Beginner Alchemy Darian [self-mod]

[Darian]

TS: Early morning sometime in the first cycle of Junctior, Autumn of Era X post fractum in the Age of the Darkening

It was a moderately good morning for Darian. He was not too sleepy, nor was he too chipper. Though calling the red dracon chipper would be doing chipper a grave injustice. He was generally a fairly surly person, though perhaps even surly would be the wrong word, though it was certainly closer than chipper. Perhaps icy would be the best word. Yes, icy was the word. At least that was the impression the red dracon gave as he walked up the stairs to the Lord Holland University. Frosty, yellow eyes seemed to ward anyone off from talking to him, but there was a certain sense of eagerness in them. Darian al'Aramak de Lythia Darumyan was an Orodite, learning was always interesting. Always an experience to treasure.

It was not long before he found the appropriate room. Exotic smells came out through the wooden door, not the smells of spices or exotic foods though, these smells had a certain twang to them, a certain unnatural acrid pungency. A brass plate on the door marked it as Lab 4 and a small paper not had been tacked onto the plate again with a short message. Mr. Darumyan, let yourself in. I will be with you in just a moment. -Exertimes Valdumos. Beneath the name was scribbled in another piece of hand writing, this one obviously done with more haste, Teacher of Alchemy.

So Darian did as the note said, he let himself in. Thankfully the door was open. Inside was, not what he had expected. He had expected an alchemist’s workplace to be dark and smoky, this place had large windows that let the light in easily. Apart from that though it met his expectations. Desks everywhere were filled with all kinds of expensive glassware. Things that looked vaguely like something a glassblower with a hiccup had created.

On the shelves around the room could be found glass jars containing all manners of odd items, from glasses to snakes to small tissues to earspoons. It was while he was studying these that a somewhat blustered human entered the room. White hair ringed his bald head and a long moustache covered at large part of his forehead. He spoke in the somewhat distracted tones of someone suddenly finding something vaguely pleasant in what they thought would be an otherwise dreary brightening. "Ah, mr. Darumyan, I am Exertimes Valdumos, I teach alchemy here, the few times I have the chance to teach it. Call me Ex. Everyone does." Darian countered with a fairly mild mannered, if chilly, "Serale Master Valdumos," a course he was forced to retreat from just seconds later when he decided it was better not to be cross with his teacher, "Ex."

"So why are you taking Alchemy mr. Darumyan?" Darian gave no indication in return that he wished to be addressed as Darian, the teacher probably would though if he knew him right. Sooner or later they all seemed to revert to Darian, as if they were somehow closer to him by using his first name. "I am curious, it is as simple as that. I am an Orodite by faith and Alchemy has always been somewhat of a mystery to me. I have seen many who do arcana but very few who do Alchemy. It intriges me."

[Darian]

[i]"Well enough of an answer I suppose. What is alchemy to you mr. Darumyan?"[/b] Ish, why did teachers always have to ask the tricky questions. What was Alchemy to Darian, not an easy, question. "It is the study of how certain items work together to create effects that are different from what the materials had if they were on their own." "Yes, a better way to say it would be that we refine the potential of several things into one. This process is called transmutation. Everything in Alchemy is about transmutation." "But surely that is just another word for change." "No," Ex answered, mulling over his answer a little, "it is a clarification of change. Change can be anything. Transmutation is more related to alchemical change than say political change, or a change in the laws or anything of that kind." Darian nodded his head to indicate that he understood.

"What do you see before you mr. Darumyan?" the teacher finished his statement with a expansive gesture towards the various alchemical implements that were arranged out on the table. Darian did his best to describe it. "There are bottles. And those are scales, and that's an oven I think." Darian touched each item with a talon as he named them. "Not bad I suppose, even though you were unable to name most of them. What are the purposes, do you think, of these instruments? I will tell you about the others in a little while, just the ones you mentioned for now." Darian considered this, looking at the bottles he had seen.

"I suppose the bottles are for keeping things in, like fluids and similar. The scales would be for weighing things, deciding how much of certain substances you would need for instance. And the oven would be for heating things?" "Yes, not bad, not bad. Pretty obvious, but not bad. Bottles are of course, merely a part of what we call flasks," he pointed at various objects on the table which Darian would not have called bottles at all, "You see these, they are used not only for storing but also for stirring. Heh, excuse my little joke. Stirring is merely one of the functions to which flasks are put to, if you see here," he picked up a round one with several openings and pointed to these, "these can be fitted to tubing which allows us to mix the things that end up in the flask together without ever touching the actual fluid. Which is, and trust me on this, sometimes altogether for the best."

