• Solo • Lacing a Pain Button

[Zemos]

1st of Saun 720


To any poisoner that had a mind for profitability or economics, the proposition that occurred to Zemos might've seemed daft. In truth, he did have a method to his madness. He was setting himself up to use a measure of Stain, in order to kill a hive of hornets. Why kill the hornets? For their venom of course! How better to milk a hornet's venom than to reanimate the creatures, and make them sting a spongy cloth. This in turn would lace the cloth with their agonizing droplets of goodness.

Yet, to use Stain? A far more potent and expensive toxin than the one he was intending to create? It would seem very inefficient. Yet he had a mind to create something that would bring him some interesting opportunities in the lesser known markets of Viden. He wanted to make friends, right?

"What is father up to?
Why is he looking at the eight legs?
Oh no, why is he picking up the jar?
What is he going to do with it, father?
It will kill us.

The Egg's nonsensical ravings fell on a deaf mind. Or an unlistening one, or... well Zemos was determined to milk that damned spider, and he would do it!

So he swiftly unrolled the lid, removed the spider, and with practiced efficiency, placed its fangs against the phial. With his two fingers and a thumb, he squeezed its cephalothorax, activating its aggressive instinct. Then the venom flowed. He did it better this time, he thought, and was quite proud of the results. Nearly four droplets, more than enough to produce a measure of stain for what he'd need. The Egg was mostly silent during this, probably cowering in the corner of his mind. Then he placed the spider back in its jar and covered it over carefully, placing it back in Mervani's cupboard in the laboratory.



A few days later, after preparing the Stain as he had been taught, he brought it to a barn in Anther's Ettyne, some distance away from Viden. It took a few days to get there, but the weather was incredibly warm for Viden, enough that travel wasn't nearly as perilous. Zemos approached the nests he knew to be there. Carefully sneaking around the back of the barn, the hornet's hive was just above the rafters. He began coating its entrance with the Stain he'd prepared. It'd surely be enough to kill a hive of insects. Such a dose in truth was almost enough for a grown man, to paralyze him permanently.

So, he waited, and watched. There was always a fascination to the way hive insects moved about, flittering from one place to another. Hornets could be aggressive, but not nearly as much as wasps, and far more so than bees. Yet even so, they didn't realize the source of the poison. Even if they wanted to, they couldn't fly far enough to get to Zemos and sting him.

"Oh cruel father, you have done it!" The Egg lamented, but it would get over it. Zemos needed their poisons, and they'd be given false life again, as he raised their little corpses, infusing them with blackened ether.

Their little legs, he could feel them stirring within and around their hive. Soon enough, he had them flying out in a swarm. He laid the spongy cloth out on the fence, which was coated in moisture, butter and all manner of fluid to make it more absorbent of the venom.

The hornets all lined up, and began dropping their venom into it. Zemos approached where they were, staring at them, and then clenched a fist to sap the last of their lingering vitality. With that, they released what venom was left to be milked from their stingers.

It would have to be enough.

[Zemos]

Another few days found Zemos back in the laboratory of Mervani, working in the off hours of class. He had the method of crafting Stain, but hadn't crafted a cylinder of pain button before. Yet Mervani's instructions in the off time had been clear. he was confident he could accomplish it. It was quite simple and even open-ended. Mervani had told him there were but a few ways a Maggot like him could bungle it up.

He could fail the congealing process, and the hardening. That was about it. As long as he had the paste, though, Zemos was sure he'd be able to fineagle a way to form the hardened cylinder he'd need to create the pain buttons.

So he went to work, gathering the various thickeners and binders that he'd need to marry the venom of the hornets to the measure of Stain he still had left. He began milking the hornet venom-laced cloth he'd had with him, using a special solution to wet it again just enough to draw out the toxin. He wrung it into a small phial, and put the contents into an alembic, in order to distill the contents.

Then, he began grinding the binders and thickeners into a dry paste. This he accomplished with the help of a wooden mortar and pestle, the best that Mervani was willing to let him handle while in his classroom/laboratory. The paste began taking form, and soon enough he had enough to make a dry cylinder.

A break later, he'd managed to coax a couple droplets of distilled venomous compound from the alembic. Just a few drops from an ounce of fluid. But that was right by his reckoning. Any more would've been diluted.

