Dungeons: Potions Laboratory

[PhoenixRising]

A scientist in his laboratory is not a mere technician:
he is also a child confronting natural phenomena that impress him as though they were fairy tales
~Marie Curie

Within the laboratory, there are sixteen tables all pushed together to create two rows of eight. Each seating area is equipped with two stands and burners that adjust to fit your cauldron no matter what size it may be. This is where students can practice brewing any potions they wish. Along the walls there are shelves stocked with various potion equipments including flasks, funnels, phials, stirring rods. The Potions Storeroom down the corridor includes many common potions ingredients, along with extra cauldrons, textbooks, dragonhide gloves, protective goggles.

On the chalkboard at the front of the room are some general guidelines for you to observe while using this room:

• Clean up your own mess. Your mother does NOT live here.
• Be safe. If you don't know what to use a stirring rod for, then you probably shouldn't be brewing a potion unattended. Please refrain from causing any fires or explosions.
• Do NOT use your schoolmates as your test subjects
• Clean up after yourself. As I stated already, I am NOT your mother.
• If you need assistance, please ask
• Don't waste ingredients.
• OOC: this isn't a class. This is an additional thread for freestyle RPing opportunities related to potion brewing. Feel free to PM/VM me if you'll require Professor Adara's assistance in the laboratory, otherwise we'll just assume you want independent potion brewing time.

[PhoenixRising]

Professor Adara was waiting for the students in the laboratory when she would provide details as to their term project. She hoped it would be an enlightening assignment for them and while it was mostly independent, they should know that she was readily available as a valuable resource should they need it. While the books they could find in here and in the library would be informative, no doubt, there was nothing compared to the decades of experience she had in various brews during her full-time healing working. Although her specialty was always more sports medicine, that didn't mean she wasn't qualified for other healing potions.

[FearlessLeader19]

Ary had been pleasantly surprised when Professor Adara had announced that her long term project would entail the students creating a potion of their own. Years ago while Dad Adi had been at Hogwarts, he and Aunty Lux had created their own potion to remedy burns. In fact, it was the same one that was used at the Atreyu-Rehman Dragon/Hippogriff Reserve by the family and the staff. This project opened an exciting prospect for Ary since it meant he too could make a useful contribution that wasn’t him just helping out with the creatures.

With his books and quills at the ready, the third year made his way to the Potions Lab where Adara was awaiting her students. He offered her a smile and the usual wiggly greeting then went to take a seat at one of the tables.

[Chelliephone]

Considering how poorly she'd always done at potions, an entire semester of trying to craft her own was... beyond intimidating to Vera. Especially because her potions tutor had graduated the year prior and if there was anyone that would have gotten her through this project with ease, it would have been him. She supposed she'd have to beg and plead Vasco to help her with this when he wasn't working on his own. Or maybe... she could just take a fail on it. Did it really matter how well she did in her classes as long as she passed her NEWTs at the end of the year?

A question she would contemplate for later. For now, she supposed she shouldn't give up before she'd even begun.

Entering the Potions laboratory for the introduction to the assignment, Ve grinned at Professor Adara and then Aryan as well, before finding herself a seat and pulling out a notebook and a quill so she could take notes.

[MadMadamMalfoy]

Sydney had to admit, she was awfully curious about this potions assignment. She already had an idea for a healing potion she wanted to make, but the idea she had seemed pretty advanced. She wasn’t sure she had enough knowledge yet to make her idea happen... not that she'd ever let on. One must act confident at all times! Anyway, she was going to try to make it happen.

The blonde entered the potions lab, her schoolbag tucked under her arm. “Hello, Professor,” she greeted with a polite nod. Setting her bag down, she took a seat at the nearest table and waited for further instructions.

[Nordic Witch]

Maria headed down to the Potions Lab in the dungeons to get more information on the long term Potions assignment. If she wanted to study to be a healer at university then she had to be able to brew her own healing potions to aid her possible future patients. She was curious to see if Professor Adara's assignment could help her get even better at potion brewing.

With her backpack bouncing between shoulders the dark haired badgerette proceeded into the lab, and shot Prof Adara a big smile in greeting "Hi Professor Adara!" before heading over to take a seat beside her bestie. "Hi Vera, won't brewing our own chosen potions be fun?" Maria then opened her backpack to take out writing utensils and parchment to be ready for taking assignment notes.

[Kolyander]

Now this was going to be interesting. Bryony wasn't fond of most lesson assignments that happened outside of classes to begin with, so add into the mix that it was one she wasn't always the very best at.. and this could spell disaster for her. Or anyone else that may be around if things went bad. Fingers crossed right now from the start that she could pull off whatever it was she decided to even do.

"Hello Professor," the small blonde greeted quietly with a half finger wiggle wave as she found herself a table near Aryan's and set her bag down. A small smile was given to those around her, Ary included.. even if they were uhhhh.. kinda having some time apart right now.

