A toadstone is a mythical rock given to followers of frog-deities or found in the bodies of batrachian monsters. It is used to detect poisons and other venemous substances. The first toadstone was gifted to the High Priestess of the goddess Heqet as a reward for her loyal service. This artifact was deemed quite useful in the Evening of Callous Conspiracies, when the clergy and nobility of the southern lands were under various assaults. On that night the priestess’s stone glowed in the prescence of her winecup, and the poison inside was never ingested.
Today, toadstones may be found in the black market trade of artifacts and antiquities. Various magicks developed over the centuries are surely more powerful than the stone in terms of identifying poisons. However, it must be conceded that the reliability of such sorcery pales in comparison to such a relic. That is, until one angers the wrong deities.
Some specimens, as in the one pictured, have small pores through which they ooze a green liquid in order to alert its carrier to poison.