Next session my group will be exploring the ruins of a house built and once occupied by an alchemist.
Any ideas on what they might find there?
Potions and homonculi I got...any other ideas?
Might take a look-see at U1.
Oh, so many trap possibilities: Unstable compounds that are waiting for the chance to combust, turn into deadly/hallucinogenic gas, expand into foam that will dissolve armor and flesh....and you totally need to put a "bunsen burner" that is still lit (continual flame).
Mutant oozes and slimes.
Tyndale beat me to alchemical traps, but don't forget accidental "hazard" type traps, such as floor supports weakened by an acid that spilled through the cracks.
I never thought of U1, good idea. Great trap ideas, guys, thanks!
Quote from: Tyndale;1141414Oh, so many trap possibilities: Unstable compounds that are waiting for the chance to combust, turn into deadly/hallucinogenic gas, expand into foam that will dissolve armor and flesh....and you totally need to put a "bunsen burner" that is still lit (continual flame).
This is a good one. Depending on how nefarious the alchemist might have been, they might also run into the bodies of people or creatures used to test experimental potions. Maybe the alchemist was trying to create a monster to serve as a guardian, and the potion worked, but it spilled and now there're a bunch of mutated rats and test creatures all over the place. Add that to a bunch of trap-like compounds all over the place and you have a deadly mix.
On the upside, some of the alchemy regents found throughout the house might be valuable, and fetch a nice price if gathered correctly.
Quote from: VisionStorm;1141417This is a good one. Depending on how nefarious the alchemist might have been, they might also run into the bodies of people or creatures used to test experimental potions. Maybe the alchemist was trying to create a monster to serve as a guardian, and the potion worked, but it spilled and now there're a bunch of mutated rats and test creatures all over the place. Add that to a bunch of trap-like compounds all over the place and you have a deadly mix.
On the upside, some of the alchemy regents found throughout the house might be valuable, and fetch a nice price if gathered correctly.
Plus, if the party manages to not blow up the place the lab equipment could be of use to the wizard. (I speak from experience, I just burned the house of a Hag and although not all was lost we did loose some books/scrolls and potions among other stuff My PC might have used)
Unexpected mundane stuff like a jar of peanut butter or a bottle of soy sauce. A number of jars all containing different kinds of salt like sea salt and mined salt.
How about an experiment in endothermal chemistry? Two seperate compounds in flasks connected to a double walled beaker of wine that when mixed (by opening the valves) chill the wine down. Make the wine a desert wine like a moscato or port.
EDIT: Oh, and have a jar with a tightly sealed lid that has a sample of The Blob squirming around in it!
[video=youtube;VAwdh2iWyJg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAwdh2iWyJg[/youtube]
I look at it from a different angle...
Why was it abandoned?
- He was doing things forbidden by The Alchemists Guild (Give the guild a cool name) - which then makes you consider "what would be forbidden?" which is a sub-string of potential adventure ideas.
- He discovered some Alchemical secret the forced him to go in search for more clues. For this to work, you have to have an idea of some element you want to add to your game, or be a MacGuffin to lead your PC's along to further adventures on the trail of whatever the Alchemist discovered; maybe they left to find some part of the puzzle to their discovery? Some rare ingredient they were missing?
- The alchemist was assassinated/abducted, but before he died he left a clue about his work and the potential people that removed him. This could be a Breaking Bad scenario where he was in the employ of nefarious individuals that you can set up in your game later for something bigger. So was he cooking drugs? Poison? Kingdom-endangering Zombie virus?
- It's abandoned because He Done Fucked Up*. He created something that removed him from the premises. Perhaps it changed him in some innocuous way - Made him Ethereal? Shrunk him (and maybe some of that formula is laying around - you can have an entire adventure where the party is shrunk down and has to adventure WITHIN the abandoned building - you could fill it with all kinds of new biomes and maybe even find the Alchemist himself who has been working in tiny-mode for years to craft an antidote. But because of his size he's limited, and the Ants. And the T-Rex sized spiders of the Cobweb Forest! And the RATS! The Roaches. Traversing the Dirty Floor of Desolation is rough work! It turned him into a local monster that plagues the region... like his master before him. It gave him some kind of allergy to sunlight... and forced him to live underground... and deep in the cellar the PC's find a secret door that goes down... down... down. Did he dig too deep?
