Poisons

Each poison below can be made with its condition at T1, T2, or T3 unless noted. The dose's DC and damage dice come from the maker.

Vermin bait (arsenic or aconite) is sold by the pennyworth for rats and wolves: 1 sp, too small a portion to poison a person.

Aconite (wolfsbane, monkshood)

A mountain flower whose root numbs the tongue, then the limbs, then the heart. Hunters smear it on wolf baits and arrowheads.

Aconite is administered through ingestion or a wound. A creature affected by aconite takes immediate Primal damage and, after one round, is subject to the Tainted condition. Its bitter, numbing taste gives it away in food or drink unless it's Masked, which is why hunters coat blades and arrows with it.

Strength	Effect	Side effect	Price
T1	Primal damage; Tainted T1 (Delayed)	None	1 ss
T2	Primal damage; Tainted T2 (Delayed)	None	1 gs
T3	Primal damage; Tainted T3 (Delayed)	None	4 gs

Type	Primal
Workspace	Field kit
Delivery	Ingested, Wound
Use	Any time
Duration	Short
Crash	None
Properties	None
Modifications	Concentrated, Masked, Potent, Prolonged
Rarity	Common in upland and mountain country; Uncommon elsewhere
Notes	Legal to own as wolf or vermin bait

To make (days for one dose, and the recipe's Social Class):

Makes	No modifications	1 modification	2 modifications	3 modifications
Tainted T1	4 days, Peasant	5 days, Knight	7 days, Burgher	11 days, Magnate
Tainted T2	10 days, Burgher	11 days, Magnate	13 days, Noble	17 days, Royal
Tainted T3	19 days, Noble	20 days, Royal	22 days, Royal + 1	26 days, Royal + 2

Aqua Fortis (nitric acid)

The assayer's "strong water": it parts silver from gold. Its red fumes choke.

Aqua fortis is administered by contact, splashed by hand or thrown in its glass vial. A creature or object it touches takes immediate Sea damage, and metal has no resistance to it, except gold. Assayers use it to part silver from gold. A thief uses it on a lock: a steel lock takes a few vials.

Strength	Effect	Side effect	Price
Single strength	Sea damage. Ignores the resistance of limestone, marble, chalk, and metal, except gold	None	1 sc

Type	Sea
Workspace	Laboratory
Delivery	Contact. Can be thrown (see Incendiaries, Throwing)
Use	Any time
Duration	Instantaneous
Crash	None
Properties	Hazardous
Modifications	Lingering (Corroding), Thickened
Rarity	Uncommon: assayers, mints, and goldsmiths keep it
Notes	Kept only in glass

To make (days for one dose, and the recipe's Social Class):

Makes	No modifications	1 modification	2 modifications
Aqua fortis	1 day, Peasant	2 days, Knight	4 days, Burgher

Arsenic (white arsenic, ratsbane)

A white powder roasted from ore. Tasteless enough for sweets and wine, and its symptoms look like a bad stomach or the flux.

Arsenic is administered through ingestion. After one round, a creature affected by arsenic is subject to the Tainted condition, and while it's Tainted from arsenic it can't regain health. Because it's tasteless and looks like illness, it's the poisoner's choice for a quiet murder: the weakest dose makes the captain of the guard ill for the day, and the strongest kills without a Healer.

Strength	Effect	Side effect	Price
T1	Tainted T1. No healing*	None	1 ss
T2	Tainted T2. No healing*	None	1 gs
T3	Tainted T3. No healing*	None	4 gs

* While Tainted from arsenic, the creature can't regain health. Once the Tainted condition is treated or ends, healing works again.

Type	Stone
Workspace	Field kit
Delivery	Ingested
Use	Any time
Duration	Long
Crash	None
Properties	Delayed
Modifications	Concentrated, Masked, Potent
Rarity	Uncommon: apothecaries sell it "for rats." Common where ore is roasted
Notes	Recognizing it as poison takes an Identification trial or a Healer trial against the dose's DC. Often licensed. It keeps indefinitely

To make (days for one dose, and the recipe's Social Class):

Makes	No modifications	1 modification	2 modifications	3 modifications
Tainted T1	5 days, Peasant	6 days, Knight	8 days, Burgher	12 days, Magnate
Tainted T2	15 days, Burgher	16 days, Magnate	18 days, Noble	22 days, Royal
Tainted T3	30 days, Noble	31 days, Royal	33 days, Royal + 1	37 days, Royal + 2

Belladonna (dwale berry, deadly nightshade)

Sweet black berries that look like a meal. The poisoned burn with fever, rave, and fight, and the strongest doses stop the heart.

