Catstink

Even the best-trained dog (watchdog or tracking dog) finds it impossible to avoid being distracted when there are cats about. This is exploited by the few alchemists who have the recipe for the manufacture of catstink. These few are well-paid by thieves' guilds for their work, blending various liquids obtained from diverse parts of cats with a few secret ingredients to produce a thick, foul-smelling, brown-yellow liquid, catstink.

Catstink is specifically blended to drive any dog to distraction, allowing the thief to get past watchdogs as they frantically try to locate the cat which they can smell so pungently. Dogs who can smell catstink will not do anything other than try to get at the source of the smell, no matter how highly trained. Spells (slow, neutralize poison) are only useful if the dog is wholly removed from the smell. Even then the effect of the spell will not be evident until one turn has elapsed and the dog returns to normal.

Catstink can also be used to delay dogs tracking a thief as he attempts to make an escape, in much the same way as aniseed is used, albeit much more effectively (and much more expensively). The smell of catstink can be picked up by dogs up to 200 yards away, or even as far as half a mile if they are downwind of it.