Re: (TFT) realism, poisons salves etc.

["Mack Brewer" <mbrewer@psphalifax.ns.ca>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Cas Liber <casliber@ozemail.com.au>

>Dear Mack,
>given that you've gotten technical about healing stuff in your
campaigns,
>have you done the same with poisons? In nature, spiders often use
paralysis
>type poisons to immobilize their prey and incarcerate for later
consumption.
<snip>

Yes.
<Old-style D&D player(NOT AD&D), Chivalry & Sorcery,
Dragon Quest, and yes, even TFT wakes up a bit more.>

I based it off an old article on poisons from The Ddragon magazine
way back in "the good ol' days".
I was running a few assassin characters at the time and was
having a ball fleshing out the assasins' guild halls for
them and the npc's in my own campaign.

Off the top of my head there were:

Insinuative(? wrong name?) type poisons that had to be
introduced into the body to work.(typical blade venoms
and weapon poisons, poison needles on traps, etc.)

Contact poisons that worked merely by touch against
bare skin; hence wearing gloves got VERY popular in
my campaigns very quickly.
(poison traps on gems/seals, "knock-out" coins to hand
to a person, weapon poisons for clubs/maces/thrown rocks
and sling stones, etc.)
** one nasty sleeping poison my female assasin wore over
her protective lipstick. <heh, heh>

Ingestive poisons; your typical pour it in their wine style
poisons for food and drink. You can get creative here with
2-part poisons that are harmless by themselves and lethal
when combined. (Ha ha! I have you now. You've already been
poisoned my friend and must now do my bidding; else I'll
give you the second part in some innocent food some time in
the near future and you'll be very dead.)

plus any of these can be converted to gas-bombs by any
competent alchemist or expert poisoner.

All were rated from common/uncommon/rare/rumoured(?)
and were priced according to:
1) speed of delivery(how fast they worked)
2) dice of damage done
3) lethality(how much of a penalty you had on your saving
throw to resist it or how large a bonus to resist weak
poisons)
4) rarity(based on source of poison, how difficult to
obtain it, does it even exist in your area or must the
poison or the ingredients be brought in from vast distances)

If I can dig out my old campaign notes from wherever I've
buried then in the basement, I'll get my charts and maybe
we can convert them to TFT or draft all new ones from our
existing materiel.

BTW- Assassins advance(levels?) in my games, or in TFT terms
can use IQ points to learn new poison types for their use.
They learn 1 new poison for each IQ point spent(like mages
do spells) and this covers the knowledge rolls for
using/finding/storing the poison.
IF the assassin also knows alchemy, they will also be able
to create the poison from it's base ingredients.

NOTE- some poisons like spider/snake venoms aren't made but
you have to know how to "milk" it and store it so it won't
rapidly lose its potency.
 They also learn "terror" poison techniques like poisoning
of wells and water sources, spreading disease and plague
through an area via properly collected and "seasoned" rat
bodies, etc.

Alchemists and Healers have some familiarity with some of
these techniques and are valued for their antidotes.
They also make a "universal antidote" rumoured to contain
Unicorn tears, that will instantaneously cure/stop ANY type
of poison or disease. You will find that most rulers or
nobles if they are wealthy enough, will carry a vial of
this on their person, usually on a necklace for immediate
use. Rumour has it the universal antidote will offer
complete immunity to any poisons/diseases for a full 24
hours if taken in advance.

OTOH- There has also been unconfirmed(no survivors?) tales
of assasins taking this antidote and then donning spiked
and multi bladed leathered armor and gloves covered with
both weapon poisons and contact poisons, and then assaulting
entire noble councils or family gatherings in order to
quickly eliminate the entire group.
Yes a few poison gas bombs would work better but wouldn't
have the "terror" aspect.

"Dark hooded figures in blood-red leather armor stalked
the pathways. Their armor and gauntlets were studded with
hundreds of tiny spikes and blades, flecked with sticky,
oily poisons making their very proximity a lethal threat.
The weapons hanging from their belts were oddly redundant.
Their mere touch was death. They strode thru their halls
unimpeded as all before them scattered and gave them wide berth.
They were the Vi-Da'Kan, the Guildmaster's enforcers and
bathed daily in the vilest of poisons the Guild could create."

from the lost journal of Scholar, Venda Rowhan, about some
un-named assassins' guild he encountered shortly before his
sudden death from eating "bad" rabbit stew.

Hope this is sort of what you were looking for.

Mack

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