"And also, using an artifact such as this," Ex held up a small metal stick that was no longer than his hand, there were a couple of others there too, one made of silver, the other of what had to be glass and a wooden one. "These are used, quite simply, for stirring. You stir the fluids together. And of course as you said, flasks may be used to hold substances. Though when storing something over a period of time we usually seal it with grease."

"And these are indeed scales," he said and pointed at the scales Darian had pointed out earlier, he picked up a small wooden box from beneath the desk, he opened it for Darian to see and it contained lead lumps of different shapes and sizes. "These are counterweights, they work very simply. Each has a small value written on them if you can see?" he indicated a set of numbers on the side of the scales, "they are used so that you may easily be able to gain the appropriate weight. When the scales are in balance, then you have the weight you want. In other words when this arrow," he pointed at an arrow near the top of the scale that tilted backwards and forwards as he pushed at the scales. "stands still in the middle position, that is when the scales are balanced. That is when you have the weight you want and that is when you will have the appropriate amount of your desired substance." Darian had a question at this point, But what if your desired substance is a liquid, how would you get around the weight of the canister tipping the scales in one direction or the other." "Ah, good question. But with a simple answer, you merely add the appropriate amount of counterweights to the other scale. Or if you do not have such a thing, add another, similar of course, canister."

[Darian]

"And this," he said and pointed at the oven, "is technically a furnace, and it is, as you said, used to heat things, there are three different kinds of heating implements of this kind, or perhaps it is better to say that there are two different classifications of this. There is what you see here. A furnace. It is sealed on all sides as you can see."

Darian considered the furnace carefully, "What is this hole on the side here?" Darian pointed a talon on an opening that was on the side. It was covered by a lid, but that could easily be removed from the looks of it, "Ah, very nicely spotted. That, is an opening for the bellows. Those can be used to increase the heat of flames, very handy in some cases." He stopped for a second and consider what he was saying.

"Ah, yes, the duality of the ovens. This is, as said, a furnace. Sometimes they have ducts, which are used for the cooling of sulphur. Which is handy throughout. The furnace of course is the advanced sort of oven, or heating device. The other is the fire pit. Which is usually just what it says. A pit with fire. It usually has a chimney and a place to put various objects which need to be heated, we'll get to that later. Of course, both would have a chimney as you see here, otherwise you might end up with a very smoke filled workshop. Something that is not desirable at all."

"Is heat used a lot?" Ex blinked a little before he answered, "Why yes. The firs major operation of Alchemy is called Calcination. It is the heating of a substance until there is nothing left but ashes. Of course to say that any of the major operations are as simple as that is to do them a misfortune. Calcination, in the Arcanum Experiment, the list of chemicals, is represented by sulphuric acid. Which we will get back to later. For the mind, what some call psychology, it is the destruction of the ego and the urge for material items." Darian nodded as the teacher kept speaking. He could understand this. Fire. Destruction. It worked on more levels than the obvious one. Darian was beginning to suspect that Alchemy was more than a trade skill such as basket weaving. A whole philosophy came along with it.

"On a more bodily, or as we put it physiological grounds we see Calcination as the activity that tunes our body. Burning off all excesses, not that I think you have a lot of problems with excess," Ex grinned weakly at Darian as he made his comment about the scrawniness of the dracon, "Calcination begins in the Base Chakra, at the very base of the spine, the sacral cup itself. In society Calcination is shown in revolutionaries, people who overthrow the status quo. On a Planetary level it is the fire of creation. Creation of a liveable environment from molten matter and ashes. But that's all beside the point."

"The point is that fire and heat are important, it is one of the seven major operations, and the first one at that, so you can see that it is perhaps the most basic one. You will use it a lot. I can tell you that right now. The implements that use fire are as follows. The furnace and fire pit of course. Though, those go without saying really. And then there is the kiln." Ex pointed at a stone container that had no openings, save for a lid, that could obviously be twisted on and off, and a small vent. "And that, is a Calcination bowl, you use if for Calcination obviously. All you have to do is place it on a tripod over a fire pit." he poked his finger over to a shallow metal bowl standing over a tripod. "And the crucible," the third object he touched was a ceramic bowl, it had high, steep sides and was thick enough that though it was fairly large there was not a lot of room inside it.

