Alchemists

=Overview= Potion makers and tinkerers! Alchemists have the ability to bring out the most in natural ingredients that a normal person could not, and Xumurdad's power gives them better perceptions and the ability to work with devices more intuitively. They come highly varied compared to many classes, some focusing on potions--and specific kinds of potions such as those for healing versus potion bombs--and others on weapon building or homunculi constructs. Their constructs are limited to rudimentary AI, but their purposes may be just as varied as potions.

The blessing of Xumurdad does not give alchemists improved physical ability, instead focusing on improved mental abilities. There is an element of magic to alchemy, and putting all the right ingredients together in the right configuration will get you nothing if you're not an alchemist.

=History= The founder of the Alchemists was Khshathra, who ate Xumurdad's brain and gained Its knowledge. With this new understanding, he discovered that all he wanted to do was sequester himself and work on science. To this end, the first Khshathra founded Safta, with the Spellswords to protect it and the Mages to catalogue its works.

The Alchemists have a business partnership with the Rogues. Rogues sell them components at black-market discounts, and they sell Rogues their creations significantly marked down. This is something of an open secret; everyone knows it happens, but nobody will admit to it.

The Khshathra, also the Sharifa of Safta, is both head of her Guild and leader of the country. She is currently Harriet Webster.

=Details= Alchemists are creators. Their abilities as a class can vary greatly, but at their core, they are builders and creators. They invent gadgets, build constructs, and brew potions. Their role in combat can vary greatly depending on what they’ve decided to specialize in, and they don’t have a strict separation between combat/support as other classes do.

An alchemist who specializes in constructs may build a variety of them to serve as a miniature party in combat. Constructs can be built for a variety of tasks, but not complex thinking. They can be used as a defensive line, an offensive heavy-hitter, a transport, and so on.

A specialization in potions does not necessarily translate to combat skills, but alchemists are capable of creating a wide variety of potions that can do any number of things. Utilizing their own mana, alchemists are able to throw potions so that they vaporize when the vial breaks, affecting anybody in range of the throw. Using this ability, they can serve as a support class, using health and mana potions to keep their party running, and stat-boosting potions in place of buffs. It can also be used offensively, such as with freeze potions or explosive potions. Alchemists are capable of brewing potions that won’t work unless used by an alchemist, or even potions that won’t work unless used by the creator specifically.

As a combat class, alchemists may choose to do most of their damage through offensive potions, or through constructs, but a number of them choose to be melee-oriented, using potions to supplement their fighting abilities. They are also capable of ranged physical combat, using bows, guns, and crossbows to take down monsters. Frequently, alchemists build their own weapons, and even their standard melee weapons may be eccentric creations of their own invention.

=Members=
 * Khshathra: Harriet Webster
 * Artemis Valkyr
 * Nova Kylethe
 * Tyrus Haverford (Travis Handley)

=Headcanon=

Skills
Dragon's Milk: ?
 * Unlocked to all skill builds at level 75
 * Quest-based

Potions (Hibi)
The components we all know and love are categorized into specific types of "agents" which act on the potion in specific ways. One of the most important types of agent is a "purifying agent," or in other words an ingredient that helps cancel out the inherent toxicity of like every potion ever. These are important because otherwise the effect of every potion would be "vomit and maybe die" and although assassins would probably buy potions like that,there are cheaper ways to cause that particular effect.

The connection between an ingredient and what type of agent it might be is hopefully semi-logical, so purifying agents would tend to come from flora or fauna with holy, light, or water type aspects.

Some other notable types of agents I thought up, but we can keep adding to the list:

Dampening Agent: Cancels out a specific effect held by existing ingredients in a mixture. For example a certain dampening agent might cut the paralyzing effects of Tuberessence goop (a substance which can cause both paralysis and sleep) in order to create a potion specifically geared for producing only the sleep-inducing effect. A completely different dampening agent would be able to cut the sleep effect if you wanted a paralysis potion instead.

Extension Agent: Extends the duration of a potion's effects. In case anyone's wondering, my headcanon is that plastic and other earth synthetic materials tend to have extending effects.

Mixing Agent: Helps break down dry ingredients into a liquid mixture. This would usually be an acid. A magical acid.

Catalyst: Some components, like venom, pretty much already do in nature what you'd want them to do in a potion. For the rest, you need a catalyst to bring out the desired effect. A catalyst is a magical or nigh-magical component which can awaken dormant effects in a desired ingedient or make select combos of components mix spontaneously into a cool new thing. A catalyst will take the latent alchemical essence of a non-reacting component and make it literal.

