Scott Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs is a resourceful and comprehensive guidebook for anyone interested in the magical properties and uses of various herbs. This book is an invaluable tool for those who practice herbal magic or are interested in natural healing methods. Scott Cunningham, a well-respected and influential author in the field of Wicca and magic, shares his extensive knowledge and research on the subject, making this book a must-have for any aspiring herbalist or practitioner. The book begins with a helpful introduction that provides readers with a basic understanding of herb magic and how to work with herbs effectively. Cunningham explains the importance of intention, visualization, and working with correspondences in order to harness the magical properties of herbs. The main body of the book is divided into two sections.
The main body of the book is divided into two sections. The first section focuses on individual herbs, providing detailed information about their magical properties, energies, and associations. Cunningham covers a wide range of herbs, from the common to the obscure, and provides useful facts such as planetary and elemental correspondences, deities associated with each herb, and suggested magical uses.
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The humble Blood rune. A sought-after catalytic rune whose consumption allows the casting of Ancient magicks, the swooshing of the Scythe of Vitur, and whatever word beginning with 's' suits the Sanguinesti staff. The Blood rune has a whole host of fun uses, but in recent years has come under fire from players for just how tedious it can be to accumulate enough of these magical stones.
Currently, most players trying to upkeep their Scythe or Sanguinesti staff opt to buy them from the Grand Exchange Magic shops, competing with each other as they hop through worlds in a desperate bid to stock up enough for future PvM sessions. While so-called 'shopscape' is the done thing, shopping and hopping isn't exactly the most riveting content.
For a while now, we've seen affected players suggest the addition of Rune packs for some of the runes that don't currently have them, like Blood, Death, Soul or even Astral runes. While we agree this would likely alleviate some of the frustration with upkeeping some of these runes, you'd still be competing with others, hopping through worlds, and spending more time in a shop interface than out in Gielinor.
We think we can do better than Blood rune packs. After all, we have a whole skill dedicated to crafting runes - why don't we leverage that? We've done similar in the past with Drew's sandstone grinder, which gave players an option to use Mining to cut down on shopping and hopping for sand, ultimately getting the item they're after while being out in the world, so long as they have the GP to afford Drew's services. To that end, we've set out to make something with the following goals in mind:
- Allow players to obtain Blood runes extremely quickly.
- As a bonus, expand this system to runes beyond Blood runes while making sure all of the above goals still apply.
With all of the above in mind, let's introduce the star of today's show: Ventriculus, the Abyssal Extractor.
Ventriculus, the Abyssal Extractor
The name might be a bit of a mouthful, but the aims couldn't be simpler. Ventriculus is a part of our design to give players a fast way to get runes (any kind, not just Blood runes!) that's tied to gameplay and integrated with the Runecraft skill, without adversely impacting the main game economy.
Before we get started, you might be wondering where we'd even put the Extractor itself, given that somebody would likely have noticed something so unusual by now! As luck has it, some of you have recently uncovered a new area with strong ties to Runecraft: the Scar. Note that to access the Abyssal Extractor, you will require at least partial completion of Desert Treasure II - The Fallen Empire, since you'll require access to the Scar in the first place!
Accessed via the rift near the Temple of the Eye (which you might be familiar with from the Guardians of the Rift minigame), the Scar has a habit of sucking in leftover runes and essence from careless adventurers who keep dropping the things! Inside the scar, these leftovers move through tissues, sinew and synapses, resulting in amalgamations of runes, essence and flesh that defy the laws of nature. The Abyss itself grows around these amalgamations, so you'll need a spot of manual labour to split them apart and extract anything useful - that's where Mining comes in, and our proposed gameplay loop begins.
Gameplay Loop
Let's set the scene with a very high-tech flow-chart!
With a little Mining expertise (Level 66 Mining, to be precise), a pickaxe, and a lot of 'putting your back into it', you'll be able to mine Tainted essence - these are the grotesque mixtures of runes, essence and flesh that we mentioned earlier! From here you have two options, we'll start with the most interesting bit: making Extracts.
By removing the 'wrong' runic energy and compressing what's left, the Extractor can provide you with Extracts that are bound to specific types of runic energy. These stackable extracts function as catalysts while Runecrafting, allowing you to craft significant bonus quantities of the rune they correspond to.
