100sp
Perhaps the quintessential venomous snake, a cobra’s venom has several effects depending on its application. If injected via bite, the venom will inflict a burning pain shortly followed by respiratory difficulty which can lead to death. Even surviving a cobra bite comes at a horrible
cost, the bitten area suffering permanent necrotic damage. If the venom is spat at the eyes instead of respiratory paralysis the venom can often inflict permanent blindness.
Application: Contact (eyes) or Injected
Potency: 75
Resistance: Endurance
Onset time: Instant if spat in eyes, 1d6+4 minutes if bitten
Duration: 1d3+3 days
Conditions: If spat into the eyes both Agony and Blindness are instant, lasting the entire duration. Bitten victims also begin with Agony but can struggle along until 1d6+6 hours after the bite when Asphyxiation strikes, usually resulting in death, unless First Aid is successfully applied to keep the victim breathing. Survivors will then suffer Necrosis, losing 1 Hit Point per day from the location bitten, until the venom is somehow purged or it naturally ends.
Antidote/Cure: Can be ameliorated with the Healing skill. However blindness, if not treated before the end of the venom’s duration becomes permanent. Likewise, each day of Necrosis suffered before successful treatment inflicts permanent damage.
50sp
Blade venom comes from many sources: poisons milked from venomous creatures and then treated further; toxic plants and herbs; or by alchemy perhaps. Typically blade venom is a sticky paste that is applied to a blade or spear/arrow head. It must be introduced through an open wound and once it takes effect, it inflicts a terrible burning pain in the injured location.
Common subtypes include: Giant Wasp venom, scorpion venom (+20 potency and triple all durations for giant scorpions), giant ant venom, suicide bush (named for your desire once stung), and the reaper fruit tree (the fruit contains the poison, and causes nausea and agony if eaten).
Application: Injection
Potency: 55
Resistance: Endurance
Onset time: 1D3 Combat Rounds
Duration: 2D6 minutes
Conditions: Agony. If the victim fails his Resistance roll the poisoned location is incapacitated with pain. The effect continues until the Duration is completed.
Antidote/Cure: Each specific blade venom usually has a counteracting agent, such as urine or yoghurt, which soothes the pain. If the cure is applied successfully before the end of the Onset time then the blade venom is completely counteracted. Successful use of the Healing skill will also neutralise the pain.
20sp
Application: Ingestion
Potency: 75
Resistance: Endurance. The first Endurance roll must be made at the end of the Onset Time, then hourly thereafter. Success indicates the victim has woken up but remains Tired (as fatigue) for the remainder of the Duration
Onset time: 1D8 minutes
Duration: 2D6 hours
Conditions: Unconscious. If the victim fails the Endurance roll he falls into a deep sleep remaining unconscious until he succeeds in resisting the draught, or the Duration expires. The victim awakes feeling groggy and lethargic, gaining a level of fatigue in addition to any already suffered.
Antidote/Cure: The sap of the foxglove plant can protect against the effects of a sleeping draught if taken in advance of the poisoning. Otherwise, there is no method save magic that can counteract the effects.
1500sp
A highly toxic poison which induces weakness in the victim whilst simultaneously dissolving their skeletal structure. This vile toxin is created by the ‘Diseased Ones’ a nefarious cult of fallen kahunas, from all manner of disgusting ingredients. It is a slow, drawn out death, greatly reviled by even the High Folk, against whom it is sometimes used. Those few who survive are forever crippled, often seeking to take their own lives rather than continue in such a boneless state.
Application: Injected
Potency: 95
Resistance: Endurance
Onset time: 2d12 hours
Duration: 1d6+3 days
Conditions: Failing to resist the poison imposes several conditions. The first is the incremental loss of a Fatigue Level at the start of each day after onset. In addition the victim suffers the Maiming condition, losing 1 Hit Point from every Hit Location. If the number of Chest Hit Points drops to zero, the melting ribs can no longer support the lungs and the victim dies from immediate Asphyxiation.
