Spectral Brine (Wermspittle)

Dangerous Work
Working with the White Powder, and the sorts of things it leaves behind is a highly dangerous operation. Volatile chemicals and delicate processes involving heating and cooling and re-heating under precise conditions are just the start, after one has acquired the raw matter to work with, such as what an apprentice might recover from a Wet Spot or Sallow Stain. Or even a Loathsome Mass. Though that is often far too dangerous an undertaking for the average apprentice to attempt, no matter how badly they are beaten or cursed or compelled by spells. However such things are gathered, the work of the distiller is fraught with peril and frustration as they must process the raw materials into those compounds that their masters find useful and salable.

Sinfully Wasteful
Not all the salts and weird, tarry waste-products produced in the distillation of Black Liquors and other compounds are suited to the specialized needs of the Corruption Trade, nor the gonne-smiths and powder-grinders who work with Achromic Powder and Salt-Shot. Some of the residues left-over from the various processes are too dangerous to just dump, though some do that very thing, often to their short-lived regret. It is not a very regulated industry. No one bothers about 'best practices,' or wastes overmuch time cleaning-up behind themselves--there are plenty of empty places out in the Abandoned Sections and the Burned Over District. Often the clandestine distillers move from place to place, leaving behind worse things than Wet Spots or Loathsome Masses in their wake.

Hundreds of new compounds that might revolutionize industry have been discarded and poured down the drain in the pursuit of the terrible White Powder and the known, reliable derivatives that those who control the Corruption Trade demand. There is no interest in producing anything other than the White Powder or the Black Liquors. Anyone caught experimenting with their master's product gets disappeared. 

Spectral Brine
One of the things left behind by these operations is the so-called Spectral Brine. Blackly luminous in the way that most salt-water is not, Spectral Brine is the by-product of reducing the accumulated ectoplasmic debris caught within the cheap tin traps set-out around the distilleries and labs of those involved in the Corruption Trade. The creation of White Powder arouses restless spirits, draws poltergeists and attracts ectovores like Ordrang. No one  knows why. Those who work with these materials must take precautionary measures, or else find themselves caught up in a whole mess of trouble. Very few exorcists or karcists work for the Corruption Trade. Those that do are more than a little suspect and often not only deeply troubled, but of dubious merit or ability. So far the stamped-tin traps introduced into the markets by refugees from Surlonna and Dalbriz have been a godsend to the distillers.

But, as with all such things and doubly in Wermspittle, the tin traps that capture and accumulate the stray bits of ectoplasm that roll off of the fluids involved in the distillation process and keep the lesser spirits and minor dead out of the way also leave the distillers with a surfeit of contaminated ectoplasm to deal with, ectoplasmic filth that rivals the nasty stuff surrounding an Ungezeifer. No one is sure who started the practice, but the distillers drain their traps into the dregs of their rendering baths and the scraped-off green grit left behind from the way the fluids degrade and corrode copper and other metals. The rancid ectoplasmic matter is left to mingle and mix with the alchemical waste fluids and debris. Once the mixture fills a barrel or other container, it is sealed and rolled out to a dumping ground, such as one of the middens or cess-pits some landlords have established in order to avoid paying the so-called  'dung tax' imposed by the Sewer Militia.

Sometimes the barrels and tanks of strange chemicals sink quietly to the bottom of the muck and mire. More often they rupture, and vile, black slicks of Spectral Brine leak to the surface, giving impetus and pseudo-life to a host of quivering, jellid horrors, not the least of which are the Gobbling Grouts, Faecomentals and Noctisludge...and possibly dozens if not hundreds of other, lesser-known things that have been given some vestige of life and autonomy and allowed to go off to prey upon the refugees and Unfortunates in the Shanty Camps all because of the waste products of the Corruption Trade colliding with the cess-pits of greedy and irresponsible land lords. Sometimes people really are their own worst enemy...

Dead-Lead Shot (Wermspittle)

Dead-Lead Shot
Cost: 10 gp for box of 12, but price is always going up.
Effect: Improves performance of Spectral Arquebuses and similar gunpowder weapons. Each dead-lead shot used against immaterial or incorporeal undead forces them to make a save or be discorporated.

