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AMMONIA A gaseous substance found throughout the Realms, semi-poisonous and strong enough to induce tears in anyone exposed to it. Druids had alchemical techniques for producing it by breaking down coal, and it could also be crystallized from the horns of oxen or the antlers of deer. A magical alchemy jug could produce liquid ammonia on command. Used as poison, medicine, and spell component depending on preparation. ARSENIC A toxic elemental mineral sold openly in Realms marketplaces (Karsus Enclave's Elemental Store carried powdered arsenic for 8 gp an ounce in the ancient empire of Netheril; Aurora's Emporium later sold it to wizards as a spell component). It also occurs naturally in certain plants, and chain devil dung is noted as containing large amounts of it alongside sulfur. Notably, the lichnee potion that transforms a person into a lich calls for three drops of pure arsenic.

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BAATEZU BLOOD WINE A dangerous alcoholic drink found only in Samora, a city on the Abyssal layer of Azzagrat. Deadly to any inhabitant of the Prime Material plane, and even the rare mortal who survives drinking it is left in a violent drunken stupor followed by equally violent illness.

BARDAN RUQAD A strong poison capable of instantly paralyzing a victim for up to ten minutes, during which they remain fully aware but helplessly inert, before falling into a deep slumber lasting several hours. It causes no physical harm and works even against undead, though undead show some initial resistance. Tasked messenger genies favor it on their darts and daggers, using it to safely deliver messages to dangerous recipients before escaping any retaliation.

BELARRIS A black, oily mixture of wyvern blood, two types of tree bark, and six plant saps. One of the few poisons potent enough to survive being cooked thoroughly into food and remain effective. A victim who ingests a full dose is hit with a wave of fatigue, and if the poison takes full effect, they're rendered unconscious for several minutes.

BELLADONNA Also known as wolfsbane or monkshood, a poisonous flowering herb related to horseradish, producing delicate purple bell-shaped flowers and glossy black berries. Its leaves and roots contain atropine. Casting speak with plants on a belladonna typically prompts the plant to talk about lycanthropy and werewolves, and belladonna is most famous in the Realms for its ability to cure lycanthropy: in the Year of Rogue Dragons, 1373 DR, the drow Ryld Argith consumed belladonna and its leaves during a full moon to prevent his first transformation after being bitten. Also a key ingredient in the sinister lichnee potion used to become a lich, and in the elixir of peerless focus when its sublimate is mixed with certain ashes.

BELPREN An ingested or contact poison, a luminescent blue, acidic liquid that is only corrosive against flesh and soft tissue, doing nothing to metal, cloth, or cured leather. Damage scales with the surface area exposed; ingestion only causes harm once, and the liquid dries too fast in open air to be useful coating a weapon. One of sixteen poison formulas recorded in The Nathlum, a cursed spellbook of poison recipes originally compiled in the 10th century DR by the orc mage Lethchauntos, later copied in part by the mage Phrandjas of Port Llast and sold on to local alchemists.

BENIGHTBITE Listed on the wiki's poison category as a named Realms poison, but its individual page carries no substantive lore text beyond the category listing itself. Minimal lore available.

BITTERMINT A poison meant to be mixed into alcoholic drinks, brewed like tea in boiling water from a secret blend of mosses, fungi, and tree bark or shrub samples. A colored, watery liquid with a faint bitter mint taste, which is where it gets its name. Strength of effect depends on concentration and how long it's been steeping in the alcohol.

BLACK LOTUS EXTRACT Contact poison, one of the deadliest in the game. Deals serious initial Constitution damage and equally serious secondary damage, capable of ending a character in a single exposure.

BLACKROOT An herb native to the Underdark, distilled into a paralytic poison. Notably, a person can build up immunity to it by ingesting small quantities over a long period of time. Sought after by the drow, who harvest the small twisted root and grind it into powder for distillation.

BLACKWEED A highly potent slow-acting poison, pale yellow in its pure form, dissolves unnoticeably in water. Following ingestion it has no immediate effect, but after twelve or more hours the victim begins to feel pain that grows from irritating to agonizing, and within 24 hours they're dead. A single small vial is potent enough to kill an entire town's worth of people if introduced to a water supply, and it has been used for exactly that in Realms history (the Iron Throne's plot against the village of Ghars).

BLOOD OF GRUUMSH A ritual wine associated with worshippers of Gruumsh, consumed by orc warbands as part of their preparations for battle. In 1374 DR, the orc champion Vhazror and a war party of ten orc warriors drank it in the throne room of the Xul-Jarak citadel while awaiting the arrival of the orog warlord Thrull.

BLOOD OF TYCHE A swirling potion, bottled in golden vials, that is equal parts liquid luck and deadly poison. Drinking it grants the imbiber good fortune at the cost of suppressing their body's natural ability to heal. Associated with the church of Tymora, goddess of luck, and her predecessor Tyche.

BLOODBERRY BUSH A shrub growing on the plains surrounding the Battle of Bones, identifiable by reddish-purple berries and heart-shaped reddish-green leaves. Every part of the plant is severely poisonous, whether the twigs are chewed, the leaves brewed into tea, or even the wood burned as campfire fuel, which produces toxic smoke that can swell eyes shut and taint food cooked over it. Surviving a dose still leaves the victim seriously ill. Despite this, bloodberries are reputed to be an ingredient in a tart Turmishite apple and bloodberry pie, though it is unclear whether the pie uses a different, non-toxic bloodberry variety or a preparation method that neutralizes the poison, and the fruit is easily confused with similar, edible goblinberries that grow in the same region.

BLOODBITE A deadly poison, though by the late 14th century DR enough people had developed resistance to it that its lethality had become inconsistent. Delivered via poisoned crossbow bolt in at least one documented case.

BLOWFISH VENOM A highly toxic substance extracted from blowfish native to the Nelanther Isles in the Sea of Swords, must be ingested or introduced into the bloodstream through a wound to be deadly. Onset begins with nausea and shortness of breath, killing within minutes. Treatment requires a vinegar-based antivenom followed immediately by priestly or medical aid. Sailors and pirates of the Nelanther Isles were known to keep vials of it on hand.

BRAIN-BURN A deadly poison notable for a specific magical side effect: it ruins any chance of drawing information from the victim's corpse through divination magic afterward, killing instantly and rendering the body unreadable. The moneylender Caethur used brain-burn on his weapons to assassinate a string of debtors in early spring of the Year of Rogue Dragons, 1373 DR, including two of his own bodyguards.

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CALAD A golden, opaque liquid derived from the cranial fluids of basilisks, catoblepas, and disenchanters. Causes short-term distorted hearing and vision in its victims, while its alien chemical composition simultaneously eats away at their insides.

CALLING (POISON) A magical drow poison, a thick black paste made by magically binding aboleth mucus with small spider eggs. It must be eaten to work and is concealed inside food, disguised well enough that only a skilled cook is likely to notice anything wrong with the dish. A victim who eats it finds a swarm of spiders hatching inside their stomach; creating a dose requires genuine skill as a poisoner plus a summon swarm spell, making it one of the Realms' magically engineered poisons rather than a naturally derived one.

CARRION CRAWLER BRAIN JUICE Contact poison extracted from carrion crawlers. Causes paralysis rather than death, fitting the creature's own hunting style of immobilizing prey to eat later.

CHOKEMIST Also known as Breath of Talona, both a subterranean plant and the toxic spore mist it produces, found in the jungles of Samarach. The plant continually releases its spores, an extremely poisonous and addictive substance that causes irrational behavior and delirium in small doses. Regular exposure builds a resistance to poison in general, but the resistance comes bundled with a dependency so severe that creatures die quickly without continued exposure to the spores. By 1374 DR the plant had been driven to near extinction in Samarach, since its fumes kill almost anything that breathes them, leaving only a handful of caves where it still grows wild.

CYANIDE A poisonous substance known in the Realms, notable mainly as one of the liquids a magical alchemy jug can be commanded to produce in small quantity. Referenced in the poison-heavy Realms novel Dangerous Games alongside arsenic and belladonna.

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DARK NAGA POISON A thick, black, viscous venom extracted from the tail barb of a dark naga, either after the creature's death or secreted voluntarily during combat, when its tail visibly drips with the stuff. Not deadly. Injected into the bloodstream through the naga's sting or a poisoned weapon, it drops the victim into a deep, drugged slumber lasting two to eight minutes, leaving them unsteady and groggy for roughly fifteen minutes after waking.

DEADLY FEVERBLANCH Listed on the wiki's poison category as a named Realms poison, but its individual page carries no substantive lore text beyond the category listing itself. Minimal lore available.

DEATHCAP MUSHROOM An unassuming but deadly fungus native to the Savage Frontier in Northwest Faerun, nearly indistinguishable from the harmless mushroom varieties growing in the same caverns along the northern coast, sharing their grey stalk, skirt, and green cap, only slightly larger. Deathcaps taste delicious, which is precisely what makes them treacherous.

DEVA'S BILE A dangerous alcohol brewed in the Abyssal city of Samora, on the layer of Azzagrat, hard to find outside that city's breweries. Deadly to visitors from the Prime Material plane; the rare mortal who survives a dose is left in a violent, roaring drunken rage that eventually gives way to equally violent illness.

DRAGON BILE Contact poison, one of the more expensive and dangerous substances on any poison list, dealing heavy Strength damage. Extracted specifically from dragons.

DRAGONBANE (POISON) A bright blue, opaque liquid made from a mixture of the blood of three different types of dragon. Used to best effect against actual dragons, who find themselves briefly unable to breathe after being dosed. Legendary and rare enough that it is far more often counterfeited than genuinely found.

DREAMBLISS A potent, addictive, sleep-inducing poison common in the Free Cities of Zakhara, where wealthy locals also used it recreationally. A small dose costs 200-500 gp in the Free Cities themselves, rising to as much as 1,000 gp in distant Dihliz. It's distilled from the white sap of a thick-leafed plant found only in shaded valleys of the Furrowed Mountains. Victims fall within minutes into the "Sleep of Bliss," a deep sleep lasting several hours, and wake recalling fantastic visions they long to re-experience, which is part of what makes it so addictive. It can be applied to a bladed weapon.

DROW KNOCKOUT POISON An injury-delivered poison from drow poison-crafters, distinct from general "drow poison." Renders the victim unconscious for an extended period rather than killing them, consistent with drow preference for capture over slaughter.

DWARFBANE A gummy, oily poison lethal to dwarves and, notably, to dwarves specifically. It does not dry out, though it loses potency after about thirty days. Duergar of the Underdark are completely immune to it and routinely coat darts and other weapons with it, particularly in traps set for surface dwarves. One of the sixteen poison formulas recorded in The Nathlum. Race-selective poisons are a recurring idea in the Realms: huld works only on non-humanoids, varrakas and orvas affect all mammals, and witchweed affects only arcane spellcasters.

