Artifact: Reynaud’s Alkahest
Power: Significant.
Description: The universal solvent: able to dissolve any substance into its constituent components, therefore uncontainable and one of the theoretical pinnacles of alchemy. Allegedly discovered by Paracelcus and rediscovered by Van Helmont in the 16th and 17th centuries the idea has become symbolically synonymous with acids, alkalines and other corrosive substances. No true universal solvent was ever really created.
Except no one read the fine print, no one but Louis Reynaud. A French narco-alchemist and post-graduate chemistry drop-out who became obsessed with the history of alchemy and a regular abuse of LSD and barbiturates, he was known to pay a pretty penny for original texts from the greats. That those he developed his version of the alkahest from were a blatant forgery written in modern French on a typewriter does little to detract from its remarkable properties.
Reynaud’s Alkahest is a blue honey-like substance with a strong stench of camphor that sears the nose. It’s mostly safe, you can keep it in pretty much anything without causing damage. Hell, smear it on yourself if you want and you’ll be fine. So long as you aren’t carrying any charges.
Effect: The fine print explanation is that alkahest was never intended to work on material substances. Reynaud’s Alkahest doesn’t break down matter, it breaks down magickal potential. Specifically it converts charges into their base.
The exact effect varies and is as idiosyncratic as the magickal practices that generated the charges: hose down a fulminaturge and laugh as handfuls of loose ammunition spill out of her pockets, inject it into a Honeypot and it’ll barf up what’s left of it’s most recent victim and a screaming effluvia, dunk an erotic pastry containing a ghost and cop a spray of tattered funeral wear. If a charge has been moved around, say by Mak Attax with the Ritual of Lesser Correspondence, the effect can provide clues where it came from. The base materials aren't magickal in any way other than their origin. Avatars and their powers, unnatural entities and artifacts that aren't charge dependent and other magickal phenomenon remain unaffected.
A standard amount of Reynaud’s Alkahest will neutralise 2d10+5 minors and a tenth as many significant charges, you can reuse any leftovers if you’re able to scrape them loose of the brown, crusty used up portions. No matter how much you have it won’t do anything more than bubble and churn itself into a useless crisp against major charges.
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