Starker recognizes one of the sigils along the back to represent the reagent Essentia Vitae. There is a flask containing the clear liquid form of Essentia Vitae on the workbench.
The other two are unfamiliar to him, as are many of the containers symbols.
Starker:”Perhaps the challenge is to make another flask of the boiling material?
<organizes reagents by color … looking for two that, when combined, would result in the same color. Smells the boiling liquid carefully (not putting nose over but using gloved hand to waft vapors towards offset nose). Smells reagents with similar care … are there any that smell similar to the green liquid? … in general, does Starker-y things, getting a bit lost in the puzzle.>
“Words are not words, they are fires as indicated, every syllable burns, each vowel is a blade. Blood sacrifice is the ink and alchemy is the grammar. The fires lick at the edges of meaning. Words write themselves upon your marrow, spelling shapes that scream. To speak is to bleed, to bleed is to distill, to distill is to unlock. Fires as indicated, yes, yes, the formula eats itself. Blood, blood again, the heart is a crucible, the tongue a knife. Alchemy reshapes, language transfigures, words twist into flesh. Do you hear it? The text is alive. The spell writes you.”
Starker:”Certainly, Sir Chadwick. No one would expect you or Father Kragen to do so. However, our ultimate goal is to destroy the proto-lich who set this up, so perhaps if someone else were to do so it would be an acceptable means to that noble end.”
Cyrus:”Eek! eEK … eek eEk ?” <removes fez, slaps forehead, and points at various bottles and notes on workbench, looks at Starker, throws down hat, and shakes head. Dons fez and hops on top of EmFer’s Chastisement>
Starker:”Fascinating. Monkey Magister Magnus suggests I, Starker, missed something here. I will look again, not that I think it likely, but the next step after this involves him heaving his defactory products and this place is far too lovely to allow that.”
Starker continues to examine the reagents and notes on the alchemy bench while chatting with Yartol. He finds some important notations that help translate the labeling scheme used for the bottles and flasks. Comparing these he determines that the remaining two glowing sigils describe Blackroot Elixir and Amber Quicksilver. He is able to find a jar of powdered Blackroot Elixir and a flask of Amber Quicksilver among the reagents on the bench.
Starker: <places all the material on the top of the workbench tonthe periphery of the bench except the three noted ingredients, the boiling flask with the green liquid and the empty flask, clearing his workspace. He places them in an order that makes sense to him, going from left to right by increasing size and, for equal sizes, by the order in which their colors occur when slowly heating iron>
“The mind riddle suggests to me that we need to perform the act of blood at the altar first. I gather Yartol joins our Tyr followers in refusing. Xymox? Trokarl?”
Starker: <places all the material on the top of the workbench tonthe periphery of the bench except the three noted ingredients, the boiling flask with the green liquid and the empty flask, clearing his workspace. He places them in an order that makes sense to him, going from left to right by increasing size and, for equal sizes, by the order in which their colors occur when slowly heating iron>
“The mind riddle suggests to me that we need to perform the act of blood at the altar first. I gather Yartol joins our Tyr followers in refusing. Xymox? Trokarl?”
Xymox: "This seems like a terribly ill-advised course of action, but I will provide a bit of blood if the company requires it to move forward."
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Starker recognizes one of the sigils along the back to represent the reagent Essentia Vitae. There is a flask containing the clear liquid form of Essentia Vitae on the workbench.
The other two are unfamiliar to him, as are many of the containers symbols.
Starker:”Perhaps the challenge is to make another flask of the boiling material?
<organizes reagents by color … looking for two that, when combined, would result in the same color. Smells the boiling liquid carefully (not putting nose over but using gloved hand to waft vapors towards offset nose). Smells reagents with similar care … are there any that smell similar to the green liquid? … in general, does Starker-y things, getting a bit lost in the puzzle.>
investigation = 18
Recall the words implanted in our brains:
“Words are not words, they are fires as indicated, every syllable burns, each vowel is a blade. Blood sacrifice is the ink and alchemy is the grammar. The fires lick at the edges of meaning. Words write themselves upon your marrow, spelling shapes that scream. To speak is to bleed, to bleed is to distill, to distill is to unlock. Fires as indicated, yes, yes, the formula eats itself. Blood, blood again, the heart is a crucible, the tongue a knife. Alchemy reshapes, language transfigures, words twist into flesh. Do you hear it? The text is alive. The spell writes you.”
Starker, pensively:
“To speak is to bleed: Xymox said the word ‘words’ and was rewarded with a prize
“To bleed is to distil: the next step is likely at the altar
“To distil is to unlock: I think the last step is at this workbench?
“Someone please bleed on the plate of Bhal.”
"I am not offering a blood sacrifice to the god of murder."
Starker:”Certainly, Sir Chadwick. No one would expect you or Father Kragen to do so. However, our ultimate goal is to destroy the proto-lich who set this up, so perhaps if someone else were to do so it would be an acceptable means to that noble end.”
“If you offer your blood, do you get to pick who is murdered,” Yartol asks. “ Asking for a friend,” he adds.
Starker:”You might be inducted into his cult: men of focus, commitment, sheer will.”
"Hard pass," Yartol responds.
Cyrus:”Eek! eEK … eek eEk ?” <removes fez, slaps forehead, and points at various bottles and notes on workbench, looks at Starker, throws down hat, and shakes head. Dons fez and hops on top of EmFer’s Chastisement>
Starker:”Fascinating. Monkey Magister Magnus suggests I, Starker, missed something here. I will look again, not that I think it likely, but the next step after this involves him heaving his defactory products and this place is far too lovely to allow that.”
Investigation 20
arcana 24
perception 12
Starker continues to examine the reagents and notes on the alchemy bench while chatting with Yartol. He finds some important notations that help translate the labeling scheme used for the bottles and flasks. Comparing these he determines that the remaining two glowing sigils describe Blackroot Elixir and Amber Quicksilver. He is able to find a jar of powdered Blackroot Elixir and a flask of Amber Quicksilver among the reagents on the bench.
Starker: <places all the material on the top of the workbench tonthe periphery of the bench except the three noted ingredients, the boiling flask with the green liquid and the empty flask, clearing his workspace. He places them in an order that makes sense to him, going from left to right by increasing size and, for equal sizes, by the order in which their colors occur when slowly heating iron>
“The mind riddle suggests to me that we need to perform the act of blood at the altar first. I gather Yartol joins our Tyr followers in refusing. Xymox? Trokarl?”
Kragen investigates the sigils as Starker requests.
Uses Religion check? 17+3=20
Kragen determines no religious connection. They are alchemical notations.
Yartol nods, “No thanks.”
Xymox: "This seems like a terribly ill-advised course of action, but I will provide a bit of blood if the company requires it to move forward."