This is a compilation of all the poisons and drugs that Dave Rohrbach created and sent to the WFRP mailing list. Poisons come first, followed by the drugs.
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Since plants would naturally be most readily available in the Warhammer world and plenty of plants are curtains for the victim on around the third dose or better, I think we should start with them. Here's the first of many (again, these are real plants):
Name: Purge nut (Latin - Jatropha curcas)
Location/Found: In the Southlands, Araby, Lustria, and The Dark Lands. Is rare in Ulthuan and the Old World.
Physical Description: The Purge nut is a nut from a small shade tree of about 13-15 feet high with thick, sturdy branches and thick, sticky yellow sap. The flowers are yellow-green, small, and fuzzy (like peach skin). The nut itself is tasty and it is therefore likely someone eating these nuts would go for a few helpings, which equals more doses.
Reaction Time: 15-25 minutes, empty stomach to full stomach.
Poisonous Parts: Though some believe only the raw seeds are poisonous, many feel the rest of the nut is just as deadly.
Effects/Symptoms: Difficulty breathing, drowsiness, sore throat, bloating, light- headedness, vomiting, diarrhea, and often cramping of legs - basically the poison inhibits protein synthesis in intestinal wall cells.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: None known except magical means.
Uses: Used as rat poison in some places by mixing with palm oil. Some artisans use the nuts in candles and soap.
1 dose = drowsy
2 doses = unconscious
3 doses = dead
4 doses = dead
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (herbal).
Preparation Difficulty: low to moderate (1st time preparing -10% to Int, 2nd time no modifiers. 3rd time and after +10%/+20% Int due to past knowledge)
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Name: Curare (Latin - Strychnos toxifera), a.k.a. Flying Death, Moonseed
Location/Found: Found mostly in Northern Lustria
Physical Description: multiple varieties, so descriptions will differ.
Reaction Time: almost instantaneous - easily one of the most dangerous.
Poisonous Parts: It is well known the sap is fatal, but the rest of the plant is as well.
Effects/Symptoms: Harmless when swallowed. Intravenous or as blade poison causes paralysis beginning with facial muscles. From there, the poison works on the ability to swallow and lift one's head. Then the diaphragm is affected (all this happens within seconds). Quick drop in pulse rate with paralysis of the lungs - death of respiratory failure. Victim turns blue in the meantime.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: None - poison commits too fast.
Uses: Used largely on arrow, spear, and dart tips for battle and hunting. Can be spread on a sword, axe, or knife blade. Physicians use the poison to relax stomach and throat muscles for delicate surgery, but the dose must be extremely accurate (1 dose).
1 dose: unconscious
2 doses: dead
3 doses: dead
4 doses: dead
Relevant Skills: identify plant, prepare poison, and manufacture drugs (herbal). If a Physician were using the drug for surgery, then a surgery skill would be nifty (and obvious). As well, a Pharmacist should make a test to see if the dose for surgery is adequate.
Preparation Difficulty: low to extremely high. For surgery, the dose has to be perfect to render the patient unconscious for a random number of rounds, therefore it is high in that respect. Someone just wanting to off someone else, then anything above that dosage will get the job done. Modifiers will change according to the GM, but in respect to surgery, if the character has never done it, the Int curve should be pretty steep. If he does it quite a bit, then it should be at normal. Use purge nut as a template.
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Name: Hemlock (Latin - Conium maculatum ) (also water hemlock & Mushquash root) a.k.a. muskrat weed
Location/Found: Native to the Old World and Dark Lands, but has become naturalized in many parts of the world. Actually quite common compared to other poisonous plants.
Physical Description: multiple varieties, so descriptions will differ.
Reaction Time: First symptoms start within 30 minutes, but death won't occur for at least 2 hours.
Poisonous Parts: All parts, but primarily the fruits at flowering time. The root seems to be harmless during spring, but deadly at other times, especially during its initial year of growth. The leaves can be tossed into a nice salad without the victim noticing (unless a skill is applicable).
Effects/Symptoms: Slow weakening of muscles with decreased and weakened pulse. As the muscles atrophy, there is quite a bit a pain. Often, sight is lost, but the mind remains alert until the time of death. Death comes from paralysis of the lungs.
*water hemlock causes convulsions
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: for gaming purposes, meat from a quail which has not eaten hemlock for 2 days (they seem to like it). Meat from a quail that has digested hemlock causes vomiting, diarrhea, and finally paralysis in a man 3 hours after eating. There is another hemlock found in the New World called Musquash root, which is often confused with the very edible horseradish. Symptoms and effects are the same, though.
Uses: not many other than poisoning.
1 dose: paralyzed
2 doses: dead
3 doses: dead
4 doses: dead (overkill)
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs. To find traces in a salad - prepare poison.
Preparation Difficulty: very low - how hard is it to make a salad?
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Name: Dove's Dung (Latin - Ornithogalum umbellatum), a.k.a. nap at noon, summer snowflake
Location/Found: Araby, South Lands, Dark Lands, Lustria, Cathay, lower regions of the New and Old World (Badlands, Border Princes, Tilean City States, Estalian Kingdoms) - basically, all warm climates.
Physical Description: White, star-shaped flower found on tall (6'+), leafless, thin bulb-producing stem.
Reaction Time: Almost instantaneous.
Poisonous Parts: All parts, especially the bulb.
Effects/Symptoms: Shortness of breath, respiratory system struggles for air with possibility of death.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: small doses - time, large doses - nil.
Uses: Bulbs can be mixed into flour (for ingredients, and have a bitter aftertaste).
1 dose - breathing difficulty
2 doses - greater breathing difficulty w/ possible unconsciousness
3 doses - dead
4 doses - dead
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (herbal), cook, herb lore. Possibly row (only kidding).
Preparation Difficulty: Extremely low doses can substitute flour for cooking with no ill effects, but up to one dose can make breathing fairly laborious, therefore I'd say low. If you want to off someone, make sure you've baked a cake with it. For two-three doses, roll Int of poisoner and T of victim. Depending on the quality of rolls and GM's mood at the time, there's an equal chance of mere breathing difficulty, unconsciousness, and death.
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Name: Estalian Yew (Latin - Estalia baccata)
Location/Found: Yew trees are common to the entire Northern Hemisphere.
Physical Description: multiple varieties, so descriptions will differ, but all are known to bear red fruit.
Reaction Time: Within an hour, death occurs within 4 hours.
Poisonous Parts: Any part (bark, leaves, seeds) except the fruit (there's a switch).
Effects/Symptoms: Nausea, vomiting, severe gastroenteritis, diarrhea, abdominal pain, dilated pupils, pale skin, weakness, hallucinations (sometimes), convulsions into shock into coma and then death (Cardiac failure).
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: none known.
Uses: Can be made into tea. Can be used as a relaxing agent during abortions (and some minor surgery), but the dosage (1 dose) must be perfect in order for the patient to survive. A physician or pharmacist should role Int tests ala Curare to get it right.
1 dose - unconscious
2 doses - dead
3 doses - dead
4 doses - dead
Relevant Skills: identify plant, prepare poison (also for detection), manufacture drugs, cook, herb lore.
Preparation Difficulty: low to very high. Like Curare, the dose for surgery or abortion must be exact, so physicians and pharmacists should make the appropriate Int rolls (see Curare). Mixing it into a tea is pretty simple, though.
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Name: Lily of the Valley (Latin - Convallaria majalis)
Location/Found: Naggaroth, Dark Lands, eastern Estalia, and small patches in Ulthuan.
Physical Description: A spring-flowering plant, it is known for its white, bell-shaped flowers and sometimes bears orange-red berries with a fleshy texture. It is not unusual for the plant to be mistaken for wild garlic.
Reaction Time: Instantaneous
Poisonous Parts: All, especially the leaves. This also includes the water the cut flowers may have been kept in.
Effects/Symptoms: hot flashes, irritability, hallucinations, headache, cold clammy skin which tend to break out in red patches, dilated pupils, stomach pains, nausea, vomiting, excess salivation, decreased heartbeat. Strong doses lead to coma and eventual death via heart failure.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Anything that can regulate cardiac rhythm like cardiac depressants (up to the GM for kinds and time of treatment).
Uses: Since it resembles garlic, it can easily be used to "flavor" soup.
1 dose - nausea
2 doses - unconscious
3 doses - dead
4 doses - dead
Relevant Skills: identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (herbal), cook. If a character cooks often and by chance notices the plant they're adding to their kids' soup isn't garlic (Int test +10%, up to the GM), herb lore.
Preparation Difficulty - low
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Name: Baneberry (Latin - (white) Actaea alba, (red) A. Rubra, (black) A. Spicata), a.k.a. Doll's Eyes, snakeberry, herb-Christopher.
Location/Found: Found in heavily wooded areas of the New and Old Worlds.
Physical Description: The plant reaches a height of about 3 feet. Leaves are large and spread out with saw-toothed edges with an underbelly of hairy, long veins. The plant itself bears small blue-white or pure white flowers. Black and red berries are shiny and appear usually in summer and fall.
Reaction Time: Several hours to days. An average time is about two days, but cases have been recorded of symptoms beginning within 30 minutes.
Poisonous Parts: Some say the entire plant is toxic, while others quote the berries and roots only. In any case, the plant's poison affects the heart, and the roots are known to be extremely purgative.
Effects/Symptoms: When ingested, 1 dose will cause burning in the stomach (like an ulcer), dizziness, eyespots, and an increased pulse rate. Larger doses (2-3) propose incoherency, nausea, bloody diarrhea, vomiting, convulsions and then shock. Basically, electrolytes and bodily fluids are depleted and kidneys may fail, and eventually death if not treated immediately. Prolonged skin contact produces skin rashes.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Mike, egg whites, and other demulcents void the poison.
Uses: Watch out what's in a pie you may be eating because the black berries tend to be confused with blueberries, especially in elevated forests.
1 dose - nausea
2 doses - unconscious
3 doses - unconscious
4 doses - dead
Relevant Skills: identify plant, prepare poison (to locate in food also), manufacture drugs (herbal), cook, herb lore.
