Aldryami Blood-Syrup

[Erol of Backford]

I had to post this as my last bit of real Canadian maple syrup purchased north of Ottawa has been used up and I also happened somehow today, to listen to an old podcast by Lordabdul, Bill and Joerg and noted (as a dark thought) LA's idea that syrup could be made by sticking tubes into the Aldryami like drawing sap from a tree.

 

Need to get some more syrup but was thinking do Gloranthians like pancakes with syrup? Do they like sweets? Is elf blood syrup and candy marketable?

Do trolls eat pixie okonomiyaki with blood-syrup on it.

I imagine elves tied to posts with little buckets attached to them. They are captured and strapped to posts and bleed. It doesn't make sense if trolls don't like sweets however assuming elf blood is a little like sap but with a very low viscosity? 

 

Maybe the trolls or dwarves made some sort of elvish blood extraction facility like in the Matrix? Who knows possibly there is an elven vampire that needs the PC's to raid a troll blood-syrup facility (cave) to get some jellified elvish blood for some project or to make spicy jelly?

 

What sweets do trolls like? Possibly they eat sweet spicy elf jelly? Do trolls like dairy, cheese? Again off topic. 

Of course elves living in different areas would produce different blood-syrup and so there would be some exchanges between trades swapping varieties.

Do different elf types have different flavored blood and if so, who'd venture to guess the flavors?

There may be a thriving market for blood-syrup. What would it taste like? Would humans eat it? Surely Lunars would as they are like that. 

Sorry for being all over the place but curious if anyone ran anything related to rescuing elves from trolls as campaigns I have been in are normally are elf friendly. The protecting the grove idea never really entertained me especially when we've had several half-elves in parties in the past. Yes RQ2 and questlines old stuff.

Any elf sceneries out there besides the grove related items?

Thanks in advance for the thoughts/ideas.

 

[Ali the Helering]

It opens up possibilities for vegetarian vampires (Count Duckula anyone/)

[soltakss]

They take sap from birch trees as well, for similar reasons. It can be drunk and used in folk medicine. In Glorantha it would be harvested early in Sea Season.

 

 

Edited January 12 by soltakss

[Squaredeal Sten]

As I understand it maple syrup production is a seasonal thing.  In fall the sap is thicker and sweeter.  Also of course not all species of tree produce desirable syrup.  So extending the parallel with the RW, you would be tapping only some types of brown elves only in late Earth season and Dark season.  Presumably the Uz would have flavor preferences and certain  Aldryami would be special delicacies.  Possibly items of long distance trade among the Uz. Just as in the RW people in Florida don't harvest their own maple syrup, they buy it from much farther north.   You have given me a rare insight into troll trade goods.

Edited January 12 by Squaredeal Sten
Spelling / typing

[Agentorange]

You can  also get maple syrup crystals. presumably there would be some way of crystallizing an entire Brown Elf. You could break them up with a hammer and sell them in pieces.....like toffee...or hard candy.....

Edited January 12 by Agentorange

[Squaredeal Sten]

Frthermore, we should think about the containers used to harvest and ship elf blood.  Though Uz might use stone or hide, pottery would be better.  So I can see your friendly Argan Argar merchant buying pots from humans and a sort of triangle trade developing.  

So if your adventure is rescuing Aldryami from the sap farm, expect to be hindered by the Human initiates of Gustbran whose trade you threaten.

I can also see that certain inns will serve stacks of pancakes with syrup.

[Squaredeal Sten]

25 minutes ago, Agentorange said:

You can  also get maple syrup crystals. presumably there would be some way of crystallizing an entire Brown Elf. You could break them up with a hammer and sell them in pieces.....like toffee...or hard candy.....

If you crystallize the entire Brown Elf. it will be full of woody parts and probably not break up well.  Uz won't mind but the human customers won't buy splintery candy. 

Another consideration is that crystallizing requires dehydration, so you have to dry the elf out either by hanging him for a long time without water, or by the work of Zorak Zoran initiates who handle fire.

Or you boil down the sweeter elf blood, past the syrup point.   Again, most Uz don't handle fire.  But humans do. Uz might employ humans, keep human slaves for the purpose. or trade the sap to humans.   

Whether this. as well as a stack of pancakes with maple syrup. are   Chaotic acts for humans is a point for discussion.  Your thoughts?

Edited January 12 by Squaredeal Sten
Spelling / typing

[jajagappa]

42 minutes ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

As I understand it maple syrup production is a seasonal thing.  In fall the sap is thicker and sweeter.  Also of course not all species of tree produce desirable syrup. 

