Blue Plate Special

by **Inoadar** on March 20th, 2014, 4:56 am

16th of Spring, 514

'Random!' the poisoner marveled, 'That certainly allows for spontaneity and opportunism.' He chuckled to himself, also glad that there was no more of a time constraint than that it be done within the 'next few days'. Inoadar greatly appreciated being free to indulge in a bit of creativity.

He had absorbed the details of the task after leaving The Spot, the semi-covert odd-job hub where he'd picked up the contract. He'd assumed by the title, 'Last Meal', that he was to simply slip some poison into someone's food and that would be that. But it was a little more involved than that. This was not to be an outright assassination attempt. Not in the classic sense anyway. This was a "character" assassination instead.

A simple killing would probably raise sympathy for the victim. In this case, that would be exactly what the contractor wanted. A competitor had opened a new diner just a block away from a long-established cafe. The incumbent did not like it, and though he had intimated that he welcomed competition, it was only to throw off suspicion. His intent was for the contracted hiree, Inoadar in this case, to poison a random customer in the new diner.

The public sympathy for the poor victim would help generate the kind of boycott that would put the newcomer right out of business. The only stipulation was that the poison needed to look like classic food poisoning, not a fabricated toxin. 'A mild challenge,' Inoadar thought with greedy anticipation, 'but nothing I can't handle.'

The target needed to look like the victim of a careless cafe owner, who lacked the concern or competency to see to it that his victuals were suitable for human consumption. Inoadar considered the possibility of getting hold of an old "KRI" food crate to leave on the premises the same day. 'A nice touch.' he thought as he nodded in appreciation for his own deviousness.

x

by **Inoadar** on March 24th, 2014, 6:38 am

The simplest scenario was to corrupt the spices. There were several "modifications" he could do to them that would bring about severe nausea. This then, might be attributed to tainted meat or rancid vegetables. But even if it were tracked down to the spices, it would still look like incompetent food processing.

Added to this would be the concentration of Englehorn toxin from the vine. This could then be processed into a candle by the craftsman at Black Tar. He had had similar services filled there. It would be a small matter to slip the tainted candle onto a table at the new diner, then replace it back with the original during the chaos of the thrashing, choking throes of the customer.

He decided to see to that immediately. It made sense to have this detail being tended to at the same time that he did his own work at the lab combining debilitating herbal elements. Of course, he first needed to get the purified toxin from the Englehorn vine. He sealed a quantity of the vine's core, where the highest concentration of the toxin was found, in a crucible and heated it to burn away the impurities. Even the smoke itself was routed back to come up into the bubbling, tar-like mass from below.

Eventually there was no smoke, and the tar hardened to a near crystalline form. Inoadar allowed the crucible to cool and chipped and scraped the calcinated remains into his grinder. He took these grindings to Black Tar's Alchemical Services shop and paid the 5 gold mizas to have them crafted into a 'Dispersion Candle'.

That being done, it was time to use the intervening few days to go collect the herbs he needed to create the corrupted spices. He went both to The Spice Lass, where he spent 3 gold mizas on a blend of meat spices and 3 more on a blend of pastry spices, and to the Peoples Market, spending 11 gold on Baltisce, Heldrog, Berridon and Acson. He took them back to Ino Vations to work them together into an herbal toxin as the chandler at Back Tar made his Englehorn Dispersion Candle.

x

by **Inoadar** on March 25th, 2014, 2:53 am

This would be a long process. It was not terribly complicated, and the fact that every step was going to be part of a long drawn out stage, there was time to catch any errors of procedure and correct them. It was only the very first step that would be quick.

He took the Heldrog and burned it to smoke, collecting it the same way he would collect smoke from burned Englehorn to make an inhalation toxin delivery dose. He used a powdered blend which reacted with a particular acid to create a thick foam. He put this foam into a large glass bulb with a cycling coil and used the pump chamber to force the toxic smoke through this foam repeatedly until it had all been absorbed.

But instead of putting it in a squeeze bladder for aerial dispersal, he took the glass bulb with the tainted foam and poured a good measure of water into it, along with the leaves of the Acson plant, and set it to boil. It was an odd thing that Acson, when dried, was an antitoxin, yet when kept fresh and infused with a water treatment, was highly toxic. Clearly the plant generated both extremes of chemistry, but the one was water soluble.

He drained the water to keep the now water-based antitoxin separate for later work or sale. The Acson was now softened and fully toxic. He added fresh water to a clean alembic chamber and added the foamy leaf paste. He then set up an infusion series of alembics, placing the Baltisce in the second to catch the flow of boiling water flowing from the first, to cycle back around to the second, endlessly repeating the step.