Dead-Lead Shot can be sensed even by the most mindless undead at a range of 1d30 feet (determine randomly per each undead). Dead-Lead in close proximity will rapidly provoke a frenzied sort of berserker madness in most 'mindless' forms of animated  undead types such as zombies. Prolonged exposure is rumored to lead to bouts of intense madness and even episodes of mass-possession among the more intelligent forms of undead, but this has not yet been substantiated by credible research.

Incorporeal undead such as spirits and ghosts can detect dead-lead automatically within a 60' radius. They will usually seek to avoid encountering or being directly exposed to this substance, but will mark those carrying it for special attention at the first opportunity. It is suspected in certain old manuscripts and records that Dead-Lead can be made to serve as the basis for binding certain types of spirits, and that it has other applications in regards to the undead besides just disrupting or trapping them. There are dark rumors to the effect that certain whispering spirits have taught a small group of deranged nihilists how to convert Dead-Lead into a smoldering form of transmutated metal that destroys living flesh in a horrific reversal of the substances 'normal' nature.

Dead-lead is harvested by unscrupulous tomb-robbers who plunder the old graveyards and crypts looking for lead-caskets to salvage, melt-down and cast into shot. This often incurs the attentions and ire of the local Barrow-Men who most often take a rather dim view of such things.

There are other types of eldritch ammunition available, but it is still rare, expensive and in high demand by regular army purchasers who get very interested in anyone trying to out-bid them since they represent the Nobility.

Miss Jekyll's Serum (Wermspittle)

Sometimes, just sometimes, it would be easier to be someone else. Or maybe not...

"Human beings are not our enemy. Our enemy is not the other person. Our enemy is the violence, ignorance, and injustice in us and in the other person. When we are armed with compassion and understanding, we fight not against other people, but against the tendency to invade, to dominate, and to exploit."

Thich Nhat Hanh,

Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames

Art thrives upon restriction. All that evil needs to flourish is for good men to do nothing. Those are two statements that bear an uncanny appropriateness to the fate and final disposition of Eustace Jekyll. That such a lovely, if haunted, some would even say Odd, young woman should ever have studied science or medicine was a mistake. Her disposition towards obsessiveness led her into all manner of academic controversies and her radical insistence upon pursuing the 'truth' no matter what the consequences took her to many a strange meeting in lonely places where she was exposed to heretical teachings, suppressed transmissions, clandestine attunements and discredited teachings. Miss Jekyll took to these things like a fish to water. Bizarre theories and outre hypotheses she collected as though they were trading cards or porcelain dolls. But, as her instructors warned her repeatedly and often; such things should be left to the clear conscience of an impersonal investigator for, in the hands of an idealist or a madman, they would surely lead to tragedy and terror. And in the case of the unlucky Miss Jekyll, they certainly did lead to horrors unforeseen and heartbreak most keen. Those who would follow in her footsteps along the particular path to damnation first revealed by Miss Jekyll's unsanctioned explorations into the nature of good and evil would do well to heed her example as to how she ended her career even more so than how she began it. But alas, most such earnest and eager students only look at how it all began, and few ever look past the events of that tragic night when Miss Jekyll first beheld the face and form of the one she called 'Wilhemina' in her bedroom mirror.

Strong Mind, Stronger Opinions
Miss Eustace Jekyll had been extraordinarily precocious as a child. Her parents found themselves unable to control the exceptionally head-strong girl, so they sent her off to the Academy in Wermspittle where she studied sorcery, alchemy and surgery. Her parents had hoped that she might become some sort of engineer, brewer, or something respectable that she could take-up when she came back to her ancestral estate in Wollstonecraft, but instead Eustace became caught-up in student politics, academic Hermeticism, and the pursuit of the once-forbidden arts. For the space of a full year she was the rising star, the belle of the ball and the most gifted student to ever grace the hoary halls of half the laboratories and libraries she found opened before her like treasuries with their doors cast wide before her progress. But as is ever the case with such things, Eustace eventually was caught-up in scandal, slandered by her rivals, and brought low by the secret hatred and poisonous jealousies of those she had out-shone in her innocence and naivete. Politics are fickle and popularity can go rancid like butter left too long on the table. It was a hard lesson for the young girl -- she was a Prodigy of barely thirteen when everything went terribly, horribly wrong and she left the Academy in disgrace amid wicked whispers and salacious gossip.