Antidote/Cure: The effects of Bone Melt can be arrested if successfully treated with a cure concocted from Medusa blood
650 sp
Black lotus dust is the natural pollen produced by the blossom of the rare and deadly ebony lotus flower, which grows in the depths of remote jungles. It takes the form of a fine yellowish powder with a sweet, cloying scent; although to smell it is death since the pollen in its natural state is lethal when inhaled or tasted, causing the heart of the victim to burst. Whether from fear or ecstasy is unknown, for few beings ever survive long enough to tell.
Despite its dangers many sorcerers breathe the fumes of burning lotus dust, which instead of bringing near instant death, infuses the mind of the imbiber with fantastical visions of other worlds. It is said that they learn dark secrets from the euphoric dreams, though few have the strength of will to extract themselves from such visions.
Application: Inhaled
Potency: 90
Resistance: Willpower
Onset time: 1d3 rounds
Duration: Instantaneous in its natural state, 2d6 hours if smoked
Conditions: Death if natural pollen. Unconsciousness if smoked, and has the additional benefit of recovering 1d10 Magic Points. At the end of a narcotic dream, the smoker must make another resistance roll otherwise subside into an endless coma, still trapped within his lucid visions.
Antidote/Cure: Can be treated by an infusion of the rare Golden Lotus which brings complete recovery, otherwise magic must be used.
200sp
Spiders pinion prey with one or more of their legs before biting with their mandibles. Provided the bite penetrates any armour, it injects venom into the victim.
Application: Injected
Potency: 60
Resistance: Endurance
Onset time: 1d6 rounds
Duration: 1d4+2 hours
Conditions: Paralyses the victim if not resisted. The venom has a more deadly secondary effect. Each hour after the initial poisoning, the victim loses 1 Hit Point from every location as his insides begin to liquefy. This continues until the victim is dead.
Antidote/Cure: Spider anti-venom can treat this effective.
40sp
Not traditionally thought of as a poison, the dust of the dried Ghost Pepper, otherwise known as The Little Red Death, can be quite potent against most mammals. Made into a tincture with oils, it can be injected using darts or weapons.
Application: Contact (eyes), Inhaled or Injected
Potency: 40
Resistance: Endurance
Onset Time: Immediate if blown into the eyes, 1 round if inhaled, and 1d3 rounds if injected
Duration: 1d6*10 minutes if contacted in the eyes, half that if inhaled or injected
Conditions: Regardless of the method of delivery, the victim experiences Agony to the affected location. Contact to the eyes induces Blindness for the duration. A fumble on the Endurance roll against Inhaled Ghost Pepper Dust will induce Asphyxiation (Standard Healing roll or Hard First Aid roll to counteract)
Antidote/Cure: Contact to the eyes can be cured with water and a Standard Healing or First Aid check. Inhalation and Injection cannot be cured without magic to negate pain.
500 sp
The magic-storing tip of the plant’s main root which gives a proportion of its last victim’s Magic Points (usually 2d6) to the eater, but at some risk. The eater must succeed in an Endurance roll, or a new kulamyu plant sprouts within the eater’s stomach and kills them 1d3 days later
100sp
The blue skull octopus, found off the coast of Zingara in the western sea, normally doesn't grow more than a meter in length. But some specimens grow to a much larger size. These are quite prized because their venom is quite potent, able to take down a man.
Application: Injected
Potency: 45
Resistance: Endurance
Onset time: 1d2 rounds
Duration: 1d3 hours
Conditions: The venom paralyses the affected area within one Combat Round and then spreads to the rest of the body 1d3+3 rounds later.
Antidote/Cure: The common treatment for blue skull octopus poisoning is simply to keep the patient hydrated until they recover naturally. A more dangerous method for throwing off the paralysis exists, requiring the application of a Lightning Eel to the victim. It takes 2d3 shocks to negate the paralysis, at the risk of suffering heart failure.
