Completed The Scales of Knowledge

[Inoadar]

80th of Spring, 514 The familiarity of the library at the Institute of Higher Learning was lost in the man's mood. It was not that he feared any retribution. The subject hadn't been a citizen. And since citizens stood to gain from this research, the suffering of the young man was not likely to garner much sympathy. Besides he hadn't died. And he owed THAT to Inoadar's sensible "little-by-little" approach to the project. The initial immunity treatments had been done at the NMSS, the new medical and research facility he ran in partnership with his two fellow contributors, Valerius Nitrozian and Amolina Moletta. Of course, he had not allowed them to take part in his efforts. Although most of his goals were related to toxin and antitoxin discoveries, he understood the potential gains in prestige and the doors they could open. It was to be hoarded jealously. He'd come to believe that this was the primary goal of Valerius, regarding his work at the NMSS. He could not fault the man. That was the one drawback to being a member of Ravok's premiere family. It was exceedingly difficult to separate one's own personal prestige from that of the family's acknowledged status. The fact was, Valerius and Amolina seemed to have several similar projects. He had an inkling of where they got their ideas, but there was little he could do to involve himself in their programs except as lab assistant. He'd had an incident at the Kelvic Research Institute. And even though he'd stopped a breakout attempt, he'd embarrassed some of the higher levels of authority there. Showing his face there would greatly bolster the implementation of security measures. And that would be a detriment to his two partners. So he sat, poring over tomes, trying to find what had gone wrong with the most recent step of his project. He had started slowly. Just the common Ravokian Water moccasin. He wanted to verify the effectiveness of his process before he moved on to the more dangerous and aggressive 'Rhysol's Viper'. There was a powerfully hallucinogenic quality to this second species' venom that Inoadar hoped to combine with toxic elements of other, more established, poisons. He'd gone through the whole series of steps, as he'd seen and done during his enrollment in the 'Araneida' course. The Master had mentioned offhand that the same process was used with 'Serpente' types to develop antitoxins to snake bite as well as spiders. The subject is given slowly but steadily increasing doses of a certain type of venom, suffering through the monitored stages of toxic effects, until they are able to endure a full bite's worth with no debilitation whatsoever. Their blood then becomes the base for an antitoxin. Inoadar had completed this program on a woman named Taleena. He'd "recruited" her at the NMSS to be his immunity recipient. He'd maneuvered her into a debt which she'd paid off with her cooperation. It had come as a pleasant surprise to her to find that her blood now carried monetary value as this antitoxin base. Inoadar was only too happy to lie to her about the actual worth of her blood. She would not know the difference. And HE would then be able to add this antitoxin to his list of products at his private shop, 'Ino Vations'. But something had gone wrong. The new subject, recruited in a similar fashion as Taleena, had suffered a terrible reaction to the inoculation. He'd never even gotten around to giving the youngster a small bite's worth of snake venom.

[Inoadar]

The young fellow had eventually pulled through, of course. But the nature of his reaction was confusing. At first, Inoadar had been ready to grudgingly accept partial failure of his entire FIRST step, thinking that the woman's blood simply carried the poison now. That she herself was immune, but that her blood had no transferable immunity quality. He assuaged this disappointment with the satisfaction that at least the immunity treatment had worked. He could charge a single individual to make them immune to a particular snake's bite. That was worth something at least. But it nagged at him that the Master had said, with unequivocal certainty, that antitoxins were made this way. As he watched the young man's reaction, he began to notice another oddity. The reaction was not at all the same as the mild afflictions Taleena, the original subject had suffered as a direct result of small doses of venom. Hers had been far more local; damage to the flesh itself near the entry site of the dosage itself. Whereas, this follow-up subject had undergone a seizure, and was even now delirious and feverish, though he'd stabilized and was regaining mental coherency. He'd taken a direct sample of the woman's blood and injected into this young man. Was there something wrong with that technique? Surely he didn't have to ingest the woman's blood. That made no sense. Nor did boiling or burning it and having the kid inhale the fumes. He was certain there was a step missing in his process and he was here in the IHL library to try to find a clue as to what it was. He'd even paid the 100 Miza enrollment fee for the 'Serpente' course. The costs were mounting on this whole program. The cost of the water moccasin venom he'd used for Taleena's treatments had been 500 mizas as well! Of course, Inoadar took advantage of his enrollment to study the field of snake venom and not ONLY to sit in the library trying to solve this one puzzle. He took volumes of notes regarding species, their identifying marks, similarities with NON-venomous species, aggression tendencies, habitats, warning signs, and of course, the differing natures of their venoms themselves. Some, like the simple water moccasin he was currently working with, were a local hemorrhagic variety. A hemotoxin, doing potentially extensive tissue damage that could lead to amputation or death, depending on the location of the bite. Others were the more insidious neurotoxin variety that affect the nerves, resulting in numerous avenues of affliction, from blindness, to respiratory failure, to paralysis, to heart failure. Many of these carried debilitating impacts on brain functions, warping memories and causing hallucinations and insanity as well. The reaction his young subject had suffered seemed almost to be of a neurotoxic nature, in that it did not center on the site of entry, but seemed to affect his whole body. But he knew this could not be right. A body's cumulative immunity did not alter the nature of snake's venom. And the subject had pulled through with no lingering neural debilitation, other than apprehension about the next test. And even a devoted chemical researcher like Inoadar could hardly view that trepidation as unwarranted.

