Inheriting her secretive grandfather's research on the Art of Alchemy, Taylor Hebert must progress upon the Magnum Opus and achieve the Philosopher's Stone, all the while exploring what it means to be an alchemist and what it means to be a hero.
The Philosopher Queen; A Worm Alchemy Epic [Worm/Potion Craft]
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Chapter 1: Inheritance
ninjastar
(Verified Taoist Immortal)
- Location
- Your mom's house
'You couldn't pick a more atmospheric setting for a funeral if you tried' thought fourteen-year-old Taylor Hebert. Above her head the black New England sky trembled and shook, thick black clouds swirling above her head and pouring down rain.
Despite the mournful atmosphere around her, Taylor did not feel all that sad. The most she could muster was some dull shock and slight melancholy. It wasn't at all like the sharp grip of anguish she had felt at her mother's funeral.
Perhaps it was because she hadn't been close with her estranged grandfather. He never approved his daughter, a young professor with a bright career, marrying a down-on-his-luck union labourer named Daniel Hebert and would rarely ever interact with Taylor or her family, aside from the occasional gift card on Christmas. Ironically enough, the last time she had seen the old man was at her mother's funeral.
A dozen feet ahead a black cassock-clad pastor addressed the funeral crowd loudly quoting biblical verses as he gave the eulogy. Taylor's grandfather had been a devout Lutheran, unlike Taylor's mother who had been a staunch atheist. Another point of contention between the two that had ultimately led to their estrangement.
Taylor herself... well, she wasn't sure. Religion had never been a big thing in her life growing up. She wasn't quite certain there wasn't a God but had always felt the idea that there was some unseen, omnipotent being overseeing the whole world to be pretty silly. It would probably be best to describe her as a Non-believer or an agnostic, rather than an atheist.
'But... Parahumans do exist,' Taylor's mind reminded her. 'And despite the many theories, no one really knows where they came from. Is it that much of a stretch to think that God, Angels, Demons and the like could also exist?
Well... even if a God does it exist, given the state of our world, it's probably not a particularly merciful or loving one.'
Exhaling slightly, Taylor decided to say a prayer in her head... Just in case.
'God... if you do exist, I guess... I pray that... that my grandfather ends up in a better place... .'
Turning her head up, Taylor she noticed people around her beginning to stand up. It seemed that the funeral was at its end. Next to her, her dad stood up, tapping her shoulder.
"Time to go," he said curtly.
---
Taylor sat upon a soft leather chair, staring at the man in front of her. Behind a luxurious mahogany desk sat a young man sharply dressed in a black suit, her grandfather's lawyer, Taylor had been informed. He wore a pleasant, businesslike smile. She had been called here to discuss her 'portion' of her grandfather's estate, though she had no idea what it would be. She couldn't imagine the old man would have left her much, given his disdain for her branch of his family.
"Nice to meet you, Miss Hebert," the Lawyer began. "You can call me Mister Fitzgerald. I'm very sorry for your loss."
'I'm sure,' Taylor thought, mentally rolling her eyes.
The lawyer reached forward, offering Taylor his open palm. Taylor nodded, reaching forward hesitantly to shake the man's hand.
"Um... Nice to meet you too," she replied. "And thanks for the condolences... So, I suppose we should get to business, then?"
"Yes, of course, Miss Hebert," Mister Fitzgerald replied. "Now, according to his last will and testament, your grandfather decided to leave you a sizable plot of land and the vacation house located within it, a building called Westport Place-"
"A House? Really?" Taylor blurted out, very surprised. "I barely knew my grandfather at all, why would he leave me anything? Let alone an entire house?"
"I'm sure he had his reasons," Mister Fitzgerald smiled, before continuing. "But that is what his will indicates he wished for you to receive."
At that, Mister Fitzgerald paused, reaching under his desk to grab something. He pulled out a small wooden box. Opening it, the man retrieved a large keychain. It looked exactly like the type you would see in a movie set in the victorian age, a large silver hoop with a handful of long, stylized metal keys hooked on it.
"These are the keys to the house proper as well as other locks on the property," Mister Fitzgerlad said, placing the keychain in front of Taylor, who gingerly picked it up and deposited it in her pocket.
"However, your grandfather did leave some conditions for you to receive full control of your inheritance," the Lawyer suddenly added. "If you fail to meet these conditions before the age of eighteen, you will not maintain ownership of the property,"
"Oh..." Taylor responded, still slightly shocked. "What are these conditions?"
"There are four. First, the beneficiary, that's you, must attend and graduate from high school. Second, none of the books or journals within the property are to be taken out of the property or allowed to be read by anyone but the beneficiary. Thirdly, the part of the property marked as the workstation must not be entered by anyone but the beneficiary. Fourthly, the beneficiary must not sell the property."
Hearing the conditions, Taylor raised her eyebrows. What exactly was in the books at Westport Place that her grandfather didn't want her to tell people? Something embarrassing? Maybe even something incriminating? If there was something like that, why would he give it to her of all people? And what was in his workstation that he didn't want people to see? Did he...sell drugs or something? Taylor could scarcely imagine the severely religious man involved in something so shady, buts drugs were powerful, often able of taking over even those one would never expect.
"Is it... normal for conditions like these to be applied to an inheritance?" Taylor asked hesitantly. "This does sound a bit suspicious..."
"it's not uncommon," Mister Fitzgerald said. "Plenty of people leave conditions like these because they want their estate to be managed a certain way even after death. Don't worry about it, your grandfather was an upstanding citizen and I highly doubt there is anything to be worried about in the house."
"I see..." Taylor eventually replied, narrowing her eyes and not feeling comforted at all. "So, what do I have to sign?"
"Nothing." Mr. Fitzgerald answered. "The paperwork will be taken care of by me and your legal guardian, that is to say, your father. All you have to worry about is what you're going to do with your new land."
"Have a nice day, Miss Hebert."
Taylor nodded, standing up and leaving the lawyer's office.
---
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Groggily, Taylor rubbed her eyes. Turning over, she smacked the snooze button on her alarm. She lay still, groaning slightly.
'Is it morning already? Jeez...' Taylor complained.
After another minute of luxuriating in the warmth of her blankets, the girl rolled out of bed. Normally she wouldn't have gotten out of bed this early on a Sunday, but Taylor had business to attend to.
After freshening up and changing into her day clothes, dull grey sweatpants and a black turtleneck, Taylor put on her glasses. She opened the rickety door of her bedroom, walking down the creaky stairs of her home.
Arriving in the kitchen, Taylor noticed a note from her father taped to the fridge.
Sorry Taylor, emergency at work, I'll be out today.
Rolling her eyes, Taylor tossed the hastily scribbled note into the blue recycling box kept under the sink. Then Taylor prepared a quick breakfast, consisting of a bowl of cereal and two toasted slices of bread. Upon finishing her food, she tossed on a hoodie. Fishing through the hoddie's pockets, she pulled out the silver metallic keychain from her pocket.
The idea was still a bit surreal to Taylor, but she now apparently owned a house. Today she would bus over and look around the place. Taylor pushed open the front door of her house, stepping out into the salty breeze of Brockton Bay. She closed and locked the door before jogging over to the nearest bus stop.
After a short wait, Taylor stepped onto the bus. It was mostly empty so she took a seat by the door. After about thirty minutes, the Bus came to a stop.
Westport House was located well outside the urban center of the bay, situated in the far more rural and sparsely populated outskirts. An old amendment directly added to the city charter back in the day prevented the city government from developing in the area and the stagnant, downtrodden cities' slowly shrinking population didn't need more space anyway. Hell, half the building in the Docks portion of the city were entirely abandoned.
As a result, the houses in the area retained the original, vaguely gothic architecture and rural openness that had disappeared from most of the old colonial port cities of the American east coast.
After another thirty minutes of walking across sparsely wooded grassland, along a rapidly thinning dirt track, Taylor reached her destination. A thick metal fence stretched out before her, the black bent wire gate proudly looming above her. Ivory vines twined around the fence posts and the thick grass and tall weeds spoke to the seeming abandonment of the house.
Taylor pulled out the keychain, stepping towards the metal fence gate and inspecting the lock. She pressed the first key into the keyhole, feeling it jam, then the second, and it similarly failed. The third key however slid in smoothly and with a little grunt Taylor forcefully turned the stagnant lock.
Then, Taylor turned to look up at the house proper. It was far larger and nicer than her family's home, a fact that left her feeling oddly uncomfortable. Tall white pillars held up the overhanging roof and the brass inlaid in the brown painted front doors gleamed slightly in the morning sun. However, besides the overgrown garden, the house was not in a state of disappearance, with white painted walls and shiny frosted glass windows still clean of dirt or moss.
Taylor slowly walked towards the front door, once more testing the keys on the keychain. This time it only took two tries and the lock clicked open. Pressing the door open, Taylor stepped into the house. It was a lot cleaner than she had expected. Perhaps her grandfather had been over not that long ago? Turning her head, she noticed a small light switch. Flicking it up, the entrance of Westport lit up, illuminated by an overhanging chandelier.
Within the entrance room, there was a closest to the side and an ornate wooden shoe rack. A staircase at the end of the room led upwards, along with wide two doors that led to different rooms and a long hallway leading forward. First, Taylor locked the door behind her, then she took off her sneakers and placed them atop the empty shoe rack.
First, Taylor walked down the hallway at the end of the entrance room, finding herself in the kitchen. In the center of the other kitchen sat a long wooden table surrounded by a few chairs. To the left of the room were a fridge, oven, microwave, sink and a half dozen wall-mounted cupboards. Opening one of the cupboards Taylor found something akin to a herb or spice cupboard, though she hadn't heard of any of the ingredients contained within.
One glass jar was labelled Firebell and contained dozens of large orange flowers, Another was labelled Bloodthorn, which contained several red, spiky shrubs.
'I really hope those aren't weird exotic drugs,' Taylor sighed, now feeling slightly anxious about the manor,
Turning away from the weird plants, Taylor turned on the tap over the sink, pleasantly surprised when a stream of clear water gurgled out. She had been informed that the utilities would be taken care of, but a part of her couldn't help but have suspected that they would still be left in disrepair.
At the back wall of the kitchen was a sliding door that led to the backyard, peering through the glass Taylor noticed an extremely tall, healthy-looking tree with long firm branches covered in vibrant emerald green leaves within whose shade several plants were growing. She recognized the same orange flower called Firebell she had seen in those jars and realized her grandfather must have grown his own 'vegetables'.
Turing around Taylor walked back into the entrance room, walking over to the first of the two doors she had seen, located on the right side of the entrance hall. Pushing open the door she was greeted to a bedroom. A comfy-looking green blanketed bed rested beside two dressers and a full body mirror. There was also a desk which has some loose paper and pens scattered across its front, as well as a closet.
Taylor stepped into the bedroom, walking over to the desk and looking down at the loose papers. They were covered in strange drawings that looked vaguely geometric in nature, depicting a single line contorted into an obtuse, meandering path. Unable to decipher the meaning of the strangely drawn paths, Taylor set down the papers and turned to leave the room.
Next, she walked over to the second of the two doors, situated on the left side of the entrance hallway. There was a sign mounted atop the door 'Workstation beyond', it read. Unlike the other door, this one was locked. Having already eliminated two of the keys, it took Taylor only a moment to find the right key and unfasten the lock.
Stepping inside, Taylor looked around and... paused. The room looked strange, to say the least.
In the center of the room was a fireplace with a large metal cauldron placed above black coals. A large bellow was affixed to the side of the fireplace, allowing air to be pushed into the coals. There was a mortar and pestle situated next to the cauldron as well as a large ladle to pa tripped above the fireplace. At the back of the room, covering the entire back wall was a large parchment paper with stylized ink drawings of bones across it.
There was a cabinet next to the cauldron area and Taylor walked over to it, noticing a leather-bound journal, upon which was a paper note that read 'For Tayor'.
Taylor reached down and picked up the journal, opening it and reading the first page.
Hello, Taylor. This journal I am writing is a message from me, your grandfather. I have left it here so that you might find it and hear my message.
First, I must apologize. My estrangement from your mother was a great failure on my part as her father, and my deepest regret. I always wished to rekindle our relationship but was too prideful to do so. It was only after she died that the depth of my failure dawned on me. I only wish I could make amends with her, but alas, it is too late. All I can do is leave my greatest treasure to her daughter, in hopes it will do something to absolve my sin.
Within this house, in this very workstation, is the culmination of a lifetime of my research and preparation. You see, in this world, there is much knowledge hidden from the public. Much of it was lost to the sands of time and just as much intentionally burnt away.
One such lost knowledge was the field of Alchemy and its applications.
I know that sounds crazy, but before you close this book, I ask you to be opened minded. This is not a joke or lie, I truly rediscovered real alchemy, and I have proof. In the cupboard by the wall, I have left three potions, each capable of a supernatural feat. By testing those potions you can see for yourself that alchemy is real and that I am not crazy!
The potion is of light blue colour, marked with a snowflake. It is a potion of frost. If you were to smash it against a wall, you would have an eruption of ice.
The second is o...
Taylor set down the journal, blinking rapidly. Was this for real? Had her grandfather really left behind an elaborate practical joke to troll her from beyond the grave? Surely he didn't think her stupid enough to fall for such a childish joke. There was no way she would beleive alchemy like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone alchemy was a real and legit fucking thing.
Her grandfather had probably just gone insane in his late years if he thought she would fall for something like that.
Taylor sighed and pulled open the doors to the cupboard, noting three large glass vials grabbing the so-called Potion of Frost, she turned around and tossed it at the wall.
Yet instead of nothing happening...
Crackle
Huge white ice crystals burst from the wall, stabbing outwards, the temperature of the air instantly fell a dozen degrees as thick frost swallowed half of the room's walls.
"..." Taylor stared for a moment.
"What the fuuuuu-"
Despite the mournful atmosphere around her, Taylor did not feel all that sad. The most she could muster was some dull shock and slight melancholy. It wasn't at all like the sharp grip of anguish she had felt at her mother's funeral.
Perhaps it was because she hadn't been close with her estranged grandfather. He never approved his daughter, a young professor with a bright career, marrying a down-on-his-luck union labourer named Daniel Hebert and would rarely ever interact with Taylor or her family, aside from the occasional gift card on Christmas. Ironically enough, the last time she had seen the old man was at her mother's funeral.
