Completed [Institute of Higher Learning] Doubt and Poison 101

[Irriari]

89th Day of Spring, 511 AV

After her lesson with the commander, Irriari wanted nothing more than to go back to the boarding house and crawl into bed. The zith was even sure that she could sleep through the din of the travelling band that took over the common room every night. Shaking her head, she knew that it would be far better to stay at the Institute for another few bells than it would be to leave. She still had much to learn about poison, and after her meeting with the owner of Ino Vations, her incompetency in her chosen discipline was glaringly obvious.

A quick talk with the headmaster of the Institute confirmed her second course selection. This time around, her teacher was to be Alena Abrinzine. The zith didn’t bother to recite the name back to the headmaster- such names were difficult for the zith to pronounce. Instead, she elected to find her teacher and inquire about starting lessons. Before entering the door, she grabbed the vial of intellect mist that Nolan had given her a few days prior. She inhaled a small bit of the mist quickly, hoping that the effect would work as promised. After a half chime, the mist began working, and Irriari gasped. The effects of the mist mirrored the feeling of the blood sight in battle. Everything in her line of sight was sharper, and her senses seemed more keen than they had only a few chimes before. It was a pity that she didn't know how to create such a useful concoction.

After knocking, Irriari found herself in an office that was far bigger than the one the commander used. Alena Abrinzine's office was oddly shaped, with a large portion of the room jutting out from a smaller alcove. The former of the two boasted high shelves that were filled with boxes, vials, and jars of reagents. Each item was labeled with a small scrap of parchment that sat beneath the container. After seeing the ziths wide eyes, Alena explained:

“Yes, these are my materials. Not all of them are here, of course, as some of them are too dangerous to be kept here. The live materials tend to knock over other things and generally annoy me. I've heard about you from others at the Institute. You are Irriari, yes?”

The zith nodded in affirmation while gazing at the bookcase behind her teacher. Books of every shape and size filled the shelf, while handwritten notes sat at the top, weighed down by a mortar and pestle.

“So, what do you know about poison?”

Irriari sighed. She had known that the inevitable question would come up, but the analytical look that accompanied the question made the zith even more aware of her weakness.

“I don't know that much. Everything I've learned was through trial and error, or through books that were read to me. I've harvested many mushrooms and roots, and made a few poisons, but I'm mainly stumbling along.”

Irriari breathed in, trying to calm her nerves that were more active due to the chaotic effects of the intellect mist. Hadn't the elders always said that it was okay to learn from some humans? After all, the slaves had taught her colony how to farm mushrooms and paint with pigments gathered from the grasses. Even with that knowledge at the forefront of her mind, Irriari despised feeling helpless around humans. 'One day, I won't need these petching humans.' she vowed. Irriari hoped that day would come soon, before she lost all of the strength that was her birthright.

[Irriari]

Alena nodded and went to a nearby shelf to retrieve a few vials. Her teacher came back with two vials balanced in each hand and sat them upright on top of the desk in a neat line. Alena pointed to the first vial, which was filled with a light green mist that was concentrated at the bottom of the vial.

“That vial contains ‘Lost Tongue’ poison. If inhaled, your victim will have a swollen tongue that prevents speech. The effect varies from person to person, but it typically lasts for two bells. The important thing to note is that unlike many of the poisons I’ve brought over, this one must be inhaled to work. Poisons absorbed via inhalation are tricky to use- you can end up poisoning yourself when you make them AND when you use them. They make candles to release the vapors, but I doubt a zith would be caught dead using a candle as a weapon.”

Alena chuckled at her joke and Irriari found herself smiling as well. The woman was far more tolerant of zith than the commander had been. Perhaps this lesson would be fun.

Alena held up a second vial for closer inspection,

“This one is one of my favorites. The green flecks give it away to anyone familiar with the poison, though. This poison, Isurian Hammer, is a contact based poison that leaves your victim with balance issues and a loss of physical strength. Contact based poisons are easier to handle than mists or vapors, and you only have to rub the poison on the skin of the victim for it to take effect. The poison seeps through the follicles of the skin and is absorbed into the bloodstream. Contact poison is great for those who are stealthy enough to infiltrate the living area of their victim. For example, it can be smeared on a bed, or on the inside cover of a jewelry box.”

The next vial Alena grabbed was a surprise for Irriari. It looked nothing like any poison she had ever used. In fact, the vial seemed to hold a pebble of some sort. The zith found herself wondering if Alena was going to recommend that she coat rocks with poison to surprise her enemies.

“This is Hag’s Mask. If you boil the heart of a particular rodent, you end up with one of these. Surprisingly, they’re tasteless, though you wouldn’t know it from staring at one. You can bribe a chef to put this in a quail breast or a chicken leg since it needs to be ingested. A few chimes after it’s processed, your victim will break out in foul sores that will plague them for a day. Ingestion based poisons are incredibly useful in some settings- you can poison a water supply, or a diplomat, but you need access to their food.”

Alena grabbed the last container, which was filled with a disgusting brown paste. Irriari frowned and backed away from it, hoping that she would never have to coat her claws in such a hideous looking substance.

“This is Rutlye poison. It’s made from a giant wasp stinger. If you manage to injure someone with a weapon coated in this, they’ll lose their ability to move for a considerable amount of time. Poisons that effect a victim via injury are by far the most common, which is probably good news for you. You must ensure that a sufficient amount of the poison actually transfers to your victim, which can be an issue for blunt weapons.”

