Are there any real-world ingested poisons with these characteristics?
So, I'm looking to get one of my characters poisoned. However, if they notice that something's up, the jig's likely up as they'll seek treatment for what happened, so this needs to happen "under their radar" so to speak. Hence, the poison needs to have the following traits:
- Delivered by ingestion (in food or drink) -- dosing can be a single dose, or multiple doses over the span of a couple of days provided symptoms do not start until after the dosing is complete.
- No strong off taste, odor, or color (mild tastes/odors/colors can easily be disguised/masked by putting it in an appropriate preparation though)
- Delayed action (hours to a few days after dosing is complete) so that they don't associate what's happening with their last meal/drink.
- No gastrointestinal symptoms once the poison starts to take effect -- again, so they don't associate what's happening with their last meal or drink.
- Complete effect of the poison (i.e. total incapacitation) needs to be within an hour, if not within the span of minutes, after symptoms start to manifest.
- Needs to be incapacitating for a period of one week minimum, if not fatal.
Do any known poisons do this? In particular, I'm concerned about the "no gastrointestinal symptoms" part, as it seems that all the real-world poisons I've researched cause gastrointestinal disturbances when ingested.
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1 answer
Rat poisons are a good start
Thallium is one, and was widely used.
Depending on dosage Thallium can be either fast or slow acting, potentially taking several weeks from the initial poisoning.
There is no known antidote once the poison has been absorbed.
Warfarin would be interesting too. Give a dose, wait 3 days, give them a bloody nose and watch them bleed to death.
Another possibility are binary weapons, where two relatively harmless agents are combined to make something deadly.
Isopropyl aminoethylmethyl phosphonite is a relatively non-toxic chemical, but when it's mixed with sulfur, it turns into highly toxic VX nerve agent.
Another example was a case of poisoned pet food where two chemicals (melamine and cyanuric acid) were put into pet food, and the resulting mixture caused a lot of pet deaths.
Some plants might be interesting.
Oleander leaves are pretty poisonous, it's pretty common, can be brewed into a tea, and the effects mimic a heart attack.
Edit
More ways to kill someone...
If you can get away from delivering the poison orally, there are other ways.
Binary poisons could be put into other things that are used together.
Makeup, hair products, shampoo and conditioner, clothing, which would be sweat activated...
Speaking of clothing, there are several poisons that can be absorbed through the skin.
Thallium, nicotine, cyanide, Dimethylmercury*, others.
Simply put some on an article of clothing, bed sheets, shoes, and some time later they die.
I also came across some interesting injested poisons.
Hemlock is pretty poisonious, but a hemlock salad is boring. Quail are immune to the poison in hemlock seeds, and love to eat them, but it makes their flesh poisonous. 6 hours after the meal the target is dead.
Rhododendrens and Azaleas are poisonous, including their nectar.
Raise some bees in hives surrounded by flowering Azaleas. Give the victim the special honey, and 6 hours later the symptoms start, followed by agony, coma, and death.
Methanol is wood alcohol which if ingested metabolizes into formaldehyde in the body. It takes 12-24 hours for symptoms to develop, by which time it's to late. Spike their whiskey and wait.
* some interesting stuff with Dimethylmercury. It's a mercury compound which is clear. It's super poisonous. It can easily go through rubber gloves. People who have smelled it said it smelled sweet before they died. It only takes 0.1 mL on the skin for a fatal dose.
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