Clotberry Laurels

The city of Lorbeer was known for its many and prolific laurel bushes, so many that the city was named for them. For centuries, these bushes were tended and treasured, and were considered emblematic of the city, and of the Kingdom of Wuffa.

Then came Eafa's Rebellion, and the unveiling of the horrors concealed within the royal dungeons of Lorbeer. For as long as the kingdom had existed, the royal family had been participating in the most sadistic and brutal tortures they could imagine. When the population of Lorbeer was finally exposed to the truth, they joined the rebels in pulling down the palace brick by brick and burning anything that could be set alight.

After the palace was destroyed, they abandoned the city. A few people tried to stay, but a miasma of suffering and pain had permeated the entire region after the walls came down, and began to soak into the soil itself. Some people believed that the evil had been somehow contained by the palace while it stood, but scholars are more of the opinion that the wide-spread exposure of the atrocities created the evil atmosphere via the Egregoric Force. Whatever the cause, most people found the city unbearable and left it to rot.

At some point after the city was abandoned, stories began to circulate about the laurels that still grew in the ruined city. They said that the bushes had begun to bear strange fruit, that looked like a cross between raspberries and blackberries, with a unhealthy reddish-black hue. They were known as clotberries, and exuded a sickly sweet aroma that both appealed and nauseated at the same time. The bushes had drawn the evil unleashed from the centuries of torture from the soil, and had been changed by it. And like many myths in the Great Ring, this one came true - the bushes began to produce the fruit the stories claimed.

Inevitably, someone tried to eat one of the clotberries. They taste of sugar and old blood, strange and awful and still somehow alluring. After eating one, a person feels invigorated and powerful. They are stronger, faster, and more resilient, and many even exhibit magical powers such as the ability to fly, speak with animals, or mesmerize with their gaze and voice. But this power comes with a price. The consumer also receives the memories of the torturers, hours and years of committing horrible tortures, and a sense of fiendish pleasure at the thoughts. While the berries are still active, this parade of atrocities feels glorious and wonderful. But afterward, the horror of it all sinks in, causing intense grief, guilt, and trauma. At least, this is true for most people.

A few people who eat of the clotberry laurels find that the memories resonate with them, igniting a desire to relive them over and over. They return to the bushes again and again, reveling in the memories of inflicting pain. A small community of these clotberry fiends are said to be camping in the ruins of Lorbeer, calling themselves the Pain-Gardeners, and living almost entirely on the clotberries. They have even taken to waylaying travelers in the region so that they can re-enact the atrocities themselves, which they believe will help more clotberry bushes grow. So far, the government of Creoda has not been able to root out and destroy either the Pain-Gardeners or the clotberry bushes - the former scatter when soldiers arrive, and the bushes have proven horribly resilient to all attempts to destroy them. Even fire does not consume them, although it does cause the berries to pop and fill the area with hot juices. At least one Pain-Gardner is a former soldier who was exposed to the clotberry when a cloud of vaporized juice engulfed them. While the army of Creoda has established a perimeter around the ruins, the Pain-Gardeners seem able to pass through it at will, and even kidnap soldiers to use for their infernal horticulture.

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