Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

Just a bit of fun with some setting color.

Black Cigars

These smokeables are used by creatures who wish to advertise personal strength, both in native abilities and in disposable cash -- each is about 100gp.

A Black Cigar is a cigar made from a mundane but extremely potent leaf: smoking it does damage every round a smoker fails a Fort save. Different types do different sorts of damage, and a smoker immune to that type can "enjoy" the narcotic effects without immediate worries. They are alchemically treated to bypass most poison immunities when intimately contacted, i.e. by inhalation. The most popular brand, which gives the item its common name, is wrapped in black paper branded with a sign that indicates its type.

The smoke of a Black Cigar can be used as a breath weapon, though not very efficiently. The smoke must be inhaled deeply for a round to get up sufficient pressure to exhale a puff at someone in one's own square or immediately adjacent. The exhalation is a touch attack, and the target is entitled to the same Fort save to avoid the damage. However, it can be held in the mouth, leaving the hands free, and other actions can be undertaken while smoking, though not while attacking. If the entire cigar is smoked or simply burned in an enclosed area, the lingering smoke will have similar effects for perhaps an hour unless dispersed by any significant air movement. Normal smoking disperses sufficiently not to affect passersby unless they are noticeably susceptible to the damage type (GM's discretion), except for large collections of smokers or random strong whiffs (GM's whim).

This latter exception is sufficiently troublesome to the general public that Black Cigars have been outlawed in public areas by the Hall of Speakers, restricting them to private premises that permit them.

A few of the common types of Black Cigars and their brands are:

bottle: This leaf does 1d6 acid damage each round the smoke is inhaled and the save failed. Marinating oneself in the smoke of an entire cigar removes any (other) foreign odors, and tends to sterilize natural fungal infections such as filth fever and red ache. Surprisingly, a few angels have been seen with these.

flame: Particularly hot and laden with tiny sparking coals, this leaf does 1d6 fire damage per round inhaled. The smoke is sufficiently hot to set highly combustible materials (paper, dry reeds, etc.) afire.

skull: Black Cigars of any type are already designed to bypass poison immunities through specific channels for the effects of their own leaf; these Cigars are treated with other poisons a user advertises his immunity against. Polite smokers pay the extra 90gp for simple oil of taggit, in case the smoke is accidentally inhaled by a bystander. The DC drops to 10 for someone inhaling the smoke. Fiends have been known to work othur into them in "house blends." This poison is normally delivered through fumes, and carries full DC when inhaled, though several breaths of the smoke of an entire Cigar in a closed room must be forced on the victim.

Magical versions of Black Cigars are known, usually at a cost equivalent to several doses of an oil or potion that contains a given effect. The least uncommon of these Cigars drop faerie fire on a foe or give the smoker the effects of eagle's splendor.