Prepare Insinuative Poisons (sage ability)

Prepare insinuative poisons is an amateur-status sage ability in the study of Poisoning, providing the capacity to concock and formulate "insinuative" poisons, those that are introduced into the body through a blade that breaks the skin. The skill incorporates a deep understanding of both poison alchemy and the anatomy of potential targets.

To clarify, insinuative poisons are not your conventional toxins, which might be ingested, inhaled, or applied topically. Instead, they are a cunning and covert category of poisons specifically engineered for a more surreptitious approach. By leveraging the knowledge of dosing weapons, practitioners of this art can prepare insinuative poisons tailored for use in conjunction with blades, ensuring that these poisons are administered discreetly in the midst of combat or subterfuge.

Poisoners must calculate precise dosages to ensure that the effects of the insinuative poison are potent enough to incapacitate or eliminate a foe swiftly and efficiently. Additionally, the practitioner must possess expertise in selecting the appropriate blade type, considering factors such as blade sharpness, length, and the ease with which it can breach the skin, all while minimizing the risk of detection.

The skill also allows the formulation and distillation of acids, opening a wide array of strategic and nefarious possibilities, including acid traps and projectiles, traps that employ time-delayed acid, burglary and disabling of mechanisms and locks, as well as substances designed to render existing acids inert.

Amateur-made

The character is able to make a group of somewhat weak and inconstant poisons which dry quickly and often fail to produce the desired effect. However, once introduced into the enemy's body, they do satisfactorily increase the effect of weapons against victims.

When a hit with a weapon is made, the attacker using an insinuative poison rolls to determine if the weapon interacts with the victim's flesh AND the part of the weapon interacting is still dosed with poison. This combination of events, called a "touch," has a 1 in 4 chance of occurring.

Carroder

This poisonous toxin is designed for one touch that is meant to kill the victim slowly and over time. When used with a dagger, the touch is automatic — if used in conjunction with either backstabbing or assassination. When the victim is hit, the poison adds +2 damage. The victim makes a saving throw against poison; if successful, then they have only been scraped by the poison and no additional damage will accrue.

If the saving throw fails, then one half-hour after the hit, the victim will begin to feel acute pain that will increase rapidly for the next hour, until the victim is bedridden with digestive complaints and, following the fourth round after the touch, diarrhea and sleeplessness. Meanwhile, the victim will suffer 2 h.p. every hour after the touch occurred (beginning a half-hour after acute pain is first felt), for the next 12 hours (a total of 24 h.p.). The victim can be sustained through salves and healing spells if an antidote is not available.

Suurbite

This acidic concoction delivers a fierce scourge that the enemy will feel acutely, causing them to cry out in pain and make a saving throw. A success will mean that the victim will suffer 1-4 additional damage over and above the damage caused by the weapon. There will be no other effects.

If the saving throw fails, the amount of damage will be 3-12. If the weapon and poison (added together) succeed in producing a wound, suurbite will cause 1 additional hit point of damage in excess to that normally caused by bleeding. Additionally, the area that is hit will produce a wide burn, typically 4-6 inches across. If this is thereafter aggravated by clothes, armour or other equipment, the character will suffer a -1 penalty to their action points. This table will sufficiently determine the location of the hit.

The first hit will deplete the amount of dose on the weapon, so that following hits will have only a 1 in 8 chance of the poison touching the victim. Success is also much reduced, so that a saving throw will reduce additional damage to 1 point. A failed saving throw will cause only 1-4 additional damage above the weapon. The poison will no longer have sufficient strength to affect the victim's wounds or action points.

A third touch is possible, but the chance is reduced to 1 in 12, with a successful saving throw discounting the effects completely. A failed saving throw will cause only 1-2 additional damage above the weapon.

Suurbite can be subdivided into one-third doses for use with arrows and bolts, which will produce the effects of a second-touch above (+1-4 damage per hit, +1 if save, no additional effects).