GrowLimb, A Gnomish Alchemy Breakthrough

Life at sea can be dangerous, and it is not uncommon to see sailors of all the Folk walking around Baron's Point with reminders of the dangers they faced. Perhaps the most iconic reminder of the sailor's life is the pegleg - little more than a stout wooden stick affixed where a living limb used to be. To Knudpert Klimmepeet, Master Alchemist and Senior Researcher at the Academy of Artifice and Alchemy at Baron's Point, the pegleg represented something else: a chance to develop a new alchemical formula that would permit those who lost a limb to grow a replacement. After long years of research, and a number of failed experiments, Knudpert believes he has finally found that formula. He calls it GrowLimb.

Utility

To a person who has lost an arm or a leg either to disease or accident, the utility of having the ability to grow a replacement is obvious. There have been folk who have asked whether a fully-limbed person could use the elixir to grow an extra appendage, but as currently formulated, GrowLimb will not do this.

Technology

Alchemy

Product Type

Mutagenic Elixir

Discoverer

Knudpert Klimmepeet

Date of Discovery

Demonstration of fully successful formula came in 2169CR (two years ago)

Suggested Cost

Not finalized, but expected to be in the range of 12,000gp to 15,000gp

Complexity

The formula for GrowLimb proved to be far more complex that Knudpert originally anticipated. The earliest experiments made it clear that the hard part was not growing the new limb; that was simply a matter of modifying known mutagens that had been in use for years to cause growth, or additional strength, or other physical enhancements.

A "Limited Success" Experiment

The first of two difficult things was ensuring that the new limb grew in the correct place! Early experimentation resulted in volunteers whose replacement legs were growing out of the thigh of their good leg, or out of their chest. There was even one instance in which a new leg grew straight up out of the top of the volunteer's head. (This volunteer has since had his missing leg successfully replaced, but the results of the first attempt have proven difficult to mitigate.) It took ten years of experimentation and formula adjustment to finally guarantee that leg bones would be connected to hip bones, and arm bones would be connected to shoulder bones.

The second difficulty was in ensuring that the new limb was permanent. Most common alchemical mutagens are temporary in effect, but Knudpert realized that temporarily regrowing a limb would not really be helpful. The research and experimentation on this problem took longer than the resolution of the first problem, and the failures were not nearly so spectactular. Fortunately, though, the problem was eventually solved.

Manufacturing

At present, the only authorized producer of this elixir is the Academy of Artifice and Alchemy in Baron's Point. The alchemical formula for the elixir has not been published as of yet - not even to those at the Academy's sister school in Endmere.

Very recently, there have been reports that the formula may have been stolen or leaked, however, as it appears that an alchemical mixture called GrowLimb is being made available in the Tyrnabay capital of Wolf's Bay far to the west. The efficacy and safety of this bootleg product is uncertain, however. Knudpert and the Academy have gone to great lengths to warn the public about knock-off products such as this.

Access and Availability

Since neither the inventor nor the institute that made his work possible wish to profit from the misfortune of others, Knudpert and the Academy have agreed to make GrowLimb available to any who can provide the cost of the raw materials that go into it. This is the altrusitic thing to do, after all.

About the Inventor

Knudpert Klimmepeet is a Gnome who has been studying Alchemy for just over two hundred years. He achieved recognition as a Master Alchemist by the Artisan's Guild of Baron's Point in the year 2112CR, and was appointed Senior Researcher at the Academy of Artifice and Alchemy in 2140CR (thirty-one years ago). He began working on GrowLimb Elixir several years later, in 2147CR.

Credits

Banner Image by loulou Nash from Pixabay

Page background cathedral Image by 5163451 on Pixabay
Page background manor house image by Josef Pichler on Pixabay
Page background hut image by PamelaAndrey15 on Pixabay
Page background forest image by Waldkunst on Pixabay
Character portraits by RPGDinosaurBob on Hero Forge®