thebastion | Day 311 | Open Broadcast

Entry tags:

rob edwards

Day 311 | Open Broadcast

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?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, I get that. I never even thought that this kind of thing would even work before maybe a week before I showed up here.

Edited 2015-05-25 01:45 (UTC)

[He nods.]

In my world this kind of thing only exists in stories and games. I didn't expect it to be real before I came here.

I thought that's how it was in mine too. Aside from weird people in traditional medicine shops who claimed tiger penis would make you last longer or something.

Yeaaah. There's traditional medicine and then there's traditional superstition. I for one am not particularly interested in consuming tiger penis, even if it did do something.

This alchemy at least I can confirm that it does what it says it does. At this point I think there's 11 different effects we have the ingredients for, though not all of them are as useful as others. Healing is probably the most important one, though getting ingredients for a couple more effects might be a good idea.

I could probably throw in some shards for those... there's a bunch of stuff in this book, too. I just have to go over it since... a lot of it is confusing.

[He didn't ask for this job.]

You... don't have to do that, you know.

[Rob it's not really a gift for you or anything like that...]

My knowledge of herbalism pretty much stops with willow, ginger, and plantain, so I don't think I can be much help there until I get around to reading more about it.

[His somewhat bored and mildly friendly gaze hardens as he stares at Rob. He's not trying to scare him, but he does want to get the point across.]

Look. I'm not exactly in need of anything. And... if I'm going to have the chance to help people, I... guess I should. This isn't my old life anymore. So I need to at least try to... make something of it that's not killing.

[Rob isn't scared by that look, per se, but he's definitely a bit nervous and uncomfortable. He's just not going to mention that it's likely a good chunk of the shards that Otoha is offering came from killing things.

After a moment he pulls out his datapad and unrolls it, tapping at the screen.]

There's a bunch of effects that'd be useful to have around: Cure Disease - self-explanatory, Fear - to drive off monsters, Fortify Carry Weight - lets you carry more stuff, Paralysis - immobilize monsters, Slow - make them move slower, Resist effects to give extra defense against certain kinds of damage, Weakness effects to make monsters easier to damage with different things, Waterbreathing - though that one's probably unnecessary considering how little water there is around, and Fortify effects - they make you better at various things, like sneaking, archery, and bartering.

The Cure Disease effect is a problem, since all the ingredients with the effect come from creatures that'd be problematic to acquire them from for various reasons: vampires, birds, and a giant rat that you have to char its hide correctly before you can use it in alchemy. You could make a magic item that provided a supply of the ingredient, but I'm going to see if I can get books from other parts of Paarthurnax's world that talk about other ingredients that might have the effect, and hopefully one of them will be just a plant. For the other effects I have some lists of what the cheapest ways to get enough ingredients for them are, if you've got any preferences for which effects you'd wanna get.

[Well he's not counting those. Those aren't also people.]

... Resist might be easier. What do you need for those?

[He looks over for a moment, but then gives it up because he can't understand whatever he's got written down.]

[The Gasfellas are, and the Squirts will be, so...]

There's five versions of Resist: Resist Fire, Resist Frost, Resist Magic, Resist Poison, and Resist Shock. We already have the ingredients to make Resist Fire potions, but not the others. Well technically we can make Resist Magic potions too but they'll also poison you and put you to sleep so that doesn't really count. The cheapest way to get the rest would be...

[Tap, tap, tap]

Snowberries, Swamp Fungal Pod, Gleamblossom, and... oh I forgot about that. There's two ways to finish this set off.

The cheapest would be to get Thistles, since they can be used in two of the Resist potions. The problem is their Resist Poison effect is weaker than other ingredients and I'm not sure if that can be compensated for during the alchemy process. Resist Poison's also the one out of the five that's probably the most important here, especially if we go into a swamp again.

The other option is to get both Yellow Mountain Flowers and Purple Mountain Flowers instead. It's one more plant, but I can be more sure about how the potions will turn out.

Either way these ingredients will also allow for other potions we can't make right now: Paralysis, Fear, some kind of poison that depletes magical power, and either Fortify Heavy Armor for the Thistle option or both Fortify Restoration - healing magic - and Fortify Sneak for the Yellow and Purple Mountain Flower option. They're all small plants, so it'll be either 400 or 500 shards.

[He'd personally spend the extra hundred shards here, both so he can be sure the potions will work and also for the Fortify effects, but he's not going to outright ask for the more expensive option when someone else is footing the bill.]

