Name: Arabella “Bell†Sprout
Age: 26
Birthday: January 18th
Gender: Female
Category: Staff
Occupation: Shopkeeper/Substitute Teacher
Appearance Description:
Bell thinks being skinny is for chumps. She stands at 5’8â€Â, weighs 185 lbs, and wears her weight well – she’s curvy, full-bodied, and the picture of health. She’s olive-skinned with dark-brown, somewhat wavy hair and green eyes. There’s still a little bit of acne on her face at times, but she’s rather light-hearted about it.
She likes her clothes loose and airy, with a particular love for a <a href='http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0062/1412/products/blue_poncho_lg_pic_grande.jpg?v=1306212083' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>silk poncho</a> given to her by her mother. Having a few beads and bracelets also quite pleases her.
Personality Description:
Bell is an enthusiastic young woman with a love of the world – and what she can do with it. She loves to create and discover, and if the mood is right it’s likely she’ll ask you for a blood sample. You know, just in case it has magical properties. She loves to read non-fiction books, but even more than that she loves to explore.
Bell is just a very loving person – or self-centered, perhaps. She likes people who are interesting and nice to her, but doesn’t feel the need to be particularly nice back most of the time, and she can be quite inconsiderate without realizing it. She’s pushy when she wants things, and it’s difficult for her to yield. If she doesn’t get her way she’s more likely to sulk.
The bright side of this is that if you worm your way into her heart, she will help you if it’s the last thing she does. Bell believes in loyalty, and though she’s generally lazy she will work her butt off for someone who she thinks needs and deserves it. She also does her best to keep her promises, and she tries to be honest – though she’s not above making excuses.
Powers:
Potion Brewer
Bell is a potion brewer, which means exactly what it sounds like. She has great skill at recognizing magical potential in materials, and, generally, knows how to put them together without blowing something up, and even create things that work, sometimes. In fact she has an entire store full of the things, and is capable of making more.
Bell specializes in magical infusions, macerations, and decoctions – extracting the abilities of magical ingredients by crushing, boiling, and dissolving them in powerful solvents. The power of the potion is directly proportionate to the potency of its ingredients and the skill with which they are prepared, making it difficult for her to create any effective concoctions on the field. Generally speaking, once she’s out, she’s out – if something destroyed her concoctions, it would take her months to fully restock. Of course, this also means that if her brewing tools are broken, she’s effectively useless.
Note: Bell has no immunity to her concoctions, good or bad.
In her normal inventory, Bell has:
Bell can bring with her as many of these potions as she can carry, but as a general rule she likes to travel light. Liquids are heavy, after all. Particularly rare potions will be listed below. If her stock of them is empty, she must RP the collection of their ingredients before being able to use them again. (The only exceptions to this are plots which have been approved by moderators.)
Technician
Bell is quite the tinkerer. Using persistence, ingenuity, and luck, she’s found ways to extend the use of her potions beyond their normal capabilities.
Biography: Arabella was blessed with a good family and an easy childhood. It was a witch’s childhood, full of spells and potions and cauldrons, and “Bellâ€Â, as she called herself for simplicity’s sake, loved it like nothing else in the world. (Of course, she had never experienced anything else in the world, but she wasn’t going to trouble herself with such things.) Bell was born with very weak magical abilities, and as they didn’t improve with age, she quickly became enraptured with the world of potion-making instead. She would sneak into her mother’s apothecary to brew up trouble. At first it earned her nothing but burnt fingers and strong scoldings, but eventually her parents realized it would be better to encourage her passions than to try and stop her.
Under her mother’s stringent supervision, she was help with making simple healing potions, eventually learning to do it on her own, from the lighting of the cauldron to the gentle pouring of her concoctions into bottles. Later still she learned to hunt for ingredients herself, searching far into the forests surrounding her woodland village for hound’s tongue and knotweed.