Separating Agent: Partially solidifies ingredients back into their original forms, allowing you to make a start at discovering what went into an unidentified potion. I don't think you can "undo" combined ingredients fully, though.

Acting Agent: AKA the active ingredient. The component that produces some cool effect which you would like to try out on a friend or a monster. Acting agents can sometimes be combined for unexpected results, but most potions are probably inspired by some natural property of Zen's plant or animal matter.

A major challenge of making potions is that everything in nature has one effect you do want, but then tons of ambient effects you don't want. As an alchemist, you need to identify, balance, and cancel out those undesired effects without also stifling the intended effect.

One of the "under research" aspects of alchemy, and part of what separates those who are better at their craft, involves distilling components down to more simplified forms (using Actual Science) to cut down on all those wasteful extra qualities in your potion that require you to water it down with dampeners and purifiers. Basically, the good alchemists can mechanically distill many of their ingredients before they ever start mixing, allowing for a potion that's closer to the desired end product from the outset, and therefore cheaper to produce and more concentrated.

A (Non-Exhaustive) List of Potions
I wanted to codify some of our frequently-used potions so that I can build out and refer back to the list. However, alchemy is not a science of mass production, so if anything below conflicts with previous play or headcanon, feel free to chalk it up to a particular batch or regional variation off of the potions your character is using.

Healing Potions:  Also called a health potion. They come in various strengths and formulations, but for simplicity's sake, let's say the variations throughout the spectrum are classified as Low Heal, Mid Heal, and High Heal.

Low heals are for nuisances like a cut on your hand. They tend to work fast, but their regeneration time is also quick -- within a few minutes, the potion stops working on you, whether the job is done or not. Recommended for when an injury is only skin deep, and you don't want to waste a more valuable potion.

Mid heals are for most of the non-life threatening injuries you get in battle. They're powerful enough, and last long enough, to mend muscle, bone, and skin, but take longer to do so than a magical heal. Count on some downtime while a mid heal is working on you, although it will stop working within less than an hour. The exact duration can be left up to player discretion. If you are bleeding to death, a mid heal is not recommended because it won't do enough fast enough to save you.

High heals are the top of the line in healing potions, and can save a person's life if they are suffering from extensive internal and external injuries. They still take longer than magical healing, and the time difference could mean a magical heal could save a person who a high healing potion could not. But they work from the inside out, restoring the most serious damage first and fastest, while taking longer to repair superficial layers of damage. If you are in simply horrendous shape, suffering from a large number of extensive injuries, a high heal could take hours to heal you and still leave the job incomplete, but will go to work stopping blood loss and restoring lost blood within the first few minutes to an hour of that time, depending, again, on player discretion.

Regen is a low level heal that lasts for long durations. Unlike a low heal, it could work on injuries that go beyond the superficial, just incredibly slowly. These probably come in varying strengths and could conceivably last you through a hunting expedition at the top tiers.

Extra notes:

Mana Potion: Mana potions also come in low, mid, and high formulations. They help to restore mana, but actually much like a health potion, they lose all effectiveness once the mana bar is completely empty, or in non-game terms, a person has mana burn. Some believe that drinking a mana potion when you have mana burn can at least ease the symptoms, but any such usefulness is likely from placebo effect, much like purported hangover cures.
 * Generally speaking, my headcanon is that the timely use of a healing potion will prevent scarring, but this can be worked around if desired by attributing a scarred heal to a variation in potion quality or a nuance of the injury it was working on
 * Potions will repair bones, but cannot put them in the right place for healing. If you use a healing potion with a broken bone without first setting it, it will heal incorrectly and need to be re-broken and re-set in the correct configuration
 * Most healing potions can be either drunk or used topically. Topical application is less potent but more localized, so if you wanted to avoid healing a bone wrong you could apply potion topically to a cut on another part of your body.

Explosion: Thrown. Blows things up.

Ice: Thrown or poured. Causes ice crystals to spread over a large surface. Melts slower than regular ice.

Sticky: Thrown or poured. Causes a sticky substance to pour out and stop opponents in their tracks. It will dissipate on its own after a few hours.

Truth: Causes a person to answer all questions truthfully throughout the duration of the potion. Regular formulations last about an hour.

