Numerian fluids

Numerian fluids

(Alchemical item)

Type

Drug

Usage

Ingested

Images of Numerian fluids

Source: Numeria, Land of Fallen Stars, pg(s). 28–29

Ⅰ

Numerian fluids are alien substances that leak from the remnants of the Divinity, an Androffan spaceship that crashed into Numeria in -4363 AR in an event since known on Golarion as the Rain of Stars. While they can be fatally poisonous when drunk, some consume these fluids as a drug due to the euphoria and potentially transformative side effects they produce.

History

From the massive Silver Mount to crash sites across Numeria, wreckage of the Divinity has leaked various fluids for centuries, including engine, hydraulic, and coolant fluids, and crude oil. These substances and more have combined, and have been further transformed by exposure to radiation, while collecting in pools and springs at a rate of up to a gallon per day.

Usage

After consuming at least a pint of Numerian fluids, the imbiber's mind expands with new insights and enhanced perception of the world around them along with a pleasant sensation of euphoria. However, this soon leads to overstimulation and fatigue followed by a period where they can be more easily manipulated by others. Smaller doses only disorient the drinker.

The Runoff speakeasy beneath the Scraphole in Starfall mixes cocktails made from alcoholic beverages and Numerian fluids that leak from an annihilator robot chassis kept inside. Examples include the Star Shot, which combines fluids and Kellid whiskey. Proprietor Kayd Sparrow also devised a tattoo ink containing the fluids that the clockwork servant Bit can apply to patrons, who then experience a prolonged mild euphoria as their skin slowly absorbs the fluids over a matter of weeks.

The fluids can also be loaded into darts or syringes to be forcibly administered to others.

Side effects

The numerous side effects of consuming Numerian fluids can vary widely, depending not only on the source but the time since collection as the unstable fluids continue to change once stored. These side effects are difficult to identify prior to consuming the fluids, and any attempt to identify them remain accurate for only an hour's time.

Side effects effects can include nausea, sickness, unconsciousness, unpleasant body odors, temporary insanity, prophetic visions of their own death, temporarily enhanced senses or abilities of a random nature, temporary telepathy, the ability to see a few seconds into the future or into a distant reality, thickened skin, healing effects, and empathy with mechanical consciousnesses such as androids and robots.

More severe side effects include the potentially permanent loss of a sense or ability, rapid aging or regression in age, immediate impairment or loss of languages, and irrational anger. Exceptionally powerful side effects include permanent immortality, mutations and fleshwarping, incorporeality, exceptionally enhanced senses or abilities, the growth of bat-like wings or electrically grounded metallic skin, bioluminescence, the natural emission of Numerian fluids from their body, or a state in which the imbiber seems to experience an entire lifetime on a different planet while comatose for 24 hours.

Addiction

Repeatedly consuming Numerian fluids is also addictive, and can led to dependency. Both their side effects and addictive properties can be resisted, albeit with significant difficulty. Addicts often roam regions such as the Felldales to scavenge Numerian fluids, whether to sell or to sate their own addiction.

Long-term exposure can permanently alter the imbiber's mind and body. For example, Black Sovereign and former addict Kevoth-Kul appears 20 years younger than his age, and was secretly made permanently unaging, by his decades of addiction to the fluids. He also suffers moments of mental instability, erratic behavior, and traumatic reactions from visions he experienced.

Other drugs

Numerian fluids can be combined with other alchemical reagents to create more specialized drugs. For example, the plasma hype variant of the adrenaline supplement hype is an alchemical mixture of Numerian fluids that enhances the imbiber's reaction and awareness.

On Golarion

Black Sovereign Kevoth-Kul of Numeria, a former addict of Numerian fluids.

Consuming Numerian fluids is an acquired taste among Numeria's elite seeking its euphoria-inducing properties or potentially beneficial side effects. Numerian animals that drink the fluids are also affected by them, often in unpredictable manners and to sometimes desirable effects. The Techno Drifters sect of the Firebrands hunts mutants that have been transformed by Numerian fluids.

Evaporated Numerian fluids that enter the water cycle form clouds of corrosive rain, the nature of which is unpredictable and can exclusively affect certain materials, such as organic matter, metal, or plastics.

The Technic League were responsible for introducing Black Soveriegn Kevoth-Kul to Numerian fluids, and he became hopelessly addicted to them for more than 20 years. The Technic League also assigned agents, such as the chemist Rahm, to investigate Numerian fluids.

Technic League agent Alling Third became addicted to Numerian fluids found while investigating a site of Divinity wreckage in northeastern Numeria and communicated with the strange intelligences that spoke within. Realising that a lifetime would be insufficient to unlock all secrets of Crowhollow, he set out to become a lich, and discovered his own formula for transformation when guided by one such intelligence.

After the death of the League's leader Ozmyn Zaidow in 4716 AR, the League collapsed and Kevoth-Kul recovered from his addiction. He subsequently banned Numerian fluids from his palace and personally executes those who defy this order. His bans on the fluids, however, have not stopped the Silver Mount and other sites from producing them, which has led to the fluids becoming stockpiled in warehouses or seeping into groundwater supplies.

References

Paizo published an article on Numerian fluids in Numeria, Land of Fallen Stars.