Or you know... you can just scatter a bunch of stuff around - vials, beakers, pots and pans... boring obvious stuff :)
Quote from: GeekyBugle;1141420Plus, if the party manages to not blow up the place the lab equipment could be of use to the wizard. (I speak from experience, I just burned the house of a Hag and although not all was lost we did loose some books/scrolls and potions among other stuff My PC might have used)
Any mages in the party are gonna have to resist the urge to drop a fireball in that place--no matter how swarmed they get by oozes and mutant rats--or the whole thing could blow up and leave them nothing to sell if they survive.
Loving the response, guys.
I was also thinking of riffing on "Rouges in the House", and having one of the Alchemist's servants still around to fuck the party up.
Depending of how hasty of an abandonment it was, you could find craft recipes and other chemicals. Abandoning suggests there wouldn't be traps or sigils put in place. What led to the Alchemist to leave the place would definitely influence how things turn out.
What if the alchemist (or perhaps his apprentice/servant) got engulfed by a symbiotic gelatinous cube, and the "final boss" is a gelatinous cube with spell casting ability? The bloated and mutated alchemist/mage is still stuck inside of the cube, with a bunch of components floating inside of it that get consumed every time he casts a spell. But his mind has been merged with the cube into a dual creature.
Quote from: VisionStorm;1141434What if the alchemist (or perhaps his apprentice/servant) got engulfed by a symbiotic gelatinous cube, and the "final boss" is a gelatinous cube with spell casting ability? The bloated and mutated alchemist/mage is still stuck inside of the cube, with a bunch of components floating inside of it that get consumed every time he casts a spell. But his mind has been merged with the cube into a dual creature.
Now that's a scary blob!
Quote from: VisionStorm;1141434What if the alchemist (or perhaps his apprentice/servant) got engulfed by a symbiotic gelatinous cube, and the "final boss" is a gelatinous cube with spell casting ability? The bloated and mutated alchemist/mage is still stuck inside of the cube, with a bunch of components floating inside of it that get consumed every time he casts a spell. But his mind has been merged with the cube into a dual creature.
Very cool idea! Who doesn't love to see characters engulfed?
Mutated, semi-human animals. Half-finished and volatile experiments. Inexplicable smells. Poisons absent-mindedly scattered among potion bottles. A half-empty dog bowl with strange food inside. A wrecked potty damaged by substances not of this earth.
False gold and treasure? (The old lead into gold bit.) Other incomplete or unsuccessful transmutations? Stone to diamond, perhaps?
Elemental beings (fire/water/earth/air/etc.), either kept as components or used as assistants?
Quote from: Genly Ai;1141410Next session my group will be exploring the ruins of a house built and once occupied by an alchemist.
Any ideas on what they might find there?
Potions and homonculi I got...any other ideas?
Kurt Busiek wrote a great graphic novel called The Wizard's Tale which included a type of creature called an Alchemite which served as both an assistant to the alchemist and a constant irritant causing all sorts of trouble. Here is a picture of some (art by David Wenzel):
(https://66.media.tumblr.com/50d5a2fae80cfb80ec5ba5f5c154f4e9/tumblr_pujl1bmF9Q1y7iro2o1_500.jpg)
I think they'd find alchemites!
There are many other great images from that book worth using in a game like this:
(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/12/8a/a0/128aa08b969dd4ab2664312b4787e217.jpg)
(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/cc/6c/dd/cc6cdd2f0301ec1016a89d470329128a.jpg)
I remember writing up rules for 'galvanized corpses' if you want to toss a low-level party a curveball.
