Alchemy

An Alchemist is anyone who knows how to produce an alchemical preparation. You will have a number of “potions slots” which you can use to produce potions you know between adventures. A Class C or D potion takes 1 potion slot to mix, while a class A or B potion takes 2 potion slots to create.

In addition to these potion slots, you can mix 1 potion of the appropriate level for each potion you know how to make (i.e., if you know how to mix 3 class D potions, then you can mix 3 class D potions between adventures in addition to those produced from your “potion slots”).

Many years of research have resulted in most commonly known potions being divided by learned alchemists into four groups. The main thing informing these groupings are the effects of being addicted to them, at least at the initial stages of addiction, but some alchemists claim that there are other similarities, in fields ranging from things as tangible as taste to the nebulous as the “feeling” of brewing them. The commonly accepted groups are as follows:

• Inflammation
• Passion
• Suspension
• Dissolution

It is possible to craft unique potions from unique ingredients. The rules for this follow the standard rules for crafting an artefact. The potion will be a unique potion which will be used up when consumed (or potentially a small number of potions). Because these potions are unique, skills which rely on an in depth knowledge of their creation or application do not work (e.g., Advanced Application). As a general rule, an artefact potion will have an extremely powerful effect, but will also likely come with side-effects due to its unrefined nature.

Use of alchemy carries a risk of addiction. At the end of any adventure in which you have consumed one or more potions, pick one type of potion that you drank (or was otherwise exposed to, e.g. by rubbing armour oil into a broken pauldron or inhaling smoke from a smoke bomb). The GMs will flip a coin. If you lose the flip, you have begun to become (or continue to become) dependant on that potion and others with similar effects. If you already have an addiction and you drank a potion of that group during the adventure, you must choose that group to flip the coin for even if you drank other potions on the adventure. You can only have one alchemical addiction at any one time.

There are three levels of addiction. Potions are divided into four groups. Each group has an associated set of effects for first and second level addictions that are publicly visible. At the first level, you will be under a roleplaying effect that can be suppressed for the rest of an adventure by drinking a potion of the appropriate class, although you may choose the period of relief to be shorter if you wish. Obviously, relieving your addiction by indulging in your addiction carries a risk of worsening your addiction. At second level, you will also have a mechanical effect that can be suppressed in the same way. If you gain a third level of an addiction, you will receive an effect specific to the type of potion that you took that pushed you over the edge, at third level indulging in your addiction will only relieved you of your withdrawal effects for one encounter rather than a full adventure. Please consult with the GM team for your dose of horror. When indulging in a potion you are addicted to, you will have a roleplaying effect gained from consuming that potion, this lasts at least an encounter but may last longer (at the players discretion). You may also gain a mechanical effect (level 2 and higher) which will last until the end of the encounter in which you consumed the potion.

At the end of an adventure, your level of addiction is reduced by one if you drank no potions of the group you were addicted to.

If you end up with a level three addiction, and completely remove it through abstention, you are forever more immune to addictions from that class of potion. Mechanically this means that when choosing which potion you may have become addicted to at the end of an adventure, you only choose between potions from a group you are not immune to.

Alchemists, through their various experiments with alchemy, are slightly more resistant (or possibly susceptible) to the side effects of their potions. Alchemists may always choose which potion class they make a coin flip for, even if this would mean developing a second (or third, or fourth) addiction. This can make it easier for Alchemists to avoid developing debilitating addictions, but also carries a risk of catastrophic multiple debilitating addictions.

These potions principally deal with inflicting your will upon the world, and include potions which increase your strength or apply explosive damage to all around you.

• Level 1
  • Withdrawal: You are more impatient than normal - you want to get things done now
  • Indulgence: You feel important. You feel confident. You feel like you can succeed, so long as you try.
• Level 2
  • Withdrawal: You feel like your blood is constantly up, keen and eager. Unless you feel completely safe (which is unlikely while enemies are around), you take a SINGLE THROUGH if you stand still for more than 10 seconds)
  • Indulgence: Everyone seems slow and dim-witted while your mind races. You are full of amazing never-thought-of ideas. Gain a dodge.
• Level 3 Grenado
  • Withdrawal: You constantly feel near-painfully cold. You are also incredibly flammable. At GM discretion, anything that might plausibly ignite you does, for damage and effect calls as they see fit.
  • Indulgence: You can ignite parts of your body, doing no harm to yourself, but harming others nearby. Gain 2 uses of REND on a weapon call, and one MASS ZERO STRIKEDOWN for the encounter. As long as you are in the presence of a burning fire, you feel safe and re-assured
• Level 3 Soul Strength
  • Withdrawal: You feel a general hatred for other conscious beings. You would prefer to be alone, or at least not surround by idiots (like you currently are). You are WEAKENED whenever you are attempting to aid someone else.
  • Indulgence: You feel love for your fellow conscious beings and are very happy to be able to spend time with them. You gain +1 damage when attempting to aid someone else.

