QHW, Day 19: Alchemy

Homunculi are what you get when you plant a kidney stone.

Different kinds of bodily stones give birth to different kinds of homunculi. It's a trivial matter to harvest kidney stones, gallstones and even enteroliths. Things get more difficult when alchemists start to crave more rare homunculi.

It is said that unscrupulous alchemists sometimes keep captives fed with special diets rich in metals, minerals or even worse stuff in order to grow stones otherwise nigh impossible to find. Sialoliths, tonsilloliths, phleboliths. But the truth is, an alchemist's holy grail is no stone. Not even the Philosopher's Stone, which must be grown within the brain of a powerful magic-user. That's just a plaything.

Transmogrification, mutations, chimerae or artificial life - none of this will satisfy a master alchemist.

What they're really after are teratomas, tumours which arise from germinal cells and can therefore contain and create all types of tissue. Finding one is the first step in creating true, original life. Of course, it's not an easy task to keep such a wellspring of life-force in check.

Yet there is one experiment that even the most depraved alchemical tomes will just warn you to never attempt. What happens when you plant a lithopedion?

QHW, Day 12: Alchemy

Trap seals are enchanted with the power to trigger the effects of other objects when certain conditions are met. For example, they could be attached to a magic item to invoke its magic, or to a bottle to release its contents, or to pretty much any mechanism. They are made of jale beeswax, elementally aligned additives and runic calligraphy.

• Trap seal of fire can be attuned to temperature or lighting levels, to the touch of flame or lightning, or to the presence of body heat.
• Trap seal of air can be fine tuned to vibrations or sounds, triggering on nearby movement, or the door creaking, or a specific voice, or a given password.
• Trap seal of water can be attuned to humidity levels, or the presence of certain substances (blood, poison, alcohol) nearby.
• Trap seal of earth can be harmonized with different metals or minerals, triggering when iron alloys or gold or precious gemstones get close to it.
• Trap seal of mana can detect metaphysical energies and may trigger when a source of magic, or any life force, or individualized brain patterns are nearby.

Famously, the dwarves of Kharaz-arad use trap seals to operate the many drawbridges of their mountainhome. Visitors receive permit-tokens forged from a secret type of brass, allowing them access to communal areas. Many other areas are restricted by having dwarvish blood, or by passwords.

Poisons, Toxins, Venoms

Someone was bitten by a creepy crawly thing, or inhaled colourful fumes, or their meal tasted funny. The following tables can be used to roll up a new, exciting poison on the fly, or just use the flavour and make the mechanical effects whatever you like.

d4 The Toxin Must Be...

1. ingested,
2. inhaled,
3. injected,
4. absorbed through the skin.

d20 Relatively Normal Poisons

1. A pang of pain followed by nasty rash: One-off extra damage
2. Rapidly worsening breathing difficulties: Asphyxiation damage over time
3. Anticoagulant: Haemorrhaging damage over time
4. Vomiting or diarrhoea: Cramping damage over time
5. Weakness and fatigue: Strength damage
6. Convulsions: Dexterity damage
7. Tachycardia threatening a heart attack: Constitution damage
8. Confusion or hallucinations: Intelligence damage
9. Clouding of senses: Wisdom damage
10. Blisters: Charisma damage
11. Drowsiness and sleep
12. Fainting, unconsciousness and coma: Sleep resistance doesn't help
13. Inflammation and fever: Penalty to further poison and disease Saves
14. Blurred vision followed by blindness
15. Increased anxiety, increased salivation: Penalty to fear Saves
16. Irritability, irrationality and sudden bouts of rage
17. Splitting headache: Staggered or stunned, cannot act properly
18. Cyanosis: Progressive paralysis
19. Shivering and chills: No natural healing
20. Bleeding from orifices followed by massive organ failure: Instant death

 

So, what are we breathing today?
Poison Mist by Louise Goalby

 
As a bonus, here are some magical poisons with weirder effects.

