Medieval Natural Magic and Supernatural Experiments in TTRPGs
What follows is a more or less representative selection of procedures employed by medieval and early modern ‘natural magicians’ to generate both mundane and wondrous results. In the medieval European conception, natural magic was the branch of learned magic that sought to employ the natural or inherent qualities of plants, animals, rocks, gemstones and metals to generate related marvellous effects in the world. Many of these material properties were understood by analogy and sympathy - eyes affect eyes, blood affects blood, sexual organs affect love and desire, white animals work good effects and black animals ill consequences. By the same process of analagous or sympathetic reasoning, the qualities attributed to animals meant that their body parts could be used in the creation of appropriate effects. The wolf’s ferocity and ability to terrify prey produces like consequences when pieces of its anatomy are employed in potions, unguents, amulets and the like. However, many of the qualities of objects were ‘occult’ in the sense of being hidden from man’s reason and enquiry and such substances were employed as a consequence of tradition rather than any supposed empirical enquiry.
Natural magic was, in some senses an honourable tradition and although some of its practices strayed into controversial areas, it was commonly believed that the natural magician made use of the properties of objects as decreed and instantiated by God to work their marvels. In this sense, it was related to and a precursor of the discipline of alchemy. Certainly, natural magic made no attempt to call upon spirits to empower its effects and so was largely free of the stigma that attached to necromancy and witchcraft. However, natural magic was certainly capable of being put to perverse and improper uses. It was much interested in the baneful effects of natural substances as poisons or their capacity to work some deleterious effects on men. Some viewed its frequent experiments to compel love and affection as immoral attempts to subjugate human free will.
General Gaming Considerations
As with the previous series on astral magic, the intention here is not to provide a detailed mechanical description of how these experiments work at the table. Rather, they are presented partly as an exerise in providing players and GMs with the flavour of genuine medieval magical practices in all their strangeness (and sometimes grotesqueness) and partly as a way to think about magic in a non-Vancian way. Broad mechanical considerations are discussed where it seems profitable and interesting to do so.
Where needed or available, GMs can make use of the rules in their preferred system for the creation of ‘magic items’ or ‘potions’ or ‘poisons’ and so on, as seems best for each experiment. The majority of the experiments require the practitioner to create some substance or item for later use. This means that, in most cases, the creator may not know whether their experiment has been successful until they ‘activate’ it through the use of the material. Assuming that this issue is not already covered by the rules’ set being employed, GMs can adopt one of two ways to resolve this. First, they can secretely make any skill or attribute test needed successfully to create a magic item, potion or other substance on behalf of the player at the time the experiment was carried out and keep a note of its result until the time comes for it to be used in play - only then revealing whether or not the substance or object is effective. It is, perhaps, only fair of the GM to issue the player with some general sense of the experiment’s success (or not) based on how well or badly the roll went. Alternatively, any mechanical process to determine success can be put off altogether until the first time that the character employs the experiment in the world and any roll for success is then made and the results applied.
The greatest obstacle to a natural magician being able to conduct experiments is the sheer complexity of many of the processes and the obscurity of the ingredients required to work them. This is off-set to some degree by the fact that, once conducted, an experiment will often produce an object that is durable and continues to be effective over time or a substance in sufficient quantity to allow the magician to carry on his person a number of applications or doses. The exact balance to be struck between complexity and durability will be determined by the feel and tone of the game. Where the setting is low magic, then the struggle to gather ingredients and conduct the experiment will be to the fore when compared to a high magic world where such considerations are more apt to be hand-waved.
As with all accounts of medieval magic (or, indeed, supernatural claims in general) the powers that are described need not be viewed as strictly accurate but rather as perhaps ‘figurative’, ‘indicative’ or even ‘metaphorical’. The extent to which the supposed effects are actually granted will depend on factors including the tone and setting of the game and any mechanical constraints that may be applied to take account of (for example) the level or ability of the magician. For example, where the stone Astamatis bestowes the alleged power to ‘emerge victorious from all quarrels, arguments and violent disputes’ this could be interpreted literally when the experiment is carried out in the context of a very high fantasy world or where the magician is of sufficient power. Alternatively, where the setting is grittier or the creator of less capacity, it could be taken to be merely indicative of those areas of activity that are improved to some degree through the awarding of appropriate mechanical bonuses that may, in themseves, be scaled according to the ability of the magician.
