Alchemy

Players with the skill of Alchemy can create certain contact substances, elixirs and gasses. These substance do not detect as magical by Detect Magic. Alchemical effects are not affected by Dispel Magic. Unless otherwise noted, they last for 10 minutes.

Anyone can drink an elixir or feed one to someone else or apply Vorpal Coatings. One purchase of the Alchemy skill allows you to mix elixirs into food or drink. Three purchases of the Alchemy skill allows you to use gasses and apply contact poisons.

Creating Alchemical Substances

Creation of any alchemical substance is based on the Production Points system as described in the chapter on the Production System. In order to make the substance, you must have a recipe book and the specific recipe for that substance.

Your recipes must be in a book similar to the type of book used by spellcasters and must abide by the same rules; This book is an in-game item and can be stolen. If you lose your book, you lose all the formulas within. You will have to find someone with the recipes and recopy them into your book again before you can create any new alchemical substances. Note that unlike spellbooks, you do not have to pay game money to use a special ink to write the recipes into the book.

Damage from Alchemy

Characters can be affected by alchemical subtsances in many ways. The effects are instantaneous. “Cause” poisons do body damage only, since they bypass armor. This damage can not be reversed by an antidote, but can be healed as normal damage. Alchemical substances that affect metabolism will have no effect on undead.

Berserk, Feeblemind, Hallucinoid, Laugh, Nausea, Paralysis, Sleep, and Vertigo (or similar poisons which are chapter-specific) are all visible to any viewer while they are in effect, so long as they take the time to observe them (they must ask the affected player).

Many substances can be reversed by a specific antidote if taken after exposure to the substance. The spell defensive Poison Shield will not stop ingested substances from taking effect, but will stop all other attacks with the word “poison” in the verbal. The spell Purify Blood will cleanse the body of all active poison effects present except for Enslavement, Euphoria, and Love Potion #9. Alchemical Solvents, Vorpal Coatings, Liquid Lights, Pastes of Stickiness, and Oils of Slipperiness are not affected by Purify Blood and will not set off a Poison Shield or a Resist Poison.

Mixing two elixirs does not cancel them all. If a food or drink has more than one elixir present, all elixirs will affect the victim. One use of the racial skill Resist Poison will block all elixirs present.

Types of Alchemical Substances

Vorpal Coatings must be applied to the blade by taping the tag to the weapon or placing the tag in the weapon tag pouch. Vorpal Coatings add to the base damage of the weapon. They take effect immediately, doing damage to Armor Points and then Body Points.

Vorpal Coatings work only once per application. Damage should be called by adding the elixir’s damage to the weapon damage (with any other magical or skill bonuses also added, of course).

The Vorpal Coating is used up on the first contact whether or not it hurts the opponent. A swing in the air does not use up the Vorpal Coating but hitting a target—even a shield or a sword—does use it up. You cannot “save” the Vorpal Coating for a good hit.

Applying a Vorpal Coating takes time to apply. It cannot be done with a quick touch in the middle of battle. The taping of the tag onto the weapon represents the time it takes, which may never be less than three seconds. If you do not have the tag taped to your weapon then the Vorpal Coating is not effective. A new tag must be put on the weapon each time a new Vorpal Coating is applied. If using a staff, you must indicate which end of the staff has the Vorpal Coating by attaching the tag to that end.

Elixirs may be placed in food or drink. This is signified by either attaching the tag to the underside of the food vessel, placing a token in the food, or having a marshal witness you make pouring motions over the food or drink. (Or, of course, you could give an alchemical substance to a character who thinks you’re giving him or her a Cure potion. . .) If the food or drink has more than one elixir present, all elixirs will affect the victim. One use of the racial skill Resist Poison will block all elixirs present.

Gasses are delivered by an orange packet. Unlike a spell packet, gas containers are in-game. They work on a single target, indoors or outdoors.

Before throwing the packet, the user must announce “<Type> gas poison;” for example “Sleep gas poison.” This phrase simulates preparing the gas. The “verbal” is not in-game so even a silenced or mute character may use one. If the “verbal” is not said properly then the attack is unsuccessful as the gas was not “prepared” properly (Imagine preparing a hand grenade). The packet must hit the target or the target’s possessions and otherwise must follow all spell packet rules. Even though the “verbal” is not in-game, the effect is recognized by anyone who hears it. (In-game, assume each gas has a different color and texture associated with it to allow for identification.)

Note that gas globes, since they are in-game, can be disarmed and stolen. To steal a globe, you must steal the actual globe physical representation itself and not the tag. You may then either go out-of-game to the person from whom you stole the globes in order to get the tags, or can get a Marshal to do it.

Gasses can also be put into gas traps. See the chapter on Traps and Locks for more information.

