Potion: Concussion Grenade (Basic) — conc + shrapnel grenade, TNT based
Tools: TSSCVG*, basic distillation rig, soaker, casings
Client: Guard (delivery to Captain of G Meredith Morei), Delvers (direct sales)
New Tools: TSSCVG—bullshit fume hood. Soaker—clever physical system for getting the nitro to soak into the diatomite, no magic involved. Distillation rig is basic but heat sump is magical.
Synthesis: straightforward, only tricky bit is setup. Soaker means no decanting worries. Recipe level 0 restricted, no reproduction outside of official texts (publicly avail., so dubious re: point)
Notes: Backfilled notes. discuss implications of recreating better explosives w/ James. v. unlikely to be scalable. Kelly able to handle this.
Potion: Metalmelt (Basic) — melts metal/wood/stone, lets you fuse/weld (!awesome!)
Tools: Vials, coldstone, leeching basin, icebox
Client: Nagton (carpenter), Viri (cooper), both direct sale. Theoretically Stone Team but Ketana/Kan very clear they grew past needing it ~century ago. Doesn’t Kibosh have 2nd carpenter, apprentice, smith/etc?
New Tools: Leeching basin just a glorified strainer. Coldstone maintains set temperature until magic runs out, dropped into bind vial until thermometer showed 10 and then fished it out. Icebox a box mostly filled with ice.
Synthesis: Two parts 72-24-4 H2O-HNO3-HF—precautions too numerous to list, revisit and reinforce before next synthesis, but fundamentally no different than prep for Ti-related reagents, ?fun? nostalgia trip. One part “any suitable essentialized” fire reagent, used burnweed—common pest plant—ground into powder & leeched w/ ethanol. One part a.s.e. bind reagent, used webslug slime—bug eater, common in Shem & Sudh—in 1:4 solution of 10% acetic acid vinegar. Combine 1:1:1 flow of acid (room temperature) and fire (r. temp) into bind vial (10 degrees Arcane, DA) until fire vial empty, then 1:1:1 acid and water (r. temp) into bind. Freeze, immerse in ribtree oil—extract from leaves of common firewood tree—and let thaw while stirring. Store resultant gel in lead liner, stable at room temp.
Notes: would rather fuck around w/ nitrogly than work w/ this. scale? Investigate SbF5 / FeCl3 / FSO3H usage, also superacids; need stronger magical comp. to balance. Effects? Revisit but only for dev/iteration/process, avoid as-is. Stirring miserable, acquire auto-stirrer of some sort. No single word for universal solvent in Shemmai, alchemy too much more concrete, but hydrofluoric acid basically that anyway.
Intermediates: HNO3, HF. No Discoveries.
Client: Me, obv. Hitz?
HF Synthesis: Fluorospar generally useful as flux & for glass, 91.7% oil of vitriol basic commodity—no need to synthesize the sulfuric acid. Classic. Kelly lowkey terrified of HF, I deeply approve, terror correct attitude towards HF, excited to show her superacids.
HNO3 Synthesis: Also classic. Arc using either boltstones or a.s.e lightning—none cheap and local, so boltstones. Bstones very high capacity, available free—scale something and break this, laugh at James’s face? Pump air through arc, cool, react w/ air, dissolve in water, distill.
Potion: Mana Elixir— +mana regen, clears sinuses from the mint, soothes throat
Tools: Mortar/pestle, tea infuser, coldstone
Client: Delvers (direct sale) theoretically, but made by req of Veil, likes flavor, & see notes
New Tools: Coldstone was cryogenic
Synthesis: Grind specific herbs, all local grown. Brew tea 92.2 DA for 2min 51sec, remove infuser, add coldstone 7 sec later. Thaw.
Notes: Supposedly huge project to get this simple, & really does need this precision. Instructions available for huge vat worth, but low demand. AKA “mana tea”. No known side effects even for prolonged use, soothes throat, no negative effects / burn at max mana, can be rewarmed w/o neg effects. Shelf life 1 fortnight even w/ proper sealing. Herders use to ameliorate colds—esp. for kids since they ~don’t *cure*, believe bad for immune system. Tried some, not bad, much better than spearmint.
Potion: Breath of Gentle Repose (Synthetic) — lit. chloroform
Tools: Basic pressure-holding tank, fume hood, “decoherence” chamber, cathode/anode, gas splitter
Client: Kenna—herbalist, ~doctor for herders, direct sales / by req
New Tools: “Decoherence” chamber is just a vessel where you can stick cathodes/anodes in. Gas splitter is what was in Hitz’s workspace, feed the Cl2/O2 in and it’ll split it.
Synthesis: After chlorine gas (gross) produced from salt by lightning (OKAY I’LL CALL IT LIGHTNING or Edict territory; more accurate term in Koshe but still not quite right) through brine, treat lime w/ chlorine, mix w/ ethanol. Never again unless hard-scaling-up in dedicated & isolated line. No immediate, order-of-this-week timeframe use for NaOH or NaOCl, so just disposed of it.
