Artus, sat tapping his fingers absently against the table, midday light filtered through the windows of the small studio illuminating the tiny particles gently floating in the air. “No one is buying, we need to increase our renown.” picking up a jar from a box filled with similar containers he scrutinized it’s thick luminescent content. “It’s a great paint, I’ve never seen such a beautiful hughe of orange before. And for the price we are asking for it, it should be flying off the shelves.”
“It’s not just our renown,” replied Creg filling another flask with the glowing paint and sealing it. “You’ve created an impressive recipe. With this combination of lantern spider ichor and cripple cap as reagents we have a balanced paint that is fairly stable and surprisingly strong. The problem is that most painters can’t use it.”
“I’m afraid he’s right.” Added Citili from behind a work table “Our paint is quite toxic. I have an antidote figured out just in case; but with a toxic level of seven of ten, the local painters aren’t buying it. I think we should find a way to dilute it’s toxicity.”
“Paints with this level of toxicity aren’t uncommon.” Artus replied a little frustrated.
“You’re right but they are more for huge industrial projects, which we can’t supply. You don’t care because for some reason the corrosive effects of paints don’t seem to affect you. But we need to produce a paint that can be used more commonly. That’s the only way we will hit the market demographic that we need.” Creg explained.
Artus replaced the jar back into it’s box, and considered the situation. This was the technical side of business that he did not enjoy. Exploring and discovering new uses for reagents was exciting. He was grateful that he could leave all the uninspiring technical details to Creg. “Okay, you are right. We need to mitigate it’s toxicity.”
“And we need to do it without dramatically increasing the price of the paint or it will eliminate the incentive for people to do business with us.” Said Creg “But I don’t see how we can do that since adding a third reagent to counter the toxins will dramatically increase the cost of making the paint. By the way do we have a name for this stuff yet?”
“I was think of calling it bog rush” replied Artus, “it’s potent and we found the ingredients in the bog. As for nulling the toxins we can do it without a third reagent.”
“How?”
“When I was thinking of solutions to remove the ill side effects of Citili’s confections; I did a little research to see if there were any artifacts that could be used to negate their effects. unfortunately I didn’t discover any. But I did find that artifacts that remove things like toxins and poisons are fairly common.”
“How much would something like that cost?” asked Citili.
“More than we can afford, but we could craft our own. With a little research I could figure out how to paint an anti-toxin enchantment.”
“You can’t be serious?” Creg chimed in sceptically. “Crafting an artifact is just as improbable as buying one. Where would we find the ingredients to craft something like that. Not to mention the skills required to bind it. You’re an amazing painter Artus, probably the best our age, but do you really think you could make an artifact strong enough to be used for our purposes?”
“I’m positive I could figure it out; but you’re right, the ingredients are going to be tricky to find. We can ask Blankstrip the book djinn what we will need. Citili would you mind summoning him?”
“Yup hold on.” Citili walked to the back room and returned with a beautiful leather bound book splattered with flour. Opening the book she grabbed a quill and began writing in the book. “He’s coming.”
A few moments later a small explosion of paper shrapnel erupted in mid air, and Blankstrip stood before them. “Do you have books for me?”
“I traded this off of a traveling merchant. I can’t read Grell but the illustrations are nice.” Artus handed the book over to the djinn.
The djinn examined the book with a deep scowl. “Traded this? They give these away. I’m sure you recognized from the illustrations that this book is nothing more than theological nonsense and cultist propaganda about the panthian Haix and the end of the world. This book is good for nothing except as a door wedge to let the draft in, how disappointing.”
“Well you’re one door wedge richer. While you are here we have a question for you; we need to craft an artifact that could detoxify all of our paints. What would we need to craft something like that?”
“You plan on crafting an artifact? My archives have extensive knowledge on such things let me think. For something like this you are going to need a bowl made of wood or stone local to the paints reagents. Of course it’s going to need to be durable so that it can endure the wear and tear from that enchantment. There is nothing of that durability around here so you will have to reinforce the bowl with a reagent. It will have to be something that won’t have a negative reaction to the other reagents. You will want something good with liquids I would suggest harvesting some leather lilies from Rockponds. Use the leather lilies to reinforce your bowl and you should have a very durable container. As for a purifier you would need something extremely potent for a long lasting enhancement. I believe the most appropriate reagent would be a crystal like mineral called angel horn. They are expensive because not many new ones are seen on the market the cave where they were mined became too dangerous and was sealed with a powerful ward. You could try your luck with the mines and see if you could find a way around the wards. Your young group have proven very resourceful so far. Or you could try your hand at treasure hunting. It seems there is a record of one of the last shipments of angel horn going missing.”
“Was it hijacked?” asked Artus.
“The record does not mention highjacking, the shipment simply disappeared near the pyramid lakes.”
“The pyramid lakes? All kinds of crazies and pirates in that area.” Said Phen excitedly from the other side of the room.
“It was a route the miners had been using for decades they had plenty of armed protection. But they just vanished.”
“Well I’m curious now as to what happened to the that shipment. I love treasure hunting and I’d much rather solve a mystery than go spelunking again, I’ve had my fill of caves. So how’s this for a plan, Creg you take Rayku head to howler’s bog and craft us a nice bowl out of bogwood. I’ll take Phen and Cilitli and see if we can catch ourselves some leather lilies, and find ourselves a lost shipment of angel horn. If we can craft this it will make our bog rush the most affordable paint of a third rank caliber in the entire south of Laotria.