A dozen feet ahead a black cassock-clad pastor addressed the funeral crowd loudly quoting biblical verses as he gave the eulogy. Taylor's grandfather had been a devout Lutheran, unlike Taylor's mother who had been a staunch atheist. Another point of contention between the two that had ultimately led to their estrangement.
Taylor herself... well, she wasn't sure. Religion had never been a big thing in her life growing up. She wasn't quite certain there wasn't a God but had always felt the idea that there was some unseen, omnipotent being overseeing the whole world to be pretty silly. It would probably be best to describe her as a Non-believer or an agnostic, rather than an atheist.
'But... Parahumans do exist,' Taylor's mind reminded her. 'And despite the many theories, no one really knows where they came from. Is it that much of a stretch to think that God, Angels, Demons and the like could also exist?
Well... even if a God does it exist, given the state of our world, it's probably not a particularly merciful or loving one.'
Exhaling slightly, Taylor decided to say a prayer in her head... Just in case.
'God... if you do exist, I guess... I pray that... that my grandfather ends up in a better place... .'
Turning her head up, Taylor she noticed people around her beginning to stand up. It seemed that the funeral was at its end. Next to her, her dad stood up, tapping her shoulder.
"Time to go," he said curtly.
---
Taylor sat upon a soft leather chair, staring at the man in front of her. Behind a luxurious mahogany desk sat a young man sharply dressed in a black suit, her grandfather's lawyer, Taylor had been informed. He wore a pleasant, businesslike smile. She had been called here to discuss her 'portion' of her grandfather's estate, though she had no idea what it would be. She couldn't imagine the old man would have left her much, given his disdain for her branch of his family.
"Nice to meet you, Miss Hebert," the Lawyer began. "You can call me Mister Fitzgerald. I'm very sorry for your loss."
'I'm sure,' Taylor thought, mentally rolling her eyes.
The lawyer reached forward, offering Taylor his open palm. Taylor nodded, reaching forward hesitantly to shake the man's hand.
"Um... Nice to meet you too," she replied. "And thanks for the condolences... So, I suppose we should get to business, then?"
"Yes, of course, Miss Hebert," Mister Fitzgerald replied. "Now, according to his last will and testament, your grandfather decided to leave you a sizable plot of land and the vacation house located within it, a building called Westport Place-"
"A House? Really?" Taylor blurted out, very surprised. "I barely knew my grandfather at all, why would he leave me anything? Let alone an entire house?"
"I'm sure he had his reasons," Mister Fitzgerald smiled, before continuing. "But that is what his will indicates he wished for you to receive."
At that, Mister Fitzgerald paused, reaching under his desk to grab something. He pulled out a small wooden box. Opening it, the man retrieved a large keychain. It looked exactly like the type you would see in a movie set in the victorian age, a large silver hoop with a handful of long, stylized metal keys hooked on it.
"These are the keys to the house proper as well as other locks on the property," Mister Fitzgerlad said, placing the keychain in front of Taylor, who gingerly picked it up and deposited it in her pocket.
"However, your grandfather did leave some conditions for you to receive full control of your inheritance," the Lawyer suddenly added. "If you fail to meet these conditions before the age of eighteen, you will not maintain ownership of the property,"
"Oh..." Taylor responded, still slightly shocked. "What are these conditions?"
"There are four. First, the beneficiary, that's you, must attend and graduate from high school. Second, none of the books or journals within the property are to be taken out of the property or allowed to be read by anyone but the beneficiary. Thirdly, the part of the property marked as the workstation must not be entered by anyone but the beneficiary. Fourthly, the beneficiary must not sell the property."
Hearing the conditions, Taylor raised her eyebrows. What exactly was in the books at Westport Place that her grandfather didn't want her to tell people? Something embarrassing? Maybe even something incriminating? If there was something like that, why would he give it to her of all people? And what was in his workstation that he didn't want people to see? Did he...sell drugs or something? Taylor could scarcely imagine the severely religious man involved in something so shady, buts drugs were powerful, often able of taking over even those one would never expect.
"Is it... normal for conditions like these to be applied to an inheritance?" Taylor asked hesitantly. "This does sound a bit suspicious..."
"it's not uncommon," Mister Fitzgerald said. "Plenty of people leave conditions like these because they want their estate to be managed a certain way even after death. Don't worry about it, your grandfather was an upstanding citizen and I highly doubt there is anything to be worried about in the house."
"I see..." Taylor eventually replied, narrowing her eyes and not feeling comforted at all. "So, what do I have to sign?"
"Nothing." Mr. Fitzgerald answered. "The paperwork will be taken care of by me and your legal guardian, that is to say, your father. All you have to worry about is what you're going to do with your new land."
"Have a nice day, Miss Hebert."
Taylor nodded, standing up and leaving the lawyer's office.
---
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Groggily, Taylor rubbed her eyes. Turning over, she smacked the snooze button on her alarm. She lay still, groaning slightly.
'Is it morning already? Jeez...' Taylor complained.
After another minute of luxuriating in the warmth of her blankets, the girl rolled out of bed. Normally she wouldn't have gotten out of bed this early on a Sunday, but Taylor had business to attend to.
After freshening up and changing into her day clothes, dull grey sweatpants and a black turtleneck, Taylor put on her glasses. She opened the rickety door of her bedroom, walking down the creaky stairs of her home.
Arriving in the kitchen, Taylor noticed a note from her father taped to the fridge.
Sorry Taylor, emergency at work, I'll be out today.
Rolling her eyes, Taylor tossed the hastily scribbled note into the blue recycling box kept under the sink. Then Taylor prepared a quick breakfast, consisting of a bowl of cereal and two toasted slices of bread. Upon finishing her food, she tossed on a hoodie. Fishing through the hoddie's pockets, she pulled out the silver metallic keychain from her pocket.
The idea was still a bit surreal to Taylor, but she now apparently owned a house. Today she would bus over and look around the place. Taylor pushed open the front door of her house, stepping out into the salty breeze of Brockton Bay. She closed and locked the door before jogging over to the nearest bus stop.
After a short wait, Taylor stepped onto the bus. It was mostly empty so she took a seat by the door. After about thirty minutes, the Bus came to a stop.
Westport House was located well outside the urban center of the bay, situated in the far more rural and sparsely populated outskirts. An old amendment directly added to the city charter back in the day prevented the city government from developing in the area and the stagnant, downtrodden cities' slowly shrinking population didn't need more space anyway. Hell, half the building in the Docks portion of the city were entirely abandoned.
As a result, the houses in the area retained the original, vaguely gothic architecture and rural openness that had disappeared from most of the old colonial port cities of the American east coast.
After another thirty minutes of walking across sparsely wooded grassland, along a rapidly thinning dirt track, Taylor reached her destination. A thick metal fence stretched out before her, the black bent wire gate proudly looming above her. Ivory vines twined around the fence posts and the thick grass and tall weeds spoke to the seeming abandonment of the house.
Taylor pulled out the keychain, stepping towards the metal fence gate and inspecting the lock. She pressed the first key into the keyhole, feeling it jam, then the second, and it similarly failed. The third key however slid in smoothly and with a little grunt Taylor forcefully turned the stagnant lock.
Then, Taylor turned to look up at the house proper. It was far larger and nicer than her family's home, a fact that left her feeling oddly uncomfortable. Tall white pillars held up the overhanging roof and the brass inlaid in the brown painted front doors gleamed slightly in the morning sun. However, besides the overgrown garden, the house was not in a state of disappearance, with white painted walls and shiny frosted glass windows still clean of dirt or moss.
Taylor slowly walked towards the front door, once more testing the keys on the keychain. This time it only took two tries and the lock clicked open. Pressing the door open, Taylor stepped into the house. It was a lot cleaner than she had expected. Perhaps her grandfather had been over not that long ago? Turning her head, she noticed a small light switch. Flicking it up, the entrance of Westport lit up, illuminated by an overhanging chandelier.
Within the entrance room, there was a closest to the side and an ornate wooden shoe rack. A staircase at the end of the room led upwards, along with wide two doors that led to different rooms and a long hallway leading forward. First, Taylor locked the door behind her, then she took off her sneakers and placed them atop the empty shoe rack.
First, Taylor walked down the hallway at the end of the entrance room, finding herself in the kitchen. In the center of the other kitchen sat a long wooden table surrounded by a few chairs. To the left of the room were a fridge, oven, microwave, sink and a half dozen wall-mounted cupboards. Opening one of the cupboards Taylor found something akin to a herb or spice cupboard, though she hadn't heard of any of the ingredients contained within.
One glass jar was labelled Firebell and contained dozens of large orange flowers, Another was labelled Bloodthorn, which contained several red, spiky shrubs.
'I really hope those aren't weird exotic drugs,' Taylor sighed, now feeling slightly anxious about the manor,
Turning away from the weird plants, Taylor turned on the tap over the sink, pleasantly surprised when a stream of clear water gurgled out. She had been informed that the utilities would be taken care of, but a part of her couldn't help but have suspected that they would still be left in disrepair.
At the back wall of the kitchen was a sliding door that led to the backyard, peering through the glass Taylor noticed an extremely tall, healthy-looking tree with long firm branches covered in vibrant emerald green leaves within whose shade several plants were growing. She recognized the same orange flower called Firebell she had seen in those jars and realized her grandfather must have grown his own 'vegetables'.
Turing around Taylor walked back into the entrance room, walking over to the first of the two doors she had seen, located on the right side of the entrance hall. Pushing open the door she was greeted to a bedroom. A comfy-looking green blanketed bed rested beside two dressers and a full body mirror. There was also a desk which has some loose paper and pens scattered across its front, as well as a closet.
Taylor stepped into the bedroom, walking over to the desk and looking down at the loose papers. They were covered in strange drawings that looked vaguely geometric in nature, depicting a single line contorted into an obtuse, meandering path. Unable to decipher the meaning of the strangely drawn paths, Taylor set down the papers and turned to leave the room.
Next, she walked over to the second of the two doors, situated on the left side of the entrance hallway. There was a sign mounted atop the door 'Workstation beyond', it read. Unlike the other door, this one was locked. Having already eliminated two of the keys, it took Taylor only a moment to find the right key and unfasten the lock.
Stepping inside, Taylor looked around and... paused. The room looked strange, to say the least.
In the center of the room was a fireplace with a large metal cauldron placed above black coals. A large bellow was affixed to the side of the fireplace, allowing air to be pushed into the coals. There was a mortar and pestle situated next to the cauldron as well as a large ladle to pa tripped above the fireplace. At the back of the room, covering the entire back wall was a large parchment paper with stylized ink drawings of bones across it.
There was a cabinet next to the cauldron area and Taylor walked over to it, noticing a leather-bound journal, upon which was a paper note that read 'For Tayor'.
Taylor reached down and picked up the journal, opening it and reading the first page.
Hello, Taylor. This journal I am writing is a message from me, your grandfather. I have left it here so that you might find it and hear my message.
First, I must apologize. My estrangement from your mother was a great failure on my part as her father, and my deepest regret. I always wished to rekindle our relationship but was too prideful to do so. It was only after she died that the depth of my failure dawned on me. I only wish I could make amends with her, but alas, it is too late. All I can do is leave my greatest treasure to her daughter, in hopes it will do something to absolve my sin.
Within this house, in this very workstation, is the culmination of a lifetime of my research and preparation. You see, in this world, there is much knowledge hidden from the public. Much of it was lost to the sands of time and just as much intentionally burnt away.
One such lost knowledge was the field of Alchemy and its applications.
I know that sounds crazy, but before you close this book, I ask you to be opened minded. This is not a joke or lie, I truly rediscovered real alchemy, and I have proof. In the cupboard by the wall, I have left three potions, each capable of a supernatural feat. By testing those potions you can see for yourself that alchemy is real and that I am not crazy!
The potion is of light blue colour, marked with a snowflake. It is a potion of frost. If you were to smash it against a wall, you would have an eruption of ice.
The second is o...
Taylor set down the journal, blinking rapidly. Was this for real? Had her grandfather really left behind an elaborate practical joke to troll her from beyond the grave? Surely he didn't think her stupid enough to fall for such a childish joke. There was no way she would beleive alchemy like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone alchemy was a real and legit fucking thing.
Her grandfather had probably just gone insane in his late years if he thought she would fall for something like that.
Taylor sighed and pulled open the doors to the cupboard, noting three large glass vials grabbing the so-called Potion of Frost, she turned around and tossed it at the wall.
Yet instead of nothing happening...
Crackle
Huge white ice crystals burst from the wall, stabbing outwards, the temperature of the air instantly fell a dozen degrees as thick frost swallowed half of the room's walls.
"..." Taylor stared for a moment.
"What the fuuuuu-"
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- He/Him
A quick search leads me to find that the other half of this crossover is a new alchemist crafting game on Steam. I wonder what other wonders her grandfather found. I wonder if there are other people who know about the secret craft as well and what kind of interactions will take place.
Good luck with the story, I like what's been written so far.
Good luck with the story, I like what's been written so far.
please tell me potions of strength, speed and throwing around ice beams because fire bolts are so last year. Also this would be a major leg up for the DWU union since you know unions run modern civilization they keep the lights on, fix the roads, pick up trash. Cops have unions and so do teachers but the big kicker is that taylors dad who has been running the union for the last 10 to 15 years has so many connections that he can call on. He could have subverted the PRt if wildblow even knew how the modem world worked.
All danny needs is a proof of concept and he could go right to the police commissioner, mayor and head of the hospital all without the PRT catching wind of anything since Piggot isolated the PRT so badly in canon due to her BS.
Soo soo much potential here.
All danny needs is a proof of concept and he could go right to the police commissioner, mayor and head of the hospital all without the PRT catching wind of anything since Piggot isolated the PRT so badly in canon due to her BS.
Soo soo much potential here.
Tisaku
Head Chief Thinkomancer
He found Viagra
Last edited:
ninjastar
(Verified Taoist Immortal)
- Location
- Your mom's house
- Location
- Elsewhere
And promptly died of a heart attack.
Basics of Alchemy 1: Terminology
ninjastar
(Verified Taoist Immortal)
- Location
- Your mom's house
Entity: Any existent being or object, whether biological, spiritual, living, dead or nonliving.
Alchemical Product: Any desired result of an Alchemical Process, such as a Potion or Reagent
Sideproduct: Any undesired result of an Alchemical Process, such as ash or grease, usually produced alongside an Alchemical product, or as the result of a failure in the Alchemical Process
Potency: The Alchemical effectiveness of an entity towards the desired goal.
Work: The entire process of creating an Alchemical product, including research, testing, the Alchemical process and the result.
