Posted 21-3-2015
But it's Only a Flower:
When Plants Attack
It's alive!
I hate Deku Baba. They aren't difficult foes by any stretch, but they're everywhere. Without, it appears, being much of anywhere.
Has anyone noticed? An odd little patch of low crab grass randomly sprouts into a giant man-eating plant? Where does the bloom-mouth-thing come from? True, some Baba's have the bulb at their base, which could theoretically hold the rest of the flower – if it were larger, and existed in any pre-flood game. And that's still only if we're pretending that that spindly little stem has any business holding up that kind of weight, and that high. I assume magic animated the original plant (it is after all a 'Deku' Baba, although it may just be named by association with woods) but if the physiology of the being that is being animated is there, the magic should not have to reinforce it for necessary tasks, such as grabbing and holding the errant adventurers who sustain them.
So what we know of the babas is this:
-They are most commonly – but not uniquely – blue. Red/Yellow is relatively common.
-They are taller than full grown men, on average half again as tall or twice as tall (roughly the height range of a Goron). Some Babas are considerably larger.
-The stems are strong, but some are versatile while some are stiff, and can harden into wood or a wood-like substance when dead, while other stems just seem to collapse. (... how? ...)
-They have a sedentary position, which is more compact than their regular position – less visible. This position likely strongly resembles a normal flower found in the same regions as babas, providing a sort of camouflage. Alternately, they may have subterranean pods, but this seems unlikely – plants (flowers in particular) like sun too much. And how many flowers rebury themselves on a moment to moment basis anyway?
-Different flowers have different habitats – so it is with Babas.
-The petals, leaves and other parts are quite thick and stiff, but joints are a weak point.
Whether an amateur botanist, aspiring adventurer, or a nitpicking fan, remember: it's only a flower.
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My solution?
There are many varieties of carnivorous 'plants,' divided into three subclasses:
Traps are largely immobile plants which wait for prey to come to them. They often resemble mundane plants and have very simple instinctual responses to external stimuli.
Chameleons are sentient plants which resemble non-sentient species. They can be capable of locomotion and setting new roots, but it is uncommon.
Mock-flowers can be stationary or mobile as they are creatures resembling plants, but not the true plants they resemble common plants when not attacking.
Other creatures are also known to imitate plants.
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1. DEKU BABA
Long necked flowers with instinctual intelligence. Babas range from mostly harmless to incredibly dangerous. Consists of Trap and Chameleons and can have many more appearances than those listed - as many as there are flowers.
Common Baba (Common Blue)
Habitat: Forest (boreal, tropical)
Type: Trap
Description: Resembles a large blue flytrap, the inside of the head resembles a partially wilted leaf. Most have a red edge. The stem is wood and ridged, but with minor mobility at the head and base. The leaves are wide and very long with wide serrated edges – each leaf has eleven points.
Diet: Lizards, birds, small mammals
Notes: The Blue Baba is the most commonly found baba in Hyrule, usually in the Woodland Realm. The Blue resembles a variety of giant flytrap found in those areas, and the head's 'petals' are only marginally stronger than the mundane flytrap. It twists at its base and at its head to reach for prey which it senses via vibrations in the air and ground. The Blue tends to vibrate when agitated, and the movement causes an increasing chattering noise – this sound is the stalk cracking due to excessive movement, and the deterioration increases over time.
The Blue is relatively harmless to adults, but can harm children and is known for eating pets. They are sometimes grown as a reliable and cheap source of kindling.
Dekulike
Habitat: Moist, sheltered areas – caves and forests. Seeds flourish best in crags.
Type: Trap
Description: A large six petal bloom, in the shape of a large Canterbury bellflower, with a dark blue base and deep crimson edge. An apparent secondary bloom – a rusty yellow-orange – within the neck of the bell is the disguised mouth – the six petals of this 'bloom' are tipped with a single tooth like thorn. All petals are a hand thick, on average, but can be thicker in larger plants. It has a wide shallow root-system. The interior of the flower is highly acidic.
