Spinewood

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.

Spinewood in the I.C.E. Age was a highly lethal low growing shrub in dense thickets along streams. Its twigs and leaves were blurred behind a coat of fine downy "hairs", which are actually extremely sharp spines. Brushed against the skin causes an extensive burning rash and muscle contractions. Exposure to the eyes causes blindness, and breathing the spines in causes death from suffocation. The spine irritant was defined as a level 5 special poison. Mild exposure was -50 to maneuvers, moderate was convulsions, serious was blindness, and extreme was death. This is not established modernly.

I.C.E. Age Example

Spinewood comes from the Shadow World Master Atlas: Inhabitants Guide (1989), page 10, like many of the other hazardous plants in areas associated with The Graveyard.

[Graveyard]
The small lake overflows the creek bank and laps against your feet.  Low, shrubby spinewood trees grow right up to the edge and some protrude from the surface of the water.  The only firm footing to be found is over the felled logs that hold back the course of the creek, blocking its northward flow.  You also see a natural dam.
Obvious paths: south

[Graveyard, Creek Bed]
The fine, white sand and rounded pebbles on the floor of the dry creek bed make walking difficult but the dense thickets of the spinewood trees and traesharm shrubs along the banks make the former watercourse the best route.  Better to struggle through the sand than to get lost in the trackless wilds that can hide all manner of unpleasant surprises.
Obvious paths: northeast, southwest

Behind the Scenes

Spinewood was not given a modern name in the De-ICE transition, so its properties were retconned when the flora guides were written. The modern documentation makes it a tree with small, round sectioned trunks growing along creeks, with pale pink flowers appearing in the first warm spell after the winter. Its hazard as a "passive threat" plant is not part of the current game setting.

See Also

• Elanthian Flora Guide: Trees (post-I.C.E. Age, 2002)
• Salorisa
• Deadly milk-white trumpet
• Dreamdeath
• Dreamvine
• Delphinuris
• Bladderwrack