[Inoadar]

He spent days poring over books on venoms and their effects, side effects, to see if there was some one-in-a-million departure from the usual reaction and what might cause it. He checked bestiary indexes, looking for similarities between species that could cause misidentification. He tracked down reference material to research incidents of odd reactions, thinking it could be some allergy. He actually found something there, but missed its significance at first, moving on to other irregularities that could account for the unexpected seizures and fever the victim experienced, rather than the simple, normal tissue damage. Given the small dosage, there should hardly have been a bump. But he came across the reference to "Blood Matching" a second time. This time it stuck. The first time, he shrugged it off, assuming the following text would clarify it for him. But it had not, so when it appeared again, he halted. He asked the Master what the term meant. The man replied that it was only pertinent when dealing with ANTI-toxins, and that such information was more readily found in medical texts, It occurred to Inoadar then that he had not mentioned his interest in developing antitoxins when filling out his enrollment sheet, so it stood to reason that the master would not have thought it necessary to elaborate on the subject. Inoadar said nothing of his interest now, finishing the day in the class, making notes of other things. As usual, as soon as he realized there was something about him that someone did not know, he instinctively took steps to conceal it further. But when he reasoned he'd remained in class long enough, he went back to the library and went back to his research. This time perusing medical journals. He found it fairly quickly, now that he knew what he was looking for. It seemed that not all human blood was the same. It took no education to reason that different humanoids had different blood. He would not expect his blood to be the same as a Dhani's. But he was surprised to find that there were different types of blood among humans alone. He was a little irritated that this had not been touched on in any of his toxin studies. But on further consideration, why would it? It was only a concern when trying to SAVE someone, not poison them. So he took out his notepad and began copying texts and diagrams. It all made sense now. The way he had diluted the already small amount of venom had been to mix it in blood. His OWN blood. he'd assumed that injecting the boy with that would only be impacted by the presence of the venom, not by his different blood 'type' or 'class' or 'category' or whatever. After several bells of checking different texts, old and new, and cross-referencing the diagrams and processes laid out in steps. He was confident that he knew what he needed to do. He returned to his shop in high spirits.

[Inoadar]

He'd taken a considerable amount of blood from his subject, Taleena. She'd not expressed a great deal of appreciation for her new-found immunity to the Ravokian Water Moccasin. Inoadar could hardly care one way or the other, but the thought of how gratifying it would be to hear of her dying of a bite from one of "Rhysol's Vipers" DID enter into his mind, triggering a grin. This was a newly discovered breed of snakes, found along the lake shore, whose venom appeared to be more of a deadly hallucinogenic than a true toxin. Victims almost unanimously suffered a fatal heart attack as a result of terrifying visions and psychotropic delusions. A stout constitution only seemed to guarantee a longer term of suffering before submitting to the inevitable. Inoadar found this a fascinating creature, and one he was determined to procure a sample of. There was rumor that this snake was a mutation of the 512 djed storm. The lack of history of any such incidents of deadly terror, following snake bites, looked to bear this theory out. Inoadar offered his silent praise to Rhysol and Vayt on what he was certain was another successful collaboration on their parts. As usual, there was the perverse interest in subjecting himself to the mental torture of this creature's bite, just to see... He chalked it up not only to pure scientific interest, but also to devotion to the domains of his Gods. His work with such things made him want to test himself against them. 'Would a survivor suffer permanent dementia? Would one with a strong enough heart still die from suicide? Would counters to snake venoms work against what seemed to be more of a drug?' There was no end to his scientific interest. He shook his head with a sigh. 'All this will have to wait.' he told himself with an undercurrent of melancholy. There was more mundane work to do. 'NO' he corrected himself, 'Not mundane, just not glorious.' It was still breakthrough work for him. He took the sample of Taleena's blood and put a portion into his spinner. As he cranked the handle, he settled into that anticipatory anxiety that strikes all researchers on the cusp of discovery and verification.

