Mortar & Pestle - What's in the book?

Learn the lost art of alchemy and harness the magical power innate to the Material Plane in this new 5th edition supplement! Mortar & Pestle introduces new rules for brewing potions, poisons and explosives, along with rules for finding and refining ingredients, building and tending to your garden, and hunting dangerous monsters!

Alchemy is an iconic staple of fantasy, a bubbling mixture of science and magic that cried out for deeper exploration! We made Mortar & Pestle to let your characters experiment with fantastical ingredients, keep their party supplied with life-saving potions and magical brews, and discover new recipes that could change the world!

Brewing Potions

Fantasy worlds are filled with innately magical ingredients. As an alchemist, you can turn this potential into potent potions, lethal poisons, and devastating explosives.

Some specialise in tried and true potions that are, nevertheless, challenging to brew. The Potion of Particular Place, when mixed with a sample of local soil and drunk, grants you knowledge of the terrain, geographical features, and settlements within 1 mile of wherever the soil was collected. Blasting Foam is still more challenging, requiring a deft hand and rare components. Mix some Hellstone, a handful of Lohsohn’s Firebush Leaf, and a splash of Oil of Horn, and you get a two-part explosive that ignites into a scorching hot froth of sparkling bubbles!

However, a prospective alchemist can take another path — that of daring experimentation! You can create your own experimental recipes by adjusting your equipment, swapping out some components, and perhaps infusing a little magic. These can vary wildly in quality and cost, but once a new alchemical principle has been discovered, the process can be refined and more reliable. You can attempt to brew Potions of Incredible Healing, turn Alchemist’s Fire into Alchemist’s Venom, or dive headfirst into the unknown with a never-before-seen creation of your design!

Tend to the Garden

A Garden can take many forms, from a humble grotto surrounded by small flower beds to a sprawling vista of orchards, greenhouses, and stables, to an extraplanar space lit by eldritch light and host to an array of arcane blossoms. Whatever your preference, with hard work and ingenuity, you can cultivate the ideal Garden for your Character.

You can till the soil, lay stone, and bless the ground to create an array of new features for your garden. For growing plants and new flora for their alchemical properties, you can build Flower Beds, Greenhouses, and Orchards ready to seed your next crop of fantastical plants! If you want to hone your skills between your adventures, you might prefer the Archery Butts, Climbing Wall, or a Racecourse. For those who wish to host their friends for an evening’s entertainment, there are Patios, Stages, and Hedge Mazes. For all these features and more, we have a set of bespoke tokens to use in VTTs or print and use on your garden sheet!

Grazlin Hovath is a strongly independent Orc in her mid-twenties, and she has a well-earned reputation as an expert hunter. Grazlin essentially keeps to herself, preferring to spend her time in a small hut in the woods that was built by one person and could do with some repairs.

Grazlin is quick to make friends, though she is always on the lookout for threats. She feels the sting of betrayal harder than most and is not quick to forgive those who hurt her. She will spread the word of the party’s untrustworthiness through nearby villages if betrayed. If partaking in a hunt, the party may find Grazlin has reached their prey ahead of them and is unwilling to share in the bounty.

Mortar & Pestle is the book that brings the lost arts of alchemy to your 5e games. By finding the fragments of magic in your world and forging lasting connections with the people in your world, you can keep yourself and your party supplied on their next adventure!

Available to Pre-Order here!