Q. I found an "elemental earth loan" in the Opticks Lab. But how can I find the "earth-shard" that it refers to?
A. In the Opticks Lab:

> search heap
You stir the broken glass carefully with your foot, but nothing turns up that doesn't look like
more broken glass.

> take scrawled sheet
You pick up the sheet, and find a formal (if hastily scrawled) receipt for the use of elemental
earth in an optickal bench setup. "Permission granted to use elemental earth for optickal mirror
calibration - one day only. If you damage or lose the earth-shard, you will be on report until the
Sun turns green. The Retort only has the one in stock!"

(You look down at the wreckage of the bench, and wince.)

Not apparent what you're meant to do here at first. But if you head south into the Opticks Annex and:

> look through oculus
> x spark
You focus on the cyan spark through the oculus. It's just a point of light, but...

A memory obtrudes. It's an alchemical lesson, but not one you ever attended; perhaps not in any
classroom or laboratory you've ever seen. The details are unclear - and yet the lesson is vivid in
your mind. The text being read describes an alchemical tool. "TO CREATE LAVELLE'S
LODESTONE (to locate elementally pure substances): Prepare a lunar environment, but with a
contaminating aroma. (This may require additional lunar symbology to outweigh the
contamination.) Place a silver thread within the bound, and apply a simple sealing. Speak a
word of essential nature; remove the aroma from the atmosphere; invoke a Minor Animus.
When held and swung, this invaluable lodestone will direct itself towards a nearby source of
pure elemental substance."

You consider these memories, including the Minor Animus.

OK, so we need the following materials: silver coin (lunar influence), moon-metal rod (another lunar influence), silver chain (the "silver thread" referred to in the ritual), and the ginger (contaminating aroma. But you can use the peppermint instead, if you like). Then to create the lodestone: Click here to show/hide ritual steps

Now we can use the lodestone to locate the elemental earth-shard:

> n
> swing lodestone
> take elemental earth

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