This was the first time I got to write the flash-forward that begins the chapter, and I wanted to pick a less direct sort of challenge, something that would contrast with the pirate-fighting main story and the sort of fighting I figured was going to be most common in our heroes’ future. PvE, not PvP.

Amusing as it was, Syr’Nj’s bit at the end here once again shows her as a fussy intellectual being pretty much useless, after she failed to save her first patient on the battlefield in Chapter 1 and spent most of Chapter 2 chasing a gnome over a hat and failing to catch her even with chemical assistance. She’d at least demonstrated some value in the earlier flash-forwards, but even then it was with qualifiers (she jury-rigged a solution that ended up exploding, she neutralized some chemicals but took too long to do it). And sure, she does show some math power earlier on this page that gives this scene its ticking clock. But even so, I feel like we were one or two comical “fails” away from turning her into Brainy Smurf. More on this in a day or two.