To create the stone called Rayetanz
A stone which, if any man bears it in a ring, he will be obeyed by all men and, if the stone is carved and used to make a seal for a letter, the recipient of that letter will accede to any request carried in the document.
Take 2 oz. of ground rubies, half a dram of ground diamonds, 1oz. each of ground lead and magnesium, ½ oz. of sulphur, 2 oz. of gold. Mix these in a crucible placed on a low fire, the heat of which is gradually increased until the contents of the crucible fuse. When cool, this will form a muddy coloured stone. Take equal parts of the brain of a lion, the fat of a leopard and the blood of a wolf and mix these together, but take care not to inhale this mixture for it is a deadly poison. Take 10 oz. of arsenic, yellow saffron, red and yellow sulphur and pulverise them and mix with the animal ingredients. Put this mixture into a small urn and add the stone and heat until all ingredients dissolve into a single substance. Allow this to cool and shape from it a stone the size of a pebble. This is the Rayetanz.
GMs will need to decide whether the fact that the wearer of a ring bearing the Rayetanz is ‘obeyed’ indicates the granting of some extraordinary capacity for charm or persuasion or whether it is more in the way of a coercive effect. In either case, the issue is less likely to be one of mechanical instantiation - one can simply employ rules derived from superlative bonuses to stats like Charisma, skills like Oratory or spells such as Charm Person or Command - and more the narrative context and consequences.
To create the stone called Helemetiz
This stone, when raised above your head, shall preserve you from all the damaging and ill-effects of storms and shall drive away such weather from wherever you are.
Take 4 oz. of hellebore and liquefy it in a fire with wolfsbane; add 4 oz. of silver and 4 oz. of lead and melt all together and allow it to cool. Gather the bones of all four feet of a pig and boil them in brine. When the fluid has evaporated pound the bones to dust with mandrake and chalk and place this mixture in an earthenware jar. Set this jar over an animal dung fire overnight. Take the contents of the jar and mix well with red arsenic and human blood taken from a vein and grind this together for a whole day. Blend this mixture with the compounded hellebore, wolfsbane, silver and lead over a fire and allow it to cool. The result will be a tawny stone. This is the Helemetiz.
In practical terms, this object grants a narrative power to control the weather as described. However, a more expansive interpretation might allow that the bearer is resistant (or immune) to any magic that reproduces the effects of a storm such as lightning, hail and blizzards. Where the system employs travel rules that take account of the weather, this object can be given mechanical expression by awarding a modifier that reduces the chances of stormy conditions being encountered.
.To create the stone called Astamatis
The bearer of this stone will emerge victorious from all quarrels and violent disputes, and shall be held harmless from all iron weapons.
Liquify 10 oz. of iron with sulphur and blend with this magnesium and borax until the substance is pure white. Take the blood and brains of a pig and mix this with the blood of a black crow and let this coagulate. Add to the coagulate 4 oz. of magnesium, ½ oz. of ground diamond, 2 oz. of red and clear arsenic and 4 oz. of yellow sulphur and place this all in an earthenware jar and mix it together and allow it to cool. Combine this with the iron, magnesium and borax and place it in a crucible over a fierce fire; this will burn away the dross, leaving a smooth, lustrous, grey substance that must be shaped over three days into the stone called Astamatis.
This is one of many examples where the purported power of the object can be subject to a variety of interpretations and therefore degrees of mechanical implementation. Evidently, it could allow the bearer to receive a bonus to any roll made in the context of some social dispute or argument but, in higher fantasy worlds, it could grant the literal power to win any argument. Similarly, the quality of being immune to all iron weapons could be regarded as a blanket narrative immunty (the bearer simply cannot be harmed by iron) or it can be treated as offering some damage reduction (all iron weapons always do the minimum possible damage). Alternativelt, the owner could be treated as being completely covered in plate mail armour for the purposes of determining all combat rolls to hit and damage them with iron weapons.
To create the stone called Handemotuz
Those who carry this stone are immune from the wiles of all women and have removed from them all lust and the madness that it induces.
