Maiden’s Youth is a thick, putrid sludge, which is rumored to give everlasting youth to those with a strong enough stomach to consume it daily. No one has a credible account of having experimented with the dosage, however, as it’s brewed from the highly illegal Hag’s Foot Fungus, a green foot-shaped tree ear which is both a potent narcotic and powerful hallucinogen. The magistrate who pushed the legislation outlawing the fungus later retired amidst a foul scandal, when his wife disappeared and he sent his very young daughter to an asylum.
Trophy: Elixirs, Tinctures, and Herbal Remedies from Old Kalduhr
“The dew from a morning hopper,
placed top a coin of fine copper,
Add blood of a foal,
And swallow it whole,
A remedy for anything proper.”
-The Unreliable Guide to This and That by Crezorg, Goblin pauper
The Cinnamon Rose is little more than a legend, but the legend is powerful. They say that the pollen of this brown, desert-growing, flower can help a traveler go for days without water. Many a traveler have met their fate in search of this rose.
Slipberries are nearly indistinguishable from blueberries until they are struck by moonlight when they glitter like sapphires. If a skilled alchemist concentrates the pigments in the berry’s skins, and boils those pigments with a sufficiently strong whiskey, they can create an elixir that grants temporary invisibility.
The fruit of a Silversap Pear tree is a sight to behold. The pear itself is a bland brown, however, when sliced open, the juice runs out like quicksilver and the seeds glitter like diamonds. Silversap Pear seeds are a good replacement for diamonds and the juice can be distilled into a very fine brandy rumored to bring all manner of luck.
Granitewood is the hardest and densest wood that is known, but it only grows in the oldest forests and it grows extraordinarily slowly. A granitewood arrowhead or blade can pierce the strongest armor, and a door made of granitewood will outlast an army.
Corpse Blossoms are a dingy looking flower. None will argue that. These small, wilted, grey-brown blossoms only grow where people have died and been left to rot naturally. When their essence is extracted into a precisely measured elixir, they can induce a temporary death-like state. The desired time can be calibrated based on the level of concentration and the imbiber’s size.
Bluecap Mushrooms are unexpectedly common, so common that for a long time no thought was given to uncovering unusual properties. As it happens, the compounds that turn the mushrooms blue can be harvested, refined, and processed into bright blue inks that enable potent arcane enchantments.
Fateweaver Lichen is a remarkably hearty thing. While it is difficult to find it has been seen in nearly every climate save the hottest deserts. When dried and powered, this substance can be smoked. If a user smokes just the right amount, it is said that they can see gain accurate premonitions of their future. Proper dosage can be difficult to calibrate and an overdose can be deadly.
Young shoots of the Flameleaf Fern are highly prized for their incendiary qualities. If their oils are extracted at just the right temperature, the extraction can be ignited to devastating effect. Unfortunately it requires a great quantity of these shoots that can only be harvested in the early spring.
The Lavender at the edge of the Old Kalduhr forest is famous for its pleasant smell and as the primary component of any local sleeping potion.
The local soft cheese sometimes include bits of wild sage. While delicious, it also works as a salve that can be applied to heal wounds faster.
Nearby taverns are known to muddle orange dandelions gathered from the forest into the mead when the adventurers return from the forest and ask to forget the terrifying experiences they survived. It appears to work as these adventures return time and time again with more ghastly stories.
Milk thistle is a strange plant with purple flowers on top. When ground up and swallowed with the forest river water, it has been known to provide travelers with the ability to see in the pitch dark of a moonless woodland night.
The tiny perennial blue starflowers that grow between the weeds of the dark woods are known to prevent any illness, especially illnesses of the mind.
The bright orange nasturtiums to the east side of the trail are not to be trifled with! Many have mistaken them for edible flowers only to realize their skin flakes off with a mere brush against the petals!
Grey oak bark scrapings from the massive trees in the middle of the forest are sometimes boiled with goat milk to create an elixir that hardens the drinker’s bones to withstand any blunt attack.
What devil spawn dosed those travelers with the tincture of yellow ivy! Now they speak the evil infernal tongue!
The benzoin gum of the rare albino pine is so sticky that explorers apply it to leather gloves in order to free climb cliff faces and explore the caves of the forgotten peoples.
Yellow King’s Crown can be refined from the rare mutated golden poppies that hide among their pastel cousins in the deeply isolated, hollowed glades of the Forrest of Kalduhr. They emerge only after a rain bathed in moonlight. It is thought to increase one’s creativity. Coveted by less talented artists or those seeking a way to wrestle free of a creative slump. But does the inspiration come from within or without?
I original read this as [quote=“Joshua_Kershaw, post:25, topic:4132”]
Yellow King’s Crown can be refined from the rare mutated golden PUPPIES
[/quote] and I wasn’t sure to be creeped out or confused
Sullivan’s Ichor. One pulverized rosehip, one vial of milkwood sap, one spoonful of saliva, and three drops of scholar’s ink, mixed together in water boiled over fire, will produce Sullivan’s Ichor. Those who imbibe this decoction will discover that they can read any writing placed before them–at the cost of whatever language they spoke prior to its consumption.
Blackvein is a cordyceps fungus that infects and grows inside blood-drinking insects. When it matures, the fruiting bodies spring dense and tangled from the body of the insect; a rich, dark, blood-pudding black. A skilled herbalist or apothecary can prepare a viscous liquid by filtering and denaturing the mycelia, removing enough of the toxins and spores to render it safe to imbibe. The liquid grants strength and endurance allowing one to push their body well past its breaking point. But if not prepared properly, the same black fungal strands that grow within the body to grant that strength begin to warp the mind. Infecting the brain and driving the user to consume blood and flesh.
The Crooked Apple is absolutely indistinguishable from any other apple, if anything it looks like a particularly tasty-looking one. In the first few bites, it tastes incredibly delicious. However, after a couple of minutes the mouth is engulfed in the most vile and foul taste ever experienced, which persists for weeks. This awful taste is described as thousand rotten carcasses left under the sun for months, Barsul sewers or even the smell of hell itself. It grows among normal apples only in Kalduhr, but a shady guild of merchants sells them to anyone with enough gold. How they are able to distinguish them from regular apples is a guarded trade secret and to this day their enterprise keeps cursing the rest of the world with this vile fruit.