• PM To Join • Professor Poison Part 2

[Vluharqih]

CREDIT

Arc 716, 7th trial of Vhalar

The materials were at last set up, the fire stoked and the deal had been struck. The girl who had followed the man had been sent away, and at last they were left alone in the shop. She had shuttered the windows, and locked the front door. This shouldn't take too long, but she didn't want someone coming in and forcing her to leave the man alone with all the supplies.

But what to make? That was the real question. He obviously needed something temporary, so the Kidnapper poison would work well. But given how expensive it was, she doubted he would want to use that. There were a couple of other ideas she had floating around in her head, but they were still untested as of yet. Regardless, the deal they had made was for a poison recipe, and she was going to give him exactly what he had bargained for.

She had pulled out the mortar and pestle, test tubes, some metal mixing bowls, as well as some wooden ones should they need to use anything that would react with the metal. Also cluttering the counter were the rest of the supplies she needed, scalpels and a cage full of squeaking mice to test it on.

"Well, here we are. Now the way I make this is a little different from others. In addition, there are some other benefits or consequences I can add, but I need to know exactly what you are using it for. We're alone here, and anything you tell me can only help improve the end result." She looked over at him expectantly, continuing with her explanation.

"For example, Delivery. I need to know how you're planning on administering this. Typically its ingestion or air, but there are other ones we could consider. How long does it need to put your target out for? All of these are important things that I need to know so I can show you how best to create this."

She leaned back on her stool, waiting for him to react.

[Nauta F'mos Geey]

Things were going well as far as F'mos knew and there was no reason for him to think otherwise. The purpose for his visit was achieved easily with Lizzie's nightmares troubles solved, hopefully, unless she needed some other solution which would cost him more nels. The more significant result of his efforts though, a more effective poison from that which he had set out for and even the method to make more in the future. While he may have lacked the funds for this enterprise, he was fortunately able to make a deal with the woman to make up for that detail.

It was not as if F'mos had rushed into this task of his without any thought. He had taken the necessary precautions to conceal his questionable work and also to ensure his success, the only way for it to be divined would be through some ridiculous device which no intelligent person would waste any time to consider, like those stories of thought stealers used to scare children. The razorfin oil was just another one of those useful tools for him like his own plans, especially now that the Aukari knew of its value, thanks to the excitement from the Misty Miasma in the previous season.

Evidently F'mos believed if there was something for him to succeed he will make sure of it to the best of his ability, unlike others he knew of blinded with faith they would succeed because they believed some higher power favored them. Faith after all was a fraud and those which followed her, fools. Something in all her power can only muck the lives of mortals, all rules ignored for her own designs? They probably were the same fools which believed in garbage of mystical steeds to improve their otherwise drab existence or better yet, the Immortals themselves! Such ideas of perceived power to allow them to do as they wished? That was dangerous.

But what would F'mos know as an ordinary mortal other than the fact like so many other ordinary mortals, he would be the one to put up with the consequences of the irresponsible actions of the all-powerful beings like, Faldrun for the condition the Aukari deserter would have to live with for the rest of his life. His time in Sirothelle however allowed him to realize the truth for a mortal like him, the important things are those he could see and experience in his day to day life. If he could avoid the Immortals altogether, remove their contributions to his life, it was all the better for him.

With no reason to think the woman mistrusted him, her conspicuous act to have the store sealed to prevent any interruptions only supported the Aukari's belief, that from what he perceived everything was going well. Even the fact she had accepted his offer only made it better. F'mos had no doubts her employment at the Grace allowed her to know the deal was good, but he also knew he had to work for it and told her everything he knew, about how the razorfin oil was sought after by leatherworkers and how it had affected his own skin during its extraction.

And of course there was also that whole other lot of nonsense, about the flesh and blood of the fishes being able to transfer the abilities of those which have fallen prey to it. F'mos had no way to determine the truth of those rumors like the stupidity of some horses, but everyone else believed it. If the woman had heard it too, it was better for him as she too would be convinced of the oil's value or, the Aukari could just blame the masses of Etzos for the misinformation. At least, that was how F'mos allowed himself to attempt to have the woman convinced that way.

