I know what was in the lead sealed bottle I suggested, because I know what story I swiped it from. And I'm fairly certain your story wants nothing of the sort. :-)
Hmm. I know that there have been stories of rare spirits being used as tontines. Maybe everybody died and it's simply the last remnants of a very good whiskey. (I can hear Sherlock say "dull".)
A mysterious chemical that does something might be good. Holmses (an extravagance of Holmeses?) may have been mucking around with scientific experiments since the days when it was alchemy. Maybe it's a hallucinogen. Maybe it attracts cats. Maybe it gets the stain out of the tabletop. Maybe it clots blood. Maybe it is a nearly perfect lubricant and is needed to unjam some stuck machinery used to operate the sets or spills across the floor and makes things more hazardous. Perhaps it gilds things and causes awkward stains. It could be, but probably isn't, an aphrodisiac. Maybe it's a sentimental keepsake and someone from the family recognizes it—"Oh, that's water and sand from the seaside where your Great-Grandmother Rose proposed to your Great-Grandfather Henry." or "Great-Great-Great Uncle Herbert always loved the smell of his flatmate's moustache wax and wanted to preserve it forever."
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branchandroot
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Date: 2012-07-06 02:14 pm (UTC)Hmm. I know that there have been stories of rare spirits being used as tontines. Maybe everybody died and it's simply the last remnants of a very good whiskey. (I can hear Sherlock say "dull".)
A mysterious chemical that does something might be good. Holmses (an extravagance of Holmeses?) may have been mucking around with scientific experiments since the days when it was alchemy. Maybe it's a hallucinogen. Maybe it attracts cats. Maybe it gets the stain out of the tabletop. Maybe it clots blood. Maybe it is a nearly perfect lubricant and is needed to unjam some stuck machinery used to operate the sets or spills across the floor and makes things more hazardous. Perhaps it gilds things and causes awkward stains. It could be, but probably isn't, an aphrodisiac. Maybe it's a sentimental keepsake and someone from the family recognizes it—"Oh, that's water and sand from the seaside where your Great-Grandmother Rose proposed to your Great-Grandfather Henry." or "Great-Great-Great Uncle Herbert always loved the smell of his flatmate's moustache wax and wanted to preserve it forever."