Life in the realm
Contraband and the hidden still
The underworld of 1403: 10 forbidden draughts, salves and powders, brewed in hiding from herbs no honest gatherer sees, sold from hand to hand, and taken for a real edge - in a fight, at work, at the market. Every dose has its price: a crash, a craving that grows, and the watch.
The trade, from the herb to the vial
- Learn a recipe
Nobody knows one to begin with. A forbidden herbal - the rarest find of the land - teaches one, or you watch a brewer at work for a whole batch. Your Alchemy level gates the still's draughts, your Brewing level the vat's ale and wine.
- Gather what no one sells
Knowing a recipe opens your eyes: henbane, the opium poppy, wolfsbane, hemp and ergot come into your gathering, fly agaric at the old stumps, saltpetre in the ore, toads on the riverbanks, fat from the hunt.
- Set up a hidden still
A carpenter makes it, or you buy it for 50 KCD Points. F2 > Illegal brewing sets it down anywhere - the wilds, a cellar, a room - for a week.
- Distil, or brew
Press the use key on it: the still opens the Alchemy window, the vat the Brewing window. Your known recipes wait there under their own red Contraband heading, with what each does. It smokes while it works.
- Sell it under the table
Never to a merchant: face a buyer, open the action wheel and offer the draught, how many and your price. A card comes up for them - they shake on it, or not.
- Drink, and pay for it
An hour or two of a real edge, then the crash. Every dose hooks you a little more. And the watch can search your pack.
The ten draughts
Each card tells what the draught does and for how long, the crash that follows, how hard it hooks you, and how it is made. The fight's draughts work in every fight, against players too.
Henbane Alethe fight
Brewers threw henbane in the mash for a wilder drunk - the reason the towns wrote their first beer laws.
+16% damage dealt (about +4 Strength), no flinch - 1 h 30
then 30 min of crash: -8% damage dealt, a sore head
- Habit
- low
- Made
- Brewing 2, at a hidden vat (or a still)
- Takes
- 3 henbane, 2 hops, 2 barley malt, 6 gr.
- A batch
- 2 doses, 30 s
Fly Agaric Brewthe fight
The red mushroom boiled in malt - the berserk's brew, all rage and no guard.
berserk: +24% damage dealt (about +6 Strength), 12% more damage taken - 1 h
then 30 min of crash: -10% damage dealt
- Habit
- low
- Made
- Alchemy 3, at a hidden still
- Takes
- 3 fly agaric, 1 barley malt, 6 gr.
- A batch
- 1 dose, 30 s
Wolfsbane Tincturethe fight
Aconite, the poison of the wolf-baits, in a drop small enough to make a soldier fearless instead of dead.
+16% damage dealt (about +4 Warfare), stamina kept up - 1 h
then 30 min of crash: 10% more damage taken, health slowly drains
- Habit
- medium
- Made
- Alchemy 7, at a hidden still
- Takes
- 3 wolfsbane, 2 nettles, 1 saltpetre, 14 gr.
- A batch
- 1 dose, 45 s
Dwalewounds and breath
The barber-surgeons' sleeping draught: poppy, henbane and wine, enough to cut a man and too much to wake him.
30% less damage taken, health comes back, pain dulled - 1 h
then 30 min of crash: 10% more damage taken
- Habit
- high
- Made
- Alchemy 6, at a hidden still
- Takes
- 2 opium poppy, 2 henbane, 2 grapes, 12 gr.
- A batch
- 1 dose, 45 s
Saint Vitus Dropswounds and breath
Saint Vitus drops: ergot and wolfsbane, the dancers' plague bottled - you will not tire, and you will not sit still.
stamina kept up, tireless - 1 h
then 30 min of crash: -5% damage dealt
- Habit
- high
- Made
- Alchemy 6, at a hidden still
- Takes
- 2 ergot rye, 1 wolfsbane, 1 honey, 12 gr.
- A batch
- 1 dose, 40 s
Poppy Milkwounds and breath
The opium poppy's tears in milk and honey - the apothecaries' strongest secret, sold to no one.
25% less damage taken (as a quarter more health), health comes back - 2 h
then 30 min of crash: 15% more damage taken
- Habit
- very high
- Made
- Alchemy 8, at a hidden still
- Takes
- 4 opium poppy, 1 honey, 15 gr.
