Cyanide (no ontology)
From Mazeworld
Cyanide is a chemical compound known for its very high toxicity. In real-life, cyanides can be found under many forms, such as gases (hydrogen cyanide), salts, liquids, and so on. In Mazeworld, pure cyanide can be found in liquid solutions inside syringes.
Cyanide poisoning has been reported as both a method of assassination and of suicide, as many historical cases have shown. The most infamous method of killing via cyanide poisoning was during World War II - the infamous Zyklon B agent, used by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust, was hydrogen cyanide contained into pellets and released in the infamous gas chambers.
Strategy
Cyanide is a very particular item, unique in that it can be administered in different ways and has different effects depending on the way of administration used. It is used to administer the dangerous Cyanide-type poisoning. It also cannot be cured with Universal antivenom, and requires its own specialized antidote to be removed: Hydroxocobalamin.
Careful use of cyanide may transform the deadly substance into a weapon in its own right, which may be useful in select cases to save time or ammunition for actual weapons, among other things. The potential and extreme lethality of cyanide makes up for its relative rarity - it is a hard-to-find substance, but one that is capable of killing a target in a mere few turns (unless the target, such as certain creatures, happens to be poison-resistant).
Being a syringe, it is strongly required the drug is kept until the contestant finds a medic or a peaceful scientist to identify it, as it shares its appearance with Epinephrine, Heroin, Lorazepam, Morphine and a form of Placebo.
Cyanide can be used in one of three ways:
- Direct injection
- Injection inside of food, a method known as food spiking. Certain food items may be found at random in the rooms already spiked.
- Use in certain blueprints to create poison-tipped weapons
Food spiking
Another method of using cyanide, and another factor of its uniqueness, is that it can be used for spiking food items with poison. By injecting cyanide inside a food item, the nutritional value of this item is negated, as well as any potential secondary effects, instead replacing them with a poisoning effect.
Ingestion of spiked food causes standard poisoning, which enables the poison counter. See the page about poison for more information about it.
Spiked food is as dangerous for the contestant as it is for his/her potential enemies. As such, trickery or social engineering can be used to fool an encounter into eating or ingesting spiked food. Because it causes standard poisoning instead of instant death, which kills in 5 turns, it is a less commonly used method, as it gives plenty of room to the target to retaliate if it can or feels inclined to, although with proper manipulation, the prospect of impending death can be used to bring an enemy to submission.
Of course, all of these are examples - contestants are free to make use of imagination to attain their goals.
It must be noted that food merchants are equipped with a syringe of cyanide and may use it as a self-defense means; see the article for more information.
Poison-tipped weapons
Yet another equally interesting way of using cyanide is its role in crafting, as it allows the creation of poison-tipped ammunition. Just like Venom and Venom-type poison ammo, Cyanide can be used to make Cyanide-type poison ammo, which is potentially deadlier.