Melt together 10 oz. of lead, 1 oz. each of bronze, iron and red sulphur, ½ oz. of silver and add to this ½ oz. each of powdered magnesium, diamond and yellow sulphur and 2 oz. of red arsenic. Mix this well over a strong fire and then allow it to cool. Meanwhile, melt together equal parts of gazelle fat and the marrow and brains of a horse and add sparrow blood until the substance congeals. Then add to this 1 oz. of pig bone, a little borax, ½ oz. of magnesium, 1 oz. of yellow sulphur and ½ oz. of red arsenic all pulverised, heating this and the fat over a fire. Liquify the mixture of lead, bronze, etc. and add this to the other substance and allow it to cool. From this material, shape and polish a small stone over three days and nights.
The stone is mounted in a thin plaque of bronze depicting a man, and this is pierced with an iron needle and so conjoined to another bronze plaque depicting a woman. The two bronzes are placed in a stout chest and, for as long they remain secure, the possessor of this chest shall be free of all immoderate lusts and the wiles of women.
Mechanically this can be treated as awarding immunity from or substantial bonuses to any save to avoid any mind-altering effects that are created by women or attempts by them at conventional manipulation or deceit. Note that the protection against the insanity engendred by excess lust is not strictly tied to lust inspired ‘naturally’ by women. Rather, it could be more expansively interpreted to protect against any immoderate desire of the kind that can be caused by magic or supernatural entities such as demons.
Antidotes to poisonous fumes and substances
2 oz. each of aloewood, myrtle seeds, mandrake seeds, moringa seeds, 1 oz. of chastetree, peeled grapes, white sandalwood, ½ oz. of nutmeg ground and all thoroughly mixed with myrtle sap to make pills. When exposed to toxic fumes, place a pill in the ears, nose and mouth and one shall be saved harmless from those poisons.
To protect the hands, make an ointment from equal parts laurel seeds, basil seeds, balsam and hare’s blood.
This is trivial to express in most systems, where the successful creation of the pills and the ointment will provide protection from all poisonous fumes and substances when breathed in or touched. Note, too, that these effects can be more broadly applied to grant some measure of protection from all effects that are enacted through the breathing in of smoke and fumes or contact with toxic material. GMs may wish to implement some rule or guidance on whether a given magician of a certain ‘level’ or ability is limited as to the effectiveness of his experiments when measured against particularly dangerous substances or the creations of more powerful agents.
To drive away the influence of evil
½ oz. of human blood mixed with 4 oz. of sweet almond oil, 2 oz. of rabbit marrow or brains mixed with 1 oz. of donkey urine. Drink from this fluid for nine consecutive days and all evil influences will be cast off.
What counts as ‘an evil influence’ will vary. In games with some sort of alignment system, it will be obvious and objective but, in other cases, it will probably have to be defined subjectively from the magician’s perspective. Thus some ‘hex’ or ‘fluence’ cast upon the character might not be ‘evil’ but can still be subject to this experiment if its consequences are deleterious for the practitioner. Whether the substance automatically dispels any such power or grants bonuses to any mechanic needed to overcome it will be determined by setting, preferences and perhaps the competence of the magician.
To secure the love of a woman
Take 2 oz. each of the vulva of the wolf and the penis of a rabbit, 1 oz. of the eyes of a male white cat, 3 oz. each of the fat of a white dog, incense and galbanum. Melt these over a fire with an equal amount of cow’s fat in an iron vessel and add ½ oz. each of ground camphor, amber and nutmeg, 1 oz. each of white sandalwood and aloewood. Divide this cooled mixture into seven equal parts and place each part into one of seven censers. Hang the censers in a straight line, pointing towards the place where the desired woman dwells and recite prayers that she will not sleep nor find any peace for as long as she resists the advances of the man in question.
The mechanics of this experiment are an instance where the focus is less on the caster than the victim. The mechanics of working the experiment can be handled coventionally by whatever system of spell-casting, alchemy or skill checks that are being used. The important question is the operation of the experiment on the target. It is suggested that this can be dealt with by imposing on the victim a series of saves at increasing penalty for each night that they are sleepless until such time as they fail either a single save or accrue a number of failed saves as determined by the GM.