90 sp
Highly addictive narcotic which, when snorted, briefly boosts the user’s reflexes (+1 to Combat Actions) at the expense of gaining 1d3 levels of Fatigue at the end of combat. Each dose requires a Willpower roll at a sequentially increasing penalty to avoid addiction, after which point not taking the drug reduces Combat Actions by one. Subsequently the user must succeed in an Endurance test every time it is taken, or add an incremental +1 to the level of Fatigue loss. Addiction eventually ends in death.
450sp
Similar to the Black Lotus, its close cousin, the blooms of the Purple Lotus are a source of an extremely potent paralytic if refined with the correct alchemical procedures. In its natural state the poison only works when consumed in quantity, permitting the eaten flower to gestate within the victim and use its rotting flesh as fertiliser. As a concentrated essential oil, however, a mere scratch is enough to rapidly incapacitate even a bull. Since the poison will render the victim paralysed for days, a victim left without medical attention usually dies from dehydration or exposure.
Application: Injected
Potency: 80
Resistance: Endurance
Onset time: 1d3 rounds
Duration: 2d6 days
Conditions: Failing to resist the toxin results in paralysis of the Hit Location struck, an adjoining location succumbing every round thereafter. Paralysis only affects movement, not sensation, so the victim can feel what happens to their body during the period of incapacitation.
Antidote/Cure: The common treatment for Purple Lotus poisoning is simply to keep the patient hydrated until they recover naturally. A more dangerous method for throwing off the paralysis exists, requiring the application of a Lightning Eel to the victim. It takes 2d3 shocks to negate the paralysis, at the risk of suffering heart failure.
40sp
Natural products of the jungle, Terror Spines are the thorns of canopy-growing bromeliads which ooze a strange hallucinogen causing the victim to suffer an increasing fear of imagined, non-existent threats. They are often used as a non-lethal way to plague raiding parties or explorers, forcing them to abandon their expeditions for lack of rest. Gathering such thorns for use as arrow or dart tips is a risky venture, especially if the climber accidentally pricks themselves without realising, with the inevitable consequence that they become immobilised by acrophobia or fall when fleeing an imagined killer bird, snake or monkey.
Application: Injected
Potency: 55
Resistance: Willpower
Onset time: 1d3 hours
Duration: 2d3 days
Conditions: Failing to resist the poison imposes a paranoid Mania, which grows in strength over several days, till the victim is jumping at their own shadow and no longer trusts their companions. Eventually they flee all contact, often ending up in real trouble as a consequence as they
attempt to find their way home.
Antidote/Cure: Terror Spine poison is neutralised by powdered ghoul bone, a substance with a rather limited supply.
Yellow Lotus is a narcotic used for trances and visions. It blooms only in certain remote areas of Khitai. The lotus itself is sometimes seen in these visions, and it could be that the flower itself exerts a malign influence through them. The inhabitants of Xuthal, an ancient city in the Southern Desert of Kush, were addicted to the yellow lotus and spent most of their lives in lotus-induced dreams.
75sp
Grey Jasmine is a drug which in dust form causes madness, found in the Grey Jasmine Swamp east of Khitai. The madness causes the imbiber to become a raving berserk that attacks everything in sight with unnatural strength. The victim has no control of himself and will kill and destroy until the effect wears off in a few minutes.
Application: Inhaled
Potency: 60
Resistance: Willpower
Onset time: 1d3 rounds
Duration: 1d6+4 minutes
Conditions: Failing to resist the poison results in the victim suffering intense Hallucinations and Mania, believing themselves surrounded by the monsters of their worst fears, towards which they feel an irrepressible killing rage. In addition they are boosted physiologically so that they experience the same benefits (and restrictions) of a Berserk miracle (see RuneQuest page 266), only recovering once the poison has run its course.
Antidote/Cure: Few surviving healers are foolish enough to try to treat a victim of Grey Jasmine.
This is a beneficial herb that heals wounds and cures disease. It is said to be cultivated in a secret place in Vendhya.
The juice of the golden lotus cures insanity and disease. It is even rumored that this potion can save a man poisoned by the black lotus.
It is not known where it blooms (said to be only in peaceful places that has never been disturbed by dark magic), but the priest Totrasmek of Hanuman, in Zamboula, possessed a vial of this rare potion.