Puzzini's Elixir of Immortality

This post was inspired by "Forever and Ever" by Steve Ditko, one of four short stories that are included in the forthcoming NUELOW Games comics/RPG-hybrid book "Immortal Tales by Steve Ditko". (Some version of this material will be included in it.)

On May 23, 1568, the Italian alchemist Mario Puzzini sent messengers to his fellow practicioners of the Arts that he had successfully created an elixir of immortality. When his fellow alchemists arrived at his laboratory a few days later, however, they found the place ransacked and Puzzini and his assistant missing. Puzzini was never heard from or seen again, and the heaps of ashes found in the fireplace was believed to all that remained of his notes regarding his many alchemical discoveries--including the secret of immortality.

A few years later, rumors began to arise that the assistant, Georgio, has been spotted in different places throughout Italy and Europe. It was further claimed that he was living proof that Puzzini's immortality formula had worked--or, more specifically, immortal proof that the formula had worked. It also came to be widely believed that Georgio had murdered Puzzini and stolen his secrets and that the ashes in the fireplace was to throw pursuers off his trail. As time passed, rumors became legends, and those legends passed into near-forgotten obscurity... but well-informed alchemists continued to hold out hope that Puzzini's formula could still be found, either due to an immortal being walking the Earth.

The truth is that Georgio did indeed become immortal by drinking Puzzini's elixir. The mixture was flawed, however, and it was Puzzini himself who destroyed his lab and burned the notes and formulas; the aging alchemist was so angered and disappointed by his failure that he quit the art of alchemy on that day. He did, however, let Georgio keep the notebook containing Puzzini's final attempt at creating an immortality elixir, so that he Georgio might have a chance to perfect it, or do undo its effects.

Unfortunately for Georgio, Puzzini's notebook was taken from him by an unscrupulous mystic from whom he sought assistance during the late 1700s and he has no idea what has become of it. But maybe he can cross the paths of a group of heroes who have the skills and motivation to help free him from what he has come to view as a living Hell, and perhaps even succeed where Puzzini failed.


PUZZINI'S ELIXIR IN THE d20 SYSTEM
This section describes how to use Puzzini's Notebook to create his elixir of immortality and what happens to a mortal who consumes it. .

Creating Puzzini's Elixir of Immortality

The method for creating Puzzini's Elixir of Immortality is described in a notebook that consists of 100 pages of parchment bound within plan leather covers. The pages are covered with writing and formulas written with a spidery script. It takes 3d4+2 hours of total time, as well as a successful  (DC14) or Knowledge: Arcane Lore (DC19) skill checks to understand its content and successfully understand the content and thus apply it to the creation of Puzzini's Elixir of Immortality.

   Once the material in the notebook has been mastered, the character must have access to a well-equipped alchemist lab and at least 3 ranks in the Knowledge: Physical Sciences skill or 5 ranks in Knowledge: Arcane in order to actually create a dose of the Elixir. A successful brewing process takes a 12 hours of uninterrupted work and careful monitoring of distillation and the mixing and remixing of the liquids and two successful Knowledge: Physical Sciences (DC18) or Knowledge: Arcane Lore (DC15) skill.

   The nature of the elixir that is created at the end of the process depends on the success or failures of the skill checks.

If both skill checks fail during the brewing process, the resulting elixir has the following effect:

* The consumer must roll a Fortitude save (DC13). If the saving throw fails, the character's Constitution attribute is immediately reduced by 1 point. He or she falls very ill and is sickened for ten days, minus his or her Constitution bonus (adjusted if necessary). The character regains the Constitution point upon recovery from the illness.

If one skill check fails during the brewing process, the resulting elixir has the following effect:

* The consumer immediately becomes 2d10+10 years younger. If the elixir is consumed by a player character, the age cannot be less than the minimum starting age for the character's race, but NPCs can be reduced to infancy. The character's levels Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma attributes remain unaffected, but adjustments may have be made to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution attribute scores if the character has been reduced to young adulthood or even younger. The character ages as normal, just starting from the point to which the clock was turned back.

If no skill checks are failed during the brewing process, the resulting elixir has the following effect:

* The consumer immediately becomes 2d10 years younger. The age cannot be less than the minimum starting age of a player character of the consumer's race.

* The character no longer ages, and is immune to all aging effects, natural and magical.

* The character is immune to all physical harm from any source, including radiation, toxins, and poisons. As soon as he or she is about to take damage, the character immediately becomes insubstantial. He or she remains in this state until the source of the potential physical harm is no longer dealing damage.

* The character is seized with a lack of ambition and is disinterested in improving him- or herself. He or she has a 50% penalty on all earned experience points (round down).

* The character is drained of creative impulses and finds it hard to focus on intellectual matters. He or she has a -6 penalty to all Craft, Knowledge, and Perform skill checks. The character has a -2 penalty to all Bluff, Intimidate, Hide, Search and Spot skill checks.

*The effects of the elixir persist for 10d100+100 years. Once its duration ends, the character begins to age normally and all penalties to experience point gain 

Creating an Antidote to Puzzini's Elixir of Immortality

Creating an Antidote to Puzzini's Elixir of Immortality requires access to a well-equipped alchemy lab, or a well-equipped modern chemistry lab with either access to Puzzini's original formula or a sample of the correctly brewed elixir to analyze. 

   If a character is starting from Puzzini's formula, he or she must first successfully reverse engineer it. This requires 2d6+4 hours of intensive research, as well as a Knowledge: Arcane Lore (DC14, reduced to DC11 if the character has 5 or more ranks in the Knowledge: Physical Sciences skill). If the skill check fails, the character cannot create a successful antidote until gaining an additional rank in the Arcane Lore skill; at that time, he or she can try the skill check again. (However, the character must still spent six hours of uninterrupted work, distilling and mixing liquids in order to create a sweet-tasting but otherwise unremarkable potion.)

   Once a successful formula has been devised, it takes six hours of uninterrupted work, distilling and mixing liquids, as well as two successful Craft: Chemical skill checks (DC12). The end result is one dose that, if consumed within 24 hours of its creation, will end neutralize Puzzini's Elixir of Immortality and all of its effects. The character once again ages normally, can suffer injury and death, and is no longer subject to any skill check or experience point penalties.

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If there's any interest whatsoever, we can provide some random adventure outline generation tables involving where Puzzini's journal can be found. Just let us know.