Alchemy
Alchemy
The closest to esoteric magic among the “mundane” arts, alchemy exploits the magical properties of herbs, venoms and other natural substances. Alchemists reduce, transform and combine these ingredients to produce potent potions, lethal poisons and other preparations with near-magical effects. With rare and special ingredients, taken from the bodies of powerful beasts or harvested from other worlds, alchemy can produce truly miraculous formulas.
The general skill of Alchemist allows the character to refine magically rich ingredients into essences and separate blood into the three humours. They can also brew any recipe from the Alchemist list, or identify any substance made with this skill or any of the below skills.
Alchemist is the prerequisite of the following archetype skills:
Apothecary: An apothecary can brew more complex beneficial potions, per the Apothecary list. This skill is also the prerequisite for the skill Concoction, which enables them to improvise unstable brews in the field.
Imbuer: An imbuer can brew more complex formulas that affect, alter or enrich mundane materials rather than living bodies, per the Imbuer list. This skill is also the prerequisite for the skill Amalgams, which allows them to make powerful magical alloys.
Poisoner: A poisoner can brew more complex poisons and antidotes, per the Poisoner list. This skill is also the prerequisite for the skill Antidotes, which enables them to improvise antidotes for poisons in the field.
In addition, an alchemist schooled in any two of the above three skills can learn the Analysis (skill), which allows them to test the properties of alchemical ingredients in their laboratories.
Creative Method
Although alchemy, crafting and surgery are constrained by the natural laws within which they work, they are still strongly shaped by the creator’s beliefs and worldview, much as a magician’s arts are.
One creator might be stringently theoretical, analysing and measuring everything before picking up a tool; another might be wildly experimental, trialing every idea as it comes to mind. One might think exclusively in terms of the flows of magic from one form or state to another, while another might concern themselves entirely with the materials with which they are working, and a third might obsess over form and structure.
The fae were said to transcend the difference between mundane and magical working, changing a thing’s underlying pattern through pure will.
Mechanically, a crafter’s, alchemist’s or surgeon’s method has little effect on the game, but it can influence what tools they use and generate roleplay, and will play a significant role in research.
Identifying Alchemical Items
Any alchemist can, after a few seconds’ handling and examination, identify alchemically brewed items: if they know how to brew the item, they recognise exactly what it is, including the ingredients and work units required to make it, and any specific mechanical effects it has. If they don’t know how to brew it, they know if it’s a potion, a poison, an ink or enhancement, and a brief summary of its effects.
Example. Kharan Melloch, an alchemist and apothecary, is examining a blade venom that will paralyse the victim for one minute. Kharan knows it’s a blade venom that causes a body effect, but they don’t know the specific mechanical effects.
LABORATORIES
Any use of any alchemy skills that expends work units or study units, including brewing, analysis or research, requires the use of a suitably equipped alchemist’s laboratory. As with all equipment, a standard quality laboratory has no in-character cost; all that’s needed is a physical representation. Higher-quality laboratories must be bought or made in play and provided with item cards. Research specifically requires a superior or higher quality laboratory.
Although consisting of several parts, a laboratory is treated as a single item in game; a higher quality laboratory receives a single item card to track its existence, which must be attached to the work surface (table, bench etc.).
Representing a Laboratory
At minimum, a phys rep of a laboratory must consist of a surface to work on – a table, bench or bed, or even a roll-up mat or blanket – and at least three appropriate tools or fixtures, including mortar and pestle, retorts, retort stands and burners, alembics, cauldrons and other bowls or vessels.
Tools do not necessary have to be constructed to the same standards as LARP weapons, but should be safe and suitable for use in play, e.g. blades or glass items must only ever be used in camp, at the alchemist’s laboratory, and away from areas where fighting is likely to occur.
Very enthusiastic players may wish to bring phys reps that incorporate real fire, moving water, smoke or other practical effects. Anything along these lines must be submitted to the player’s faction command and members of the event team to ensure they are safe and that suitable precautions (including e.g. access to fire extinguishers) are being taken, and must never be left unattended.
Note: The intent is to promote an engaging and immersive experience, not to present an insurmountable barrier! As with all phys reps, any sincere effort will be accommodated, and other players and staff may be able to lend props or give advice on how to source them.
Laboratory Quality
Like all equipment, laboratories vary in quality. Like a crafter’s workshop, a higher-quality laboratory can be configured by its owner, optimising it for their creative method and granting the owner bonuses for certain actions. Other characters can still use the laboratory (i.e. can make use of the phys rep), but gain no benefits from it.
Transporting a Laboratory
Transporting a laboratory (e.g. to steal it) does not require any special skills or numbers of people; as long as the players carrying the laboratory can physically move it, they can move it in character. Note that transporting a laboratory requires transporting the table, bench or mat and at least three tools or fixtures, although it is permissible to pack it up or carry it in parts.
