Bartolomé de Medina, Master Alchemist of Cerro Rico

 

    Bartolomé had not been born into the Vetrini clan, his origins were much less distinguished. Still, his family, the de Medinas, had a long and well established reputation as some of the best alchemists in Haven Towne. Bartolomé had shown considerable talent in the family business from a young age, and was considered quite the rising star in the clan. Not only had the meticulous and demanding craft of Alchemy come naturally to him, but he had a keen and creative mind, and a near eidetic memory. He amazed his family and peers with his ability to recall the exact recipes and properties of hundreds of elements and elixirs, no matter how obscure.  He also displayed an almost instinctual knack for innovating new combinations of old elements, inventing several new and valuable recipes and processes.  

    So when the Vetrini came calling with a problem and a large sum of gold they were willing to devote to solving it, it was only natural that young Bartolomé be part of the investigations into potential solutions.   

    The upper regions of the Vetrini's Cerro Rico mine were becoming depleted of high quality ore, both mithril and silver. While the Vetrini had extensive plans to sink new and deeper shafts, those plans would take years to materialize. In the meantime, the merchant house was facing years of declining revenue from the operation. A situation that was not acceptable to them.   

    They had heard that great advances were being made in alchemical amalgamation techniques, techniques that allowed high quality silver to be easily and cheaply extracted from low quality ore. Low quality ore the Vetrini had in abundance, literally piles of it littered the grounds near their mine, since refining it had not been considered cost effective up until now.

    Could the de Medinas help? They could indeed, but there were...complications.

    The de Medinas had developed a recipe using a number of relatively cheap and easy to obtain reagents that, when combined with the right manual processes, could solve the Vetrini's problems and unlock untold riches from their played out mine. The catch was the process made use of Quicksilver. And Quicksilver was a dangerous reagent to work with.

    Not immediately deadly, the effects of exposure to the substance took time, months, even years depending on the dosages. But the effects were terrible, irreversible and inevitably fatal. It started with muscle weakness and numbness in the extremities then quickly progressed to the loss of hair, teeth and nails, finally ending in madness and then death. There was no known cure.  

    The Vetrini did not seem greatly concerned about the side effects of the process, and in general were very excited about the opportunity. After a demonstration of the effectiveness of the technique, they offered the de Medinas an obscene payment to send one of their members to Cerro Rico to guide the implementation. While skeptical the process could be effectively implemented, the potential financial upside was too much to ignore for the de Medinas. After some internal discussion the elders of the de Medina clan agreed to the bargain and offered up young Bartolomé to travel to the far away mine and attempt the project.

    Young Bartolomé had been excited at the prospect. In his 23 years he had never left Haven Towne, and the prospect of a exciting voyage to the edge of civilization where great opportunity for wealth and glory awaited him, what young man wouldn't have been thrilled? 

    Reality of course was considerable different then his youthful imaginations. The voyage had been long and hard, twice the Vetrini convoy had been threatened by pirates, and Cerro Rico, the "Mountain of Silver" had proved little more then a frontier outpost, lacking any of the culture or comforts the sheltered Bartolomé had been accustomed to.

    Still the opportunity was real enough, and the Overseer Lucius Vetrini, the head of the mine, had enthusiastically provided the young alchemist with anything he asked for, demanding only results in return. And results, Bartolomé had delivered. He had not only successfully implemented and scaled the refining process, he greatly improved it, discovering the benefits of adding magistral to the process.

    

    Despite his best attempts, Bartolomé failed to make the process safe however. The quicksilver was insidious, the process required close and extended contact with it, and anyone working long in the refining suffered the symptoms eventually. 

    Lucius didn't seem concerned however.

    "Don't fret yourself with these matters of personnel and operations my boy" he had assured the alchemist. "Such is my problem, stay focused on the science and craft and I will handle these minor matters of logistics. They are beneath an intellect such as yours."

    And the silver had flowed like water. The Vetrini were pleased, and they made sure that Bartolomé received the fruits of their pleasure. He was honored, respected, and soon very very rich. It was easy enough to not concern himself with the fate of the workers that trod bare legged around and around the hundreds of mixing pools day after day, churning the toxic pools of sludge that refined the metal with their bare feet. Easy to forget the workers that sweated over the baking ovens, breathing in pure quicksilver gas from the ill fitting lids of the smelting ovens as the ore was cooked.  

    He even managed to find a way to make the workers even more productive, entirely on his own initiative pioneering a method to distill the coca leaves the workers chewed to give them energy into an even more potent white powder. There was even talk among the mine's leadership that the white powder might eventually become a profitable export in and of itself. He had received a bonus for that achievement that was greater in sum then his entire family typically earned in a year. 

    There were the nightmares of course. Some part of his subconscious must have known what the fate of the people that implemented his refining process would eventually be. Some part of his mind screamed at him in horror every night. But it was easy enough to ignore.

    All that changed on the day of the disaster. His laboratory in the Old Mine had not been directly affected by the explosion but the black wind that had followed that second cataclysm had changed him.

    He noted dispassionately that his body seemed to be undergoing some type of metamorphosis, flesh sloughing off, organs atrophying, bodily functions ceasing. And yet he did not die, and if anything his intellect seemed to become keener, his thoughts quicker. He found the whole process intellectually interesting, fascinating even. What he was witnessing opened up endless possibilities, entire new avenues of alchemical pursuits. 

    He worked feverishly, unstopping, no longer requiring food or rest. And he had successes. Great successes. He learned to mold dead flesh and bone, and create in it a semblance of life. The creatures he could create were limited only by his imagination.

    Bone, flesh, blood and clay, he molded them and made them live and obey his will. They were his children. And then the intruders dared to interrupt him! And on the cusp of birthing another child no less! The gall. He quickly decided to destroy them. 

    When the Halfling swan dived off the top of the parapet above his lair, neatly somersaulting three times on the way down, and somehow managing to draw a pistol in each hand and DOUBLE TAP HIS GOLEM IN THE HEAD, while doing it, Bartolomé had started to suspect he might be in trouble.  To add insult to injury, the halfling had been upside down when he shot his golem. But what really terrified him was right before the Halfling broke the liquid in a perfect dive, the creature had clearly winked at him.