Morning Tea [Solo]

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

6th Fall 511AV Serrif found himself walking the halls of the Opal Order again. He couldn’t sleep and he knew Lym would be awake. She was almost always awake doing something. Especially during the times of the pumpkin festival. She like many of the other healers was honoring Rak’keli by working diligently. And Lym worked hard on a normal basis. So Serrif knew she was awake and aware right now. As he approached the double wooden doors he noticed there was indeed a flicking candlelight coming from under the door. She was likely awake. But he silently moved a little closer and he could hear what appeared to be books thump down on the table and some vials clank around. She was indeed working. He knocked gently on the door since it was after hours and he heard her voice answer him from inside. “Come in.” And he did just that pushing the door open gently and walked inside. Lym smiled when he walked in. She always did like seeing her favorite student and assistant. And she was glad he was here. She was about to do something and would want him here to see this. There was still much knowledge she had to give him. So much he would need to know before everything happened for him. She had laid out before her several herbs and such as well as some interesting looking fine mesh paper. Or at least that was what he thought it was. She would likely correct him and show him what it was she was up to this night. She looked to be preparing something. He did notice the herbs she had laid out. One of them was a flowering plant whose petals were thin and spread out and purple in color, he identified it as Echinacea. It looked similar to a daisy of sorts it was also known by some as the purple coneflower. The center of the flower was what gave the flower away. It had hundreds of little miniature spines that resembled those on a porcupine. They weren’t nearly as hard or as dangerous as those on a porcupine but they were still interesting to look at. He wasn’t sure why she had four of these flowers laid out on the table; he didn’t know the properties or the uses of this flower but he called it by name. “Echinacea, the purple coneflower.” Lym nodded he had obviously been studying. His eyes then moved to the next item laid out on the table. The next was what appeared to be Sage. The woody stems, grayish leaves and purple looking flowers with some blue every now and then was what hinted him to its name. He knew the plant was commonly used for seasoning things. What made this plant distinct was the fact that the leaves varied in size so much. Some of them were small, and others were quite large. There was no real uniformity to them. It also had a distinct smell, slightly peppery but slightly sweet as well. He knew it was used in cooking, he had it in several locally prepared dishes here on the Isle. And he himself had added it to fish on more than one occasion. “…sage.” Lym again nodded waiting to see if he could get all the plants correct. The next one he had never actually seen before. There were small leaves rimmed in yellow along the edges. The leaves were no larger than his pinky fingernail and grew in bunches spread out bilaterally. He was curious and then leaned in to get a smell. Whatever the plant was it was very strong smelling and had a very pleasant aroma to it. It smelt like lemons. That was odd, because this was definitely not a lemon plant. But it definitely smelt like one. He observed the leave structure a little more carefully. It looked like another common kitchen herb. One he himself had used before. What was it? He looked it over and then guessed. “This appears to be Thyme…but it smells of lemons.” Serrif looked to Lym who then explained the phenomenon to him. “It’s a cross breed, between lemon and thyme. It has the aroma of lemon but it is indeed still a Thyme plant.” She was proud of her student he had obviously been studying in the library for an extended period of time. There was one more laid out on the table which he knew immediately when he grew close to it. The aroma was strong even from the cut leaves and stems of this plant. It was peppermint. The aroma couldn’t be mistaken for anything else. And any common cook would know what it was. 'Peppermint…what are you doing Lym?” He said as Lym smiled and then nodded. “Making tea Serrif.” She answered with a smile motioning for him to come around the table to her side to help her. He was becoming very curious now. Why would Lym be making tea before morning broke? It was another one of those strange moments for him but he thought like always that she had a reason. Now he realized the paper she had laid out was tea bag paper. Fine paper that was pours but wouldn’t let particles of the tea seep out into the tea water. He smiled and then posed an interesting question. “Well may I join you for tea?” Lym nodded. “Certainly but this is about more than simple tea Serrif. You’ll see.”

