Blackjack Alchemy, or Etherism
Ever since I watched the gem extraction scene in the wonderful 2018 movie Prospect (go watch it!), my mind has been percolating with ideas about extracting components from xenofauna.
Then I recently read Personable Thoughts' "Elements of Alchemy: A Blackjack solution" and I thought: what if we use Blackjack to turn organ extraction into a push-your-own-luck game à la Benign Brown Beast's "10 Minutes and a Knife"?
It is well-known that monster bodies, like those of humans, are governed by fluids known as humors; it is less well-known that in monsters the magical ether can be found coursing through several organs (while in humans it is mostly restricted to the spleen).
Alchemists, or etherists, are the daring fools who can extract the foci of ether from a body and bend it to their goals. They are considered heretical by the Orthogons (who believe that extracting ether removes the soul from the eternal cycle of rebirth and blocks their divine right of ascending) and by the Saffron Church (who believe dissecting is gross). Thankfully for the Alchemists, they have poison bombs while their adversaries don't, which means most turn a blind eye to the practice.
To correctly extract ether from a magical organ, tell the GM which part of the creature you're interested in (its alluring eyes, its poisonous tongue, whatever organ that it uses to breathe fire, etc). The creature must have died recently and the corresponding organ must be intact (if nobody remembered this during combat, it has a 2-in-6 chance of being intact enough). When you're ready for extraction, play Blackjack against the GM.
- Win: you extracted the organ successfully; add it to your inventory. The monster's ether is exhausted and it cannot be extracted again.
- Blackjack (meet 21): as Win, but you can extract again.
- Loss (lose with < 21): you botched the extraction and the organ was damaged; you cannot extract again from this corpse.
- Bust (exceed 21): as Loss, but you suffer a setback (the monster's acid splashes on you and burns your arm; the pain makes the creature come back alive; your knife becomes addicted to ether and demands to be quenched; the dead eyes look straight inside yours and Show You Things; etc).
What do you do with the organ now that it's extracted? During a Watch you can turn it into a Bomb, Oil or Potion. Apply rules from His Majesty The Worm's free Alchemy chapter.