Ruddy Spire
Ruddy Spire is a type of sprawler fungus which relies on Glow Rain to germinate and spread across Jhoutai. It is infamous for tinging glow clouds red, and for its rapid and deadly growth.
If the sky be blue,
then onward with you;
If the sky be red,
you best hide or you're dead.
Taxonomy
Spread
Released by Sunbursts and electrical storms, the spores of the Ruddy Spire are swept up into the cloud layer, where they consume the spores of other sprawlers and germinate, taking on a red glow.
Wherever these glowing seedlings land, they rapidly grow up to 6 inches in the first hour. This isn't dangerous to the prepared, but if you are caught in a storm of it, the liklihood of survival is low.
Once settled, the Ruddy Spire grows slowly again, usually feeding on whatever poor creature it originally killed on arrival. It grows 1-2 meter stalks covered in spores, and waits for the next Sunburst.
If these spores are rained on by blue rain, they will burst open and activate once more, splashing the area on Ruddy Spire spores.
Nice proverb. Echoes of "red and yellow kill a fellow" or however that one goes. I'm just curious at what happens when one falls on top of your head. do you just have a spore spire growing off of it now? And, should you be caught in a red storm, would an umbrella and a tendency to stay still usually be enough? I do imagine that the umbrella would get uncharacteristically heavy after a while..
Yeah, if you're not quick about rinsing your head off then you might just end up with a skull full of spire, which can be a rather painful way to go! Thankfully, an umbrella and some other similar adaptations are usually enough, since once it lands on the umbrella there's not much to feed on and it slides off onto the ground. You just want to avoid letting the seedling stick to anything long enough to sink in roots!