The woman also being so cooperative to get the oil allowed F'mos to have no worries in telling her his plans, as he too was familiar with the necessity of information in the preparation of poisons. Given the other skills F'mos had, "food for the hellcats" was the obvious method he was going for, as with all stupid animals. The other target? "I don't know. Maybe sleep arrow? Or knock him out? Air sounds smart if can get all." Of course, F'mos was not too particular about the method "as long as I got enough time to tie em up." What would his targets be able to do against him once that was done?

[Vluharqih]

CREDIT

She nodded, mulling over the thoughts. Air would be easiest, but if the 'hellcats' were kept outside, then air would be far harder to do.

"Okay. We'll start with the food. That one is the easiest."

She turned around, pulling out the vial of Kidnapper's Joy and carefully setting it down on the work bench.

"This is the main body of the poison we're going to work with. It's from the forests- a spider's poison. It's pretty expensive, as a warning. If you're fine with not making those 'hellcats' totally out, we can split a dosage in half, and just make them very groggy instead? Otherwise it's 50GN per dose." She shrugged, not really caring either way.

"Now the poison itself is pretty stable, but we need to process it so that it can be ingested. In this form it has to be introduced directly to the bloodstream, but it'll take a a dozen bits at least to take effect, and the subject will feel it,
" she laughed, "so they might take precautions that would be annoying to you."

She turned back to the vial, and dumped the correct amount into a small metal dish over the fire. It began roiling almost instantly but didn't actually boil. A thick cloud emerged when she first filled the dish, but it soon cleared to reveal the yellowy liquid slowly reduced to a caramel-like substance. Several bits had passed by that point, and Alex grabbed the Kidnapper's Joy Reduction, carefully spooning it into a small vial, and stoppered it with a cork and wax.

"This one was easy. Since the animals aren't too smart, they won't notice the effects of the poison on them. But when it comes to the person..."

She hummed, tossing ideas back and forth in her mind.

"Well you've got two options. If you have access to his food, you can always drug him with this, and we could process it with an inhibitor, so it won't react until we provide the trigger? Or we could add an accelerant, so it'll happen far faster. This could end up making it pass through his system faster, though, so its something to consider."

She turned to her pupil and asked him, "so what do you think?"

[Nauta F'mos Geey]

Food was the easiest? F'mos did not quite agree with the opinion although he would not fault the woman. Both the fields of food and poisons require too many different ingredients to work and, there was no way to tell how the elements of the two would interact. For the chef, it was a lot more trickier than to grab a poison and add it into the food as the public believed, unless it was with a target with a less than seasoned palate. As luck would have had it the scythons, simple beasts as F'mos viewed them, were such targets so he would not have to go through too much trouble.

He continued with that train of thought, of the times he had to prepare some poison for a target he loathed and, was unable to reconcile the need to create a desirable disk and an effective enough poison for its purpose to destroy his victim. Sometimes during the inspection of the ingredients he had prepared for both poison and dish, he would get the impression the end product would not be compatible and with no other choice, be forced to test it himself for both taste and effectiveness with some antidote prepared close by. "They need to eat it first..." he mumbled without the intention to actually have responded to the woman's caution on his intended targets' precautions.

Which should not be a problem as F'mos himself was familiar to the scythons' tastes, as he had to take care of the one which brought him all the way from Sirothelle. From his own knowledge of naturally made poisons like those found in spiders, he knew he would encounter no problems because they are "sour, hellcats have no problems with sour stuff too." This fact meant that as long as the Aukari could get the suitable poison from the Grace, he would only need to mix it with a suitable dish which could be anything he fed Kavelza.

Despite the problem of getting the poisons to the hellcats solved, at "50 a dose?!" price was still another barrier which F'mos had to get through and, if groggy, I better off with beans." Of course since he planned to feed the scythons the poison through a dish, it would be possible to use both beans and Joy to make them want to sleep although he did not look forward to the time they will wake up. He waited until the woman was done with her preparation of the poison which sparked an idea in his mind the moment he caught sight of the substance in the heated dish. As long as he had the ingredients in a kitchen, he could even prepare the poison as part of a dish, right under the nose of anyone even if they watched him for any such treachery.

