Dreaming Blossoms

The Dreaming Blossoms are flowers that grow in the valleys near the city of Kitezh.

They are notable for the properties of their pollen, which can induce hallucinations if exposed to in high enough quantities.

Story
Main Article: Rise of the Tomb Raider: Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch

Cold War
After the Soviets set up facilities in the mountains, to mine for resources and study the ruins, they discovered the pollen had odd effects. They find a Vale, which the locals avoided going to, with grand structures, and send a team to study them. They took an imprisoned Biochemist, Serafima to the vale to try and find a way to counteract the pollen. While in the vale, Serafima and the research team she was with, were apparently slaughtered by the witch, Baba Yaga.

After the Red Army soldiers are defeated, the Vale remains a place where the Remnants avoided, as no one who entered ever returned.

Lara enters the Wicked Vale upon the request Nadia, a member of the Remnants, who was injured by Trinity's forces, while looking for her grandfather. Nadia warns her that the Vale is home to the Witch, Baba Yaga.

Upon entering the Vale, Lara is exposed to the pollen, she is accosted by visions of her past, and confronted by the Witch, Baba Yaga. Narrowly escaping being crushed, Lara discovers that someone has set up a lab in order to refine and weaponize the pollen, Lara concludes that the Witch is just a person, and there is no sorcery.

Lara and Nadia find a way to resist the pollen in order to travel into the Vale without hallucinating, to confront the witch, and save Nadia's Grandfather, as well as discover Baba Yaga's true identity.

Antidote
The effects of the pollen, even in it's weaponized form can be resisted completely, by mixing several ingredients. The recipe drew concern from Lara when she learned that the phenothiazine would be supplied in the form on an insecticide.
 * An extract from the seedpods.
 * The liver of an animal that has eaten the flowers and metabolised the toxin.
 * A phenothiazine derivative

Appearance
The Dreaming Blossoms are yellowish funnel-like flowers that grow in dark places like on the walls of certain caves in the Soviet Installation. The plant itself consists of several tendrils that besides the blossoms sprout green leaves. In smaller doses the pollen are mostly harmless, but in the cave that leads to the forest of the Wicked Vale they are cultivated by Baba Yaga and therefore the amount of pollen inhaled is much higher.

Trivia

 * The blossoms are similar in nature to the Blue Poppies from the movie Batman Begins, which are the key ingredient in the Fear Toxin manufactured by the movies incarnation of Dr. Johnathon Crane A.K.A. Scarecrow.