: Yes, brilliant! This is a perfect solution! Thanks!
A couple of additions to the soon-to-be-classic "Wellington's Historie of Ye Mandrake":
I think a single mandrake application is all that is needed to produce immortality. It was part of the Heron Guards' initiation rite, and not (as far as the text goes) an ongoing ritual repeated throughout their lives.
While it's possible that Alric's immortality stems from the mandrake (you certainly healed him enough in TFL to accomplish it), I think it's more likely just a "natural" consequence of his sorcerous abilities. Many people in Myth--Fallen Lords, Warlocks, Avatara, even (perhaps) Mauriac--are immortal or at least unnaturally long-lived, and I don't think it's all because of the mandrake. If it was, you'd see vast fields of the stuff being grown to benefit the wealthy and the powerful (and I suspect they wouldn't balk at human sacrifice, if the plant really does have to grow from blood-soaked ground.) I think the mandrake just kickstarts the self-repair systems of the folks like the Heron Guards and other great warriors, who are almost but not quite tough enough to be immortal on their own.
From in-game evidence, the mandrake seems to grow exclusively by the banks of streams and rivers in grassy and forested areas. How much of the environmental damage in Myth--the creation of the Barrier, the pollution of various bodies of water--was intentionally done by the Dark to ensure that this powerful weapon would not be available to the Light? It seems that the roots are now able to grow in only the areas most sheltered from the attacks of the Dark.
--SiliconDream