"The kiln, is used when you wish to heat something without the element of air being present. A usual use of this is to make charcoal from wood." he halted slightly, gave a short break so that Darian could catch up, gave him a few short seconds to catch up mentally before continuing.

"The Calcination bowl is used for calcination, surprisingly enough. Rendering objects into ash as we have already covered I believe." the red dracon nodded briefly, "The crucible is handy to have around. It can be used for melting metal. A hard task but it is usually up to the task. From there the metal can be filled into ingots to assume any shape. Crucibles can be pretty much any size, depending on your needs, from thimbles to barrels. A handy tool really." Again he paused. Then, as before, he continued.

"There are of course other tools that are handy when flames and heat are important. Bellows for instance, like these ones," he put a hand on a pair of bellows, "See these? They fit nicely on the side of the furnace I showed you earlier. Though they can be used on a fire pit too I suppose, not to the same effect mind you. They are to force the fire. To make it much hotter than what it would usually be." He moved a his hands onto a pair of tongs that were also on the desk. The human hands picked them up and he snapped it a couple of times in front of Darian's snout.

"Why do we use these?" It had been a while since the teacher had asked a question so Darian was not well prepared for it. "To... hold objects you do not want to touch?" A thought occurred to him, "Hot objects?"

The teacher nodded, "Tongs are used to hold things that would be too hot to hold in your hand or without other protection, such as gloves. Some use large tongs for such things as crucibles, though holding onto tongs is heavy and wearisome work. Usually they are only used for moving things from one place to another."

"And this young mister Darumyan, what do you make of this?" he indicated a large, black iron kettle. Darian looked at it carefully. "I am not sure. Heating something?" was the best answer Darian could give. "Yes, I'll tell you what I use it for. I make soup in it. There are some alchemical uses for it of course, but we will not cover those in this course. This is really much more useful as a soup kettle than anything else."

[Darian]

"That was all the instruments that deal with fire directly. However those are hardly alone, as you can see." Ex gestured out at the table, his deliberately wide gesture taking in a lot of the equipment that was stored on the nearby benches. "Tell me, what happens if you boil water?" "It gets warmer?" That was the best reply he could come up with on such short notice. "Yes, this is true. However what happens if you leave the boiling water on for too long?" Darian was not well versed in cooking, however he had dealt with water often enough to hazard an answer. "It dries out, dissapears."

"Not quite, it does not disappear so much as it enters another state of existance. Water is one of the five elements you know. When it is heated with the aid of fire, it becomes one of the para-elements. More specifically steam. Now, in order to explain this a little better I will say that all elements have two qualities. Water is wet and cold, whereas fire is hot and dry. Combine these two the right way and you get the Para-element of steam, which is hot and wet." Darian nodded. "So the world is made up of elements?" "Yes, there are the four classic elements, Fire, water, air and earth, and then there is the element of ether, or spirit. Everything depends on how you combine these elements. However that is beside the point. And I will get back to that later on."

"So, theoretically all things that are of the element of water have these two qualities. They are wet and cold. Naturally it has to be said that the fluid water is different from the element of water. All things that are both wet and cold are of the element of water. If you then subject something that is wet and cold, say a beer to the element of fire. You will blend the qualities. Eventually you will get something that is hot and wet. This is the the para element of steam, or gases. So anything that is a fluid if subjected to fire, will become steam." He then pointed at an odd apparatus, where a spiral of glass was in set in a bath of water. An odd looking mechanism was attached to it. Darian could not help but ask. "What does that mechanism do?" "It makes sure that the water in that bath is always cold. It recycles the water there. This is the Condenser. The qualities of steam is that it is hot and wet. The qualities of water again, are cold and wet. By using this device, we cool the gas that is in these spirals so that it once more has the qualities of wet and cold. In other words you return a gas, or steam to its state of being a fluid. Without it being diluted by the water that is around it."

