Alchemist's Fire

[Lago 2569]

ALCHEMIST'S FIRE


Credit to pixelrider, deviantArt

Alchemist's Fire is one of the more powerful concotions available to the masterful alchemist. It is said to be the distilled essence of flame, and is thus as unpredicatable and dangerous as it is powerful. Alchemist's Fire releases air as it burns, meaning the concoction itself, once aflame, cannot be effectively extinguished.

Preparation of Alchemist's Fire
Alchemist's Fire is brewed from several powerful fire symbols and a powerful air symbol. The effect is quite literal, a substance that burns fiercely and brightly, can combust at room temperature, and releases its own air for a time, fuelling itself. Alchemist's Fire does, however, need air to begin to combust. As soon as it has air, it will immediately burst into flame, even at room temperature. If it is still in the bottle at the time, the bottle will explode.

Thus, alchemist's fire must be brewed at almost freezing. The temperature must be kept that low or the entire cauldron (and a full sized cauldron must be used due to the next step), and the reagents mixed. The alchemist must wear gloves that cannot burn such as the fibres of Athin, a powerful water symbol. The bottles are immersed into the alchemist fire, letting the air bubble out and then corking the bottle with glass (not cork) stoppers. These bottles are then removed. The alchemist's fire on the outside of the glass will soon ignite, and the bottles must be immediately immersed in water before the expansion of the substance within the airtight glass due to heat causes the bottle to crack.
This is repeated, immersing bottles into the cauldron, filling them with fire and letting the air bubble out, then removing the bottles. All the time the cauldron and its contents must remain at near freezing. When the alchemist has extracted as many bottles as he can, they then mix water symbols into the remaining alchemist's fire, rendering it useless and harmless. Some alchemists prefer to get a good distance away and just let the remaining alchemist's fire burn rather than be wasteful with water symbols, but this runs the risk of setting fire to all manner of things. If at any time the cauldron gets above 5 degrees, all of the alchemist's fire will burst into flame and the alchemist will be maimed, if not killed. Most alchemists do not attempt to brew alchemist's fire.

The Dangers of Handling Alchemist's Fire
Alchemist's Fire must be kept in its airtight bottle. Once prepared, the bottle can never be reopened in air or it will immediately burst into flames. Not only that, but the mix of fire symbols and air symbols is not perfect. Too much force can separate small amounts of air symbol, giving the alchemist's fire fuel and causing it to ignite while still sealed in the
bottle and explode. Shaking the bottle will make it explode. If a bottle is on one's person, throwing it hard or getting hit while carrying it on your person gives the bottle a 30% chance of exploding while still with the handler. Throwing it underarm has only a 15% chance of explosion. Pouring it on the ground will not cause it to explode.  Dropping it will cause it to explode when it hits the ground. Sudden changes of speed, like falling over or running into something also have a 30% chance of causing the potion to explode. This applies to a normal flask, more potion means a greater chance of it exploding.

Note that when Alchemist's Fire explodes, it does not go off like a hand grenade. The bottle itself is torn apart, scattering broken glass, and the flaming liquid within is thrown from it, splattering anyone next to it in flames.

Limitations of Alchemist's Fire
As Alchemist's Fire ignites as soon as it has air, uncorking it essentially results in bottled fire with the aerodynamics of petrol. It can only be spread as much as an equivalent amount of petrol can, one flask cannot be used to make metre long or tall walls of fire. Alchemist's Fire makes a poor fire bomb too, as the act of accelerating the bottle to throw it stands a good risk of setting it off. Alchemist's Fire is not napalm in a bottle, nor is it a way of competing with a fire mage. While it burns fiercely and for a good amount of time, it is a very unpredictable weapon in personal combat, being as likely to burn its user as its target.

 

Credit to Ziko99 who gave me feedback on the inital version.

[EmeraldStag 165]

Love it. Love everything about it. I cannot wait to see the faield Alchemists who chose to bottle up their own Alchemist's Fire!

[Varstivus 98]

Well, there goes the way I've been making Alchemist's Fire... Shame too.

The 50/50 chance of it exploding if it's on your person when you are hit seems a bit extreme. A standard infantryman could easily just run up to an alchemist, hit him, and it's all over. You now have a scarred character. This update to the lore would severely limit ranged options for a combat alchemist. I would suggest lowering the chance of exploding to 5%-20%. Keeping the danger, but not making any alchemist making Fire have a deathwish.

I do like the new method of brewing you have put together, the cold factor is something I had not considered, and its flaming outside a bottle I handwaved away, saying that it needed to settle in the bottle before becoming flammable. Good job.

On an entirely different topic, explosive force is fun. Alchemist's Fire was one of the few explosive mixtures in alchemy, or even LOTC. Heck, I was inspired to play an alchemist after seeing one in Pathfinder blow everything to high heaven. This is more a personal opinion rather than a critical point to your lore, but we need more explosions. not less.

