Balor's Blood

By Myranda Kalis (nagaina@yahoo.com)

Description

Balor's Blood appears, on cursory examination, to be a clear, dark red crystal, smooth and resilient to the touch, very much like an unflawed ruby. Larger pieces can be cut into smaller gems and set into jewelry of a particularly appealing effect. Such stones remain completely quiescent until they are added to a liquid, at which point the crystals decompose and dissolve rapidly. They add no conspicuous flavor to any liquids, but they do add a faint reddish tinge visible to the naked eye and give off a unique glamourous signiture detectable by Kenning. Once ingested, either by Kithain, Kinain, or enchanted mortals, the Balor's Blood begins a systematic destruction of both the fae and mortal seemings of the afflicted party, usually taking a period ranging from several weeks to several months to complete said process. The average time for completion of the prcess is just over one month.

In the mortal seeming, symptoms of Balor's Blood poisoning strongly resemble end-stage neurological ailments, including anesthetization of the reticular activating system and limbic system of the brain and demyelinization of the neurons. Progressing slowly enough to cripple before it kills, death usually results from the collapse of all higher and lower neurological functions. Cardiac and respiratory arrest usually result, preceded by neurologic deafness and blindness, convulsions, cognitive breakdown, dementia, and psychosis. Symptoms are primarily similar in the destruction of the fae seeming, though it must be noted that, partcularly among Sidhe victims, the actual fear of death provokes such a drastic increase in the poison's speed of acton that it can be said that fear kills the Kithain victims of this toxin. In any case, the death of the Kithain soul precedes the death of the physical body, and this death is apparently of non-chimerical nature. Of the four recorded cases of Balor's Blood poisoning which have been confirmed, none of the Kithain slain in this fashion and subsequently given the Kithain burial and waking rites have returned.

Enchanted mortals exposed to this toxin have been successfully treated via banality therapy, which eradicated the glamour infusing them and rendered the toxin quiescent. Subsequent infusions of glamour to exposed human subjects resulted in the resumption of the poison's course of action, though normal musing and/or ravaging proceedures excited no additional effect on the poison. Kinain subjects exposed to the banality therapy responded similarly, though the duration of exposure required was more than doubled to produce the same effect. Kenning test results suggest that the banality treatment successfully eradicated all traces of the toxin from the Kinain system and, thanks to the "perpetual enchantment" effect enjoyed by our Kinain subjects, their recovery time was substantially reduced. Due to the concentration and intensity of the banality involved in the treatment, it is not advised that Kithain patients be exposed to it. The cumulative effect is, in the words of a patient, "like being stabbed fifty times with a dull cold iron knife" and that is as clinically accurate a description as yet applied. Undoing of the Kithain soul would inevitably result before any appreciable reduction in the poison's effects could occur.

Treatment options are therefore rather limited for Kithain patients. The most effective treatment option discovered thus far is, ironically enough, another poison. Anodyne is an incrementally toxic drug only slightly less pernicious than Balor's Blood itself, which, in addition to checking the effect of the original toxin, is productive of severe coronary depreciation. It does, however, significant raise a patient's resistance to the expansion of Balor's Blood throughout the nervous system, at the cost of cardiac arrhythmia and eventual complete cardiac failure. The only other treatment of proven effectiveness has been a super-concentrated form of the Heather Balm healing cantrip. This form of Heather Balm must be crafted specifically to work in absolute harmony with one patient's own body and glamour, and anchored through a physical object, which must be worn against the patient's skin. This has the effect of halting the poison's progress and arresting any further damage, effectively reducing the poison to a quiescent state. These healing items can only be procured through the services of the fae of House Revier and are rather difficult to come by for that reason. Removing the item containing the healing magic, either voluntarily or by force, completely disrupts said magic. Replacing the item will not restore the cantrip, and the poison's progress will resume, though at a markedly slower rate.

The origins of Balor's Blood are obscure. Samples may be procured through both the Edinburgh Shadow Market and via the Monkey's Paw for substantial amounts of dross and large, unmarked bills. The substance itself is remarkably resistant to clinical study, providing no clean chemical profile, glamour signature, or a single universal set of characteristics for every case study. Legend attached to this substance suggests that Balor's Blood is literally that -- the blood of a member of House Balor, possibly Balor himself, magically distilled to pure, murderous malice. Another theory cuts out the Balor middle-man, as it were, and suggests that the "blood" in question belongs to one of the insidious (an qrotesquely cruel) White Fomor. This theory is consistent with the body of legend regarding the White Fomorians and their reputed fondness of slow, spiteful, and ultimately horrific vengeance. Even more compelling with regards to this theory is the legendary cure ascribed to this poison: the heart's blood of one who loves the victim truly.

Dr. Gloria Esteban,
Chief Medical Officer of the Company of the Shadowed Blade