Cumin
Specific Environment: Typically chaparral, requiring long hot seasons
Origins: Native to Iran and the Mediterranean
Toxicity: n/a
Uses: Culinary, medicinal
Folklore: Superstition during the Medieval era stated that cumin would prevent chickens and lovers from straying. In Germany and Italy, put in bread to keep wood spirits from stealing it. Has “gift of retention;” it will prevent theft of any object that retains it.
Game Terms: The “gift or retention” maybe something the PCs have to deal with, especially if they’re pickpocketing or robbing someone’s house. A spell to prevent the PCs from leaving an area would include cumin. Add 2 disadvantages to any attempt to steal anything that has cumin somewhere on its person. In the case of the PCs trying to escape an area, the cumin either makes every task more difficult by one level or adds a disadvantage to every attempt in that area.
Yarrow
Specific Environment: Northern Hemisphere up to tundra
Origins: Everywhere
Toxicity: allergic reaction possible (one in ten)
Uses: Medicinal, Salad
Folklore: Used by Chinese for I ching and Druids for divining. Once called Devil’s Nettles and thought to be used by witches to call forth the Evil One.
Game Terms: Can be used as plot point for furthering story with use in divination. A witch may get a quick bonus to fighting or escaping the PCs if she uses yarrow to call for “the Evil One” (+2 advantage)
Agrimony
Specific Environment: Temperate regions of the northern Hemisphere and one species in Africa
Origins: Many continents
Toxicity: n/a
Uses: Medicinal
Folklore: Placed under head will make one sleep like the dead, according to ancient lore; sleeper won’t awaken until herb is removed. Also used in spells to detect witches.
Game Terms: With a spell behind it, this can be used to prevent the PCs from awakening, +2 disadvantage to awake and remain awake, fatigue high in these cases until herb is removed from under head. As a witch detector can be used for or against the PCs, if the herb is used to detect a magic-user among them.
Cyclamen
Specific Environment: Chaparrals and warm regions
Origins: Native to the Mediterranean region from Spain East to Iran, and northeast Africa south to Somalia.
Toxicity: Poisonous, causes vomiting
Uses: Ritual
Folklore: Cyclamen was believed to make someone fall in passionate, permanent love with practitioner. Was baked into small cakes for this purpose.
Game Terms: Wouldn’t that be fun? +2 disadvantage to any willpower roles when utilized against character. Requires a strong spell to break it or the practitioner’s release.
Lily
Specific Environment: Temperate regions of the northern Hemisphere, usually woodlands and sometimes grasslands. A few survive in marshes
Origins: Much of Europe, Mediterranean region, across Asia to Japan, south to India and the Philippines, as well as New World from southern Canada south.
Toxicity: No, although some cats have gotten blisters from the bulbs.
Uses: Culinary
Folklore: Gather herb when Sun is in Leo, mix with juice of Bay, and then out juice under cattle dung for a certain time. “It shall turn into worms” of which powder is made. Put around neck of any man or in his clothes, he shall not sleep until it is put away.
Game Terms: Character is unable to sleep. Continues to gain exhaustion damage until he can do nothing more than lie there, still unable to sleep.
Hawthorn
Specific Environment: northern temperate regions
Origins: Europe, Asia, and North America
Toxicity: Berries edible, leaves in salads
Uses: Culinary, Medicinal
Folklore: Believed protected by goddess, Bloddeuwedd, the May Queen, as well as the goddess, Cardea, mistress of Janus. One should never harm tree nor harvest it; the one exception being May Eve. Many consider the tree unlucky. Once thought that the hawthorn were Witches transformed into trees, Witches have long danced and performed magic beneath them. In Gaelic folklore, the hawthorn represented an entrance to the otherworld and was strongly associated with fairies. On the good side, the wood was used against vampires.
Game Terms: Cutting down or harming tree will call the wrath of the goddess on the characters. Or just make them unlucky (+2 disadvantage to all workings for a roll’s amount of days or until the PCs make amends. Could be used as a plot setting, making a group of nasty witches turn into hawthorns by day; this leaves them untraceable or very difficult to find. Or the tradition that the hawthorn leads to an otherworld may be the witches’ escape route. Fairies or dryads may also pester the PCs should they damage the tree.
Holly
Origins: Found in Asia, Europe, northern Africa, and both South and North America.
Toxicity: Berries mildly toxic, rest of plant more so.
