Template:Smelting Procedures
The processes that smelt moonsilver, orichalcum, starmetal and soulsteel from their source materials are all Adept-level thaumaturgical rituals in the Art of Alchemy. In each case, the necessary foundry is a Resources 4 purchase (the reusable components for the ritual), while operating it long enough to produce a pound of the desired metal is a Resources 3 expense (the consumed material for the ritual)—not including the raw materials themselves. Characters may learn these rituals as Procedures. In each case, the Willpower expenditure represents the intense concentration needed to see the procedure through to a successful conclusion. To use these rituals, a character needs Craft (Fire) at 4.
Stabilize Moonsilver (2, Perception, 3, one hour): Raw moonsilver must be collected at night under the light of the moon. The raw moonsilver is still unstable with residual Wyld-energy. Through coaxing songs and careful taps and strokes with crystal hammers and probes, the artisan quiets the Wyldness remaining in the raw moonsilver so it becomes a stable metal. Pacify it too much and it freezes into silver; hit it too hard, and it shatters into drops of quicksilver.
Distill Orichalcum (2, Stamina, 3, one week): Purifying gold into orichalcum can only be done at a source of molten lava. It also requires large, high-precision mirrors to concentrate sunlight on the molten gold. Boiling the gold continuously for a week, using magma and sunfire, to drive out impurities, is not intellectually challenging... but the prolonged, constant attention to direct the mirrors and keep the lava from contaminating the gold is remarkably fatiguing.
Smelt Starmetal (2, Wits, 3, one day): Pulling starmetal from its ore should be easy. It uses the same smelter and tools used to extract mundane iron—but everything must be consecrated and purified: the clay and charcoal of the furnace, the tree from which the charcoal was made, the spade that was used to dig the clay... The small gods of the forge know the smith works on the remains of their kin, and will spoil the process if not suitably appeased. And then, the smelter engages in a frantic battle of wits to keep the furnace going and the forge uncontaminated as everything that could go wrong, does, driving the smith to his limits through sheer frazzlement.
Alloy Soulsteel (2, Manipulation, 3, one day): Hammering souls into the sooty ore from the Labyrinth involves more than strength. It is an exercise in cruelty and domination, breaking the will of the captive ghosts so they would rather accept an eternity trapped in black metal than the continued blows of the hammer, the scorching of bonefire and the bitter quenching in bile.