Combined Forces #2

The Students of Life and Death and the Wild Bunch entered into the Effervescent bath house to find members of the Saffron Society had been slaughtered, their bodies being strung up, drained of blood, and marked with a Q

They fought their way through Sahaguin and Kou-Toa seemingly involved in religious rituals to a chamber in which resided a being with actual divine power, calling herself a goddess

• While the group doubted her claim to divinity, she was able to command devotion from certain members of the group, until Gore beheaded her

Upon doing so, Gore grabbed a silver artifact from her chest, which had become fused with her flesh, and found himself overcome with the promise of power the item gave to him

• Though others tried to remove it from his grasp, Gore eventually ran off to the boats, the artifact clutched to his chest

During the exploration of the bath house, the groups were also able to free Zook, Val's brother, from the Sahaguin before he joined those being sacrificed to the goddess in the bath waters