Lightbringer's secret Lore Books

Description

Leather cover, stamped corners. The mysterious book that the miller Kreyzl wants. The author is one Black Bertold.

Text

Among the qualities of a true master of fire are: The warrior’s godliness, for when he handles powder, he has his arch-enemy in his hands. He also maintains humility towards the world he walks day and night. He should, as a master, be able to read and write, otherwise the knowledge written in this book cannot be retained in the mind, whether it be distillation, separation or sublimation. Only a man of prudence, honesty, kindness in word and deed will become a master. In particular, he must avoid drunkenness at any hour.

If you don’t want to scrape the saltpetre out of the sties or search in the pits, do this. Make a pipe out of clay with some small holes in it. Take a pound of tartaric acid, half a pound of salt, three times as much lime and the urine of a wine-drinker. Make a mash from the materials and spread it inside the pipe. Leave it in the sun for three days and empty it on the fourth day. Then hang the pipe in the cellar and wait for the nitre to grow. Then boil the saltpetre in water, wine or better vinegar as you would a fish and strain it through a thick cloth. Let the crystals dry properly.

Materials must be sifted through a sieve or a linen bag. Melt a pound of sulphur in a crucible, and stir in two pounds of properly grounded saltpetre and a quarter of a pound of charcoal. Soak the sulphur wick in the molten mass and let it cool and harden. If the powder should spoil, add a drop of sublimate of mercury, camphor and arsenic during the brewing.

If you want to create powder that stays dry on the ground but catches fire in the rain, read on. It’s enough.