"So it is used to return one element to another element state? Especially steam to water?" "Yes, that is correct. That is how this works. You use rubber stoppers, to combine glass tubing such as the one in the condenser, in such a way you can move gases from one apparatus to another. Now why do you think we use rubber stoppers?" Darian was, to put it quite bluntly, rather unsure. Why rubber? Why rubber exactly? What was special about rubber? It was stretchy. You could stretch it. "Because it can fit over many different sizes of tubing?" "That is part of the answer yes, but you also want the rubber stoppings because that will make it impossible for the gases to escape through it. In such a way you can build long sections of tubing and not have any of your gas dissapear or become diluted into the air. Some of course make more permanent joints than rubber ones, but if you want to be able to move the apparatuses around afterwards rubber stoppers are the easy way to go."

"Of course another essential ingredient," he gave a slight laugh, "pardon my pun, is this." This time the human pointed at a what seemed to be a set of glass tubes made in the form of a T, it was set on its side. "This is a water pump. It allows the fluids to flow through these two tubes. Simply because it increases the pressure in the tube so that it makes the fluid move up from the ground instead of just being stuck there. It means that you do not always have to heat everything up to become gases in order to move them from one container to another, it is also handy in that allows you to build a set of pipes that go upward, and not have to start at the top each time."

[Darian]

"At last, there are only a few more pieces of apparatus that are needed for Alchemy, this for example is a fermentation tube." He pointed to one piece of equipment that was so twisted and odd it took Darian a while to understand what was front and what was back on it. It was a round bottomed flask with three apertures, one was the usual size, the other was narrower and the third was another business entirely. It went on for quite a while, being a separate piece of tubing onto itself, it extended out into a U bend before the terminal end ended up in a bulb, and another bulb thereafter.

"It is relatively simple really, you see that third aperture there. It is to be partially filled with water while the two others are for adding fluids or gases without air interfering in your work. Which can be handy when dealing with such substances as phosphorus which ignites in the presence of air. You can seal the two other apertures but the third, when filled, well partially filled with water allows gases to leave, but keeps air from entering. The entire apparatus is just to keep the air from bothering whatever substance you are working on really."

"Now this next item, is simpler," he pointed at a round flask with a downward drooping end. There was a small aperture on this one too though this one was a the top, sealed with a rubber bung. There was an opening on the droopy end too. "This is used to collect the vapours and gases from the fluids you boil in the main part here. The vapours collect in the top where they cool off and eventually return to their fluid form by dripping from this here aperture which sticks out from the main body of the retort. Which is the name of it by the way."

"Don't worry lad, those are the two most advanced pieces of apparatus, the last one ought to be fairly simple." the fingers of the human pointed at a good old fashioned mortar and pestle. "I guess you can guess what this is used for, but I'll go over it once just in case. This is used for reducing substances to powder, or vegetable matter to a pulp."

"And that I believe, will be all for this brightening, you may return tomorrow, same time, same place. Different brightening. You need time to mull over what I have just told you about the apparatus. You need time to digest these facts and I am ultimately in need of something to eat, we will see each other again tomorrow. Serale." "Serale," Darian bowed to the teacher and went on his way, he would return tomorrow.

[Darian]

The following brightening Darian returned to the Lord Holland University. His mind was primed for one more stab at the intriguing world of Alchemy. He was certain he had not yet learned all there was to learn about this, nor did he think he would during this class but he was certain that what had been both hinted at and said aloud was pretty interesting to say the least.

He entered the Alchemy lab and it was much as he had left it, various bottles and jars were placed on shelves around the place, plenty of apparatuses were laid out on the benches, Darian spent a few minutes while waiting for his teacher going over the various uses of the apparatuses and their names. Halfway through the door slammed shut and Ex, the human teacher entered stage left.

"Serale Mr. Darumyan, this brightening we will be going over the various chemicals that make up Alchemy, and possibly enter somewhat into their useage." "Serale, Ex," Darian bowed respectfully to the teacher, it was more courtesy than he would usually show a softskin, but teachers were worthy of respect, especially the ones who taught him. "I look forward to this brightenings lesson." "Right, well let us get started, this," he pointed at a shelf overcrowded with bottles and jars and all manner of things that could somehow be the things, every one of them was labelled with some obscure name that meant little or nothing to Darian. "Is what we will be going through, it looks like a lot but once we break it down and go through it one by one it will be fine."

