Bruiseweed
A scraggly thistle that truly showcases the human spirit.
Colloquial names: Thrashin’ Weed, Anna’s Mark, Beatstick
Physical Description: Thought to be native to Westfall, Bruiseweed is a thistled plant, its coloration that of which the name suggests. The leaves and stems are the color of a healing bruise, a pale brown-yellow extending into feathered purple tips at the blossoms. The blooms and buds of the thistle are quite weighty for the spindly, knee-length plant. I was told by a moonshine-scented man in Moonbrook that cruel school children would use fistfuls of this herb as a weighted switch on playground victims, leaving a smattering of blue-brown across their skin. Poor little dears. He went on to tell me, between sips of something foul tinted, the symbolism of this plant lives in legend and tale among the surrounding farmlands. The story has various iterations, but it goes something like the following: A young woman from Sentinel Hill, Annelise Ricket, heard a commotion while walking past a farmhouse. She saw a boy tie what looked like a Defias bandana around a patch of the herb, and hide within the thicket fearfully. Knowing of bandit activity in the area, she rushed to Sentinel Hill to sound the alarm. Dozens of armed civilians, armed with simple farm tools, stormed the house and ousted the Defias. The plant was then customarily planted around locations and structures where violent activity had been culled. To this day, it still grows there. Some say if you look carefully, you can still catch a glint of red bandanna swaying amongst the thistles.
Described Usage: This herb has something called a “sister herb” or “second” within alchemical distillation. A second is a plant easily and readily combined with another herb. Seconds are thought to have some sort of natural affinity towards one another, much like the blood bound to a family. Bruiseweed’s second is a thorny bramble known as Briarthorn, detailed below this entry. All parts of Bruiseweed are usable in some way. Its roots, combined with the aforementioned second, produce a thinner version of potion knows as Troll’s Blood elixir, so named for its ability to miraculously restore wounds, regenerating flesh and sinew rapidly as some Trolls do. Its leaves and stems can be combined with a small venom sac, usually taken from a spider, to create an antivenom for many common poisons.
