seasong's Book of Runes (May 19)

[seasong]

Academia: White Blossom Tea

To the north and west, in the Upper Mountains and the Anton States, a plant grows. Although it has many names (and subspecies), in the Imperial City it is called Alluuches ("pale little blossom"), or white blossom. The flower is a type of poppy native to this setting which has a very low (but still present) morphine content in its natural resins. It thrives best in sea-salted air, and requires a somewhat cooler environment than most poppy flowers, sharply restricting the regions of the world it can grow in without very expensive measures. It is harvested in numerous ways, but the most common one is the method desired by the Imperial aristocracy.

The "aristocratic" method is to allow it to bloom, harvest the petals and then sun dry and crush them into small silk pouches, which can then be used to produce white blossom tea. White blossom tea is an evening drink among the Imperial aristocracy, and while some of the nobility refrain from it, this is usually because they have work to do - and culturally, this puts them closer to the working class than most nobles care for. The fact that it's really expensive helps, as well.

White blossom tea has a slight narcotic effect. In the aristocratic mind, it adds some life to otherwise dull evening parties, makes friends friendlier, dulls pain, enhances pleasure, and aids sleep. Indeed, careful concoctions of caffeinated tea leaves and white blossom tea bags which initially keep one awake and then allow restful drowsiness by the end of the evening, is considered the mark of an excellent host.

Of course, this is not the only thing that is done with the flower. Another type of harvesting is the circle cut method. In this method, the pre-bloom buds are very delicately cut along the surface in vertical lines by a special curved knife. When this is done, a milky resin wells up, drips, and hardens along the stem of the flower; this resin is then scraped off into silk bags, and the resin is ground up and packed into bricks for transport and further processing.

The circle cut method results in a much more powerful opiate, which (depending on the later processing) can be smoked or swallowed as part of a bitter, black drink. The stronger version is common among the wealthy in the Badlands, Dis, and other unsavory cities.

Among the Imperial aristocrats, the tea has subtle distinguishing characteristics that allow the determination of the precise region it was taken from; and good crops (those with, perhaps, more emotional impact) are often identifiable by their "year".

Almost all white blossom tea trade goes through Dis, which is located at the western edge of the Empire (just within its borders, in fact) and is the primary trade route along the Black River (which runs north into the white blossom regions).

 

[seasong]

I may not get anything posted today. Work is kicking me in the &%$ .

 

[seasong]

Eureka, By Jove

The reading room was silent, as it often was in the pre-dawn night. For Elorit nal Quesad, that was the best time to read. She was poring over the details of the Consumét Chronicles, a long and rather boring series of prophecies and predictions written by the famous Kumaté prophet, Emalgihn(1). She had a suspicion, a very small one, about the presence of several artifacts encoded in the predictions.

Thus far, it looked like she was right.

The "ebon length" was referred to in no fewer than sixty four passages, including the one which had seemed to indicate that the ebon length would be instrumental in the breaking of the "shadow empire" (which most scholars agreed was the present empire). That the Edge of Night(2) had been involved in the rise of Gabrianna as Emperor(3) seemed a bit much to be coincidence... and the "ebon length" was mentioned in at least a few other places the Edge of Night had been mentioned.

Elorit was not interested in the Edge of Night, however. By all accounts, it was broken anyway. No, her quarry this night was the Book of Runes... and she suspected (strongly!), that the "orb of salt" and "bitter sphere" were either one or the other or both, Emalgihn's euphemism for the Book of Runes.

So she was reading through, and marking each page and passage that contained a reference to either, and slowly putting together a complete list of references. Further, surrounding her was every book, rumor and possible lead that had been found on the Book of Runes from other sources. Her plan was simple - to assault the preponderance of truthful and false information with comparisons to the body of the Consumét Chronicles, and with luck, sift the wheat from the chaff.

When she awoke, head lolled across her desk like a rag doll, there were other academicians loudly discussing their latest findings. It was evening, and the faux intelligencia were re-establishing their pecking order of academic "wit".

She looked about her, rubbing salt from her eyes, and discovered that she had finished at some point in the wee hours of the morning... a complete index lay before her, cross referencing the useful from the useless. Stifling a grin behind a practiced, aristocratic yawn, she carefully reshelved her books, copied quick notations on each of the useful clues, and hurried from the reading room, index tucked jealously beneath her arm.

