seasong
First Post
Bestiary: Groundmouth
Note: An unmodified tendriculos from the Monster Manual.
The wilderness is about 90% unknown. When young fools hie off into the wood beyond the civilized vallies of Theralis to find some ancient ruin or another, they often don't return, and why they didn't return is rarely known to those who love them back home. The groundmouth is one of the reasons, although few know of it.... by its nature, it tends to leave few witnesses.
The groundmouth is a 4-6 ton colony plant of animate fibres up to twelve feet long. The individual fibres produce acids as they move, just like human muscles, but several times more potent, and particular groups of the fibres have evolved towards specific tasks, much like the organs of an animal.
The center-most fibres are acid resistant, and form a kind of stomach - it is here that the acids of movement are squirted, both to remove the toxic acids from the other fibres, and as a method of digesting prey. Most of the remainder of the fibres are more evolved for powerful movement, allowing the plant to move with sudden and terrifying force.
The end result, is a pair of powerful, woven vines that act like flexible arms, a large central mass, and an open maw that the vines toss prey into. The groundmouth lies mostly dormant for days, looking like a slight bulge in the ground surrounded by vines - when something steps on its fringes, the mouth opens and the vines whip into action to pull the prey into the mouth... which is rapidly filling with acid from the movement.
Although bludgeoning damage bruises and kills the individual tendrils, edged weapons and most forms of energy do little to harm the groundmouth, and it rapidly recovers from most non-bludgeoning damage.
The groundmouth is one of nature's worst trap predators hidden in the occasional journals of wilderness scouts.
Note: An unmodified tendriculos from the Monster Manual.
The wilderness is about 90% unknown. When young fools hie off into the wood beyond the civilized vallies of Theralis to find some ancient ruin or another, they often don't return, and why they didn't return is rarely known to those who love them back home. The groundmouth is one of the reasons, although few know of it.... by its nature, it tends to leave few witnesses.
The groundmouth is a 4-6 ton colony plant of animate fibres up to twelve feet long. The individual fibres produce acids as they move, just like human muscles, but several times more potent, and particular groups of the fibres have evolved towards specific tasks, much like the organs of an animal.
The center-most fibres are acid resistant, and form a kind of stomach - it is here that the acids of movement are squirted, both to remove the toxic acids from the other fibres, and as a method of digesting prey. Most of the remainder of the fibres are more evolved for powerful movement, allowing the plant to move with sudden and terrifying force.
The end result, is a pair of powerful, woven vines that act like flexible arms, a large central mass, and an open maw that the vines toss prey into. The groundmouth lies mostly dormant for days, looking like a slight bulge in the ground surrounded by vines - when something steps on its fringes, the mouth opens and the vines whip into action to pull the prey into the mouth... which is rapidly filling with acid from the movement.
Although bludgeoning damage bruises and kills the individual tendrils, edged weapons and most forms of energy do little to harm the groundmouth, and it rapidly recovers from most non-bludgeoning damage.
The groundmouth is one of nature's worst trap predators hidden in the occasional journals of wilderness scouts.
