Sword Grass

Sword grass grows in patches of 1-6 plants, each a fan of 1-8 enormous grasslike blades between 1 and 6 feet tall rising from one point. The true stalk sits a foot below the soil and is treated as 100% concealed from any attempt to destroy it short of excavation.

The plant does not strike; it simply cuts whatever pushes through it. Damage depends on blade height: 1-4 for 1-foot blades, 1-6 for 2-3 feet, 1-8 for 4-5 feet and 1-10 for 6 feet, attacking as a 1 HD monster. The tough, keen blades are AC 8 and have 1 hit point apiece, on top of the plant's own hit points, which equal its number of blades. Cutting off leaves never kills the plant. The body is AC 10, or AC 0 while buried.

Blunt and piercing weapons do nothing to it. Blades can be pulled up, but bare hands automatically take maximum damage. Burned blades regrow 6 inches a week.

Despite its name it is no grass but a relative of ferns and mushrooms, spreading by spores, with its blades sprouting from an underground rhizome. It is perennial: blades die back in cold weather while the root stalk sleeps until spring.

It usually feeds on small animals, drawing nourishment from their blood and rotting remains. People plant it in place of, or alongside, moats, and as defensive belts around farms and military camps.