Alchemy

Building an Alchemic Formula

All Alchemic Formulae, at their most basic, require three ingredients: a Base Reagent, a Prime Substance, and one Modifying Ingredient. Multiple Prime Substances and Modifying Ingredients can be used, but the minimum is one of each. You do not need to have an ingredient on-hand to design an Alchemic Formula, but you do need to have some knowledge of it (used it before, talked with a master about it, studied up on it, etc).
Designing an Alchemic Formula requires an alchemist to spend A-day in their lab performing tests and research. This time can be modified as usual, up or down the Time Ladder for the usual 10% bonus/penalty depending on whether the alchemist is taking their time, or rushing through the process.
The next four sections will go over each step in the Alchemic Formula creation process:

The Base Reagents

There are four Base Reagents: Choleric Base, Melancholic Base, Sanguine Base, and Phlegmatic Base. Each can be acquired through mundane skill checks if there is no capability of purchasing or finding the required Base.

• Choleric Base (Fire) - Symbolized and represented in your formula by Pot Ash, a Choleric Base is suitable for formulae that are focused on violent, emotion-inflaming, or leadership related effects. If an alchemist needs to acquire additional Choleric Base, they can spend 1-Day to process firewood into Pot Ash by passing an unmodified Athletics check. On a success, they gain +1d6 Choleric Base.


• Melancholic Base (Earth) - Symbolized and represented in your formula by Base Metals, a Melancholic Base is suitable for formulae that are focused on defensive, focusing, or bolstering related effects. If an alchemist needs to acquire additional Melancholic Base, they can spend 1-Day to collect base metals from the surrounding terrain by passing an unmodified Might check. On a success, they gain +1d6 Melancholic Base.


• Sanguine Base (Air) - Symbolized and represented in your formula by Powdered Animal Materials (bones, horns, hooves, etc), a Sanguine Base is suitable for formulae that are focused on social, luck, or risk-taking related effects. If an alchemist needs to acquire additional Sanguine Base, they can spend 1-Day to hunt animals and process their bones, horns, hooves, etc. by passing an unmodified Survival check. On a success, they gain +1d6 Sanguine Base.


• Phlegmatic Base (Water) - Symbolized and represented in your formula by Vitriol, a Phlegmatic Base is suitable for formulae that are focused on healing, emotion-depressing, and discussion related effects. If an alchemist needs to acquire additional Phlegmatic Base, they can spend 1-Day distilling Vitriol in a lab by passing an unmodified Scholarship (Chemistry) check. On a success, they gain +1d6 Phlegmatic Base.

As always, mundane skill check difficulty can be modified (up or down) by taking a 10% penalty (for a quicker action) or 10% bonus (for a slower action) per increment on the Time Ladder. By taking successive 10% penalties, an alchemist can acquire +1d6 (per 10% penalty) Base Reagents. Thus, for example, if Anya the Alchemist wanted to Acquire Melancholic Base, but wanted to finish the task in an Afternoon, instead of a full day, and wanted to acquire an additional +1d6 Reagent, she would have to roll her Might skill with a 20% penalty (10% for the faster speed, and 10% for the +1d6 reagent). On a failure of their skill check, the alchemist's time is wasted and no Base Reagents are gained - time and care must be taken for Alchemical ingredients.
An alchemist can always choose to substitute Aqua Vitae as the Base Reagent for a concoction, but they will take a -25% to succeed on their Alchemy check for the concoction as Aqua Vitae is never as good as the Base Reagent specifically designated by the given formula. A single concoction can never have more than a single Base Reagent.

Time Ladder

For mundane skills, gain +10% for each step down the Time Ladder you take to attempt a skill. Take -10% for each step up the Time Ladder you take to attempt a skill. Taking your time to accomplish a skill will make that skill roll more likely to succeed.

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#	Effect Duration
1	Instant
2	A few seconds
3	Half a minute
4	A minute
5	A few minutes
6	15 Minutes
7	Half an hour
8	An hour
9	A few hours
10	An afternoon
11	A day
12	A few days
13	A week
14	A few weeks
15	A month
16	A few months
17	A season
18	Half a year
19	A year
20	A few years
21	A decade
22	A lifetime