Uses: Medicinal, Ritual
Folklore: The Green Knight is described by some as an immortal giant whose club is a holly-bush (wood is white and very hard and durable). Because it kept away witches and malevolent spirits, there were taboos against cutting down whole trees, thought to bring bad luck. The flowers supposedly cause water to freeze, and the wood, if thrown at any animal, even without touching it, compels the animal to return and lie down by it.
Game Terms: Aside from having the PCs fight the Green Knight, the GM could also have a lake or river they need to cross with holly bushes nearby. They pay a local native to get them to cross the river and the peasant or hedge witch says a quick spell and touches the water’s surface, turning it into ice; the frozen surface lasts however long the GM thinks is necessary, depending on how much drama he needs and what season it is. Lastly, a great trick would be the PCs trying to flee a scene and someone throwing a piece of wood after them with a quick enchantment, causing their horses to turn and go back. Cutting down, or the inadvertent destruction of a holly tree could allow a evil monster to come through a barrier, or at least, bad luck to follow (+1 disadvantage).
Elder
Specific Environment: Moist areas
Origins: Native to temperate and subtropical regions of both northern and southern hemispheres. More widespread in northern, with only a couple of incidences in parts of Australasia and South America.
Toxicity: Yes, all but berries and flowers, and they must be cooked.
Uses: Culinary, wines, medicinal
Folklore: Associated with the eldritch. Witches and spirits thought to live inside; explaining the red sap when cut. In Denmark, protective spirit called Hylde-moer. Before felling elder, must recite: “Lady Ellhorn, give me of thy wood, and I will give thee of mine, when I become a tree.” Must be before the elder—with partly bended knees, bare head, and folded arms—prior to first cut. Gypsies and others think it’s dangerous to burn elder; but many use the wood as magic wands. Elder gathered on Beltane eve. Many say elder is more powerful the closer to midnight it’s harvested. Easily hollowed, documented use in panpipes 2,000 years ago by Pliny.
Game Terms: “Klatuu, Verada, Nikt—cough, cough, cough….” Give the PCs instructions on how to harvest the Elder’s wood via an old wiseman, and see if they incur the wrath of the elder-witch. If the PCs say they are gathering wood, at least once suddenly ask them how…If they’re cutting branches off the trees, make a role to see if they’ve inadvertently thrown some elder in the mix. Hit them with some bad luck if they do. Elder’s got some good magic, but that’s covered later.
Birch
Specific Environment: Mostly north temperate to tundra, albeit smaller the colder it gets.
Toxicity: Allergenic in spring (one in 10)
Uses: Medicinal, Culinary
Folklore: Birch sacred to Thor. One is never to take bark from tree unless it was kissed by Thor, stricken with his lightning. Once Thor has claimed the tree’s spirit, then its bark is available for human use. Thin branches once used to beat mentally infirm in belief it drove away evil.
Game Terms: Up in the north lands, the PCs could be at risk of some heavy-handed deity anger should they not know about the taboos of Thor’s tree. The branches, when used to beat the infirm, could become a major plot point to make the PCs want to help someone.
Blackthorn
Origins: Native to Europe, western Asia, and Northern Africa
Toxicity: Some parts, not berries.
Uses: Culinary, Woodcraft, Medicinal
Folklore: In Ireland, a straight stick is traditionally made into a Shillelagh. Believed tree was associated with black magic and used to place forces of negation upon one’s enemies. Once regarded as “the Witches tree” in the malevolent sense, and unlucky. Called “the increaser and keeper of dark secrets,” the tree is linked with warfare, wounding, and death. Often used for “Binding and blasting.” A “black rod” is often a blackthorn wand with fixed thorns on one end used to harm others. Witches supposedly used a blackthorn stang to curse others. In South Devon folklore in England, Witches were said to carry Blackthorn walking sticks, with which they caused much local mischief. Witches and heretics were burned on Blackthorn pyres. The Devil was said, in medieval times, to prick his follower’s fingers with the thorn of a Blackthorn tree. The sharp thorns were reputedly used by English witches to pierce poppets in their curses, called the “pins of slumber.”
In 1670, in Edinburgh, Major Thomas Weir was burned as a Witch along with his most powerful magical tool—a Blackthorn staff, carved with a satyr’s head, which was said to have fantastic powers. Major Weir claimed that he received this magic staff from the Devil, but it is more likely that he obtained it while he served as an officer in Ireland. The Major was a pious Covenanter, and people came from miles around to hear his sermons. He was considered the “Saint of West Bow,” until one day in 1670, instead of his usual sermon, he confessed years of debauchery with his sister, Jean, to the congregation. His ghost, with his infamous staff, is still said to haunt the Edinburgh West Bow district.