"This first," Ex said, taking down a small bottle marked Ethanol, and passing it for Darian to inspect, it contained a clear fluid of some kind, Darian guessed the fluid was named Ethanol. "is Ethanol, more commonly known as, or known to laymen perhaps I should say as Spirit of Wine. Don't worry it has nothing to do with Ghosts, we are talking about another kind of Spirits entirely I am afraid. This is used to purify decoctions. Decoctions are fluids you have spent time draining the water out of to make stronger, distilling them in other words. Ethanol itself is made from distilling liquor." He took the bottle back and replaced it with a jar filled with what was undoubtedly a white powder of some kind. This too he passed to Darian, it was labelled Quicklime.

"Quicklime is a very reactive substance, has very interesting properties really. Works wonders for draining the water from a fluid by draining it out. Dessication, is the technical term, in case you wondered. But what essentially happens is that the water from one substance, say a rear stake is transferred over to the Quicklime because the Quicklime absorbs the water better than the steak." He nodded his head slightly and went on to consider what to say next, "Naturally you cannot drain any fluids from something that is already drier than Quicklime, but that is hard to find. You produce Quicklime by burning chalk, or you can burn limestone, either will work really. When it is introduced to water it creates a form of slaked lime, which means that it has taken in all the fluid it can. Yes, very intriguing substance this, reacts very well to most other substances. Um, well, to say that anything reacts well is perhaps wrong, it would be better to say that it reacts strongly with other substances when heated."

[Darian]

"Many things can come from the same source, if treated differently." Once more the teacher reached into the shelf and brought back no less than three small bottles. He handed them to Darian one by one, they read, Ammonia, Sal Ammoniac and White Phosphorus.

"We will start with the Ammonia," he indicated the small, glass bottle that held some sort of fluid, Ex indicated that Darian should open it and Darian did so and smelled the content. He repelled his snout quickly. "That is Ammonia." Ex grinned, "Now, there are a few ways of making Ammonia, you can get it from tobacco, by drying it, or a more widespread method is to boil urine with acid, until you end up with this." He indicated the fluid. "Best close it before you stink up the entire room, lad." Darian closed the bottle hurriedly. "One use of Ammonia is in smelling salts, as you can well understand I suppose after smelling that."

Ex snatched the bottle from Darian and replaced it with the second one, named Sal Ammoniac, when Darian opened this one it seemed to contain porous white crystals. "This is the second of the ingredients that are made from what you may call the urine family. Sal Ammoniac, as the label states, it is brought forth by urine which is rich in ammonia and salt. The odd thing about this is that when you heat this in a flask it will not in fact melt, but change into a white gas which rises in air." Darian nodded and gave the bottle back to Ex. "However when you cool it back down, it of course returns to it's fibrous state, such as you can see it in that bottle. Interesting properties indeed. But let us move on to the next item on the agenda."

Ex handed Darian what was perhaps the most bizarre bottle yet. Because in this one was not only one but two substances Darian could see something white and then there was a layer of some kind of fluid above it. White Phosphorus? "Phosphorus, this is just one one of the types really, there are two, white and red. This is white. I would be careful when working with it though, it combusts when it comes into contact with air. That is why the bottle has oil spread on top. If that was open to air the phosphorus would ignite and there would be trouble."

"Getting phosphorus takes a while though, you have to let urine stand in air for several weeks, until you reach fluid with the consistency of honey. Then mix this with charcoal and heat it in a retort." Darian nodded, and made slight motions that the teacher should continue when he stopped. "Well, as I said, white phosphorus bursts into fire when it comes into contact with air. After you have done as I just said you will find the solid white phosphorus in the the red phosphorus, the red phosphorus settles around this, you will find that while white phosphorus is solid, or at least decently solid, red phosphorus is more of a thick flowing fluid. Like honey, in a way."

"Red phosphorus though, has a number of uses, for one if it used as paint or ink it will show as burning in the dark. If you wish you could also rub them all over your skin or well... in your case scales I guess. It can be used to create all manner of things that look as if they are on fire in the dark. If you place it in Spirit of Wine and let it steep for a brightening and then dump this in water, you will see flashes like those of lightning, a little like the flame you might get from Brimstone. Not very useful perhaps, but entertaining and interesting."

[Darian]

"As you can tell there are many uses for urine. Of course that is hardly the only one of the human wastes that can be used dung is another resource that is often looked upon as useless. Save by, perhaps, famers in need of fertilizer. And I doubt even they would like to go around handling dung all that quickly. Nevertheless there is one thing that can be made from dung. " He took down a container that said saltpeter on the side. This too seemed to be some kind of powder.

