Luke Gearing
d12 Desert Plants & Miscellany
| d12 | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Flowering, fleshy, purple cacti. Tangled “blisters” of fat, short needles. | Delicious once needles are removed. |
| 2 | Narrow, tall cacti. Hair-like needles cause irritation. Ghost-white roots. | Bitter sap can be cooked, albeit unappetising. Makes decent herbivore bait. |
| 3 | Gnarled tree with thin, waxy, dark green leaves. Small red berries hide amongst the leaves. | Wood burns well. Berries are tasty, but picking a tree clear would feed one person. |
| 4 | Low, small leafy plant. Tongue-shaped leaves surround a central stem with a caustic-yellow flower. | Sap is fantastic protection against the sun. Can be dried into a glue. |
| 5 | Small, dense shrub. Fat leaves, slightly cupped. The branches within are thick with spiders. | Horses grazing on this have a 4-in-6 chance of a fatal spider-bite. |
| 6 | Brown-red leaves densely curl around spidery branches during the day. At night, they unfurl. | Can be smoked or brewed to alleviate pain. Smoking has mild hallucinogenic effects. |
| 7 | Low, creeping vines with heart-shaped leaves. The vines spread themselves wide. | Beneath the soil, a fat tuber with creamy, succulent flesh. |
| 8 | Long, hard dagger-like leaves defending a tall, mottled stalk topped by many smaller bell-shaped flowers of varying colour. Smells incredibly sweet. | Flowers are always full of burrowing bees. Their hive is never far. |
| 9 | Tall, thin tree with coiled funnel-leaves. Bark is incredibly thick. | Can be tapped for water, although this kills the tree. Bark floats and is easy to harvest. Burns poorly. |
| 10 | Human-height plant made almost entirely of needles. Limbs reach skyward like a man who has lost everything. The needles forming the trunk fuse together, the result something like wood. | If trunk fibres are separated and dried, can be woven in lightweight and durable material. |
| 11 | Squat tree with dark wood and leathery leaves. | Wood outputs incredible amounts of smoke if burnt. |
| 12 | Coiled, dense branches with inwards-facing thorns. Succulent fruit hidden amongst the coils. Decaying bats, birds and straggles of fur mark the plant, hiding small, globular leaves. | Fruit is incredibly nutritious. Acts as ready-made bait for patient hunters. |
Feral Horse Canyon
A feral horse lives here. A feral animal is not wild. It knows about people, and trusts them even less. There is a splinter of hate in the heart of a feral animal.
The horse is emaciated, and one eye has been put out. Flies do not touch it. It moves as little as possible, but will bite and kick any trying to touch it. In health, it was a giant.
It will scream if it hears people approaching, the noise echoing from the canyon walls.
It knows where the most vicious plants are, and will try and shove potential captors into them.
Cave System
Worming into the rock, polished smooth, strata exposed. Crystalline structures grow, breaking up the smoothness. If the rain comes, any within will be washed away and will never feel the sun again. In the upper levels, a series of holes have been bored into the walls. They correspond with the opposite wall, and are 2’ up. Spiders live in them now.
Cliff Dwellings I
A small doorway adjacent to windows, carved directly into the stone of the cliff-face. The shadowed space within is much cooler. Two rooms, one lit by the windows, the other engulfed in darkness. This second room is used as a den by a scarred puma. It returns as the sun falls, and will kill anyone invading it’s home.