Day 311 | Open Broadcast

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Who: Rob, anyone
Open: Open
When: Day 311
Where: Everywhere, then Colin's workshop
What: An invitation to learn how to make healing potions.
Format: Will match
Warnings: None?

[So remember that capability the amulets have to broadcast a message to every amulet in the Bastion at once? And remember this guy, who is probably near the bottom of everyone's list on who's most likely to ever use this function? Someone go check if Ibuki made some flying pigs or something, because Rob's making a broadcast here.]

Hey, uh, this is Rob. I've, uh. [A pause, then continuing in a way that's recognizable as someone reading from a script.] So I've been working on teaching myself alchemy using the plants and animals that Paarthurnax has brought in, and I've finally figured out how to make healing potions. I've been thinking that it would probably be a good idea for multiple people to be able to make them, just in case something happens to me or the healers, so I'm wondering if anyone would like to learn how to make them themselves. I wouldn't say it's particularly hard, it just takes some patience and attention to detail. If you're interested in me teaching you, come over to the workshop and bring something to take notes with if you think they'd be helpful.

[A relieved gasp for breath at the end is cut off when Rob ends the broadcast.]

[Sure enough, Rob can be found anxiously waiting outside the workshop. He nods when you walk up.]

You here for the, uh, for the learning about making potions?

Comments

[daughterofursa]

[Zuko's had to take it easy since the Core expedition so Rob probably hasn't seen much of her, but it's for the same reason she decides to check this out. She's not a healer, but knowing a little more than basic first aid might not be a bad idea if she's going to be injuring herself like that again any time soon.]

Yeah. Seems like a good idea.

[She's a little. awkward since he was there for the kissing incident, but he's one of the few people who never said anything about it before so... maybe he won't say anything now either.]

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

[Rob would've figured that Ghaleon could've just applied healing magic and Zuko could've been on her way, but he's not a healer himself and doesn't want to step on Ghaleon's toes, so he never said anything. Nor is he currently planning on saying anything about the kissing "incident". But how is him not saying anything about anything different than any other time? His current awkwardness comes entirely from the idea of teaching someone else something.]

Well, uh, c'mon in. There's a lab on the second floor that I've been using.

[He heads inside, past various tools and equipment and Colin's projects, and then up the stairs to the second floor, half of which is a cleanroom and the other half a space filled with laboratory benches and counters. It's obvious where Rob's set up shop; most of the surfaces are clear of equipment, but one section near the stairs has an array of bottled potions, a few jars of various powders labeled in English, a stack of three leatherbound tomes, a small pile of blue mountain flowers and wheat, and various pieces of glassware and other equipment, including a mortar and pestle looking somewhat out of place among all the Science! stuff.]

So, uh, this is where I've been working.

[daughterofursa]

[Even magic has its limits. If Katara couldn't heal her instantly, she certainly wasn't expecting Ghaleon to.

Zuko follows him to his workspace, raising her eyebrow. As if she'd be able to notice what's out of place here when all of it is pretty foreign to her. Especially the English, but also the equipment. The wheat may be the only thing she recognizes.]

I thought you said this wasn't that complicated.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

It's not. The basic process is to grind the ingredients up into tiny pieces and mix them with water, though there's other stuff that should be done to make the potion stronger, and most of that other stuff is basically like boiling water, just fancier.

[Also Rob's really smart and has been reading and working on this for about a month, so his perspective might be slightly skewed here.]

[daughterofursa]

[Well, that doesn't sound hard. She can mash things up and boil water.]

Do you use all of these things for your potions?

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

[He nods.]

Yeah. Though for this particular potion I don't need everything here.

[He picks up the flowers and wheat.]