Preparation Difficulty: low
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Name: Monkshood (Latin - Aconitum napellus, A. Columbianum, or A. Vulparia), a.k.a. wolfbane
Location/Found: Monkshood can be found in Naggaroth, the upper-mid Dark Lands, Albion, and all of the Old World down to the Badlands, and some has been found in the Ulthuan Elven Kingdoms. Western Monkshood is can be found at high altitudes and the west coast region of the New World. Yellow Monkshood is native to mid-western New World, and Wild Monkshood is plentiful in the eastern part of the New World. It has been naturalized in makeshift greenhouses in some parts of Cathay and southern Dark Lands.
Physical Description: many varieties, so descriptions will differ.
Reaction Time: Starts quickly and death can occur within 10 minutes to two or three hours, depending on dosage.
Poisonous Parts: The whole plant, especially the leaves and roots.
Effects/Symptoms: Monkshood can be digested or skin-absorbed. The immediate effects are burning and tingling of skin, numbness in face, throat, and tongue. Following that, nausea, vomiting, skin prickling, dimness of sight, blurred vision, blood pressure drop, weakened pulse, chest pains, excessive sweating and finally convulsions due to respiratory failure. Toward the end, severe pain and paralysis of the facial muscles. Breathing starts off rapid then gradually slows until respiratory failure. Finally, the heart muscles freeze causing cardiac arrest. Most often consciousness remains until the end. Some have documented green-yellow vision and tinnitus. Root produces fumes (see Uses).
Cure/Antidotes/Treatments: Oxygen to help breathing aids in smaller doses (1 dose) as well as heart-stimulating drugs.
Uses: Can be used as an anesthesia. At one dose, the effects envelope the entire body with complaints from patients of feeling very cold. Effects should subside within 24 hrs. The fumes from the mature roots cause giddiness and head-heaviness as a recreational drug.
1 dose - numbness in face, throat, and tongue (anesthesia) with other minor side-effects.
2 doses - dead
3 doses - dead
4 doses - dead
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (herbal), cook, herb lore.
Preparation Difficulty: low to very high. Physicians and pharmacists should roll and Int test for preparation as anesthesia. See Curare for template on this. Low difficulty comes from tossing the leaves in a salad or when the root is mistaken for a radish, which is fairly common. For a middle of the road difficulty, the root must be dug up in early October when it matures and are put in the sun to dry for 3-4 days. When dried, it can be sold commercially for its effects, but this is merely recreational. Note: when digging up and drying, the person during this event will feel those effects unless a cloth is tied around the head to cover the nose (prevents inhalation of fumes).
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Name: Rhododendron (Latin - Rhododendron ponticum), a.k.a. Azalea.
Location/Found: Everywhere. Abundant in the New World coast to coast, Estalia Kingdoms, Bretonnia, has been cultivated in all other parts including The Elven Kingdoms, though rare unless under artificial conditions in the extreme wastes.
Physical Description: Rhododendrons are bell-shaped and usually odorless, however Azaleas are funnel-shaped, two-tiered, and fragrant. They are both part of the evergreen family.
Reaction Time: Six hours after ingestion.
Poisonous Parts: All parts of both plants.
Effects/Symptoms: nausea, uncontrollable drooling, vomiting, diarrhea, increased tearing, slow pulse, blood pressure drop continuing to paralysis, seizures, coma, and death.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: none known.
Uses: None formerly. Children have been known to suck the nectar from the blossoms. Also has been mistakenly added to tea. It is known the bees that have fed on azaleas, rhododendrons, oleander, or dwarf laurel carry poisonous honey.
1 dose - paralysis
2 doses - coma (with possible death)
3 doses - death
4 doses - death
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (herbal), cook, herb lore.
Preparation Difficulty: low to medium. Low difficulty adding it to tea as an herb. Preparing a honey cake from affected nectar and/or honey from bees would be more tedious and time-consuming. One would also have to know how to extract such things from their hosts.
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Name: Oleander (Latin - Nerium oleander), a.k.a. Jericho rose.
Location/Found: Native of The Dark Lands and is reported growing wild in the Unknown Lands. Is used ornamentally in the New World and even grown as a houseplant. Favors temperate climates in Araby, Border Princes, Bad Lands, Tilea, Southern Estalia, but it has been known to grow in other climates of the Old World. Some cultures use it as a funeral plant.
Physical Description: A mildly fragrant evergreen shrub with thin, narrow leaves and milky sap. Can have white, red, or pink flowers.
Reaction Time: Almost instantaneous.
Poisonous Parts: All including the nectar, the water the cut plant is kept in, and even the smoke if burned. Often mistakenly used by laymen (or inattentive rangers) to roast meat over fire.
Effects/Symptoms: Excessive sweating, vomiting, bloody diarrhea leading to unconsciousness, respiratory paralysis and death. Is a cardiac stimulator.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Prompt induced vomiting helps as well as any kind of cardiac depressant. For fantasy use, the blood/meat of a goat can relieve the effects.
Uses: Is often used as rat/small rodent poison. Honey from bees that have sucked nectar from Oleander is most likely poisonous. In rare cases, it has been used to treat leprosy (that's something I'll have to look into). Goats are immune to its effects.
1 dose: nausea
2 doses: unconscious
3 doses: dead
4 doses: dead
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs, herb lore.
Preparation Difficulty: low to medium. Extracting the nectar from the plant and making the honey into something edible will need extra planning. Handing a stick to someone who wants to roast some meat is relatively simple.
Note: It would be common for a ratcatcher to have some oleander in his/her possession, but not always.
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Belladonna is covered in the WFRP book under Nightshade as a deleriant, but there are many more effects than what's listed there and is not quite as potent (or correct) as described. Nightshade, as a central nervous system stimulator with rapid pulse and respiration, would not make you drowsy. It does produce hallucinations, though. Here's my re-edit of the poison/deleriant.
Name: Belladonna (Latin - Atropha belladona), a.k.a. nightshade, banewort, naked lady lily, and many others.
Location/Found: Found in wastes areas of the New World as well as Kislev and parts east of the World's Edge Mountains. Native of the Old World, sometimes used as an ornamental plant.
Physical Description: Pale purple-blue flowers bloom and purple-black berries grow in summer (temperate) months.
Reaction Time: Several hours to days.
Poisonous Parts: All, especially the fruit, leaves, and roots.
Effects/Symptoms: blurred vision w/ dilated pupils, increased heart rate (stimulated central nervous system), skin turns dry, hot and red, dry mouth, disorientation, hallucinations, heart beat audible by others several feet away, aggression, rapid pulse and respiration, urinary retention, convulsions w/ fever, coma, and death. Paralyzes the parasympathetic nervous system by actually blocking the nerve endings. Kidneys must be functional to process the drugs within Belladonna.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Vomiting helps, but is not at all full proof. For fantasy purposes, consuming the blood/mean of a rabbit which hasn't eaten belladonna for 48 hours will absorb the effects, but at higher doses, may not work (T - GM's modifier). It must also be done before the major effects take place.
Uses: In a language comparable to Italian, Belladonna means "beautiful woman". During the Renaissance periods, women would apply Belladonna to their eyes to dilate the pupils for a wider (and consequently more exotic and elegant) effect. Can be made into a powder to treat asthma and hyperacidity.
1 dose: hallucinations
2 doses: hallucinations
3 doses: coma and possible death
4 doses: dead
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs, herb lore, possibly cook (for the berries).
Preparation Difficulty: low to high. Tossing some berries into a blue or blackberry pie would not be so difficult, but a cook may tell the difference through taste or sight. Preparing a powder to remedy other ailments would take the knowledge of a physician or pharmacist (or druid or herbalist). Since high doses are necessary to kill a victim, Belladonna isn't a favorite of professional assassins, but for a mere game of hallucinatory "now you see it, now you don't" it works rather well.
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Name: Devil's Trumpet (Latin - Datura stramonium), a.k.a. Jimsonweed (Salzenweed), thorn apple, stinkweed, mad apple.
Location/Found: Found in most warm climates of the world, especially southern Estalia.
Physical Description: White or purple, funnel-shaped flowers, and entire plant retains a lousy smell. Autumn fruits are prickly, globular, and contain many black, wrinkled seeds. Part of the large Datura family, all are poisonous. Fragrance varies in each plant depending on the season.
Reaction Time: 5-7 hours.
Poisonous Parts: Whole plant is deadly, primarily in leaves, roots, and seeds of the fruit. Even more poisonous are the wilted leaves and fruit juices.
Effects/Symptoms: Headaches, extreme thirst and dry burning skin, vertigo, dilated pupils with blurred vision and eventual sight loss, drowsiness, weakened pulse, involuntary motions, mania, delirium, convulsions and coma which can end in death. Rubbing the eyes after handling its leaves can cause dilation of pupils.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Purgatives (in our world, magnesium sulphate), and sedatives (or a carefully calculated dose of Curare) can calm convulsions (but I don't know the risk of mixing the two poisons - be creative with this one).
Uses: Leaves and seeds can be used to poison tea. Can be used to treat asthma by burning the leaves and then inhaled, but only as a last resort.
1 dose: drowsiness
2 doses: unconscious
3 doses: coma with possible death
4 doses: death
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs, cook, herb lore.
Preparation Difficulty: low to high. Used in tea or eating the berries is fairly simple, meanwhile using the burnt remnants to treat asthma is very undependable and extremely chancy. A physician or pharmacist should roll a seriously disabled Int check while attempting this, as would a herbalist attempting the same trick.
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Name: Pasternoster Pea (Latin - Abrus Precatorius), a.k.a. lucky bean, prayer bean, rosary pea, crab’s eyes, black-eyed Susan and others.
Location/Found: Araby, South Lands, Dark Lands, Tilea, Border Princes, Southern Estalia, Northern Lustria, and the New World.
Physical Description: varies by location, but all are climbing plants.
Reaction Time: Could take from 2-5 hours to several days.
Poisonous Parts: The seeds.
Effects/Symptoms: plagues the digestive system. Diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, convulsions, tachycardia, hemorrhages, coma, and eventual death via heart failure. Produces ulcers in the mouth.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Since there is a long latency period before the drug takes effect, the plant should be removed (through induced vomiting or other viable method) as quickly as possible. High carbohydrates could minimize liver damage.