To win the love of another
Collect your own sweat in a glass vessel and add to it a grain of the scrapings from the soles of your feet, the same amount of your own excrement dried by the sun and ½ oz. of valerian root. Whoever drinks this substance will love you most dearly.
After the point at which this experiment is known to be a success - either because of a ‘casting roll’ or failed save by the target or some combination of the two - this is probably best handled narratively. The target is simply treated as if they were ‘in love’ with the magician. Note that ‘love’ in this context need not be confined to erotic desire but can include platonic loyalty and devotion. GMs who wish to curtail the power of this substance could allow that the target gains some periodic chance to shake off the effect or that only one person can be the subject of the magician’s attention at any one time.
To win the amity of princes
Use fresh bees’ wax to make an image of the prince that you desire to win over. Take ½ oz. of the brain of a deer, 1 oz. of rabbit brain, 2 oz. of human blood, 1 oz. each of camphor and amber, ½ oz. of nutmeg and combine them over a fire. With a silver pin, pierce the wax image of the king from the top of its head down into its belly and pour in to this your mixture, then seal the hole with more wax. Place the image in an earthenware pot. Make a suffumigation with 1 oz. each of incense and powdered galbanum and the eyes of a white cockerel. Climb to a high point from which one can see the city in which dwells the prince and bury the image face down. There too, burn the suffumigation in the censer and, while breathing in the fumes, pray earnestly that the magnate will show favour to the desired person.
To win the praises of your lord
Take the umbilical cord of a new-born baby and wrap it in red silk together with the tongue of a green frog captured in a fig tree. All who carry such a talisman will be held in great honour and esteem by their lord or patron.
‘Prince’ and ‘lord’ in the context of these experiments can be (but need not be) broadly defined to apply to any magnate, noble and powerful secular or ecclesiastical figure. As with other instances of this type ‘winning amity’ and ‘praise’ can be a slippery terms; their consequences running from some broad and powerful narrative effect to a less certain spell-like phenomena (Charm, Friends etc) or the even less sure bonus when undertaking any social encounter with the target.
To make enmity
Take ½ oz. each of the gall of a black cat, pig’s brains and sweet myrrh and 2 oz. of a black dog’s fat. Make from this two pills which, if any man swallow, he will be ensnared in great enmity for the person who consumed the other.
Beyond the basic requirements imposed by the selected system successfully to work an effect and the corresponding save mechanic for the targets, this experiment is probably best handled as a narrative imposition on both players and NPCs.
To remove a man’s desire for a woman
Take ½ oz. of the brains of a black cat and mandrake seeds well blended and, using an iron needle, pierce the head of a wax image of the man concerned and place in it the mixture. Use the same iron needle and press it into the wax image so that it pierces the groin. Do this while reciting the name of the woman. This done, make a substance of 4 oz. of pig’s blood, 2 oz. of swallow’s brain and 1 lb. each of cow’s milk and myrtle syrup and give this to the man to drink and, for as long as the wax image is undisturbed, he will be free from the desire for the named woman.
The implication of the wording of this experiment is that the man in question wishes to be freed from the power of the woman over him. This reflects the medieval and pre-modern notion that women could exercise immoderate influence over men and so ‘reduce’ their masculine independence and capacity for self-rule. However, strictly, there is nothing to prevent a natural magician from undertaking this experiment covertly and so cause a man to fall out of love with a woman against his will and desire.
To bind hostile tongues
When you wish to silence those who would slander you, take the tongues of an eagle, a crow, a toad, a snake, a white dove and a white cockerel and mix these well with a small pearl ground to dust, ½ oz. each of powdered gold, silver, camphor, borax and aloe. Combine this mixture with sufficient honey to make a firm substance that you place in a white silk cloth. Take then two eyelashes from a hawk and a peacock, the livers of a hoopoe and a white cockerel, two powdered bones from the wing of a dove and from that of a hoopoe and mix with enough milk to make a paste and place this in the same white silk pouch. Make a wax image of yourself inscribed with the symbol of the sun on its head and chest and place this in another white silk cloth that you place in the first silk bag that you then sew closed with silk thread. All those who carry such an object will never be the subject of false and scurrilous gossip.