- A batch
- 1 dose, 50 s
Hemp Smokethe trades
Smoked hemp flowers and honey: the craftsman's quiet hour, the hands steady and the mind on the work.
+20% crafting XP - 2 h
no crash to speak of
- Habit
- low
- Made
- Alchemy 3, at a hidden still
- Takes
- 8 hemp, 1 honey, 8 gr.
- A batch
- 1 dose, 40 s
Miner's Dustthe trades
Ergot rye ground with charcoal, chewed in the deep galleries of Kuttenberg to dig on past the bell.
+30% a load when mining and woodcutting - 2 h
then 30 min of crash: -10% a load
- Habit
- medium
- Made
- Alchemy 5, at a hidden still
- Takes
- 6 ergot rye, 3 charcoal, 1 saltpetre, 14 gr.
- A batch
- 1 dose, 50 s
Mandrake Winethe trades
Mandrake root steeped in wine, said to make the woods give up their game and their herbs.
+20% a load for herbalists, fishers and hunters - 2 h
then 30 min of crash: -5% a load
- Habit
- medium
- Made
- Brewing 5, at a hidden vat (or a still)
- Takes
- 2 mandrake root, 4 grapes, 2 henbane, 14 gr.
- A batch
- 1 dose, 50 s
Witch's Salvethe night
Belladonna, mandrake and toad in fat: the flying ointment of the trials, rubbed on to see what others cannot.
sees in the dark, quick fingers - 1 h
then 30 min of crash: 6% worse prices with merchants
- Habit
- low
- Made
- Alchemy 5, at a hidden still
- Takes
- 3 belladonna, 1 mandrake root, 1 toads, 2 animal fat, 10 gr.
- A batch
- 1 dose, 40 s
On your screen
What works on you shows as small rings at the bottom right of the screen, beside the game's own effect icons: each its sign and its name, the time left running round it. A new one shows what it does for a few seconds. /effects says it all in words.
A draught's time counts only while you are in the realm: log out and it waits for you - the boost is not wasted, and a crash cannot be slept off. It comes back with you after a reconnect, a server restart or a crash of the game.
Dependence
Every dose hooks you a little - the habit-forming ones more (the red pips on each card). Past a point you crave it: your hands shake, you deal and gather a little less, until the next dose, a service's blessing, or time - the dependence wears off slowly while you stay clean.
The ingredients
No merchant sells them and no market buys them: they are gathered by the trades. Only someone who knows a contraband recipe knows what to look for - the forbidden herbs come to their gathering alone, never to an honest gatherer's sack.
| Ingredient | Who finds it |
|---|---|
| Henbane, opium poppy, wolfsbane, hemp, ergot rye | The herbalist, among the herbs - a load in ten together. A still takes them from the sack alone: a herb picked by hand in the wild does not do. |
| Belladonna, mandrake | The herbalist, as ever. |
| Fly agaric | The woodcutter, now and then at an old stump. |
| Saltpetre | The miner, a rare find in the ore. |
| Toads | The fisher, on the riverbanks. |
| Animal fat | The hunter, from a deer, a stag or a boar. |
| Hops, malt, grapes, honey, sage, nettles, charcoal | The usual way: gathered or bought at a market. |
Learning a recipe
- A forbidden herbal
The rarest find of the land: at most one a day on each server, on a brigand's body or in a chest of the land opened for the first time. Read it (from the pack) to learn one recipe you do not know, at random among those your level reaches. It can be traded or sold like any book.
- A brewer who knows it
Stand within 5 m of the still for the whole batch while someone brews it: you learn it as the batch ends, if your level in its craft is high enough. Whoever stands that close learns it - choose your company.
- The staff
may teach recipes, or take them back.