Uses: Used to coat arrow tips, activated by heat. Because of the latency period, the killer could be several hundred miles away when the first effects hit. Each seed has a flapped enveloped which can only be broken when chewed or ground up to release the poison inside. Often used in trials by ordeal (a tipped off character would be okay if he/she did not chew the peas before swallowing). Also used ornamentally in rosaries, bracelets, leis, and necklaces.
1 dose - nausea
2 doses - convulsions and unconsciousness/coma
3 doses - dead
4 doses - dead
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (herbal), herb lore, cook (if applied to food), and specialist weapon concerning arrows, crossbows, or darts.
Preparation Difficulty: relatively low. Coating an arrowhead with the poison is easy, but firing the weapons requires (as always) a specialist weapon skill for fired ballistic weapons. Adding to food is generally easy.
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Name: Black Hellebore (Latin - Helleborus niger), a.k.a. Christmas Rose
Location/Found: Northern New World and Naggaroth
Physical Description: A black flowering plant with white buds. About half a foot high.
Reaction Time: Within a half-hour, but death may take several hours.
Poisonous Parts: Entire plant contains a number of poisons.
Effects/Symptoms: The poison blisters the mucous membranes in the mouth and causes chronic diarrhea, stomach pains, vomiting, numbness in some limbs, and death due to cardiac arrest.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Cardiac and respiratory stimulants.
Uses: None practical.
1 dose - nausea
2 doses – nausea and stomach pains
3 doses – limb numbness, possible death
4 doses – convulsions and death
Relevant Skills: Identify plants, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (herbal), herb lore.
Preparation Difficulty: The plant has to be digested to work and does not look like the type of thing found in a salad, nor does it taste too hot. Would have to be planted (in food, not in the ground). Preparing it isn’t the problem; it’s getting the poor guy to digest it.
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Name: Castor Bean (Latin - Ricinus communis)
Location/Found: The castor tree grows in many tropical places, especially eastern Lustria and the Badlands. Can also be found growing wild in Araby, the South Lands, southern Cathay, and the Dark Lands. Adventurers have said to have seen it in The New World, but was probably transplanted from another place.
Physical Description: The plant can grow as high as 40 feet high in tropical climates. Colder climates stunt its growth to a mere 15 feet. The tiny fruit, or capsules, contain the bean-like seeds. Most of the leaves look like poison ivy without the shininess.
Reaction Time: Several hours to days (up to 12 days after digestion). The initial symptoms can take anywhere from 2-48 hours to take effect, depending on the toughness of the individual.
Poisonous Parts: The beans contain the natural poison ricin, which is considered one of the most toxic substances known. Six to eight beans chewed can be fatal in hours, but unchewed and swallowed whole, the hard skin of the bean is unlikely to be dissolved by digestive acids. Cases have been reported that two well-chewed beans have proven deadly. Assassins report that tipping arrows and darts with the poison works very well.
Effects/Symptoms: Burning of the mouth, nausea, diarrhea, bloody vomiting and urine, stomach cramps, cyanosis, fatigue, stupor with leads to collapse of circulatory system, which leads to convulsions, coma, and death. The red blood cells are broken up via hemolysis, even if the poison is heavily diluted, causing chronic hemorrhaging. Has been known to induce labor in pregnant women.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: A medication that coats the stomach (magnesium trisilicate) could prevent effects of minor doses. The bean, before digestion or internal contact, can be heated to a level where it destroys the ricin inside.
Uses: Of course, castor oil, the colorless laxative oil, comes from the castor tree, which is sticky and clear when fresh. Basically it irritates the walls of the intestines and causes them to work (but can cause constipation if used too frequently). Castor oil is taken from the seed, which leaves the residual poison behind, in a process known as ‘cold pressing’. The oil can also be used in the making of certain varnish, dyes, and paint. The plant (tree) is sometimes used for ornamental purposes.
1 dose: (½ - 1 bean) nausea/vomiting, stomach cramps, burning mouth.
2 doses: (1 ½ - 3 beans) convulsions and coma, possible death.
3 doses: (3 ½ - 5 beans) dead (roll T -20).
4 doses: (more than 5 ½ beans) dead.
Again, the effect depends on the toughness of the victim. The amount of poison that can be applied to a dart or arrowhead are somewhere in the 1 dose category, but a very liberal spreading may be considered 2 doses.
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (herbal), herb lore.
Preparation Difficulty: At one dose, a physician or pharmacist would have to be exact for inducing labor for a high preparation difficulty. The actual poisoning difficulty would be low. Applying it to weaponry is also low.
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I researched a little further into water hemlock because I found out it is located in some different places than regular hemlock, lives in a different environment, and has some more things for ideas, plus it's a vicious one.
Name: Water Hemlock (Latin - Cicuta maculata and many others), a.k.a. beaver poison, cowbane, locoweed and others.
Location/Found: Found in eastern New World and southeast Naggaroth. A few minor varieties can be found in the northern New World. Grows mainly in marshy or wet, swampy ground, mostly along streams or in swales in pastures (where the plant is greener than the rest of the pasture). Also found in seepage basins and ditches in the eastern New World and Naggaroth. Some can be found in the small islands in ocean west of the New World.
Physical Description: An herb with a sectioned (jointed) stem and violet spots that can grow to eight feet tall. The small flowers are white. When the rootstock is split, off-yellow odorous oil seeps out, which is what gives the plant its specific smell.
Reaction Time: Twenty minutes to an hour or two for death.
Poisonous Parts: The whole plant is poisonous, but the rootstock and root contain the most. The plant contains a brown and sticky, resin-like substance called cicutoxin (named after Cicuta, which is the most violent poison found in plant form in the US (New World)), which is soluble in alcohol, chloroform, ether, and most diluted alkalies.
Effect/Symptoms: Anxiety and restlessness, stomach pains, nausea and projectile vomiting, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, dilated pupils, frequent frothing at the mouth, weakened, yet increased pulse, then severe convulsions followed by, you guessed it, death via respiratory failure.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Emetics (something causing vomiting) and cathartics (a purgative or laxative (hey, castor oil) which loosens the bowls) void poison. Intermuscular injections of morphine can control convulsions as well as short-acting barbiturates (possibly an small exact dosage of curare could work). There is a small chance cold water may lessen the effects, depending on the dosage.
Uses: Other than poisoning, not much. Possibly ornamental.
1 dose: nausea
2 doses: dead
3 doses: dead
4 doses: dead (this is a potent one, eh?)
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (herbal), herb lore, cook (the plant is often mistaken for parsnips, artichokes, and some other roots).
Preparation Difficulty: low, by digestion. Most cases of poisoning occur in early spring when the plant first grows. Children have poisoned themselves by making whistles and peashooters from the stems. Cows who have consumed the water contaminated with the juice from a crushed plant can be poisoned, though it would have to be a large dose because the poison is not as soluble in cold water.
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Name: Corn Cockle (Latin - Agrostemma githago), a.k.a. purple cockle
Location/Found: Native to the Old World, but has been transplanted to the New World. Found primarily in wheat fields, but also in cornfields. It is an annual winter flower.
Physical Description: Tall, gray, and silky. Petals are purple-pink and the single flowers are pink. The surface of its black seeds is pitted.
Reaction Time: ½ hour to an hour after ingestion.
Poisonous Parts: The whole plant, but the seeds are the most potent, especially if they are ground up in cereal. It is difficult to screen the seeds from the wheat, and often gets through.
Effects/Symptoms: Sore throat, nausea, extreme gastroenteritis, fever, delirium, headaches, acute stomach pains, weakness, slowed breathing, sharp spinal pains, coma, and death from respiratory arrest.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Gastric lavage.
Uses: Is sometimes used ornamentally (the plant, that is).
1 dose - nausea
2 doses - more extreme nausea
3 doses - coma, possible death
4 doses - dead
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (herbal), herb lore, cook.
Preparation Difficulty: low - grinding it up in cereal is relatively easy. A cook may be able to tell the difference between wheat and the seeds when making wheat bread or cereal. A loaf of bread or two helpings of cereal can be considered about 2 doses. More than that would result in the other effects. Corn cockle is relatively easy to find considering all the wheat and cornfields in existence.
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Name: Fool’s Parsley (Latin - Aethusa cynapium)
Location/Found: Grows wild in the Old World, northeastern New World, and eastern Naggaroth in fields and waste places.
Physical Description: Fool’s parsley looks a lot like hemlock without the purple spotting. The stem is hollow and the leaves have thin grooves on them.
Reaction Time: Several hours to several days.
Poisonous Parts: The whole plant is deadly.
Effects/Symptoms: The symptoms are very close to hemlock’s effects, though the poison of fool’s parsley isn’t as potent.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Gastric lavage. The meat or the blood of a quail does not subside the effects of fool’s parsley.
Uses: none really.
1 dose - paralyzed
2 doses - paralyzed
3 doses - paralyzed
4 doses - dead
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (herbal), herb lore, cook.
Preparation Difficulty: low. People have become paralyzed and died after eating the leaves and roots that have been mistaken for edible parsley, anise, and radishes.
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Name: Daphne, a.k.a. spurge olive, dwarf bay, spurge flax, wild pepper.
Latin name: Daphne mezereum, Daphne laureola
Location/Found: Native to lands east of The Worlds Edge Mountains like the Dark Lands and far western Cathay, but has been found (probably transplanted) in the northeastern New World and eastern Naggaroth. Also, has been discovered in Estalia and Bretonnia as well as parts of the Elven Kingdoms.
Physical Description: Ornamentally used, the plant is a pleasantly fragrant lilac-purple, pink-purple, or white in stalkless clusters of usually three and blooms before the leaves do. Found in spring.
Reaction Time: 45 minutes to a 3-6 hours.
Poisonous Parts: All parts, but the berries are primary. Of the Daphne mezereum type, they are bright red. Those of the Daphne laureola are initially green, then turn blueish, then black when ripe. The berry juice and sap from the bark could be absorbed through abraded skin to produce reactions. Heating/cooking will not remove toxins. Even after leaves and fruit die, the poison is still as effective.
Effects/Symptoms: Extreme burnings of lips, throat, and mouth, abdominal pain, vomiting, bloody diarrhea, weakness, convulsions, kidney failure/damage, shock due to fluid loss, coma, and death.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Gastric lavage, but could worsen injuries as mucous membranes are often effected.