Contact poisons must be represented by a gel-like substance that can be smeared on the object to be trapped. (Petroleum jelly works fine). If the person applying the substance comes in contact with it, he or she will be affected as well (if applicable). Poison Shield and Resist Poison will protect the victim from being affected by contact poisons. Multiple contact poisons which would normally affect a victim simultaneously are protected by a single Poison Shield or Resist Poison.

Known Substances

Alchemical Solvent: This solvent, covering one square foot per dose, will remove either an Oil of Slipperiness or a Paste of Stickiness. It can also release a victim of a Physical Pin/Bind/Web/Confine. Once used, the entire dosage is consumed.

Antidote: Antidotes are used to cure lasting effects, such as from Sleep elixirs and not from instantaneous effects such as damage. Antidote (Contact) cures any contact substance. Antidote (Ingested) cures any ingested elixir. Antidote (Gas) cures any gas substance. It does not remove any monster carrier attacks. Gas Antidote will remove Monster Packet attacks only if the attack included the word “Gas”. Love Potion #9 has no antidote, while Enslavement and Euphoria need specific antidotes.

Berserk: This will drive the victim into an insane killing fury, causing the victim to attack all creatures in the vicinity to the best of its ability. It lasts ten minutes.

Cause Damage: This substance does 4 points of body damage.

Cause Light Damage: This substance does 2 points of body damage.

Cause Serious Damage: This substance does 8 points of body damage.

Cure Light Damage: This substance heals 2 points of body damage.

Death: The victim of this alchemical substance falls unconscious immediately, and is at -1 body points. After one minute, the victim is dead, as a Killing Blow. During the one minute, First Aid and all curing have no effect on the victim. When a Death (poison) effect is removed within the one minute, the victim also regains the bodyu points lost to the Death effect. An Antidote or a Purify Blood given within that one minute will save the victim, but after the minute has passed, the only thing that will save the person is a Life spell.

Dominate: This alchemical substance will cause the victim to be under the same effects as a Charm spell. The victim will be Charmed to the creature who administered the Dominate. It can be resisted by those with a Resist Charm ability. It will last one hour.

Enslavement: The victim of this poison will be enslaved to the person administering the poison and will obey absolutely any and all commands given by the person to whom they are enslaved, and will even commit suicide. Otherwise, it is has the same effects as a Charm spell. Enslavement can only be cured by a specific antidote. This effect is also removed if the character resurrects. This effect is stronger than Charm, Shun, Dominate or Fear.

Please note that additional Enslavement effects do not affect a character that is already under an Enslavement effect. This effect is not stackable. However, please also not that Control Undead, Vampire Charm, and Enslavement are three different types of attacks with three completely different names. These attacks do stack with each other, but the most recent one takes precedence in the case of conflicting orders.

Enslavement Antidote: This antidote is the only thing that will release a victim from the effects of an Enslavement poison.

Euphoria: This elixir is highly addictive. It gives the victim a feeling of euphoria that will last about an hour. Any time the addicted character does not get a dose of Euphoria for a 24 hour period, one Body Point is temporarily deducted from that character’s maximum Body Points, and one Body Point of damage is taken. This damage cannot be cured as long as the person is still under the effects of the drug. The cumulative damage will not take place between NERO events. If the victim reaches -1 Body Points, then they will die, needing a resurrection (a Life spell will not work, as their body point total is still -1). The grip of Euphoria can only be broken if the character is given the specific antidote, or by resurrection of the character.

Euphoria Antidote: This antidote is the only thing that will release a victim of Euphoria, restoring the victim’s normal Body Point maximum and freeing the victim of the addiction. It will not cure any points lost during the addiction.

Feeblemind: This alchemical substance lowers a character’s intelligence to that of an idiot for ten minutes. While under its effects, a character cannot use any skills and is so stupid that he or she is not even aware of the poisoning. An antidote or a Purify Blood will rid the victim of this poison.

Forget-It-Well: This poison will cause the victim to forget everything that happened within the last hour and remember a 1 to 10 word phrase in its place. The administrator of this poison must begin with “the phrase is. . .” and these words do not count toward the ten word maximum. The phrase may be given at any time within the first ten minutes; otherwise it is the same as “you remember nothing.”

The victim will be in for some heavy roleplaying. The phrase given to the victim will cause the victim to manufacture memories to match the phrase that make perfect in-game sense. These memories should be totally believable to the victim and others.

For example, the phrase “You were attacked by trolls in the woods” might cause a high level character to make up memories where she was surprised and immediately hit with four Sleep spells while a low level player might imagine a situation where he was overwhelmed by one troll.

Forget-it poisons, like all poisons, may never be used on a creature that is dead.

Forget it poisons can be administered to an unconscious person, as the phrase acts on the subconscious.

It is not possible to administer this elixir to yourself and use a phrase.

