Bloodbrush

Bloodbrush

(Creature)

Type

Plant

CR

2

Environment

Cold or temperate plains

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: Numeria, Land of Fallen Stars, pg(s). 47

Bloodbrush is an animate plant that is most commonly found on the plains of Numeria.

Appearance

Bloodbrush appears like a dried-out, thorny bush (similar to a tumbleweed) that is blown about by the wind, but actually rolls under its own power when it senses nearby movement, warmth, or moisture (especially when it senses all three together).

Ecology

The bloodbrush attacks by wrapping itself around living targets and delivering a powerful, hallucinogenic poison via its thorns that quickly incapacitates its prey. The thorns also release the plant's seeds that only germinate in dead flesh and grow to maturity in three months. The roots of the mature plant then break off and the newly independent plant rolls off in search of its next victim. Prior to breaking off, the immature bloodbrush is not animate and its thorns do not yet carry the characteristic toxin. The mature plant, which weighs only five pounds at most, can only survive for two weeks without feeding and rarely lives past six months after tearing free.

Use as a drug

Further information: Recreational drugs of Golarion

The people of Numeria harvest the thorns of immature bloodbrushes and brew them into a tea that has euphoric and fever-reducing qualities.

Use as a hazard

The bloodbrush is sometimes cultivated by the people of Numeria using the shallowly buried corpses of their enemies. They build wicker cages around them before the plant reaches maturity so that, once detached, they can transport the bush into battle or release it in enemy territory. Carrying and releasing bloodbrushes in this manner carries considerable danger to the transporter, as the mature bloodbrush quickly attacks its nearest target when freed from the cage.