Bramblelash
A bramblelash is a predatory plant resembling a mass of tangled, thorny tendrils coiled around a central vine.1
Ecology
Bramblelashes feed, indirectly, on the blood of living creatures, which they obtain by striking at passing creatures with their thorn-studded vines. Bramblelashes cannot directly consume this blood, which instead soaks into and fertilizes the ground where the plant is rooted. Other plants often take root in the fertilized soils around a bramblelash, resulting in a symbolic relationship as the lush growth attracts herbivorous animals that the bramblelash attacks, further fertilizing the soil the plants are rooted in. Other carnivorous plants sometimes take root near bramblelashes, such as assassin vines and tendriculoses. Xtabays never do so, however, as the bramblelashes' attacks inevitably wake the other plant's sleeping victims before they can be consumed.1
Bramblelashes are found primarily in thick, well-shaded temperate forests. They do poorly in tropical climates, as they quickly wilt in the heat, and their low tolerance for direct sunlight prevents them from colonizing open plains.1
Bramblelashes operate entirely by instinct rather than intelligence, perceiving the world through tremorsense and a rudimentary sense of smell and reflexively striking at any movement with their vines. As their attacks are done purely in response to sensory stimuli, bramblelashes will fruitlessly attack constructs or undead that enter their reach, even though these beings cannot provide them with blood. Instinct also dominates the bramblelashes' movement patterns: a bramblelash will leave its current area if food becomes scarce and simply follow the scent of blood until it finds its source, leading the plants to often root themselves in battlefields, near the lairs of predators, or even in sites where a murder was committed.1
Bramblelash seeds are contained with the plants' thorns, which become embedded in the hides or clothes of their targets. If these manage to flee, the thorns are carried with them and dropped far from their parent plant, until they eventually drop off and germinate.1
Variants
Tropical bramblelash
Plants strongly resembling bramblelashes, but smaller and provided with poisonous thorns, have been recorded in tropical forests in Sargava, the Shackles, Mediogalti Island, and coastal areas of the Mwangi Expanse. It is speculated that these descend from bramblelash seeds accidentally brought south by traders, which have since been forced to adapt to their new climate.1
Subterranean bramblelash
A subterranean variant also exists, which camouflages itself as a tangle of roots hanging from the ceiling of caverns or tunnels.1
Magic-fed bramblelash
In areas where magic infuses the soil, such as druidic circles, or tainted areas, such as the Worldwound or Tanglebriar, bramblelashes can grow to unusually large sizes.1
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 . “Bestiary” in Trail of the Hunted, 84–85. Paizo Inc., 2017