A lightweight mod that turns skooma's fabled hallucinogenic properties into attribute bonuses useful to mages and other magic users.


Mechanics

Vanilla skooma effects are unchanged.

When the player drinks skooma or eats raw moon sugar, the player's body will process the drug over time, fortifying Intelligence and Willpower.

However, as the body process skooma, it generates toxins. When the amount of toxins grows too large, Intelligence and Willpower will be randomly fortified or drained at regular intervals, in effect turning a skooma buzz into a game of roulette.

As skooma leaves the body, a high can become a crash, where Intelligence and Willpower are only drained.

To combat toxins, you can consume more skooma, in an desperate attempt to claw back some of the benefits, or you can use any Cure Poison potion or spell on yourself.

The body takes one real-time minute to fully ingest a bottle of skooma. The high will last most of one in-game day. All toxins will be cleaned from the body in about two in-game days. Unrefined moon sugar will not have as strong an effect.

The following status effects are applied to the character based on the amount of skooma consumed and toxins generated:

Perception - small fortification to Intelligence and Willpower
Fascination - medium fortification to Intelligence and Willpower
Rapture - large fortification to Intelligence and Willpower
Delirium - randomly fortifies or drains Intelligence and Willpower. Can be more powerful than Rapture, but can also be as negative as Horror.
Horror - drains Intelligence and Willpower

Flavour

Traveling along the inner pathways of the mind can be a rewarding journey, but it is not without perils!

Starting with sobriety (A), skooma will open one's eyes to perceive the world (B), and cause one to be utterly fascinated by the fabric of existence (C), fortifying one's Intelligence and Wisdom. A devoted traveler will reach a state of rapture (D), a safe haven of free thought, where these boons are at their safest.

But take caution! Impurities in the skooma will cloud the mind, and as toxins build up, the mind will become addled (E). Here, thoughts flow freely and chaotically, and one's Intelligence and Wisdom both come and go. If the toxins are too great, a mind may fixate on the great great cosmic horrors (F), and despair, losing all enlightenment.

An alchemically minded traveler can cleanse themselves, or let their body cleanse itself over time.

Installation and Requirements

This mod requires OpenMW.

Unzip into the DataFiles directory.

Should be compatible with most mod organizers.

Technical Details

This mod doesn't touch any vanilla records, so it should be compatible with any other mod.

It attaches a script to the player in order to detect skooma consumption, and then applies various spell effects based on the amount consumed.

Future Plans

Currently the mod is a bit opaque. I'm thinking of adding some kind of "trip journal" the player can use to get a reading of what the skooma is doing in their bodies.

Later on I might add some adjustments to the lore in order to make things more flavorful.