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

That statement ran through his head. Everything seemed to be about more than it appeared on the surface. So he figured having deal with Lym couldn’t hurt him. He would likely learn something as well. Well he knew he would learn something as to what…well that would come. He walked over to her side of the table and then she began to explain things to him. “Tea is easy to consume, delicious and also a very good way to get people to take medicine.” She said with a smile as she motioned at the herbs spread out before her. “All of these help the body fight off disease, and if someone has a cut that is deep I usually make up about a weeks’ worth of these teabags for them. It will help them kill off the infection. But one must be careful when making these that taste is accounted for. People will not willingly or easily drink tea that tastes like mud. The taste palate of the mixture needs to be balanced; sometimes for individual taste.” She said as she then picked up a few bags she already had prepared. She then walked over to a boiling kettle of water and poured out a few glasses of the water into ceramic mugs. She then put a tea bag in each and handed him the mug. He watched as the contents distilled into the water coloring it. The water began to smell wonderful as he held the somewhat warm mug in his hands. She then continued. “You see, pleasantries are a large part of what we do Serrif. If being helped isn’t pleasant people will not come back for more help; or may not come back early enough to really evade something horrible.” She took a sip of her tea and Serrif did the same. The mixture was wonderful. It had a very strong taste of mint, but there was a slight pepper taste to it as well that was hardly there at all. There was also a slight taste of lemon. It had a warm sensation to it as it traveled down his throat but the aftertaste was cool and refreshing. He was surprised what he was drinking could be considered medicine. He smiled some, “Wonderful Lym.” She nodded. “It took me forever to get it just right. People discount its effectiveness but then they follow through and end up shaking off colds and fighting off infections far better than normal.” She said as she sipped on her tea some more. “Not many trouble themselves with knowing the mixture but I have a feeling you would find a use for it.” She said as she set her tea down on a sidetable and motioned for him to come over and learn what she had done. Lym smiled, it made her happy that someone wanted to learn her trade. Serrif was a practical man. Everything he did had a good solid reason behind it. He only did what was indeed practical for the circumstances. He took a place as her assistant rather than attending classes. His reasons were because she knew he knew that classroom knowledge would do him little to no good. He already understood the basics. What he wanted to know would only come from use in the world. And the opportunity she offered him was indeed too good for him to pass up. He was a good learner, he wanted to learn and everything she could teach him. And above all he comprehended it all at the same time. Learning new things was far from a struggle for this man. She challenged him and he rose to the occasion more than once. He knew when it was time to buckle down and really learn. And well he was learning now. Lym separated and trimmed some of the ingredients. “The most important herb in the mixture is the peppermint. It will mask anything else you put in the tea. Hiding some of the more distasteful herbs that are needed. This is something not commonly understood that you can hide weaker less pleasant tastes with a stronger more pleasant taste. But you must balance it well or you could end up over using the mint and make the tea distasteful.” She measured out about a good four mint leaves and broke them up with her hands into smaller pieces. Serrif followed her instructions and did the same. “The second is the Thyme, it has a peppery taste but the lemon thyme here has a different less harsh taste.” She then pulled a few leaves of the Thyme and added it to her pile. Again Serrif followed suite. “Now what is important is how you want the mixture to distill into the water. Whole leaves keep longer in tea bags if they will not be used immediately. However if you powder and grind up the leaves it will distill into the water faster but store for less time. It is your choice.” She said as she picked a few purple petals off of the purple coneflower. Serrif again mirrored her and then continued to watch her instruction. She then folded up her teabag carefully, this is where Serrif watched most intently. It was important to get this right because if you left gaps the stuff inside would move out of the bag and into the tea. Which would make the taste absolutely awful. He took careful observations and then tried to do his own. He got a few things wrong which Lym corrected and then she nodded. “There you have it. A herbal healing tea. It is good for daily consumption as well. But even better if someone has a reason to drink it. Believe me many won’t believe a well crafted tea could help them feel better.”