Belladonna is administered through ingestion, or by contact as a Thickened ointment. After one round, a creature affected by belladonna is subject to the Disoriented condition and, at higher strengths, the Tainted condition one tier behind it: the mind goes first, and the body follows. Its berries look like a meal, which is how most of its victims find it.

Strength	Effect	Side effect	Price
T1	Disoriented T1	None	1 ss
T2	Disoriented T2, Tainted T1	None	1 gs
T3	Disoriented T3, Tainted T2	None	4 gs

Type	Primal
Workspace	Field kit
Delivery	Ingested; Contact through Thickened
Use	Any time
Duration	Short
Crash	None
Properties	Delayed
Modifications	Concentrated, Masked, Potent, Prolonged, Thickened
Rarity	Common in hedgerows and at woodland edges
Notes	One Intelligence trial per tier resists both conditions. Each failure advances Disoriented, and Tainted one tier behind it

To make (days for one dose, and the recipe's Social Class):

Makes	No modifications	1 modification	2 modifications	3 modifications
Disoriented T1	3 days, Peasant	4 days, Knight	6 days, Burgher	10 days, Magnate
Disoriented T2, Tainted T1	12 days, Burgher	13 days, Magnate	15 days, Noble	19 days, Royal
Disoriented T3, Tainted T2	27 days, Noble	28 days, Royal	30 days, Royal + 1	34 days, Royal + 2

Cantharides (blister beetle)

Green blister beetles, dried and powdered. Sold as a lovers' secret; it burns the gut and kills.

Cantharides is administered through ingestion or contact. Swallowed, it deals immediate Primal damage and, after one round, the creature is subject to the Tainted condition. On the skin, it only blisters. It's the usual secret ingredient of love philtres, which is how most of its victims come to take it.

Strength	Effect	Side effect	Price
T1	Primal damage; Tainted T1 (Delayed)*	None	1 ss
T2	Primal damage; Tainted T2 (Delayed)*	None	1 gs
T3	Primal damage; Tainted T3 (Delayed)*	None	4 gs

* By contact, cantharides deals only its Primal damage, with no Tainted condition.

Type	Primal
Workspace	Field kit
Delivery	Ingested, Contact
Use	Any time
Duration	Short
Crash	None
Properties	None
Modifications	Concentrated, Lingering**, Masked, Potent, Prolonged
Rarity	Uncommon: apothecaries
Notes	None

** Lingering adds Attrition (Withering): the blistering keeps working.

To make (days for one dose, and the recipe's Social Class):

Makes	No modifications	1 modification	2 modifications	3 modifications
Tainted T1	4 days, Peasant	5 days, Knight	7 days, Burgher	11 days, Magnate
Tainted T2	10 days, Burgher	11 days, Magnate	13 days, Noble	17 days, Royal
Tainted T3	19 days, Noble	20 days, Royal	22 days, Royal + 1	26 days, Royal + 2

Hellebore, White (yerba de ballestero)

The crossbowman's herb: the root boiled down to a paste for bolts and hunting arrows. A wounded deer drops within a few hundred paces.

White hellebore is administered through a wound or ingestion. A creature affected by it takes immediate Primal damage and, after one round, is subject to the Exhausted condition as its strength fails and it collapses. Swallowed, it makes the victim vomit, which works against the poison.

Strength	Effect	Side effect	Price
T1	Primal damage; Exhausted T1 (Delayed)	Self-purging*	1 ss
T2	Primal damage; Exhausted T2 (Delayed)	Self-purging*	1 gs
T3	Primal damage; Exhausted T3 (Delayed)	Self-purging*	4 gs

* Swallowed only. After the creature's first failed trial against the dose, its later trials against the dose have Dominance. Corrected removes this.

Type	Primal
Workspace	Field kit
Delivery	Wound, Ingested
Use	Any time
Duration	Short
Crash	None
Properties	None
Modifications	Concentrated, Corrected, Masked, Potent, Prolonged
Rarity	Common in mountain country; Uncommon elsewhere
Notes	None

To make (days for one dose, and the recipe's Social Class):

Makes	No modifications	1 modification	2 modifications	3 modifications
Exhausted T1	4 days, Peasant	5 days, Knight	7 days, Burgher	11 days, Magnate
Exhausted T2	10 days, Burgher	11 days, Magnate	13 days, Noble	17 days, Royal
Exhausted T3	19 days, Noble	20 days, Royal	22 days, Royal + 1	26 days, Royal + 2

Hemlock

A ditch weed often mistaken for parsley. The legs fail first, then the rest, and the victim stays awake to the end.

Hemlock is administered through ingestion, or through a wound as a Thickened blade coating. After one round, a creature affected by hemlock is subject to the Impaired condition. It grows in every ditch, and it's easily mistaken for parsley.

