Blood Dancer

Work continues on getting Hot Springs Island fully written up, and Blood Dancer has been doing a great job of keeping my head banging in the air and not against my keyboard. I find Chris Barclay's vocals to be particularly enjoyable, but I've always been biased towards "high and angelic" over "gutteral and demonic".

Safari went and made something badass again. Here's Mog'ok, a lesser god of vengeance worshiped by the Night Axe Ogres. Remember everyone, even though they're "lesser" they're still gods and can clean the floor with your party!

I have developed a theory: bands that self tag with "stoner metal" have, on average, more badass album art than bands using other metal tags. I will continue to test this theory, and report my findings as scientifically as aesthetics can be.

Witch Ripper. Good name. Great Album Art. Badass music that is best described as both heavy and progressive deliciousness. The album came out on November 30th of last year, and while you can't rush good things... I want more! Favorite track: "Queen of the Green".

A large, woody, flowering shrub, the Hidden Hibiscus grows from 6' to 8' high, and as much as 10' wide. The blooms of the hibiscus are large (easily the size of a human hand), plentiful, and many colored. Bloom colors are typically red with yellow ribs, or pink with dark red ribs, but some sages claim there are thousands of different color combinations and variations. If a Hidden Hibiscus is threatened, or detects rapid movement nearby, any blooms on the bush immediately change their color to drab greens and browns, and the entire plant appears to wilt and wither. Skilled alchemists use the roots of the Hidden Hibiscus to amplify their creations that aid in natural camouflage, but the blooms of the hibiscus are its true prize as they can be used to dramatically increase both physical and mental speed for short periods of time. Only brightly colored blooms can be used in these speed increasing concoctions, and once a Hidden Hibiscus changes the color of one of its blooms, they never change back.

The Cave Lily, or Cave Star, with its dark, glossy foliage and fragrant white flowers, can be found growing on the ceilings of caves throughout the Swordfish Islands. It is unknown how a plant growing upside down and blooming only in darkness can spread with such profusion, but it is more uncommon to find a cave without these lilies than with them. The roots of the Cave Star grow above ground, forming brittle clumps of tube like structures resembling tangled skeins of grey yarn. Cave Lily blossoms absorb humidity from the air keeping the caves in which they are found surprisingly cool and pleasant. It is said that if a drop of nectar falls naturally from the bloom of a Cave Lily and is caught upon the tongue it will grant visions of the past or future.

A single Witchweave Palm Tree is comprised of three to five trunks, 10" to 12" in diameter, that grow in tight clusters and can reach 25' to 50' in height. The fronds of a mature Witchweave are approximately 3' long before splitting into 7 to 10 pale green leaves with drooping, fibrous tips that grow for another 2' to 3'. It is the numerous white fibers, resembling hair, appearing in the splits of the leaf tips that give the Witchweave its name. These leaves are prized by the Lizardfolk natives of the Swordfish Islands who harvest, dry and process them into rope and rough cloth. The Witchweave blooms with small yellow flowers that give way to oblong, reddish fruit about the size of a human thumb. If the fruits are dried, wrapped in fresh green Witchweave leaves and burned, a thick, deep blue smoke with a sweet, musky odor is produced. This smoke acts as a potent anesthetic to exposed flesh, and the Lizardfolk are known to fill tents and lodges with it for both medical and spiritual reasons. It is rumored that some of the Lizardfolk's powerful shaman are able to refine the fruit of the Witchweave even further to create potent healing salves and unguents, but if true, these secrets are highly guarded.

Although Tickleweed grows as a thick, grass-like carpet of cylindrical dark green leaf-blades, 3"-4" in length, unlike normal grasses, Tickleweed prefers to grow on nearly vertical surfaces and will even thrive in dark places, assuming there is ample moisture. The cylindrical leaf-blades are highly sensitive to even the most subtle shifts in ambient temperature so they move and shift continually. Tickleweed stretches towards increases in temperature and away from decreases. Each leaf moves independently causing the plants to appear to ripple and shiver with waves. Even the simple act of walking past a patch of Tickleweed will trigger a flurry of movement. Tickleweed blooms seldomly with circular flowers of red or white with a central black "eye". The flowers are prized by alchemists as they amplify concoctions related to detection, reaction, and rapid, fluid movement.

