Chaos Snuff
"Chaos Snuff" is a nickname for an alchemical mixture that produces an array of varied and shifting pungent odors. Despite the name snuff, it is usually found in liquid form.
History & Usage
History
Alchemical Snuff of the few alchemical recipes that was technically never lost. Chaos Snuff was created by a forgotten alchemist in the Second Age and very widespread throughout Scarterra.
Chaos Snuff was during the Second Unmaking by some bands of survivors. The substance's abilty to throw Void demons off their targets' scent was limited but it was very debilitating to some of their pet monsters.
Everyday use
It is very annoying to humanoids but it is extremely debilitating to creatures with strong senses of smell as dogs or kobolds and can effectively make them nose blind for hours. It doesn't shut down a sense of smell but overloads a sense of smell. An animal exposed to this will probably enter a blind state of panic.
Dogs instinctively avoid Chaos Snuff in its raw form, but they can be easily tricked into eating or deeply inhaling Chaos Snuff with a bit of fresh meat or rabbit's blood.
It is very hard to trick a kobold or any other intelligent creature with a good nose into willingly taking a debilitating whiff of Chaos Snuff, but they can be forced to take a dose.
Glass orbs or breakable baloons have been deployed as weapons. A few people have managed to rig crude bellow powered sprayers to deliver it. sprayers. If the target's nose is doused, he or she cannot avoid the ill effects.
Forcing a target to take a dose requires spraying them literally on the nose, not merely near the nose which That's easy enough for a prisoner in a cell or a dog in a kennel but it is is very hard to do in the middle of a combat.
Difficulty 8 for a base difficulty to throw a projectile and you need two net successes to guarantee a hit on the nose that also causes the Chaos Snuff's container to break.
Anyone exposed to a full dose of Chaos Snuff goes effectively noseblind for about about four hours. If they roll Stamina difficulty 8, they can trim an hour or two off this time, but a botch adds a few hours.
Most animals panic when dosed with Chaos Snuff. Calming a dog requires a Charisma + Animal Ken roll difficulty 9. Calming a horse requires a Charisma + Animal Ken or Charisma + Ride roll, difficulty 8. If the animal in question has a personal bond with the person trying to calm them, reduce the difficulty by 1.
A calmed animal is not going to magically regain its ability to smell but it will least not run away in blind panic or start biting and kicking everything in sight.
Humanoids and intelligent monsters do not panic, but they are very distracted. Afflicted targets need to make a Willpower roll every ten minutes or suffer a one-die on penalty on all dice rolls. This roll cannot be botched, and a character can buy twenty minutes of sanity with a temporary willpower on a failed roll.
The Willpower difficulty is 6 for humans and those for human-like olfactory power. Technically elves have human-like olfactory. Their eyesight and hearing is better but their noses are the same. Same with tengku.
The Willpower difficulty is 7 for creatures like satyrs, gnomes, and kalazotz.
The Willpower roll is 8 for kobolds and dragons.
Purification ●●● or the Remove Curse Abjuration spell can remove the effects of Chaos Snuff entirely for a single creature. The range is touch, so if your horse ran off, you have to catch it first.
Refinement
-Bevan, Swynfaredian alchemistby Eron12 with Hero ForgeChaos Snuff is highly illegal, but unfortunately for the kings and queens of Scarterra, it is cheap and easy to make. There are many benign herbal mixtures that have a strong smell medicinally used to wake people up, and this alchemical formula combines four relatively common variants "smelling salt" and enhances and synergizes their effect with a bit alchemical know-how that any apprentice can do unsupervised.
Distribution
Trade & Market
It only takes about 25 copper pieces worth of materials to make a dose. Since Chaos Snuff is highly illegal in most fiefdoms, the "street value" is normally around four times the base price.
by Me with Midjourney
Storage
Chaos Snuff has a shelf life of about a year in an air tight wax sealed container. It last about three months is a "mostly air tight" container.
Law & Regulation
Since the main use of Chaos Snuff is to throw off dogs from tracking targets, it is mainly a tool for spies and criminals.
The manufacture and transporation of Chaos Snuff is usually illegal in most provinces, and even if it's not technically illegal, it is extremely suspicious to be caught with it in one's position and is likely to get someone held for questioning regardless if one is caught with it.
Turns out I was slightly too late to add this to my 2024 Cabinet of Mysteries Collection but I always liked the material article template more than the item template.
Type
Organic
Value
25 copper pieces/dose (actual cost), 10 silver pieces/dose ("street value")
Rarity
uncommon
Odor
Varied and awful
Taste
Varied and awful
Color
reddish brown
Density
like syrup
Common State
liquid
Related Technologies
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