Old Staiven
The old ratkin can’t help but smile as he looks out into the crowded auditorium in the alchemy college. It reminds him of his own time as a student, voracious to learn anything he could. The butterflies in his stomach remind him of one reason out of many why he never got into academia. While he’s trained a few apprentices, he’s never tried to teach more than a handful of people at a time. But the mana regeneration potion is a special case.
There are so many ways for it to go wrong, and with the nature of the potion, things tend to go spectacularly wrong when they decide to go that way. So Dean Zak had come to ask Staiven to give a guest lecture. He considered asking for payment, but dismissed the idea before it could even fully form. The anti-lifedrinking enchantment is the sort of rune matrix to keep him experimenting with the principals for the rest of his life! Giving a bit of his time to help with his payment for it is only fair.
And, if he’s being honest with himself, he likes the idea of teaching so many at once. While he’s sure he won’t be able to get everything across to everyone, he is confident enough will understand that they can teach the others. That’s the whole point of this college, really.
So he stands at the podium, his gaze lingering on Rhonda’s face in the front row of desks, and smiles as he starts.
“I was asked to give a lecture on the mana regeneration potion. Those of you who have tried to brew it know how difficult it can be, and those of you who haven’t, I’m sure you’ve heard the stories from those who did.” He smiles as a few small chuckles burble from the crowd, and continues.
“Most often, issues arise from using using substandard ingredients. I don’t think you have that problem here, however. Between Thedeim, Hullbreak, the Southwood, and even Violet, we have a wide variety and high quality of herbs to choose from.
“I also don’t doubt your skill or techniques. I doubt Queen would allow dwellers descended from her spawner to have poor fundamentals. The only problem is that the potion is difficult to keep stable with standard techniques.”
He draws his telekinesis wand and levitates a piece of chalk, sketching out a cauldron and the basics. “In brewing, we infuse our will into the mana, and infuse the mana into the ingredients that can best hold both. As we brew, much of it effectively boils off, like water in a pot. And much like what would happen if that pot were to be sealed, trying to keep the mana all in place can have… energetic consequences.”
A few rueful chuckles of remembered failures reach his ears as he continues to explain. “That is the fundamental difficulty with the mana regeneration potion. Its very nature is to agitate mana. If you let it ‘boil’ as it wants, you’ll lose what you need for the potion to set. If you force it to stay, you may need to visit the medical college.”
He takes a moment to draw a thicker cauldron. “I’m sure some of you have tried simply reinforcing the cauldron to handle the raw magical force, just as I’m sure it didn’t work. We need to let some of it escape and take with it the parts of the ingredients we don’t need, some of the reactants that will only foul the potion later.”
He pauses and turns from the chalkboard to sweep his gaze over all gathered. “In my opinion, there are only two solutions. One is what I use, and one is what may be better suited for all of you.” He returns to the board and starts sketching runes.
“My method, and the one most alchemists would use, is a filter. Some see filters as a crutch, the tool of the brute to achieve what finesse and fine control can do better. But in this instance, there is little other option. The excess energy must be allowed to bleed off, while keeping the vital will and reactant mana in solution. It lowers the theoretical yield, but it makes the process feasible in the first place.”
He stops and turns back to the gathered people, having to hold in his laughter at the look on Rhonda’s face as she diligently copies down the runes he drew. “Now, these aren’t especially complex, but the positioning is important. The runes seek to control and filter the mana flow, letting the energetic ‘boiling’ mana free while sending the will and reactants back into the mixture. Your enchanting college can probably improve on it, but this should be more than enough to at least get you through a few batches. At least, if that were the method I think would be best for you to use.”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
He smiles at the murmurs, resisting the urge to look at the eager look on Rhonda’s face before he continues.
“You may be in an Enclave, not the dungeon proper, but the mana flows here are very similar to what’s inside. I wouldn’t be surprised if Thedeim still keeps a close eye on all of you.” The happy faces of the crowd make him pause for a moment before remembering himself and continuing. “This is important because mana flows in dungeons are different than anywhere else. Dungeons naturally try to achieve equilibrium, siphoning excess from the disturbances we create, and exciting the mana from low energy invaders and the like. That natural tendency, I believe, can be used to brew the potion without a filter.
