Alchemy

 

Alchemy is the art of producing compounds or substances that have (usually) short-term magical effects. Most alchemy is fairly simple herbalism. The alchemist uses the properties of various plant and animal parts to enhance the natural processes of the human body or to achieve other effects, and while their effects can be spectacular, they are not truly magical in nature. At the higher levels of knowledge, alchemy truly comes into its own. By purifying and revealing the essential natures of the materials used — mixing elements or metals based on their cosmic significance, on their elemental alignment, or based on their associations — alchemy gains the ability to cause truly miraculous feats.

Internal alchemy is the most dangerous of all forms of alchemy, and many thaumaturges refuse to practice it. At least with external alchemy, or herbalism, there is a chance to test an alchemical mixture before imbibing it. In internal alchemy, the thaumaturge ingests the various compounds and converts them into the desired substance in her digestive tract through force of will. The advantage is that the effect takes place nearly immediately, instead of requiring days of preparation. The disadvantage is that, if the thaumaturge is unsuccessful, many of the ingredients she is imbibing are highly toxic until the substance is completed.

Alchemy normally has no cost in motes to perform — its effects are generated from the passage of time and the ingredients used in producing the material. Advanced alchemy (effects with a strength of 3 dots or higher) cannot be performed without the use of a lab, however — this normally costs Resources 3 to maintain. Additionally, the ingredients necessary, while usually available in any major city or large town, can have a cost as well, usually equal to the level of the effect being produced -1. Internal alchemy is always performed at a +2 difficulty and costs one Will power per attempt. It can, however, perform effects all the way up to five dots.

A failed internal alchemy roll typically results in a fairly nasty poison. The best the alchemist can hope for is violent illness as the reagents intermingle in new, interesting and nauseating fashions in her gut.

 

• The alchemist can produce a wide variety of reasonably mundane formulas — minor painkillers, mild anti-inflammatories and potions to counter the effects of illness. In contemporary terms, she can stock a medicine cabinet. These potions provide no bonuses to Medicine or Resistance rolls, but they may reduce the difficulty of those rolls by 1 in specific circumstances.

 

•• Alchemical potions of this level can allow a person to exceed her normal potential for a short time, grant extra resistance to disease or pain or otherwise improve a person’s chances. They can add one dot to an Attribute for a minute or two, grant an extra die on an Ability check or allow someone to ignore up to a two-die penalty from pain, wounds or some other reason for a few minutes. Healing philtres made with at this level double a person’s natural healing rate for one day. Potions of this level cannot raise a person’s Traits above mortal limits.

 

••• These potions can enhance their target to superhuman limits for a short time or raise her to mortal limits for a longer period of time — two dots to a single Attribute for up to an hour or one dot for a scene if it raises the Attribute beyond 5. Alternately, a potion could add one dot to a single category of Attribute (all Physical, etc.) for up to a scene. Other options are possible as well. Up to three dots can be added to an Ability or up to six dots for a brief period of time (no more than 20 turns, or one minute). Materials of this strength can also grant non-supernatural Merits to the imbiber for up to an hour (the ability to see in the dark, for example). Up to a four-die penalty can be ignored by the drinker of a potion at this level, for up to a scene. A healing poultice can double the subject’s healing rate for up to a week and adds two dice to all Medicine rolls made on the patient.

 

•••• Materials produced at this level of strength can have truly lasting effects — an alchemist could purify steel to the point of being unbreakable and ever-sharp or enhance the lifting properties of hot air until it was as potent as helium. Benefits equal to level 2 potions can be made permanent — the character must pay any relevant experience costs in order for these bonuses to last, just like they normally would to raise an Attribute or Ability or to buy a Merit, but she does not need to spend any time in training.

 

•••••• The pinnacles of alchemical knowledge. While immortality is beyond even these vaunted heights, with the proper elixirs, the thaumaturge can extend his life indefinitely — certainly by decades, perhaps centuries. Permanent effects equal to potions of three dots in strength can be wrought, and the alchemist learns the secrets of transmutation — the art of changing one thing fundamentally into another, such as the fabled changing of lead into gold. The thaumaturge cannot transform base materials into the Five Magical Materials, however.

 

Internal Alchemy Failure

Failed by                Result of failed roll

1                              Sick: Stamina + Resistance roll (difficulty 2) to do anything other than feel miserable. Success grants 10 minutes of activity (-2 dice on all pools, and another Stamina + Resistance roll, if physical activity more serious than walking or gentle activity is undertaken). Alchemist’s player can only make as many rolls per hour as the character’s Willpower.

2                              Really Sick: As above, but difficulty is 3, and only five minutes are granted, and only as many rolls per hour as Willpower - 2.

3                              Sick as a Dog: As above, but difficulty 4, three minutes of activity per success, and only Willpower - 4 rolls per hour. Alternately, a poison that does 1L damage per potion’s level, soaked with Stamina.

4                              Poisoned: The poisons ingested do 2L damage per potion level. This damage can be soaked with Stamina. A Stamina + Resistance roll (with a difficulty equal to the poison’s level - the alchemist’s permanent Essence) costs one Willpower and changes the damage to bashing, if successful. The poison will likely also have side effects based on the desired effect of the potion — a potion of strength may leave the alchemist weak and fatigued, for example.

5/Botch                  Badly Poisoned: As above, but the poison does 3L damage per potion level, and the difficulty of the Stamina + Resistance roll is equal to the potion’s level + 2 – the alchemist’s permanent Essence.