Item Seed: Hanomal.

Hanomal – Google Docs

Hanomal

This substance would be the Holy Grail — pardon the somewhat obscure half-pun — of social workers and policy planners everywhere, if only more of them believed in the objective existence of Evil. Evil as a tangible quality, that is.  As in, something that could be suppressed, via regular injections of Hanomal.

How is it made? That’s a really good question, and the dubious shipping companies that bring Hanomal into the United States aren’t exactly interested in answering it. Supposedly, there’s something involving hermit crabs, or maybe there’s an herb involved, or possibly the original raw materials can be found in remote locations that have been associated with, well, evil?  Whatever it is, it works. 20 ccs of Hanomal per 150 lbs of body weight, injected into a vein, will suppress any and all effects of Evil on the body for at least two days. Multiple shots have no effect, but even an incomplete dose will have positive effects on the person getting injected.

In practical terms, Hanomal is excellent for alleviating: curses; lycanthropy; necromancy; halting the spread of vampirism (and removing the weaknesses and powers associated with full-burn vampire syndrome) or other malign magical diseases; demonic possession (it doesn’t remove the demon, but will make it incapable of doing anything to affect the victim’s behavior or body); black magic generally; and a number of mundane conditions (including at least one — of the GM’s choice — whose active suppression will make players uncomfortable about what that implies).  Hanomal is also expensive as all get out, and an absolute black hole in terms of information about it.  It’s not illegal because the FDA can’t find any scientific reason to ban it.  In fact, the FDA can’t come up with a legitimate reason to admit that Hanomal exists as anything except a weird joke.

And if all of this doesn’t worry the players, start having long-term users of Hanomal start falling off of the grid.  Or, perhaps better: have them lose access to their supply, and then start going through the withdrawal process.  That can often encourage a certain basic inquisitiveness among player-characters. Especially if they’ve decided that the best way to deal with that pesky zombie bite was to start using Hanomal themselves.