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ELIXIR OF THE VOID A poisonous concoction used by the Church of Shar in their initiation rituals, notable for how mundane it actually is beneath its grand name: just poison mixed into strong wine to mask the bitter taste. After a new initiate is welcomed into the temple, they're presented with the Elixir and forced to drink it if they won't do so willingly. Short term, it causes disorientation and confusion that makes the poisoned initiate more suggestible and easier to control during the rest of the ritual; left untreated, it's eventually lethal.

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FIRETHORN A red-thorned plant that gives the Island of Firethorns its distinctive red coloration, growing so densely along the island's lower slopes that it forms a natural barrier around it. Its thorns carry a dangerous poison, and the plants themselves give off natural heat and glow softly.

FOXGLOVE A wildflower of the digitalis family carrying both medicinal and poisonous qualities, its small bell-shaped flowers ranging in color from red to lavender. Foxglove plants are known to spawn nightshades, elemental spirits tied to poisonous plants. Like its real-world counterpart, it's used medicinally as a heart stimulant and kidney treatment, ground into a sweet-tasting extract; too much of the same extract causes confusion, hallucinations, and eventual heart failure.

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GIANT WASP POISON Injury poison, standard DMG-style entry (DC 18, Dexterity damage). Extracted from giant wasps.

GOBLINBERRY BUSH A shrub growing on the plains around the Battle of Bones in the Western Heartlands, with reddish-purple berries and narrow, near-black dark-green leaves with silver undersides. The berries are sour and strongly astringent, potent enough that eating them often causes the throat to swell shut and the victim to suffocate, which is why they're generally classed as a poison. Stewed, diluted with water, and sweetened heavily with sugar or honey, though, the same berries make a tasty drink. Easily confused with the similar-looking, genuinely toxic bloodberries that grow in the same region.

GREEN SLEEPING DUST An extremely potent sleep-inducing drug made from parts of the bija tree, native to the Quang Muku Forest in Koryo, Kara-Tur. Anyone who inhales it cannot resist falling asleep.

GREENSLEEP MUSHROOM A green fungus found around the Moonsea that can be ground into a powder, causing drowsiness roughly two hours after being consumed. Rumored to be used by agents of the Cult of the Dragon for darker purposes.

GURRY SHARK A large scavenger shark found in the Sea of Moving Ice. Its meat is poisonous if not properly prepared, causing something like a drunken stupor when eaten; the standard preparation involves fermenting and drying the meat over a period of many months before it's safe to eat, not unlike real-world Greenland shark or fermented hakarl.

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HELLEBORE A real-world-parallel toxic herb, listed among the poisonous plants (alongside belladonna and foxglove) catalogued in the 3rd-edition sourcebook Masters of the Wild. Minimal lore available beyond that listing.

HEMLOCK (SHRUB) The wiki's poison category lists a "Hemlock (shrub)" entry distinct from the separately documented hemlock tree found in places like the Starwood region of Cormanthor. Minimal lore available beyond the category listing itself.

HOREL A drug and poison distilled from a freshwater lily pad plant called halfling's hand, also known as oxhrel, mixed in a closely guarded proportion with powdered horseradish. The resulting green liquid is harmless on skin contact or even ingestion, but if it enters the bloodstream through a wound or a coated weapon, the victim is struck with violent convulsions that make fighting back or performing any task requiring a steady hand essentially impossible.

HULD Also known as "Deathdance" or "Leap," an odorless oil effective on non-humanoid creatures but useless against demihumans and humans, working only through skin contact rather than injury or ingestion. It causes severe muscle spasms, nausea, and loss of motor control, balance, and speech, though the victim's mind stays entirely clear throughout the fit. Survivors become almost completely resistant to a second dose for a week or more afterward. One of the sixteen poison formulas recorded in The Nathlum.

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IMVRIS A transparent liquid with a faint purple tint and a peppery floral scent, distilled from the crushed petals of twelve different jungle flowers. Most effective ingested or introduced through a wound, causing immediate paralysis lasting a few hours; mere skin contact causes only momentary paralysis with no lasting effect. A victim can be kept paralyzed with repeated doses for up to about seven hours total, but any further exposure beyond that point completely reverses the poison and grants twelve hours of immunity to it, along with unusually acute hearing.

INFERNAL DEATH A disease outbreak, not strictly a poison, that struck the Shoon Imperium in the 4th century DR. Sufferers experienced mania and mild fevers, with an unsettling heightening of color in their eyes, hair, and skin that made them look deceptively healthy right up until sudden death. Most disturbingly, victims' corpses would spontaneously combust after death, sometimes starting fires.

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JESSERET A purple powder with a strong peppery flavor that numbs the tongue, typically hidden in spicy dishes to mask its presence. Made by boiling a secret combination of ingredients, at least seven according to the famed guidebook author Volothamp Geddarm, including a particular species of snail. A batch stays potent for about ten days before losing effectiveness. Usually fatal, though most goblinkin carry partial immunity and it doesn't work at all on minotaurs or lizardfolk.

JETEYE A glossy black liquid, poisonous if ingested, named both for its color and for the effect that follows: the victim's eyes turn jet black. It also immediately damages neural receptors, killing all sensation of pain and touch for several minutes, which paradoxically makes it useful as an anesthetic for treating severe wounds. Effective against any mammal. One of the sixteen poison formulas recorded in The Nathlum.

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KAURDYL Listed on the wiki both as a poison and, separately, as a spice, but its individual page carries no substantive dedicated lore text beyond those category listings. Minimal lore available.

KELEMVOR'S KISS A poisonous shrub growing deep in the wildest forests of Shadowdale in the Dalelands, its thorns secreting a potent, lethal poison that kills anywhere from a matter of hours to two full days after exposure. The only known treatment is a solution of boiled mugwort prepared in theriac and blessed by the god Silvanus, called the Elixir of Silvanus.

KHAMSIN A potent magical contact poison from Zakhara, smelling faintly of honey, favored by the Holy Slayer assassins known as the Wind of Fate. Often applied to darts, or deceptively smeared on the hilts of weapons offered as gifts. Once it makes contact with skin, the victim literally crumbles to dust within minutes.

KLAUTHGRASS A rare herb, found only in the Moonshae Isles, used to brew a truth-serum drug. It has a distinctive smell detectable when mixed into food or drink, though it's said not to alter the taste. To work as a truth-compelling poison it must be harvested under a full moon.

KURARI A poison of the wild halflings of Maztica, potent enough to kill trolls outright, which made it extremely valuable given how prized troll blood already was for its regenerative properties. The name is a clear echo of real-world curare, the plant-derived paralytic poison historically used on arrow tips by Indigenous peoples of South America.

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LHURDAS Also known as "the yellow death" or "Beltyn's Last Drink," a wine-based poison with a sharp, dry white-grape flavor that mixes readily into white wine. It reacts with stomach acid to eat away at internal organ tissue, causing rapid nausea, convulsions, and severe cramping and burning pain within moments of ingestion, though the damage tapers off after the initial attack. One of the sixteen poison formulas recorded in The Nathlum.

LICHNEE POTION Also called a potion of transformation, a highly poisonous mixture an aspiring lich must drink as part of the ritual to achieve lichdom. The recipe is genuinely grim: drops of pure arsenic and belladonna distillate, blood from a human infant killed by wyvern venom, blood from a non-human infant killed by a phase spider, blood from someone infected with vampirism, a simmered heart from a virgin humanoid killed by a combined arsenic-and-belladonna poisoning, ground reproductive glands from six giant moths, and fresh phase spider and wyvern venom, all mixed in a precise order under a full moon. The drinker must finish the full dose within six minutes of preparation and within seven days of the potion's creation. Side effects of an imperfect brew range from a week-long coma to permanent blindness, deafness, or muteness, and there's better than a one-in-ten chance the whole ritual simply fails, which can kill the drinker outright.

LORBRAL (LORBRALINTH) Also known as "lorbral" for short, a sweet-smelling, clear, oily poison made from the spittle of no fewer than sixteen different monsters, including basilisks and leucrotta. Touching it does no harm, but ingesting it or being struck by a lorbral-coated weapon causes alternating waves of chill and fever.

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MALEFIC MEAD A dangerous alcoholic drink from the Abyssal city of Samora, on the layer of Azzagrat, rare and difficult to find anywhere else. Deadly to visitors from the Prime Material plane; the rare mortal who survives a dose is left in a roaring drunken rage that eventually gives way to equally violent illness. Effectively a mead-flavored cousin of Baatezu Blood Wine and Deva's Bile from the same city.

MANRIKI A stout, flowering, berry-bearing bush native to the Malatran Plateau of Kara-Tur, virtually indistinguishable from the edible biseechee shrub except for its deeper red berries and three-petal flowers. Despite tasting sweet and delicious, manriki berries are dangerously poisonous to most humanoids of the Living Jungle, causing disorientation, biliousness, and headache, sometimes followed by temporary blindness that clears within half an hour.

MEDIUM SPIDER VENOM Standard injury poison, DC 14, Strength damage. Extracted from medium-sized spiders.

MORDAYN A rare herb whose ground leaves, steeped in boiling water, produce the hallucinogenic drug dreammist (also called mordayn vapor). The raw herb itself, whether taken as tea, eaten whole, or ground into powder, is a lethal poison in its own right, distinct from the intended inhaled use of the vapor.

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NIGHTVIPER VENOM A poison extracted from the fangs of the nightviper, a venomous snake native to the Nelanther Isles, harvested by pirates and sold to merchants in Skullport and Waterdeep for around 600 gp a dose. A milky white liquid with a slightly sweet taste, it retains its potency when mixed into water or alcohol and can also be delivered through a coated weapon. Rather than killing outright, it impairs judgment, ranging from lowered inhibitions and poor decisions up to a full stupor.

NUMBFISH JELLY VENOM One of several thick, milky white, slightly sweet knockout poisons sourced through Skullport and Waterdeep merchants. Mixed easily into water or alcohol, it degrades the drinker's faculties and typically ends in unconsciousness rather than death.

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OIL OF TAGGIT A contact or ingested poison used specifically to render a person or creature unconscious without causing any physical harm. Could be administered into food or drink, or used to coat a piercing or slashing weapon. Favored for kidnapping and interrogation over killing. Roughly 400 gp per dose.

