Living Sap

The tall sharinga trees of the Mwangi Expanse leak golden sap from their swollen, bulbous trunks, which coagulates when exposed to air. The toxic resin, which has a bitter taste, protects the tree from herbivorous insects and other animals, but in rare cases-usually in areas awash in vitality energy or the influence of the First World-the sap gains a life of its own. Such "living sap" is a mindless ooze that attempts to smother and engulf just about anything that moves, from the bugs and small beasts that feed on its sharinga tree to larger creatures unlucky enough to stumble upon it. Due to its immunities to most forms of physical damage and its protectiveness of its mother tree, a living ooze is a nuisance to communities that rely on the sap of sharinga trees to make resin, rubber, and glue.

Jungle-dwelling alchemists such as gripplis cherish the sap of the sharinga tree for its unique adhesive properties. The sap has been used for centuries to create tanglefoot bags, glue, and hard resin. Residue collected from a living sap is even more fascinating from an alchemical standpoint. Though harvesting a living sap is very dangerous, some alchemists will risk death in order to procure these easily worked ingredients. To increase the odds of a successful harvest, such employers are often willing to supply offensive aids such as lesser frost vials; living sap hunters learned long ago that cold energy is effective against these creatures and luckily doesn't harm the harvestable reagents.