Uses: Ornamental. One of the oldest recognizable poisonous plants.
1 dose: a few berries - nausea, burning face, vomiting.
2 doses: convulsions, shock, coma, possible death.
3 doses: dead
4 doses: dead
Note: one dose could kill a child, meanwhile a pie made of the berries will have you pushing up tulips.
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (herbal), herb lore, cook, an artisan who works with plants ornamentally would most likely recognize the plant, which goes for just about any ornamental plant currently on the list and up-coming.
Preparation Difficulty: Low. Could be applied to arrowheads, darts, spearheads, and possibly blades. Lacing a pie with the berries or serving them as treats takes little effort.
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Name: Death Camas, a.k.a. black snake root, poison sego, water lily, soap plant, wild onion, hog’s potato.
Latin name: Zyadenus venenosus.
Location/Found: Mostly in the Naggaroth and the New World except the most southeastern area. Also found on small islands off the west coast of the New World. Can be found in my left shoe.
Physical Description: Leaves are grass-like (long and narrow) and cluster around the stem base. The stem is a branched cluster at the top of greenish-white to yellow-white flowers. Has a dark-colored, onion-like bulb minus the onion smell. It’s part of the lily family.
Reaction Time: An hour at the least.
Poisonous Parts: The fresh leaves, stem, bulb, and flowers are all deadly, but the seeds are more so. Poison still effective even after the plant has dried out.
Effects/Symptoms: Increased salivation, equal dilation of pupils, weakness featured by staggering or prostration, breathing difficulty, coma, and death.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Gastric lavage recommended of immediate vomiting doesn’t occur.
Uses: Mainly used as a cattle poison (just in case you want to assassinate some cows).
1 dose - nausea and drowsiness.
2 doses - nausea and drowsiness.
3 doses - coma, possible death.
4 doses - dead.
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (herbal), herb lore, cook.
Preparation Difficulty: Low. The plant can easily be mistaken for edible onions, therefore can be placed in stew or salad or anything to be eaten for effective dosage.
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Name: Black Locust, a.k.a. bastard acacia, black acacia, pea flower locust
Latin name: Robina psuedoacacia
Located/Found: Native to the eastern part of the New World.
Physical Description: a blueish-black flowering plant a few inches in height.
Reaction Time: About an hour.
Poisonous Parts: inner bark, seeds, and leaves. The poison is a phototoxin called robin (not the bird).
Effects/Symptoms: The poison inhibits the synthesis of protein in the intestines. Starts off with purging, stupor, slowed heart rate and activity, weak pulse, gastroenteritis, coldness of arms and legs (though can be mistaken for numbness), shock, possibly convulsive, and, you guessed it, death.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Gastric lavage
Uses: nil
1 dose - weakened pulse and heart, nausea.
2 doses - shock, and maybe convulsions.
3 doses - dead
4 doses - dead
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (herbal), herb lore.
Preparation Difficulty: low. Animals and children are susceptible when chewing/eating any of the above poisonous parts. Has to be digested, though. I don’t know if it can be disguised as food. A victim niftily failing an INT test as the food is put in front of him/her could be an option, especially if it's something eaten on a regular basis.
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Name: Bloodroot
Latin name: Sanguinaria canadensis
Location/Found: Found in the New World from its center -east, spanning northern to southern extremities. Usually found in soil-rich woodlands and along fences among bushes.
Physical Description: An herb with thick rootstocks that blossom white, shiny, poppy-like flowers with eight petals and yellow stamen. Stem is lined with sturdy prickles. Appears in early spring. Akin to its name, the sap of the plant is red. As for taste, it is bitter and acrid.
Reaction Time: 1-2 hours.
Poisonous Parts: All parts. Red sap may irritate skin (rash) when exposed. It causes painful irritation when the prickles rip the skin. Its poison is called sanguinarine.
Effects/Symptoms: Slows the action of the heart, weakens muscles, and depresses the nerves. After extreme vomiting and thirst, there will be great burning and soreness in the throat and mouth, trailed by chest heaviness with breathing difficulties, dilation of pupils, coldness of skin, lightheadedness, then cardiac paralysis, and then death.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Gastric lavage.
Uses: none really.
1 dose: vomiting and thirst, throat burning.
2 doses: chest heaviness and breathing difficulties.
3 doses: those above and dilation of pupils, lightheadedness, skin chill.
4 doses: paralysis and death.
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (herbal), herb lore.
Preparation Difficulty: very low, as there really is no preparation other than the victim ingesting the poison. I'm not sure if injection or blade application would do anything other than skin irritation. Though the sap may (!) be substituted for red wine or some potions, its taste description would probably keep the ingestor from chugging the stuff. If it were sold to someone as a potion of something (magical, for instance, or even healing), then the ingestor wouldn't know the difference. Just some possibilities.
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Someone once had the audacity to tell me the world benefited nothing from the plant world. If only he could see this list.
Name: Lords-and-ladies and Jack-in-the-pulpit, a.k.a. cuckoopint, wild arum, wake-robin.
Latin name: (Old World) Arum maculatum, (New World) Arisaema atroubens.
Location/Found: Lords-and-ladies is native to Estalia, Tilea, the Border Prices, Badlands, and southern Bretonnia. Jack-in-the-pulpit is native to the New World, namely in the southern section.
Physical Description: Both varieties are about ten inches high, green and sometimes green with purple spots. The fruit is fire engine red.
Reaction Time: Several hours.
Poisonous Parts: Entire plant, especially the sweet-tasting berries, leaves (sour), flowers, and roots. The poisons contained within the plant are aroin (coniine-related - hemlock), and calcium oxylate.
Effects/Symptoms: Blistering, extreme gastroenteritis, possible swelling of throat (pharynx), convulsions, hemorrhaging, mydriasis, coma, and blessed death.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: none. If swelling of throat occurs, obstructing the air flow, reinstituting a clear passage could overthrow that problem.
Uses: none really.
1 dose: stomach pains
2 doses: stomach pains, blistering and swelling of throat (70% chance)
3 doses: coma
4 doses: dead
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (herbal), herb lore.
Preparation Difficulty: Low. Must be ingested. Tasty berries would make a lovely midnight snack for the victim.
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Name: Hydrangea, a.k.a. hortensia, hills of snow.
Latin name: Hydrangea macrophylla.
Location/Found: Native to Cathay. Has been transplanted and found in much of The Old World.
Physical Description: Ornamental shrub with blue, white, or pink flowers. Stands about a foot and a half high.
Reaction Time: It could be several hours before symptoms set in. Technically, the glycosides have to decompose by reacting with water in the gastrointestinal tract before the poison can be released.
Poisonous Parts: All parts, especially the flower buds. The poison is a cyanogenetic glycoside (hydrangin) (for all you sages and intelligent scholar characters out there).
Effects/Symptoms: Gastroenteritis, rapid respiration, flushing, headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, rapid pulse and blood pressure droppage. Convulsions precede death.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Gastric lavage.
Uses: none really except as ornamental.
1 dose: stomach cramps
2 doses: rapid respiration, flushing, headaches, dizziness, nausea and vomiting.
3 doses: same
4 doses: convulsions and bye-bye.
It is known by sages and physicians as one of the most potent natural toxins in the Warhammer world.
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (herbal), herb lore.
Preparation Difficulty: Low.
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Here are the drugs he created:
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Name: Ephedra, a.k.a. white cross
Location: Ephedra plant is found in Cathay and its surrounding areas, but the drug has been manufactured into pill form and can be found most anywhere there is a pharmacist/physician/chemist.
Physical Description: The plant stands at about a foot high with small, two-lipped leaves that resemble clover. The root is bone white, which is where the drug comes from.
Reaction Time: Within thirty minutes and must be taken on an empty or near empty stomach. Also, sometimes prolonged time in the sun negates the effects. Could last for up to four hours, depending on dosage.
Reactionary Part: The root.
Effects: Increased alertness and energy, increased heartbeat, pulse, and sweat glands, insomnia, nervousness, dry mouth, loss of appetite, tremors, facilitates easier breathing (it’s also a bronchodilator), possible nausea, decreased sexual stimulation, yellowing of the teeth. Possible ‘come down’ effects of drowsiness, fatigue, and laziness.
Antidotes: Vomiting or heavy eating before the drug takes effect may reduce effects.
Uses: Can be used for asthma, which includes tightness of chest and shortness of breath. Used by many warriors for battle or night watches. Some academics, especially wizards and sages, use the drug for long nights hovering over books. Physicians and pharmacists have prescribed light doses for asthma.
1 dose - ½ - 1 pill - an academics usual amount
2 doses - 2-4 pills - most warriors usual amount
3 doses - 5-7 pills - the other warriors usual amount
4 doses - 8 or more - slayers tend to overindulge.
Depending on the amount over 10, could result in stroke, heart failure, and death. The amount taken and how it reacts should also depend on weight of the user as well as affinity to stimulants through either natural or acquired (if one does an abundance of) means (i.e. 6 pills for a 110 pound woman may have the effects of a large, four doser, meanwhile a 300 pound human would probably not feel the effects of one pill). For the GM to arrange.
I'd like that even though it's basically up to the GM to decide if the drug affects a person concerning weight and dose, a 3 doser would probably give a +1S, +10 I, and +10 to perception (I + Dex divided by 2). A higher dosage may (10% chance) add a +2S and +20 I, and +20 to perception, but that, again, is up to the GM.
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, manufacture drugs (herbal and pharm), chemistry, herb lore.
Preparation Difficulty: Preparing drugs in pill form from a plant requires a level of expertise that a pharmacist would have though some physicians have such knowledge also. It can also be made into a tea.
*Note* - I, myself, take as much as 5-7 on a normal basis at once and have lived for around eight or nine years since I’ve discovered it, so three doses will not kill someone, though, in time, this amount could have considerable effects (my $’s on a stroke. I’ll let you all know).
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Moving onward and away from plant poisons, these are chemically manufactured drugs.
Common names will list names that are most used as well as other non-technical slang in non-human/demihuman languages (dark tongue, goblinoid...). Of course, these can be toned to geographical dialect, which I believe can be found in detail in the archives by Ben Fabian.