Game Terms: Any witch will probably have blackthorn on their person and the wood adds a +2 advantage to any magical dealings that are evil. The curses can be made from stangs or poppets and cause either ill luck or sickness to fall on a character (+2 disadvantage to any undertaking). For later adventures (later being after 1670), The Ghost of Major Thomas Weir could be a significant foe for horror and Victorian Goth-y games.
Yew
Origins: Many species from all over.
Toxicity: Yes, all parts but the sweet arils surrounding the deadly poisonous seeds.
Uses: Medicinal, woodcraft, specifically Welsh longbow construction
Folklore: Believed tree was associated with black magic and used to place forces of evil. Many cases in the past where a besieged people or tribe poisoned themselves with yew rather than give in to their conquerors. The bark of the Chinese yew is mixed with oil and used to mark the red spot on the forehead of a Brahmin. Said by some that if you bury a wand of yew in a grave for one full moon, it’ll raise that corpse’s spirit.
Game Terms: A case of cemetery unrest could be caused by a spiteful person getting vengeance of his dead foes by waking them back up. Witches can do all sorts of bad stuff (see blackthorn above). Used in poisons fairly often.
Mandrake
Origins: Many species from all over. Supposedly native to the near east or southern Europe
Toxicity: Very.
Uses: Medicinal, ritual
Folklore: The mandrake, according to legend, was molded out of the same clay as that from which Adam was created. The Devil regarded the plant with great favor; therefore it was associated with underground demons and other supernatural powers, and highly prized as the roots were for their magical properties, their unearthing was considered a very perilous undertaking. It necessitated a magical procedure, which was usually enacted at sunset, but occasionally in the dead of night.
First, the earth was loosened for mechanical reasons, then, with the point of a two-edged sword that had never drawn blood, three circles were scratched around the plant. The magical significance attending the latter act was to prevent the demons rising with the root. After these preliminaries were accomplished, the most impressive part of the ceremony followed.
A dog, generally a black one, was secured to the plant by means of a stout cord, and the mandrake-gatherer, standing at a little distance with a trumpet to his lips, threw a piece of meat to the hungry, captive animal. Care was taken in aiming the tidbit, so that it landed out of the dog's reach, with the result that the animal's frantic endeavors to seize its prize caused the root to yield. The moment it showed signs of leaving the ground, the gatherer made a loud shrill blast of the trumpet, for the uprooted mandrake emitted a shriek that brought death to all hearers.
One treatise warns all to beware of a changing wind carrying the deadly sound. The blast on the trumpet effectually drowned the cry of the plant, but the dog, poor creature, whether he heard it or not, dropped dead as though felled with an axe, for the underground demons demanded a life for a life, and immediately took that of the mandrake's murderer.
An additional superstition applied in Europe to the mandrake was that it grew from the moisture that dropped from a felon hanged, and was sometimes to be found beneath the gallows. Some believed that the most efficacious roots grew under a gallows or where suicides had been buried at crossroads. As to why the most potent mandrakes were supposed to grow under gallows, they were believed to be produced from the semen involuntarily ejaculated by a hanged man.
Mandrakes were valuable in the early Renaissance for strong love potions and flying ointments, and therefore ways were developed to forge them, using a carved Bryony root (also poisonous). In Germany false mandrakes are called “alraun,” (“the all-wise one”), and are prized almost as highly as true mandrake. Until quite recent times it was believed that to imprison an alraun in a bottle resulted in its changing shape constantly in a wild endeavor to escape. A bottled-imp was considered a valuable chattel because the creature was forced to perform for its owner all sorts of miracles, from gold-divining to maleficium. However, to possess such an imp was to invite great danger, for to die, and have it among one's effects, brought the Devil post haste to claim the soul.
According to witchcraft accounts, the witch washed the root in wine and wrapped it in silk and velvet. She then fed it with sacramental wafers stolen from a church during communion. Often they were stashed in secret cupboards, because possessing one could expose the owner to the charge of witchcraft. In 1630, three women in Hamburg were executed on this evidence, and in Orleans in 1603 the wife of a Moor was hanged for harboring a “mandrake-fiend,” purportedly in the shape of a female monkey.
