Dungeon Myst Part 31 (Patreon)

"Two grams of ground up shadow drake scales," Lorelai Snape stated as she added exactly two grams of ground up shadow drake scale to her cauldron. She stirred the contents of her cauldron five times counterclockwise then flipped the minute sandglass over. "Five counter stirs, one minute."

"Five and one," Morana Snape agreed as she finished making a note in the lab book. She glanced over at the door when someone knocked on the doorframe. "Come in, we don't bite."

"Unless you want us to," Lorelai offered cheerfully, giving Harry and the bushy haired cat girl that was wearing a collar and nothing else a smile.

"Not today," Hermione replied as she walked into the creepy looking alchemy lab that looked like something straight out of an Addams family movie, if you ignored the fact that the girls were only wearing safety glasses, sandals and aprons.

"What can we help you with?" Morana asked as she set the lab book on the table.

Harry pulled his attention off Hermione's tail which was swaying back and forth and focused on the potions masters. "I was hoping that you had a better alchemy skill and that you could reverse engineer potions without consuming the entire potion."

"I wish," Morana admitted. "I'd need a drop of the potion or elixir and there's only a slim chance that I can discover one of the key components. What does the elixir do?"

"It gives you knowledge of a subject," Harry replied, fairly sure that admitting that the elixir gave godlike knowledge of a subject was a bad idea.

"Interesting," Lorelai mused. "Can you pick the subject?"

"I don't know," Harry admitted as he handed Hermione the restoration elixir. "I was planning on saying magic and thinking about it really hard before drinking the elixir."

"Not the worst idea," Morana agreed. "You should probably drink it here on the off chance that there are side effects."

"You just want to watch him explode," Lorelai teased.

"He's not going to blow up," Morana argued. "I just want to see how the potion works."

"Magic." Harry broke the seal on the stopper and he drank the strawberry flavored elixir before he could talk himself out of drinking it. He had a brief second to savor the taste before it felt like some jammed a power line into his left eye.

Lorelai gestured and levitated the vial before it could hit the stone floor and shatter when Harry collapsed, figuring there'd be at least a couple of drops that she could use to attempt to reverse engineer the elixir.

"Harry!" Hermione blurted out and dove forward to keep her friend from bashing his head against the floor as he thrashed in agony and screaming things in various languages that she didn't recognize.

Morana shivered when Harry finally stopped thrashing and she saw that Harry's left eye and the area around it was a charred and blackened mess that was weeping blood. "The elixir needed a warning label."

"Basic Alchemy Mastered, Advanced Alchemy Mastered, Legendary Alchemy Mastered, Divine alchemy unlocked," the ethereal voice said cheerfully.

"You think?" Lorelai asked as she glanced down at the sandglass that she was using to measure time. "Do you want to help the cat girl get him to the infirmary? I'll finish the experiment."

"I'll deal with it," Morana assured her twin as she picked up her wand and levitated Harry, not wanting to waste the rare shadow regents that she'd gotten from Wilkins. "Let's get him to the infirmary, I'm sure they can sort everything out," she lied, fairly sure they wouldn't be able to fix his eye.

"Hopefully," Hermione agreed as she pushed herself to her feet, wishing she'd insisted on identifying the potion.

0o0o0

"I have coffee," Buffy offered as she stopped in front of the surprisingly spacious dorm room where Xander and Myst were working.

Xander finished tightening the last bolt on the bunk bed that was producing a rainbow colored mist then turned to look at the door where Buffy was standing with two mugs of coffee. "You're a lifesaver."

"I got everything set up in the inn and figured you'd want some," Buffy replied as she held the mug out.

"Much appreciated!" Xander replied as he walked over and accepted the mug filled with dark ambrosia.

"It's just coffee," Myst muttered as he finished enchanting the space under the other bunk bed so they'd have a bit more room in the dorm.

Buffy shook her head. "This is why you can't conjure a decent cup of coffee."

"It probably has more to do with the fact that I don't like the taste and don't really consider it drinkable," Myst replied as he pulled a tape measure out of his pocket and started measuring the space where he wanted to put a couch.

Buffy walked over to look at the closets, pleasantly surprised to find them almost as large as the room. "Why is there a door at the back of the closet?"