Disrepute and Dissolution Denied
Life is harsh for those who fall from grace and good standing. Eustace was incredibly ill-equipped to handle her rejection, her failure, her upset and displacement from the only life she had ever known. Within a space of three weeks she was evicted, penniless and abandoned by all but a few of her friends and colleagues, but even they could do little to help her for fear of retribution. Her family had turned their backs upon her. She had been disinherited over the muttered allegations of vague scandals that horrified her parents almost as much as the not-so-veiled threats of her enemies to bring ruin to the family if they did not cut her out like a cancerous growth. Eustace was summarily removed from the rolls. Her memberships were revoked. She was marked. She had been black-listed. It was social suicide to retain the acquaintance. Openly associating with her could dash one's career aspirations. So she was on her own in the middle of Winter in Wermspittle.
Some enemies can be incredibly cruel in their vindictiveness. But few know the depths of hell quite like a young woman scorned and who has already had everything that ever mattered to her taken away.

No Retreat, No Surrender, No Redemption
Eustace was a brilliant student. She had rocketed up the ranks as an apprentice and made an indelible impression on more than just her enemies and detractors. One such person was her first master under whom she served her first apprenticeship. She had proven a very adept forager and always seemed to know how to find the best Wet Spot samples, the richest Sallow Stain deposits, and the most viable bits of Black Corruption taken from Loathsome Masses no other apprentice had spotted or realized were just under their noses. More than once it was remarked that the girl seemed to have an uncanny affinity for the stuff, or at least a tremendous talent for locating and acquiring the best for her master.

Old Nick was only too happy to have little Eustace back on his pay-roll. In just a few short weeks she had more than doubled his working supply and began to help him to improve his distillation processes. Within a month Eustace was running the rig and Old Nick left her well enough alone.

It didn't take long after she had lulled her old master into a false sense of complacency that Eustace began to conduct her experiments with all the illicit substances available to an unlicensed distiller who produced Black Liquors for the Corruption Trade.

Off The Record
From her extensive personal diaries, journals and very detailed records from each of her experiments, comes a fairly complete account of the descent of Miss Eustance Jekyll into infamy, insanity and the hideous exchange of personalities that led to her development of the strange serum of misanthropic metamorphism for which she will now and forever be known. But the popular account is by no means the full story, nor the complete truth of the matter. There are things that Miss Jekyll held back, things that she kept in a set of smaller, sorcerously-locked personal journals to which only a very few have ever had access. Unfortunately, being the strong-willed and politically-oriented young woman that she was, Eustace took steps to insure that her most private journals would only ever fall into the hands of like-minded students. She was meticulous in transcribing no less than five different copies of her secret journals, each one having slight differences in what she revealed or shared, knowing full well that each would in time find its way to another student, that her work might have a chance to live on through some one else. To this day the Librarians at the Academy and the various private libraries that surround it continue to keep a look out for these mysterious, ensorcelled journals in the vain attempt to keep them from re-igniting Miss Jekyll's madness and plunging yet another soul into the black gulfs of her sanity-blasting experiments.

We Have Met the Enemy...
Buried with an otherwise unassuming collection of formulae, notes, and a dozen or so minor spells, there are the working secrets of Miss Jekyll's infamous serum...and her cribbed notes detailing a different line of inquiry for each journal. Not only did she leave behind the missing piece to re-assemble her work, or to replicate her experiments, but she made sure to provide specialized instructions and guidance for how to take things farther, deeper, along even more rarefied paths only a very few have ever attempted to explore.