OLEANDER Also known as nerium, a species of poisonous flowering shrub with star-shaped pink petals, growing across both Faerun and Kara-Tur. Wild oleander grows in the oases of Anauroch, the Great Desert, while a black oleander variant grows abundantly in the Shadow-cursed Lands of the Western Heartlands. Black oleander flowers are often planted in graveyards and given to the gravely ill, but their real value is alchemical: their sap can be extracted into a syrupy, sweet-smelling vitriol used to brew elixirs of necrotic resistance.

ORVAS A bittersweet, translucent green liquid, poisonous by ingestion but usually introduced directly into the bloodstream through a wound. Acts immediately and briefly if injected, or after a delay of several hours if swallowed. Effective against any mammal. Useful as an antidote to varrakas if administered before that poison fully takes hold. One of the sixteen poison formulas recorded in The Nathlum.

OSSSRA Oils created by yuan-ti spellcasters for a wide range of practical and recreational uses, burned in pots or braziers and inhaled as ember-colored, richly scented smoke, often in dedicated basking chambers. Different types of osssra carry different scents and effects; most are poisonous to humans and other non-yuan-ti races, capable of enfeebling the mind, causing unconsciousness, or proving outright fatal, while offering benefits to yuan-ti themselves.

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PAUPER'S POISON A weak poison extracted from creatures native to the Nelanther Isles, harvested by pirates and sold to merchants in Skullport and Waterdeep for around 40 gp a dose. A cloudy, sweet-tasting white liquid that mixes into water or alcohol, it has no immediate effect, but victims soon feel like they've been thrown off a cart and kicked by a mule.

PERANOX A deadly contact poison from south Faerun with a distinct, potent cinnamon smell, commonly kept in small wax-sealed vials and favored by the assassins' guild known as the Fire Knives, who coated their blades with it. In 1357 DR, the sellsword Alias of Westgate recovered two vials of peranox looted from Fire Knife assassins sent after her. One of those vials later ended up in the pockets of the halfling bard Olive Ruskettle, who threatened to drink the poison in front of the red dragon Mistinarperadnacles "Mist" Hai Draco, then threw the vial into the dragon's open mouth mid-battle, very nearly killing her before a saurial paladin's healing saved the dragon's life.

POSITOXIN A category of alchemical poison, distilled with holy water and laced with positive energy, that affects corporeal undead the way ordinary poison affects the living, breaking down their bodies and disrupting the negative energy animating them. Harmless to any living creature or to incorporeal undead, and rendered inert by an antimagic field. Spells like detect poison, delay poison, and neutralize poison treat positoxins as poisons for the purpose of their effects.

POTION OF DRACOLICH TRANSFORMATION A magical potion, created by the Cult of the Dragon, that a living dragon must drink as part of the ritual to become an undead dracolich, taken only after the dragon's phylactery has been prepared. Each batch is custom-brewed for the individual dragon drinking it, but every version calls for seven arcane ingredients including vampire blood, a potion of evil dragon control, a potion of invulnerability, and the ichor of a ghost. Poisonous to any creature other than a dragon, and even to the intended dragon drinker the process is so severe that survival is far from guaranteed.

POTION OF POISON A magic item, an uncommon potion disguised by illusion magic to be indistinguishable from a beneficial potion.

PRESPRA Also called "Mother's Bane," a colorless, odorless ingested poison effective only against humans, mixing readily with any drinkable liquid except milk or other dairy products. Causes dizziness and blurred vision, along with blotchy red patches where blood vessels burst under the skin. One of the sixteen poison formulas recorded in The Nathlum.

PURPLE WORM TOXIN Extracted from a purple worm's unique and highly toxic digestive system (its gullet specifically). Among the strongest poisons in Faerun. A needle dipped in a sufficiently potent vial can destroy a victim's brain and collapse their capillaries with a single prick. Delivered through a wound, it saps the victim's strength.

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QUAKER'S BUTTON Listed on the wiki as both a poison and a tree, but its individual page carries no substantive dedicated lore text beyond those category listings. Minimal lore available.

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ROCKSTINGER A highly poisonous, notably ugly fish, whose venom serves as an effective natural defense against predators and, in the hands of assassins, an equally effective weapon. Even a light nick from a poison-coated blade causes agonizing, scream-inducing burning pain, followed by painful muscle contractions and vomiting, with residual aches and fatigue lingering for days afterward. During the mid-15th century DR, the assassin Barrabus the Gray used rockstinger poison while working for Herzgo Alegni, once inflicting it on a helpless guard purely to intimidate Lord Hugo Babris of Neverwinter.

RUBY BLUSHROSE A flowering plant found in the Rose Garden at the Battle of Bones and elsewhere on Toril, with large, thornless, bright red blooms. Its pleasant aroma makes most humans blush, which disguises the fact that the scent is itself an airborne poison. Prolonged exposure causes debilitating exhaustion and light-headedness, effects some romantics mistake for the feeling of falling in love.

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SACRED LIZARDFOLK POISON An unnamed poison sacred to the lizardfolk god Semuanya, used by the Poison Dusk lizardfolk of the Vast Swamp in Cormyr on their arrows to incapacitate enemies rather than kill them outright, causing instant paralysis lasting two to twelve minutes. Kessessek, chieftain of the Sharptooth lizardfolk, later refused to share the poison's secret with adventurers, citing its sacred status.

SAISHA A paralyzing poison available to the Zhentarim in the mid-to-late 14th century DR. In 1369 DR, the Zhentarim leader Calivar Murpeth used it on a man he believed was an ordinary informant, not realizing his target was actually Storm Silverhand, one of the legendary Seven Sisters, disguised by magic.

SALARN Listed on the wiki's poison category as a named Realms poison, tied to the same Ed Greenwood short story collection Silverfall that produced Saisha; a variant called "sleep-salarn" is referenced in that book's word index, suggesting a sleep-inducing use, but no dedicated wiki article expands on it beyond the category listing. Minimal lore available.

SALDRUTH'S VIPER VENOM One of several thick, milky white, slightly sweet knockout poisons sourced through Skullport and Nelanther Isles merchants. Mixed into water or alcohol, it degrades the drinker's faculties and usually ends in unconsciousness rather than death.

SANGUIS ANIMA Latin for "Blood of the Soul," an alchemical fluid that doubles as both a potent poison and a means of enhancing flesh golems, extending their lifespan and physical vigor. Producing it requires an alchemical laboratory and ingredients found only in the Underdark, including giant myconid fungus spores and a silvery, heatless, viscous fluid pooled in certain caverns. The process is dangerous enough that a botched attempt poisons the alchemist.

SHADOW ESSENCE Standard injury poison, DC 17, deals Strength damage initially and Strength damage again as secondary effect.

SILVER SPARK A poison sometimes used by Holy Slayer assassins of the Soft Whisper in Zakhara. Takes the form of a radiant vapor rumored to be distilled from moonlight and bottled passion, with a rich, musky aroma that victims find nearly impossible to resist breathing in once a Holy Slayer offers it to them. Inhaling it causes intense, prolonged pain throughout the body.

SILVER STAKE GAS BOMBS Not a poison in the traditional sense but an allergy-inducing weapon, developed by the Silver Stake, a lycanthrope-hunting organization based near Baldur's Gate and led by the elderly priestess Karel Mahorne. The bombs are small, tightly sealed pouches faintly radiating abjuration magic, pressurized with substances lycanthropes are allergic to: always a silver or copper base, paired with an active ingredient tailored to the target, wolfsbane for werewolves, fennel for werejackals, and so on. Thrown against a hard surface, a bomb bursts and scatters its contents across a roughly 15-foot radius, inducing severe coughing and sneezing in any lycanthrope caught in the blast for about a minute, making capture rather than killing the goal.

SINDARI A poisonous herb native to Thay, used to brew a powerful poison that shows no symptoms for a full 24 hours. Once that delay passes, the victim is struck with violent seizures, with death expected within a couple of minutes.

SKULLCAP MUSHROOM A lethal Underdark fungus, dangerous on contact even raw, cultivated specifically by drow poison-makers. The drow of Zesraena grow skullcaps throughout their settlement for this purpose.

SLARKFISH VENOM A poison extracted from the fangs or spines of slarkfish, harvested by Nelanther Isles pirates and sold to merchants in Skullport and Waterdeep for around 100 gp a dose. A cloudy white liquid with a faintly sweet taste that retains its potency mixed into water or alcohol.

SLEEP-SMOKE A dark-gray, smoky gas that renders anyone who breathes it unconscious for up to four minutes, dissipating quickly and covering an area about 20 feet across when released. A single dose costs around 25 gp. Favored by agents of the Xanathar Thieves' Guild in Waterdeep, specifically for capturing or kidnapping targets quietly.

SLEEPING POISON A broad category of poisons across the Realms designed to knock a victim unconscious rather than kill them. The drow are famous for their own sleeping poison, also called drow knockout poison, hard to find outside drow territory and coated on hand crossbow bolts. Sprites are noted experts at brewing their own sleep toxins. The sunset rose, a flowering plant in the Rose Garden at the Battle of Bones, has jagged leaves that impart a poison capable of knocking a victim out for hours.

SRINDYM An iridescent silver liquid, created by elves millennia ago and historically used by less principled members of that race against "lesser" races. Very few people know how to make it or where surviving caches are kept, making it rare and expensive. Works via injury, contact, and ingestion simultaneously. Elves (including drow) are immune; half-elves are highly resistant. The recipe is a closely guarded secret involving elven blood, moonlight, the casting of multiple spells, and several plant ingredients.

SSSARTISSS A mixed poison distilled by the yuan-ti, a sticky, transparent liquid with a tangy flavor that forms a thin, grooved film on its surface when exposed to air while remaining fluid and potent underneath for decades. Made by blending the venoms of several different venomous snakes, a genuinely difficult feat since most snake toxins interfere with each other when combined. Injected into the bloodstream, it can cause paralysis in under ten seconds.

STAERADDER Listed on the wiki's poison category as a named Realms poison, but its individual page carries no substantive lore text beyond the category listing itself. Minimal lore available.

STINGRAY POISON A venom produced by and extracted from stingrays. Not necessarily fatal but still potent, causing paralysis lasting thirty seconds to two minutes if it enters the bloodstream, along with nausea and Constitution damage; healthy victims typically recover fully within one to two days, though a healer's aid is recommended.

SUNSET ROSE A flowering plant in the Rose Garden at the Battle of Bones, with jagged-edged leaves sharp enough to cut exposed flesh easily. Those leaves carry a potent sleep poison; a cut from one knocks a victim out for hours, and a high enough dose can stop the victim from breathing altogether.

SWAMP MOSS Listed on the wiki under Poisons, Mosses, and Medicines alike, though its actual documented effect runs the other way from most entries on this list: a species of medicinal moss growing in the Mere of Dead Men near West Harbor, which acts as a weak potion of healing when consumed.

