If someone wanted to research Hermetic alchemy as an original research project, they would need to make effects that somehow use the virtue.
Given what the virtue does (i.e. allows you to distill more vis from a magic aura or allows you to determine what vis type it is), how would you do this.
At the moment i am leaning towards a few spells that allow manipulation of Vis (Gather the Essence of the beast, etc) and a few other effects that make changes to the elemental forms, changing fire to water, air to earth, etc. Maybe a bit of philosophic mercury thrown in there (can't have alchemy without mercury).
However, none of these really have anything to do with what the virtue does.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Oh and it can't be done by integrating old magic (ala ancient magic) or being initiated for story reasons. It has to be original research.
Hmph. Don't really remember the virtue. However...
I would suggest conducting lab work instead of inventing effects. Just use half of the lab total as the "spell's" level. Engage in vis extraction, possibly in several auras. Investigate a magical item related to alchemy (perhaps using alchemically-extracted raw vis).
For items, perhaps items made with alchemically-derived resonances (and dealing with aura?) could serve as a source of insight. Spells that deal with the manipulation of raw vis, changes towards greater purity [e.g. lead to gold], and detection of auras make sense (more or less).
original research always requires experimentation if I remember correctly...Just extract Vis using the experimentation role, if you get a breakthrough great. Much more likely you'll blow up your lab on a mistake since you have all that Vis your extracting as fuel.
Unfortunately, the magi IMS have found labs notes from someone that discovered both Hermetic alchemy and Philosophic alchemy via original research. One of the magi is translating the notes now and i need to know what the lab notes say in case my players take an interest.
Extracting vis from the aura doesn't generate a lab total AFAIK, so i need to generate some alchemical ideas to use.
Of course it does! You use the CrVi lab total and divide by 10 (rounded up) to determine the number of pawns one can extract from the aura in a season.
Seems to me firstly that the notes would say whatever you want them to say if in fact YOU are the SG. Just read the Hermetic Alchemy virtue section and redesign it as original lab research in terms of its conferred abilities, simple. Secondly, it also seems logical that if one of your players' character is translating the notes then there already is "an interest".
perhaps you could use the notes as the source for an insight, like the rules for integrating ancient magic into hermetic. then since the player has the idea, she has to practice this to get it right. this would generate 'breakthrough points' for each experiment done till reaching a total the SG has already determined.
i think this would be experimenting while distilling that was already mentioned. there really aren't any spells that cover this kind of action. and extra botch dice are always fun.
