A Guide to Enchanting for Laymen and Cagers
Volume Two - Appendixes:
I. Alchemy - An Overview on how Alchemy pertains to Enchanting.
II. Alchemical Tools - The economics of Alchemical Tools.
III. Essence Values – The approximate values of the essence potencies, by approximate wholesale and market price.
IV. Essence Conversion – On the loss of value and increase in cost, when creating Elemental Essence from Power Essence.
V. Electrifier Charging – Further economic impacts of Essence Conversion and the business of Recharging depleted magical devices.
A Guide to Enchanting for Laymen and Cagers
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*MadPorthos
- Posts: 148
- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am
Appendix I: Alchemy – An Overview of how Alchemy pertains to Enchanting.
Basic alchemy is an art and science performed by potion makers, scholars and engineers in most cultures, to one degree or another. As most are well aware, Alchemy as a skill has certain mundane uses such as creating weapons of war in the case of AlchemistÂ’s Fire and Acid Flasks, creating tools for distraction, Tanglefoot Bags and Thunderstones, creating weapons against the undead such as Holy Water or even poisons of useful for hunting and for grimmer intent.
The discoveries of Alchemists have also aided crafters and metal smiths in learning how to work strange planar metals such as dark steel, truesteel, and cold iron. Even more helpful to some, is the alchemical process worked out by alchemists whereby strong steel weapons can be coated in alchemical silver, allowing them to do devastating damage to those harmed by silver(Lycanthropes, devils), without being fragile the way that natural silver and silver alloys tend to be.
For Sigilian Enchanting, Alchemy is not merely a help, it is an absolute necessity. In times past and as is practiced still in some primes, much enchantment was done by means of elaborate personal formulae worked out and handed down by Enchanters to their students, formulae that used bizarre and rare monster components and materials to imbue magic power into physical items permanently. In more recent times, the art and science of Alchemy has revolved around freeing the magic energy that is concentrated and congealed into these body parts of magical creatures, rendering it into a more useable form – magical essences.
To do any serious alchemical work, Alchemists need at the very least an alchemistÂ’s workshop, and their most commonly used basic tool, the mortar and pestle. When attempting to create common alchemical projects, such as Alchemists Fire, or Thunder Stones, the components are put into the alchemistsÂ’ work shopÂ’s container and the Alchemist uses the mortar and pestle on the workshop to mix, grind and combine the needed components in the correct quantities and order. The result should be a given quantity of the desired product.
When trying to get essences out of monster parts, such as Ghast Claws, Shadow Residue, a Winter WolfÂ’s pelt, or other material that magic has been concentrated in, a skilled Alchemist must use a mortar and pestle on the item in question. The result should eventually be one or more essences, after standard alchemical procedures have been completed in the vicinity of the Alchemical Workshop.
When working with the resulting magical essences an Alchemist can create more potent essences by placing two quantities of less potent essences into the container of the alchemistÂ’s workshop and after using their mortar and pestle with/on the workshop , they will distill the material of the essence, gaining one quantity of more potent essence as a result of the destruction/combination of the two lesser essences.
In this manner, the more potent glowing and radiant essences are created from many faint and weak essences of the same exact type (Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Power).
If one needs to have a weaker essence of a given type and only has a stronger, more potent essence, an alchemist can make it into a weaker essence, but he will not create multiples or regain additional weaker essences previously used to create the potent essence being downgraded. Basically the alchemist may have to take a single radiant or glowing essence, for example, and reduce it to a single weak or faint essence through dilution, by using the mortar and pestle directly on it to mix it with some inert material. The result is a single weaker essence, necessary perhaps to complete an enchantment, but surely a loss of value. Naturally this approach is very inefficient.
Basic alchemy is an art and science performed by potion makers, scholars and engineers in most cultures, to one degree or another. As most are well aware, Alchemy as a skill has certain mundane uses such as creating weapons of war in the case of AlchemistÂ’s Fire and Acid Flasks, creating tools for distraction, Tanglefoot Bags and Thunderstones, creating weapons against the undead such as Holy Water or even poisons of useful for hunting and for grimmer intent.
The discoveries of Alchemists have also aided crafters and metal smiths in learning how to work strange planar metals such as dark steel, truesteel, and cold iron. Even more helpful to some, is the alchemical process worked out by alchemists whereby strong steel weapons can be coated in alchemical silver, allowing them to do devastating damage to those harmed by silver(Lycanthropes, devils), without being fragile the way that natural silver and silver alloys tend to be.
