RavenBranwen

Often found skittering about in both Shadow territory and the murk around Baldwin's cauldron, the Weird Purple Skink is a rare and treasured find for Shadow hunters. Whole skinks are prized as powerful ingredients in Baldwin’s transmutations, but the eyeballs make particularly potent potion components of their own.

Fun fact: the term skink-eyes is often used in dice games to refer to throws totaling one pip on each die. Because it’s such a low-scoring roll, the phrase “skink-eyes” is sometimes used to refer to situations of bad luck; confusingly, however, it’s sometimes said to be a sign of future good fortune instead, especially by dragons who favor games where skink-eyes are in fact advantageous throws.

While the Lunar Lacewing is not uncommon in Shadow territory, it requires the work of skilled insect-catchers to collect. This is because, unlike other types of lacewings, they appear only on nights when the moon is full—the same nights that superstitious dragons claim the Shadowbinder is at her strongest.

Although Lunar Lacewings can be found in Shadow, Water, Light and Wind territories, picky potioneers claim that Lacewings who have been gathered from a Shadow glowshroom grove make the most potent ingredients in spells. Catching Lacewings in these groves, however, is no trifle, considering the phosphorescent Lacewing blends right in to the groves it calls home.

Swipp has a fondness for whole Lunar Lacewings, but alchemists and potionmakers mainly use the delicate wings, which are preserved in jars with phosphormaldehyde. The remainder of the Lunar Lacewing, while beautiful in its own right, is functionally useless in brewing, but does make a tasty snack.

The Umbra wolves, being of Shadow element, are tricky and difficult to catch. They are known to hunt in packs, typically going after dragons that have become lost in the Tangled Wood and actively avoiding large clans. Killing an Umbra wolf causes the strange mists surrounding it to disperse, so the wolf must instead be temporarily incapacitated before its mists can be gathered. As such, this is a particularly difficult ingredient to procure.

Little scientific research has been done on the exact nature of Umbral mists. Although most potioneers know that "mists" is a bit of a misnomer, and that whatever is attached to the Umbra wolf is a bit like a more corporal smoke, no one is exactly sure what it truly is. It's known to occasionally seem to have a mind of its own, actively retracting away from the grasp of gathering dragons or attempting to escape whatever bottle it's placed in. Regardless of their mysterious scientific properties, Umbral mists are are an immensely useful and versatile ingredient, and considered as much a staple in a potioneer's toolkit as skink-eyes.

Cheaper versions of the Umbra wolf mist come from Bamboo Falls wolves, who are considered somewhat weaker than their Shadow-native cousins. Some potioneers even keep Umbra wolves as familiars in order to have access to the versatile mists in great quantity. Most potionmakers, however, agree that the best and most potent mists come from the wild wolves of Shadow, and dragons brave or fool enough to challenge them are handsomely rewarded. Or killed. One of the two.

Given how common Glowshrooms are in native Shadow lore and imagery, it should come as no surprise that the Driftwood Drag’s famous bioluminescent mushrooms also make frequent appearances in Shadow recipes—including potions.

The common Glowshroom is a bit of a jack of all trades for Shadow clans. It can be cooked, eaten plain, or included in baking recipes (although non-Shadow dragons who grew outside Shadow territories are not advised to consume these recipes). It can be incorporated into pain relievers and other natural medicines. Whole Glowshrooms can be placed in lanterns or grown on the walls of a clan’s territory. Bioluminescent juice from a crushed Glowshroom can be mixed with paint and pigment and used to mark walls, leave messages and warnings to other Shadow dragons, or decorate Shadow warriors heading into battle. Different strains of Glowshrooms have different properties and uses, but almost all are incorporated into daily Shadow life.

Shadow potioneers rarely make anything that doesn’t contain at least a little bit of Glowshroom product in it, partially because of its abundance and versatility and partially because its considered good luck to include a bit of their homeland in the mix. Non-Shadow potionmakers use the Glowshroom much more rarely, but when they do, they find it a difficult and temperamental ingredient to use properly—one which ruins a good potion just as frequently as it improves them. Shadow dragons who have grown up with the Glowshroom can’t imagine why others struggle to use them, but most dragons do agree that any Glowshroom-based potion is best procured from a Shadow potionmaker.

While sightings of all Peryton subtypes are rare, none are quite so difficult to spot as the Wispwillow Peryton, whose natural camouflage allows it to blend into the glowshroom groves it calls home. According to folklore, Wispwillow Perytons reveal themselves only to worthy Shadow dragons; to anyone else, they merely appear as a jumble of small, floating specks of light. This is famously played with in the fairy tale “The Clan-Leader's New Peryton,” in which a pair of Shadow tricksters convince a vain clan leader that a small cloud of common glowflies are, in fact, a rare and expensive Wispwillow Peryton, which appears as bits of light to those unworthy of their positions.

While Perytons don’t actually disguise themselves from dragons they deem unworthy, there is some truth to the old tale: Shadow dragons are most skilled at spotting a Wispwillow Peryton in the Tangled Wood because of their experience hunting in the murky light of Shadow territory. For this reason, many Shadow dragons make a brisk side business in collecting shed Wispwillow Peryton feathers and selling them to out-of-flight potioneers for high prices. Particularly unscrupulous Shadow dragons have even been known to sell empty jars, claiming that the feathers are in there but only appear to potioneers with “true talent.”

The Peryton feather is a potent ingredient, and different subtypes of Peryton feathers give different effects. The feathers of a Rosy Peryton, for instance, are often used in highly sought-after love potions. Wispwillow feathers are most often used in potions of hiding, invisibility, and secret-keeping; perhaps somewhat ironically, however, they can also be used to brew powerful truth serums.