Alright, I just thought of something...
I was reading about the supposed effect that gnomeblight has on, well, gnomes. Now I'm curious as to what would happen should you produce a number of gnomeblight flasks, come across them in adventure mode, and then throw the liquid at gnomes you encounter during your travels.
Would it recognize the gnomeblight as an actual poison, and not just a thrown item? Would the gnomes possibly get covered in a spatter of the stuff should it connect with them?
I'm going to try testing this. I'll need to tweak gnomeblight so that it has an immediate and easy-to-see effect that I can clearly see if it works when I smack'em with the stuff... I'll also see if I can get them to walk over a puddle of it, and observe the effects of that.
EDIT: Oh yeah, and is it possible to assign syndromes to minerals and/or metals? If so, you could potentially make a sword or some bolts out of the stuff. Maybe even hook up some custom reactions to hack it into a reasonably immersive poisoning process.
EDIT2: SUCCESS! Well, alright, so it's only partial... But still!
Wolfbane, an extract of plump helmets that mimics the necrosis of gnomeblight (plus some added giant cave spider-style paralysis), was shown to produce
very interesting results in test group A (a bunch of wolves).
Currently, it seems to be that just throwing the stuff at them will cause very little damage. They'll get thwacked by the spinning liquid, and then keep going without so much as a smear of the stuff on them.
HOWEVER, if you were to, say, throw a bit of wolfbane at a tree so that it created a small puddle, and then tricked a wolf into walking over it, they would track through the wolfbane and get some on their paws.
Here's Test Subject A, a male wolf who was the first to be exposed to the effects of dropped wolfbane:
(Note that Test Subject A was in fact hit and damaged by thrown wolfbane, causing yellow damage to his rear leg and lower body. However, he showed no adverse side effects until trudging through a puddle. He has since been stepped on while lying in a puddle, causing more of his body to be exposed)
He is also partially paralyzed due to the venom. Several other wolves are exhibiting paralysis, and also organ necrosis (even though nothing is showing up on the wounds screen). I will wait around for a while longer, to see if they eventually die from having their bodies rot from the inside out...
Also, it is as yet unknown whether a blade can be efficiently dipped into the substance, and whether or not that blade will cause necrosis and paralysis from a non-fatal wound. More testing to commence...
UDPATE: Every wolf in Test Group A has been infected with wolfbane. The necrosis has spread to just about every part of the body, causing organ, bone and muscle tissue death. However, it's moving so damned
slow... I haven't seen any organ failure yet, however all the wolves are now exhibiting yellow-colored wounds all across the wounds list (except for the throat, which remains at brown).
Possible fort-mode applications of similar toxins: Simply set up a one-tile passageway with holes in the ceiling. When an invasion force comes, order your dwarves to dump the fluid into the hallway, creating a number of puddles. When the invasion force trudges through the corridor, the syndromes of your choice will be applied.
But, ah, I wouldn't recommend necrosis... It works so damned SLOW!