The Apothecary · Chapter 8
The Apothecary's Shelf
What the Old World sells over a counter: medicines, stimulants, sedatives, antidotes, and in some Universes the products of working alchemy.
Entries with a Benefit row are drugs and follow Chapter 5. The last three entries are poisons and follow Chapter 3.
Entries tagged Fantastical need a Universe with alchemy or magic. The rest need a garden and a mortar.
Healing Salve
Poultice, wound balm, honey and yarrow
— — 1 day 1
Applied 20 Common Old World None
Benefit Applied before a full night's rest, the patient recovers 2 additional Wounds from that rest
Clean dressings and something that keeps a wound sweet. It is not magic and it does nothing in a fight.
Poppy Tincture
Opium, laudanum, milk of the poppy
3 10 minutes 4 hours 2
Ingested 30 Common Old World Habit 2
Benefit Recover 3 Strain, and ignore the ongoing penalty of one Minor or Moderate Critical Injury for the duration
Side effect Add 1 Bane Die to Perception and Readiness checks
Overdose 4 Strain each 10 minutes for 4 checks; sleep 4 hours
The one medicine before the Modern period that reliably stops pain. Soldiers, surgeons, and the old all keep it. A good many of them cannot stop.
Chewing Leaf
Coca leaf, khat, betel, kola nut
1 10 minutes 4 hours 2
Chewed 5 Common Old World Habit 1
Benefit Recover 2 Strain. Add 1 Boon Die to Fortitude and Athletics checks against fatigue, hunger, altitude, and long labour
Crash 1 Strain
A leaf or nut chewed by porters, sentries, and rowers. It dulls hunger and keeps the legs moving.
Watchman's Tea
Black tea, strong coffee, guarana, mate
1 10 minutes 8 hours 1
Ingested 3 Common Old World None
Benefit Ignore the penalties for one missed night of sleep
Crash Add 1 Bane Die to all checks the next day until a full night's rest
Brewed black and drunk hot. It pushes sleep back by a night and charges interest.
Strong Drink
Spirits, fortified wine, rum, the stirrup cup
2 10 minutes 2 hours 2
Ingested 2 Common Old World Habit 1
Benefit Add 1 Boon Die to checks made to resist fear, and recover 1 Strain
Side effect Add 1 Bane Die to Agility and Intellect checks
Overdose Disoriented for 4 hours, then 2 Strain that cannot be recovered until a full night's rest
A measure of courage before the boarding or the duel. The Limit counts strong measures in an evening, not sips.
Berserker Draught
Battle brew, wolf-ale, red cap mead
3 10 minutes 1 encounter 1
Ingested 80 Restricted Old World Habit 1
Benefit Add 1 to the damage of Melee and Unarmed attacks, and ignore Disoriented
Side effect The drinker must move toward and attack the nearest enemy each turn, cannot make Ranged attacks, and adds 2 Bane Dice to Intellect and Charisma checks
Crash 4 Strain, and Disoriented for the rest of the scene
Brewed from red mushrooms and bog herbs and drunk before a charge. It makes a fighter hit harder and think not at all.
Dreamsmoke
Opium pipe, hashish, lotus resin
2 1 minute 4 hours 1
Inhaled 15 Restricted Old World Habit 3
Benefit Recover all Strain over the first hour
Side effect Disoriented, and add 2 Bane Dice to Readiness and Perception checks
Overdose 4 Strain each 10 minutes for 4 checks; sleep 8 hours
Smoked lying down, in a room kept for it. Every port and every large city has a house where it is sold, and a list of customers somebody would pay to see.
Smelling Salts
Hartshorn, sal volatile, burnt feathers
— None — 1
Inhaled 10 Common Old World None
Benefit An Engaged character spends a maneuver to wake a character who is asleep, or who is incapacitated by Strain. The patient recovers Strain down to 1 below Strain Points
Limit Once per patient per encounter. No effect on a character incapacitated by Wounds
A sharp reek under the nose. It is the old answer to a sedative and to a faint.
Emetic
Mustard water, salt water, ipecac root
— None — —
Ingested 5 Common Old World None
Benefit A Purge made with an emetic needs no check
Side effect The patient suffers 2 Strain and is Staggered on the next turn
Something that empties the stomach. It works only on what was swallowed, and only before the poison has left the stomach.
Theriac
Mithridate, treacle, the universal antidote
— 1 round 1 day 1
Ingested 100 Restricted Old World None
Benefit General antidote. Add 2 Boon Dice to resist checks and to Medicine checks to treat one poison, for the rest of its Course
A paste of sixty-odd ingredients, most of which do nothing. Enough of them do something that kings ate a spoonful every morning.
Antivenom
Snake stone, serum, the charmer's cure
— 1 round — —
Injected, Applied 120 Rare Old World None
Benefit Specific antidote to the venom of one kind of creature, named when it is bought
Special Before the Industrial period it is a folk remedy and works as a general antidote against that venom only. True serum dates from the 1890s
Whatever is known to work against the bite of one animal. It must match the animal. The wrong one does nothing.
Bezoar
Stone from a goat's stomach, toadstone, unicorn horn
— None — —
Dropped in the cup 500 Rare Old World None
Benefit Add 1 Boon Die to resist checks against any Ingested poison drunk from a cup the stone has stood in. The stone is not used up
Special In a Universe without magic the Boon Die is the drinker's confidence, and the GM may rule it does nothing against a poison the stone could not absorb
A smooth stone set in gold and hung on a chain over the table. Its owner believes in it completely.
Healing Draught
Red potion, vitae, the alchemist's cordial
— None — —
Ingested 50 Common Old World Fantastical
Benefit Recover 4 Wounds. Each further draught the same patient drinks before a full night's rest recovers 1 fewer, to a minimum of 0
Special Drinking one is a maneuver. Pouring one into an incapacitated ally is an action
An alchemical medicine that closes wounds as the patient watches. It belongs to Universes with working alchemy. A Universe with its own healing potion uses its own numbers in place of these.
Truth Draught
Candour, the confessor's cup
4 1 minute Hour 1
Ingested 350 Rare Old World Fantastical
Effect For one hour the victim cannot say anything the victim believes to be false. The victim may stay silent, and knows what was done
Antidote None; it wears off
A clear alchemical liquid with a taste of iron. It compels honesty and nothing else: the victim can refuse to answer, can mislead with true statements, and can be honestly wrong.
Stoneblood
Basilisk tincture, gorgon oil
4 1 round Round 3
Injury, Contact 300 Rare Old World Fantastical
Effect Immobilized. A victim already Immobilized by this poison is Paralysed, with skin as hard and grey as slate
After One hour after the poison ends
Antidote A specific antidote brewed from the same creature
A grey oil that stiffens flesh. It does not kill and it does not last.
Bleeder's Oil
Leech water, thinblood
3 None Round 3
Injury 150 Restricted Old World Fantastical
Effect Bleeding: 1 Wound at the start of each turn until an action and an Average Medicine check stop it
After Wounds cannot be recovered by rest for one day, and Medicine checks to heal the victim add 2 Bane Dice
Antidote A specific antidote ends both effects
An oil that stops blood from clotting. A small cut treated with it will not close.
