150 RPG Geek Fans – Five More New Plants

As the 150 RPGGeek fans goal, here are five plants for The Fantasy Trip . . .

Visit the Kickstarter page today to support the campaign and unlock more stretch goals!

None of these plants will "attack" you, but you'll still remember the encounters!

Goldflower

     A small annual plant whose brilliant pink blossoms only appear if there is a trace of gold in the soil. Thus, goldflower might bloom downhill from a gold deposit. And it can indicate where treasure lies! But it can also show where treasure once lay. Nobles show their wealth by displaying beds of blooming goldflower, which they have fertilized with gold dust.

Ambrosia

     This is a very rare mushroom which can be eaten fresh or dried. It is not harmful in any ordinary sense, but is so delicious to most humanoids that someone eating ambrosia, or any food strongly seasoned with ambrosia, simply will not stop while it’s physically possible to eat another bite! IQ is also reduced by 6 for any attempt to detect anything wrong with the food – or, indeed, for anything that might distract the eater from another wonderful bite of ambrosia.

     In very small amounts, the only effect of ambrosia is to make rough, common food taste good. It would be found in every pantry, but the cooks eat it all at the first opportunity. An ambrosia mushroom is worth $500 in the city, and they often are found in large patches. Few have gotten rich harvesting ambrosia, though. Someone will get a whiff of the heavenly scent, and there goes the treasure.

     They look like ordinary white mushrooms, growing on the ground. A Naturalist can tell an ambrosia mushroom without sniffing it. Anyone who has gorged himself on wild ambrosia will always remember what the mushroom looks like, but on recognizing one must make a 3/IQ roll not to start eating. And anyone who sniffs a fresh one unexpectedly must make the same 3/IQ roll not to take just one little taste . . .

     There are persistent rumors of terrible after-effects of gorging on ambrosia mushrooms. There is no proof; the stories might have been started by ambrosia hunters trying to protect their treasure. It has not worked.

     On the other hand, a deliberately poisoned ambrosia mushroom is a fiendish form of assassination. It usually fails because the wrong person – sometimes even the assassin! - eats the mushroom.

Death Apples

     The purple fruit of the death apple is delicious and usually nourishing, but about one fruit in a hundred is a potent poison except to a few creatures.

     Thus, animals often don’t learn to avoid the death apple, and a death apple tree may be surrounded by little bodies that will feed the tree.

     A Naturalist can tell which Death Apples are safe to eat and which ones are poison. Biting through the skin of a poison one causes numbing of the mouth and then does 1 hit of damage a minute for the next 20 minutes.

     An undamaged poison death apple is worth $50 to a Chemist or Alchemist. They can be used to create a variety of poisons and an effective topical anesthetic. In gaseous form, Death Apple poison will not harm humanoids but is very good for killing bugs.

Firegrass

     This is a plains grass that doesn’t like sharing its space. It is very flammable, easily ignited when dry by a lightning strike or a torch. The resulting fire may leave some animal bodies for the firegrass to “eat,” but more important, it burns off competing plants, while the firegrass will regenerate from its deep, water-filled roots.

     A Naturalist can recognize firegrass. Its roots can be a water source in dry plains. Mostly, though, it’s a hazard to anyone using fire.

Revenant Vine

     This fast-growing small vine is found in many woodland areas. It seems normal until a sprout finds its way to a human or animal corpse. Then it quickly spreads over and through the body, and within 12 hours is ready to animate it.

The animated corpse goes staggering through the forest, looking for a good place to grow. Then it falls down and the vines flower, quickly decomposing the revenant, and setting the next generation of seeds.

     A vine revenant is absolutely harmless. It does not fight or eat. It cannot even see; it has only a plant’s sense of its surroundings. Nevertheless, it’s horrifying.

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To discuss this latest extra for use with The Fantasy Trip roleplaying game, please join the conversation on the forums. To join in and support the project, visit the Kickstarter page today.