Image of many leafless branches with long, straight thorns or prickles. The focus is on several thin branches in the front, with the rest as a blurred mass behind them. This image is an alteration of a photograph by Kranich17.
Safety Rating: Beneficial.
Environment: Cultivated land.
Origins: Researchers and experimenters wanted a way to protect people while they reintroduced magical predators to the land. They started with Fast Healing Wall Bush and heavily modified it. The resulting bush grows and heals more quickly than most plants, but can still be pruned and shaped.
Details: Stinky Pricklebush grows in tall hedges that are dense both above and below the ground. Long, straight, wickedly-sharp prickles grow on all of its stems. Its magical scent comes from those prickles and it is sharp and pungent, but not unpleasant. However, the magic of the smell creates an aversion in magical predators, especially Owlbears. This aversion, a form of Emotion Magic, is intensified each time a predator is scratched by one of its prickles.
People grow walls of Stinky Pricklebush around their homes and fields as a way to protect themselves and their animals from the magical predators that are slowly returning to land. These magical predators are badly needed to keep magical pests in check, so their return has been encouraged.
Lore: Their many sharp prickles means that extensive protective equipment is needed to work with Stinky Pricklebush. It is said that those that skimp on protection too often may get scratched enough that they suddenly develop an aversion to its scent.
Stinky Pricklebush is part of the Crossroads Setting for the tabletop role-playing game, Magic Goes Awry. Click here to go to the list of strange and whimsical magical plants from the Land of Crossroads.