Alchemical Process: Any procedure that creates an Alchemical Product, including Potion Crafting, Alchemical Machining and other related processes
Potion Crafting: A type of Alchemical Process that results in the Synthesis of a Potion, making use of the Alchemical Cauldron and the Alchemy Map
Alchemical Machining: A type of Alchemical Process that results in the Synthesis of a special Reagent, making use of the Alchemy Machine and Potions as Reagents
Alchemical Effect: A magical effect imbued onto Potions through an Alchemical Process.
Potion: A magical liquid created by imbuing a Base with an Alchemical Effect
Base: A fluid such as water, alcohol or blood used as the foundation Reagent of a Potion
Reagent: Any ingredient consumed to produce a Potion or other Alchemical Product.
Synthesis: The completion of an Alchemical Process
Imbibe: The consumption of a Potion
Imbiber: One who Imbibes a Potion
Imbue: The addition of an Alchemical or Magical Effect upon an Entity
Imbuer: One who has Imbued
Weak Potion/Tier I: A Potion Imbued with the first and weakest level of an Alchemical Effect
Potion/Tier II: A Potion Imbued with the second and middle level of an Alchemical Effect
Strong Potion/Tier III: A Potion Imbued with the third and strongest level of an Alchemical Effect
Fortified Potion/Tier IV: A Strong Potion whose potency is further increased by the addition of special Reagents.
Alchemical Cauldron: A special cauldron used in the Alchemical Process
Base Ladle: A lade containing Base used in the Alchemical Process
Mortar and Pestle: A tool used by alchemists to grind reagents into mush or powder, rendering them more powerful alchemically.
Alchemy Map: The abstract space traversed by a potion as it undergoes the alchemical process, representing the makeup of the Four Elements within the Base. Each Alchemical Effect is represented by a latitude and longitude on the Potion map, or an exact makeup of Elements, latitude being representative of the Earth-Air Axis and Longitude being representative of the Water-Fire Axis, which may be traversed by adding Reagents or Base. Once the potion is 'atop' an Alchemical Effect on the Alchemy Map, it may be imbued with that Alchemical Effect and Synthesized.
Alchemical Product: Any desired result of an Alchemical Process, such as a Potion or Reagent
Sideproduct: Any undesired result of an Alchemical Process, such as ash or grease, usually produced alongside an Alchemical product, or as the result of a failure in the Alchemical Process
Potency: The Alchemical effectiveness of an entity towards the desired goal.
Work: The entire process of creating an Alchemical product, including research, testing, the Alchemical process and the result.
Alchemical Process: Any procedure that creates an Alchemical Product, including Potion Crafting, Alchemical Machining and other related processes
Potion Crafting: A type of Alchemical Process that results in the Synthesis of a Potion, making use of the Alchemical Cauldron and the Alchemy Map
Alchemical Machining: A type of Alchemical Process that results in the Synthesis of a special Reagent, making use of the Alchemy Machine and Potions as Reagents
Alchemical Effect: A magical effect imbued onto Potions through an Alchemical Process.
Potion: A magical liquid created by imbuing a Base with an Alchemical Effect
Base: A fluid such as water, alcohol or blood used as the foundation Reagent of a Potion
Reagent: Any ingredient consumed to produce a Potion or other Alchemical Product.
Synthesis: The completion of an Alchemical Process
Imbibe: The consumption of a Potion
Imbiber: One who Imbibes a Potion
Imbue: The addition of an Alchemical or Magical Effect upon an Entity
Imbuer: One who has Imbued
Weak Potion/Tier I: A Potion Imbued with the first and weakest level of an Alchemical Effect
Potion/Tier II: A Potion Imbued with the second and middle level of an Alchemical Effect
Strong Potion/Tier III: A Potion Imbued with the third and strongest level of an Alchemical Effect
Fortified Potion/Tier IV: A Strong Potion whose potency is further increased by the addition of special Reagents.
Alchemical Cauldron: A special cauldron used in the Alchemical Process
Base Ladle: A lade containing Base used in the Alchemical Process
Mortar and Pestle: A tool used by alchemists to grind reagents into mush or powder, rendering them more powerful alchemically.
Alchemy Map: The abstract space traversed by a potion as it undergoes the alchemical process, representing the makeup of the Four Elements within the Base. Each Alchemical Effect is represented by a latitude and longitude on the Potion map, or an exact makeup of Elements, latitude being representative of the Earth-Air Axis and Longitude being representative of the Water-Fire Axis, which may be traversed by adding Reagents or Base. Once the potion is 'atop' an Alchemical Effect on the Alchemy Map, it may be imbued with that Alchemical Effect and Synthesized.
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Basics of Alchemy 2: Sub-Opus Alchemical Effects
ninjastar
(Verified Taoist Immortal)
- Location
- Your mom's house
Note: Everything here is subject to change and modification, more Effects may be added in the future, don't think too hard about any exact numbers given, I will mostly just eyeballing things, not meticulously calculating when writing what potions do.
Acid
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Acid results in a highly corrosive fluid that can eat through almost anything. This can be used directly to melt through solid iron golems, burn through flesh, or be applied onto items such as blades or arrows to imbue the corrosive power onto them.
Tier I: 10 ML of Material dissolved for every ML of Potion
Tier II: 100 ML of Material dissolved for every ML of Potion
Tier III: 1L of Material dissolved for every ML of Potion
Beauty
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Beauty results in a Potion that when Imbibed turns its Imbiber into a beautified version of their self, removing scars, disfigurements, genetic issues, imperfections and anything that would make the user uglier, as well as endow them with more desirable physical traits. It smooths the skin, symmetrized the face, and improves figure and body structure
Tier I: a slight touch up, equivalent to the effect of makeup or a good diet
Tier II: A noticeable increase in attractiveness, visible traits modified
Tier III: A full-body, holistic beautification, physically affecting the shape of the body
Berserker
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Berserker results in a Potion that when Imbibed forces its Imbiber into a wild rage, complete with superhuman physical attributes and resistance to pain and fear.
Tier I: Peak human strength, Last one hour
Tier II: The strength of many men, Lasts five hours
Tier III: The power of a garrison of men. Lasts a day
Bounce
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Charm results in a Potion that allows the Imbiber to leap and bound across great distance and height. It can be added into food or drink so that the Imbiber may leap great distances, be Imbued upon armor to make it bounce off blows or upon a weapon that will knock away the enemy.
Tier I: Double the force of a human jump, lasts several hours
Tier II: pentuple the force of a human jump, lasts twelve hours,
Tier III: decuple the force of a human jump, lasts a day
Charm
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Charm results in a Potion that can snare the minds of any. It can be Imbued into food or drink so that the Imbiber Falls in love with the Imbuer, or be Imbued upon objects to create a general aura of attraction and charm.
Tier I: Mild Attraction, Last a week
Tier II: Romantic Affection guaranteed, lasts several months,
Tier III: Intense devoted love, Effect near-permanent.
Explosion
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Explosion results in a dangerous and highly explosive compound. The Potion may be thrown directly as a powerful bomb to kill your foes, small amounts may be applied and lit for a more controlled explosion, or Imbued onto projectiles to add explosive might to them.
Tier I: 1KG of TNT per 100 ML of Potion
Tier II: 5KG of TNT per 100 ML of Potion
Tier III: 50KG of TNT per 100 ML of Potion
Fast Growth
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Fast Growth results in a potion that allows plants and funguses to rapidly grow. It can be used by farmers or gardeners for countless purposes. Sadly, the potion has no effect on Reagents.
Tier I: Plant life cycle will be completed in a day
Tier II: Plant's life cycle will be completed in an hour
Tier III: Plant's life cycle will be completed a minute
Fire
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Fire results in a Potion with power over flame. Such a potion has myriad uses, near anything the mind can dream off. It can be used to enchant items with burning flames, to burn through icy spirits, protect a drinker from cold or allow them to breathe flame. Smaller amounts can be used to warm or cook food, to add spicy flavour to drink or dry one's house. It can even simply be lobbed at enemies as a fire-bomb.
Tier I: 700 c Wood flame
Tier II: 2000 C Blue gas fire
Tier III: 8,000 C White enchanted fire
Frost
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Frost results in a Potion with power over cold and ice. Such a potion has myriad uses, near anything the mind can dream off. It can be used to enchant items with biting frost, to slay lava golems and flame spirits, protect a drinker from flame or allow them to expel a breath of frost. It can be used to reinforce items such as armour or a shield against flame or heat, to chill and preserve food and drink and countless other uses.
Tier I: Lasts one hour
Tier II: Lasts one day
Tier III: lasts one week
Haste
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Haste results in a liquid that will drastically increase the movement speed of an entity, whether it be a running human or an arrow from a bow. It can be imbibed or poured upon the Imbier to speed increase their speed, imbued into weapons to speed up those hit by it, or otherwise added to items to create an aura of haste. As the increase in speed is multiplicative and not absolute, it has a much greater effect the faster the Imbiber already was.
Tier I: Doubling of speed
Tier II: Pentupling of speed
Tier III: Decupling of speed
Hallucinations
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Hallucination results in liquid that causes intense and realistic hallucination. It can be Imbibed directly to cause strong illusions or Imbued upon weapons such as blades or arrows to offensively cause opponents to hallucinate
Tier I: Visual Hallucinations, lasts one hour
Tier II: Audiovisual Hallucinations, lasts six hours
Tier III: Full sensory hallucination, lasts a day.
Healing
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Healing results in a potion that can mend any wound, banish disease, festering and infection, whether bacterial, viral or fungal and gets rid of pain. Does not affect genetic disease or ageing, save for side effects and symptoms caused by them.
Tier I: heals minor wounds but not scars, limbs or fatal damage
Tier II: restore all but crippling damage
Tier III: Instant full health including scars and lost limbs.
Invisibility
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Invisibility results in a potion that renders the entities invisible to sight, whether applied to a human to make them unseen or to an item to hide it.
Tier I: Lasts ten minutes, renders Imbiber undetectable through visible light
Tier II: Lasts one hour renders Imbiber invisible to all forms of light, including radio or sonar
Tier III: Lasts six hours and renders Imbiber unable by any of the five senses.
Levitation
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Levitation results in a Potion that can make objects and humans fly, levitate and otherwise float and drift. It can be used to cross rivers, flee from enemies, climb up and down tall mountains and towers and fly across the sky like a bird. It can be added to objects to make them float as well. In the hands of a skilled user, an item can even be enchanted to fly.
Tier I: 10kmh
Tier II: 50kmh
Tier III: 250kmh
Libido
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Libido results in a Potion of that when Imbued acts as a powerful viagra, it can be used to cure erectile dysfunction and other similar maladies or simply to enhance one's stamina when performing sexual activities.
Tier I: Acts as a strong viagra, lasts several hours
Tier II: Acts as an ultra-potent viagra, lasts one day
Tier III: Acts as a supernaturally powerful viagra, lasts multiple days
Light
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Light results in a potion of bright glow. It can be used to illuminate the darkness of the night, to be thrown as a flashbang, to be applied to objects to make them glow or even Imbibed to make the Imbiber light up like a flame.
Tier I: 1000 lumens
Tier II: 10000 lumens
Tier III: 200000 lumens
Lightning
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Lightning results in a Potion with power over thunder and lightning. Such a potion has myriad uses, near anything the mind can dream off. It can be used to enchant items with crackling thunder, to expel a breath of lighting. It can be used to reinforce items such as armour or a shield with thunder or to power devices requiring electricity
Tier I: 10,000 Volts
Tier II: 100,000 volts
Tier III: 300,000 volts
Magical Vision
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Magical Vision results in a Potion that grants and enhances sight in a myriad of ways. It can sharpen and enhance one's sight, allow them to see perfectly in complete darkness and allow them to see through illusions, concealments and other forms of visual impairment.
Tier I: Slight enhancement of eyes
Tier II: Notice enhancement of eyes
Tier III: Superhuman enhancement of eyes
Mana
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Mana results in a potion that grants magic powers to those that drink it, restoring the mana of those who need it and improving their total capacity.
Tier I: Minor increase in Mana
Tier II: Large increase in Mana
Tier III: Massive increase in Mana
Necromancy
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Necromancy results in a potion that will turn the dead into the undead. It does not 'truly' revive the dead, instead of allowing one to raise up zombies, skeletons and ghosts to fight for them. It can be used to speak with the spirits of the dead or bind dead souls to objects.
Tier I: Effect lasts one month
Tier II: Effect lasts one year
Tier III: Effect is permanent
Poisoning
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Poisoning results in a liquid of incredible toxicity. It can be put into food or drink or upon a blade.
Tier I: Kills in one day, can be cured by normal medicine
Tier II: Kills in six hours, requires parahuman care
Tier III: kills in one hour, cannot be cured except by Potions
Rich Harvest
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Rich Harvest results in a liquid that causes the harvest of plants to be multiplied manyfold. One apple tree would produce enough apples to feed countless people, one grapevine would produce dozens of times its usual produce and so on.
Tier I: Ten times normal harvest
Tier II: Fifty times normal harvest
Tier III: 200 times normal harvest
Strength
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Strength results in a potion that when Imbibed multiples the physical strength and force the Imbiber.
Tier I: Doubling of Strength
Tier II: Pentupling of Strength
Tier III: Quintupling of Strength
Sleep
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Sleep results in a potion that will put people to sleep, or result in them being more drowsy. This potion effect may be Imbued upon items to add the effect to them.
Tier I: One hour sleep
Tier II: five-hour sleep
Tier III: twenty-hour sleep
Slow Down
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Slow Down results in a liquid that will drastically slow down and freeze moving things. It can be imbibed to slow down the imbiber, poured upon the imbiber to slow them down or imbued into weapons to slow down those hit by it, or otherwise added to items to create an aura of slowness and sluggishness. As the slowdown is fractional and not absolute, it has a much more apparent effect the faster the Imbiber is.
Tier I: One Half Speed
Tier II: One Tenth Speed
Tier III: One Fiftieth Speed
Stone Skin
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Stone Skin results in a potion that can be used to render the user near-invincible in battle, blades and arrows glancing off them as if their skin were stone.
Tier I: Durability of granite
Tier II: Durability of hardened steel
Tier III: Durability of diamond
Water Breathing
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Water Breathing results in a Potion that when Imbibed allows one to breathe under the sea as if it were air.