The urgency was almost overwhelming. A key to the Book of Runes. Places it had passed through. She could find it! It took all of her long years of upper crust training to suppress the squeal of delight that threatened to press its way out of her throat. Thinking swiftly (the hallmark of a successful noble), she decided that action would serve better in this case than concealment. And to do so, she would need the services of someone suited to action. She would need friends, and she would need to leave the city as soon as possible.

That meant the Brimming Vine. Most of the truly adventurous among the Lower Court aristocracy, when in need of refreshment, rest, and relaxing company, hung out there - a result of sanguinous location, as much as for the expertise of the staff - and so she hoped that someone she recognized might be there.

And fortunately, there was.

(1)Emalgihn is actually only "famous" among a small circle of eofihn mystics and scholars, particularly those who utilized the besarît seed for visions. He was very fond of giving coordinates by the position the stars took from a certain spot in a certain year, and dating by the same method, making locations more difficult than strictly necessary to find... but if you found the correct spot, he was almost always spot on. He was most famous for the Consumét Chronicles, however, which portrayed the passage of future empires with more than reasonable accuracy, if vaguely, and was the book which (upon predicting the death of the Kumaté cilvization) got him crucified until dead.

(2) The Edge of Night was a legendary blade, known for making or breaking heroes from countless generations. It was broken shortly before the previous Emperor died, and was said to have been part of the release of an ancient biomancer with near-godlike power, before he was killed.

(3) Gabiranna Muenerra, current emperor of Pauk, had become so by military force when the former emperor had died in an unfortunate incident involving the waking of a malrakhi god, decades before - prior to becoming emperor, however, she had been involved in the finding and breaking of the Edge of Night.

 

[seasong]

Academia: Besarît

The besarît is a weedy plant of the solanaceae family whose dark orange berries yield tiny, black, mustard-sized seeds. Like all nightshade plants, it carries alkalis within it, with the strongest dose in the seeds themselves.

The alkali of the solanaceae family range from harmless (potatos) to deadly (atropa, or deadly nightshade), with a variety of hallucinogens, paralyzing agents and violently nauseating chemicals somewhere in between. The besarît is primarily hallucinogenic in nature, although too much at once, or multiple doses in too rapid a succession, can be deadly.

Called black seed in common use, the besarît plant is primarily native to the Lower Mountains, but can be found transplanted almost anywhere there is adequate soil. It lives a delicate life, however, and is easily killed by non-native conditions - besarît farmers must treat it carefully.

The seeds are the only truly export of value from the plant, and are typically ground into powder and cut with tea leaves or sugar to reduce the dosage. Two seeds is sufficient for a lethal dose, although many have lived through as many as ten in a single dose.

Taken in appropriate dosages, black seed causes incredibly realistic hallucinations, divorcing the user from reality and activating the intuitive centers of the mind almost randomly. A skilled user can learn to direct the vision, gaining insight (and in some cases, prophetic or clairvoyant visions) into events and people. Many of the most famous prophets were users.

While under the influence, the subject's voice is lost, the hands grasp at air, or flex in unseemly manner, and the torso twists and bends most alarmingly. Most experienced users arrange for a quiet, solitary place with soft padding where they can lay as they experience the visions. The effects last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, depending on the size of the dose and the subject's increasing tolerance.

 

[Talix]

Good stuff so far, Seasong!

I would definitely be interested in the players' perspectives as well - a link would be appreciate, should that sort of thing spring up. Is there something similar for Light against the Dark that I have been unaware of?

And don't worry, I like the dialogue so far.

 

[seasong]

So, a quick update on the status of this campaign...

For various reasons, we're ending this one and starting a different one. I've got about three weeks' worth of backlog that I could write up in a story hour (including getting out of the bar and pursuing various leads in the city of Dis), but it would end abruptly. And while I adore the setting, I don't really feel like pushing on just for that.

Sometimes it happens - a campaign just doesn't click .

So I'm aborting this story hour in its infancy and going back to focusing on Light Against the Dark. We are going to be starting a different campaign, but its science fiction, and I need to think about whether or not I can write it before I start trying to.

 

[Talix]

D'oh! Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Make sure you keep having fun - that's the most important thing.