These new memories become permanent if not cured within ten minutes by a Purify Blood spell or the appropriate antidote. A Killing Blow within the ten minutes will not reverse the effects of this poison, and neither will resurrection. The memories will remain even after resurrecting.

Forget-Me-Not: This alchemical substance will cause the victim to lose memory of the last 15 minutes. In every other way it acts the same as a Forget-it-Well.

Hallucinoid: This alchemical substance causes the victim to hallucinate. They will see pink elephants and other strange things for an hour. The victim will probably be aware that they are under the effects of a poison but will be unable to do much about it. When under its effects, game skills can be used, but the player will most likely use them against imaginary creatures.

Instant Death: This causes death immediately, as a Killing Blow. This elixir does not leave any traceable marks, and cannot be identified as the cause of death. The only thing that will save the victim of this poison is a Life spell given within five minutes.

Intoxicant: This acts as a strong alcoholic drink but has no smell or taste. It will render the victim quite drunk and will affect all characters and races, even those that for roleplaying reasons are “immune” to alcohol. The effects will last for one hour.

Laugh: This poison will cause the victim to laugh and giggle repeatedly for ten minutes, during which time no game skills can be used, although the victim can speak. It will affect all characters, even stone elves.

Liquid Light: This substance will allow a Cyalume light stick or other light physical representation to be used in-game as per the Light spell. It lasts until the next daybreak. It cannot be applied to a tree or other object to make it glow; it can only be used on a phys rep that gives off light. Please note that Alchemy 3 is required to activate a Liquid Light, but not to hold, or otherwise use one, once it has been activated.

Love: This causes the victim to fall deeply in love with the next member of the appropriate sex seen. This lasts 28 days. Note that this is not a charm effect and it cannot be resisted by the racial skill Resist Charm, nor can it be removed by Awaken or Break Charm.

Love Potion #9: This Love Potion acts the same as the regular Love Poison except that it cannot be cured. It will run out on its own in 28 days. This effect disappears upon resurrection of the affected character. Note that this is not a charm effect and it cannot be resisted by the racial skill Resist Charm, nor can it be removed by Awaken or Break Charm.

Nausea: This elixir will cause the victim to be violently ill for ten minutes, during which time no in-game skills can be used.

Oil of Slipperiness: This is a contact oil that will last for one hour once exposed to air. If put on an item, the oil will make the item impossible to pick up. It could also be placed on the ground (if enough were used) to prevent anyone from standing in the area. You would not be able to even crawl out of the area unless you could grab a hold onto something or someone outside of the area to pull free. One dose will cover an object up to one square foot in area. It can be counteracted by an Alchemical Solvent or a Paste of Stickiness. If placed upon the body or clothing of a creature, this substance will protect against one Physical Pin/Bind/Web/Confine attack, after which it will be used up.

Paralysis: This poison is identical to a Paralyze spell, except it lasts ten minutes.

Paranoia: This causes the victim to think that people he or she normally dislikes are out to kill them. It lasts one hour.

Paste of Stickiness: This paste acts as a glue that lasts an hour. One dose covers one square inch of a surface. It can be used to stick things to someone so they cannot be removed until the hour runs out. It can also be used to pin people to the ground if enough is available. Note that this paste will have no effect in combat as it takes three seconds to set; thus you cannot put it on your shield or sword to “capture” enemy weapons. If used on an item, it can prevent the item from being disarmed once only, and then it is used up. If used on a weapon and the weapon is Shattered or Destroyed, the holder will be stuck with the weapon’s pommel in his or her hand for the remainder of the hour and cannot use another weapon in that hand during that time. It can be counteracted by an Alchemical Solvent, an Oil of Slipperiness, or a Release spell. A Killing Blow does not dispel the effects of this substance, although a resurrection will reform a body free from the paste.

Poison Shield: This elixir works exactly as the spell of the same name. It grants a Spell Defense to the recipient. It cannot be stacked with the spell of the same name, nor can it be removed by Purify Blood.

Silence: This poison works as the spell of the same name, and lasts ten minutes.

Sleep: This poison acts as a Sleep spell.

Slow Poison: This poison takes half of the victim’s maximum body points immediately (round up, minimum one body point), and every 24 hours thereafter until cured, or until the victim dies. These points cannot be restored until the poison is removed by either a Purify Blood or an antidote.

Vertigo: This elixir will cause the victim to lose balance and be unable to remain standing for ten minutes, during which the victim can not use any in-game skills.

Vorpal Coating: Putting this contact gel on a weapon makes the weapon do extra points of damage once for the very next hit. It comes in three variations: 2 Point Vorpal Coating, 4 Point Vorpal Coating, and 6 Point Vorpal Coating.

Weakness: This poison works as the spell of the same name, but only lasts one hour.