The Keeper's Book

[Luiniel Blades]

Once beautiful, this ancient tome is a shadow of it's former glory. Once bound in white leather with silver edges, hinges and clasps, it is now mottled grey and the metal tarnished black. The only thing about the book that gives any clue to it's history or purpose is a strange symbol embossed on the leather looking much like a swirl of rising smoke or incense. It is not a recognizable language even to those who can read, but it does seem familiar somehow to the agent of the Keepers named Amethyst.

The silver lock has been cleaned and undone. It is open now.

The pages on the inside are surprisingly empty and but they are still intact.

[Luiniel Blades]

The fact the pages were empty for a book that had been locked was odd to say the least. It couldn't have been the case. Grandmother had mentioned the man called Grandfather only in passing a few times over the years Amethyst had been growing up. After meeting Siobhan, although she hadn't spoken much of Grandfather, she had confirmed that the man was not the kind for wistful sentimentality. If anything, the man had seemed like a pessimist but with a bedrock of stoic stubbornness to him.

There was something else going on here. She was sure of it. The only question now was... how did she make it happen?


Ink was tricky to acquire, although Grandmother had always seemed to have plenty of it on hand for Amethyst when she'd been younger. It required an open alchemical combination of oxidized liquids, harvesting a sticky herbal plant for its tannin, rain water, and collecting sap from unusual, fire resistant, trees. Thankfully, Amethyst had a decent amount of it on hand.

Charcoal seemed the easiest writing implement to acquire. The world seemed full of it as anything solid that did not completely burn away could be used. Plus, she had Siobhan close by.

Blood was an option, more of a paint really, but it was messy.

The chiseling method of the Dwarves was right out, as their method was used for stone or metal and would ruin the pages... although their sketching of images could prove to be interesting.

[Exile]

For a simple test, a rudimentary water-based ink might be wise: something that could reliably form shapes when painted onto the page, but could also be quickly wiped off before it dried in case anything troublesome began to happen.

And while still in the familiar surrounds of Central Erenland, she could reasonably hope to concoct a few possible colours of ink - or at least some mild variations in tone - from the results of their foraging, especially with the aid of ash from campfires.

Aware that meddling with an ancient and exceptional item, let alone one evidently carefully guarded by Grandfather, was not a simple matter she had made herself refrain from early experimentation and instead prepare.  It had been a hard struggle, holding back her curiosity for so long, but ensuring that she had a range of options ready to hand before she undertook something so (potentially) significant seemed worth it.

Thus, she set about testing the results of her ink-making efforts on a number of surfaces: flat stones, plant husks, a scrap of spare leather.  So long as it could be wiped clean or smudged beyond all recognition of having been deliberately inked, she was keen to confirm that everything worked tolerably well before she undertook direct interactions with the fire-scorched tome.

[Luiniel Blades]

Preparations and experimentation were key to understanding. Amethyst had plenty of knowledge of both oral and written nature from Grandmother. But the surrounding area, Central Erenland, was her home.
Knowledge Nature: This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d20+11 : 11 + 11, total 22

Craft Alchemy: This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d20+10 : 7 + 10, total 17

To her credit, although she never had learned the key components of herbalism from Grandmother, as she had taken a greater interest in the more widely usable art of alchemy, her knowledge and intuition was enough to mimic the ability.

She made only one mistake in that she failed to grind the resin down enough and that she'd used too much water which made her first batch of ink mix very poorly. Realizing her mistake, she took a small amount of the dwarven alcoholic brew they'd had remaining from Pardrum holdfast and added it to the mixture to add to its solubility.  This, mixed with a finer grain of resin allowed her to properly combine the two and mix them with the lighter or heavier combinations of charcoal, dirt, gathered tree bark, summer grass, soil, ground up minerals, bits of metal, and crushed bits of crystals.

She experimented with heat mixtures, and acidic oxidization. These methods provided only slight variations in color but was enough to change a handful of the mixtures.

Finally, she was ready with a handful of various, reliable inks of differing colors.