Медицина на Фаэруне
Хотя божественные целители на большей части Фаэруна достаточно распространены, их весьма мало во многих приграничных областях и в бедных районах большинства крупных городов. Также во многих общинах все еще ценится знание немагических, медицинских альтернатив магического лечения. Медицинские знания (представленные с очки зрения игры навыком Излечения) широко варьируются по всему Фаэруну. Зачастую выше всего они в общинах халфлингов и гномов, поскольку те, кто рядом с людьми, обычно живут так же, как и людские общины. Известны органы всех гуманоидных рас, плюс общее функционирование тела (включая шок и что с ним делать), как обращаться с кровью и как важна чистота ран. На Фаэруне почти любой понимает (Медицина СЛ 5), что больное или раненое существо нуждаются в отдыхе, должно быть укрыто одеялом или оберегаться от прямого солнечного света, и что перемещение или грубое обращение может нанечти еще больший вред. Большинство дает больным или раненым много пить (даже в случаях внутренних ран). Обычно используются носилки, щины и волокуши. Когда носилок не найти, обычно срубают стволы деревьев и несут раненых на плчах двух сильных носильщиков. Многие опытны в аккуратном зашивании плоти, пирсинге (особенно среди гоблиноидов) и использовании пламени или алкоголя (разумеется, по отдельности) для предотвращения заражения, которые в этом деле обычны (в настоящее время в Сердцеземье не модно использовать пирсинг на лице, кроме ноздрей и мочек ушей). Используется и прижигание, так что рубцы достаточно обычны. Широко используются травяное болеутоляющее (обычно жидкости, которые “варятся” и пьянят, но также и жидкости для обработки ран), особенно перед “зашиванием”.
МЕДИЦИНСКИЙ ГЕРБАЛИЗМ
На Фаэруне в медицинской практике доминируют использование божественной магии и знания трав. Типичный комплект целителя (см. страницу 130 Руководства Игрока) содержит разнообразные травы с медицинскими свойствами, соответствующими многим ситуациям. Ниже детализировано несколько дополнительных трав, слишком дорогих, чтобы встречаться в типичных комплектах целителей: Кровочист: Встречающаяся в глубинах пресноводных болот, загрязненных магическими и немагическими отходами, эта трава может нейтрализовать незначительные яды. Она предоставляет +2 алхимический бонус по проверкам Излечения при обращении с ядом. Стоимость: 15 зм/дозу. Кровостоп: Встречающаяся в сухих оврагах в полузасушливых умеренных зонах, эта трава очень быстро свертывает кровь после прямого контакта и, таким образом, может применяться к открытым ранам для замедления или прекращения кровотечения. Она предоставляет +2 алхимический бонус по проверкам Излечения для оказания скорой помощи. Стоимость: 10 зм/дозу. Сусло плоти: Изготавливаемое из стебля серого, похожего на сельдерей овоща, сусло плоти можно встретить лишь на недавних полях сражений, где трупы захоронены вблизи от поверхности или оставлены гнить на земле. Заложенное во внутреннюю рану сусло плоти медленно поглощается телом любого млекопитающего в качестве сырья для нарастания новой ткани. Оно предоставляет +2 алхимический бонус по проверкам Излечения для обеспечения долгосрочного ухода. Стоимость: 5 зм/применение. Сок серебряной коры: Сок дерева серебряной коры - чистый и немного липкий. Он действует как незначительный антитоксин, предоставляя любому употребившему по крайней мере 1 его унцию +2 алхимический бонус на спасброски Стойкости против яда в течение 1 часа. С типичного дерева серебряной коры можно собрать 2d4 дозы сока в год. Стоимость: 20 зм/дозу. MEDICINE The level and extent of medical knowledge varies widely across the Realms, but it is highest among the nonhuman common races, because tending humans has become for many of them a way of gaining long-term acceptance in human-dominated communities. Herbal lore (about which see more below) is predominant among such practitioners, coupled with “potions” (herbal concoctions, not magic) that are effective in dealing with minor diseases, allergic reactions, and shock. The organs of all humanoid races are known, as well as the general functioning of the body (hence what shock is, and how to treat it), the function of blood, and the importance of cleanliness to recovering from wounds. Concocted, expensive bottled medicines, called “physics,” are generally hard to find and priced accordingly; to most rural folk in the Realms, herbs are the basis of what they use for daily medicine. In the Realms, almost everyone understands that ill or wounded people need rest, to be covered by a blanket or at least kept out of full sun; that moving or rough handling will do greater harm; and that people should be given much to drink (even in cases where we moderns would say, “No, not even if he is complaining of thirst should Thrudd be given water or something stronger, because he’s hurt inside!”). Stretchers and slings are commonly used, and when a stretcher can’t be found, injured who must be carried are usually lashed to felled