Goblin Fruit

Goblin Fruit (a.k.a. Hedgefruit)

The Hedge is a cornucopia of strangeling life, and certain fruits harvested from it have abilities to heal, to help, to harm. They only faintly resemble mundane vegetation, and some may not look like plants at all. A crisp fine fruit resembling an apple may well hold a slimy, snot-like syrup in its crimson skin, while a revolting, maggot-writhing pustule may taste like the finest of faerie delights.

Some, like the viceroy butterfly, may well be harmless imitations of their poisonous monarchs. While finding fruit is child's play, finding the RIGHT fruit is the tricky part. Bound by their own obscure rules, some grow only in a single season, a single night, or a single hour every mortal century.

The information below includes all approved Hedgefruit for Fate's Harvest.

Each entry will show the plant's name, its relative rarity, a description of its appearance and properties, and, important to you gardeners out there, the number value assigned to it for Hollow Garden purposes. See the Merits page for more details on that particular HR.

Unless otherwise noted, all fruits may be destroyed (i.e. you harvest their Glamour and they dissolve into dust, or melt, or...) to gain 1 Glamour point, rather than the benefit of their standard effects.

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Hedgefruit Harvesting Instructions

All harvesting rolls will be done by the +hedgefruit system itself.

Does the plant require staff intervention?

If not, go right ahead and harvest it. Staff is not going to check that you have logged scenes for it. If yes, send a +req/fae up, copying your ST, and include a link to a log of your acquisition scene.

Before you harvest...

The harvest is the easy part.

Finding Fruit - Wits + Survival plus or minus any applicable Harvest:Goblin Fruit merit bonuses.       Dramatic Failure: Not only do you NOT find any usable fruit, you also piss off the local wildlife, or hobs, or hunters. Fight or hide, at your ST's discretion.       Failure: You are unable to locate any edible fruits. Rotten luck.       Success: Hurra! You found some fruit! As a general rule of thumb, you find ~3 common fruits per success, 2 uncommon, or 1 rare.       Exceptional Success: Goodness. You sure found the mother lode. If you were searching for a common or uncommon fruit, take as many as you can carry with you. If it is a rare, take 5.

But wait!

Who found it first? - Intelligence + Investigation plus or minus applicable specialties. Did you run headlong into a patch guarded by something unpleasant? If successful, no, you're good to snag your fruity loot. If unsuccessful, prepare to sneak or fight, at your ST's discretion.

Harvesting - The roll itself will be Dexterity + Survival to represent your skill at picking/slicing/grubbing up a plant and knowing how to do it without doing something stupid, but you won't need to roll it unless you're rolling to a staff +job. For most fruits, +hedgefruit/harvest <fruit name> will automatically roll for you, add the fruit to your +hedgefruit inventory or, in the case of failure, inform you that you were unlucky or should quickly flee.

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How Much Can I Hold?

Why, we're glad you asked. The table below should make that nice and clear for you.

Wyrd	Max. Fruits Carried
1	3
2	5
3	7
4	10
5	15
6	25
7	50
8	100
9-10	Infinite

Healing Fruit

There are as many varieties of healing fruit as there are trees; these are just the established and growable varieties. If you would like to submit a new fruit for consideration and addition to the IG +hedgefruit system, please send up a +req/fae.

If you are in a scene and prefer to invent one on the fly, that, too, is fine. Healing fruits invented for a scene may only heal 1L or 2B each without requiring staff approval.

Amaranthine (CtL p.223) - Rare

Appearance: Small red eggplant

Garden plots: 3

Heals 1 Aggravated damage when eaten. No additional effects. Works only once per scene.

Blushberries (CtL p.223) - Common

Appearance: Pink fruits slightly larger than cherries.

Garden plots: 1

Common healing fruit. Heals 1L or 2B.

Dream-a-Drupe (CtL p.223) - Common

Appearance: Sim. to a purple nectarine, and tastes faintly intoxicating.

Garden plots: 1

Common healing fruit. Heals 1L or 2B.

Murmurleaf (CtL p.223) - Common

Appearance: A blossom which curls upward at the end of the leaf.