Tier I: Last three hour
Tier II: Lasts eight hours
Tier III: Lasts a day
Weakening
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Weakening results in a Potion that can be used to greatly decrease the physical force an Entity is capable of exerting. This may be drunk to affect the whole body or poured onto the skin to affect only a certain part, or imbued into an object to allow it to project an aura of weakening, or placed onto a projectile of weapon so whoever struck is weakened.
Tier I: Strength decreased by half
Tier II: Strength decreased by four-fifths
Tier III: Strength decreased by nineteen twentieths
Acid
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Acid results in a highly corrosive fluid that can eat through almost anything. This can be used directly to melt through solid iron golems, burn through flesh, or be applied onto items such as blades or arrows to imbue the corrosive power onto them.
Tier I: 10 ML of Material dissolved for every ML of Potion
Tier II: 100 ML of Material dissolved for every ML of Potion
Tier III: 1L of Material dissolved for every ML of Potion
Beauty
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Beauty results in a Potion that when Imbibed turns its Imbiber into a beautified version of their self, removing scars, disfigurements, genetic issues, imperfections and anything that would make the user uglier, as well as endow them with more desirable physical traits. It smooths the skin, symmetrized the face, and improves figure and body structure
Tier I: a slight touch up, equivalent to the effect of makeup or a good diet
Tier II: A noticeable increase in attractiveness, visible traits modified
Tier III: A full-body, holistic beautification, physically affecting the shape of the body
Berserker
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Berserker results in a Potion that when Imbibed forces its Imbiber into a wild rage, complete with superhuman physical attributes and resistance to pain and fear.
Tier I: Peak human strength, Last one hour
Tier II: The strength of many men, Lasts five hours
Tier III: The power of a garrison of men. Lasts a day
Bounce
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Charm results in a Potion that allows the Imbiber to leap and bound across great distance and height. It can be added into food or drink so that the Imbiber may leap great distances, be Imbued upon armor to make it bounce off blows or upon a weapon that will knock away the enemy.
Tier I: Double the force of a human jump, lasts several hours
Tier II: pentuple the force of a human jump, lasts twelve hours,
Tier III: decuple the force of a human jump, lasts a day
Charm
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Charm results in a Potion that can snare the minds of any. It can be Imbued into food or drink so that the Imbiber Falls in love with the Imbuer, or be Imbued upon objects to create a general aura of attraction and charm.
Tier I: Mild Attraction, Last a week
Tier II: Romantic Affection guaranteed, lasts several months,
Tier III: Intense devoted love, Effect near-permanent.
Explosion
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Explosion results in a dangerous and highly explosive compound. The Potion may be thrown directly as a powerful bomb to kill your foes, small amounts may be applied and lit for a more controlled explosion, or Imbued onto projectiles to add explosive might to them.
Tier I: 1KG of TNT per 100 ML of Potion
Tier II: 5KG of TNT per 100 ML of Potion
Tier III: 50KG of TNT per 100 ML of Potion
Fast Growth
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Fast Growth results in a potion that allows plants and funguses to rapidly grow. It can be used by farmers or gardeners for countless purposes. Sadly, the potion has no effect on Reagents.
Tier I: Plant life cycle will be completed in a day
Tier II: Plant's life cycle will be completed in an hour
Tier III: Plant's life cycle will be completed a minute
Fire
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Fire results in a Potion with power over flame. Such a potion has myriad uses, near anything the mind can dream off. It can be used to enchant items with burning flames, to burn through icy spirits, protect a drinker from cold or allow them to breathe flame. Smaller amounts can be used to warm or cook food, to add spicy flavour to drink or dry one's house. It can even simply be lobbed at enemies as a fire-bomb.
Tier I: 700 c Wood flame
Tier II: 2000 C Blue gas fire
Tier III: 8,000 C White enchanted fire
Frost
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Frost results in a Potion with power over cold and ice. Such a potion has myriad uses, near anything the mind can dream off. It can be used to enchant items with biting frost, to slay lava golems and flame spirits, protect a drinker from flame or allow them to expel a breath of frost. It can be used to reinforce items such as armour or a shield against flame or heat, to chill and preserve food and drink and countless other uses.
Tier I: Lasts one hour
Tier II: Lasts one day
Tier III: lasts one week
Haste
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Haste results in a liquid that will drastically increase the movement speed of an entity, whether it be a running human or an arrow from a bow. It can be imbibed or poured upon the Imbier to speed increase their speed, imbued into weapons to speed up those hit by it, or otherwise added to items to create an aura of haste. As the increase in speed is multiplicative and not absolute, it has a much greater effect the faster the Imbiber already was.
Tier I: Doubling of speed
Tier II: Pentupling of speed
Tier III: Decupling of speed
Hallucinations
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Hallucination results in liquid that causes intense and realistic hallucination. It can be Imbibed directly to cause strong illusions or Imbued upon weapons such as blades or arrows to offensively cause opponents to hallucinate
Tier I: Visual Hallucinations, lasts one hour
Tier II: Audiovisual Hallucinations, lasts six hours
Tier III: Full sensory hallucination, lasts a day.
Healing
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Healing results in a potion that can mend any wound, banish disease, festering and infection, whether bacterial, viral or fungal and gets rid of pain. Does not affect genetic disease or ageing, save for side effects and symptoms caused by them.
Tier I: heals minor wounds but not scars, limbs or fatal damage
Tier II: restore all but crippling damage
Tier III: Instant full health including scars and lost limbs.
Invisibility
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Invisibility results in a potion that renders the entities invisible to sight, whether applied to a human to make them unseen or to an item to hide it.
Tier I: Lasts ten minutes, renders Imbiber undetectable through visible light
Tier II: Lasts one hour renders Imbiber invisible to all forms of light, including radio or sonar
Tier III: Lasts six hours and renders Imbiber unable by any of the five senses.
Levitation
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Levitation results in a Potion that can make objects and humans fly, levitate and otherwise float and drift. It can be used to cross rivers, flee from enemies, climb up and down tall mountains and towers and fly across the sky like a bird. It can be added to objects to make them float as well. In the hands of a skilled user, an item can even be enchanted to fly.
Tier I: 10kmh
Tier II: 50kmh
Tier III: 250kmh
Libido
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Libido results in a Potion of that when Imbued acts as a powerful viagra, it can be used to cure erectile dysfunction and other similar maladies or simply to enhance one's stamina when performing sexual activities.
Tier I: Acts as a strong viagra, lasts several hours
Tier II: Acts as an ultra-potent viagra, lasts one day
Tier III: Acts as a supernaturally powerful viagra, lasts multiple days
Light
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Light results in a potion of bright glow. It can be used to illuminate the darkness of the night, to be thrown as a flashbang, to be applied to objects to make them glow or even Imbibed to make the Imbiber light up like a flame.
Tier I: 1000 lumens
Tier II: 10000 lumens
Tier III: 200000 lumens
Lightning
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Lightning results in a Potion with power over thunder and lightning. Such a potion has myriad uses, near anything the mind can dream off. It can be used to enchant items with crackling thunder, to expel a breath of lighting. It can be used to reinforce items such as armour or a shield with thunder or to power devices requiring electricity
Tier I: 10,000 Volts
Tier II: 100,000 volts
Tier III: 300,000 volts
Magical Vision
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Magical Vision results in a Potion that grants and enhances sight in a myriad of ways. It can sharpen and enhance one's sight, allow them to see perfectly in complete darkness and allow them to see through illusions, concealments and other forms of visual impairment.
Tier I: Slight enhancement of eyes
Tier II: Notice enhancement of eyes
Tier III: Superhuman enhancement of eyes
Mana
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Mana results in a potion that grants magic powers to those that drink it, restoring the mana of those who need it and improving their total capacity.
Tier I: Minor increase in Mana
Tier II: Large increase in Mana
Tier III: Massive increase in Mana
Necromancy
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Necromancy results in a potion that will turn the dead into the undead. It does not 'truly' revive the dead, instead of allowing one to raise up zombies, skeletons and ghosts to fight for them. It can be used to speak with the spirits of the dead or bind dead souls to objects.
Tier I: Effect lasts one month
Tier II: Effect lasts one year
Tier III: Effect is permanent
Poisoning
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Poisoning results in a liquid of incredible toxicity. It can be put into food or drink or upon a blade.
Tier I: Kills in one day, can be cured by normal medicine
Tier II: Kills in six hours, requires parahuman care
Tier III: kills in one hour, cannot be cured except by Potions
Rich Harvest
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Rich Harvest results in a liquid that causes the harvest of plants to be multiplied manyfold. One apple tree would produce enough apples to feed countless people, one grapevine would produce dozens of times its usual produce and so on.
Tier I: Ten times normal harvest
Tier II: Fifty times normal harvest
Tier III: 200 times normal harvest
Strength
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Strength results in a potion that when Imbibed multiples the physical strength and force the Imbiber.
Tier I: Doubling of Strength
Tier II: Pentupling of Strength
Tier III: Quintupling of Strength
Sleep
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Sleep results in a potion that will put people to sleep, or result in them being more drowsy. This potion effect may be Imbued upon items to add the effect to them.
Tier I: One hour sleep
Tier II: five-hour sleep
Tier III: twenty-hour sleep
Slow Down
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Slow Down results in a liquid that will drastically slow down and freeze moving things. It can be imbibed to slow down the imbiber, poured upon the imbiber to slow them down or imbued into weapons to slow down those hit by it, or otherwise added to items to create an aura of slowness and sluggishness. As the slowdown is fractional and not absolute, it has a much more apparent effect the faster the Imbiber is.
Tier I: One Half Speed
Tier II: One Tenth Speed
Tier III: One Fiftieth Speed
Stone Skin
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Stone Skin results in a potion that can be used to render the user near-invincible in battle, blades and arrows glancing off them as if their skin were stone.
Tier I: Durability of granite
Tier II: Durability of hardened steel
Tier III: Durability of diamond
Water Breathing
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Water Breathing results in a Potion that when Imbibed allows one to breathe under the sea as if it were air.
Tier I: Last three hour
Tier II: Lasts eight hours
Tier III: Lasts a day
Weakening
Imbuing a Potion with the Alchemical Effect of Weakening results in a Potion that can be used to greatly decrease the physical force an Entity is capable of exerting. This may be drunk to affect the whole body or poured onto the skin to affect only a certain part, or imbued into an object to allow it to project an aura of weakening, or placed onto a projectile of weapon so whoever struck is weakened.
Tier I: Strength decreased by half
Tier II: Strength decreased by four-fifths
Tier III: Strength decreased by nineteen twentieths
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- Location
- Elsewhere
"We have some concerns about your excessive violence in your heroic efforts."
"Excessive violence? I used a frost potion to freeze them!"
"Right, because having a leg covered in ice is perfectly harmless."
"It should vanish in a little while."
"Maybe, but first it started to melt. Specifically the part closest to the warm human leg melted first."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"You remember the bottle you used to deliver it? The one you shattered against their leg? What do you think would happen to the glass?"
"Well the glass would get frozen..."
"Exactly. The glass would be frozen in the ice. Right next to the leg. As the ice starts to melt it turns into glass embedded in ice, wrapped around their leg, just as they can move after being stuck for several minutes, but with their leg still numb. They don't even realize they're slashing their leg open."
"Wait, you're saying that out of all the exotic effects I can produce, you're most worried about glass bottles?"
"Yes. You can throw around 'magic' all you want, but glass bottles are dangerous!"
"Excessive violence? I used a frost potion to freeze them!"
"Right, because having a leg covered in ice is perfectly harmless."
"It should vanish in a little while."
"Maybe, but first it started to melt. Specifically the part closest to the warm human leg melted first."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"You remember the bottle you used to deliver it? The one you shattered against their leg? What do you think would happen to the glass?"
"Well the glass would get frozen..."
"Exactly. The glass would be frozen in the ice. Right next to the leg. As the ice starts to melt it turns into glass embedded in ice, wrapped around their leg, just as they can move after being stuck for several minutes, but with their leg still numb. They don't even realize they're slashing their leg open."
"Wait, you're saying that out of all the exotic effects I can produce, you're most worried about glass bottles?"
"Yes. You can throw around 'magic' all you want, but glass bottles are dangerous!"
Last edited:
Sandy River DL
(Verified Destroyer Leader)
- Location
- Lake Michigan
- Pronouns
- Her/She
This looks fun. Taylor's totally going to be mistaken for a Tinker when she eventually starts going out, but alchemical master will be OP and OCP.
OLD (Chapter 2: Beginnings)
ninjastar
(Verified Taoist Immortal)
- Location
- Your mom's house
"-Fuuuuuck!?" Taylor screamed, stumbling away from the eruption of ice. She fell onto her backside before quickly turning over and desperation crawling away. Reaching the backside of the wall, Taylor stumbled to her feet, turning around gingerly to confirm that she had seen what she thought she had seen, that she hadn't imagined all of that.
Massive quartz-like crystals of perfectly transparent ice stabbed out from the wall. Taylor could even see the broken remnants of the glass bottle and brown paper label suspended in the middle of one of the central ice crystals.
A crystal that jutted out so far Taylor realized she hadn't been more than a foot from having her face frozen and or stabbed by that ice.
"Calm down, Taylor," the hysterical girl shrieked, slapping herself in the face. "You're not the hysterical little girl Emma says you are, you can handle the weird fucking ice eruption that nearly took off your head. No biggie."
Taking a deep breath, Taylor forced herself to calm down. Shivering slightly from the winter-like coldness of the now-chilled workstation, Taylor walked towards the ice crystals. It got noticeably colder as she did so, her breath fogging in the air.
Taylor reached forward and poked one of the crystals, hissing as the cold air chilled her finger, which she pulled back and blew hot air on.
"This is crazy," muttered Taylor. "There's no way this is happening. Alchemy? No, no umm... It must be a parahuman creation...right? Those superscience capes, like Armsmaster, right? Tinkers!"
That must be it! Her grandfather was secretly a Tinker that could make ice bombs or something like that. What else would explain this?
But... slowly Taylor walked back over to where she had dropped his journal, picking it up. She had to read more, and figure out what was really going on.
The first potion is of light blue colour, marked with a snowflake. It is a potion of frost. If you were to smash it against a wall, you would have an eruption of ice.
The second potion is of green colour, marked with a dripping blade, it is a Potion of Poisoning. It can be drunk or injected to poison creatures. Obviously, be careful when handling a highly dangerous poison.
"...But the fucking ice one isn't?" Taylor muttered.
The third is a Potion of Healing, with a reddish colour and labelled with a red heart. It is a Potion of Healing that can be drunk or poured on wounds to heal them.