Strength	Effect	Side effect	Price
T1	Impaired T1	None	1 ss
T2	Impaired T2	None	1 gs
T3	Impaired T3	None	4 gs

Type	Primal
Workspace	Field kit
Delivery	Ingested; Wound through Thickened
Use	Any time
Duration	Short
Crash	None
Properties	Delayed
Modifications	Concentrated, Masked, Potent, Prolonged, Thickened
Rarity	Common everywhere
Notes	None

To make (days for one dose, and the recipe's Social Class):

Makes	No modifications	1 modification	2 modifications	3 modifications
Impaired T1	3 days, Peasant	4 days, Knight	6 days, Burgher	10 days, Magnate
Impaired T2	9 days, Burgher	10 days, Magnate	12 days, Noble	16 days, Royal
Impaired T3	18 days, Noble	19 days, Royal	21 days, Royal + 1	25 days, Royal + 2

Henbane

A stinking weed of waste ground. Burned for toothache, brewed into ale, rubbed into witches' ointments. It drives a man mad and strong at once.

Henbane is administered through ingestion, as smoke, or by contact as a Thickened ointment. After one round, a creature affected by henbane is subject to the Disoriented and Invigorated conditions: it lashes out at whoever is nearest, with unnatural strength, and when the dose ends it's left exhausted. Unlike other poisons, it's resisted with a single trial. Some take it willingly, to fight as madmen.

Strength	Effect	Side effect	Price
T1	Disoriented T2, Invigorated T1	None	1 sp
T2	Disoriented T2, Invigorated T2	None	1 sc
T3	Disoriented T2, Invigorated T3	None	1 gs

Type	Primal
Workspace	Field kit
Delivery	Ingested, Inhaled; Contact through Thickened
Use	Any time
Duration	Short
Crash	Exhausted at the dose's tier, for as long as the dose lasted
Properties	Delayed
Modifications	Concentrated, Masked, Potent, Prolonged, Thickened
Rarity	Common on waste ground
Notes	One Intelligence trial resists the whole dose: on a failure, the creature takes both conditions. A willing user takes them without a trial. Burned as smoke, it affects the user too

To make (days for one dose, and the recipe's Social Class):

Makes	No modifications	1 modification	2 modifications	3 modifications
Invigorated T1	12 days, Peasant	13 days, Knight	15 days, Burgher	19 days, Magnate
Invigorated T2	18 days, Burgher	19 days, Magnate	21 days, Noble	25 days, Royal
Invigorated T3	27 days, Noble	28 days, Royal	30 days, Royal + 1	34 days, Royal + 2

Oil of Vitriol (sulfuric acid)

Distilled from green vitriol in the alchemist's retort. It chars cloth, leather, wood, and flesh.

Oil of vitriol is administered by contact, splashed by hand or thrown in its glass vial. A creature or object it touches takes immediate Sea damage, which falls on armor first, and cloth, leather, wood, rope and flesh have no resistance to it. It's the alchemist's answer to a door, a rope, or a face.

Strength	Effect	Side effect	Price
Single strength	Sea damage, to armor durability first. Ignores the resistance of cloth, leather, wood, rope, flesh, limestone, marble, and chalk	None	1 sc

Type	Sea
Workspace	Laboratory
Delivery	Contact. Can be thrown (see Incendiaries, Throwing)
Use	Any time
Duration	Instantaneous
Crash	None
Properties	Hazardous
Modifications	Lingering (Corroding), Thickened
Rarity	Uncommon in cities with alchemists' laboratories; Imported elsewhere
Notes	Kept only in glass

To make (days for one dose, and the recipe's Social Class):

Makes	No modifications	1 modification	2 modifications
Oil of vitriol	1 day, Peasant	2 days, Knight	4 days, Burgher

Quicklime

Burned limestone, freshly fired, ground fine, sifted, and sealed bone-dry. Every sailor who has thrown it knows to check the wind first.

Quicklime is thrown in a pot that bursts into a blinding cloud. Creatures caught in it take immediate Sea damage and are Blinded for a round, and everyone inside is harder to see. The wind decides where the cloud goes, which can include back toward the thrower.

Strength	Effect	Side effect	Price
Single strength	A 10 ft radius cloud: Concealed T1 for the round. Sea damage; Blinded for 1 round*	None	1 ss

* Washing the eyes ends Blinded early: 1 AP with water, by the victim or an adjacent ally.

