A Student's Essays

[WriterX]

Item Analysis: Ladder Beacon

Once in a rare while one can encounter something that is so useful, and yet obscure and unknown, that its discovery can become pivotal, at least when it comes to adventuring. Such an item was brought to my attention by the Nadiri and Apothars of Q'tolip's Astronomers, and something that we tested thoroughly.

The item in question is known as a Ladder Beacon, and it can be purchased for around two hundred dinari in our very own Souk. The device seems to work on a very simple, yet incredibly useful principle. It's a magical rod that weights around half a pound, and can be activated ten times. Each time it is activated a ladder will appear in your hand, or bag, ready to be deployed. While the arrival, appearance, of the ladder may be considered magical, the ladder itself is perfectly mundane. It can be placed at appropriate locations, picked up again, and used freely.

In effect, by spending two hundred dinari you have access to ten ladders that you can summon one after another. Of course it may take a bit of time to grow familiar where and how you can place said ladders, but there is no denying, based on our own thorough testing in the Canyons, that you can almost create something akin to a stairwell, if the ground permits.

Since the ladders can be picked up and moved around freely they can be utilized multiple times, or left behind to provide much needed access for yourself or other travelers.

The ladders do have a few limitations. Firstly, they cannot be used to cross vertical spaces, as in, you cannot make a bridge out of them. Secondly, if your desired destination is either too high or too low the ladder cannot be placed correctly. This also relates to locations that would normally require a Rope or a Grapple Gun in order to be reached. So, for example, if you wished to scale down a cliff you may be able to do so with a rope, but the ladder is simply too short.

Despite all of these downsides ladders can still be used to climb over certain terrain, or to avoid certain obstacles, or even to escape danger, by placing the ladder, climbing up, and then pulling it up behind yourself. Furthermore, the ladder is even easier to climb than a rope, so travelers who would normally have great difficulty climbing using a rope may find using the ladder to be much, much more comfortable.

The greatest benefit of the Beacon is its weight. It's lighter than a wand and is purchased with ten available uses of it. It could be hidden away in one's adventuring pack for days, weeks or months, and when needed swiftly pulled out to summon the necessary number of ladders.

It's simply practical, fairly affordable and as far as our own testing went, worked without any issues.

As such, I recommend the purchase and use of the Ladder Beacon. While there may be other methods of travel, such as polymorphing into a form that makes travel easier, or the use of the true and tested Grapple and Gun, there is no denying that Ladders can still find a clear use.

It of course also raises the question of what other devices or items could be transported in such a compact manner. If ladders could be transported so seemlessly, could other items of a similar size be transported? Or perhaps something heavier? While one could consider different uses, such as a full campsite ready to be called forth with a wave of a wand, there could also be more militaristic applications. Such as, the quick deployment of barricades or siege engines.

I would encourage others to see the Ladder Beacon on their own, for in many ways it's an interesting innovation.

[WriterX]

Further Notes on Alchemy - Elemental Catalysts

In my previous experiments there were a number of things I learned about alchemy. Things I ought add as a sort of addendum to my original works.

This particular essay focuses on the challenges of finding the correct Catalysts to apply to "mixed" Alchemy. In the sense of, trying to combine different elements to produce new quasi-elements.

As I have been collecting all manner of Catalysts and experimenting with them, the outcomes are sometimes similar, sometimes different. Sometimes more, or less powerful.The main point being, you begin to see certain patterns, but you cannot be certain of them until you produce your first successful product, to give you a clear idea of what element said Catalyst belongs to.

As such, as a bit of help, I wanted to mention two Catalysts that are of specific elements, and which are not always exceedingly rare, but perhaps difficult to obtain.

Firstly, let's establish the four basic elements, of Water, Earth, Fire and Air.

Water and Fire Catalysts are numerous and varied, and include such things like Buckets of Water and Spring Water, in the case of Water Catalysts, or Fire Beetle Bellies, Evoker Clubmoss or Fire Lichen Growth among Fire Catalysts. As such, we can already see that when it comes to Fire and Water there is no shortage of choice.

But then we are faced with the question of Air and Earth. I have long looked at different catalysts to see whether they are connected to these specific elements, but after some discussion with other Alchemists, and my own tests, I did find that in both cases there are only very specific Catalysts that apply to Earth and Air.

For Air these would be Bubble Berries. While at first you might be drawn to think that their element is water, they are in fact of air, and many of their produce relates to storms, which I at first thought a quasi-element of air, not air proper.

But by far the rarest catalyst is that of Earth, which is Gargoyle Skulls. It is the only specifically Earth related and focused Catalyst that I have found, or rather, that was handed to me. For some reason no other Catalyst was related to the Earth in any way, and this makes engaging with Earth Alchemy to be extremely difficult.

The limited scope of these catalysts also means it's much harder to test all manner of Quasi-Elemental Alchemies. The one I mention in my book, Steam, by combining Water with Fire Catalysts is one that is most easily produced. I took the time to combine Water and Air Catalysts, and the final product was Quasi-Elemental Ice Alchemy.

I am still hoping for other, more exotic combinations, but my attempt at combining Positive and Negative energy catalysts proved to be a total failure. I shall continue looking however, perhaps there is something there.