Name: Sam Rothson
Codename: Doesn't have one yet, really wants to have one though.
Gender: Male
Age: 21
Race: Human, though his father claims there is lizard men blood in his family tree somewhere, there is no evidence ot support this.
Appearance:
Looking a bit younger than he is, he stands only 1,6 meters tall. He has short jet-black hair and bloodshot green eyes.
Personality: Excitable, erratic, proud, naive, restless
Likes: Water, Horace, bagpipes, displays of magic, anything or anyone he considers beautiful
Dislikes: cannibalism, physical pain, combat, doing nothing
Fears: Being alone, physical pain, emotional pain: never felt it, but dreads it since everyone he's ever asked confirms that it's worse than physical pain.
Guild: None yet.
Rank: nobody
Guild Tattoo: He intends to have it displayed large on his upper back.
Meaning: A source of entertainment and opportunities.
Magic: Potion magic
Caster or Holder: Holder: he needs boiling water and at least one other component.
Description:
Given time, water and the right component Sam can cook up potions that hold magic power which can later be drunk.
- The wizard concentrates on a body of boiling water (usually a kettle) and stirs slowly. Added to that are one or more components. These components determine the effect of the potion once the concoction is complete. Drinking a potion before it is done is a very, very, very bad idea. Sam knows this very well although he has no idea what'll happen.
- There are 3 things the wizard looks for in a component: Symbology, purity, rarity.
Symbology: A tear can stand for sadness, a feather for freedom, sand for time or famine, etc.
Purity: The more pure the component is the more pure the effect, the more contaminants in the potion the larger the chance of side effects. The same foes for the water, if you use filthy water you are using a lot of unwanted components. Crafting a potion in swamp water is basically rolling the dice.
Rarity: Special components hold more power. Sure a regular feather might get you a decent levitation potion, but a hawk tail feather will get you some serious flight. Now imagine what the tail feather of a phoenix would accomplish.
- The components can be replaced or supplemented with direct magic from an outside source, this requires charged larcima or teamwork with another mage. The potion created will most likely hold the same magic as the helping wizard casted.
- A strong emotion or thought can be used as a component, the person in question needs to actively assist in crafting the potion for this to work. Unless the emotion is very strong this is generally regarded a weak component, but a component nonetheless.
- Enhance or reduce an already owned attribute: strength, health, reaction speed, energy, magic skill (not power, but control), ability to lie, senses, etc.
- Grant a simple magic ability: flight, resistance to fire, sense magic, see in the dark, breathe underwater, etc.
- Imbue with a strong emotion or feeling: happiness, sorrow, love, hatred, dejavu (a personal favorite), stress, calm, boredom, excitement, etc.
- The drinker has whatever is in the potion cast upon him or herself. The drinker doesn't need to use magic or even know there is magic in the drink at all. Naturally the potion can be put in someone's food or drink, but unless specifically made to be taste- and odor-less the consumer will notice something fishy is up.
- Using more water to create more potion is pointless since it holds the same amount of magic. One spell per potion, having more liquid just means needing to drink more for the potion to take effect.
- The drinker needs to imbibe at least half the potion for the magic to take effect, when it does the rest of the liquid becomes inert. If a potion is divided over 2 people the one who drinks most gets the spell, if divided equally over 3 no one gets any magic and the potion is wasted.
- The potency of the potion depends on the quality of the component, the skill of the caster(Sam) and the duration spend making the potion.
- Crafting the potion takes at least one minute but can be prolonged as long as the wizard can stay awake.
Sam wants to make an energy potion. He fills a kettle with pure spring water and brings it to boiling point. He then adds various sorts of sugar to a plate and sets it on fire, as the sugar caramelizes he adds it to the pot while stirring. Since he never crafted this potion before he is very exited about the outcome. This turns out to be included in the spell as a side effect. When drunk the potion will fill the drinker with energy much like a sugar rush, he or she will also feel extremely exited. A lucky combination.
Sam wants to make a fire resistance potion. For his components he uses the slime of a salamander, the ashes of a campfire and the sweat of a fire using wizard. The potion is a success and protects the drinker from fire, however it tastes absolutely awful and the fire wizard was very weirded out by Sam.
Sam was a difficult child. He had the smarts, just not the attention span or the interest for school and, since he saw display of authority as a challenge, he spend most of his school career in the school directors office twiddling his thumbs.
But when the headmaster was out and he was alone, he played with the stuff in the directors office. The director was a well known potion specialist and although he didn't know it, Sam was his aprentice. This went on for years. For hours on end he made his way through dusty old tomes and experimented with different brews.
By the time his secret was found out he had raided the entire supply of magical ingredients and become a self thought novice wizard. The school director was not pleased and kicked him out. Sam's parents went to look for a different school but Sam had other plans. Nowhere in this town would he find a magic supply as ready as the directors, he would find these components in the wilderness. So he struck out on adventure.
Naturally it only took him about 2 weeks to get himself stranded on an island in the middle of the ocean, to this day he has no idea how that happened.
So Sam's stuck, marooned on a small island. Luckily the island wasn't abandoned. In the jungle there lived savage humans, who in turn where less lucky since they had only raccoon to eat. Naturally they where cannibals, since raccoon for breakfast, lunch and dinner is just too much.
Needless to say Sam had trouble fitting in and ended up teaching the local shaman some tricks to avoid getting eaten himself. The shaman's name was Horace and Horace has the saddest story you've ever heard. (or at least he will tell you)
Horace had an enemy, a large fire elemental that lived in the volcano at the center of the island. Together with Sam he had concocted a potion that would turn him into the thing he hated the most. He would become as powerful as the elemental and this added to his knowledge of magic would make him more powerful than his enemy. A little flaw in his plan was that it turned out there was one thing he hated more than his enemy: his food. The potion turned Horace into a raccoon.
A few weeks after this Sam found passage on a large trading vessel that happened to sail by. Horace came with since the other tribesmen would only see him as a raccoon.
A few weeks of skulking around in the shadows later (did I mention he wasn't invited on this ship?) the trade ship was attacked by pirates! Salem was discovered when migrating to a home that wasn't sinking, and had no other choice but to join as a pirate. The pirate captain was a lot smarter than he let on and it didn't take long for him to figure out Sam's abilities. He decided he wanted the super powers and tried to force Sam into crafting the ultimate potion for him. Naturally Sam's was to young and inexperienced a wizard and a bit to much of a dick to give him what he wanted. By the time the dread pirate figured out he'd been made to permanently smell strongly of anchovy, Sam had stolen a life raft and peddled to shore.
When he arrived on shore he was hungry, tired and in shock. Horace found a few fishermen whom Sam could steal supplies from. Salem walked inland for another few days until he found a town. He hoped he could find a place to sleep there, at least temporary.
