A few questions about Alchemicals production and their use

Forged in the Dark Band of Blades
1

Hi BoB fans!

  1. I’m not too sure about the quantity of alchemicals the Legion alchemist is supposed to produce (or acquire). When they complete a LTP, for example to produce Chembalm or Owlsight, is that treated as other “resources”, meaning a line on the Quartermaster sheet, with 3 uses, and each use would equip a full mission? That seems alright for Owlsight or Deep, but too much for Chembalm.

  2. The alchemicals listed on page 76 are known designs (or?): Chembalm, Deep, Owlsight, Rage venom. The Medic (meaning the QM) can have them for his bandolier even without an Alchemist (yes?). But… how many people can the Medic treat with one dose from the bandolier? One legionnaire only? Would that be what’s different from a “use” of an alchemical produced by an alchemist, which would serve for the full squad?

  3. Alchemists are at least twice said to be able to treat “arcane” or “mystic” disease. Wouldn’t that mean that they are able to treat or cure Corruption? What’s Corruption if not an “arcane” or “mystic” disease? And if it’s not, then it’s a toxin or poison… and can be neutralized (or cured) by Chembalm? Yes? or no? and how efficiently?
    (answer: depends on your table… I know!) And… wouldn’t that mean that the alchemist can treat themselves from the corruption they suffer from their work? I guess it would be a bit useless to have the Alchemist produce things just to be able to cure himself… that would have to be balanced.
    My own take on it: during Rest and Recuperation, a use of Chembalm could be spent to reduce Corruption by one for all Legionnaires suffering from it. In the field, a dose of Chembalm would allow a PC to erase one point of corruption. But it comes after the wound, so it wouldn’t prevent a legionnaire from suffering from Blight, as a Reliquary could (by reducing the Corruption suffered).

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I am going to ‘nope’ this in my campaign because I’m keen for it to stay gritty and humanity-focused; I feel like corruption is a consequence of moving through this tainted world and shouldn’t be easy to deal with. I can totally see how it’s attractive to add in another resource to make the PCs make those hard calls but I’m looking for ways to crank up the difficulty and feel like this is a solid one.

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Very valid answer.

I haven’t done what I suggested yet, since the Alchemist has just produced chembalm in my player’s group.

The fact is the most useful of the Medic’s possible “medical” actions for the specialists and squad are already mechanically covered by the Tonics (First aid), Not today, Field dressing, and Doctor uses. And for those, no Chembalm is needed. So we have to find something useful do to with Chembalm… if it’s just to cure some disease or poison OTHER than Harm or corruption that would come only once or twice in a campaign, then I don’t feel it’s worth the cost (I don’t imagine giving my players a strange disease or having them hit every other session just to justify it, it would feel lame and BoB’s world is already harsh enough as it is).

1 Like
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That makes a lot of sense. I see it being most useful against Blighter’s troops, who take place in wholehearted chemical warfare! I suppose it’s one of those things that some groups might not really need, especially if you don’t come up against Blighter, but it might pop up occasionally as useful in a Religious mission if there’s some weirdness going on? I suppose it takes the place of “custom alchemical”?

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Yeah, you’re right. But when I read in detail the text of the “abilities” that Blighter and its troops can gain later in the game (pages 188-189), this in fact reinforces my belief that “Corruption” is indeed a “toxin or a poison” : look at how “Toxic bile”, “Scars of wars” and “Toxic mutagen” are written.

For the moment, my players have only fought against Render’s troops. They should be meeting Rotters, Crows and Horrors in one or two missions… and maybe a Gut-sack ? Not sure yet. Mwahahahaha !

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Well, I’m not sure if it’s of any use to anybody, but I am at least able to answer my first question, and it appears I was right for once.

I was just re-reading the example of Campaign phase on pages 256-260, and at the end (p 260), appears just exactly the case I was asking about : the Alchemist has completed a 4-clock project to produce Owlsight oïl, and he puts a new line on the QM sheet with three uses, each uses can equip everyone on a mission.