When you start doing quests for Aryon, he'll mention about fixing you up with a stronghold. You'll be probably about the rank where you need 40 or 50 of the primary skill (dunno the title). You then have to talk to the chick in the Council House Hermitage in Sadrith Mora (go in the council house and down the passage to the right - she is in possibly the most inconvenient location ever
).
For alchemy you need at least a mortar and pestle. Like lockpicks and so on, there are different qualities of alchemy equipment - apprentice, journeyman, master, grandmaster. The other three pieces of equipment (alembic, calcinator, retort) affect the strength and quality of the positive and negative effects in the potions you make. To make a potion, you need at least two different ingredients that have a certain effect (e.g. restore attribute, paralyze, water walking etc), then you put any of your equipment (e.g. mortar and pestle) on your paper doll (like you would do if you were reading a book in your inventory) and you'll get a box that lets you choose what ingredients you want to combine for your potions. You'll know if you chosen ingredients that will successfully create a potion if an effect shows up in the right hand side of the box. Hope that made sense [img]smile.gif[/img]