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

The two of them sat for a little while sipping tea while the sun came up. It was interesting indeed. Serrif hadn’t had tea since he got here. He could see how it could be beneficial because well he knew that he would indeed need people to take medicine. And the tea seemed to be the best way to do this. The tea was smooth and did indeed taste good as well. He knew what went into it and if what Lym said was true the tea was also very good for immunity and healing wounds. This was interesting to him and he would have to remember this trick for later use. They sipped tea until it was gone and then Lym stood up. “Well I suppose we should get to the day’s activities then, there is much to do as always.” Lym was right. There was always something to do here and well he figured now was as good a time as ever to get things started for the day. He stood and Lym took the tea cups and set them aside near a wash bucket. Serrif would take care of them later. Lym then laid out several more tea bags and smiled. “You can start the day by making more of the tea bags for distribution later.” And well so started Serrif’s day. He remembered everything well and that was easy enough for him. The tea bags would be pretty easy to make as long as he got the folding at the end right. As far as the spice mixtures…well that was easily done for him. He remembered because he had just made one. Things were always easier for him when he had just completed a test of it. So he stretched and then began his mornings work. Lym didn’t watch him because she knew if anything he had this simple task covered. She settled to making up another glassware tower of some sort. Serrif wasn’t sure what she was doing but it did look very elaborate. But he looked back to his work and continued to make up the teabags. He believed this task was both needed and a distraction at the same time. Likely to distract him from what Lym was doing. But he didn’t know why she would do that. But then again he wasn’t sure about much regarding Lym. She was more of an enigma to him than most Konti women. But that was perhaps a good thing. Serrif finished eventually and had made in the neighborhood of twenty or so tea bags. He had made sure before folding them up that he had measured everything completely. He didn’t want to miss anything. He then set them all aside in a little wooden box that Lym had for him. He then looked up at the interesting glass contraption that Lym had built. It consisted of three retorts connected to a single triple necked circular boiling flask. She hadn’t made her mixtures inside of the retorts yet but she had set aside some plants and the like. She smiled to Serrif and then spoke. “I do know one poison that is useful for hunting. But only one. It requires a setup like this because the agents have to be mixed together as they form.” She motioned at the ingredients on the table and then continued. “It is a strong sedative. A very strong sedative that I would really only use on something I planned to kill. It is possible to simply sedate someone with it. Although you would need to very carefully watch dosing.” It seemed he was going to learn something else that was useful today. She had several plants laid out. Poppy straws, a couple of strange looking mushrooms and then bark from a tree. “You see each of these by itself is relatively harmless, the poppy straws are a painkiller when prepared correctly, the mushroom is a sedative and the bark acts as another painkiller. But if you combine all of them at distillation and condensation they form something else by chemically reacting with each other. What is left is a mild hallucinogen and sedative. It has mixed effects on people, but when hunting deer it is helpful.” She then set out the correct measurements for each raw material on paper and nodded. “Making it isn’t exactly easy. But it is worth it if you don’t have good aim all the time with a bow.”

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

“How do you prepare this?” Serrif asked watching her as she smiled. He knew today he was going to learn something very interesting indeed.

“The poppy straws need to be de-seeded first then dried. Next you turn them into a fine powder, as find as you can manage. You put the powder of several poppy straws about ten or so and soak them in pure refined alcohol inside a sealed flask for two weeks to scrub off and kill any impurities. Then you uncap the mixture and the alcohol will vaporize if it is high enough quality. The resulting powder you can then mix with a slight acid and filter it much like we did the mushroom sedative. At the end the slightly yellow liquid is a very strong painkiller. It could actually stop someone’s heart if you aren’t careful. I will step you through the making of this today.” She said handing him a few dried poppy straws.

He took a mortar and ground up the brown dried material as much as he could. He continued until there was nothing left but a very fine dried powder. He then dumped it into a flask and kept going as long as Lym kept handing him things to pulverize. His arm was getting a little tired but he knew he could keep on going. Lym had already removed the seeds for him but he figured that process was likely pretty easy anyway. He kept on going and going and eventually sometime after twelve plants Lym handed him a glass bottle. He knew it was likely the alcohol that Lym wanted him to use. But what was the exact mixture and how did he know he had alcohol of good enough quality to purify the powder? All of these questions and more would be answered shortly.

“Now there is only really one specification when it comes to the alcohol you use to purify. It has to be clear without tint and it has to be a high enough concentration. Clarity is easy but concentration is key. You can tell this one easy way.” She pulled out a small glass dish and poured some of the alcohol into it. Not a ton just enough to sit on the bottom of the tray. She then took a small flame and touched it to the surface. It burned, but at first it burned like a normal fire…then it started burning clear.

“The faster the liquid has invisible flames the purer it is. If it doesn’t even get set on fire do not use it. The concentration isn’t high enough.” She passed some paper through the invisible heat rising off of the alcohol and it set on fire indicating that there were indeed invisible flames there.

Serrif nodded and let her continue. “The mixture is a simple ratio you need enough alcohol to cover all the powder and make a sort of wet powdered slurry.” She watched as Serrif nodded and then went to do what she asked.

