# Exposure and the Clock

*The Apothecary, Poisons, Drugs, and Chemical Agents for Exodus NDS. Source: https://exodusnds.com/sourcebooks/the-apothecary/exposure-and-the-clock*

A poisoning has four steps: exposure, Onset, resist checks at each Interval, and an end.

## Step 1: Exposure

The poison must reach the victim by one of its Vectors.

### Injury

**Coating a weapon** is a maneuver, and free before an encounter begins. Only an edge or a point carries poison: a blade, an arrowhead, a dart, a spike. One dose coats one weapon or one arrow.

The coat is delivered by the first attack that inflicts at least 1 Wound after Resistance, and is then used up. A hit that inflicts no Wounds wipes the coat off with no effect. An unused coat dries and is lost at the end of the encounter, or after an hour.

The GM may spend a Calamity from any attack made with a coated weapon to nick the attacker: the attacker is exposed to the poison in place of the target.

### Contact

**Coating an object** is an action. The coat lasts a day, and a **Persistent** poison lasts a week. The first person to touch it with bare skin is exposed, and a Persistent poison exposes everyone who does.

In a fight, touching an unwilling target is an Unarmed attack that needs to hit and need not do damage. A target wearing gloves, full armour, or a sealed suit is not exposed.

Handling a Contact poison without gloves exposes the handler on any Calamity, and on 2 Bane from the check to apply it.

### Ingested

The victim must eat or drink the dose.

**Slipping it in** is a Subterfuge check.

| The food or drink is | Difficulty |
|:--|:--|
| Unattended | Easy |
| In company, or passing through other hands | Average |
| Watched by a servant, a guard, or its owner | Hard |

**Noticing it.** Before swallowing the full dose, the victim makes a Perception check. It is Average for someone with no reason to be wary and Easy for someone who is checking. Add Bane Dice equal to the poison's **Subtle** rating, and 1 more if it is in strong wine, spiced food, or coffee. On a success the victim tastes or smells something wrong and is not exposed.

A taster, human or otherwise, takes the exposure in the victim's place. A poison with a long Onset defeats a taster unless the meal waits for the Onset.

### Inhaled

The victim breathes it. Chapter 13 has the rules for clouds, masks, and holding breath.

## Step 2: Onset

Nothing happens. The victim may not know. A poison with an Onset of **None** starts at once.

A character who knows about the exposure may use the Onset to act: Chapter 4 covers purging, washing, and antidotes.

## Step 3: Resist Checks

When the Onset ends, the victim makes the first **resist check**: a Fortitude check against the Potency. The victim makes another at each Interval.

| Interval | When the check is made |
|:--|:--|
| **Round** | At the start of each of the victim's turns |
| **Minute, 10 minutes** | At that spacing. In structured play a minute is ten rounds |
| **Hour, Day** | At that spacing, in narrative time |

**On a failure** the victim suffers the Effect.

**On a success** the victim suffers the Resisted row if there is one, and nothing otherwise.

| Result on a resist check | The victim may spend it to |
|:--|:--|
| 1 Boon | Recover 1 Strain |
| 2 Boons | Add 1 Boon Die to the next resist check against this poison |
| Breakthrough | End the poison now |
| 2 Bane (GM spends) | Add 1 Bane Die to the victim's next resist check against this poison |
| Calamity (GM spends) | Add one check to the Course |

## Step 4: The End

A poison ends when the first of these happens:

- The Course runs out.
- The victim has succeeded on **two** resist checks against it. They need not be consecutive.
- A healer's treatment supplies the second success (Chapter 4).
- A specific antidote is given (Chapter 4).

Wounds and Strain already suffered remain and are recovered in the normal way. Conditions end with the poison unless an **After** row says otherwise.

## Lethal

Most poisons in this book cannot kill. One marked **Lethal** can, and only like this:

**While a Lethal poison is still running and its victim is incapacitated by Wounds, each failed resist check inflicts a Critical Injury in place of its Wounds.** Each Critical Injury already suffered adds +10 to the roll, as the core rules say. The poison kills when the Critical Injury table says the victim is dead.

A victim under a healer's continuous care has a second chance at each of those checks (Chapter 4).

A poison that is not Lethal still deals its Wounds and can incapacitate. It inflicts no Critical Injuries, and its victim is stable when it ends.

**Extras offstage.** When nobody is working on the victim and the victim is not a player character or a named adversary, the GM does not roll a clock. A Lethal poison left to finish its Course kills an unnamed victim, at the end of that Course. This is a narration, not an attack, and it is never used on a player character.

## Sedatives

A substance with a **Sleep** row is a sedative. A victim incapacitated by Strain from a sedative is **Asleep** for the time on that row, counted from the last failed check.

A sleeper wakes on suffering any Wounds, and when someone uses Smelling Salts or a stimulant. Shaking and shouting do not work.

If the Course runs out before the Strain incapacitates the victim, the victim stays awake, tired, and aware of what was tried.

## More Than One Dose

**A second dose of the same poison** while the first is running does not start a second clock. Reset the Course to its full length and raise the Potency by 1, to a maximum of 5.

**Two different poisons** run two clocks.

## Size, Kind, and Minions

| Victim | Rule |
|:--|:--|
| **Much larger than a person** (a horse, an ogre, a bear) | One dose is resisted with 2 Boon Dice. Two doses at once work normally |
| **Enormous** (a dragon, a giant) | Immune to single doses. The GM sets the quantity |
| **Not alive** (a machine, a construct, the undead) | Immune, unless the creature's entry says otherwise |
| **A Minion group** | Makes one resist check for the group. A Minion that fails any check against a poison whose Effect is Strain or a condition is out of the fight |

## An Example

Seren is cut by a blade coated with **Cobra Venom**: Potency 3, Onset 1 round, Interval Round, Course 5, Lethal. The cut inflicts 2 Wounds, so she is exposed.

At the start of her next turn the Onset ends. She rolls Fortitude against Hard difficulty and fails: 2 Wounds and 2 Strain. On her following turn she succeeds: no effect, and one success counted. On the third check she fails again.

Her companion Aldous, Engaged with her, spends his action on a Medicine check against Hard difficulty and succeeds. That counts as her second success. The venom ends two checks early.