The fog swallowed even the sound of his own breathing. The scythe-wielder had melted out of sight; shapes that had been allies a heartbeat ago were only suggestions in the grey. A shout, distant and warped, cut across the chamber and snagged at his instincts. Barrier. Help. Move.

Aramis locked his hands to his staff until the tremor stopped. A blind ward in this soup was a coin toss at best. The mist was the problem. Solve that and everyone breathes.

He dropped to a knee, guilt and determination gripped into his heart in equal measure, his satchel swinging forward. Glass chimed against glass, small, bright, and surgical. He kept his voice at a whisper, a habit from study halls that had nothing to do with fear.

[colour=536dfe]“Okay. Volatile base to kick… carbonates fizz, but I need heat. Better, quicklime analogue.”[/colour] He thumbed a squat vial stoppered in wax, grit pale as bone. [colour=536dfe]“Hydration’s exothermic. Good. We make steam.”[/colour]

A second bottle. [colour=536dfe]“But not a runaway.”[/colour] He snapped a green-tinted stopper free. [colour=536dfe]“A mild acetate will tamp the spike and stretch the burn window.”[/colour] Liquid ran like thin syrup into the grit. He swirled once, twice, and shook hard. The glass went cold at his palm from dissolution before the grit started to wake and he felt the bottle exhale against his skin, a tiny pressure that said alive.

[colour=536dfe]“Water’s everywhere,”[/colour] he breathed, eyes on the shallow pool lapping his boots. [colour=536dfe]“H₂O under sudden phase change, latent heat drives expansion. Denser hot vapor pushes, lighter fog yields.”[/colour]

He palmed open a third vial, clear, sharp, with a solvent bite that stung his eyes. [colour=536dfe]“Primer for wetting. Drop surface tension so it spreads fast, no dead patches.”[/colour]

The staff braced across his shoulders; he stood just enough to widen his stance. He could almost see the chain in his head: hydration reaction releases heat → water flashes to steam → pressure spikes → steam front expands. After that, chemistry takes its turn.

[colour=536dfe]“And the second push is pure chemistry,”[/colour] he murmured, steadying his breath. [colour=536dfe]“If the sorrow carrier’s stable in cool, low-energy air, we hit it hot and saturated. Oversaturate the suspension, disrupt the binder. Either dilutes to useless, or clumps and falls.”[/colour]

He dragged his sleeve over his lenses, then committed. The solution arced from his hand and splashed in a wide scatter across the pool.

He pictured it as it hit: grit taking water in greedy gulps; the mix hissing like a fuse as wet bloomed heat up through his knees; thin solvent racing the reaction outwards so it didn’t stall. Vapor should leap off the surface in a low ring, then heap into a rolling dome, pressure first, shove, and when that new vapor met the sorrow-mist, it should bite, forcing the fog to retreat on contact and destabilize as it mixed.

He hunched behind the staff, jaw tight, counting half-seconds the way he had over burners in cramped labs. [colour=536dfe]“Two-fold,”[/colour] he whispered, almost to the formula instead of to himself. [colour=536dfe]“Push now. Dilute after.”[/colour]

His knuckles glowed white as he waited for the reaction to take, ready to ride whatever he’d just woken.[hr]
[hider=Ability and Action usage]New Ability:
[b]Alchemical Problem-Solving[/b] — Intelligence C + Educated: Scholar [Arcana, alchemy, academia] F - Grade F - Cooldown 0 Post(s)
Caster applies their knowledge and kit to engineer quick, improvised concoctions in the field. By mixing available reagents with deliberate intent, they can trigger reactions to address immediate situational problems.

Actions Used:

1. Drop to knee.
2. Alchemical Problem-Solving.
3. Spill/seed the mix in a wide circle into the water to trigger the chain reaction.[/hider]