Every recipe, by level
| Draught | Level | Where | Takes | Makes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Henbane Ale | Brewing 2 | a hidden vat (or still) | 3 henbane, 2 hops, 2 barley malt, 6 gr. | 2 a batch |
| Fly Agaric Brew | Alchemy 3 | a hidden still | 3 fly agaric, 1 barley malt, 6 gr. | 1 a batch |
| Hemp Smoke | Alchemy 3 | a hidden still | 8 hemp, 1 honey, 8 gr. | 1 a batch |
| Mandrake Wine | Brewing 5 | a hidden vat (or still) | 2 mandrake root, 4 grapes, 2 henbane, 14 gr. | 1 a batch |
| Miner's Dust | Alchemy 5 | a hidden still | 6 ergot rye, 3 charcoal, 1 saltpetre, 14 gr. | 1 a batch |
| Witch's Salve | Alchemy 5 | a hidden still | 3 belladonna, 1 mandrake root, 1 toads, 2 animal fat, 10 gr. | 1 a batch |
| Dwale | Alchemy 6 | a hidden still | 2 opium poppy, 2 henbane, 2 grapes, 12 gr. | 1 a batch |
| Saint Vitus Drops | Alchemy 6 | a hidden still | 2 ergot rye, 1 wolfsbane, 1 honey, 12 gr. | 1 a batch |
| Wolfsbane Tincture | Alchemy 7 | a hidden still | 3 wolfsbane, 2 nettles, 1 saltpetre, 14 gr. | 1 a batch |
| Poppy Milk | Alchemy 8 | a hidden still | 4 opium poppy, 1 honey, 15 gr. | 1 a batch |
The hidden still and vat
The brewer's bench: a hidden still (every draught) and a hidden vat (the ale and the wine). A carpenter makes them; order one or buy it from another player in the furniture catalogue, or buy it at once for 50 KCD Points.
| How it stands | |
|---|---|
| Anywhere | The only furniture you may set down anywhere: the wilds, a cellar, a town's street, a house, a room - but never in another's house or room. |
| One of each | One still and one vat placed at most for each player: they brew different draughts. |
| A week | It stands seven days, then comes back to your decorations. Take it back sooner to place it elsewhere. |
| Smoke | A batch at work smokes: whoever is within 30 m catches it, and a night watchman smells it from further. |
- Place it
F2 > Illegal brewing > Place it here - moved and set down like any furniture. The same menu finds it (on your compass) or takes it back.
- Work it
The use key on it (within 3 m): Distil on the still opens the Alchemy window, Brew on the vat the Brewing window. A still makes the vat's ale and wine too.
- The doses
come into your pack, each its own vial with a red skull. Drink one from your pack (double click, or Drink it) or in the game's own inventory.
Selling under the table
Nothing forbidden is sold to a merchant. Stand beside someone, open the action wheel (Z) or their menu: Under the table opens a window - pick the draught, how many, and your price. A card comes up on their screen with the draught, what it does and for how long, its crash, how habit-forming it is, your price and their purse; they have a minute to shake on it or decline (/accept works too). The coins and the very vials change hands, and those around see you shake hands on it.
The watch
A member of the watch may, from the action wheel or /search player:
| What the watch does | |
|---|---|
| Inspect pack | A window of the pack and the sack: the contraband set apart and marked in red, the lawful things and the purse beside it. Confiscate all takes the contraband - destroyed, and written down. |
| Check the eyes | Tells whether a draught works on someone now - by what shows (the pupils, the breath), never its name. |
| Seize a still | The use key on someone else's still or vat: taken down for good, its owner told. |
The game's own potions
Some of the game's potions were stronger than anything brewed in secret, and are not made in the realm: Aqua Vitalis, Artemisia, the stamina potion, the Bard's potion, in every quality. No apothecary brews them, no merchant sells them, and one found or brewed at the game's own alchemy table is taken away. The other potions of the game - Marigold, Chamomile, the Embrocation, the Bowman's Brew and the rest - are made and sold as ever, and the craft window tells what each one does.
For the brewer
Keep your still out of sight and away from the roads: the smoke carries 30 m. Brew with friends near only - whoever watches the whole batch learns the recipe.
For the watch
The eyes give a user away, the smoke a brewer. A search is a window: everything forbidden is set apart in red.
For the Church
A Mass (2 a day) blesses those who stay, and holds the cravings off for an hour - a priest can keep a whole town on its feet.
For the buyer
Read the card before you shake on it: the habit and the crash are on it. Two of the same, or a bad mix, and you are on the ground.