Ninja-Bear Posted February 1, 2017 Report Share Posted February 1, 2017 Hello Herophiles, Im fleshing out a scenerio with Midas (from DC: TAS). So I need a list of rare materials to create the philosophers stone so he can make Gold. Note the matetials can be make up like questionite but not like dragon scales. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freakboy6117 Posted February 1, 2017 Report Share Posted February 1, 2017 Popular alchemical substances quicksilver(mercury) and brimstone(Sulphur) . Perhaps you can get them from a really difficult source both could be acquired from a volcano or subterranean Kingdom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoloOfEarth Posted February 1, 2017 Report Share Posted February 1, 2017 I'd suggest something from a meteorite. Say the re-entry heat alters the iron-nickel alloy (meteoric iron) in specific ways. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_meteorite to mine for ideas. (pun fully intended) All materials don't necessarily need to be rare; perhaps some require a difficult refining process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted February 1, 2017 Report Share Posted February 1, 2017 several dead school going wizards. what ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted February 1, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2017 I'd suggest something from a meteorite. Say the re-entry heat alters the iron-nickel alloy (meteoric iron) in specific ways. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_meteorite to mine for ideas. (pun fully intended) All materials don't necessarily need to be rare; perhaps some require a difficult refining process. The idea of ideas being rare is that the game can have several robberies to stop. Hmmm I was thinking perhaps a special diamond is used somehow in the refining process? Or maybe one item would be an authentic alchemical set? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted February 1, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2017 Oo oo brainstorm. I was going to have the Astrologer work with Midas to interpret the Alchemical text. I like the meteorite idea. The Astrologer could betray Midas and keep the metorite! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted February 1, 2017 Report Share Posted February 1, 2017 how about some of the stuff left behind when you kill an elemental? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steriaca Posted February 1, 2017 Report Share Posted February 1, 2017 how about some of the stuff left behind when you kill an elemental? Nice idea. And considering that you seem to be playing in the DCU, Kryptonite would be idea... ...opps. Dark Champions: The Animated Series. Never mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted February 1, 2017 Report Share Posted February 1, 2017 Well in Full Metal alchemist, the main ingredient was Souls. Hundreds to thousands of souls. All materials don't necessarily need to be rare; perhaps some require a difficult refining process. Hard to manufacture or refine? Here is a bunch of rather expensive stuff:http://www.businessinsider.de/most-valuable-substances-by-weight-2014-9?r=US&IR=T#/#19-white-truffles-1 If it plays in the past, one of my favorite "rare materials" is alluminium. Wich is incredibly common, but whose production cost scales with the price of electicity. And something that will be hard to obtain/maintain even today: Pure Aluminium. You see it is actually extremely willing to oxidize. But the thing is that Aluminium-oxide effectively becomes a "armor" around the rest of the aluminium. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted February 1, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2017 how about some of the stuff left behind when you kill an elemental? Except that this is a DC: TAS game which is "realistic" so no elementals. Fwiw as to whether the Philosopher Stone works doesm't matter to the game. Midas thinks it will work and is commiting robberies to gather the resources together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted February 1, 2017 Report Share Posted February 1, 2017 OK so if its just someone who thinks they can make one, then this page might help you, its a list of terms used by Isaac Newton in his studies of alchemy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoloOfEarth Posted February 1, 2017 Report Share Posted February 1, 2017 The idea of ideas being rare is that the game can have several robberies to stop. Hmmm I was thinking perhaps a special diamond is used somehow in the refining process? Or maybe one item would be an authentic alchemical set? Kidnapping a metallurgist or chemist to do specialized refining could work as a plot point. Stealing an old alchemy text from a university museum could be another. (I don't have DC: TAS but presume from your earlier post that Midas already has an alchemy text, but perhaps this one provides additional info. Or it could be the journal of someone who studied the text Midas has.) One thing with having robberies to stop -- theoretically, stopping the theft of even one key ingredient would derail the whole thing. Unless the item / info is available through other means. An idea -- the heroes might stop the theft of the old alchemy text, but Midas kidnaps a professor who studied the text to get the requisite expertise. Then one of the PCs notices that the old text had additional instructions (in good old-fashioned invisible link) that mention a key ingredient and/or special processing needed. Without that, Midas' plan may have... unintended consequences. (Say, cause an uncontrolled spread of transformation to gold or lead.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted February 1, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2017 Great ideas! I was already planning on using Sir Issac Newton manual on Alchemy. Maybe not the spread of gold Bolo but perhaps a poisonous cloud? Mercury is a toxic metal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted February 2, 2017 Report Share Posted February 2, 2017 The "green flash" sometimes seen at sunset. Perhaps this is the true meaning of the Green Lion sometimes cited in alchemical texts, which is (IIRC) usually interpreted as, I think, copper sulfate? (Something to do with copper and/or sulfuric acid. I don't have my books handy, and I'm not web-searching alchemy right now.) How you capture the "green flash" is left as an exercise for the reader. But even if you are ruling out explitly supernatural stuff such as elementals, some of the ingredients could be a bit uncanny. Dean Shomshak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted February 2, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2017 Hmmm what if the green flash is exposed to certain chemicals? