The Apothecary
About This Book
Forty poisons and venoms, thirty-six drugs and medicines, ten antidotes, and fifteen gases and chemical agents, from hemlock to nerve gas to a toxin built for one person's genes. One stat line covers all of them.
A poison is a clock, and somebody can stop it. Nothing in this book kills on a single roll. Every poison has a Potency, an Onset, an Interval, and a Course: how hard it is to resist, how long before it starts, how often it acts, and how many times. Between the first check and the last there is time to notice, to name it, to find the antidote, and to work on the victim.
This book stands alone. It supplies the poison, drug, and gas rules that The Ranged Armory, The Modern Armory, The Black Powder Armory, and The Stellar Armory leave to "your Universe's poison rules". It requires only the Exodus NDS core rules.
Disease is out of scope. Plague, infection, and engineered pathogens belong to the Universe that needs them.
Credits
Legal Notices & Licensing
The Apothecary
First Edition
© 2026 Kaosweaver, Inc.
Copyright Notice
All rights reserved. Only the Exodus NDS Core Rules are published under the ORC License. Licensing terms: see Licensing, and exodusnds.com/license.
This Is a Game Book
Entries in this book are game statistics for stories. The names are generic, and the Also known as line under each exists so a reader can recognise the type. Effects, timings, and doses are simplified for play and are not accurate to any real substance.
Nothing in this book is medical advice, and nothing in it is instruction in obtaining, making, or using any poison, drug, or chemical agent.
Drugs and Dependency at the Table
Chapter 5 has rules for habit and withdrawal. They are optional. A group should agree before play whether they are in use, and no rule in this book gives anyone control of another player's character.