Doing the Dirty Work

Map quest, level 29. 182nd of 194 in play order.

Quest giver: Marcette, Central Shroud (X 16.6, Y 18.6).

Next: Beneath the Planks ›

Steps

Use Marcette's medicine and kill a halitostroper.
Deliver the stomach to Marcette.

Journal

Marcette would keep your nose to the grindstone.
Marcette requires a freshly extracted stroper stomach for her latest experiment. Use the medicine she has provided you with to neutralize its foul breath, then slay the creature and extract its innards.
You have obtained the putrid stomach of a stroper. Deliver the foul mess to Marcette before you pass out from the unbearable stench.
Never have you seen anyone so happy to receive a putrid pile of innards. Marcette is once again tremendously pleased with herself, and─from the fact that she remembered your number─might even genuinely appreciate your efforts this time.

Hidden

Easter egg The halitostroper's name mixes 'halitosis', the medical word for bad breath, with 'stroper'. Fitting for a beast whose breath can knock out a man.

In-game text Marcette

calls her cure 'Breath-Be-Gone', but the item text says it is a random mix of ingredients thinned with stagnant water.

Title reference 'Dirty work' means unpleasant tasks that someone would rather not do. Here it is also literal: you fetch a stinking stroper stomach for Marcette

Characters 2

Marcette
Marcette needs a fresh stomach from a stroper, a beast with foul breath, for her latest experiment.
What you know from earlier quests 3
- #179 Fungal Frolic: Marcette is very proud and bossy, and treats you as one of her assistants. She orders five toadstool caps, finds their spores much denser than before the Calamity (a past disaster), and laughs at her discovery. Then she asks who you are.
- #180 Shocking Discoveries: Marcette names you Research Assistant Six and gives you a jar. She loves the spark and threatens to shock lazy assistants with it. She plans to shock toadstools to make them multiply fast. She forgets your number and sends you away.
- #181 In Too Deep: Hobriaut calls Marcette a fiend and a monster. She sent him for three hundred hornet stingers, then straight off to survey the water at Hopeseed Pond. She calls her helpers by numbers, not names.
Hobriaut
What you know from earlier quests 1
- #181 In Too Deep: Hobriaut fears he might fall into the pond and drown, so you take the water survey at Hopeseed Pond for him. He thanks you, but dreads Marcette's next tasks and fears for his life.

What happens in this quest spoilers for this quest

Marcette gives you her Breath-Be-Gone medicine and asks you not to die, since funerals eat her budget. She finds that poisonous toadstools changed the stroper's diet and cause its stink. She even remembers you as Research Assistant Six.

Dialogue 9 lines

Accepting the quest

Marcette

Research Assistant Eight Hundred Seventy-three! You're late!

FR Ah, assistant(e) numéro neuf ! ‘Ah, assistant number nine! You're late!’ English calls you Research Assistant Eight Hundred Seventy-three; French calls you assistant number nine.
DE Wir haben noch vieles vor, meine neunte Assistentin/mein neunter Assistent. ‘We still have a lot to do, my ninth assistant.’ English calls you Research Assistant Eight Hundred Seventy-three; German calls you her ninth assistant.
JA さあ、次なる研究よ、第九助手！ ‘Now, on to the next research, Ninth Assistant!’ English calls you Research Assistant Eight Hundred Seventy-three; Japanese calls you Ninth Assistant.

//: kill stroper, get stroper stomach

Marcette

I am conducting an experiment of the utmost importance to determine the source of the distinctive stink of a stroper's breath, and require one freshly extracted stroper stomach.

The stench is said to be strong enough to knock out a man, so I shall provide you with a bottle of Marcette's Breath-Be-Gone. I know not what you've been eating lately, but you may want to take a dose of it yourself.

DE Er wird dich ins Grab bringen, noch bevor du überhaupt die ersten Anzeichen von Übelkeit verspürst. ‘It will put you in your grave before you even feel the first signs of nausea.’ English says the stench can knock a man out; German says the breath will kill you.
JA ああそうだ、そのまま突っ込むと、貴女/貴方死ぬわよ。 ‘Oh, that's right, if you charge straight in, you'll die.’ English says the stench can knock a man out; Japanese says charging in will kill you.

Oh, and do try not to get killed, will you? Funeral rites for incompetent assistants are eating away an inordinate share of my research budget these days.

DE Ich habe schließlich Besseres zu tun, als deinen stinkenden Leichnam aus einem der Tümpel da hinten zu ziehen ... ‘After all, I have better things to do than pull your stinking corpse out of one of the pools back there...’ English jokes assistants' funerals eat her research budget; German says she has better things to do than fish out your corpse.

Deliver the stomach to Marcette.

Marcette

Assistant Whatever-your-number-was! I haven't all week! You'd best have the stroper stomach I requested, or I do believe I shall use your own innards as a substitute!

DE Dann nichts wie her damit und aufgeschnitten! ‘Then hand it over and let's cut it open!’ English threatens to use your innards instead; German just eagerly wants it handed over and cut open.
JA とにかく、さっそく解体するわよ！ ‘Anyway, let's dissect it right away!’ English threatens to use your innards instead; Japanese just eagerly wants to dissect it.

Yes, yes─just hand it over, will you? And the dissection reveals...

...Exactly as I surmised! With the proliferation of poisonous toadstools in the years since the Calamity, the stroper's diet has undergone a dramatic change. The reaction of the toadstools with the stroper's stomach acids results in the noxious gases emitted from the mouth of the foul beast!

And with that groundbreaking discovery, I believe I owe my prodigious mind a well-deserved respite. You, on the other hand, Research Assistant Six, have earned nothing of the sort! Get out there and hone your skills, that you might actually make yourself half-useful the next time I call upon you.

FR Lorsque j'aurai choisi mon prochain sujet de recherche, je ferai encore appel à vous, assistant(e) numéro quarante-deux ! ‘When I have chosen my next research subject, I will call on you again, assistant number forty-two!’ English calls you Research Assistant Six; French calls you assistant number forty-two.
DE Du warst ja doch eine ganz brauchbare Hilfe, meine zwölfte Assistentin/mein zwölfter Assistent. ‘You were quite a useful help after all, my twelfth assistant.’ English calls you Research Assistant Six; German calls you her twelfth assistant.
DE Du warst ja doch eine ganz brauchbare Hilfe, meine zwölfte Assistentin/mein zwölfter Assistent. ‘You were quite a useful help after all, my twelfth assistant.’ English says you have earned no rest and are barely useful; German says you were quite useful after all.
JA いろいろ助かったわよ、第四十二助手！ ‘You were a great help in many ways, Forty-second Assistant!’ English calls you Research Assistant Six; Japanese calls you Forty-second Assistant.
JA いろいろ助かったわよ、第四十二助手！ ‘You were a great help in many ways, Forty-second Assistant!’ English says you have earned no rest and are barely useful; Japanese thanks you for your help.