The Vile Vial
'That one, you might want to be careful with that. It doesn't like people...'
'A potion? '
Appearance
The vial varies in appearance, as little care is taken containing it, apart from the needs of safe transport and reasonable breakage ability. It always appears a disgusting grey-green color.
Benefit
A victim stuck by one of these thrown vials, or having one dumped upon them, is in peril.
The slime contained with the vial can shift from being very liquid or very thick - whichever suits its needs best. It can seek to soak items vulnerable to liquid (paper), slow down the victim by making armour joints gluey and sticky, or even attempt to smother and blind the victim by covering the head. If directly ingested, such as if the target's face is hit, it will attempt to choke the victim by entering the mouth and nose and clogging it violently.
If the victim is injured by edged weapons while the goo is active, it will attempt to enter the wound and cause further damage, generally causing an equal amount of damage that the original wound caused.
Its actions are largely random as it has little intelligence. The goo will become inactive after a minute, or if soaked by an equal volume of any other liquid.
Vial Vile Effects Table (Unwounded target)
| 1 | Goo infiltrates clothing/armor and causes a 25% reduction in Agility/Dexterity due to stiffness |
| 2 | Goo attempt to enter targets nose and mouth. Immensely distracting. If target helpless, they begin to smother. |
| 3 | Goo forms a layer over victims eyes, degrading vision significantly (-25% to all vision-related activities until removed) |
| 4 | Goo retains fragments of the shattered vial and uses them to cut at the victim - inflicts damage equivalent to a dagger thrust, though armor will prevent this. |
Drawback
The liquid is generally malevolent, smells disgusting even when stoppered, and if not well secured will seek to soak virtually any person who attempts to use it (see Twist for the exception). It is possible for the goo to escape, but its limited intelligence and short lifespan outside of container will somewhat limit the mayhem it can cause.
Lore
The liquid that fills the vial is rumoured to spew from the great Troll King statue at the lost temple of Gneroth.
Twist
If one has the Ring of Vistinthorp, has the Parasiticon, or is a member of the School of Parasites one can command the goo. Its lifespan is also doubled when used by such people. Its duration is also doubled if used in areas of high humidity.
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* Awesome Name
* Appearance
* Benefit
* Drawback
* Lore
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? Responses (15)
Update: Spring Cleaning time. In case anyone wonders, this item is a take on the Jarate jar from Team Fortress 2, a game I have spent faar to many hours upon.
I might just need your steam handle Valadaar so I may attempt to backstab you.
I think it is an easy guess what my handle might be. :)
....Is this a work in progress or what?
No, its a 100 word challenge sub. I chopped out about half the original words to make it fit :)
Ah, I see I missed that fine print at the top there.
This is one 100 word challenge which I think would have had much more potential expanded.- at the moment it just appears to be a general thrown potion which will cause weakness and possible blindness, and perhaps suffocation.
I get the feeling that you are maybe trying to suggest that the goop is somewhat sentient/intelligent and will intentionally soak anything it's thrown at, but i feel it's not explained enough in the post.
I'd like to know where the goop came from: Is it a tar-like chemical mixture? Is it a stoppered sludge-creature? Is is a mixture of herbs/reagents?
The Vile Vial is a cool name, however! I know it defeats the purpose of the 100-word post, but more info would be awesome.
Perhaps I'll de-100 it sometime in the future. Consider it a psychotic amoeba with a limited lifespan once unbottled :)
Now see, i read the name (great name) and figured the vial *itself* would be vile. In other words, an evil, sentient glass container that can either corrupt whichever liquid (magical or otherwise) is placed inside, or worse yet, it doesn't mater whats inside! You can throw the vile vial at a fleshy opponent, and upon breaking, the glass shards worm their way and 'crawl' deep inside flesh, severing arteries and causing great damage otherwise. Later, the glass shards seek each other out again, and re-form the glass vial, complete with evil sentience again.
Interesting :P A sentiant vial? Who's believe that! Sheesh! :)
Like the description you used for this one, though I agree it would be more interesting if expanded. For a 100-word, it's not bad.
Update: Cleaned it up a little, casting it back out into the world.
Not quite sure _why_ it is showing up on the main page.
Did you take it from in-work to regular? That spits it out onto the front page.
I think this might have been better left a 100. It's short and kind of fun, but for a full sub it doesn't have a lot to it.
nice usable sub with a little more love.....
3.5
commenting challange