Feisty lettuce

Table of Contents

Life is hard when you are a master in Nélannie who works on an unusual topic and have to use exotic ingredients. Whatever one might say about the open mindedness & love for innovations of all Nélanniens and Esteillois this has certainly not been true anymore for a long time.

Alina Lange

---

Feisty lettuce

What

A small lettuce-like plant hence its name of feisty lettuce.
It has a rosette of sparce leaves growing from a central stalk. Leaves are about 15cm wide, are a purplish blue & have a typical serrated edge.
In summer, the plant grows a flower stalk of up to 3m & a bright purple flower.
It grows in the Garna Forest.

Properties

The leaves are coated in a protective oil that absorb magic in a similar mechanism to magic-absorbant metals but without the use of any metal. The plant uses it to protect itself from insects & fungi.
The oil concentration is highest before the plant grows its flower stalk so that the plant gathers more magic that it then converts into energy it can use to grow. It is thus better to harvest the leaves at this stage.

Uses

In alchemy, mixed with a magic-absorbant metal to forge the handles of magical artefacts. It does not lead to a significant improvement & only lends a specific greenish-blue shine to the metal that gives it a special cachet.
Inside a living body, the magic-absorption of the oil is too important at normal concentration & result in certain slow death through the syphoning of magic from the organs. It has long been a favourite poison of Estellois.

---

Feisty lettuce was used for centuries without problems despite everyone knowing it was a convenient excuse to keep a lethal poison around, so why did Nélannie suddenly decide to turn against it? I do happen to have an actual legitimate use for it! But now all these Light mages have the gall to tell me that I'm suspicious for wanting to have some around!
It's just like with mercury! Because it's the ritual material par excellence, everyone is avoiding using it nowadays even for artefact crafting and instead resort to subpar galium to attempt to mimic its properties! But mercury at least has its unique amalgamation, with the feisty lettuce, it seems as if I'm the only one suffering!
Damn de Nande is extorting me more and more money to procure it because of all the paperwork required by the Lady Director and the king—and I'm sure in the end it all comes down to the damn Light Lord as usual.
Do they truly still want us to "innovate"? At this rhythm doing anything beyond their neat little box will soon not be possible anymore. If I didn't have any great hope for the Dark Lord's success, I would have left that country a long time ago. Surely, even becoming an Illénien cannot be as bad as this slow suffocation!

Alina Lange

---

Related Articles

Magic

Types of Magic Runic magic · Alchemy and Enchantments · Rituals · Intent-based magic · Runaway ritual magic · Astral rituals · Runes Materials Crystalline materials and their use in magic · Blue Syndrome · Orichalcum · Hydrargyrum—Mercury · Caustic butterfly · Crimson rhubarb · Feisty lettuce · Plants contaminated with runaway ritual magic Technologies Transportation portals · Candied magic · Nail tattoos and tattooers · Light-activated artefacts · The Royal Protector's pearls · Illénian battle staff · Canal and river barges · Exposure to runaway ritual magic · Miraculous cure-all · Semaphore network