Flora and Fauna of Tourmalini'i

The Tviatini Jungle and the rivers, lakes and lands immediately surrounding them are home to all manner of creatures endemic to the region. While by no means close to a comprehensive list, included is a summary of several species of particular interest.

## Flora

Trees and vines, shrubs and fruits, the viridescent extent of the Tviatini Jungle cannot be overstated.

**Allamanda.** Carnivorous vines that lie in weight for their prey, Allamanda hunt beasts and humanoids alike by entangling them in place, before subduing them with poison-tipped barbs that line the inner surface of their vine-like tendrils.

**Amber Ivy.** Covered in a grainy wax-like residue, this pale orange climbing plant deters would-be grazers from eating its leaves by producing a mild poison capable of being distilled into a contact toxin with a short-lived sustained release.

**Azure Cocobolo.** A rare exotic hardwood native to the jungles, Azure Cocobolos possess a pearlescent blue-green outer bark and as such are very popular for decorative flourishes across the continent. Fatalities in harvesting Azure Cocobolo tree bark are not uncommon, given their frequent confusion with slumbering Tviatini Rotlumberers.

**Bronze Persimmon.** Bronze Persimmon trees are prized finds within Tviatini Jungles, and have since come to be cultivated elsewhere. Producing fleshy and sweet fruit protected by a hardskin with a near-metallic sheen, the timber of Bronze Persimmon trees is deeply pigmented and readily polishes to a fine finish.

**Cadadmaari Manchineel.** Capable of growing fifty feet tall, the Cadadmaari Manchineel produces small green-yellow fruits similar in appearance to apples. However, the fruits, along with the entirety of the tree are rich in poisonous compounds. When correctly prepared, arcane focuses made of Cadadmaari Manchineel can bolster a spellcaster's ability to use spells that inflict acid and poison damage.

**Calacaza Bush.** Found a few feet above the jungle floor with bushes clawing at the trunk of a large tree, Calacaza bushes produce attractive-looking berries dripping with a syrupy juice. When consumed in small quantities, akin to a fraction of a single berry, muscle relaxation can be brought about for sake of managing tremors or easing healing procedures. Increased dosage can instead cause sustained paralysis, carrying with it the risk of subsequent asphyxiation.

**Cinnamon Tree.** Outwardly unassuming, it is for its inner bark that the cinnamon tree is most famed, the primary source of the spice of the same name. Harvesting is achieved by stripping the core of the tree away into long rolls that are subsequently dried in well-ventilated woven baskets sustained by the ambient warmth of the forest. Different grades of cinnamon are known to exist and is sold throughout the continent as both woody quills and ground into a fine aromatic powder.

**Chayote.** Used as a vector for many dishes in Tourmalini'i, owing to its abundance, ease of cooking and generally mild flavour, chayote is a staple crop similar in appearance and texture to that of a summer squash. While the large green fruit is most commonly used, its leaves, roots and seeds are also edible.

**Daze Blossoms.** A broad mauve-black petalled flower, Daze Blossoms often grow in large groves heady with the soporific pollen that stuns any creature unfortunate to take too deep a breath in their vicinity. Once incapacitated, Daze Blossoms use their tendril-like roots to draw in their prey, before consuming its catch with a ravenous pace.

**Elper Wenge.** When several Elper Wenge grow in close proximity, they may create a region of psychic resonance capable of awakening the nearby animal life, causing spontaneous nosebleeds in those passing close and elucidating trivial memories in those attempting to recall information. Elper Wenge can be used as a spellcasting focus that refines a spellcaster's ability to use spells that inflict psychic damage.

**Kava.** Most famous for his anxiolytic properties, Kava is a broad-leaved shrub found in the understorey of the jungle. Bitter and peppery, once ground its root can be brewed into a mollifying tea that can reduce a creature's perception of chronic pain, as well as possessing potent calming properties. Kava is the primary ingredient used in the poison known as Dawn Matron's Embrace, used to ease the passing of the mortally wounded and infirm.

**Night Lotus.** Standing in contrast to Kava is the Night Lotus, an incredibly rare bloom infamous for its use in creating Night Lotus Extract, a staggeringly lethal poison near-impossible to produce.  Each Night Lotus plant produces a single flower that lasts but a day before shrivelling to ash, making their harvest likewise forlorn.

**Pausare Leaf.** Following removal of the small needle-like barbs from the stems of the Pausare Shrub, the dried leaves of the plant can be brewed and steeped into a drink that must then be chilled rapidly to prevent degradation of its active ingredients.  When consumed as part of a long rest, Pausare Leaf Tea helps the body recover from sustained strenuous activity, reducing exhaustion by two levels in place of the standard one.

