Poison on Gor

"I would not have thought Saurus of Tyros would have used poisoned steel," I said. Such a device, like the poisoned arrow, was not only against the codes of the warriors, but, generally, was regarded as unworthy of men. Poison was regarded as a woman’s weapon.
Marauders

"Will you not use poison on the blade?" had asked a man at the salt dock. No one of those who accompanied T'Zshal had asked the question.
"No," had said T'Zshal.
Tribesmen

The face of Drusus showed no emotion.
"There is perhaps poison on your blade?" I said.
"My caste does not make use of poison," he said.
I then decided that it would not he easy to agitate him, perhaps impairing his timing, or niaking him behave in a hasty manner, too zealous for a quick kill.
Beasts

“I do not choose to meet you in battle,” said Bila Huruma. “And if you attack me, then I must either slay you or have you slain.”
“He is a trained fighter, Kisu,” I said. “Do not fight him.”
“What am I to do?” asked Kisu.
“My recommendation,” said Ayari, “would be to stab him when he is not looking, or perhaps to poison his palm wine.”
“I cannot do such things,” cried Kisu. “What then am I to do?”
Explorers

Kanda - deadly

The roots of the plant, ground and dried, make a deadly poison
Most was I surprised to find him holding a tiny, round pipe from which curled a bright wisp of smoke. Tobacco is unknown on Gor, though there are certain vices or habits to take its place, in particular the stimulation afforded by chewing on the leaves of the Kanda plant, the roots of which, oddly enough, when ground and dried, constitute an extremely deadly poison.
Priest Kings

Made into a glaze of kanda paste for weapons
It was a knife designed for killing. Mixed with the blood and fluids of the body there was a smear of white at the end of the steel, the softened residue of a glaze of kanda paste, now melted by body heat, which had coated the tip of the blade.
Assassin

"The bolts," said the man, indicating the missiles at rest in the guides of the weapons, "are tipped with kanda. The slightest scratch from them will finish you."
"I see you are not of the assassins," I said. It is a matter of pride for members of that caste to avoid the use of poisoned steel. Too, their codes forbid it.
Beasts

Used to coat pins in poison locks
Much more dangerous is the poison lock, because the opening through which the tiny pins, usually coated with a paste formed from kanda root, can emerge can be extremely small, almost invisible to the eye, easy to overlook in the crevices and grillwork of the commonly heavy, ornate Gorean lock.
Assassin

Barrels of Kanda used to poison water reservoirs
On the twentieth day of the siege there was great rejoicing in the camp of Pa-Kur, because in one place the wires had been cut and a squad of spearmen had reached the main siege reservoir, emptying their barrels of toxic kanda, a lethal poison extracted from one of Gor's desert shrubs. The city would now have to depend primarily on its private wells and the hope of rain.
Tarnsman

Ost - deadly

The banded ost is a variety of ost, a small, customarily brilliantly orange Gorean reptile. It is exceedingly poisonous. The banded ost is yellowish orange and is marked with black rings.
Assassin

The small man held up a tiny packet. "This," he said, "is the poison, a powder prepared from the venom of the ost."
I shuddered. Death by ost venom is among the most hideous of deaths.
Captive

Cosian Wingfish

Near her, on night, lying off her shore, silently, I heard the mating whistles of the tiny, lovely Cosian wingfish. This is a small, delicate fish; it has three or four slender spines in its dorsal fin, which are poisonous. It is called the wingfish because it can, on its stiff pectoral fins, for short distances, glide through the air, usually in an attempt to flee small sea tharlarion, who are immune to the poison of the spines. It is also called a songfish, because, in their courtship rituals, males and females thrust their heads from the water, uttering a kind of whistle. Their livers are regarded as a delicacy.
Raiders

Tropical Fish in Waters near Schendi

The smell of spices, particularly cinnamon and cloves, was now quite strong. We had smelled these even at sea. One smell that I did not smell to a great degree was that of fish. Many fish in these tropical waters are poisonous to eat, a function of certain forms of seaweed on which they feed. The seaweed is harmless to the fish but it contains substances toxic to humans. The river fish on the other hand, as far as I know, are generally wholesome for humans to eat.
Explorers

