Subscribe to download
Pseudo-Quintessence - Research into Unconventional Alchemy XXVIII

Journal of Conrad Azohi - Day 1,330 after embarking

Sometimes, I find that I must remind myself that not every problem in the world is easily solved by alchemy. Surely, mastering the art grants you certain advantages that you wouldn't have otherwise had. Surely understanding the fundamental building blocks of reality affords you understanding of many things. Yet, for all of that, sometimes approaching a system with alchemy is ill-advised.

I have found such a situation.

However, I am an alchemist, and I must record things in the context of my knowledge. I believe I have uncovered the purpose of the golden soil that is formed from the mixture of the oil and the sandy clay. It is to create a chemical mixture from the processed stalks of the strange mushroom.

I found a system of mixing vessels that have ancient, desiccated traces of the fungus within them. We cleaned the system out, determined how the system would be used from our understanding of the systems in other facilities across Atro, and ran some of the fungus through the system.

The end result was a liquid that is similar to quintessence in many respects. If I wasn't able to analyze the composition of the liquid more closely and determine the four chemicals therein, I would have assumed it to be quintessence somehow suspended in liquid form.

To think that an ancient civilization was trying to work with something akin to the immaculately useful quintessence is shocking to me. Perhaps they even knew of quintessence in theory, and this liquid was an attempt to synthesize it. To have access to as much quintessence-like substance that the fungal fields would have provided would truly have been something worth striving for.

However, this compound is also very rich in vitae and mors. I think this is why the people of Atro are gone, as there would be various ways for those two elements, when used recklessly, to lead to infertility or death. I think, perhaps, they realized this too late, after they had already coated their lands with the oil.

The process by which the fungus broke apart the golden soil and the mixing process turned the fungus into the pseudo-quintessence are far more complex than I can accurately describe here. My notes are mainly describing alchemical shortcuts I would need to take to emulate the process. Even with my abilities, trying to recreate the process with my available equipment is proving very challenging.

I feel that there are thousands of discoveries to be made in Atro, and this is but one of the first. However, I do intend to one day return home, my companions are complaining about the bleak landscape, not to mention the eternal threat of the oil, and I feel my abilities are being thoroughly taxed.

With all that in mind, we are electing to leave Atro, with the hope that, one day, someone will return with a company of alchemists to study this place more in-depth. We travel to the northeast in the morning.