[Ecosystem Lore] - The Plains

[squakhawk 7300]

 

The Plains

Lush, cool, and ever-green, the plains are a sparse, yet welcoming region. Embodied by vast swathes of verdant, flat earth, the soil here is rich and fertile, teeming with life. Abundant in flora and fauna of all varieties, it is a welcoming sight to the weary traveller, and many often come here in hopes of starting a life within its heartening embrace. It is the safest of biomes, owned by timid and often gentle creatures, as well as a hospitable and mild climate.

Flora

The rich and luscious soil of the planes makes it ideal for housing a variety of flora, from the common daffodil to potent medical herbs such as Tippen’s Root. Even a novice botanist is sure to find an abundance of flora amidst the soft earth of these grasslands.

Ant’s Blight
Tippen’s Root

Serpent’s Stalk

Coltsfoot

Draugr Tounge

King’s Ivy

Aquate Root

Sativnubobo

Chime Lily

Diddyfunkle

 

Fauna

Teeming with life and creatures of all shapes and sizes, the plains are often a welcoming and safe place to call home. Although populated by sheep, wild cattle, and other such mundane creatures, there are still some unique beasts which inhabit these fields.

 

 

---

 

Trolls

Physiology

Trolls are often seen as colossal and gruesome, having bulbous noses, ears that stick out, crooked teeth, and bushy eyebrows. They can tower up to sixteen feet tall, and the smallest recorded yet have been somewhere around twelve feet. Though they are more fat than bulky, their strength rivals that of an olog and can even exceed it, capable of crushing children or halflings beneath its feet. However, in exchange for this size they are slow. Additionally, trolls have tough hide that assumes shades of green, brown, and pale colors of grey, often covered in moss and dirt. The greatest weakness of the troll is daylight, which will petrify them should they stay outside, encouraging them to seek shade during the daytime.

Habitat

Trolls roam a variety of biomes. They can be found in open plains, dense forests, and even deep in caves. They often make their homes in mud or under shade, leaving heavy footprints in the soft ground around the region as a sign of their patrol.

Behavior

Despite their strength, trolls are incredibly stupid. They gather in groups of one to three, though any more than this would often result in a brawl. Trolls get into argument over the smallest things, from the color of the sky to their share of prey. They are quick to anger and will be thrown into a rage should their territory be intruded upon. However, though unintelligent, trolls do attempt to “tidy” up their dens, evidently to little success. Female trolls are even rumored to splash mud across their faces as a crude form of “makeup”. During the day, they often retreat to their dens in the shade and sleep to avoid the light of the sun.

Abilities

Paired with their strength, trolls have thick and leathery skin, making it difficult for arrows and small projectiles to penetrate. Regular swords of iron durability and stronger can typically pierce the hide. Trolls can create crude weapons such as clubs from fallen logs, use rocks as basic tools, etc., and may even attempt to fashion crude “clothing”, seldom more than basic undergarments from poorly tied deer and animal hides.

Redlines

- Trolls are stupid and cannot learn to operate any complex machinery (i.e. a crossbow). They are limited to basic weapons such as clubs and rocks.

- Trolls can communicate but do so very poorly, mixing basic common, if any, with grunts and jumbled speech. Most trolls do not know how to do more than grumble.

- A troll’s hide will at most protect them from basic arrows. Magic, fire, and iron weaponry or stronger would easily be capable of piercing it.

- Trolls are slow in both movement and attack. Though their hits are heavy, an agile and aware individual could easily evade a troll's attack.

- Trolls are not at all gentle and attempting to perform any delicate task will frustrate them.

- Trolls are not peaceful creatures and the slightest thing perceived as a threat to their ego or territory will cause them to defend it viciously. They cannot be reasoned with.

- Trolls will turn to stone should they come into contact with broad daylight.

 

 

 

Prairie Dulk

Physiology

The Prairie Dulk is a massive beast, similar to that of a rhinoceros, having a single massive horn with two smaller ones above it. Their hide is thick and rough, heavy with fur that provides both warmth and camouflage, able to withstand harsh dramatic weather shifts and requiring a strong steel edge pierce. The underbelly of the dulk is relatively unprotected however, making it the optimal region to target. Though heavy, the Prairie Dulk is shockingly fast and engaging the beast directly will often result in one being gored by its massive horn.

Habitat

Most of the year the Prairie Dulk will sulk about in the grasslands and prairies. During winter however they usually search for a cave to take up shelter in with its herd. Most adventurers are lucky enough to both find a dulk cave and not to have awoken, or enraged, the beasts.

Behavior

Prairie Dulk often travel in herds of three to fifteen, often accompanied by a small handful of infant dulk. Generally they are docile when with one another, though are incredibly territorial and protective of their young. Though the young are far easier to lure away and kill, a Prairie Dulk who catches wind of this will quickly alert the others and potentially cause a stampede. They are not particularly intelligent and are more alike to buffalo, making it wise to lure away one of the Dulk from the herd and kill it away from the others.

Abilities

The Dulk is limited mostly to its brute strength paired with its sharp and massive horn. The horn is strong enough to smash iron and dent steel, able to throw even a fully armored victim up to twenty feet away, assuming they were not simply impaled.

