His face is stretched in an agonized scream. Its ethereal flesh is blackened
and has been caught in the process of melting from the bone. As you watch you
see the being change to the form of a middle aged human, his silver shot hair
is neatly coiffured and his eyes hold an arrogance of superiority. Holding a
silver flask in one hand he carefully adds several drops of a liquid metal
from a serpentine glass tube. "How dare they criticize me!" he mutters. "They
are fools who know nothing of my art, or the power it can bring, but they will
bow to me eventually." Placing the glass tube in a rack on the bench he holds
the silver flask up to the light, swirling the contents gently. "Now then,
the final constituent, and my work is complete." Placing the flask on his work
table he dons a pair of heavy metal-plated gloves. With a set of iron tongs
he carefully removes the lid of a small lead box. Within the box is a small
ceramic jar submerged in a viscous oil, which he gingerly removes and places
on a granite slab. Beads of perspiration appear on the apparition's face and
he begins to take several deep breaths. On the fourth inhalation he breathes
deep and holds every last piece of air his body can maintain. Quickly he
begins to work. He removes the lid from the ceramic jar, as he does so a
noxious green vapor appears. With a pair of dragonbone tweezers he extracts
a tiny grain of what appears to be green sand and drops it into the silver
flask. The flask begins to boil violently as he quickly replaces the ceramic
lid and uses the tongs to place the jar back within the lead casket. The
silver flask begins to tremble as the reaction becomes more violent and the
apparition's movements become more hurried. The tweezers of dragonbone smoke
and begin to disintegrate, melting like fat on a hot skillet with a bubbling
sizzle. The strain of holding his breath becomes more apparent as he wildly
eyes the silver flask, which now glows with a sickly green light as with
horror he sees the flask dancing in fury as the reaction becomes completely
unstable. With a scream of horror he lets his final breath from his lungs
as the flask explodes in a fireball so intense that he is vaporized instantly.
The roof and walls of the tower erupt in green flame melting rock and
incinerating the surrounding forest.
The agonized ghost of the alchemist is in perfect health.