Milk Moss
There is a quite useful plant that comes from the Wilds called Milk Moss. It is used by the healers of the Vaitis Elves to create remarkable poultices that can heal nearly any wound short of death.
Basic Information
Anatomy
The anatomy of most moss is very simple, but the milk moss has a few extra capabilities that differentiate it. Other than mainly reproducing and spread by spores, it can actually move very slowly towards ripe sources of the nutrients it needs. It seems to crave the nutrients in living bodies, but it takes longer than even a single humanoid sleep cycle for the moss to move towards its target. Therefore it only really consumes what is left of the dead in this way. The process by which it moves is unknown but it is definitely known to travel and even reach out to living flesh as if it can sense it.
Biological Traits
When picked and squeezed slightly milk moss will release a green and white colored fluid. It seems that this, combined with the living plant is what confers its healing powers as the plant itself dies as the user is healed.
Additional Information
Uses, Products & Exploitation
For those with the proper knowledge of healing and poultices it can be used with almost no other material as a poultice to induce rapid healing. How it does this is largely unknown and this property has never been replicated. However, the moss doesn't survive long after it has been picked and so is only valuable if you live near patches of it.
Why it doesn't consume the flesh or kill the sick when it is used as a poultice is also unknown. The Healers and Druids that use it as a poultice refuse to question why it does not kill when used and will not allow it to be studied by outsiders.
If the Healers and Druids would study its properties perhaps they could reverse engineer the way that it works, but they believe nature is too sacred and the Moss is a gift to be used not something to be exploited. If you find yourself among the Vaitis, and recieve a Milk Moss poultice count yourself very lucky indeed.As it is only used for the most grievous of wounds, it is rarely used more than once on a single person so even the effects of multiple uses is unknown. Maybe these effects are recorded somewhere in the records of the Elven Healers but as far as anyone else knows it is perfectly safe.
Ooh, I like this. Whilst it's short, it gets across what you need it to. I might suggest splitting that quote up, though - you could move part of it into a second quote below the Vignette, perhaps? This would aid the readability and make it stand out morning. The milk moss is actually pretty ominous, too. If it's so linked to decay, how does it manage to heal? Do the druids and witches perhaps know something about it that they're not sharing? What would happen if someone were to use milk moss poultices for an extended period of time, perhaps for a mortal wound that festers with curses - would the healing properties begin to reverse? Another question: what's been done to try and figure out why it doesn't consume flesh/kill people?
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I moved the quote around, hopefully it's a bit more readable? Also, I think it's exactly the knowledge of its properties that the Druids and Healers are keeping hidden. They won't allow others to study it and won't reveal what studies they may have done themselves. I tried to make that a little more clear this time through.