SWIFTSLEEP A common, cheap, and widely available poison, a sticky, viscous liquid resembling brown-ale-colored honey. Made from duskwood tree sap infused with a distillate of crushed flies and common tree beetles, using ingredients simple and abundant enough to keep the price low. Must enter the bloodstream, typically via a wound from an edged weapon or arrow, to work; the victim drops into gentle, immediate unconsciousness lasting many minutes on a first exposure. Each subsequent dose grows progressively less effective, until repeated victims become fully immune.

T

TIMMASK A very rare, odorous Underdark fungus known colloquially as "the devil's mushroom." A squat toadstool about two feet wide and tall, beige with red and orange stripes, growing in small clusters of up to four. If heavily damaged or uprooted, it releases a spore cloud with a 15-foot radius. Anyone caught in the cloud must resist or be poisoned for about a minute, during which they act as though under the effect of a confusion spell. It can also enhance necromancy spells, increasing their effectiveness and doubling duration. A whole intact specimen sells for 5,000-8,000 gp in the Underdark (double that on the surface).

TONGUE OF MADNESS An edible Underdark fungus that resembles a large human tongue. Eating it forces the victim to compulsively speak every thought aloud for the next hour unless they resist. The effect can be ended early with lesser restoration or similar magic.

TULADE A poison brewed for mixing into alcoholic drinks, made from a secret combination of fungi, mosses, and bark from the Savage Frontier, boiled together in water. It has no discernible taste but leaves tiny black, oily-sheened bubbles in whatever drink it's mixed into, with strength depending on concentration and how long it's steeped.

U

UDDERFISH VENOM One of several thick, milky white, slightly sweet knockout poisons sourced through Skullport and Nelanther Isles merchants. Mixed into water or alcohol, it degrades the drinker's faculties and typically ends in unconsciousness rather than death.

ULCRUN A milky-white, viscous liquid effective on all warm-blooded creatures through skin contact alone, no ingestion or wound required. Roughly two rounds after contact it begins weakening and softening the victim's tendons, ligaments, bones, and cartilage, with the damage peaking a round later before tapering off; until the body heals, the victim suffers a lasting loss of Strength and Dexterity. One of the sixteen poison formulas recorded in The Nathlum.

V

VARRAKAS A thick, black, slightly oily syrup, usually added drop by drop to gravies or dark sauces to avoid detection, with effects that scale with the dose ingested. It enters the bloodstream disguised as a nutrient and does nothing for three to four hours after ingestion, at which point the damage occurs all at once. Effective against any mammal. One of the sixteen poison formulas recorded in The Nathlum.

VENOMTAIL POISON A potent poison used by assassins and hunters in Port Nyanzaru, Chult. Extracted from the giant, rare venomtail scorpions native to the Chultan jungle, especially around the River Soshenstar. Regarded as a trophy among hunters who harvest it themselves.

W

WANDERLOST A drug used to poison racing dinosaurs in Port Nyanzaru, Chult, during the buildup to a special race called Na N'buso's Haka. Several racers fell mysteriously ill before officials discovered the sabotage.

WORMWOOD Also known as absinthe, a fragrant herb found across the Realms, listed among poisonous plants in the arcane botanical text Herbarium Maleficum, written by Mage-Lord Colderan before 1367 DR. Inhabitants of Hammerkeep in north Faerun distill it, along with anise and other fragrant plants, into a bitter green liquor also called absinthe.

WYVERN POISON Standard injury poison, DC 17, Constitution damage delivered via wyvern stinger. One of the pricier "creature venom" entries on most tables.

Y

YARBERRY A deadly poisonous red berry native to Thay, one of the most abundant and well-known plants in the country during the mid-14th century DR. Unripe berries are harmless, but they turn a bright, distinctive red as they ripen, becoming intensely poisonous. That same vivid red was striking enough that Thayans used "yarberry" as a byword for beautiful, desirable shades of color.

YELLOW URCHIN EXTRACT A poison harvested by aquatic humanoids from a species of sea urchin, valued specifically because it can be delivered by inhalation underwater, unlike most poisons. A thick, milky fluid that, released underwater, forms a ten-foot poison cloud lasting ten minutes in still water or one minute in a strong current, affecting any water-breathing creature that passes through it. A single vial costs around 800 gp.

YIMNA A rare medicine and poison from the Free Cities of north Zakhara, a yellow powder derived from the pollen of specific wild cactus flowers. In small doses it works as a mild tranquilizer used to help induce sleep; larger doses deepen the sedation considerably.

Z

ZABOU MUSHROOM A species of mushroom native to Chult, with poisonous spores that cause severe itching rather than lethal harm, more nuisance and hazard than weapon.

OTHER

MIDNIGHT TEARS An ingested poison, expensive at around 1,500 gp a dose, with a signature delayed-action gimmick: it produces no effect at all until the stroke of midnight. If not neutralized before then, the victim suffers heavy poison damage all at once, making it ideal for poisoning a specific target at a crowded gathering without anyone noticing until it's far too late. A vial can be brewed by mixing the bodies of two hellwasps, insect-like devils from the Nine Hells, with tar. The shadow dragon Umbraxakar of Undermountain kept midnight tears in his hoard, and the Chultan hunter Bag of Nails carried a dose while searching Omu for an artifact that might help him find his long-lost son.

A DM’s crunch reference: baseline 5.5e homebrew conventions, and a full Nimble RPG conversion.

WHAT IS NIMBLE?

Nimble is a standalone tactical fantasy RPG designed by Evan Diaz, originally built as a set of house-rule modifications for D&D 5e and expanded through Kickstarter campaigns in 2023 and 2024 into a full system in its own right. It is fully compatible with existing 5e monsters and modules, but replaces the Action, Bonus Action, and Reaction split with a single pool of three Actions per turn, spent however the player likes. It is rules-light by design, aimed at cutting 5e’s bookkeeping and decision paralysis while keeping tactical depth.

Important: Nimble has no official firearms rules, any more than 5.5e does. It is a fantasy adventure game. Every stat block in the Nimble sections of this guide is homebrew, built specifically because Nimble’s three-Action structure happens to be an unusually good fit for representing guns, not because the designer intended it that way.

Worth flagging: this guide isn’t the only firearms homebrew floating around for Nimble. Nimble Nexus, a fan hub operating under Nimble’s official Third-Party Creator License, already hosts cyberpunk-flavored classes like the Rigger and the Netrunner that reference firearms and cyberware homebrew circulating in the Nimble Discord. It’s a genuinely active community building on the system in exactly this direction, and worth checking out alongside this guide.

HISTORICAL PRECEDENT

Firearms are not a foreign graft onto D&D’s DNA. The Braunstein games that predate Blackmoor include Brownstone, a Wild West scenario refereed by Duane Jenkins in which Dave Arneson played the bandit El Pauncho opposite Dave Fant’s lawman, Marshal Fant, a literal gunfight at the root of the family tree that produced D&D. Arneson’s own Blackmoor campaign ran with gunpowder weapons and steam power, and by his account included a tank for a while. Gary Gygax put laser pistols and rifles into the official 1980 AD&D module Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. The absence of modern firearms from the 5.5e core rules is a publishing decision about today’s default experience, not a reflection of the game’s own origins.

CORE RULES AT A GLANCE

Action economy

- 5.5e: 1 Action, 1 Bonus Action, 1 Reaction

- Nimble: 3 Actions per turn

Official firearm support

- 5.5e: Pistol and Musket only (Renaissance-era)

- Nimble: None. It’s a fantasy adventure game with no firearms rules at all.

Reload (homebrew, this guide)

- 5.5e: Reload (X) property; reload as an Action

- Nimble: Reload is 1 Action, same cost as firing

Burst fire (homebrew, this guide)

- 5.5e: 1 Action, ~10 ammo, 10-ft cube/line, DC 15 Dex save

- Nimble: 1-2 Actions + ammo, 10-ft cube/line, Dex save vs normal damage

Full auto / suppression (homebrew, this guide)

- 5.5e: 2 Actions, 15-30+ ammo, disadvantage or forced cover

- Nimble: 2-3 Actions + 15-30+ ammo, disadvantage or forced cover

Recoil after burst/auto (optional rule, this guide)

- 5.5e: penalty on next action unless you brace or use a stabilizing tag

- Nimble: identical rule, works the same way

Weapon identity system

- 5.5e: Weapon Mastery (see glossary below)

- Nimble: Tags (see glossary below)

Ammo tracking

- 5.5e: Per magazine (Reload X) or abstracted

- Nimble: Per magazine, abstracted “Low Ammo” complication when empty

Every firearm stat block in this guide, for both systems, is homebrew. Nimble’s three-Action economy simply turns out to be a good structural fit for representing guns, which is why it’s the primary focus here, not because it ships with any native support for them.

WEAPON PROPERTIES GLOSSARY

Homebrew gun stats don’t invent new combat tricks. They reuse whatever identity system each game already has: Weapon Mastery in 5.5e, Tags in Nimble. Both are listed here in full, since knowing what a property actually does matters more than knowing which weapon carries it.

5.5e Weapon Mastery

- Vex: On a hit, gain advantage on your next attack roll against that same target before the end of your next turn.

- Slow: On a hit, the target’s speed is reduced by 10 feet until the start of your next turn.

- Push: On a hit, the target is pushed up to 10 feet directly away from you.

- Topple: On a hit, the target must succeed on a Constitution save or be knocked prone.

- Graze: If your attack roll misses, you still deal damage to the target equal to your relevant ability modifier.

- Sap: On a hit, the target has disadvantage on its next attack roll before the start of your next turn. Commonly paired with less-lethal ammunition.

Nimble Tags

- Reliable: Keeps functioning normally in mud, dust, water, or other adverse conditions without a malfunction risk.

- Concealable: Can be hidden on a person without turning a Perception check into a problem.

- Modular: Accepts different sights, barrels, and furniture without changing the weapon’s underlying stats. Reskin freely.

- High Accuracy: Grants a genuine mechanical bonus (advantage or a flat bonus) to hit at long range, rather than just a bigger damage die.

- Low Recoil: Reduces or removes penalties on follow-up shots or after a burst.

- Burst Fire: The weapon can spend extra Actions and ammunition to attack an area instead of a single target. See Burst & Full Auto Quick Reference.

- Suppressive: A stronger version of Burst Fire found on machine guns; boosts the size or duration of the area it locks down.

- Versatile Ammo: Accepts multiple ammunition types with different effects, most commonly seen on shotguns.