Try out one or two of the potions to see for yourself that they are real and do what I say. Once you've done so, continue to the next page.
"Well, I have already have tried them," Taylor flipped onto the next page.
Now then, allow me to explain how this all began. As a young child, I had always been deeply interested in the occult. Magic, mysticism, mythology, witchcraft and the like. At first, it was just a hobby. However, in the course of my studies to become an archaeologist, I began to look into old books and accounts about alchemy.
Unlike the other countless Occult topics I had looked into, It struck me how much all these various ancient people described the wondrous potions and artifacts they had created and how many of them spoke of similar processes and results. I began to realize it was more than just a coincidence.
The knowledge described in these books must truly work to, or at the very least be related to a real-world process to some degree, one lost to time and thought to be nothing more than legend. I began to study more and more, looking through old archives and libraries for books on alchemy, while experimenting myself.
For nearly a decade I never had much success. I tested out many of the described procedures but had no results. That said, I never gave up, in my heart I knew I was on to something monumental. It wasn't long until my faith would be rewarded. That was until I happened to stumble across an old Native American manuscript that spoke of a divine 'Enchanted Tree'. It was said that from its shade would spring plants that could be ground up and used to heal near any wound.
Pulling on this thread, I found more and more information about this Enchanted Tree until I was finally to pinpoint its location to the area that had eventually become the city of Brockton Bay. I travelled to the city and after months of searching through the grassland, I found it. That 'Enchanted Tree' of legend is the same large Oak you will see in the back garden of this house. Every morning, without any seeds having been planted, dozens of plants will spring up from the ground.
Combining these plants, henceforth dubbed Reagents, with the processes I had gathered from my previous study of Alchemical manuscripts, I finally succeeded in the creation of my very first potion.
For some reason, it seems Reagents are the key to successful Alchemy. Though I will admit, I have no idea why. The most plausible idea I can think of is that some sort of 'magical energy' is required for the Alchemical Process, and that is energy faded from the world somehow, save for relics that had existed before said fading took place, such as the Enchanted Tree and the Reagents it produces. It does sound a bit fantastical, even to my own ears but I can't think anything better. Regardless, that question falls to you now and I hope you'll be more successful in answering this question than I was.
Taylor once more paused her reading, remembering the impossibly emerald leaves of the massive tree she had seen in the backyard of Westport Place. She was expected to believe it was some kind of magical Native American... potion tree? However, what her grandfather was explaining to her really didn't sound like the powers of a parahuman. After all, what parahuman couldn't use their powers until they found a special tree? Maybe there really was something to all this nonsense?
Taylor would just have to keep reading to find out more before she could come to a decisive conclusion. Maybe she could test out the potion-making process her grandfather was no doubt soon to describe and once it didn't work for her (Who was definitely not a parahuman!) she would know for certain.
Beyond the Enchanted Tree, there are three more rooms that will be integral to your Alchemy. The storage basement (Which you may locate through the trap door behind the Potion cupboard) contains a vast number of glass bottles for storing potions, labels, coal, papers, materials writing utensils and a whole lot of other miscellaneous items, as well as artifacts I have encountered on my many expeditions. The second is my library, containing notes, manuals, instructions and other books related to alchemy I have either acquired through research or written myself. It will be indispensable to you in your learning as a new alchemist.
Finally, there is the Potion Lab you are in currently. There is the Potion Cupboard where you may deposit Synthesized Potions, the Workstation area, containing an Alchemical Cauldron, a gas-torch, a Ladle, Bellows and Mortar and Pestle all of which are part of the Alchemical Process I have devised. At the back of the room, covering an entire wall is the most important artifact I have ever discovered, the Alchemy Map.
On the next page I will begin to explain to you the Alchemical Process, but first head over to the kitchen and retrieve the Reagents labelled 'Firebell' 'Waterbloom' 'Terraria' and 'Windbloom'.
Taylor closed the book and put it in the pocket, taking a deep breath. 'Time to put this matter to rest,' she thought.
She turned around, walking away from the Potion Lab and stepping back out into the Entrance Room, walking through the hallway and finally reaching the kitchen. She headed straight towards the cupboards at the end of the kitchen, opening them and looking at all the labelled jars of plants or 'Reagents' as her grandfather's journal had called them.
'There's the Firebell' Taylor thought, her eyes settling on a large glass jar that contained the red tubular flowers labelled Firebell, even as she grabbed it.
'Now Waterbloom... where is the Waterbloom?' she wondered, looking around. They were near the bottom, and as she grabbed them as well, Taylor noticed they looked just like lotus flowers only with five petals and coloured blue instead of pink.
'Terraria...' which was on the third shelf and resembled miniature green ferns, and then... 'Windbloom' which was on the top shelf.
Having gathered all four of the Reagents mentioned. Taylor made her way back to the Potion Lab and stepped inside. She carefully set down the four glass jars on the cupboard and continued to read.
Once you have gathered the Reagents specified. Go to the Alchemical Cauldron. Place into the Cauldron two Terarria and two Waterbloom, the order does not matter. Pay attention to the Alchemy Map on the wall of the room.
Taylor walked over to the large black-metal Cauldron, carrying over the large glass jars of Reagents with her. Unscrewing the lid of the Terraria jar, she pulled out the large green fern-like leaves of the Terraria. She hesitantly held one leaf over the cauldron, which was already full of water and dropped it. As the leafy green touched the water within the Cauldron, it began to rapidly dissolve, greening the water around it. It took less than a dozen seconds to have fully disappeared, leaving cloudy water with a hint of green.
As she did so, ink seemed to appear across the blank parchment paper covering the walls of the room, the so-called alchemical map. First, a circle appeared in its center. Then a line of wavy ink began to protrude southwards from the central circle. Finally, six markers appeared on random spots across the map, a small flame, a snowflake, a glowing sun, a red heart, a blade dripping with poison and a bushel of wheat.
"Wow..." Taylor thought, eyes widening. "Those must be the Alchemical Effects!"
She recognized the snowflake, heart and blade from the three potions her grandfather, had left her, meaning the other three symbols were likely also different Alchemical Effects. A Potion of sunlight? A Potion of wheat? She wasn't exactly sure how that would work, but she was excited to find out.
The more she saw the less she was convinced her grandfather was a parahuman tinker rather than a 'genuine alchemist'. Since when did a power let you make both magic papers and magic potions? All the Tinkers she had heard of over the course of her nerdy cape research could only do one thing, like Armsmaster who could make a bunch of technology fit into a single device or Squealer who could make monstrous death tanks.
Taylor then dropped in a second Terraria, watching as the southwards line extended, simultaneously the Terraria dissolved into nothing. Then the two Waterblooms were added, a wavy eastward line extending from the side of the bottom of the downwards line the previous two Terraria's had drawn. When the final Waterbloom dissolved, the surface of the Potion began to suddenly vibrate, ripples and waves shaking across the previously still surface.
Eyes widening and wondering if she had made a mistake, Taylor quickly turned back to the book.
I'm sure you saw what happened. Every ingredient you added appeared as a pathway on the map. In short, Alchemy is based upon the concept of the four elements, air, water, earth and fire. Adding earth-aligned Reagents will cause your Potion to head lower on the earth-air axis, which the Alchemy Map represents as south, and adding air-aligned Reagents will cause the opposite to happen. The same goes for the water-fire axis and Reagents aligned to those elements, water being shown as east and Fire shown as west.
This is a somewhat inaccurate representation, as what is truly happening is a change in the balance of the four elements with the Base fluid, but as a visual representation of Elemental alignment, direction is a good analogy. Thus, when you added the ingredients, such as Terraria, the Alchemy Map sends the increase in the presence of the earth element and as a result showed a downward pathway for your potion.
By stringing together many different reagents and the pathways they create, you can lead your potion to essentially any elemental makeup. Certain elemental makeups are unstable, however, and should your potion reach them, it will fail. That leads to to the Alchemical Effects themself.
Each Alchemical Effect is an exact elemental makeup or a 'location' on the Alchemy Map's visual representation, and by adding ingredients to reach it, you can Imbue the power of that Alchemical Effect onto your Base Fluid and create a Potion. You'll know you are at the proper elemental makeup of some Alchemical Effect because the Base Liquid in your potion will start to vibrate visibly. Once you have reached this state, two more things must be done.
"Oh, thank god!" Taylor said, letting loose a sigh of relief. "it's supposed to do that."
She really had been worried that vibration meant the Potion was ruined, but it seemed to be a normal part of the process.
The first is stirring. Although all the components have been added, they are not uniformly distributed and have not properly bound together with the Base Fluid. Simply stir with a spoon and the Reagents dissolved in the water will begin to bind, properly allowing your Base Fluid to reach the elemental makeup it needs. The Alchemy Map visibly shows this effect by showing the circle in the center moving along the path created by your Reagents.
Once you are done stirring and the ingredients are all bound together, you will notice the Base Fluid swirling. This is a sign that Alchemical Power is attempting to enter your Fluid. However, it cannot do so while the liquid is in its normal state.
Fire up the gas torch and light the coals below the cauldron(replace after every brew, there is extra coal in the Storage Basement). Once the liquid starts to boil, the Alchemical Effect will start to be Imbued into your Potion. Once this process finishes, crystalline particles will shower out from your potion, and a plume of coloured smoke will puff out of it. The Potion fluid will take on a colour dependant on the Alchemical effect, such as blue-white for ice potions, or light red for healing potions. The crisper, clearer and darker the colour the more power of a potion has been created and the closer you were to the perfect elemental makeup for that effect.
On another note, besides Windbloom, Firebell, Waterbloom and Terreria which simply increase a single element's presence, many Reagents are a combination of two of the element and will lead you 'diagonally' so to speak on the Alchemy Map, or in a different way than these four base Reagents. All the Reagents and their pathways I know of have been marked down in the book called 'Reagents Compendium' in the library and you will certainly find it useful, though you may also simply explore various Reagents yourself to become accustomed to them.
"Thus feels so... Scientific and straightforward, I guess," Taylor muttered.
Her grandfather described the process of alchemy in such a clear formal way, explaining the rules of the processes and how they interacted, it didn't really feel like some bullshit mumbo jumbo like magic in Harry Potter, but like an actual scientific process, no different from chemistry.
Feeling more confident, Taylor grabbed the stirring spoon leaning on the side of the Cauldron and lifted it up, beginning to stir. As she did so, the circle on the Alchemy Map began to slowly slide southwards, following the line traced out by her Reagents, then continuing eastwards. Eventually, it came to rest just overlapping the small red heart marking the Alchemical Effect of Healing.
The water within the Alchemical Cauldron began to rapidly swirl and shake, just as the journal said it would have. By now any doubts n Taylor's mind about the validity of Alchemy had disappeared, she was clearly coming into contact with something real, an actual system of knowledge lost to the world.
Taylor reached to the side of the Cauldron, grabbing the green gas-torch. She turned the nozzle on the top, hearing a sudden whizzing of gas, and then flicked the spark generator, watching as a blue stream of flame leapt from the nozzle of the torch. She ran the flame over the coals below the cauldron, watching as their surfaces turned orange and then red. and black smoke began to pour out of them.
Hesitantly, Taylor reached towards the bellows. She grasped the two handles and pushed together, the powerful gust of air heating the coals below the Cauldron even further until with a second and third pump of the bellow, the Cauldron suddenly shook and the Alchemy Map darkened. The previous cloudly, turbid water within the Cauldron had turned a sharp, crystalline reddish.
Taylor gulped.
This couldn't be real, right? She hadn't just successfully made a fucking magic potion?!
Taylor stood up, her legs shaking and walked over to the glassware cabinet, She opened it, ignoring the two Potions left by her grandfather and grabbing a large but empty glass Potion bottle.
She walked back over to the cauldron, which luckily had a convenient spout she could pour from. Tipping it over, she watched as the reddish liquid sloshed out of the cauldron and into her bottle. After a moment, the Cauldron was empty and Taylor was left with a large filled glass bottle.
Taylor stared down. She had just successfully... made a potion? Or had she? Needing one more test before she was completely convinced, Taylor put a finger in her mouth and bit down, the iron taste of blood-tingling her tongue and a sharp spike of pain stabbing her finger.
"Ahh, ahh! That hurts way more than I thought it would," Taylor hissed shaking her hand. Quickly she stuck her finger in the potion bottle. As the red potion liquid came into contact with her wound, the pain instantly melted away. Pulling her fingers out and looking down at it, Taylor could see the bite-wound was completely gone as if it had never been there in the first place.
As she looked down in wonder at the lack of a wound on her finger, Taylor felt strong jubilation rise up in her. She had done this. Taylor had done this. She had created an actual honest to god magic potion and healed herself with it.
'Take that Emma, you bitch! I bet you can't make goddamn magic potions!'
Massive quartz-like crystals of perfectly transparent ice stabbed out from the wall. Taylor could even see the broken remnants of the glass bottle and brown paper label suspended in the middle of one of the central ice crystals.
A crystal that jutted out so far Taylor realized she hadn't been more than a foot from having her face frozen and or stabbed by that ice.
"Calm down, Taylor," the hysterical girl shrieked, slapping herself in the face. "You're not the hysterical little girl Emma says you are, you can handle the weird fucking ice eruption that nearly took off your head. No biggie."
Taking a deep breath, Taylor forced herself to calm down. Shivering slightly from the winter-like coldness of the now-chilled workstation, Taylor walked towards the ice crystals. It got noticeably colder as she did so, her breath fogging in the air.
Taylor reached forward and poked one of the crystals, hissing as the cold air chilled her finger, which she pulled back and blew hot air on.
"This is crazy," muttered Taylor. "There's no way this is happening. Alchemy? No, no umm... It must be a parahuman creation...right? Those superscience capes, like Armsmaster, right? Tinkers!"
That must be it! Her grandfather was secretly a Tinker that could make ice bombs or something like that. What else would explain this?
But... slowly Taylor walked back over to where she had dropped his journal, picking it up. She had to read more, and figure out what was really going on.
The first potion is of light blue colour, marked with a snowflake. It is a potion of frost. If you were to smash it against a wall, you would have an eruption of ice.
The second potion is of green colour, marked with a dripping blade, it is a Potion of Poisoning. It can be drunk or injected to poison creatures. Obviously, be careful when handling a highly dangerous poison.
"...But the fucking ice one isn't?" Taylor muttered.
The third is a Potion of Healing, with a reddish colour and labelled with a red heart. It is a Potion of Healing that can be drunk or poured on wounds to heal them.
