Purple Prickle
Considered to be both boon and bane for those travelling the Dragon Wastes the Purple Prickles are predatory plants that are mostly found in the desert regions of the waste. The plant is named for the purple flowers that emerge on the thorny stems of the plant after it has drained a victim of vital fluids.
Prickles typically grow to be no more than a foot in height, and have small round leaves. The colour of the leavs varies from a light green to dark brown depending on whether the plant has been surviving on water or blood. When there is insufficient water or victims then the leaves turn a light brown and curl up.
Beneath the small stem is a large bulbous root in which the plant stores the fluids it has collected. The colour of the liquid can vary depending on where the plant has gotten the fluid, but the plant removes most dangerous contaminants as it extracts the fluids from the ground or victms. Simple filtering of the liquid is typically enough to make the liquid safe to drink, and only the most unprepared of travellers would venture into the wastes without a suitable filter.
Although the fluid is safe to drink, the flesh of the root is poisonous to most humanoid species, causing stomach craps, vomiting, or death depending on how much is consumed.
Narrow and tough roots extend out horizontally from the central fluid storing root. These narrow roots, more typically called tendrils can extend more than 120ft from the centre. Some of the roots reach downwards in search of water while others extend just below the surface. These near surface tendrils form a web around the plant with tiny hair like protrusions on the tendrils enabling the plant to pick up vibrations on the surface. Large or repeated vibrations cause the tendrils to erupt from the ground, trying to spear or entangle anything moving above them. Any creature ensnared by the tendrils is pulled underground where the tendrils drain all of the fluids from the creature's body. The size of the plant's web of tendrils increases as the plant agesbut sine the central stem doesn't increase much with age, it can be hard to predict how far the tendrils of a specific plant will reach.
The prickle produces small seeds that have fine brown hairs that can catch the wind. These seeds can be blown many miles by the strong winds which are common in the wastes. The seeds can also survive the sandstorms in the deserts which can take them even greater distances. The Raltelgi who live in the region are careful to remove any seeds they find in their settlements, with the chore of finding them usually assigned to children (along with the threat that if they miss any they will be the ones who have to remove the plant).
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