Apothecary Potions
Every apothecary knows how to mix these five essential preparations. They allow the drinker to gain medicinal aid without needing the personal attention of a physick.
Anodyne Analgesic
Replacing the more cumbersome Anodyne Embrocation, this potent elixir numbs pain, and helps clear and focus the mind of the drinker. The philtre is not without its dangers; while it allows the imbiber to overcome many of the effects of a traumatic injury, it does nothing to actually treat the effects of such wounds. More than one soldier has dropped dead after using the potion to allow them to ignore a serious condition that required immediate medical attention. It can also be used to alleviate the symptoms of painful medical conditions such as inflamed joints, arthritis and rheumatism, but the cost of doing so with a potion tends to place this option outside the reach of all save the most wealthy.
- Form: Philtre.
- Description: This dark blue elixir has a gritty, slightly sandy texture. It smells strongly of freshly cut grass. Put a tiny drop on your finger or your tongue, and the tip quickly becomes numb.
- Roleplaying Effects: The liquid numbs the pain of your injuries, and provides an invigoration that quickly clears your mind.
- Mechanical Effects: You can overcome the roleplaying effect of a single traumatic wound of your choice until the end of the current engagement.
- Recipe: One dram of Marrowort and one dram of True Vervain.
Bloodharrow Philtre
A thin, slightly toxic elixir that harrows the blood of the one who drinks it. After a moment or two of agonising pain, the body is purged of venom, and of some minor poisons.
- Form/Description: Philtre.
- Form/Description: This translucent red liquid has tiny white particles suspended in it. It has a spicy scent, and a tiny amount on your tongue or your finger tingles unpleasantly for a moment.
- Roleplaying Effects: Pain spreads rapidly through your body; you feel as if your blood is on fire. After a moment or two, the pain fades.
- Mechanical Effects: You lose the venom condition.
- Recipe: One dram Imperial Roseweald and one dram of Marrowort
Elixir Vitae
This potent healing elixir captures the essence of True Vervain to restore health and vitality. It is a common preparation in the Empire, carried by warriors and healers alike, and many can identify the clear, slightly sticky liquid on sight.
- Form: Philtre
- Description: This translucent liquid is tinted a pale blue-green. It has a clean, fresh scent. A tiny drop of the sticky fluid on your tongue or your finger tingles pleasantly for a moment.
- Roleplaying Effects: A warm glow spreads quickly through your body, removing pain, revitalising your spirit and creating a sense of enormous well-being.
- Mechanical Effects: You regain up to three lost hits.
- Recipe: One dram of True Vervain and one dram of Cerulean Mazzarine.
Feverfail Elixir
This elixir drives out the lingering effects of enervation. It is occasionally useful in treating symptoms that include excessive tiredness or dizziness.
- Form: Philtre.
- Description: This translucent grey liquid smells faintly of spring flowers. A tiny drop of the thick, syrupy fluid on your tongue causes a grimace - it tastes a little like spoiled milk.
- Roleplaying Effects: You feel nauseous. A dizzying chill spreads through your body, leaving you incapacitated for a few moments. Both effects clear as quickly as they arose, leaving you feeling revitalised.
- Mechanical Effects: You lose the weakness condition.
- Recipe: One dram of Bladeroot and one dram of Imperial Roseweald.
Ossean Solution
For centuries, the Ossean Balm was used to rapidly restore ruined limbs. Recently, however, a method of distilling the essential power of that salve into liquid form was perfected by Navarr apothecaries, giving rise to the Ossean Elixir. When the philtre is drunk by someone who has been seriously injured, with more than one limb crippled, it tends to repair the limb that is most advantagous to the imbiber - a feature that intrigues some apothecaries. There is fierce debate in some circles about how the potion "knows" which limb to heal - how it knows that someone wishing to flee needs their leg repaired rather than their arm for example. Most apothecaries and physicks simply shrug and point out that this is just a tendency - that there are also harrowing stories of the philtre restoring the "wrong" limb with tragic consequences.
- Form: Philtre
- Description: This thick, odourless, blue liquid has a gritty texture. When you rub it between finger and thumb it leaves a crusty residue that soon flakes away. It tastes disgusting.
- Roleplaying Effects: You feel a numbness spreading through the flesh of your ruined limb as the torn ligaments and broken bones fuse together.
- Mechanical Effects: You regain the use of a single limb that has been ruined by cleave or impale.
- Recipe: One dram of Cerulean Mazzarine and one dram of Bladeroot.
In the past, these powerful philtres were brewed as less concentrated preparations, and were liquids or salves. In character, new recipes have been introduced and embraced by apothecaries that make the process of brewing these old potions obsolete.
Any player who has one of the old potions, represented by a laminated slip, can bring it to GOD and swap it for one of the new philtre cards.