“It’s also one I failed to account for when I gave the recipe,” he admits. “I’ve never been much of a delver, and never tried to brew anything complex inside one.” He chuckles at a memory. “I even showed the difference to Queen herself, once, when she tried to show me how to make what Teemo and Thedeim call ‘Go Juice’. Some things just work differently for dungeons. While we will never be able to recreate the Go Juice, I do believe the mana flows can be utilized to modulate the boiling mana.”
He lets that sink in as he clears the board and draws another cauldron. “Thedeim naturally calms agitated mana. That will help keep your cauldrons from exploding, but it can also drain the effect before it can be bottled. Now, you could use the runes I showed you and just let the agitated mana be drawn along his flows, but you have the option of guiding the flows into the cauldron to directly take the boiling mana instead.”
Murmurs spread around the hall, and he nods, having expected there to be some hesitation for this method. “You won’t be disturbing the flows, any more than you’d be disturbing a river by drawing a loop in the shore with your toe. The natural ebb and flow will ensure the mana flows as he needs it. Now, the trouble with letting the mana flow through it is that it’s going to try to take all your hard work with it.”
He starts drawing out a few ingredients, as well as processing methods. “These will need to be processed beforehand and added quickly once the reaction starts. Too soon, and they’ll hinder the reaction. Too late, and you need to pick up the pieces of your cauldron. Fool’s coal rind, when properly processed, is an excellent mana insulator. It’s how the things can stay stable until they suddenly aren’t. When added at the correct moment, it will protect the will and reactant mana from being swept away by the mana flow.
“Then, we add the ochre dill. Yes, one of the most basic ingredients, because it is excellent at attracting mana. This will be us drawing on the shore, encouraging the mana to flow through the cauldron. Finally, once the reaction stabilizes, we neutralize the ochre dill, precipitate out the fool’s coal, and carefully reduce to the desired potency.”
Old Staiven turns once more to face the auditorium, and is encouraged to see so many faces of concentration, to hear quills furiously scribbling away. “Now, this process is still theoretical, as I don’t often try to brew so close to a dungeon. But from all your faces, it looks to me like you all can see the potential in the process. A lot of potions have volatile phases in brewing, and most times the solutions are to either use filters, or accept the loss of equipment as finesse is learned. Even then, there are many potions that are still touchy, like a lot of offensive potions. The classic Fiery Flask is just one example. But where that potion requires the careful precipitation of the correct ratio of the fool’s coal to maintain some semblance of stability, we will use the same method to keep your cauldrons from suddenly redecorating your labs.”
More chuckles sweep the room as he puts away the wand. “And that, I hope, will be all you need to start brewing the potion correctly. Are there any questions?”
There most certainly are, and he spends even longer than the lecture itself discussing other potential applications and possible substitutions for ingredients. He personally prefers using herbal solutions for his potions, but it seems the antkin have access to some interesting beasts down in the volcanic area below them, not to mention they’ll soon be able to delve, and they hope to be able to utilize a lot of denizen parts. With the expected demand, it’s a very real possibility they’ll need to diversify their ingredients to have enough to keep up!
But before too long, the questions die down, and Old Staiven nods at the assembled people. “Now, if that’s it for the theory, I’d like to get my hands dirty with a bit of application. There must be a few labs available for us to try this out, right?”
The cheer that arises makes him close his eyes and smile. This is the sort of camaraderie he had been missing for so long. There’s no squabbles about faculty factions, about political concerns. No backbiting that even the eager students can feel simmering below the surface. No, just the earnest desire to learn and to teach. He opens his eyes and sees Dean Zak smirking at him, even as he motions for the ratkin to follow him to his personal lab.
Maybe Old Staiven won’t only be an occasional guest speaker, moving forward.