Different systems might provide varying methods for manifesting the results of this experiment. Where a game provides a reputation mechanic, this object can be used to ensure that a reputation that is both negative and untrue is erased or ignored. In other instances GMs may allow a more narrative consequence
For easeful sleep
If anyone is troubled and so cannot find restful sleep, perform for them this experiment. Take equal parts of a pig’s brain and the brain of a deer and add to this the same amount of mandrake seed and mix well. Give ½ oz. of this substance in drink to the person afflicted and they shall have relief from wakefulness.
It is clear that this experiment is ‘mundane’ in the sense that it amounts to a natural sleeping draught. It may be that it can be construed as a ‘sedative’ and so be administered to another who would then be subjected to some mechanical penalty for being drowsy or inattentive. It could also be allowed that this substance counters various conditions - whether of natural or supernatural origin - that prevent or hinder sleep.
To compel sleep
To compel a person to sleep against their will, mix together 4 oz. of black poppy seeds, 1 oz. each of the brains of a fox and a human and the same amount of pig’s gall. Give this to someone to eat as food and they will be overcome and fall into a deep sleep.
This is a species of’’poison’ that can be instantiated using conventional rules for the administration of the same. Unlike the previous sleeping draught, this substance expressly causes the victim almost at once to fall into a deep (though otherwise natural) sleep - subject perhaps to any save mechanic.
A minor poison
Take equal parts of the sap of a wild rue plant finely chopped, human sweat and pig’s brain and mix all together. If anyone shall consume more than 8 oz. of this substance, they shall surely fall into a deep sleep and die for lack of sustenance unless they are woken.
A major poison
Take 2 oz. each of the fat of a monkey, the brain of a black dog and the blood of any green lizard and mix them together. Consuming as little as ½ oz. of this substance causes death.
A deadly poison
Take a toad and nail it by each of its legs to the top of a wooden post. Take a rod of hazel and beat the creature until it swells in fury and hatred, soon after which it will vomit up a three-coloured slime. Collect this venom and ferment it in a lead vessel. Smeared on any surface that the victim touches, it will prove a most effective venom. Distilling the fermented poison makes it stronger still, such that a single drop in a jug of wine will surely kill all those who drink from it.
These progressively more powerful and dangerous poisons can be brought in to play using a system’s default rules around the use of toxins.
To ward off curses
Take the skull and spine of a frog and grind them together. Place this powder in a bag alongside 1 oz. each of dried carob, donkey brains and peony flowers. Anyone carrying such a bag will be saved harmless from those who would curse them.
Narrowly, this experiment only counteracts a curse and any given rules’ set might allow that there is a magical mechanic that is described as ‘cursing’ (or ‘hexing’ or some such). However, a broader interpretation could be that this object is a talisman against a much wider set of supernatural effects and awards protection from any magic that targets the bearer. This could manifest as a mechanical bonus to any save or - more powerfully - immunity from any such attempts to harm or influence the owner.
An oil for conjuring profitable visions
Take the decapitated head of a man or woman recently dead. Place it in a large container and cover it with a mixture of equal parts opium, human blood and sesame oil until the head is entirely submerged. Seal the container and place it over a low charcoal fire for 24 hours, after which time remove it from the fire and allow it to cool. When cool, open the container and strain off the fluid so that you are left with a heavy, aromatic, oil. This oil, when used in a lamp, will conjure visions for the profit of the observer.
The obvious question here is what constitutes a ‘profitable vision’. In some games there will exist spells and rituals such as Augury that can be used as mechanical models for this effect. However, two factors should perhaps be borne in mind. First, nothing in medieval magic assumes that any supernatural vision will be meaningful to the conjuror and so GMs should perhaps consider that this experiment is not so ‘neat’ or ‘useful’ as many techniques of prognostication as they appear in RPGs. The magician might be shown the past, present or future without knowing which it is; he might be gifted visions of people and places that he is presently unaware of and so lack immediate intelligibilty. Second, this, like many natural magic experiments, can fail and produce deeply unpleasant consequences. A botched attempt to create this substance could end up producing something like a bad batch of LSD.
