Gideon020
Really in the mood for ribs.
Result: 6 Successes
The local economy is shit, and the markets when talking about international elements are focused on Nigeria's rich oil wealth. Even so, Lagos has a thriving black market, with the markets selling anything from guns to siphoned oil and drugs from nearly every part of the planet, the markets and other back-street merchants can get you just about anything, especially as the Corporations use Lagos as a dumping and testing ground for all sorts of gear and other materials.
Apapa and Ikeja have the best markets, though one should be wary of the Ikeja markets as Shariah Law is dominant there, and the penalties...well, look up Shariah Law in relation to drugs and other intoxicants, and that's what's going to happen to you. Best get your product to Apapa since it has a good chance to be resold further on in another country.
Result: This is a freaking auto-success, because why the hell would you actually go alone?
Result: 3 Successes
Black Lotus lifecycle, apart from the high dependence on ambient magic levels, according to the ancient leather and parchment tomes you used to find the Plateau of Leng in Tibet, is fairly simple but covers a number of bases.
Black Lotus plants send out runners or if the ground cannot allow them to send out runners, turn their leaves into either a fleshy fruit that is irresistible to animals of any kind or some kind of floating pod that catches and drifts on the wind. Once it settles, it burrows underground and takes root, sending up a shoot that quickly begins to mature.
Flowers begin to bloom after 5 days, but within hours of breaking the surface the planet will already begin to grow branches covered in its distinctive fleshy flowers that are so prized for their properties both as a drug and as a magic enhancer.
The plant's root system is deep and wide, aggressively attacking other Awakened plants by sending runners into the target plant, becoming a deadly parasite that eventually kills the host plant, breaks it down, and allows for additional Black Lotus plants to grown in it's place. An Awakened tree could easily become a small patch of Black Lotus if one was within a few meters of the tree.
Cultivation of Black Lotus therefore should focus on promoting Runner growth as well as physically planting the flowers instead of allowing them to turn into fruit or drift off on the wind. This means that large, open fields are needed, or at the very least a large hydroponic set up. Thankfully, you could set a Black Lotus flower into a bed of liquid human waste and it would take root and grow in it, solidifying the ground by converting liquid into a solid byproduct that actually could be used as a fertilizer.
You just have to leech out the liters of nectar the ground has been soaking in to take advantage of such properties.
Result: 4 Successes
You secure some old medical-grade equipment that should allow for long-term cold storage of Black Lotus Flowers and Fresh Black Lotus Leaves.
(Acquired Old Medical Cold Storage Equipment: You can now harvest Black Lotus Flowers.)
