Aether
Aether is a moderately addictive, inhaled drug that increases the power of those who cast spells. Ironically, it also hinders the user from being able to easily cast those very same spells.
Alcohol
A depressant, alcohol can be abused and have significant negative effects. Particularly exotic or strong forms of alcohol might be treated as normal drugs. Those who regularly abuse alcohol might eventually develop a moderate addiction. Despite this, it is also a very valuable import/export from Absalom, with foreign alcohols flooding into the city on a daily basis, including elvish absinthe, Chelish vintages made from assassin vine berries, Irriseni vodka and icewine, and dwarven fire ale, among many others.
Allnight
This expensive drug is generally sold in wafer form. When ingested it acts as a powerful stimulant, eliminating tiredness for up to eight hours. Once the effects wears off, however, the user becomes completely exhausted. Side effects include jitteriness and difficulty concentrating.
Angel's Trumpet
A member of the nightshade family, this hallucinogenic is smoked, brewed, or its flowers are eaten raw. It causes restlessness, aggressive excitement, and fearlessness, but is also highly toxic and leaves the user tired and very sensitive to light.
Bachelor Snuff
Inhaled through the nose, bachelor snuff causes male humanoids to become temporarily sterile for a period of one to three days without otherwise affecting their performance. A golden, soot-smelling powder, it is relatively inexpensive and not known to cause dependence. Teeth and nails tend to take on a gilded tint among frequent users.
Dreamtime Tea
Dreamtime Tea causes its addicts to fall unconscious and dream vividly. This Vudran drug is made by brewing a mix of rare herbs and flowers.
Flayleaf
Flayleaf is a wiry shrub with reddish-brown leaves that grows in almost any temperate environment. Leaves are harvested and dried, and when smoked produces a powerful sedative and hallucinogenic effect similar to drunkenness. It is also a powerful analgesic and muscle relaxant, rendering the user immune to most pain for up to four hours. It also causes the user to become very susceptible to suggestion. The berries of the flayleaf plant are sometimes crushed and mixed with other ingredients to produce a potent hallucinogen. Unlike its cousin, the cabble-weed, flayleaf is sadly highly addictive.
Grit
Grit is an unpredictable drug created about 20 years ago in the Puddles district of Absalom. It is manufactured by grinding down alchemically-enhanced barbarian chew, and mixed with toxic plant-based substances such as bitterbark or redroot. Grit is generally sold as a powder that is ingested, inhaled, or mixed with qat or flayleaf and smoked. Its effects vary greatly depending on how it is made and who is ingesting it, but it has been known to cause severe hallucinations, numbing, or uncontrollable rage. It is very expensive and highly addictive, and users are often blamed for escalating violent rampages in order to feed their habit.
Harlot Sweets
When eaten, this drug brings great benefits to the user's looks, social ability and grace, and is popular with prostitutes from where it gets the first part of its name. It is sold as yellow, lozenge-shaped tablets, from where the second part of its name derives.
Heathensnuff
This drug is fairly common in the shadowy realm of Nidal, where it is taken by citizens who wish to appear to be true believers in Zon-Kuthon. It imparts a heightened tolerance to pain, an attribute much sought after there, but is sadly addictive. Users can be identified by red-purplish stains around their nostrils.
Honeydust
The use of this mild, dizzying powder has spread throughout much of the world. Once taken, this sparkling, honeydew-colored inhalant gives the user a euphoric sensation that can quickly become overwhelming and even sickening. While the long-term effects are relatively minor, few except the hardy care to risk stomaching this toxin.
Opium
Opium is a highly addictive drug imported from Tian Xia. It may be smoked with an opium pipe and induces a tired, dreamlike state that affects the mind and body. Withdrawal symptoms are particularly nasty for this drug. Nevertheless, due to its popularity, pipes and storage boxes for opium can be very elaborate and costly.
Pesh
Pesh is a powerful stimulant and mild hallucinogen made from the spoiled milk of a cactus found predominantly in the country of Katapesh.
Qat
Qat acts as a mild stimulant and euphoriant when its leaves are chewed. Soldiers and warriors are known to use it before battle, although commanders tend to discourage this practice as the drug is addictive.
Silvertongue
Silvertongue is an ingested performance-enhancing drug sold as a sweetly tasting alchemical elixir with a metallic after-taste. The drug quickens the wit but can have health consequences. Furthermore, prolonged use can be spotted by the silvering of an addict's tongue and gums.
Tobacco
Frequently imported into Absalom as a trade good from Molthune and northeast Garund, tobacco is easily the most common and socially acceptable drug frequently seen in public use, and is often smoked communally in bars. It comes in a variety of forms; most often shredded and rolled into cigarettes or fermented and rolled whole leaf into cigars, shisha tobacco is also smoked using a hookah, loose shag can be chewed, and dried powder can be inhaled as snuff. It has a spicy scent and is easily cut with other drugs, especially pesh and grit.
Vigilance
Scholars and students are often willing to accept the clumsiness and slow reactions in exchange for the benefits gained in studying from this bitter white powder. It expands both your peripheral vision and attention to detail.
Whip
First created in Diobel, this drug is highly addictive, and makes the user forgetful, compliant, and easy to manipulate. The side effects of this concoction are hard to predict and seem to vary from person to person.
Comments