Your Body is a Temple to the Black Vermin Gods Pt. 3

Part 1 is here.

Part 2 is here.

Putting Things Inside Yourself

Concoctions

Concoctions differ from mere potions in that they are intended to have a permanent effect by transforming the inner functions of the person. All concoctions are made using Lore (Alchemy), and require a Resilience test from the drinker. Critical failure on the Resilience roll leads to horrible, immediate death; failure results in 1d10 damage that cannot be stopped by magic; success results in no effect whatsoever; on a critical success the concoction works and the drinker experiences whatever effect it is intended to have.

The King of Poisons

An edible black sludge made from the mashed remains of a murder gnome that has eaten a snake that has eaten a rat that has eaten a spider that has eaten a scorpion that has eaten at least ten fire ants. The drinker becomes immune to all poisons, and is considered to have passed any test involving poison with a critical success. Their fingernails turn black. Most common in the Orthocracy and Dwer Tor.

Quicksilver of Longevity

A silvery fluid injected up the nose and into the brain. The recipient stops aging for twenty years and their nose drips silver mucus for the rest of their life. May be used multiple times, but only in sequence. Orthocrats are the most common users of this concoction.

Smoke of Changing Gender

The ground-up gonads of ten different sentient creatures of the desired sex mixed with jimson weed and other herbs and then smoked. The smoker changes sex permanently into the desired sex (usually accompanied by visions of a woman in white performing the changes). Using the magically-potent gonads of sorcerers allows the smoker to change genders with merely an ordinary success.

Coals of Clear Fate

Hot coals made from the sacred wood of the Dreaming Tree set aflame by lava. Must burn to ash while on the tongue, then the recipient must swallow the ash. Grants three visions of how the recipient could die, each one further along in life but more horrible. Recipient must choose one, and will die of it, but cannot be killed prior to that situation. The visions are often vague about some of the critical details. Often used by warriors of the Forest People.

Red Glass Powder

Made by pulverising the vitrified blood of Eternal Night. Must be inhaled. Inhaler gains +25% to all skill rolls at night-time. Pretenders to the Throne of Night must use this concoction publicly to prove their mettle.

Parasites & Symbionts

Purple Literacy Worm

Purple Literacy Worms enter the skull through the nose or ear, and sever the optic nerve before replacing it with themselves. The effect is to render their hosts literate in all languages, though the worm cannot supply meaning or break ciphers. The worm is affected by all conditions that affect the host's body, but must resist separately. The host may survive a poison that kills the worm, or the worm may be magically confused while the host resists. Two outcomes are most likely: The worm either starts eating through the material around it (the host's brain), causing a major wound and the loss of 1d6 INT, or the worm detachs from the back of the eye and the host is blinded until it reattaches. Persistence 25%, Resilience 25%

Whispering Liver

A blackish, intelligent, demonic fluke that replaces the liver of the host and renders them immune to the effects of alcohol or other poisons. Whispering livers talk to their hosts, though most of the advice they offer is bad. The give the host jaundice when they feel they are being ignored. Whispering livers are caught by drinking from unfiltered water and reproduce by provoking the host to vomit a wriggling mass of juveniles into the nearest water source.

Horror Ants

Horror Ants come from the dream world. Once in the Dawnlands, they attempt to build portals to allow more Horror Ants in. Horror Ants' bite requires a Persistence test to resist. Otherwise, the victim is charmed to want to help the ants, who take up residence in their throat and create a certain amount of droning and vocal fry whenever the host speaks. The ants can be killed by eating noxious peppers, drinking poisons, electrical shocks, or by spells specifically targeting them. Disobeying the ants requires a Persistence test: failure causes the victim to collapse and begin screaming as they are filled with terrifying hallucinations. Horror ants are a common vermin in the dream world and tend to slip through portals to it left open too long.

Foot Rats

A soulforged rat species found in the Orthocracy, mated pairs of Foot Rats gnaw off the feet of hosts while they sleep, injecting a soporific anesthetic to complete this task unnoticed and dealing 1d8 damage in the process. They then graft themselves onto the stumps. Foot Rats double the speed a host can walk at, but they are fidgety, and if the host goes more than an hour or so without walking anywhere (for example, if they are trying to sit by a camp fire or read a book), the rats will take it upon themselves to start moving around. The rats sleep for four to six hours at a time, as they please.