As she grew to be a young teenager, she gained an interest in rarer ingredients and exotic brews. She reasoned that if she could draw magical energy from common plants, then surely materials extracted from mythical beasts could work wonders – but her mother would have none of it. It was too dangerous work for a young woman. Experimentation was the way of the past, back before people had rules and recipes – now, there was no reason to take such risks. Bell’s mother got what few magical ingredients she used through willing, sapient mythical creatures or other reputable dealers – and if she had any say in it, so would her daughter.
As Bell, struggling with her weak abilities, became more discontent, and the rift between her and her mother grew, her father decided he had to step in. He came to her one night just before she went to bed and asked her if she wanted to hear a story.
The story was about a burgeoning young scientist who knew very little of the world but was determined to explore it. It was about a man who fell in love with a mystery. It was about countless sleepless nights, knowing his daughter suffered from his human genetics and would never have the full potential of a witch. From Bell’s perspective, it was about a mother afraid to let her daughter go, and so lose her to her father’s world.
It was a valid worry. Bell had never heard of “scienceâ€Â, but she was fascinated by his descriptions of experimentation and discovery, and she longed to learn more. Invigorated by her father’s speech, she eventually worked up the courage to approach her mother again, this time with a more open mind. Though the conversation was slow and awkward, the two of them eventually came to an understanding, and Bell was finally allowed to leave home.
After several weeks of lectures, physical and mental preparation, and packing of food, money, potions and other supplies, Bell set out on her own, eventually settling in Manta Carlos city. There, she makes her living as a shopkeeper and a substitute teacher for Starlight Academy.
Additional Information:
Arabella runs a potion and concoction store in the Underground called Aqua Reginae, but she has no regular hours, and you may well not find her in.
Age: 26
Birthday: January 18th
Gender: Female
Category: Staff
Occupation: Shopkeeper/Substitute Teacher
Appearance Description:
Bell thinks being skinny is for chumps. She stands at 5’8â€Â, weighs 185 lbs, and wears her weight well – she’s curvy, full-bodied, and the picture of health. She’s olive-skinned with dark-brown, somewhat wavy hair and green eyes. There’s still a little bit of acne on her face at times, but she’s rather light-hearted about it.
She likes her clothes loose and airy, with a particular love for a <a href='http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0062/1412/products/blue_poncho_lg_pic_grande.jpg?v=1306212083' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>silk poncho</a> given to her by her mother. Having a few beads and bracelets also quite pleases her.
Personality Description:
Bell is an enthusiastic young woman with a love of the world – and what she can do with it. She loves to create and discover, and if the mood is right it’s likely she’ll ask you for a blood sample. You know, just in case it has magical properties. She loves to read non-fiction books, but even more than that she loves to explore.
Bell is just a very loving person – or self-centered, perhaps. She likes people who are interesting and nice to her, but doesn’t feel the need to be particularly nice back most of the time, and she can be quite inconsiderate without realizing it. She’s pushy when she wants things, and it’s difficult for her to yield. If she doesn’t get her way she’s more likely to sulk.
The bright side of this is that if you worm your way into her heart, she will help you if it’s the last thing she does. Bell believes in loyalty, and though she’s generally lazy she will work her butt off for someone who she thinks needs and deserves it. She also does her best to keep her promises, and she tries to be honest – though she’s not above making excuses.
Powers:
Potion Brewer
Bell is a potion brewer, which means exactly what it sounds like. She has great skill at recognizing magical potential in materials, and, generally, knows how to put them together without blowing something up, and even create things that work, sometimes. In fact she has an entire store full of the things, and is capable of making more.
Bell specializes in magical infusions, macerations, and decoctions – extracting the abilities of magical ingredients by crushing, boiling, and dissolving them in powerful solvents. The power of the potion is directly proportionate to the potency of its ingredients and the skill with which they are prepared, making it difficult for her to create any effective concoctions on the field. Generally speaking, once she’s out, she’s out – if something destroyed her concoctions, it would take her months to fully restock. Of course, this also means that if her brewing tools are broken, she’s effectively useless.