Seaweed in Waters near Schendi

The smell of spices, particularly cinnamon and cloves, was now quite strong. We had smelled these even at sea. One smell that I did not smell to a great degree was that of fish. Many fish in these tropical waters are poisonous to eat, a function of certain forms of seaweed on which they feed. The seaweed is harmless to the fish but it contains substances toxic to humans. The river fish on the other hand, as far as I know, are generally wholesome for humans to eat.
Explorers

Marsh Moccasin - potentially deadly

We saw a narrow, dark shape, about five feet long, like a slowly undulating whip, glide past. A small triangular head was almost level with the water surface. I did not think there had been much danger, but there was some possibility that the movement of her legs in the water might have attracted its attention.
"That is a marsh moccasin," I said.
"Are they poisonous," she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"I never saw one before," she said.
"They are not common," I said, "even in the delta."
"Are they poisonous like the ost?" she asked.
"They are quite poisonous," I said, "but their venom, as I understand it, does not compare to that of the ost."
"Could I survive its bite?" she asked.
"Possibly," I said. "I do not know."
Vagabonds

Rennels

I was told by Kamchak that once an army of a thousand wagons turned aside because a swarm of rennels, poisonous, crablike desert insects, did not defend its broken nest, crushed by the wheel of the lead wagon.
Nomads

The man had been blinded, it was said, by Sullius Maximus, who believed that blinding improved the quality of a singer's songs. Sullius Maximus, who himself dabbled in poetry, and poisons, was a man of high culture,and his opinions in such matters were greatly respected.
Raiders

I gazed upon the Ubars, squat, brilliant Chung; narrowfaced, cunning Eteocles; tall, long-haired, Nigel, like a warlord from Torvaldsland; and Sullius Maximus, who was said to write poetry and be a student of the properties of various poisons.
Raiders

Sullius Maximus was an authority on poetry, and gifted in the study of poisons.
Marauders

"Are you sure?" I asked.
"I have not detected it," he said. "But there seems no likely explanation."
"A contaminant?" I asked.
"Poisoned steel," he said.
I said nothing.
"Sullius Maximus," he said, "is in Tyros."
"I would not have thought Saurus of Tyros would have used poisoned steel," I said. Such a device, like the poisoned arrow, was not only against the codes of the warriors, but, generally, was regarded as unworthy of men. Poison was regarded as a woman’s weapon.
Iskander shrugged.
"Sullius Maximus, " he said," invented such a drug. He tested it, by pin pricks, on the limbs of a captured enemy, paralyzing him from the neck down. He kept him seated at his right side, as a guest in regal robes, for more than a week. When he tired of the sport he had him killed."
"Is there no antidote?" I asked.
"No," said Iskander.
"Then there is no hope," I said.
"No," said Iskander, " there is no hope."
"Perhaps it is not the poison." I said.
"Perhaps," said Iskander.
Marauders

