ELDER’S SHAME
1 Dramatic Wound / 12 days / 60 days

Elder’s shame is one of the nastier tools the Vendel have developed to provide an edge in their battles with the Vestemannavnjar. In addition to its lethal symptoms (stomach pains, heart palpitations, and general system shock), this ingested poison causes a victim’s hair to fall out at the roots. Over the course of its two-month duration, beginning mere hours after the onset of symptoms, a victim will lose his hair, beard, eyebrows, and body hair (even his eyelashes). Should a victim recover from the poison, his hair may or may not grow back.

Elder’s shame is so named because its first victim was a member of one Vestenmannavnjar town’s ruling council, known for his shrewd intellect and head for strategy, as well as his long white hair and full beard. Faced with the shame of losing his signature locks, coupled with many painful symptoms, the elder took his own life rather than letting the poison run its course.

ETERNITY DUST
3 Flesh Wounds / 6 hours / until cured

Lost tombs are scattered across the sands and through the mountains of the Crescent Empire: the final resting places of sultans, warlords, religious figures, and even well-loved concubines, all of whom were sent into the afterlife bedecked in gold, jewels, and other artifacts of particular interest to tomb raiders and grave robbers. Many centuries ago, shamans versed in the ancient practices of sud’ya developed a safeguard against thieves that was equal parts poison and curse: eternity dust.

Eternity dust is fashioned from the buds, leaves, stems, and roots of an extremely rare desert flower called “The Night Queen” (pictured above), which only blooms at midnight and only once a year, on the evening of Midsummer (Corantine 15th by western Théan reckoning). While the plant (if it can be found) can be harvested at any time of the year to make the poison, the pollen, which is used to make the only known antidote, can only be harvested while the flower is in bloom.

As a toxin, eternity dust is not terribly potent, mimicking the signs of a mild, lingering illness (chills, fever, body aches, and a general malaise), and slowly eroding the victim’s nervous system over time: whenever a Wound Check triggered by this poison causes one or more Dramatic Wounds, the victim loses one Unkept Die (-1k0) on all physical rolls (attacks, Active Defenses, climbing walls, picking locks, and so on). as with all poisons, the damage from eternity dust cannot be healed while the poison remains in effect; likewise, the penalties imposed by the failure of Wound Checks cannot be eliminated until the victim receives the antidote.

Victims of eternity dust are burdened by more than the scarcity of an antidote. Before the poison is deployed (typically inside the sarcophagus that holds the body, so that anyone within fifteen feet or so when it is opened will be exposed), it is subjected to a profane ritual that makes it resistant even to its known antidote, unless that antidote is blessed by a specific prayer which (like the ritual used to curse the toxin) is lost to the ages. Since eternity dust is effective whether inhaled, absorbed through the skin, or ingested, those exposed to the poison is doomed to a slow death unless he or she can track down the prayer, find the flower, and hope it opens in time so the pollen can be harvested: the makings of an epic quest.