# Introduction

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

In most games poison is a few extra points of damage with a green label. This book treats it as a clock.

> **A poison is a clock, and somebody can stop it.**

A poisoned character is not dead and is not fine. The character has a number of checks left, and everyone at the table knows roughly how many. That is a scene: find out what it was, find the antidote, get to the surgeon, or get the name out of the poisoner before the Course runs out.

## What You Should Expect

**No single-roll deaths.** The deadliest entry in this book takes five rounds and can be stopped in any of them. A poison marked **Lethal** kills only the way the core rules kill: through Wounds, then Critical Injuries.

**One stat line for everything.** A viper's venom, a bottle of laudanum, a tranquilizer dart, and a cloud of chlorine are all read the same way. Chapter 2 explains the line. Chapter 3 runs it.

**A job for the healer.** Chapter 4 gives a character with Medicine five different things to do about a poisoning, and most of them work.

**Drugs that cost something.** Every drug has a Benefit and a bill: a Side effect while it works, a Crash when it stops, an Overdose past its Limit. Chapter 5 adds an optional rule for habit.

**Gas as terrain.** A cloud is a place on the map. Chapter 13 covers what is in it, how long it stays, and what a wet cloth, a gas mask, and a sealed suit each do about it.

**Poisoning as a mystery.** Every poison says how hard it is to notice and how hard it is to find afterwards. A GM can build a case on the **Subtle** rating alone.

## Four Periods

| Period | Years | What is on the shelf |
|:--|:--|:--|
| **Old World** | Before 1800, and most fantasy worlds | Plants, venoms, minerals, the poppy, and alchemy |
| **Industrial** | 1800 to 1938 | Refined poisons, chloroform, morphine, patent medicine, war gas |
| **Modern** | 1939 to today | Tradecraft toxins, pharmaceuticals, street drugs, nerve agents |
| **Stellar** | Space opera | Stims, biotech, needler loads, tailored toxins |

Every entry prints the first period in which it is found. **Prices are by period too:** each period uses the money of its own armory, as Chapter 2 explains, so a price in one period cannot be compared with a price in another. Later periods keep everything earlier: hemlock still grows in ditches beside a starport.

## Using This Book in Your Universe

**The names are generic.** A Universe renames freely. "Blade Venom" is whatever the assassins' guild of that world sells.

**A Universe's own rules come first.** Where a Universe prints its own poison, drug, or potion, use its numbers. This book fills the gaps and gives a common format for the rest.

**The armories plug in.** A blowgun from *The Ranged Armory*, the Dart Projector and Tranquilizer Gun from *The Modern Armory*, the Stinkpot from *The Black Powder Armory*, and the Needler from *The Stellar Armory* all deliver doses from this book. Chapter 14 lists them.

## What You Need

The **Exodus NDS core rules**.