This ultimately would combine the outright toxin of the Acson with the opposing stimulant of the Baltisce and relaxant of the foam-based Heldrog smoke. He'd seen first hand the dangers of combining powerful stimulants with equally powerful relaxants. Then to compound this debilitation with the toxic nausea of the Acson would at least render the victim comatose.

Then to mix that together with the equally toxic Berridon oil into a sauce made from the spices he'd purchased, and to set the mood at the cafe's table with a nice Englehorn Dispersion candle, should seal the poor fool's fate. Might even take out two or three customers in one act. That would pretty well ruin the new cafe's owner.

He sat back to watch his apparatus blend the drugs and toxins as he sat back, enjoying the satisfaction of well crafted science. He'd learned to consider Vayt to be an underling of Rhysol, but there were times like this when he felt them to be near equals.

x

by **Inoadar** on March 29th, 2014, 6:02 am

It was no great obstacle to plant the tainted spices in the cafe. Knowing he had a few days to see to the completion of this task, he visited several cafes in town, including the target cafe. He found another diner using the same decorative jars as the targeted one.

He stole a set of them from one of the tables and took it back to the shop to blend his mixture in. He sampled the dosage as he added amounts to it. It was annoying that he needed to wait a bell or so to be sure he felt the full effect, but such was the necessity of professional work. When it got to where he got mild heart palpitations, and felt nauseous, from a mere fingertip of the sauce. He stirred in half again the amount of toxic mixture and reasoned it was good enough.

He knew he had already developed somewhat of a general immunity to toxins, so a common citizen would be affected to a greater degree than he would. Also, a customer would be applying considerably more of the sauce than a mere fingertip. So a concentration half again as strong as what had affected him significantly, taken in a far greater amount, by a customer more vulnerable to its effect, was likely to be lethal. It was a fact to consider however, that no one had to actually die. They simply needed to suffer clearly ruinous and debilitating effects that would quickly be traced to the this diner.

But by Inoadar's philosophy, he was adhering to both Vayt and Rhysol's purposes. Administering random affliction upon those that may or may not be strong enough to live through it. Both chaos, and the infliction of a condition to cull the weak, were being delivered to customers whose fate was decided entirely by their own actions. Not everyone would use the sauce. Not everyone who tried it would like it enough to eat much of it. And even some of those that did, might survive.

Earned fate would be satisfied by the results. Those that deserved to die would find it delicious and eat a lethal amount. Those whose fate would be best served by a warning to be more careful, would eat enough to grow ill, but survive. Those that had amassed no cruel punishment from past actions would not happen to feel like spicy foods this night, or would even lack the money to go out to eat.

What should be, would be...and who should die, would die. Justice would be served...a spoonful at a time.

x

by **Inoadar** on March 29th, 2014, 10:26 pm

The next day, he felt few lingering effects of the mild poisoning he'd endured during his testing. He chuckled at the thought that his own blood may someday be a valuable component in a powerful antitoxin. This thought was no longer dismissed entirely as frivolous. He had been working with a subject at the NMSS, subjecting her to increasing doses of snake venom, to build up her resistance in hoes of creating an antivenom. He knew from a course at the IHL that this was how antitoxins to spider venoms were created.

He arrived at The Black Tar alchemy shop and picked up his candle, paying the 5 gold mizas for the service. He wasn't sure if he ought to use it now. If there was an investigation, the herbal toxins would surely be found, but would only imply the ignorant and irresponsible inclusion of dangerous herbs in their spices. A candle spiked with Englehorn would be another thing altogether. It would definitely be an indication of a deliberate act of poisoning. 'Oh well, I will find a use for it sometime.'

He went to the diner and ordered a simple dinner of venison stew. It was odd that the usual menu of fish dishes was not available, or was suddenly rather pricey. He paid the standard 2 gold for the better meal and tarried a moment to relax, leaving behind he spice jars when he left.

Within a few days he heard rumors of a cafe owner being arrested on charges of criminal mischief and murder. Apparently three different families had been stricken by tragic deaths connected to tainted and rancid meals served there. Many others suffered debilitating cases of food poisoning, but survived. The diner was closed down and the proprietor was never seen again.

Inoadar took pride in another job well done.

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by **Nemesis** on April 26th, 2014, 3:07 pm

Inoadar

Knowledge :

Micellaneous :

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Notes

*Lovely thread, though the actual planting could have been expanded upon - it felt like there was a lot of lead up and the finish was a slight let down...
*Add/deduct monies as required; I didn't see the Spot Job money already added to your ledger...

Feel free to PM me with questions, comments, or concerns, if you have any.
Also, remember to either delete your grade request or edit it as 'graded'.
Thank ye!

Skill	XP
Larceny	+1
Planning	+1
Philosophy	+1
Philtering	+2
Poison	+2
Subterfuge	+1

Completed Blue Plate Special