Viper Vine

A voracious, flesh-eating carnivore, the viper vine has a single enormous blossom arising from a thick, leafy tangle of snakelike vines. When the plant senses the approach of suitable prey through its sensitive, shallow-buried root system, it rises up like an agitated snake and unfurls its brightly colored bloom, an act that releases a cloud of mind-numbing pollen.

Since viper vines gain nourishment by consuming creatures rather than through photosynthesis and absorbing nutrients from the soil, they have developed rudimentary locomotion and can drag themselves along the ground with tentacle-like roots. They even have a form of rudimentary sentience, allowing them to both discern differences in prey and make limited tactical decisions, while also avoiding creatures that are particularly large or dangerous looking.

The area around viper vine hunting grounds is often strewn with the partially devoured remains of victims. It's not unusual to find the rotting corpses of wild animals, ill-fated adventurers, and even giants in the plant's immediate vicinity, along with a scattering of incidental treasure left behind on the corpses. A viper vine rarely returns to the carcass of a creature it killed earlier, preferring to hunt fresh meat.