Common Names: Fluorosalt (Old Worlder), Fratol (Orrakh), Frazol (Goblinoid).
Scholarly Name: sodium fluoroacetate, fluoroacetic acid.
Form/Physical Description: An odorless, flavorless, fine white powder that can be converted into a solution with a little water. It is water-soluble, though.
Uses: Originally developed by chemists as a rodenticide for ratcatchers, but was found to be easily transferrable to food with a prolonged toxicity lifespan.
Effects/Symptoms: The powder and liquid solution (mixed with small quantities of water) can be ingested. The dust can be inhaled. The chemical obstructs cellular metabolism affecting all cells of the body, especially the central nervous system. Symptoms are vomiting, irregular breathing, facial numbness and twitching, hallucinations, anxiety, convulsions, and coma. Death can be from respiratory failure due either from ventricular fibrillation or pulmonary edema (blather anyone?).
Reaction Time: Minutes up to six hours.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Symptoms could be treated as they appear. Large doses of calcium from whole cow or goat milk, bananas, or anything else containing large quantities of calcium negate convulsions, but they could appear later if the curing dose is insufficient. Large quantities of water may deaden the effect before the symptoms start, but after that, use calcium.
1 dose: nausea and breathing difficulties (-20 battle skills and Initiative).
2 doses: hallucinations (a delirious character may attack the hallucinations).
3 doses: convulsions and coma.
4 doses: dead
Relevant Skills: Chemistry, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (chemical), torture (it’s come to my realization that a mild dose could benefit a torturer who is trying to extract information or confession. Throw a scare into the victim by explaining the effects of the drug about to be administered. Of course, killing the victim would defeat the purpose of the info extraction, but the victim doesn’t have to know this, plus most victims wouldn’t know the exact ramifications of the drug. Roll against the victim’s WP for spilling beans and T for the drug’s effect.)
Preparation Difficulty: Like all chemical mixtures, the preparation difficulty should be medium to very high. The final difficulty is up to the GM.
Revelational Situation: A disgruntled ratcatcher tried getting even with a soldier over some petty squabble. He added a few drops of the liquid solution to a pale of water he knew the soldier’s horse would be drinking from later. The horse died and was buried. Later that night, some wild dogs dug up the corpse and died after consuming the horse’s flesh. This sparked the idea of poisoning the steeds of other armies as well as any mercenary troops that are prone to indiscriminate feeding during battle (trolls). As it turned out, dogs of war that fed on drugged horses and other animals died. Trolls, however, proved to be heartier and were not affected by the drug. It is unknown whether this tactic works on beastmen who feast on their fallen leaders, which also goes for minotaurs. This tactic has been known to seriously affect insect and spider swarms, and is effective against elves, dwarves, halflings, ogres, orcs, and goblinoids.
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An Anticoagulant
Common Names: Warfarin (Khazalid), Dicuim (Eltharin), Talonblight, Trollpaste, Trolljuice (Old Worlder), Racizol (Orc, Goblinoid).
Scholarly Names: ethyl biscoumacetate, phenindione, diphenadione, acenocoumarol.
Form/Physical Description: several varieties (see scholarly names), ranging from milky to clear liquid, pasty to watery, but all have near-same effects.
Component/Ingredient Rarity: Made from coumarin(e), a white, vanilla-flavored, crystalline substance found in the tonka bean, which grows on the coumarou tree (latin-Dipteryx odorata) found mainly in Bretonnia. Also common where troll habitation is frequent, since it is sometimes mixed with their digestive acid.
Uses: All are anticoagulants and keep the blood from clotting. Causes blood to flow freely from skin lacerations and punctures and could cause the victim to bleed to death from a simple cut. Is available in oral and injectable form (which can be applied to blades and pointed weapons). The chemical has been applied to the talons of attacking birds, which would swoop into battle and rake with their talons for minor abrasions. If used extremely sparingly, can flavor baked goods.
Effects/Symptoms: Inhibits a number of clotting factors found in the liver whose formation is dependent on Vitamin K. Symptoms include hemoptysis (an abrupt attack where blood quickly arises from hemorrhaging of the larynx, lungs, or trachea where appears a salty taste in mouth and bright red frothy blood), hemorrhages in organs, bruising and bleeding into joint spaces, jaundice and liver enlargement likely, skin rash, vomiting, bloody diarrhea, orange-hued urine, high fever, and ultimately, liver and kidney damage if not blood loss.
Reaction Time: Instantaneous to up to two weeks after applied to wound.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: doses of Vitamin K brings prothrombin (plasma protein affecting blood coagulation) which will cure and bring levels to normalcy in 24-48 hours. Stringent bed rest to prevent further internal bleeding and hemorrhaging.
1 dose: depends on size of wound - frothy mouth.
2 doses: possible death if not treated immediately.
3 doses: possible death if not treated immediately.
4 doses: dead.
Relevant Skills: Chemistry, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (chemical), identify plant, herb lore, cook.
Preparation Difficulty: medium to high.
Situations: Some primitive tribes of various races have tried to use primitive kinds of this drug to release the bad blood from the "crazy" members of their communities, usually ending in death. Bloodletting was/is a form of torture of many races. Later found to be excellent in combat as several scrapes could cause major blood loss and kill opponents with minimal damage. A victim digesting enough and then is lacerated or punctured will provide the same effects. Works on humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, orcs, goblinoids, and skaven. Greatly feared by vampires. Does not affect trolls. Some varieties are made with a troll’s stomach acid.
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Stimulant
Common Names: snowsnicker, snowsnigger, moondust, tuskdust (Old Worlder), mujer, perico (Khazalid), polvo (Eltharin).
Scholarly Names: Methyl benzoylecgonine, benzoylmethylecgonine.
Form/Physical Description: White, though sometimes colorless, crystal or white powder. The drug is absorbed through the mucous membranes or through skin abrasions, can be injected, inhaled, ingested, or smoked when made into solid, rock-like form (when mixed with a pasty substance, then dried). Ingestion is least toxic, meanwhile injection is most potent.
Component/Ingredient Rarity: The concoa plant (latin - Erythroxyon concoa) can be found in mountain ranges in Lustria, but now is widely manufactured.
Uses: Has been used by surgeons as an anesthetic for facial surgery where it constricts the blood vessels and lessens bleeding, but very diminutive amounts are used for this purpose. It’s widely used purpose is as a stimulant to the central nervous system, but later has depressive effects. It is very addictive and is also used for weight loss.
Effects/Symptoms: hyperactivity, dilated pupils, possible abdominal pain, quickened heart and pulse rate, muscular spasms, nose bleeds, numbness, and possible irregular respiration. At higher dosages, could provoke vomiting, hallucinations, paranoia, convulsions, coma and death via heart failure. A very small percentage of uses become lethargic instead of hyperactive. Chronic effects are mental deterioration, confusions, powerful hallucinations and delusions, psychotic behavior, severe character changes (personality and disposition), and possible deterioration of nasal passages if snorted. Not advisable to internally mix with large quantities of alcohol.
Reaction Time: Is absorbed immediately in any form. A fatal dose will cause death in minutes to a half-hour, but has been known to take 2-3 hours. Fatality could be three or four doses, depending of hypersensitivity of user.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: If ingested, charcoal dust will counter the effects as will gastric lavage. Washing the mucous membranes or skin can delay absorption if done quickly enough. For injections, a tourniquet or ice application may slow absorption. After thirty minutes, the drug has most likely taken effect and cannot be slowed or removed.
1 dose: all those listed before "at higher dosages" (+10I, +10CL).
2 doses: hallucinations and paranoia, increased hyperactivity (+1S, +20I, +2W (not actual))
3 doses: convulsions, coma, and possible heart failure (+2S, +1M, +3W, +20CL, -10 DEX, -10LD)
4 doses: same as three doses with more frequent heart failure (-20 DEX, -20LD,)
*All ability score raises are non-cumulative.
**Actual wounds are the wounds that have been taken by the body. The effect of the drug allows the user to take that many more wounds before being critically hit, even if they actually are critically hit. The user really doesn’t know when this happens and will take more damage as a result. Normally, he/she would be put down and wouldn't receive these wounds unless static. That’s why it doesn’t affect the Toughness rating. In essence, roll on critical hits at three less wounds than the user actually has.
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, chemistry, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (herbal and chemical), herb lore, surgery.
Preparation Difficulty: For ingestion, smoking, or other methods other than surgery - medium because the drug has to be extracted from the plant. For surgery, very high for exact dosage.
Situations: Heavy users have been known to kill family members and friends during hallucinations and delusions, some have set themselves and others on fire. A Warrior’s, especially Slayer’s, favorite, many have been known to charge giant strongholds all by their lonesome after heavy usage (to coincide with a Slayer’s already maniacal nature). Tribal shamans in Lustria have long chewed the leaves and claimed to have been able to foretell the future (probably hallucinations). Some religions mixed it with lime for part of religious ceremonies. A demon slayer once hallucinated he had the limbs of a demon and immediately began hacking off his own limbs. Some armies inject 1-3 doses of this into their wardogs and other fighting animals for increased battle effects, but high doses often lead to death for the animals. Warhorses receive one dose if anything, for they tend not to follow commands at higher doses.
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One to make skaven screech:
Common Names: Vacor (Khazalid, Orc, Goblinoid), Rat Killer, Ratbait, Mouse Tracker (Old Worlder), Urea (Eltharin). It is unknown if skaven have developed a name for it yet.
Scholarly Name: pyridylmethyl-N’-p-nitrophenyl.
Form/Physical Description: Two varieties – one resembles yellow corn meal and the other is pale green powder. Kills skaven and rodents in one dose, but requires repeated ingestion by all other races to become toxic.
Components/Ingredients: A mixture chemicals and beastbane. The beastbane alone will work, but the chemicals enhances the effects.
Uses: Deadly to skaven, rat ogres, rodents, and beasts.
Effects/Symptoms: In skaven, it destroys the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas causing hypoglycemia and hypotension. Yellow corn meal variety must be eaten. Green powder can be moistened and applied to blades and pointed weapons. Symptoms include twitching, decreased blood pressure, polyuria, thirst, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, lightheadedness, chest pain, blurred vision, weakness, numbness of legs, lethargy, impaired intellect and reasoning, disturbed balance, delirium, and collapse with respiratory failure = death.
