Ambrosia Fruit

From the handful of sailors and adventurers who have vanished and returned from the Maelstrom over the past several centuries scholars have collected what stories they can. One story amongst the Lost of The Cursed Isles, residents of the Kuan Empire and Region of the Inner Sea that have been consumed by theMaelstrom is the Ambrosia fruit.   The Lost exist apart from but linked to the Cursed Isles. They travel a ghostly sea, flecked with phantasmal islands and land that are firm enough to stand upon but pale and ghostly. Plants and creatures, ruins and cities and people of many kinds may be faintly seen. But none can be touched. Only with great concentration can voices be heard speaking strange languages or written signs be seen, though none know the words. The only things that are real in this shadow realm are the odd floatsam and debris swept up into the demon storm, wreckage of Kuan region ships and the Lost crews on their lost ships.   For all of this, there are places, horrible twisted places where those of Kuan may touch the world of the Cursed Isles. These places are marked by huge stones, inscribed with strange gylphs. In some it is said they may cross over into this world. In others, they might find their way back to the regular world and return home. Others still are nightmare realms themselves. All save one. It is said that in the far north and east is a hidden place- an island surrounded by glacial land and frozen sea where one of these monolithic stones oversees a small space where realities cross and bushes bearing a fruit may be found, touched and eaten.   The Ambrosia Fruit is a large berry -thumb sized or larger that is incomparable in sweetness, savor and just faintly sour. It grows in stout bushes to 1.5 meters high in a space of maybe 15 meters across with a stone in the center, some 3 meters diameter and 6 meters tall. The red-purple leaves shimmer ever so faintly, reflecting a rainbow shine. The berries are white when unripe, turning green and then yellow when ripe, then black as they fall to the ground. The bushes fade and die within a week when dug up and taken from the region of the stone. The fruit has small seeds that will not grow anywhere but around their stone pillar. The fruit is delicious and may be taken from the area of the stone. It is a cure and ward against scurvy, and anemia and wonderfully filling, but eating this alone will cause weakness and confusion within a week.   So one might wonder how has this great food source not been conquered by the Lost, the sailors of Kuan? The stories say that the spirits of the place become displeased after several hours. The air becomes colder, and an oppressive presence can be felt. Something is watching. Offerings and prayers do not seem to appease the spirits. If one sleeps there are nightmares. Of being drawn to the stone and into hidden spaces, tunnels where the walls are made of bones enwrapped in roots. Sinister plopping, squishing noises and gasping breaths are heard as something drags itself along the tunnels. Those who stay to watch and the Guards left behind, vanish. And none who have been there can return within a month's time without feeling the hateful presence. A crew that harvests every berry will of course find none grown back for days or weeks after, while a different crew might follow within days and find the bushes full of ripe berries. None who have enountered the guardian spirits have survived, nor been seen again. There are no reports describing them aside from hints told from dreams. And to stay near the island is hazardous too- shifting sea ice has enough substance to crush and fracture a ship. The bitter cold of the frozen land and sea kills as well while there is naught to be found to burn. So the experienced ships roam the ghostly seas and only monthly seek out the island of the Ambrosia fruit or do trade items of wreckage for baskets of the fruits or wine made from the fallen berries.   Of the recovered Lost, none has brought back one of these fruits,  and scholars are leary of giving the credit of truth to sailor's tall tales.  Many sages are of the opinion that many of the supposed Lost are merely delusional cast aways.  It is said that the Imperial school of wizardry has possession of a whole ship rumored to have come back from the Maelstom's Cursed Isles.