Marrowort
Description
The marrowort plant grows in small patches, and in the wild is most commonly found around battlefields. Its stems are erect, branched in the upper section, and can grow to four-feet high. It has opposing, stalkless, ovate leaves, and has a naturally pale colouration. It flowers in Spring and early Summer, and the flower-buds and seed-pods alike are collected and crushed to produce a sticky, translucent oil. It grows particularly well in the Sarcophan Delves, and is regularly imported to the Empire from the southern merchant-state.
Properly prepared, marrowort oil has valuable medicinal properties. Ingested it thickens the blood, slows the heartbeat, and speeds natural healing processes. In emergencies, it can be applied directly to a serious wound to help seal it, but doing so can be risky. Marrowort treats symptoms, not the underlying effects of an injury. There are stories of warriors who receive serious wounds, continue to fight with the aid of marrowort, and then keel over dead after the battle from an internal injury that could easily have been treated by a physician.
In high concentrations, marrowort can be used as a poison; the victim's heart slows, they become lethargic, and eventually they fall into a deep coma-like sleep from which they do not awaken. Eventually, the heart simply ceases to beat. Imperial physicians can easily identify the results of Marrowort poisoning, and it is easily treated with the purify spell or the application of a dose of Imperial roseweald.
An apothecary with access to an Escharotic Cauldron can substitute two doses of marrowort for a single dose of cerulean mazzarine when preparing a potion.
Rules
- Can only be applied by a character with the physick skill.
- Using 30 seconds of appropriate roleplaying, the physick can allow a target to ignore the roleplaying effects of traumatic wounds until the end of the battle.
- The herb use fails if you or your target are hit or attack another character during application, but the herb is not consumed
A character who is treated with marrowort by a physick may ignore the roleplaying effects of any traumatic wounds they have received until the end of the battle. If a traumatic wound has specific rules effects, then these effects are not affected by marrowort. The benefits apply until the end of the entire battle that the character is in - effectively until the character leaves the battlefield and returns to Anvil or a similar location.
| Common Herbs |
|---|
| Bladeroot |
| Cerulean Mazzarine |
| Imperial Roseweald |
| Marrowort |
| True Vervain |