As she reveals candidly in her private journals, Miss Jekyll would never have pursued the peculiar ambitions awakened in her by her betrayal and ruin wrought by her rivals and enemies. Nor would she ever have made the progress she did without access to the materials only a producer of Black Liquors have at hand.
The other essential ingredient to making Miss Jekyll's serum work is not something that anyone can swallow or put into a bottle. The one thing that most of those bumbling about with her other records and notes almost always overlook or miss entirely is the pivotal role her full-length mirror played in the process of metamorphosis brought on by her serum. A mirror. Without a suitable reflective surface, the psychological tensions brought on by the serum's revision of the subject's nervous system and then entire corpus, from the inside-out, they inevitably are driven insane. And not just casual loopiness, but full-on frothery most foul, the kind and sort of madness no one comes back from, as indeed those attempting the use of Miss Jekyll's serum without the adjunct of a mirror before them never, ever recover.
Ah, but with the use of a suitable mirror! Miss Jekyll's serum not only restructures the subject's body, it completely transforms their essential self, bringing forth all manner of repressed or suppressed traits, tendencies, truths and more. The experience is excruciating, liberating, cathartic and ultimately destructive beyond all imagining, at least to the subject who is now transformed into a completely Other identity that can be of any gender, size, shape or appearance save one--they can never, ever be changed back to who or what they were previously.

It is curious that in her private journals, Miss Jekyll never mentioned Wilhemina, whom some conjecture was either a spirit guide or her alter ego or 'other self.' Instead each of the five private journals is signed 'Helen.'

Dangerous Knowledge
The private journals of Miss Jekyll are rare magical books that will only appear before a suitable candidate; some lonely prodigy harassed by her peers and more often than not something of an outsider -- the classic profile all authorities fear and keep an eternal vigil against lest they somehow do something terrible, because all know that the darlings of the social scene would never, ever do terrible things. Snort.

Vicious Rumors, Esoteric Exaggerations
Miss Jekyll may or may not have 'died' in the course of her work on her serum, but dozens of less gifted or just plain unlucky students who've tried to follow in her footsteps have paid a terrible if not the ultimate price for their not reading her notes thoroughly and realizing that she left an essential piece out so as to prevent anyone too stupid to come up with the serum in the first place all on their own from turning it over to unscrupulous third parties. It wasn't altruism that made her do this, far from it. Miss Jekyll considered herself to be beyond good and evil. She wanted to make sure that her legacy survived long past the fleeting notoriety and fame that her rivals and peers might have achieved. And in that she succeeded quite well. To this day Miss Eustace Jekyll is still whispered about, egregiously slandered and a figure around whom a great deal of urban folklore and student mythology has grown up. She outlived her enemies, outshone her detractors, and has become both a romantic, tragic figure adopted by dozens of socially awkward girls (and a few boys as well) that she would never willingly have associated with during her tenure at the Academy. There are even little shrines and lonely make-shift memorials set up for Miss Jekyll or Wilhemina scattered about the campus. Whatever her ultimate fate, Miss Jekyll's legacy, her reputation, and her work live on.
It is a shame and a tragedy, quiet unrelated of course, how so many of the class-mates of Miss Jekyll have suffered tragic accidents and gruesome deaths. It is as if they were somehow cursed, but of course there is no sign of any of the standard forms of maleficia being involved.

Inspirational Reading: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in 1886 and available online via Project Gutenberg, The Literature Network, The University of Virginia, or you might prefer the Annotated Version available at Wikisource. There are also a ton of resources related to this famous text available via the Internet Archive, some of them illustrated, if that matters. The morbidly curious might find the Hammer horror movie Doctor Jekyll, Sister Hyde (1971) of some interest. Though the trailer might well cure that particular ailment. In any case, don't blame me if you go and watch the whole movie; you could just sit through the movie adaptation of Carrie instead, but who really needs to see that movie ever again? You might instead read a bit of Mary Shelley's work or watch the movie version of Virginia Woolf's Orlando (with Tilda Swinton), if you'd like to get some clue of what might lay ahead for 'Wilhemina,' and one could do worse than to consult Mr. Machen's Great God Pan for some hints as to what could potentially be in store for 'Helen.' Enjoy.

The Industrialization of Corruption (Wermspittle)

Business as Unusual
It has long been a maxim to 'Find a Need and Fill It' among many entrepreneurs. It is no less so within Wermspittle, only the opportunities available are sometimes a bit more extreme or strange, or in some instances quite horrific. A case in point is the industrialization and commodification of corruption. Not the political kind--that is an industry unto itself. By 'corruption' we mean the spectrum of by-products generated through the alchemical process known to as the 'Vile Transformation' brought on by the so-called 'White Powder.'

