It works well, and it's methods are much less illegal then simple murder/beating. I could imagine it really existing.I like the nepotism bit and the choice of targets. Go to Comment
Enjoyably written, a fun read. The requirements for its creation limit it to the less than lawful so its use would be most assuredly be amongst thine enemies.
Questions I had were on the effects and actual usage.
The duration of the effects when you aren't near the user. You hear him say something passing through and leave forever. I would imagine the effect would then persist no matter what until the person dies? This is implied by the Guild being convinced.
The description implies that as soon as the person stops drinking the potion then the effects wear off. I would assume that the effects wouldn't wear off, just the ability to tell believable lies would wear off? So if somebody drinks one dose, sets a couple lies, then they should continue until his death right? This: "so more stock must constantly be made to keep up the illusion" is what threw me.
The maiden's tears can ruin a batch and make it ineffective which, considering the necesity of having a fresh batch doesn't make that very useful as a limitation. Perhaps it will cancel the effects next time he tries to speak using it would make it more useful. If one drinks or gets splashed with some maiden's tears would that cancel out any effects from the spell that person held?
Great depth and history, but a little lacking on what your ideas were for the actual use in a game. Easy enough for us to make it up, but want more of your thoughts on how it actually works. Go to Comment
An extremely potent weapon that is powerful enough to hijack the will of others. Not by turning them into mindless zombies like all those other so tiresomely common tools of mind control,but by allowing the user to win their complete trust with impassioned and solid lies. A nice departure. Ruling over an adoring populace cetainly bests being the master of an army of mindless pawns. All in all,this is an excellent item. Unfortunately,it does seem a tad too powerful,and for that I'll have to take a point off.
This is a superb post. There are no glaring grammatical or spelling errors and the spacing is good. The recipe for creating the potion, and it's description is well done, and the story behind it's creation and it's creator has a good deal of depth and leads us to ask more questions, such as who these Chymist guilds are and the various laws of alchemy. This is a very good post. Go to Comment
Very good but there should be a long-term side effect that stops it being too Munchkin like. Perhaps prolonged use should weaken the body badly. Go to Comment
As Maggot suggested, this is a little too powerful in of itself, however the recipe may well as limit since most of the ingredients are extremely rare and hard to come by (unless your game world is a very strange sort of place indeed). However, I would also add a long term side effect as suggested by Cheka Man.
Good backstory though - hints at a whole magic system based around alchemy
Rating:
Infiduserum Potion - pretty good 4/5
-1 for being a little too munchkin like
+1 for a good backstory
Final score - 4/5 Go to Comment
Mm. Good questions. I'll admit, I hadn't thought of any of 'em.
If one was passing through and heard the user maybe once or twice... Yes, the lies would seem true until the subject died - or until he stopped taking it, which ties into your second question.
Yes, in fact the lies themselves would seem completely stupid when the effect wore off. For instance, when Malthis got off scot-free in the trial, he had obviously been taking Infiduserum. However, if he had stopped after that point, then suddenly people would find their memories of the event much clearer - and his arguments wouldn't be able to stand up at all. They would look back on what he said and think "Dear God, the man completely lied to us - off with his head!" So when the effects wear off, the person's lies are clearly remembered and seen as what they are - even ones he said beforehand.
The tears can ruin a batch, but also, if drank with the potion, they will stay in the drinker's system for a good while and effectively neutralize any more potion he would send down into his stomach while they remain there. If they were simply splashed on skin, they would have a small chance of getting absorbed by pores in a large enough quantity, but it would be touch and go, so to speak. And injecting them straight into the blood stream - or pouring over an open wound - would heighten the effect. Maiden's tears are potent stuff, and don't get digested easily. ;) Go to Comment
Wow. This is'll be a classic sometime. And on the evolutionary side of things it would be a help for the species if not the individual, Its like the monarch butterfly, they taste so horrible that the birds don't eat them, but individually if the bird didn't know about this, it wouldn't help the poor butterfly what so ever. Oh and sham on you, this is almost as mean to those poor vermin as the starved rat as a way to eat through a door item. Good job. Go to Comment
Go, exploding lemmings! OK, it was black humour, but I do like it.
Whatever the mysterious origin of that ability, the small rodent can profit from it. Not a single one, but as species: what better way to make predators learn it is wrong to eat this food, than to explode in their mouth? The smaller ones could be killed outright, the really big ones at least hurt (distracted enough for the rest of the group to flee).
This means another risk for the battlefield user - don't you dare to squeeze or threaten this "missile" too much... you might miss your hand or more later. Security is important around these rodents. Go to Comment
The starved rat? You mean Muzzled Mouse?
I think that Muzzled Mouse was a little more on the disturbing side of these sorts of items, while this is a touch more whimsical. ;) Go to Comment
Society/ Organizations (Criminal/Espionage) (Country/ State)