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Spider's Tears

by Xarak

"You cross me again, and you're gonna wake up with a spider's tear in your bed. You get me?"
- Glass Teeth, Nexus mobster

"Aargh! It's a snake! Oh no, don't worry, it's just a plant."
- Last words of an unknown traveller

There are many dangers in the Stone Pine Marsh, but few of them are as insidious as this malevolent flora. Native to the deep forests of the East, it's not entirely clear how it found its way to Nexus, but it seems to have no problem thriving in its new habitat.

It's a very pretty plant, consisting of long, slightly translucent white runners, about an inch across, which branch into many smaller shoots, ultimately branching down to almost-invisible, hairlike strands. A single specimen may measure up to ten meters across, and seen from above, it appears a little like a spider-web; hence the name. Its true beauty is only seen at night, as it glows with a pale blue phosphorescence that shimmers and flickers in a hypnotic manner. This strange light show has the power to attract mice and other small animals, which are then preyed upon by the vine.

Any creature unlucky enough to come into contact with the plant will find itself held in place as the smaller shoots burrow into its skin. This ordeal is quickly cut short by the injection of a powerful poison which kills the animal, leaving it to decompose and provide nutrients to the growing vine. However, the toxin is not powerful enough to do anything more than paralyze a human, meaning that becoming entangled in one of these plants is a terrible fate indeed.

Once a patch has grown big enough, it sheds some of its runners, which can then move along the ground in a snake-like fashion until they reach a suitable spot where they settle down and grow another plant. If this migrating runner brushes up against warm flesh, it is apt to wrap around it and begin to subdue it right there. Many sleeping travelers have woken in the middle of the night, already securely tied up in a barbed net which would become their burial veil...

Rumours

• Delos Ferrano had a cutting of Spider's Tears transplanted to his personal garden in Bastion. After realizing how aggressive it was, he got rid of it, because he didn't want it to eat his cat. He threw it away into the marsh, where it took root, and that's how it all started...
• Some of the more heartless criminals around Nexus have taken to using pieces of this plant as a torture mechanism.

Secret

• Very small doses of the poison from this plant are a wonderful cure for epilepsy and many other diseases. Very high doses produce a comatose state very hard to distinguish from death, but which will lift within a few days with no ill effects.

Comments

Xarak ya need to sign in on prefences. >_< very confusing for me when I can't tell who writing stuff on recent changes - Paladinltd

Gah! Keep forgetting that one. Sorry. -- Xarak

It's cool. I just confuse easily - Paladinltd