The Old Tenebrous is exceptionally strong -- as far as alcohol content goes, it's closer to fortified wine than anything you'd expect from beer -- and worryingly dark and thick. It is pitch-black, and barely on the correct side of “something one drinks" vs. “something one eats with a spoon". The odor is like something unwholesome burning, and it tastes like a swamp smells. The locals, of course, do not find this odd, and may well mock you for being overly dainty if you react badly to it. The reason for the appeal of this beverage has nothing to do with its taste, and little to do with its alcohol content. Mad Jimkin was a brilliant but eccentric alchemist, and the Old Tenebrous is designed as a safe delivery mechanism for the substance he named krwvygẅelo1 -- an Old Northern compound that roughly translates as “blood of the sight".
Some background is called for. In many forests in the colder parts of the continent, a plant called visionvine, a powerful hallucinogen, grows wild. Since before recorded history, cultures near forested regions have chewed visionvine recreationally. In addition to the vivid psychedelic hallucinations this inevitably provides, there is a 1% chance2 that any given hallucination is actually a true prophetic vision. Some centuries ago, people discovered a technique for drying and treating visionvine that made the prophecy aspect slightly more reliable: dried visionvine has a 5-10% chance of providing prophetic visions, depending on the talent of the alchemist treating it. In this form, it is smoked instead of chewed; certain decadent nobles with good taste will possess elaborately-carved long-stem pipes for this purpose, and any number of seers or fortune-tellers will have a large hookah in the center of their hut / wagon / tent / office / whatever in which visionvine may be smoked. As far as the world at large knows, the 10% accuracy one gets with the finest dried visionvine is the peak of this particular technology. That is because Mad Jimkin never saw the need to tell the outside world about his work.
Jimkin's krwvygẅelo is the distilled and refined essence of the plant, augmented with a drop of a secret ingredient that is stored in a ceramic jug locked in the brewery's safe. The current head of the brewery is the only one who has access to Jimkin's notes, and the only one who knows what the secret ingredient is -- the venom of the anemone man, a species found only near deep subterranean seas. (It's very expensive, and possibly illegal, but luckily a jug of it lasts a long, long time.) The result of consuming the krwvygẅelo with alcohol -- i.e., of drinking the beer known as Mad Jimkin's Old Tenebrous -- is that your hallucinations are, while not always prophetic, always true to some degree.
Now that you have the background, here's how to put it in your game.
Jimkin's krwvygẅelo is the distilled and refined essence of the plant, augmented with a drop of a secret ingredient that is stored in a ceramic jug locked in the brewery's safe. The current head of the brewery is the only one who has access to Jimkin's notes, and the only one who knows what the secret ingredient is -- the venom of the anemone man, a species found only near deep subterranean seas. (It's very expensive, and possibly illegal, but luckily a jug of it lasts a long, long time.) The result of consuming the krwvygẅelo with alcohol -- i.e., of drinking the beer known as Mad Jimkin's Old Tenebrous -- is that your hallucinations are, while not always prophetic, always true to some degree.
Now that you have the background, here's how to put it in your game.
- Each pint of Mad Jimkin's Old Tenebrous provokes a Fortitude save, rolled as soon as the drinker takes the first sip. (People who know what to expect usually choose to voluntarily fail this save.) The save for the first pint is DC 20, and the DC increases by 2 for each pint the drinker consumes before resting.
- Failing the save means:
- This pint has pushed you over the edge into drunkenness; roleplay accordingly.
- You are subject to Initial Hallucinations.
- The krwvygẅelo sticks around in your system for roughly a week after consuming it. At any point during the next week (i.e., whenever the GM thinks it's a good idea), you may be subject to a Flashback Hallucination. Usually, this will only happen once in that week, unless you spent more than one night drinking the Old Tenebrous, but it is possible to have multiple episodes.
- Probability of hallucinations is based not on the drinker's constitution, but on whether they've acclimated to the krwvygẅelo. While they can avoid the initial hallucinations with a successful Fortitude save, as above, flashback hallucinations are based on a flat percentage chance.
Hallucinations
First, roll percentage dice. People who have developed a tolerance will only sometimes get hallucinations, even upon failing their save -- people who have not will almost always get them.
First-Time Drinker3: 100% chance of hallucinations
Infrequent Drinker: 90% chance of hallucinations
Occasional Drinker: 75% chance of hallucinations
Frequent Drinker: 50% chance of hallucinations
Habitual Drinker: 25% chance of hallucinations
Addict4: 10% chance of hallucinations
Initial hallucinations tend to be small-scale -- maybe you see an illithid walking into the bar, but you probably don't see Cthulhu eating the bar. They wear off as you sober up.
Flashback hallucinations tend to be larger and longer-lasting -- and, as noted before, you get them whether or not you made your save. A flashback hallucination can last for several hours per pint you drank -- if you had a lot, it can stretch into days.