Treat as a zombie, except that it's a construct, not undead, and it always acts last in each turn. And electrical damage heals it. Kind of like a babby's first flesh golem.
Diseased druggies and wild-eyed berserkers, scavenging for that next high. And of course, some drugs, maybe lotus leaves.
Quote from: Mistwell;1141624Kurt Busiek wrote a great graphic novel called The Wizard's Tale which included a type of creature called an Alchemite which served as both an assistant to the alchemist and a constant irritant causing all sorts of trouble. Here is a picture of some (art by David Wenzel):
(https://66.media.tumblr.com/50d5a2fae80cfb80ec5ba5f5c154f4e9/tumblr_pujl1bmF9Q1y7iro2o1_500.jpg)
I think they'd find alchemites!
There are many other great images from that book worth using in a game like this:
(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/12/8a/a0/128aa08b969dd4ab2664312b4787e217.jpg)
(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/cc/6c/dd/cc6cdd2f0301ec1016a89d470329128a.jpg)
This is right up my alley, thank you posting this.
Unstable, dangerous or noxious chemicals has been suggested, but let's go into a few examples:
Chlorine Triflouride (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorine_trifluoride) Hypergolic with just about everything - including glass, sand, concrete and water. Maybe the alchemist has it as a cleaning agent to really sterilise their apparatus - what are they working with that needs it? There's a famous except from Ignition! that describes a ClF3 fire:
Quote"It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that's the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water-with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals-steel, copper, aluminium, etc.-because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride which protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminium keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes."
Thioacetone (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thioacetone)Extremely smelly, and very unpleasantly so.
QuoteRecently we found ourselves with an odour problem beyond our worst expectations. During early experiments, a stopper jumped from a bottle of residues, and, although replaced at once, resulted in an immediate complaint of nausea and sickness from colleagues working in a building two hundred yards [180 m] away. Two of our chemists who had done no more than investigate the cracking of minute amounts of trithioacetone found themselves the object of hostile stares in a restaurant and suffered the humiliation of having a waitress spray the area around them with a deodorant. The odours defied the expected effects of dilution since workers in the laboratory did not find the odours intolerable ... and genuinely denied responsibility since they were working in closed systems. To convince them otherwise, they were dispersed with other observers around the laboratory, at distances up to a quarter of a mile [0.40 km], and one drop of either acetone gem-dithiol or the mother liquors from crude trithioacetone crystallisations were placed on a watch glass in a fume cupboard. The odour was detected downwind in seconds.
Flouroantimonic acid (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoroantimonic_acid)A "Superacid", so reactive that it's difficult to even find material to store it in.
QuoteHF-SbF5 is an extremely corrosive, and toxic substance that is sensitive to moisture. As with most strong acids, fluoroantimonic acid can react violently with water due to the exothermic hydration. Only hydrogen fluoride can be used as a solvent for the acid, given that an aqueous solution can not be used. Heating Fluoroantimonic acid is dangerous as well as it decomposes into toxic fluorine gas. The only method of containment involves storage in a PTFE container as glass will dissolve upon contact. Safety gear must be worn at all times when handling or going anywhere near this corrosive substance. Fluoroantimonic acid can eat exposed flesh down to the bone while reacting violently with water present in human blood cells.
Dimethylmercury (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethylmercury)Dimethylmercury is a mercury compound that allows mercury to be absorbed into the bloodstream through the skin. It is toxic in very small quantities, causing acute mercury poisoning that is often fatal, although it can take several months to kill. There is a famous incident of a chemist Karen Wetterhahn who died from getting a drop on her gloves, which penetrated through to her skin.
QuoteThe toxicity of dimethylmercury was highlighted with the death of Karen Wetterhahn, a professor of chemistry at Dartmouth College, in 1997. Professor Wetterhahn specialized in heavy metal poisoning. After she spilled a few drops of this compound on her latex glove, the barrier was compromised, and within minutes it was absorbed into her skin. It circulated through her body and accumulated in her brain, resulting in her death ten months later. This accident is a common toxicology case-study and directly resulted in improved safety procedures for chemical-protection clothing and fume hood use, which are now called for when any exposure to such severely toxic and/or highly penetrative substances is possible (e.g., in chemical munitions stockpiles and decontamination facilities).
