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Let's Play Alchemists - my students made a big mess of the lab after getting riled up by his majesty's decree

It's actually something of a delicacy for the kingdom's courtiers, to take a whole crow, cut off exactly one foot, and then cook the rest as soon as possible. Horrific, but undeniably valuable to the study of alchemy.

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Also thanks for the cool stuff, have some extra gold, CaffeKnight.
 
I will guarantee a neutral potion to this person. His guess is as good as mine. But it's probably a Paralysis potion.
 
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Well, when you approach the market for potions and the only person there is the town charlatan, this is what happens. jenkitchen gets no money, but also loses no reputation, since that's kinda what we were expecting. Whatever potion that was, it was solely beneficial.

With that out of the way, it's on to the shopkeeper, in which aturtledoesbite gets first dibs and has no reason to hold back on spending. After that, theory publication time! Wooooo!
 
Hmph. If I can't stop my vault from being raided, I can at least keep the good Shopkeeper's wares from falling into less worthy hands. Oh, good Shopkeeper! The [Magic Mortar], if you would! Here's 2 gold and my loyalty card.
 
That's correct. She's been a little busy this weekend, so hasn't had time to organize her notes just yet.
 
I would like to thank you all for coming to my theory publishing party. I know I was stuck in the lab for three days but your dedication to stay is really inspiring to me. Now, to tell you what I know. Out friend the mushroom is a humble fungus but it is most dangerous. That is why it will only give you negative potions. I also give my seal of approval to the Board of Alchemy proving this fact. Thank you for your time. Good day.
 
Right. And since everyone only has one pair of ingredients to test with at most, we can wrap up the turn as soon as that happens!
 
Hey everyone, so sorry - I got overwhelmed at work. Suffice to say 7x 10 hour days in a row is NOT GOOD for one's mental health. Anyway, back to the game:

I drag myself out of bed at noonish, (or thereabouts, I dunno, but late - look it was really bright out and my legs were BARELY working). I then grab the nearest sheet of paper, and draw a picture of a raven feather, and write the words "VERY BAD - NEVER DRINK ANYTHING WITH ONE OF THESE IN IT." Stamp it, and put it in the mail to the publisher. Hmmm what experiments do I have to prove that? Oh it's in the supplemental information, don't worry about it, I'll be happy to dig it out if anyone actually wants to question an esteemed alchemist like myself who's willing to put their own body on the line.
 
There's a slight problem there: such a theory contradicts an already-published theory, and thus you cannot put it out. So, you're left with a few possible answers:

  • You can endorse jenkitchen's theory that the mushroom is actually the worst ever thing to use as an ingredient, hedging your seal so you can debunk that trash later.
  • Make a different publication, one that involves neither the mushroom nor the universal negative (O-) alchemical.
  • Suck it up and forego the publication, wasting the action but saving your cash and seals.
 
This is so funny. Ok, when whatever journal replies that this is not compatible with their existing publications already printed, I send a revision:

Raven Feather = G- (Symbol # 8 in the Alchemy 101 section).

Did I misread my notes and Jen is right, and this is right? Was I right the first time and Jen is wrong, and now that I've posted this, we're both wrong? I dare y'all to debunk either of us to find out.
 
Okay, I'll post the theory board in a bit, still got people testing with their existing ingredients. I'm going to assume people will test with the only remaining pairs they have, so let's get right to it. First up is our two student tests, one from aturtledoesbite and one from CaffeKnight.

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The student that drunk the potion did not take the time to move to a more balanced pose beforehand, so they awkwardly and stiffly tip over moments after drinking it, but hey, nothing a little counterweighting can't fix until the paralysis clears up.

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This leaves the other testers a little gunshy, forcing CaffeKnight to shell out a single gold to get anyone interested. They needn't have worried: the most unpleasant side effect of the potion was simply the oily aftertaste. Still, neutral results are valuable for information's sake: anything you know to be true for one of the ingredients, the opposite must hold true for the other!

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And poor Johnny continues to avoid offering testing to students, but with his track record, it might be safer if he did. That's him a cube down for next round as well.

It would be a shame if some nefarious spy were to discover one of the ingredients you used for that poison, wouldn't it?

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With that, we've reached the end of the round, so it's time to take care of the stuff there. First, the Top Alchemist award gives both of our published alchemists a point of rep, on top of the one they already got from publishing. This is the current state of the theory board (setting aside the still-untouched Royal Encyclopedia); if you have reason to doubt these theories based on your notes, prepare a debunk on this upcoming round!

The next thing that happens is shuttling actions around: unused actions return to their owners, and hospitalized actions become unused for next round.

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It's not all bad, though. The Herbalist stops in to apply some much-needed medical attention to Johnny, and offers him a pick of one of three ingredients. So that's something, at least.

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We also rotate our cast of adventurers, bringing in Agent Esgarrouth as indicated before to get those tasty potions of speed, wisdom, and poison to do a little war criming.

