You enter the alchemy room, and look at the lab. You see a maze of retorts, discarded mortars and pestles, and an alembic attached to a tap. Around the equipment, you see several items that you can only assume are alchemical ingredients. This includes things like newt livers, human hearts, some kind of leaves, a greenish powder, and a large, intricately painted malachite. On closer investigation, you notice that the center of the malachite is hollow, with the hole being shaped, and somehow painted like, the engraving you found earlier. There are also several tiny etchings on it. It seems somehow familiar.
You take your halberd out of your pack and begin giving it a few swings. You find that you can assume three stances: Stabbing, slashing, and defense. Stabbing gives you +2 to hit and +1 to damage, slashing gives you +1 to damage, and defense gives you +1 to armor. Weapons with three or more stances are special in that you can only switch to stances that are next to your current one. For example, you would have to use an action to go from stabbing to defense. Otherwise, you could only manage slashing stance. Likewise, you can't go from defense to stabbing without using your action. Content with your practice, you put the halberd back and equip your katana again.
You then here a conversation coming from the north.
"We've made great breakthroughs so far. The poison is truly effective, and can take down even a Marmukin in but an hour. Plus, only 12 of our alchemists have died from the fumes this week!"
HP: 6/7
MP: 15/15
Equipped Armor: Leather Breastplate
Equipped Weapon: Katana (1d8 damage)
Armor: 10+2 equipment
Stances: Aggressive (+1 damage, -1 armor) Stealth (+1 sneak attack damage, -1 normal damage)
Sneak Charge: Confuses target. Cooling down (1). 5 MP