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

Ⅰ

Bloodbrushes are animate plants most commonly found on the plains of Numeria.

Appearance

Bloodbrushes resemble dessicated thorny bushes, similar to a tumbleweed, that seem to be blown about by the wind but are actually rolling under its own power when it senses nearby movement, warmth, or moisture—and especially when it senses all three together.

Ecology

A 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, which germinate only 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 five pounds at most, can survive for only two weeks without feeding and rarely lives past six months after tearing free.

As a drug

Further information: Bloodbrush extract

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

As a hazard

Bloodbrushes are sometimes cultivated by Numerians using their enemies' shallowly buried corpses. 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 into 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.