Ophio trance
In private back rooms across the city a new phenomenon can be observed: well-dressed men and women sitting cross-legged on the floor or on low padded stools around a brazier from which emanates a clouds of sweet-smelling smoke. They all appear fixated on something in the far distance, as if looking through the brazier, through the walls and out far across the lands beyond.
They will stay like this for 2, 3 or more hours or even longer, hardly moving, barely even appearing to breathe, while instruments play quietly in the background until the coals die down, the smoke runs out and they are brought back to reality.
Those who participate talk of flying across the land, viewing distant places as if from the backs of eagles. They talk of rapturous conversations with enlightened beings - angels, fey. They talk of feeling relaxed and inspired. And above all they talk of the next meeting when they can experience it all again.
These meetings are not cheap. At a minimum of 100gp per person per hour, and with sessions most nights, the discreet masked men and women who tend to the braziers are raking in the money for their hidden masters and mistresses.
It is said that those who participate are so chilled they are hard to scare for the next few hours - advantage on saving throws against fear - and they sometimes gain insights from the experience into new schemes or into rivals' activities. What is less publicised is that they also become pliable and open to suggestion, and unscrupulous actors will make full use of this. Beware the generous person offering a private session...
Regular participants also start to suffer dark, disturbing dreams in the days afterwards, dreams which leave them waking exhausted and unrefreshed, and which only a return to the Ophio trance can dispel. These dark dreams grow more intense with the use of the drug and can last for several weeks afterwards leaving heavy users with deep dark circles around their eyes, pale faces from which their lips stand out with an almost other-wordly red, and pale, almost bleached skin on which blue blotches start to appear. By this stage, attempting to break the cycle can leave them wracked with pain, guilt and exhaustion, and they will pay or do almost anything for another dose to relieve the feelings for a while.
The active ingredient in the Ophio trance is harvested from the purple Ophio fungus which has recently started infesting the sewers beneath Akorros. Harvesting the spores is incredibly dangerous as the fungus surrounds itself with clouds of spores and shoots jets of the poisonous spores directly at the harvesters, trying to infect them and take control of them. The harvesters protect themselves as well as they can with breathing masks, and their aim is to catch the jets of spores fired at them, catching them in pottery jars which they have taken specially, and which they seal with wax to keep the spores in. These precautions are not always sufficient, and the sewers are now populated with the remnants of would-be harvesters, shambling about in their own cloud of spores, skin covered in purple blotches where the fungus is breaking through.
Once harvested, the spores need to be carefully roasted in a sealed container to break down the infectious agent and release the hallucinogenic elements, then tumbled in beeswax and propolis, before the resulting mixture is baked hard then ground into a fine powder which is added to the braziers. The process takes several weeks from the collection of the spores until the drug is ready.
They will stay like this for 2, 3 or more hours or even longer, hardly moving, barely even appearing to breathe, while instruments play quietly in the background until the coals die down, the smoke runs out and they are brought back to reality.
Those who participate talk of flying across the land, viewing distant places as if from the backs of eagles. They talk of rapturous conversations with enlightened beings - angels, fey. They talk of feeling relaxed and inspired. And above all they talk of the next meeting when they can experience it all again.
These meetings are not cheap. At a minimum of 100gp per person per hour, and with sessions most nights, the discreet masked men and women who tend to the braziers are raking in the money for their hidden masters and mistresses.
It is said that those who participate are so chilled they are hard to scare for the next few hours - advantage on saving throws against fear - and they sometimes gain insights from the experience into new schemes or into rivals' activities. What is less publicised is that they also become pliable and open to suggestion, and unscrupulous actors will make full use of this. Beware the generous person offering a private session...
Regular participants also start to suffer dark, disturbing dreams in the days afterwards, dreams which leave them waking exhausted and unrefreshed, and which only a return to the Ophio trance can dispel. These dark dreams grow more intense with the use of the drug and can last for several weeks afterwards leaving heavy users with deep dark circles around their eyes, pale faces from which their lips stand out with an almost other-wordly red, and pale, almost bleached skin on which blue blotches start to appear. By this stage, attempting to break the cycle can leave them wracked with pain, guilt and exhaustion, and they will pay or do almost anything for another dose to relieve the feelings for a while.
The Ophio harvest
The active ingredient in the Ophio trance is harvested from the purple Ophio fungus which has recently started infesting the sewers beneath Akorros. Harvesting the spores is incredibly dangerous as the fungus surrounds itself with clouds of spores and shoots jets of the poisonous spores directly at the harvesters, trying to infect them and take control of them. The harvesters protect themselves as well as they can with breathing masks, and their aim is to catch the jets of spores fired at them, catching them in pottery jars which they have taken specially, and which they seal with wax to keep the spores in. These precautions are not always sufficient, and the sewers are now populated with the remnants of would-be harvesters, shambling about in their own cloud of spores, skin covered in purple blotches where the fungus is breaking through.
Once harvested, the spores need to be carefully roasted in a sealed container to break down the infectious agent and release the hallucinogenic elements, then tumbled in beeswax and propolis, before the resulting mixture is baked hard then ground into a fine powder which is added to the braziers. The process takes several weeks from the collection of the spores until the drug is ready.
Type
Fungal
Origin
Natural
Cycle
Chronic, Acquired
Rarity
Rare
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