Vine horrors are malevolent plant creatures spawned at sea that drift ashore in search of fresh blood to sustain themselves.
A vine horror is a mass of ropy algae formed into a roughly humanoid shape. From a distance the creature can be mistaken for a human, but on closer inspection its entire body is made up of dripping green scum bound into vine-like bunches. Its facial features seem rough and half-formed. Though capable of speech, its voice changes pitch and tone seemingly at random.
Each vine horror is spawned in the open ocean by a sentient mass of seaweed known as a mother of all. Mothers of all care little for their young, and while many vine horrors remain within their mother’s domain to feed off her scraps, most drift on the waves until they come ashore, where they lurk in coastal swamps in search of prey. Vine horrors prefer to remain camouflaged until victims come along, when they animate vines to soften up their prey. Only when they feel they have the advantage to they enter melee personally. Vine horrors are cruel and brutal, playing with their victims before coming in for the kill.
Vine horrors are found in the same habitats as mothers of all, though their free-roaming natures allow them to range farther afield. Their numbers, as with their parent species, have increased markedly within the Swirling Sea in recent years for unknown reasons.
Shores of Swords 