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Contracts of Alembic

UNIVERSAL AFFINITY
      Thought to have been first forged somewhere in the Middle-East, where the Courts change with the passage of hours, the Contracts of the Alembic allow changelings to work wonders of alchemy that rely more on narrative convention than atomic law. Particularly popular among the wizened, these powers rely on use of a lab space, and reward some fairly erratic behaviour - as such, alchemists tend to work alone, in inhospitable but well-stocked laboratory-Hollows. This position does little to improve their sanity, perceived or otherwise.

      Though these Contracts often refer to “potions” and similar terms, they have no bias in favour of liquid - or even edible - products. Balms and oils, pellets and powders, even incense and smokables are all valid ways in which the alchemist’s art can manifest itself.

      Universal Modifiers: All but the first of these clauses require the use of chemical equipment, whether modern distillation tanks or a home-made pestle and mortar, and apply equipment modifiers to the Contract's dice pool. Specialties in “Alchemy”, “Chemistry” or similar areas are always considered applicable to these activation rolls, regardless of the Skill they are associated with.

      Extended actions produced by these Contracts consist of a number of intervals no greater than the changeling's Science. These are distributed throughout the process according to the Storyteller's discretion. He can also add a +1 or +2 bonus by doubling or tripling the amount of time the process takes, taking especial care over his concoctions. Further extensions offer no benefit.

Litmus Tongue (•)

      The changeling divines the entire chemical makeup of an object or substance with but a taste.

      Cost: 1 Glamour
      Dice Pool: Wyrd + Wits
      Action: Instant
      Catch: The Contract must be used to analyze something that is dangerous to the changeling when ingested. This offers no protection against the substance, and the applicability (or not) of this clause cannot be used to determine a substance’s safety ahead of time.

      Dramatic Failure: The changeling is completely mistaken about the recipe of whatever he’s tasting, drawing misleading or even dangerous conclusions.
      Failure: The character learns nothing concrete.
      Success: The character intuits the substance’s composition - every present element, mixture, compound and so on. He also learns the proportions in which they are present, and the nature of their inclusion - contamination as opposed to coating, for example.
      Exceptional Success: Along with its composition, the changeling also learns the details of the substance’s creation - how long it was heated at what temperature, what tools were used to distil or smelt or glaze it, and so on.

      Suggested Modifiers:
      +1 The character swallows at least a full mouthful of the substance.
      +1 The changeling is familiar with the substance’s fundamental ingredients.

Genius of Improvisation (••)

      The changeling can replace ingredients in his brews with implausible substitutes, whether replacing Sudafed with gravel when cooking up drugs or using paper in place of apples for a hot pie. Only mundane ingredients can be replaced in this way.

      Cost: 1 Glamour
      Dice Pool: Wyrd + Science
      Action: Instant
      Catch: Every time the changeling has made something using the replaced ingredient in the past month, he's used this same substitute to replace it.

      Dramatic Failure: The substitution appears to work perfectly, only to totally spoil the mixture in some unforeseeable way - beverages become poisons, explosives become stink bombs.
      Failure: The Contract fails to function, and the added item clearly retains its usual properties.
      Success: The added ingredient perfectly replaces whatever the original recipe called for. It does not transform, but simply gains all the appropriate properties for that recipe. These properties only manifest as part of a greater mixture, and last for only (Wyrd) days after the concoction’s completion, before the ingredient returns to normal.
      Exceptional Success: The altered recipe retains its intended properties indefinitely.

      Suggested Modifiers:
      -1 Other ingredients have been substituted with this Contract (-1 each).
      +1 The changeling is experienced with this recipe, regardless of substitutions.

Elementary Distillation (•••)

      The changeling can reduce any object down to one of its constituent substances through an arcane alchemical process. This can involve anything from boiling to sun-drying and takes no fewer than (object’s Size) hours, but is fairly low-intensity and can be left mostly alone between intervals. Objects with a Size greater than the changeling’s Wyrd + Intelligence + Craft cannot be processed.

      Cost: (object’s Size ÷ 4) Glamour, rounded up
      Dice Pool: Wyrd + Craft + equipment
      Action: Extended
      Catch: The changeling intends to use the product of this Contract as an ingredient in a mixture.

      Dramatic Failure: The object is violently wasted, yielding nothing but a useless, half-recognizable mess of rust and hedge-mud which damages the changeling’s equipment beyond use.
      Failure: The object breaks down into an unusable, half-dissolved mess.       Success: The intended material is extracted from its parent object in whatever (physically possible) form the changeling desires - powder, crystals, liquid solution, etc - reducing the latter to an unidentifiable stain in the process. Only substances that actually exist within the treated object can be extracted - this Contract does not create matter, just retrieve it. Common materials such as iron, glass or rubber require two successes to distil. Rarer or more precious materials such as gold, uranium or diamonds require five successes.
      Exceptional Success: At the last moment the changeling spots a rare reaction, and can capture its product instead of the material he originally intended to extract. This substance is some ethereal quality of the original object, captured in a physical form - crystallized crimson, or liquid sharpness. Though useless for practical craft, such things can fetch a price at Goblin Markets or be used in hedgespinning.

      Suggested Modifiers:
      +2 The distilling equipment is large enough to fully encompass or submerge the object.
      +1 The changeling has Clarity lower than five.
      -2 The object is not even half-way submerged or encompassed by the distilling gear.
      -1 The changeling has a Clarity higher than five.

Name (••••)

      Description

      Cost: Words
      Dice Pool: Wyrd + Thing
      Action: Instant Reflexive Extended
      Catch: Words

      Dramatic Failure: Words
      Failure: Words
      Success: Words
      Exceptional Success: Words

Name (•••••)

      Description

      Cost: Words
      Dice Pool: Wyrd + Thing
      Action: Instant Reflexive Extended
      Catch: Words

      Dramatic Failure: Words
      Failure: Words
      Success: Words
      Exceptional Success: Words