NIMBLE WEAPON CATEGORIES

Handguns (Sidearms)

Semi-Auto Pistol

- Damage: 1d10 piercing

- Range: Close/Medium

- Actions: 1

- Capacity/Reload: ~15 rounds; 1 Action reload

- Tags: Reliable, Concealable, Modular

Compact Pistol

- Damage: 1d10 piercing

- Range: Close

- Actions: 1

- Capacity/Reload: ~10-12 rounds; 1 Action reload

- Tags: Concealable

Revolver

- Damage: 1d10 piercing (1d12 with a hot load)

- Range: Close/Medium

- Actions: 1 (2 for a precision shot)

- Capacity/Reload: 6 rounds; 1-2 Action reload

- Tags: Reliable

Compact Revolver

- Damage: 1d10 piercing

- Range: Close

- Actions: 1

- Capacity/Reload: 6 rounds; 1-2 Action reload

- Tags: Concealable

Rifles & Carbines

Semi-Auto Rifle

- Damage: 1d12 piercing (2d8 on a controlled burst)

- Range: Medium/Long

- Actions: 1 (2 for burst)

- Capacity/Reload: ~30 rounds; 1 Action reload

- Tags: Burst Fire, Modular

Pistol Caliber Carbine

- Damage: 1d10 piercing

- Range: Close/Medium

- Actions: 1 (2 for burst on some models)

- Capacity/Reload: 20-30+ rounds; 1 Action reload

- Tags: Low Recoil, shares pistol ammo

Precision / Bolt-Action Rifle

- Damage: 2d8 or 2d10 piercing

- Range: Long/Very Long

- Actions: 1 (2 for a precision shot)

- Capacity/Reload: 5-10 rounds; 1 Action reload

- Tags: High Accuracy

Battle Rifle

- Damage: 2d10 piercing

- Range: Medium/Long

- Actions: 1 (2 for burst, select-fire)

- Capacity/Reload: 20 rounds; 1 Action reload

- Tags: Burst Fire, High Stopping Power

Lever-Action Rifle

- Damage: 1d12 to 2d10 piercing

- Range: Medium/Long

- Actions: 1

- Capacity/Reload: 5-10 rounds; 1-2 Action reload

- Tags: Reliable

Rimfire Trainer

- Damage: 1d6 or 1d8 piercing

- Range: Close/Medium

- Actions: 1

- Capacity/Reload: 10-25 rounds; 1 Action reload

- Tags: Low Recoil/Cost

Shotguns

Pump-Action Shotgun

- Damage: 2d6-2d8 (buckshot) or 2d10+ (slug)

- Range: Close/Medium

- Actions: 1 (2 for a follow-up)

- Capacity/Reload: 5-8+ rounds; 1-2 Action reload

- Tags: Versatile Ammo, Reliable

Semi-Automatic Shotgun

- Damage: Same as pump, by ammo type

- Range: Close/Medium

- Actions: 1

- Capacity/Reload: 5-8+ rounds; 1 Action reload

- Tags: Versatile Ammo

Break-Action Shotgun

- Damage: 2d6-2d10+ per barrel

- Range: Close/Medium

- Actions: 1 (2 to fire both barrels)

- Capacity/Reload: 1-2 rounds; quick break reload

- Tags: Simple, Double-Barrel

Machine Guns

Belt-fed automatic weapons that treat Burst Fire and full automatic suppression as their default mode, not an occasional trick.

Man-Portable Machine Gun

- Damage: 2d10 piercing

- Range: Medium/Long

- Actions: 1 (2-3 for Burst/Suppression)

- Capacity/Reload: 100-200 round belt; 2 Action reload

- Tags: Suppressive, Two-Handed

Crew-Served Machine Gun

- Damage: 2d10 piercing

- Range: Long/Very Long

- Actions: 1 (2-3 for Burst/Suppression)

- Capacity/Reload: 200+ round belt; 2 Action reload, second character recommended

- Tags: Suppressive, High Accuracy, Mounted

Crew-served guns trade mobility for a serious boost to accuracy and sustained rate of fire, and usually want a tripod or vehicle mount plus a second character feeding the belt to keep firing at their stated rate for more than a round or two.

Grenades & Launchers

Grenades solve a problem firearms structurally can’t: an attack that targets an area with a save instead of an attack roll against one creature.

Frag Grenade

- Effect: 3d6-4d6 damage, Dex save for half

- Area: 15-20 ft radius

- Action Cost: 1 Action to arm and throw

Incendiary Grenade

- Effect: Lingering fire damage each round in the area

- Area: 15-20 ft radius

- Action Cost: 1 Action

Flashbang

- Effect: Little to no damage; Con save or blinded and deafened for 1 round

- Area: 15-20 ft radius

- Action Cost: 1 Action

Smoke Grenade

- Effect: No damage; heavy obscurement for several rounds

- Area: 15-20 ft radius

- Action Cost: 1 Action

Grenade Launcher

- Effect: Delivers any grenade type at rifle-medium range instead of throwing range

- Area: Per grenade loaded

- Action Cost: 1 Action to fire, 1 Action to reload (separate from the host weapon)

None of these use a magazine-style ammo track. A character carries two or three grenades at most, and that scarcity does most of the balancing work on its own.

ENERGY WEAPONS (HOMEBREW, BOTH SYSTEMS)

Gary Gygax putting laser weapons into the official 1980 AD&D module Expedition to the Barrier Peaks gives energy weapons the same claim to a D&D table as any conventional firearm. These are homebrew in both 5.5e and Nimble and are best treated as rare finds (crashed ships, ruined vaults) rather than purchasable gear.

Laser

- Damage: 1d12 radiant/force

- Key Mechanic: No range penalty within its band; pairs with High Accuracy or Vex

- Drawback: Scattered or redirected by reflective surfaces

Ion

- Damage: 1d6 against living targets

- Key Mechanic: Massive bonus or disabling effect against constructs, robots, and magical or mechanical devices

- Drawback: Weak against living, unarmored targets

Gauss / Railgun

- Damage: 2d10 piercing

- Key Mechanic: Ignores armor and cover almost entirely (electromagnetic acceleration)

- Drawback: Slow charge cycle between shots

Particle Accelerator

- Damage: 3d10+ force/energy

- Key Mechanic: Highest raw damage on the list

- Drawback: Very limited shots before recharge; overheat/radiation risk if overused

SPECIALTY AMMUNITION (NIMBLE)

Load as a dedicated magazine or apply as a modifier. Treat as a limited resource with in-world restrictions (paperwork, cost, rarity) rather than a strict upgrade over standard ball ammunition.

Tracer: Advantage on follow-up shots or locating the shooter in low light. Drawback: reveals your position. Typical use: training, suppression, signaling.

Premium Hollow Point: +1d4 to +1d6 vs unarmored/flesh targets. Drawback: reduced effect vs armor/cover. Typical use: self-defense, stopping power.

Incendiary: +1d6 fire damage; may ignite flammables. Drawback: shorter range, fire risk. Typical use: anti-material, area denial.

Armor Piercing (AP): Ignores light/medium armor; full damage to objects. Drawback: lower damage vs soft targets. Typical use: anti-armor, vehicles, cover.

Steel Core / Penetrator: +2 damage vs objects, cover, armor. Drawback: standard damage vs unarmored. Typical use: barrier defeat, general military.

Frangible: Reduced ricochet/overpenetration. Drawback: shorter effective range. Typical use: home defense, confined spaces.

Bean Bag (Less-Lethal): 1d6-2d4 bludgeoning; save vs prone/stunned. Drawback: very short range, weak vs armor. Typical use: non-lethal capture, riot control.

Flechette / Long Rod: High penetration, ignores cover better. Drawback: specialized, expensive. Typical use: anti-armor, deep penetration.

Underwater: Functions normally underwater. Drawback: poor performance in air. Typical use: amphibious/aquatic scenarios.

Stacked (Duplex/Triplex): 2-3 projectiles per shot. Drawback: higher recoil/ammo use. Typical use: volume of fire, hit probability.

Caseless: No ejected cases; faster sustained fire. Drawback: cook-off risk, rarer. Typical use: stealth, high rate of fire.

BURST & FULL AUTO QUICK REFERENCE (NIMBLE)

- Controlled Burst: 1-2 Actions + ammo. 10-ft cube or line. Targets make a Dex save or take normal weapon damage.

- Full Auto / Suppression: 2-3 Actions + 15-30+ ammo. Larger area or line. Enemies in the zone have disadvantage or must spend an Action to take cover. High ammo drain; possible jam/overheat complication.

- Recoil Management: after a burst or auto attack, the next Action carries a penalty unless you brace (spend an Action) or the weapon has a bipod/stabilizing tag.

- Balance note: powerful against groups, but burns ammo fast. Reserve for genuinely dramatic moments, not every combat round.

FIREARM FINDER: USE-CASE QUICK GUIDE

Concealed Carry / CCW: Compact Pistol, Compact Revolver

Home Defense: Semi-Auto Pistol, Pump Shotgun, Pistol Caliber Carbine

CQB / Close Quarters: Pistol Caliber Carbine, short-barreled Rifle, Shotgun

Hunting / Precision: Bolt-Action or Lever-Action Rifle

Suppressive / Tactical: Semi-Auto Rifle with Burst Fire, Machine Gun

Competition / Fun: Pistol Caliber Carbine, Semi-Automatic Shotgun, Lever-Action Rifle

RUNNING FIREARMS AT THE TABLE

- Decide cost and legality up front. A firearm’s social weight in your setting is often more interesting than its stat block.

- Set expectations for burst and full auto before the first shot is fired. These mechanics are built to shred groups; used carelessly, they trivialize solo encounters too.

- Match the setting to the tech level. Renaissance settings absorb early firearms with little friction; a gun in a setting that has never seen gunpowder becomes a story hook in its own right.

- Introduce specialty ammunition as a resource, not a permanent upgrade. The tension of choosing the right load for the job is the point.

- Don’t convert the whole catalog before session one. Pick the handful of weapons your campaign actually needs and let the rest sit in reserve.

Sources: Adapted from the Modern Firearms Cheatsheet (cheatsheets.davidveksler.com/modern-firearms.html), community 5.5e homebrew conventions (Reload, Burst Fire, reused Weapon Mastery), and Nimble RPG’s action economy and tag system.

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Here’s how it works in practice:

You type a prompt. The system burns serious compute to generate the full video clip. Then it runs a post-generation moderation check. If the output trips the inconsistent, ever-shifting filter, the clip is blocked or deleted — and your quota is still deducted. Every failed attempt costs you. The successful ones feel like rare wins. This creates a perfect variable-ratio reinforcement loop: unpredictable rewards, built-in scarcity, and constant incentive to keep spinning.

This isn’t accidental; it’s a business model.

