Wyrmstone Mortar

Description

This apothecary's bowl is traditionally made of stone, but wooden, ceramic and metal examples exist. Purified with beggar's lye, and often decorated with trace amounts of silver or weltsilver, the mortar is often carved with the symbol of a snake biting its own tail around the rim or spiralling around the inside of the bowl. While it is often created along with a pestle, the magic resides in the mortar alone and works whether the herbs are being prepared using a mortar or a piece of heavy stone.

A Wyrmstone Mortar usually bears the rune Xun, although older examples are often inscribed with Diras, the Rune of Secrets. Traditionally in Wintermark the apothecary carves or paints the runes Rhyv (representing the Imperial roseweald) and Irremais (representing bladeroot) onto the pestle they use with the mortar.

The Wyrmstone Mortar is particularly well-known in the Marches, where its simple versatility is appreciated, and among the Navarr; both of these peoples sometimes name it an Alchemist's Friend. The Navarr in particular, on their long trods far away from the storehouses of civilisation, sometimes find themselves with an excess of one herb and a deficiency of the other, and the power to turn bladeroot into roseweald, with its purgative qualities, has also earned it the less-common name Vallorn-bane among the Navarr.

In recent times, skilled Urizen alchemists have begun to take up the Wyrmstone Mortar, giving it the name Empyrean Mortar for its use in preparing the costly Elixir of Empyrean Art.

Rules

• Form: Talisman. Takes the form of a tool. You must be holding this item in hand to use its magical properties.
• Requirement: You must have the Apothecary skill to bond to this item.
• Effect: When you use the apothecary skill to create a potion you may substitute two drams of Imperial Roseweald for one dram of Bladeroot, or two drams of Bladeroot for one dram of Imperial Roseweald. You can only make this substitution once per preparation.
• Materials: Crafting a Wyrmstone Mortar requires seven measures of beggar's lye. It takes one month to make one of these items.