Deathwart

The Toad's Glove (S. "Gurbeg", Q. "Loicopica") ,Slota-ana or Deathwart was a small fungus growing on dead things in Rain forests, the steamy environment where fate took its daily due. When a dead animal or person hit the forest floor, it began to decompose rapidly; insects, scavenging animals and opportu­nistic fungi made their way quickly to the corpse and began to feed. Within 12 hours of death, toad's glove spores settled themselves on the flesh and sprout in another 2 hours. 6 hours later, the tiny, brown and black, wart-like fungus was mature and already making more spores. By the time the corpse was reduced to a skeleton (I week later), dozens of generations of this fungus had come and gone.The ground up, small, wart-like body of the mature fungus (or rather a paste made from toad's glove and administered orally) was rumored to be one of the only antidotes able to counteract the poison sleta.Toad's glove kept for up to I week before losing its virtue, but healers had learned how to keep a toad's glove culture active (sometimes for years) by storing it in a closed container with rotting meat.