Recreational Poisons by Race (Part II)

Humans are the light, bland beer of the fantasy world.

 Humans

-Humans are a boring lot and just adapt to the decanter of life. Humans living in grasslands and plains drink corn or rye whiskeys, simple beers, and may spice things up with some dandelions or rose-hips. From the deserts and steppes, dried herbs are smoked for their calming effects as drinks of any sort of rarer and harder to create. Forests and hills offer fermented fruits, honey, and herbs; they'll make something relatively delicious but un-offending beverages. Humans living in more inhospitable but life-filled areas like swamps and jungles really bring the life to an otherwise bland human existence: taking advantage of any poisons, toxins, mushrooms, bugs, egg-sacs, and leaves that alter the mind but won't kill you. If you're looking for a bland, cheap, and serviceable recreational poison, ask a human, if you're looking for anything interesting, go elsewhere (or wander into the jungle to find some human tribes).


Strong drinks, fast drinks. Good for preventing long thinks and bone kinks.

Orcs

-Raiding, hunting, and otherwise keeping on the move, the nomadic orcs are only looking for easy to carry or easy to sell. Orcs generally carry thick, syrupy beers (basically thick, fermented malt), fermented fruits, and wet tobacco leaves for chewing. These poisons supposedly came about from the impatient raiders long ago not wanting to wait for their raided beers and ciders to finish. In moving the stolen goods, they accidentally reduced the alcohols to a thicker substance that is almost unpalatable to anyone with taste-buds, but was strong and easy to carry. Now, orcs have learned to brew some of their own on the run but will always seek to raid a brew in mid fermenting. The leaves come from a similar impatience in raiding halfling territories, where they opted to chew the leaves that were not dry enough to loot and sell. Chewing caught on as an easy target to raid and a simple poison they could enjoy and spit without missing a step. Join an orc tribe in recreation at your own risk, the risk of permanently losing your sense of taste.


"If it brews, we choose. If it stinks, we drinks. Except rocks."

Goblins, Kobolds, Derro, and other Lesser Humanoids

-Not as concerned with silly things like modesty, compassion, taste, burns, rashes, and not having a horrible burning sensation, the lesser humanoids take advantage of a wide variety of recreational poisons. Anything remotely near their tribe that can be fermented, smoked, ingested, snorted, licked, cut, rubbed, or inserted that alters their mind is fair game. Even those that do not on the first try, well, try try again. Some shamans keep notes of what works and what doesn't, but literacy is not generally a strength so those notes are a crap-shoot. If you're considering partying with the lesser humanoids, there is no helping you.


Giants, the only race patient enough and thirsty enough to wait for a petrified wood mash to ferment.

Giants

-Patient and long-lived enough to be mistaken for mossy hillsides during a nap, giant-kind has a particular fondness for fermented beers, wines, and high proof alcohol. Masters of the set it and forget it techniques of brewing, smaller races can often swipe some booze during the long slumbers of giants. Doing so risks angering a giant for both stealing, and ruining the proper aging of a brew (hint: those caught are enslaved to replace the booze, or killed if they appear unable or unwilling). The techniques of the giants were mastered many ages ago, and some masters of the art of brewing can curry the favor of Giant brew-masters to learn some of these techniques or to taste of the casks aged for longer than the elves have existed. Some scholars label giants as a race of alcoholics, drifting between binges, hangovers, and sleep. Some scholars would never dare say that to a giant.


What you really want to try is the red pill AND the blue pill.

Outsiders, Angels, Demons, and Ghosts

-Outsiders do not share the simple and straightforward anatomy of the creatures of the material plane. Their souls and essences are infused into their being, and as such, they are more in tune with the magic and essences of the planescape than with physical poisons and drugs. What alters their mind, alters their spirit. They have found plenty of ways of altering their spirit. From the many assorted planes, outsider-kind, if they can be considered one kind, have found distilled essences, magical infusions, emotion dusts, crystallized thoughts, and metaphysical concepts made real. On an outsider, where the soul is the body, these have the effect of changing their essence temporarily. Take powdered anger, get angry. Snort the fumes of fourth dimensional paste, and part of your essence escapes to the fourth dimension to play hooky for a while. Outsiders of all stripes usually take this stuff to experience what they haven't experienced before, or to break out of the mold that their narrowly defined existence usually dictates. There is no telling what would happen if a mortal creature were to imbibe, quite literally, because they affect every mortal in a completely unpredictable manner. It has been theorized that the drugs take effect on the mortal creatures body and soul based on the nearest alignment of the planes, what plane they are channeling at the time, and the color of their aura. No-one has any real proof though (or they would have claimed the prize of that eccentric steam-punk gnome, James Randi).

See the first part of the list here.

If you have any other races you would like to see some recreational poisons for, let me know in the comments below.

Comments