I demanded an antidote. Laughing, Sullius Maximus, adjusting his cloak, informed me that there was none. I determined to slay him, and then take ship to Port Kar, that you might then, if you chose, cut my throat with your own hands. When my blade lay at the heart of the poisoner Chenbar, my Ubar, aroused by his weeping, bade me desists. Swiftly did I inform my Ubar of the shame that Sullius Maximus had wrought upon the Ubarate. ‘I have ridded you of an enemy!" cried Sullius. ‘Be grateful! Reward me!"Poison,’ said Chenbar, ‘is the weapon of wom-en, not warriors. You have dishonored me!’ ‘Let me live!’ cried the poisoner. ‘Do you, Sarus, retain the poisoned steel?’ inquired my Ubar. ‘Yes, my Ubar,’ replied I. ‘In ten days, wretched Sullius,’ decreed my Ubar, ‘your flesh will be cut with the steel of Sarus. On the tenth day, if you would again move your body of your own will, it would be well for you to have devised an antidote.’ Sullius Maximus, then, shaken, white-faced, tottering, was hurried by guards to his chambers, his vials and chemicals." Sarus smiled. He re-moved a vial from his pouch. It contained a purplish fluid.
"Has it been tested?" asked Samos.
"On the body of Sullius Maximus," said Sarus. "On the tenth day, on his arms and legs, and twice, transversely, across his right cheekbone, that his face be scarred and his shame known, I drew the poisoned blade, drawing blood with each stroke."
"Within seconds," said Sarus, "the spiteful fluid took its effect. The eyes of Sullius were wild with fear. ‘The antidote! The antidote!’ he begged. We sat him in a curule chair, vested as a Ubar, and left him. We wished the poison to work, to be truly fixed within his system. The next day, when the bar of noon was struck on the wharves, we ad-ministered to him the antidote. It was effective.
Marauders

Fang ring

He also wore a low, round, flat-topped cap of similar material. On the first finger of his left hand he wore a fang ring, which, I had little doubt, would contain a poison, probably that of the deadly kanda plant.
Explorers

I looked to the couch of Shaba. About it lay dead Kurii and slaughtered askaris. Shaba, coughing, held his chest. The poison ring, the fang ring, had been emptied. Msaliti had awaited his opportunity. He had then fallen upon Shaba. From the wounds I adjudged Shaba had been struck at least four or five times. He had then seized the chain and ring, and run to the threshold. The Kurii were between us and Msaliti.
Explorers

Poison Girls

Maximus Hegesius Quintilius was later found assassinated in his own pleasure gardens, slain there by the bite of a chemically prepared poison girl, one killed by Taurentians before she could be questioned.
Mercenaries

Exotics are normally bred for some deformity which is thought to be appealing. On the other hand, sometimes the matter is much more subtle and sinister. For example it is possible to breed a girl whose saliva will be poisonous; such a woman, placed in the Pleasure Gardens of an enemy, can be more dangerous than the knife of an Assassin.
Assassin

Suicide Pellets

Sana had insisted that I keep the pellet of poison which the Council had given me to spare her from the otherwise inevitable tortures that would follow the disclosure of her identity in the cylinders of Ar. However, I took the pellet from my tunic and dropped it into the wide waters of the Vosk. It constituted a temptation to which I had no inclination to succumb. If death was easy, I might seek life less strenuously. There would come times when, in my weakness, I would regret my decision.
Tarnsman

Poisoning Water Systems

On the twentieth day of the siege there was great rejoicing in the camp of Pa-Kur, because in one place the wires had been cut and a squad of spearmen had reached the main siege reservoir, emptying their barrels of toxic kanda, a lethal poison extracted from one of Gor's desert shrubs. The city would now have to depend primarily on its private wells and the hope of rain.
Tarnsman

Also, Kamchak, to my pleasure but surprise, had had his men drive verr flocks and some Turian bosk after the refugees I asked him about this, for Tuchuk warfare, as I under- stood it, was complete, leaving no living thing in its wake, killing even domestic animals and poisoning wells. Certain cities, burned by the Wagon Peoples more than a hundred years ago, were still said to be desolate ruins between their broken walls, silent save for the wind and the occasional foot- fall of a prowling sleen hunting for urts.
Nomads

Poisoned Teeth

Saphrar was a short, fat, pinkish man, with short legs and arms; he had quick bright eyes and a tiny, roundish red- lipped mouth; upon occasion he moved his small, pudgy fingers, with rounded scarlet nails, rapidly, as though rubbing the gloss from a tarn disk or feeling the texture of a fine cloth; his head, like that of many merchants, had been shaved; his eyebrows had been removed and over each eye four golden drops had been fixed in the pinkish skin; he also had two teeth of gold, which were visible when he laughed, the upper canine teeth, probably containing poison; mer- chants are seldom trained in the use of arms.
Nomads