Reaction Time: Within thirty minutes.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Insulin may work on hypoglycemia, but is 99% fatal to the critter. For humans and demi-humans, liquid nicotine (nicotinamide, believe it or not) dilutes effects, but has to be injected within thirty minutes.
1 dose – (skaven and their like) – dead; (human and like) no effect.
2 doses – (human) – no effect.
3 doses – (human) – nausea.
4 doses – (human) vomiting.
More than four doses may induce skaven-like effects.
Relevant Skills: chemistry, prepare poison, manufacture drug (chemical).
Preparation Difficulty: medium high to high. Having to mix the correct chemical to produce the yellow or green variety is the work of a chemist or versatile pharmacist.
Situations: some skaven, like rat ogres, plague monks, and plague censer bearers seem to have a natural (or unnatural immunity) to the poison, but is not an all-encompassing immunity – they just die a little later with a slightly more powerful dose. Some chemists have experimented with the anticoagulant Warfarin (also known as talonblight, trollpaste, trolljuice) in combination with Vacor to be used to battle these heartier of the species as well as other enemies who may be allied with the skaven. This formula is said to work extremely well on rat ogres, killing them in even shorter time than regular skaven. Some artillerists are toying with a clone of the poison wind gloradiers, but instead of warpstone gas, the globes will contain the powered version of Vacor.
The poison received its Old Worlder name Mouse Tracker when a group of Estalian knights met and forced back a clan of skaven, using the moistened powder on their blades and long-range weapons. The joke after the battle was that the trail of dead skaven could almost be backtracked to Skavenblight.
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One for elves:
Common Names: toxadust, toxakil, alltox, e-bane (Old Worlder), geniladus, lysoldill (Eltharin), earwilter (common goblinoid), strobane (Khazalid).
Scholarly Name: Octachlorocamphene, polychlorocamphene.
Form/Physical Description: A waxy, yellow solid with a nice piney odor that is soluble in fatty substances, but not in water.
Components/Ingredients: Chloride and Ulthuan camphene (a crystalline, colorless compound prepared from pinene. Also can be found in the putrefied oil of turpentine, obtainable by distilling the oil over quicklime to free it from resin). If camphene cannot be found, camphor is a suitable substitute (another volatile crystalline substance derived mainly from the wood of the camphor tree). Sometimes these are laced with elfbane for good measure.
Uses: Fatal to the central nervous system to Elves either by ingestion, inhalation or skin absorption, it can also get rid of plant-raping parasites.
Effects/Symptoms: Causes convulsions, vomiting, auditory hallucinations, brain and lung congestion, respiratory failure, coma, and death.
Reaction Time: Begins within four hours. Death occurs anytime after that up to 24 hours.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: none known.
1 dose: vomiting, hallucinations, and confusion.
2 doses: convulsions and coma.
3 doses: death
4 doses: death
Relevant Skills: Prepare poison, manufacture drugs (chemical), chemistry.
Preparation Difficulty: Like all chemical experiments, it takes the skill to execute the mixture. It is often added to foods that would have a piney scent already. Pinecones, pine trees, and the needles, or any ornamental figurines made from these things can be coated in the mixture. Burning the chemical will kill large quantities due to inhalation, and even in its solid state releases highly toxic chloride fumes. The life of this poison after application is about two weeks and about two years when in solid form.
Situations: Several elf families have died from eating greens contaminated with the poison. A nine-month old elf died after playing with contaminated cotton balls. Once, a band of human assassins were paid to kill off an entire wood elf community. The assassins laced the pine trees within their main gathering spot and within 24 hours all those who had gathered there were dead. Those surviving who hauled off the dead also died within another 24 hours. Elf assassins obviously never touch the stuff.
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Common Names: lifesblood, lifeoil, Ternax’s elixir (Old Worlder), equal translations for all three names in Eltharin, Khazalid, and Halfling.
Scholarly Names: Dimethyl sulfoxide
Form/Description: Is a clear, unpleasantly-odored liquid which can be as thick as a gel or as thin as a lotion.
Components/Ingredients: Ethane (an odorless, colorless, gaseous hydrocarbon of the methane series and is found in natural gas) and sulfur.
Uses: Has the ability to permeate living tissue of humans, elves, dwarves and halfling. It is known to help stimulate cellular processes and causes pain blockage, reduced inflammation, kills bacteria and fungi, reduces blood clotting, improves circulation, stimulates the immune system, and hastens the healing of wounds. The gel is very strong and is only tolerable by the heartiness of dwarves, but the lotion can be used as a topical application for the other races mentioned. Works especially well on Nurgle Rot if treated with the lotion within 1-2 days of exposure.
Effects/Symptoms: Applicant will feel relief of pain and inflammation, will kill most diseases (and those from fungi), cures mild cases of paralysis, increased immune system, and quicker wound recovery. Cures warts and cysts, also. Does not affect goblinoids, skaven, lizardmen, or beastmen, though it is possible half orcs can benefit from their non-orc blood. Is a decent pain blocker for surgery or injuries.
Reaction Time: Effects begin within a half-hour for all races except dwarves, who must wait an extra half hour to feel effects. Has been said to work on dogs.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Must be applied topically to let the skin absorb the lotion and can be distilled in water for a lighter concentrate.
- 1 dose: cures 1 wound/day
- 2 doses: cures 2 wounds/day. Affects most diseases at this dosage.
- 3 doses: cures 3 wounds/day. Diseases will show positive signs of curing after prolonged use and also is preventative at this dosage.
- 4 doses: cures 4 wounds, but recipient could develop a rash or redness of skin. Continued usage of the lotion will cure disease in 2d6 days.
· any mild, prolonged dosages will give a +1 T vs. disease, poisons, and sickness. If large quantities are prolonged, it will allow +1 T cumulative for each 5 days used from these ailments. These specs, unfortunately, are doubled for dwarves because of their heartier body systems (it takes double time for a dwarf to gain the +T).
Relevant Skills: Manufacture drugs (chemical), chemistry, surgery (if using it for pain blockage), possibly heal wounds, demon lore (see below).
Preparation Difficulty: medium to high. The actual chemical composition (the making of) is the work of a physician, chemist, or alchemist, meanwhile applying it only requires a hand to rub it on with. It is not necessary for to have the heal wounds skill, but it couldn’t hurt.
Situations: Nurglites HATE this compound because it works very well against what has infected their bodies - Nurgle's Rot. Nurglites should roll a fear test if they know this compound is near. Apparently, it burns on contact with their diseased skin (and causes d4 damage to the Nurglite when recently applied). The mixture received its common Old Worlder name Ternax’s elixir when it was named after the human alchemist (it is said he lived in Nuln) who seemingly founded and introduced it to some physicians who went on to herald it as a great, non-magical healing compound. The alchemist was assassinated some time later, but is unknown who his assassins were (and they did not use poison). Some believe that Nurgle himself, in his rage, killed Ternax, but is still speculation and makes for a good yarn for those with the storytelling skill.
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Common Names: Troll Acid
Scholarly Name: none really, but consists of many powerful acids.
Form Description: Always in liquid form. Has been attempted to make into paste form, but everything added so far is destroyed, and dries within metallic ores when mixed.
Components/Ingredients: Sulfuric, hydrochloric, boric, acetic, and phosphoric acids. It is argued whether finding a troll and extracting its digestive fluids or combining all of these acidic agents is easier.
Uses: To destroy just about anything that comes in contact with it. Has been known to destroy some enchanted armor and weapons, as well as regular iron, steel, stone, and mythril substances. It is known it has no effect on adamantine.
Effects/Symptoms: The acid causes d3 strength damage and armor provides no protection from the damage and are automatically ruined. Ingestion is basically death in 2-3 minutes after the acid has a chance to burn away everything in its way going down, including major organs and bone.
Reaction Time: Automatic.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Flushing with large quantities of water to lessen overall effects of the acid, but there will be a scar with each contact. Only magical healing will reverse its effects. Doses are irrelevant in this case.
Relevant Skills: To mix acids – chemistry, perhaps prepare poison and manufacture drugs (chemical). To extract from a troll – battle skills would be likely.
Preparation Difficulty: low to high. Extracting from an actual troll is dangerous to the extractor for obvious reasons. To mix the actual agents making up troll acid, a chemist, alchemist, or perhaps pharmacist would be needed, though the actual mixture isn’t as difficult as finding the acids themselves.
Situations: Mercenaries, bounty hunters, and troll slayers can be paid to seek out trolls and retrieve the acid, either by extracting it themselves the best they can, having someone who can with them, or bring the whole troll carcass back without rupturing the stomach cavity (after several attempts to capture trolls, it was found to be easier to perform the aforementioned). Some wizards have been able to capture the creatures through magical means, though.
One scenario speaks of a troll terrorizing a peaceful glen of woods where dwelled some families of wood elves. The wood elves, armed with bows, lured the troll into a certain area where some treemen, working in conjunction with the elves, attacked by holding the troll while the elves pelted it with arrows. A stray arrow punctured the stomach of the troll, which sprayed the acid in its normal wide area, killing some elves and maiming others, while injuring the treemen.
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Common Names: Yellower, yellow death (Old Worlder), grishim gorum, arkanol (Khazalid), atophan (Eltharin).
Scholarly Name: Phenylquinoline carbonic acid.
Form/Description: a colorless liquid taken orally.
Components/Ingredients: It in itself is the only component. Carbonic acid is formed by the solution of carbon dioxide in water.
Uses: It is widely used to treat rheumatic disease, podagra, and true gout, but it also promotes uric acid excretion in the body and does basic liver damage at higher than two doses. It turns the victim’s urine extremely yellow and causes vomiting, jaundice, and slow clotting time with widespread body hemorrhages. Death is from severe yellow liver atrophy. Could be used as a mild anticoagulant.
Effects/Symptoms: Works only on humans. Half-castes have some tolerance to the liquid and the effects are halved for each dosage.
