A Slime's Lament

My Childhood

The childhood I experienced could probably be considered interesting to some. The village I called home was populated by a menagerie of different races, such as dwarves and elves, but I was one of the few human children living there. But I wasn't that social as a child, so the stories I have from growing up revolve mainly around the life I led with my mother.

To begin, even after my birth my mother still suffered from her sickness. The doctor couldn't figure out why, she should have gotten better after I was born but it was like her body was withering away each day. The only solution they could give her was to drink healing potions to stall it. But because she couldn't work, we were too poor to afford a constant supply. 

Luckily, there was a vast forest surrounding the village filled to the brim with many different types of herbs. So she began teaching me where to find and how to identify the different herbs calling this forest home all so she could brew her own medicine. It wasn't as effective as a real potion but the experience sparked a passion in my heart.

On that day I said to her in my toughest voice, "Mama, I promise you I will learn alchemy and make you a potion to make you feel better!" She gave me that heartwarming smile of hers and said to me, "Oh I bet you will Nero. You'll be the best alchemist in the village... Actually no, you will be the greatest alchemist in the whole wide world!" Honestly, I am sure she only said that to not shatter my dreams. She didn't think I'd actually try my hand at alchemy, well at least not at five years of age.

From then on, I spent every day learning what I could about alchemy from my mother but she wasn't that knowledgable on the subject. All she knew was how to brew that medicine and how to make a surprisingly effective skin care balm from common ingredients. Fearing a roadblock, I had to expand my horizons but as a shy child that was going to be difficult. 

My mother had trouble leaving the house most days so I had grown accustomed to staying at home with her. I knew some of the other children of the village but I felt terrible leaving my mother all by herself in that lonely house, so I almost always rejected their invitations to go out and play.

So, I gathered all the courage I could muster and made my way to the local library. On the way, the only thing on my mind was to go back home but I powered through the anxiety and made it to the only library in this small village. It was extremely small, most of the books were dusty, and the librarian was rather strict. The books also couldn't be taken from the library as there was a rental fee that I couldn't afford.

In the end, I spent most of my days reading whatever I could about alchemy. There were only a few books on it and they were not meant for a child to read. But that didn't stop me from my dream of making something to cure my mother. Despite the immeasurable learning curve, I began to understand what alchemy was.

Alchemy isn't all about making potions, it is about understanding the world around us.  It was another way of understanding the weave of magic that the Goddess Mystra provides. If one understands alchemy they can use reagants and catalysts to cast spells much like a wizard. But such knowledge wasn't what I was looking for.

There was only one book on the subject that even described how to make an actual healing potion. Sadly, it only described the process and what ingredients to use. Some of them were the same herbs that my mother used in her medicinal brew but one of the major differences was the inclusion of a goblin liver.

As a kid, I was always warned about not going too deep into the forest of our home, that if I did a goblin would eat me right up. So I knew goblins were something I could encounter but how would I get their liver from them? Did I just need to ask nicely? The questions piled up so I decided to find a different book about goblins.

Most of them were scary stories meant to keep curious children from exploring too far into forests but one of them told me exactly where to get the liver. The book seemed more like the diary of a man who loathed the creature's very existence. It described every way to possibly dispatch the creatures and how to properly brutalize one.  The one thing that I learned from this book was how to dissect a goblin. However, one thing it made very clear was that upon opening up the flesh, the goblin's innards would emit a smell capable of driving away all sorts of creatures.