Note: Bell has no immunity to her concoctions, good or bad.
In her normal inventory, Bell has:
These potions are concocted from the flesh of naturally-regenerating beasts, medicinal herbs, and the occasional imbuement of healing magics. They can close small wounds without difficulty and help in the setting of bones, depending on their specific ingredients, but they’re not going to bring back anyone from the dead, sorry.
The opposite of healing potions, essentially. Generally speaking, they allow for the appearance of illness, and are normally made from a combination of toxins and healing ingredients. Particularly powerful ones may actually cause disease – however, as the sign on Arabella’s door says, this (normally) isn’t intentional!
This is a more powerful group of potions which thus has ingredients that are harder to find. At full stock, she only has about twenty for sale, and if they’re all used it will take a few weeks to restock. These potions can make people angry, happy or sad, for example, or make them more mentally pliable. Hallucinogens also fall under this category.
Liquid bombs, essentially. Gunpowder, volatile chemicals… Sure, some people might not consider that a potion. But some of those ingredients are magic, okay?! These bombs won’t be enough to blow up any buildings, but a thin wall or a small child will be blown to smithereens. These are on the expensive side, so don’t expect her to have enough to stock an army.
Bell can bring with her as many of these potions as she can carry, but as a general rule she likes to travel light. Liquids are heavy, after all. Particularly rare potions will be listed below. If her stock of them is empty, she must RP the collection of their ingredients before being able to use them again. (The only exceptions to this are plots which have been approved by moderators.)
Ingredients:
- Unicorn Horn
- Fairy Dust
- Blood of Female Virgin*
- Blood of Male Virgin*
- Chloroauric Acid
*A virgin, for the purposes of this potion, is a person/creature who has neither touched someone with impure thoughts, nor otherwise engaged in actual coitus. As well, the virgins must be of the same species as the user for the potion to be effective.
Effect: The Aqua Reginae is a brilliant healing potion with the ability to bring people back from the brink of death – or from the dead. To be used, at least fifty percent of the patient’s body mass must be in one area, and they must ingest a full bottle of the stuff. It is rumoured to cure incurable diseases and break curses – and, if drunken frequently enough, to grant eternal life.
Preparation: This is a traditionally-made potion, requiring a long and slow brew over a fire. The fire must be kept constant from dusk to dawn to become effective. Any contamination of the brew during this time will result in an ineffective brew.
Inventory: 0 (Stock of this potion will never go up beyond one. It is a plot device.)
- Unicorn Horn
- Fairy Dust
- Blood of Female Virgin*
- Blood of Male Virgin*
- Chloroauric Acid
*A virgin, for the purposes of this potion, is a person/creature who has neither touched someone with impure thoughts, nor otherwise engaged in actual coitus. As well, the virgins must be of the same species as the user for the potion to be effective.
Effect: The Aqua Reginae is a brilliant healing potion with the ability to bring people back from the brink of death – or from the dead. To be used, at least fifty percent of the patient’s body mass must be in one area, and they must ingest a full bottle of the stuff. It is rumoured to cure incurable diseases and break curses – and, if drunken frequently enough, to grant eternal life.
Preparation: This is a traditionally-made potion, requiring a long and slow brew over a fire. The fire must be kept constant from dusk to dawn to become effective. Any contamination of the brew during this time will result in an ineffective brew.
Inventory: 0 (Stock of this potion will never go up beyond one. It is a plot device.)
Ingredients:
- White Sage
- Devil's Shoestring
- Spring Water
Effect: This potion mimics holy powers but cannot replace them. If ingested it can remove small hexes, curses, and thralls. It lessens the effect of more powerful demonic influence, but cannot remove it, and it does not prevent later influence. Hence, a simple “adieuâ€Â, as opposed to a permanent destroying. It can kill only the weakest of demons through contact – stronger ones feel only a burning sensation, or even mild discomfort if they are strong enough.