Serrif mixed some alcohol in little by little swirling it in with the powder making sure to cover all of it. If the alcohol was supposed to scrub all the particles he better cover all if not most of the powder. He continued until he thought he had covered everything. He swirled the mixture around and added a little more alcohol to the mixture to make sure. It indeed formed a slurry of particles and this high concentration alcohol. He gave it to Lym and she inspected, nodding her head some as she did so. Seemed that she approved if nothing else was evident. She handed the flask back and then gave him a glass stirrer as well. He proceeded to stir the mixture a little better making sure that he had broken apart any material that could and likely would stick together. After a few minutes of studious mixing he pulled the stirrer out and Lym capped the vial with a rubber stopper.

“Now that will sit for two weeks. Now being that I told you I would teach you all of this today I have one already prepared.” She pulled a vial from a shelf that looked almost like his. The material inside was slightly more faded meaning it was likely also a little more purified than what he had. She set it on the desk and then just removed the cap.

“The alcohol should dissolve from the mixture in a few hours. But now we need to prepare the other pieces of the mixture so we can call it a day for today.”

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

Lym then pulled two more boiling flasks and set them down gently on the counter while she pointed to the other ingredients. “The bark is prepared easily enough by mixing it into the water after grinding it up to a good fine powder.”

Serrif didn’t have to be told any more he simply broke the bark into pieces and set the fine powder down on a piece of paper with he was finished. It took him a decent amount of time using the mortar and pedestal to grid the bark to as fine of a powder as he wanted. He figured this was important to have as fine granules of bark as possible. It likely helped with the rest of the purification and creation process. He knew that grinding things up to a fine powder always seemed to make it mix better into any other liquid and sped up the process a good amount as well. This was important because one didn’t always have an ample amount of time to sit down and make medicine. Sometimes the process was at best rushed but it still had to be rather exact; because lives always hung in the balance. It was important to always know that the decisions he made could affect a person’s wellbeing either in a negative or positive light.

After grinding up the bark Lym inspected the fine powder and nodded giving him the next task. “Now we need to prepare the bark. The mixture isn’t easy to stomach when it is heated up. This is because the heat changes the properties of the bark and the mixture becomes a little different. Therefore we are going to need to put it in an interesting contraption. But that is later we need to prepare the other ingredient.” She also laid out several interesting looking upside down flasks for later use. They looked like a cross between flasks and measuring burettes.

“Those are drip flasks. Useful for when you want to mix several things together and do it in a measured manner. Now we will be making several mixtures and then mixing them all together in the three necked flask. But we need to make the mixtures and then put them into the drip flasks. After that we need to assemble the correct filter structure and well we should be fine.” She handed Serrif two fine filters and some glass tubing.

“Alright now…where did I put…” She said as she moved to a shelf and picked out a clear liquid. She smelt it and then nodded walking over. “Right this is the mushroom sedative we made. Effective and fully filtered through like it should be. Now put that into a drip flask and make sure before you do this that the knob is shut. Otherwise you will spill the sedative everywhere.” She instructed setting the flask down.

Serrif nodded and picked up one of the drip flasks. He inspected it making sure there was no damage done to it and then turned the knob and made sure it functioned properly. He then turned it shut and looked it over. It seemed to be closed to him so he then sat it upright and poured the liquid into it. No liquid came out the bottom and he was happy with this. He poured the entire contents of the flask into the drip flask…or until it was full. And then set it on a metal catch that Lym set on the table. She then poured water into another drip flask and instructed Serrif further.

“Now mix completely all the bark you powdered into this one and make sure it is mixed well.” Serrif did as he was told and slipped the bark powder in little by little letting it settle and mix in before he added more. Eventually he finished and Lym handed him yet another one.

“This one will contain water and the finished opiate mixture.” He nodded and put water into the drop flask and then mixed in the opiate much like he had everything else. When he was finished Lym nodded.

“Now we have everything we need. All that is left is to note the mixtures and ratios. The ratio of the bark to the opiate to the mushroom mixture is 2:1:1. Meaning you will need twice as much of the bark mixture as you need opiate and mushroom. However when you compare the mushroom and opiate together to the bark mixture you should get equal parts. “Serrif wasn’t good at math so he extrapolated some himself to make sure he understood.