d20 Exotic Poisons

1. Youth concentrate: Like an elixir of youth, but stronger. De-ages the victim 2d100 years, likely killing them.
2. Polyjuice: There will be no evidence left if your poisoned needle polymorphs the duke into an ant. Polyjuice only has temporary effects, but repeated exposure may result in mutations or the roiling polymorph syndrome. Strangely also occurs in nature; the recently-discovered fawlish serpent injects its victims with polyjuice venom, transforming them into a fattened, easily swallowed prey animal.
3. Lethe water: Strong amnestic. High doses leave the victim effectively brain-dead, all of their memories completely erased.
4. Water of Unn: While its classification as a poison is often times disputed (especially by the regular users), water of Unn is commonly employed as such due to its effects not dissimilar to the slow spell. In low dosages, it is however also used for its calming effects, numbing the mind as much as it slows the body. The aforementioned regular users seek out the water not only as a sedative and relaxant, but because its slowing effect is said to slow ageing as well. How is doubled lifespan worth it when you only have half the capacity to make use of it is anybody's guess.
5. Water of Nyanneechuan: A single cursed fountain is the only known source of this poison, which induces a painful sex change in the victim. Famously used by the Fajuna women who wish to escape their lot in life and become warriors. Infamously used by lord Godrick the Gracious to secure both his wife, prince(ss) Jean, and a male heir, before he succumbed to royal bane.
6. Royal bane: This slow-acting poison causes nightmares, paranoia and bouts of madness. Sadly, it accumulates in the body and does not metabolize nor react to healing magic, making an advanced stage of poisoning incurable. When caught early, it can be staved off or kept latent by regular consumption of pearls dissolved in vinegar.
7. Warp gas: Naturally occurring around unbound portals and rift, or created through alchemy, this gas causes unpredictable, uncontrolled spatial displacement. This teleportation leads in nearly all cases to telefragging or falls from great heights. Scarily, the gas is colourless and odourless, plus the teleportation is often delayed in cases of mild inhalation.
8. Octiron poisoning: Fine octiron powder is sometimes employed to assassinate magic-users. Poisoning disrupts the ability to channel magic, with prolonged exposure leading to permanent lowering or loss of spellcasting abilities.
9. Reifmilch: Causes shivering and paleness, then rapid body heat loss (cold damage over time). Can be slowed by proximity to fire, but unless treated it invariably leads to the victim being frozen solid. Used in trace amounts to treat fever and common fire.
10. Breath of catoblephas: Inhalation causes rapid petrification. Also works through skin contact, albeit at a slower, more painful rate.
11. Midas' venom: Extremely rare venom gathered from the scarce and deadly giant gold spiders, it has an effect similar to the breath of catoblephas, except the flesh is turned into gold. Midas' venom works only on living flesh, no matter the efforts of many an alchemist.
12. Xorian lymph: Causes massive swelling in both size and mass. With each failed Save, the victim grows a size category larger, until they max out the size table and die in an explosion of gore and meat. This poison is thankfully relatively rare outside of Xor.
13. Chronolisk venom: A misnomer, as this "venom" is spat by the chronolisk and effective via skin contact. The victim is frozen in time, with the duration of the effect dependant on dosage. Small doses are sometimes used medicinally. In contrast to its rarity, chronolisk venom is rather well-known due to the infamous failed mass poisoning in Tam Ruat, where an extremist group of void monks attempted to contaminate the water sources of the city with the venom.
14. Colourless ooze: A kidnapper's favourite, this poison induces full-body paralysis and invisibility in the victim.
15. Zombie dust: Causes feeble-mindedness, obedience and extreme suggestibility. While a dried up, powdered zombie brain is the main ingredient of this poison, it requires a complex alchemical process to catalyse and prepare.
16. Mum-mist: A single lungful of mum-mist is enough to steal the gift of speech from a person for a full day. Some druidic orders induct their novices by making them meditate for days or weeks in caverns with naturally occurring mum-mist.
17. Ectoplasmic residuum: More coarsely known in the graverobbers' business as grandfather's jizz and a prime reason why one should wear silver-lined gloves when looting an old tomb; ectoplasmic residuum semi-permanently shunts the victim to the ethereal plane. The unprepared victim will then likely be killed by the various hungry ghosts, lesser daemons, rabid psychopomps or other threats on the Other Side. Can be quite easily treated with a neutralize poison spell, but that unfortunately doesn't work cross-plane.
18. Runic honey: An insidious and expensive poison, it distorts and prevents all restorative magicks cast upon the victim. Not only does this reverse the effects of cure wounds, but spells like neutralize poison or restoration will have no effect at all.
19. Erototoxin: A whole class of toxins used by the cupid warriors to poison their arrows and blades. The cupids are widely feared for dismantling the whole societal structure of their enemies through clever usage of their poisons. Different kinds of erototoxin cause overwhelming euphoria and bliss, sudden orgasm, obsessive sexual desire (even against one's preferences, morals and taboos), or emotional imprinting (similarly to a love potion).
20. Colloidal silver, brine water and holy water: While mostly safe for humans, these three "poisons" are classic tools when fighting demons, werebeasts or the undead.

