Antipoison
What good is a life-saving food if it tastes foul?
Magnum Opus
After years of long-winded research and a collaboration of seventy-three biologists, bioinformaticians, chemists and a physicist, the substance was finally created. There was no scientific paper to advertise the breakthrough or allow others to build upon it, and no Nobel prize for a discovery that remained a closely guarded secret for a whole year.
Plainly called Antipoison, it is not short of a miracle product. A spoonful is able to neutralize the effects of all common toxins before they even have the chance of penetrating the organism. The active principle is loosely specific and acts as a receptor for the toxin, capturing them in the stomach and throat. The peculiar conformation of the molecule binds strongly the pathogen and prevent it from separating, until they are both eliminated by the organism. To saturate the drug, one would need to ingest a large quantity of poison at once, equivalent to a full glass of venom.
Leak and adoption
The antipoison was quickly put into production by the Brotherhood, which intensified its hits threefold in the following months. Now impervious to their own schemes, they were less cautious, targeting anyone even remotely suspect. Their onslaught culminated when they had a kill every week, and important people dropped like flies.
However, they got careless in their rise to power, and a few of them got unveiled, triggering a series of vendettas ultimately leading to the bombing of Tahar Rajeev's home after a failed poisoning attempt. The man happened to be the lead scientist on the Antipoison project, and had a dead man's switch ready to be activated, uncovering dozens of secrets and identities that he had personnally found out. Even more important than the brand new identities who were disposed of swiftly, he disclosed to the entirety of the Game the composition and fabrication process of the Antipoison.
In a few weeks, large scale industrialisation of the product was achieved and it was delivered to every player's table. Soon, it became a common thing to take a sip of antipoison before every meal and high standing receptions even proposed it next to the champagne glasses. With this, the growing influence of the Fourth Brotherhood dwindled, so much that they became a background faction, barely worth mentioning.
Only fools deal in absolute
Antipoison is not a miracle solution, able to magically prevent any poison. It's only effective against the most common toxins, but cover such a wide range that it may very well be universal. Poisoning still happens from time to time, using absurdly rare toxins or synthetic ones at a cost barely worth the benefits. Any player determined to cause a death by poison will succeed, antipoison or not.
Even if virtually nobody uses regular toxins, Antipoison has become a staple on every player's table. Wherever they go, they bring a small bottle with them to drink before eating, or even every few hours. They would be fools not to use one of the most powerful protection they have available simply because the odds of it being used are low. Like not wearing a seatbelt because car accidents never happen.
The Fourth Brotherhood
A faction of religious fundamentalists acting like a sect, whose members believe they are the rightful heir of Earth. Their holy duty is to cleanse the planet from the stain of non-believers. Once it is completed, the planet will turn back into a heaven where they would be granted immortality as sovereigns of Earth. Conscious that they cannot act rashly against the whole world, they entered the Game with the goal of dispatching all those able to stand in their way.
Specialists of poisons, they almost exclusively employ biological or chemical assassination, using more direct approaches as a last resort. Estimated at a few dozen players, they are a small group whose resources are unknown.
Would anybody think of the people?
Twice now, there have been attempts to capitalize on the commercial potential of the antipoison. Even if intentional poisoning is much less common in the real world, the medical applications of such a substance are legions, near infinite if the scientific community manages to build better drugs on top of it.
Both times, the ventures resulted in a failure. Business partners bailed out at the last moment, labs bursted on fire and other not so subtle warnings. Eventually, it costs the life of three players in total without any idea of who was behind it. Someone powerful, intent on keeping the miracle product internal to the Game with the means of eliminating anyone who would go against its desires.
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