Garden plots: 1

Common healing fruit. Heals 1L or 2B.

Ertwen (CtL p.223) - Common

Appearance: A mealy seed inside a pod, similar to peas.

Garden plots: 1

Common healing fruit. Heals 1L or 2B.

Glamour Fruit

Precious to those lost in the Thorns, Glamour fruit can restore what was taken, or give just enough oomph to win a battle when your strength is ebbing low.

(CtL p.223) -

Appearance:

Garden plots:

Other Fruits

These fruits have various effects, some beneficial, some less so. Where the book has specified a preferred type of fertilizer, it is included at the end of the plant's description.

Brumebulb (RoS p.131) - Rare

Appearance: A small sour-tasting onion. Grows underground and only a minute pale curl of foliage is visible above the soil.

Garden plots: 1

This plant is VERY tough to spot. To find it, roll Wits + Investigation with a potential -3 if the ST decrees that the plant is growing, as is its wont, beneath heavy grasses or tangles of briar. When eaten (which may require a Resolve + Composure roll to choke down), the character's flesh begins to turn into drifting vapor, then whooshes away with a brief wind, rematerializing within a few miles of wherever he entered the Hedge in the first place. The return is not pleasant, and the character immediately vomits up his metaphorical toenails, suffering 2B from the painful heaves. (Requires an expenditure of sanity to grow.)

Coupnettle (CtL p.223) - Common

Appearance: Delicate leafy plant

Garden plots: 1

Often used to make tea. Bitter minty taste. Consuming an entire plant restores 1 Willpower.

Fear Gortach (CtL p.223) - Common

Appearance: Grass-like plant

Garden plots: 1

Makes the eater famished. No matter how much they eat, they madly want more. A character who tastes this plant temporarily suspends the effects of any other goblin fruit he has eaten (unless their effects are immediate, like healing or glamour fruits), and no other fruits have any effects for the remainder of the scene, INCLUDING new healing fruits, until the fear gortach has worn off. If more fear gortach is encountered, the eater must succeed at a Wits + Composure roll to avoid immediately consuming it again, lengthening the period of its effects. Those with with Gluttony vice suffer a -3 penalty to this roll. This fruit DOES affect mortals and other creatures.

Hera Pear (RoS p.131) - Rare

Appearance: A particularly succulent and polished yellow pear on a deceptively ordinary tree.

Garden plots: n/a

The Hera pear cannot be cultivated. Consuming a single pear will rid a person of any disease, from ringworm to bone cancer, and the pear will work on ANYone, mortal, fae or otherwise. Derangements are not diseases. The pear tree is ALWAYS guarded by a powerful hobgoblin (or hobgoblins), which must be fought or snuck past.

Jarmyn (CtL p.223) - Common

Appearance: Leafy plant with edible seed-ovaries

Garden plots: 1

Both the leaves and the ovaries are edible. The leaves are a stimulant, and add a +3 bonus to attempts to stay awake after periods of extensive wakefulness (WoD pp.179-180) during the scene in which they are eaten. The ovaries negate fatigue penalties, also for a scene. They can both be consumed at once, and both effects will work at the same time. After the scene is done and the effects wear off, the changeling falls into a deep sleep for one full day per fruit/leaf he consumed, with a maximum of 7 days.

Nightcap/Buglewort (CtL p.224) - Uncommon

Appearance: Unspecified; for the sake of argument, purple and yellow flowers, dark blue fruits

Garden plots: 2

These two fruits are so similar, it requires an Intelligence + Survival/Occult roll to distinguish which of them the changeling has foraged. Nightcap leaves anyone who eats it lethargic, cutting their Speed in half (round down) until the character achieves four successes on an extended Stamina + Resolve roll, which may be attempted once per hour. Buglewort gives the eater the equivalent of a caffeine high, super alert, and increases their Initiative by 4 for the duration of the scene. Additional doses do not stack, but both plants may be eaten at once, and both effects will work at the same time.

Pitt Moss (CtL p.224) - Common

Appearance: Sim. to rubbed sage, with a very rich, pungent taste.

