Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 04:36:05 -0400 From: SD Anderson <102250.1425@compuserve.com> Subject: Alchemy rules for the 'Paut' Potion listed in Egypt p.92. Paut (Liquid Powerstone) GURPS: Egypt (p.92) provides a sidebar concerning an Egyptian Potion called Paut. When consumed it provides energy a spell caster can use to power his or her spells. It's clearly an alchemical preparation though the stats provided do not follow the alchemy conventions. What follows is purely unofficial but should work well within campaigns that make use of alchemy. Paut as known in the days of Ancient Egypt provides one point of Energy per ounce of potion and costs $700 per ounce. Paut restores fatigue spent through spell casting only. It's big advantage is that it eliminates random bestowals of energy. If a caster needs 3 points of energy, he drinks an amount from his bottle equal to 3 points of energy. Little waste of energy as a result, compared to using a dose of Chiron to restore 2d points of fatigue when you're only down 3 pts. Energy beyond the character's Maximum Fatigue score is lost. Paut defaults to Alchemy -4 and takes 3 weeks with $250 in materials, and is available only in potion form. In worlds where alchemy is rare the price goes up to $1100. However, later alchemists were able to make improvements to the elixir. Most of the early research into improving it comes from Ellyl alchemists. An ounce of liquid simply is far more than a 0.05 to 0.07 lb ellyl can physically consume, making the original Paut impractical for them to use. (The Following ruling was emailed to Andy Marwick from GURPS line editor Sean (Dr. Kromm) Punch. Thanks to Andy for allowing me to present it here.) #From:"Dr Kromm" #Subject:Re: Elixir Dosage and Inconvenient Size # On 3 Jul 98 at 21:26, thunderclap@technologist.com wrote: # > Given a human gets a specific elixir's effect from a specific amount # > of it, how do you modify the amount needed for racial size. # Base elixir dosage on [Racial ST/10] for nonhumans with Inconvenient # Size. Humans -- be they ST 5 or ST 20 -- need 1 dose. A small nonhuman # with Inconvenient Size (Small) and racial ST -7 (ST 3) needs 3/10 of a # dose; a large nonhuman with Inconvenient Size (Huge) and racial ST +20 # (ST 30) needs 3 doses. Elixirs are assumed to have "negligible" # weight, and consist of about 1/8 oz. of liquid; e.g., a ST 3 humanoid # needs to drink about 0.04 oz., which amounts to a few drops. # SP. # Sean M. Punch o E-mail: o 4122 rue Rivard # (a.k.a. Dr Kromm) | At SJG: kromm@io.com | Montreal, Quebec # =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=o Local POP: kromm@cam.org o Canada H2L 4H9 # GURPS Line Editor | WWW: | Home: (514) 288-9600 # and Net Guru o http://www.io.com/~kromm o Work: (514) 288-9615 By the standards noted above, the one ounce minimum for Paut is 8 times as voluminous as the typical potion. Given that the Ellyl race are, pound for pound among the strongest beings alive (Racial average ST of 5 (FIVE, 10/2, sqrt of 25)) this requires they drink half an ounce to get the same effect the elixir provides a human who drinks an ounce. Still way beyond their physical volume. Several decades of intense research produced other forms of the elixir. Improved Paut defaults to Alchemy -6 (or, if Alchemical Maneuvers (see Wizards, p.18) are permitted to Paut -2) takes 5 weeks and $400 in materials, sale price is $950/$1400 It is available as an unguent, one ounce. Ellyl may bathe themselves in it to get it's effect, gaining 1 point of energy per ounce of bath at a rate of one per turn. Larger creatures can smear the unguent on and gain the effects on the following turn. The Potion version of Improved Paut is simply the Powder version kept in liquid. It can be dissolved in water at various concentration levels without loss of effect. Nothing stops you from mixing it into a barrel but the entire barrel will have to be drunk to get the full effect. At the other extreme, you can get about 8 doses into a single drop before the powder starts condensing. The Ellyl prefer the higher dosages, but it is somewhat hard on the stomach lining when this concentrated. The Pastille version of this elixir works a bit differently. Energy is conserved and would be split among the characters in the 7 hex (2 hex radius) smoke cloud, with any left over energy going to the central hex (if it's unoccupied, the excess energy is lost!). Characters MUST be in the smoke for it's full duration or no energy is gained. It's actually a favored form for groups of mages in that a few points of fatigue can be spent via Share ST or Lend ST and then be restored to the group as a whole, with little loss, speeding up recovery from ceremonial spell castings.