Thornseeker

Thornseekers are a hostile plant creature within Ucril

## Description

Thornseekers are a plant that posseses minor intelligence and the ability to defend itself. Thornseekers themselves are carnivorous, and feed off of creatures attached to their bodies. Thornseekers resemble large red vines, sometimes as wide as some trees, with hard thorns protruding from their sides and a central "dagger" jutting from the end of the vine. They have deep roots within the rock or dirt they grow within. An adult thornseeker can grow to be as large as 20 feet long, but larger specimens of 40 feet have been rumored. The "dagger" thorn is a different color than the rest of the body, being a bone color, while the rest of the vine is a dark red-brown hue. Usually, the plant will burrow a portion of it's length flatly as to keep bodies situated on the thorns.

## Behavior

While thornseekers have baseline intelligence, and have hunting tactics, they are not smart enough to avoid simple deceptions. The creature's heat sense is not particular fine tuned, and it will attack the larger heat source. This can be used to lure it by strategically lighting torches. However, this can be dually useful, as thornseekers are naturally adverse to fire, and once burned, will retreat into the walls or ground which it grows from until the danger has passed.

It is generally advised to watch the ceilings when a thornseeker may be nearby, as it can easily get the jump on unwitting people and pick them off very quickly. When idle, a thornseeker will only protrude it's primary thorn out of it's burial hole.

## Combat

Thornseekers hunt by heat sense. When finding a suitable target, they will slowly creep to it before lunging out, attempting to impale it with the primary spike. If this is unsuccessful, it may resort to grappling. When the creature is in the clutches of a thornseeker, it will place it upon a thorn on it's body and suck nutrients from it. Creatures that are not outright dead by this stage may be attacked further until subdued.

This fate can be avoided by use of fire to scare it, or by luring it to false heat sources while making a quick escape.

## Ecology

Thornseekers will usually feast on bats if they are subterranain, with occasional larger beasts stumbling through for it to consume. Thornseekers close to the surface will usually prefer seeking land targets, and may fully extend themselves so they can strike from above. In both cases, Thornseekers will put their prey on a thorn to absorb nutirents. This consumes nutrients as needed, and releases a preserving serum to aid in preventing their meal from rotting. Thornseekers are suprisingly docile if their thorns are stocked full of creatures, and will not attack if unprovoked.

Most thornseekers live up to 4 years before dying off. A thornseeker will reproduce asexually by breaking off it's bodily thorns and sticking them into a surface to grow. This can produce up to 20 or 30 thornlings. During their first year of life, they are extremely vulnerable, and most die off my animals consuming them. It will reach full size by it's 2nd or 3rd year of growth.

Thornseekers are usually seen as pests more than anything else, but they can be harvested for their natural weaponry or preserving liquids.