NeoRealm – Staring Back Into the Future

Next morning, bright and early Jason is standing around with nothing to do. As Penny predicted the other two will need a bit more training to pick up the skills they want. With nothing better to do he decides that maybe now would be a good time to finally explore the town.

While he had walked through the town a bit he hadn’t ever really paid attention. Now the environment and crowd permeates his senses. A lionkin is over there selling vegetables to some elves, across the way a goblin is haggling over the price of some magical gunpowder. However, after walking around for a couple hours a store catches his attention.

While he had seen some other potions shops, this was the first one with a nifty little sigil on the sign. Specifically, it was the mark to tell you this was a store approved of by the Adventurers Guild. While the products will cost more in general they are of a guaranteed quality. After all you can’t be traipsing around some ancient tomb just to have your healing potion only healing a handful of hit points. Never mind the inevitable discount potion shop right next door.

After making his way through the crowd Jason enters ‘Dalur’s Certified Potion Shop’. That does make him roll his eyes, don’t want to have people miss that the guild approved of them. As he enters the shop *ding* he finds out they are partial to entry bells here. Taking a quick look around before the shopkeeper shows up it becomes clear that this is more of a display room. Everything is behind some protective barrier or another and they are in odd glass containers which clearly wouldn’t survive out in the field. If he would compare it to anything this shop looked like a jewelry store.

Then an old black haired man with a walking stick enters the room through a doorway behind the counter and greets him, “Hello there, my name is Edward Dalur. You can browse my shop though the rarer potions might not be in stock and large orders will of course take time as well. If you have questions then please, feel free to ask me.” and then he sits down and is takes out a book, clearly not expecting questions.

Jason grimaces a little bit. He had some questions but it felt awkward to interrupt Dalur’s reading. That and he might get a bit irritated so Jason decided that looking around the shop might be a better option to start with. Though all this look around does is show he really will not be buying much of anything. That and the fact that even a gas can be called a potion. Not that Jason minded Gaseous form being an actual gas as it seemed thematic.

Finally though Jason heads over to the counter, “I actually do have something to ask you about. You and I both know that it isn’t really possible for me to afford all but the cheapest of your potions.” Dalur looks up from his book and raises an eyebrow, clearly communicating that he doubts Jason can even afford those. Ignoring the look Jason continues, “Besides money however I do have a supply of glowy weeds. I know there is a task up at the guild for gathering them and those likely end up going to you. However instead of a bit of gold I would like to trade what I have and some money for some of your novice healing potions.”

Dalur sighs, “I will need to see your so called glowy weeds first. Of course we can’t just spread them out on my clean counter here so we need to head into my analysis room. You aren’t the first traveller who has tried this. The others however all seemed to think that if the Guild didn’t want the mutilated specimens, then I clearly would. Be warned, I have had enough of such nonsense so if none of your weeds are up to snuff then I won't allow you to enter my store for a year and a day and anyone found buying for you will be similarly restricted. So. Do you still want to show me what you got?”

Jason takes one of his mature Energy herbs out of his pack and shows it to Dalur, “This is an example of what I want to trade. Because of a quest involving the Rockback Turtles I have a good number of them leftover.”

Dalur takes a quick looks at, “Seems fine enough so at least I won't have to kick you out. Now let's go check them all out.”

Jason follows him into a back room. The new place actually looks quite out of place, not only for the shop but the world in general. With clean white tiles covering the whole room and a ceramic table with a magnifying glass attached to it the room is just too sterile. It doesn’t even have the earthy scent of herbs that somewhat permeated the rest of the shop. Not needing to be told Jason unloads his herbs onto the table. There was actually a good few leftover as they worked better as bait than was expected.

While not all of them were as nice as the first one Jason pulled out Dalur couldn’t see any that stood out as low quality. In fact as he looked closer and used the magnifying glass the skill used in harvesting them was revealed. Each was clearly picked to allow them to grow back. Looking up from the glowy weed, “These overall are of decent quality. Though this group” and he pushes a group of six to the side, “are of lower quality. The other 16 however are in fine condition. A specialized gatherer might have done better but those guys don’t bother with glowy weed. Now I know you asked about spending money as well, however I can’t accept any even if you actually had an amount worth using. To get first pick of gathered herbs at the Guild I can’t buy them for cash from others. With that in mind I can right away offer you a one healing potion for the 6 lower quality herbs and two healing potions for 6 of the other herbs.”

“Your novice healing potions only sell for 10 silver each. While the guild is buying the herbs for  50 copper to a silver, they clearly mark it up for you. Also this isn’t exactly the only ingredient being used. I want 4 of the low quality herbs for a potion, the 2 leftover and a good herb for another, and then I want 7 potions for the remaining 15 herbs.”

Dalur points at the low quality herbs, “No look here, here, and especially here. This has a chance to lower the quality of the resulting potion. I can’t sell something like that. With those I have to stick to the 6 for 1. Now for the good herbs? How about 6 potions for all 16?”

“I can accept the deal on the lower quality ones. However I want 8 for the good herbs”

Dalur shakes his head, “No way, I can give you 7 potions for them and only because this is our first deal. As I said they aren’t the highest quality.”

“That seems fine but I want you to tell me how to harvest them better. While I won’t be making a job of it, I can see myself harvesting more as I come across them. Also maybe how to grow them if I ever decide to try that.”

With that they manage to agree on the price and Jason gets 8 novice healing potions. He also learns that he actually harvested too much of the plant. To properly harvest them you need to cut it off just under the lowest leaf. Because the roots are absorbing nutrients from the ground, it can muddle the Energy. Only once you reach the leaves does the Energy become pure enough and if you leave the bits below that the herbs quality drops. Also oddly enough the glowing ball doesn’t have that much Energy in it and can be removed without damaging the quality. Combined with the fact that the glowing ball is where the seeds are means you should remove that as well. Then you can either keep it if you for some reason want to try growing it (and Dalur pointed out this is quite hard as trying to grow it doesn’t grow well if your practicing Mana or Qi) or throw it nearby to help spread it around.

After leaving the store Jason decides to go buy a small pot. Having just learned that people have a hard time growing them because they don’t train Energy he figures it might actually grow better for him than in nature. If anything spending a bit of time cultivating in his room with the plant can’t hurt.

Finally he arrives back at the Adventurers Guild. James and Rosha are still finishing up the last bits of training so he takes a quick once over of himself to make sure he is prepared.

Akhier

Things I wanted to mention but didn’t:

The potions specifically notes that it uses herbs and Energy to heal. This means it will not hurt Undead and such like generally seen in other media. This isn’t because healing magic doesn’t hurt undead but rather only healing that is powered by some source that is aggressive towards undead. Examples of this are actual Life and Death magic and most good and some neutral gods.

A thing to note here is that the potions might not hurt undead and in fact somewhat work, it will not work fully for most of them. In fact a number of entities are less affected by these specific potions. Any creature that can’t eat for nutrients will only get the Energy part of the healing and not the herbal part. Examples of those this would apply to include any fully dead undead (things like skeletons but not vampires) and elementals.

Also these are not the only type of healing potions, just the most commons wherever Energy herbs are available.  This is because Energy is the precursor for most other energy types and thus when used for the healing potions will effect most beings. There are other recipes that use similar herbs that are based on for instance Mana and those would work best for mages while Qi users are less affected.

The next most popular version is made by clerics. Though they only heal believers of the same faith as the crafter and hurts those opposed to said faith. The only reason these are so widespread is that the clerics can make them from holy water of their faith and a few prayers. Many suspect that there is a hidden cost to it and the only reason they are sold cheap is to lure new players into joining a faith.