Q. Can I venture outside the marcher?
A. Presumably you've paid a visit to the Dressing Room. There were spacesuits there (Persy suits), but no helmets. However, you should also have encountered the following alchemical recipe by now:

> recall vacuum-protection (found in Nave Crawlway, look through oculus)
"MULDOON'S POTION, for SURVIVAL in VACUUM: This potion is a staple of marcher work, for
it permits one to walk freely in Hadean lands for up to six hours. Fortunately the procedure is
simple. Prepare an exhilarant environment and a measure of saline. Begin with a sealing word
of passivity. Add highlime to the beaker; follow with the Anodyne Evocation and the Greater
Phlogistical Saturation."

For the exhilarant environment:

> recall facts
> recall lecture on aromas
You dimly recall taking notes on the uses of aroma in alchemy. Perfumes influence a ritual by
adding elemental principles of the atmosphere. You might open an impet of ginger essence for a
fiery ritual, or mint essence for a cooling effect. Citronelle is strengthening, seaweed has...
something to do with breath... it was a tedious lecture.

You can perform this ritual in the Secondary Alchemy lab. The procedure seems straightforward enough, but just in case: Click here to show/hide ritual steps

Now that you have the means to breath in vacuum... there are actually three places on the Retort that you can get outside from:

1. North Arcade (through the window)
2. Portico (through the window)
3. Airlock (but only after you've revived Pneuma)

Two of these require some way to get through the glass, and that would be:

> recall glass permeability (found in Junior Quarters, locker sealed with white-fuse)
"TO RENDER GLASS PERMEABLE TO MATTER: Select a chime in the key of F sharp. Invoke a
Helian environment (the aspect of the Sun). Place the chime into the bound; speak a simple
sealing. Sprinkle pure sand onto the chime; vocalize a resonant tone; strike the chime, and
conclude with a Relative Anima. Once the chime is invested, one need merely strike it again and
embed it into a pane of glass. The chime's vibrations will permit it entry, and the entire pane
will then be semi-fluid for as long as the chime resonates. But only attempt this with simple, flat
sheets of glass - curved glass has irregular vibrational modes, and the tuning will fail."

That seems simple enough, but there's a complication: the bronze F-sharp chime that you require is on the end of a slab that's hanging over the edge of the chasm :-\ But, not to worry. Where there's a will there's usually a ritual for it:

> recall metal attractor (found in Exoscaphe, cabinet sealed with white-fuse)
"A TALISMAN TO ATTRACT METALS: A common lodestone will attract iron, but to exert
influence on other metals requires alchemical preparation. Begin with a Saturnine environment,
and a bound containing a chime tuned to the desired metal. (Metal chimes are preferred, as
glass may be insufficient to the strain.) Use a simple sealing. Surround the chime with zafranum,
and immediately ignite this. Vocalize a resonant tone to prime the metal, and then strike it
(without removing it from the bound!) Use the Mediate Anima to set the vibration. Once the
ritual is complete, striking the chime will attract all nearby objects of the given substance."

We need to find another bronze chime. The one you want is the B-natural chime in the Arcade Crawlspace, Flooded (be careful not to take the torch-lighter with you when you go there, though! :-) The rest of the ingredients are no problem to obtain either. So to make the metal attractor: Click here to show/hide ritual steps

Let's go retrieve that pesky F-sharp chime now:

> go to edge of chasm
> s
> strike b chime
The bronze B chime emits a sharp, eager thrum.

The bronze F-sharp chime vibrates in response. It rolls across the slab and leaps into your hand.

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together? OK, first thing to do is drop the B chime right here as we no longer need it, and carrying it around only serves to complicate things:

> drop b chime

Next we gather the brass coin (rayed sun, Helian environment) and sand that we need for the glass permeability ritual, and head for the Nave again: Click here to show/hide ritual steps

So now are nearly ready to venture outside. First things first, though: you need to drop anything that might shatter in a vacuum! That means the torch-lighter, and any flasks you are carrying around. Now make your way to the Portico and save your game. Then:

> drink vacuum-protection
> strike chime
> put chime in window

Click here to show/hide spoilers concerning what you find outside the Retort

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