Preparation:
The spring water in this recipe must be pure, unmixed with any other liquids. Similarly, it is ideal if the white sage and devil’s shoestring have minimal contact with one another or any other herbs before preparation.
The white sage is first ground with a mortar and pestle fashioned from wood of the land the sage has come from. The sage is collected on a dish and the mortar and pestle washed in spring water. Having been washed they can be used to grind the devil’s shoestring, which is then placed on a separate dish.
A bowl of pure silver is now filled to the very brink with spring water. Into this, both the sage and the shoestring will be simultaneously poured. Then they will be allowed to settle to the bottom of the bowl.
As a reaction occurs, the brewer must channel her power into the bowl and call upon someone important to her. The truthfulness of her statements are vital, as in the absence of a holy person it is her honest gratitude that will be channeled into the potion instead.
The completed potion will have slight holy properties, and if mixed with untainted water can convert it into more potion. However, only the original potion has this ability, and it will only work so long as the brewer daily charges it with honest gratitude.
In addition any contact with a person of demonic power, or other such contamination, will permanently negate this ability.
Inventory: Indefinite. However, the whole stock can be ruined through contamination of the master potion.
- White Sage
- Devil's Shoestring
- Spring Water
Effect: This potion mimics holy powers but cannot replace them. If ingested it can remove small hexes, curses, and thralls. It lessens the effect of more powerful demonic influence, but cannot remove it, and it does not prevent later influence. Hence, a simple “adieuâ€Â, as opposed to a permanent destroying. It can kill only the weakest of demons through contact – stronger ones feel only a burning sensation, or even mild discomfort if they are strong enough.
Preparation:
The spring water in this recipe must be pure, unmixed with any other liquids. Similarly, it is ideal if the white sage and devil’s shoestring have minimal contact with one another or any other herbs before preparation.
The white sage is first ground with a mortar and pestle fashioned from wood of the land the sage has come from. The sage is collected on a dish and the mortar and pestle washed in spring water. Having been washed they can be used to grind the devil’s shoestring, which is then placed on a separate dish.
A bowl of pure silver is now filled to the very brink with spring water. Into this, both the sage and the shoestring will be simultaneously poured. Then they will be allowed to settle to the bottom of the bowl.
As a reaction occurs, the brewer must channel her power into the bowl and call upon someone important to her. The truthfulness of her statements are vital, as in the absence of a holy person it is her honest gratitude that will be channeled into the potion instead.
The completed potion will have slight holy properties, and if mixed with untainted water can convert it into more potion. However, only the original potion has this ability, and it will only work so long as the brewer daily charges it with honest gratitude.
In addition any contact with a person of demonic power, or other such contamination, will permanently negate this ability.
Inventory: Indefinite. However, the whole stock can be ruined through contamination of the master potion.
Ingredients:
- Rapid Speech
- Bread
- Salt Water
Effect: This drink fills a person’s mind with absolute drivel, making it nearly impossible for mind-readers to get into their minds. Those that try will be assaulted with pointless noise. This usually lasts a few hours, but if the speech used in its making was particularly potent it may last for longer.
Preparation: The traditional method of collecting rapid speech is by having someone ramble incessantly to a parrot and then boiling the bird’s brain. However, in the modern day, it is generally more efficient to record one’s voice, then crush and boil the recording device. The bread is used as an absorbing agent for any leaking sounds, and the salt water is used as a solvent, as it is well-known that speech dissolves well in salt water.
Inventory: 5
- Rapid Speech
- Bread
- Salt Water
Effect: This drink fills a person’s mind with absolute drivel, making it nearly impossible for mind-readers to get into their minds. Those that try will be assaulted with pointless noise. This usually lasts a few hours, but if the speech used in its making was particularly potent it may last for longer.