Diet: Omnivorous. As this plant is sedentary, it must wait for food to come to it. This is not generally problematic as it has low metabolic rates and like babas can utilize its root system for sustenance. Otherwise it will consume whatever falls into the reach of its mouth, spitting out inedible substances.
Notes: This is a rare species, but long lived, and is especially hardy due to its versatile diet. Drought poses little difficulty since it tends to grow well below the water table and it stores water for later use. The thick plant walls are similar to tough leather making the plant more difficult to damage.
Fire Baba (Piranha Plant)
Habitat: Highlands and plains.
Type: Chameleon
Description: A mostly blue bulb with red or pink tipped petals on a thick and firm blue to green stem.
Diet: Birds, small to medium mammals
Notes: The fire baba is so called for a very rare ability: when hunting it spits acid, which reacts to dry materials and sometimes even the air causing it to combust. The fire baba is the cause of many a grass fire. It is to be approached with caution if at all as precautions must be taken about the acid. If the head is removed it can be more dangerous loose than on the stem, as it continues to live and pursue prey and predators alike and will imbue its bite with its the acid: a very painful prospect.
Goponga Flower
Habitat: Swampland
Type: Trap
Description: A large thick bloom or pod – which can be nearly any colour – on a large scrub plant. Some blooms can be larger than a man is tall, and the walls of the pod are very thick and tough.
Diet: Omnivore – whatever falls in. Also draws from its root system.
Notes: The Goponga flower is a close relative of the fire baba, and spits the same acid, as well as secreting it, so be aware if they are known in your area. They track movement by vibrations and spit at potential threats rather than potential prey.
Prubaba
Habitat: Plains, preferring long grasses for camouflage.
Type: Chameleon
Description: Its head most resembles an enlarged tulip, if one ever had razor tipped petals.
The stem is jointed and supported by a rudimentary cartilage skeleton, which can collapse on itself when not striking out, or expand to upwards from a meter. The leaves are large and blade-like – on average a meter and a half high, and broad, they surround the Babas' protective bulb. The joint sections and leaves tend to be edged in ruddy red.
Diet: Birds, rodents, other small creatures. Larger plants will be able to consume larger prey. All will attack any movement sensed.
Notes: The second most common variety of Baba, the Prubaba is the plains-dwelling sibling of the trap-type Deku Baba. Originally bred by green magi – cartilage and musculature are not natural to plants.
Shadow Baba
Habitat: Areas steeped in Dark/Chaos
Type: Chameleon
Description: Similar to the Prubaba and Fire babas in shape the shadow baba is black or nearly black blue or purple with red and violet details. Its stem is thorny.
Diet: latent magic, or whatever it can catch
Notes: Every shadow baba was originally another variety of baba, corrupted by dark magic. While not technically poisonous, the shadow baba is known to spread disease and curses.
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2. MOCK-FLOWERS
Saully Baba (Biobaba)
Habitat: Aquatic.
Description: Similar to the Common Blue, with red accents. It has two prehensile limbs with pincers it uses to restrain larger prey and to move around.
Diet: Fish, shellfish, waterfowl, aquatic mammals
Notes: The Saully Baba latches onto rocks and lily pads for a better vantage on its prey. It can prove a nuisance for boaters and fishermen, and a hazard for swimmers. Its limbs are relatively brittle.
Boko Baba
Habitat: Temperate and tropical climate, especially common near salt water.
Description: The most colourful of the so-called Babas, the Boko Baba's head, red with wide yellow edges, closely resembles the Common Blue in shape, but is ousted as in impostor by its tongue and teeth. It's 'Stem' and 'flower' are supported by a skeletal and cartilage structure and are both highly flexible.
Diet: Birds, lizards, small to medium sized mammals
Notes: The Boko Baba builds up a nest around itself which it retreats into, then bursts out of when attacking. This animal poses a threat to the unwary.
Diababa
Habitat: NA
Description: A mutation caused by wild magic or curses, diababa can resemble prubaba, ophidian baba and boko baba, outsized and with extra limbs and heads.
