[GLOB] Alchemist

 Starting Equipment: Athanor (costs 50gp to replace), a pound of coal, a leather apron and gloves, six visually distinct bottles, a stick of chalk and a chicken egg.

Background: 1. Tutor. 2. Tanner. 3. Midwife.

A. Sulphur, +2 Preparations.
B. Salt, +1 Preparation.
C. Mercury, +2 Preparations.
D. Spagyric, +1 Preparation.
Δ. Elixir.

In order to operate as an alchemist, you must first set up your equipment somewhere safe, feed a pound of coal into your athanor and then pick out three reagents for the lunar cycle. All of your abilities work with respect to the three reagents you picked out, so choose wisely. A lunar cycle lasts exactly four weeks, from the moon phase you started the project to that phase's return. If you lack the template to make a particular output, you get a corresponding volume of sticky green gunk instead. If someone messes with your setup or you're forced to move it, you have to find fresh coal and reagents to start everything back up again.

Sulphur: The easiest to distill is alchemical sulphur. You get a pinch of sulphur per reagent per eight hours. Each can be used to create one Preparation (see below) based on traits possessed by that reagent but not by the other two. It looks and smells like regular sulphur and can be used to make gunpowder.

Salt: The second hardest to distill is alchemical salt. It works exactly like the sulphur does, except it draws on the qualities held by a pair of ingredients, but not by the third. You get a pinch of salt per pair per day. This means it lasts longer, but that you get less of it. It looks and smells like nitre and can also be used to make gunpowder.

Preparations: Alchemical sulphur and salt cannot be used in their base forms. You must prepare them first. You learn one Preparation at each level from the list below. Each takes a minute to prepare.

1. Spirits: Fills the imbiber with intoxicating power. Anyone who spends a turn can try to convince the imbiber that they possess some trait chosen from the sulphur or salt used. The imbiber can test Morale to resist being convinced, but if they are, they believe they now possess that trait with inebriate confidence and will act accordingly. All effects are purely psychological.

2. Balm: Applied to skin or the surface of an object. Temporarily applies two traits (one chosen by the GM and one by the alchemist) to the subject. These are tangible and physically 'real' changes, but they end early if the balm is washed off or otherwise removed. Applying a balm to is impractical in a fight.

3. Philtre: A precisely formulated dosage. Choose one trait when preparing it. The drinker attracts people and things which possess the trait. On people, this is a psychological effect. On objects, it's more magnetic.

4. Tonic: Bitter medicine. The GM alchemist and GM each suggest two traits. The imbiber picks one to take effect immediately. An hour later, they pick a second. Two hours after, a third. Four hours after that, the last. The imbiber doesn't have to decide the order until the time comes to do so.

5. Acid: A dozen drops of analytical alchemy. Applying this to a person or object does one damage per round for rounds equal to the drops applied. Alchemists observing the reaction can pick one trait from the sulphur/salt used and determine if the subject has that trait too. Washing the acid off early prevents further damage. A lock takes 6 drops to melt and a chain like takes 3.

6. Soak: Added to a tub of water, into which things can be soaked. Removes one trait per hour of soaking, chosen  by the GM and the alchemist in alternating turns. Soaks are longer lasting than most preparations: their effects last a full lunar cycle from when the item was soaked. If you remove a logically necessary trait, default to those of quicksilver (for material properties) or a black bear (for psychological and biological ones).

Preparations made from sulphur/salt lose their potency when the athanor that made them next generates sulphur or salt respectively. The effects of a preparation wear off at the same time that you get a new dose, except where specified otherwise. This doesn't apply to damage done by Acid or to changes a step removed from alchemy, like turning something flammable and then burning it up.

Mercury: The hardest of the three primes to distill is alchemical mercury. It takes the full lunar cycle and gets interrupted if you move your athanor during that time, but it yields a substance with every shared property between the three reagents that went into it. In practice, this means it has their combined mass and volume and the median reagent for other quantifiable physical properties, like melting point and tensile strength. It has every qualitative properties that was shared by all three reagents. As with Soaks, if a trait that is logically necessary isn't present, default to that of quicksilver and/or a black bear as appropriate. Alchemical mercury can be used as a reagent. Or to make a weird sword or something.

Spagyric: Whenever a preparation calls for the GM to pick a trait, you can pick instead. If it calls for you to pick a trait (normally, not because of this ability) you can let the imbiber pick instead. When preparing a sample of alchemical mercury, you can pick any of the three reagents (or the mercury, or the black bear) when the choice would normally be made for you. Yes, this means you can make a live black bear every month if you really wanted to.

Elixir: This is a preparation that you can't just learn. You have to quest for it, or maybe do some sort of wild experiment involving melting down a dragon, a king and an angel in your athanor. It permanently infuses the subject with every trait of the sulphur or salt used. This can only be reversed by applying a different elixir to the subject with different traits. Or temporarily, by using the Soak preparation. Try not to turn anyone into a liquid unless you especially dislike them.

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People have requested an example of how this all works. Fair enough. Suppose you're a first level alchemist trying to brew up your first few preparations so you can get into that dungeon and steal yourself some portable research funding. 

You ponder your options and go with the chalk and the yolk from the chicken egg from your starting inventory, plus a bit of grass you found on the side of the road. Humble, but it's what you have to work with. You also get to pick two Preparations at this level, so you go with Acid and Spirits. You set up the athanor in your room in the inn. After eight hours, you have three doses of sulphur: one from the chalk, one from the yolk and one from the grass.

Chalk is dry, white, brittle, rigid, powdery and tastes like talc. If used to make an Acid, sulphur of chalk could test for any of those properties. Not very useful, as you could do that just by looking or licking. But as a spirit, it can be used to convince the imbiber that they are brittle or rigid. Not quite paralysis, but it might spook someone into sitting still so they don't break.

Yolk is wet, runny, yellow, egg-flavoured and edible. As acid, you could use it to assess if something is edible, which is something. But you're still probably using it to melt locks instead. As a spirit, convincing someone that they are runny like an egg is a great way to talk them into getting into a container and staying put. Wouldn't want to slosh away or get eaten by ants, would you?

Grass is probably our most practical pick. It's green, growing, flexible, flat and most importantly: alive. If used as acid, it can be used to check if something is respiring (grass is the only one of the three that does) or if it is vegetable matter as opposed to mineral (chalk) or animal (yolk). As a spirit, it can convince a dead (or undead) thing that it is alive or people that they are green (and therefore disguised as an orc.)