starting on Dragon Magazine's "Ecology Of..." articles:
Dragon 74: Bulette
“I’ve hunted all kinds of game, but like most of you I never thought the bulette, the land shark as you call it, was anything but the stuff of legend. How could such a beast swim through the earth like a fish through water, even if it was magical?
“Then, five years ago, I was in a little known and even lesser traversed area of Morn when I heard rumors of tribes that tracked such a beast, digging the earth from where the bulette had passed, taking the mud that they found, and smearing it on their plows.
“I asked the reason for this strange practice and was told that it made the plows cut the earth like the prow of a boat cuts the water. I began following the source of these rumors, to the east, deeper into the interior of the sparsely populated wilderness.
“I was approached by the headman of a native village shortly after my arrival on his premises. He confirmed the stories I had heard, and from what he said I began to get an idea of the nature of the beast.
“It existed — that much seemed certain — and its uncanny powers must come from an ability to secrete a slime from its skin that works like the potion for transmuting rock to mud, known to some wizards and alchemists. But this secretion must be weaker than the potion in strength and duration, and it seems to work only on earth, not rock.
Dragon 75: Mimic
Although the details of the concoction are not known by this scribe, it is generally said that the skin of the mimic is useful in the making of a polymorph (self) potion.
Dragon 77: Unicorn
The powers of the unicorn’s horn are debated by serf and king alike. It is known that unicorns cannot be poisoned, and that the horn will protect a man, though to lesser effect, from toxins of all kinds. Yet there are always tales of other, hidden magicks that the horn can perform. A ranger will remember a unicorn coming upon him as he lay dying in the woods of a goblin’s arrow; the unicorn but touches the infected wound and it is healed at once. A lost child, when found, will tell of seeing a “one-horned deer” who cured his sicknesses from eating wild mushrooms or berries with a tap of its horn, then guided the child home again. There is even a legend that two lovers, chased into a forest by their enraged families, fell from a low cliff and one of them was slain; the survivor would have died of grief but heard a low sound, and beheld a unicorn coming, who touched the other one once and restored the lost one to life before fleeing. What can be made of all this is beyond even the sages to say; but clearly, one should never take a unicorn for granted.
Dragon 79: Treant
For a moment Andrar was silent, then thought of a story he heard long ago. “My father once told me there was great power in the drinks of the treants. Some who were allowed to drink from their wooden bowls found that they grew stronger, or that they could speak with plant life, and some lived far longer than they and others expected them to. My father said that one of his friends drank from a treant’s bowl when he was wounded, and found himself healed of his injuries within seconds.”
Clarissa nodded. “Your father’s friend was blessed to share drink with them. Only those they trust completely are allowed to do that. Usually, they don’t even communicate with ordinary folk, unless one is of the druidic profession like myself, or perhaps a ranger-type, or a bard, and they generally prefer to share their forests with elves, rather than humans or dwarves — or even halflings.”
“I didn’t think that treants were able to create magical things, though,” said Andrar. “That has always confused me. How can they make these potions?”
Clarissa chewed her lower lip, searching for words.“It’s hard to say, and I guess no one really knows exactly how. Treants make their potions from their own living sap, and add many sorts of materials that they find in the forest or receive in trade from friends like elves and dryads. Some say the drinks must age for many years before they are ready to be consumed. The effects the potions have upon people like you and me are probably related to the effects they have upon the treants themselves. A draught made to give a treant energy would gift me with the strength of a giant. I could throw boulders, bend bars, poke bothersome companions in the nose . . .”
