I thought of one. Most mushrooms in this world are poisonous. Serve your enemy, he'll think you're very kind (he won't go with out torture... it causes throwing up, severe head-ache etc.)

Eeeheeheeeheheemwahahahaaaaaa!! I LIKE this THREAD!! I was just thinking about poison, actually...
How 'bout somebody stepping on a stonefish? (although...they'd die in two hours....hopefully that wasn't an important character!)
Rhododendron, huh? Fascinating... I have too much fun with fiction and poison.....
Let's see: Death caps and destroying angel mushrooms are my go-to for poisoning *fictional* people, although I also enjoy neurotoxins, (specifically snake venom ) Ohohoh another good one is Sydney Funnel Web spiders. They're interesting because their poison (atracotoxin, I think), is noxious to people but not most other mammals. Not that I'm advocating Sydney Funnel webs in y'all's stories, because "they are repulsive."
hmm...what about a poison that makes your feet sting all the time?

Oh, weird. That's kinda cool. I mean, that way an ecologist could kill as many people as he waned without damaging all the local fauna!

You got some good ideas. * files away information *

*laughs* We have too many evil non-descript scientists anyway. High-time we saw a psychotic ecologist. *nodnod*

This. *dies laughing* XD

I like the idea of being able to poison one group and not another... If you could isolate one person who was weaker, you could kill/injure them without alerting the other people around them. It might be particularly effective with airborne poisons...

Or perhaps a combination poison? The two poisons aren't lethal by themselves, but when both are active in the person's body, will kill that person. The trigger poison could be administered through the air, and would only kill the person who had already received the primer poison.

This is the coolest thread. o_o

* got two and half ideas and a wild plot inspiration off of this post * 0.0

That... That is brilliant.

Like an eco-terrorist? I think we've seen quite a few of those.






Yes, that is quite the plan. It might backfire or something, and also activate in certain people based on their genetic structure, which would actually probably be more helpful because it might just look like a plague.

Really? Well, I'm glad you liked it/it helped.

I cannot readily recall any, let alone any that want to overrun the world with Sydney Tunnel Spiders in an effort to rid the world of humans.




Interesting.

It's me, I'm back. Hi everyone! <waves> So, I was really surprised and happy to see this topic because in my novel somebody gets poisoned. I can't go into any plot details, but here's basically what happens: A gets poisoned by B. B (who isn't evil, just been lied to) thinks it's just a regular kill-em-dead-in-a-few-minutes poison, but actually it is a horrible poison that keeps the victim alive for ten hours (in a lot of pain, of course) and it's used for torturing someone into giving away whatever secrets they are keeping. It is made from the deadly Kosis Berry, and the Ocean Rose seaweed (a seaweed which is often used in either inducing or increasing labor during childbirth, but in very small doses). So basically, the victim would begin with mild stomach pains and, as the poison progressed, the pain would become more severe and the victim would weaken, but be able to speak almost up until the moment of death.
By the way, don't bother googling Kosis Berries or Ocean Rose seaweed, because I made them up

*is stunned by how the Holy Worlders have jumped on the Sydney Funnel Web spider idea* psychotic ecologist? * laughs* I find that idea disturbing and entertaining.....
*devious smile* I like the split-poison idea. A lot.
Hmm....how about a character eating some poisonous mushrooms, like death caps or destroying angels? They'd die, but it'd take like 2 days, and they would suffer terribly....or maybe something infused with the mushroom's extract? *thought*I know that water that lilies-of-the-valley have been in is toxic....actually anything involving a lily of the valley is toxic....even in small doses. *very devious smile*

Oooh...that must have been painful for B, since he wasn't actually evil.

I like that idea for a poison. Actually, the notion of using substances, poisons, for torturing someone to make them reveal information is not used very much. It never even really occurred to me before.

(Welcome back, Laura! )

Even if they've just been in there for a short while?

Ummm...I'm not sure. I would think so, but I guess it depends on how long of a short while they're infusing it.

Yes, very painful. Fortunately for A, if a doctor who knows what he's doing can get to him in time, there is a chance the poison can be counteracted.
Actually, because B didn't use a fast-acting poison, the real villain's plan backfires because A is able to tell B things that might otherwise never have been known.

By the way, all this stuff about real-life poisons is fascinating! For some reason, the mad ecologist using funnel-web spiders to kill off humans seems hilarious.

The spider idea is entertaining...

The most poisonous common plant in the world is the castor bean plant. Two millionths of an ounce of its poison, ricin, is enough to kill a 160 lb human. Ricin is a protein found in the castor bean plant's seeds.