"So how do you make this from dung? Dry it out?" "Ah yes, almost it is not quite as simple though. First of all you don't just need dung. You need soil which is rich in dung. About a fifty, fifty mix is probably best, perhaps higher on the dung side of things. Expose this to air, to let it, as you say, dry out. Make sure it is kept out of rain of course, otherwise it won't dry of course. A crust will form on the windward side of this pile of soil and dung. This crust is Nitre, or Saltpeter. When you purify this through recrystallisation you get this fine white, crystalline powder."

"Saltpeter has a number of uses. You need it for Blackpowder and it is an essential ingredient in Aqua Fortis and Aqua Regia. We'll get to them later on." "Blackpowder, you mean what the navy uses in it's cannons and so on?" "Yes, yes I do mean that. Blackpowder always intrigues people, the whole blasting thing. Other than that though it is a fairly uninteresting compound. Apart from exploding though it also serves no other real use." Ex gave a slight sigh and moved on to the next part of his lesson.

"Charcoal is pretty self explanatory, we have been over it a briefly when we went through the apparatuses already." Ex tapped a large barrel on the side of the shelf marked charcoal. "Charcoal is made by partially burning wood, then you seal it in a metal vessel which is again heated in a kiln, a couple of small pipes allow escape. When these gases are no longer flammable, then the sap and various oils are gone from the wood and what you are left with is charcoal."

"Another important ingredient it Sulphur," Ex took down another jar containing a yellow liquid from the shelf, this one was, no surprise, marked Sulphur. "Sulphur is a by-product of several smelting processes of metals. Such as iron, steel, bronze and similar. It is actually used a lot as a a catalyst in alchemical reactions."

"Now if you mix together these three things I have just mentioned, you will end up with Blackpowder. I will not tell you how to mix them together though. That is another lesson which will be carried out later on."

[Darian]

The red dracon nodded, he could think of a few uses for blackpowder that might be interesting to his work with the Order among other things, but it was a thing he would have to leave alone for now. Perhaps he should get back to it later. He would definitely have to learn how to make that. He marked that down as somethng to do later on. While Darian was thinking about this though Ex fished another container of something or other and handed it to Darian.

"Green Vitriol, boy." What it was was a crystaline substance that seemed stuck somewhere in between yellow and green. "You get that by pulverizing green iron ore and washing it with water. What you end up with is a solution you can filter and distill to end up with this. The upside is that you can still smelt the ore after this, it has no detrimental effect on the iron ore." Darian nodded. Ex took out another container, this one was similar to the other one, only this time the crystals were sky blue. "This is Blue Vitriol, it is taken from copper ore in the same way that Green Vitriol is taken from iron ore. Put it in water and you get a pale blue solution. But this is all beside the point. The main point of this is the Green Vitriol for it is used for any manner of things," Ex explained.

"One thing you can make with Green Vitriol for instance, is Spirit of Salt. It is not too hard to make, you simply distill common, household salt with Green Vitriol and you end up with Spirit of Salt. It is a very strong acid, for those into the difficult terms it is also called Hydrocloric acid and it reacts very well with most substances." Ex took a small bottle down, "I would not suggest tasting it to find out if it tastes like salt."

"Another substance I should mention at this point would be alum. I am sure you have heard of Alum before," Ex did not even stop to find out if Darian would nod in approval or something of the like. "In an alchemical context however it refers to Potassium alum, though there are of course other alums, such as sodium alum and similar. Though they all share the same starting point, aluminium sulphide. You prepare Alum by crushing and roasting alumna rock, then you need to water it for 40 brightenings, and boil it for two brightenings with periodic stirring. Alum works as both a binding and chelating agent. You can add it to clothes dye, it staunches the flow of blood from wounds and has several uses within alchemy itself, one of which is what we will be moving onto next."

Ex took a bottle down from the shelf and opened it barely, letting Darian sniff it. He did so and recoiled. "That," Ex explained, "is Aqua Fortis. You get it by distilling green vitriol with saltpeter and alum. If it is pure it should be a colourless fluid, it is usually tinged brown though by nitrogen oxides, which gives it the odd smell you just smelled. It reacts strongly with most metals, the exception being gold. It is a powerful oxidizing agent and will react with most substances." Darian could easily see one of the uses, making sure that things that were traded truly were gold, and not some other metal. Interesting.