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted February 2, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2017 Well perhaps there is a real element called Green Lion. P.s isn't the green flash called St. Elmo's fire? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted February 2, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2017 Just thinking, there could be a lamp or artifact that is reputed to have captured the green flash. Just hit me. Admiral Perry supposedly sighted the green flash from his telescope. He could believe that would be needed in the process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemphyre Posted February 2, 2017 Report Share Posted February 2, 2017 Here is an idea. Everyone is talking about material components. How about a spiritual or metaphysical one? Perhaps the willing cooperation of someone of an exceptionally pure spirit. Note: this spiritual person does not necessarily have to be "good". It could even call for the cooperation (or willing sacrifice) of several people of "pure spirit", or some other metaphysical quality. Also, you could draw inspiration from the eastern or western alchemical elements. Western is Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Eastern is usually Water, Air, Metal, Wood, and Fire. Things like for water, you need source of pure deuterium or Tritium (Heavy water). Wood could be a branch from the world's oldest living tree. Metal would be some amount of meteoric metal. Fire could be from a specific active volcano, or plasma. Air could be pure oxygen. What's more, since most of the terms and names used are modern, that means that the person writing the formula would be trying to describe or name the item in terms that he or she knew at the time. And some of them could be changing all the time in location, like a branch from the world's oldest tree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freakboy6117 Posted February 2, 2017 Report Share Posted February 2, 2017 How about materials for another dimension I had one hero who got his powers from inhaling/fragments under the skin of iron from a transdimensional probe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amorkca Posted February 2, 2017 Report Share Posted February 2, 2017 As an added twist, the professor who was kidnapped, once he learns of what is intended - the creation of an actual Philosophers Stone, now wants to help create - and denies that he was kidnapped... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted February 3, 2017 Report Share Posted February 3, 2017 Well perhaps there is a real element called Green Lion. P.s isn't the green flash called St. Elmo's fire? I know the periodic table of the elements pretty well (thank you, Tom Lehrer), and there's no element whose name translates as "Green Lion." Old alchemical texts are full of these allegorical names for substances and processes. Some seem pretty obvious, such as Sol and Luna for gold and silver. Others are far more obscure. Like, in one there's an image of a king being cooked in a cauldron with a dove rising from him. Okay, it probably means that you boil something and a vapor comes off it. But what? (You'll get guesses from mystics and historians. You can come up with much more interesting interpretations.) St. Elmo's Fire is an electrical discharge. I've read that a blue flash or even a purple flash have been seen at sunset, though these are even rarer than the green flash. Other odd things I once jotted down for a list of magic item ingredients. They're all real. * "Singing Sand" -- sand that makes a sort of hum as its slides down the side of dunes or when you walk on it. * Fulgurites -- sand fused into glass by being struck by lightning. (Glass from nuclear detonations is cool too, but unlikely to appear in ancient alchemical recipes. Then again, if someone is trying to update recipes for greater power...) * The Maldive Islands double coconut, called the Arcanum Magnum in Medieval/Renaissance times. For centuries, these things occasionally washed up on shores around the Indian Ocean and nobody knew where they came from, so they were presumed to be magical. * Spathe from the giant corpse lily, which blooms only once every 10-20 years. (Combine with the Arcanum Magnum, which from a certain angle resembles a particular feature of female anatomy, for the conjunction of masculine and feminine elements used to symbolize the fusion of other contrasting elements.) * Water from the inside of a geode or thunder egg. Dean Shomshak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteelCold Posted February 3, 2017 Report Share Posted February 3, 2017 Midas can set up his experiment here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porta_Alchemica Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted February 4, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2017 Dean when I said Green Lion as a real element, I meant real as is Kryptonite and Green Argonite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freakboy6117 Posted February 4, 2017 Report Share Posted February 4, 2017 The porta alchemica inspired me how about materials stolen from NASA iron from Mars or silver from the moon. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/silver-found-on-moon-ndash-and-you-thought-it-was-made-of-cheese-2113338.html Actually building the philosophers stone from materials linked to each of the alchemical planets and the related material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
segerge Posted February 4, 2017 Report Share Posted February 4, 2017 My approach to the Philosoper's Stone in TASK FORCE was more based on its origin as fragments of the Mandragalore's fuel core, and grossly abused my knowledge of the Periodic Table in the process. I settled on it consisting of an alloy of rhodium, iron, thorium, and radioactive decay products suggesting something with an atomic number beyond 118 having also been a constituent. Then again, as part of an ancient Lemurian superweapon, it was always going to emphasise the tech side of Magitech... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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