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* In ''[[Dream of the Red Chamber]]'', Precious Virtue's Cold Perfume Pill has a vast list of peculiar ingredients which are so rare they can only make a batch every twenty years or something.
* In the ''[[Enchanted Forest Chronicles]]'', Cimorene searches in vain for months to find some hen's teeth so that she can complete a spell to protect her against fire (she's employed by dragons). She eventually has to get them from a genie.
* A couple of books from ''[[Kushiel's Legacy]]'' use this trope; the end of the first series ('Kushiel's Avatar' I believe) has the bone-priests that {{spoiler|only get their power by sacrificing someone that they love. The Mharkagir tries this with Phedre but she kills him instead; [[Monty Python and Thethe Holy Grail|and there was much rejoicing.]]}}. 'Kushiel's Mercy' (end of the second series) has Carthage trying to take over Terre D'Ange with some pretty involved magic. The stone trapping the elemental has some pretty [[Nightmare Fuel|icky]] requirements ( {{spoiler|infanticide being the big one}}) and the needle that afflicts Imriel with madness (and thus saves him from the bigger spell the Carthaginians are casting) requires toad-bile, lunatic sweat and being left in the light of the full moon (and NOT being in any other light) for a full month. Wonder what the process was for finding all that out.
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "[[A Witch Shall Be Born]]" the title witch does not want this kind of magic.
{{quote|''I could never endure to seclude myself in a golden tower, and spend the long hours staring into a crystal globe, mumbling over incantations written on serpent's skin in the [[Blood Magic]] of [[Virgin Power|virgins]], poring over musty volumes in forgotten languages.''}}
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