Notes: Kenna kinda snippy about synthetic vs herbal recipe, reined herself fast & apologized. NOT a huge fan of chlorine gas reactions, will try herbal next time. Kelly threatening to fuck off & let me do this alone if I suggest doing again, wait till I teach her abt membrane method. Books recommend we do “multi-cell decoherence”, pass sodium to water & make NaOH, no indication of mercury cell as known art, possible reinvention! Also, Kelly extremely confused about how this all works. Find way to teach empirically without violating Edict, if they know about periodic table, can teach chemical reactions?
Not An Experiment, Wow, Their Periodic Table: Haha oh wow it’s organized by phase changes relative to body heat. Can’t even suggest a reorg because of the Edict. Still gotta teach Kelly about electrolysis somehow, I’ll figure that out eventually.
Potion: Breath of Moon’s Ease — nice chill sleeping aid
Tools: Mortar/pestle, vacuum lens, essence prism
Client: Waselle, striker working at forge, delivery req by Makatzar (smith whose team she’s on)
New Tools: Vacuum lenses, aka light suckers, suck in light from a configurable intake cone (note: not arc, this vacuums light out of a *cone*, it’s magic) and shine it out a configurable output arc. Essence prism, deterministically but not configurably (except by rotation) splits multi-essence light into single-essence streams.
Synthesis: Grind herbs, put in cold water. Set up light suckers at windows when moon is in sky (~10hr starting late afternoon), feed light into prism, put herbs soaking in cold water under lunar beam for ~4h, ready when it starts emitting pale off-white light.
Notes: Super chill recipe but between Kan’s quilts & whoever makes the mattresses who needs sleeping aids? Idk, Waselle obvs, but not many people. Kelly says long story & not hers to tell. Also says that equal parts of prism-split essences form “cycle”, will explore separately.
Potion: Treated Blood — not really a potion really? “just” O-negative blood equiv
Tools: Blood universalizing filter
Client: Rafa, v. clear about on demand only, usage rates low & shelf life of 28 days
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New Tools: Blood universalizing filter pretty neat, sympathy magic based, pass blood through it & now it’s universal-donor blood, not exactly lit. o-negative but effectively. Membranes single-use.
Synthesis: Draw / be given unit of blood, filter through membrane into container, give to client.
Notes: Got a box of 37 membranes in basement, file request for new box when down to 11 membranes (why 11? Kelly says statistics).
Potion: Quicktan
Tools: Pressure tank, mortar/pestle, fume hood
Client: Aris Burski (tanner), Thesha, Hitz (for booze!!)
New Tools: Pressure tank is just a pressure tank, pretty standard, wouldn’t raise any eyebrows in a lab back yonder. Metal, pressure gauge, 5 multi-stage intakes (clever), dial your pressure release rate, option to have vacuum insulated or water layer for temp mgmt, drainage.
Synthesis: Desiccant is just silica gel—quartz sand / lye / steam in tank, heat, add oil of vitriol, slow pressure release, drain out the liquid & let dry. Aging effector mundane part is 1:1:2:5 acetic acid, pine resin (? why?), ethanol, water; mix, heat to “just below simmer” (oh fuck off), add “pinch” (what is this, cooking?) steel dust and 1.37oz (??) oil of witherroot (from super poisonous leaves of staple food root-crop, hilariously) no matter how much volume you’re making (!?), let cool, freeze, grind into dust (DO NOT TOUCH, DO NOT INHALE), mix 1:5 with gel.
Notes: Wanted something harder and more interesting. Probably would have been if I hadn’t made silica gel a thousand times. Learned the new pressure tank at least? V. finicky at stages, Kelly did all work past adding steel dust. Won’t make w/o her. Learned after making that rate of use lower than projections, shelf life indefinite, won’t need more for year+.
Potion: Heartsblood Stamina Potion
Tools: Deepdraw needle, atomizer, copper metaltrail scribe, essence prism, reflector, burner, resealing vial / vial with resealing membrane, boltstone
Client: Patent validation for Alchemist Sage via Crafts Pillar Urlirah
New Tools: Deepdraw needle is fucking cool. No actual needle, instead you set a depth and put the tip that distance from where you’re drawing, mana into activation rune, draws liquid w/ spatial magic. Want want want. Metaltrail scribe just a fancy pen that writes with metal, also cool. Want in copper, steel, zinc, aluminum at min.