A spot of mining in eventual exchange for huge quantities of extra runes sounds like a pretty good deal, so what's the catch? The catch is Hagus, a member of the ZMI (Zamorakian Magical Institute) who wound up lost in the Abyss and is now, to put it bluntly, utterly unhinged. Hagus has his heart set on returning from his 'adventure' with loot worth losing his mind for. He knows the Ventriculus better than anybody, and he'll let you use it - you guessed it - for a price! We'll cover the exact costs later on in the blog, but for now keep in mind that these Extracts don't come free. There's even a handy coffer nearby where you can store your coins so you don't have to grab them from the bank every time you want to get your hands on more extracts.
Alternatively, you can clean your Tainted essence and stack up large quantities of Pure essence, approximately 10,000 Pure essence per hour. Hagus appreciates that many of you out there groan at the sight of Pure essence following a showdown with the Great Olm, or that some of you even leave behind the Pure essence that Zulrah so graciously provides, to be consumed by the toxic wastes. Obtaining Pure essence in this way won't cost you anything, Hagus knows that you'll be more than willing to part with your GP once you process that essence into extracts, he's playing the long game.
So, you use Tainted essence to make Extracts, which serve as powerful catalysts for Runecraft. Simple!
Here's some early-on concept art showing off the Ventirculus itself, Hagus, Tainted essence and the various Extracts themselves.
There are 4 variants of these extracts: warped, twisted, mangled and scarred, with different variants catalysing different groups of runes so that every type of rune in the game can be multiplied using one of these extracts. Crafting runes with the corresponding extract in your inventory will multiply the amount of runes you make when using any essence (rune, pure or daeyalt) to Runecraft. Note that the Extracts' catalytic effects won't work at the Ourania altar - they'll only work for specifically targeted runes.
On the face of things, it's a pretty simple system to understand, so let's get stuck in to the nitty gritty and answer the big questions you probably have at this stage: how many runes can I craft per hour using extracts, and how much will it cost?
Before we get stuck into numbers, let's make clear what we're up against. In a perfect world, the players who've been asking us for Blood rune packs for all this time could in theory obtain ~100,000 Blood runes per hour at current rates. This isn't entirely realistic due to delays when world hopping, finding the NPC to trade with again, competing with other players also buying the same rune as you, but it's a solid ballpark. With that in mind, Runecraft with extracts obtained from the Scar Essence mine needs to result in a hefty number of runes while remaining expensive enough that players would incur a net loss by selling the runes to each other, thus pricing these 'bonus' runes out of the wider economy.
Understandably, it doesn't really make sense to put something like this together for only Blood runes, players can at times need vast quantities of all kinds of runes for all kinds of goals. So we've aimed to put together a system that applies to every rune and at a price point that makes sense for each of them. While the main 'problem' we're trying to solve here is the sheer amount of time spent upkeeping weapons like the Scythe of Vitur or Sanguinesti staff for some end-game players, by expanding Extracts to all types of Runes you'll be able to put your skills to use and save some time gathering Chaos runes to sell for Tokkul, or perhaps even stock up on a whole bunch of Trident charges earlier on in the game.
The prices for Extracts are all based on currently existing shop prices, with exceptions for Wrath runes and Combination runes since these aren't sold for GP by any NPCs, though we've aimed to ensure the cost per rune for these types remains higher than their well-established values on the Grand Exchange.
To explain how the 4 types of extract are going to work and tie into this, here's a handy table:
Extract Name Extract Cost Bonus Runes
(per essence)Runes used for Mangled Extract 12,000gp
(200gp per rune)60 Nature, Law, Astral, Death Scarred Extract 24.000gp
(400gp per rune)60 Blood, Soul, Wrath Twisted Extract 6,000gp
(100 gp per rune)60 Mud, Mist, Steam, Lava, Dust, Smoke, Chaos, Cosmic Warped Extract 1,250gp
(5gp per rune)250 Air, Water, Earth, Fire, Mind, Body
Sticking with Blood runes as an example, obtaining a Scarred Extract from the Extractor would set you back 24,000gp. Assuming you have no other bonuses (no Blood essence, no Raiments of the eye), using one Pure essence on the Blood altar while having a Scarred Extract in your inventory would give you 61 Blood runes in total. If you had 27 Pure essence and 27 Scarred Extracts, you'd wind up with 1,647 Blood runes in total in exchange for the 648,000gp you'll have spent on the Extracts.