"Now if you were to mix one part Aqua Fortis with tree or four parts Spirit of Salt you would end up with something else entirely. That would be Aqua Regia, 'King's Water'. Simply because it can corrode and dissolve the king of metals. Gold itself. As far as I know it is the only thing short of arcana that can do that."

"One last thing that can be made by using Green Vitriol is Oil of Vitriol. This is made by distilling Green Vitriol and is the strongest of the mineral acids. As such it is a very potent mix indeed. I would be very wary of getting any on your skin or similar. Granted that is a safety tip for everything in alchemy. Be careful, especially around acids. They will hurt if you get them on you. Of course, no alchemist has ever totall avoided getting burnt or hurt by the things he works with." Ex held up his scarred hands as an example, there were several burn marks and similar on them. "It's not always easy to avoid, but it should be avoided whenever possible. Make sure to wear gloves when handling things that are hot, and it might be good to wear them sometimes while handling acids. Because acid burn hurt really badly if for no other reason."

[Darian]

Darian noted this down carefully, being careful was after all logical. Being careful under the preparation of chemicals and the like only made sense. Of course there were many things that made sense, but safety was important.

It didn't take long before Ex started talking again though. He planted a small row of jars in front of Darian, it seemed it was time to get a few more underway. "You remember I mentioned that Spirit of Wine was made from Alcohol, yes? Well it is not the only useful thing you can make from alcohol. In the lees of wine, which you can get from the insides of wine barrels preferably by scraping it out, you get this. Tartar." He tapped a bottle, "Well actually, Potassium Hydrogen Tartrate, but if you get it to react with calcined antimony, you end up with Tartar Emetic, which is a powerful emetic, useable in medicine, of course there are risks alongside that use since it is a poisonus substance, it makes your stomach turn easily enough though."

"Now guess what this is," Ex made Darian sniff a bottle of something that smelled vaguely like almonds. "I am not sure. Though I would guess it is made from some kind of almonds." "Well," Ex said, "at least you are correct in your ignorance. This is cyanide, a rather potent poison, it is poisonus both by inhalation and skin contact. It has a lot of interesting applications such as the extraction of gold, silver, and platinum from rock ore. It is made, as you correctly pointed out, from almonds or clover crushings which have been distilled."

"This here you should be able to know what is," Ex said and held up a small jar filled with a gooey black substance. "This is tar. You get it from coal tar that can be found in shale deposits and are generally associated with coal seams. You can find them in pools, the traditional tar pit. Of course you can use it to paint things, also on boats to make sure they are waterproof, that kind of thing. A less known use is that it is used as Tar Water in Medicine, which is a cold infusion of tar in water more or less." The red dracon nodded, tar was a common enough substance that he knew the uses for it.

"Now the next item on our list, is Lye, it is a caustic compound, you make it by washing wood ash with pure water and then, later, reducing the volume, by boiling. It is used, for instance, in making soap and similar." He held up a small bottle for Darian to see. "Aside from that though, I do not have much to say about lye."

"This, is Distilled Vinegar," he held up a bottle "It is the last thing on our list that you can make from wine. This is quite simply Vinegar that has been distilled. And as I am sure you know vinegar is wine that has gone sour. This is a medium strong acid, not too strong and not too weak. It reacts with most organic substances, and it forms salts with certain metals, for instance lead acetate, or sweet lead as it is also called."

He opened another jar, this one marked Cinnabar, "This is Cinnabar, the main ore of mercury, from this you extract the metal, by way of distillation. The technical name for it is Mercuric sulphide of course, though it can be used as a pigment in paint for instance and is then referred to as Vermilion." Darian noted that it was a red powder, rather heavy too when Ex gave him the bottle.

One last jar was placed in front of Darian, marked, Marcasite. "This is the last of all, Marcasite. Iron Pyrites it is is called, or Iron disulphide if you want to get technical. This term is also used on Bismuth sometimes." It was a a hard, yellow substance, somehow it made Darian think of brass.

"And those are all the basic chemicals you will need to know in Alchemy. There are more out there of course. But these are the most important. I am sure more will come up as time goes by and you further learn the craft. This however is the end of this part of the lesson. Should you wish to return for more lessons our door is open." Ex gave Darian a nod of the head and followed him to the door, Darian, some of the mysteries of the room disclosed, "I thank you for the lesson... Ex, I leave a richer dracon than I came. Serale." Darian bowed and went on his way.

[8ball]

Training approved.