Thank you so much! Al will likely just revisit the spots of known disappearances where Gideon was taken from as well as the place in the desert that he explored earlier with Hilda and Petra, rather than deal with the bandits again, as he can easily figure out that information! He's not excited about this smell at all.

He'll absolutely use the ore to contain the samples, and otherwise rely on Quilleth to pass the samples along (save for the one he will be keeping to haul over to Solvunn.)