Black Thorn

Black thorns are items in the Temphere game universe.

Uses

The black thorns were recently revealed to not be thorns at all, but seed pods that take the shape of thorns. They are capable of sprouting monstrous plant matter and generating multiple smaller plant-based monsters to defend themselves. There are two known kinds of thorns, one giant- large enough that it needs to be held in two hands- and the other small enough to hold in one hand, but still noticeably oversized even from a distance. Apparently Kyodohr, the god of forests, despises the thorns.

Appearance

The thorns are known to be quite large, and black.

In-Story

When Cree cast identify on a scarecrow that had been animated, she got the sense of some sort of malicious presence possessing it. Upon searching the scarecrows after they were defeated, she found one of the littler black thorns.

Of the giant versions, two so far are known about. The first was planted in a rose bush in the garden of Valanthe Liadon, where it grew a massive monster rose with sharp teeth. The garden was filled with other aggressive plant life, all of the satyr gardeners were mind-controlled to serve the rose, and the dimensional barrier between Temphere and the Feywilde was weakened throughout the garden. Once the rose was defeated, all of these abnormalities were resolved and it left behind the inert thorn.

The second one was buried in the forest outside of the city of Penvost, where it was found by T'hamil and taken to his hut. He was overwhelmed by a sensation of hatred that he attributed to the god Kyodohr, and attempted to destroy the thorn by calling lightning. The spell didn't work, and the thorn sprouted vines and fled, leaving behind thorny monsters to slow pursuers. It escaped into a crossover to the Frostfell, forcing the party to chase it down. They eventually managed to defeat the vine monster when it was cornered by an army of kuo-toa and sahuagin. The fish men wanted to thorn for unknown purposes, but the party was able to escape with it. As of yet it is not known to have caused any disruptions to the planar barrier, or to have thralled anyone. This could be because those qualities were exclusive to the rose, or because it just hadn't had the chance yet.

Upon consulting the monster hunters, Ash and Brenryn, the party was offered the theory that the thorns were from something similar to a Gulthias Tree, a tree born from the burying of a stake used to kill a vampire. They didn't have any solid answers though, and the party had to ask elsewhere.

Hush later revealed that she had run into something that she suspected to be a thorn back in her home country of Toborra. It had destroyed a village and caused massive killer trees to sprout. Hush was carrying the shards of what she assumed to have been the thorn that grew the trees, which had lodged in her mentor's scarf during the fight.

During a ball in the Feywilde they spoke to a dryad, who inspected the thorn shards that Hush was carrying and informed the party that their thorns weren't actually thorns, but seed pods. She advised the group to try to discover the plant that spawned these seed pods.

Owners

Current

• Cree (Small)
• Cree (Giant x2)
• Hush (Splintered shards of giant)

Former

• T'hamil
• Valanthe Liadon