[Inoadar]

He settled down to a comfortable position as he cranked, the test tubes becoming a blur, the outer stratum of this blur a vivid red color. His arm was beginning to tire, and apprehension began to set in. 'Was this a false lead as well?' he muttered to himself, thinking back to his original assumption that the blood would be an antitoxin with no further treatment. He shook his head at himself. That was unfair. It had been his own oversight to have failed to realize that antitoxin treatments would not be a primary subject of the 'Serpente' class at the IHL. It was all about the toxins inherent in various species and how potent they were, what symptoms they presented and methods of extraction. The medical journal had stated the development of a yellowish fluid that would separate from the red. He switched arms for a couple of chimes, though he was a bit clumsier with his left arm than his right. After a second switch, he began to perceive a change. A sliver of yellow was growing at the inner end of the liquid, and the red was getting darker. His fatigue was immediately forgotten. The only reason he switched back to his right arm was an instinctive need for efficiency. He cranked harder than ever. The yellowish band grew wider as the red diminished and grew deeper in color. When he felt he could crank no longer, and when it appeared no further separation was occurring, he stopped and slipped the samples from their holders, tipping one of them to find that the yellow liquid was quite thin and poured easily, while the red was more like a syrup. He grabbed a screening cloth, and poured the yellow band of fluid from each tube, the screen blocking the thicker red fluid from passing. His heart raced in excitement. He knew instinctively that this was the answer to his last obstacle. He also knew instinctively that the yellow fluid was the pertinent result. It stood to reason that the yellow was a fluid medium in the bloodstream. Blood was red, everyone knew that. So the red fluid must be the part that defined the blood "type". He was not a fool though, he knew he had no proof of this hypothesis. He had not been allowed to bring the medical journal home with him. Naturally, he cursed himself for an idiot for not having written down which fluid was the "serum". But his self-recrimination was largely ignored due to his excitement. He knew it would be one or the other. And that was easily determined. He had a patient all ready for testing. But he knew it may take more than just a single vial or two. He set out another three vials in the spinner, all in equidistant opposing slots and began cranking again. By the time he'd gone through all of Taleena's drawn blood, he had five vials' worth and a very sore arm.

[Inoadar]

But his arm was plenty capable of applying a "Poke" rub to the boy's arm to numb it, and squeezing some of the serum into a newly made cut. He then held the cut closed until he reasoned that the serum had been absorbed. In slowly increasing stages, he placed more and more of the serum, while alternating doses of Water Moccasin venom, into the same arm. Occasionally, he would "apply" the venom a second time, with no additional antitoxin, if the boy showed no reaction to the first dose. Eventually, he got to the point where even two doses of venom had no effect on the tissue. He noticed that the boy was shrinking away in some sort of "creeped-out" fear, and he realized he'd been grinning with an almost maniacal passion. His cheeks actually hurt from the frozen expression, and his eyes felt dry from being bugged out in exuberance. He had to laugh at the comical thought of this child undoubtedly thinking him some sort of madman from his enthusiasm with the success of his tests. He made an attempt to curtail his laughter, before it became just another indication of alleged insanity. "My boy," he said, his face twitching with suppressed attempts to grin and laugh, "I owe you a great deal. Every indication is that this was a successful result. However, I would like to let these dosages run their way through your body and run a different test in a few days. This time, I gave you very slowly increasing dosages of both toxin and antitoxin, alternating them to guarantee an even introduction into your body." He stood and let his face relax, the seriousness of his next proposal taking the glee from it. "Next time, I want to give you nearly a full snake bite's worth of venom at once. I am going to let it start to show symptoms for a bit, and only then...will I give you the antitoxin. And we will see how well you react and recover." He paced a bit as the boy's face blanched in fear. He went on, "This is what I WANT to do...However, I can see you should be very well compensated for such risk." he turned and gave the boy a direct look. "Now, the way I see it, you still owe another fifty gold mizas in research debt for my saving your father from that food poisoning incident..." he didn't mention that the incident was his own doing. What the boy didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Well, maybe it would, but that's life. "So my proposition is this...You can either leave, and bring this remaining fifty gold debt back to your family's door, at a time when your father has lost his wife to this same poisoning incident, and is struggling to make ends meet...OR, you can suffer this one last little test and both erase your debt completely, AND get a fifty gold BONUS on top of that!" He leaned in close, nodding with encouragement. "Think of how proud your father will be of his brave young son." It only took a moment for the boy to agree eagerly. Fifty gold was more money than he'd ever seen in his life. The fact that an antitoxin to the most common poisonous snake found around the shore of Lake Ravok would bring Inoadar hundreds of times that much every year was beside the point.

