Alchemist's Apprentice

Category: Background

Description

Before the Academy, you apprenticed under an alchemist. You know your way around a laboratory, and you can identify most common reagents by smell alone. Your hands are stained with chemical burns, your clothes always smell faintly of sulfur, and you have a healthy respect for volatile reactions. The Academy's theoretical approach to alchemy feels incomplete without the practical wisdom your master drilled into you.

Starting Bonus

Begin with +1 free dot in Alchemy (applied before spending Shaping Points, does not count against them) and a personal alchemy kit.

Connection

Alchemist's Guild. You maintain ties with the alchemist's guild in Cyoria. Once per session, you may access guild laboratories, purchase reagents at discount, or consult a senior alchemist about an unusual substance.

Roleplay Hooks

• Your old master has gone missing. The last letter mentioned a 'breakthrough' and a 'buyer.'
• You've noticed that the Academy's alchemy supplies include a reagent that shouldn't be there — it has no legitimate use.
• A fellow student wants you to brew something the Academy would not approve of.

"The professors think alchemy is just chemistry with mana. They've clearly never had a cauldron explode in their face."