Try out one or two of the potions to see for yourself that they are real and do what I say. Once you've done so, continue to the next page.
"Well, I have already have tried them," Taylor flipped onto the next page.
Now then, allow me to explain how this all began. As a young child, I had always been deeply interested in the occult. Magic, mysticism, mythology, witchcraft and the like. At first, it was just a hobby. However, in the course of my studies to become an archaeologist, I began to look into old books and accounts about alchemy.
Unlike the other countless Occult topics I had looked into, It struck me how much all these various ancient people described the wondrous potions and artifacts they had created and how many of them spoke of similar processes and results. I began to realize it was more than just a coincidence.
The knowledge described in these books must truly work to, or at the very least be related to a real-world process to some degree, one lost to time and thought to be nothing more than legend. I began to study more and more, looking through old archives and libraries for books on alchemy, while experimenting myself.
For nearly a decade I never had much success. I tested out many of the described procedures but had no results. That said, I never gave up, in my heart I knew I was on to something monumental. It wasn't long until my faith would be rewarded. That was until I happened to stumble across an old Native American manuscript that spoke of a divine 'Enchanted Tree'. It was said that from its shade would spring plants that could be ground up and used to heal near any wound.
Pulling on this thread, I found more and more information about this Enchanted Tree until I was finally to pinpoint its location to the area that had eventually become the city of Brockton Bay. I travelled to the city and after months of searching through the grassland, I found it. That 'Enchanted Tree' of legend is the same large Oak you will see in the back garden of this house. Every morning, without any seeds having been planted, dozens of plants will spring up from the ground.
Combining these plants, henceforth dubbed Reagents, with the processes I had gathered from my previous study of Alchemical manuscripts, I finally succeeded in the creation of my very first potion.
For some reason, it seems Reagents are the key to successful Alchemy. Though I will admit, I have no idea why. The most plausible idea I can think of is that some sort of 'magical energy' is required for the Alchemical Process, and that is energy faded from the world somehow, save for relics that had existed before said fading took place, such as the Enchanted Tree and the Reagents it produces. It does sound a bit fantastical, even to my own ears but I can't think anything better. Regardless, that question falls to you now and I hope you'll be more successful in answering this question than I was.
Taylor once more paused her reading, remembering the impossibly emerald leaves of the massive tree she had seen in the backyard of Westport Place. She was expected to believe it was some kind of magical Native American... potion tree? However, what her grandfather was explaining to her really didn't sound like the powers of a parahuman. After all, what parahuman couldn't use their powers until they found a special tree? Maybe there really was something to all this nonsense?
Taylor would just have to keep reading to find out more before she could come to a decisive conclusion. Maybe she could test out the potion-making process her grandfather was no doubt soon to describe and once it didn't work for her (Who was definitely not a parahuman!) she would know for certain.
Beyond the Enchanted Tree, there are three more rooms that will be integral to your Alchemy. The storage basement (Which you may locate through the trap door behind the Potion cupboard) contains a vast number of glass bottles for storing potions, labels, coal, papers, materials writing utensils and a whole lot of other miscellaneous items, as well as artifacts I have encountered on my many expeditions. The second is my library, containing notes, manuals, instructions and other books related to alchemy I have either acquired through research or written myself. It will be indispensable to you in your learning as a new alchemist.
Finally, there is the Potion Lab you are in currently. There is the Potion Cupboard where you may deposit Synthesized Potions, the Workstation area, containing an Alchemical Cauldron, a gas-torch, a Ladle, Bellows and Mortar and Pestle all of which are part of the Alchemical Process I have devised. At the back of the room, covering an entire wall is the most important artifact I have ever discovered, the Alchemy Map.
On the next page I will begin to explain to you the Alchemical Process, but first head over to the kitchen and retrieve the Reagents labelled 'Firebell' 'Waterbloom' 'Terraria' and 'Windbloom'.
Taylor closed the book and put it in the pocket, taking a deep breath. 'Time to put this matter to rest,' she thought.
She turned around, walking away from the Potion Lab and stepping back out into the Entrance Room, walking through the hallway and finally reaching the kitchen. She headed straight towards the cupboards at the end of the kitchen, opening them and looking at all the labelled jars of plants or 'Reagents' as her grandfather's journal had called them.
'There's the Firebell' Taylor thought, her eyes settling on a large glass jar that contained the red tubular flowers labelled Firebell, even as she grabbed it.
'Now Waterbloom... where is the Waterbloom?' she wondered, looking around. They were near the bottom, and as she grabbed them as well, Taylor noticed they looked just like lotus flowers only with five petals and coloured blue instead of pink.
'Terraria...' which was on the third shelf and resembled miniature green ferns, and then... 'Windbloom' which was on the top shelf.
Having gathered all four of the Reagents mentioned. Taylor made her way back to the Potion Lab and stepped inside. She carefully set down the four glass jars on the cupboard and continued to read.
Once you have gathered the Reagents specified. Go to the Alchemical Cauldron. Place into the Cauldron two Terarria and two Waterbloom, the order does not matter. Pay attention to the Alchemy Map on the wall of the room.
Taylor walked over to the large black-metal Cauldron, carrying over the large glass jars of Reagents with her. Unscrewing the lid of the Terraria jar, she pulled out the large green fern-like leaves of the Terraria. She hesitantly held one leaf over the cauldron, which was already full of water and dropped it. As the leafy green touched the water within the Cauldron, it began to rapidly dissolve, greening the water around it. It took less than a dozen seconds to have fully disappeared, leaving cloudy water with a hint of green.
As she did so, ink seemed to appear across the blank parchment paper covering the walls of the room, the so-called alchemical map. First, a circle appeared in its center. Then a line of wavy ink began to protrude southwards from the central circle. Finally, six markers appeared on random spots across the map, a small flame, a snowflake, a glowing sun, a red heart, a blade dripping with poison and a bushel of wheat.
"Wow..." Taylor thought, eyes widening. "Those must be the Alchemical Effects!"
She recognized the snowflake, heart and blade from the three potions her grandfather, had left her, meaning the other three symbols were likely also different Alchemical Effects. A Potion of sunlight? A Potion of wheat? She wasn't exactly sure how that would work, but she was excited to find out.
The more she saw the less she was convinced her grandfather was a parahuman tinker rather than a 'genuine alchemist'. Since when did a power let you make both magic papers and magic potions? All the Tinkers she had heard of over the course of her nerdy cape research could only do one thing, like Armsmaster who could make a bunch of technology fit into a single device or Squealer who could make monstrous death tanks.
Taylor then dropped in a second Terraria, watching as the southwards line extended, simultaneously the Terraria dissolved into nothing. Then the two Waterblooms were added, a wavy eastward line extending from the side of the bottom of the downwards line the previous two Terraria's had drawn. When the final Waterbloom dissolved, the surface of the Potion began to suddenly vibrate, ripples and waves shaking across the previously still surface.
Eyes widening and wondering if she had made a mistake, Taylor quickly turned back to the book.
I'm sure you saw what happened. Every ingredient you added appeared as a pathway on the map. In short, Alchemy is based upon the concept of the four elements, air, water, earth and fire. Adding earth-aligned Reagents will cause your Potion to head lower on the earth-air axis, which the Alchemy Map represents as south, and adding air-aligned Reagents will cause the opposite to happen. The same goes for the water-fire axis and Reagents aligned to those elements, water being shown as east and Fire shown as west.
This is a somewhat inaccurate representation, as what is truly happening is a change in the balance of the four elements with the Base fluid, but as a visual representation of Elemental alignment, direction is a good analogy. Thus, when you added the ingredients, such as Terraria, the Alchemy Map sends the increase in the presence of the earth element and as a result showed a downward pathway for your potion.
By stringing together many different reagents and the pathways they create, you can lead your potion to essentially any elemental makeup. Certain elemental makeups are unstable, however, and should your potion reach them, it will fail. That leads to to the Alchemical Effects themself.
Each Alchemical Effect is an exact elemental makeup or a 'location' on the Alchemy Map's visual representation, and by adding ingredients to reach it, you can Imbue the power of that Alchemical Effect onto your Base Fluid and create a Potion. You'll know you are at the proper elemental makeup of some Alchemical Effect because the Base Liquid in your potion will start to vibrate visibly. Once you have reached this state, two more things must be done.
"Oh, thank god!" Taylor said, letting loose a sigh of relief. "it's supposed to do that."
She really had been worried that vibration meant the Potion was ruined, but it seemed to be a normal part of the process.
The first is stirring. Although all the components have been added, they are not uniformly distributed and have not properly bound together with the Base Fluid. Simply stir with a spoon and the Reagents dissolved in the water will begin to bind, properly allowing your Base Fluid to reach the elemental makeup it needs. The Alchemy Map visibly shows this effect by showing the circle in the center moving along the path created by your Reagents.
Once you are done stirring and the ingredients are all bound together, you will notice the Base Fluid swirling. This is a sign that Alchemical Power is attempting to enter your Fluid. However, it cannot do so while the liquid is in its normal state.
Fire up the gas torch and light the coals below the cauldron(replace after every brew, there is extra coal in the Storage Basement). Once the liquid starts to boil, the Alchemical Effect will start to be Imbued into your Potion. Once this process finishes, crystalline particles will shower out from your potion, and a plume of coloured smoke will puff out of it. The Potion fluid will take on a colour dependant on the Alchemical effect, such as blue-white for ice potions, or light red for healing potions. The crisper, clearer and darker the colour the more power of a potion has been created and the closer you were to the perfect elemental makeup for that effect.
On another note, besides Windbloom, Firebell, Waterbloom and Terreria which simply increase a single element's presence, many Reagents are a combination of two of the element and will lead you 'diagonally' so to speak on the Alchemy Map, or in a different way than these four base Reagents. All the Reagents and their pathways I know of have been marked down in the book called 'Reagents Compendium' in the library and you will certainly find it useful, though you may also simply explore various Reagents yourself to become accustomed to them.
"Thus feels so... Scientific and straightforward, I guess," Taylor muttered.
Her grandfather described the process of alchemy in such a clear formal way, explaining the rules of the processes and how they interacted, it didn't really feel like some bullshit mumbo jumbo like magic in Harry Potter, but like an actual scientific process, no different from chemistry.
Feeling more confident, Taylor grabbed the stirring spoon leaning on the side of the Cauldron and lifted it up, beginning to stir. As she did so, the circle on the Alchemy Map began to slowly slide southwards, following the line traced out by her Reagents, then continuing eastwards. Eventually, it came to rest just overlapping the small red heart marking the Alchemical Effect of Healing.
The water within the Alchemical Cauldron began to rapidly swirl and shake, just as the journal said it would have. By now any doubts n Taylor's mind about the validity of Alchemy had disappeared, she was clearly coming into contact with something real, an actual system of knowledge lost to the world.
Taylor reached to the side of the Cauldron, grabbing the green gas-torch. She turned the nozzle on the top, hearing a sudden whizzing of gas, and then flicked the spark generator, watching as a blue stream of flame leapt from the nozzle of the torch. She ran the flame over the coals below the cauldron, watching as their surfaces turned orange and then red. and black smoke began to pour out of them.
Hesitantly, Taylor reached towards the bellows. She grasped the two handles and pushed together, the powerful gust of air heating the coals below the Cauldron even further until with a second and third pump of the bellow, the Cauldron suddenly shook and the Alchemy Map darkened. The previous cloudly, turbid water within the Cauldron had turned a sharp, crystalline reddish.
Taylor gulped.
This couldn't be real, right? She hadn't just successfully made a fucking magic potion?!
Taylor stood up, her legs shaking and walked over to the glassware cabinet, She opened it, ignoring the two Potions left by her grandfather and grabbing a large but empty glass Potion bottle.
She walked back over to the cauldron, which luckily had a convenient spout she could pour from. Tipping it over, she watched as the reddish liquid sloshed out of the cauldron and into her bottle. After a moment, the Cauldron was empty and Taylor was left with a large filled glass bottle.
Taylor stared down. She had just successfully... made a potion? Or had she? Needing one more test before she was completely convinced, Taylor put a finger in her mouth and bit down, the iron taste of blood-tingling her tongue and a sharp spike of pain stabbing her finger.
"Ahh, ahh! That hurts way more than I thought it would," Taylor hissed shaking her hand. Quickly she stuck her finger in the potion bottle. As the red potion liquid came into contact with her wound, the pain instantly melted away. Pulling her fingers out and looking down at it, Taylor could see the bite-wound was completely gone as if it had never been there in the first place.
As she looked down in wonder at the lack of a wound on her finger, Taylor felt strong jubilation rise up in her. She had done this. Taylor had done this. She had created an actual honest to god magic potion and healed herself with it.
'Take that Emma, you bitch! I bet you can't make goddamn magic potions!'
Last edited:
Tisaku
Head Chief Thinkomancer
reagents
she
coordinates
. With
pump of the bellows
in the cauldron
bottle
suspended
-no constriction to trap air-
ninjastar
(Verified Taoist Immortal)
- Location
- Your mom's house
Thanks, those errors should be fixed now.
Rewritten Chapter 2: Beginnings
ninjastar
(Verified Taoist Immortal)
- Location
- Your mom's house
"-Fuuuuuck!?" Taylor screamed, stumbling away from the eruption of ice. She fell onto her backside before quickly turning over and desperation crawling away. Reaching the backside of the wall, Taylor stumbled to her feet, turning around gingerly to confirm that she had seen what she thought she had seen, that she hadn't imagined all of that.
Massive quartz-like crystals of perfectly transparent ice stabbed out from the wall. Taylor could even see the broken remnants of the glass bottle and brown paper label suspended in the middle of one of the central ice crystals.
A crystal that jutted out so far Taylor realized she hadn't been more than a foot from having her face frozen and or stabbed by that ice.
"Calm down, Taylor," the hysterical girl shrieked, slapping herself in the face. "You're not the hysterical little girl Emma says you are, you can handle the weird fucking ice eruption that nearly took off your head. No biggie."
Taking a deep breath, Taylor forced herself to calm down. Shivering slightly from the winter-like coldness of the now-chilled workstation, Taylor walked towards the ice crystals. It got noticeably colder as she did so, her breath fogging in the air.
Taylor reached forward and poked one of the crystals, hissing as the cold air chilled her finger, which she pulled back and blew hot air on.
"This is crazy," muttered Taylor. "There's no way this is happening. Alchemy? No, no umm... It must be a parahuman creation...right? Those superscience capes, like Armsmaster, right? Tinkers!"
