Glue

Glue was broad term for a variety of natural and manufactured substances used for sealing and joining materials. "I find it ironic that even our most lofty edifices are held together by ground horse hooves, sandy lime, and foul-smelling tar."

- Excerpt from Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue

Properties
Glue was highly sticky, and could generally be used to bond surfaces and materials together.

Availability

 * Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue sold jars of wood glue for 3 gold pieces per, as well as makeup putty.
 * Elturel was a notable exporter of glue in the Realms.
 * The Eskult family of Waterdeep both bred fine riding horses and produced horse glue in bulk.
 * If nothing else was available, the right raw tree sap could be used as a glue with no further preparation.

Crafting
Glue was often made by soap makers, and was one of the more mundane substances made by alchemists. It was derived from a wide variety of materials. Fish bones, fish scales, animal hides, animal bones, horns, hooves, and deer antlers were all boiled to obtain the substance, with the hooves of oxen, horses, and mules commonly used. A variant called oyster glue was derived from certain Inner Sea shellfish, and produced an innocuous substance that only activated on contact with moisture.

Plant-based glues also existed, such as that derived from the rind of the tlarm-melon, and tansel, a plant-paste-and-egg sealant glue.

Artisan's putty was a nigh-unbreakable but complicated bonding agent, made from alkali, hardsand, pitch, and dragon turtle scales.

Usages

 * Glue was broadly used in building and furniture construction to hold things together, alongside pitch and mortar.
 * All sorts of tools, equipment, and everyday items including crossbows, swords, files, jewelry, armor, clothing, and buckets used some form of glue or putty to hold their metal, wood, leather, and fabric parts together. In particular, the bindings of books were typically held together using glue.
 * Tansel glue was used to produce an airtight seal, such as sealing talyth or other snacks in sugar bladders.
 * Glue was an ingredient in various inks.
 * Cunning individuals could use glue as an offensive tool, such as gluing opponents to nearby objects and surfaces. Tanglefoot bags used a particularly fast-acting kind of glue that solidified in seconds.
 * Glue had a use in thieves' tools, being used to disable mechanisms.
 * Disguises could be affixed by glue, such as mustaches. Desperate individuals could also glue hair (such as wigs) to their heads to hide their baldness.
 * Glue powder could be sprinkled on surfaces as a deterrent and trap for thieves.
 * Putty was used for disguises and makeup, allowing physical features to be obscured or exaggerated. Arglut glue was an edible, sticky material that set firm, and could be used to make false noses and ears.
 * Kuo-toa used their own body oils as a base for making a kind of glue. They often used this adhesive substance to coat their shields, causing the weapons or limbs of attackers to become stuck on a hit.
 * Drow had a clear honey-smelling glue that could be used to affix magical glyphs.
 * Dragons were known to glue gems and coins to their hides with special mixtures.
 * Kobolds used special glue shot ammunition in their slings that could briefly immobilize a target.
 * Orcish alchemists made and used a kind of caustic glue that both slowed and burned the target.
 * Alchemist's fire had adhesive properties, but its self-immolating properties made its use as a glue difficult.

Spell Components

 * Flesh mirage used a bit of plaster, glue, and a mirror.
 * Stick used a small amount of dried glue as a material component.
 * Whirlwave used a piece of glue-stiffened thread.

Creatures

 * Aartuk slime could be made into a strong glue.
 * Adherers, as the name suggested, exuded a strong, sticky substance that they used to ambush and grab prey.
 * Bone whelks secreted a sticky substance that formed bones and debris into a protective shell.
 * Raw glael slugs tasted overpoweringly like glue.
 * Grigs were fond of destructive and annoying pranks, such as gluing swords in scabbards.
 * Jammer leeches attached to spelljammer hulls by secreting a strong gluey substance. It could be harvested and used as a valuable glue.
 * Mimics secured their prey with a sticky adhesive slime, which could be dissolved with alcohol.
 * Ropers secreted a strong glue that coated their tendrils, a key ingredient in making sovereign glue worth 8 gp an ounce.
 * Tangler beetle saliva was an incredibly strong though short-lived adhesive.
 * Thornslingers exuded an adhesive sap on their leaves that trapped their prey.
 * Giant velvet worms could shoot a stream of quick-drying glue to immobilize prey.
 * Wingless wonders were completely immune to any sort of adhesive mundane or magical snare.
 * Zygoms could secrete a milky substance that was incredibly sticky and spread its spores.

Magic

 * Hold form used a drop of glue or a similar binding substance.
 * Shayn's infalliable identification used a long piece of thread with glue at both ends.
 * Stick imitated the effects of glue, without producing a physical substance.
 * Spellweb created a gluey mass similar to web.
 * Viscid glob produced a large blob of glue that immobilized a target.
 * Web produced a large amount of gluey fibers that could trap large creatures.
 * Wizard glue was a minor spell used by alchemists to affix objects.

Items

 * Pheljara's wand shot a cord with a highly adhesive tip.
 * Sovereign glue was a powerful magical substance that gave two objects an unbreakable bond, countered only by salve of slipperiness, universal solvent, and oil of etherealness.
 * A wand of viscid globs produced large amounts of glue that bonded things together.

History

 * A peculiar, everlasting adhesive substance was used in Cursrah as a trap, capable of permanently ensnaring a creature in seconds.
 * The Dread Throne of Torltaeralyn had an inlay of metals and gemstones secured with putty.
 * Elminster used a glue made from stirges to perform thievery in Hastarl during the 220s DR.
 * Guenhwyvar's figurine was once broken and then put back together with a special glue.
 * Volo once crafted a kind of sealant paste from glue and paint, for the purpose of patching a hot-air balloon.
 * The Grimwald's Revenge inn had a profusion of frogs inhabiting it, with two particular ones having dust of disappearance packets glued to their bellies.
 * A derivation of kuo-toan glue was developed in Selgaunt, finding some use in restraining prisoners.
 * Skoradin Thinskin constructed undead skeletal birds, allowing them to fly with glued-on parchment and fabric wings.
 * The innkeeper Mae built an effigy of her husband Grunnald for the Feast of the Moon that was held together with glue.
 * In the late 15 century DR, King Korboz of Gnomengarde was driven mad by the appearance of a mimic in his kingdom, leading him to take his co-king Gnerkli hostage by gluing him to a chair.