Location: The Crossed Swords, Lair of Goody-Goodies.
Interacting with: "Kyra's Angels"
A silver coin? Satilla was manually filing down a silver coin with a knife. A process that was rather labor intensive given the nature of the tool used, the shavings would have to done carefully into the soft metal. What percentage of the silver currency was pure silver was also to be questioned. Yet Thomas had his training in the alchemical arts, and knew a few tricks to extract elemental compounds from raw materials. Traditionally it was easier for an alchemist to introduce a sample of metal to aqua fortis. Impure aurum, argent, or cupric in particular would be dissolved in the corrosive liquid, although pure gold usually required aqua regia. And then the extract taken to a flame to be boiled down until the water is driven out and what remains is a fine purified silver powder. Unfortunately aqua fortis is difficult to safely store for transport and relatively easier to make on the spot by mixing oil of vitriol with saltpeter, then continually distilling the reactive solution to obtain a concentrated amount of aqua fortis. However Thomas had no oil of vitriol, nor readily available saltpeter. As such reaching into his satchel, the sorcerer produced his spellbook, pestle and mortar, and the small alchemy knife he had.
Grinding away every few moments automatically and absently at the coin, scoring and scratching the surface with ridges to get the slivers of silver shavings unto the mortar while Kyra spilled the beans. Graves and Caves, Towers and Farms, the four or five places to be left to explore. Of course their orcs had mentioned exploring the graveyard the other day, and Cyneburg had mentioned finding nothing earlier, so that could be ruled out. And the other bit of information was hazy at best, something about an amulet that was probably enchanted or something by the sounds of it, something associating itself with stone and rocks and as Keystone suggested, not offering too much insight. Although visions were often important, maybe Thomas could sit in with Sana on some meditation to get a clearer view of the object, connecting to the greater universe was not an easy task. But the young boy was pretty much used to doing it everyday...
"I don't think we should split up. Even with daylight hours, its not like necromancers are exclusively active at night. The attacks are, but if we stumble into a lair... Plus the locations aren't all that close to each other, and we don't have a way to contact each other quickly do we in case of anything happening at one site? So there's always that danger that one group doesn't make it, and by the time we realize it..." Thomas mused on considering the opinions of everyone.
"I'm siding with Keystone on this one, we should try the tower first, who knows what old secrets are lying around there. And magey types have a thing for towers. Thomas remarked at the strange associations spellcasters had with phallic buildings. Probably had something to do with reaching a height of greater learning, able to lord over the rest of the common grounded folk from a place on high, or the staff or wand was merely the beginning of their overcompensation and the tower was the pinnacle of being the most glorious spellslinger. Either way having said his piece, his fingers running through the pages as Thomas scanned his book for that recipe. Notes on spellcrafting, various doodles of fantastic beasts and where they are located, descriptions of common alchemical plants and animal parts... And finally potion recipes:
Sunshine-in-a-bottle:
1 x prepared crystal (see notes below ), finely ground.
1 x fire scarab carapace, powdered.
100g of purified white phosphorous (or 1kg of unrefined phosphorous)
50g of purified yellow sulfur (or 500g of unrefined sulfur)
50g of purified saltpeter (or 500g of unrefined saltpeter)
Crystal should be of decent quality, color of crystal determines color of light.
Attune crystal to source of non-magical light for 10 minutes before grinding.
Mix ground crystal, powdered beetle and phosphorus in thick glass bottle.
Add mixture of sulfur and saltpeter prepared in a separate bowl.
Keep ingredients dry. Keep away from open flame.
Shake and expose to gentle heating to activate.Unfortunately Thomas had none of the items, on hand. Sulfur, phosphorus and saltpeter should be readily available at any alchemy story worth their... Salts... But a crystal would be more difficult, probably a quartz shard, and grinding it down was another issue. Then there was the fire scarab that was needed. Not a living one, although those usually roamed the desert sands, not temperate villages. Unless there was a collector of sorts, they'd be hard pressed to find such an ingredient. But making a potion from scratch was usually more cost-effective than buying one from some alchemist who would charge them an arm and a leg for something even Thomas could make with his basic kit, although his glassware may be too thin for the purposes the potion and may need to purchase something more sturdy. After all, saltpeter, sulfur, and a source of carbon like the powdered fire scarab was pretty much a recipe for... Black powder.
"Uh, Anyone know if there's an alchemy shop around, I've found the Recipe for sunshine-in-a-bottle, but I'm afraid I don't have all the ingredients. Plus I'd need a bit of powdered fire scarab... Somewhat defeated in his efforts, Thomas took to the pestle to crush up the silver to a finer grit, rotating and pressing along for Satilla's experimental potion. Hopefully he was being helpful enough. Although he'd really like to do that complex process of purifying silver powder, assuming there was an alchemist's shop, or even a place that sold rocks and minerals.