Preparation: The traditional method of collecting rapid speech is by having someone ramble incessantly to a parrot and then boiling the bird’s brain. However, in the modern day, it is generally more efficient to record one’s voice, then crush and boil the recording device. The bread is used as an absorbing agent for any leaking sounds, and the salt water is used as a solvent, as it is well-known that speech dissolves well in salt water.
Inventory: 5
Technician
Bell is quite the tinkerer. Using persistence, ingenuity, and luck, she’s found ways to extend the use of her potions beyond their normal capabilities.
With a bit of saltpeter, little cloth bean bags, and friction-ignited, phosphorus-coated materials, Bell has created smoke bombs which she can toss on the ground to release a gas. Normally, her bomb of choice contains a mild hallucinogen which slows mind-processes and calms minds. (Drugs. It’s drugs.) However, she’s more than capable of putting other materials in them, such as ordinary smoke or foul-smelling sulfur.
Ordinarily Bell has up to five of these smoke bombs on hand, no more – however, if she really wanted to she could tote a whole backpack of the stuff. (Of course, it would be pretty heavy, and she isn’t the strongest gal around.)
Ordinarily Bell has up to five of these smoke bombs on hand, no more – however, if she really wanted to she could tote a whole backpack of the stuff. (Of course, it would be pretty heavy, and she isn’t the strongest gal around.)
Biography: Arabella was blessed with a good family and an easy childhood. It was a witch’s childhood, full of spells and potions and cauldrons, and “Bellâ€Â, as she called herself for simplicity’s sake, loved it like nothing else in the world. (Of course, she had never experienced anything else in the world, but she wasn’t going to trouble herself with such things.) Bell was born with very weak magical abilities, and as they didn’t improve with age, she quickly became enraptured with the world of potion-making instead. She would sneak into her mother’s apothecary to brew up trouble. At first it earned her nothing but burnt fingers and strong scoldings, but eventually her parents realized it would be better to encourage her passions than to try and stop her.
Under her mother’s stringent supervision, she was help with making simple healing potions, eventually learning to do it on her own, from the lighting of the cauldron to the gentle pouring of her concoctions into bottles. Later still she learned to hunt for ingredients herself, searching far into the forests surrounding her woodland village for hound’s tongue and knotweed.
As she grew to be a young teenager, she gained an interest in rarer ingredients and exotic brews. She reasoned that if she could draw magical energy from common plants, then surely materials extracted from mythical beasts could work wonders – but her mother would have none of it. It was too dangerous work for a young woman. Experimentation was the way of the past, back before people had rules and recipes – now, there was no reason to take such risks. Bell’s mother got what few magical ingredients she used through willing, sapient mythical creatures or other reputable dealers – and if she had any say in it, so would her daughter.
As Bell, struggling with her weak abilities, became more discontent, and the rift between her and her mother grew, her father decided he had to step in. He came to her one night just before she went to bed and asked her if she wanted to hear a story.
The story was about a burgeoning young scientist who knew very little of the world but was determined to explore it. It was about a man who fell in love with a mystery. It was about countless sleepless nights, knowing his daughter suffered from his human genetics and would never have the full potential of a witch. From Bell’s perspective, it was about a mother afraid to let her daughter go, and so lose her to her father’s world.
It was a valid worry. Bell had never heard of “scienceâ€Â, but she was fascinated by his descriptions of experimentation and discovery, and she longed to learn more. Invigorated by her father’s speech, she eventually worked up the courage to approach her mother again, this time with a more open mind. Though the conversation was slow and awkward, the two of them eventually came to an understanding, and Bell was finally allowed to leave home.
After several weeks of lectures, physical and mental preparation, and packing of food, money, potions and other supplies, Bell set out on her own, eventually settling in Manta Carlos city. There, she makes her living as a shopkeeper and a substitute teacher for Starlight Academy.
Additional Information:
Arabella runs a potion and concoction store in the Underground called Aqua Reginae, but she has no regular hours, and you may well not find her in.