Submitted 3 days ago by hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone to [deleted]
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. Does a plant or something like that exist or do I need to make one up?
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: The Writer’s Guide to Poisons
Holy shit. That’s the perfect answer, I think.
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.
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.
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.
Rookie mistake honestly, should’ve asked for your friend who’s writer
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 for 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).
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.
That and mushrooms often have great scary ass names like “Destroying Angel”
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 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).
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
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
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.
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. 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.
“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…
Cyanide is legendarily fast acting. Among the fastest known poisons.
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: 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.
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)
How slow are you talking? Days? Weeks? months?
A couple days or more.
There are a number of options for things you could dose such that it takes 2 to 7 days. Cyanide, Atropine (belladonna) Arsenic, Thallium.
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.
how slow acting? As in months, or as in time to get the fuck outta dodge?
Ricin will kill you in a couple of days, was first extracted in 1888, and the plant grows in the mediterranean.
Like takes at least a day or more for the poisoned character to notice.
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.
For that i think having a read about acqua tofana would be a pretty good source of inspiration, since it was designed to have effects like an illness. it originates in italy so most of it’s ingredients are by default from a mediterran climate.
Or if you want something natural without too mutch human processing, belladonna is a surefire, but not slow acting.
Mistletoe berries i think. Otherwise mercury depending on dosage.
Ok I looked into mercury and it might be what I’m looking for. Any idea how long it’d take before the effects become noticeable?
A lot of detailed information on the Wikipedia page. There are a ton of different ways people can come into contact with mercury, and a ton of different formulations of mercury with varying effects. For what symptoms adults may exhibit from the most common form of organic exposure, look no further than RFK Jr., who himself has stated he has mercury poisoning from eating too much tuna:
Due to the body’s inability to degrade catecholamines (e.g. adrenaline), a person with mercury poisoning may experience profuse sweating, tachycardia (persistently faster-than-normal heart beat), increased salivation, and hypertension (high blood pressure).
It also causes memory impairment and reduced IQ. RFK Jr. seems to really fit the bill here.
But for something truly terrifying, try dimethylmercury. People can get one drop on their skin, then several months later start developing symptoms, and die within a year. It even soaks right through rubber and latex gloves: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethylmercury
For full symptom progression, check out Minimata Disease.
It used to slowly drive haters insane, hence mad haters. There was a theory Napoleon was exposed to excess levels of Arsenic over time although that might have well been background exposure. Nevertheless over time it’s not good for you. Neither is lead.
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.
Heavy metals in artists’ oil paints.
You can always dig into true crime, see what methods are used to kill husbands.
Check out ChubbyEmu on YouTube. He’s a pharmacist who presents strange and interesting medical stories (with dramatic re-enactments) involving unusual chemical exposures that damage and sometimes kill people. Examples: soda, coconut water from a bad coconut, a fermented soup, ivermectin ordered online, lab chemicals stolen by a student and given to a disliked roommate, and so on. Maybe something there will inspire you. ChubbyEmu does a good job of breaking down complex medical into an easily digestible format.
Doing research like this is really interesting, but also makes me think if I’m on a list now.
There is a way, and it might already be somewhat of a trope but you can use fruitpits to extract amygdalin which can be then refined with a homelab to a cyanide like substance. Although not pure or concentrated enough, but it could be added to food by a wife on a very long period of time and make the Victim very I’ll with fatal results.
Amygdalin is extracted from almonds or apricot kernels by boiling in ethanol; on evaporation of the solution and the addition of diethyl ether, amygdalin is precipitated as white minute crystals.
Mushroom poisons usually are slow actors. They take a few days while they kill your liver, and then you’ll follow suit.
Source of radiation given to someone to hold in their wallet/pocket
Time. It’s very slow but will get them in the end.
There was a theory a while back that Napoleon died from arsenic poisoning due to the damp Mediterranean climate causing the decay of a green wallpaper using an arsenic based dye. It didn’t end up being entirely true but he may have been slowly poised by environmental arsenic throughout his life. Here is an article about it.
Arsenic is a naturally occurring element in the Earth’s crust as metallic crystals or combined with other elements. Being a heavy metal, arsenic bioaccumulates. That is, it builds up in the body over time, so slow poisoning is possible.
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 (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 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 (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemical_symbol, thoughtco.com/tria-prima-three-primes-of-alchemy-…). 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 (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.
ah yeah the subtle, slow acting poison, the checks notes atropine
all of these except one work on nervous system which means that they act rapidly. this is worse than nothing
For what it’s worth, I was able to get some AI suggestions.
Eeeewww
At work I learned that cyanide is actually very dangerous because it accumulates its effects. Like you have a little now and a little later, then suddenly you can’t get up from bed so you call in sick. Its dangerous stuff.
cyanide doesn’t accumulate, it can be broken down in some hours. otoh many heavy metals do behave this way, maybe you worked with both at the same time
Pretty sure there’s at least one Agatha Christie novel that uses that idea. A little here, a little there…
Although, actually, maybe it was the other way round, like someone was deliberately dosing themselves gradually to build up a tolerance. Something like that.
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.
www.alnwickgarden.com/the-garden/poison-garden/
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alnwick_Garden
Hope this helps. Am hoping to get to visit one day.
Hobo@lemmy.world 3 days ago
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. Now excuse me while I continue to work on my immunity to iocane powder.
SgtAStrawberry@lemmy.world 3 days ago
That or just do the classic ones of arsenic or cyanide and just roll with it.