Bladderwrack

Warning: This page concerns archaic world setting information from the I.C.E. Age of GemStone III. It is not canon in contemporary GemStone IV, nor is it canonical for Shadow World as the details may be specific to GemStone III. It is only historical context for certain very old parts of the game and these things should not be mixed.

Bladderwrack is an I.C.E. Age algae found around Claedesbrim Bay (Modern: Darkstone Bay). "Wrack" happens to be Seoltang for unhappy or cursed, but "bladder" probably is not. When consumed it is supposed to cause cramping and vomiting. Bladderwrack was supposed to be converted to "gallowrant" in the De-ICE transition, but still appears in rare instances as bladderwrack.

Example

[Beach Area, Small Cave]
Water from the high tide has left numerous puddles on the floor of this low, cramped cave.  The air has a stale, moldy odor, possibly coming from the decaying patches of bladderwrack that cover some of the rocks.  A dark narrow tunnel leads off to the west.
Obvious exits: west

Behind the Scenes

Bladderwrack comes from the flora section of the Quellbourne (1989) source book module for Shadow World. The "wrack" is consonant with the fictional Seoltang local trader's language, whose words are largely contractions of ordinary words. It is also a real world algae (Fucus vesiculosus) of the North and Baltic Sea with a history of being taken for iodine deficiency, so there is a reasonable case for it not needing to be converted to gallowrant as the term cannot be copyrighted. The term "bladderwrack" itself descends from blædderwærc, an Old English word for pain of the bladder.

See Also

• Salorisa
• Dreamdeath
• Dreamvine
• Dirge-vaon