Poison

Plants and creatures have developed poisons as a method of protecting themselves against predators. They are also used by assassins and wrongdoers of all kinds to murder their victims.

Every type of poison has the following information detailed:

Name: The poison’s name. Also, if the poison is magical, it will be mentioned here.

Type: Lists whether the poison is ingested, used on a weapon or inhaled.

Delay: The time between the poison’s introduction to a character, to the time its effect takes hold.

Potency: This is a number between 10 and 100 that measures the strength of a poison. Some magical poisons, like Basilisk Venom, have even higher Potencies. A character must make an opposed Resilience test versus the poison’s Potency test to avoid or mitigate the damage of the poison.

Effect: Usually hit point damage, though this is not universal. Some poisons cause a character to sleep for some time. More exotic poisons may cause hallucinogenic effects, paralysis or a combination of effects. These take place after the delay noted above.

Duration: How long the poison, if effective, will affect the victim. The effects of the poison cannot be removed or healed until the poison itself has been neutralised or has dissipated in the victim’s system.

Poison Succeeds, Character Fails

If the poison succeeds its Potency test, and the character fails their Resilience test, the poison has its full effect.

Character Succeeds, Poison Fails

If the character succeeds their Resilience test and the poison fails its Potency test, the poison does not affect.

Both Poison and Character Succeed

Whoever rolled the highest in their test wins.

Both Poison and Character Fail

Whoever rolled the lowest in their test wins.

Here is an example of poison, that of the fearsome snake-haired Gorgon.

Gorgon Serpent Venom

Type: Ingested or smeared

Delay: 1D3 Combat Rounds

Potency: 34

Full Effect: 1D3 hit point damage and applies –3 penalty to victim’s CON

Duration: 6D10 minutes