Basic Information
Cadaverine (NH2(CH2)5NH2), aka. 1,5-pentanediamine and pentamethylenediamine) is a (mildly) toxic amine created naturally during the decay of corpses and in a small number of disease processes.
The key thing to be aware of about this stuff is that it stinks - not just your average foul chemical smell, but "dead skunk in the middle of the road lifting" - and, more specifically, it smells of rotting human. This smell, unsurprisingly, has significant psychological effects on humans (probably an evolved instinct to avoid places where other humans are dead and rotting) and is said to cause subconscious fear.
As a result, cadaverine and the chemically similar putrescine have been explored as less lethal chemical weapons, generally to be used for riot control (or otherwise to disperse crowds) but occasionally for self-defence sprays, non-lethal booby-trapping or target marking.
Sources
Game and Story Use
- Of course, whilst this stuff may disgust and scare humans, any species that feeds on carrion is likely to make a beeline for it - in the real world this will at least mean scavenging insects. In some settings this stuff may attact ghouls - which could have potentially horrific effects.
- Cunning PCs could use this stuff to bait ghoul traps.