Early hype drove massive adoption. Demand spiked. Abuse followed. Instead of smart, targeted fixes, xAI responded with broad throttling, sudden limit cuts, and quota systems that punish normal users while wasting enormous compute on content that never gets delivered. Heavy tier at $300/month became the obvious upsell — the VIP section for those desperate for more pulls on the lever.

The social cost is brutal, to say nothing of the environmental cost from all those server farms being spawned like fresh fields of poppies and coca plants while the rainforest is getting slashed and burned.

This is digital crack: superstimulus content delivered through engineered compulsion. Users report hours vanishing chasing generations, fractured attention spans, escalating prompts that push boundaries further, and real emotional crashes when the daily or hourly limits slam shut. Relationships suffer. Productivity collapses. A generation already drowning in algorithmic dopamine is now mainlining AI-generated novelty at scale.

The manipulation is cynical. Market it as creative freedom and “truth-seeking.” Hook people with loose early limits. Then tighten the screws, waste their compute on invisible moderation failures, and offer paid relief. All while claiming to be the good guys fighting Big Tech censorship.

This is farming human weakness.

The fixes are obvious and embarrassingly straightforward:

• Stop deducting quota for post-generation moderations.

• Move filtering earlier so expensive compute isn’t wasted.

• Target actual abusers instead of blanket-punishing paying customers.

• Provide real transparency on limits and clear guidelines instead of bait-and-switch scarcity.

• Address that this is a digital addiction and take steps to prevent and treat it.

Until xAI implements them, Grok Imagine is cutting-edge AI only in that it leads the charge as a sophisticated attention-and-revenue extraction machine dressed up as innovation.

Unfortunately, the broader industry is heading in the same direction. We’re watching the birth of AI drug lords — companies that understand exactly how to hijack reward circuitry and monetize the resulting addiction. The social damage will be measured in lost time, broken focus, distorted expectations, and fractured human connections.

This needs to be called what it is: exploitative, cynical, and corrosive.

The mask slipped. Now the question is whether enough people will demand better, or just keep feeding the machine.

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This “what if” scenario is a perfect high-concept Underdark faction that flips kobold draconic worship on its head while staying true to their core identity: cunning underdogs who weaponize preparation, numbers, mining, and adaptation. It draws directly from official lore (Brainstealer Dragons as illithid-dragon hybrids from ceremorphosis in older Dragon magazine lore and referenced in Fizban’s context; kobolds as adaptable Underdark miners; Greatwyrms as multiversal-echo mergers via hoard resonance and dormancy) and Kobold Press variants (swolbolds for brute force, junk shamans for scrap-magic, wyrmpriests re-skinned as heretical “echo-priests”). The result is a paranoid, psionically scarred tribe that views all dragons as existential threats — even the ones their ancestors revered.

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The Rastipede is a classic man-sized sort of cross between an Ant and a Praying Mantis from the Spelljammer campaign setting. They are very similar to the Vrusk species in the older Star Frontiers sci-fi roleplaying game, almost a direct transfer actually, but are called Rastipedes in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition. They were not included as an official playable race or creature in 5th Edition D&D though there is plenty of homebrew fan conversions available in the usual places online.

They average four feet tall, six feet long and weigh 250 pounds or 113 kilograms, they are covered in a tough exoskeleton of chitin which has a mix of green and grey tones, they are carnivores with eight ambidextrous and double-jointed limbs, an upper pair on a distinct thorax and six legs below their spider-like abdomen, so they are often described as insect centaurs, they have three digits on the end of each limb, one of which is opposable like a thumb, they have sharp tipped digits and chitin spikes in various places of their thorax back, upper arms and first joint of each limb. Like a Mantis they have kind of wedge-shaped heads with long antenna, compound eyes and mandibles like an ant. Technically they are aberrations, not insects, they don’t have anything like the normal respiration or digestive and circulatory or nervous systems of an insect, its all weird goo and spaghetti leggo inside their shell, so I am told.

Their antenna provide them with an acute sense of smell, basically they can track like a bloodhound and anything notably stinky is not going to sneak up on them without a very favorable breeze blowing their scent away from the rastipede. While they are very well suited to travel in wildspace and very adaptable to a wide range of environments, wherever they came from originally was subterrainian, perhaps they just spent a very long time in hollowed out asteroids, but they have low light vision and a very good sense of gravity, like a dwarf they can concentrate for a few moments and get a feel for their depth underground, the slope of a passage and if they are in an area with unsafe stone close by. In AD&D they had some innate rogue skills. By far their most interesting trait is their strange affinity for magic, one in six of them is a low level mage and they have a unique boosting effect on Spelljammer helms, whatever mage level they are, which normally determines the speed of the ship, is multiplied by three for the Rastipede when they are at the helm, so, whatever arcane juice they have is like spelljamming nitro. As you can imagine, this makes them sought-after pilots.

Compared to humans, and converting from AD&D to modern D&D, Rastipedes are not stronger, but certainly tougher, which makes up for the fact that don’t wear armor or carry shields normally, I mean, they have a natural armor class of 14 plus their Dexterity modifier, its not a huge issue, they get a +2 bonus to constitution, give them advantage on any perception checks involving smell, their double jointed and claw fingered hands give them advantage on checks to escape grapples or restraints, they can also use a couple of held objects or weapons at the same time, they favor longbows actually, but even unarmed they can slash with a 1d6 claw attack plus any strength modifier they might have, they are no more dextrous than a human but a lot faster on those eight limbs, with a base movement speed of 40 feet per round. Their spelljamming rating is triple their proficiency bonus when piloting any helm as long as it’s functional and they have advantage on vehicle and astronomy checks.

Biology, quite insecty, they hatch from eggs layed by their queen in a nest organization, they have a less rigid caste structure but some are definitely more dedicated to protecting the nest and the queen, others are very focuses on gathering resources, this has given them a very well-earned reputation as being merchant traders who are disreputable and ruthless. To quote from the Spacefarer’s Handbook, published in 1992, “they are not truly dishonest. They rarely renege on a bargain once struck, and as a rule they deliver their side of the bargain at the time and place specified. The problem is that the rastipedes delight in meeting the letter of the bargain, rather than the spirit. They are particularly fond of making a deal, knowing that the other party is assuming something that is not true. Rastipedes will buy and sell anything they think will be profitable, although most scrupulously obey smuggling and slave-trafficking laws. This propensity for hard bargaining has brought the rastipedes to the attention of the Arcane, who often employ them as middlemen. Often, those who seek to speak to an Arcane find themselves having to deal with a rastipede go-between.” end quote.

That association and favor from the Arcane may, possibly have something to do with why they are so good at piloting a spelljammer helm, but, its just speculation; nobody knows for sure if there is a more sinister reason.

Rastipedes prefer to eat meat, of any kind, but can survive on a wider array of organic material than humans, however they do require a lot more water, according to the spelljammer monstrous compendium appendix. They have a lifespan and maturity rate similar to that of humans. After hatching, young rastipedes are educated in mathematics and exposed to the literature of their people, which is quite extensive. Rastipedes grow up with a strong sense of duty and responsibility towards the nest and their community. A nest can have from 100 to 600 members, though half will be juveniles, and they will defend their nest and their queen to the death. If you want a great model for voice acting qand roleplaying the Rastipedes, look no further than the Geonosians from the Star Wars Galaxy, the Geonosian queen only shows up in the Clone Wars animated series, but she is a fantastic character, shrewd and calculating, totally narcissistic and living in a permanent bubble of individuals completely devoted to her existence, but, really, she is a prisoner of her role in their society, a very pampered, but very imprisoned egg laying machine who only gets to see their world outside the nest briefly, the rest of the time all she knows is what her children tell her.

Now, stepping outside the source material for a moment, think about that acute sense of smell of the Rastipede, the reason they have it is not just hunting food in the underdark, its also because they very likely use chemical communication in their nests and among themselves, and leave scent signals from their limbs so others tracking them can read messages. This is a huge tactical advantage and a real strength of insectoids, but, they also have some weaknesses, mainly in their more rigid instinctual behavior, they tend to be of a lawful neutral alignment, they follow rules, they gravitate to chains of command and heirarchies, so, they naturally form pyramid schemes and can be caught out by chaotic and unpredictable tactics, particularly using their own chemical scents against them, or beating their asses in a court of law with a rather clever lawyer.

They really don’t appreciate rogues who break rules, lie and break deals.

They have sharp minds, but tend to be rigid, not highly innovative. They don’t actually swindle people nearly as much as they are accused of doing.

Most Rastipedes spend their first decade of life underground, in the hive, learning, training and they have their own language, extensive libraries of their writings and are quite well prepared to adapt, survive and serve the hive out in the cosmos.

Pretty cool geonosian style ferengi blend as a player character vibe, they are not cowards but prefer negotiation over violence because it is better for profits. They traditionally favor fighter, wizard, rogue, or bard classes but do tend toward multiclass combinations such as fighter/rogues, fighter/wizards, or wizard/rogues.

Character name examples from the Pathfinder RPG are Chak-tha, Chit’al, Drik-chkit, Gulnik, Kacht-ta, Kat’chka, Kiktul, Klaktuk, Krik, Pak’cha, Pik-ik-cha, Pok, Ptekwe, Tak-tha, Tal’tich, Tilnak, and Tik-tik.

And because I know you want to hear this... this is what their language sounds like..

My name is AJ Pickett, your scholar of the imaginary, as always, thanks for listening, and I will be back with more for you, very soon.

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So, settle back, grab a tasty beverage, it’s time to get deeply nerdy.

There are distinct categories of information, tradition and access to power which form the core of all character classes.

This underlying structure can be described as the knowledge ecology of the D&D multiverse: the ways power flows through cultures, environments, and peoples over time.

Once this is understood, questions like “how can a goblin be a wizard?” or “where does a warforged learn magic?” stop being contradictions and instead become inevitable consequences of the setting.

In ecological terms, knowledge functions much like energy. It is generated, stored, consumed, transformed, and sometimes wasted. Some societies cultivate it deliberately, others scavenge it opportunistically, and some are shaped by it so thoroughly that they no longer distinguish between learning and being. Every playable people in D&D exists within such an ecology, whether the text ever explicitly acknowledges it or not.

Across all editions and settings, power enters a character’s life through a surprisingly small number of pathways. These pathways predate the modern idea of “character class” and, in many cases, predate D&D itself as a game. Classes are expressions of these paths, not their source.

One of the most fundamental paths is inherited power. Some beings are born already carrying the capacity for supernatural action. This may be divine ancestry, elemental infusion, psionic awakening, fey influence, draconic blood, or the artificial embedding of arcane structures. What matters is not the flavour, but the fact that power exists prior to instruction.