• Resist Fatigue - 30 seconds of STRENGTHEN
• Burst of Might - Gain one use of STRIKEDOWN during the encounter.
• Sticky Sap - Gain 1 use of DISARM during the encounter

• Steel Rot - Gain 1 use of SHATTER during the encounter.
• Smoke Bomb - Arcable MASS BLIND 5
• Grenado - Thrown for BLAST SINGLE

• Rage - You are weakened, but may call STRIKEDOWN by melee weapon once every 15 seconds.
• Soul Strength - Strengthened for 1 encounter
• Hideous Mauling - Gain one use of WOUND 30 during the encounter.
• Eye of the Storm - Gain 1 use of MASS REND during the encounter.

• Column of Destruction - Having drunk this potion, you may call a ranged QUAD every second. Your maximum body hits will decrease by 1 every second until they reach 0. At this point you will lose consciousness, but will not begin bleeding out unless you are struck. Having reached a maximum of 0 body hits you can at most be stabilised, but not revived until the end of the encounter. Assuming you are still alive at the end of the encounter your maximum body hits will return to normal, although your current hits will not recover without healing.

These potions principally deal with internalising your will, and include potions which allow you to shrug off damage and seek visions of the future.

• Level 1
  • Withdrawal: You are more curious than normal, and want to learn things
  • Indulgence: All your emotions are greatly enhanced: you find pleasure in the smallest things but struggle to bear even the slightest heartbreak.
• Level 2
  • Withdrawal: Information belong to you. No ones should keep any secrets from you. Any time someone refuses to reveal information you request, you take the effects of an ENRAGE, and will initially target the witholder
  • Indulgence: You gain genuine excitement from social maneuvering, and have a strong desire to discover new information. You gain 1 use of JUST HEAR ME OUT and 1 use of LOOK BEHIND YOU.
• Level 3 Nightsight
  • Withdrawal: You eyesight has grown dim. You have also developed a great fear of being abandoned. If there is not someone you know within 5 meters of you then you will suffer a panic attack, taking the cower part of the FEAR effect until someone you know comes to help you.
  • Indulgence: Your confidence in your physical abilities is greatly increased, and you are happy to take risks you normally wouldn't. Gain 2 dodges.
• Level 3 Stoneskin
  • Withdrawal: Your flesh seems unusually vulnerable and you fear injury from usually risk-free sources. In each encounter the first time you lose a body hit you will take a FEAR.
  • Indulgence: You feel powerful and invulnerable. Gain 2xResists any effect calls.
• Level 3 Mesmeretic Visage
  • Withdrawal: The world is full of powerful, intelligent, attractive people. You cannot remember the last time you saw someone you considered weaker, stupider, or less attractive than yourself. You will treat attempts to talk you out of a fight as a JUST HEAR ME OUT regardless of if they used the skill. You will also value the thoughts and opinions of others more highly than you usually would.
  • Indulgence: You feel confident in yourself, certain that everone else is weaker, stupider, and uglier than yourself. Your own confidence in yourself is overwhelming and you may call YOU DARE NOT STRIKE ME at a single target.

• Stoneskin - Gain a resist to one of REND/WOUND/STRIKEDOWN
• Nightsight - Gain IMMUNITY to BLIND
• Mesmeritic Visage - Gain 1 use of “Just hear me out” during the encounter.

• Iron Shoes - You may call IMMUNE to strikedown for an encounter.
• Timeskip - For 5 seconds after drinking the potion you may call dodge to any dodgable effect, however this uses your full attention and you may not use any other ability during this time.
• Dumb Drunk - The drinker becomes more gullible and credulous, they are much more likely to believe what they are told. The effects only last for an hour or two.
• The Veil - Drinker has powerful visions, that often feature portentous imagery.

• Resilience - You become IMMUNE (for the rest of the encounter) to the next effect call which targets you.
• Blink - Once during the encounter you may use the calls DISAPPEARING and APPEARING to reposition yourself within the encounter. You have up to 10 seconds to do this. During this time you do not experience anything within the encounter nor can you interact with anything in the encounter. You may not ask people to move in order to make way for you.

• Sight of Creation - For the duration of the encounter you gain a supernatural vision. You are immune to blind and can recognise by sight any of the following statuses: Flux creature, Priest, God, Mana. You may also be able to see other things at GM discretion.

These potions deal with resisting or undoing change. Most of these potions deal with the repair of bodies or objects.