One's Misfortune is Another's Fortunate Opportunity
Those refugees, vagrants and others who are down and out and who have reached the end of their tether, the Patients who cannot or will not be helped by Midwives nor Medical Practitioners, the Unfortunates who are degenerating before everyone else's eyes, the terminally infected or plague-poxed, those cursed by the unrelenting wrath of implacable forces; there are many who are find themselves in untenable positions, with no clear way out and no help either offered nor proffered. The Almshouses were burned more than a century ago, the Charities are over-extended, and if misery could be bottled and sold it would make someone very, very rich indeed. In fact it does just that.

White, Black, and Shades of Gray
Long ago it was discovered that the after-effects and residues left in the wake of the Vile Transformation brought-on by the 'white powder' possessed a number of qualities that could be harvested, processed and put to various uses. An entire underground industry has developed around the Vile Transformation and its various by-products. It might be considered risque among the upper classes to sip absinthe drizzled with a particular brand of Dim Ichor or Black Liquor, but no one respectable will ever admit to their involvement with the Corruption Trade. It is a filthy business, even less publicly acceptable than secret slave-breeding and hybridization efforts or clandestine transplanar researches or unsanctioned medical experiments--all of which are known to be taking place 'somewhere' within the city, but just never quite within reach of what passes for law enforcement these days.

A Terrible Criminal Enterprise
Those who are behind the Corruption Trade are well-placed within society, they have connections, and they know how to use their ill-gotten gains to great advantage, often ruining the careers of those who get too close to uncovering their secrets or discovering the true extent of the rot that has wormed its way deep into the heart of Wermspittle. More than one troublesome, nosy busy-body has been forcibly dosed with the white powder in order to teach them a lesson they'll never forget. Understandably, very few people want anything to do with attempts to stop or disrupt the Corruption Trade. It can be more than a little hazardous to your health--it could destroy your life, body and soul.

A Vile Form of Urban Farming
As with most such endeavors, it often all comes down to money. Simple economics. There is more money to be made in maintaining a productive mass than in simply trying to scrape-up whatever can be recovered from a Wet Spot or lingering Sallow Stain. Somewhere, out there amid the empty blocks of Wermspittle, in certain cellars or attics, there are farms of Loathsome Masses that the foragers and their masters are milking for their horrific fluids in order to produce terrible, addictive and soul-killing Black Liquors and various quite questionable patent medicines that they then hand over to unscrupulous peddlers and bar tenders who put profits well before any sort of human consideration.

A Hierarchy of Masks
The Producers all answer to middle-managers who, in turn, answer to higher-ups whose identities are shrouded in secrecy and sorcery. They could be anyone. The main bosses who run things tend to remain behind the scenes and work through various agents, representatives, factotums and enforcers. No one knows what evil lurks within the midst of this ambiguous collection of masked and obscured members of the privileged elite who have built their fortunes upon the degradation, despair and destruction of their fellow humanity. Perhaps someday a vigilante will succeed where so many have failed before. Where there is great evil, no matter how deep-set or seemingly secure it might appear, someone will eventually find a way to fight it, to reveal the festering sickness that poisons all it touches...but where does one find such a hero? When will someone set things to rights?

Spell: Verminomorphosis

Verminomorphosis
Level: 5
Duration: Permanent
Range: Special; Powder-Vector, spell delivered by agency of special powder.

A very insidious spell for eliminating troublesome pests before they learn too much or can do too much harm to one's operations. This spell transforms the victim's body into a filthy, insectoid Ungeziefer. There is no known effective means of converting a victim back to humanity from this spell's effect. A few scholars and surgeons have had partial successes, after a fashion, but so far, no one has successfully reversed the effect. For this reason alone, the very act of slipping some harmless talcum powder or flout into an enemies' bed sends a potent message--next time it could be Verminomorphosis for you.

The powder and spell operate in tandem and are in effect one and the same thing. There is no version of this specific spell that does not have the powder component that acts as the means of delivering its effect. The powder created by this spell has a shelf-life of 1 week/per level of the caster preparing it. A single phial of one good dose of this powder is worth 300-1,200 gp depending on prevailing conditions, availability, and the time of year.