This woody, vine with golden, spade shaped leaves growing in fan shaped clusters of three or five is a true climber, often reaching 30' to 40'. The blooms of Sleeping Ivy are blue-violet colored tufts, or balls, which become covered in an extremely fine yellowish powder. A rash of tiny, fluid filled blisters will form on any skin 1-4 hours after contact. Despite its "angry" appearance, the inflamed area is not painful and does not itch, but instead will tingle numbly. After becoming exposed to Sleeping Ivy a victim will become more lethargic and harder to wake from sleep. At first the lethargy brought on by exposure may be so slight as to be unnoticeable, but it will increase in intensity each day it goes untreated. On the seventh day of untreated exposure the victim will fall asleep (quite peacefully) and never wake again. To treat Sleeping Ivy, the inflamed area must be bathed in alcohol. The higher the proof, the more rapid the recovery.

Quickweed grows as a series of short, flat, silvery leaf blades along a single root runner, and is so named because it completes its entire life cycle in a single week. A living/growing end and a decaying/dying end is clearly visible on each root runner, and with patient observation it is possible to watch the root grow and die in real time. The grass always grows in a single direction along its root causing entire fields of Quickweed to appear to migrate around islands, like a wave, as time goes by. Alchemists prize Quickweed as it amplifies concoctions related to time, speed and travel.

I've found it's pretty safe to assume that a group is going to be awesome when one member is "The Flail" and the other is "The Wrathe". Mael Medusa is two tracks of experimental, ambient, drone metal with enough touches of noise and psychadellica to keep things interesting throughout. The two tracks on this album add up to a whopping 38 minutes of goodness and make me wish I was writing a much more "traditional" adventure. You know... where the bowels of the castle descend so deeply into the ground that they open up into hell itself.

And if the music alone isn't enough to get your creative juices flowing, be sure to check out their tumblr, filled to the brim with all manner of black and white pictures of ruins and forgotten places.

Poznan's Chain is a soft-wooded clinging vine armed with white, pearlescent spines, 2" to 3" in length that alternate the entire length of the vine with leathery leaves. These vines are typically only found growing on sheer cliff faces or the most opulent ruined buildings. While a single chain will usually run for 20' to 50' and spread to cover an area of about 200 square feet, some vines are purported to reach 100' or more and cover thousands of square feet with their leaves and thorns. The thorns of Poznan's Chain secrete a virulent poison that causes internal organs to violently rupture and hemorrhage, leading to a bloody death in as little as 20 to 30 minutes. Curiously, if this poison is collected and taken more than 5' from the vine it immediately becomes water. Some claim that Poznan's Chain can produce large, silvery, metallic, star-like blooms, but these reports have never been verified.

A lumpy, tuber like root, that some swear grows to resemble a pig, Juxi Root is prized by the culinarily conscious. Eaten raw, this tuber has a crisp, sweet flavor but chefs the world over dry it and grind it into a fine powder used to spice and flavor foods, much like cinnamon. Juxi Root grows bright red, trumpet shaped flowers, and can be found in abundance throughout the Swordfish Islands.

Instead of growing up to seek light, the Constrictor Vine spreads out across the ground as a thick mat of small, glossy leaves. The plant blooms occasionally with unremarkable clusters of small green flowers that give way to oblong yellow berries favored by birds and small animals. While the leaf mat of the Constrictor Vine rarely reaches more than 10' in diameter its root system can stretch as far as 50'. The fibrous roots of a Constrictor Vine resemble the pale hair of a drowned woman, are incredibly strong, and retain much of this strength even after being harvested and dried. As the roots grow, they wrap themselves around rocks, root systems, and anything else in their path. When the roots reach ~30' to ~50' they begin to slowly, yet inexorably constrict back towards the core of the plant. This constriction has been known to topple whole trees and move many ton boulders.