Synthesis: Validation provides regular stamina potion as a reagent—EPO plus sth CO2-phobic? not clear, increases CO2 diffusion in lungs. “Heartsblood Droplet” made with 15mL liquid oxygen in vial that’s had copper diagram drawn on bottom. Run boltstone lit. thru copper, seal vial, add (neat membrane you can poke thru & regenerates! no idea what it is, just part of “this vial”, ty Urlirah) 0.1mL blood from pulmonary veins or left atrium—must not ever touch air or other liquid between draw & going into LOX. Heat tiny piece of tungsten to 1,000 DA, reflect light into prism, split light to get only fire essence, infuse solution until blood fully incorporates, put vial in stamina potion above top of vial, unseal, take 10g graphite per 1L of total solution (approximate is fine), light on fire (!), drop into solution, leave for 1hr (could be less but it’s shelf stable so w/e).
Notes: WELL, I wanted harder and more interesting. Urlirah is a bumbling idiot and Kelly knows his whole system better than he does. (Prob. too harsh.) Don’t ever take, don’t take basic potion either, causes panic attack & asthma symptoms if not exercising hard enough. Diagram incredibly finicky & detailed. Entire potion lights on HEATLESS fire when adding flaming graphite! Radical. Kelly says 0.4mm needles available way cheaper than deepdraw, I said put the order in, minion.
Potion: Bladejoy Oil
Tools: Mortar/pestle, Mashag vial, heater
Client: Ketka on own behalf
New Tools: Mashag vial not even a vial, this is bullshit, it’s a basin, long/narrow/shallow, kinda like a tray, has a long narrow opening on the bottom. Heater… is a heater, hook up boltstone to wires and make ‘em glow to produce heat, there’s easier ways if you can up with the mana but fuck it can’t rely on Kelly 110% of the time or something.
Reagents: Specific herbs a.s.e. for a bunch of stuff, there’s three diff options, went with wood/earth/any food-essence/iron
Synthesis: Grind herbs, mix herbs, make layer in bottom of tray, cover with oil, heat until herbs “completely withered”—Kelly made judgment call, didn’t feel like reading nineteen pages of tutorial on that. Open bottom thru filter to get just oil, bottle, done.
Notes: Came out super basic, super shitty, expected that. Diff herbs & more complex setups very different results, might be fun to experiment. … fun. Huh. Also, have req for type of oil whether bladejoy or otherwise that works w/ variant sword w/ interesting properties. Curious. Have different idea based on cycle but eventual thing to look at. Kelly pretty annoyed I went for the mundane heater. Better to just let her carry me on mana. Kinda resent that though. Also kinda resent that wood/earth/food/iron maps to axe/shovel/spear/hammer well enough that the cycle emits e. of sword? wtf even is that? I have so many questions. Ask Kartom?
Potion: Smoke Grenade
Tools: Burner, dish, canister, reagents, decoherence chamber
Client: Tseizal on behalf of Guard
New Tools: Canister technically? It’s like a concussion grenade but instead of shattering it pops a cork and spews the smoke.
Synthesis: Potassium chloride provided as common reaction, use lightning arc decoherence as described prev. to cause synthesis of potassium chlorate, precipitates right out of solution, chamber has a skimmer. Heat resin (any; used pine from Kibosh trees, easiest) until solid rosin, get some lactose (talked to cheesemaker Byana). Take KClO3, rosin, lactose; details omitted by standard practice, apparently Chlorine Gas fine to describe/in the public knowledge for all, smoke grenade not available to children. Okay not unreasonable.
Notes: Honestly pretty straightforward. Never stop amusing me how arcane & wacky molecular decoherence w/ lightning circ is. Intersection of chemistry & physics in the best way. … feels good to remember how cool this is.
Potion: Elemental Weapon Application
Tools: Mashag, greedstones, vacuum lens, essence prism, focus lens, holding arms
Client: none, Kelly said I should make one so we did
New Tools: Greedstones eat essence/mana/whatever, feed them enough and they switch to emptying themselves? not sure about the details, apparently somewhat finicky, more questions and research? Focus lens is magical telescope, p. neat.
Synthesis: v. similar to Bladejoy in a way! Use vacuum lens + prism + focus lens during night to get all but one of “Beyond” cycle, star-void-planet-sun-moon, per Kelly everyone knows it makes no sense, “everyone” knows stars are suns & moon not fundamentally different from planets. Focus lens trained on planet (same num of planets as old!home?! always. more. questions.) gives more essence, mundane telescope doesn’t. Hung greedstones in specific not-quite-square around tray (not flat w/ plane of oil, perpendicular aka up/down), anchor everything, put oil in tray, split w/ prism to infuse (this time) star-planet-sun-moon into respective stones, turn off apparatus when greedstones go unstable (Kelly saw), greedstones did… something. Don’t know why I got feelings about what the stones did. Can’t see, have no data… like it’s coming from inside. Curious. Partial cycle forming made void essence manifest at center in some way, infused oil, oil done.
Notes: Another cycle. Kelly knew I was having fun w/ these. Got some interesting ideas… what even is a cycle? Keep forgetting to ask Kartom. Now more questions to forget to ask. ex: WHY is this different from imbuing oil directly w/ void essence?!? But also… why void from those 4? What if we did all 5?