Garden plots: 1

Used in sparing quantities, it accents many opulent meals in Faerie. Eaten raw, about a salad's worth, and by itself, it bestows an overwhelming dolor upon its eater. The character loses a point of Willpower and can't spend Willpower at all for the rest of the scene.

Oddments

Not all goblin fruits are necessarily "fruits" by the mortal sense of the word, or even edible. Some are useful as tools, some are just plain bizarre. A list follows.

Gallowsroot (CtL p.224) - Uncommon

Appearance: A ropy vine which grows on low, sprawling bushes, vine-ends shaped like nooses

Garden plots: 2

When slipped over the head and around the neck of any living victim, the root immediately constricts like a hangman's rope. It attacks as a Strength 3 combatant wielding a garrote for three turns. See the rules for Strangle Wire in Armory p.35 for how to break free.

Jennystones (CtL p.224) - Uncommon

Appearance: Hard, reeking tooth-shaped seeds of the Jennystone bush.

Garden plots: 2

They stink. It's awful. So much worse than skunk. The scent is exuded in a 5-yard diameter, and inflicts a -1 dice pool penalty to anyone with a sense of smell unfortunate enough to be there.

Promise Leaves (CtL p.224) - Uncommon

Appearance: Engorged leaves of whichever plant they've attached to/assimilated, with a distinct parchment-like feeling when touched.

Garden plots: n/a

These leaves can extend the duration of certain Contracts' effects (such as the Blessing of Perfection clause on CtL p.135). The duration of extension is determined by the clause in question, and typically requires the expenditure of 1 Willpower. To use a leaf, the changeling must crumple it in his hand while invoking its power with the Contract. The leaf dessicates and falls to the ground/blows away in queer faerie winds.

NOTE: Once a week, you may use the +hedgefruit/promise command to have the system roll your Wits + Survival for you. If the roll succeeds, a promise leaf will be added to your hedgefruit inventory.

Stabapple (CtL p.224) - Uncommon

Appearance: Benign boring pinkish fruits, sharp hard thorns.

Garden plots: 2

The fruits have no effect other than being filling, mild and savory. The thorns, however, are hard and sharp as bone, as long as a man's forearm. The thorns may be used as knives. They do 1L and have Size 1.

Hybrid Fruits

The following fruits were created by hybridizing two existing goblin plants. Where the books have specified required fertilizers, they are included at the end of the plant description.

Jennyapples (RoS p.130) - Uncommon

Appearance: Misshapen, black-spotted apples. Grow on the low branches of a tall shrub.

Garden plots: 2

Apples cause a roiling, acidic stomach when eaten, which confers a day-long -3 penalty to all rolls. As if that weren't unpleasant enough, their jennystone parentage is amply clear in the 5-yard diameter of stench which rises the instant their skin is broken. As with jennystones, anyone who can smell it is at a -1 penalty. (Requires a dream to grow.)

Nevernip (RoS p.131) - Uncommon

Appearance: Lush purple berries dangling from tall grass stalks.

Garden plots: 1

A cross-breed of blushberries and fear gortach, nevernip heals 1L or 2B, but as with fear gortach, the character must succeed at a Wits + Composure roll if he encounters the plant again in the next scene. If he fails, he consumes it all over again. The character suffers a -3 penalty to this roll if he has the Gluttony vice. Unlike fear gortach, this plant does NOT affect mortals or other non-fae. (Requires blood to grow.)

Trenchmint (RoS p.131) - Common

Appearance: A fragile plant with airy stems topped with curling clusters of violet leaves.

Garden plots: 1

No transplant roll necessary. Trenchmint is the Hedge equivalent of a persistent weed. Whole fields spring up within a week. Walking through it produces an acrid minty odor. When eaten raw, the character loses 1 point of Willpower, transmuting it into a +3 bonus to a Mental Skill of the changeling's choice for the remainder of the scene. If she doesn't concentrate on a specific skill while eating the plant, the ST chooses one at random. When the scene is over, the character feels lethargic and slothful. -1 to all Physical rolls for the rest of the day. Make that -2 if her vice is Sloth. (Requires no specific nutrients to grow.)