Coca Wine

Coca Wine

Type Ingested; Addiction Moderate; Price 15 gp (bottle, 6 doses); Weight 1 lb.

DESCRIPTION

This deep red tonic wine is produced by steeping coca leaves in strong alcohol, extracting their stimulating properties into a pleasantly bitter, invigorating drink. Among the upper classes, it is considered fashionable - a civilized indulgence for artists, nobles, and those suffering from “nervous exhaustion.”

A standard bottle contains 6 doses.

EFFECT

A creature may drink a dose of coca wine as a standard action.

Upon consumption, the user gains the following benefits for 1 hour:

• +2 alchemical bonus to Strength and Charisma
• +1 alchemical bonus on attack rolls
• +2 alchemical bonus on Fortitude saves against fatigue and exhaustion effects
• The user ignores the effects of fatigue (but not exhaustion) for the duration

Additionally, the user gains a +2 alchemical bonus on Concentration checks and initiative checks due to heightened alertness.

DRAWBACKS

Coca wine places strain on both body and mind.

When the duration ends, the user must succeed on a DC 13 Fortitude save or suffer:

• Fatigue for 1 hour
• –2 penalty to Wisdom for 1 hour

If already fatigued, the user instead becomes exhausted.

ADDICTION

Coca wine is moderately addictive.

• Initial save: DC 13 Fortitude
• Secondary save: DC 13 Fortitude (after 24 hours)

Failure indicates addiction. An addicted character who goes 24 hours without coca wine takes:

• –2 penalty to Strength, Dexterity, and Charisma
• –1 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks

These penalties persist until the character consumes a dose.

OVERUSE

If more than 2 doses are consumed within 1 hour, the user must succeed on a DC 15 Fortitude save or become:

• Shaken for 1 hour
• Suffer 1 point of Constitution damage

SPECIAL

• Coca wine counts as both an alchemical substance and an alcoholic beverage.
• Effects from multiple doses do not stack; only the duration is extended.
• A creature immune to poison is immune to addiction and negative side effects, but still gains the benefits.

LORE

Coca wine first emerged from the blending of old viticulture and exotic southern leaves, its rise fueled not by necessity, but by fashion. What began as a curiosity quickly became a staple of refined society - a drink that promised vigor without vulgarity, stimulation without stigma. Its adoption by the elite ensured its rapid spread through salons, courts, and private studies alike.

Physicians and apothecaries eagerly promoted it as a remedy for nearly every ailment of modern life - melancholia, nervous weakness, poor blood, creative stagnation. Whether these claims hold truth is a matter of debate, though few deny its immediate and unmistakable effects.

Among the working class, coca wine is viewed with suspicion or outright distrust - too expensive for common use, and too closely associated with the peculiar habits of the wealthy. Yet in certain urban circles, particularly among performers, writers, and dilettantes, it is consumed with an enthusiasm that borders on dependency.

CONSTRUCTION

Coca wine is not a magic item and requires no spells to create.

Craft (Alchemy) DC 15; raw materials cost 5 gp per bottle.
Ingredients: Fine red wine, dried coca leaves, mild stabilizing reagents.

Kelwyn’s Notes...

Ah… yes. One encounters this particular indulgence in the quieter corners of society’s more respectable decay - a drink spoken of in polite tones, as though refinement might soften what it so plainly is. Coca wine. A stimulant masquerading as sophistication, dressed in the trappings of culture so that its consumers may pretend they are not merely indulging, but participating in something elevated.

Let us not be charmed by its presentation. This is not a tonic. It is not a remedy. It is a leash - silken, perfumed, and willingly fastened about the throat. The body is coaxed into false vigor, the mind into borrowed brilliance, all while something quieter and far more insidious takes root beneath the surface. What it grants is not strength, but the illusion of it, purchased on credit from one’s own future.

I have observed its devotees - artists who swear it sharpens their genius, nobles who claim it steadies their nerves, and the perpetually weary who insist they have finally found relief. And yet, in time, they all arrive at the same destination. The hands tremble. The will softens. The self - that most precious and fragile of constructs - becomes negotiable. One begins by taking coca wine… and ends by quietly rearranging one’s life to ensure it is always close at hand.

They are not wicked, these people. No, that would be simpler. They are… diminished. Reduced, not by cruelty, but by surrender. There is a particular sadness in watching a mind learn to lean upon something that cannot love it in return.

I find it repugnant. Not merely for what it does, but for how elegantly it convinces its victims to participate in their own undoing. There is a vulgar honesty in many vices - drink, excess, indulgence - but this… this insists upon calling itself medicine. That, I think, is the greater offense.

And so it persists, passed between hands that would recoil were the truth made plain, praised in circles that would condemn it under any other name. A most fascinating thing, really - how eagerly one will sip poison, provided it is served in a crystal glass and introduced with proper etiquette.

One cannot help but wonder which is more potent - the substance itself… or the lie that accompanies it.