Elixir of Divine Release

 Summary - Elixir of Divine Release

Individual souls are trapped in individual crystals which are networked within a necromantic web of unctuous, vine-like tendrils. The hoard of souls provide a boost of power to the dragon Agonir who is slowly robbing the city of Mistverge of life.

Base

The base of the elixir is like 10 gallons of holy water - fairly easy to acquire in a temple. For a double dose of divinity, if this elixir can be brewed in the heart of Mishakal’s sanctum, that would be helpful.

Air

Due to the corrupt nature of holding the souls from their destination in the celestial realms, a triple dose of divinity may be needed on this one. A perfume of the flowers from the Anaphalis margaritacea plant should be misted over the elixir as it brews. This will be Osiris’s job, and she will have to chant the below while meditating on the divine. 

With breathe comes life

Exhale and return 

End of strife

Rest well-earned

Water

The element of water will be needed to cleanse the corruption from the souls before they can climb to the final rest of the celestial realm. A stick woven with a very specific pattern of stalks of the Salvia officinalis plant will need to be used to stir the elixir as it brews. It will be Raiàn's job to stir enough to create a current in the elixir as it brews and helpfully charge it with a slight electrical crackle to encourage the current and the cleansing it brings.

Flow of water

Deep within

Leave you pure

Free of sin

Earth

The crystals that hold the souls have been corrupted to do this job, so clean earth must be applied in the form of ground Prunella vulgaris roots. Rusty, who is literally made of living earth in the form of metal, will have the job of grinding roots between his palms in the elixir’s current while chanting the below.

Hope grows here

Through roots spread

Bindings clear

Long rest ahead

Fire

Fire will be needed to release the bonds between the souls and the crystals. Lyrielle will gently burn the spores of the Botrychium lunaria ferns until the edges are just smoldering and sprinkle it into the elixir while activating the ki of the plants. 

Break the locks

Free the cursed

Open blocks

Be disbursed

Binding Agent

To bind the elements together into this elixir so that it will release the souls trapped by Agonir, Laurus nobilis will need to be spread throughout the process. The fire beneath the cauldron will need to be built from branches of the tree and the cauldron will need a wreath of branches and leaves around the rim. Everyone involved in the process will also need to wear a crown-like wreath as well.  

Elements four make the world

Corrupted for power and greed

Join now in elixir mixed and swirled

Combined to see souls freed.

Ingredients

Anaphalis margaritacea

Also known as: Life-Everlasting. Pearl. Pearly Everlasting. Chafe Weed. Old Field Balsam.

A sturdy perennial with cottony stems and everlasting flowers, bestowing good health, pleasant sleep, eternal youth, longevity, and immortality.

Description

An upright plant forming clumps of simple, unbranching, cottony stems growing narrow, silvery-grey leaves and topped with corymbs of minuscule yellow flowers surrounded with pearly-white bracts. The bracts are almost completely dry, translucent, and with a parchment-like texture. Life-everlasting is slightly fragrant.

Habitat and Cultivation

Life-everlasting thrives even in the poorest, sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils, without much moisture or nutrition. It prefers sunny exposition and propagates easily over dry prairies, open woods, roadsides, wastes, and abandoned gardens and fields. Drought- and frost-resistant, life-everlasting and spreads aggressively under optimal conditions. Male and female flowers grow on separate plants, and both are necessary to produce seeds; if the conditions are not met, life-everlasting may also reproduce through runners. Once established, it requires no oversight and holds its own against more invasive or demanding plants.

Foraging and Preparation

Cut the flowering stems when fully in bloom and air dry them upside down. The plant survives the process extremely well, not losing much of its properties. The flowers and bracts will last for years in dry bouquets, garlands, or flower mixes. For medicinal use, prepare a decoction of flowers, leaves, and stems for internal or external use.

Medicinal Properties

Use life-everlasting as an antiseptic poultice or decoction to heal sprains, bruises, boils, and painful swellings. A salve fastens the healing of burns. Taken internally, it is astringent, useful in diarrhea and dysentery, and pectoral, helping in lung complaints, like bronchitis. It alleviates pain and is slightly sedative; use the infusion in inhalation in treatment of headaches and mild insomnia.

Magical Properties

Life-everlasting is a herb of immortality, longevity, and good health. Drink an infusion every morning before eating or drinking anything else to ensure a long life relatively free of illness. In ritual magic, the plant restores and pro-longs youthful appearance. Kept at home or carried, it repels sickness.

Grown in the garden, the plant ensures that the soul of the gardener will be taken deep into the spiritual realms after their death, breaking any ties to the material plane. Such souls can never be called back, for any purpose.

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Salvia Officinalis

Also known as: Garden Sage. Common Sage. Savior. Holy Herb.

A shrubby plant with wooly leaves and strong aroma, used to cleanse the space from negative energy and unwelcome visitors, to clear the mind and prolong life.

Description

A perennial plant with a strong heart root and wiry, woody, square stems. Evergreen, large, oblong leaves are finely veined, silvery on the top and almost white underneath due to an abundance of fine hairs. The flowers are grown in spikes, and range from white to purple, with lavender color being most common. Sage leaves are very aromatic, with a peppery, bitter flavor. Depending on a person, a chewed leaf will produce either a cooling or warming sensation.