Hydrazine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrazine)Hydrazine is a widely used rocket propellant, both in monopropellant and hypergolic rocket systems. It's also a strong reducing agent. Really, Hydrazine's got it all - it's toxic, carcinogenic, corrosive, highly flammable, explosive in air at a wide variety of concentrations, and hypergolic with a wide variety of common materials including cellulose. The safety protocols around Hydrazine mean that just fuelling up a satellite with it costa about $100,000. When people talk about 'green' rocket fuels, what they really mean is 'anything but fecking hydrazine.'
Quote from: Nobby-W;1141724Unstable, dangerous or noxious chemicals has been suggested, but let's go into a few examples:
Chlorine Triflouride (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorine_trifluoride)
Hypergolic with just about everything - including glass, sand, concrete and water. Maybe the alchemist has it as a cleaning agent to really sterilise their apparatus - what are they working with that needs it? There's a famous except from Ignition! that describes a ClF3 fire:
Thioacetone (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thioacetone)
Extremely smelly, and very unpleasantly so.
Flouroantimonic acid (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoroantimonic_acid)
A "Superacid", so reactive that it's difficult to even find material to store it in.
Dimethylmercury (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethylmercury)
Dimethylmercury is a mercury compound that allows mercury to be absorbed into the bloodstream through the skin. It is toxic in very small quantities, causing acute mercury poisoning that is often fatal, although it can take several months to kill. There is a famous incident of a chemist Karen Wetterhahn who died from getting a drop on her gloves, which penetrated through to her skin.
Hydrazine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrazine)
Hydrazine is a widely used rocket propellant, both in monopropellant and hypergolic rocket systems. It's also a strong reducing agent. Really, Hydrazine's got it all - it's toxic, carcinogenic, corrosive, highly flammable, explosive in air at a wide variety of concentrations, and hypergolic with a wide variety of common materials including cellulose. The safety protocols around Hydrazine mean that just fuelling up a satellite with it costa about $100,000. When people talk about 'green' rocket fuels, what they really mean is 'anything but fecking hydrazine.'
Someone found Dr. Derek Lowe's 'Things I Won't Work With', I see :D And these are just mundane, real world chemicals; what kind of insanity do you get with magical reagents?
Quote from: Nobby-W;1141724Hydrazine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrazine)
Hydrazine is a widely used rocket propellant, both in monopropellant and hypergolic rocket systems. It's also a strong reducing agent. Really, Hydrazine's got it all - it's toxic, carcinogenic, corrosive, highly flammable, explosive in air at a wide variety of concentrations, and hypergolic with a wide variety of common materials including cellulose. The safety protocols around Hydrazine mean that just fuelling up a satellite with it costa about $100,000. When people talk about 'green' rocket fuels, what they really mean is 'anything but fecking hydrazine.'
Russia was using this stuff extensively for their in the works moon landing rocket using some really ingenious systems to make this stuff work. Problem is the test rockets were the equivalents of small nukes if something went wrong. Which it did. And if it was an airburst. Which did happen. Then you'd have this horriffic stuff raining down on the land. Which it also did.
If I recall right the stiff is just short of a near self sustaining molecular poison. Even a drop of the stuff on flesh could do extensive damage if its the same chemical Im thinking of.
I worked a few years with hazardous chemicals. Mostly acids. A few of which would binary into wonderful things like mustard gas if mishandled. One of our work warnings was "if you see someone suddenly drop to the floor unconscious. Do Not Approach Them! Move away and warn a supervisor.". We came close to having that happen. Luckily it was contained and no one was harmed. That I know of.
One thing you will likely find in an abandoned lab, modern or fantasy, is beakers with not liquids. But dried residues depending on if containers are sealed or not and how well.
