CREDO
“By our works are we remembered.”
WHO THEY ARE
Alchemy is the youngest of the sciences; it wasn’t until Combat Silo Hammertime, a noted Learner, ate some random crystal shards, drank from a backwards-flowing creek and promptly exploded that we discovered certain materials have properties above and beyond their usual. Since then, it’s been a mad scramble to develop the system of available properties, catalog what’s out there, what’s useful, and discover what can be made with all this strange matter. Crafting is half trade and half science and just enough magic and imagination to make everyone uncomfortable.
The demand for alchemy is driven by the fact that Wonderworks function everywhere – Inner Worlds, Threads, Anomalies – when other technology breaks down. It turns out you do sometimes have to reinvent the wheel and Crafters have their hands full. A new Crafter will never want for space or resources to hone their craft – the only difficulties are having the time to do so while handling Missions.
Oh, and not blow up. Something of an occupational hazard.
ALCHEMY?
The structure of alchemy is deceptively simple: two (no more, no less) substances possessing alchemical properties combined with a vessel imbue that vessel with expressions of those properties.
The vessel and its make matter quite a lot. Anything less than a masterwork fails. Crafters tend to be excellent at mundane crafting as a result.
JOINING
Every Wonderwork has to be handmade; production demands alone mean there will never be enough Crafters. Nor is it seen as a glamorous calling – failed experiments are a daily if not hourly occurrence – but CORSAIR and the Guilds could not function without the Crafters. They recruit heavily and pour their boundless resources into both training new members and giving Guild folk whatever they need.
POWERS
All powers are once between Rests and take an Action to activate unless otherwise stated.
FROM MY HEART, I NAME THEE (LEVEL 1)
A Crafter may create any non-restricted Wonderwork as long as they have materials possessing the requisite properties and time. If the Crafter has made the Wonderwork before or been trained at the Guild, there are no rolls needed to make the Wonderwork; merely 1-6 hours depending on the complexity. If the Crafter has not been trained, they need three times the required amount of materials in order to uncover a viable recipe and 1-6 days.
IMPROV AS A LAST RESORT (LEVEL 3)
Even failure can be useful. Crafters can combine alchemical materials with oppositional properties to disasterous effects. These combinations are volatile and very unstable, but the results depend on the combination.
HOT/COLD: Alternating blasts of scorching and freezing air cause damage to any materials that can’t handle rapid temperature changes, which is most of them. Everything and everyone takes half their HP in damage, unsoakable.
HARD/SOFT: The dreams of quicksand. Surfaces cling and stick before immediately hardening. Moving is impossible. Since this affects the very air, even flying beings are impacted.
DRY/WET: Drowning dessication. Any Action outside of Move requires too much concentration as everyone’s body thinks it’s choking on nothing.
LIFT/DRAG: Gravity fights with itself. Any being attempting to Move goes in the opposite direction they intended, which includes up and down.
PRESERVE/DECAY: Time is confused. Any Action declared while this is active takes twice as long to accomplish unless it is the same Action each time.
LIGHT/DARK: More than visible light, this is a battle between the very concept of sense. Any being that uses an Attack Action hits…but the target is randomly chosen.
SUBCUTANEOUS UNDERSTANDING (LEVEL 5)
The Crafter may repair a Broken Weapon in the field, but this requires a specific alchemical material depending on the Stat of the weapon:
BODY: WET, COLD, PRESERVE, SOFT
MIND: DRY, HOT, LIFT, LIGHT
WILL: DECAY, HARD, DRAG, DARK
UNDOING THE DONE (LEVEL 7)
The Crafter’s expertise allows them to replenish Wonderworks in the field without the requisite materials. Any depleted reusable Wonderwork may be recharged without consuming alchemical components.
INCOMPLETE WITHOUT ME (LEVEL 9)
The true masters among the Crafters can apply their skills to technology. A Crafter may adapt a single device (van-sized or smaller) to work even when it crosses the ice into another World. They may only have one device operational at a time and it only works in the first World after its origin World. Any subsequent Worlds, it breaks down like any other tech.
GOALS
We want to understand the laws of these new realities and adapt both ourselves and our tools to saving them. Theory is well and good but do you really understand if you don’t get your hands in there? We take care of our teams even as we hone our Craft. No one can do what we do.
REALITY PHILOSOPHY: GROW
Crafters believe there is more to reality than what’s left – that what shrank can grow once again – and become something greater and more beautiful. How we get there matters less to them than that we know it to be possible and aim for it. Growth can mean a great number of things, and Crafters are there to be the guiding hand.
STRUCTURE
Crafters keep track of everything, absolutely everything. Even CORSAIR is less thorough in their documentation than your average Crafter. Capturing what you did and how it worked (or didn’t work) is oftentimes even more important than the initial discovery. Rigor and reproducibility. Test and retest. There are two main groups of Crafters: researchers and field workers. Researchers tend to stay in Hope, experimenting with materials provided by exploring Hands and developing new Wonderworks. Field workers do all that…except for staying in Hope. Due to their adventuring, they get significantly less time to experiment, but insight comes to those who tinker all the same.
Crafters rely heavily on CORSAIR for their archival and logistical needs. The time of Hands is simply too valuable, so the Guild Hall staffs more clerks than any other Guild, Mappers and Arbiters combined.
GUILDMASTER
Praxis Bwep Nautilus, UH10
Bwep calls themselves that after the first sound they made when turned on and is one of the most methodical, thoughtful people you could ever meet. Praxis tend to have strong memories, but Bwep’s is phenomenal and they use their recall to guide the Crafters down whatever road is needed… while observing all required safety protocols.
Alchemy is nothing to fuck around with. It’s a good thing Hands are functionally immortal as they regularly blow themselves or their environments up. Because of these dangers, Bwep trains every Crafter themselves in proper protocols; less for their sake and more to minimize risk when around non-Crafters. Some people don’t have multiple lives to give.
In what little spare time they have, Bwep works on developing cross-World tech and Artifacts. Minimal successes so far, but as long as we continue to save the universe, they have nothing but time.
BENEFITS
If a Crafter needs something, they get it, especially alchemical materials. They also get a wide berth while working.
TITHES
Write it down. Crafters absolutely must write everything they make down and submit it to the Guild. This isn’t a bylaw, but a philosophy. Crafters that spend considerable amounts of time in the field can turn in yard-tall stacks of documentation after a mission.
ACCORDS/TABOOS
CORPOREAL COMPULSION
ACCORD: The Crafter lays their tools before them, speaking quiet praises of each one in turn. This takes at least half an hour to accomplish.
TABOO: If a tool is lost by the Crafter (forcibly taken or given doesn’t count), they lose Luck.
DEEP INTO THE BLUE
ACCORD: The first time a Crafter successfully reproduces a Wonderwork from documented instructions, they gain a point of Luck.
TABOO: They lose that Luck if the item is destroyed before their next rest.
FORWARD AND BACK AND THEN
ACCORD: The Crafter rubs a mixture of their spit and blood on raw alchemical materials and meditates on their properties. (This does not impact the efficacy or properties of the materials.)
TABOO: The materials must be used to begin a Wonderwork before the Crafter’s next rest. (Not finished, just started.)