Making a Laboratory
Any alchemist can make their own laboratory, at a cost in materials and work units.
| Items | Skill | Costs | WU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Superior Laboratory | Alchemist | 2 wood (O), 2 metal (H) | 20 |
| Mastercrafted Laboratory | Apothecary / Imuer / Poisoner | 2 wood (O), 3 metal (H), 6 glass (H), 3 charcoal, 6 sand | 40 |
Note that all designs using charcoal yield 1 unit of ash as a byproduct (p. 00), and all designs using metal yield one unit of powdered metal.
Tools
By default, an alchemist’s tools don’t receive separate item cards from their laboratory; in game terms, the tools are part of the laboratory. That said, some of an alchemist’s actions can be performed away from their laboratory, e.g. with the Antidotes (p. 00) or Concoction (p. 00) skills; this requires some phys reps of suitable tools, which need not be carded. A creator may make an individual high-quality tool, if wished (e.g. so that the tool can be enchanted). By default, this has no mechanical effect when using a laboratory.
Alchemy Ingredients
Alchemy makes use of a range of ingredients available in the Renewal campaign, substances rich in magic from the natural world, which alchemy extracts, refines and combines to great effect.
There are two main types of ingredients in the game: raw ingredients, which can be gathered in the wild in play; and finished ingredients, which may be created in game through various skills, or produced as a byproduct of other processes.
All ingredients can also be received via the Resources skill, bought from traders, received as a reward in plot or otherwise acquired in play.
Alchemical Traits
Alchemy ingredients have three mystical alchemical traits: one primary, one secondary and one tertiary. Traits include the spheres of magic, mystical aspects (similar to ether, p. 00) or other properties, e.g. a herb might have the traits “corporeal/healing,” “anti-hope” and “sorrow.” These traits will suggest how best to use the ingredient in brewing and research.
The Analysis skill allows the character to identify an ingredient’s alchemical traits.
Raw Ingredients
Raw ingredients can be gathered in play using the Foraging and Gathering skills.
A list of standard raw ingredients follow, chiefly herbs that grow in the wild; a few other ingredients, including some venoms, bloods and animal parts, are also shown. Others exist, but may be harder to source, or require specific in character actions such as harvesting the bodies of fallen foes (see Butchery and Bloodletting).
Alchemists can refine these materials in various ways, creating finished ingredients; some recipes for doing so are listed in the next section below.
Rarity
A resource’s rarity is a measure of how common it is. Standard creation materials come in four degrees of rarity:
- very common (VC)
- common (C)
- uncommon (UC)
- rare (R)
Rarity serves as a general indicator of value; as a very rough guide, very common resources are worth around 1 copper coin each, common resources around 1 silver coin each, uncommon resources around 3-4 silver coins each, and rare resources around 9-12 silver coins.
| Material | Rarity | Material | Rarity | Material | Rarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abscess Root | C | Digitalis | C | Moon flower seeds | C |
| Acacia | C | Fenugreek | C | Nux vomica | C |
| Acorn | C | Fireweed | C | Oidium sano | C |
| Agaric | C | Gelsemium | C | Rosemary | C |
| Agrimony | C | Gentian | C | Scarlet radish | C |
| Amaranth | C | Grave root | C | Scopolia | C |
| Ammoniacum | C | Hawthorn | C | Scullcap | C |
| Belladonna | C | Hellebore | C | Spikenard | C |
| Benne | C | Hemlock | C | Sweet geranium | C |
| Beth root | C | Hyssop | C | White bryony | C |
| Black horehound | C | Jambul seeds | C | White horehound | C |
| Black mushroom | C | Jewel weed | C | Yellow fungus | C |
| Box leaves | C | Lotus Leaves | C | ||
| Bugle | C | Lucerne | C | Other | |
| Cayenne | C | Lycopodium | C | Raknid blood | C |
| Chokeweed | C | Majoram | C | Spider venom | C |
| Colewort | C | Muira puama | C | Unicorn horn | C |
| Comfrey | C | Master wort | C | Stag horn | C |
| Cumin seeds | C | Mistletoe | C | Viper venom | C |
Alchemy makes some use of crafting materials, too; in particular, amalgams incorporate metals and gems.
Finished Ingredients
The following finished ingredients can be created from various raw materials. The required skills, materials and cost in work units vary, and are listed below.
Essential Oils Any alchemist can, at a cost of 1 work unit, refine three units of a given herb and one oil, steeping and pressing the herbs to produce one unit of a concentrated oil known as an essential oil or essence. Essential oils have a rarity one step higher than the rarity of the raw herb.
Example. Sergey Kostova steeps three units of lycopodium (common) in one oil and presses them, spending 1 work unit and yielding 1 unit of essence of lycopodium (uncommon).
