# How about adding a little spice to a story?



## SeverinR (Aug 17, 2016)

Alnwick Poison Gardens ? Alnwick, England | Atlas Obscura

Found Alnwick castle has a large garden of poisons.  Maybe a mysterious older adventurer?

Many poisonous plants can also be used for medicine.  

(a suppository to stop painful bladder spasms has Beladonna (and Opium) in it. B&O suppository.)

Hogsweed sounds interesting. Have the rumors spread of a curse on any that attack the castle, "blindness and blisters on any that aren't bold enough to come to the gate." and they simply put the hogsweed in the woods away from the main road.  The sap doesn't activate until sunlight touches it.  They arrive at night or send in spies to check, they are fine until the next morning then all are struck down with blisters and possibly blindness (if they touched their eyes with the sap on their skin.)

I like the poison garden.  Never irritate the cook at a home with a poison garden. lol.


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## Caged Maiden (Aug 17, 2016)

LOVE! What an awesome idea, thanks for sharing!


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## Charles Parkes (Aug 17, 2016)

Sentry garden - the idea really appeals.

Keep the great ideas coming please! I can think of plenty of examples of fantasy characters where something like this is more appropriate for their security 

Or maybe I've been watching too much Penny Dreadful and the witch's warded cottage has got stuck in my mind.


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## Gurkhal (Aug 21, 2016)

Very cool idea! Will probably steal it and store in my secret warehouse for the future


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## SaltyDog (Aug 21, 2016)

Thanks man!


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## Ireth (Aug 21, 2016)

That's fantastic! I am very tempted to use Hogweed in a story now. XD

(Also, this is making me jealous. My parents got to see that castle on their trip through England, Scotland and Wales this past week. XD)


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## Chessie (Aug 22, 2016)

I do love this. Poison is my favorite way to kill off characters. I've used it many times. -_-


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## Miskatonic (Aug 25, 2016)

Trees create vampires in my story so why not?


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## Carolyn (Sep 2, 2016)

I remember watching a documentary a few years ago, all about a writer's trip to the Middle East and England in search of a poison used in his time of choice for a novel. Some of the expressions on merchants faces when he asked about a tasteless poison...lol. Never forgot that.
There was also the Brother Cadfael mysteries that used poisons as well.
Fascinating subject for research!


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