Fang-Blossom

Fang-Blossom

A few generations ago, a Dragon-Blooded sailor fancied a lovely species of flowering plant native to the West. Ignoring the islanders’ warnings, she uprooted the bulbs of these beautiful scandent vines and returned home to the Blessed Isle. The invasive species flourished there with alarming vitality. Emboldened by the Center’s rich soil, these fang-blossoms — as the Dynast eventually dubbed them — multiplied in droves: first one seedling from each plant, then five, then twenty, and eventually they overran the walls of her estate and germinated in the wild. The mystery of pets gone missing without explanation dogged the prefecture for months, but no one blamed the plants until the grisly devouring of a visiting foreign dignitary prompted a political feud that persists to this day.

The fang-blossom’s flowers are wide and circular, displaying a riot of dazzling colors. Each plant begins as a yellow-green root roughly the size of a watermelon, then develops a thick stem, countless tendrils, and large blooms. Curated, it maintains a reasonable size for a garden plant and limits its carnivorous tendencies to wild animals. Left to feed and sprout freely, fang-blossoms develop dozens of thick vines and can swallow an unfortunate passerby whole.

Essence: 2; Willpower: 5; Join Battle: 7 dice
Personal Motes: 60
Health Levels: −0/−1x4/−2x3/−4/Incap
Actions: Climb/Slither (vines only): 9 dice; Feats of Strength: 8 dice (vines only; may attempt Strength 5 feats); Senses: 5 dice; Disguise/Stealth: 7 dice (see Camouflage)
Resolve 4, Guile 4


COMBAT
Attack (Bite): 11 dice (Damage 12, minimum 3)
Attack (Vine grapple): 10 dice (12 dice to control)
Combat Movement: 8 dice (vines only)
Evasion 1, Parry 6
Soak/Hardness: 6/0


SPECIAL ABILITIES
Needle-Tooth Bite: A fang-blossom’s carnivorous maw opens to reveal rings of sharpened teeth while its mass of tendrils immobilizes its prey. When it deals 5+ damage with a withering bite attack, it may forgo receiving any Initiative to instead make a reflexive grapple gambit against that enemy, without an Initiative roll or cost. Each Initiative point it would have gained instead adds one die to the control roll.


MERITS
Camouflage: Whenever a fang-blossom’s maws are closed and it poses as an ordinary flowering plant, gain double 9s on Disguise/Stealth rolls.
Tendril-Sprouting Nightmare: Each fang-blossom has a core plant with bulb, stem, and one blossom maw to start with. The core has the traits listed above and is immobile. Its vines can slither out to short range and perform actions as noted above; each vine acts as a separate target with its own health track that can defend the core, and the plant cannot become Incapacitated until all of its vines have been severed by depleting their health tracks. Each vine has the same traits as the core plant except that it has five −0 health levels instead of the core’s track.

OFFENSE CHARMS
Swallow Whole (15m; Reflexive; Decisive-only; Instant; Essence 2): After dealing 3+ levels of damage to a grappled enemy with a decisive savage attack, the fang-blossom may swallow them alive as long as they’re within close range of a flower-maw. Within the plant’s stem, they contend with its digestive acids, an environmental hazard with damage 3L/round and difficulty 5. A swallowed enemy may attempt to cut their way free with a difficulty 5 gambit, but cannot otherwise attack it from inside without a relevant stunt. Even then, they contend with its full defenses. The fang-blossom may swallow a number of human-sized characters at a time equal to the number of flower-maws it has.

MISCELLANEOUS CHARMS
Infinite Reaching Vines (5m, 2i or 10m, 4i; Simple; Instant; Essence 1): For five motes and two Initiative, the plant sprouts an additional vine. For ten motes and four Initiative, the plant grows another flower-maw and becomes larger.

Storyteller Tactics
Fang-blossoms keep their maws closed and pretend to be unthreatening until prey approaches within reach of their tendrils. They attack by grappling victims and dragging them into their flower-maws, but a fang-blossom keeps two vines free to use Defend Other to protect the core unless it’s desperate. Assign a starting number of vines equal to twice the number of enemies present. Fang-blossoms sense weakness, targeting non-combatants first, then the target standing closest to a flower or wearing the least armor.