Lich Peppers
They're called 'Lich Peppers' because it helps to be dead before you eat them.
Identification
Lich peppers thrive in Motsaandu, growing well in the dry heat and full sunshine of the upper slopes. The pepper plants form clusters of thin, finger-sized fruit, as many as a dozen peppers at a time. Lich peppers are bright and richly colored, like jewels, and no two peppers on the same plant will be the same color. Ripened on the vine, lich peppers will cause chemical burns on unprotected skin. It is possible to prepare meals with lich peppers, but results will vary wildly depending on your methods of preparation and your ancestry.Uses
The Motsaandu rub whole peppers on meat, wearing gloves of course, to give the meal a smoky flavor and a strong heat. (They will occassionally rub lich peppers on bludgeoning weapons in order to punish lawbreakers or members of neighboring tribes without doing permanent harm.) It is too cool and too wet to grow lich peppers well in Maapera, but the lizardfolk import them by the bushel - they don't taste spices the same way that most humanoids do, and they love both the flavor and bright colors of the incredibly potent peppers. The dwarves of Hertenland use the seeds as pesticides in the mines and the flesh of the peppers to keep vermin out of the food stores. The Rothilimion avoid them completely.Warning
Humanoids of races not descended from dragons, lizards, or birds must make a Constitution save against DC 10 or take 1d2 acid damage when touching a lich pepper with unprotected skin. Those same humanoids take 1d4 acid damage when eating a lich pepper, a Constitution save against DC 15 reduces the damage by half (round down). All you dragon-, lizard-, and bird-folk, enjoy your brightly colored flavor bombs!
Origin/Ancestry
Lich Peppers are native to the Motsaandu Peninsula, but have been cultivated with varying success all over Liggjavard.
DRAFT
This article is currently a work in progress and may be incomplete or subject to change.
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I loved that the article had quite a bit of detail, even if it was short. I really liked the detail that no pepper has the same colour within one plant. For those who can eat the peppers, is there a taste difference? As a biologist, I also thought it was really neat that you included birdfolk within the races that can eat the peppers <3 My favourite part though was the in-game mechanics/damage that you added.
Thank you! It was actually a snippet of article that I saw about birds not feeling capsaicin that sent me down this trail in the first place, so I pretty much had to include birdfolk. :)