tree trunks and borne along between the shoulders of two strong carriers. Scarring as an aftereffect of injuries is common, because cauterization is a well-known procedure. Herbal painkillers (usually liquids that are brewed and drunk, but also liquids drizzled into wounds) are widely used, especially before someone is sewn up. Splinting is common, many beings are experts at neatly sewing flesh, and the importance of using flame or alcohol (not together!) to prevent infections related to piercing injuries and large gashes is widely understood. Herbal Lore Everyone—from farmers to foresters to shopkeepers—knows a few old family remedies, and almost every rural place not in the remote wilderness has an herbalist or two. A village on a trade route might have an apothecary, and almost all market towns have one—as well as a “hedge wizard” (self-taught mage of low Art) who augments his or her income by splinting breaks, washing infected wounds, and selling beneficial castings, salves, and the like. If a village not on a trade route has a shrine (as opposed to just a priest or hermit), the priest who tends the shrine often functions as an apothecary to earn an income. If a shrine has two or three staffers, even if only one of them is a proper priest, an apothecary is likely to be on that staff. Apothecaries prepare and sell physics, but also sell raw and “readied” (washed, cut, and sometimes powdered) herbs for kitchens and for medicinal use. Many festhalls and herbalists offer inexpensive herb bath or steam bath services, which always include a rubdown (deep tissue massage). Many travelers and street-dwelling poor use these services regularly to get clean, get their clothes washed, to get warm, and to have aches and pains seen to. For some, it’s what makes their lives (of having little, and being in contact with folk who have so much more) bearable. So the application of heat and skilled massage part of what real-world chiropractors do is in part covered by these relatively inexpensive services, usually 1 cp for a bath or a massage, and 2 cp for both with washing and “ovenboard” drying thrown in. Ovenboard drying is laying wet clothing out flat on boards heated by proximity to an oven or hearth or chimney to rapidly dry them. Clothes being ovenboarded are moved to new dry hot sur-faces several times to speed the process. Relatively few sages specialize in herb lore, but there are some self-styled academic authorities among humans. In Cormyr, the Guild of Naturalists has offices in Suzail and Arabel. It is a professional fellowship of those who study animal and plant life with the aims of understanding natural cycles fully and thereby exploiting natural substances—from plant saps and distillates to beast ichor and organs—to make scents, medicines, poisons, spell inks, dyes, sealants, preservatives, cooking herbs, and so on. A Cor- myrean consulting a guild member is expected to buy guild products, but guild members will sell advice as well as concoctions to outlanders—and will buy raw herbs in good condition from anyone. Here follow some widely known effective medicinal uses of raw plant gleanings. Herbs often do not need to be fresh, which is why many households keep a crock of various dried leaves, wrapped in scrap cloth, for use in winter Please note: None of these plants exist in the real world. Bloodpurge Found in the depths of freshwater marshes polluted by magical and nonmagical wastes, this herb can neutralize minor poisons. Bloodstaunch Found in dry gullies in semiarid temperate zones, this herb thickens blood very quickly upon direct contact, and so can be applied to open wounds to slow or stop bleeding. Fleshwort Made from the stalk of a gray, celery-like vegetable, fleshwort is found only on recent battlefields, where corpses are buried near the surface or left to rot above ground. If sewn into an internal wound, fleshwort is slowly absorbed by any mammalian body as raw material for building new tissue. Felsul Tree Chewing the soft wood that directly underlies the bark of a felsul tree, or chewing small datherthorn roots (those of purplish hue) quells nausea and deadens all mouth, tooth, and throat pain. This does nothing to remove the cause of the discomfort; it merely temporarily removes the discomfort to allow sleep, hearty eating, and other usual activities. Eating a volume roughly as much as the eater’s palm, as thick as the eater’s hand, will deaden for a day and a night, or so. Harlthorn Drinking the liquid derived from boiling down equal parts of the thorns from harlthorn bushes (a common Heartlands wild shrub) with dried or fresh leaves of the very common weed known as hoof-leaf (because its flat, on-the-ground leaves look like the print of a cloven-hoofed herd animal) calms delirium, rage, and grief, and soothes itchiness and skin rashes, allowing for rest or sleep. Tatterskyre Eating small flakes of tatterskyre bark slows bleeding (internal and external) and