RP:Two Out of Four Basic Arts

This is a Necromancer's Guild RP.

Summary: Joan and Pyde meet up at the Necromancers private guild garden to continue on with Pyde’s display of knowledge and skill of the basic arts.

Garden of the Dead

Room Description: Like a transition from a nightmare to a daydream, the haunting and twisted trees open to reveal a moonlit garden enclosed with a wrought-iron fence. Over the twin gates is a plaque bearing the symbol of the Necromancers’ Guild, and below it is a smaller plaque warning trespassers that the Guild is not liable for injuries sustained within the garden. Colorful plants of every shape imaginable line the fence, their thorned stems wrapping around the wrought-iron as supports. At the center of the garden is a pond just large enough for a giant to comfortably wade in, though actually doing so would be discouraged by the poisonous and venomous residents of the pond. Through the layer of fog covering the pond’s surface, fungus-riddled frogs splash at the water’s edge. If one were to stay long enough, they might be treated to the sight of the groundskeepers of the poisonous garden: unclothed skeletons with flora wrapped around their bones. Inside the ribcage of one is an elaborate spider web with a sparkling golden arachnid in the center. In the hole of another skeleton’s skull, an owl’s eyes peer out as it is chauffeured around the grounds. Translucent butterflies seem to be more interested in the flora covering the skeletons than any of the other plants in this garden. The forest surrounding this area is too thick to traverse, making the westward passage the only exit.

Joan stood near the pond’s edge, bent over slightly as she watches the frogs hop about, her personal spell book out in her grasp as her other was busy sketching images of the frogs, making special notes about them. The vampiric healer slash necromancer had a interest in the little frogs, as it would help in her future studies and her move towards publishing her own personal works for the guild.

Pyde enters the garden with a look of amazement on his face while looking around. "I don't recall coming to this place. This is quite beautiful in a morbid way. But I guess that goes with our jobs doesn't it?" He looks around and finally spots Joan, "Ah, Joan, there you are. I hope you are doing well today. This is where we are doing the next test?"

Joan blinks in a slow manner as she heard Pyde approach, the vampiric woman standing up straight as she gives a nod in greeting. “This was put in this year, so of course you wouldn’t know about it or been here yet.” She explains, closing her spell book with a ‘snap’. Her pencil is placed behind one pointed, she moves towards a bench nearby moving to take a seat as she goes on talking. “It ain’t really a test, these little meetings are to help show me what you can do. I’m not high enough in the guild to do any real ‘test’, what I’m doing this time is being a student teacher, giving you a task to complete.” She smiles softly, “Task based. I need to see if you can make a poison and then an antidote for the guild, it’s gotta be original and for our guild use.” She then waves her icy pale hand about to indicate the whole garden. “You get to use all that we have available and there is not set time to complete this task.”

Pyde pauses to think about what his poison will be. "I am curious, do we have any test subjects or such to see if these poisons and antidotes work. As a Fermin I am resistant to most poisons and diseases. So if I do succeed, I hope it to be accurate and not have an unexpected result do to biology."

Joan raised one brow as she makes motion to the small critters about the garden, as well as the skeleton gardeners milling about attending their task. “Yeah…”

Pyde weaves his fingers trailing magic from them to form nets of black tendrils. He casts them out to catch the butterflies, gently reeling them in, then places them in a jar. The Fermin then sets up a makeshift lab. "If I am correct the scales on the wings on these butterflies will cause issues with folks' breathing. So i am attempting to lightly scrape of the scales with a brush. I will then mix it and some other irritants. keeping it a powder with help the it more potent." Pyde weaves another net then waits for a squirrel to get close. Once it gets close enough he snaps the net, then pulls it to the Fermin. Using the magic to cage the squirrel he blows the poison into the cage and waits to see what happens. The squirrel starts to slow its breathing but then begins to cough. soon bursts of violent coughing begin and the creature begins struggling for breath. Working quickly, Pyde begins collecting his needed plants that he should have collected before he started. he gathers some leaves from the certain ground plants and then some from trees. Quickly crushing them and grinding them together with a mortar and pestle, craping that into a bowl, he adds a little water and cool fumes emit from the bowl where the Fermin wafts them towards the squirrel. The breathing slows down and begins to become more regular and eased. The Creature then slowly passes out after the effect of breathing is more relaxed. Soon you can hear snoring from the creature.

Joan watches with total interest, rubbing the pad of her thumb along her chin the whole while. It was neat what Pyde was doing. Her gaze follows the captured squirrel as it went through the mini trial. “I like this, I’m impressed.” The vampire leans forward and gives a few claps; afterwards though, her pale icy pink tinted lips turn down into a frown, “It might not pass muster with Khitti though. You need to ‘poison’ the victim, it needs to be on the very verge of death, not choking then passing out. Try again please.” She lightly pointed towards the squirrel and gave a courageous nod of her head.

