February 6, 2011

Bark, Moss and Peat. Oh my.
by Loreis

I have decided to become an Alchemy master. This is not a real thing. It is simply something I have challenged myself to become masterful in, being that I just spent a ton of gold on tokens and need to replenish my bank account. I sat down in the Japanese tea garden yesterday, and over a lovely cup of jasmine tea, studied the book on botany that is found in Castle Medievia. This book tells you properties of each plant needed to create Alchemy potions, and gives subtle clues as to their locations. For example, virgin forests. Um. Well, I know where to find mortis moss, peat moss and trembleweed, so now I needed to find virgin trees. I understood that to mean trees which had been untouched by human (or other) hands, and could still wear white on their wedding day.

I asked on clan if anyone knew where to find cypress bark. I was told to look in swamps, then we took this to a wholly unhelpful place where I was being told that cypress bark was used to make canoes, so perhaps I should look in a zone frequented by canoes. Groaning with the weight of bad puns, I went back to my home and called a dragon. A young bronze beastie landed next to me, and smiled genially.

"Okay, first off, I'm sorry I have to do this to you, but I have to find a ton of cypress bark". Suddenly, I realized this dragon looked vaguely familiar.

"Found Father Time, did we?" the adolescent lizard queried.

"Ahh, that was you. Thank you for all your help yesterday, and yes, I did find him."

The dragon smiled again, wings spreading, wanting to fly.

"I know where cypress bark is plentiful, so jump on!"

Wow, I thought, this was a really gentle, nice dragon. Quite a change from the attitudes with wings that usually respond to my calls. I jumped up on his back, and noticed a slightly odd odor coming from the area of his head. The odor was sweet, but smelled like...I knew this, but before I could form my opinion, we were winging through the air. Crookedly, mind you. And the dragon was singing some sort of pirate song and laughing. Oh no. As we crashed into a tree, I realized that this teen age dragon was drunk as a lord. I rolled off his back, and he collapsed, giggling and whispering the lyrics to some tune about Eldrick to a tall blade of grass. I rolled my eyes, and wandered away, leaving him to his intoxicated singing.

Casting wizard eye, because I am horribly paranoid, I saw a few yellow "1's" but nothing major. I began my search-I was in a forest, the trees looked pristine, and I had high hopes that the result of this foraging would be a ton of cypress bark. I was right. I loaded up on bark, and trudged into the mountains for more peat. As I was intently studying the ground, I walked right into an orc. Glaring at me, he drew his sword, and bellowed,

"Seriously? SERIOUSLY? Get off my flipping foot, you stupid mage!"

I glared back.

"Calm down, I'm sorry. Look, I'm off your foot, now can you take that sword out of my ARM?"

Four shockwaves later, dead orc. Grumble.

Luckily, my drunken dragon had staggered off somewhere else, and I chose to simply recall back to Medievia. Alchemy ingredients in hand, pocket, pouch and satchel, I entered the Mage Quarter and bought the special jars one had to use in order to combine these plants and weeds into Alchemy potions. I began creating sanctuary potions, refresh potions, and cure critical potions. After a few explosions, I got the recipes down, and even managed to grow back my eyebrows. Scorch marks on the walls of our home are nothing new; I'm almost sure no one will notice mine. (sheepish grin)

Alchemy is really amazing. You can create healing potions, protective potions, even toxins to drip poisons onto certain weapons. Get the botany book, study well, and be prepared for a few, well, missteps. I have an ointment for growing back eyebrows, if you happen to need it.

Loreis-out