The pitter patter of tiny feet (part three)

Brewer of Poisons (#23/30, #327/365)

"This small spherical chamber gives off a particularly foul odour. In the centre of room a Gremlin wearing dark-stained gloves is pounding together various disgusting ingredients into a viscous black paste contained within large stone bowl. Judging from the items strewn around the bowl, the ingredients include dead scorpions and snakes, and bunches of thorns.

The Gremlin, who is wearing goggles made from the bottoms of jars, points at you irritably with one of his gloved hands. 'Oi! What are you lot doing here?'"

Contents: This is the domain of Cisk the Lethal, poison-brewer of the Red Claw tribe, and inventor of the Blade Venom that these Gremlins use on their weapons. The venom is not technically for sale, but if bribed with 10GP, Cisk will part with one and only one vial of Blade Venom, which contains enough for one dose. (He will have a store of 2-12 vials in the room at any one time)

If bribed with 20GP, Cisk will reveal the secret of making Blade Venom; the recipe is half a bottle of olive oil, 1 set of Rattlesnake poison glands, 1 Desert Scorpion tail stinger, and 2 bunches of Fire Bush, mashed together, which creates enough Blade Venom for 5 doses. Mashing it up into an acceptable consistency takes about thirty minutes.

Next to the bowl are series of tattered scrolls with the recipe written in Goblin, along with descriptions and drawings of Rattlesnakes, Desert Scorpions and Fire Bush. Other objects include 3 dead Rattlesnakes, 4 live Desert Scorpions in a stoppered stone jar (each SKILL 2 STAMINA 1, Sting does 4 STAMINA damage, Light Armour), and a branch torn from a Fire Bush.

If the Heroes are aggressive, Cisk will attack with his blowpipe and poisoned darts, aiming for unarmoured Heroes. If severely outnumbered, Cisk will flee but not before throwing one of his Yokka eggs at the highly flammable Blade Venom mixture, which will ignite for 2-12 STAMINA points damage, set anything flammable on fire, and hopefully destroy his (memorized) recipe scrolls, plus the ingredients.

Stats:

Cisk the Lethal, GREMLIN POISONER, SKILL 5 STAMINA 5, Blowpipe or Dagger. The Gremlin's Dagger and Blowpipe darts are made from bone and covered in a crude home-made Blade Venom that resembles viscous black sludge and causes +1 STAMINA damage for any successful hit that wounds (hits whose damage is fully absorbed by armour don't count). The Blade Venom lasts for one combat only, before it has to be reapplied.

In addition to their dagger, Cisk has his Blowpipe, 6 poisoned darts, 2-12 Copper Pieces, 1-6 SP, 1-3 GP, 2 Yokka Eggs and their left hand is painted red. His gloves and goggles are non-magical but protect him from any accidents when producing Blade Venom.