Alchemical Items

Winter's Edge uses a number of original alchemical items. Most of these have been originally submitted by players, and the creator of each item is creditted.

Dehydrated Water:
Dehydrated water, a colorless, odorless powder, comes in small packets of one ounce each. When combined with one liter of water, one ounce of powder yields ten liters of fresh, clean water. The water thus yielded, however, cannot be used to make more dehydrated water.

Craft (Alchemy) DC to create: 20, Market Price: 20gp

Created by Nevena

Everwake
Everwake, a small yellow crystal, must be burned and inhaled to activate its alchemical properties. The fumes of one everwake crystal will prevent sleep, as well as making the character immune to sleep effects, for eight hours. However, this sleeplessness is accompanied by jittery nerves which make concentration difficult. The character suffers a -2 penalty to Spot, Listen, Open Lock, and Search, and a -4 penalty to Concentration, after inhaling the everwake fumes. These penalties only go away after eight hours of restful sleep, and are cumulative with additional doses of everwake.

Craft (Alchemy) DC to create: 25, Market Price: 50gp

Created by Nevena

Food Tablets
Treasured by travelers, especially in harsh climates where real food is plain and largely tasteless, a single tiny food tablet is the nutritional equivalent of a whole meal. They come in three colors: white for breakfast, which tastes like biscuits and sausage gravy with eggs and fatback; yellow for luncheon, which tastes like bread and cheese with mutton soup, and red for dinner, which tastes like medium-rare beefsteak with a baked potato, greens and rolls. Three pills daily are sufficient to sustain a single individual of up to 300 pounds. They do not reduce the character's water requirements. One waterproofed tin contains sixty tablets.

Craft (Alchemy) DC to create: 30, Market Price: 300gp

Created by Nevena

Gecko Salve
This deep-green, extremely sticky salve has many uses. It is sold in rubber flasks, from which it must be squeezed because it is too thick and tacky to be poured. When applied to the hands, a full-round action which provokes an attack of opportunity, the user's hands become sticky for five minutes. This stickiness provides a +4 bonus to resist a disarm attempt, but dropping or sheathing a weapon (or anything else) becomes a full-round action which provokes an attack of opportunity, as it is very hard to get anything out of one's sticky hands. Handling delicate objects (like scrolls) with active gecko salve on one's hands requires a reflex check at DC15 to avoid tearing and destroying the object. The salve also provides a +4 bonus to climb and a +4 bonus to start a grapple.

Craft (Alchemy) DC to create: 20, Market Price: 50 gp

Created by Nevena

Intimate Draught
This curious pink fluid is sold in graduated vials so that it can be easily divided into two portions. When two characters share the draught equally, a full-round action which provokes an attack of opportunity, they temporarily gain an intimate bond. For two hours each character can feel the health and emotional state of the other. Although the characters cannot communicate per se, as in telepathy, they do know eachother's general feelings, as in "wary," "startled," "alert," "angry," and so on. Each knows when the other is wounded, and for every five points of normal damage one character takes, the other takes one point of subdual damage

Craft (Alchemy) DC to create: 25, Market Price: 150 gp

Created by Nevena

Iron Tonic
Iron tonic is an opaque, gelatinous fluid the color of lead, contained in iron bottles to avoid prematurely triggering its properties. When applied to anything other than iron, the tonic temporarily hardens the coated surface, making it glossy, dark bluish-grey and resistant to minor damage. It takes one minute to fully apply an iron tonic to a character, who must remove any armor and bulky clothing first. For ten minutes after application, the tonic grants damage resistance 5/+1. Alternately, the tonic can be applied to only the exposed skin without removing the armor first (usually the face, hands, and forearms). However, this hasty application only provides a benefit of DR 2/+1. One bottle contains enough tonic for a single thorough application, or three hasty ones.

Craft (Alchemy) DC to create: 30, Market Price: 150 gp

Created by Nevena

Lockwright's Oil
Used by the most skilled gnomish clocksmiths and lockwrights in the Empire, Lockwright's Oil is a marvelous lubricant used in the best of mechanisms: though somewhat expensive, it greatly resists freezing and water and is excellent at repelling rust - any mechanism treated with the stuff can expect a long life of efficient operation.

In the hands of adventurers and thieves, though, this alchemical compound can be an extremely useful tool. Lockwright's Oil is /extremely/ slippery; when emptied or hurled like a missile, a single pot of the stuff can create a 10' patch of very hazardous terrain to cross - anyone attempting to cross a hard surface upon which the oil has been spread must make a Reflex save (DC 15) or fall; any attempt to get up (a move-equivalent action) requires the same save. Someone attempting to grasp the handles of weapons or other objects to which the oil has been applied must also make a Reflex save (DC 15) or lose their grip. A pot has enough oil to treat the handles of eight small-sized weapons or equivalently-sized objects, four medium-sized and two large-sized objects. Two gallons of water are required to wash off a full pot's worth of oil; otherwise, it will not evaporate and will not freeze or burn.

