Greetings everyone,

Since I started offering herbs and concoctions for free, I have had alot
of time to think while I have been harvesting. During this time, I
decided to to a comparison of how many herbs I would have to harvest to
affect the industry, and what I have found isn't promising.

I would like to show a few calculations on harvesting and Concoctions in
general, but first I have a few units of time to define. The first is an
'Hour', it is a period of time approximatly equal lend to one day. The
second is a 'Minute' a period one sixtieth of an Hour. The final is a
'Second', the length of wich is a sixtieth of a Minute.

It takes approximatly 2 Seconds to regain balance after harvesting if
you are of a race that doesn't have a racial balance modifier.

As stated, I wanted to see how much I would have to harvest to make a
signifigant impact on the Forestal Industry, so I decided to see how
long it would take to make 1 000 000 gold, not an exceedingly large
amount in today's market, but something I thought would be capable for
an individual to make.

There are limitations on the availability of herbs, as should be obvious
to all of you, some, such as Hawthorn and Bayberry, are painfully easy
to come across, and if you have the skill you can easily fill your rift
on one trip, provided you have the time. Some, like Kelp and Goldenseal,
are somewhat rarer, though still fairly easy to get. Forest plants,
being Myrrh, Ginseng, Lobelia, Elm, Echinacea and Ginger are a seperate
case, for though they are abundant, the amound of rooms that have been
imprinted is vast and makes for a whole different problem regarding
harvesting. Valerian, Bloodroot and Kola are the current money crops,
and though you cannot fill your rift from single trips, you can still
gain an amount to make any trip that way profitable. For comparison, in
the 3 months after I returned from retirement, I harvested 1300
Valerian, 700 Kola and 600 Bloodroot. The other Jungle herbs are
similarly common, though Moss is hard to come by. Weed and Pear, though
only found in one area, are easly harvested because they are berely
used. The Swamp plants Ash and Cohosh are usally some of the hardest
plants to find, though Bellwort does grow faster and is therefore easier
to find. And so, a quick breakdown on the ease of aquireing herbs is
shown.

Valerian is first, and has the convienient feature of two of the four
locations it grows in are berely seperate. To make one million gold from
Valerian, selling at the Pre-Accipiter-Retirement Mareket Value of 100
per leaf, Ten Thousand leaves would have to be sold. That is around 5
Hours and 35 Minutes of pure harvesting. Given that in each area you
usually find zero leaves that are able to be harvested, or between fifty
and one hundred and fifty, and that they grow to those levels in two to
three days, and that many people will not go all the way north to
harvest the fourth Mountain Area, and factoring in travel time, it is
approximatly 69 and a half days of constant harvesting. This may sound
like alot, but wait for comparisons to other herbs.

Bloodroot second, market price of 80. Unfortunatly, I am unable to offer
real world comparisons as to the speed of growth and how long it would
effectively take to harvest the twelve and a half thousand leaves, but
theorically, the minimum amount of time to harvest that many would be 6
Hours and 55 Minutes. Of course moving time would have to be factored
in, as would how fast they grow, but as I said I have not kept track
enough to be able to inform you.

In contrast to these cash crops, compare to the most common concoction
sold, Health. To make your million gold from filling Health vials, you
have to do 5556 of them. The ingredients of Health are Valerian,
Ginseng, Myrrh and Goldenseal. Goldenseal being fairly common as I said
before, and the comparison of Valerian above, you are left with aquiring
the Forest herbs Myrrh and Ginseng. Forests are by far the worst place
to harvest, because not only do you have to make sure the herbs are
above Oakstone minimums, but if you happen to see a place that you may
be able to harvest, you have to check if it is anyones grove before you
can get your hopes up that those 14 pieces of Myrrh sitting there will
shortly be yours. If there was an unlimited supply of Valerian,
Goldenseal, Myrrh and Ginseng in a single room, to make one million gold
from simply refilling health, you would have to harvest for twelve Hours
and twenty Minutes.

All these comparisons also do not take into account the flooding of the
market that would occur, or the time it takes to actually find buyers
for ten thousand Valerian, or fifty-five hundred health refills. But, as
you can see from even these few examples, the bulk of money made by
Concoctionists are is not from the concoctions themselves, but by
selling the herbs individually. Though the cost of a single Valerian,
Ginseng, Myrrh and Goldenseal is only 140 gold, it is far easier to sell
1000 Valerian, Ginseng, Myrrh and Goldenseal than it is to sell a
thousand Health.

With this post, many of my supporters, especially those who only support
me because it gets them free things, may be thinking that I will be
abandoning my 'Crusade'. Unfortunatly for me, but fortunatly for those
of you who want said free things, someone invested 270 credits into me
for what I was doing, and abandoning it now is something I cannot do.
But, as you can see, the grand and sweeping changes I had hoped would
come from my simple scheme will likely never come. I provide free
concoctions to people, and a limited suply of herbs, whereas the major
Concoctionist makes his money from the sale of bulk herbs. Bulk herbs
which, by it's very definition, I cannot supply adiquitly to lower
prices.

I am changing my approach however. I will no longer be supplying herbs
free of charge, and hopefully this will cut down on the people asking me
for 'whatever I can get.' as atleast with concoctions they have to put
the thought into buying vials. Also, if any other Concoctionist would
like to step up to the public forum to comment on my actions, it would
be appreciated, for though I have a tendancy to defend my views more
than I should, I do like discussion and the silence about my proposal
has made me feel strangely uneasy.

Finally, I want to sincerely appologize to everyone who has invested
money, credits, hopes and/or dreams in me. It seems very likely now that
I will be unable to make any changes, and I realize many of you will
think this has been all a scam to get money. It was and is not, though
it is a much better idea for a scam than Profit's 'Pyramid Scheme Inc.'

Your's in belatedly correctedness,
Accipiter

Penned by my hand on the 10th of Scarlatan, in the year 374 AF.