Sleeping Potion

The sleeping Potion

Ingredients:
- 2 Spider Eye
- 1 Phoenix Feather
- 2 Drops of plain powder

Effect:
- Make the drinker sleep for almost forever.
- When they are in the sleep, they will not have any dreams, and will not remember a thing.

The two magi exchanged glances. Phoenix feathers? In a sleeping potion?

Basic Information

A sleeping potion is, unsurprisingly, a potion that induces sleep. Independant of setting, this could be virtually anything from a drug to alchemy to an actual magic preparation.

Applications are likely to tend toward the nefarious - there may be those who genuinely want to sleep (perhaps those cursed with insomnia, plagued by nightmares or who have a far more mundane sleep disorder - or just noisy neighbours), but - especially in RPGs - this is far more likely to be used to sedate guards, prisoners etc. If the potion has added magical benefits such as removing the need for food and water and effectively putting the user into suspended animation for the duration it may be even more beneficial. There is also the issue that a potion that forces the user to sleep but doesn't prevent nightmares might be extremely traumatic for someone who suffers from that affliction. This could probably even be designed in (or introduced as side effects of a botched manufacturing process).

In general, expect your default, ingested potion to have a pleasant - or at least neutral - flavour. Responsible creators might well brew a strong flavoured potion to guard against misuse whilst the mostly flavourless variety might be a black market version. Truly ambitious operators might prepare a concentrated dose that could spike the water supply for an entire castle. Alternative versions - especially those intended for use as a less lethal weapon might be prepared as a fast vapourising liquid, a gas or a pastille.

Sources

Bibliography

1. full source reference

Game and Story Use

• Note the possibilities above for prisoner control, suspended animation and burglary.
  • Also, the possibilities for circumventing various sleep-depriving effects.
• Also, the potential for a "potion of nightmares", either accidentally or by design.
• Game rules will need some aspect of duration and rules for what can wake the user.
• In some RPGs there will be a clear distinction between a poison that causes unconsciousness or sleep and a potion which does so. This may be a legitimate distinction (as immunities may vary between magic and poison) or sophistry, based on the old "poison is evil" cliché (so a non-evil character can use a sleeping potion rather than a poison).