T’ask Force report number TF-20260322-7841

When it comes to humans, one of the oddest things I find is how ideas spread and change. First there were these “Furr-ranks…?”. Some people who came after an empire most humans like to say had so much to offer. Even after its fall.

But the only thing we were looking into was something called Aal-kem-e.

To be exact, we basically did as the Franks. Just translating and transmit alchemical ideas.

But that set off a big chain reaction. Way beyond (the places that were France or Germany). Funnily enough, it usually involved people who had a “Frank” in their name.

Monks give their ideas to scholars, who give their ideas to others. And some people had other ideas.

That’s what my team was called on to investigate—an abandoned riverside quarry site just outside (the former) Ingolstadt, Bavaria. We couldn’t tell how old the site was, but there were designs and alchemical processes used on rocks.

Our trip’s consultant, Mara Ellison, confirmed that this was a lesson of sorts to find a “Fill-awes-uh-fur Sstuh-own”. One of the “Great Works” of this discipline.

Personal note, I had expectations on this from a show called “Full Metal Alchemist”.

Our resident chemist, Keshra (KEHSH-khrah) Vell brought up how weird it was to call it a stone at all.

She was still new (enough) at the time, so she didn’t always get that names and terms have a funny way of showing off. Especially in our line of work.

That was definitely the case here.

The whole process was complicated to say the least, it even used lightning. Not that we tested it, the place was too old for that. We kept the notes and designs for tests if we ever felt like it.

See: Macro Stone-Making Alchemy Recreation by Dr. Amrita Sood and Tenzin Ral

Soon enough we came across Castle “Fur-rank-in-sty-n”.

The historians had to insist that any ties to the quarry had to be a coincidence. Honestly they were probably worried about the bigger rabbit hole we found ourselves in.

Frankenstein.

This lead to debates, arguments, and trying to wrap our heads around so many things-

The Franks, the philosopher’s stone, the franciscans…it was all coming together too well at this point.

We had to be smacked back to protocol. But it was already too late.