Cultures shaped by inherited power do not ask how magic is learned, but how it is controlled. Training takes the form of rites of passage, meditative discipline, suppression, refinement, or deliberate provocation. Power is not something granted by institutions; it is something that must be survived. Aasimar, genasi, kalashtar, elan, tieflings, warforged, and countless planar or altered beings fit comfortably here. Even when such peoples later adopt formal training methods, the origin of power remains internal rather than external.

At the opposite end of the spectrum lies preserved knowledge. Here, power exists because information survives its creators. Spellcraft, ritual magic, psionic discipline, incarnum manipulation, and complex martial forms all require reproducibility. Something must be recorded, remembered, or demonstrated accurately enough that it can be passed on intact.

Preservation does not require books. Dwarves carve knowledge into stone. Giants encode it into epic poetry. Goblins scratch it onto scavenged materials or commit it to memory because writing tools are unreliable. Plasmoids preserve information chemically or experientially, memory diffusing through contact and shared existence. Illumians literally wear their language as living sigils. What unites these cultures is not literacy, but continuity.

Once a society can say “this works, and this is how you do it again,” it can support structured supernatural practice. Wizardry, artificing, and disciplined psionics arise naturally in such environments, regardless of whether they resemble a human academy. The familiar image of a wizard tower is merely one cultural expression of a much older principle.

Another major path is devotional authority. In these societies, power does not belong to the individual, but is entrusted to them. Gods, spirits, ancestors, cosmic forces, or even abstract ideals serve as gatekeepers. The critical question is not how magic works, but who is allowed to wield it.

Clerics and paladins are the most formalised versions of this relationship, but they are far from the only ones. Shamans, oracle-kings, spirit mediums, rune-priests, cult champions, and ancestral wardens all operate within the same ecological niche. Power flows downward from a recognised source, and legitimacy matters as much as competence.

This structure explains both stability and rebellion. When authority is clear, traditions are strong and predictable. When authority fractures, fallen champions, heretics, and renegades emerge, often carrying power that no longer fits comfortably within their society. Such figures make natural adventurers, precisely because their relationship with power has become unstable.

Closely related, but philosophically distinct, is primal practice. Rather than being granted power or inheriting it, primal traditions acquire it through participation. The world itself becomes the teacher. Magic arises from lived understanding, repeated exposure, and survival under pressure.

Peoples who dwell in marginal or hostile environments often develop this relationship by necessity. Deserts, tundra, deep jungles, oceans, the Underdark, and shattered planar regions reward those who listen carefully and punish those who do not. Lizardfolk, thri-kreen, firbolgs, goliaths, and many fey-touched beings do not separate nature from magic; the two are the same phenomenon experienced at different scales.

Here, power is embodied. It is learned by doing, not by studying. This produces druids, rangers, wardens, and other practitioners whose abilities feel less like spells and more like extensions of instinct and environment.

Martial discipline occupies a path often mistaken for mundane, but in D&D it is anything but. Perfected technique, supernatural endurance, impossible feats of strength or precision, and battlefield intuition all represent forms of power acquisition. The difference is that the body, rather than the soul or intellect, becomes the repository.

Cultures that value discipline, endurance, or controlled violence naturally produce fighters, monks, barbarians, warlords, and rogues. Training halls, warbands, ritual combat, and survival trials serve the same ecological function as libraries or temples. Knowledge is stored in muscle memory, tradition, and repetition. Once again, the presence of power is undeniable, even if it does not glow or chant.

Finally, there is transgressive acquisition. Some power is not meant to be held. It is forbidden, dangerous, or corrosive, and societies build taboos around it precisely because it works. Warlocks, shadow mages, blood casters, pact-bearers, and many cursed or altered beings arise from this path.

Here, power is taken rather than given. It is stolen, bargained for, unearthed, or pried loose from things that resist being known. Cultures may publicly deny the existence of such paths while privately producing specialists who walk them. Goblins, tieflings, cursed bloodlines, shadow-touched peoples, and planar refugees frequently intersect with this ecology, because survival has already taught them that rules are negotiable.

What matters is not morality, but risk. Transgressive power produces rapid results at long-term cost, and societies that tolerate it tend to do so quietly.

Seen through this lens, the idea of “race-class compatibility” dissolves. Every playable people supports one or more paths of power, and every character class is simply a structured expression of those paths. A goblin wizard exists because goblin culture preserves knowledge under desperate conditions. A warforged cleric exists because constructed beings can still stand in relationships of authority and devotion. A plasmoid monk exists because discipline does not require bones.

The rules allow these combinations. The knowledge ecology explains them.

Once this framework is understood, the diversity of playable peoples no longer feels like an exercise in mechanical permissiveness. It becomes evidence of a multiverse where power is abundant, but never evenly distributed, and where culture determines not whether magic exists, but how it survives.

My name is AJ Pickett, thanks for listening and as always, I will be back with more for you, very soon.

The flute was white as ivory, white as bone.

It had been made from a dragon’s hollow wingbone, found one day by a shepherd in a mountainside cave. The bones had lain gleaming in the darkness, the high-arched ribs, the skull with its deep hollow sockets, the razor-edged teeth. Yet it was only one delicate wingtip that he took home to the sod-roofed hut where he lived on the mountain, to spend the long summer evenings patiently boring the fingerholes. When it was finished he took it outside and blew the first tentative note. The sound was thrillingly clear, high and light. Soon, if he shut his eyes while he played, it almost seemed that he could see dragons soaring, their eyes like jewels, vast wings extended to catch the updraft from the sunwarmed valleys far below.

Summer ended, and when the sky turned gray and the cold wind began to blow down from the peak, the shepherd gathered his animals and went down into the valley. Within days the trails were blocked by snow, and now was the time to sit by the fire in the company of other men. From time to time, when the tavern in the village was full of laughter and dancing, the shepherd would take out his flute and join in with the viol and recorder while the villagers skipped and rollicked to the well-known country tunes. It was a good way to pass the winter evenings and earn a tankard or two of thick brown ale.

But when the snow melted and the new grass came green on the mountain, he gathered up his newly shorn flock to drive it back up to the summer pasture. Now, once again, his songs were of dragons and flight. They seemed to come from the heart of the flute itself, as if the hollow bone retained an echo of the dragon’s own voice. So he sat and played on the mountainside one day when suddenly a black shadow seemed to blot out the sun. As his sheep ran bleating in mindless panic, he looked up to see the vast shape of a dragon plunging down at him, talons extended, tail lashing the sky in a frenzy of rage.

Then he heard its voice in his mind, even as he dropped to the ground in a futile effort to evade those claws: Mlakazar! My mate! Death! Death! Who killed him? Who has his bones?

The shepherd in his desperate terror cried aloud, “No!” and felt the wind of the dragon’s passage engulfing him in its hot, sulphurous scent as he awaited the piercing agony of the talons seizing his flesh. But instead he rolled free, cowering on the ground as the dragon hovered directly overhead, the beating of its wings battering him like a gale. My mate! I heard the voice of his bones!

The shepherd in his fear got to his knees, stammering, “ I . . . found the bones in a cave. I took only one—this one—to make a flute. I never killed . . . never . . .”

Slowly the dragon lowered itself to the ground, transfixing the trembling man with its gaze, red tongue licking in and out of its mouth. Yes, this is his, this is his voice. Show me. Show me the rest of the bones.

He led, the dragon followed, claws scoring the earth of the mountainside to bare stone. The cave was above the grass line, a place the shepherd had found the year before while climbing up to retrieve a strayed lamb. It was then

he had spotted the break in the rock and the dim gleam of fleshless bone inside.

The dragon was only barely able to squeeze its bulk through the opening of the cave. The bones lay as the shepherd had found them, as they must have lain for tens of years to be stripped and worn so white. The shepherd felt the cry of the dragon’s grief: Mlakazar!

He began to plead for his life, “You can see how long ago it must have been. I swear! I meant no harm! I never touched—never took but the one bone. Oh, forgive!”

The dragon lowered its head in sorrow. The shepherd could see now that it was old and a female, her blue-green hide and scales worn. Her eyes were pallid opals, red veined with age. Let me hear, she said at last. Let me hear the voice of my mate.

So the shepherd took his flute from his belt and with shaking hands began to play. He played the song of flight, the song of freedom in the air, glorying in the strength of his wings. He played from the flute’s heart, not knowing how he did, and beside him the dragon wept huge golden tears.

His voice lives again, she said at last.

“I meant no harm,” the shepherd said again, uncertainly. “I was alone up here on the mountain. I thought, a little music, a song or two . . .”

Yes, said the dragon. I know what it is to be alone. And after a moment she spread her wings and beat her way into the sky.

The shepherd immediately put down the flute and be gan to search the mountainside anxiously for his flock, hoping they had not all plunged to their deaths in their panicked rush from descending death. He glanced nervously up at the dragon, soaring about a distant peak, well aware that she could easily swallow a sheep with a single snap of her jaws.

It took three days to gather in the flock, scattered as they had been. And for days after that he did not dare touch the flute for fear of the dragon, that it might return and devour them. Yet from time to time he could see her far-off shape wheeling above him in the sky, bringing back memories of the song of flight, and finally he realized that nothing he did could endanger his sheep or protect them if the dragon wished him harm. So he let the dead dragon’s voice live again, and he was no longer alone on the mountain.

But as the summer days grew longer, the presence of the dragon had other consequences. One day an armed man rode up to the high pasture. A squire rode with him, leading a much larger stallion bearing weapons and armor, most conspicuously a lance fully twelve feet long. The shepherd pulled off his cap as the knight beckoned him over. “Herdsman! Here! What do you know of the drake?”

“Sir?”

“The dragon, lout! I’ve had word there’s a dragon been spotted up in these mountains. Prime trophy! Looking for his lair. Well?”

The shepherd glanced nervously up into the empty sky, then shook his head. “No, Sir. No dragon up here, Sir.” As the knight scowled, he added, “I couldn’t stay up here with my sheep if there was a dragon on the mountain, Sir.

Not with my sheep.”

The horseman cursed and turned his glare onto his squire, dismounting. “It’s getting late. I’ll stay here the night. Go fetch one of those lambs.”

The shepherd protested in vain as his lamb was slaughtered and spitted over his own fire. The knight only threw him a coin and ordered him to stop his complaints. In the morning the unwelcome visitors rode on, but the shepherd knew they would not be the last.

That winter, when he led his flock down from the mountain, the villagers pressed him with questions of their own, for they had seen the far-off shape of the dragon soaring high among the peaks. But the shepherd would admit nothing. Only, at last, that nothing had been at the sheep, no dragon, no eagle, no stray pack of wolves. And as they could see for themselves that the flock had not noticeably diminished, the villagers could only shake their heads.

