The Apothecary · Chapter 12
Stellar Biotech
Space opera medicine is fast. A field injector closes a wound in seconds, a tablet lets a pilot think for four hours, and a broad antitoxin deals with most of the earlier chapters of this book.
The poisons keep pace. The last six entries are needler loads and engineered toxins, and two of them are Keyed.
Prices are in credits on the scale of The Stellar Armory. A Universe with its own stims and antitoxins uses its own numbers.
Stimpack
Medstim, trauma patch, med-gel
2 None — 2
Injected 50 Common Stellar None
Benefit Recover 3 Wounds and end Bleeding
Overdose No check: a third or later dose before a full rest still works, and adds 1 Bane Die to all checks until that rest
The standard field injector of every crew and every army. It closes wounds fast enough to watch.
Combat Stim
Battle dose, the edge, redline
2 None 1 check 1
Injected 100 Restricted Stellar Habit 1
Benefit Recover 2 Strain and add 1 Boon Die to the user's next check
Crash 1 Strain after that check
Limit Once per encounter
A small sharp push, used at the moment it is needed.
Reflex Booster
Quick, jolt, the pilot's friend
3 1 round 1 hour 1
Injected, Inhaled 300 Restricted Stellar Habit 3
Benefit Add 2 Boon Dice to initiative checks and 1 Boon Die to Reflexes and Operate checks
Crash 3 Strain, and Disoriented for 10 minutes
Overdose 3 Wounds, and Staggered on the next turn
A drug that shortens the gap between seeing and doing. Racing pilots and duellists use it and are tested for it.
Focus
Clarity, the deep-work dose, navigator's blue
2 10 minutes 4 hours 1
Ingested 150 Common Stellar Habit 2
Benefit Add 1 Boon Die to Intellect-based checks
Crash 2 Strain, and add 1 Bane Die to Intellect-based checks for 4 hours
A drug for long calculations and long watches. Half of every academy takes it before examinations.
Fury
Red, berserk, the boarding dose
4 1 round 1 encounter 1
Injected 400 Military Stellar Habit 3
Benefit Add 2 to the damage of Melee and Unarmed attacks, and ignore Disoriented
Side effect Add 2 Bane Dice to every check that is not an attack or a Might-based check. The user cannot withdraw from a fight while an enemy stands
Crash 5 Strain and 2 Wounds
Overdose 4 Wounds, and the user attacks the nearest person
Issued to boarding parties by navies that count the cost afterwards.
Torpor Dose
Coldsleep shot, the slow, stasis gel
3 1 round 12 hours 1
Injected 400 Restricted Stellar None
Benefit The patient is unconscious, and every clock running in the patient runs at one tenth speed: poison Intervals, Bleeding, a timed Critical Injury, air use
Special Works only on a willing or helpless patient. Waking early takes a stimulant and an Average Medicine check
Crash 3 Strain on waking
The answer to a slow poison a long way from a hospital. It buys ten hours for every hour on the clock.
Thin-Air Tablets
Vacc drug, breath-holders, high-pass pills
1 10 minutes 4 hours 1
Ingested 60 Common Stellar None
Benefit Double the time the user can hold breath, and add 2 Boon Dice to Fortitude checks against thin atmosphere and decompression
Crash 2 Strain
Loads the blood with oxygen. Miners, climbers, and people who expect a hull breach take one before the shift.
Spacer's Friend
Drop tabs, the anti-spin, g-tabs
1 10 minutes 8 hours 1
Ingested 20 Common Stellar None
Benefit Remove up to 2 Bane Dice imposed by free fall, spin, or high gravity
Side effect Add 1 Bane Die to Perception checks
What a passenger takes before the first jump and a crew never admits to taking.
Glitter
Bliss, the long sleep, synth
3 1 round 4 hours 1
Inhaled, Injected 15 Illicit Stellar Habit 4
Benefit Recover all Strain
Side effect Disoriented, and cannot take a second maneuver in a turn
Overdose 4 Strain each 10 minutes for 6 checks, Lethal
A synthetic opiate that costs almost nothing to make. Every station has a deck where it is sold.
Detox Shot
Flush, sober, the purge
— 1 round — 2
Injected 80 Common Stellar None
Benefit Ends the Benefit, Side effect, and Crash of every drug in the patient, and counts as one successful resist check against any sedative
Side effect 2 Strain
It clears the blood in a minute. It is unpleasant, and it is how a ship's doctor gets a crew fit for duty after shore leave.
Broad Antitoxin
Anti-venom, antitox, the grey injector
— None — —
Injected 80 Restricted Stellar None
Benefit Specific antidote to any poison of Potency 3 or less. Against a poison of Potency 4 or 5 it is a general antidote: add 2 Boon Dice to resist and treatment checks
Special No effect on Keyed toxins or on drugs
An injector of engineered binders that take hold of most things that should not be in blood.
Sleeper Dose
Anaesthetic sliver, the quiet load
2 1 round Round 4
Injury, Inhaled 75 Common Stellar None
Effect 4 Strain
Sleep 1 hour
Antidote A Detox Shot or any stimulant wakes the sleeper
A surgical anaesthetic in a needler sliver or a hand aerosol. Safe at any dose, which is why security forces are issued it.
Lockjaw
Freeze, the stiff, synaptic clamp
3 1 round Round 4
Injury 250 Restricted Stellar None
Effect 2 Strain and Immobilized. A victim already Immobilized by this poison is Paralysed
After 10 minutes after the poison ends
Antidote Broad Antitoxin
A paralytic for taking prisoners. The victim stays awake and breathing and cannot move a finger.
Black Needle
Neurotoxin sliver, the assassin's load
4 1 round Round 4
Injury 400 Military Stellar Lethal
Effect 3 Wounds, and Disoriented until the next resist check
Antidote Broad Antitoxin, as a general antidote
A military neurotoxin for the Needler in The Stellar Armory. Carrying it is a crime on most worlds.
Xenotoxin
Alien venom, the offworld sting
4 1 round Round 5
Injury, Contact 300 Rare Stellar Lethal, Keyed (species)
Effect 3 Wounds
Special Named for the species it evolved to kill. That species resists normally. Every other species adds 2 Boon Dice to resist checks, and the poison is not Lethal to them
Antidote A specific antidote from the world it comes from
The venom of something from another biosphere. It is deadly to the bodies it was shaped for and merely unpleasant to the rest.
Tailored Toxin
The signature dose, gene-keyed poison
5 1 hour Hour 6
Ingested, Contact, Inhaled 20000 Rare Stellar Lethal, Keyed (one person), Subtle 5
Effect 4 Wounds
Special Built from a sample of one person and harmless to everyone else. It can be put in a ship's water or air
Antidote None in stock; a laboratory and a Hard Science check make a specific antidote in 2 hours
A poison built to one person's genes. The whole banquet eats it and one guest falls ill. Making it needs a tissue sample, a month, and a laboratory, and that trail is how the maker is found.
Honesty
Veridical, the interrogator's dose
4 1 minute Hour 1
Injury 600 Restricted Stellar None
Effect 4 Strain. For one hour the subject cannot say anything the subject believes to be false, and staying silent in answer to a direct question takes a Hard Fortitude check
Antidote A Detox Shot
The truth drug the Modern period wanted. Courts on some worlds accept testimony given under it and on others forbid its use.
