The preparation of substances imbued with mystical potency — elixirs, powders, and other worked materials — through taught arcane recipes and procedures. An alchemical ability is the act of producing such a substance or effect, rather than casting a spell directly on the world.

Optional Rules

The existing rules make it very difficult for alchemists to operate outside of their home laboratory. These rules are designed to allow characters to implement itinerant alchemists.

Inhibiting Elixir Decay

An alchemist’s elixirs slowly decay and lose their alchemical strength. Alchemists can actively work to inhibit this decay. For each elixir that the alchemist desires to slow the decay, they expend 1d4 10-hour days working on the elixir and make a TN roll against the laboratory star quality + 4 (so a 1 star quality laboratory has a TN of 5). Success means the next decay roll is skipped. This can only be performed once every 60 days for any given elixir.

Portable Alchemist Workshop

For itinerant Alchemists, they can deploy a portable alchemical workshop. This is a covered wagon containing all the necessary equipment to perform alchemy tasks. This portable workshop is considered a one-star (Makeshift) laboratory. This is a four-wheeled conveyance pulled by two horses. Total cost including horses (360d), wagon (220d), and equipment (400d) is 980d. Monthly cost for maintenance and upkeep of horses, wagon, equipment, and materials is 75d. Unless the alchemist has Animalcraft skills and are willing to spend the time caring for the animals (2 hours per day) they will almost certainly need to hire the services of a Teamster as well.

Note that the portable workshop is both valuable and quite fragile, so it will definitely need to be protected against theft and curious individuals or damage (a guard or similar).

Alchemical Task – Quick Create

Upon reaching ML80, a Satia (Master) of Alchemy can create “quick” elixirs. These are normal elixirs where the Preparation routine is abbreviated. The resulting elixirs have a lower AS. Note that new elixirs cannot be invented using the Quick Create task; only known elixirs can be created using this task.

Follow the standard Preparation routine, but with the following modifications: [1] Time: 2d6+5 days to prepare the elixir. [2] Preparation Modifiers: Alchemists gain no benefit from assistance. [3] Preparation Roll: No invention is possible. SV < 7: Ruined: the elixir preparation fails. To complete it, the alchemist must begin the routine again from the start. SV 7-8: Completed: the preparation is completed. The elixir is an enchantment and has Alchemical Strength 3. SV 9+: Augmentation: the alchemist can make one d10 Augmentation Roll against a TN equal to the star quality of the workshop.