Humours Students of the natural world know that blood is not one fluid but an admixture of three humours, the near-mystical substances that carry the body’s magic. Alchemists have learned to separate blood into its parts, to better study or use them in their work: thick, yellow-white chymos; thin, blackish-green cruor and rich purple ichor.
There are two approaches to separating blood. Wasteful alchemists with plenty of blood to hand can draw one unit of one humour from one unit of blood, discarding the rest, at a cost of 1 work unit. More careful alchemists can separate one unit of blood into one unit each of the three humours at a cost of 4 work units total.
Passive Ingredients
Already largely stripped of magic, passive ingredients have use to both crafters and alchemists – tanners use cream to make leather, papermakers use fluid to bleach vellum, alchemists use oil as a base for their potions.
| Material | Rarity | Costs | WU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cream (3 units) | VC | 1 oil | 1 |
| Fluid (3 units) | VC | 1 oil | 1 |
| Oil (3 units) | VC | 1 herb* | 1 |
| Powder (3 units) | VC | 1 herb* | 1 |
Note: *Any herb; this has no mechanical effect unless specified otherwise.
BREWING ALCHEMICAL ITEMS
An alchemist may brew any of the standard recipes known to them per their skills, or any unique formulas they have learned through research or teaching.
Every recipe has a cost in work units and ingredients.
Roleplaying and Logging Work
To brew any day, the player must engage in at least 30 minutes’ suitable roleplay at their laboratory, either all at once or spread out over several tasks through the day. Roleplay includes using their phys reps to mime grinding, mixing, distilling etc. as appropriate.
They must then log their work with a referee, who will confirm that the character knows how to brew the formula (checking the recipe card, if relevant), confirm any benefit they get from using a configured laboratory, collect the resources consumed, and note how many work units the alchemist is using.
An alchemist may brew a recipe over more than one day to spread the cost, handing over all required resources when they start working. An alchemist can only be working on three recipes at a time; if they wish to start work on a fourth recipe, they must either complete one of their open items or abandon one, losing any work units and materials expended so far.
Completing the Recipe
Once the alchemist has accumulated enough work units to complete the recipe, the referee will issue a tearable card for the brew. Every potion, poison or other formula must be represented by a suitable phys rep – typically a bottle, jar or other vessel with a capacity of about 35 ml – to which the card must be attached.
Note that all brews expire within a year.
Preservation
Items harvested from dead bodies quickly spoil once removed, and must be preserved before being issued an item card as a resource.
Preservation must take place in an alchemist’s laboratory, at a cost of 1 work unit per item (body part, hide, blood etc.). It consumes one passive ingredient per item, typically oil, fluid, cream or powder. The alchemist performing the preservation hands the harvesting card and passive ingredient over to the referee logging the work, who issues an item card for the preserved item in turn.
If it is important (e.g. for plot or roleplay purposes), the form of the preserved item may reflect the passive ingredient used: an item preserved with cream may be tanned or leathery, for instance, while an item preserved with powder may be dry and somewhat crystallised.
COVENS
Three alchemists can work together as a coven to brew more complex formulas. One alchemist is designated the lead alchemist on the brew, although all three alchemists must know the recipe for the brew being undertaken. A coven shares a single laboratory; a higher-quality laboratory must be configured to the lead alchemist to grant its benefits.
The alchemists must all contribute the same number of work units to the brew. All points are pooled towards completing the recipe.
ALCHEMY RECIPES
The following recipes are known to characters with the relevant skills. Recipe descriptions include the following details.
Form: The form the finished product takes: powder, liquid, gel, ink, cream, metal ingot, etc. Blade venoms must be applied to a bladed weapon and inflicted with a successfully blow, and ingested liquids must be drunk to take effect (note that a character doesn’t have to be conscious to drink a potion; healing potions especially are often poured into dying friends’ mouths).
Onset: The time the potion needs to take effect, from the moment the poison is applied (drunk, eaten, smeared on etc.).
Duration: The length of time that the potion’s effects last. Instantaneous spells deliver their effects immediately after the onset ends.
Call: Descriptions of combat poisons also include a damage or effect call, which must be given when the poison is delivered, to indicate to the target what effect they must take.
Ingredients: The ingredients required to brew the potion. Ingredients must be handed over when the alchemist starts brewing.
Cost: The cost in work units that the alchemist must pay to complete brewing the potion.
Combat Poisons
Poisons with the label “Poison” are blade venoms, powders and bombs intended for use in battle. Every combat poison can be delivered with a damage or effect call described in the Combat chapter, which the target should be able to enact without referee intervention.
Combat poison calls always begin with the call Poison, indicating that the attack must be resisted via the skill or spell Resist Magic or equivalent ability.
By default, combat poisons do not require purging, although they may be purged to end their effects sooner than stated.