The notice boards were full, both the board by the inn that requested help with mundane tasks such as herb hunting or building repairs and the one near the town hall that asked for help with monster hunts or material transport between the village and the fortress. It seemed like very few adventurers visited this town, which was fair as it was far from anywhere and only really acted as a support/logistics hub for the fortress guarding the pass through the Dead Peaks. Taking some notices for plant collection from the board near the inn, Jessie made his way over to the town hall to register the request.
The town hall was a building larger than all the others, except maybe the temple, and consisted of three floors. The main floor contained the administration desks and meeting rooms which were manned by what looked like a poor imitation of a skeleton crew. Jessie walked up and placed a couple of simple collection requests on one of the admin desks and waited for someone to register them. It didn’t take long for someone to attend the desk, mainly because there was no one else in the room. The woman was old, but not old enough to need walking assistance and had a friendly look and air about her.
“Are you registering or turning in requests?” she asked in a voice that was both soft and authoritative.
“Registering.” Jessie said
The woman took out a book from under the desk and began flipping through the pages before stopping on a blank one about halfway through. Picking up the request forms and a quill she began recording the request, requestor and day it was accepted.
“What is your name, young man?” she asked as she came to the final column.
“Ghost.”
The woman gave him a strange look before sighing and putting his name down
“There have been many people with strange names appearing these days.” she said as she closed the book and handed the request forms over to him. “The village chief was told to be wary of them but, quite frankly, if you're offering to help the village I couldn't care what you call yourself.”
“How much contact do you have with the rest of the region?” Jessie asked as he picked up the returned forms
“Not much.” she replied. “We mainly get out information twice a year when the guards at the fortress switch out. And any orders or requests are usually sent or received from the royal family, which is pissing of the marquess of this region because he thinks we should report directly to him even though none of the soldiers passing through here are his.a rich bastard who prefers to party and indulge himself instead of looking after his region.”
“I SHOULD HAVE YOU ARRESTED FOR TREASON WOMAN!” came a loud voice from one of the rooms down the hall
“That would be the ‘advisor’ placed here by the marques. No one here likes him” the woman responded in a much quieter voice before walking off towards another room where she had come from.
As she walked away Jessie received the quest notifications.
‘Quest received: gathering herbs
25 moon flower blossoms: 0/25
20 yellow water lilies: 0/20
10 dragon blood roses: 0/10
5 tulips of death: 0/5
5 tulips of life: 0/5
Reward: depends on quality and amount returned to the alchemist.’
‘Quest received: gathering materials
10 1x1 metre squares of green opal: 0/10
5 branches of a green mahogany tree: 0/5
1 pelt of a giant mountain cat: 0/1
Reward: depends on quality and amount returned to the sculptor.’
‘Hint.
Head to the village library before leaving on these quests.’
Jessie had chosen these requests because while they had clearly been posted for a long time, he had thought the only part that would be tricky would be the pelt of the giant mountain cat and that the other plants and items just had very bizarre names. Leaving the town hall Jessie made his way over to another building that looked more like a longhouse than a library. The place smelled like old tomes and paper but was clean and free of dust and cobwebs. When he entered the library the first thing he was met with was a giant system message popping up in front of him.
‘System announcement
Congratulations to player lightning emperor for being the first player to reach lvl 20
Rewarding 5 silver and 5,000 exp’
“So the system announces the first person to reach certain levels.” Jessie mused as he made his way over to the librarian's desk, when he got there he noticed it was manned by an elderly man in what looked like dark blue wizards robes.
“Greetings young man.” the wizard said cheerfully. “I am Esbern, retired court wizard of the royal family. How may I help.”
“I would like information on some plants and materials.”
“What are you looking for?”
As the wizard asked this, Jessie placed the request forms down onto the desk where Esbern looked over them with a raised eyebrow.
“Well, if you are still insistent on gathering these items after reading the books, i’ll not stop you.” Esbern said before slowly standing with the assistance of his staff and walking towards a bookshelf in the middle of the room. He looked over the shelves for a moment before taking a couple of books off them and placing them on a free table.
“Here are the books which contain information on the herbs and materias you are looking for. If you have any more questions please don't hesitate to ask.” and with that Esbern walked back over to his desk and continued writing.
