To Whomever Finds This Letter:
My names is Julius ban Gavh'e and if you are reading these words, I am surely long dead. As befits one of my station and familial connections I was sent to study at Ban Ard, the famed school for mages, yet I was never to complete those studies. For the entire duration of my life magic held but a weak hold over a soul ravished by a passion for organic alchemy. It was to that most wondrous of sciences I dedicated the most beautiful years of my life, and the table beside which you now most surely stand is the fruit of those labors of love.
If you are a fellow lover of alchemy, I hazard to guess you will be filled with rapture to behold my discovery. If, however, that marvelous science is unknown to you, please heed my advice – drop this letter, step away from the table and never return. The practice of alchemy by amateurs can lead to injury and even death.
If you did not drop this letter after that last paragraph, you are no stranger to alchemy – thus I shall now reveal to you in a few brief words the fundaments of the alchemy table I designed. Leaving aside all unnecessary detail, my chief discovery consisted of a formula and tools allowing for the transmutation of mutagens taken from monsters into mutagens of the more common sort. I know this sounds highly unlikely, but I have proven with utmost certainty that this is possible.
The workings of this transmutation are simple – one must simply make use of the table which I designed. As an expert in the arcane art of alchemy, you certainly already know your way around such devices. If you are but an amateur, a member of the hoi polloi who has by accident wandered to this abandoned place – back away, lest your ignorance do you grievous harm.
You are surely asking yourself why I hid my discovery from the world, why I did not share my formula with the community of alchemists... Well, let us say I have forever been regarded as eccentric, aloof. And I have always believed it is pure chance and not men themselves that determine destiny. Furthermore, I have never sired offspring and have no desire to entrust my opus to a mere acquaintance. I thus concluded the best solution was to hide my table and trust that chance will – if my theory is correct – bring a man here who shall know how to make use of it, whom it shall delight and to whom it will prove of great use. Whether I am right or wrong – time will tell.
Use my gift wisely and fare you well,
Julius ban Gavh'e, alchemist
