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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 412144" data-attributes="member: 177">The difference is magic. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> In a normal fantasy world, magic works a lot faster than chemistry.  Plus, while you may have taken some chemistry, you've got a couple bad assumptions.  I'll take the simplest one first - distiling seems simple in concept, but it isn't easy in practice.  Without good controls on temperature (and remember - in fantasy worlds you've got no thermometers or bunsen burners - you've got simple charcoal fire), it can be a bear.  And, if your poison is temperature sensitive (say it breaks down before you reach the boiling point of the solvent) the process can take a while.Second - we aren't talking pure chemistry, where al the agents start out in nice, pure form.  We're talking practical biochemistry.  Generally speaking, even in our world, if you want to extract a given substance from a tissue, you cannot just "squeeze it into a jar/decant off unwanted part".  You make it sound like the thing you want willingly separates itself out, leaving all other materials behind.  That's not how it works.  There's a lot more processing to be done.  Generally, the tissue must be pureed, ground, and/or chemically treated to break down the very cells.  Then you go through a lot of steps to separate out the chemical you want from all the rest.  Today, we can do such things quickly and easily in some simple cases, because we can to it automatically, and in bulk.  With far more primitive tools, it is not easy.</blockquote>

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