Pyde thinks for a few moments crossing his arms then tapping his chin while in thought. The Fermin looks over the garden looking at each of the flora and fauna there. Still thinking he paces a bit while in thought, finally coming to an idea. Putting on some gloves he goes up to a tree with a knife and makes a deep cut into a bulbous protrusion on the wood. The tree bleeds out thick black viscous sap which Pyde pushes on the boil to express more of the sap quickly and collects it into a beaker. He then gathers some blackish purple mushrooms, and some choice berries growing on a vine wrapping the tree he gather sap from. He goes over to the lab setup to poison making and begins combining the ingredients. He reduces the water content of the sap and a rancid smell begins wafting through the air. Next he minces the mushrooms, and with a little bit of fire magic he dries those out and uses the mortal and pestle to refine them further, adding that to the sap. He stirs in the powdered shrooms, and then adds a bit of dragon's blood to the mix from his own supplies. A small puff of smoke poofs out of the beaker he is working with and forms a small cloud in the most cliché way where he then waves the cloud away with one hand. He prepares the berries in a similar fashion mincing those up then drying them out, then adds spring water gathered from the Spring near Kelay and a few more berries and herbs from the Dryad's forest. He adds a bit of milk for flavor and set aside both solutions. Pyde then takes his poison over to the captured squirrel, opening its mouth, and pours a bit of the poison in. Nothing happens at first but then the squirrel begins screaming. It begins to scratch uncontrollably and hard, fur flying and then the last touch of soiling itself. "So The effects of this poison should be that not only is it hallucinating, but it has also developed a rash so bad that it will eventually scratch itself to death. And if that doesn't happen it will dehydrate itself from the liquid soil coming from its back end."

Joan allows her lips to curl upwards into a smile, her glowing voided light violet orbs flare brightly as she nods her approval. “Very nice, it’s a great touch.” She moves to watch the poor captured squirrel thrash about, its fur flying as it began to scratch itself bloody. “This should cover part of your needed requirements for knowing how to make a decent poison, now if you make an antidote for this and write it out on a scroll you can submit it to the guild.”

Pyde takes the second beaker he had worked on before administering the poison, taking it over the the squirrel. Forcibly holding the critter down with a gloved hand, he takes a dropper and shoves it into the squirrel’s mouth so it can't spit the antidote out. Squeezing the rubber end to give the antidote, a little bit escapes it's mouth, but enough got in that it swallowed. After a few moments the squirrel relaxes, shuddering from the experience but too tired to move. Pyde takes the squirrel out of the cage and onto a table where he applies a numbing ointment to the bloody bald patches on the squirrel and a bowl of water to help it rehydrate. Pyde turns to Joan, "So I did have some herbs and spring water from outside this location. Will that count against me for this test?"

Joan gives a shake of her head to indicate ‘no’ answering the small Pyde. “No, it’s totally fine, mostly just wanted to see if you could do what was requested. It’s one of the requirements for ranking up. You did wonderful. I liked the bit with the dragon’s blood. Something I can’t touch without gloves on, since it’s hazardous it me. Now, if you could jot down what you used and what you and me observed I can turn it in for you to Khitti and she will make the decision if you passed. Only two more requirements remain to cover from there. Still game to tackle them with me?” She ask in a kind tone her smile genuine.

Pyde gives a humble bow. "Thanks for your praise. I would certainly like to tackle the rest of the tests with you." The Mini-Mancer takes out a piece of parchment and a pen jotting down what he used. "Let's see. There was the Black Purple Mushrooms I recognized from the sewers I grew up in. We would sneak those around and eat them for a rather interesting trip without leaving the burrow. There was the tree sap. That was from a poisonous tree I have seen on my journeys. Lots of folks saying "Don't get near that tree as you would get a severe rash from have even the slightest amount of sap on your skin." Also having the Squirrel ingest it would have even worse effects. Those tissues would also have an adverse reaction to the sap thus the squirrel was scratch so deeply. I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't make it through the night just from the scratching. The dragon's blood was used to act as a catalyst to make the effects worse, and as the poisons synergized cause the body to start purging, thus the Squirrel soiled itself." He holds up the beaker of the poison he still had left over, "Do you want the left overs to show the guild master?" He then puts the antidote on the table. "This was made using some rather potent herbs from the Dryads' forest. I got spring water from the spring South of Kelay a long time ago, it's mineral composition and magical properties did rather well on neutralizing the poison. So a few healing berries, and potent herbs, and spring water. Add a little milk or cream for flavor and you have a nice antidote. Much easier to stomach than the poison."

Joan holds up her pale icy hands and she gives a polite shake of her head to decline. “No thanks, it has the dragon’s blood in it, vampires and dragons’ blood don’t mix to well, no you keep it and give it to Khitti after I turn in our recent study slash work session paperwork. And I’m not really testing you, just going over the basics to see if you can do them. I’m just observing and taking notes honestly. You don’t need much teaching just pointers I think, but don’t quote me, I’m like a student teacher right now.” A few of the novices are seen entering the garden and Joan lifts up one hand to wave them over towards her and Pyde, “Could you help clean this up for us? It be a great help.” She tells the novices, the small group nod their agreement to help with the clean up, working swiftly and carefully to put back, organize and clean up after Pyde. As she moves out of the way and towards the fountain she holds out her hand for the scroll, “Alrighty, we should be finished for the evening, I’ll take the scroll and turn it in and report in to Khitti. Shall we meet up again soon?” She ask, once he gives her his answer the vampiric healer will exit out of the garden and make her way to the black spire and the Thanatos Domina’s office.

Pyde nods and hands over the scroll. "Sure. I look forward to the next study session." As Joan takes her leave, the Fermin hurries over to where he left his pack and bundle, hoisting them up he makes his way to the dorms for a good rest, and perhaps get something to eat.