For Gold & Glory: Card of the Week: Black Lotus

It's seen better days, but it's still my pride and joy.

A Perilous Journey

I was a week out of the city when my guides abandoned me. I had known they would. They were leery taking me up the rivers to begin with, for they had heard the stories. When I had hired them, I assured them that I wasn’t going to the forbidden swamps, that I had instead heard rumors of gemstones in the rocky outcroppings of the area. I paid them an outrageous fee to take me as far as they did, but I knew that I would find no cheaper guides.

I could have made the journey on my own. As a mage, I was used to exploring distant lands for new ley lines. As a green mage, my magic could coax the jungle into providing for my needs. As a planeswalker, I could flee the world itself if I found myself in real trouble. But that would have taken far longer than hiring guides, and in that time, I’d have risked another finding what I was looking for.

They left in a mad rush, fearing for their lives and their sanity. It was not superstition on their part, for I knew well the risks of my undertaking. The forbidden swamps were treacherous and filled with poisonous snakes and virulent plagues. And the stories of what grew in the swamps were known to every child of their city—a plant whose mere touch was deadly poison, the scent of whose flowers brought nightmare visions and feverish dreams. This plant was, of course, what I sought.

As soon as my guides had they disappeared around the river bend, still making warding signs against madness in my direction, I knelt down to the muddy riverbank and scooped up a handful of mossy soil. With the slightest hint of magic, it shaped itself into a miniature replica of the land around me—trickles of water reflecting the meandering rivers around me, tiny fronds standing in for the trees, lines of pebbles representing the occasional rocky outcroppings. And over on the edge, a dark stain of rotted plant matter. I knew which way to go.

The trek through the jungles took two more miserable days of backbreaking effort. Nowhere was there a path save for those my magic opened for me. Every mile brought with it pits of sucking mud and thickets of impenetrable vegetation. The mosquitoes were far more ravenous than any vampire of Sengir’s lineage. The miasmic heat of the day was unbearable, and the night brought little relief. But on the third morning, the trees thinned out and the mud turned into standing water. Though a mist too thick to ever burn off hung over the water and blocked my vision, I knew what I sought was close.

I waded out into the water, and finally, there it was. Great round leaves floated in the stagnant water, and above them spiked tall stalks ending in seed pods...and one great flower of black petals and purple pistils still in bloom. I approached with caution and gathered the dried seed heads, careful to avoid contact with any part of the plant that might still hold deadly juice. I left the bloom where I found it—even though it was what I valued most I could not bear to destroy such beauty. And if all went well, I would be growing my own blooms before long anyway.

Crush the Flowers, See the Smoke Drifting Before You, Hear the Lamentations of the Visions!

Though the legendary Black Lotus is known throughout the multiverse, my research leads me to believe that it is native to the original plane of Rabiah from which all others were refracted. Ancient tales from that world, far older than Alexandria or Cairo, speak of an age undreamed of. Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the sons of Aryas, the Black Lotus became infamous. Its juice was a deadly poison, as was its powdered form. The scent of its blooms brought evil dreams. But it was most infamously used by the necromancers of Stygia, who burned Black Lotus pollen and inhaled the dark green fumes produced. Though the fumes induced a coma-like sleep, the crimson nightmares within restored the magical powers of the sorcerers who partook of the Lotus.

Conan must not be a mage, otherwise he'd have tapped that lotus for three mana!

The knowledge of the Black Lotus has since spread throughout the planes, as has its cultivation. Originally found in the jungles of Khitai, where it was cultivated by the yellow-skulled priests of Yun, it can be grown in any similar climate. (It is an aquatic plant, growing in lakes and swamps where the water is suitably shallow.) And while rare, its sheer power has ensured that the flower has been introduced to many, many places across the multiverse.

Unlimited (or Alpha, or Beta, or Collector's) Power!

Any mage, no matter his or her preferred colors or techniques, can benefit from the Black Lotus. It provides immense power with no drawback (aside from its rarity, of course). It is the most sought-after magical talisman for good reason—its smoke-borne visions allow mages to cast complex spells or summon huge creatures long before they normally could and provide a huge advantage in battle. Even in the later stages of sorcerous battle when both mages have established their ley lines, the Lotus can be an unexpected source of power.