It would be the perfect crime. Perfect until the usual accusations of those which handled the food anyway...

An accusation which would be reasonably foreseeable the moment he tried it on the person the pair spoke of. F'mos laughed with amusement at the woman's suggestion although it "might be fun, but no." There were too many elements involved for F'mos to believe he could take the risk safely, even if success would mean an improvement to his reliability. It was quite fortunate for him the woman had pointed this out before he had committed himself to any method because at that point, he already had second thoughts. "I'd like air..." he mused, but he could not even predict where or when he would find his target, the plans he made were of course all under the most favorable of conditions which he only realized was not the best circumstances for a plan.

While he might not want to expose all the details of his plan to the woman, just in case word of it might get out despite her assurances, F'mos felt he may as well milk her of all her knowledge while she was still cooperative. Because he had misunderstood what she said, he believed she only told him one of the two options and said "yes...?" before he encouraged her to show him what she meant. Whether or not what she taught him could be used would be another thing entirely but for the Aukari who had never been formally taught, for poisons specifically in the way it was demonstrated to him in the Grace, the opportunity was not something he would waste.

And because unlike his mother where, the woman of the Grace would get something out of the arrangement, F'mos did not have to hold back in his request that "you need to show properly. I not understanding it." He had after all been taught differently under a completely foreign culture and, if the woman had any suspicions of it she definitely had not accounted for the difficulties which may come from that fact.

[Vluharqih]

CREDIT

OOC: Natua gave permission for me to play him a bit to move the plot along easier

Alex nodded her head as he declined. He had his own reasons, and it wasn't her job to pry. It was her job, however, to find out everything that might impact the poison in some manner.

"Air wouldn't be too difficult, but we'll have to switch poisons then."

She stood, stretching her muscles, and thought it through. There were a couple of options that could work, but as per usual, she needed to know more about the job.

His yes made her frown for a moment, confused, but her face soon cleared as she realized.

"No, no. Those were the two options. The first is using an inhibitor, so the poison won't react until he smells something, until he tastes something, or even until he reacts to someone else. These are typically harder to get right, however, so I doubt you'd be able to do it properly on your first try. You have to take into account the targets body size, their weight, how much they eat, what they come in contact with, everything. If you mess it up, well... either you get lucky and the poison is just expelled, or you get unlucky and wind up caught with a dead body." She smiled, remembering her own far off memories.

"The other option was to use an accelerator. This would make the poison impact him faster, so by the time he notices the taste or feels the effects, its already too late. If your target was alone, or you didn't have to worry about others then this is usually a better choice. Plus, as long as the length of the unconsciousness doesn't matter, its really easy to make properly." She worked hard to keep the condescension out of her voice, and was happy with the result. It came off as teacher-y, which was a vast improvement- Mr.Gardener had heard from several unhappy customers, and she always got an earful afterwards.

"So anyway, I need to know how much money you're willing to spend. If you want to learn an airborn poison...well we have some options, but most of them are far harder to learn properly. It's your call," she said, hands on her hips.

Whatever he chose, they were going to have to go get more supplies. He was lucky Mr.Gardener was interested in the razorfin oil, with all the secrets she was giving away.

Alex paused, and thought it through. "Tell you what- why don't we give you some actual practice."

She grabbed two mice, ignoring their squeaking, and handed one to him.

"Come up here- you'll learn better through practice than through me talking. So I think that the inhibitor will be too complicated, which means we'll work with the accelerator for now. If you really want the inhibitor, you can buy it from us. Last thing we need is you selling us out after you get caught because you messed it up."