“So we will need twice as much of the bark as the other two. But when the other two are added together they should be half of the finished mix?” This was getting a little too interesting for him now. However Lym nodded her head confirming that he was indeed correct.

She then spoke. “Yes, now we also need to pass the opiate and the bark through a filter so that none of the particles seep through. Therefore when we construct our glassware we need to put a filter somewhere in the mechanism for those two.” Serrif looked at the glassware and then figured he knew what to do, and Lym wanted him to construct it alone so she knew what he was doing.

Serrif took the three input flask and set it on the bottom then branched off of that three glassware tubes. On two of the tubes he put fine filters and on the third he didn’t. He then attached the filled drip flasks to their appropriate tubes and then did a final check to make sure everything had settled correctly. He checked all the seals and they were good. There wouldn’t be any liquid dripping out all over the place and well he didn’t want any wasted product. That would be a complete waste of time and effort. Lym then inspected the tower and was pleased. He had done well, and was learning fast.

Glassware :

Green is Opiate, Red is Bark painkiller, blue is Mushroom Sedative. Gold represents fine filters.

“Very good now for the fun part. We need to get the mechanism working. All you need to do is note the marks on the glasswares nobs. There is a part where the mixture begins to flow out some. You need to turn the opiate and mushroom sedative to that amount. Then turn the bark painkiller a mark past the mark that they are at. The liquid will drain out of the drip flasks at the appropriate amounts and all we do is wait.”

Serrif nodded and made not before he started. So this was going to be interesting indeed. He followed Lym’s instructions and soon enough the liquid was draining through the glassware tubes into the boiling flask bottom. He smiled it seemed all was going well.

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

Serrif watched as the mixture was made in the lowest most boiling flask. The three drip flasks were draining in a consistent manner through the glass tubes. It seemed the filters weren’t clogging up the dripping of the mixtures which was good. That meant that he wouldn’t have to stop the process to clear the filters. This would have slowed the process down and he didn’t want that. He would rather have the entire time dedicated to more important things. So he watched and made sure everything went as generally according to plans. He knew that without Lym here he knew that he likely wouldn’t be able to pull this out himself. The liquids seemed to be combining well in the lower boiling flask. He kept on watching and well everything was going well…but would he really know if things were going wrong? He thought not but he assumed Lym would know…hopefully.

“This final mixture needs to be capped when finished and left to sit for a few days somewhere room temperature and not in sunlight.” She said as she then continued to watch the mixture with Serrif. Everything was going well.

Serrif kept watching until the liquids had drained completely out of the top flasks. He looked to Lym and she picked out and disconnected the three input flask from the bottom. She then put rubber sealed stoppers to seal it. She then took the flask and put it in the back of a cupboard. Well so was it done now? Lym turned around and then smiled again. ”Well that is it for now Serrif, as far as your learning is considered. We need to tend to other things.”

Serrif knew this meant making other medicine, tending to patients and likely tending to the garden as well. But these were all things he didn’t mind doing because he was helping people.

Requests :

Skills
Herbalism
Poison
Philtering
Medicine
Socialization
Mathematics (just a point to get started)

Lore
Making Medicinal Tea
Poison can be Medicine

[Archelon]

Thread Award *begins to sing horribly* "When preparing for the road, take a hat. When preparing for the road take a hat... oh when you see that turtle going and its stride might be slowing, Ya' better get agoing for a hat. Preferrably the metal kind ." And the Results!!!!: Serrif : SkillName 1-5 How/why? Herbalism 4 Poison 2 Philtering 5 Medicine 2 Socialization 1 Observation 2 Mathematics 1 Lores: Poisoning:Mushroom types have differing effects(basic) Medicine:Identification and uses of Opiates from poppy plants(basic) Herbalism: Identification and uses of Echinacea(basic) Herbalism: Identification and uses of Sage and Thyme(basic) Herbalism: Variable types of Thyme(basic) Herbalism: Identification and uses of Peppermint(basic) Herbalism: Medicinal Teas and their uses(basic) Medicine: Crafting herbal Teas (basic) Philtering: Glasswork Assemblies(basic) Tenants Of Business: Pleasant times make for return customers(basic) Cooking: Sage and Thyme are nice for spice(basic) Would you like some extra turtle sauce ? : Nice thread, good transitioning throughout. Good job Lots of lores on this one X_x.