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So, what is with the [original] developers' fixation with...

TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,264
edited July 2013 in Archive (General Discussion)
Black Lotus? What is this stuff anyway (besides the obvious) and why did the developers put so many hidden encounters with it in the game?

I think I will take this thread up a notch too. Lets play a game: How many times in the series is this stuff mentioned/encountered? Can you name each location that has a reference? I can't give you the answer right off hand (not without doing research first anyway).

Ok, I did my research and I'm pretty sure I have the answer to my little game but I will wait for more than one person to play before I give my answer.
Post edited by Tresset on

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  • KilivitzKilivitz Member Posts: 1,459
    edited July 2013
    I can only remember three instances where it is mentioned (one in the Nashkel Carnival, one in the Copper Coronet, another one in Athkatla's gates).

    I know that Black Lotus is the name of what used to be one of Magic: The Gathering's rarest/most valuable cards.

    Maybe that's where the reference comes from, considering Magic is a product of Wizards who later bought D&D, but that wasn't the case when BG1 came out, so...
  • KilivitzKilivitz Member Posts: 1,459
    And that, by the way, makes me wonder if there is a strain of weed named Black Lotus somewhere in the world. You've got to imagine that there is, considering how stoner and geek culture tend to overlap here and there.
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,264
    edited July 2013
    Well a brief Google of "black lotus" revealed little. I did however find a Wikipedia disambiguation page. There were no references to any real plants, however I did find this:

    "Black lotus, a narcotic flower in the fantasy world of Conan the Barbarian as described in Red Nails"
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  • lunarlunar Member Posts: 3,460
    Yep, it bears mention in Conan comics too, as a very potent drug that puts the user to a deep sleep filled with euphoric dreams and hallucinations. It is also highly addictive. Like a fantasy-heroin or such. Users end up getting high most of the time, retreating from the real world. In greater or purer doses it can be downright lethal.

    I don't know if it has a place in Forgotten Realms cannon or not.
  • ajwzajwz Member Posts: 4,122
    Read the book of vile darkness. It has a lot of information on the drugs of faerun and D&D as a whole.
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    I always thought any mentions were part of an unfinished/abandoned quest. It does give a little more depth and background on the city and its shady side.
  • agrisagris Member Posts: 581
    based on the 'hard drug' treatment in the FR world, and its downer qualities (as seen in the copper coronet), it appears equivalent to opium derived drugs.
  • AnaximanderAnaximander Member Posts: 191
    edited July 2013
    It seems to me there were a few places in BG & BG2 where some folks were getting stoned off of myconids lol ... and some of them outright perish I think. Correct me if I'm wrong on the name of the creatures, they resemble mushroom like humanoids to me.
  • ZanathKariashiZanathKariashi Member Posts: 2,869
    edited July 2013
    Black lotus extract is also the strongest natural poisons in DnD, aside from the one used to make dracoliches.

    (Can be processed to use any form application, though is primarily contact or ingestion).

    (In 2nd edition it causes 1 point of PERMANENT con drain per second for 3 rounds, capped to 1 round if you save at -4. Requires use of Restoration to cure the damage (restoration is a 7th level spell in PnP and burns 2 years off both the caster and target's life per use).

    (In 3rd edition it causes 3d6 initial temp Con damage, followed by 3d6 temp Con damage a round later (assuming you survive, lost scores return at the normal rate for temp damage). Unless saved. Yeah..think about those numbers for a sec).

    When HEAVILY diluted and processed, it can also be used as a potent narcotic. (it's what those guys in the hidden room at the tavern in the slums are smoking).
  • VishnuVishnu Member Posts: 66
    I take it you haven't read a R.A. Salvatore Forgotten Realms book then, especially when drows are involved. Black lotus here, black lotus there...
  • taltamirtaltamir Member Posts: 288
    Tresset said:

    Black Lotus? What is this stuff anyway

    One of the best if not the best all around poison listed in the PnP D&D Source material. Whose status at the top has been retained between D&D editions.

    So I don't think bioware is to blame for this one, they are just keeping honest to the source material
  • Syntia13Syntia13 Member Posts: 514
    Like was already said, it's a drug, it's illegal (at least in Amn - I'm not sure about the Sword Coast, that tent at the carnival was a bit remote, but in no way hidden, and no one seemed to be bothered). It's addictive and it puts people to sleep, presumably filled with pleasant dreams (otherwise who'd take it?).
    As for why it is there - well, for the same reason you can order ale in every inn, and buy and read a small library's worth of books. The same reason why there are rats eating corpses in the sewers; why there are random 'commoners' and 'nobles' walking the streets, and the messengers running up and down the map with their messages. They are part of the world, and they are there to be noticed, acknowledged and enjoyed for their small parts of building the wonderful world of BG.
    Hough, that is all. :)
  • ThrasymachusThrasymachus Member Posts: 879
    It took me four months in Spellhold to kick my Black Lotus addiction.
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