Alena looked back at Irriari after she placed all the vials with their respective parchment scraps.

“Do you understand the methods of delivery so far?”

The zith nodded.

“Contact, inhalation, ingestion, and injury. It seems simple enough. But, are there any poisons that would have multiple delivery methods?”

Alena shook her head and laughed ruefully

“I wish there were, but I’ve never came across such a thing. If it does exist, it’s beyond my skillset, and it’s likely a signature poison that a master poisoncrafter took months to tailor to his particular style of poison.”

[Irriari]

Irriari found her teacher wandering into the bigger part of her office, and found herself following hesitantly. When she made her way past the large oak doors, the zith was greeted with an expansive poisoncrafting lab that housed even more reagents, and a diverse selection of tools and equipment. Alena stood in the center, gesturing widely with open arms.

“This is my death lab.”

Realizing her error, Alena amended her previous statement hastily,

“Well, it isn’t always a death lab, and it definitely won’t be used for that today. Now, I’m going to hope you came prepared with some reagents for us to use in todays lesson. Grab them out of your bag, and we’ll begin working.”

Irriari placed her bag on a stone shelf that ran the length of the far wall and quickly retrieved the blissbane leaves, makari plant, and zarent herb oil she had purchased a few seasons ago from the Black Tar. She brought them over to the table and placed them in front of Alena who peered at the grouping of materials.

“Now, I hardly expect you to become a botanist, but you should know the anatomy of the plants you work with. Leaves are easier to deal with, but whole plants need to be handled with care.”

Alena pointed the middle of the stem that was textured with tough green fibers,

“Inside of this part of the stem are the vascular tissues. Most plants will have their poisonous matter elsewhere. Further down the stem are the ground tissues. Again, you won’t find much poisonous here, but on the off chance that you do, you should save the stems. The majority of the poison will come from the roots, fruit, and flowers of your plant. This particular plant contains a lot of poison in the roots, but you have to purify the root fibers through filtration so you contaminate your poison with dirt or minerals. In order to accomplish that task, we’ll need to use a philtering kit. We’ll take a scrap of cheesecloth and attach it to the smaller end of an alembic. When we boil the roots in a small amount of water, the vapors will reform on the other side of the alembic as a distilled liquid that we can mix with the zarent herb oil. Lastly, we’ll run the blissbane leaves over the fire from our alembic until they’re dried out sufficiently. When they are, we can crush them into powder and boil the whole mixture.”

Irriari rubbed her temples briefly and nodded. She had hoped that the process would be as easy as it had been in the caves. Still, the zith knew she would never be able to create intellect mist of her own if she stuck to the methods she had used in the colony. With a sigh, the zith sat a nearby table and began to work.

Alena explained that the large stone bowl sunk into the table was to be used to create fires for the alembic that stood on a stand a few inches above the table. Thankfully, Alena had a large stock of kindling that made starting and maintaining a fire incredibly easy.

Irriari used six drops of water from a vial that Alena provided as a base for the roots, so that she would avoid burning them. Irriari poked small holes in the root system to allow the internal components to blend with the water more easily. After she completed that, the zith deposited the roots into the alembic and waited for the mixture to turn to vapor so she could collect it as liquid. The process took the better part of a bell, and Irriari monitored the flames to ensure that the mixture was continuously boiling.

Next, she toasted the blissbane leaves over the fire. The first leaf caught fire, and Irriari dropped leaf into the fire, while swearing profusely in Common.

Alena, who had been mostly silent during her crafting spoke up,

“It happens to all of us. Just be happy that blissbane leaves are cheap. Burning a leaf that’s worth 700 golden mizas is enough to make you want to stick your own hand in the fire as punishment.”

Irriari smiled at that, and focused on holding the next leaf a few inches higher than the first. Each leaf took about three chimes to dry out and she found herself yawning at the end of the tedious process. She quickly ran back to her pack and grabbed her stone mortar and pestle. She dropped the leaves inside and moved the pestle against them in a circular motion until the leaves had been crushed to a fine yellow powder.

Irriari added the powder and distilled makari root to the zarent herb oil and shook it for vigorously for three chimes. The vial was held over the fire until the mixture started to boil, and was quickly taken away.

Irriari looked up to Alena, hoping that she had completed the process to Alena’s satisfaction. Her new teacher smiled and addressed Irriari.

“You did well today, but you have a lot to learn. Come back when you have more reagents, and we’ll see what we can make.”

Irriari gathered her materials and left the Institute for the Boarding House, happy to have another poison to add to her slowly growing arsenal.

[Verilian]

. . Thread Award . . Irriari +1 Botany +1 Poison You Question My Logic? : Any questions, feel free to PM me. Lores: Alena Abrinzine: Poison Instructor, Lore of Lost Tongue, Lore of Isurian Hammer, Lore of Hag's Mask, Lore of Rutlye, Poison: The four Methods of Delivery, The Sections of a Plant, Loot: 1 vial of ...some kind of poison? Notes: I'm not sure what poison you are actually making. Is it one from the price list, or something unique? Let me know and I'll fix the grade. Notice As per the request of the Founders, threads cannot be graded unless your CS is up to date. This means you need to add threads to your thread list when you make new threads, keep your skills up to date, ledger, living expenses, ect. If you aren't up to date, you'll get a PM from me before i grade your thread. If you are up to date, disregard this notice.