[Lottiepot]

Potions was unfortunately not near the top of the list when it came to subjects that Aurora was good at. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy it, nor did she find it difficult to comprehend but it was more a case of finding the whole brewing process tedious. There was a lot of waiting around, of having to constantly keep an eye on the cauldron, of counting the number of stirs and the direction and Merlin knew there were many things that the Ravenclaw found to be more interesting than watching a potion bubble. Sadly she had come to the realisation that if she were to achieve her dream of becoming a Creature Healer, it was likely that her grades in Potions would need a little boost.

She’d made the trek down from the tower and arrived at the potion storeroom with time to spare - quite a feat considering she often only just made it in time to the lessons located furthest away from her common room. It wasn’t her fault that Hogwarts was so full of paintings that loved a conversation and who was she to deny them that opportunity? She slipped through the door, offering a smile as a greeting to Professor Adara before joining the student gathering in the centre of the room.

[PhoenixRising]

SPOILER!!: Hi <3

Amelia supposed it was a right-of-passage for these students to create their own potions, since ironically she'd done the same in like her third year at Hogwarts. So she wouldn't be surprised to learn that several years later, Ary's father had done so as well. She gave her usual return finger wiggle at him.

Did Vera know that she was always available to help her students? It was fortunate too that she was more than happy to accept 'A' (preferred E but exceptions could be made) for NEWT students whereas some potions masters only wanted O students. Also technically speaking she needed to at least having a passing grade to be eligible to take the NEWT exam.

She was always intrigued by the young ones especially, fresh minds, and Sydney was no different. Although she suspected the younger ones in particular would need more guidance and that was okay. Greeting her back with a nod, as Maria entered and took a seat by Vera. Also, Maria should definitely come chat with her sometime about healing.

Not to worry, Bryony ... as Amelia was definitely going to be around once the brewing started to hopefully prevent mishaps. And even if disasters happened, Amelia was always a believer that sometimes you needed disasters to have success. Disaster didn't mean failure. She greeted the small blond in return.

Ah yessss ... for any type of healing profession, potions was necessary - whether it was for creatures or humans. Which is why the subject was mandatory since first year. Also she would certainly agree with Aurora that conversing with the paintings was a lovely pasttime. It was a good thing that today's meeting was informal gathering space just to offer some more insight as to the assignment.

Speaking of, she should probably get going on providing some more insights as to the assignment. Lest she keep them too long "Hello ... So as indicated, this year we'll be brewing our own healing potions. First things, you'll want to decide on what you want your potion to do. And research to find if a potion exists already. If it does, you'll want to create a variant to make it unique. If it doesn't, then you'll need to research on starting from scratch with a potion. There's no real wrong way to complete the assignment and there's plenty of books out there to help guide you in researching ingredients. Of course, if you're really stuck for ideas, you're more than able to reach out to me for further guidance." Hopefully this all was making sense and would come together as they started to research.

Couple things to note:
* This should encompass at least two posts of researching various ingredients and their possible effects. Should include research of at least 5 potion ingredients (don't need to use them all!)
* Should also research what you might want your intended effect to be. This could alleviate muscle soreness, cure allergies, whatever you'd like, just should have something to do with healing.....
* This part is where you should be selecting what potion you want to brew. Ideally it should be an original brew, BUT obviously not expected if your character is on the younger side / less experienced with potions. For instance, you could take something like the 'wiggenweld potion' and maybe add a flavor to it, to tweak it slightly. Or similar to charms and how there's a "lumos maxima", perhaps making a stronger variant of an already existing potion.

ooc: sorry for the delay... just to reiterate, this was just an informal gathering space to provide some more information as to the assignment, since it's easier to do that IC initially We'll do the same thing to introduce part two in a couple weeks ... in the meanwhile, happy researching And don't forget to update your posts in the LTA thread, with your posts for credit...

[FearlessLeader19]

It wasn’t long before other students were filing into the lab. Noticing Vera, he returned her grin with a little wave. And at least Bry wasn’t completely ignoring him? She received a small smile but he decided not to make conversation lest that blow up in his face as well.

But soon they were starting and Adara was explaining what she expected of them. Ary paid rapt attention, placing unnecessary pressure on himself already, to follow in his dad’s and Aunt Lux’s footsteps. He knew that he would contact either of them for ideas and any other form of help he may need. Was he excited about this project? Of course. This is where he really got to test his skills of what he had learnt about ingredients so far.

Did Aryan know what sort of Potion he wanted to create? Yes. A Cure for Itchy Skin. But first… using his textbook, he checked out the list of Healing Potions and known antidotes. About ten minutes later, he determined there was no such potion/antidote. There was an Antidote for itchy mouth but that was about it. This seemed as though he could indeed go forth with his idea!

That aside, it meant that the next step would be researching ingredients. This aspect was going to be time consuming, he knew. This was why Ary was already turning the pages of the textbook for ideas. Armadillo bile first stuck out to him since it was used in the Wit Sharpening Potion. Could the ingredient also somehow aid in in heightening the body’s guard against annoying itches? Hmmm…