Alchemy

Alchemy is a crafting skill that governs the production of alchemical fluids, which primarily divide into venoms, curatives, and salves. Venoms have numerous nasty effects that debilitate and damage those struck with them and unable to resist their effects. Curatives typically counteract the effects of venom. Salves can assist in the recovery of health and stamina. Alchemists can also produce alchemical testing kits necessary to determine the alchemical properties of raw reagents used in their craft.

Alchemical reagents, both toxins and curatives, carry with them alchemical colors which indicate their essence. This is separate from their alchemical effects, so you may have venoms that have the same effect but different alchemical colors. Alchemical testing kits will reveal the colors of both reagents and venoms. You can also use alchemical testing kits to directly test the wounds of envenomated NPCs and players to determine the underlying nature of what they have and intuit how to help.

The colors and their counter-acting counterparts are:

Color    Opposed by
yellow   purple
purple   yellow
blue     orange
orange   blue
red      green
green    red

Command                            What it does
quaff <dose>                       Drink a cure or venom yourself
apply <salve>                      Apply a salve to yourself
administer <dose/salve> to <who>   Give one to someone else, including an unconscious person
test <who> / diagnose <who>        Use a kit charge to learn the color of each toxin in them
test <ingredient>                  Use the ingredient up to learn its color and role
shake <who>                        Try to rouse someone a toxin knocked out (repeat tries get easier)

Like all crafts, venoms, cures, and salves have qualities. The qualities of venoms determine how hard they hit with their effects. The quality of a cure is an opposed check against the quality of an active venom; stronger cures are required to counteract stronger venoms. The strength of a salve determines how much it helps with recovery. Using a salve requires you to hold it in your main hand.

Alchemy is governed by wisdom (primary) and intelligence (secondary).