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Note: There is a Save associated with this spell, however the use of the powder to deliver the spell's effect to the target means that the spell affects them for as long as the powder slings to their skin, which is why the powder is usually sprinkled all through the victim's bed. Anyone able to sleep through a prolonged exposure to this powder is granted a permanent +1 bonus to all Saves versus poisoning.

Availability: Illicit, illegal and immoral this is not a spell that is in general circulation.
Provenance/Variants: Several
Requirements & Constraints: This spell requires a very special mixture of pulverized materials to serve as the vector for the spell's effect. This powder is a combination of dried insect parts, White Powder, and an extrusion of ectoplasm derived from a fresh corpse as well as a few other even less savory substances. The proportions and method of mixture and processing is a closely guarded secret.
Favorable Correspondences: Dried ectoplasmic scum collected from the site of a battle with Legionaire Ungeziefers is claimed to be an enhancer, according to certain underworld crib-sheets prepared by a long-deceased forager while they were still an apprentice to one of the more notorious distillers.

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Inspiration: Metamorphosis by Kafka, as with the Ungeziefer. The free digital copy of Kafka's classic tale is available at Project Gutenberg, etc.

Achromic Powder (Wermspittle)

New and Improved
Achromic Powder is produced from the dried-out remains of Loathsome Masses that have been mixed into a proprietary solution combining naptha, glycerin and one or two other, special ingredients. (One questionably documented source claims that a portion of jeweler's rouge is one of the 'secret ingredients' in this mixture, but that remains to be proven definitively.)

The resulting mixture is thoroughly stirred together until it forms something resembling an evil gruel that is then fed to Gunpowder Grubs. After a few days the grubs die. (It is categorically untrue that they scream horribly. Gunpowder Grubs make almost no noise whatsoever, unless detonated.) The dead grubs are then slowly dried until they harden into a dense, whitish packet of salt-like granules that gives off a peculiar vinegary scent. The clear yellowish fluid that collects from these grubs is toxic, but otherwise useless and tends to get disposed of by soaking old rags and stuffing those rags into crevices and holes in the wall to kill vermin or pests.

White Smoke
The 'Achromic Grubs' produced in this process can be used in a wide variety of gonnes, but the powder tends to corrode and foul most weapons and the ultra-distinctive and unmistakable cloud of writhing white smoke produced is both irritating and somehow seems to hasten infection or corruption, even precipitating gangrene, thus most musketeers, soldiers and the like strenuously object to its use. Grenadiers, however, like to pack their petards, grenades, and bombs with these grubs every chance they get as the lurid white smoke tends to disrupt enemy morale and often can do more to get a recalcitrant enemy to shift position than more powerful explosives ever could. A dirty trick used by some grenadiers is to grind up a portion of one achromic grub and add a bit of the resulting powder to their other explosives in order to give the impression that the bomb was achromic in nature. Simple white smoke alone won't do the trick; the peculiar properties of the Achromic Powder are unmistakable and tend to fill an observer with a sense of dread, disgust and revulsion that is all but indescribable and certainly not something easily counterfeited. There's a strange motion to the way the white smoke moves, almost as though it were writhing in agony, and the horrific discoloration it causes, as well as the acceleration of decay and promotion of gangrene--nothing else is quite as foul, despicable or hated quite so much as the infamous white smoke produced by Achromic Powder.

Salt Shot
One particularly vile and despicable tactic that has come into vogue among certain of the more unscrupulous commanders in the field is to have their marksmen cast hollow balls that they then pack with Achromic Powder. This style of shot makes a distinct puff of white when it strikes its target and is referred to as a 'Salt Shot.' The wounds produced by these wicked things tend to go foul and septic within hours and those who receive such a wound are said to age years overnight. Often those who suffer such a wound find that it never fully heals and that a portion of the affected area has a tendency to go necrotic if untended. The use of so-called 'salt shot' has resulted in a great number of field amputations and the effects of the achromic powder in the wounds often cause the victims to no longer be able to receive grafts or replacements from Grood medical-attendants. Salt Shot also tends to interfere with most healing spells, causing them to do only their minimum effects. Mercenaries who resort to Salt Shot often find themselves the target of every other unit on the field, including those whose side they ostensibly were on. It is curious to note, however, that salt shot has proven effective against some forms of Necrostasy and low-order undead such as plague zombies...when it doesn't make things far, far worse.

