Dinner passes uneventfully for the group as Jason spends most of his time with the roses he collected. He pulls each flower apart and keeping only the petals. With that finished he turns to the group, “So can I take last watch? I want to give the petals a little time to dry some before the next step. Though you can both watch for a quarter of the night and leave the last half for me. I will probably need the time.” Neither Rosha nor Courtney have anything against this so after spreading the petals out Jason hits the sack early.

Once Jason is asleep, though the other two have a bit of a conversation. Rosha starts it off with her worry that, “Jason doesn’t really have a good sleep cycle.”

Courtney shakes her head, “no, he doesn’t. Beyond that, he also isn’t one of those lucky people who can get by on four hours of sleep either. Not that we can do much about it.”

Rosha sighs, “still I worry about him. Hanging out has been fun and I don’t want to see him run himself into the ground again. I know he has been occasionally logging out as well instead of sleeping.”

Rolling her eyes, Courtney lets the statement hang. For anyone who is half observant, the change is obvious enough. Even someone who sleeps like a log will twitch and move a bit while the body of someone who is logged out goes completely still except for their breathing. Even that though is a giveaway as each breath is exactly the same as the last. Humans just aren’t that perfect. Still, they let the conversation drop and the night passes quietly until it is time for Jason to take watch.

Ready for his watch Jason stretches as he gets up from his bedroll. A quick check of the moon shows they did actually let him take a full half of the night, which he is thankful for. There is a lot of work he needs to do.

A quick sip of water to wake up fully and Jason goes about getting the fire going again. The others hadn’t really noticed, but when gathering firewood he had collected more than they would normally need.

With the fire revived, Jason takes out their biggest pot. A semi fancy affair with a minor compression enchantment on it that allows it to be shrunk when not in use and he fills it halfway up with water.

He looks at the water and sighs. ‘This would be so much easier if I had a source of summoned water so I could just dismiss it after I am done. Going to have to pick a shower stone up next time we are in town. Not only does it make taking a shower on the road easier as dismissing the water instantly dries you. I can only see me doing more stuff like this in the future. Though on that note I should also look into alchemy lessons.’

With a shrug Jason putters around with his rose petals, making sure each one is clean and free from any extra plant matter. Then when the pot of water is about to boil, he puts all the petals in and grabs his rain cloak along with a couple wooden sticks. He thrusts those sticks into the ground around the fire pit and drapes his rain cloak over the pot so that the steam will condense on it and drip down into another pot.

Stepping back, Jason feels both pride and ridicule. ‘This would work so much better with glass equipment though, even metal would be a step up. At least whatever the cloak’s leather is made of is very hydrophobic. It should be able to absorb any of the water or more importantly the rose smell. Wouldn’t do much good to try and hide if my cloak smells like a field of roses.’

Nothing else to do with the setup, Jason sighs and gets down his actual job of watching. The only thing he needs to be careful of now is making sure the fire stays hot enough to boil the water. That and to stir the petals every once in a while so they don’t clump up.

Besides that the night passes like any other and as the sun comes up the other two wake up to the heavy scent of flowers. Inside the pot much of the water has boiled away at this point and seeing the others wake up, Jason takes it over to the nearby stream to dispose of it. Curious about what Jason has done, Rosha and Courtney gather around the last remaining pot and wait for him to come back.

When he comes back Jason notices their questioning looks so with a smirk he completely ignores them. Instead, getting out a small porcelain container and with care skims a layer of something off the second pot into the container. With that done he turns to the two, raises an eyebrow and asks, “So, what’s for breakfast?”

Courtney facepalms and Rosha growls at him, “how about you explain what that all was about and how it relates to dealing with the undead?”

With a wide smile, Jason laughs before he opens the tiny porcelain jar and [examines] it. “Good, it worked! Here, let me show you the fruits of my labor.” Then he shares the results with Courtney and Rosha.

Small Porcelain Jar of Redeath Rose Essential Oil

Description:

Oil that has been steam distilled from the immature flower of a Redeath Rose Slug. This oil contains a large amount of Nature Mana and is aligned with countering the energies related to the undead through subsuming said energy to fuel its own growth. If sprinkled on a corpse, the oil will prevent it from rising as an undead for ten days. When applied to a weapon while the oil remains, any undead hit will receive extra damage and the weapon will ignore any defenses based on the undead’s natural powers. Can be used as an ingredient to add anti-undead properties into other things.

Grade: Normal (ingredient, magic oil)

Effects:

Gentle Repose - Prevents a body from being turned into an undead by consuming undead powers that would attempt to do so, though the Nature Mana will fade after ten days. Undead Bane - Provides +2d6 damage against undead and penetrates up to ten points of defense and damage reduction provided undead aligned powers. This effect lasts for one hour until the Nature Mana fades. Undead Protection - If applied to the head will protect against possession by ghosts up to the third break. This protection lasts for either 24 hours or until the person next sleeps.