Moonflower
From PathfinderWiki
| Moonflower | |
|---|---|
| |
| (Creature) | |
| Type | Plant |
| CR | 8 |
| Environment | Any land |
| Alignment | |
| Source: Bestiary 2, pg(s). 192 | |
Moonflowers are carnivorous plants with rudimentary intelligence from beyond the sphere of Golarion. Flesh-hungry and dangerous, these foul plants pose a danger to anyone who comes near them.[1]
Appearance
Moonflowers normally stretch to over twenty feet tall and can reach four feet in diameter. The plants that fuel moonflowers' inter-planetary reproduction cycles are even larger, sometimes reaching heights as tall as a castle turret, though these plants are rare. A moonflower resembles a huge, vine-like tendril covered in alien flowers and strange, light-exuding nodules. Atop this central vine is a clam-like, bulbous growth which function as the moonflower's mouth. Beneath a moonflower's central stem stretches a network of roots seemingly dug into the ground but which are actually remarkably agile and allow the moonflower to move at walking speed.[1]
Habitat & Ecology
Moonflowers can be found nearly anywhere that there is food, as they are incredibly hardy plants. They can travel vast distances across entire continents, obstructed only by large bodies of water, as moonflowers breathe through their root system. When moonflowers do travel it tends to be in vast herds, moving like some natural disaster across the land and eating anyone in their path. Luckily these herds are rare, as most prey creatures recognize the moonflower's alien nature and flee from them, depriving them of their terrestrial method of reproduction. The first moonflower was found generations ago in the land of Numeria.[1]
One of the most interesting parts of a moonflower's ecology is its bizarre method of reproduction. Normal moonflowers live for less than a month so they do not have time for complex pollination and seeds, instead they reproduce by consuming living creatures and using their remains to spawn more moonflowers. Despite their above animal intelligence moonflowers are driven by instinct to consume and reproduce as often as possible as only one in every hundred moonflowers are capable of the inter-planetary reproduction the moonflowers use to survive. These rare creatures grow to truly huge sizes reaching the proportions of castle towers, can live for decades and are able to scatter the moonflower seed-pods into outer space furthering the reach of the moonflower species.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Mike McArtor. (2008). Children of the Void.Children of the Void, p. 82-83. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-127-5
