Can the Alchemist turn an item into gold and immediately pay the Mercenary to engage in combat that same turn? Can this be done any turn or only on the player's turn?

Augustisimus said:

Of course you can do this. The Alchemist can turn Objects into Gold when needed, provided you have the Objects with you (if you can't have more tha 4 Objects you can't take the fifth and immediately turn it into Gold). Alchemist is not very useful and this kind of Combo is, IMO, one of the best uses you can make of this Follower.

When I started playing Talisman, the other guys I invited to play never paid the one gold to hire the Mercenary - they must have thought he was useless and just left him sitting on the board game! Fools! I think he is one of the handiest Followers in the basic Talisman game.

He'd be really handy for the Merchant character in the Reaper Expansion, who is loaded!