Concepts

Verdant Spores

Known facts

react-to-waterWet living verdant spores germinate in an instant, throwing up a knotted tree of vines ten feet tall that can crack a ship's deck from below and split the hull above. Spores that grow inside a human body fill the throat and sinuses; the narrator describes the result in clinical detail. The reaction is the basis of water-cannonball warfare on the spore seas.STD:Tress:Ch 9
react-to-bloodVerdant spores react to blood as readily as they do to water, sending up vines from any wound bleeding out into the spore bed. A man cut on deck and tipped overboard will draw a writhing crown of vines around him within seconds.STD:Tress:Ch 11
deliberately-grown-vineVerdant spores watered with no more than a flicked drop of spittle can be coaxed into growing a single rope-like vine, coiled tight enough to climb. The trick is to wet a fingertip clean of loose spores before launching the droplet.STD:Tress:Ch 11
fully-grown-vines-are-edible-with-soakingFully grown verdant vines, soaked for roughly a day, are technically edible — providing some few calories and nutrients. The trick is rarely needed on inhabited islands, where soil and compost vats produce better food with less danger, so most islanders never learn it; experienced spore-sailors do. Eaten too long without supplemental protein the vines will cause serious trouble, but they suffice as emergency rations for a voyage like the Crow's Song's run to the Sorceress's island and back.STD:Tress:Ch 55

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