Habitat and Cultivation

Sage is native to warm, dry climate, but it thrives in gardens almost everywhere. It has low requirements for soil and water, can withstand drought and frost, but cannot grow in shade. The plant is hermaphroditic and pollinated by bees. To grow it in the garden, get a stranger to sow it for you and mix it with other plants; monocultural beds of sage bring ill-luck, and the herb promotes growth of cabbages, carrots, and rosemary. The shrubs deteriorate with age and should be replaced every 4 years.

Forage and Preparation

For best culinary and medicinal properties, harvest the herb before flowering, and use fresh or dried. Allow sage to bloom to produce valuable and delicious sage honey.

Medicinal Properties

Sage improves the mood, memory, and cognitive functions. It is anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal, reduces the intensity of pain, and regulates the levels of cholesterol and glucose. Being very drying and astringent, sage treats excessive lactation, night sweats, excessive salivation, and profuse perspiration. The top side of the leaves is an excellent teeth and gums cleaner.

Magical Properties

Sage is a tool of mental, spiritual, and physical cleansing. Burn oil or dried leaves as incense to expel the negative energy, malevolent spirits, or even unwelcome or overstaying visitors. The scent of sage brings clarity to the brain and bestows the gift of common sense, dispelling any mind-affecting enchantments, illusions, and lies.

Eat sage daily to prolong life and use it in rituals if trying to achieve immortality. Use the leaves in healing and money spells. Sage grown in the garden will flourish or wither in tune with the owner's business practice, and careful observation may help to prepare yourself for hard times or even avert the incoming disaster.

To make a wish come true, write it on a leaf and put it under the pillow. If within three nights you dream about your wish, it will come true. If not, bury the leaf in the ground to stave off bad luck.

Poisonous Properties

As it contains thujone (like cedar and wormwood), in very large doses and with prolonged use, sage causes restlessness, vomiting, vertigo, tremors, and seizures.

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Prunella vulgaris

Also known as: Heal-All. Self-Heal. Woundwort.Heart-of-the-Earth.

A common mint-like herb with a multitude of healing properties, both medicinal and magical. It sharpens the powers of observation and cures earthly ailments

Description

A small herb creating dense ground cover. Flexible, square, reddish stems branch at leaf axis, sprouting lance-shaped, serrate and slightly hairy leaves; they are similar to mint leaves, but with reddish tips. The flowers grow in a clublike cluster, creating rageddy-looking inflorescences as some flowers start wilting before others even open. Each flower has two lobes; the top one is usually blue-purple, and the bottom one spotted with white. The plant has a delicate, minty flavor. Unlike other mints, heal-all has no odor, even when crushed.

Habitat and Cultivation

Heal-all prefers moist habitats but is not picky. It grows easily and abundantly in gardens, meadows, fields, by roadsides and on woodland edges, not minding getting disturbed, grazed upon, or pruned. It thrives in the wild and is best left to its own devices even when cultivated. After blooming, cut it short to encourage future growth.

Foraging and Preparation

Gather the flowering heads and any leaves below them. The best time for it is when at least one third of the flowers are in bloom, and no more than a quarter of them are

already wilted and brown. Use fresh or dry at low temperature, as the constituents of heal-all are unstable and quickly deteriorate in heat. For most uses, prepare a strong infusion and drink as a tea up to three times a day.

Medicinal Properties

As most of the names of the herb suggest, heal-all has a multitude of positive effects on human physiology. It contains vitamins, flavanoids, tannins, and acids with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

An infusion mixed with honey is a strengthening tonic, good for sore throat and ulcerated mouth. It helps in cases of diabetes, gout, joint and muscle aches, cramps, and convulsions. It protects blood vessels and has antiviral effects, specifically when fighting influenza and herpes (HSV) replication.

Heal-all helps the liver, speeding up the removal of toxins, relieves dizziness and headaches. The wash eases eyestrain and reduces redness and swelling.

Magical Properties

Due to its medicinal properties, some cultures treat heal-all as a holy herb and a gift from the gods. Use it in all kinds of spells, rituals, and amulets of healing magic, whether for curing and driving away diseases or protecting health and well-being. Add it to ointments and salves for an easy application or burn in candles.

The healing properties of heal-all stretch to the spiritual realm, helping people grow and restore hope where it was lost.

The power of driving away diseases and malicious intent finds another, less obvious use. When grown in the garden, the plant repels dark forces and hides the owner from spying eyes. Several dark magicians were known to hide in this way from their enemies while posing as benevolent local healers and herbalists.

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Botrychium lunaria

Also known as: Moonwort. Unshoe-the-Horse. White Herb.

A rare fern with moon-shaped leaflets, prized by medics, alchemists, magicians, and burglars. It closes wounds, changes quicksilver into silver, and opens locks.

