20 Alchemical Mishaps
Due to the bizarre and wide range of chemicals alchemists use in their intricate experiments, alchemists and accidents often go hand in hand. Not only are the mixtures they make dangerous if handled incorrectly, the creatures and places they are gathered from present dangers to the untrained or careless. Not all accidents are immediately apparent and left to develop can cause more problems than a simple explosion or release of stinking gas.
Working under the intimidating glare of his alchemist master a mining apprentice strikes a vein of explosive material in a larger rock causing an explosion.
Leaking chemicals have weakened the insides of an athanor. When several experiments are bubbling away on its shelves the whole thing collapses sending chemicals and acids everywhere. The resulting mess is a bubbling frantic gloop that oozes outwards and traps everything—expensive glass retorts and apprentices alike—in its quick-drying embrace.
An unexpected explosion fills the laboratory with smoke sending the alchemist and his servants crashing through the equipment to escape. A dangerous sentient ooze is freed by their frenzied escape and begins to feed—at first on rats and spiders but eventually its trembling senses seek larger prey.
Invisible gas seeps from the edges of a cracked retort, filling the air with heady fumes that send people into peals of laughter and hysterical giggles.
The alchemist excitedly takes delivery of a dangerous creature frozen in specially made alchemical ice. Unfortunately, the creature has started to awaken and takes offence to being trapped in its icy prison.
A wagon containing explosive materials is attacked by thieves as it approaches the alchemist’s laboratory. During the melee, the thieves accidentally ignite the explosive materials killing themselves and the drovers. The explosion causes a nearby building to collapse. Townsfolk are trapped in the ruins.
Stone shelves weighed down with too many jars collapse, dumping their contents on the floor. The resulting mixtures create dense, choking green gas. As the gas billows through the room, acid eats its way through the chamber’s floors.
As the characters arrive at the alchemist’s laboratory an experiment goes horribly wrong. A muted explosion, followed by an outpouring of smoke, from the building’s windows are the obvious signs of disaster. The smoke, however, contains powerful hallucinogens and when the wind picks up it blows over the surrounding neighbourhood. The alchemist begs the characters for help.
An unruly apprentice has been disposing of chemicals in the nearby sewers. Strange slugs dwelling the sewers have feasted upon the chemicals, and have develop a taste for flesh after slaying the apprentice. Hungry, they begin to hunt.
The alchemist has been experimenting with the corpse of a murderer. Consequently, the laboratory becomes the home of a malicious haunting presence that causes experiments to go wrong with disastrous results.
Servants are confused to find the alchemist missing, when they arrive in the morning. All that remains of the alchemist are his boots.
Despite taking great care an alchemist’s experiment releases a lethal invisible gas which kills him and his assistants. Local authorities barricade the building but a group of thieves sneak into the laboratory to steal the recipe.
The alchemist discovers how to turn lead into gold. Unknown to all, the transformation is temporary and wears off within a month leaving nothing but calcified metal behind.
Local glassmakers have provided the alchemist with shoddy work. Consequently, the alchemist drips acid on his legs maiming them so badly they have to be amputated.
Whilst making a rushed batch of ointment to cure a rampant disease savaging the locals the alchemist accidentally creates a slow-acting poison which kills the patients instead.
Joining forces with a distiller an enterprising alchemist tries to create bubbling gin (with disastrous results).
Whilst extracting the poison from the skin of toads and frogs the alchemist accidentally loses a frog. The ensuing deaths are a mystery to all except the alchemist. Terrified he will be found out and hanged the alchemist prepares to flee.
The alchemist is working under duress for an assassin who has captured his family. The alchemist plots a deadly accident for his captor, but it goes horribly wrong and innocent bystanders are killed while the assassin survives.
Rats eating from the refuse pile of the alchemist’s laboratory become charged with manic energy. The rats breed repeatedly and succumb to a frenzy of eating. Nearby stores and granaries are ravaged, and the local authorities ask the characters to track down and kill the rats.
Whilst breaking down an exotic rock an alchemist releases an angry elemental trapped within the stone. As it breaks free, the elemental knocks over and absorbs many of the alchemist’s chemicals. This exposure gives the elemental strange powers, making it much harder to defeat.
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This article is an extract from GM's Miscellany: 20 Things V.
Design Steve Hood Art Matt Morrow
