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2nd Movement - Alchemy

Fluff from Clinton’s book, crunch inspired by the same.

From the fertile ground of Ammeni grows the world’s largest supply of drugs of all types. Recreational drugs, poisons, and great healing herbs all sprout up wildly throughout Ammeni. The most common of these is a flower called POITURE. White poiture is a powerful recreational drug, sending the user in a hazy dream-state where consciousness becomes very third-person and the sense of time grows elongated. Red poiture, a much rarer type, causes fevered activity, occasional rage, and a loss of concentration. Black poiture is known to give a much more potent high than white poiture, and has reputed healing powers, but causes death in small quantities.

Between the cornucopia of herbs and significant studies of the inner workings of the body done by curious or disturbed Ammenites, healers are common here. Many healers find employment in Houses as personal doctors or torturers, and others become medics in the legions. Unaffiliated healers are harder to come by, and most leave Ammeni to wander, although a few stay behind to help the Zaru underground.

Freelance poisoners, on the other hand, are a dime a dozen. They might change affiliation once a week. For this reason, the hardest job interview in Ammeni is for a chef position. Chefs are known to be the best poisoners, and getting a job in a House as one means being interviewed by the ruler of that House, as well as his staff, and perhaps his torturer.

The Taste of Death

The simplest way of creating poisons, drugs and cures is to engage HERBALISM (R) (or even WOODCRAFT (R) with the SECRET OF HERBAL MEDICINE) in a simple Ability check and make an Effect of the result according to the normal rules: assuming that the herbalist found the right herbs, the player gets to write the Effect as he would. Later the player gets to spend the Effect as bonus dice on appropriate checks, just like any Effects. Suitable Effects in this regard include such as “Various psychotropes from the hills” and “Fever-curing herbs” – give it enough detail to be interesting and make clear what the preparation actually does.

ALCHEMY (R) is an alternative for this simple Effect-work: it is inferior in that it requires more expensive equipment and ingredients to get the same outcome, but for more complex work alchemy is mandatory: aside from the SECRET OF BOTANY simple natural cures cannot be leveraged much further. Alchemy can use mineral and animal materials as well as plants to work on, although Ammeni alchemy is traditionally almost exclusively based on Flora.

When a herbal Effect is used in a hostile way, the victim is of course entitled to declaring a conflict. This might be a simple ENDURANCE (V) check against the poisoner’s ASSASSINATION (I) or COOKING (I), depending on how the poison is applied, with the Effect value as bonus dice for the poisoner. Normal conflict resolution in that regard.

The next step in alchemy is distilling INFUSIONS, which is possible with the SECRET OF THE STILL. An infusion (the effective pharmaceutical substance suspended in a liquid such as grain alcohol) is also an Effect, but it is not normally consumed as bonus dice: instead, it represents the potency of the special formula the alchemist produces. When infusions are created, the alchemist creates one or more STAGES of the infusion, all of which may have different mechanical effects on the target. The first stage in Ammeni alchemy is always created with HERBALISM (R), while the other stages are normally created with ALCHEMY (R); the player makes the appropriate Ability checks for each stage in a support chain. Should a stage fail, the whole concoction is ruined. The alchemist may opt to end the process at any stage, or continue to make the infusion even more powerful.

For each successful stage in the distillation process, one STAGE EFFECT from the following list is chosen; the Story Guide chooses the first stage according to dramatic coordination; afterwards the player (or players, if several are involved) and the Story Guide take turns, with the Story Guide messing or cooperating with the process as he would. Depending on the details of the process and the available resources of the alchemist, individual stages may have to be delayed to procure some special tools or materials (or even replaced by checks of TRADE ROUTES (R), WEALTH (R) or BARTER (I)); the Story Guide interprets the fictional details as necessary. The player may also freely delay the work for refreshment or do other things on the side, provided he keeps notes of the progress.

Infusion effects

The player gives a name to the completed infusion, creates an Effect (for free) out of the last Ability check in the process and writes down the stage effects in order. The overall outcome looks somewhat like the examples to the right.

When an infusion is applied (orally or injected), the target makes an ENDURANCE (V) check against the Effect: on a success last stages of the Effect equal to the check difference do not activate, while on failure all stages activate and the character suffers the check difference as Harm. On a tie, obviously, all stages take effect and no Harm is caused.

The infusion Effect is not particularly consumed by using it (unless using the FRAGILE EFFECTS variant rule, of course); the Effect represents the on-going efforts of the alchemist in creating and preserving his stock of the infusion. The Effect may be destroyed by divesting the alchemist of his stock, notes and tools, using normal rules for destroying Effects. The Effect may not be directly duplicated by another character per se, but the alchemists can of course help each other reproduce experiments.

