Dakka

Dakka is a hardy, perennial plant native to the jungles of Serin, best known for its various toxins that are widely used all through the Empire.

## Appearance

Dakka plants grow in clumps that rarely exceed three foot in diameter, covered in healthy green, elongated heart-shaped leaves on slender stems usually about a foot high. Growing almost everywhere on Serin, they are most commonly found in the tropical and sub-tropical climates. Like most Serin plants, Dakka plants are partially motile, especially their roots, and display a strategic cunning that is remarkable even for Serini flora.

Dakka plants only flower after several years (5 to 12, depending on the climate), and their lotus-like flowers appear on straight stems above the foliage. Dakka flowers display a scintillating coloration not unlike the wings of butterflies or hummingbirds, and are considered some of the most exotically beautiful flowers of the empire.

Dakka plants are growing on clear patches of ground that they defend from other vegetation with the poisons in their roots. The tell-tale areas of bare soil are a clear warning for any unprotected workers in the forests.

Close to impossible to capture alive, the only known living dakka plant in captivity is 'The Lady' in the Central Zoo of Serin.

## Drugs and Poisons

Like many Serini plants, Dakka is harvested and processed for its various components, most notably the roots for dakotoxin, the leaves for dakkaine, and the flowers, if possible, for theothanaine.

### dakatoxin

The roots and rootmounds of Dakka plants contain dakatoxin, a strong, fast-acting necrotic poison. Considering that the roots are motile and capable of strategic and fast movements even above ground, it turns a dakka mound into a considerable enemy even for armored harvesters.

The poison breaks down living tissue into a liquid that is absorbed into the soil and used as nutrient for the plant. Victims of dakkatoxin poisoning can be identified by the liquification of all soft tissue and the bright green discoloration of the remaining bones.

Due to its extremly broad effectiveness, dakatoxin in very low concentrations is used widely all over the Empire in weedkillers such as Dak-n-Gone(TM) or in technical disinfectants on spaceports.

Shortly before germinating, the spores of the dakka plant release a bout of dakkatoxin, killing all unfortunate creatures that had inhaled them, thus creating a nutrient-rich environment to give a nice headstart to the young plant. This makes dakka spores a difficult to use but very effective retarded-action poison.

### dakkaine

The dakkaine contained in the leaves and to a lesser degree in their stems is a mild muscle relaxant and aphrodisiac with euphorizing properties and oddly little side effects.

The harvested leaves are dried and then smoked, either pure or mixed with other herbs. Dried dakka leaves are available as a cheap drug all over the Empire, though lower qualities can contain stem or rootparts that lead to lasting braindamage due to their content of dakkatoxin.

### theothanaine

Considered one of the most devious poisons and most dangerous drugs known, the flowers of the dakka plant emit clouds of theothanaine once they sense moving prey nearby.

Even minute amounts of this substance, absorbed through the skin or inhaled, can cloud a victim's judgement to the point that they remove all protective gear. The scent of theothanaine is described as the most beautiful and enlightening scent anyone can conceive, and victims abandon all other tasks to lay down near the flower and admire its beauty in complete rapture. Victims usually die of dehydration if they are not digested by the dakka roots before.

The psychological damage even of short theothanaine exposure is so strong that surviving victims are known to seek out dakka plants with great effort to commit suicide by flower.

Most disconcertingly, dakka blossoms are used as a recreational drug by some Quetzal.

## Dakka Trade

While the harvest and processing of dakka plants is a widespread source of income all over Serin, its trade is firmly regulated by House Quetzal. It has been used repeatedly for political aims, most prominently during the Dakka War.