Murex is a material extracted from plants, animals, and minerals native to the Murexian Grove. It is used to create a dye of a vibrant purple hue and is considered one of the more prized substances in Esterfell.
Murex is formed from volcanic compounds found only in the soil of the Ashen Scape. These compounds solidify into an ore called mexite miles below the soil that would theoretically be able to maintain murex in a pure form for long periods of time after extraction, but the toxic environment and dangerous animals of the Murexian Grove make any mining operations unfeasible.
Murex in its raw extracted form only lasts a few hours, dissolving into a sludge called mux that is toxic to the touch and unsuitable for use as a dye. Murexian creatures removed from the Murexian Grove revert to their normal coloration and physiology within 1d4 days as the murex leaves their systems, and since murexian traits are not genetic, their offspring are identical to normal flora and fauna until they undergo their transformations.
Murex is primarily used in the form of murexian dye as a means of imbuing textiles, metals, and other materials with a deep purple hue which has thus far not been reproducible through synthetic dyes.
A vial of pure murex can be processed with alchemist's supplies into 5 vials of murexian dye.
Murexian-dyed materials are available on the open market but generally are only sold by merchants in northern Lenya due to proximity to the continent's only known source of murex. Cape Bec tightly controls access to murexian dyes, and pure murex is kept out of the supply chain entirely due to its inability to be stored.
Unless treated and turned into a dye, liquid murex corrupts into mux within 1d4-1 hours of being extracted from murexian creatures (minimum 30 minutes). The only way to transport and store murex for any period of time is to capture a living murexian creature, but even this only lasts for 1d4 days before the murex disappears from the creature's system.
Murex contained within mexite will not start breaking down until exposed to air.
Once murex is processed into a dye, it can be stored indefinitely.