Jessie looked down at the books and noticed that there were only about three of them, two on the different herbs found within the kingdom and one on the various materials found within the region the village resided in. picking up the first book titled ‘A compendium of materials from the region of the star dragons grave’. Jessie began to read about the materials of the region looking specifically for green opal and green mahogany. After flipping through a few pages Jessie noticed that the entries were all in alphabetical order and flipped to the G section.
Green Opal
Found along the banks and within the depths of the Emerald creek, Green opal is prized for its deep green colour and geometric shapes. Usually found in square or tetrahedral shapes green opal is a very durable material that is used by and desired by most of the nobility within the kingdom of the star dragons grave as well as many others throughout the lands of Alecious.
The main difficulty in obtaining this commodity is getting past the dryads who guard the emerald creek as a sacred site and only let few people in who are only allowed to take little out. This restriction has resulted in the price of green opal increasing drastically to the point only those of nobility are able to afford even the smallest amount. Many attempts have been made to locate other sources of this material but all expeditions have come back fruitless, and so the emerald creek remains the only way to obtain green opal and any attempt to seize the deposit by force we stopped when king George of the star dragons grave signed a treaty with the dryads to cease all hostilities between the races, the kingdom will protect and respond to any hostility against the dryads while the dryads will give a small amount of green opal to the royal family as payment for this protection.
Green mahogany
Found along the banks and within a 2 kilometre radius of the emerald creek. Prized for its rich green colour and durability, green mahogany is a wood prized for sculptures and decorations by the higher nobility. Green mahogany, while found in larger quantities around the emerald creek, is rarer and more expensive than green opal due to the dryads protection of these sacred trees.
Unlike green opal, the dryads only allow visitors to take with them the branches that have naturally fallen off the trees so as to preserve what is left of the green mahogany. Attempts have been made to replant these trees somewhere more farmable, however all attempts to do so have failed and only regular mahogany trees have grown. It is theorised that the reason for this is due to something within the emerald creek that gives both the green mahogany and green opal their distinctive colours and strengths.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Jessie stared at the two pages as his mind ran over the fact that these materials were found in the same place, and the fact he would have to somehow convince dryads to allow him access to both to complete the requests. Taking one of the quills and some paper that were placed in the centre of the table, Jessie began to make notes about the materials that he was going to collect and how he might be able to convince the dryads to let him access the emerald creek. Picking up one of the other books Jessie looked at the title.
‘A compendium of materials from the Dead Peaks.’
Opening the book Jessie looked for an index where he might be able to find any information on the plants he was to gather. It took awhile but he eventually found and noted down the locations of the dragon blood roses, tulips of life and tulips of death within the book and began reading their entries.
Dragon blood roses
Dragon blood roses are a rather unknown but very useful herb used in the concoction of high levelled potions. It is a very potent source of strength magic as well as fire or lightning magic depending on the colour. It is unknown how dragon blood roses come to be, and while it has been theorised that they grow where dragon blood has been spilt, experiments and observations have been made both in laboratories and on battlefields where dragons were involved.
Red dragon blood roses are a potent source of strength and fire magic. It is theorised that these roses have a connection to red dragons due to their high potency of fire magic. Red dragon blood roses are used in both strength potions as well as potions of fire resistance or explosives.
Blue dragon blood roses are a potent source of strength and lightning magic. It is theorised that these roses have a connection to blue dragons due to their high potency of lightning magic. Blue dragon blood roses are used in strength potions as well as potions to resist lightning.
Both types of roses have other uses outside of potions as well, they can both be used in different ways in rituals and summoning, please see volume 3 of grand summonings for more details, as well as flower arrangements for the banquet table of the rich and nobility. Dragon blood roses are found in many areas of the Dead Peaks, but are found in abundance further towards the higher peaks. While no one has managed to reach the highest of the peaks, it has been noted that the potency of the roses increases the higher they are up the mountain.
Tulips of life
Tulips of life are found in places with abundant life, these tulips can be found anywhere life exists and, while rare, are still available to any who look for them. Tulips of life are prized for their abundance of life magic and are used frequently within the medical field to treat the worst cases of war and illness. Consuming a tulip of life can bring someone back from the brink of death, however it can also cause a person to die due to a massive and sudden influx of life force, this is why tulips of life are distilled and combined with many other ingredients to make potions.