It's seasonal, but it's gathered in February traditionally as the sap begins to flow again. Only sugar maple are used for syrup production.

Generally, it requires sufficient wintering to be able to produce. While there are some places that gather sap in Massachusetts, you generally have to go into NH, Vermont, or Quebec to have sufficient winter cold to get good production. (And with global warming, this line is moving further north faster than the maple trees are moving north.)

In Glorantha, you'd probably look to Ralios, Aggar, Holay, or Balazar for the right conditions.

[Agentorange]

2 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

If you crystallize the entire Brown Elf. it will be full of woody parts and probably not break up well.  Uz won't mind but the human customers won't buy splintery candy. 

Another consideration is that crystallizing requires dehydration, so you have to dry the elf out either by hanging him for a long time without water, or by the work of Zorak Zoran initiates who handle fire.

Or you boil down the sweeter elf blood, past the syrup point.   Again, most Uz don't handle fire.  But humans do. Uz might employ humans, keep human slaves for the purpose. or trade the sap to humans.   

Whether this. as well as a stack of pancakes with maple syrup. are   Chaotic acts for humans is a point for discussion.  Your thoughts?

I wouldn't see it as chaotic - surely eating an elf ( or at least a bit of it )  would simply count as one of your 5 fruit and veg per day. Obviously the decay demons in the elf candy wouldn't be good for your teeth but some sort of specialist Rune magic would seem appropriate: Restore Teeth from the subcult of Chalana Dentisty.

[Darius West]

So there we have it !  The crystaline blood of the plant gods !  You can store MP in it, and warm it up and put it on pancakes as a potion.

[EricW]

On 1/15/2025 at 8:52 PM, Darius West said:

So there we have it !  The crystaline blood of the plant gods !  You can store MP in it, and warm it up and put it on pancakes as a potion.

Perhaps a different recipe produces an enhanced possibility of a power up if you eat it.

Of course, if you knowingly eat food produced from murdered sentients, unless you are a troll, that seems a pretty chaotic thing to do...

[soltakss]

On 1/15/2025 at 10:52 AM, Darius West said:

So there we have it !  The crystaline blood of the plant gods !

That is amber, surely?

[svensson]

Would you believe that in the early days of the Washington territory, people tried to make syrup out of cedar sap?

True story.

I may be a reenactor, but sometimes you just have to be alright with progress 😆

[Squaredeal Sten]

On 1/18/2025 at 1:05 PM, svensson said:

Would you believe that in the early days of the Washington territory, people tried to make syrup out of cedar sap?

True story.

I may be a reenactor, but sometimes you just have to be alright with progress 😆

 Cedar sap would produce an allergic reaction in both me and my wife.  Many other people too.  Seems to me it would be better used caulking boats.

Edited Sunday at 08:46 PM by Squaredeal Sten
typing errors

[Squaredeal Sten]

On 1/18/2025 at 12:48 PM, soltakss said:

That is amber, surely?

Although amber is not crystalline.  Solidfied, yes.  Transparent or translucent, yes - but I note that crystals in the RW do not have to be transparent or translucent.  People like pretty crystals but iron pyrite is a crystal and not translucent. 

Perhaps Humakt's blood would be an iron pyrite crystal?  Perhaps one with unusual Deathly qualities? Perhaps galena (lead and sulfur) could be crystallized blood of a troll god?  Both are crystalline, neither is transparent or translucent.

But I am getting off topic with pyrite and galena.  Let's concentrate on uses for elves.

Now Aldrya's blood might be crystalline, why not?  But just an elf or a dryad's blood, born in Time -  I can imagine their blood turning to amber.  Very pretty, maybe it even has some of Yelm's magic, maybe it has lesser magic uses.  Not crystal.

 

Edited Sunday at 09:08 PM by Squaredeal Sten
getting off topic

[Joerg]

Amber, Frankincense and other such resins are polymers, with amber having formed a sufficient amount of three-dimensional connections to become a solid. If that's enough to be called petrification, so be it, but then polystyrene is a petrified earthblood, too (the kind used in airfix models rather than styrofoam).

Crystallized blood probably is a metaphor rather than clotted arterial or venous liquid inside some divine physiology. There might be some clot or scab around these crystals, possibly even petrified like petrified resin, or possibly a druse surrounded by amorphous flint-like rock, but what they really are is the magical life force circulating in the divine body, crystallized after having been separated from the body through a wound (or an amputation). I don't expect these crystals to be single crystal jewels, more likely they would be a bunch of crystals grown together, much like your standard piece of amethyst. Alternatively, their biological nature might make them similar to opal or jade.