Game Terms: Mandrake is steeped in legends, most of them evil. Beefed up in the fantasy world, this plant could be the means of witches obtaining dark servants in the forms of imps. Removing the plant erroneously is a sure way to free some underground demons, who could then wreak havoc on a town. Ideal for a small side-tracked adventure or even the beginning of a larger campaign, even for PCs of modern day gaming. While modern-era gamers would find the requirements to remove mandrake from the ground foolish, they may learn that the proper procedure, along with sacrificing the dog immediately after, calls forth and binds a demon spirit with the mandrake. A love potion made from mandrake is difficult to resist with two to three disadvantages on escaping it. Whether the GM decides that the “flying potion” means literal or spiritual, the witch can still do harm in the astral projection and possibly learns much from eavesdropping on his or her foes that way.
Lavender/Nardus
Specific Environment: Chaparrals, although usually cultivated in gardens, can
Origins: Native to Mediterranean south to tropical Africa and east to India
Toxicity: n/a
Uses: Culinary, Medicinal, Perfume and Household
Folklore: Believed at one point that asps would make bush its habitual place of abode.
Game Terms: Imagine a wonderful field of lavender, sweet-smelling, calming, and full of poisonous snakes.
Aconite
Specific Environment: Mountainous regions, specifically damp meadows
Origins: Throughout northern hemisphere
Toxicity: Incredibly
Uses: Medicinal, poison
Folklore: Some believe Aconite came from droplets of saliva from Cerberus, the three-headed guardian of the Underworld. Used to poison arrows, specifically for wolves (werewolves?) and is believed to remove shapeshifting spells, even if just for a little while. The Nepalese used aconite to make bikh, bish, or nabee, a set of poisons and native Indians have been known to poison wells with the plant to stop an advancing army. The old men of the Island of Ceos were required to drink the poison once they were too infirm to be of any use to the state. Once believed in some circles that women were fed small amounts until they were toxic to sleep with enemies of the state.
Game Terms: Nasty stuff, but both good and bad. Will reverse effects of shapeshifting as long as wood is within ten feet of shapeshifter. Poison arrows cause an extra three damage every 1D6 minutes until disrupted by healing spell. Damage takes 1D6 days to recover just from poisoning. Poisonous women also cause increasing increments of damage the longer they are touched, 1 pip of damage every three minutes of touching. As victim becomes more excited and touch becomes continuous, the poison continues to work at 2 pips per minute. Once intercourse is joined, the poison increases to full damage every 1D6 minutes, and the poisoning with continue even after the victim breaks contact. Basically, the effects of the poisoning should be mild and unnoticeable as nothing more than a relaxation and “high” of sorts until copulation. The poisoner would probably move to “top” position to help pin her victim down until he’s well and truly dying.
Belladonna
Specific Environment: Moist shady areas with limestone soil
Origins: Native to Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia.
Toxicity: Incredibly
Uses: Medicinal, poison, cosmetic (makes eyes appear larger—will eventually cause blindness)
Folklore: An important ingredient in witches’ brews in the Middle Ages, a flying ointment salve was made from this plant along with others, and rubbed on the bodies of women to experience erotic sensations and hallucinations. In this state the witches would fly to the Sabbat and engage in orgies with demons. It is believed that the legend of witches riding brooms arose from the time when women would rub the flying ointments on their genitals or in their vaginas with a broom handle and then masturbate. It was thought that the ingestion of these ointments would allow transvection (witches’ flight) to far off places.
Legend has it that the Devil himself cares for these herbs every night but Walpurgis Night, when he goes to the witches’ celebrations. A 1324 investigation into witchcraft stated "in rifleing the closet of the ladie, they found a pipe of oyntment, wherewith she greased the staffe, upon which she ambled and galloped through thick and thin, when and in what manner she listed".
A 15th century account reads: " But the vulgar believe and the witches confess, that on certain days and nights they anoint a staff and ride on it to the appointed place or anoint themselves under the arms or in other hairy places and sometimes carry charms under the hair".
In 1589 it was recorded that after taking Belladonna "a man would seem sometimes to be changed into a fish; and flinging out his arms, would swim on the ground; sometimes he would seem to skip up and down and then dive down again."
