Venacryst
| Venacryst at a Glance | ||
|---|---|---|
| Material Type | Gems | |
| Colors | Green | |
| Innate Qualities | Glowing | |
| Rarity | Rare | |
| Cultural Relevance |
| |
| Required for Alterations | Yes (additional rules) | |
Venacryst is a translucent green crystal, likened to glass threaded with capillaries of inky pigment. The most prized specimens cast a sickly radiance even in complete darkness and are usually faceted (rather than polished) to enhance this effect. Uncut stones often occur in irregular nodules, their surfaces slick and faintly sticky.
Though delicate-looking, venacryst is exceptionally hard and brittle: a gem that resists scratching but fractures violently under the wrong blow. Fragments of broken venacryst retain their faint glow and are dangerous to handle without protection, as they can leach toxin into bare skin.
Venacryst does not arise naturally as a mineral in the ground; it must be grown inside a living spider's venom glands through a ritualized process. If a spider is fed a carefully prepared mixture of mineral salts, its venom begins to crystallize along the inner lining of the venom gland. Over weeks or months, the crystallization thickens into a hardened core: venacryst.
Harvesting is perilous, as the spider must be kept alive long enough for the growth to mature, and extracting the crystal requires skilled surgery (or in darker traditions, ritual sacrifice). When the crystal is removed properly, the spider may recover and produce more over time, though few handlers survive enough attempts to cultivate repeat harvests.
First appeared during Hollow Eve Festival 454.
Common Description
A sickly light seeps through the translucent green crystal, bleeding around ichorous capillaries that wind through it like ink-clotted veins.
Alteration Rules
This material is required for alterations.
"Venacryst" must be explicitly identified as the light source in the tap if the tap uses words like "glowing."
Raw Material Sources
Hollow Eve Festival 454/Raffles
Items
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