Fly traps, eels, lotus

In viridian bogs throughout the Swamp of Monsters, venus fly traps, named after the planetary appelation of Va Hosta, mother of the world but transformed through the grace of her first son Belm into Abjecta, Queen of Maggots, are cultivated by the eelmen.  During the third week of each rainy season, which alternate with the foggy seasons in periods of five to six weeks, swarms of large eye-less and leg-less flies hatch from the toxic mud and blacken the skies, cover houses, weigh down the cypress and lotus blossom, and suffocate unguarded children in their molded beds.  But the eelmen have an understanding of the toxic mud, which is thick with oil, froth, and unknown colors, which stinks and coagulates, and causes rampant growth, cancer, and sterile reproduction.  Their understanding is that the toxic muds are the vaginal secretions of Zuggtmoy, Queen of Putrescence, who was slain and lies buried in the Temple of Elemental Evil near Quallmar, City of Thieves.

The eelmen bury sacrifices to Zuggtmoy neck deep in the viridian bogs and sew the seeds of the venus fly traps in their mouths, noses, and eyes, so that the fly traps emerge from their flesh, and as the pods feast on the masses of toxic flies, they grow to such a size that they surmount the owner's original head.  For the Living Feast of Our Dreaming Mother, the eelmen unearth the sacrifices and eat their flesh, in which the toxins of the swamp have been deposited, and thereby gain powers over lust, growth, and disease, immunity to poisons and to the toxins, and the secret knowledge of the white lotus.  The pods of the venus fly traps are dried and the seeds saved, though many break open in the course of their growth, and the seeds travel by air and by water and infect entire villages, so that the venus fly trap men of the Swamp of Monsters are ubiquitous, and widely feared.

As for the white lotus, which grow only in pure, slowly flowing, shallow water.  The heavenly blossom of the white lotus is regarded as the radial eye of Her Putridity.  The eelmen steal virgin maidens and youths of other gods - Lazareth the Unattainable, Stone Belm, Izorides the First Witch - and teach them the ways of Zuggtmoy, and cultivate the white lotus in their pure flesh.  The mark of the white lotus growing from the eyes of these children are the sign of Zuggtmoy's blessing, and the sign that the eelmen may use them as indulgent sacrifices in their own place when they would otherwise be required to harm themselves, or each other, in the course of service to the dead Demon Lords.

The white lotus powder, as is commonly known, transports those who inhale it to a mindless stupor, and causes them to become zombie slaves to the first to issue command.  Though the secrets of its cultivation are concealed, the white lotus powder is used by necromancers, alchemists, witches, pimps, and thieves, and the common people live in dread of its power.