alchemical blurb

[mswoods]

The following day, Sadde has Transfiguration in the morning.

She is all over it at lunch.

"Okay, so, Transfig is just about the coolest thing," she says first thing to the Ravenclaws as soon as she sits at the table.

Comments

[mrwoods]

"Yeah, apparently it's really hard to do and/or the guy's instructions are fake or incomplete. No one has been able to do it ever, and now the guy's dead and the Stone's destroyed."

[chanuphis]

"Why? What happened to it?"

[mrwoods]

"The book was really vague about it, but apparently the guy wanted to destroy it? To avoid tempting other people? And because he was 'ready to move on'?" That last part is decorated by air quotes.

[chanuphis]

"After six hundred and sixty five years? Seriously?"

[msmaxwell]

"Aren't there books about this guy in specific that might have more?"

[mrwoods]

"Yeah, I was gonna try to find some after Defence but then that jackass Arens decided turning me upside down was a funny idea." Pause. "Well, he was right, but he could've had better timing."

[chanuphis]

"I'm glad you happened to like the set of jinxes he picked," remarks Miranda.

[mrwoods]

He giggles. "Well, I think he only meant to turn me upside down, but when I wasn't suitably upset to his tastes he langlocked me, and when even that didn't help he said 'Well if you find this so funny you won't mind this' and that's when he cast the laughing jinx. He eventually got bored that I wasn't begging to be let down and left, which in retrospect maybe wasn't a very good idea but then again I was upside down, unable to talk, and giggling helplessly."

[chanuphis]

"Your sense of humor is very strange."

[mrwoods]

"Thanks!" he says brightly. "There was one other thing I thought might interest you in that book."

[chanuphis]

"What?"

[mrwoods]

"Apparently there's another theoretical thing like the Stone except this one cures all illnesses, called the Panacea. No one's ever made one, but it seems to be one of those things most think is possible except they haven't found out exactly how to do it. Kinda the same vibe the Philosopher's Stone had in the 1200s."

[chanuphis]

"Does the Elixir of Life not also do that?"

[mrwoods]

He shakes his head. "No, it only makes aging not happen."

[chanuphis]

"So you'd need both of them to live particularly forever. Maybe the Stone guy was sick and he just wanted it to sound good."

[msmaxwell]

"Hm, is he likely to have caught any diseases on his 666th year of life that he hadn't ever caught before and that no magic could cure ever?"

[chanuphis]

"There are incurable diseases. They're not very common but they exist, and it could have taken that long for him to get one, I don't think one in five wixen eventually gets something that bad so it must be uncommon enough."

[mrwoods]

"In any case, that sounds like a worthwhile project!" he says cheerfully.

Presently they have finished picking all that stuff up. They can:
a) go to the library grab books on Flamel
b) go get dinner
c) a then b
d) b then a
e) something else

[chanuphis]

Miranda did not finish eating and votes plan D.

[mrwoods]

The other two concur!

They go to the Great Hall.

[chanuphis]

Delicious dinner.

Inedible books.

[peterxy]

Yes, those things!

The books on Flamel seem completely useless on the "figure out why he up and died" front.

However, they do name the more general field of study and passion of the guy: Alchemy.

[chanuphis]

It seems, from an inspection of alchemy books, that the Philosopher's Stone has generally been more widely sought-after than the Panacea. Since only one guy made that one, it's possible the Panacea is actually easier... Are there actual instructions anywhere?

[peterxy]

Yes! Yes there are!

...several sets of them. In fact, no two authors seem to agree on one. There seems to be a common... theme to their exploits, but this theme isn't really explained in any of those books, it's kinda taken for granted.

Perhaps they should grab introductory books on Alchemy?

[chanuphis]

That certainly sounds interesting to Miranda right now.