Stocking The Alchemist's Shelves

(And all the pervy jokes you can throw at that title are welcome, I might well use them.)

Yes, it's that time again, when Xiao comes wandering in hoping for a few decent ideas.

What would you expect to find on the shelves in an Alchemist's store? I have all the obvious basics - healing potions, explosives, smoke bombs, antidotes, that kind of thing - and a few odder items too (like the Spider Web, a tanglefoot bag on steroids), but my alchemist's notebook still looks terribly bare.

So, if you were an Alchemist, what would you be expecting to sell? (Needless to say, the wierder the better.)

 

Patent medicines and designer drugs are a must.

 

*notes* Aphrodisiacs... I suppose hallucinogenics might need to go on the list too... Lore, Gwen's gonna wind up selling to the entire Boil at this rate. (Yes, I called my slums the Boil. For good reason, and not just because Tarant is epic win.)

 

There's a bit of a problem in that. Alchemy is magical (sorta). Gwen wouldn't know where to start on more scientific medicines.

 

I vaguely remember a discussion about whether Alchemy should be tech or magick based (or something like that). What was the outcome of that discussion, if it did have any at all?

IMHO, Alchemy should require both technological and magickal skills, thus 1) make it difficult to master it 2) ensure the cooperation of experts of different fields of alchemy

 

Alchemy is magic based, but it's a very scientific method of magic. You have to have the correct mana on hand, the right recipe, the correct item as a 'receptor' for the mana, you have to follow the instructions to the letter... And god help you if you decide to experiment with the wrong kind of mana. BOOM. (Not all experimenting is going to get you killed, most Alchemists try the occasional substitution or alteration, especially when they're in a pinch, but muck around too much and say goodbye to your eyebrows.)

So really, it's a bit of both.

 

What about that thing called Thunderrock*, that's making everyone in the area deaf?

*I am not sure, what's the name is.

 

*Thunderstones

I suggest;
-Universal Solvents and Glues
-Drinkable Fortune
-various acids
-Self-Patterning Camo Paint
-Flasks, Vials, and other beaker-esque things
-Snake Oil
-Instant Cement (just add water)
-Nightsight Eyedrops
-Wind-Canceling Dust
-Percolators and Portable Stoves
-Everslick
-Rust-Inhibitor
-Liquid Rope
-Magnesium Candles

 

Unless you plan on using every one of those items, I'm not sure it's necessary what all is on the shelf. I believe it's more about what the shelves look like and how banged up the place looks. Of course, you'll probably mention something like "along with all the many flavours of potions and elixirs, there are also (blah blah blah)."

Just my two cents, though!

 

Philosopher Stones

 

In my canon of fiction, alchemy is is a magic-tech hybrid. Alchemy is all about mixing reagents into products, be them potions or whatever, to basically mimic whatever chemical actions a mage does when they cast spells.

 

I did some research, and I came with these:

-Feather Power

Anyone struck or splashed by the powder must succeed at a Fortitude Save (DC 15) or take a -1 circumstance penalty on attack and damage rolls, skill checks, ability checks for 1 minute due to irritation and itching. Creatures with feathers are particulary susceptible, taking -2 circumstance penalty on the Fortitude save against feather powder and suffering double the effect (-2 penalty) if they fail the save.

-Festering Bomb

All within the burst must make saving throws as if exposed to filth fever (Fort DC 12).

-Karras Stone Knife

The character using the knife gains +1 profane bonus on the Knowledge (Religion) check for the sacrifice.

-Violated Horn

-Weeping Stone

Anyone who gets touched by this stone, begins to weep and feel great sorrow. Such character is considered shaken for 1d6 rounds.

-Celestial Wine

Normally reserved for only the highest god. One glass of celestial wine will cure any and all poisons and diseases and can heal minor wounds instantly. Drinking three glasses in one day will heal all wounds Completely even if on the brink of death and the subject will be immune to all poisons and diseases weaker than the Great Contagion for a year and a day.

-"Plutonium", aka the Plutonian drug

A fine white powder derived from fossilized plant material located beneath the frozen gasses that for Pluto's surface, Plutonium sends the user's mind into a strange fugue, wherein he experiences all the moments of the future and the past as a series of bas-relief images stretching off to the right and left. The sensation lasts for up to half-an-hour, during which time the user can retrace his past experiences or even trace his path into the future. Due to the subjective time it takes to navigate this experience, it seems likely that the user can perceive at most a day or so in either direction.

-Space Mead

A drug which places its users into a state of suspended animation. Used for interstellar flight on the backs of byakhee.

 

GarmGarf: Nice little snippet, but this is MY world, not YOURS. Alchemy has been defined in this thread already.

Arthgon: Interesting stuff, but this isn't for D&D. This is for my novel.

magikot: Philospher's Stones are involved in my plot, but Gwen will never be selling them, for many reasons, not the least of which being her tentative association with the Sidhe.

Peter Quincy: Ooooooh, nice list there. Pinching the ideas of selling alchemical supplies as well as end products, Nightsight Eyedrops, Liquid Rope and Drinkable Fortune.

 

Alchemical clothing.
Maybe anti-alchemical products in the event an alchemical experiment goes wrong and a practioner needs to neutralize the effect, akin to chemists neutralizing acids with soda.

 

Alchemical Clothing recieves a big fat FUCK YES from me. That's such a cool idea.

 

I think (I skipped everyone else's posts, so I hope nobody beat me to this) I'd expect to see a pile of sulfur, or something, maybe with some form of measuring device next to it? Maybe something like that, or an element that's common to alchemy just in a large mound on a shoddy little table, that's seen years of sitting there, possibly with a mild discoloration/alteration due to the nature of the element mounded atop it. Perhaps there should be some kind of device, like a sift, or some such, perpetually filtering the element into the mound it's in?

 

You're going to love the actual lab part of Gwen's shop then. It's a disaster area, with a little army cot type bed in a corner cause she sleeps in her lab more often than in her bedroom.

Herbs, liquids, crystals, odd bits of stuff from here or there, more books than you can poke a stick at... Scuse me, I think I'm getting jealous of my own character here.

 

What about these?:

-Flask of invisibility

-Potion of Fire Breath.

-Potion of Youth.

-Philfer of Love.

-Dust of Cleaning.