Type	Sea
Workspace	Field kit
Delivery	Contact, Inhaled. Thrown (see Incendiaries, Throwing)
Use	Any time
Duration	Instantaneous
Crash	None
Properties	None
Modifications	Lingering (Corroding), Prolonged**
Rarity	Common everywhere there's building
Notes	The GM decides the wind. If it blows toward the thrower, they may be caught in the cloud too. Indoors or in still air, the cloud hangs where it burst. A character with Wilderness (Weather Sense) can read the wind before throwing. Raw builders' lime is a GM's improvisation, not a concoction

** Prolonged: the cloud hangs for the encounter, and anyone inside at the end of their turn makes the trial. The GM moves or clears it as the wind dictates.

To make (days for one dose, and the recipe's Social Class):

Makes	No modifications	1 modification	2 modifications
Quicklime	1 day, Peasant	2 days, Knight	4 days, Burgher

Sublimate (corrosive mercury)

Quicksilver sublimed with salt and vitriol: a skin caustic for the apothecary, and a brutal poison for anyone else.

Sublimate is administered through ingestion, or by contact as a Thickened skin caustic. A creature affected by it takes immediate Stone damage and, after one round, is subject to the Tainted condition. Its vapors poison whoever breathes them, so making it is dangerous even for the alchemist. It's the costliest poison an apothecary sells, made only in a laboratory.

Strength	Effect	Side effect	Price
T1	Stone damage; Tainted T1 (Delayed)	None	1 sc
T2	Stone damage; Tainted T2 (Delayed)	None	2 gs
T3	Stone damage; Tainted T3 (Delayed)	None	8 gs

Type	Stone
Workspace	Laboratory
Delivery	Ingested; Contact through Thickened
Use	Any time
Duration	Short
Crash	None
Properties	None
Modifications	Concentrated, Masked, Potent, Prolonged, Thickened
Rarity	Uncommon: apothecaries
Notes	None

To make (days for one dose, and the recipe's Social Class):

Makes	No modifications	1 modification	2 modifications	3 modifications
Tainted T1	4 days, Peasant	5 days, Knight	7 days, Burgher	11 days, Magnate
Tainted T2	10 days, Burgher	11 days, Magnate	13 days, Noble	17 days, Royal
Tainted T3	19 days, Noble	20 days, Royal	22 days, Royal + 1	26 days, Royal + 2

Verdigris

Green rust scraped from copper hung over vinegar. A painter's pigment, a surgeon's caustic, and a poison the body throws back up.

Verdigris is administered through ingestion or by contact on a wound. After one round, a creature affected by verdigris is subject to the Tainted condition. Swallowed, it makes the victim vomit, which works against the poison. Anyone with copper and vinegar can make it, with no furnace needed.

Strength	Effect	Side effect	Price
T1	Tainted T1	Self-purging*	1 ss
T2	Tainted T2	Self-purging*	1 gs
T3	Tainted T3	Self-purging*	4 gs

* Swallowed only. After the creature's first failed trial against the dose, its later trials against the dose have Dominance. Corrected removes this.

Type	Stone
Workspace	Field kit
Delivery	Ingested, Contact
Use	Any time
Duration	Short
Crash	None
Properties	Delayed
Modifications	Concentrated, Corrected, Masked, Potent, Prolonged
Rarity	Common anywhere with copper and vinegar
Notes	None

To make (days for one dose, and the recipe's Social Class):

Makes	No modifications	1 modification	2 modifications	3 modifications
Tainted T1	3 days, Peasant	4 days, Knight	6 days, Burgher	10 days, Magnate
Tainted T2	9 days, Burgher	10 days, Magnate	12 days, Noble	16 days, Royal
Tainted T3	18 days, Noble	19 days, Royal	21 days, Royal + 1	25 days, Royal + 2

Yew

The churchyard tree. Its seeds and needles stop the heart with almost no warning; livestock are found dead beneath it.

Yew is administered through ingestion, or through a wound as a Thickened coating on arrows or quarrels. After one round, a creature affected by yew takes Primal damage and is subject to the Tainted condition, with no warning before.

Strength	Effect	Side effect	Price
T1	Primal damage; Tainted T1	None	1 ss
T2	Primal damage; Tainted T2	None	1 gs
T3	Primal damage; Tainted T3	None	4 gs

Type	Primal
Workspace	Field kit
Delivery	Ingested; Wound through Thickened
Use	Any time
Duration	Short
Crash	None
Properties	Delayed
Modifications	Concentrated, Masked, Potent, Prolonged, Thickened
Rarity	Common in churchyards and old woods
Notes	None

To make (days for one dose, and the recipe's Social Class):

Makes	No modifications	1 modification	2 modifications	3 modifications
Tainted T1	4 days, Peasant	5 days, Knight	7 days, Burgher	11 days, Magnate
Tainted T2	10 days, Burgher	11 days, Magnate	13 days, Noble	17 days, Royal
Tainted T3	19 days, Noble	20 days, Royal	22 days, Royal + 1	26 days, Royal + 2