Description

A small fern growing a single caudex. The lower part is a sterile frond with fan-like leaflets resembling half-moons. The upper part is fertile, producing clusters of rounded spores. Small and unassuming, it is easiest to recognize in the summer, when heart-shaped spores are developing—originally green, in time darkening to brown. Moonworts die at the end of the season and often re-appear only after several years. Most of the plant’s life happens underground, in a symbiotic relationship with a fungus; only rarely it has the need to emerge from its subterranean habitat.

Habitat and Cultivation

Unlike other ferns, moonwort cannot grow in full or even partial shade, preferring open grasslands, woodlands, heaths, quarries, and sand dunes. This rare plant is seldom available for purchase; gardeners try to slowly grow it from spores collected in the wild. For expediency, transfer mature plants, taking care not to disturb the roots, which allow for asexual (clonal) reproduction; do not collect if protected by local laws.

Foraging and Preparation

For medicinal purposes, gather the leaflet-covered infertile fronds when in season, usually between June and August. For magical use, collect the whole herb, including the spore-bearing frond, under moonlight. While the presence of the full moon increases the magical power, the time of the day is irrelevant—the Moon showing during the day hours works as well as the one at night.

Medicinal Properties

The use of moonwort in medicine is similar to adder’s tongue, its close relative: it seals and heals open wounds, especially applied as poultice. Fresh cuts covered in half-moon leaflets stop bleeding quickly and won’t leave scars.

Boil the leaves in red wine and serve as a drink to cool and dry the organism, reducing menstrual flow, vomiting, and the unwelcome production and expulsion of other bodily fluids.

Magical Properties

This tiny fern has a plethora of magical uses. By alchemists, it is known as the white herb, a substance necessary to change quicksilver into pure silver. It is mostly this use that makes moonwort not only rare and often endangered, but also highly prized.

Moonwort is a herb of magical freedom: it opens locks, breaks love curses, removes barriers, loosens bindings and manacles, and unshoes the horses. If a horse’s hooves trample it in a meadow, the offending horse-shoe will remove itself immediately, poten-tially causing the horse and the rider many unpleasantries. Finding a loose horseshoe in a field can be a sign of moonworts grow-ing nearby.

In spells and rituals, the plant is closely connected to the Moon, allowing the magi-cian to use the lunar energy for their gain. Like other Moon herbs, it brings change (in-cluding lycanthropic transformation), en-forces a cyclical nature of events, and helps understand the mysteries of life.

Moonwort negates the allergy to iron; when carried by a fey creature, it allows them to hide their nature, removing the telltale signs of allergy.

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Laurus nobilis

Also known as: Bay Tree. Noble Laurel. Daphne. Sweet Bay.

An aromatic evergreen tree with smooth, green leaves. It is valued as a protective, anti-sorcerous plant and commonly used in wish magic and divination.

Description

A slow-growing plant with dark, shiny leaves, bundles of greenish-white flowers and black berries on female trees. When fresh, bay has a pungent aroma and bitter flavor. Dry leaves and berries have a more delicate, fruity smell and flavor, similar to thyme and oregano. Some visually similar members of the laurel family are toxic, so a special precaution should be taken to identify bay correctly.

Habitat and Cultivation

Bay is native to tropical and warm climates with high humidity and sunny exposition. Subtropical laurel forests, regardless of the name, don’t always contain bay trees. The trees can be easily cultivated in colder environments if protected from frost—preferably potted and kept indoors during winter.

Foraging and Preparation

Leaves are the most valuable part of bay trees. They can be collected at any time but for the best result, pick them at Midsummer noon. The older the leaves, the more flavor and aroma they carry. Blanch the leaves in boiling water for five seconds, then dry them laid out on paper away from direct sunlight for three days. Store in an airtight container. Berries can be collected and dried in a similar way. Their flavor is milder and their other properties are weaker; therefore, they’re less sought after.

Medicinal Properties

Bay has bactericidal and fungicidal properties, and as such, it makes for a good antiseptic. Use it as tea or a herbal bath, especially to cure vaginal or urinary tract infections. A poultice of boiled bay leaf is a remedy for rashes caused by poison oak, poison ivy, and stinging nettle, as well as other skin irritations.

Magical Properties

Bay, when carried, protects the wearer from a variety of miseries: illnesses, demonic pos-session, curses, and lightning strikes. Bay trees provide shelter to those who ask for it, extending an apotropaic ward. This confirms the partial sentience of the trees; they are known to complain about their mistreatment when used as kindling. According to the latest theories, bay trees carry souls of wood nymphs, and as such, should be treated with utmost respect—for everybody’s sake. 

Laurel wreaths worn on the head bring success to the worthy and bolster ambition and motivation—especially in creative fields of work. Eaten raw and in huge quantities, bay leaves have narcotic properties. They cause a trancelike, semiconscious state conducive to divination and prophecy work. A similar but weaker effect can be achieved by burn-ing the leaves as incense. Kept under the pillow, bay leaves bring prophetic dreams, although their meaning is usually harder to interpret. They are a key ingredient of the Seer’s Wine. 

Dried bay leaves are used in wish magic. Write your wish on a leaf, then burn it in offering to your chosen higher power. The ritual should be conducted in full sun, preferably at noon, to ensure success.

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