Same if you say came across an abandoned painters workshop. Some of the paints may have solidified. Thinners may have evaporated. Even in well sealed bottled depending on the types of material.
A super friendly puppy in a box! :) It was left in suspended animation by one of those strange alchemical liquids, and only recently came to.
Useful for a tension relieving jump scare of scratching and wimpering. Also great for scampering around the PCs if released, to help knock stuff over (including PCs)! :D
Quote from: Opaopajr;1141767A super friendly puppy in a box! :) It was left in suspended animation by one of those strange alchemical liquids, and only recently came to.
Useful for a tension relieving jump scare of scratching and wimpering. Also great for scampering around the PCs if released, to help knock stuff over (including PCs)! :D
Or to show what could happen to the player characters when a chemical gets spilled on it!
"Oh, no! Not the puppy!"
Quote from: Opaopajr;1141767A super friendly puppy in a box! :) It was left in suspended animation by one of those strange alchemical liquids, and only recently came to.
Useful for a tension relieving jump scare of scratching and wimpering. Also great for scampering around the PCs if released, to help knock stuff over (including PCs)! :D
Warhammer Quest: Your character finds a puppy that follows them around. Then it promptly croaks because this is Warhammer afterall. Your character spends ALL their gold building a monument to the puppy.
Given enough time and because this event can repeat, the landscape may end up dotted with puppy monuments. This is Warhammer afterall.
Quote from: jeff37923;1141774Or to show what could happen to the player characters when a chemical gets spilled on it!
"Oh, no! Not the puppy!"
:confused: Oops! :eek: Did I do that? :o
Quote from: Omega;1141776Warhammer Quest: Your character finds a puppy that follows them around. Then it promptly croaks because this is Warhammer afterall. Your character spends ALL their gold building a monument to the puppy.
Given enough time and because this event can repeat, the landscape may end up dotted with puppy monuments. This is Warhammer afterall.
:mad: In the GrimDark Future there is only pet cemetaries... and it forever rains ('reigns' :p) puppy ash! :mad:
It's widely used in hypergolic and monopropellant systems - most satellites have hydrazine monopropellant thrusters for orbit maintenance. The tech is useful because Hydarzine has a long shelf life, remains liquid at low temperatures and you can get exactly the delta-V you want by metering a precise amount of fuel through the engine.
The Russians used to be quite big on Hypergolics (IIRC the upper stage of Soyuz still uses them) so there were incidents of locals investigating used boosters and getting poisoned by residual hydrazine splashed around from the impact. I think the last thing the Merkins flew with Hypergolic boosters was Titan.
If the alchemist was a servant of a darker power, you might find correspondence with the Big Bad among his papers. So if you want to plant the seeds of a followup adventure, now is the time to do it.
Heck, you might even find something like a Silmaril that the big bad used to communicate with his minions.
Unlike potions and rare materials, papers would have been less likely to be ransacked by thieves.
Speaking of which, you should find the corpse of at least one lesser thief who tripped a trap, or just dropped the wrong flask.
If you REALLY hate your players, have malfunctioning equipment or leaking chemicals create wild magic effects or duplicate wand of wonder uses.
Quote from: Nobby-W;1141848It's widely used in hypergolic and monopropellant systems - most satellites have hydrazine monopropellant thrusters for orbit maintenance. The tech is useful because Hydarzine has a long shelf life, remains liquid at low temperatures and you can get exactly the delta-V you want by metering a precise amount of fuel through the engine.
The Russians used to be quite big on Hypergolics (IIRC the upper stage of Soyuz still uses them) so there were incidents of locals investigating used boosters and getting poisoned by residual hydrazine splashed around from the impact. I think the last thing the Merkins flew with Hypergolic boosters was Titan.
Nearly all spacecraft use small hypergolic engines for their maneuvering thrusters. The hypergolics are just simpler and more dependable.
There have been recent efforts to develop a non-hypergolic maneuvering thruster, because it would be less toxic, but I don't remember who was doing the work or if it reached fruition.