Reaction Time: Several days of dosage.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Discontinuation of medication if taken for rheumatic disease (any of various painful conditions of the joints and muscles, like rheumatic fever). Other than that, nothing.
1 dose: works well against rheumatic sickness
2 doses: vomiting, clotting weakens.
3 doses: yellow urine, jaundice, slight body hemorrhaging.
4 doses: very yellow urine, extreme hemorrhaging, death due to liver failure.
--- One dose per day is safe for treating rheumatic sickness.
Relevant Skills: Prepare poison, manufacture drugs (chemical), heal wounds, chemistry, any skills related to a physician or pharmacist.
Preparation Difficulty: medium to high. High to treat rheumatic sickness, but medium just to cause slow death.
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Common Name: Barium (known as this in the three main languages)
Scholarly Name: Barium carbonate or sulfate
Form/Description: A silver-white, slightly malleable, metallic chemical element administered by ingestion or inhalation. Soluble in water.
Components/Ingredients: Barium carbonate/sulfate that can be mixed with hydroxide or chloride.
Uses: Barium has a few uses. It can be found in some paints (barite - white tabular crystals) and has been known to kill pests. Barium sulfate is sometimes used for hair removal (which can be a fun prank). Even more fun is that it was found that, when ingested, soluble barium sulfate "illuminates" the intestinal wall and stomach cavity bright enough to be seen faintly in sunlight and better at night (overcast or starlit). Basically what it does is that the barium ion induces an alteration in permeability/polarization of the cell membrane resulting in indiscriminate stimulation of those muscle cells. Also used to color conventional ‘fireworks’ of the time.
Effects/Symptoms: It still has some side-effects such as tightness of muscles in face and neck, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, anxiety, weakness, breathing difficulty, cardiac abnormalities, and with large doses, convulsions and death via cardiac and respiratory failure.
Reaction Time: One hour.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Magnesium or sodium sulfate.
1 dose: glowing stomach and first side effects.
2 doses: the above as well as nausea, diarrhea, and stomach pains.
3 doses: the above as well as anxiety, weakness and breathing difficulties.
4 doses: the rest of the effects and eventual death unless the antidotes are administered.
Relevant Skills: prepare poison, manufacture drugs (chemical), heal wounds, chemistry, and any relevant to a physician and/or pharmacist.
Preparation Difficulty: high. Has to be extracted from paint (barite) or found in its natural form (somewhere). Dosage has to be accurate so as not to overdose. Also, depending on what you want to do with it, you’d have to know which component does what (carbonate/sulfate).
Situations: Grungen the dwarf awoke one day from a wild night of drinking and found his beard in his lap. He brushed it off with disbelief in his eyes and promptly broke Silmar the physician’s nose.
Let your imaginations run wild with what a glow-in-the-dark abdomen can do for night ambushes and assaults.
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Common Names: Caffeine (Old Worlder- just to make it easy), lots of slang in all three main languages.
Scholarly Names: Aminophylline, dyphylline, pentoxifylline, theophylline.
Form/Physical Description: Solid pill, liquid, or soluble solid.
Components/Ingredients: Caffeine is the methyl derivative of theobromine
Uses: Caffeine is used mainly as a stimulant to the central nervous system. It has also been used to treat heart disease, shock, and asthma, and is a good diuretic. Can be ingested, injected intravenously, or taken rectally through suppositories or a good ol' enema solution.
Effects/Symptoms: Caffeine can stimulate the central nervous system into hyperexcitability, convulsions, and possibly death. Taken orally, it can produce gastric irritation, projectile vomiting, muscle twitching, alternating states of consciousness, sweating, sleeplessness, walking impairment, rapid heartbeat and palpitations, photophobia, and convulsions. Cases have been reported where large doses have caused people to become manic-depressants and suffer from caffeine-induced psychosis (good insanity point checks there).
Oral theophylline is the most potent and causes vomiting, hyperflexia, and ventricular arrhythmias with fibrillation, hypotension, convulsions and death through respiratory arrest. Intravenous aminophylline can cause abrupt vasomotor collapse and death, especially in caffeine non-users. Several doses of this in rapid succession can cause cardiac inhibition.
On the positive side, it stimulates perception and, at higher doses, initiative, alertness, and sometimes strength. Promotes insomnia for those pesky night watches.
Reaction Time: 1-5 minutes. Toxic symptoms start after one gram, though for a lethal dose more would be necessary.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Keep airway open and control convulsions.
1 dose: increased alertness and perception.
2 doses: 20% chance of S+1, but this depends on the user’s tolerance to the drug.
3 doses: nausea, insomnia, and increased heart rate
4 doses: vomiting, tremors, faster heart rate.
It will take more than four doses for a lethal outcome. Again, this depends on the user’s tolerance. A normal tablet of caffeine contains between 175-200 mg of the drug. A normal cup of coffee contains the same. Since my father lives on coffee, it can safely be said you can ingest more than ten cups a day and be dandy. In fact, ten cups in an hour may get you a stomachache, but definitely nowhere near a toxicity alert.
One dose would be around 3 cups/pills
Two doses would be around 4-6 cups/pills
Three doses would be 7-10 or so cups/pills
Four doses would be anything above this.
We have to take into consideration the time period in which these doses were taken. Four doses in a half-hour could have considerable side effects as listed in the installment. Four doses in 24 hours would have lesser effects and would be more like 2 doses for the time period. A GM would have to monitor the user's time period and amount secret. Caffeine is not at all as potent as, say, Ephedrine (white cross), which was posted earlier.
Relevant Skills: Manufacture drugs (chemical and herbal), possibly cook. Sources of caffeine are coffee beans, kola nut of the western South Lands, tea in Cathay, cocoa bean in the New World, the ilex plant of central and eastern Lustria, cassina and yaupon also in the New World, so cook could have some uses. Also herb lore.
Preparation Difficulty: Varies with form. Also extracting it from plants is a medium difficulty for someone with the correct skills.
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Common Names: Cloudparter (Old Worlder) and variations of that name in Eltharin and Khazalid.
Scholarly Names: Chloroquine, plaquenil.
Form/Description: A bitter, crystalline alkaloid that is liquefied for injection or ingestion.
Components/Ingredients: Quinine is the crystalline alkaloid extracted from cinchona bark from the cinchona tree, part of the evergreen family and is found only in Lustria.
Uses: Treatment for malaria.
Effects/Symptoms: If not take properly, Quinine depresses all of a cell’s functions, especially those in the heart and may also affect the kidneys, liver, and nervous system. One can expect persistent ringing in the ears, blurred vision, weakness, blood pressure droppage, hemoglobin in urine, oliguria, and some alterations of the cardiac system. Large doses could cause sudden cardiac depression as well as convulsions and respiratory arrest. Does not work on orcs, goblins, or skaven.
Reaction Time: Immediate.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Ingestibles can only be removed with gastric lavage. Injectable is unstoppable.
1 dose: will cure malaria in 1-3 hours.
2 doses: major organ depression, weakness.
3-4 doses: cardiac depression, convulsions and death.
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, heal wounds, manufacture drugs (herbal and chemical).
Preparation Difficulty: high. First you have to identify the cinchona tree, extract the crystalline Quinine, then liquefy it, and prepare the proper dosage for a malaria cure. All physicians and pharmacists should test at a good negative modifier.
Situations: Good to have some of this if you’re going to visit Lustria or other swampy, marshy, mosquito-infested areas.
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Common Name: Acheless Layer (Old Worlder), cimiss (Eltharin).
Scholarly Name: Cimicine, cimetidine.
Form/Description: A sour, yellow substance made into an oily liquid taken intravenously or orally.
Components /Ingredients: cimicic acid is found in the insect genus Cimex, or bedbugs.
Uses: Used to treat and cure serious stomach ulcers, both natural and magically incited, stomach viruses, heartburn, nullify the effects of alcohol, ingested poisons and drugs if used before major effects take place (given the effects aren’t immediate and has to be taken within the reaction time). Works only on humans and elves. The dwarf metabolism seems to be a bit stiff for the drug, even at high doses, or they’re immune to its effects.
Effects/Symptoms: At normal dosages (1-2 doses), heals ulcers and internal stomach wounds, heartburn (but not acid reflux as that is a valve problem), stomach flu and viruses, and negates ingested poisons, drugs, and alcohol.
Abuse or higher doses will produce diarrhea, headaches, dizziness, fatigue, muscle pain, confusion, delirium, patches of skin rashes, decreased blood pressure, and possible spasms. At extremely high dosages, kidney and liver damage is likely, then renal failure.
Reaction Time: 15-30 minutes.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Remove overdose with gastric lavage and activated charcoal. Maintain respiration and atropine, which can be found in deadly nightshade (belladonna), can be used to control spasms.
1 dose: relieves stomach ailments
2 doses: same, but 50% chance of experiencing negative side effects.
3 doses: major side effects begin to set in.
4 doses: major side effects set in and user is in need of medical assistance.
Relevant Skills: knowledge of bugs, chemistry, manufacture drugs (chemical). Herb lore, identify plant, and prepare poison for atropine extraction.
Preparation Difficulty: high. First you must find some bedbugs, then extract the acid from them. In order to cure an overdose of Acheless Layer, a physician or anyone with the prepare poison skill would have to extract atropine from deadly nightshade, which is a crystalline alkaloid, and in the meantime if the physician doesn’t know what he’s doing, could end up poisoning the patient nonetheless.
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Common Name: Cateyes (Old Worlder).
Scholarly Name: none known.
Form/Description: A thin, pale red liquid.
Components/Ingredients: The blood of rakshasa.
Uses: The blood, when ingested, causes the user to have serious hallucinations and other delusional effects.
Effects/Symptoms: As above. Recorded hallucinations and delusions have been widely varied. The dosage amount doesn’t seem to regulate the kind or seriousness of the delusions and over four doses hadn’t caused death over a length of time, so it is considered non-toxic or fatal (unless the user commits suicide, of course).
Reaction Time: Within 15 minutes.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Restrain the victim and let the deleriant run its course. Take away all sharp objects.
Relevant Skills: Prepare poison and manufacture drugs are applicable, but not necessary.
Preparation Difficulty: Low. Blood directly from the bodies of rakshasa is all that’s needed for the desired affects, no preparation necessary.
