Thornslinger

Thornslingers were a species of carnivorous plant that could be found in the Realms.

Description
A kind of small tree, these plants had spidery branches and a largely white hue, with pale-yellow blossoms. On average, they grew to a diameter of, but lay quite close to the ground. Their central stem, blossoms, and leaves were covered in a sap or honeydew with strong adhesive qualities, which kept their prey immobile. From their branches, they grew thorns a full foot (30 centimeters) in length in close clusters.

Behavior
These plants possessed no form of sentience.

Biology
Thornslingers were not particularly flammable plants and fires on them extinguished after several minutes.

Combat
Thornslingers were so named because they had a near-inexhaustible amount of thorns that they hurled in a spread pattern at living creatures. These thorns could typically reach targets as far away as. They launched so many that they were almost impossible to avoid; a victim could be strike by at least one, and up to eight. This was a defense mechanism. The plant was sensitive to sound; a loud shout could set off its thorns. One was observed to shiver before twitching a limb, flicking a dozen or so thorns powerful enough at least to pierce rusted armor and break old bones and bury their full length into flesh.

However, creatures that could get close and touched the plant became stuck to its adhesive, if they could not pull away. The thornslinger secreted digestive acids to consume the victim. The thorns also seemed to carry this acid as wounds made soon blackened and putrefied, and it was probably a good idea not to get any on one's skin.

Habitats
Thornslingers were very adaptable plants, able to thrive in a variety of terrain and climates. However, as their thorns were their only protection, they were typically encountered in remote or secluded places, such as pits or caves. They also were known to grow upon stone or brick walls.

In Faerun, they could be found growing in parts of Cormanthor, the Dalelands, Cormyr, and Sembia, such as in the Vast Swamp, and in much of the North.

In west Faerûn, thornslingers could be found in the central moors of High Moor, near the Misty Forest, and near the Serpent Hills. In south Faerûn, they grew in the Thornwood.

Outside of the Prime Material plane, thornslingers were quite common in the savannahs of Yeenoghu's realm in the Abyss.

Relationships
Thornslingers were a favored plant of the deity Sheela Peryroyl.

History
In the eastern stretches of Battledale, vegepygmies cultivated thornslingers as companions. As the plants reproduced at an unsustainable rate, the mold men buried the excess seeds in a nearby tract of shallow swampland. Some time in the 12 century DR, a small human village known as Lowdner annexed this swampland despite protests from the mold men. Lowdner's farmers filled the swampland with fresh earth to toil, which activated the dormant seedlings. Over the course of a few months the thornslingers grew across Lowdner, in their corn fields and along the stone walls of farm houses. With the plants replenishing their numbers faster than the farmers could remove them, Lowdner gradually fell apart.

A thornslinger growing in the northwestern fringe of the Vast Swamp near Ghars, Cormyr, was a local hazard in the mid–14 century DR. Guided by Darvik, Captain Flim, a pair of Purple Dragons, Jasper (servant), and Lindavar walked quietly by it on the way to Fastred's tomb on Eleint 18, the. On the way back with Grodoveth's body, one of the soldiers slipped and swore, loud enough to trigger the thornslinger, but the body received the thorn instead and he escaped. Darvik warned them to remove the thorn before the body dissolved. On Eleint 20, Benelaius and Jasper passed it again, and later used it to destroy the skeleton of Fastred pursuing them.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Murder in Cormyr