Lair of the LOTUS-EATERS!

LOTUS-EATER (#10/31, #69/365) [POT]

SKILL: 5

STAMINA : 5

ATTACKS: 1

WEAPON: Club

ARMOUR: None

DAMAGE MODIFIER: None

HABITAT: Forests, Jungles

NUMBER ENCOUNTERED: 4-24

TYPE: Humanoid

REACTION: Friendly

INTELLIGENCE: High

Among the woods, forests and jungles of Khul, the Dark Continent, can be found groves of the Purple Lotus tree (see The Titan Herbal, p. 55), and wherever there is such a glade, there is likely to be a community of LOTUS-EATERS. These are groups of four to twenty four inhabitants, living in sickening filth and squalor, appearing as glassy-eyed, emaciated people, clad in little more rags. From time to time they will pull a Purple Lotus flower from the lower branches of one of the trees, and slowly munch on it. However, not one of them will look unhappy; in fact, all are fixed with the most stupefyingly happy grins one has ever seen. As the dreamily-smiling Lotus-Eaters will tell visitors, once ingested the flowers give the eater unlimited powers of perception and control. 'This is paradise,' they will say, 'but you cannot see it ... yet.'

Lotus-Eaters are only too happy to offer the Purple Lotus flower to outsiders to consume, however it is highly addictive! Anyone consuming a flower must Test their Luck, and if they fail, they have become addicted. They will be unable to do much else other than sit and eat more flowers. To break the cycle of addiction, one would have to remove the victim from their lotus grove, and physically restrain and force-feed them for 1-6 weeks in order for the victim to be cured. Lotus-Eaters will fight to the death to defend their groves or if one attempts to remove them from the area, usually picking up a branch to use as a makeshift club, preferring their current existence to any other alternative. As one recovering addict described the initial feeling of euphoria:

"I instantly saw the folly of my quest. Plucking and eating another flower, I sat myself in the grove, which, strangely, no longer half as bad as when I first saw it. The sky was marvellously blue, the trees alive, and all was well. I was going to enjoying staying here! My adventure was over..."