Paralysis: A person loses control of muscles/nerves below the neck for the duration of the potion. Usually results in collapse rather than rigidity. Has been shown in-game lasting only about 5-10 minutes, but longer-lasting formulations may be available.

Sleep: Puts a person to sleep. I imagine there are various durations and potencies, as well as some that allow the target to be awakened through normal means and others that prevent it. Since this can be done with regular drugs I would say alchemical versions could have any duration desired.

Poison: While the game has only one variation off of poison, the "real" Zen likely has dozens. Could be drunk, absorbed through the skin, breathed as a fog, etc. Could cause pain, be painless, produce ambient effects and tells such as numbness or a feeling of cold or heat. Could make you barf, could make you compulsively honest, could do anything at all (within reason!). Not all poisons are classified as potions, and as such, non-alchemists are perfectly able to make them -- particularly assassins. The specific set of poisons which DO need to be made by alchemists likely have special attributes because of it, such as being undetectable or causing exotic effects.

Remedy/Cure: Like potions, there are tons of these, and they have to be specific to the poison or family of poisons they're intended to cure in order to work. The more powerful ones can cure a broader spectrum of poisons, but rarer and more powerful poisons might need a specific cure formulated just for them.

Haste: Temporarily speeds your reflexes and movement, usually for about five minutes.

Slow: Slows reflexes and movement for about five minutes.

Frog: Turns you into a frog, without reducing your mass. Heavyfrog.

Monster Lure: Draws monsters to the target. Lasts about an hour, but dependent on the proximity of monsters.

Monster Ward: Will cause most monsters to avoid the target for about an hour.

Anti-: Most of the status potions have a corresponding cure, as do some spells that can't be duplicated with alchemy.

Elemental Weakness Potions: There are potion formulations that cause a temporary weakness against certain elements (both in magical and natural form) as well as unpleasant ambient effects.

Chill causes Ice weakness. Makes the target uncomfortably cold for ~30 min

Burn causes Fire weakness. Makes the target uncomfortably hot for ~30 min

Shock causes Lightning weakness. Makes the target prickly, staticky, and subject to static shocks for ~30 minutes.

Sink causes Water weakness. Makes the target feel like they are stuck in a humid fog others can't see or feel for ~ 30 minutes

Sweep causes Wind weakness. A bitingly cold phantom wind follows the target everywhere for ~30 min.

Bury causes Earth weakness. The target finds themselves grimy and dirty, covered in particles of soil and gravel that won't seem to come clean for ~30 minutes, at which point it is possible to wash off normally.

Alchemist-Only Potions (Hibi)
Just as only alchemists can create potions, some potions are only able to be used by alchemists -- often solely the alchemist who made them! Right now, alch-exclusive potions are the only way that alchemists' "skills" manifest (the canon is definitely open to other kinds of skills if people have ideas!)

As such these potions have fancy names (such as Dragon's Milk) and exotic effects! In gameplay, some of them have a multiple choice of about four different possible effects that set based on your character build, to account for the personalized bonding. Maybe this is a combat advantage sometimes since it'd be a surprise exactly what the potion does to anyone who hasn't seen the alchemist use it before.

The most common "exotic" effect of an alch-exclusive potion is area effects! These are possible in mass consumption potions but the exclusive ones can provide extra perks like greater range or identifying allies vs enemies.

The way these potions become exclusive from a story perspective is that catalysts, being magical in nature, can form a bond with either the specific alchemist who awakened them, or simply the broader essence of their alch abilities that awakened the catalyst. That means that the potion itself is smart in a somewhat magical way, and won't activate unless the intention of an alchemist can be sensed.

Some of the same principles apply to constructs and how they can bond with and take orders from specific people or groups.

It might also be possible for an alchemist to use certain techniques to make a construct or regular!potion respond exclusively to a specific non-alchemist. This could not be done with a potion that is already alchemist exclusive, though -- those catalysts are fussy and only like alchs.

Constructs (Hibi)
A construct is a mechanical creation built around a magical power core. Alchemists are cool with having this magic all up in their science; they know the world is magical and they roll by utilizing magical materials in supercool technologies!

The core typically has some sort of elemental affinity -- water, ice, fire, light, shadow, and so on. It is either a catalyst itself or an amalgamation of catalysts and other materials.

Constructs have power levels that can drain down and need to be refilled periodically, but since they are independently mobile, a construct can usually charge itself unless it drains down to nothing. They do this by pulling ambient energy from their element of affinity -- your water construct might take a swim in a lake, your air construct will seek high elevations, and your shadow construct might curl up in a dark corner, etc.