The hallucinations one has when consuming Mad Jimkin's Old Tenebrous have a couple unusual properties. First, they are contagious. If a drinker of the Old Tenebrous points out something they are hallucinating, or is noticeably interacting with one of their hallucinations, the people around them see what they see. This works as a high-level illusion, and if sober witnesses have the presence of mind to disbelieve, they get a Will save DC 20 to not see the hallucinations. (Anyone who has also been drinking the Old Tenebrous automatically fails these saves.) For this reason, entering a tavern where other people have been drinking the Old Tenebrous is already liable to be exciting -- and if one PC decides to partake, the rest of the party is probably getting dragged along for the ride whether they drink anything or not.
Second, they are true. The hallucinations exhibit total verisimilitude and internal consistency. If a drinker sees the king walk in and sit down across from them, the hallucination of the king will act exactly like the king would act in that situation. If they ask what the king is doing there, he will be able to provide an entirely reasonable explanation.5 The hallucination of the king knows everything the king knows, and could be a very useful information source if the king happens to be the kind of person who would answer questions put to them by drunken commoners. This sort of thing is how the Old Tenebrous can deliver prophecies -- it is entirely possible that the drinker could hallucinate someone from the past, or the future, or a present that might have been, and thus get all kinds of information that might otherwise be totally inaccessible. If this happens in conjunction with a large-scale flashback hallucination, the drinker -- and anyone who happens to be with them -- can end up with a fully-immersive vision of the future that lasts for hours. It is, unfortunately, impossible to control what sort of hallucinations one gets, so someone drinking the Old Tenebrous for information-gathering purposes may just as likely end up with a three-hour tour of the Abyss in perfect agonizing detail.6
The hallucinations one has when consuming Mad Jimkin's Old Tenebrous have a couple unusual properties. First, they are contagious. If a drinker of the Old Tenebrous points out something they are hallucinating, or is noticeably interacting with one of their hallucinations, the people around them see what they see. This works as a high-level illusion, and if sober witnesses have the presence of mind to disbelieve, they get a Will save DC 20 to not see the hallucinations. (Anyone who has also been drinking the Old Tenebrous automatically fails these saves.) For this reason, entering a tavern where other people have been drinking the Old Tenebrous is already liable to be exciting -- and if one PC decides to partake, the rest of the party is probably getting dragged along for the ride whether they drink anything or not.
Second, they are true. The hallucinations exhibit total verisimilitude and internal consistency. If a drinker sees the king walk in and sit down across from them, the hallucination of the king will act exactly like the king would act in that situation. If they ask what the king is doing there, he will be able to provide an entirely reasonable explanation.5 The hallucination of the king knows everything the king knows, and could be a very useful information source if the king happens to be the kind of person who would answer questions put to them by drunken commoners. This sort of thing is how the Old Tenebrous can deliver prophecies -- it is entirely possible that the drinker could hallucinate someone from the past, or the future, or a present that might have been, and thus get all kinds of information that might otherwise be totally inaccessible. If this happens in conjunction with a large-scale flashback hallucination, the drinker -- and anyone who happens to be with them -- can end up with a fully-immersive vision of the future that lasts for hours. It is, unfortunately, impossible to control what sort of hallucinations one gets, so someone drinking the Old Tenebrous for information-gathering purposes may just as likely end up with a three-hour tour of the Abyss in perfect agonizing detail.6
1: /krʊ.vi.gʊ.ɛ.lɔ/
2: GMs who put this into their campaign are encouraged to describe the visions first, then roll to see if they're prophecies or just random nonsense. The hallucinations tend to always seem prophetic, along the lines of “seven fat cows and seven thin ones, one of which was playing a trombone," but the majority of the time don't actually mean anything.
3: Specifically of Mad Jimkin's Old Tenebrous; a frequent drinker of alcohol still counts as a first-time drinker if they haven't had the Old Tenebrous before. Conversely, a habitual user of visionvine in another form might start a step further down the hierarchy, as they are already acclimated to a related substance.
3: Specifically of Mad Jimkin's Old Tenebrous; a frequent drinker of alcohol still counts as a first-time drinker if they haven't had the Old Tenebrous before. Conversely, a habitual user of visionvine in another form might start a step further down the hierarchy, as they are already acclimated to a related substance.
4: Visionvine by itself is very slightly addictive. One can become addicted to Mad Jimkin's Old Tenebrous with regular consumption; it's a step more habit-forming than regular alcohol. Whether you want to make your PCs roll to avoid addiction depends on the tone of your game.
5: For that matter, if you hallucinate dancing pink elephants, a few confused questions will reveal that they are a travelling troupe of elephantfolk riverdancers who dye their hides bright colors in order to provide a more memorable show. Everything you see makes sense if you look for an explanation, or at least to the same degree reality makes sense.
5: For that matter, if you hallucinate dancing pink elephants, a few confused questions will reveal that they are a travelling troupe of elephantfolk riverdancers who dye their hides bright colors in order to provide a more memorable show. Everything you see makes sense if you look for an explanation, or at least to the same degree reality makes sense.
6: It should be noted that the hallucinations can't actually hurt the drinker, though they seem to be able to interact with them in every way. When the hallucination wears off, any wounds or other results of interaction with hallucinations fade away. Someone “killed" by their hallucination blacks out until the hallucination ends and takes 1d4 Wisdom damage, which heals normally.
This is a fun idea! Also, I completely forgot about the Pitch Drop Experiment until I saw that picture.
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