Welcome student to the next lesson in your journey to Alchemical Mastery.  In prior lessons you have been introduced to a variety of amazing experiments and formulae that I have generously shared with you. In this lesson we revisit the philosophical foundation for your pursuit of the mystical power that alchemy shall afford you.  Alchemy, at its core, is the power for transformation!  This is no easy feat, if it was then every wizard with a flask and fire would be able to do what we can… but they cannot.  We harness what is to make our surroundings better.  Sometimes that is delivered through augmentation, sometimes through subtraction. And yes yes, sometimes it is the turn everything to gold trick, which I will not share with you until you are far more advanced; perhaps more advanced than you can truly attain. That, remains to be seen.

An adequate alchemist will spend their life replicating what has been done for generations and take no risks. Their transformations merely mimic the work of others. If such mundane pursuits tickle your fancy then please throw this and any other volumes of my works you may have on the nearest fire because you are as oblivious to the potential of your studies as adventurers are to arrow slits in a kill box when distracted by lustful murals.  The difference being those adventurers have something more to live for, where you when you abandon your studies, hold no more value than a rock to a confused hill giant behind a wall of force. But I digress….

Augmentation is often sought because in some way it motivates others to do your bidding. Make them stronger, prettier, or some such and they will pay good coin.  Again you can chase such paltry sums and insult the work of alchemists before you; or instead you can pursue elixirs that can sustain the talents of those you come to rely on.  When they grow weary, you can revitalize them. When they cause unnecessary damage to their fleshy frames, you can mend their ills and restore a brute to brutish working order. Restoring to prior states of being merely undoes entropy and are the accomplishments of lesser persons; as an Alchemist you can instead look to extends those around you past their own endurance. You can empower them to heights they could not accomplish through their own training and natural limitations. By understanding the essential components of their being that serve as the fundament of their abilities, one can increase their efficacy by enhancing those primal reserves.

Consider for a moment that not all  transformations need be ephemeral. Matter can be reused regardless of its nature, organic or inorganic. That which was once animated by the soul can be re-mobilized by alchemy.  Large or small, such reanimation can server a variety of uses limited only by your imagination and, unfortunately, the moral code of those who do not grasp the complicated process you enacted to reuse the organic material that would otherwise be next destined for worm food. Be mindful that such transformation can easily be mistaken by the feeble minded for necromancy but stand fast in your knowledge that what you accomplish is no simply dark magic cantrip.  You introduce no negative energy nor dark divine providence into your constructs.  When their witless perception of the world screams Zombie in their lizard brain, you need to train them to think Golem.  It is a slow, tedious process, but worthy of reducing anxiety in those around you.

With this lesson delivered, I shall not impart to you the procedure for transforming intact organic materials into semi-organic golem constructs…