Corrupted Potions

Another bit of rumination on Potions and their sensitivity to the environment around them, in contribution to Of Dice and Dragons' October RPG Blog Carnival topic.

Part 1 here.

While there are a number of spell failure tables and mechanics are available, I don't know if there are any for potions (or I'm just lazy and never looked).

I would theorize that, although potions are typically treated as infallible 'magic bullet' items in game-playing, that in 'reality' they may be more unreliable - concoctions brewed by sketchy alchemists, or enchanted by second-rate mage's assistants...

Additionally, if the potion is considered a distillation enchanted with a spell effect, would the fluid be susceptible to magical influences?

So... A consideration of a few things, in no particular order, that may have an effect on a lowly potion, minding its own business in its flask or vial....

Temperamental Potions

Of Dice and Dragons is sponsoring this month's Carnival topic of potions.

Per Omas Qualor is an itinerant healer and alchemist who somehow glommed onto the party one or two towns back.  His pack clinks with vials, pots and retorts.  No one wants to get too close to him, as he reeks of rancid distillations and esters, but no one has come up with a way to ditch him, quite yet.

He goes on and on about his researches into the 'essential essences' of the various races, and how his potions are attuned to emphasize and amplify the the natural 'humors' of the individual.  Qualor claims to have distilled potions that are attuned to the 'internal chymistry' of the individual races.  "Wait! Don't go away, I have a number of vials here if you would care to sample!"

Salt Dwarves (and salt golems)

The Salt Dwarves, in contrast with their mountain kin, mine the subterranean salt domes and evaporite basins eschewing their brethren's search for gems and precious ores, instead excavating the "buried ocean."  These mines extend deep into the ground, tapping the halides left by ancient seas and buried under eons of deposits.

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Like their hard rock mining cousins, the Salt Dwarves hollow huge caverns beneath the earth, for the mines are both their vocation and homes.  The mines are supported by elaborate timber and rope shoring and cribworks, proof against the slowly settling and flowing salt.  Massive water wheels and pumps evacuate the caverns of brackish water.

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Periodically, the dwarves, with their salt-encrusted beards and cracked hands, will come to the surface of their mines, hauling their troves of salt to the surface. Salt dwarves, when encountered, tend to be kitted out in leather armor, with a thick, padded skullcap, and wielding a mining or war-pick. They wear no metallic armor due to the corrosive tendencies of the saline atmosphere within the mines.