underdark-biota

[underdark-biota]

Ajzjami

The Ajzjami is a thistle-like plant, preferring to grow in dry and warm areas, sprouting sharp little prickles from it's greyed leaves that easily meld into the nearby stone or earth. Coated in a light poison, touching or being scratched by the prickles can cause anything from thinning blood to dizziness that can result in the loss of conscious, to incredible itches on the skin. It likely does so in an attempt to keep predators away. The amount of prickles covering the plant seems relative to it's moisture intake, increasing the dryer it's surroundings are. If a creature were to lose conscious near a Ajzjami it might lose moisture, which the plant could use to keep itself alive. A great herb to help thin blood, and a common medicine for problems with the heart.

[underdark-biota]

Weeping Spider Aloe

The Weeping Spider Aloe, or simply Weeping Aloe is a succulent plant often growing in warm and dry areas, yet despite that it is a very moisture hungry plant that will take all the time it requires to grow and wait for sources of water to continue to grow. Visually very similar to the average Aloe Vera, it has developed rigid dark strains growing in strange patterns all over it's surface, stabilizing it's much harder and thicker skin. A plant that generates a lot of oxygen, a rarity within the underdark, as such the air around larger groups of weeping aloe can feel especially refreshing. Areas without can be hard/harder to breathe in without many other plants. Attributing it's name to a multitude of small spider species, which apparently bore their way into the gel-like inside to cool themselves off or as ways to clean themselves, of dirty substances or even other poison or ailments. Emerging completely soaked, little drops crawling down their body, the drow say it is as if the emerging spiders are weeping. Sharing many similarities to our familiar Aloe growing on the surface, it might have even been a plant that never existed in the underdark prior to drow starting to cultivate it underground for it's helpful properties against burns, especially those of sun light. Not as harmful to drow as it is to vampires, yet something that can severely damage them if exposed to it for too long. Female drow apparently have come to use it as a cosmetic to tend to their skin and hair, and it has long since become a symbol of purity, to be used for cleansing within rituals or similar events.

[underdark-biota]

Liu'shi

Similar to the Tai'shi, Liu'shi was a grass that would appear as a short stem, from which multiple smaller leaves could grow from, these brown leaves would look like hands with six equal fingers, half their tip would have a brighter coloration than the rest. Their differing coloration is a likely result of the sedative they contain, which could already be attracted through touch. This sedative was of weak effect to most humanoids, but could be concentrated if extracted and used either to pacify enemies or in smaller quantities as a relaxing drug. The leaves would also commonly be cooked, to be rid of any poison, and used to wrap small amounts of food to make for more eye-catching plating.

[underdark-biota]

Tai'shi

Tai'shi was grass with a little stem that would grow in dry and faerzress rich areas, from which green leaves grew, that would turn white with black accents over time. Extracting the plants sap, it could be used for various alchemical tinctures, and was most common in enhancing mental clarity and preventing confusion of the mind.

[underdark-biota]

Yaoji Dodder

Areas with abundant growth of any kind, be it fungi, grasses or even corpses, could find themselves covered in a yellow fruit like dodder. This strangleweed would attach itself to anything it could, trying to extract what nutrients it can to sustain itself. Yaoji Dodder could grow multiple centimeter a day, and find the optical way and shortest path to whatever prey it desired, adapting it's branches within hours of changes within it's environment. Drow Mythos tells that this plant originated as a transformation left behind by a mother matron, who left her cursed daughter to die in a lush fungi forest, the daughter however was madly in love, and desired to return, yet she was too weak and instead transformed into Dodder, leeching off from whatever life she could find. The sap within the dodder was very desirable by the drow, for it could be used to make powerful aphrodisiac.

[underdark-biota]

Ajzjami

The Ajzjami is a thistle-like plant, preferring to grow in dry and warm areas, sprouting sharp little prickles from it's greyed leaves that easily meld into the nearby stone or earth. Coated in a light poison, touching or being scratched by the prickles can cause anything from thinning blood to dizziness that can result in the loss of conscious, to incredible itches on the skin. It likely does so in an attempt to keep predators away. The amount of prickles covering the plant seems relative to it's moisture intake, increasing the dryer it's surroundings are. If a creature were to lose conscious near a Ajzjami it might lose moisture, which the plant could use to keep itself alive. A great herb to help thin blood, and a common medicine for problems with the heart.