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| Action Id: 1585 | Crisis: | Participants: Valery, Maeve, Cybele(RIP), Merek, Sparte and Nicia(RIP) | |
| Status: Resolved | Submitted: Jan. 8, 2018, 6:37 p.m. | Public: True | GM: Puffin |
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Action by Valery
Valery was able to make in her laboratory (by mistake) a mix that produced a light similar to that of the lamps of Arx, like a rudimentary version of Sparklegas.
She hasn't been able to make it last longer than those few minutes, or have it ready to use more than having the ingredients meassured, but she's trying to improve it.
She's decided to reproduce the gas, or at least turn her version into something that can be useful for the city and/or those that leave in patrols, storable and lasting.
She'll try checking the studies about the lamps in the town, trying new ingredients and ways to store it.
She's also talking with those she knows have been studying the lamps of Arx and the Sparklegas, and she'll reach for other alchemists she knows to ask for their help.
Action by Maeve
Maeve has been working on researching sparklegas herself! Really, her trail of research has left her with more questions than answers. So.. the apothecary has decided to try and take samples of sparklegas from various places within the city! Have you ever seen a -very- pregnant woman climb street posts to collect samples from various light posts? It's quite a site! Anyways, she is bottling up samples from the very lamps themselves, but she is not trying to take the lamp off it's post or anything.
Action by Sparte
Sparte is using his contacts in the Iron Guard and Thrax to try to find any examples of lamps that were damaged or ruined in the siege by Brand, and attempt to secure permission for Valery to use them in her research. While he can't offer her a currently working Arx lamp, even a broken one might shed some insights into how the things work.
Action by Merek
Merek will be assisting with finding any lamps that Valery might be able to work with. In addition to that he will be assisting her research a little bit perhaps with his alchemical knowledge to assist her in trying to reproduce it should she allow.
Action by Nicia(RIP)
Valery has reached out to those within the Apothecary College in the city, and Nicia has decided that this is just weird and intriguing enough to drag her away from her usual studies. As such, she will be digging around in things the best that she can, aiding with the study of the gas and help out as Valery's assistant in any way needed.
Action by Cybele(RIP)
Cybele is more interested in looking at the Sparklegas and experimenting with it, taking a gander from a different point of view, seeing if she can make sense of it all from the other side, so to speak. And aiding Valery and Maeve, of course.
Result
It's a huge undertaking. Merek and Sparte start looking for old, broken lamps. For the most part this is well nigh impossible to find - whoever built these, whenever they did so, they were very good at what they did. The best they can find is one old broken-off head of a lantern that, when Cybele takes a look, seems to have some kind of rune, but because it's broken it can only partially be seen.
While they're working on that, Maeve is looking to get samples of sparklegas - but that's not going so well for her. Oh, she can get them, and they do glow - but she can't keep them glowing for very long after she takes a sample - not even to get them all the way back to the workshoip where they're studying the lanterns. What she does notice is that it seems like there are small circles inside the lanterns lit across the city, and some mechanism at the base. It's tiny, and it's hard to see unless you're on a ladder looking down at the inside bottom of the lantern itself.
Which of course leads to the entire group bringing ladders to a single lantern, talking excitedly as they realize that there are two pipes at the bottom of each lantern, and the little mechanism makes them open and close. Nicia, with her curious, studious mind, points out that the light flickers higher when they open, then they close and the light glows for a while. And then it starts to dim and the mechanism turns and the pipes open again and the light flickers higher.
And that's what gives them the idea. They're back to experimenting now - and it looks like they can create a lantern. Valery prepares the components carefully. She has tried this before, and she can consistently recreate sparklegas now, so she knows what to do. The mechanism is replaced with a simple twist switch. Two little sections hold the components that will react, one with the other. Tiny pipes, as small as she can make them, are how they will enter the lantern proper. Valery fills each side and closes it, and the group looks at each other and takes a deep breath and twists the little switch.
And it lights! They have made a lantern filled with sparklegas! It works! Success! For about an hour until the components run out, and then the lantern is dark again.