Conker Root

Conker Root, also known as Conker is a plant descended from certain herbs found on Earth.

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Conker is highly valued for its psychoactive properties, and it is a favorite of long-distance spacefarers such as scouts, explorers, rogues, and charioteer-pilgrims.

The roots are said to convey good luck to the gambler. More than one gambler in a seedy spaceport casino carries an amulet pouch containing Conker root.

Its seeds are often ingested or smoked by smugglers and blockade runners just before making blind hyperspace jumps.

Some explorers use the seeds to gain a deep affinity with a particular region hyperspace and/or realspace. Use in such circumstances confers a long-term familiarity with that region of space, one that may seem uncanny to others. A navigator or pilot may develop a sudden hunch that disaster is imminent, suddenly avoiding an otherwise nearly undetectable and deadly superstring or black hole.

Of course, more than a few rogues claim the tuber of the plant confers other kinds of charm and prowess, when rubbed.

The synthetic derivatives of Conker can be quite harmful and addictive, and are controlled substances in most human systems that have drug laws. But the natural Conker plant is seldom a focus of enforcement activities for the Cosmic Patrol. Its cultivation and distribution occurs on a very small scale and almost exclusively planetside. Securing the plant is almost impossible without knowing herbalists and folk practitioners who live in the woods and wetlands surrounding some backwater world spaceports. Only a handful make the journey up into space.

OGL Mechanics:

• Treat ingestion of plant as a poison of Good (+3) Potency and Average (+1) Subtlety
• Roll Potency vs. the ingester's Endurance. 
• If the plant gets the higher roll, two skills from among the following ones are +3 for one scene: Alertness, Gambling, Mysteries, Piloting, and Rapport. 
• Synthetics will typically have a Potency of Great (+4) or Superb (+5) with a Mediocre (0) Subtlety.
• Synthetic Conker will boost only one of the above skills, determined at random. 
• Synthetics also reduce the user's Composure track by one, adding a persistent or permanent Consequence such as Conker Addict, Compulsive Gambler, or Blind Jumper.