For Sigilian Enchanting, Alchemy is not merely a help, it is an absolute necessity. In times past and as is practiced still in some primes, much enchantment was done by means of elaborate personal formulae worked out and handed down by Enchanters to their students, formulae that used bizarre and rare monster components and materials to imbue magic power into physical items permanently. In more recent times, the art and science of Alchemy has revolved around freeing the magic energy that is concentrated and congealed into these body parts of magical creatures, rendering it into a more useable form – magical essences.
To do any serious alchemical work, Alchemists need at the very least an alchemistÂ’s workshop, and their most commonly used basic tool, the mortar and pestle. When attempting to create common alchemical projects, such as Alchemists Fire, or Thunder Stones, the components are put into the alchemistsÂ’ work shopÂ’s container and the Alchemist uses the mortar and pestle on the workshop to mix, grind and combine the needed components in the correct quantities and order. The result should be a given quantity of the desired product.
When trying to get essences out of monster parts, such as Ghast Claws, Shadow Residue, a Winter WolfÂ’s pelt, or other material that magic has been concentrated in, a skilled Alchemist must use a mortar and pestle on the item in question. The result should eventually be one or more essences, after standard alchemical procedures have been completed in the vicinity of the Alchemical Workshop.
When working with the resulting magical essences an Alchemist can create more potent essences by placing two quantities of less potent essences into the container of the alchemistÂ’s workshop and after using their mortar and pestle with/on the workshop , they will distill the material of the essence, gaining one quantity of more potent essence as a result of the destruction/combination of the two lesser essences.
In this manner, the more potent glowing and radiant essences are created from many faint and weak essences of the same exact type (Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Power).
If one needs to have a weaker essence of a given type and only has a stronger, more potent essence, an alchemist can make it into a weaker essence, but he will not create multiples or regain additional weaker essences previously used to create the potent essence being downgraded. Basically the alchemist may have to take a single radiant or glowing essence, for example, and reduce it to a single weak or faint essence through dilution, by using the mortar and pestle directly on it to mix it with some inert material. The result is a single weaker essence, necessary perhaps to complete an enchantment, but surely a loss of value. Naturally this approach is very inefficient.
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*MadPorthos
- Posts: 148
- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am
II. Alchemical Tools – The Economics of Alchemical Tools.
Asides from the Alchemical Workshop and the common mortar and pestle, there are other Alchemical Tools that have been developed over the long history of Alchemy. The most prominent of those used in Sigil are the ShaperÂ’s Alembic, ShaperÂ’s Retort and ShaperÂ’s Decensor. These tools have been developed by master alchemists over the millennia to make Alchemy more efficient, or more convenient, though rarely both. Using these tools have certain benefits, but there is an economic impact to their use as well. Each will be discussed in turn.
ShaperÂ’s Alembic is basically a solution to the dilemma of losing magical power and valuable essence when you need to downgrade a potent essence to a weaker essence. By using the ShaperÂ’s Alembic, you may actually take a single more powerful essence and divide it into two weaker essences of the next weaker potency level. This is far more efficient than using a mortar and pestle, so any serious Enchanter seeks out a ShaperÂ’s Alembic, which runs quite a bit of gold, in order to prevent having to lose essence every time they need a weaker essence and only possess more potent essences. Economically this tool is a no-brainer, no one wants to lose value of their resources and stock just so they can make a sale by destroying a potent and valuable essence just to gain a weaker one.
ShaperÂ’s Retort is sort of a miniature Alchemical Laboratory, a small magical device that allows the Alchemist on the move to use it in order to refine weaker essences into one or more potent essences of the same type (Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Power) without needing to have a full Alchemy workshop on hand. One of the great advantages of the ShaperÂ’s Retort is that it can work with much greater quantities, whole containers or large vessels filled with essence of the same potency, refining the whole batch to a higher potency level, rather than only two essences at a time the way an alchemical workshop must be used. The ShaperÂ’s Retort is a real time saver, leading to a more efficient business if you are an Enchanter. Naturally, a ShaperÂ’s Retort sells for quite a bit of jink, well over ten thousand gold.