Keeping that example in mind, it's pretty easy to imagine how quickly you'll be able to stack up runes using Extracts, assuming you have the GP to obtain enough Extracts in the first place! Now, these bonus runes are applied additively, meaning the bonuses you get are on top of modifiers like the Raiments of the Eye passive effect or Blood essence.
We reckon players will be able to obtain roughly 25,000 Extracts per hour (assuming they have the cash to afford them all). With these 25,000 Extracts, we anticipate that speedy players using the so-called 'True' Blood Altar could expect to craft somewhere in the region of 200,000 to 250,000 Blood runes per hour, depending on other factors like the use of Giant vs. Colossal pouches or how quickly they're able to complete runs. While things like the Raiments of the Eye or Blood essences do increase the number of Blood runes a player might obtain, the difference is relatively low since these bonuses stack additively.
Of course, making 25,000 Scarred Extracts would set our bloodthirsty player back a whopping 600,000,000 GP. Selling these Blood runes on to other players would result in you losing roughly half of the GP you spent to make the runes in the first place, and this is how we keep these vast quantities of runes from entering the main economy - you're free to sell them on if you'd like but you'll wind up losing absolutely massive quantities of GP to do so, and nobody enjoys losing huge quantities of GP for no reason!
Now these Extracts aren't exclusive to Blood runes (though we imagine those are what most of you reading are interested in) but also extend to others too. Perhaps you're looking to stock up on Fire runes and never have to worry about your Trident of the Swamp's charges ever again? You'll be able to net somewhere in the region of 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 Elemental runes in an hour if you like, assuming you have the funds (are you spotting a recurring theme here?). Other methods like Abyss runecrafting will result in somewhere ranging from 150,000 to 200,000 of your chosen rune per hour, while using Extracts at the Kourend Blood and Soul altars will net you somewhere in the region of 80,000 - 90,000 and 50,000 - 60,000 Blood and Soul runes per hour respectively.
While these are some very rough 'napkin math' figures, your specific mileage may vary slightly. Ultimately what we're trying to drive home is that Extracts will allow you to obtain vast quantities of your chosen rune, assuming you're able to pay vast quantities of GP to obtain the Extracts, and that selling these crafted runes on would result in hefty losses for you, so you should only use Extracts to craft runes you're planning to use yourself, thus keeping these runes out of the main economy as much as possible and not adversely impacting their price for non-Iron players.
Beyond the gameplay loop and numbers we've shared, there's not a whole lot to say about the content of the proposal, but we'd like to take a moment to share some closing thoughts and some additional context that might address some lingering questions.
While we touched on it earlier in the blog, some of you might still be wondering "why not just release Blood rune packs?" and while we completely understand where you're coming from, we'd like to reiterate and make clear exactly why we're taking a slightly more involved approach:
- Rune packs don't really solve the underlying issue that constantly world-hopping, buying as much as you can, and competing with other Irons just isn't particularly fun or engaging gameplay. Adding packs doesn't 'fix' or 'solve' shopscape, just expedites it.
- Additionally, we have an entire skill whose sole purpose is crafting runes. Neglecting Runecraft as a solution to this issue doesn't feel like the best approach to take from a game design perspective, since we'd like players to be out and interacting with the world of Gielinor as much as possible, as opposed to cycling through interfaces for ages in order to stuck up for a lengthy PvM session.
- Ultimately, shops are probably a little too good, but they've been this way for years and years so we feel it's better to work around shops and provide a better, gameplay-focused alternative.
- Even though this approach is a tad more involved than making something like rune packs, it's still very light on time requirements from developers and artists, so won't adversely impact any of the other content we've got planned in the coming weeks.
There you have it: Ventriculus, the Extractor. Our proposed gameplay solution to the woes of upkeeping weapons like the Scythe of Vitur or Sanguinesti staff on Iron accounts, expanded to all runes to suit more use-cases. Pay up a hefty sum, obtain stackable Extracts, if you're short on Essence then use the Scar Essence mine to obtain significant quantities of Pure essence, use Extracts to craft massive bonus quantities of specific runes with the Runecraft skill, use your massive supply of bonus runes for any activities you see fit!
