Rock Cactus

A squat ball roughly a foot across, the rock cactus passes easily for a stone. It is brown, darkening toward black as it stores more water. In spring and summer it opens a vivid yellow flower that wilts within hours.

It waits until prey is a few feet off, then shoots out 2-5 spines, each dealing 1-3 points of damage on a hit. A natural 19 or 20 impales for double damage. Spines that fail to impale are pulled back and fired again next round. An impaling spine reels the plant onto its victim, where it drinks 1 hp of moisture per round, to a maximum of 12 hp, until pried off; while feeding it makes no other attacks. Its camouflage grants +3 to surprise in the first round.

The cactus wants only food. If it latches onto something over four times its own size, it usually drops away, and it fights on only in self-defense.

Clumps of up to 10 grow along game trails. Rooted in place, they claim no territory. A scent demihumans cannot smell draws rodents and other small mammals, and insects handle their pollination. City-state gardeners have transplanted them successfully to keep rats down.

The rock cactus sits atop the plant food chain and midway on the animal one. Peeled, it yields 1 pound of crisp flesh with the taste and texture of apple, and a big one holds up to 4 pints of liquid. Farmers harvest it by waving a straw-stuffed sack until it strikes, then cutting the extended spines before they retract, leaving it helpless. A live plant for a garden sells for 5 cp; a pound of flesh brings 1-2 cp depending on the market.

About one rock cactus in 500 is a 3+3 HD bloodsucker identical to the rest in appearance. It never lets go, whatever the victim's size, until it is full or every spine is cut. Each attached tendril drains 1 hp of blood per round, and the plant swells to hold up to 100 hp worth, roughly 10 pints. Spines snapped off in a victim slowly migrate through the body until one pierces a vital organ, causing an agonizing death, unless they are cut out quickly or removed with cure disease. This variant is worthless in gardens and markets.