To appear in the form of any animal
Take the head and fat of the desired animal and place them in a pot and cover with a mixture of equal parts nightshade seeds and olive oil. Place this pot upon the fire and leave it to boil gently for a day and a night or until all the fat and flesh has been rendered into liquid. Remove the pot from the fire and allow it to cool before carefully straining the contents to gather an oil. This oil, when placed in a lamp and used to anoint any person, will cause that person in the light of the lamp to appear to all other observers in the form of the animal.
Medieval and early modern scholars of magic and witchcraft went back and forth on the question of whether, through magic (whatever its source), people could actually be physically transformed, whether they had only the outward appearance of a creature or whether, perhaps, they retained true human form but acquired the apparent shape and qualities of the animal in question (the grace and balance of the cat, the speed and ferocity of the wolf and so on). The wording of this experiment suggests the former view - that the transformation is strictly illusory and only in the minds of obervers. That said, it could have a variety of creative uses. If any save is failed the targets will treat the anointed figure as any rational person would treat the presence of the chosen animal in the present context. A man in a tavern might flee from a wolf, or seek to drive it away, but he may well ignore a domestic cat or dog, and might not even notice a mouse or rat.
To cause terrifying visions
Take the head, heart, spleen and liver of a dead man and place them in a container together with the heads of a cat, a fox, a monkey, a black cockerel, a hoopoe, a crow, a kite, a bat, a gander, a swallow, an owl and a turtle. Cover all these in oil and seal the container, placing it over a low fire for three days and nights. Allow the mixture to cool before straining off the oil. Take the fleshless skulls and burn them to powder and mix this with nightshade seeds and black henbane. The powder you shall give to someone in food or drink and, by the light of any lamp fuelled by the oil, that person shall be struck down with terrifying visions. Alternatively, anoint yourself with the oil and you will appear by the light of any lamp employing the same oil to have a horrifying aspect that will paralyse observers with fear.
Most systems will have some mechanic for imposing psychological states such as Fear and Terror and these, combined with any rules for being poisoned, make this effect easy to implement in play.
To facilitate the creation of visions
Take 1 oz. each of your own blood, powdered magnetite and deadly nightshade berries gathered by your own hand and mix together to form a paste. Place this substance in a gold or silver box and, for as long as you carry it on your person, all experiments that create visions or illusions will be made easier.
It is a straightforward procedure to allow that possession of this material results in some mechanical bonus or advantage to any magician’s efforts to conjure visions.
To erase the memory
Take 2 oz. each of the brain of a hawk, a mouse and a black cat and ½ oz. each of sulphur and myrrh and leave this mixture to putrify. Take 8 oz. of the dried excrement of a crane and blend it with the putrid mixture and throw the new substance on to a fire. Anyone who breathes in the smoke that results will lose their memory and identity.
Mechanically, this works in much the same way as any other attempt to administer a noxious substance. The magnitude of this experiment’s effects can be variable. The magician of sufficient power or competence is able to judge the process for making the substance such that he can predict with reasonable certainty the duration of the loss of memory and identity from anywhere between a day and a year and a day. However, this should also allow for the possibilty that a mistake by the magician could result in a perhaps drastic miscalculation, with the result that the subject’s identity and memory could be erased for a much shorter or longer duration than intended - perhaps even forever.
To ward off ageing
Take the testicles of a young man, dry and pulverise them and consume them raw mixed with the like amounts of incense, mastic gum, ground cinnamon and cloves.
This experiment is easy to express in systems that have an ‘ageing’ mechanic that imposes some penalty to statistics or abilities, by simply cancelling any such deterioration or using the same mechanic to define improvements in stats or skills as the years fall away. In systems without such a mechanism, it is not hard to allow that some attribute is marginally improved. It is an interesting question open for the GM to interpet whether being fed a diet of this substance could eventually result in negative consequences as the consumer becomes less mature - perhaps acquiring some degree of rashness manifested as a penalty to Wisdom or some such.
To travel safely
Take equal amounts of your own semen and earwax and make from it pills sufficient for one for each day of travel. Hang these pills around your neck on a thread made of pure lamb’s wool dyed red. If you eat one of the pills at sunrise every day, you shall be protected from harm on any journey. If you do not eat a pill on each sunrise, the remaining pills will be useless.