White Out
Another use for Achromic Powder is as a powerful, even spectacular toxin. Assassins and poisoners are notorious for spiking their victim's flour, sugar or salt supplies with Achromic Powder. The results are horrid, painful, and most often thoroughly fatal--anyone ingesting Achromic Powder quickly rots away from within. The Achromic Powder is much like a super-concentrated form of the notorious Vinum Sabbati and ten times more feared and reviled. Most curative spells won't ameliorate the damage wrought within the vitals of someone poisoned in this manner and those who are eventually reduced to a seething mass of corruption by this horrid stuff are completely unrecoverable.

White Face
There is a tale circulating among the less respectable establishments of the Lower Town Districts that someone once mixed a portion of Achromic Powder into the make-up of a famous courtesan whose once beautiful face was completely ruined before a surgeon's apprentice was able to somehow stop the progress of the corruption and save her life. She now wears a golden mask and has become something of an expert and authority on all the various formulations and applications of Achromic Powder...and it is whispered that She is either a member of the wicked cabal behind the Corruption Trade or perhaps she is seeking to bring it down, but the story is quite garbled, as if by some sorcerous interference, so no one knows exactly what Her connections or interests might actually be in this regard.

The White Powder (Wermspittle)

The White Powder
An essential ingredient, if not in fact the very key ingredient of the notorious Witches' Flying Ointment, Salve of Transformation, and a number of other substances connected to the causation of transmutation or atavistic degeneration, the 'white powder,' is also known as 'Vinum Sabbati,' for its alleged use in the preparation the so-called 'wine' of the Witches Sabbat. The White Powder may or may not have a powerful anticholinergic effect, in addition to its powerful hallucinogenic and deeply destructive teratogenic properties. Some scholars also theorize that the white powder may well have been the secret underlying Circe's legendary ability to transform her victims into various sorts of animals. Jacques Roulet and other infamous (supposed) lycanthropes claimed to be able to effect their terrible transformation into ravening, murderous beasts with the aid of a magical salve or ointment. Chuang Tzu's Mental Ointment or Salve of Transformation might also be connected to the White Powder, but that is questionable. The white powder may also be intrinsically involved in the verminomorphosis that produces Ungeziefer, however this last item has yet to be conclusively proven.

In Wermspittle, the White Powder is entirely too common and extremely cheap to acquire thanks to the work of the Corruption Trade, a cabal of ruthless and ambitious sorcerers and others who have grown rich by exploiting the effects of the white powder upon the bodies of refugees and other marginalized and vulnerable people such as the ever-growing throngs of Plague-victims and Patients coming to Wermspittle to seek help from one of the alms-houses, charities, hospitals or surgical theaters. Instead of finding help or relief, many of these unfortunates are instead relegated to the make-shift shanty-camps or are allowed to join the ranks of squatters turned-out into the Abandoned Districts outside the protected and patrolled sections of the city. As times grow bleak and their respective situations increasingly desperate, there are those who move among these downtrodden masses dispensing quack pallatives, spurious patent-medicines and the White Powder, which they have the unmitigated gall to pretend to make available as an act of mercy, when in fact these people are directly profiting off of the horrid after-products of this soul-killing and ultra-destructive illicit substance.

Those who use the White Powder have only a short span left to them, before they collapse into seething, amorphous Loathsome Masses, devoid of all humanity and left to die in whatever nook, cranny or attic to which they can crawl away, leaving behind only a lingering Wet Spot that in time dries-out to form a Sallow Stain...all of which are valuable commodities to the foragers sent out into the burned over areas of the Lower Town to hunt for these things. In Wermspittle, the White Powder is an important part of the over-all economy. But at a terrible, all too horrible a cost in terms of shattered, broken and lost human lives.

But the Corruption Trade is a lucrative one, and their profits have made them powerful...

Who would ever attempt to stand up to these insidious poison-peddlers and their monstrous machinery of mass exploitation that literally runs on human suffering?

Who indeed...