 

PS: Dat modern bottle stopper.

[Kaun 99]

Well, there goes the way I've been making Alchemist's Fire... Shame too.

The 50/50 chance of it exploding if it's on your person when you are hit seems a bit extreme. A standard infantryman could easily just run up to an alchemist, hit him, and it's all over. You now have a scarred character. This update to the lore would severely limit ranged options for a combat alchemist. I would suggest lowering the chance of exploding to 5%-20%. Keeping the danger, but not making any alchemist making Fire have a death wish.

Can't be done. Alchemical Fire is too powerful to have such a low chance. Its very fragile indeed.

 

PS. The name of it is Alchemical Fire not alchemist's fire :P

[Lago 2569]

A standard infantryman could easily just run up to an alchemist, hit him, and it's all over.

Precisely. You do not want to be carrying it into a melee.

Too many people are using Alchemist's Fire as pocket napalm. It's not meant to be a weapon of 1 on 1 combat.

[Song Druid 1483]

A good read, but remember that air =/= oxygen.  It's confusing when reading through the lore to have you switch between the two :p

 

 

Say this was used as a booby trap?  place it in somebody's path of walking?  Or hand it to an unsuspecting man and ask him to "smell your new perfume"?

[Polgrath 215]

Yeah I also agree that the percentages for throwing it are a bit too high. I mean by all means it should be unstable, but not half chance blow up in your face unstable. In order to combat people spamming alchemical fire out of nowhere we really should just restrict alchemy like we do with magic so only folks who know the lore well and can be trusted to follow the proper RP can use it along with other alchemical concoctions.

[Lago 2569]

A good read, but remember that air =/= oxygen.  It's confusing when reading through the lore to have you switch between the two :p

 

 

Say this was used as a booby trap?  place it in somebody's path of walking?  Or hand it to an unsuspecting man and ask him to "smell your new perfume"?

 

Air's not oxygen, but air has oxygen in it. I would have loved to have gone crazy with chemistry on it and even put in chemical equations (I'm the sort of guy who tries to work out the valence of Arcaurum) but then a lot of people would have no idea what I was on about. Hence I've left it in a more abstract, fantasy way.

EDIT: Went through, found, and executed the stray oxygen lurking in the main text.

 

Say this was used as a booby trap?  place it in somebody's path of

walking?  Or hand it to an unsuspecting man and ask him to "smell your

new perfume"?

Those all sound like valid uses to me, and more the sort of thing alchemy would be used for, rather than the current state of "lol i iz pyromancerz with bottled napalm".

[Kardel 1047]

I love the lore, one of the reasons being that this is how I have been brewing alchemists fire since I learned about it. I personally think that the throwing chance is appropriate, since alchemists fire is meant to be bottle up in thin glass or crystal bottles that break just as they hit the ground. The potions itself is very strong and very dangerous to handle, hence why i have always RPd carrying my bottles in a bag made of athin fibers, an algae that is a very strong water symbol, and, according to alchemists logic, should be able to make the liquid choke on itself if it was to seep out of the bottle, and since the Athin is almost 97% water, it would not burn, as it is too moist, and it would be like trying to set water on fire.

 

I have always RPd alchemist's fire as a potion that, in truth, is distilled fire, with no oxygen in it, and when it is exposed to oxygen, the particles come to life and spontaneous combustion of the liquid takes place. Also, as fire is created by vibrating particles, pressure would cause the distilled fire to, well, not be distilled anymore. The particles would start to vibrate, and it would catch on fire, hence why it explodes when it is thrown.

 

I fully support this lore, it is great lore, and also makes more sense than the many ways I have sen other alchemist's brew alchemist's fire. +1

 

Also, I should remind everyone that, accept for being horribly unstable, alchemist's fire is extremely hard to make, not only because of the process of brewing, as the process of brewing is the easy part, but gathering the reagents needed for it; 3 strong fire symbols and 1 strong air symbol, is also very hard. Strong symbols are meant to be very hard to find, and strong fire symbols are most commonly found in the orcish badlands, so that yells out 'Dangerous' for you right there.

[Lago 2569]

Reduced detonation chances slightly.

[Bucky_24 132]

I'm am a 'studying' alchemist ((ICly and OOCly)) and I have never heard of Fire/Air symbols? Can someone explain this?

[Lago 2569]

If you're playing an alchemist, you'll certainly want to read the alchemy lore: http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/62560-finished-alchemy-lore/

[hex37 734]

Contrary to what most are saying, I like this. I've even a method of producing it outside freezing conditions in mind, using domestic magic.

[TeaLulu 1783]

Accepted & Implemented. These are the new official standards and methods for the creation of the dreaded "Alchemist's Fire". Please keep in mind it must be performed in-character, in roleplay, and creation attempts will not always end well. Enjoy!