[Not Bastion people, then.]

Why not get thistle and the other two? It'll only take a few more days of gathering shards. I probably have enough to help make up the difference in my room right now. It'd make it easier to make more helpful potions, right?

Not... really? Thistle still does pretty much the same things as the other two, except for being able to make Fortify Heavy Armor potions instead of the other two Fortify effects, so, like, to make you better at fighting in those suits of metal armor you see in museums. Well it's also part of a Ravage Stamina potion but that's just a way to cause needless suffering that I don't plan on ever making. It's kind of a waste of shards to do both, really.

Got it. I can still help make up the difference. I don't exactly need shards for much of anything. Maybe something to sharpen my sword with, but that's it.

Ultimately it's up to you, since they're your shards, but I personally wouldn't bother with the thistle.

Sure. I can help buy the other flowers, though.

Then the list would be Snowberries, Swamp Fungal Pod, Gleamblossom, Yellow Mountain Flowers, and Purple Mountain Flowers. Make sure to specify that they're the ones from Paarthurnax's world. If it's like the wheat thing, only plants from his world will work in alchemy.

Not a problem. I can do that in a bit. What else do you need?

[Why do people keep offering him items and training it's like he's more valued than he thinks he should be or something!

Also he has literal pages of ideas on things to get the Monument to make. He has to stop himself from bringing up so much random crap when Otoha asks that.]

Uh... I guess there's always more alchemy ingredients and stuff. I mean that's what I've been focusing on recently...

Mm. Like I said, I don't exactly have much use for my shards. I mostly just head out to the Skyway to practice.

[And going for a while without fighting something just feels... off.]

Well, uh, some of the other alchemy ingredients I'm looking at'll have extra costs associated with them. Like, to make a Weakness to Shock poison you can use bees, which would also be good for pollination and honey production, but if you want honey you'd also need a pallet of hives and some beekeeping equipment. There's also at least one kind of mushroom used in alchemy that grows in caves, so you'd probably need to get a cave as well. Though that one at least I think there's a substitute available to get the Weakness to Poison effect.

[As much of a windfall as this offer is for him and how convenient it is both ICly and OOCly, he's still feeling awkward about this and attempts to change the direction of the conversation.]

But, uh, you came here to learn about making healing potions, right? We should probably focus on that for the moment.

... Yeah. They might be easier to carry than bandages and disinfectant. Then I can keep going longer.

[And heal other people, but if he can help people by fighting, then he should probably focus on that as much as he can.]

A bit bulkier maybe, but faster-acting too.

So, uh, I guess we can start with grinding up the ingredients? I'm guessing if you've made medicines before you're probably familiar with a mortar and pestle? But we can start with the blue mountain flower...

[Because the mun doesn't know enough about this to write out a detailed description, let's summarize. Rob will walk Otoha through the processes, giving him plenty of opportunity to do each part himself. There's grinding the materials up, distilling water to mix with it (for completeness sake - he keeps jugs of distilled water around so he doesn't have to do this constantly, but he wants Otoha to know how to do it himself if he has to), calcinating, distilling, and otherwise purifying and refining the ingredients and mixture. Some of this might be familiar to Otoha, depending on exactly how the medicines he made were created. None of the steps are difficult to explain the basic concepts of, but the complexity comes from the details of how they're done. He may not be the Super High School Level Teacher, and he can easily go on tangents, but he's able to explain most things multiple ways if Otoha's having trouble with an explanation and he's patient enough not to get frustrated at him if he takes time to get things right (he's more likely to get frustrated at himself and apologize for his inability to explain it better).

At most it'll take a few days to level up Otoha's Alchemy skill to something useful, depending on how quickly he catches on, and once Otoha's got the hang of Restore Health potions Rob'll offer to teach him any of the other kinds they have the ingredients for if he wants.]

[He just watches, and tries to follow along, making notes in his book. His handwriting is pretty terrible, but at least he can read his own writing. The more complicated steps take a few tries to get right, but this is important. He needs to make sure that he knows how to do it. He doesn't try to cut Rob off, just listens to his apologies and tries not to feel too awkward.]

[At least Otoha's better at the more practical stuff, and measuring things out is easy enough to get right if he's paying attention. He stays as silent as possible, focusing in on what he has to do, and once the potion's made he sits back and stares at it.]

... Is that it?

It should be. There's no dramatic indication that the potion's ready or not, unfortunately.

I should test it.

[Probably. He picks it up and frowns. He should test it on himself rather than someone else... hm.]

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