In 1597, Gerard stated that the leaves moistened in vinegar and laid apon the head would induce sleep. It was reported that after the flying ointment was prepared, the witch would " ...rub all parts of the body exceedingly, till they look red, and are very hot, so that the pores may be opened, and the flesh soluble and loose. They add either fat or oil so that the force of the ointment may pierce inwardly, and so be more effectual." (Reginald Scot 1584)
This plant also has a long history of being used as a poison, being called dwale. That name is either a derivative of the French word deuil, for grief or sorrow, or from the Scandanavian word dool, for sleep or delay. During the time of Duncan I of Scotland's rule ( around A.D. 1035 ), an entire army of invading Danes led by King Sven of Norway were poisoned and defeated by Belledonna. There are conflicting legends as to whether the Danes were poisoned by eating meal that had been adulterated with Belladonna, or by drinking a liquor that contained its infusion. In earlier times still, the troops of Marcus Antonius were to have been poisoned by belladonna during the Parathion wars.
Belladonna was also used during the middle ages by torturers to gain confessions from stubborn victims. This psychochemical torture would confuse and weaken their victims, making them unsure of what was fantasy or reality, what they had done or had merely imagined. Many false confessions were elicited in this manner. The ancient Greeks knew of the intoxicating effects of this plant, and it was believed to have been added to the wine of Bacchanals to give it a legendary potency. The maenods of the orgies of Dionysus would ingest Belladonna and would either throw themselves into the arms of male worshipers or tear them apart and eat them. Roman priests were known to have drank an infusion of Belladonna before making supplications to Bellona, their Goddess of War, for a victory in battle.
Game Terms: For dealing with witches, poisonings, and generic bad guys, belladonna is going to be prominent in medieval or older-setting games, and can be fairly prominent in new settings as well. Belladonna roots were cared for among family generations, passed down from one to another. The imp that is created from the “poppet” is a standard weak demon with skills in insidiousness, charm, and locating objects. Once freed, usually through subterfuge, the demon exacts its price in blood. The difference in dosage between hallucinogen and poison is minute, although it is said that when taken with aconite (see above) the two poisons counteract each other and the drinker is more likely to survive. Recreational and mind-altering drugs will be discussed further later. If taking things literally, the belladonna is rubbed on the body and altered with a spell to provide the bearer with flying capability (speed of a fast bird). Another enchantment using the belladonna as a base could include fish scales to turn a human into a mermaid or large fish-man. Known for its knock-out abilities, this sedative is most likely seen among medicinal personnel in non-magical settings.
Black Hellebore
Specific Environment: Moist shady woodlands
Origins: Native to much of Europe east through the Mediterranean region and central Europe into Romania and the Ukraine, and along the north coast of Turkey into the Caucasus. Mostly occurs in the Balkans, other species occur in China and western Syria.
Toxicity: Incredibly
Uses: Medicinal, poison
Folklore: Hellebore was used for summoning demons traditionally. In Greek mythology, Melampus of Pylos used hellebore to save the daughters of the King of Argos after Dionysus induced a madness in them that caused them to run naked through the city crying and weeping hysterically. During the Siege of Kirrha in 585 BC, Hellebore was used by the Greek invaders to poison the water supply of the city. The defenders had violent diarrhea that weakened them sufficiently.
Game Terms: Everybody loved it as a poison for large crowds. Adds a +2 advantage for summoning demons.
Hemlock
Specific Environment: Usually near water
Origins: Native to Europe and the Mediterranean region through to Africa.
Toxicity: Incredibly
Uses: poison
Folklore: This plant is traditionally associated with the Devil and witches, because it is poisonous. They were said to use it in spells to evoke demons and evil spirits, and to destroy love, cause madness or paralysis, and blast fertility in men and animals. In England it is known as Bad Man's or Devil's Oatmeal, and children are warned not to touch it because if they do so the Devil may seize and fly away with them.
Game Terms: +1 advantage to summoning spells, +2 advantage for destroying love or rendering a male infertile. Also used to mark children for a possible monster in a town; those that smell of the herb could be chosen first.
Henbane
Origins: Originated in Eurasia
Toxicity: Toxic in low doses
Uses: poison, hallucinogen, medicine
Folklore: Was originally used in German pilsner beers until the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516. Henbane is an extremely poisonous plant which sometimes causes convulsions or temporary insanity, and consequently it is not surprising to find it listed among the herbs that witches employed in harmful spells. It was supposed to assist clairvoyance and, if it was burnt on a fire, its fumes enabled those versed in the art to evoke spirits, not usually of the good variety. A Welsh superstition is that if a child falls asleep near the growing plant, they will never awaken again.
Game Terms: Burned for +2 advantage in clairvoyance or spirit-talking. The superstition can be a superstition or not in your setting.
