Bloodstop Salve

After the explanation of the different ingredients it was discovered that out of the ten provided to each of them only three were necessary. Much like the traditional method to make a salve there was the oil, the herb to infuse into the oil and the thickening agent. In this case the 'oil' was a liquid strained by pulping the stem of the blutgem flower. The herb that would be infused was the ginger like root known as ganush and the thickening agent was the sat of a tree that produced fruit not unlike a pomegranate but royal blue in color simply known as the bloodbead tree.

The process as described by Professor Everhart was simple in design but precise in execution. She demonstrated the proper way to remove the stem from the blutgem flower without risking the poisonous nature of the petals. She worked the stems with a mortar and pestle with a confident finesse before turning to her students and watching them as they attempted to follow her lead.

Jien was rather successful with this piece, having spent his time concocting under the heavy stresses of the Warping Forest he was steady of hand and calm in execution. The others who had gone through those trials with him likewise had little trouble, though perhaps were a small amount slower. Of the new members, as Jien had suspected, Andrew was able to handle his efforts with no difficulty even going so far as to help guide Robyn and Alys. Julie struggled at a much slower pace but paid extra attention to each of her actions to ensure her accuracy of completion.

While the unit members were working the professor and her 'pet' fox were having a silent conversation as they observed. The woman seemed to frown every now and again for reasons that Jien could not understand when he raised his head to meet her gaze every now and again. After some minutes of pulping the stems to a fine poultice she walked them through the method to strain out the oil they would need before setting it to the side and once again standing vigil over her students efforts.

This time however Jien raised his hands and asked a number of clarifying questions. This was mostly for the purposes of his notes but the other students found the information useful in helping them understand how to use the various glassware tools. Though one would think that straining the poulice would be simple the method of straining actually had required a number of steps to draw the oil from the plant rather than simply putting the mixture under pressure.

The end result actually took more than an hour to complete but soon enough they had all drawn out the oil for their salves. This however, was where everyone began to see slight differences. The oil in the professors beaker looked almost akin to clear blood. When each of the unit members looked at their own beakers they found varying degrees of cloudiness in the liquid. The clearest of the groups was Andrew's, with only a slight mistiness to the liquid while Julies was by for the worst, looking akin to someone having mixed blood with milk.

Professor Everhart made her way over and examined each sample carefully. She did not make any obvious comments at first, her calm demeanor remaining until she was finished looking at each sample. "All of these samples are within acceptable range" she said in her warm voice. "However, it should be known that the milkier the oil looks the less potent the end result. This however can be a boon if the salve is only meant for small cuts and scrapes instead of serious wounds."

With that statement she made her way back to her own table and showed that rather than a long infusion process they would use a shortcut method by boiling the oil with chunks of the ganush root. This was only acceptable for this type of recipe where all ingredients would compound upon each other and she urged them to use the usual method is time allowed as the boiling method would lead to a loss of some potency. She showed the best method to peel the root and then put the oil and cut up bits of the root into her cauldron before working with the heating formation beneath it, describing each of her movements with a controlled tone.

The others followed along as she worked this time around. The steps were simple and nobody had issue as they lidded their cauldrons to let the mixture stew appropriately. Meanwhile Professor Everhart gracefully should hem how to draw sap from the tree on her desk. This was only for demonstration as she pointed to the vial of golden sap in front of everyone's stations. "The sap extraction can take a long time. To ensure that we are able to complete our salves in an orderly fashion I have already supplied you with an appropriate amount of sap."

She discussed the use of the other seventh ingredients as they waited for the stewing mixture to complete. The explanation was simple, much like her lesson had felt from the beginning, though highly informative. Each of the seven other ingredients could either be used to enhance the salve in a number of ways or in some cases, could be used to completely replace one of the main ingredients.

By the end of the discussion on the other ingredients it was time to extract the infused oil and following their professors guided steps they were each able to complete it. The end result was a reddish orange oil with varying milkiness. The followed the steps given to complete the process, mixing the oil and sap in a measured mix while adding to small, wooden, widemouthed containers.

Once each of them was done they set their containers out at the front of their desk while Professor Everhart walked around with her own for comparison. When she came close enough they were able to see her finished product, a red-orange gel that looked crystal clear without the slightest hint of murkiness. She compared the others to her own side by side before finding the closest match.

The winner to the surprise of most was Andrew. His salve was mostly clear, only slightly more so than Jien's own. Though Jien was slightly saddened to miss out on the opportunity to have a potion brewed by The Perse Everhart, he knew that there would be other chances, after all she was their alchemy professor for the entire term.