But the shepherd kept mostly to himself throughout that winter, nursing a solitary ale at the side of the fire, and when the patrons of the tavern called for a song from his flute, he shook his head, saying he had lost it on the mountain.

In the spring, he drove his flock out almost before the snow had cleared the trails. Never had the mountain air seemed so fresh and clean, the sunshine so bright. And in the far, far-off distance, a speck of dark flew against the glistening snowcaps, a dragon soaring on outspread wings. His heart lifted at the sight. She descended almost as soon as he had reached his pasture, with a stiff rustle of leathery wings. Play, shepherd, play. Let me hear his voice again. And the shepherd put the flute of bone to his mouth and let the song of flight spill out.

“He was your only mate?” he asked her once.

The dragon shook her scarred, blue-scaled head. A mate is for life.

“For life,” the shepherd said sadly, thinking of the churchyard where he had buried his wife so many years ago, before he went up onto the mountain. “Yes, it is the same with some of us.”

The dragon was ancient, even for one of her kind. Her leathery wings were scarred, her scales broken and cracked. The shepherd was concerned, for all her immense size, thinking of errant knights and the cruel steel heads of their lances. “This place is dangerous for you,”

he urged her, but again and again the dragon would return. Play, shepherd. Let his voice live again. Then indeed rumors spread that a dragon had returned to the mountains. Knights and other adventurers would make their way to the high pasture in search of the great head for a trophy, the fabled gold of the hoard. Always the shepherd would show them the flock grazing placidly and unmolested on the tender grass. “I’ve been grazing this flock up here for half a man’s lifetime. Think you that I’d bring my sheep to a dragon’s lair?”

So the season passed, and the one after. Each spring the shepherd climbed the mountain trails more slowly. The dragon’s eyes grew more dim. Then one spring the sky was empty when the shepherd arrived at the high pasture with his flock. He went to bed that night with a heavy heart, and his flute was silent. But in the morning when he opened the door of his hut she was waiting for him, steaming in the mists. The huge head hung low, and her wings were tattered. Play, shepherd. Let me hear him one last time.

He played, and the music of the flute soared higher and lighter than ever. He played until his breath was exhausted, while the dragon’s golden tears ran silently from the faded veined opal of her eyes. When he was finished, she began to creep away with painful slowness, dragging her ruined wings. The shepherd knew her destination. He followed until she came to the cave where her mate’s bones lay. Before she crawled inside, squeezing her bulk through the narrow opening, she turned one last time to face the shepherd. He was black! Bright black! Mlakazar!

He waited until sunset colored the mountaintops, but she never emerged again.

The shepherd returned to his solitary existence on the mountain, to his sheep and their new lambs. From time to time he would take out the dragonbone flute and play a few notes, but the sky remained empty.

Then one day in late summer he felt a strange stirring in his heart. He put the flute to his mouth and played the old song of flight, the song of the dragon in his youth and power, soaring on the highest currents of the wind. At first the shepherd thought he must be dreaming. The sky was full of dragons, wings outstretched, their jewel tone scales glinting in the sunlight. He blinked, and the flute almost fell from his hands, but the dragons were still there and he could hear their voices in his mind, crying,

Flight! Flight!

Then, as they dove closer, he saw that these dragons were each no larger than a swan, and he realized they must be newly hatched. Flight! they called.

Flight! Flight!

And he played for them again, watching with renewed joy as they swooped and plunged and tumbled in the air.

Though he spoke to them, they made no answer, only repeating the same cry.

The next morning, the shepherd once again made the climb to the cave near the mountain’s peak. His steps were slower than they had been when he first made this ascent and found a cave full of dry white bones. But this time dragons played above his head.

The immense bulk of a dragon does not decay quickly, even in the summer heat, and the shepherd had to tie a scarf over his face before he could enter the dark, narrow space of the cave. But as soon as his eyes grew accustomed to the light, he was able to make out what he had sought-the precious broken, gold-veined shards of the dragons’ eggs, incubated long months in the decomposing warmth of their mother’s remains. His heart raced at the first sight of so much wealth, but at last he left the cave as empty-handed as he had come. How could he sell them, even downriver in the marketplace? How could he let the world know of their existence?

Dragons flew over his head as he climbed slowly back down the mountain. There were twelve of them—gold and green and russet and blue and a solitary jet-brilliant black. Their eyes were bright, their wings supple and unscarred. They grew rapidly in the waning summer days, preying on the smaller beasts of the mountainside. As their wings became stronger they went farther and farther from the cave, until they were flying from peak to peak, higher and higher, until they soared above the most lofty snowcaps. Yet always they returned to the mountain where they had been born, to the sound of the shepherd’s dragonbone flute.

But there came a day in autumn, when the grass was turning coarse and yellow, when the shepherd came upon the carcass of one of his yearling lambs on an outcrop of rock, torn open and half-devoured. The marks of a dragon’s talons were clearly visible on the remains. Despite the shepherd’s increased vigilance, several days later another lamb was missing. He grieved, knowing that by the next spring the dragons would be grown strong enough to carry off a mature ram. Now at last he felt the bitter truth of the answer he had always made to the questing knights, that he would not be able to pasture his flock on the mountain if there were dragons laired nearby.

That fall he drove his sheep down to the valley before the first snowflakes flew in the sky. Some of the villagers shook their heads and wondered aloud how many more years the old shepherd would be able to spend all alone up on the mountainside. A few of them suggested that he ought to hire a boy to run after the sheep. To all of them the shepherd made scant response. He sat alone through the winter evenings by the fireside of the tavern, and when people spoke of dancing, none of them seemed to remember the sweet, lively music of the bone flute, lost so many years ago.

Then one evening, as night was coming on, there was a commotion outside the tavern: the stamping of horses and the ring of steel. The innkeeper bustled, shouting for his sons to tend the beasts, his maids to look lively in the kitchen and make up the best bed for the noble knight and his servant.

The customers nearest the door hurried outside, followed quickly by the rest. The shepherd left his seat last of all, dread in his heart. The crowd had gathered thickly around the horses, hindering the tavern’s boy in his efforts to lead them into the stable. It was only at the last moment that the shepherd caught a glimpse of what was tied across the largest mount’s back, a dragon as large as the horse itself, wings trussed up so they would not drag on the ground, the jewel tones of its eyes gone dull and its scales still lustrous, gleaming black, the rarest of dragon-colors. Never again would his wings bear him up into the sky, never again would he experience the pure joy of flight or ever know the long, loyal happiness of a mate.

Soon the knight came into the tavern, followed by the admiring company, where the landlord himself served him his ale. He was a young fellow, fair and flushed with pride, not at all reluctant to boast of his deed in slaying the drake.

“He flew at me with his claws all extended, mouth wide open, hissing—”

“Breathing fire?” one of the serving maids asked eagerly. “Well,” the knight admitted, reluctantly compelled to honesty, “not exactly.” He took a deep swallow of his ale. “I couched my lance. The drake came at me, and I spitted him like a charging boar. The point of my lance ran in below his ribs and out between his wings. The force drove my mount to his knees.” The knight was on his feet with the excitement of his own tale. “I jumped clear, pulled my sword—”

The crowd exclaimed at the bright ring of steel, stepping back as he pulled his blade free, reenacting the epic battle. “But the drake was already dead. Killed with one blow!”

The shepherd at the back of the room shook his head in sorrow. “Young and foolish, young and foolish,” he thought. What had the black dragon known in his short life of knights or lances or swords? He realized suddenly that a question was being addressed to him. “You, shepherd! You graze your flock on the mountains, is that right?” the knight was asking. “Did you ever see any dragonsign up there? Any sign of a lair?”

The shepherd shook his head again. “Knights came here before, asking me. No, no dragonsign on my mountain. Couldn’t bring my sheep up there if there was dragons, now, could I?”

As always, the crowd nodded in acknowledgment of this obvious truth. The shepherd added, “Now, that one I saw tied on the horse. I don’t think that one looked the size to take a sheep. Lamb, maybe. Young lamb. Not a sheep, though.”

The young knight scowled at this belittling of his deed and shouted loudly to the innkeeper for more ale. In the morning he would be gone with his trophy, but others of his kind would come when they heard of his deed, eager for dragonslaying. One by one the dragons would fall to the lance, the gold and green and russet and blue.

It was a harsh winter that came to the valley that year, filling the passes with snow, so that the village was cut off for weeks from the rest of the world. By the time the snow began to melt, the shepherd had sold his flock, telling the buyer, “Getting too much for me, climbing up the mountain every year. Slowing down. Ache in my joints these days.”

He pocketed the gold, little as there was. He might have gotten a better price at the spring fair downriver at the market town, but there wasn’t time for that. He made one last stop before he left the village, at the graveside of his wife. He knelt for a moment on the damp, cold ground, but after so long he hardly knew what to say.

“Not like a dragon,” he thought, getting stiffly back to his feet. “We forget.”

Without his flock, he was only three days climbing up to the hidden cave, even with the half-melted banks of snow blocking his way. From time to time he glanced up, and at last he saw them, the faraway specks that were dragons circling overhead. At the very back of the fissure in the rock, beyond the carcass of the blue-green dragon, the precious gold-veined broken shells were still untouched. Carefully, he picked them up, the green, the red, the jet, and put them away in his pack. Then, using his knife, he began to cut away a single hollow wingtip bone from the dried and leathery remains.

It was different working this half-raw bone, scraping away the adhering hide, carving out the holes for his mouth and fingers. When it was finished, the flute had a shrill, harsh tone, with a melancholy pitch that hinted of pain and bereavement.

The shepherd put down his tools and stepped outside his hut. Lifting his head to the sky, he put the flute to his mouth and began to play. It was a song of peril and death. Dragons writhed on sharp lances tearing through their vitals. Swords hacked at broken scales, at the delicate bones of their wings, breaking, crippling. No longer able to fly, the dragons twisted, turning in vain on their tormentors, helpless against the steel of their weapons. Dragons died. Their blood poured out onto the green grass, singeing it brown. Their sightless skulls were impaled on spears as trophies. Their mates circled in the sky, bereft, keening their grief, while their bones slowly bleached bare and white, to crumble at last into powder and dust. And constantly as a counterpoint to the song, repeated again and again: Flee! Far away! Far away!

The shepherd played until his lips could not shape another note, until his fingers, with their aching joints, could barely move. When he put down the flute at last, the sky was empty. Alone, he waited on the mountain, but the dragons did not return.

And when several days had passed and he was sure, he took both flutes and snapped them in half and laid them in the cave with the rest of the dragons’ bones. The path he took down from the mountain led not to the village of his birth but farther downriver to the market town and its spring fair. And beyond to the cities of the plains, where no man could see the snowcapped mountains and the glint of dragons flying against the sun.