Potioncraft

I'm still here, real life has just been a bit demanding lately. Now that I do have some time again, I've started reading the Dresden Files and immediately, there's a game-able idea in there. The potion-making in the books would make a nice ad hoc alchemy system for player-made potions.

 

If you follow traditional mage-craft, then potions are made with seven ingredients and an alchemical base. If you follow the new trends in magical research, then potions are made of eight parts. Now that this academical debate that changes nothing is out of the way, the following ingredients are needed:

• Five to engage the five senses.
• One for the mind.
• One for the spirit.
• A liquid base to bind them all together.

You also need a cauldron.

The ingredients do not need to be expensive or magical of themselves. They form a symbolic medium that is then filled with magic through the ritualistic alchemical process, influenced by the alchemist's intentions. Except for the alchemical base, they also need not be physical. If you wish to add moonlight, for example, you can brew outside on a clear night, or when you need a child's first cry, get yourself a woman in labour.

Therefore, there are no set recipes for potions. Each part should symbolize the required outcome, but things with similar symbolism are interchangeable. The players should think about the effect they want their potion to accomplish, and then justify the ingredients they are using to the GM. If the ingredients make a lot of sense/are funny or clever/are expensive or rare, the potion will be more potent.

Brewing a potion always takes several hours* of stirring the cauldron, keeping the fire properly lit and mumbling arcane phrases from old books. It's a ritual, the alchemist cannot just let it bubble and go do something else. Afterwards, no matter the ingredients used, everything will have melted and mixed together into a smooth potion. The potion will also be safe to drink, no matter the ingredients used.

Potions do not have a long shelf life, they go bad after a day and a night. Brewing permanently potent potions takes a month, expensive ingredients, an alchemical lab built over a ley line, and in general should be left to the NPCs.

Drinking a stale potion is a VERY BAD IDEA. Drinking a potion while still under the influence of another is slightly less bad idea.

d6 Oops! I Drank a Stale Potion

1. Vomit for d4 minutes.
   
2. Gain a horrific mutation, or one based on the potion's effect. Equal chances.
   
3. Drop to 0 hp and Save vs poison.
4. The potion has a random effect instead.
   
5. Nothing happens, at first. The potion's effect will kick in at the worst possible time in the next 24 hours.
   
6. You didn't get to drinking the potion. As soon as you uncorked the bottle, it started to boil and overflow. Everyone nearby has to Save or get scalded.
   

d6 Oops! I Drank Multiple Potions

1. Save or immediately vomit for d4 rounds. On success, vomit only after the effects wear off. The potions work normally, though.
   
2. Gain a mutation for d6 hours. Save afterwards, or it's permanent.
   
3. One of the potion's effect is inverted.
   
4. One of the potion's power is increased hundredfold, dangerously so.
5. The potions' effects combine in an inconvenient manner and quadruple in duration.
6. The potions' effects suddenly stop. No potions will work for you for d6 days.

 

 

Here are several example recipes from the Dresden Files:

Escape Potion
Base	Energy drink
Sight	Flickering of shadows
Sound	Running
Smell	Motor oil
Touch	Bird feathers
Taste	Coffee beans
Mind	Bus ticket
Spirit	Broken chain

Love Lust Potion
Base	Tequila
Sight	Candlelight
Sound	Aroused sigh
Smell	Perfume
Touch	Lace
Taste	Dark chocolate
Mind	Diamond**
Spirit	Love letter

Stimulant Potion
Base	Coffee
Sight	Sunshine at dawn
Sound	Cock's crow
Smell	Fresh soap
Touch	Wash cloth
Taste	Doughnut***
Mind	A to-do list
Spirit	Cheerful music

Inconspicuousness Potion
Base	Water
Sight	Clear plastic
Sound	Light wind
Smell	Deodorant
Touch	White cotton
Taste	Lettuce leaf
Mind	Blank paper
Spirit	Elevator music

  

A potion can be made only with water,
meat, vegetables and spices.
From Charmed.

  
*) One watch, just like foraging for food or setting up a camp would take. The time doesn't change if you're making more than one dose, you just need a bigger cauldron and more of the ingredients.

**) Though apparently enough cash also works.

***) If you like something else for breakfast, you would use that instead.