“Right, so this time, a standard Enlarge Person potion without the extra parts. Hmm.”

Alkali investigated his spice cabinet, unsure where the reagents he’d need were kept. Things weren’t totally organized around the gnoll. Test tubes or ingredients always went missing or popped up at inconvenient times.

The iron filings were in their normal location, but the acid needed to dissolve the entire magical concoction was missing. Right between the sodium chloride and potassium nitrate should have been his hydrochloric acid. Its absence mocked the gnoll’s lack of a filing system. But at least he’d learned to always prepare a backup. There were other acids in his inventory. That could work for an approximate solution. He slowly decanted the liquid into his beakers, waving a hand over the fizzing mixture. The somatic and verbal components of a spell needed to be added to the potion.

Alkali never did figure out whether he’d messed up on the pronunciation, or used a solution at too high concentration, or picked the wrong sort of filing. The end result was that the potion became hot, exothermic and frothing in the beaker. There was only a brief moment between the potion exploding and Alkali’s reaction.

“Oh shit, not again-”

The gnoll tried ducking behind a chair, trying to cover himself with whatever was nearest. There simply wasn’t enough time to react, nor enough chair to properly give the gnoll protection. The explosion pushed both of them back into a wall, wood splintering into pieces and splash damage covering the gnoll.

Clothes clung to his body for only a second. Alkali ripped the smoking remains off and threw them as far as possible, hoping to avoid extended contact with the chemicals. Basic alchemy principles of safety he’d learned through the many accidents. Still too late though; he felt the cracked wall against his back sliding down and a ‘bump’ against his head.

“Alright, one sec, let’s- OOF. Let’s try to get free, find Snake, and make a plan-”

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Writing something as a short story / caption for the set of 3 pictures drawn by Knave. Hope you enjoy it! I really like writing stories to go along with the images, no surprises there.

Art by Knave, and Snake owned by him too! https://twitter.com/Knaveofclubs https://ko-fi.com/knaveofclubs