Plant Monster

When the troll, Stenhållare, Son of Dovregubben, came to the Americas with Vikings, he swam to shore as their ship sank off the coast near Sauvie Island. Once on land, he sought refuge from the sun and wanted to build a kingdom in a new land. Using his earth magicks, he carved a way through what are now called the Marble Halls National Park. Slowly, he created a complex for himself, and goblin-kin began arriving. Together, they hewed rocks and built magical crystals. One of these crystals was imbued with the power of life itself, and represented the biological life in Miðgarðr (Physical Realm). Stenhållare erected the crystal in a cavern and soon even the smallest grasses and moss in the cave began evolving and growing lush. The plant life pushed itself ever upward, growing even without sunlight in the magical enchantments of Stenhållare. Eventually some of the plants in another cavern mutated.

Something in the soil, the particles from the sun passing through the Earth, or pollutants in the nearby waters, caused this mutation to grow and fed by the magicks, the plants became sentient. At the edge of a subterranean waterfall, the culmination of this metamorphism came to a head and a massive plant with a mouth formed. Its roots grew deep and it spawned flowers in the nearby caverns. Occasionally, goblin-kin would find their way nearby and the plant would consume them for nourishment and grew ever larger. When Absinthe Van Gothen came to the caverns with the Night Stalker, Selena Santana, she eventually found her way into the cavern containing the massive plant monster. Using an enchanted poison bomb purchased at Hobs Hornswaggle’s shop, the House of Haggle, the intrepid hunter destroyed the plants in the cavern. However, still within the aura of the life crystal, the plant began immediately regrowing.

Within two hours, Stenhållare was slain by Absinthe. It was his own magic holding the caverns together that he had hewn, and now, without his power, they collapsed. The mortal hunters survived and escaped, rushing to Selena’s motorcycle possessed by the gremlin, Grimey Geargrinder, and they left making their way back to Sanctuary. However, with a large portion of the cave system collapsing, seismologists and local authorities rushed to the scene. A large crater and sinkhole had formed, and they located the remnants of the strange plants. These specimens were collected. First studied at the local university, they appeared to be a new species entirely and were then sent to Las Vegas. There, at the local MedUSA labs, worked the foremost authority in botany, Rose Riley, daughter of Walter and Clover Riley. She studied the samples in earnest.

She began to grow the plants and most died without the power of the life crystal, but a single specimen survived. Rose nurtured this plant and watched as it grew into a much smaller version of the monster that Absinthe had slew. Rose named it, “Maxillam insidias” (makˈsɪlə inˈsi.di.a) and fell in love with the new species. Rose had no idea that the plant was studying her as well. When it flowered, it made its move, and fired its pollen at the scientist. Due to security protocols in the lab, the area was contained, but Rose lied and said that she was not infected. As the days went on, she slowly lost her humanity and became a walking plant creature, whose only purpose was to spread.