Seems simple enough? Good! Now it's up to you to let us know what you think across all the usual channels, where we'll have an opportunity to see your feedback and make any necessary tweaks, changes or updates before giving you the chance to vote on the Scar Essence mine in an upcoming poll, alongside the Leagues 4 - Trailblazer Reloaded Rewards poll!
You can also discuss this update on our official forums, on the 2007Scape subreddit, the Steam forums, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel. For more info on the above content, check out the official Old School Wiki.
Mods Abyss, Arcane, Archie, Argo, Ash, Ayiza, Boko, Bruno, Chilly, Crystal, Curse, Daizong, Dylan, Ed, Elena, Enigma, Errol, Fed, Gecko, Gizmo, Goblin, Grub, Halo, Harold, Hend, Hornet, Husky, Jalo, Jerv, Keyser, Kieren, Kirby, Kurotou, Lenny, Light, Mack, Manked, Markos, Maylea, Meat, Moogle, Morty, Necro, Nox, Nylu, Other, Pumpkin, Redfield, Regent, Rice, Roq, Ry, Sarnie, Shroom, Sigma, Skane, Skylark, Sova, Squid, Starry, Stevew, Surma, Sween, Tide, Titus, Torrance, Tsourorf, Tyran, Veda, Vegard, West & Wolfy
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The name might be a bit of a mouthful, but the aims couldn't be simpler. Ventriculus is a part of our design to give players a fast way to get runes (any kind, not just Blood runes!) that's tied to gameplay and integrated with the Runecraft skill, without adversely impacting the main game economy.
The second section of the book is a practical guide that offers instructions for various magical techniques, such as making herbal oils, ointments, and incenses, as well as creating herbal amulets and talismans. Cunningham emphasizes the importance of ethical and sustainable harvesting practices and includes tips for growing and harvesting one's own herbs. One of the highlights of the book is the author's personal anecdotes and experiences with the herbs. Cunningham's writing style is approachable and engaging, making the information accessible to readers of all levels of experience. Overall, Scott Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in incorporating herbs into their magical practice. From beginners to seasoned practitioners, this book provides a wealth of information and inspiration. Whether used as a reference guide or read cover to cover, this book is sure to enhance one's understanding and appreciation of the magical properties of herbs..
Reviews for "Magical Herbalism in Everyday Life: Lessons from Scott Cunningham's Encyclopedia"
1. John - 2/5
I was really disappointed with "Scott Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs". The book lacked practical information and was more focused on the author's personal beliefs and experiences rather than providing useful knowledge. The classification of herbs was confusing and inconsistent, making it difficult to find specific information. Overall, I found the book to be lacking in substance and not worth the price.
2. Sarah - 3/5
While "Scott Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs" had a nice collection of herbs listed, I felt that the information provided was not as detailed or accurate as I had hoped. The book lacked scientific explanations and relied heavily on folklore and mystical beliefs. As someone looking for more practical and evidence-based information, I found myself frustrated with the lack of depth in each entry. Additionally, I noticed quite a few typographical errors throughout the book, which further affected my overall impression.
3. David - 2/5
I found "Scott Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs" to be highly misleading. The author claims to provide comprehensive information about various herbs, but the reality is that most of the entries are extremely brief and lacking in substance. There is a heavy reliance on personal experiences and beliefs, which alienates readers who are looking for more factual and well-researched information. Furthermore, the lack of references and sources makes it difficult to verify the credibility of the content. Overall, I was unimpressed and would not recommend this book to serious herbalists or researchers.
4. Lisa - 2/5
I expected "Scott Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs" to be a reliable and informative resource for anyone interested in the subject. However, I found the book to be quite repetitive and lacking in originality. Many of the entries simply reiterated common knowledge found in other herbals, without offering any unique insights. The author's biased views and personal beliefs overshadowed the factual information, making it difficult to separate fact from opinion. I would recommend looking for more dependable sources if you're seeking accurate and well-rounded information on the subject of magical herbs.
Creating Personalized Herbal Correspondences with Scott Cunningham's Encyclopedia