuts through steam. "Servant. The Clan Head's tray was due a quarter-hour ago. They'll pin it on you, not me." The overseer taps his foot. On the counter sits the half-assembled tray — Jade Scorpion Extract stoppered in a vial, Black Lotus Root peeled and sectioned. The exact compounds from the death scene. But a pharmacist sees what nobody here ever could. These two plus common ginger root at sustained heat don't produce toxic gas. They produce a chelation agent — one that strips years of poison deposits from damaged meridians. The Clan Head hasn't kept food down without pain in eight months. The ingredients meant to kill might cure him. "Are you deaf? Move!"

The Overseer's discipline rod slaps against his palm, a rhythmic threat in the stifling heat of the kitchen. The tray sits before you, a literal death sentence waiting to be assembled. [INFO] Day 1 | Venmere Kitchen Kitchen: Standard stock / 0 patients / Clan Head tray overdue Threat: Chapter 3 death event ~2 days Intel: Death compounds identified; chelation route possible Shifts: Overseer — hostile, considers servant disposable You have seconds to alter the recipe before the Overseer forces you to serve a lethal dose, or worse, inhale the fumes yourself. The ginger root sits on a cutting board a few feet away.