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And if that's not your speed, Slim the Sorcerer will be in next round. To better pursue his arts far darker than any alchemy lab, he's politely requesting some potions of poison, paralysis, and wisdom. Not especially different, but it's a good market for poison and wisdom at least!

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This round also has our first conference! As mentioned before, this is where the most brilliant minds of the kingdom get together to discuss the latest discoveries in the field of alchemy, so it's in your best interest to have something to brag about to everyone else. Anyone with at least one published theory gets to enjoy the fruits of popularity, and anyone that doesn't will begin a slow fade into obscurity. (Jen doesn't care though, obscurity is comfy like a blanket to her.) So get to publishing!

I'll take a bit to get some summaries and private info going, and then post the board for the start of the next round.
 
Okay, here we go. First up, the broad board state.

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New ingredients and the conference tile are out, and we've rotated to the following busy Days tile for our turns, with Johnny Unusual declaring first.

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Pretty standard stuff, you can spend gold for a little expediency and knowledge. For the round after, you can expect the following turn order:

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Plenty of opportunities to make a quick buck, albeit not exactly ones that fine upstanding alchemists would want to be seen doing.

And, of course, playerside summaries to follow next post!
 
Player summaries:

aturtledoesbite:
  • Ingredients: 1
  • Favors: 0
  • Gold: 0
  • Books: 0
  • Discount Card: Awards 1 victory point. Artifacts cost 1 gold less.
  • Periscope: Awards 1 victory point. Immediately after a colleague sells or tests a potion, you may look at one of the ingredients. Choose randomly. Limit once per round.
  • Magic Mortar: Awards 1 victory point. Randomly keep 1 of your ingredients used in every potion you make.
  • Reputation: 10
  • Seals: 13
  • Grants: 0
  • Potions Discovered: paralysis

jenkitchen:
  • Ingredients: 1
  • Favors: 3
  • Gold: 1
  • Books: 0
  • Printing Press: Awards 2 victory points. You do not pay 1 gold to the bank when you publish or endorse a theory.
  • Reputation: 6
  • Seals: 12
  • Grants: 0
  • Potions Discovered: insanity

Johnny Unusual:
  • Ingredients: 1
  • Favors: 1
  • Gold: 4
  • Books: 1
  • Reputation: 14
  • Seals: 13
  • Grants: 0
  • Potions Discovered: poison

CaffeKnight:
  • Ingredients: 0
  • Favors: 0
  • Gold: 1
  • Books: 1
  • Reputation: 12
  • Seals: 12
  • Grants: 0
  • Potions Discovered: paralysis, wisdom, neutral

Remember, turn order for declaring actions starts with Johnny, then follows this list here. You have a base of 4 actions you can use this round, barring any poisonings.
 
Well. My foray into the forest yesterday was fruitful, but quite draining. Perhaps I'll have a servant simply go out and fetch 2 ingredients for me today instead.
 
Great, cool, I'll keep that in mind, but you do not need to announce what you get to anyone else!

Jen, you're up to place actions, I'll be sending everyone their prizes from declaring turn order shortly.

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Incidentally, Johnny got another favor from the Herbalist, so that's a little more hand filtration we need to do.
 
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Okay. I am ready to declare actions.
I can't get my Custodian image to copy, but I will be using it. I will then Debunk a Theory, Publish a Theory, then Test A Potion on a student.
This should work.
 
Okay, hold on for a second there.

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First up, the turn order for this turn, now that you've all declared your positions, is aturtledoesbite, Johnny Unusual, CaffeKnight, and jenkitchen.

Actions are declared in reverse turn order, specifically to give the players going faster a chance to intercept your actions and be rude as hell (hence the tradeoff between resources and speed). Jen's already declared her four actions; CaffeKnight declares next. Johnny, you don't have to declare anything until he does.

You also don't have to publically declare what ingredients you're using on an action, ever (aside from if you're taking ingredients from Forage Ingredients, obviously), because if you do, not only do you get that info, so does every single other competitor at the table! Knowledge is power, and knowing exactly how you got the potion you did is power akin to a risk-free test action for everyone else.

So right now, CaffeKnight, you need to declare your actions, and Johnny, you have enough ingredients that if you do want to declare another test action (you have three this round, since you didn't spend any on the Busy Days panel), you can tell me through PM what you want to test and it doesn't have to be the thing you told the table at all.
 
So, bad news.

CaffeKnight ended up in a motorcycle accident, and while he's not in mortal peril or anything like that, he did get concussed a bit after the fact, so this game's going to be on a break for a bit while he's on the mend. If you don't have your health, you don't have anything, every alchemist knows that.
 
Hello all! I live! The biggest casualty was my bank account, until my various insurance claims clear anyway. Curse Arizona's poorly maintained roads.

But anyway, there doesn't seem to be any lasting neurological impact. I'm gonna reread what the heck happened in this game- all I recall for sure is an impending sense that Jenn was about take serious advantage of my inexperience in sequencing decisions turn to turn.
 
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