The Pinegap Archive

Reconstruct the rot wash from scraps in a forgotten herbal archive.

Requirements

Ask after the archive at Pinegap Bank
The clerk pours tea and points at the workbench district. 'The archivist works above the workbench. She doesn't lend the books, so you'll have to read them where they sit.'
Find the archivist above the workbench
The archivist measures you against a doorframe of paper. 'Blight wash. Half the recipe is here, but the other half walked off with a brewer twenty years ago. Her notes are in the back room.'
Pick fresh cuttings from the plot
The archive copy calls for calm bloom and swift stem cut the same morning they're used. You take a basket and stop at the plot. The plants are short this year, so you take what's ready.
Test the half-recipe at the hearth
The half-recipe boils down clear and bitter. The archivist tastes a spoonful and frowns. 'Too thin. The brewer's notes mention a sweetening agent she pulled from a Sandscale lake plant.'
Copy the brewer's annotated pages
The archivist hands you four pages bound in oilskin. 'Her ratios are in the margin. Three parts wash to one part lake reduction, written out for an apprentice who never came back.'
Pack out for Sandscale
The clerk seals the pages in waxed paper and slides them across the counter. 'Sandscale's a week if the weather holds. Whatever lake plant she used, it doesn't grow here.'