The most common place for tulips of life to sprout are the areas around dragon blood roses, this is theorised to be because of the massive amounts of lifeforce housed within a dragon and its blood, and while experiments with growing dragon blood roses have always failed, tulips of life have always sprouted wherever the blood falls, although these tulips have a massively weakend amount of life magic compared to those found in nature.
Tulips of death
With the existence of Tulips of life, it is thought that there exist tulips of death though no evidence has been brought to light that proves this theory. Scholars from all over the planet believe that if Tulips of death do exist, their effects would be the opposite of the Tulips of life. This has led to many researchers and explorers searching places where death is prominent and has seeped into the very essences of the location to try and find this elusive flower. The only place guaranteed to have them in abundance are the fields of unnumbered tears where the gods of old fought off the abyssal horrors and sealed the borders between the realities. The only other place thought to grow tulips of death are plains of sorrow, a location from myth said to be found within the dead peaks. The plains of sorrow are supposedly a place where a great betrayal occurred between the elven people and humanity after they finally crushed the northern tribes, refer to the myths and legends of Alecious for more information of this betrayal. Many expeditions have been launched to find the location of the plains of sorrow yet few have returned from the perilous journey, and none of them returned in success.
Jessie made notes about where to find the dragon blood blossoms and the Tulips of life but was stumped for the Tulips of death, the only way he knew he might be able to gather them would be to either ask to alchemist why they wanted tulips of death and why they thought that they might exist despite there never being any conclusive evidence. The other way would be to try and find the dragon sanctuary again and ask about them, though he didn't want to go back there because he didn't know what price he would have to pay for that information. Deciding to do the former Jessie made a note of it and picked up the final book which seemed to be from the same author, a mr Lucian Greymoore.
‘A compendium of herbs and plants found throughout the region of the Star Dragons Grave’
This book was much larger than the other two he had read, and as he browsed the index of the book he figured out why. The book contained an entry for basically every herb and plant within the region.
Moon flowers
Moon flowers are a special flower that bloom only under the light of a moon, known for their affinity to astral magic and absolute beauty they are used both by wizards and nobles.
Magical uses for this flower include an enhanced sight of the flow of astral magic as well as increasing a person's affinity in the use of astral magic, these gains are temporary unless you consume moon flower blossoms everyday from a very young age. Potions of astra sight, which allow a person to view between the folds of reality or access the astral plane are very rare and require many blossoms of a moon flower that has been harvested under the light full blue moon, an event that happens only once every decade.
If a moon blossom is harvested under the light of a blood moon, it will gain an extra affinity that allows it to be used in necromantic rituals. The blood moon blossom contains powerful astral and blood magic and any who are found to have them in their possession will be arrested and tried as a criminal.
Due to the beauty of moon flowers they can be found in almost every garden owned by a person of nobility. Massive fields of moon flowers are planted near the towers of astral and spatial mages. These gardens are heavily guarded during both a blue and a blood moon, this is both so that blood moon blossoms are restricted in circulation as much as possible, but also to give these people a monopoly on a very valuable magical material which can only be harvested in the kingdom of the Star Dragons Grave.
Water lilies
Water lilies are one of the most common water plants within the Star Dragons Grave region, while there are many different varieties of water lilies very few have magical properties and while a coloured water lily can have magical properties, it is likely that the lily will just be a plain lily.
Water lilies come in many colours. Pink, red, orange, yellow, purple and blue. If you know what you are looking for it is easy to figure out if the lilies you are looking at have a magical affinity as those ones will be a brighter colour and will appear to have a glow around them while non magical lilies will simply look beautiful but have a duller colour.
Red lilies are a high quality source of blood magic, the amount of blood magic these lilies contain is not enough to perform necromantic rituals, however there is more than enough for high quality health potions.
Orange lilies are a high quality source of fire magic, useful for concocting potions of resist fire and explosives. They can also be used to enhance the power of fire spells if consumed.
Yellow lilies are a high quality source of solar magic, these lilies are used to create potions to cure sanguine infections and are used in devices used to both detect vampires and harm vampires.