**Purple Apricot.** Roughly half the size of the similarly-hued plum to which it is related, once harvested from the narrow branches of their tree, the fleshy drupes of mauve can be enjoyed raw, yielding a large hard-coated seed contained within the easily-bruised brown flesh within. Naturally both sweet and tart, the fruit contains many of the substrates and compounds commonly used in potions of healing.

**Smooth-leaf Vanilla.** Another coveted spice for use in culinary pursuits, perfumery and aromatherapy, Smooth-leaf Vanilla is an orchid that yields a large black fruit pod that can be used fresh, or more commonly as a distilled extract.

**Troto.** Known sometimes as simply redroot, Troto is a burgundy-red tuber most commonly ground into a protein rich flour for use in baking, though sometimes the leaves and stalks are also consumed.

## Fauna

In a region of lush vibrancy, beasts grow larger than elsewhere, and possess all manner of curious adaptations to aid their survival.

**Blight Bat.** Brightly coloured scales and fur often denote the poisonous or venomous nature of a beast, for both are common amongst the residents of the Tviatini Jungle. Only the latter can be considered true of the blight bat, whose subdued black and amber colouration does little to warn of its bite of venomous barbs and nocuous tail stinger.

**Briarhob.** Technically a naturalised form of fey, Briarhobs are tiny simian-like creatures that appear similar to that of a thorny bush, complete with gnarled bark-like skin and leaf-like hair. Hiding away in camouflaged colonies buried in the soil around the roots of exotic hardwoods, they are known to emerge come nightfall in groups of a dozen or more to pick through the belongings of any making camp near their dens.

**Bristlefish.** Capable of expanding their size dramatically when threatened, bristlefish are shunned by all but the largest of predators. Shimmersharks have learned to bite the squat head of the pricklefish to stun it before it can inflate by drawing in water through its gills and mouth, allowing them to consume the fat-rich flesh in relative ease.

**Cloakweb Spider.** Creators of webs that glimmer like spun bronze, cloakweb spiders are highly sought after, their silk collected to craft enchanted capes of great renown. The work is highly time consuming, for the spiders can only spin so much silk, but the end result is considered to outweigh the production cost.

**Cockle Stalker.** Cockle Stalkers are a common sight along the edge of Tvia Bay, particularly so through the delta of the River Tvia, where they pick through the silt hunting for bivalves, gastropods and small crustaceans. Using a pointed yellow beak, they pry open the shells of their prey, feasting readily during periods of low tide.

**Cogendile.** Native to the River Lucent, but found throughout the Tviatini Jungle in small clusters, the Cogendile is a crocodilian predator that possesses a near translucent body - scale, muscle and internal organs alike. Unparalleled ambush hunters, the largest specimens caught by explorers have measured over fifteen feet from tail to snout.

**Dragoneater Spider.** The eggs and wyrmlings of green dragons are the preferred prey of Dragoneater Spiders, which possess a thick chitinous hide that protects them from the poison breath wielded by their quarry. Seeking out the roosts, dens and hoards in isolated locales, Dragoneater Spiders are capable of going into a state of suspended animation, slowing their internal processes to aid them in evading detection by the creatures watching over a clutch of eggs, descending only when their prize seems certain.

**False Orchid.** Taking the appearance of an orchid blooming on the branch of an ancient tree, the False Orchid is in truth a monstrosity similar in lineage to that of the infamous mimic, albeit confined to a singular form. Producing a sweet scent, False Orchids attract insects, birds, lizards and frogs alike, before trapping them in an adhesive resin ready for digestion.

**Frilled Pseudodragon.** Similar in size and outward appearance to their non-frilled kin, this subspecies of pseudodragons had a less powerful stinger, preferring instead to intimidate would-be threats with a ring-shaped fan-like set of crests that could stretched wide to give the appearance of a larger foe. Subsequently, they are known to be more aggressive than typically shy pseudodragons, but nonetheless curious.

**Gold-bellied River Dolphin.** Inquisitive and playful, Gold-bellied River Dolphins are highly manoeuvrable pack hunters found in the River Tvia, River Lucent and Creeping Creek. Adapted for freshwater living in contrast to their sea-going cousins, Gold-bellied River Dolphins use echolocation to detect their prey, the clicks, calls and whistles audible from the banks during their coordinated hunts which often take place alongside giant otters and other social species.

