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The Philosopher's
Stone
The Philosopher's Stone is a well known part
of Alchemy's "Great Work" --the
transmogrification of base metals to gold.
The Stone was the key to the process. It
perfected all matter that it touched and was even thought to restore
youth and life indefinitely. The stone was also thought to possess
great powers of attraction.
Awwh-Noia
MacThoy, a Widow with her own
powers of attraction, heard of the stone from Isaac
Newton, one winter evening in 1684, while he warmed his hands and his
soul in her publick house, the Dirty Ewe. The young man
went on to
prove his yarn by showing her the treasured stone.fds
In
truth it was no stone but shaped more like a copper with the dull
green hue they often get after time's gone by. It was
this coin that Newton showed Noia before going behind her bar
counter and pouring himself a stein of water.
This
brought a hush to the pub. All the MacThoy eyes were upon
him. No man had ever entered the Dirty Ewe for a mug of water.
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He
then drew her close and let the stone drop into the mug. She
gasped in surprise as the clear liquid turned a golden amber.
Tasting confirmed that the water had become a hearty ale.
The
Widow quickly recognized the value of such a stone. She
found Newton lodgings in her rooms upstairs and paid him a visit
when his candle extinguished for the night. And thus, she wasted no
time in stealing the stone.
She and her Clan
often time amused themselves by changing water to beer or sows'
ears into silk purses.
* * *
One night the Stone disappeared.
Following a long round of what at its most
complimentary might be described as deductive reasoning, they
came to the conclusion that a servant had picked it up while
clearing a table and dropped into the money
chest.
They pulled out
the chest and began dropping each copper into a mug of water hoping
for the change and the Stone to be re-identified but to no
avail.
To her horror,
Awwh-Noia realized that the Stone had been given out as change to some
unknowing wretch. And he had gone hence with the stone to pay
his landlord or even more horrifying to leave at the local church as
tithe.
The Clan
continued to search for the Stone for centuries after. Their
search has been carried down through the years as the drinking game, Quarters, where coins are
bounced off a table into a drinking vessel in the hopes that the
Philosopher's Stone will one day be found.
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