When infusions are used in conflict, sometimes the issue is not whether the character can endure the horrid poison, but whether it is successfully injected in the first place. My take on this is that I don’t necessarily allow the victim a conflict over the issue; a character needs to be aware of the possibility of poison, otherwise it is a simple unopposed check of ASSASSINATION (I) or some other Ability for the poisoner to slip it to him. An aware target may often use REACT (I) or a more elaborate Ability to avoid the spray, needle, or whatever implement the poisoner would use.

Pushing Alchemy

As written, alchemical infusions can mostly influence Ability checks and incapacitate recipients. As with all things SOLAR SYSTEM, the interesting high-level stuff is in reality in your hands: negotiate through play the opportunities and costs of expanding alchemy – what it takes to become immortal.

What I would do to implement new, strange stage effects would be something like this:

Secret of Medicine
The character has learned a new stage effect to include in his infusions: Healing infusions still may cause Harm, but they also hasten recovery from appropriate Harm. Remove one Harm of at most the Effect level of the infusion. A healing stage may only occur on stages divisible by three.

That last part is a bit frivolous, but I’m demonstrating a technique: a stage effect may be limited to appearing only at certain stages of the infusion to make life difficult for alchemists. Another thing to do with the stages is to tie the strength of the effect to the stage it appears on. This forces the alchemist to choose between an easily endured powerful effect and a more reliable, but weaker one.

Secret of Spirit Travel
The character has learned a new stage effect to include in his infusions: Travel infusions allow the recipient to visit faraway places in spirit. The effect lasts days equal to the stage of the effect, during which time the recipient lies in coma, needing neither food nor water.

I’m again demonstrating another thing here as well: sometimes it’s best to think a bit on how tightly you need to couple mechanics to setting. In the case of SPIRIT TRAVEL I myself would forgo this specific stage effect and just create a drug that does the same thing by combining UNCONSCIOUSNESS and HEIGHTENING SENSES; a creative reading makes applying crunch exciting, which is good, because that’s where the fun is supposed to be.

Alchemy Abilities, Secrets and Keys

Abilities - Alchemy

Herbalism (R)
The Poison River watershed provides a rich library of flora ready to be exploited. This Ability covers recognizing the appearance, growth habits and properties of both rare and common herbs useful for food, poisons, drugs and cures. The practitioner may even try his hand at cultivating herbs in controlled conditions. WOODCRAFT (R) is simple and shallow in comparison, the Story Guide may require Herbalism for any truly impressive endeavor.
Alchemy (R)
Ammeni alchemy is a cynical science with little in the way of preconceptions and expectations; the alchemist rarely expects anything, in good or ill. He does, however, usually believe in the immortality of the body, achievable by the enforced balance of bodily forces. This combination of passion and cold calculation has driven Ammeni alchemy to great heights among the adepts.
Cooking (I)
Ammeni are superb cooks, thanks to the rich array of spices and exotic ingredients their lands supply. While HOUSEWORK (R) may make tasty food, Cooking is a superior art. Of course, it is not a given that tasty food will be much of an issue in a given campaign. Cooking may also be used to deliver herbal and alchemical poisons orally.
Taste Poison (I)
Ammeni learn to distinguish poisons and drugs by sight, smell and taste, which is useful in a land infested by dangerous plants and animals. The Ability might be used in creating and trading drugs, but most valued it is in avoiding poisoning. Normally a character would support his ENDURANCE (V) check against poison with this Ability, to see how much he imbibed before noticing the poison.

