Like picking flowers? Don't like making potions of 1% frost resistance for 8 seconds at your little chemistry set? This mod allows you to use various alchemy ingredients to cook exciting herbal teas at cooking pots without the need for an alchemy skill, or indeed any kind of talent at all.

[size=8]~[/size]

INTRODUCTION

This is a mini-mod I made to pass my Tuesday night. It's not a revolution but I had fun making it, and it is easily expandable. I would love to hear your suggestions for new tea blends.

I know of several mods that add tea to the game, but my tea is not purely for atmospheric effect. Rather, it is a kind of Alchemy for idiots, providing a "potions" with fixed effect magnitudes, independent of skills and perks. Not all characters can be alchemists after all.

FEATURES

This mod adds eighteen cooking recipes for herbal teas using alchemical ingredients. It also adds three cookbooks - Virtue's Wine, volumes 1, 2 and 3 - that provide some background on the blends. The teas provide some intermediate level buffs, generally for 720 seconds - 4 in-game hours. Have a cup every morning and you'll be ready for a hard day of Dragonbornin'.

The teas are:

Volume 1

• Akaviri Ceremonial Tea
  - Fortify magicka 30 points (720 seconds)
  - Fire resistance 30% (720 seconds)
  
  
• Nordic Mountain Tea
  - Fortify magicka 30 points (720 seconds)
  - Frost resistance 30% (720 seconds)
  
  
• Prince Geldall Tea
  - Fortify magicka 30 points (720 seconds)
  - Health Regeneration +5% (720 seconds)
  
  
• Khajiiti Caravan Tea
  - Barter +15% (720 seconds)
  - Sneak +15% (720 seconds)
  
  
• Gray Quarter Tea
  - Cure disease
  - Cure poison
  
  
• Orsinian Battle Tea
  - Fortify health 80 points (120 seconds)
  - Fortify stamina 80 points (120 seconds)
  

Volume 2

• Sap Solution based on a suggestion by Nexus user GeneralUser and Workshop user Verona
  - Waterbreathing (720 seconds)
  - Health Regeneration +5% (720 seconds)
  
  
• Dremora Councilor Tea based on a suggestion by Nexus user MartilloNegro
  - Fortify Destruction 30 points (240 seconds)
  - Stamina Regeneration +50% (240 seconds)
  
  
• Golden Gryphon Tea based on a suggestion by Nexus user mrmoere
  - Fortify magicka 30 points (720 seconds)
  - Magic resistance 10% (720 seconds)
  
  
• Magister Vanus Tea based on a suggestion by Nexus user Gabbagandalf666
  - Fortify magicka 30 points (720 seconds)
  - Fortify Illusion 15% (720 seconds)
  
  
• Highland Efficacy Enhancer based on a suggestion by Workshop user Jade the Prophet of CAKE
  - Fortify Stamina 50 points (720 seconds)
  - Weakness to Fire 40% (720 seconds)
  
  
• Falkreath Stinger Tea based on a suggestion by Nexus user GeneralUser
  - Fortify health 80 points (120 seconds)
  - Fortify stamina 80 points (120 seconds)
  

Volume 3

• Kahfee Tea based on a suggestion by Nexus user starfis
  - Fortify Magicka 30 points (720 seconds)
  - Stamina Regeneration +10% (720 seconds)
  
  
• Argonian Murkmuck based on a suggestion by Workshop user Big Bad Werewolf
  - Fortify Lockpicking 15 points (720 seconds)
  - Health regeneration +10% (720 seconds)
  
  
• Phantasmal Tomb Tea based on a suggestion by Workshop user helryne
  - Fortify magicka 30 points (720 seconds)
  - Invisibility (20 seconds)
  
  
• Nordic Ice Tea based on a suggestion by Workshop user Wolfie
  - Fortify Magicka 30 points (720 seconds)
  - Fortify Health 30 points (720 seconds)
  
  
• Akaviri Transcendence Tea based on a suggestion by Workshop user Dacrima Lues
  - Skill increase rate +15% (720 seconds)
  - Fortify Magicka 30 points (720 seconds)
  
  
• Colovian Crown Tea based on a suggestion by Workshop user Ekala the glaceon
  - Fortify Magicka 30 points (720 seconds)
  - Fortify Heavy Armor 15 points (720 seconds)
  

The volume 1 recipe book can be found on a barrel on the corner of the East Empire Company stall outside their warehouse in the Solitude Docks (see image). On top of it is a nice hot cup of Prince Geldall for your effort. Volumes 2 and 3 can be found on the counter next to it. The books are presently NOT required for the recipes to appear, and purely for flavour.

Other than being craftable five of the tea blends - Prince Geldall, Akaviri Ceremonial, Master Vanus, Highland Efficacy Enhancer and Nordic Mountain - are common and have a small chance of being available for purchase in taverns. Gray Quarter tea can be found for sale at the New Gnisis Cornerclub in Windhelm. Khajiiti Caravan Tea can be bought from Khajiiti caravans (no, really.) Battle Tea can not be bought anywhere - you'll just have to go out there and kill a damned bear yourself like a real Orc.

HELP WANTED

I had to plunge into the deep end of the Creation Kit to make the Akaviri Transcendence Tea skill effect happen. If you have experience with creating Magic Effects in the CK, I'd appreciate if you could take a look in the .esp and tell me whether I did it right.

SUGGESTIONS

Thanks for all your suggestions!

I expect suggestions will be far between from here seeing as this mod is out of the spotlight. It's probably for the best since more recipes would just clutter the crafting menu. Feel free to pitch more suggestions, but beware that there will probably not be any further volumes. We've had a good run.

MANUAL INSTALLATION

This mod should be fully compatible with the Nexus Mod Manager, but it is just as easy to install manually:

• Open 'HerbalTea.rar' and extract the contents ('HerbalTea.esp' and the 'textures' directory) into your Skyrim game folder (It is usually at 'C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\'.)
  
  
• Open the Skyrim launcher, click 'Data Files' and check 'HerbalTea.esp' in the list. (Sometimes you have to wait a while while Steam updates any subscribed mods you might have.)
  
  
• And you're done. Bet you're beat after all this work. Lie down for a bit and have a little bit of soul on me.

Updating is a simple matter of overwriting the old files, no uninstallation is necessary.

FAQ

Q: Can you make a special compatibility version for this or that needs mod or whatever?
A: No, but you can. If you are a modder who would like to help me integrate functionality from another mod into this mod, drop me a line and we'll determine just what kind of magic you and I can make together.

CHANGE LOG

Version 1.2 - March 28th 2013
- Added another six new teas based on community suggestions!
- Added a new book with recipes for the new teas.

Version 1.1 - March 18th 2013
- Added six new teas based on community suggestions!
- Added a new book with recipes for the new six teas.
- All teas now use a custom mesh with transparent tea.

[size=8]~[/size]

This mod is also available on the Steam Workshop

Again, tell me what you think and give me all your ideas for new tea varieties!