[Erol of Backford]

Maybe elf blood exposed to air coagulates like my organic honey. I seem to always need to heat up the honey when I am going to have toast...

So trolls have ambushed an elf caravan from Tarinwood that stopped in Nochet and is headed to Tarndisi's Grove bringing tea plants. They were betrayed of course and the some 10 elves with some runners where outnumbered 2-1 by trollkin with another 8 or so dark trolls added in plus a few spiders of some sort for pursuit speed?

The trolls have made the Old Elf Ruins their base and are elf-tapping those captured for Aldryami syrup? One runner got away and has somehow contacted the PC's and hopes they'll rescue the elves and put the trolls to the sword, whatever?

How to revive bled elves? Do the PC's take the tea for themselves? How might the rescue enhance relations with the elves of Tarndisi's Grove? Who were the elves betrayed by? Do the PC's go investigating that in Nochet? Assuming the trolls come from Troll Woods and are tipped off by a Kitori hanging around in Nochet?

Does it cross paths with links to A Lamp for Esrola, The Queen's Star, Veins of Discord or even the The Winter King?

On a twist maybe the elf of the Grubfarm, Greenslave wishes to begin tea production and doesn't mind a few elves being harmed to get the plants?

Besides troll pixie pancakes what else might elf syrup be used for? Crystalized cubes for drinks?

Any ideas appreciated.

[mfbrandi]

26 minutes ago, Erol of Backford said:

what else might elf syrup be used for?

• Poison: the plant thing to do is to make yourself toxic to those trying to eat you.
• Summoning monsters (predators big or scary enough to eat trolls): If I recall correctly, one plant strategy is to release chemicals that attract predators of the animals attacking the plants. Plants attacked by scale insects release from their wounds chemicals that attract ants that eat scale insects. That sort of thing.
• Brightness Falls from the Air (Tiptree): there must be a lot more syrup in a tree than in an elf, so there must be something special about “elf juice” — but nothing that justifies the practice of tapping the elves for syrup (“tears”): clue’s in the name. 😉

[Agentorange]

On 1/12/2025 at 2:54 PM, soltakss said:

They take sap from birch trees as well, for similar reasons. It can be drunk and used in folk medicine. In Glorantha it would be harvested early in Sea Season.

 

 

I've actually tasted Birch tree syrup. i was expecting something like maple syrup. But it was nothing like it at all. Not particularly nice in my opinion, though  maybe I just had a bad batch.....

This site has a list of tappable trees. Including Sycamore and Walnut......

https://practicalselfreliance.com/trees-species-tap-syrup/

Edited Monday at 10:44 PM by Agentorange

[Squaredeal Sten]

On 1/19/2025 at 4:10 PM, Joerg said:

......Crystallized blood probably is a metaphor rather than clotted arterial or venous liquid inside some divine physiology. There might be some clot or scab around these crystals, possibly even petrified like petrified resin, or possibly a druse surrounded by amorphous flint-like rock, but what they really are is the magical life force circulating in the divine body, crystallized after having been separated from the body through a wound (or an amputation). I don't expect these crystals to be single crystal jewels, more likely they would be a bunch of crystals grown together, much like your standard piece of amethyst. Alternatively, their biological nature might make them similar to opal or jade.

Which brings up a question: 

In the Real World  that bunch of amethyst crystals would probably be broken up and incorporated into several pieces of jewelry.

In Glorantha, can we divide magic crystals (bunches of them)?  Can one 10 point crystal be cut into two 5-pointers? Might there be some waste so you only get two 4-pointers, or a 6 and a 2?

[svensson]

@Squaredeal Sten You might want to give that one it's own topic header.

[Squaredeal Sten]

1 hour ago, svensson said:

@Squaredeal Sten You might want to give that one it's own topic header.

Done!

[Darius West]

On 1/19/2025 at 5:48 AM, soltakss said:

That is amber, surely?

It is only Amber when the influence of Stasis makes it ossify.

[Darius West]

On 1/12/2025 at 8:54 PM, Ali the Helering said:

It opens up possibilities for vegetarian vampires (Count Duckula anyone/)

Count Duckula is a yellow bellied sap sucker?

[Beoferret]

I'm seeing an opening for a myth that could underpin friendly relations between Aldryami and humans in some Lunar provinces:

 

Hon-Eel teaches the people to harvest syrup from maize (and so turned them away from using elf-blood on their pancakes.) There could even be a localized spirit cult dedicated to a hero named Karo who helped spread the blessings of Hon-Eel's sweet gift.