The simplest way to give this experiment effect is to allow that each pill grants a certain number of mechanical advantages based either on the level of the magician, the degree of success achieved when making any casting roll or a combination of these two factors. The exact nature of the advantage can vary depending on the granularity of the system for travel. It could include re-rolls on any travel condition table such as weather or other potential hazards or random encounters. More broadly the pills could grant re-rolls to any action or skill check undertaken in direct service of making the journey safely (such as navigation efforts, evading dangers). At its most expansive, the GM could permit a certain number of re-rolls per day for any action undertaken when on a journey, irrespective of whether or not the roll is being made purely to ensure the success of travel from point A to point B.
To prevent lies under your roof
Anyone who would prevent lies being told within his household should keep within his property the severed right arm of a human and the head of a greyhound. For as long as both objects retain any flesh, no-one can lie to the master of the house without being discovered in their deceit.
The benefits of this experiment will be largely narrative, but throttled by ensuring that the conditions required are met. For example, the experiment has no utility when staying under some roof other than that owned by the caster and so it can enver be employed when staying at an inn or in any building owned by another. What exactly counts as ‘ownership’ will vary from setting to setting but, as most pre-modern fantasy games will not include concepts of ‘freehold tenure’ and the other technical trappings of modern house ownership, then it is suggested that common sense be applied. Where the GM wishes to reduce the narrative power of this experiment still further they may allow that anyone trying to lie will receive some species of save to allow them to do so. Further flavour can be added by ruling that any lie that is told is immediately revealed by some alarming accompanying manifestation such as the speaker coughing up feathers or some such.
To cause blindness
Take the blood of a dog, an ass, a cat, a goat and a cow in equal measures and blend them over a low fire, adding 1 oz. each of ground arsenic and mercury. Place this substance into a sealed vessel and bury it in dung until the dung rots and exposes the vessel to the air once more. Take great care when un-stoppering the vessel that you do not inhale deeply of the mixture. A ½ oz. of this substance, placed on a fire, will cause any who breathe the smoke to be rendered blind.
To make a man mute
Take 2 oz. each of the gall of a black cockerel and a bear, 4 oz. of bat’s blood, ½ oz. each of lettuce seed, black poppy seed and mandrake root. Mix these well and allow the mixture to dry. Grind the mixture very fine and mix it with good wine to make pills. Anyone who consumes one of these pills in food or drink will lose the power of speech.
To render a man deaf
Take equal parts of mandrake, cow’s and goat’s gallbladder, grind them well together and leave the substance to putrefy for seven days. Anyone who consumes this material in food or drink will be rendered deaf.
All of the above experiments can be dealt with using the rules for poisoning and the subequent conditions that follow. The GM will need to determine the effectiveness of these substances based on preference and style or the power of the magician who crafts them. Note well that anyone making use of the experiment to cause blindness will requirse some means to avoid breathing in the smoke, or a means to counter-act the effect, such as the one immediately following.
To prevent and cure blindness
Mix equal quantities of fennel sap and green coriander and place this unguent over the eyes of a man made blind by natural magic and that person shall have their sight restored and shall be immune from any experiments that cause blindness for one moon’s cycle (28 days).
As with other antidotes and protective substances, the GM will need to decide whether this one is of ‘universal’ effectiveness or whether it can only protect against or cure conditions imposed or caused by ‘weaker’ causes or agents. A middle ground might be to allow that this material will always work against the magician’s own experiments but that a ‘casting roll’ at some bonus or penalty is needed when it is employed to ward off the workings of a less or more powerful magician or creature or where the blindness is dervived from some more or less potent source.
To induce insensibility
Take the penis of a man and cut it very small, mixing it with powdered opium, nightshade, and arsenic and placing the whole mixture into a sealed lead vessel until the substance has liquefied. With great care not to get any of this substance on your bare skin, strain this to collect an oil. Any who consume this oil in food or drink shall be rendered stupefied and insensible.
The product of this experiment will function as a species of poison that can be handled using the desired system’s rules for the same. Note, however, that the effect is not merely ‘unconsciousness’ but stupefaction and insensibility and, in this sense, it functions as a complete anaesthetic, not merely a ‘sleeping draught’. In principle, like any such material, a botched attempt to create it can as easily result in a fatally over-powered dose as much as a uselessly under-powered one.