That must be it! Her grandfather was secretly a Tinker that could make ice bombs or something like that. What else would explain this?
But... slowly Taylor walked back over to where she had dropped his journal, picking it up. She had to read more, and figure out what was really going on.
The first potion is of light blue colour, marked with a snowflake. It is a potion of frost. If you were to smash it against a wall, you would have an eruption of ice.
The second potion is of green colour, marked with a dripping blade, it is a Potion of Poisoning. It can be drunk or injected to poison creatures. Obviously, be careful when handling a highly dangerous poison.
"...But the fucking ice one isn't?" Taylor muttered.
The third is a Potion of Healing, with a reddish colour and labelled with a red heart. It is a Potion of Healing that can be drunk or poured on wounds to heal them.
Try out one or two of the potions to see for yourself that they are real and do what I say. Once you've done so, continue to the next page.
"Well, I have already have tried them," Taylor flipped onto the next page.
Now then, allow me to explain how this all began. As a young child, I had always been deeply interested in the occult. Magic, mysticism, mythology, witchcraft and the like. At first, it was just a hobby. However, in the course of my studies to become an archaeologist, I began to look into old books and accounts about alchemy.
Unlike the other countless Occult topics I had looked into, It struck me how much all these various ancient people described the wondrous potions and artifacts they had created and how many of them spoke of similar processes and results. I began to realize it was more than just a coincidence.
The knowledge described in these books must truly work to, or at the very least be related to a real-world process to some degree, one lost to time and thought to be nothing more than legend. I began to study more and more, looking through old archives and libraries for books on alchemy, while experimenting myself.
For nearly a decade I never had much success. I tested out many of the described procedures but had no results. That said, I never gave up, in my heart I knew I was on to something monumental. It wasn't long until my faith would be rewarded. That was until I happened to stumble across an old Native American manuscript that spoke of a divine 'Enchanted Tree'. It was said that from its shade would spring plants that could be ground up and used to heal near any wound.
Pulling on this thread, I found more and more information about this Enchanted Tree until I was finally to pinpoint its location to the area that had eventually become the city of Brockton Bay. I travelled to the city and after months of searching through the grassland, I found it. That 'Enchanted Tree' of legend is the same large Oak you will see in the back garden of this house. Every morning, without any seeds having been planted, dozens of plants will spring up from the ground.
Combining these plants, henceforth dubbed Reagents, with the processes I had gathered from my previous study of Alchemical manuscripts, I finally succeeded in the creation of my very first potion.
For some reason, it seems Reagents are the key to successful Alchemy. Though I will admit, I have no idea why. The most plausible idea I can think of is that some sort of 'magical energy' is required for the Alchemical Process, and that is energy faded from the world somehow, save for relics that had existed before said fading took place, such as the Enchanted Tree and the Reagents it produces. It does sound a bit fantastical, even to my own ears but I can't think anything better. Regardless, that question falls to you now and I hope you'll be more successful in answering this question than I was.
Taylor once more paused her reading, remembering the impossibly emerald leaves of the massive tree she had seen in the backyard of Westport Place. She was expected to believe it was some kind of magical Native American... potion tree? However, what her grandfather was explaining to her really didn't sound like the powers of a parahuman. After all, what parahuman couldn't use their powers until they found a special tree? Maybe there really was something to all this nonsense?
Taylor would just have to keep reading to find out more before she could come to a decisive conclusion. Maybe she could test out the potion-making process her grandfather was no doubt soon to describe and once it didn't work for her (Who was definitely not a parahuman!) she would know for certain.
Beyond the Enchanted Tree, there are three more rooms that will be integral to your Alchemy. The storage basement (Which you may locate through the trap door behind the Potion cupboard) contains a vast number of glass bottles for storing potions, labels, coal, papers, materials writing utensils and a whole lot of other miscellaneous items, as well as artifacts I have encountered on my many expeditions. The second is my library, containing notes, manuals, instructions and other books related to alchemy I have either acquired through research or written myself. It will be indispensable to you in your learning as a new alchemist.
Finally, there is the Potion Lab you are in currently. There is the Potion Cupboard where you may deposit Synthesized Potions, the Workstation area, containing an Alchemical Cauldron, a gas-torch, a Ladle, Bellows and Mortar and Pestle all of which are part of the Alchemical Process I have devised. At the back of the room, covering an entire wall is the most important artifact I have ever discovered, the Alchemy Map.
On the next page I will begin to explain to you the Alchemical Process, but first head over to the kitchen and retrieve the Reagents labelled 'Firebell' 'Waterbloom' 'Terraria' and 'Windbloom'.
Taylor closed the book and put it in the pocket, taking a deep breath. 'Time to put this matter to rest,' she thought.
She turned around, walking away from the Potion Lab and stepping back out into the Entrance Room, walking through the hallway and finally reaching the kitchen. She headed straight towards the cupboards at the end of the kitchen, opening them and looking at all the labelled jars of plants or 'Reagents' as her grandfather's journal had called them.
'There's the Firebell' Taylor thought, her eyes settling on a large glass jar that contained the red tubular flowers labelled Firebell, even as she grabbed it.
'Now Waterbloom... where is the Waterbloom?' she wondered, looking around. They were near the bottom, and as she grabbed them as well, Taylor noticed they looked just like lotus flowers only with five petals and coloured blue instead of pink.
'Terraria...' which was on the third shelf and resembled miniature green ferns, and then... 'Windbloom' which was on the top shelf.
Having gathered all four of the Reagents mentioned. Taylor made her way back to the Potion Lab and stepped inside. She carefully set down the four glass jars on the cupboard and continued to read.
Once you have gathered the Reagents specified. Go to the Alchemical Cauldron. Place into the Cauldron two Terarria and two Waterbloom, the order does not matter. Pay attention to the Alchemy Map on the wall of the room.
Taylor walked over to the large black-metal Cauldron, carrying over the large glass jars of Reagents with her. Unscrewing the lid of the Terraria jar, she pulled out the large green fern-like leaves of the Terraria. She hesitantly held one leaf over the cauldron, which was already full of water and dropped it. As the leafy green touched the water within the Cauldron, it began to rapidly dissolve, greening the water around it. It took less than a dozen seconds to have fully disappeared, leaving cloudy water with a hint of green.
As she did so, ink seemed to appear across the blank parchment paper covering the walls of the room, the so-called alchemical map. First, a circle appeared in its center. Then a line of wavy ink began to protrude southwards from the central circle. Finally, six markers appeared on random spots across the map, a small flame, a snowflake, a glowing sun, a red heart, a blade dripping with poison and a green vines
"Wow..." Taylor thought, eyes widening. "Those must be the Alchemical Effects!"
She recognized the snowflake, heart and blade from the three potions her grandfather, had left her, meaning the other three symbols were likely also different Alchemical Effects. A Potion of sunlight? A Potion of plant? She wasn't exactly sure how that would work, but she was excited to find out.
The more she saw the less she was convinced her grandfather was a parahuman tinker rather than a 'genuine alchemist'. Since when did a power let you make both magic papers and magic potions? All the Tinkers she had heard of over the course of her nerdy cape research could only do one thing, like Armsmaster who could make a bunch of technology fit into a single device or Squealer who could make monstrous death tanks.
Taylor then dropped in a second Terraria, watching as the southwards line extended, simultaneously the Terraria dissolved into nothing. Then the two Waterblooms were added, a wavy eastward line extending from the side of the bottom of the downwards line the previous two Terraria's had drawn. When the final Waterbloom dissolved, the surface of the Potion began to suddenly vibrate, ripples and waves shaking across the previously still surface.
Eyes widening and wondering if she had made a mistake, Taylor quickly turned back to the book.
I'm sure you saw what happened. Every ingredient you added appeared as a pathway on the map. In short, Alchemy is based upon the concept of the four elements, air, water, earth and fire. Adding earth-aligned Reagents will cause your Potion to head lower on the earth-air axis, which the Alchemy Map represents as south, and adding air-aligned Reagents will cause the opposite to happen. The same goes for the water-fire axis and Reagents aligned to those elements, water being shown as east and Fire shown as west.
This is a somewhat inaccurate representation, as what is truly happening is a change in the balance of the four elements with the Base fluid, but as a visual representation of Elemental alignment, direction is a good analogy. Thus, when you added the ingredients, such as Terraria, the Alchemy Map sends the increase in the presence of the earth element and as a result showed a downward pathway for your potion.
By stringing together many different reagents and the pathways they create, you can lead your potion to essentially any elemental makeup. Certain elemental makeups are unstable, however, and should your potion reach them, it will fail. That leads to to the Alchemical Effects themself.
Each Alchemical Effect is an exact elemental makeup or a 'location' on the Alchemy Map's visual representation, and by adding ingredients to reach it, you can Imbue the power of that Alchemical Effect onto your Base Fluid and create a Potion. You'll know you are at the proper elemental makeup of some Alchemical Effect because the Base Liquid in your potion will start to vibrate visibly. Once you have reached this state, two more things must be done.
"Oh, thank god!" Taylor said, letting loose a sigh of relief. "it's supposed to do that."
She really had been worried that vibration meant the Potion was ruined, but it seemed to be a normal part of the process.
The first is stirring. Although all the components have been added, they are not uniformly distributed and have not properly bound together with the Base Fluid. Simply stir with a spoon and the Reagents dissolved in the water will begin to bind, properly allowing your Base Fluid to reach the elemental makeup it needs. The Alchemy Map visibly shows this effect by showing the circle in the center moving along the path created by your Reagents.
Once you are done stirring and the ingredients are all bound together, you will notice the Base Fluid swirling. This is a sign that Alchemical Power is attempting to enter your Fluid. However, it cannot do so while the liquid is in its normal state.
Fire up the gas torch and light the coals below the cauldron(replace after every brew, there is extra coal in the Storage Basement). Once the liquid starts to boil, the Alchemical Effect will start to be Imbued into your Potion. Once this process finishes, crystalline particles will shower out from your potion, and a plume of coloured smoke will puff out of it. The Potion fluid will take on a colour dependant on the Alchemical effect, such as blue-white for ice potions, or light red for healing potions. The crisper, clearer and darker the colour the more power of a potion has been created and the closer you were to the perfect elemental makeup for that effect.
On another note, besides Windbloom, Firebell, Waterbloom and Terreria which simply increase a single element's presence, many Reagents are a combination of two of the element and will lead you 'diagonally' so to speak on the Alchemy Map, or in a different way than these four base Reagents. All the Reagents and their pathways I know of have been marked down in the book called 'Reagents Compendium' in the library and you will certainly find it useful, though you may also simply explore various Reagents yourself to become accustomed to them.
"Thus feels so... Scientific and straightforward, I guess," Taylor muttered.
Her grandfather described the process of alchemy in such a clear formal way, explaining the rules of the processes and how they interacted, it didn't really feel like some bullshit mumbo jumbo like magic in Harry Potter, but like an actual scientific process, no different from chemistry.
Feeling more confident, Taylor grabbed the stirring spoon leaning on the side of the Cauldron and lifted it up, beginning to stir. As she did so, the circle on the Alchemy Map began to slowly slide southwards, following the line traced out by her Reagents, then continuing eastwards. Eventually, it came to rest just overlapping the small red heart marking the Alchemical Effect of Healing.
The water within the Alchemical Cauldron began to rapidly swirl and shake, just as the journal said it would have. By now any doubts n Taylor's mind about the validity of Alchemy had disappeared, she was clearly coming into contact with something real, an actual system of knowledge lost to the world.
Taylor reached to the side of the Cauldron, grabbing the green gas-torch. She turned the nozzle on the top, hearing a sudden whizzing of gas, and then flicked the spark generator, watching as a blue stream of flame leapt from the nozzle of the torch. She ran the flame over the coals below the cauldron, watching as their surfaces turned orange and then red. and black smoke began to pour out of them.
Hesitantly, Taylor reached towards the bellows. She grasped the two handles and pushed together, the powerful gust of air heating the coals below the Cauldron even further until with a second and third pump of the bellow, the Cauldron suddenly shook and the Alchemy Map darkened. The previous cloudly, turbid water within the Cauldron had turned a sharp, crystalline reddish.
Taylor gulped.
This couldn't be real, right? She hadn't just successfully made a fucking magic potion?!
Taylor stood up, her legs shaking and walked over to the glassware cabinet, She opened it, ignoring the two Potions left by her grandfather and grabbing a large but empty glass Potion bottle.
She walked back over to the cauldron, which luckily had a convenient spout she could pour from. Tipping it over, she watched as the reddish liquid sloshed out of the cauldron and into her bottle. After a moment, the Cauldron was empty and Taylor was left with a large filled glass bottle.
Taylor stared down. She had just successfully... made a potion? Or had she? Needing one more test before she was completely convinced, Taylor put a finger in her mouth and bit down, the iron taste of blood-tingling her tongue and a sharp spike of pain stabbing her finger.
"Ahh, ahh! That hurts way more than I thought it would," Taylor hissed shaking her hand. Quickly she stuck her finger in the potion bottle. As the red potion liquid came into contact with her wound, the pain instantly melted away. Pulling her fingers out and looking down at it, Taylor could see the bite-wound was completely gone as if it had never been there in the first place.
As she looked down in wonder at the lack of a wound on her finger, Taylor felt strong jubilation rise up in her. She had done this. Taylor had done this. She had created an actual honest to god magic potion and healed herself with it.
'Take that Emma, you bitch! I bet you can't make goddamn magic potions!'
Massive quartz-like crystals of perfectly transparent ice stabbed out from the wall. Taylor could even see the broken remnants of the glass bottle and brown paper label suspended in the middle of one of the central ice crystals.
A crystal that jutted out so far Taylor realized she hadn't been more than a foot from having her face frozen and or stabbed by that ice.
"Calm down, Taylor," the hysterical girl shrieked, slapping herself in the face. "You're not the hysterical little girl Emma says you are, you can handle the weird fucking ice eruption that nearly took off your head. No biggie."
Taking a deep breath, Taylor forced herself to calm down. Shivering slightly from the winter-like coldness of the now-chilled workstation, Taylor walked towards the ice crystals. It got noticeably colder as she did so, her breath fogging in the air.
Taylor reached forward and poked one of the crystals, hissing as the cold air chilled her finger, which she pulled back and blew hot air on.
"This is crazy," muttered Taylor. "There's no way this is happening. Alchemy? No, no umm... It must be a parahuman creation...right? Those superscience capes, like Armsmaster, right? Tinkers!"
That must be it! Her grandfather was secretly a Tinker that could make ice bombs or something like that. What else would explain this?