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To go out with a bang…
Common/Street Names: rupture, inner phoenix, burning marrow, and others.
Scholarly Name: phenol.
Form/Description: A white crystalline compound produced from coal tar. A liquid solution in its diluted state.
Components/Ingredients: phenol is carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and some other elements.
Uses: Phenol’s main and original purpose was to make explosives, but was found to be a nasty corrosive poison, and in its diluted solution (carbolic acid), an antiseptic.
Effects/Symptoms: While it is often used for explosives and least for an antiseptic, it is very poisonous if swallowed, death ensuing within 10 minutes after ingestion (at 1 dose). But the nasty aspect of phenol is that at a higher dosage, the build-up within the body causes an explosion from within. 1 dose causes convulsions and then sudden death as the poison eats away at the insides like an acid. At any larger dose, the internal eruption causes combustion as the internal organs explode with death instantaneous. The larger the dose, the larger explosion, and could erupt from the body at larger doses.
Reaction Time: Within 10 minutes after ingestion.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Milk could relieve (25% chance) some of the effects of 1 dose, but the mixture of milk and the poison will cause severe vomiting and diarrhea. None for the explosive effects.
1 dose - death in ten minutes.
2 or more doses - explosive effects.
Relevant Skills: Prepare poisons, manufacture drugs (chemical), chemistry.
Preparation Difficulty - medium - the raw ingredients are sufficient for effects.
Situations: In an orc camp and taking a chance, a spy of the Empire slipped some of this into a large mug of mead he knew a single orc would be drinking from. Sitting in the middle of a bunch of fellow orcs drinking, he downed the entire mug and felt an odd, burning sensation inside, like heartburn. Within ten minutes the orc was bellowing from the pain and exploded outward from the amount taken in, injuring and killing many of the orcs around him from flying bone. Many have expressed interest in trying it out on trolls.
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Common/Street Name: demon mist, demon hair, cyclone, gorilla killer, zombie dust, and many more.
Scholarly Names: Sernyl, phencyclidine.
Form/Description: Found as crystals or granules, but has been manufactured as in the form of snow white powder, tablet, liquid, and can be mixed with tobacco or other smoked substances.
Components/Ingredients: phenocryst - a crystalline substance found imbedded in porphyritic rock that can be found in some remote sections of the World’s Edge Mountains as well as some other mountain ranges.
Uses: Can be ingested, smoked, snorted, and injected intravenously with the powder form the purest and most effective. The man-made drug both stimulates and depresses the central nervous system.
Effects/Symptoms: 1 dose is all you need for effects to set in. It will cause hyperactivity, finger and toe numbness, rigidity, visual and audio hallucinations and delusions, most notably of being a god, a major demon, or a powerful creature or animal, crossed eyes, lack of coordination, ataxic gait, hypertension, loss of sensation, unconscious facial grimaces, anxiety, supreme hostility, feelings of drunkenness and disorientation, amnesia of experiences, lack of pain perception, delusions of superhuman strength and invincibility causing wild, unprovoked acts and movements. Larger doses (2-3) will produce stupor and coma where a high fever burns and muscle rigidity produces rigor mortis-like effects, increased and uncontrollable salivation, and seizures. 4 doses increase blood pressure dangerously, produce convulsions, decreased or non-existent reflexes, grand mal seizures, renal failure, apnea, and respiratory arrest = death. Mixing it with other drugs, including alcohol, could be deadly at one dose, especially with other stimulants and/or depressants. Despite its deadly dosages, users seek its effects of increased toughness due to loss of pain sensation (+2T), massive increases in strength (+2S), and loss of fear of death (+30 CL)
Reaction Time: Rapid, perhaps 15-25 minutes, especially if taken intravenously or snorted. Symptoms could last for days as the drug excretes itself into the stomach and is then absorbed through the intestines.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Ammonium chloride may remove the drug from the user's central nervous system depending on the user’s toughness (roll T -20 for humans and elves, -30 for dwarves, +10 for halflings). It also works against convulsions and respiratory problems. Other symptoms are treated as they occur. With 1 or 2 doses, users have been known to shatter shackles, snap rope and some chains, and attack large groups armed or unarmed.
Relevant Skills: prepare poison, manufacture drugs (chemical), chemistry.
Preparation Difficulty: Medium. Since there’s only one component, one must find it work with it from there by grinding into a powder or liquefying for either ingestion or injection, which is of a higher difficulty.
Situations: A favorite amongst warriors, especially slayers and norsemen, this drug can make one unconsciously suicidal. Lone warriors charging into bevies of chaos beastmen unarmed, jumping off cliffs to attack an outlaw band 100 feet below, attempting to stop boulder traps by standing in front of them. Imagine a demon slayer on this stuff with +’s to strength, toughness, and coolness - death personified.
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Along with the natural/chemical compounds and elements, I'm listing a fictional reagent with the components/ingredients that causes the special, fanciful effects...for a twist you might say.
Common Name: Pharoah’s serpent, sidewinder.
Scholarly Name: mercuric thiocyanate
Form/Description: Gray, salt-like granules that can be mixed with a little water for a terrible-tasting sandy liquid.
Components/Ingredients: Thiocyanate comes from thiocyanic acid and is mixed with mercury. The skin of a sidewinder snake is the reagent.
Uses: Happened upon by accident, this combination burns upon reaching stomach acid. By burning a cone of mercuric thiocyanate, a long roll or strip is produced of brownish ash that moves and twists in a serpentine nature.
Effects/Symptoms: When swallowed, the burning compound causes the victim to twist and roll in the same serpentine nature, tearing skin and breaking bones, thereby puncturing arteries and organs in the process. 1d8 bones break, puncturing concurrent organs (1d4, depending on location - obviously a broken shin wouldn’t puncture an organ.) Death can be immediate to several days.
Reaction Time: Almost immediate.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: none known for poison works too fast and most of the victims die from internal wounds. Of those surviving, bones can be reset and skin stitched. Some brain damage may occur, as well as insanity points. All you need is one dose to do the trick.
Relevant Skills: Prepare poison, manufacture drugs (chemical), chemistry.
Preparation Difficulty - medium. Get some mercury, some thiocyanic acid, and the snakeskin and you’re in business. The most difficult part of the experiment is extracting the thiocyanate from the acid.
Situation: A grudge-bearing alchemist who was called a snake by a local physician because the alchemist would not sell him some important compounds for the physician’s personal "experiments" taught the physician what it was like to move like one, the hard way.
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Common Names: Thole, invisible torturer, shackled rack.
Scholarly Name: none.
Form/Description: a yellow crust-like solid.
Components/Ingredients: a drop of sulfuric acid, salt, one dose of hemlock, the legs of a trapdoor spider, and powered stone heated over flame until soupy, then left to harden to paste.
Uses: as below.
Effects/Symptoms: When applied to a blade or missile weapon, it causes the hit victim (the strike has to make a wound or at least draw blood) to first feel intense pain starting at the wound(s), working its way to the rest of the body. Then the paralysis kicks in, causing the victim to become paralyzed in awesome pain. This generates a healthy amount of insanity points for the victim, but doesn’t kill him unless the wounds themselves were fatal. The number of insanity points is ultimately up to the GM, but for guidance, d4 every 12 hours would do nicely.
Reaction: Pain starts almost immediately, but the paralysis takes approx. 30 minutes. The paralysis lasts for approx. 2-3 days, depending on number of hits with the drug.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: Any pain-dampening drugs like demon mist (see earlier entry) could relieve the pain somewhat, but that particular drug is a massive stimulant and would be like strapping down someone on PCP and would probably aid in the insanity of the victim. One dose is all you need.
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, prepare poison, manufacture drugs (chemical), chemistry.
Preparation Difficulty: medium. All components are relatively easy to acquire and mix, but the skills above increase correct outcome of the drug.
Situations: Popular amongst especially cruel torturers as well as most chaos beings who delight in human, elf, and dwarf suffering.
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Name: Opium
Scholarly Names: Morphine, laudanum, narcotine, protopine, lanthopine, laudanoisine, meconidine, codeine, and papaverine.
Form/Description: A white crystalline alkaloid found as a liquid or tablet which can be ingested or injected. The liquid has a dense, heavy texture, is of a brownish-yellow color, has a very mild smell, and a bitter and acrid taste.
Components/Ingredients: Opium is extracted from the juice of the unripened seed capsules of the opium poppy plant (latin: papaver somniferum). The plant has light gray leaves with a green tint and large purple or white flowers.
Uses: As a sedative, an analgesic, an intoxicant and as a pain reliever and sleep producer.
Effects/Symptoms: Sleepiness, sense of physical contentment and ease, quickened pulse, floating sensations, giddiness, dizziness, disruption of balance especially when walking, head heaviness, nausea, slowed heart rate, contracted pupils, respiratory difficulty, muscle powerlessness, unconsciousness, coma, and death. The drug is heavily addictive.
Reaction Time: Twenty to forty minutes ingested. Five to ten minutes injected. If the user survives a forty-eight hour period, prognosis is good.
Cures/Antidotes/Treatments: There is another derivative of morphine used in its hydrochloride state of another white, crystalline powder called nalorphine which is used to counteract the effects of narcotic overdose and aids in diagnosing narcotic addiction. If this is used, recovery could be within one to four hours.
1 dose: exhilarative and intoxicating feelings.
2 doses: same with possible nausea.
3 doses: breathing difficulty and possible unconsciousness.
4 doses: unconsciousness, coma, and death.
Relevant Skills: Identify plant, manufacture drugs (herbal and chemical), prepare poison, and chemistry.
Preparation Difficulty: Medium high. Has to know how to extract the opium from the unripened seeds. Tablet making is more knowledge needed for that form, but the liquid is the easiest.
Note: Morphine is the poisonous part of opium. Liquid morphine is a blue-tainted syrupy liquid and can be mixed with certain liqueurs to strengthen the effects of the pain-killing drugs (think creme de menthe). Morphine increases the effects of sedatives, analgesics, sleep drugs, tranquilizers, antidepressants, and other narcotic drugs. Like said earlier, it works quicker when mixed with solvents and alcohol. Death from morphine overdose occurs within six to twelve hours and is almost always fatal due to respiratory failure.
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