Turn around and try to identify what is chasing us.
Oh sap.
No time to do anything else. You spin round, and confront it.
It's not a giant fish. Or an animated skeleton, or another Cobble mechanical monstrosity. In fact, it probably won't even try to kill you.
You are well and truly
sapped. It's a sapping
Alchemical Exorcist.The alchemical bureaucracy send in these crazy, fearless spellcasters when they don't know what else to do. The sort of people who decided that bookhunting in an
ordinary underwater catacomb chased by putrid beasts was too boring a life. If you can see an Alchemical Excorcist, you know you're in a pretty damn bad place. They're often sent as scouts, and have a startlingly high mortality rate, partially due to their obsession with "fixing" any problem they're sent to observe.
You triple check. Yup, distinctive leather armour -and bell-staff, book shield and six-shot charm candle. They even have the oak tree transforming into snakes beneath a book symbol emblazoned on their trench coat, symbolising both the importance and danger of the written word.
"So are you going to keep running away from me and get yourself eaten, boy?"
The figure leans forward,their hood and veil still hiding their face.
"Or are you going to help me kill this damn thing?"