And before anyone makes a cheeky “what do you need this for 🤨” comment, I’m a writer. I’m not going to murder anyone I promise, I just want to write a scene where one guy gets poisoned.
I need something that doesn’t require modern technology to extract/produce, and would make sense to be avaible in a place with a temperate to mediterranean climate. The slower, the better. Does a plant or something like that exist or do I need to make one up?
Update: I looked into death cap mushrooms and they might be just what I’m looking for! Long reaction time, and being dried doesn’t make them less toxic! (the scene takes place in midwinter so no fresh ones would be avaible) If anyone has more info on them, please do share.
In almost every case in fictional writing it’s better to make up a poison then use a real one. That way you don’t have someone picking it apart later. Also you can give it whatever properties you want/need. Now excuse me while I continue to work on my immunity to iocane powder.
They’re gonna pick it apart anyway. A reader criticized the historical accuracy of a fantasy novel my sister wrote.
H-how does one even criticise something like that? Like, “you got this and that wrong about the world you made up”?
I have read some novels where their history straight up breaks if you think about it for too long. Not saying this happened in this case but I read a fantasy novel that had a history that implied that people existed in the wrong times. Like this person was said to have died in X year yet someone met someone who was born in X+100 years.
Not even that, (in a medieval-fantsy setting) one criticized the use of archer for defense, another wanted for her to write the exact years the events happened… Another one asked why one nation had an italian-sounding name, while the bordering countries had foreign-like names, and different languages! (hello, ever been to Europe?) @monarch@lemm.ee (is this how I mention someone?)
that is indeed how you mention someone. Yeah being pedantic for the sale of it isn’t something I understand. Unless it impacts my ability to enjoy the story I couldn’t care less.
Yeah, best just to ignore pedantry, it’s a mental illness.
Mental illnesses are very clearly defined, for example in the ICD-10 puplished by the WHO. Pedantry is defnetly not listed in there.
And yes, this was an attempt of humour.
Bravo. Well done.
defnetly
That’s a new one.
And the commonly accepted authority on the definition of mental illnesses is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The current edition is referred to as DSM-5.
The ICD-10 is used in Europe and the DSM-5 in America. In that sense we are both correct.
Who’s to say pedantry is useless? I’m learning new things!
I knew a guy I was working summers with in college. Said he did not like roger rabbit because it was unrealistic.
I do like Roger Rabbit because it’s unrealistic.
I’ve never seen anyone even think twice about the Tears of Lys or The Strangler. And after Milk of the Poppy, it’s established that we may expect some similarity to reality in this world.
Was milk of the poppy not obviously literally opium (unrefined morphine)?
That or just do the classic ones of arsenic or cyanide and just roll with it.
Alcohol. Sometimes it takes 30 or 40 years to be effective. Not very good for murder, but wildly popular for suicide.
Yeah OP needs to define what “slow” means to them. You could say that a one-week delayed effect is slow. Or you could say that it’s only slow if it takes months of exposure.
I’m neither a writer nor a scientist, but there’s a copy of this on my bookshelf and I wish I could lend it to you: Deadly Doses: The Writer’s Guide to Poisons
Holy shit. That’s the perfect answer, I think.
Whole maybe not “poisons” by definition I have a couple scary stories of people working in damp, moldy office and basement environments and after a couple years getting rare autoimmune and neurological disorders that killed them. One being my uncle, my family tried to get his workplace to test where he worked because the doctors said that’s most likely where he contracted it, but they refused. We weren’t looking for money, just trying to save the next guy. I was fairly young when this happened so I don’t remember all the details.
Didn’t that happen to Brittany Murphy (90s actress), then her boyfriend/husband shortly thereafter?
So strange.
There’s a conspiracy it was ricin because she knew about Ashton and Diddy trafficking
I didn’t know there was a connection there. I thought Ashton was famous for being anti trafficking.
Yeah you know how priests aren’t usually really good guys? Turns out that 501c leaders are the same ig
Also there are a lot of weird Diddy/Ashton clips, REALLY WEIRD clips about what he’s said and done with Mila when she was a minor (don’t even get me started*), and other stuff on like Pranked about counting down until girls were 18 even when they were minors. It’s just a LOT of weird shit altogether.
- Sorry. That Mila married him after being groomed doesn’t absolve anything and further it should be considered soft core child porn, and illegal to produce, anything that involves physical romantic touch including “platonic” hugs. These kids are getting molested with pervy directors making them do scenes repeatedly that they can write themselves. Dan Schneider making Amanda Bynes do her first kiss ever, over and over again on set in front of everyone while everyone laughs - WHY?
Why must children be compelled to kiss in theater or TV? If it’s needed, do a shadow puppet thing or forced perspective where they aren’t actually kissing. It’s fucking weird and it should be outlawed. Just like how some old movies are ruined because it’s obvious animals were abused on set, I can barely stomach some of the shows from my childhood because I KNOW they took advantage. I don’t even want to link scenes to make my point or list many shows because I feel like it’s making a porn list. It’s just sickening to hear Ashton say some of the things he did about Mila. Ugh
Did she write a book? My parents had it and explained that it was similar to what happened to my uncle. It had her looking all sad on the cover if I remember but had to be nearly 30 years ago at this point
I’m thinking metal poisoning over time. Lead or copper, for example.
No that’s pretty obvious and can be easily treated, doctors keep an eye out now.
it’s absurdly easily detected and somewhat easily treated today, not in op’s setting
Wait, can copper be poisonous?
all metals that bind to sulfur well are to some degree poisonous. these are lead, mercury, thallium, some platinides (in salt form), arsenic, and also copper, but less than others. some metals have other mechanisms of toxicity, like nickel, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, beryllium or barium. some of these accumulate in brain or bones, and some don’t. some are more toxic when inhaled like zinc or chromium
Yes. Here’s a video describing a copper poisoning case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saxga-xm0Rk
Yes, but not as much as many other metals. We’retalking large amounts over a long period of time.
