Alchemy

Society: All in some form

All matter may be separated. If separated, it may be concentrated. If concentrated, it may be amplified.

The world is full of such elixirs.

To create them, you will need part of a plant containing the medicinal properties you wish to extract.

You will need a solvent. Its purity will matter.

Having performed your extraction, you will need a catalyst. Without this, the potion will have only a weak, medicinal effect. To mend flesh, defy reality, or command the elements, you must draw on occult knowledge.

Minor Catalysts
Minor catalysts create minor potions. Most come from blessed remains or the detritus of ritual. The bones of a priest, the ash of a spent scroll. That any who walk an occult path create them by matter of course in their practice makes them not too difficult to find.

Greater Catalysts
Greater catalysts create greater potions. Splinters of raw magic or shards of powerful corruption. The freshly shed scale of a mother Lindworm, the feasting web of an Etterherd cocoon.
This potency fades with time and distance, and is extinguished immediately if the source to which they are bound is destroyed. The bond will also break if they are taken by force, as the living source abandons them.
They are not the prize of a successful hunt, but instead have been carefully borrowed from the ecosystem of something living, makes them exceedingly rare.

Gathering Catalysts
At any time, the alchemist may make a skill check to attempt to gather a catalyst from one of the scenes described above.
If they succeed, they may attempt to gather another, up to a maximum of their current skill level.
If they fail, there is nothing more that can be gathered from the scene.

Potions, Tonics, Elixirs, Soaps
Require access to a full workshop to craft.

Potions you create will have a known effect, based on their final purity. For example, a potion of cure light wounds may heal 3 HP.

The same potion found in the wild will be of unknown purity, so it will heal 1d6.

A merchant selling the same potion may have enough alchemy skill to guarantee at least a certain effectiveness. The same potion purchased from them may heal 1d6, minimum 3. This will be written as 1d6:3.

Purity is rated on a scale of 1 (less than 20% purity) to 6 (99% purity or greater).
The table of reactants lists the effect, followed by X, the purity.
A reactant that lists "Heal X HP" at a purity level of 3 would heal 3 HP.

Using a greater catalyst will triple the effect. A potion of cure serious wounds found in the wild will heal 3d6 HP.
A reactant that lists "Heal X HP" at a purity level of 3 with a greater catalyst would heal 9 HP.

Pastes, Poultices
A soft, moist mass made from material ground together with a mortar and pestle, usually intended to be spread across cloth and applied directly. Can be made in one turn with Alchemy Tools.

As these do not benefit from a careful extraction process, they have a purity of -5 and give 15% of the maximum effect.

Incense
Fire will outright destroy most alchemical preparations, though it may transform some.

Requires preparation from an already extracted elixir form
The elixir must have all of the liquid removed. Most can be boiled off in a workshop, with the remainder being left to dry overnight. The final result creates a powder that may be burned to create a gaseous effect capable of filling an area, though its potency is reduced with distance
Unless otherwise noted, it burns for one hour, and the effect ends when it stops burning or if any affected move out of range.

Success
Given the right tools, reagents, reactants, enough time, and a successful skill check, the alchemist creates what they were intending to (or whatever the reagents and reactants would create)

Success by 3
The alchemist creates either a double batch of what they were intending to make, or manages to improve the purity by 1 grade.

Failure
The reactants survive, but the activation process doesn't take. The alchemist may try again, using another catalyst.

Failure by 3
Both the reactants and the catalyst are destroyed.