Blackthorn

Plant Type

Shrub

Rarity

Rare

Description

The Blackthorn bush, also known as the sloe bush or Prunus spinosa, is a large deciduous shrub or small tree that grows up to five meters tall with blackish bark and dense, stiff, spiny branches. The leaves are oval with a serrated margin while the flowers are beheld as five creamy white petals, produced shortly after the leaves during temperate weather.

They produce a small bunch of berries that look similar to blueberries but are instead called sloe berries. They are black with a purple-blue waxy bloom, ripening during autumn usually after the first frosts. Sloe berries are thin-fleshed with a very strongly astringent flavor when fresh.

Blackthorn usually grows as a bush but can grow to become a tree at a height of six meters, its branches usually growing to form a tangle. During the spring, they have vibrant, creamy white flowers, but during the winter, they are more shrubby with stiffer, wider-angled branches.

Blackthorn bushes are much like a repellent for those inflicted with Vallahism. The flowers produce a pleasant smell for normal mortals, though for Vallah, it is a very strong and pungent stench that is much like a putrid body and tends to cause Vallah to avoid it at all costs. If a Vallah manages to brace against the stench and get closer to the plant, they will slowly begin to grow nauseated the closer they approach, their eyes watering and nose beginning to burn.

The leaves produce an oil like the bark, but instead of a skin irritant, it burns the eyes instead, causing them to water if a Vallah is close enough.

If they touch the bark of the tree, their flesh becomes almost instantly irritated, swelling up painfully and becoming very itchy due to the oils that lightly coat the bark. If they are this close and the flowers are in full bloom, the Vallah most likely would be vomiting anything in their stomach, feeling sick, dizzy, and with a growing headache after [5 emotes] of being in its proximity.

The berries on the shrub, if consumed by a Vallah, begin to burn and eat away at their insides, inducing painful heaving, nausea, headaches, dizziness, and overall disorientating fatigue. Their insides will feel as if they are burning and eventually, if enough of the berries were digested, will succumb to a very painful death.

Location

Blackthorn bushes or trees are usually found mostly in temperate climates, such as the midlands where the weather is even and most everything is lush and green. They also can be seen close to bundles of trees near the coasts and tend to bunch together.

Development

Blackthorn bushes or trees grow much like other shrubs similar to them, requiring plentiful of water, though not as much sunlight as other plants. They start off small as a sapling that either grows to entangle the branches together or tall and bushy. It takes about [2 OOC months] to be fully grown, but the flowers and berries begin appearing [1 OOC month] into growth.

Material Properties

• None

Alchemical Properties

• Blackthorn leaves can be turned into a thick mushy paste, and when refined with other alchemicals has the effect of being a blindingly powerful smell to all creatures of the night when burnt (Vallah included), repelling them and temporarily destroying their sense of smell if they remain within for too long. To normal people, it merely is a very sweet smell, almost sickeningly so.
• The bark holds an oily substance that is very irritable against a Vallah’s skin, causing it to itch and swell. If carefully collected and mixed with alchemicals like a poison, it creates an extremely powerful allergic reaction on the Vallah if it enters past their skin, resulting in all sorts of bad effects. If it does not pierce the skin, it is only swelling and itchiness.
• The berries are highly potent with effects that cause a Vallah to begin vomiting, feeling nausea, dizzy, fatigued, disorientated, and feel as if burning on the inside. If enough are digested, it can cause a Vallah to vomit up their own blood and eventually succumb to a painful death. Alternatively to regular people, ingesting blackthorn is an extremely useful effect which is capable of helping the body naturally regenerate lost blood, and if refined with alchemicals, capable of healing extremely minor internal wounds.

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