The Bottled Whip

The Bottled Whip is the popular name given to a potion known to be produced by the Alchemist's Guild of Dypholyos. When ingested the drug greatly boosts the capabilities of the consumer's body for a short period of time, enabling them to perform remarkable feats of strength and speed, though at the cost of a temporary but near-total physical collapse once the drug wears off. The existence of this formula became known in 518 AWR as the result of an unplanned leak of information from the Alchemist's Guild, which led to an extensive and reputedly acrimonious, possibly even violent internal audit within the Guild.

Visual identification

The Bottled Whip, in its complete state, takes the form of an effervescent, cloudy white liquid. It must be kept in tightly sealed phials, as the effervescence is limited and once it has been exhausted the potion loses almost all its power. This means anyone wishing to study the substance has roughly half an hour from when they uncork their sample to complete their experiments.

History

The Bottled Whip was first formulated in the guildhouse of the Dypholyos Alchemist's Guild in 518 AWR by Holbyos Rezenqos, a junior researcher assigned to a laboratory specialising in drugs and elixirs. Seemingly working mostly in his spare time, Rezenqos evidently sought to create a potion to combat fatigue, though the details of his research and motivations have not yet been made public.
Having formulated the drug Rezenqos smuggled several samples out of the guildhouse and sold them on the open market, specifically the stews surrounding the Dypholyos docks. Reports from the city tell of several burglaries in the following moons in which the burglars demonstrated superhuman acrobatic abilities, climbing walls and traversing ropes with bizarre ease. Not all of these burglars got away with their spoils before the drug wore off, however, and those who were apprehended swiftly revealed, under interrogation, the identity of their source, who had used the pseudonym "Snowy" in his dealings, injudiciously describing his own white hair. 
The Alchemists have been careful to publicise that they identified Rezenqos as the source of this leak of inventory, and that they had responded by removing him from any direct contact with any laboratory in the guild, reassigning him to the storehouses, where he now works as a junior quartermaster. They also took his young wife and twin sons into custody, as they are allowed to do under the terms of his guild membership. The current whereabouts of these relatives is not known, though the guild is not known to maintain any cells for the detention of prisoners. It is widely speculated that the guild are holding Rezenqos's family as hostages to ensure he does not break institutional regulations again; some suggest they were in fact murdered as a punitive measure against their husband and father. This seems extreme, but the guild is not known for its leniency towards miscreants. Rezenqos himself is not known to have left the guildhouse compound in two years. 
The reprisals against Rezenqos, either actual or threatened, do not appear to have stopped a slow trickle of this product from finding its way out of the guildhouse. The guild do not offer it for sale, and indeed individual public liaisons have been known to dissemble when it is discussed, seemingly trying to erase the drug from the collective memory. In this they are failing - the general public in all three of the island cities have reported seeing individuals exhibiting the characteristic superhuman physicality characteristic of the drug while in the course of committing illegal activities against high-value targets, and the existence of the substance has gradually become common knowledge. Who is supplying the Bottled Whip to the underworld, and how they are manufacturing it and getting it to their customers, is not known.

Utility

The Bottled Whip is taken orally, and is said to burn the throat in the manner of hard liquor. Within moments of swallowing, the imbiber experiences a sensation of uncomfortable heat throughout the body and becomes physically restless, usually fidgeting uncontrollably.
For the next quarter-hour or so (slightly less for heavy users; slightly more for slender ones) the imbiber will exhibit physical abilities quite beyond the human norm. They will be able to run at extraordinary speeds, use the resulting momentum to make extraordinary horizontal jumps, and possess remarkable upper body strength, typically being able to support their own weight effortlessly with a single hand. The sense of balance is also hugely augmented, allowing the user to maintain their footing on seemingly impossible ledges or precipices and to land with unerring grace after the aforementioned long jumps.
The two caveats to this are that the substance appears to do nothing to increase the capacity of the user's bones and muscles to support this sort of activity. A user can certainly lift extraordinary weights - of some hundreds of pounds - with ease, but if they have not planted their feet with due consideration to which of their joints is providing the leverage for such a lift an attempt to do so will likely lead to them severely straining their back. Similarly the user may be able to deliver a fearsome punch, bu the bones of their own hand will absorb as much of the impact as whatever they are punching, very likely resulting in broken bones. The heightened abilities bestowed by the Bottled Whip must be employed with great care. This is a caution that the users of the drug, often impulsively driven to displays of physicality, often neglect.
The other drawback is that the effects of the drug typically wear off very quickly and suddenly. In no more than fifteen or twenty minutes the effects will be gone, and within a few moments of that the user will suffer the effects of exhaustion, often having trouble walking or even standing for some hours thereafter. These effects can last for some days; this is not an uncomplicated potion of strength. Further research May be able to build on this success, but the Alchemist's Guild have yet to cooperate with any scholars from outside their organisation attempting to do this.
The long-term consequences of the use of the Bottled Whip are as yet unclear, partly because the drug is so new.

Manufacturing

What little is known about the formula of the Bottled Whip is contained in a tracticus published by Tyrosian alchemist Sentayln Chayl, who was able to acquire several samples via the black market in Dypholyos and analyse them in his laboratory. Using alchemical reagents and rapid cooling Chayl was able to demonstrate that the substance contained high quantities of salt and appeared to be composed primarily of vegetable ingredients, though what these might be he was not able to determine. The substance also showed every sign of having been manufactured at very high temperatures, probably well above boiling. He speculates that this was accomplished by the use of some sort of charcoal.
The Alchemist's Guild are known to pay handsomely for any copy of Chayl's tracticus presented to them.

Inventor(s)

Holbyos Rezenqos

Access & Availability

Highly restricted, but a black market is known to exist in Dypholyos.

Complexity

Formula as yet unknown outside the Alchemist's Guild.

Discovery

By the Alchemist's Guild of Dypholyos.