"I reverse engineered a vanishing cabinet in Harry's world and learned an enchantment that lets me link two doors, even if they're in different dimensions," Myst explained, rather happy with the enchantment as it made it easier for the students to visit family.

"That still doesn't explain why you put them in the closet," Buffy argued.

"Tradition," Myst replied with amusement as he put the tape measure back in his pocket.

"Tradition?" Buffy asked, wondering if it had something to do with monsters in closets.

"Narnia," Myst replied as he took a notebook out of his pocket and started copying down the measurements.

"I vaguely remember something about a wardrobe," Buffy admitted.

"They also used closets in Sabrina the Teenage Witch to travel to the magic world, probably because the special effect was really cheap, they just flashed a light under the door. Mostly, I just figured a lot of the students are going to want to get dressed before they head home. It also lets us stick a solid door on the closet in case something tries to sneak through the portal from the other side," Myst explained, not particularly interested in letting things sneak into his city.

"Would the door stop a god?" Buffy asked, thinking of Glory.

"It would depend on the god," Myst replied as he finished taking notes. "Gods generally range from genius loci which are almost completely useless outside of their area to things that play pocket pool with galaxies."

"So much for opening a portal back to Sunnydale," Buffy complained then took a sip of her coffee.

"At least until Glory misses her window for the ritual and her host falls apart," Myst replied as he put the notebook back in his pocket. "We should have plenty of room for a couch and a desk under the beds."

Buffy turned around so that she could look at Myst. "How many people are you thinking of stuffing each room?"

"I was thinking two but the top of the bunkbeds are expanded so they'll fit a queen sized bed and the supports are over engineered so they'll support an entire cheerleading team jumping around on them so I could see people staying with their twins. Of course, there's only so many people you can cram into a room before they snap."

"I'm not sharing a room with Dawn or Nathan, I don't need to watch them having sex," Buffy complained, unwilling to admit that she'd enjoyed watching Nathan fuck their teacher after she'd helped them with their Enchanting.

"As much as I love the girl, I'd like to get some actual sleep, at least occasionally," Xander admitted as he put the socket wrench he'd been using back in his toolbox.

"I wouldn't worry about it, we managed to fit two hundred and fifty rooms in the dorm because of spatial enchantments, we should have plenty of room," Myst assured them, already planning on building more dorms.

"Until you start converting the saner gremlins into catgirls or go crazy with your wench summoning spell," Xander pointed out.

"Wench summoning spell?" Buffy asked, raising her eyebrows.

Myst glanced at Xander. "It's technically a skill and it's conjuration, not summoning but yeah, I'll probably have to build more dorms."

"How long does the ability last?" Buffy asked, wanting to make sure he wasn't dooming the girls to a tragically short lifespan.

"It's once and done, you use the ability and the ability turns the mana into flesh, blood and bones so they'd live as long as anyone else of their biological age, at least in theory," Myst explained as he opened the menu for his mana pool, tossed a thousand units of gems and a magic granting stone into the box and hit the button, causing his mana regeneration to increase.

'Congratulations, you've reached six hundred mana regeneration per minute, your mana regeneration has been converted to seconds rather than minutes.'

"In theory?" Buffy asked.

"Certain types of magic tend to extend your lifespan, I'm planning on giving everyone that stays magic," Myst replied as he read the message on his menu. "So much for increasing my mana regeneration to insane levels."

"Issues?" Xander asked as one of Dawn's twins walked into the room with one of Willow's twins and a teenage girl he didn't know.

"Yeah, the price jumped from a thousand mana and gems to a hundred thousand units of gems and a million mana to increase my mana regeneration," Myst complained as he checked the cost to increase his mana capacity. 'At least the price didn't jump for both.'

"That just means that you'll need to build a couple of storage sheds and train a bunch of skeleton miners or make a bunch of mana boosting statues," Thea suggested.

"Or both," Myst replied as he turned to look at the door so that he was looking at the person he was talking to. He glanced between Thea Summers, Michelle Rosenberg and Lara al'Vere, making a mental note to look into magic items that would prevent them from getting sunburned so they'd have one less reason to stop running around without clothes. "Making new friends?"