"The accelerator is easy enough to make, though it can work better if you know the weight of the target. We'll work on a sleeping draught, similar to the Kidnapper poison for this. It's not as expensive, so we don't have to worry about wasting supplies. First we weigh the mouse, and then take 1/10th the weight as the powdered form of Iffloil Petals." She demonstrated as she did so, carefully covering the scale specifically designed to hold the mouse still. The small brass cubes were counted out, and the powdered form of Iffloil petals measured. Alex carefully scooped it all out into her small, metal tray and brushed the remains in with a boar bristle brush.

"Now you do the same."

[Nauta F'mos Geey]

Either way he would still learn and F'mos was not too concerned with which. He shrugged as he only waved for the woman to continue while he set his attention on her explanations, with only the odd interruption now and then when there was something he could not understand. Fortunately he was too focused on the explanations to notice the smile which accompanied the topic of dead bodies, although it was not a observation he would pry into even if he had. He thought about the woman's options and for the first time, realized those targets which deserved his poisons in Sirothelle fit her conditions. Or at least they did after his own observations and manipulations.

It was already something he had already practiced all along, but at least now he had proper reasons for it. Inhibitors.

Inhibitors would have come a lot more naturally to him unlike any accelerators, his own instincts to get the poisons in and then himself away before it was effective. Why anyone would want to stick around to watch their handiwork, to risk capture because they were caught up in the net of suspicion was beyond him. Such were his ways back in Sirothelle, as not even a member of the City Guard would be let off for such an act. Etzos however was a completely different animal and now that F'mos had a chance to consider it, accelerators would be the best tools available to him based on how he would be using his poisons.

This was even more true when he reviewed his plan. No matter what he did and how he did it, he needed to first approach his target which no doubt would already be suspicious of him and then, poison him in such a way he would finally be captured without harm. That one request was the reason why it was so complicated for F'mos to accomplish his task. Throughout that time, however long it would be, the Aukari also needed to stick around to make sure the poison worked and to prevent the target's escape. "Faster is better" he would admit, just like the fact the target "he has no friends, and I have lots of time." Hopefully with that information, the woman would be able to better help F'mos succeed.

And this woman would not have to worry about the proprietor getting any complaints from this fiery headed customer, even when he asked "isn't oil for all this?" The terms of the arrangement had probably gotten lost in translation somewhere as the Aukari thought the oil was his part of the exchange, but it was not anything which could not be straightened out, hopefully. At least that was the possibility F'mos expressed despite it pointed out that it is "not nice to change things," which probably had him the person with condescension that leaked from his tone.

Nevertheless knowledge in exchange for the oil was something he would take full advantage of, especially when it was the woman which offered to give him some practice. However the practice seemed nasty as any cook knew hygiene was important, but mice in the workplace was a definite sign of poor hygiene. It did not matter to the Aukari the animals were used as the subjects of his practice, as it was apparent from his reluctance to touch them. What mattered to F'mos though was the suggestion that he would get caught and that was something he may complain about as he also mentioned, "not nice to put blame on me. I know what to do."

Which as all practitioners knew, was to not put himself in a position to get caught to begin with...

"I got my own Hellcat" he said, as he tried to prove he knew what he needed to do although he also knew there was quite the age gap with his own and the targets. As "Iffloil?" was not native to where F'mos came from, he spent a bit of time to examine the powder and chunk on his fingers which allowed him to get a whiff. The smell familiar to him from the volcanic lands in Sirothelle caused him some alarm as he immediately tried to get it off him and asked, a little too flustered if "you're sure this puts people to sleep?" It was more like something the Aukari expected to ignite someone on fire. It was only after he had been convinced it was not dangerous that F'mos did as he was told, to scoop the powder up and weight it with the mouse.

The frantic scrapes of the mouse's claws against the specially made scale was unnerved F'mos as it was not a pleasant sound to his ears, but he continued to emulate the woman's demonstrations and committed everything she had to say to memory. With the resources of Etzos so different to those which had been available to him in Sirothelle, the Aukari saw no harm in her communication of that knowledge to him. After all with the relationship between Sirothelle and Etzos, F'mos could not expect much of the materials from home to be available to him, unless it was going to be in an exorbitant price.