The hooded pitohui bird has homobatrachotoxin, the same poison excreted by poison dart frogs.

Bulldog ants are vicious and have large mandibles. They will latch on to something and sting repeatedly. They can kill a person with their stings in 15 minutes.

The king cobra, (Ophiophagus hannah), has enough venom in one bite to kill twenty people.

all these poisons are fatal...Oh well. Seems like the ecologist and his crazy florist assistant will strike again! Mwahahahahaaaaaaa....

The term I've seen used for this is "binary poison"; in fiction I've read (and in Deadly Doses: The Writer's Guide to Poisons, I think), the second part is usually delivered through food, e.g. at a banquet: everyone eats the same thing, maybe there's a food taster to "prevent" poisoning, but the target and no one else dies anyway.

Hmm...I like the combination poison... *writes down for later reference for the sci-fi story floating around in brain*
The batrachotoxin found in the skin of poison dart frogs can be counteracted by the tetrodotoxin found in pufferfish and blue-ringed octopi. (Which is funny, because neither one have a known antidote and both are considered lethal) XD

Cyanide (or is it potassium cyanide...) tastes/smells like bitter almonds. interesting plot to have someone digest it, but be genetically able to cure themselves of it with the right substances. (No, this is not entirely my idea, but it's not copyrighted as long as you don't use the same circumstances. I think.... I mean, giant wasps have got to be worse.)

One idea is that an incredibly deadly poison actually functions as an antidote for another incredibly deadly poison. (Or does that actually exist...)

A poison can work as a hallucinogen before progressing into a paralyzer that leaves the victim to be eaten by carrion cleaners and such. (I have sick dreams...)

Perhaps a poison that induces carcinogens into the host that are inoperable. Or perhaps spawns a new lifeform and uses the body as a host.

http://listverse.com/2013/04/03/10-pois ... g-effects/

An idea from a post I read once (I have evil, conniving races and I like to have weird cultures): quails eat hemlock leaves because they're immune to the poison, but the meat of the bird is still deadly to humans. Interesting assassination plot...

Oleander was once used as a plant to abort children in medieval times. However, it's very poisonous and would often kill the woman as well.

Honey made from bees that fed on rhododendrons, azaleas, and/or oleanders is still very poisonous.

An intersting idea would be to introduce the victim to rabies somehow...

(Yes, I realize that most of these are only deadly, but they sure would be fun to write!! And I should probably be worried that I think that....)

Also, would it be possible to make a poison using ordinary spices? Apparently, nutmeg (in high doses) is a hallucinogenic. And I think cabbage has some cyanide in it...

But anyway. Overdosage in vitamin suplements would also make the victim sick but not necessarily dead (unless the dasage is really high, of course....)

I love researching this and find it incredibly fun. Another thing to look at is flowers. There are several flowers that normal people have in their gardens that are actually poisonous.

And don't ever make me or my brother angry. We could literally kill you without a trace. And isn't that creepy.....

Seriously. I think that all of the people who want to take over the world should just go write fiction. Same type of people and they would fit in - without all of the literal deaths and torture and such....

...methinks Charlotte and I need to become next-door neighbors.

o_o No Abi. That would be frightening.

*grins*

That would be tons of fun. not to mention, I would have another auther to converse with in person!!!!! Actually, the only author....

But alas. I must only share random bits of trivia and share advice on this wonderful site...

Aye, me as well. Trivia like how death camas is actually part of the lily family, and despite its frightening name, isn't always fatal.

Death Camas?? Please! Enlighten me and expand my knowledge!

And I wouldn't necessarily reccomend eating lilies....

There's one memorable occurrence of a similar idea in Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold (whose work might not qualify as entirely "hard" science fiction, but only because of transportation and weapons technologies that modern physics would say are impossible; her treatment of items from biology seem carefully researched): the heroine, several months pregnant, is poisoned using a poison gas that had been thought obsolete because its antidote is readily available, but the antidote severely damages her unborn child (the real target of the attack).

The theory behind your idea seems basically sound, since so many medicines are toxins that merely do more damage to the germs than to our bodies and that we take in small enough doses that our bodies can easily recover.

Really? It's sound? That came from a reallyw eird dream I had one night - I figured since it was for fiction, who cared.

But thanks for the info! It works better when I don't have to make up my own technobabble and such... At least this way I halfway know what I'm talking about.

Kind of. But don't bet on it.

Seems sound. I am by no means an expert. But when I think about it in light of what little I know, it seems like it would make sense.

True...

And isn't that what they do with antivenoms and such?