[Inoadar]

And it was not as though Inoadar was not going to be carefully monitoring the boy's condition. He didn't want to use the painkilling drugs he would normally use. It was not out of concern for the boy's health and possible adverse reactions. It was that he wanted the most natural situation for generating legitimate results. If the painkiller made the boy delay in feeling the pain of tightening flesh and straining joints due to swelling, he might not inform Inoadar of the developing symptoms as quick as he normally would. Too long a delay could cause the boy's death. But again, that was not the concern. It was all connected to having a properly conditioned test subject. If he was late giving the antidote because the subject's condition was affected by feel-good drugs, his test results would be suspect. And NOTHING could be allowed to do that. So he was forced to continually encourage the boy to "be brave" as he cut his arm to administer the venom. And again as the boy looked in horror at his discoloring and swelling arm. And yet once more as he held off giving the antitoxin, in spite of the boy's increasing panic as pain wracked his arm and shoulder. Inoadar knew that the panic was causing the venom to spread. This was in line with his intentions though, so he did not mind. Whether the boy did or not was of no importance. Science was the greater cause here. That and future income. He supposed that he'd given perhaps a larger dose of venom than really necessary, but he wanted to duplicate the conditions of a real snake bite. The snake would not hesitate to give a full dose of venom just because the victim was "only a boy". And Inoadar was not about to fall prey to such sentimentality either. He DID tell the boy that his panic was only spreading the venom throughout his body and making things worse. Surprisingly, this did nothing to calm the little fool. He explained to the crying subject that it would be unlikely for a bite victim to be in a situation where an antitoxin would be available quickly. Again the cycle of the boy launching into panic, and Inoadar repeating, with taxed patience, that increased movement and emotion would only make it worse, ensued. Just about the time that patches of skin began to erupt into bloody discharge, revealing blackening flesh beneath, Inoadar relented in his delay and began preparing the narrow injection tube with a vial of serum. When he jammed the tube into the affected flesh, the boy screamed and passed out. "About time." Inoadar growled, glad to have the boy's unconsciousness result from natural causes, and not from Pillowsap or drugs. It would bring more reliable results. He continued slowly introducing more and more of the serum into the disfigured arm, eagerly noting the almost immediate halt in continued degradation of the flesh. Before long, he noted some actual recession of the symptoms, though, as he suspected, there was not a great deal of reversal. He took notes on the expected result that the serum did little to reverse already existing damage, but served to halt additional progression of the damage almost immediately. This served his interests well. It meant that people going to the shore would know they'd best have the antitoxin right on hand, which meant more money for him. And he had this young tyke's testimony to verify this. The boy came around before long, to find his arm tightly wrapped. Inoadar provided him with some Jile salve and Krolar Poultice, a good ten gold's worth! As well as a dose of Iwart Ointment and the promised fifty gold bonus. As far as he was concerned, he showed remarkable generosity. After all, the boy's arm would probably be fine by this time next year.

[Nemesis]

Inoadar

Knowledge :

Skills

Skill	XP
Investigation	+3
Medicine	+2
Negotiation	+1
Persuasion	+1
Poison	+3
Rhetoric	+1

Lores

*Antitoxin Development for Snake Venom
*Blood Matching: Blood Types
*Fauna: Rhysol's Viper
*Poison: Hematoxin vs Neurotoxin
*Poison: Rhysol's Viper

Micellaneous :

Injuries

*None

Loot/Expenses

*-100gm for studentship at the Institute for Higher Learning, if you haven't already deducted this from your ledger.

____________________________________________

Notes

*Really interesting thread, as always, Ino - technical enough for it to be believable, but not overwhelmingly full of jargon ^.^ we must see more of your.. less than savory goings on at the NMSS!
*Two lores for Rhysol's Viper - one for the creature itself, and one for the properties of the venom

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Thank ye!