But... slowly Taylor walked back over to where she had dropped his journal, picking it up. She had to read more, and figure out what was really going on.
The first potion is of light blue colour, marked with a snowflake. It is a potion of frost. If you were to smash it against a wall, you would have an eruption of ice.
The second potion is of green colour, marked with a dripping blade, it is a Potion of Poisoning. It can be drunk or injected to poison creatures. Obviously, be careful when handling a highly dangerous poison.
"...But the fucking ice one isn't?" Taylor muttered.
The third is a Potion of Healing, with a reddish colour and labelled with a red heart. It is a Potion of Healing that can be drunk or poured on wounds to heal them.
Try out one or two of the potions to see for yourself that they are real and do what I say. Once you've done so, continue to the next page.
"Well, I have already have tried them," Taylor flipped onto the next page.
Now then, allow me to explain how this all began. As a young child, I had always been deeply interested in the occult. Magic, mysticism, mythology, witchcraft and the like. At first, it was just a hobby. However, in the course of my studies to become an archaeologist, I began to look into old books and accounts about alchemy.
Unlike the other countless Occult topics I had looked into, It struck me how much all these various ancient people described the wondrous potions and artifacts they had created and how many of them spoke of similar processes and results. I began to realize it was more than just a coincidence.
The knowledge described in these books must truly work to, or at the very least be related to a real-world process to some degree, one lost to time and thought to be nothing more than legend. I began to study more and more, looking through old archives and libraries for books on alchemy, while experimenting myself.
For nearly a decade I never had much success. I tested out many of the described procedures but had no results. That said, I never gave up, in my heart I knew I was on to something monumental. It wasn't long until my faith would be rewarded. That was until I happened to stumble across an old Native American manuscript that spoke of a divine 'Enchanted Tree'. It was said that from its shade would spring plants that could be ground up and used to heal near any wound.
Pulling on this thread, I found more and more information about this Enchanted Tree until I was finally to pinpoint its location to the area that had eventually become the city of Brockton Bay. I travelled to the city and after months of searching through the grassland, I found it. That 'Enchanted Tree' of legend is the same large Oak you will see in the back garden of this house. Every morning, without any seeds having been planted, dozens of plants will spring up from the ground.
Combining these plants, henceforth dubbed Reagents, with the processes I had gathered from my previous study of Alchemical manuscripts, I finally succeeded in the creation of my very first potion.
For some reason, it seems Reagents are the key to successful Alchemy. Though I will admit, I have no idea why. The most plausible idea I can think of is that some sort of 'magical energy' is required for the Alchemical Process, and that is energy faded from the world somehow, save for relics that had existed before said fading took place, such as the Enchanted Tree and the Reagents it produces. It does sound a bit fantastical, even to my own ears but I can't think anything better. Regardless, that question falls to you now and I hope you'll be more successful in answering this question than I was.
Taylor once more paused her reading, remembering the impossibly emerald leaves of the massive tree she had seen in the backyard of Westport Place. She was expected to believe it was some kind of magical Native American... potion tree? However, what her grandfather was explaining to her really didn't sound like the powers of a parahuman. After all, what parahuman couldn't use their powers until they found a special tree? Maybe there really was something to all this nonsense?
Taylor would just have to keep reading to find out more before she could come to a decisive conclusion. Maybe she could test out the potion-making process her grandfather was no doubt soon to describe and once it didn't work for her (Who was definitely not a parahuman!) she would know for certain.
Beyond the Enchanted Tree, there are three more rooms that will be integral to your Alchemy. The storage basement (Which you may locate through the trap door behind the Potion cupboard) contains a vast number of glass bottles for storing potions, labels, coal, papers, materials writing utensils and a whole lot of other miscellaneous items, as well as artifacts I have encountered on my many expeditions. The second is my library, containing notes, manuals, instructions and other books related to alchemy I have either acquired through research or written myself. It will be indispensable to you in your learning as a new alchemist.
Finally, there is the Potion Lab you are in currently. There is the Potion Cupboard where you may deposit Synthesized Potions, the Workstation area, containing an Alchemical Cauldron, a gas-torch, a Ladle, Bellows and Mortar and Pestle all of which are part of the Alchemical Process I have devised. At the back of the room, covering an entire wall is the most important artifact I have ever discovered, the Alchemy Map.
On the next page I will begin to explain to you the Alchemical Process, but first head over to the kitchen and retrieve the Reagents labelled 'Firebell' 'Waterbloom' 'Terraria' and 'Windbloom'.
Taylor closed the book and put it in the pocket, taking a deep breath. 'Time to put this matter to rest,' she thought.
She turned around, walking away from the Potion Lab and stepping back out into the Entrance Room, walking through the hallway and finally reaching the kitchen. She headed straight towards the cupboards at the end of the kitchen, opening them and looking at all the labelled jars of plants or 'Reagents' as her grandfather's journal had called them.
'There's the Firebell' Taylor thought, her eyes settling on a large glass jar that contained the red tubular flowers labelled Firebell, even as she grabbed it.
'Now Waterbloom... where is the Waterbloom?' she wondered, looking around. They were near the bottom, and as she grabbed them as well, Taylor noticed they looked just like lotus flowers only with five petals and coloured blue instead of pink.
'Terraria...' which was on the third shelf and resembled miniature green ferns, and then... 'Windbloom' which was on the top shelf.
Having gathered all four of the Reagents mentioned. Taylor made her way back to the Potion Lab and stepped inside. She carefully set down the four glass jars on the cupboard and continued to read.
Once you have gathered the Reagents specified. Go to the Alchemical Cauldron. Place into the Cauldron two Terarria and two Waterbloom, the order does not matter. Pay attention to the Alchemy Map on the wall of the room.
Taylor walked over to the large black-metal Cauldron, carrying over the large glass jars of Reagents with her. Unscrewing the lid of the Terraria jar, she pulled out the large green fern-like leaves of the Terraria. She hesitantly held one leaf over the cauldron, which was already full of water and dropped it. As the leafy green touched the water within the Cauldron, it began to rapidly dissolve, greening the water around it. It took less than a dozen seconds to have fully disappeared, leaving cloudy water with a hint of green.
As she did so, ink seemed to appear across the blank parchment paper covering the walls of the room, the so-called alchemical map. First, a circle appeared in its center. Then a line of wavy ink began to protrude southwards from the central circle. Finally, six markers appeared on random spots across the map, a small flame, a snowflake, a glowing sun, a red heart, a blade dripping with poison and a green vines
"Wow..." Taylor thought, eyes widening. "Those must be the Alchemical Effects!"
She recognized the snowflake, heart and blade from the three potions her grandfather, had left her, meaning the other three symbols were likely also different Alchemical Effects. A Potion of sunlight? A Potion of plant? She wasn't exactly sure how that would work, but she was excited to find out.
The more she saw the less she was convinced her grandfather was a parahuman tinker rather than a 'genuine alchemist'. Since when did a power let you make both magic papers and magic potions? All the Tinkers she had heard of over the course of her nerdy cape research could only do one thing, like Armsmaster who could make a bunch of technology fit into a single device or Squealer who could make monstrous death tanks.
Taylor then dropped in a second Terraria, watching as the southwards line extended, simultaneously the Terraria dissolved into nothing. Then the two Waterblooms were added, a wavy eastward line extending from the side of the bottom of the downwards line the previous two Terraria's had drawn. When the final Waterbloom dissolved, the surface of the Potion began to suddenly vibrate, ripples and waves shaking across the previously still surface.
Eyes widening and wondering if she had made a mistake, Taylor quickly turned back to the book.
I'm sure you saw what happened. Every ingredient you added appeared as a pathway on the map. In short, Alchemy is based upon the concept of the four elements, air, water, earth and fire. Adding earth-aligned Reagents will cause your Potion to head lower on the earth-air axis, which the Alchemy Map represents as south, and adding air-aligned Reagents will cause the opposite to happen. The same goes for the water-fire axis and Reagents aligned to those elements, water being shown as east and Fire shown as west.
This is a somewhat inaccurate representation, as what is truly happening is a change in the balance of the four elements with the Base fluid, but as a visual representation of Elemental alignment, direction is a good analogy. Thus, when you added the ingredients, such as Terraria, the Alchemy Map sends the increase in the presence of the earth element and as a result showed a downward pathway for your potion.
By stringing together many different reagents and the pathways they create, you can lead your potion to essentially any elemental makeup. Certain elemental makeups are unstable, however, and should your potion reach them, it will fail. That leads to to the Alchemical Effects themself.
Each Alchemical Effect is an exact elemental makeup or a 'location' on the Alchemy Map's visual representation, and by adding ingredients to reach it, you can Imbue the power of that Alchemical Effect onto your Base Fluid and create a Potion. You'll know you are at the proper elemental makeup of some Alchemical Effect because the Base Liquid in your potion will start to vibrate visibly. Once you have reached this state, two more things must be done.
"Oh, thank god!" Taylor said, letting loose a sigh of relief. "it's supposed to do that."
She really had been worried that vibration meant the Potion was ruined, but it seemed to be a normal part of the process.
The first is stirring. Although all the components have been added, they are not uniformly distributed and have not properly bound together with the Base Fluid. Simply stir with a spoon and the Reagents dissolved in the water will begin to bind, properly allowing your Base Fluid to reach the elemental makeup it needs. The Alchemy Map visibly shows this effect by showing the circle in the center moving along the path created by your Reagents.
Once you are done stirring and the ingredients are all bound together, you will notice the Base Fluid swirling. This is a sign that Alchemical Power is attempting to enter your Fluid. However, it cannot do so while the liquid is in its normal state.
Fire up the gas torch and light the coals below the cauldron(replace after every brew, there is extra coal in the Storage Basement). Once the liquid starts to boil, the Alchemical Effect will start to be Imbued into your Potion. Once this process finishes, crystalline particles will shower out from your potion, and a plume of coloured smoke will puff out of it. The Potion fluid will take on a colour dependant on the Alchemical effect, such as blue-white for ice potions, or light red for healing potions. The crisper, clearer and darker the colour the more power of a potion has been created and the closer you were to the perfect elemental makeup for that effect.
On another note, besides Windbloom, Firebell, Waterbloom and Terreria which simply increase a single element's presence, many Reagents are a combination of two of the element and will lead you 'diagonally' so to speak on the Alchemy Map, or in a different way than these four base Reagents. All the Reagents and their pathways I know of have been marked down in the book called 'Reagents Compendium' in the library and you will certainly find it useful, though you may also simply explore various Reagents yourself to become accustomed to them.
"Thus feels so... Scientific and straightforward, I guess," Taylor muttered.
Her grandfather described the process of alchemy in such a clear formal way, explaining the rules of the processes and how they interacted, it didn't really feel like some bullshit mumbo jumbo like magic in Harry Potter, but like an actual scientific process, no different from chemistry.
Feeling more confident, Taylor grabbed the stirring spoon leaning on the side of the Cauldron and lifted it up, beginning to stir. As she did so, the circle on the Alchemy Map began to slowly slide southwards, following the line traced out by her Reagents, then continuing eastwards. Eventually, it came to rest just overlapping the small red heart marking the Alchemical Effect of Healing.
The water within the Alchemical Cauldron began to rapidly swirl and shake, just as the journal said it would have. By now any doubts n Taylor's mind about the validity of Alchemy had disappeared, she was clearly coming into contact with something real, an actual system of knowledge lost to the world.
Taylor reached to the side of the Cauldron, grabbing the green gas-torch. She turned the nozzle on the top, hearing a sudden whizzing of gas, and then flicked the spark generator, watching as a blue stream of flame leapt from the nozzle of the torch. She ran the flame over the coals below the cauldron, watching as their surfaces turned orange and then red. and black smoke began to pour out of them.
Hesitantly, Taylor reached towards the bellows. She grasped the two handles and pushed together, the powerful gust of air heating the coals below the Cauldron even further until with a second and third pump of the bellow, the Cauldron suddenly shook and the Alchemy Map darkened. The previous cloudly, turbid water within the Cauldron had turned a sharp, crystalline reddish.
Taylor gulped.
This couldn't be real, right? She hadn't just successfully made a fucking magic potion?!
Taylor stood up, her legs shaking and walked over to the glassware cabinet, She opened it, ignoring the two Potions left by her grandfather and grabbing a large but empty glass Potion bottle.
She walked back over to the cauldron, which luckily had a convenient spout she could pour from. Tipping it over, she watched as the reddish liquid sloshed out of the cauldron and into her bottle. After a moment, the Cauldron was empty and Taylor was left with a large filled glass bottle.
Taylor stared down. She had just successfully... made a potion? Or had she? Needing one more test before she was completely convinced, Taylor put a finger in her mouth and bit down, the iron taste of blood-tingling her tongue and a sharp spike of pain stabbing her finger.
"Ahh, ahh! That hurts way more than I thought it would," Taylor hissed shaking her hand. Quickly she stuck her finger in the potion bottle. As the red potion liquid came into contact with her wound, the pain instantly melted away. Pulling her fingers out and looking down at it, Taylor could see the bite-wound was completely gone as if it had never been there in the first place.
As she looked down in wonder at the lack of a wound on her finger, Taylor felt strong jubilation rise up in her. She had done this. Taylor had done this. She had created an actual honest to god magic potion and healed herself with it.
'Take that Emma, you bitch! I bet you can't make goddamn magic potions!'
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Tisaku
Head Chief Thinkomancer
ninjastar
(Verified Taoist Immortal)
- Location
- Your mom's house
Thanks, fixed
- Location
- United States
Watched. And see how far Taylor gets in this story. Is there something that could take out an Endbringer?
Probably, but it would be Very Expensive to make. Like in the Billions of Dollars to get all the Ingredients and then spend who knows how long to make the Potion.
Probably, but it would be Very Expensive to make. Like in the Billions of Dollars to get all the Ingredients and then spend who knows how long to make the Potion.
- Pronouns
- Him/His
Interesting concept, don't think I've seen a Taylor with Alchemy powers before. Even if this one has her with powers for the moment, might be interesting if she gets her canon powers. Alchemically enhanced bugs? Sounds like a great power-up.. or maybe she's not going to Trigger? Your choice I guess. Might be hard to have her keep her Alchemy going with the Shard fuckery, or maybe she can get a power based on her Alchemy? Like controlling liquids or something. Just some ideas.
Found some typos btw, guessing it's meant to be mortar and this?
Found some typos btw, guessing it's meant to be mortar and this?