To make any kind of potion you need at least two ingredients. For the potion to actually do anything those ingredients need to share a magical effect. In this case, blue mountain flower and wheat - only the kind from Paarthurnax's world that's growing in the eastern part of the Bastion; the wheat growing on the farm doesn't do anything, I've tried - both contain the effect "restore health", so when they're used together in a potion you get a healing potion. They actually share another effect, "fortify health", so these healing potions will also let the drinker survive more injuries for a while after they're used, which is a nice bonus. The other effects they have won't do anything without another ingredient, but they're not particularly useful for us anyways so that doesn't matter.

[daughterofursa]

So they're magic flowers.

[As far as Zuko can tell anyway.]

But what happens when that "fortify" effect wears off? It sounds like it lets you take more injuries than you can normally handle. That could be dangerous.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

It's as good an explanation as any.

[He has no idea how it actually works. He doubts normal chemistry applies here.]

I'm... not actually sure. For obvious reasons I haven't tested them with severe injuries yet. It's probably safest to assume that all the extra injuries will have the effects they normally would once the extra health goes away.

[For the record, in the game you lose health equal to what you gained through the Fortify effect once it ends, but you can't drop below 1 HP through this.]

[bakegarasu]

[Otoha's been... around. He knows some potions, but mostly from his world, and only because of the book he picked up. He has it in his hands as he walks over, since he might as well put it in here for reference's sake.]

... Yeah.

[He'll try, at least.]

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

[A reference book that no-one else will be able to read. Rob's awkward enough at the idea of teaching someone else something, but knowing that Otoha knows some herbalism already makes this even more awkward, like if he were trying to teach Colin algebra.]

Well, uh, c'mon in. There's a lab on the second floor that I've been using.

[He heads inside, past various tools and equipment and Colin's projects, and then up the stairs to the second floor, half of which is a cleanroom and the other half a space filled with laboratory benches and counters. It's obvious where Rob's set up shop; most of the surfaces are clear of equipment, but one section near the stairs has an array of bottled potions, a few jars of various powders labeled in English, a stack of three leatherbound tomes, a small pile of blue mountain flowers and wheat, and various pieces of glassware and other equipment, including a mortar and pestle looking somewhat out of place among all the Science! stuff.]

So, uh, this is where I've been working.

[bakegarasu]

[He looks it over, squinting a little at the labels. He recognizes the language vaguely, but he doesn't know any of those words. But the setup is clean, and it looks like things are organized, so he nods.]

... Yeah. I've mostly just been dropping off stuff at the hospital.

[He only really knew what he was doing when he had instructions and ingredients at hand. Having to come up with them himself has left him kind of lost.]

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

I don't really know much about medicine, so...

[He shrugs, then picks up the flowers and wheat.]

But, uh, anyways you've probably seen these around the Bastion: blue mountain flowers and wheat. I had the Monument bring them here recently. They're the ingredients you need to make healing potions. Or at least the ones we have here; there's like a dozen that'll work according to these books, but getting plants was cheaper than demons and giant rats. Using blue mountain flower and wheat has the bonus of adding a second effect to the potion: fortifying your health so you can survive more injuries for a short time after drinking it.

Anyways, uh, only the wheat from Paarthurnax's world will work; it's the wheat growing in the eastern part of the Bastion. The wheat growing in the farm won't do anything. I've already tried. So the basic process is to grind up the ingredients and mix them together with water. There's a bunch of details to how you do it, and you won't get a very strong potion without doing a bunch of other stuff to bring out the effects - that's what most of this other equipment is for - but that's the basic concept behind how it's done. The magic seems to be in the plants already, and you can get some of it out with something called "wortcraft", which is basically a special way of chewing, but the alchemy process seems to be what extracts the magic at something closer to its full strength.

[bakegarasu]

I don't either, really. Just what I've been able to pick up from this book and from being patched up so much.

[He listens, and pulls out a pen cartridge he found. He scratches it onto the paper near the back of the book. He does his best to draw pictures of the flowers, but... his art skills leave something to be desired.]

Is it just for healing the actual injury, or does it do something for pain, too?

[It wouldn't make a difference to him, but to other people it probably will.]

