Pretty smoke rings? Naw, I can do a lot more than that.
Stories at the Griffon Crest Inn
Tipped back against the inn wall, Glacier listened to his friend try again to describe the battle. For a bard, Jazz didn't embellish stories quite enough for Glacier's liking. A story needed more excitement, more flash, more....
Glacier pulled out his long pipe and put in a small pinch of his favorite weed. It sparked a tiny bit as he put light to it, and the flavor was definitely nothing to brag about, but when Glacier blew out his first puff of colorful smoke, his grin barely fit on his halfling face. The smoke raced out in front of Jazz, quickly took shape, and the whole inn gasped as the battle field appeared. Okay, so Glacier added the lava pit, and the spiky trees, and the evil faces carved into every rock... but it was pretty close otherwise. As the bard narrated, Glacier puffed and his story unfolded before everyone's eyes. The audience gasped, and clapped, and cried out in terror at all the right points.
Weed of Illusions
This weed tastes slightly of ash and ale mixed together, but immediately upon puffing out smoke, whatever the smoker imagines appears in full detail and color in the smoke. The illusion can be made to appear solid in a small 1' cubic area, or less so if spread out over a larger area. It is quite useful for hiding or making false walls appear, though the smell of the smoke may alert some to its use.
The illusions last as long as the smoke continues, and a typical pinch will allow for ten minutes of smoking. The one real drawback to the smoke is that it doesn't interact well with other herbs or potions: for an hour after smoking even a little, any other potion taken is weakened and will cause the smoker to vomit. Food eaten afterwards for an hour will turn the smoker's stomach, but otherwise will have no negative effects.
The weed is rare and takes someone gifted in both potion making and herb lore to craft it. Shops do not typically carry this weed, and the few that do charge a great deal for it (typically 10 gold per pinch.)
Second Hand Smoke
One strange effect only happens if the smoke is blown directly into the face a someone who is sleeping. The sleeper's dreams will appear as a ghostly image for a few moments, but the smoker can alter things that appear, affecting the dream in small ways (if any big changes are made, unless the dreamer cannot wake up for some reason, this will immediate wake them.)
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Another well thinked off smoking herb that is very useful.
I like the second hand smoke effect of this weed. This is my favourite out of the recent bunch of smoke related subs that you wrote.
Thank you.
I kind of want to tie it in to the Dreaming Chamber, perhaps as a way that the players can communicate with Prima before waking her. I also like my magical items to be more interesting than powerful; that way you have to actually play your way through rather than just hack everything in sight.
Alright, this is very very cool. Can you imagine a world in which this was possible? Witnesses to crimes would no longer have to describe their attackers to artists, people who don't speak the same language could communicate much more easily and maps/battle strategies could be issued without any noise at all. There are probably hundreds more uses for this stuff. I imagine that a world blessed with this weed would undergo an artistic renaissance as people discovered new ways to communicate artistic visions with each other. Hell, there would probably be a whole spin-off performance art based around it.
I like the drawbacks and the secondary effect is also full of possibilities. Well done!
I really like the use for communicating with other people. A group could sit around in a circle, passing the pipe, sharing their ideas and negotiating clearly what they want.
This is good - I could see a whole school of magic or cultural tradition centered on this herb. Nicely done!