Belladonna/Wolfsbane

[Ail]

Just to add that in one of the earliest books in Fighting Fantasy series, namely the Forest of Doom (hope that is the original title, I'm back-translating) there is a scene where the character fights a werewolf and possibly transforms. It is belladona the book uses to counter this transformation.

(That was one of my favourite books of the whole series, and much due to this encounter too ... I was pretty young back then)

[Igor the Henchman]

Just to add that in one of the earliest books in Fighting Fantasy series, namely the Forest of Doom (hope that is the original title, I'm back-translating) there is a scene where the character fights a werewolf and possibly transforms. It is belladona the book uses to counter this transformation.

(That was one of my favourite books of the whole series, and much due to this encounter too ... I was pretty young back then)

Hey, I remember that one - there was even a picture, right? Quite a spooky encounter, too.

To me, that episode illustrated a point about werewolves in roleplaying games - they have the potential of being really frightening monsters - when you face the threat alone. Far trickier to get a horror effect out of a whole party, however.

[High Priest Mikhal]

Sure, but belladonna isn't wolfsbane.

After all the confusion between the two I think that's a moot point. It's a mistake that's snowballed to the point of "what does it matter," IMO. They did the same thing regarding ancients and positive energy, and somewhere on these boards is confirmation that the ancient-PE tie was someone's typo that everyone took as gospel truth. We know the truth now, so who cares what the (now OOP) canon says? Just make the correction in your game and that's that.

Actual wolfsbane makes more sense as a symbol of Ezra; lycanthropes are one of the "children of the night" and this would be a clear sign of her wrath towards them.

Rotipher makes an excellent point. Hallucinogens have been used in religion since religion began. The fact that anchorites lose all powers if they somehow escape Ravenloft suggests Ezra is either a divinity unique to the demiplane or a mortal interpretation of the Mists. Perhaps poisoning did open Yakov's consciousness, or maybe it's all just a delusion powered by faith. That's the point: we'll never know one way or the other.

[Ail]

Just to add that in one of the earliest books in Fighting Fantasy series, namely the Forest of Doom (hope that is the original title, I'm back-translating) there is a scene where the character fights a werewolf and possibly transforms. It is belladona the book uses to counter this transformation.

(That was one of my favourite books of the whole series, and much due to this encounter too ... I was pretty young back then)

Hey, I remember that one - there was even a picture, right? Quite a spooky encounter, too.

To me, that episode illustrated a point about werewolves in roleplaying games - they have the potential of being really frightening monsters - when you face the threat alone. Far trickier to get a horror effect out of a whole party, however.

Yes, with picture. But there are a lot of other encounters I cherish there. The meeting with the Cat-Woman, the Barbarian that we free and turns on us, the arm-wrestling with Quinn, hitting an ogre with a deftly launched stone, the trees that moved and you burned down, the dead dwarf in the introduction... Heck, even the introduction itself and the kind of life it describes for the hero has defined my taste for fantasy until today. I keep looking for a game that allows me to feel that way. Something like "in the last 10 days you have had some problems finding food, but you don't feel loneliness. You're happy with your own company and with walking amidst the trees and wilderness".

I know, this is far from what it says there, but it's the picture I remember.

It was one of the first books, but in many respects they got much of the ambience right. Made me prefer Ian's books much more than Steve's in general.

[Garudos Celestar]

How about this for a compromise... the heraldry of Ezra's church includes a bouquet with sprigs of both belladonna and wolfsbane, with all the associated symbolisms (healing, the church's Dilisnya roots, fighting lycanthropes, drug-induced visions, etc.) wrapped up with a nice white ribbon.

[High Priest Mikhal]

That works for me. Frankly I actually don't care about what her symbol looks like; I only stick with the canon when doing things outside my game. Otherwise I invoked Rule 0 and remade things the way I wanted so often my players called me "RZ" (short for "Rule Zero"). Changing a god's holy symbol would be the least thing I've ever done to the game.