To drive away serpents
Melt together 1 oz. each of ammonia, asafoetida gum and the strongest wine vinegar. Add to this the powdered horn of a stag and mix well to form a paste. When cool, make from this substance pills that must be stored in a glass vessel. When you wish to drive away snakes, fumigate any place by burning one of the pills in an open fire.
This can work in fundamentally the same way as any spell-like ability that causes Fear or Terror, but applied only to serpents and imposing the same requirements to react appropriately i.e. to flee the area as soon as possible and by the most direct route.
For protection against stinging worms
Take powdered and dried asparagus roots and mix them with sesame seed oil. Anoint your hands and feet with this oil and no stinging or biting worm will harm you.
At the upper end of the scale, the magnitude of this substance might allow that the one who employs it is simply ignored by all stinging insects or is wholly immune to their poisons (though not, of course, any physical injury such as bites that might inflict the toxin). Less powerfully, the magician might simply receive a more or less substantial bonus to any save or benefit from any poison inflicting minimum damage or lasting for a mininal duration.
An antidote to all venoms
Take 3 oz. of laurel wood, 7 oz. of its leaves and 2 oz. of its seeds all dried and powdered. Mix with this 6 oz. of human excrement and sufficient equal parts honey and molten beeswax to match the weight of the laurel mixture. The substance, once cooled and solidified, should be kept in a gold or silver container and, when eaten or applied to a wound, it is a sovereign remedy against all venom and poisons.
The implementation of an antidote is easily achieved in most systems. GMs will only need to decide the exact scalability of this substance based on the quality and competence of the magician creating it. Note, however, that it expressly functions as an antidote to venom already ingested rather than a prophylactic against being poisoned in the first place.
To induce baleful laughter
10 oz. of dried saffron mixed into a cup of wine will cause anyone who drinks the cup to the dregs to be struck by a constant and maniacal laughter that, unless cured, will kill them through lack of sleep.
This is not difficult to introduce into a game as there is an obvious more-or-less direct analogy with a well-known D&D spell - though the consequences of this version are potentially far more serious. As a side note, the more I look into medieval and early modern magic, the more impressed I am with the early authors of Dungeons & Dragons and the apparent breadth of their reading.
To improve a man’s wits
Take the fleshless skull of an acknowledged sage or philosopher and bury it, together with the seeds of any fruiting plant. Water the ground thereabouts each day with human blood. When the seeds grow and produce the fruit, whoever consumes it each day for at least one moon cycle (28 days) will be gifted the wisdom and acuity of the original owner of the skull.
Mechanically, this translates as an increase to the desired statistic, ability, talent or skill as required or allowed by the system. The question for GMs will be the scale and duration of any such improvement as determined by the tone and setting of the game, the power of the magician and other relevant factors. Impliedly, the beneficiary must consume one fruit or berry each day for a full lunar month to accrue any advantage. Thereafter, the question will be whether any such improvement is permanent or must be refreshed after some period of time by conducting the experiment from scratch once more. Especially generous GMs might allow that, once the plant is established, the magician can keep consuming the berries (either fresh or dried) for as long as the plant survives and is appropriaetly watered with blood.
To make a man asinine
To make a man dull-witted and foolish, take the skull of a donkey and bury it along with the seeds of a plant that produces peas or beans. Water these plants each day with a little donkey urine and, when the plants bring forth their crop, any man who eats them will be rendered as doltish as the donkey. If the peas or beans are dried they will retain their effectiveness for one year.
This is easy to instantiate by imposing a penalty to the target’s relevant statistics or attributes - commonly Wisdom or Intelligence - with all of the mechanical consequences that would follow. The scale of the loss of the ability can be adjusted to the feel of the game and the power of the magician. In some cases, this will mean an almost immediate reduction of the stat to the minimum number permitted by the system after consuming a single item; in other cases it might entail a gradual loss for each day on which the plants are consumed for as long as they are consumed every day. Some GMs might allow that any loss of acuity is permanent until restored or cured by some means, while others might prefer that, for each day that the peas or beans are not consumed, a point of the relevant stat is recovered.