Welcome to Gaia! ::

Today's lesson is simply an introduction. You will attempt to complete this potion and use self-discovery as your main learning tool. We work with some rare, and fun, ingredients that should give you a wide range of possibilities to explore. This potion will test your ability to follow directions, and to find understanding in all the ingredients. It is a simple, and practical potion for you to know.

- peppermint - A crossbreed of watermint and spearmint, with a high menthol content. It generally thrives in shade and has a distinct, memorable, oder. Often used in teas and other other aesthetics.
chop 4grams of fresh peppermint leaves it into thin strips.

- cungranexactator- It reminds you of an onion, in fact it's almost identical except it lacks the pugent odor. It will still make your eyes water when you chop it up, however.
chop it into 100grams of rough cude shapes.

- Acromantula blood - Just like humans, Acromantulas can "donate" blood without suffering from it. Even still, we try not to use much of the beautifully pearly liquid. You will only get a single, already measured vial. If you break, loose, or waste it you're out of luck.
5ml

- spider eyes - Use your standard issue of spider eyes from the apothocrary kit you were supposed to get as a school supply. Their eyes are single lenses rather than compound eyes, ranging from simple light/dark-receptors to eyes rivaling those of a pigeon (some jumping spiders).
carefully measure out 35grams

- Guinness - is a dry stout that originated in Arthur Guinness's St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin, Ireland. The beer is based upon the porter style that originated in London in the early 1700s. The distinctive feature in the flavor is the roasted barley which remains unfermented. For many years a portion of the beer was aged to give a sharp lactic flavor, but Guinness has refused to confirm if this still occurs. The thick creamy head is the result of a nitrogen mix being added during the serving process.
I will add 50ml of this to your potion when you're ready. Students are not allowed to handle the substance.

- ginger rhizome - First off, it's up to you to figure out what a "rhizome" is, luckily it's in your textbook - you need to to find out where. Secondly ginger is the common name for the monocotyledonous perennial plant Zingiber officinale. Ginger contains up to 3% of an essential oil that causes the fragrance of the spice. The main constituents are sesquiterpenoids with (-)-zingiberene as the main component. Lesser amounts of other sesquiterpenoids (β-sesquiphellandrene, bisabolene and farnesene) and a small monoterpenoid fraction (β-phelladrene, cineol, and citral) have also been identified. The pungent taste of ginger is due to nonvolatile phenylpropanoid-derived compounds, particularly gingerols and shogaols. The latter are formed from the former when ginger is dried or cooked. Zingerone is also produced from gingerols during this process, and it is less pungent and has a spicy-sweet aroma.
grate 17grams of the ginger rhizome and separate it into two equal piles

- water - If you don't know what common water is get out of this class. make sure this is clear, distilled water.
The charm for distilling regular tapwater is inflixi putus.
The charm for removing all but hydrogen and oxygen from the water is erkolcstele.
200ml of clear, mineral-free, distilled water.

[all students who sign up will be listed here. as will both the lab and homework grades and the final grade after the class and homework periods are over.]



Passing Grades
O = Outstanding
E = Exceeds Expectations
A = Acceptable

Failing Grades
P = Poor
D = Dreadful
T = Troll

Lorako was really happy. She loved potion, it was so interresting to see how things changed in a potion.
She took notes about the ingredients. There was many she actually didn't knew what it could be.

She took her cauldron and started with the simple thing : bringing the water to boil. She push the fire hard to get a rapid boil like the professor lady asked. She took the peppermint leaves and put it on the cauldron after she chopped it into stips. She wait for a distinct scent. Actually she didn't knew which scent it could be. There was a little one which appear. So she decided to continue with it.

But what could be rhizome ?? she looked at her textbook to find out. But she was totally lost, she didn't understand the words at all. It was more difficult than the English she learnt.

As Sira listened to Lady Concetta speak, her eyes wandered off to the board. The prospect of working with interesting and/or unusual ingredients was what made her want to join Potions class in the first place. She had a feeling, however, that this could be a class in which she would struggle a bit.

One of the questions mentioned the importance of purifying and distilling the water, which she would have just ignored otherwise. This involved the use of charms, which she was a bit comfortable with, so she pointed her wand at the still water in front of her.

"Kerlcol..ste...le?"
The R and the L's made her tongue roll in all sorts of ways that seemed unnatural. She was misreading the spell, and as such, nothing was happening.
Reading it over, she gave it some more tries, becoming a bit frustrated, but finally got it right:

"Er - colk - stele", she repeated, and purify it did. Or, at least, it seemed to; she wouldn't go as far as saying it was crystalline, but it looked... fine.

Now, distilling. Not wanting to lose time with it as she did trying to get the purifying spell right, Sira did an odd movement with her shoulders, as if trying to relax and, waving her wand, she commanded: "Inflixi putus".
She looked at the water, but as far as color went, nothing had happened. Had the water level gone down a bit? Sira wasn't entirely sure, but she proceeded anyway. This sense of helplessness did bother her a bit, though.


Carefully measuring the closest she could get to 200ml of water, she poured it into her cauldron and placed it over the fire, waiting for the fervent bubbling to begin.
Meanwhile, she chopped the peppermint leaves as instructed, feeling that sweet (but strong) scent go onto her hands. Sira wondered if she was supposed to wear gloves or some kind or protection while she did so, but this smell was so pleasant that she didn't mind having it on her fingertips.

She dropped the leaves inside the now boiling pot and, leaning over it, Sira felt the menthol perfume rise, along with the vapor, from inside.

Lady Concetta walked between the students observing the potions. She shook her head sadly at those not performing well.

First was the first year Lorako, she walked up to the girl and pointed to the cauldron. "You didn't purify or distill, did you? I can tell by the color of the water. That will affect your potion later in the process. And actually, using the ginger plant stem is going to make this a very poisonous potion. I would not suggest ingesting this at all..."

Next she walked over to the 3rd year, Kinzo. After three years in her class, surely he knew better. "You didn't purify or distill your water... that's not going to be good." She pointed out to him.

On her way back up to the front, she passed the beautiful first year Sira, "It's looking good. Keep up the solid work." She didn't want to point out the inaccuracy of the measurements, but hopefully it wouldn't affect the student's work too much.

She listenned to the professor and started to be scared. "Poisonous ? oh my god." she wanted to start again. What the professor meant by purify ? She decided it would be better to ask.

"Sorry Lady Concetta, i don't understand, how i can purify or distill it ? Can i start again ?"