Once the woman was done with the lesson, with at least one knocked out mouse on the table and perhaps some additional instructions, F'mos would finalize his end of the bargain. One vial of the oil, "yours," because of the lesson which meant it was up to the woman if she wanted to share it or keep it and, another to the store as Mr Gardener would want "for stuff I need to make, uhhh..., stuff?" He did not care that the woman doubted him, or believed that he would get caught if he did his job on his own, but F'mos was not going to let her skepticism affect him. Especially when the costs to do his job would be a lot cheaper if he were to make the poisons on his own. Otherwise why would he have wasted arcs on the lessons from his mother and the practice on his fellows, if he had to rely on store bought poisons like the rest of the untrained?

[Vluharqih]

CREDIT

"Yes, the oil is for the lesson and whatever small amount of poison you create. The rest of it you'll have to purchase, so cheaper is better for that."

Alex didn't bother trying to explain her rationale- it was business policy and she didn't want to change that. It kept their shop safe, and it was hard to gauge how well the poisons would be applied in the field.

He sniffed at the powder, Alex letting him do so. The powder was mostly harmless by itself, used as an accelerator with other medications. His recoil caught her by surprise, and she kept her face still, somehow smothering a smile.

"Yes, it's safe. It's just an accelerator- it rushes other medications through the system. It won't do anything by itself unless you ingest a lot of it."

Once he had measured out the weight, she carefully pulled out a jar of Scarf Rot.

"So now we carefully mix this powder into an amount of this sap. How much sap depends on the weight of the target, as well as the length of time you want to keep them under for- you always keep the accelerator the same for the target."

She set the mouse back onto the scale, balancing out 1/10th of the mouses weight again. She carefully mixed the powder into the sap, and then smeared the sap onto a small scalpel. Holding the mouse firmly, she lightly sliced the back, blood welling. Within a bit, the mouse slumped down, unconscious.

"So even proportions is usually a good bet- add more sap for a longer sleep, and less sap for a faster reaction. In battle, you want to add a lot of Iffloil powder so the effect is nearly instantaneous. Now when you cut, you have to hold the mouse so you don't accidentally kill it. The cut I made has already sealed, see?" She gestured to the cut, which had in fact sealed up.

"Now you go- remember to keep the cut shallow and light- the sap will enter the blood by itself."

She watched as Nauta did so, nodding as he measured things out. She lay a hand over his as the scalpel barely scratched the mouse's skin, and pushed it to the right depth.

"There you go. Much better."

Finally, her lesson was at its end. Alex gratefully took the vials- Mr.Gardener would make good use of the two of them, and Alex needed to be on his good side. She carefully got down the supplies Nauta required, and said her goodbyes. She bustled him out of the shop, opening the door again and returning to her stool as she waited for the next customer.

[Whisper]

Peer Review

Story: 5/5
Collaboration: 5/5
Structure: 5/5

Awarded Knowledge

Poison: Accelerators
Poison: Delivering in Food is Easiest?
Poison: Faster is Better
Poison: Inhibitors
Poison: Kidnapper’s Joy
Poison: Methods of Delivery

Extras

Loot & Losses	[/color]xxxxxx	Injuries
None	[/color]xxxxxx	None

Fame	[/color]xxxxxx	Devotion
None	[/color]xxxxxx	None

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Vluharqih

Peer Review

Story: 5/5
Collaboration: 5/5
Structure: 5/5

Awarded Knowledge

Poison: Kidnapper's Joy
Poison: Target Body Size and Weight
Poison: Consider Purpose
Teaching: Practical Applications of Poison

Extras

Loot & Losses	[/color]xxxxxx	Injuries
None	[/color]xxxxxx	None

Fame	[/color]xxxxxx	Devotion
None	[/color]xxxxxx	None

Comments

I tried to find more Knowledge to give you, Vlu, but it was really difficult to find things, which is surprising, given the detail you have written about. If I have missed anything which you think you want, please let me know and I will re-evaluate my grade.

As you can see, I have provided feedback and reasoning behind my review. If you have any questions, comments or criticism about your review, feel free to send me a PM and we can discuss it.
Thank ye.

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