This phial, he took toward the mortar and pestle, and mixed it into the dry paste. The dry paste began to get more moist, and pliable, and then he added the Stain to the mix. These pain buttons would be far more potent than usual. Not quite deadly, but distracting to anyone whose blood was exposed to the activated toxin.

Before long, he had a measure of toxic puddy, which he then rolled out, into a cylinder. He placed it upon a blackened board of wood, as he'd been instructed, and sliced it with a scalpel. He made sure to cut it into four buttons or so, for his own use, before leaving the rest of the cylinder to sell on the black market.

This summer in viden was warm. The two suns shone in Saun, and would enable the pain button to harden with naught but exposure. Setting it on the window, where it could be given some time to absorb the sunlight, he spent the rest of the day, sticking his nose in a book of herbology, written in Xanthean.

Tomorrow would be a momentous day!

[Zemos]

The next day, when Zemos arrived back at the laboratory of Mervani, he nearly rushed to see what had become of his Pain Button cylinder. He approached, gingerly, and tentatively reached out a hand to touch the hardened paste. It'd indeed hardened like so much clay, but wasn't so hard that it couldn't be cut. It had the consistency of wood, and would be a simple matter to saw off more buttons, if there was a need. But he didn't need the rest of the cylinder, he only took the four buttons he'd cut off initially.

With them, he took some nearby tools, and drilled little holes into the buttons. Turning them into literal buttons. The night before, he'd gone to Madam Teviot's to buy some new outfits. Very nice outfits, with fur and some fine woolen shirts and buckskin trousers. The shirt he'd brought along was charcoal black, and onto this he began sewing the four buttons down from the collar, where it opened into a v-neck. There were laces, but they were superfluos since he had buttons now! He sewed them careful-like, cautious not to let any residue behind. One wrong move, and he could pierce his finger with a measure of Stain and Pain Button. That would most certainly hurt!

Once he was done, he gathered up his shirt, and the rest of his Pain Button cylinder. He got dressed right then and there, in his charcoal black shirt, and buckskin pants that were also dyed black. Around his shoulders, he wore a mantle of thick fur. Around his feet were also some boots of wrapped fur and rawhide. They were all well made, if not of the best materials.

From there, he took a long walk over toward the side of town which led into a staircase, into the Black Market. Not far from the Devil's Advocate, where his former master Sybil used to frequent.

He made his way down to the depths of the Black Market, and there pawned off easily his remaining measure of Pain Button. It didn't take much negotiation, but he took what he could get for the substance, probably underselling it by quite a bit.

In the end, he had a few nels to speak of, a couple of new outfits, and a new appreciation for the art of crafting poison. Quite proud of himself, all told.

[Doran]

Zemos:

Knowledge:
Medicine: Poisons: Pain buttons are crafted from a hardened paste of toxic material.
Medicine: Poisons: Using binders to pair one toxin with another for greater effect.
Medicine: Poisons: Pain buttons are crafted from wasp/bee/hornet venom.
Needlecraft: Crafting a button from... a pain button and sewing it onto a shirt.
Stealth: Sneaking behind the back of a barn.
Stealth: Entering the Black Market as surreptitiously as you please.

Loot: 4 doses of Pain Button.
Lost: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown: -
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: Appropriate to level.
Points: 10

- - -

Comments: The Egg was a joy to read, as always. I really love its comments, and I’m not sure if they are entirely nonsensical. Sometimes, it seems to have a point!

Anyway, I appreciate that you paid attention to the weather in this thread – I still remember the heatwave in Saun – and that you used the village I developed. That was a pleasant surprise!

I don’t think that Zemos’ idea is daft, by the way. On the contrary, I think it’s quite clever. He was lucky that the hornets didn’t sting him though. As a Yithanai, he is immune to their venom, but it might still hurt!

I don’t think I’ve ever looked at The Black Market before. I find it interesting that such a place exists in a city that is as seemingly perfect as Viden. The scene in which Zemos sold his pain buttons there was a bit brief, but it worked in my opinion. I liked the description of his outfit, and I agree that he should be proud of himself!

Enjoy your rewards!

P.S.: I decided not to award you any Necromancy XP. The use of necromancy in this thread was very brief, and Zemos is already a Competent Necromancer.