"I'm trying to get to know everyone," Thea replied with a shrug. "Lara was complaining about needing a teacher for channeling, do you have any suggestions?"

"I was saying that I was looking forward to learning, I wasn't complaining," Lara argued.

"I might have a couple of ideas," Myst replied as he opened the workshop menu and ordered the gremlins to make another scope that could see through walls. "Has Mat been to Ebou Dar?"

"Several times," Lara replied, knowing that Mat liked playing cards in one of the taverns there.

Myst glanced at the empty bunks that needed beds then glanced between Thea and Buffy. "Can I talk you into finishing setting the room up while I go hunting for teachers and magical items?"

"Does that mean I get the room?" Thea asked with a smile.

"Sure," Myst agreed, not particularly concerned about which room people grabbed.

Thea turned to look at Xander. "Can you help us move the beds?"

"We have a slayer," Xander replied cheerfully as he gestured towards Buffy.

Buffy playfully flipped Xander off then focused on her sister. "What do I get out of it?"

"What do you want?" Thea asked.

"One favor that I can call in at a later date," Buffy replied, wanting to make sure her sister acknowledged her help.

"That's fair," Thea agreed, not seeing a problem with helping her out in return.

"I'll leave you to it," Myst replied as he headed for the exit, looking forward to grabbing the magical items in the storeroom or at least scanning everything so they could duplicate everything.

0o0o0o0

Harry groaned when he woke up in a room that looked like a nurse's office with a migraine or possibly a fair amount of brain damage as everything hurt and his thoughts were moving with agonizing slowness. "How l-long w-as I o-out?"

Hermione glanced at the walls before remembering that they didn't have clocks. "I don't know."

"About an hour," Amy McCloud said as she walked over. "How are you feeling, do you know your name?"

"Harry?" Harry offered after a couple of seconds of thinking about it, wishing his brain didn't feel like it was spinning.

"How are you feeling?" Amy asked.

"Like s-someone drove a power line into my e-eye," Harry complained, not sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing that he couldn't feel the left side of his body. "I can't feel the left side of my body other than my eye and that hurts."

Amy winced, fairly sure that meant that he'd had a stroke or suffered nerve damage. "Can you pull up your character sheet?"

Harry pulled his sheet up and stared at the damage the potion had caused. "I should have taken the warning label more seriously," he admitted after about twenty seconds of staring at the rather extensive damage report.

"Why didn't you mention there was a warning label?!" Hermione demanded.

"Because I knew that you'd object," Harry admitted as he opened his alchemy menu and stared at the recipes that were filling the page. "I'm going to need the Elixir of Restoration."

Hermione gave Harry a death glare. "You nearly died and you want to try another untested elixir?!"

"The Elixir of Restoration should be safe and I have a box for identifying alchemy goods," Harry replied, trying not to think about what he'd have to deal with for the rest of his life if the elixir didn't work.

"Don't scare me like that," Hermione scolded him as she handed him the Elixir of Restoration. "I finally have a friend, I'm not losing you."

"I'm not going anywhere," Harry promised as he dropped the elixir into the box in his alchemy menu, glad that he could still use his right side. He pushed the button on the identification option and smiled when he got a recipe for his trouble and a description of the elixir's effects. "Okay, slight change of plans, I need you to help me to the barracks."

"Why do you want to go to the barracks?" Hermione asked suspiciously, hoping he wasn't thinking about having the cultist rip his other eye out.

"The elixir cures any and all physical conditions, that includes regenerating eyes and missing body parts…" Harry trailed off as he scrolled down his list of alchemy recipes and realized that he needed to make a stop at the lab first.

"What does that have to do with the barracks?" Amy asked.

"The barracks has a ritualist that can give people the ability to see invisible objects or spirits but they have to rip your eye out," Harry explained as he skimmed through his collection of dangerous and useful alchemy recipes, “so I might as well do it while I only have one eye and plan on regrowing them anyway.”

Amy shook her head. "That sounds painful."

"What if it doesn't work?" Hermione asked, fairly sure Harry wasn't thinking straight.

"Then I'll talk to the magic girls about healing me," Harry assured her.