Source: The Novel of the White Powder (1895) by Arthur Machen, is part of the episodic novel The Three Impostors, which also includes The Adventure of the Gold Tiberius, The Novel of the Black Seal, and others. To quote Mr. Machen himself, he set about to create The Three Impostors as "...A book which testifies to the vast respect I entertained for the fantastic, 'New Arabian Nights' manner of R. L. Stevenson, to those curious researches in the byways of London which I have described already, and also, I hope, to a certain originality of experiment in the tale of terror." It remains a classic of both fantasy and horror and we highly recommend it. You can download a copy of The Three Impostors via Project Gutenberg, Arthur's Classic Novels, Horror Masters, Many Books, or any number of other sites.

Apuleius' The Golden Ass is the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety and remains an entertaining and intriguing tale that has inspired Saint Augustine (who absolutely HATED the book), C. S. Lewis (who wrote Til We Have Faces based in part on Apuleius' original story of Psyche & Cupid), and Franz Kafka whose Metamorphosis was in many respects a re-invention and re-telling of Lucian's journey, but from a more modern and much more pessimistic angle. Despite what you might have thought, it is not the title to an unauthorized biography of Jennifer Lopez. So sorry. You can find a plethora of translations and revised editions of Apuleius' Metamorphosis (Augustine is the guy who re-titled it 'The Golden Ass') all over the place, but one handy version is available for free via Project Gutenberg, and there is a free audio-book version available via LibriVox as well. A de-raunchified and sanitized version, with illustrations, suitable for 'Librarians, scholars and extremely intelligent children,' is available from the David R. Godine Press.

Circe, of course, was first mentioned in The Odyssey and has since become synonymous with any hyper-intoxicating poison likely to tempt one to excess. It is rather interesting that Circe bore Odysseus three sons, according to the Theogony, but that's something for another day, another post...

As for Jacques Roulet, and all those infamous lycanthropes who claimed to owe their transformations to the agency of some strange ointment, liniment, salve, poultice or other questionable patent-medicine body-care product, you could start with Sabine Baring-Gold's Book of Werewolves, which you can find, for free, at the Sacred Texts Online Library. The non-lycanthropic variety of magical ointment, green salve, etc. was first described in 1456 by Johannes Hatlieb, an author who wrote a good deal about herbs, forbidden arts, and superstitions. The Hartlieb Annex at the Academy in Wermspittle is named for him.

Dim Ichor (Wermspittle)

Dim Ichor
Going Price: 40gp/dose minimum. (4D20 for current price)
Availability: Uncommon
Effect: As a poison, this substance does no actual physical damage, however it forces a Save or the victim will lose 1d4 INT for 3d6 days. Every day the victim can attempt to make another Save. Success means that the effect wears off one day earlier, failure means that the effect will linger twice as long.

Certain libertines and other daring wastrels will sometimes add a splash of Dim Ichor to a drink, especially if it is strong liquor. This will produce a powerful euphoria, lower inhibitions scandalously, and cause complete forgetfulness for 1d30 hours. Not even Hypnosis, ESP, or psychometry will be able to recover those memories.

If mixed with Brown Jenkin Whiskey the resulting drink will grant visions of non-euclidean spaces and instill a deep appreciation for hypergeometries in the drinker who will find themself experiencing these things first-hand in their dreams for the next 1d4 nights. When in this curiously excited state, the drinker will either attract the attention of a Gloomswallow (30%), have an opportunity to go exploring the nearby regions of the Oneirium or dream-states (50%), or encounter some sort of lurking thing on the very threshold of consciousness (20%).

Tables to Consult: Oneiric Encounters, and Lurking Things

When distilled into a brandy or schnapps form on its own, Dim Ichor produces a terrible liqueur that can permanently diminish the imbiber's INT. Several people reputed to have a distinct taste for this stuff have disappeared without a trace. But that just makes the stuff all the more lurid, fascinating and sought-after by students, mad-men, and daredevils.

Dim Ichor is extracted from the flesh of a Gloomswallow and as such it is both difficult and dangerous to acquire without taking very special preparations. Those who frequently handle or harvest the raw ichor of Gloomswallows often have a purplish-gray discoloration to their wrists and hands. Frequent usage of the stuff turns the sclera of the eyes purplish-gray, making them look like they are bruised from within.