The ShaperÂ’s Decensor is both a boon and a curse to the professional Alchemist and Enchanter. It is a magical tool in the truest sense of the word, like a sort of transmutation wand, allowing the skilled alchemist to literally transmute a power essence into four less powerful elemental essences (one of each element) or to combine two elemental essences of a particular given type and potency (Air, Fire, Water, Earth), to create a single Power essence of the same potency. This can be a great boon to an enchanter when they absolutely need to have the right type of otherwise unavailable essence and are willing to sacrifice powerful essences and magical charges from the Decensor in order to create the necessary elemental essence.
I say this tool is also a curse to the Enchanter because the cost of this convenience is the loss of magical charges, meaning it can only be done less than a dozen times ever, unless the Enchanter can get their Decensor recharged. The cost of those recharges however, is phenomenal, needing to be defrayed by charging much more for the specially created essence that had to be made using this tool.
Despite being both a boon and a curse, the ShaperÂ’s Decensor is considered essential to a Master EnchanterÂ’s trade. As a true magical item of great rarity, it often sells for ten to twenty thousand gold or more. On occasion, Enchanters will pass their tools on to their apprentices when they retire, but most often, an Enchanter gradually acquires these tools as they come across them, spending large sums and later needing to make a profit to pay for their purchase and continued maintenance, as is the particular case of the Decensor.
Asides from the Alchemical Workshop and the common mortar and pestle, there are other Alchemical Tools that have been developed over the long history of Alchemy. The most prominent of those used in Sigil are the ShaperÂ’s Alembic, ShaperÂ’s Retort and ShaperÂ’s Decensor. These tools have been developed by master alchemists over the millennia to make Alchemy more efficient, or more convenient, though rarely both. Using these tools have certain benefits, but there is an economic impact to their use as well. Each will be discussed in turn.
ShaperÂ’s Alembic is basically a solution to the dilemma of losing magical power and valuable essence when you need to downgrade a potent essence to a weaker essence. By using the ShaperÂ’s Alembic, you may actually take a single more powerful essence and divide it into two weaker essences of the next weaker potency level. This is far more efficient than using a mortar and pestle, so any serious Enchanter seeks out a ShaperÂ’s Alembic, which runs quite a bit of gold, in order to prevent having to lose essence every time they need a weaker essence and only possess more potent essences. Economically this tool is a no-brainer, no one wants to lose value of their resources and stock just so they can make a sale by destroying a potent and valuable essence just to gain a weaker one.
ShaperÂ’s Retort is sort of a miniature Alchemical Laboratory, a small magical device that allows the Alchemist on the move to use it in order to refine weaker essences into one or more potent essences of the same type (Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Power) without needing to have a full Alchemy workshop on hand. One of the great advantages of the ShaperÂ’s Retort is that it can work with much greater quantities, whole containers or large vessels filled with essence of the same potency, refining the whole batch to a higher potency level, rather than only two essences at a time the way an alchemical workshop must be used. The ShaperÂ’s Retort is a real time saver, leading to a more efficient business if you are an Enchanter. Naturally, a ShaperÂ’s Retort sells for quite a bit of jink, well over ten thousand gold.
The ShaperÂ’s Decensor is both a boon and a curse to the professional Alchemist and Enchanter. It is a magical tool in the truest sense of the word, like a sort of transmutation wand, allowing the skilled alchemist to literally transmute a power essence into four less powerful elemental essences (one of each element) or to combine two elemental essences of a particular given type and potency (Air, Fire, Water, Earth), to create a single Power essence of the same potency. This can be a great boon to an enchanter when they absolutely need to have the right type of otherwise unavailable essence and are willing to sacrifice powerful essences and magical charges from the Decensor in order to create the necessary elemental essence.
I say this tool is also a curse to the Enchanter because the cost of this convenience is the loss of magical charges, meaning it can only be done less than a dozen times ever, unless the Enchanter can get their Decensor recharged. The cost of those recharges however, is phenomenal, needing to be defrayed by charging much more for the specially created essence that had to be made using this tool.
Despite being both a boon and a curse, the ShaperÂ’s Decensor is considered essential to a Master EnchanterÂ’s trade. As a true magical item of great rarity, it often sells for ten to twenty thousand gold or more. On occasion, Enchanters will pass their tools on to their apprentices when they retire, but most often, an Enchanter gradually acquires these tools as they come across them, spending large sums and later needing to make a profit to pay for their purchase and continued maintenance, as is the particular case of the Decensor.