**Kittigriff.** While not endemic to the Tviatini jungle, Kittigriffs have flourished in the region, hunting in packs to bring down prey far larger than their individual size. Parrogriffs are known to be particularly hostile towards Kittigriffs, and so the canopy often echoes with the shrieks and screeches of their conflicts.

**Lobster Eel.** Possessing a pair of outgrowths on either side of its mandible that give the eel's head the appearance of two claws, the lobster eel is an ambush hunter found in the coral reef shallows on the region. Zoologists have proposed that by hiding the majority of its length amongst the porous stone base of the reef, the eel may attempt to imitate a hapless lobster caught astray, lulling patrolling shoals into a sense of false safety.

**Leopard Leech.** Spawning shortly after the transition of Whiterose into Greencrown brings torrential rain storms across the region of Tourmalini'i, Leopard Leeches are capable of growing two foot in length, sporting a dappled coat akin to that of the feline for which it is named. In a single feeding, they are consuming up to three pints of blood, increasing in weight over six times throughout.

**Mockaw.** Vibrant in colouration, several subspecies of mockaws exist, each with a distinct arrangement of hues. Regardless of colour however, Mockaws are all capable at mimicking the sounds of their surroundings, whether natural or artificial. Inscrutable tricksters, mockaws seem to use this talent to beguile other residents of the forest, leading them astray without seemed purpose, leading many to speculate that they may have been originally created by an Archfey and loosed onto the Material Plane to multiply.

**Parrogriff.** When viewed from a distance, one would be excused in failing to spy the difference between a conventional griffin and a parrogriff. However, those filled with folly enough to trespass in their fiercely defended territories would instead find themselves accosted by a cross between a parrot and a jaguar in place of an eagle and lion.

**Shimmershark.** Covered in a sheen of glimmering lustrous fine scales, Shimmersharks prowl close to the surface within their hunting grounds in Tvia Bay, Petal Bay and beyond. When giving chase to their prey, they use their scales to stun their quarry by dazzling them with the light reflected from their form for the few moments necessary to secure the catch.

**Shimmer Beast.** Most frequently compared to that of the much-maligned Displacer Beast, Shimmer Beasts are slender vulpine creatures most notable for their trailing mirror-like tails that they use effectively as both a weapon and a precursor to courtship. Graceful but skittish, they are most commonly found in areas where fey energy resides upon the Material Plane.

**Silvertongue Viper.** Named for the eye-catching colouration of its tongue, which flickers from a pair of black lips to taste the air, the Silvertongue Viper is often found in the low-hanging branches of hardwood trees hunting birds and bats. Some individuals of particular fealty towards Ilemer hold the Silvertongue Viper in a manner of reverence, believing them to be messengers from their god, tasked with lesser purposes than those of laden upon the couatls.

**Tviatini Basilisk.** The scourge of fishermen and freedivers alike, Tviatini Basilisks are large serpent-like monstrosities that were once native to Tvia Bay, but have since spread across much of the continent. The mucous excreted by Tviatini Basilisks causes petrification to those inadequately protected from their effects, but careful distillation of the secretions can be used to stall the ageing and degradation of flesh, with full submersion bringing about an inert stasis for days, months and years.

**Tviatini Rotlumberer.** Prospectors first encountered Rotlumberers in the early days of exploration into the Tviatini Jungles, noting infrequently the trunks of trees with pearlescent blue bark fallen in the undergrowth of the forest. To their surprise and horror, such discoveries were that of the Tviatini Roblumberer, a gargantuan centipedal creature with a pointed stinger capable of liquifying the internal structure of those unlucky to be targeted by its barb.

**Tvivalki.** Arguably most enigmatic of the resident fauna of the Tviatini Jungle, the Tvivalki are a species of bipedal insectoid creatures in possession of scythe-like wings, a banded green-brown chitinous carapace and narrow compound eyes. Fierce hunters, Tvivalki have never once been observed consuming their kill, throwing further uncertainty into the nature of their biological processes.

**Wasptail Piranha.** While many piranhas are feared for their vicious heavy-set jaws filled with gnashing teeth, wasptail piranhas also have a pair of narrow barbs that trail from the tips of their caudal fin, each capable of delivering a paralysing sting to their prey. While the venom dispatched in a single strike is too weak to affect most humanoid creatures, a swarm of wasptail piranhas are capable of overwhelming a creature several times their size.

**Winestain Gnat.** Named the red and blotchy rash that develops following the bite of this pest insect, Winestain gnats swarm over areas of stagnant water, overripe fruit and livestock pens, and are capable of spreading a number of tropical diseases.