Caustic Poison

Caustic poison was a somewhat failed attempt to distill the destructive properties of escharotic black salve into a poison in its own right. Caustic poison maintains the distinctive black appearance and caustic nature of its predecessor, such that it causes accelerated cell death and disfigurement when applied topically to a target.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

When a creature makes contact with this brew they are subjected to the following effects:

• Damage appearance by 1d4 for 1hr
• Sustain 1d4 acid damage and 1d4 necrotic damage

Manufacturing process

Bloodroot is ground together with a thick oil base until well combined, and slowly diluted with more oil, whilst the heat is carefully maintained in a sandbath, until the salve is formed.

History

Caustic poison was the brainchild of an assassin and experimental alchemist whose aim was to remove the curative effects of escharotic black salve, leaving behind a potent contact poison solely designed to necrotise and disfigure the target. Whilst they succeeded in isolating these properties, in the process they lost the biggest benefit that escharotic black salve had over conventional poisons: its affordability. The resulting poison was expensive, and no more effective as a poison than escharotic black salve except in as far as it did not cure lingering ailments.

Significance

Due to the inflated price compared with escharotic black salve, which in high enough quantities already served as an adequate poison, caustic poison never took off as a marketable concoction.

Item type

Drug / Narcotic / Medicine

Rarity

Legendary

Base Price

102 silver pennies

Raw materials & Components

Caustic poison is made from bloodroot.