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.
Thallium was pretty famous for this until its mechanism of toxicity and antidotes were better understood. Slow acting, tasteless, odorless, colorless, symptoms weird and mimic other things. Used to be used for rat poison but the risk of accidental exposure was too high. Requires late 1800s technology.
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.
Source of radiation given to someone to hold in their wallet/pocket
Arsenic is a classic murder poison. It’s been known since anciemt times, though possibly unsuited to your onset requirement. Acute poisoning by ingestion is generally within a few hours, but if your character sustains lower doses over time, you could probably draw out the timeline to whatever you wanted. It would be obvious that the character is unwell during this time, but the symptoms aren’t super specific and could be confused with e.g. food poisoning.
Or just invent a mushroom like others said. The toxins are diverse enough that I doubt anyone would be too upset if you tuned it exactly to your timeline and desired symptoms.
Depending on your setting and desired outcome for the poisoner, uraninite (aka pitchblende) might be an option. It has historical uses in glass making and pottery glazing, which could provide justification for why someone would have it.
It contains Uranium, which is radioactive, but I don’t believe will bioaccumulate, but can build up on surfaces, tools, and clothing providing a source of long-term radiation exposure. In addition, it contains lead, which does bioaccumulate, providing a source of gradual long term poisoning as well as radium which also bioaccumulates and is radioactive, providing an additional source of longterm radiation exposure.
Am not sure if helpful, or if this would be somewhere you could visit for reference.
The Alnwick Victorian poison garden is fascinating and perhaps even has ideas for you.
https://www.alnwickgarden.com/the-garden/poison-garden/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alnwick_Garden
Hope this helps. Am hoping to get to visit one day.
Mushrooms are a good option, and you can just make up a species if you want specific time frames/symptoms. Mushrooms can cause a lot of weird symptoms.
There’s also a brain eating amoeba or other sickness from still water (people back in the day were very aware of tainted water).
If you have access to polar animals, a unique poisoning would be vitamin A toxicity from their livers. It’s a horrific way to die, though (skin sloughing off).
Was going to say that. They to go through the digestive track, so it needs a day or so to work. The toxin of amanita is heat resistant so you can make a stew of it, and when the first symptoms show up your liver is probably already beyond repair. If you want it to be more interesting, there are some species that are poisonous only with alcohol, like https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprinopsis_atramentaria , although the symptoms are less severe as in death cap, but maybe it’s not unimaginable to give a hearty stew a day before a known heavyweight drinking run to kill the dude(ette).
That and mushrooms often have great scary ass names like “Destroying Angel”
Yeah look at the Death Cap
Ongoing case here in Australia with a lady accused of murdering her ex and ex-inlaws. Invites them to lunch of beef Wellington and death cap mushrooms.
3 died fairly awful deaths in the following days/weeks, 1 survived after intensive care.
Accused of trying to murder the ex 4 prior times too.
The “Mushroom lady” case absolutely captivated us for weeks
Ex-spouse: (on the phone with parents) My ex-wife has invited us over for beef wellington.
Ex-spouse’s parents: Hasn’t she tried to kill you like four times before? Why would you accept this invitation?
Ex-spouse: well her beef wellington is to die for!
Ex-spouse’s parents: Well that’s good enough for us, were in see you a 6
How slow are you talking? Days? Weeks? months?
A couple days or more.
Apple seeds contain cyanide. You’d have to crush and eat anywhere from 150 to a few thousand seeds for it to be fatal though. I’m sure that hasn’t stopped authors from using it before.
Cyanide is legendarily fast acting. Among the fastest known poisons.
Breaking Bad did this IIRC
I forgot about Breaking Bad! That was ricin from castor oil beans, but ricin is the opposite of slow acting.
yup, I misremembered it being apple seeds, maybe they discussed it before moving to the ricin idea. I should rewatch bb
“Honey, I’ve made your favorite meal! Crushed up pulp from 150 to a few thousand apple seeds!”
Cyanide poisoning is famously pretty fast though…
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.
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.
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)?
H-how does one even criticise something like that? Like, “you got this and that wrong about the world you made up”?
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.
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.
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.
Technically, these are not new things, but things that you didn’t know before.
That or just do the classic ones of arsenic or cyanide and just roll with it.
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.
- 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.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
The book sounds familiar.
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.
