Submitted 2 months 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?
If you want long-term, look to the liver. Alcohol will destroy it over time, but so will viral hepatitis. Have you considered slow acting diseases like hepatitis or HIV? Or something intensely carcinogenic?
Mushrooms can cause liver failure too, depending on the species. Amanitas are an example
I know someone who drinks a few litres of gin a week. They seem impervious.
Just wait… they’ll die eventually.
Does anyone remember when the writer googled a recipe for their historical novel and copy pasted the first result - which turned out to the from Zelda BOTW lol
Alcohol is a very effective slow acting poison.
Hey siri, remind me!
I don’t like where these comments are going.
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.
I recommend an American diet: ultra-processed foods, excess sodium, saturated fat, refined grains, calories from solid fats and added sugars, and avoid vegetables like the plague! The target will be dead within 50 years…
You could go for Paracetamol/Acetaminophen. The lethal dose is quite low and in theory low enough someone could poison someone else with it. And once symptoms set in people’s livers are often beyond rescue and they die a very gruesome death unless we find a transplant organ in time.(And even then survival is not guaranteed)
And it’s relatively save to use in writing as it is coated/mixed with enough bittering agent these days that it actually wouldn’t work that well to secretly posing someone.
If you need something with a shorter timeframe Methanol is an option.
And of course there’s always Dihydrogen monoxide-everyone who has even had one drop of it will die eventually but the time range depends on the dose. With very high doses people die in minutes,with medium doses (this is actually sometimes used by inmates to kill themselves) they die within a day, with lower dose after decades, but some die mere days after they ingested the mere last drop of it. Nasty stuff and very available.
I’ve now written the scene with death cap mushrooms, but I’ll keep this in mind if I decide to change it later. Ty!
Go ask chatgpt or something similar for old medical herbs used back in the day that might also posion you. I inspire to write a book one day, and ive found ai to be really informative. The best part is, even if they’re wrong its going in a fiction story(i hope) where it would matter.
I hope since you want to write this will be appreciated: for that sentence you’re looking for “aspire” not “inspire”.
Hey i said i want to write one, i never said it was going to be good.
Apple seeds contain cyanide, and are easy to get in quantity without raising suspicion. How long does it take? No idea.
Good luck with your writing! I too have had to search for some very silly things for things I’ve written! As for slow acting poisons, only ones I could think of that would be really available modernly would be like, antifreeze and such, but I don’t think that’s so slow acting. And usually it’s kids and dogs that get into that.
There’s a historical analogue for antifreeze poisoning: poisoning from improperly brewed alcohol (methanol poisoning)
sabin@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Source of radiation given to someone to hold in their wallet/pocket