Likewise, opposite elements can drain their energy reserves quickly, so you wouldn't expect an alchemist who lives in the desert to own an ice construct unless they were super-eccentric and loved having to hustle to keep it from shutting down all the time. Earth constructs hold their charge the best, for obvious reasons, but will still slowly deplete unless they can burrow down somewhere cozy.

Mages are able to charge or de-charge constructs with spells of the correct element, so it would usually be dumb to attack a mage with your construct unless you felt like hauling it home to charge.

When they run out of energy, constructs don't die. They're essentially the Zen equivalent of robots. You'll find owners who treat them like beloved pets or even friends (people can be weird), but the integration between the core and the body of the construct is not as complete as with a golem and while there is a spark of magical "life" to every construct, it's arguable whether that magical essence cares very much about what the construct's body gets up to.

However, depending on how independent they are, constructs may display behaviors that suggest concern for their makers' or owners' well-being or interests, due to the magical bonding. As such, advanced constructs will default to selfless behavior and don't have a self preservation instinct when it conflicts with protecting their owners unless it's imposed by their maker or owner externally.

Behaviorally and "mentally" they're a lot like well-trained and very capable pets. They cannot communicate verbally but can understand spoken commands and sometimes respond to people's wishes if they're bonded with them.

Probably obvious, but the bigger your construct, the more charging it will need. The kind of construct that could pummel enemies for you will probably need to "sleep" as much, if not more, than you do. Simple constructs -- like the kind created to fetch and carry -- won't really demonstrate any of the complex behaviors described above, only the more sophisticated ones will do that. A small, dumb construct will need only minimal maintenance, though.

No matter how simple they are, people still bond with them like pets sometimes, even if all they ever do is pick up vials.

If your construct gets smashed into smithereens it will cease function unless repaired. If the core is broken it may or may not be repairable, and depending on how much the creator/owner has sentimentalized about their creation, they might consider it "dead" at that point.

Mama-Brain

Since constructs bond with the magical spark of alchemical god power in their creators, it is possible for the Khshathra, as the source of these sparks, to override control of a given construct and have it obey her. If the creator of the construct is willing, this process is nearly effortless, though it still requires proximity. If the construct's creator is against it, however, the Khshathra would be able to take control only after winning a mental struggle with the creator-alchemist, and could only hold control as long as hers remained the dominant will (requiring sustained mental focus).

Runic Channels (The Guindo)
Basically the alchemical version of electrical engineering, runic channels are designed to transport magical energy throughout a system. They can be added by any means which leaves a static line, though the medium used retains its original properties. For example, you could draw runic channels in the dirt, but they would be easily broken by scuffing the lines. Carving is the best method for creating permanence, and ink is usually the second choice, for channels that need to be semi-permanent but not completely unalterable. Once activated, channels will glow with magic. The medium used to draw them can be difficult for a layman to decipher once the channels are active.

Anyone can draw a runic channel, in theory, but they must be copied exactly if the person doing so is not an alchemist. Alchemists who learn runic channels have an intrinsic understanding that allows them a better margin of error, so basically it's always best to have an alch drawing runic channels for you.

Alchemists activate runic channels from their own mana. If a core is being used to power the system, this is the jolt that allows the channels to draw power from the core. If not, this will activate the channels as a static enchantment. It is possible for a mage to activate runic channels in lieu of an alchemist, but they'll need to know the entry point of the system in order to do so. Easy enough when working under the guidance of an alchemist, difficult when looking at completely unfamiliar work and trying to decipher it.

Anyone can deactivate a runic channel by disrupting it--ie scuffing the lines used to draw them, or removing the core acting as a power source. However, if this is not done properly, it can be destructively dangerous depending on the channels involved. It's usually best to let an alchemist handle it.

Some uses for runic channels:
 * By connecting them to a magical core, the core can be used as a battery for a system, with the runic channels carrying magical current where it needs to go.
 * Translating magical current into electrical current, so that, say, a light-powered core can be used to run standard Earth electronics.
 * Matching runes can be used to create objects with linked properties, such as placing runic channels on the outside of a building and a mirror with matching channels on the inside, allowing the mirror to see through the wall as a one-way window.
 * Adding elemental properties to objects, for example a gun with a swappable elemental cores which uses runic channels to grant any bullets fired from it the same property as the core in use.