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Lotus poisons and herbs

Locked The two plant-based tools of Jade Lotus tradecraft: Pale Lotus root, a slow poison, and the pulse-stopping herb, which fakes death. Both are established setting elements, free to reuse in play, and both changed the history of Aldoria.

Pale Lotus root The pulse-stopping herb
Does Kills slowly, like a long illness Stops the pulse, so the taker passes for dead
From Kaelen Lotus tradecraft
Famous use Poisoned King Aldor IV Saved Ghost-9 from his own burning
Carried by Tristen Tristen

Pale Lotus root

Locked A Kaelen slow poison. Given over time, it looks like a wasting illness, which is the point.

Grandmaster Vane supplied it, and Archon Solaris used it on King Aldor IV so he could rule as Regent. Under the incapacity law the Royal Council governed in the dying King's name, and Solaris bribed physicians to swear the King was of unsound mind.

The cure

Locked Pale Lotus can be undone. Tristen, as Lord Trevor, switched the King's medicine and cured him in secret. The antidote reached him through Captain Vaelen and Princess Lyra, and Vesper ran the fortnightly cure. For over a year the King played dying where the Church could see, clear-minded and furious, until he walked into open court on "the one morning".

Open What the antidote is made of.

Locked Kaelen has its own poisoned Emperor. Malakor slowly poisoned his uncle, Emperor Zaruth, from 899 AP. Open Whether that poison was Pale Lotus too.

The pulse-stopping herb

Locked A herb that stops the pulse long enough for the taker to pass for dead. When the Lotus burned Ghost-9's safe-house in spring 900 AP, he swallowed it and crawled into the drains, and the river carried him out. Vesper pulled him from the water before he drowned. Kaelen reported him dead, and believed it.

A real-world comparison

Think of the potion in Romeo and Juliet: a drink that makes a living person look dead for long enough to escape. The difference is that in Meridia it worked.

At the table

  • Both belong to a poisoner's kit and alchemist's supplies, not to magic (R-009). They take time, ingredients and nerve.
  • Pale Lotus is slow by design. It suits a plot that runs over weeks or months, not a fight.
  • The pulse-stopping herb is risky. Open How long the false death lasts, and what happens if no one pulls you out.

Sources

  • Campaign handoff (Campaign Two), §4–§6
  • Campaign Three handoff, §2 and §4
  • The Rise of Ghost-9, Chapter One
  • Rulings R-004