Coated Weapons

It was a knife designed for killing. Mixed with the blood and fluids of the body there was a smear of white at the end of the steel, the softened residue of a glaze of kanda paste, now melted by body heat, which had coated the tip of the blade.
Assassin

Poisoning Drinks

"It is our intention," he said, "to have you trained as a slave girl, to give exquisite pleasures to a master. And then you will be placed in a certain house."
"Yes, Master?" I asked.
"And," he said, "in this house, you will poison its master."
I looked at him with horror.
Captive

"In time," said the small man, "you will receive a packet of poison."
I nodded, numbly. Rask of Treve must not die! He must not die!
"You will be placed in the house of Bosk, a merchant of Port Kar," he said. "You will be placed in the kitchen of that house, and you will be used to serve his table."
"I can’t," I wept. "I cannot kill!"
"Then Rask of Treve dies," said the small man. Haakon of Skjern laughed.
The small man held up a tiny packet. "This," he said, "is the poison, a powder prepared from the venom of the ost."
I shuddered. Death by ost venom is among the most hideous of deaths.
Captive

"Hurry with the wine!" cried Publius, from the kitchen, looking after me.
Then he disappeared in the kitchen.
I took the packet of poison from my rep-cloth kitchen tunic, and dissolved it in the wine. I had been told there was enough there to bring a hundred men to an excruciating death. I swirled the wine, and discarded the packet.
It was ready.
Captive

“How might you have succeeded where Babinius failed?” he asked. “With a bludgeon? With a quicker dagger?”
“With no means so crude,” she said.
“Then, how?” he asked.
“I am a woman,” she said, straightening her body, making clear the indications of considerable beauty concealed beneath her silk. “I could present myself to him. I could allure him. I could win his interest. I could win his confidence. I could make him desperately eager for so much as a touch or kiss. Then, when, in effect, I could twine him about my tiny finger, when I could do with him as I wished, I could drug or poison him.”
Players

I knew what must now pass, and it was what would have passed in any city or on any road or trail or path in Gor. She was a captive female, and must, naturally, submit to her assessment as prize; she must also be, incidentally, examined for weapons; a dagger or poisoned needle is often concealed in the clothing of free women.
Nomads

"Bring me my robe," she said.
He went to the robe on the couch, but, instead of handing it to her, he examined it, lifting it to the light. In one sleeve, in a tiny, narrow sheath, he found a needle, which he held up. Then he approached the bath. She shrank back, frightened. He washed the needle, dried it on a towel and replaced it in the sheath. I had not known the sheath and needle were there, so cunningly had they been concealed in the weaving.
He looked at her.
I had little doubt the needle had been poisoned, probably with Kanda.
"You have disarmed me, Warrior," she said. "Will you now, please, hand me my robe."
Slave Girl

The warrior then went to the side of the tub, crouching near what had been the side to her right. She stepped back in the water, away from him. He brushed back the foam. Carefully he examined the wall of the tub. In moments he had retrieved the tiny dagger which lay there, in its small compartment, concealed behind a tile. He cleaned the poison from the side of the dagger, dried it with a towel, as he had the needle, and then threw it to the side of the room, where lay her robe, which he had earlier discarded. I had not known of the existence of either the compartment or the small, poisoned weapon which it concealed.
Slave Girl

"Remove your clothing," I said.
She looked at me, startled.
"Or I shall do it for you," I said. "I am the intruder," I explained.
She backed away. "Never," she said.
"Very well," I said. "Lie on the bed, on your stomach, with your hands and legs apart." I drew forth the knife at the belt of the garment I wore. It is not wise to try to tear away the garments of a free woman with one's bare hands. They may contain poisoned needles.
Beasts

Unbinding a girl’s hair, on Gor, incidentally, is culturally understood as being the act of one who owns her. A free woman, captured, whose hair her captor unbinds, usually the first time by the stroke of a knife, a precaution against poison pins and other devices, knows full well by this act that she will soon be made his slave.
Explorers