Redlines

- The Dulk runs at a speed of about six meters per emote, able to trample or impale those standing directly in its way. Should it miss, it would need to take time to slow itself down and reorient towards the target, assuming it didn't run into something else.

- If harvested, a Dulk’s horn is no stronger than that of a regular steel blade.

- Dulk are very territorial and can easily be jumped by the smallest thing. They will be passive so long as they are not aware of the hunter(s) presence.

- Dulk cannot be controlled through druidic communion save for in events with ST approval.

 

 

 

 

 

Giant Plains Bagworm Beetle

 

 

Physiology

 

The Giant Plains Bagworm Beetle is a bizarre creature, despite the name, and appearances the Giant Plains Bagworm Beetle is neither a bagworm, nor a beetle. In truth being a massive hermaphroditic isopod with bizarre tendencies. Bearing blue-green striped overlapping chitin plates, and 6 large legs for locomotion,wide yellow compound eyes, 2 stubby antennae, and a small chitinous mouth, they would appear to be a large rounded beetle creature.

 However, the Bagworm Beetle is able to unfold and elongate itself, each of its plates folding off of eachother, and stretching to bearing a appearance reminiscent of an spikey inchworm, with two legs at its front near its head, and the other 4 near its backside, with a long stretch of dark greenish blue flesh between such. Along this bridge of flesh is revealed 8 additional segmented legs along its body, which it uses to pick up various brush, sticks, and logs, and place it onto its back of chitin plates, standardly using its sticky saliva as a form of glue.

When folded, the Bagworm Beetle measures roughly 1-2 meters tall as an adult, 1-2 meters wide, and 2-4 meters long, though in truth, able to elongate themselves to a terrifying 12 meters long at maximum. They’re born in eggs kept in the heap of material kept on the isopod’s back, and hatch into small white larva, which feed on the stuffs kept on the creature’s back for a month, before metamorphosing into a small bagworm beetle after 2 months of gestation in their pupae.

The Bagworm Beetle is a herbivorous grazer, eating most grass, plants, flowers, and even moss. However, any sticks, logs, or sufficiently thin and light rocks, it will pick up, and place onto its back. Created with surprising skill, bagworm beetles will erect small, vaguely pyramidical towers of collected stuff, many times double the size of the beetle itself, which it carries along with little issue. In the winter, they will drop their self made structures, and create new ones in the spring.

 

The plates of the bagworm beetle are comprised of hundreds of overlapping keratin like strands, and though are notably brittle to most descendant weapons, they’re suitable to fight off attacks from nearly any large predator.

 

Habitat

 

Giant Plains Bagworm Beetles may be found grazing in large grassy plains in the summer, fall, and winter, though in spring times, they can most commonly be found patrolling the edge of forests, looking for fallen trees and various rubble to add to the heaps on their backs. Though by no means a herd animal, it is not uncommon to see a small pack of 5-7 individuals grouped up near a recently fallen tree, chewing it apart and placing the pieces on their backs.

 

Behavior

 

Despite their prodigious size, and propensity to build small heaps on their back, bagworm beetles are exceedingly stupid. Their immense size and strong chitinous shells make them completely ignorant to predators. Pushing one about will simply cause the creature to follow the momentum, meaning one could redirect the creatures with extreme ease. Dumb and with no prey instinct, it is not uncommon for someone to rangle one with a lasso, and attempt to tame it. While the creature shall by no means fight off such attempts, their idiot mind grants them no ability to acclimate or familiarize themself with somebody, hence they will never be truly ‘tamed’. Though suitable as a slow beast of burden, they must always be tied down or led by rope, lest they wander off to eat or gather brush for its heap.

Though they may be harnessed onto a cart, or have things laid upon their back, and removed with little issue, should they be left alone for too long, they will tend to seek out various rubble and wood, and begin attaching it to their back- many times ATOP any harness, packs, or hitching on it at the time.

Recently pupated beetles will remain with the parent which held them, and wander off after a year or so.

Uniquely, a bagworm beetle will never unfold itself whilst viewed by anyone, meaning one may look at a bagworm beetle, turn away for a minute, and than view it again, to find it has placed a half dozen logs upon its back with no clear means for it to have done such.

 

Abilities

 

Bagworm beetles are prodigious in size and strength, and are capable of carrying multiple tons on their back, and their structures are made with surprising skill. Their glue-like saliva hardens in half a minute, and their chitin, while not hardy to descendant attacks, is more than suitable for the isopod’s purposes.

 

Redlines

-Bagworm beetles are not hostile, though not particularly amicable either. One can be ‘caught’ with little issue, and RP’d by players as a slow beast of burden with no ST oversight, though little more.
-Bagworm beetles will pick up nearly any object, and though they wont react much to the towers upon their back being toppled, rarely will anything of value will be found.
-The chitin of the bagworm beetle is not notably hardy, being roughly equivalent to a thick baked clay, though may be extracted from a dead bagworm beetle for use in crafts.

-The Bagworm Beetle must be pulled or pushed (whether gentle or firmly) to be directed, whether from a rope or a hitch, and cannot be guided with a ‘carrot on a stick’ or similar apparati.

The Bagworm Beetle, though it can be communicated with Druidic Communion, is admittedly too stupid to process most requests.

[Royal Peasant 444]

Bagworm beetles must be protected.