thickens the blood, soothing agitated folk and making them drowsy. This herb can aid the healing of many sorts of internal wounds. Ores and all goblinkin (goblins, hobgoblins, and such) are especially susceptible to the effects of tatterskyre bark, and typically fall asleep if given as much to eat as would cover their palms. Since this is a sleep typically filled with pleasant dreams, many ores gather and carry the bark and eat it regularly. The tatterskyre is a gnarled shrub that tends to form loops or drooping arcs like wild raspberry canes, rerooting when it touches the ground only to throw up fresh stems. It grows all over the Heartlands and the North, is smaller in colder climes, and its bark is very flaky and easily brushed off; its foliage sprouts as bursts of needlelike flat leaves all up and down its stems. Dathlil The tiny petals of the common white ground flower known as dathlil work to neutralize poisons for some who consume them, typically by drinking them as a tea, or washing them down with water or alcohol. The effects vary widely with the individual and the poison being fought against, and even vary unpredictably for the same individual over time, but do apply to all known creatures and are sometimes (not often) complete cures—one petal banishes all poison effects. Dathlil can work on contact, ingested, and in- sinuative poisons—but it sometimes does nothing at all. For most individuals, the herb usually slows poison and lessens its eventual damage. Tonandurr Bark Bound against open wounds, tonandurr bark inhibits bleeding and infection, and helps skin and flesh to heal by helping it expand and knit together. This substance works on humans, hal- flings, dwarves, and gnomes only; elves it helps not at all; and it actually harms goblinkin, making their wounds fester. “Tonandurr” is a tall, spindly “weed tree” of the Heartlands and more southerly forests; it’s not hardy enough to survive winters much north of Waterdeep, though a few specimens are kept alive in indoor gardens in Sil- verymoon and Neverwinter. Blood of the Dragon Down the centuries, dragon blood has always been a highly sought after, very expensive medicine among those who can afford it. Dragon blood is widely believed to impart the longevity and vigor of the mighty wyrms. Some individuals even use it to try to become half dragons, usually by means of the would-be dragon opening his or her veins and immersing the bleeding limb in dragon blood—though there is no evidence that this process works without the use of a long series of powerful spells, cast with exacting precision and care. So, dragon blood is thought of as “liquid gold” and is bought and sold for very high prices. In Calimshan, dragon blood is believed to be inky black with gold flecks in it, and anything looking different will be dismissed as false, but those who have fought or slain dragons know that real dragon ichor varies widely in hue, consistency, and smell, the only common property being that it is smoking hot when freshly shed, due to the heat generated by a dragon’s metabolism. ILLNESS AND HYGIENE Most civilized people in the Realms know that disease transference works “something like this for shaking fever, like that for blacktongue,” and so on. They disagree on treatments—aside from rest, care, bathing and purgatives, and the careful feeding of observed specifics—and tend to use what they remember worked for them and their friends in the past. The reasons for these disagreements are the various churches, most of which are striving to maintain influence and control (and a continuing flow of coins for healing) by way of having the lower ranks unwittingly spread misinformation as to exactly how this or that disease is best treated. As happens with real- world doctors, the resulting differences of opinion can lead to heated professional conflicts. The “bad hygiene” of the Realms means that people wash their hair every four days or so and again before special occasions, and that they bathe “smelly areas” every night if possible. People do not have not reeking, filthy bodies; “unwashed peasants” is not a Realms norm. Persons desiring to make a good impression who can’t get a chance to bathe properly will work scented oils into their hair and rub scented oils on their bodies to change their strong odor into something less unpleasant. Known Afflictions There are many wasting and rotting afflictions, cankers, and the mental illnesses of paranoia, py- romania, and delusions that haven’t yet acquired Realms-wide names. However, here are a few of the known afflictions. Fevers: Blacklung fever, blacktongue, marsh fever, shaking fever, windchill fever (pneumonia) Diseases: Darkrot, “foamjaws” (rabies), “sal- lar” (typhus), “whitewasting” (leprosy) Plagues: Featherlung, the spotted plague, the shaking plague (most recently in Scardale) Magical Diseases: Lycanthropy, “mummy rot” (flesh rot), green rot/scaly death (courtesy of the