Craft (Alchemy) DC to create: 25. Market Price: 75gp.

Created by Ralis

Metal-Eater Acid
As opposed to the usual organic acid brewed by alchemists and used as a weapon, metal-eater acid does little damage to flesh -- but does dissolve metal quite easily, and is often considered to be an unskilled thief's best friend when it comes to locks. If used as a grenade-like weapon, it does a mere 1d3 damage to organic targets, 1 pt splash damage, with the other statistics the same as normal acid -- but if used such against a metallic target such as an iron golem, it does 1d8 damage with a direct hit. The normal use of metal-eater acid is to be poured on a metal object, however, and in this case the object takes 1d6 damage per round for three rounds, ignoring hardness, and not doing half-damage to objects as most acid does.

Craft (Alchemy) DC to create: 20, Market Price: 50 gp

Created by: Meallan

Seabreather
Seabreather is a thick blue fluid sold in pint bottles. The fluid is not imbibed, but rather inhaled, to have its effect. Intentionally inhaling seabreather into one's lungs requires a Fortitude check at DC15 to avoid gagging and coughing the fluid back up. Once the whole contents of the bottle are successfully inhaled, seabreather allows the character to breathe underwater for 8 hours. The character is aware when the seabreather is about to run out, and has ten minutes before it stops working entirely. When the seabreather's effect is exhausted, it is violently expelled from the lungs, requiring another Fortitude check at DC20 to avoid being nauseated for 3d6 minutes.

Craft (Alchemy) DC to create: 30, Market Price: 150gp

Created by Nevena

War Paint
Alchemical war paint is more than just decorative. When applied to the face, it makes the user's appearance fierce and their heart bold. War paint is sold in small pots and is always in bright, bold colors. The application of war paint takes five minutes and requires either the help of another person or, if one is applying one's own paint, a mirror or appropriate mirror-like surface. The person applying the war paint (not necessarily the beneficiary of the paint) must succeed at a Disguise check at DC10 for the alchemical properties to work. For a number of hours equal to the wearer's charisma bonus after a successful application, the war paint offers a bonus of +4 to Intimidate checks and +2 to saves against fear.

Craft (Alchemy) DC to create: 25, Market Price: 50 gp

Created by Nevena

Waterflowers
Another useful - if exotic - product of alchemy is the crystalline treasure known as the Waterflower. In truth, they're not really flowers at all - each is a mineral crystal about the size of a marble, shaped vaguely like a six-pointed star or flower; their rich creamy shards and golden centers are the features which give them their name. Waterflowers are employed to help detect the presence of strong impurities - like poison - in consumable liquids. Ale, wine, mead; all of these can be tested, along with, of course, water. To use them, one simply floats a single crystal on the liquid and allow it to dissolve - if the elements inside the crystal interact with a poison, the substance turns jet black. Waterflowers are often employed by nobility and the like in lieu of a food-taster...being much more reliable (and disposable).

Craft (Alchemy) DC to create: 20. Market Price: 15gp.

Created by Ralis

Special: Compound Bows
Elaidar Compound Bows are, in fact, partly alchemical in nature. Much of the alchemical process is focused on increasing the strength of the ironwood used in their creation, and increasing the tensile strength of the bowstring. Without these alchemical processes, and the specific materials used to make bow, cams, and bowstring, the resulting weapon will not function well, if at all, and may endanger its user.

These alchemical processes, like the exact list of materials needed, are one of the most closely-guarded secrets of the Elaidar, and have been so since before the Mistwar, even from other elves. Self-reliant and all too often isolated from any potential assistance, the Elaidar are raised to go to any lengths necessary to see to it neither secrets nor bows fall into the hands of anyone who is not Elaidar. Most bands of primal elves refuse even to train their half-elven offspring to use the bows.

Alchemically speaking, the processes involved cannot be accurately recreated in a formal laboratory, but must be performed in the open woodlands. Because of this, the control the alchemist has over his work is negligible, resulting in an extremely high DC.

Creating one of these bows takes just over one year, though the crafter’s attention is required for only 6 weeks of that period.

Craft (Alchemy) DC to create: 35; Craft (Bowmaking) DC to create: 35; Must have correct materials. Market Price: Shortbow: 1,000 gp, Longbow: 1,500 gp

It cannot, however, be stressed enough that this information is jealously guarded by the elaidar, who view these bows as their only saving grace in a world of foes who breed a half-dozen generations for each generation of theirs. Even knowing In-Character what little and sketchy information is provided here is tantamount to signing your own death warrant. Player characters who are not Elaidar cannot begin play with this information, and will be asked by staff to provide logs of learning it, should they indicate having such knowledge in RP. This information here is provided in the interests of completeness, and because this much, at least, is known to most elaidar.