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

I haven't tested it with any major injuries yet for obvious reasons, but with smaller ones it seems to shift the pain to being proportional to the injury, so if it heals a larger wound to a smaller one the pain will change to be what you'd expect from the smaller injury. The healing happens almost instantly so it's hard to analyze what's happening, but it's definitely not like the regeneration potions where it accelerates the pain along with the healing process. On the other hand the regeneration potions probably have the potential to do more total healing over their duration, as well as heal wounds received after the potion's been drunk, but I doubt they act fast enough to be able to save someone from a fatal wound, so there's tradeoffs. It also turns out that the regeneration potions won't prevent scarring, I guess because they're accelerating natural healing instead of outright healing the wound.

[I wonder how he found that out, eh?]

[bakegarasu]

[He... tries to follow that, and he thinks he gets the gist. So it reduces pain, but not totally, and it just speeds up natural healing.]

How long does it take to make one of these?

[darkshooter]

[Just a nod.]

[Someone is quite keen on learning.]

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

[He doesn't recall seeing Shooter around before, but it's not like he makes any kind of effort to meet new people so for all he knows she's been here longer than he has.]

Well, uh, c'mon in. There's a lab on the second floor that I've been using.

[He heads inside, past various tools and equipment and Colin's projects, and then up the stairs to the second floor, half of which is a cleanroom and the other half a space filled with laboratory benches and counters. It's obvious where Rob's set up shop; most of the surfaces are clear of equipment, but one section near the stairs has an array of bottled potions, a few jars of various powders labeled in English, a stack of three leatherbound tomes, a small pile of blue mountain flowers and wheat, and various pieces of glassware and other equipment, including a mortar and pestle looking somewhat out of place among all the Science! stuff.]

So, uh, this is where I've been working.

[/3]

[darkshooter]

[This...]

[was the engineer's space.]



[Danger. There was danger here. She did not wish to engage him yet--]

[darkshooter]

[...no. No. She was not to engage him at all. There was...a truce in place. He had not shown her cruelty or attempted to harm her beyond the their earliest encounters. There was to be no fighting.]

[She was a guardian. A defender of the sanctuary. He, a fellow defender. For the sake of the greater purpose, they must not be at odds...]

[darkshooter]

[get out of those thoughts get out get out--]

[...Oh. Well, now that they're up the stairs - this...yes, this, she believes she understands. apparently you've been allowed to work here. Do you share residence?]

[Rather than ask anything, she just...covers the room in a slow stare, reminiscent of a Terminator.]

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

[Rob was already awkward enough at the idea of teaching someone else how to do something, and that Terminator room-scan just ups the awkwardness even more.]

Well, uh, the basic idea of making a potion is to grind up the ingredients and mix them with water. There's a bunch of other stuff that you need to do in order to get a good result, but that's the basic concept.

[He picks up the flowers and wheat.]

For a healing potion these are the ingredients you need: blue mountain flowers and wheat. Only the wheat that grows in the eastern part of the Bastion will work; the wheat that grows in the farm doesn't do anything. I've tried.

[/2]

[darkshooter]

[...]

[darkshooter]

[attention's back to you]

Blue flowers...the mountain. [Wait, the mountain - are you sure you got that right?] Water. Wheat of the east.

T-together.

I understand.

[Ikuri, I don't think you do.]

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

[Well she's saying she does so that's good enough, right? Though her speech is kind of awkward and Rob's not sure what to make of it, but he's not going to be rude and comment about it.]

More generally, the ingredients you use have to share a magical effect. In this case, blue mountain flower and wheat both share the effect "Restore Health", which means they'll make a healing potion. They also happen to share the effect "Fortify Health", which means that these healing potions will also allow the drinker to survive more damage for a short time after they drink it, which could be a nice bonus in an emergency. They each also have two other effects, but since none of those match the potion won't have those effects. Those other effects aren't very useful here anyways so it's not a big loss.

[darkshooter]

M-magic. Magic and magic...together.

[...is that all she absorbed from that, or...?]