Cultivate Ferns & Mosses (sage ability)

Cultivate Ferns & Mosses is an amateur-status sage ability in the study of Mosses & Ferns, providing awareness of valuable materials that can be gathered from various moss and fern species. This includes substances necessary for producing essential oils, soap and dyestuffs, as well as components for medicinal tonics. These tonics may be applied to temporarily restore lost strength or constitution in times of illness, aiding recovery and alleviating symptoms.

As regards to general substances, knowledge in how to make essential oil, soap, dyestuff and otherwise is required, but the character can provide raw materials for those products, an amount equaling 4-24 lbs. per day of labour. This is likely to amount in little remuneration, however, as unprocessed materials hold limited value without refinement. These herbs exist only in biomes with considerable vegetation; ranges such as barrens, desert, steppe, subterranean or tundra are not sufficient.

Medicinal Tonic

To create a substance that will give aid to a character in times of trouble, the character is able to locate certain plants from the wild as needed. A store of the resultant product is not generally practical, as it can only be created in small amounts and will fail to maintain its integrity within 4-10 hours after it's preparation.

To create the tonic, the character gathers raw material and then distills it, a process that requires 2-5 hours to produce an effective phial, or 1 fluid ounce, of the desired material. As a medicine against poison, venom or like substances, where a saving throw is involved, the consumption of the tonic permits an additional saving throw — whereupon the character will get better if the second attempt is successful.

As a counteractant to disease, the tonic is less effective; it will reduce the severity of the disease by 1 point, but this may not be helpful in determining whether the disease is or is not terminal. The reduction may ease symptoms or slow the progression of the illness, but it does not guarantee recovery, nor does it necessarily prevent a fatal outcome if the disease remains severe.

Apparatus

To produce the tonic, the process relies on separating plant essences through heat and condensation, using a combination of metal, glass and ceramic tools. At the core of the setup is an alembic or retort, a vessel typically made of copper, brass or glass, designed to contain the raw plant material along with water. This vessel has a distinctive swan-necked cap that directs the rising vapors toward a condensing tube. When heated over a controlled fire, usually from a charcoal brazier or a clay stove, the liquid within the alembic slowly begins to vaporize, releasing the essential properties of the mosses and ferns.

The vapour then passes through a curved or coiled metal tube, known as the condensing coil or worm tube. This tube is cooled by either immersion in a water basin or by wrapping it in damp cloths to encourage condensation. As the vapour cools, it transforms back into liquid form, dripping down into a receiver flask or collection vessel, where the final distilled tonic is gathered. To ensure the purity of the extract, the herbalist must use a fine filtering cloth or a sieve, either before or after distillation, removing unwanted plant debris and impurities.

See also,
Distilling (sage ability)
Plant Life (field)