From: Eric Rowe (rowe@soda.berkeley.edu)
Date: Wed 17 Nov 1993 - 20:19:40 EET
The following is a short excerpt from Rodin Greenbeak's Compendium of Gloranthan Fauna. This well-travelled Grey Sage devised his own system of Nomenclature based upon Ocron Everseer's Compendium of Species. The original work is currently somewhere in the Library of Kethaela, where Rodin was acting Provost of Apprentices until his mysterious disappearance in 1619 ST.
CORAL IVY (Blue Avocado)
Scopulus hedera
Very little is known about the major stage in the life-cycle of Coral Ivy other than rumors passed on by friendly Mermen. They claim that Coral Ivy grows to an enormous size, with leaves that have a fluctuating pigment system resulting in a startling array of color. Gyndron raise this plant to cover the walls of their great castles of living coral. The tremendous depths at which this grows and the unfriendliness of most Gyndron mean that it will be difficult to verify the description. What is known for sure is that its large seeds are bouyant and are often found washed up on various shores of the Ocean, particularly in the area of the Solkathi sea.
The seeds of Coral Ivy look like a fairly large blue Avocado. The meat of the fruit continues the analogy in its slightly firm consistency. While lovely to look upon, the flavor of this blue meat is reminiscent of rather bitter Pelorian eggnog. Inside the meat of the fruit is a hard shell, which a non-professional could easily mistake for the actual seed. If this internal shell is broken with a handy large maul the actual seed is revealed as a tiny translucent blob that I first mistook for a microgorp, before I realized the impossibility. The true seed again fails to stimulate the taste buds, resembling chewy Praxian marsh grass more than anything else. However, the hard internal shell if ground to a fine power greatly enhances the natural flavor of Kokolonni in a light Red Clover sauce.
Planting of the Coral Ivy seed in a suitably moist and fertile environment led to its sturdy growth into what has previously been mis-classified as Dust Fern by less observant sages. While the Dust Fern does indeed resemble many other Fern phenotypes, it is clear from my research that it is simply part of the life-cycle of Coral Ivy and should be classified thus. This land based part of the Coral Ivy lasts about four weeks. After its quick maturation the plant releases thousands of tiny seeds into the wind, which led to its mistaken classification as a Dust Fern. These minute seeds, while very light, quickly saturated and sank when placed upon water surfaces.
My final anaylsis therefore, is that the blue meat of the Coral Ivy fruit is used to attract large land herbivores. After consumption the hard shell will be broken down some and weakened by the digestion process. Subsequent excretion will leave the seed sitting in an environment friendly to its development with a shell that can be easily broken through by the seedling. It then quickly matures and sends its next generation of seeds to the wind. Some of these reach far enough out into the ocean for successful germination once they reach the ocean floor. Lucky individuals are then gathered for use by horticulturaly inclined Gyndron.
As further evidence for this hypothesis I note that the Brontosaur
(Apatosaurus) is often seen wading in the shallows of the shore
rooting around for Coral Ivy seeds. Also, hunters from Khorst often
use them as bait to lure dinosaurs into pits in the Trachodon Marsh.
Clearly larger herbivores they are not offended by its highly bitter
taste.
Gamemaster Notes
(1) Understandably unnoticed by Rodin there is a slight magical effect
from ingesting Coral Ivy seeds. For roughly fifteen minutes after
eating the blue meat of the seed the consumer will be under the effect
of the strange pigments. In game terms they will have a
chameleon-like ability to blend with their background, up to a 50%
bonus to their hide ability. Of course, wearing clothing limits this
aid.
(2) There are no special effects obtainable from the land based part
of Coral Ivy or other seed parts other than that mentioned by Rodin.
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