• Level 1
  • Withdrawal: Your body feels slightly numb, and pain seems to affect you less
  • Indulgence: Your emotions feel distant, and you are able to engage your intellect with needle like clarity unaffected by worldy concerns.
• Level 2
  • Withdrawal: Your body feels sluggish and cold, making rapid movements takes serious effort. You are down a DODGE
  • Indulgence: You feel a disengagement with the world. Like none of it concerns you. Gain 2 resists to effect calls delivered by melee weapon.
• Level 3 Armour Oil
  • Withdrawal: You are swinging between bouts of paranoia, narcolepsy, alcoholic cravings, violent aggression, and chronic muscle pains. When not roleplaying one of these effects you are weakened.
  • Indulgence: While applying the armour oil (at least 5 seconds) you are drowsy and virtually comatose, paying no heed to outside experience. When you come round you feel an extraordinary rush of pleasure, more enjoyable than any other experience you have known. You are STRENGTHENED for the duration of the encounter.

• Plug the Flow of Life - HEAL 1
• Leeching Touch - Until you are next struck you will regain body hits equal to the damage you dealt.

• Restoration of the Flesh - HEAL 4
• Armour Oil - RENEW 6 on a suit of armour it has been applied to. This may also be used to repair a single standard item.

• Restructuring of the Flesh - HEAL FULL
• Armour Balm - RENEW FULL on a suit of armour it has been applied to. This may also be used to repair a single standard or superior item.

• Smelling Salts of Ultimate Power - MASS HEAL FULL
• Life Flow - For 1 encounter, regain 1 body hit for every full 5 seconds you are not hit in combat. The effect is paused while you are on 0 hits.

These potions deal with giving into the whims of fate. Most of these potions relate to death in some way, either protecting you from it or driving you into its arms.

• Level 1
  • Withdrawal: You feel extremely wide awake, and have difficulty sleeping
  • Indulgence: You are relaxed. Everything feels pleasant. Any concerns you may have do not feel pressing for the time being.
• Level 2
  • Withdrawal: You feel somewhat detached from your body, as if the world is interacting directly with your mind. Your death count is reduced to 45 seconds
  • Indulgence: You feel powerful while the world seems less substantial. You are filled with confidence in your own capabilities, and do not fear loss or failure. Gain +1 damage (this does not stack with any other source of +1 damage).
• Level 3 Death Ward
  • Withdrawal: You suffer occasional bouts of extreme lethargy and more often suffer from tactile hallucinations of blood seeping from an open wound. Your death count is reduced to 45 seconds.
  • Indulgence: You feel euphoric. Tactile sensations are enhanced and feel pleasurable. If reduced to 0 hits you remain conscious and can, with some difficulty, consume a potion.

• Death Charm - The next time (during the encounter) that you drop to 0 hits, you will immediately take a HEAL 0 leaving you unconscious but stable.
• Withering - Call POISON on your next blow. If the call is not dodged or resisted then you may call a single ranged WEAKEN 20 seconds later. The drinker will become slowly weaker, with a moderate chance of death. A strong and healthy individual will probably recover eventually, although their chances are improved by the ministrations of an Alchemist or Surgeon. Can be drunk for similar effect.
• Paranioa's Embrace - The fumes released by this potion induce a sort of paranoia, making your blows seem much more deadly than they actually are. You may call POISON on every blow until it is neither dodged or resisted. The poison itself does very little other than induce slightly heightened agitation in the victim. Can be drunk for similar effect.

• Death Ward - For the rest of the encounter you will not bleed out when reduced to zero hits.
• Sleep of Death - The drinker falls into a deep sleep indistinguishable from death. They will awaken in 4 hours and not prior.

• Revenant - 10 seconds after beginning your death count you will be restored to full body hits. This happens the first time you are dropped to 0 HP in the encounter you drank the potion, regardless of if you received healing in the interim 10 seconds.
• Swamp Breath - Call POISON on your next blow. If the call is not dodged or resisted then you may call a ranged STRIKEDOWN against the target every 15s. Can also be drunk. The victim loses sensation in their limbs, losing motor control shortly after. If not treated the drinker will start to have difficulty breathing, and will die shortly after. Diagnosis in the final stages is easy due to the signature swamp smell on the patient’s breath, but at this stage the condition is all but impossible to treat.
• Monstrous Aura - Drinker gains 1 use of MASS FEAR during the encounter.

• Limb Drop - Call POISON on your next blow. If it is not dodged or resisted, you may call a ranged WOUND 10 against the target every 10 seconds. This is a particularly fast acting poison. In the later stages parts of the target will start literally dropping off them in larger and larger pieces. This is usually fatal. Drinking this potion achieves a similarly fatal effect.