On sidenote, everything is poisonous, it’s just a matter of dosage.
On sidenote, everything is poisonous, it’s just a matter of dosage.
That’s a terrifying way of viewing it, thank you.
Over time most metals can build up in your body if they’re not in a compound your body can process.
Copper, lead, cadmium etc - it’s difficult for your body to expell them so they build up in your tissues
Mercury, Silver (will cause blue skin)
What do you mean by slow? Time till symptoms? time till death? Hours? Days? Weeks?
Raw castor beans contain ricin its a cool looking plant that gets big. My neighbor grew on once accidentally.
symptoms commonly begin within two to four hours, but may be delayed by up to 36 hours.
Unless treated, death can be expected to occur within 3–5 days; however, in most cases a full recovery can be made.
Actually a lot of beans are toxic when raw, but not deadly. Raw lima beans are special though; they contain something that the human body breaks down into cyanide. No clue how long that takes or how many it would take to cause harm.
Heavy metals (mercury, arsenic, cadmium, lead) are known for building up over time with many exposures. Think mad hatter syndrome, etc. but exposures can also be acute if high enough. IIRC acute arsenic poisoning makes you vomit and diarrhea until you die of dehydration after days or weeks.
Mushroom poisons usually are slow actors. They take a few days while they kill your liver, and then you’ll follow suit.
I’ve heard something about writers writing about guns – if you describe a specific gun they’ll come at you for being wrong, but if you say something like “a modified Kalashnikov” you’re conveying the image you want, and the nerds will do the work for you in figuring out how it could have been modified.
Dimethylmercury.
Two drops will kill you in a few months and nothing can be done. It penetrates clothing, regular latex gloves, and skin very easily and unnoticed.
Pretty terrifying stuff. Not sure you’d be able to figure out availability or production in your plot, but as far as poisons go you’d be set for time between dose and death.
Yeah, in a historic setting, use something readers will recognize, as well. Arsenic, Mercury, that kind of thing. They’ve been used as a poison, and have accidentally poisoned, for so long that they’re tropes of their own. Both of those in specific were available in the region you’re using.
Plus, they’re going to be really easy to describe the actions of, and don’t require medical knowledge to understand the effects of. Well, the stuff that’s going to be useful to show on page anyway, the stuff that happens inside organs might take a little.
Apple seeds contain cyanide, simply crushing them will release the poison and it can be added to something else, although it’s not very slow.
There’s also the Destroying Angel/Death Cap mushroom, whose symptoms can take up to a day to even start, by which point the toxins have been incorporated and destruction of liver and kidney tissue is irreversible. They also contain toxins that can cause severe DNA damage, making it so your body can no longer repair itself after exposure, and you slowly die cell by cell.
As a writter you should get enough details wrong that someone trying to follow your recipie fails. Ideally they are also caught.
That’d require someone to actually read my stuff.
See people? I told you that everyone on lemmy is one person! But noooo!
Here’s the proof. I can’t even buy readers. This has to be me.
- Heavy metals: lead, mercury
- Arsenic in small doses over a long period
I don’t know of any plants, but I do know that the leaves of nightshades (potato, tomato, eggplant, capsicum, tobacco) are
poisonoustoxic in large doses.well you can try to look it up - slow acting poisons in minecraft.
on a more serious note, as others have noted heavy metal poisoning like mercury or lead.
I have another one - sulphur. Readiy available throughout ancient times, and non-toxic by itself (S8 form that is). But many of it’s compounds are toxic in varying degree. You can look its wiki page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur) for some commonly available toxic salts, but I also have some ideas to incorporate in story - burning of sulfur (in incomplete form producing SO2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur_dioxide). You can incorporate it very easily (someone tampered someone elses fireplace or incense sticks if we also want to hide any wierdities with flame). By itself it iis not very toxic, almost odorless, and not a strong color. It has existed even in food stored for long time due to degradation of sulfur containg organic compounds, wiki page also lists that wine this (another potential vector to supply this). When in body, it can produce H2SO3 (sulphurous acid) and by inhaling/ingesting small amounts for long time - it will gradually destroy alveoli/stomach inner lining and liver. Sulfur by itself is very cheap (you can find ores in a lot of places around the world, relatively easy to mine, also found near volcanic places), humans have used it in trying to make medicine out of it, and it has huge amount of history in alchemy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemical_symbol, https://www.thoughtco.com/tria-prima-three-primes-of-alchemy-603699). In fact, since it is present in humans naturally, and msot organic matter for that matter - small amount of sulfur being present in someones’ reports will not raise a special eye, and they would just be recommended to not eat food that is traditionally know to have much sulfur (for example garlics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allyl_isothiocyanate). Garlic extract can also be used to deliver large amount of isothiocynate, but this would be a seperate method of poisoning all together - it is much more lethal, so not very slow acting, but one can keep giving a dose of this below lethal dose to keep damaging liver, and a final blow sometime.
I hope you find this helpful, and I hope no villagers in minecraft are killed by this.
The phrase “in minecraft” must trigger alarm bells in some intelligence agency at this point
That’s why those of us who poison people for fun and profit have started appending “in roblox”. The spooks will never catch us.
delightfully devious
edit: hey I’ll give you 20k robux to commit a heinous crime on my behalf (on fortnite)
I’m a writer
“A writer” 😉
hey guys, i am looking to write an obituary for my ex husband…
I knew it. Come on.
Theoretically speaking… Do you need an alibi as well? Just for the book of course.
I’m partial to “I was writing my book, alone, at home, with no witnesses.”
Rookie mistake honestly, should’ve asked for your friend who’s writer