goddess of disease, Talona) Heartstop (heart attack) Plagues: Disease Gone Wild Plagues have risen repeatedly in various areas over the centuries, each onslaught usually killing about four in ten people, making another three in ten very sick, and doing nothing at all to the last three in ten. People might well flee “plague-hit” areas, but it’s almost unknown for the disease itself to exterminate everyone in a community or even a household. Various remedies are championed, but no one really knows what causes the plagues or how to cure them, though healing magic is effective against all of them, if the magic is strong enough and applied early enough. Because of how little is known, the afflicted are usually shunned, being thought (correctly) to be incredibly infectious. Featherlung Drying out the lungs and making people wheeze loudly, featherlung saps the strength of people as they struggle for air. The afflicted can gasp all they want, but even if someone pushes a victim’s chest in and then lifts the person to force breath out, repeatedly, no victim can get enough oxygen from his or her own breathing to stay vibrant or even keep one’s balance. Most victims soon drift in and out of consciousness and just lie there, helpless. Death can take a tenday or more, and during that time victims are unable to defend themselves against scavengers, predators, or frightened persons, and can readily be slain. If victims are too weak to reach water, they often die of thirst before the plague takes them. Spotted Plague Thick clusters of swollen, pus-filled skin eruptions, called either “spots” or “the festers,” define the spotted plague. These eventually break, leaving permanent pockmarks that resemble real-world smallpox. Inside, the body is awash in infections, and the victim reeks as many cells literally rot. Balance, reasoning, and vision are usually affected, causing lurching, disorientation, and “swimming” sight, and the sense of smell is always lost—usually permanently. Sometimes hearing is affected, but never permanently. Spotted plague causes a shivering, raging fever, and often kills in half a day to a day; those who live more than two nights will almost always survive, though they might be very sick for four to six days more, and weak for a month. Survivors have permanent pockmarks, no sense of smell, and other long-lasting effects. Shaking Plague This plague is associated with Scardale nowadays because that’s where it most recently struck (in the mid-1300s DR). It causes victims to go very pale, to sweat profusely (so they need water, and lots of it, for the first day or so of illness, after which the sweating stops), and to shake, helplessly, spasmodically, and continuously. This shaking hampers balance and movement and makes writing—or any activity requiring fine motor skills, such as sewing or locksmithing or most craft-work—impossible. When not fatal, the shaking plague lasts for two tendays, whereupon a sudden recovery will occur, usually with no aftereffects except a tendency to go pale and shake when greatly agitated or in great pain. When fatal, the plague usually claims its victim in seven to ten days by way of heart seizures and lung spasms that starve the body while it undergoes twisting, arching, and pain-wracked writhing. DRUGS In the Realms, a drug is something—usually liquid, taken orally—whose making is complicated and unknown to whoever is using the word. In other words, the liquid made by boiling harl- thorn and hoof-leaf together, as described earlier in “Herbal Lore,” would be a drug if its manufacture wasn’t so widely known. Most drugs are secret-recipe mixtures of herbal distillations, plant saps, and animal secretions, all of which have no real-world inspirations or counterparts. Local laws often restrict making and importing of drugs, because bad things have happened in the past. Since alchemy, doctoring, and the like all approve of using herbal and created substances to help the sick or injured, and most clergy use mind-altering or pain-numbing herbs and drugs as part of their rituals, drugs are seen as bad only when they are clearly intended to be used to incapacitate someone so that person can be killed, robbed, kidnapped, made to sign or say things he or she otherwise wouldn’t, or in some other way taken advantage of. Poisons are always seen as bad except when used with state sanction in war, or by physicians as part of medical treatment— and this latter use is usually very closely watched by local law keepers and guilds. Waterdeep provides a model to use for tolerant trading cities where local rulers or dominant temples aren’t trying to control drug use. The drug trade in Waterdeep is largely confined to Skullport and Downshadow, in terms of dealing and in the storage of large amounts. “Topside” (in the city proper) there is no drug production, only runner-to-client selling. Selling is done face to face, but some nobles send their stewards, bodyguards, or