"Is moving him going to kill him?" Hermione asked Amy.

"Good question," Amy admitted. "Do you have any internal bleeding or any warnings about being moved in your status effects?"

"No, just nerve damage and part of my brain was fried," Harry admitted, underselling how much damage the elixir had done to his mind.

"How bad?" Amy asked.

"Bad enough that I'm missing some words and I can't remember my uncle's face, nothing all that important," Harry argued, finding it somewhat of a relief that he couldn't remember his face. "I just need to make a couple of highly dangerous potions then get my remaining eye ripped out and drink an elixir and I'll be fine."

Amy shook her head. "Yeah, no, if you want help getting to the alchemy lab we're going to go through every injury on your list then you can explain the elixir you want to make, if it sounds reasonable, we'll talk to the alchemists. If they can check the elixir or elixirs, we'll consider letting you drink something insanely dangerous, if they can't assure me that it's reasonably safe, we'll just have the ritualist make a house call before we pour the healing potion down your throat."

"Fine," Harry grumbled and started explaining the various injuries on his character page, only half of which had come from the elixir, his former lifestyle being responsible for the rest.

0o0o0

Al glanced over the collection of copper tubes that a couple of gremlins had contributed to the project. "Perfect," he assured the little buggers, not sure where they'd acquired the pipes but figuring it wasn't important. "Now we just need to grab some burners."

"Scratch burners, we can use fire magic," the skeleton mage suggested.

"Fire runes," the ex-dwarf piped up, looking forward to having decent alcohol, even if she had to make it herself.

"That would make it easier to keep it the right temperature," the mage admitted thoughtfully.

"Good, we don't have to worry about falling asleep while watching it," Al said as he went to work bending the pipes with a pair of pliers. "Where are we going to get the supplies?"

"Myst has a bunch of magical plants in his garden," the mage said, thinking about the magical beets. “Plenty of space in this barn to store the extra as well as brew it. Why did you insist on the barn anyway?”

“Tradition,” Al replied, not saying more about the subject.

"We should probably find someone to test it on," one of the gremlins said, figuring that was half the fun of using magical plants, seeing what side effects it had on their victims… customers.

"Just like any time you run a still," Al agreed, sticking his hand down the front of his pants to scratch himself.

“I can help with that,” one of the cowgirls offered.

“No thanks, I’ve got it,” Al said, waving her off, as after Peg he still has a hard time warming up to redheads.

"That would work," the ex-dwarf agreed. "I've got that covered, I'll just offer a quest, people will do all sorts of shit for a couple of silver or a trinket."

“You can get people to do chores by calling it a quest?” Al asked in disbelief.

The dwarf laughed, making her chest bounce distractingly. “You would not believe the kind of crap people will do if you call it a quest,” she assured him. “Sometimes, if I was feeling particularly cruel or was just broke at the moment, I gave them some trite saying and made them think it was part of a quest chain.”

“Meh, I suppose that’s better than a kick in the teeth,” Al decided, as a cowgirl started rubbing his shoulders.

0o0o0

"Hmm, that's completely useless," Morana muttered as she stared at the result of her test.

"Define useless," Lorelai said, not taking her eyes off the potion she was working on.

"I managed to figure out three of the ingredients to figure out Potter's elixir, the first one is easy, water from a well, the second one, is basically liquefied love," Morana complained.

"Male or female?" Lorelai asked, figuring that should be easy to acquire.

"No, I mean the actual emotion made manifest. No idea how they managed to bottle it or condense it," Morana complained, wishing that she'd managed to figure out how it was made.

"What's the third?" Lorelai asked, figuring it might be worth asking the natives about the liquid love if the third was something halfway reasonable.

"Ichor of an elder god," Morana replied dryly.

Lorelai glanced up from the cauldron and sighed when she realized that her twin was serious. "It was worth a shot."

"And it got me a point of alchemy," Morana said, trying to see the bright side of things. "Should we ask where he got it?"

"Do you think he'd actually tell us?" Lorelai asked.

Morana shrugged. "He might, he never had classes with our brother."

"We can bribe him with a bit of our own love, liquid or not, to help encourage him,” she decided.