Black flies feasted on his uncovered skin, the sensation of a hundred pin pricks stabbing into him. Shifting between consciousness and the darkest black, he crawled for an escape, fingers sinking into rotting flesh. His body was thrown into the grave and left for dead. He knew he couldn't defend himself against the anger and accusations of his abductor-all he could do was curl up as the blows from the steel pipe rained down. Unbeknownst to Talbot, his productivity-increasing drug had killed nearly an entire factory's worth of workers. When his blindfold was removed, a sickly man showed him a mass grave filled with hundreds of bodies. The realisation struck him quite literally-with a steel pipe to the back of his head during a trip to Mangalore. Though his callous brilliance seemed unflappable, he was ignorant to the enemies his questionable work had amassed. There were no official reports on the subject, and Talbot refused to blame himself for what could only be exaggerated war stories. In feral states, they massacred villages, impaling the populace on bayonets, leaving them hanging from trees. Though most side effects were minor, there were rumours that a small number of soldiers went mad. There, off the coast of India, prisoners from the Opium War became his unwilling subjects, leading to a drug that allowed soldiers to withstand incredible amounts of pain. He was rewarded with a secret laboratory beneath a prison camp on Dyer Island. In time, he completed one of his greatest achievements: a chemical that could increase a worker's productivity while reducing their need for rest. His willingness to push the limits secured him a position with the British East India Company, and within seven years he was made head chemist. He attended the London School of Medicine and excelled despite several reprimands. Into his adult years, his ambition developed as quickly as his questionable methods.
There was something magical in how a single flower could so drastically affect him. When he recovered, it wasn't fear that gripped him, but fascination. For days, he laid in bed dripping with sweat, purging any food that touched his stomach.
What began as a child's curiosity nearly turned deadly after experimenting with a patch of poisonous foxglove. As a boy, he was a popular child-bright, charismatic, and unafraid to challenge authority-yet despite his social graces he was fiercely independent, spending much of his time exploring the sprawling fields near his town alone. This was the credo of Talbot Grimes, a Scottish chemist whose unrestrained ambition took him to towering heights. To understand the human condition, one must rise above it. Additional Lore can be found in Tome I - Awakening: The Hunger and Tome V - Unleashed: Doors Unknown.
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