In the 1991 Knightmare computer game from Mindscape, Poison is a spell that genies can use to harm monsters.

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A substance that causes serious if not fatal illness when swallowed. Where Knightmare is concerned, poison was a liquid in a labelled bottle that appeared as a clue object on several occasions. And depending inconsistently on the quest, poison would doom, inconvenience or even save the team:
Team 6 of Series 2: Dungeoneer Akash's team picked up poison in the Level 1 clue room, leaving behind the ice pack that would have got them past Lillith. Akash signed the knightmare.com guestbook in May 2002, explaining this misjudgement before quickly changing the subject: 'The reason we lost was because we got in to a confusion by thinking we needed the Poison to protect us. Great website.'
Team 11 of Series 2: A case of mistaken identity, for the team misread the label on a bottle of 'POTION' as 'POISON', Following opposite 'reasoning' to Team 6, they decided not to take it, but ended up meeting the same fate upon encountering Lillith. Ironically, poison has the same Latin root as potion, and even means 'magic potion' in Old French.Team 2 of Series 4: Took a bottle of poison from the Level 3 clue table, but died before any opportunity to use it arose.
Team 6 of Series 4: Dungeoneer Dickon picked up a bottle of poison in Level 3. Faced later with dwindling Life Force, the team cast their OPPOSITE spell and drank the poison, which turned out to have become 'anti-poison' and duly restored Life Force, enabling them to complete their quest. Arguably, the team's ability to follow this unusual turn of events was not so impressive: the poison had been the only clue object available on Level 3 (previous teams in both Series 4 and earlier series found themselves faced with a choice, as did later Knightmare teams), and Treguard strongly and repeatedly hinted at the need somehow to use it.
Team 3 of Series 5: Just like Series 2 Team 6, this team took poison from Level 1's clue area, rather than an item that would have appeased a domineering woman. The object was an arrow token, the character was the Greenwarden Gwendoline, and she was duly appalled to encounter a dungeoneer carrying poison in the Greenwood and offering it too! Yet in spite of this blunder, she let the team off, making them far luckier than their counterparts in Team 6 of Series 2, and allowing them to continue on a quest that ultimately reached Level 3.
Team 5 of Series 5: Encountered a green, corked vial of poison as a Level 1 clue object, but chose not to pick it up.In the gamebook section of The Labyrinths Of Fear, Mildread spits poison at the player if an attempt is made by the player to run past her.

[Earlier versions: 2008-10-05 16:19:54, 2006-07-31 18:26:55]

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