Prattleberries

These grape-sized berries bear strange markings on their skin. When eaten, their sour-sweet juices tingle through the tongue and jaws.

Adventurers who consume the mystical berries are advised to avoid operating siege machinery or riding horses while under their influence.

Prattleberries are commonly used for long-range communication. For two weeks out of the year, each bud on the plant produces a pair of berries with identical sigils. When picked and eaten, the creature is able to slip his attention into a dreamstate where he may communicate freely with any creature that has eaten the partner berry.

Once eaten, a creature can communicate telepathically with the partner berry eater on the same plane up to 100 miles away. Along with sight and sound, the dreamstate communication allows the dreamselves to feel physical sensations including taste and smell. When in this state, their real bodies are treated as stunned.

This effect lasts up to 90 minutes. It does not have to be used continuously but will no longer function two days after they were consumed. Slipping in or out of the dreamstate is a move action.

An unwilling recipient of incoming communications is able to chose not to participate in the dreamstate, and will hear the faint, incomprehensible voice of the one trying to initiate the dreamstate.

In regions that prattleberries are native to, finding them when they bear fruit requires a DC 25 Survival check.

Once picked from the stem, the prattleberry will spoil and lose its ability after 6 days, unless steps are taken to preserve it and the partner berry. If a pair of prattleberries spoil, they can be made ripe again (and therefore regain their magical ability) for an additional 6 days with a DC 18 Craft: Cooking or Survival check. Thereafter, they become rotten for good and decompose.

To preserve a pair of prattleberries, a creature with ranks in Survival, Craft: Cooking, or Craft: Alchemy can make a skill check (DC20) to bottle them in preservative. The process takes 8 hours to complete and requires a sealable jar and 2 gp worth of materials.

Properly preserved pairs of prattleberries probably price approximately 10 platinum pieces.