Hex Crawl 23: Eryptos 3, Alchemy and Sorcery

 
Eryptos is also a hub of many different approaches to science and the supernatural. The sorcerous scene is dominated by two rival wizards. Both of them were apprentices of Kul-Gattur the Mahal, and feel very keenly that they have not yet reached the cosmic heights of their master's understanding.

Syrioth, level 9 - A gaunt woman about 40, dark skin and dyed golden hair, antique garments that almost form a costume, eyes hollow and staring from madness, nonetheless attentive and prone to insightful if paranoiac observations. She has few if any boundaries, and casts spells with a vulture-headed golden crook.

Abru the Obscurer, level 10 - A tall, muscular man about 45, light olive skin, bald with henna-dyed braids on the side. He wears heavy dark robes cut from foreign cloth, and has a hairless pet cat (a familiar, perhaps?) who is always under his feet. Abru's reputation is aloof and secretive with sparks of curiosity. He projects a forceful gaze, and a no-nonsense manner. His spellcasting uses a ponderous ring of lead and silver that spans the first three knuckles of his left hand.

The influence of these two is such that other would-be wizards, warlocks, and dabblers have either left town or keep their profile very low. Each of them has selected favorites in the court intrigue but sees no profit in pursuing it.

It is also worth mentioning the clandestine shop of magical artifacts that can be found behind a door round the back of a shop that sells discs of dried meat. Knock five times rapidly; a door opens, a wary eye looks out. The shop itself is lined with dusty shelves in a richly appointed miniature salon whose air is gummy with perfume. It's run by an effusive Dwarf of Yagan known as Vinnit. The shop will have 2d4 minor magic items and d4-1 major magic items for sale at standard prices plus a 20% markup. Vinnit will also buy wondrous objects, to the limits of his treasury, which is about 5000 gold. 

Finally, there is a Street of Alchemists filled with various quacksalvers and only two or three of the real deal. One of these is Zagum, who is secretly connected to the Scarab Society, and is constantly on the lookout for new substances and recipes. He certainly found these in abundance when the Band of Bronze opened up the dank halls of the Sinister Shroom, and even voyaged to those caverns to pick up samples of biomass and tantalizing glimpses of the Shroom's own records on the matter of the creation of semi-vegetative life through various serums and oozes.

Hex Crawl 23 #267: Shimmering Salts

Seven hexes northwest, six north of Alakran.

  

This salt deposit is not like others you might have seen in eastern Wahattu. Although the prevailing hue is pale, the crusts and humps of mineral shimmer with subtle colors, being composed of many salts beyond the simple sodium chloride we know. In modern chemical terminology, this terrain is streaked with deposits of:

• Cobalt nitrate (red)
• Copper sulphate (blue, drying to white)
• Cobalt chloride (blue in the dry season, pink in the wet season)
• Iron chloride hexahydrate (yellow-brown, drying to black)
• Ammonium dichromate (orange)
• Manganese chloride tetrahydrate (pink)
• Potassium permanganate (purple)
  

Other deposits, although white, give their immediate area a characteristic smell such as:

• Sodium acetate (vinegar)
• Potassium cyanide (almonds)
• Ammonium chloride (strong, piercing smell)

The proximity of these deposits is one reason why alchemy has always flourished in nearby Eryptos, and the salts are so easily gathered that the job is relegated to a dozen menial carriers who are paid barely enough to live on.

A curious tale circulates around this collection of salts. It is said that among them can be found all the tastes that food may acquire - sweet, salty (of course), bitter, sour, and savory. And thereby hangs a tale.

Generations ago, the alchemist Tuenar devised a diet for the obese Prince in Eryptos known as the Mountain of Eminence. The stuff of the food was clay of varying consistencies, and the flavors of salts were so skillfully combined to mimic various foodstuffs that, eating blindfolded, the Prince could barely tell the false food from his true meals. Alas, the Prince never became king, as the diet was quite easily poisoned. But in one version of the tale he was done in by his love of almond cakes, whose flavors could only be recreated using salts of cyanide.

 

Hex Crawl 23 #146: The Bestriding Mountain Terkutta

 Eleven miles north, two northwest of Alakran.

 

The Scarp, at this point, joins its north-south run with a fistful of other ridges and buttresses to soar into a dark brown peak twice as high as the rest of the wall-like barrier, whose roots run out into the surrounding lands. 

On cold days in the rainy season, the mountain top grows as white as a great-grandmother's head. While the peasants look and say "Terkutta grows old from chill," sages know that a brave climber on such days can return with sackfuls of "cold salt" gathered at the peak, a kind of fine hail worth up to 20 gp per pound that can be kept for weeks, even months in a sealed vessel underground. The cold salt is equally useful in concocting alchemical experiments and in elaborating frozen sweetened delicacies for the palate of kings.