Blue lilies are a high quality source of lightning magic, used to create potions of resist shock and lightning; they can also be used to enhance the power of lightning spells if consumed.
Purple lilies are a high quality source of death magic, these lilies are used for ceremonial rituals when burying the dead, but can also be used by necromancers to raise the dead as mindless minions. Purple lilies are currently under extreme security within the hall of the dead in the Star dragons grave capital and are destroyed anywhere they are found outside of the hall.
Pink lilies are just lilies. They have no know magical properties and are the most common type of lily, many of these are found in ponds within the noble houses and royal families gardens, often being mixed with lilies of the other colours.
Jessie noted this information down as well and soon had most of what he needed planned out, all he needed to do was ask for a map of the dead peaks, talk to the alchemist, and convince some very secretive dryads to allow him access to the emerald creek. The yellow water lilies and the moon flower blossoms were probably the easiest to come by, so we’re the Tulips of life and the dragon blood roses, however the tulip of death would be a major problem and Jessie wanted to see if the alchemist had any idea of the difficult in getting them. After closing the last book and leaving them on a small side table where the librarian would eventually reshelve them before returning to the librarian.
“Could I have a map of the region?” He asked as he approached the desk
“Which region?.” The wizard said as he looked up from his writings
“This one, preferably as much of the dead peaks as mapped and to the emerald creek if possible.”
“Huh, your taking up the suicide mission.” The wizard said. “Very well.”
He stood up and walked over to a cabinet and began taking maps out of several draws, looking at them before putting some of them back. He finally settled on a map and brought it back to his desk and unrolled it. The map showed, in surprising detail, the area surrounding the village and all the way from the emerald creek to a large portion of the dead peaks, what Jessie noticed was that this map contained annotations around the dead peaks in a language he couldn’t read.
“This map will cost 2 silver, or you can get a less detailed copy for 500 copper.”
“Uh.” Jessie looked at the amount he currently had before deciding asking a question. “What language is that written in?” he said as he pointed towards the writing.
“No one knows.” the librarian said. “This map is the oldest one known to exist, well, a perfect copy of it at least.”
Jessie placed the two silver coins he had received from selling the wolf parts on the wizards desk while also rolling up the map and placing it in his bag, after thanking the wizard Jessie made his way through the village looking for the alchemist who had posted the gathering request. It took him a while but he eventually found it tucked away in an alleyway off the main market square. It looked like a plain building from the outside with the only thing marking it as the alchemist's store being a cauldron outside with a sign reading ‘Alchemical concoctions’. Pushing open the door, Jessie walked inside and was met with an eccentric looking middle aged woman with brown hair that was a complete mess and a pair of large goggles on her face.
“Are you Emily?” Jessie asked after a moment of watching her potter about with different ingredients and devices.
“Oh, a customer.” the alchemist yelped as she heard Jessie speak. “Yes, I am she, how may I help you?”
“Why do you think Tulips of death exist, and why do you need them?”
“Of course they exist.” she cried. “With life there must always be death, wait, does this mean you accepted my request, do you have the items?” she was practically bouncing up and down while staring at Jessie.
“Er, no, I don't have the items yet. I came to see why you needed tulips of death and why you thought they existed before going out to search for them.”
“Oh, that makes sense.” Emily said as she deflated a bit. “Well, the tulips of death will be used to create a device that can detect the presence of abyssal horrors, the essence of the tulips I mean not the entire flower, the other items are just for random potions. And the tulips exist, they must exist, otherwise, otherwise this whole endeavour was for naught.”
Jessie thought about it for a moment before responding.
“Well, if the tulips do exist.” Jessie paused for a moment. “Then the likely location would be the plains of sorrow, that know one knows even exists.”
“Please, find me those flowers.” she seemed to almost be begging. “I. I’ll double your reward.”
“I.” Jessie seemed a bit stumped by the sudden offer to double a reward, one he didn't have a clue about. “I’ll find you the tulips of death.”
And after confirming that he would obtain the tulips of death for her, Jessie made his way out of the alchemist store and headed back to the inn for a drink and also to figure out what his path would look like while he completed these requests.