Secrets - Alchemy

Secret of the Still
character knows how to create INFUSIONS, powerful alchemical concoctions. The alchemist pays a REASON cost for his infusion when it is created. Complex infusions take great skill to create: each stage past the first incurs a cumulative penalty die to the creation check.
Cost: 1 REASON per stage past the first.
Secret of the Funnel
Activate this Secret to rearrange or remove the stages of a finished infusion. The player also has to reroll the Effect value of the infusion; failure ruins it. Each moved or removed stage causes a penalty die to this check. The funneling process may also be used to reverse engineer and master an infusion from another alchemist’s notes, although the Story Guide may mess with the exact composition and order of the stages during the process.
Cost: 1 REASON to move a stage, 2 to remove a stage, 1 to reverse engineer a stage and 1 mandatory to reroll the Effect.
Requirement: SECRET OF THE STILL
Secret of Metastasis
Activate this Secret to cancel the penalty dice caused by alchemical apparati such as the STILL or the FUNNEL. The player makes the choice to activate metastasis for each roll separately.
Cost: 1 REASON.
Requirement: SECRET OF THE STILL
Secret of Botany
A concerned naturalist can get more out of HERBALISM (R) than just simple Effects: He can cause penalty dice instead of bonus dice with his herbal Effects. He can create herbal incenses and pastes to deliver the Effect in different ways. The LIMITED EFFECTS variant rule does not concern his Effects. He can create first-stage INFUSIONS.
Secret of Laboratory
The character owns a dedicated laboratory for his alchemical work. As long as the character has access to the lab, he can reduce the upkeep costs for his alchemical and herbal Effects by the value of a suitable Ability check whenever he refreshes Reason. Each useful Ability may be checked separately for each Refresh; suitable Abilities might include ALCHEMY (R) and HERBALISM (R), and perhaps others.
Cost: 1 Reason per Ability checked.
Secret of Fire Fruit
A cook with this Secret can use COOKING (I) with such exotic skill that it resembles alchemy. He can create orally delivered first-stage infusions out of foods and spices. Such cooking infusions are impossible to recognize as drugs (which they really aren’t). Often their effects are delayed by digestion unpredictably, and a victim might not even realize that they are being poisoned.
Secret of Iron Stomach
Natural inclination or deliberate acclimatization has made the character resistant to ingested poisons and other harmful substances. The player may pay Vigor to cancel out infusion stages in addition to those cancelled by the ENDURE (V) check. In addition, the player may create Effects with ENDURE (V) to represent immunities to specific poisons.
Cost: 1 VIGOR per cancelled stage.
Secret of Serpent Blade
The character knows how to boil an infusion into a sticky paste suitable for treating weapons. The paste preserves well and takes effect once the weapon pierces skin.
Cost: 1 VIGOR per treated weapon.
Secret of Serpent Fog
The character knows how to mix an infusion into an air-weight vapor that takes effect through the lungs.
Cost: 1 INSTINCT per roomful of fog.
Alchemical Imbuement
A piece of equipment with this imbuement provides the effects of a specific INFUSION constantly at a level equal to the equipment quality; the infusion has no maintenance cost.
Secret of Addiction (specify)
The character is addicted to the specified substance and will have trouble doing well unless satisfied regularly. The addiction affects one of the character’s Pools, causing normal Pool refreshment to return only one Pool point for the character. A full refill, instead, is gained by partaking of the addiction. However, this only works once per session, extra satisfaction only returns one Pool point per scene. (For multiple addictions in one Pool, all have to be satisfied for full satisfaction, but each can be satisfied independently for partial.) Addiction can be broken by long-term denial and RESIST (R) check, but the Secret remains and becomes active if the character ever indulges again; only extraordinary measures (a QUEST, say) can remove an addiction altogether.

Keys - Alchemy

Key of Science
The character approaches alchemy as a science, as opposed to a symbolic art.
1xp: Apply the scientific method.
2xp: Argue for the scientific method.
5xp: Discover a new secret by observing empirical evidence, forming a series of hypotheses and testing methodically to find the truth.
Buyoff: Science fails you.
Key of the Revenant
The character is a member of the Revenant Cult, a conspiracy devoted to research of alchemical immortality.
1xp: Obey your Mentor or give orders to your Student.
2xp: Act to fulfill the precepts of the Revenant Cult.
5xp: Rise in the ranks of the Cult.
Buyoff: Relinquish your laboratory and research.
Key of Death
A fear of death controls the actions of the character, who is morbidly fascinated with the phenomenon.
1xp: Worry about death.
3xp: Embark on a new plan to cheat death.
Buyoff: Endanger your life.
Tea of Red Poiture ?/R
A decoction made off the leaves of pure red Poiture.
1 Penalty die to Reason.
2 Bonus die to Vigor.
3 Bonus die to Vigor.
Sands of Sandir ?/R
A soluble crystal that is found occurring naturally on Vadenite islands, but can be synthesized as well. Tends to cause hallucinations, and it is a dangerously widely held belief that you cannot drown under the influence.
1 Addiction.
2 See through water like it was air.
3 Daze, hallucinations.
4 Heighten eyesight.
5 Addiction … depending on the degree of purity.
Black Poiture Serum ?/R
A miracle cure that many claim to master, causing needless deaths to their patients.
1 Daze.
2 Harm, blood pressure.
3 Healing.
4 Addiction.
5 Harm, convulsions.
6 Healing.
Frog Jump ?/R
A commoner’s sex drug widely available in Ammeni. Poor alchemists often make this to varied recipes.
1 Penalty die to Reason.
2 Heighten stimulation.
3 Penalty die to Reason.
Spirit Travel Serum ?/R
The user falls into a comatose state and experiences feverish dreams that might be true.
1 Comatose.
2 Sense own past.
3 Addiction.
4 Sense other places.
5 Misleading, false dreams.
6 Dreams of the future.