trade agents to buy drugs. These so-called “runners” tend to be lone individuals or gangs of no more than three, a runner and two “watcheyes” (lookouts) who are often young children, preferably girls, who serve the runner as eyes and as places to stash drugs if the Watch approaches—because Watch officers are far more reluctant to search a young girl’s body than that of a hard-bitten, known-to-them Dock Ward tough. A Lords’ Edict was long ago issued banning the making and selling of drugs in Waterdeep— so the relevant crime is Willful Disobedience of Any Edict, which results in exile for five years or a 1,000 зм fine. The former is enacted on all outlanders and those who do not own property, and the latter against all Waterdhavian landowning citizens—who will find themselves very closely watched for a month, then again in the third month thereafter, because the Watch wants to catch and fine them again. It’s not a crime to use drugs, nor is it a crime, strictly speaking, to possess them. In practice, nobles and wealthy merchants receive nothing but a stern “We’re watching you” warning if caught with either small or large amounts of drugs, but a commoner merchant or laborer is assumed to have the drugs to sell, and will be sentenced accordingly, unless the individual is a member of the Guild of Apothecaries & Physicians or can prove he or she is working directly for a guild member. Aside from those exceptions, drugs that can readily be used to kill—even if only through overdoses—can, if the Watch or the magisters involved desire it, be treated as poisons, and arrested beings are charged with murder even though no killing has yet occurred. Waterdha- vian justice has no attempted or intended murder charges, so what occurs is a murder trial, usually ending in a sentencing for “Murder with Justification,” which brings a five-year exile or three years of enforced hard labor. Drug making is secretive and a matter of constant experimentation, so there are thousands of drugs that go by even more names, enough to fill shelves full of books as big as this one. Here follow just a notorious, popular handful. Alindluth When ingested, alindluth deadens all pain and prevents shock and nausea effects for a few minutes. There are no known side effects, but if the substance is used too soon after first exposure (or in too large a dose; dosages vary by body volume and weight), it induces a short-duration coma. Chaunsel Upon contact with bare skin, chaunsel makes the affected area extremely sensitive for up to about twenty minutes. It is often used by thieves or others working in darkness, applied to their fingertips to make them able to feel tiny details, seams, and such. Overdosing causes days of numbness in the affected area. Tansabra When injected (it must reach the bloodstream), this mixture of particular creature venoms causes complete “system shutdown” in mammals. This means that breathing is suspended, the body temperature “holds,” the need for oxygen ceases, bleeding stops, any internal bleeding and tearing is healed (unless fresh wounds are induced), acids and toxins suspend their operations on the body, and the recipient loses consciousness. In effect, the body is placed in stasis. Certain little- known arcane and divine spells can force release from “tansabra sleep,” and there are rumors that certain rare gem powders and herbs can shock someone out of tansabra sleep, but otherwise, an affected being emerges from the effects of tansabra at a random time. Creatures in tansabra sleep don’t heal naturally, and magical healing doesn’t affect them—but of course they can be conveyed to magical healing while in thrall to the tansabra, and healed the moment they awaken. Repeated exposure to tansabra can kill an individual, but how much exposure is lethal varies randomly from being to being. A lethal dose is not related to the amount of the drug administered— it depends on a person’s tolerance for the number of distinct times his body undergoes the effects. Vornduir When inhaled as a powder, vornduir varies widely in effects. To many people, it does nothing at all. Others get mild rashes and itches. For a few, it switches pain and pleasure for an hour or two, so a gentle caress brings discomfort, and a slap, flogging, heavy punch, or cutting wound can induce an enjoyable feeling. For others, it makes them feel warm, even if they are wet and out of doors in freezing temperatures, and at the same time happy and alert, for two days or more. For these folks, sleep isn’t needed, and their dexterity and judgment don’t suffer due to weariness. Vornduir prevents shock and immobility due to exposure, but not frostbite or lowered body temperature, so users won’t get hypothermic, but they could freeze solid. The drug, a mixture of herbs and animal essences, also acts as a complete and instant antidote to certain poisons—for some individuals only!
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