Diet: Omnivore, anything it can hold may prove a meal.
Notes: Highly hostile and highly dangerous, this mock-flower is thankfully rare and if identified, best left to the professionals as they are very difficult to harm at all: explosives are often involved.
Manhandla
Habitat: Deep woods
Description: A four headed creature rarely seen, the heads resemble Serpent baba and Piranha plants, complete with teeth, although they have also been reported to have a blue colouring. The spiny trunks attach the head to a thick carapace, usually green or blue-grey. It travels slowly on many small legs which grow from the carapace.
Diet: Large animals.
Notes: Rumoured to have been made by a mad alchemist, the Manhandla is very violent but also very rare. It has been said that they can spit fire but this may prove to be a myth.
Ophidian Flower (Serpent Baba)
Habitat: Forests and grasslands
Description: Caught between snake and flower, the serpent baba has a spiny brown trunk and a large red head with black markings. It possesses a serpent's forked tongue which it uses to 'see' smells and its teeth (all of which are needle like) include fangs at the front of their jaws. The fangs deliver a mild paralysing agent.
Diet: Anything it can catch and subdue, preferring medium sized mammals.
Notes: Like the Saully, the Serpent baba anchors itself to the ground, and like a fire baba is more dangerous once it is cut free, but it moves on its own with a side-winding motion. It will not however usually disengage from a perch of its own accord to chase a foe or meal.
Piranha Plant
Habitat: Caves, other dark and damp locations.
Description: A cousin to the Ophidian flower, the Piranha Plant is built identically, but less spiny and has orange markings rather than black.
Diet: bats, vermin, other small mammals.
Notes: The Piranha Plant withers somewhat in direct sunlight and does not carry any poison. In some regions it is used in salads.
Pokey
Habitat: Desert
Description: A slow, cactus like creature, the Pokey is green-scaled and spiky.
Diet: Insects, vermin
Notes: The Pokey is most commonly found in Holodrum although some colonies exist in the Great Desert as well. Its spines contain a relaxant which the Zuna use in their sand-rubs.
Quadro Baba (Gold Baba)
Habitat: Forests and grasslands
Description: A hardier form of Ophidian Flower, the spines on the brown trunk are a violent purple and can carry mild toxins, producing rashes if touched. The head is a golden yellow and it has two sets of jaws: vertical and horizontal. It has a blue tongue which it uses to 'see' smells and its needle-like teeth are led by fangs which deliver a mild paralysing agent.
Diet: Anything it can catch and subdue, preferring medium sized mammals.
Notes: Like the Saully, the Serpent baba anchors itself to the ground, and like a fire baba is more dangerous once it is cut free, but it moves on its own with a side-winding motion. It will not however usually disengage from a perch of its own accord to chase a foe or meal.
Snap Dragon
Habitat: North-western Hyrule, forest and grasslands preferred
Description: A fawn coloured bipedal animal with a disproportionately large head and two prehensile limbs resembling vines. Around its head is a green crest which resembles a flower's petals. The teeth and crest are lightly serrated.
Diet: Small to medium large mammals, birds
Notes: The snap dragon is one of the few flower-impersonating creatures which only vaguely resembles a flower. When it attacks it runs and leaps at great speeds and can be very dangerous for travellers.
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3. PUFFSTOOL
Habitat: Wooded areas, homes
Description: A minute bi-pedal creature resembling a red-capped mushroom.
Diet: Wood, will eat vegetation
Notes: The puffstool is most commonly known as a household nuisance, occupying a place between the termite and the bedbug of Hyrule. Cleanliness can help keep them down.
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4. BOMBER
Habitat: Open areas: rivers, lakes and fields
Description: An animate mossy mound with wings.
Diet: Unknown
Notes: The Bomber is something of a mystery. One theory s that they occupy the realm of mock-plants, or that they are young earth sprites on the way to become fairy spirits, or that they are even disguised guardian fairies trying to protect their lands from intruders. Bombers fly around and raining fire magic on interlopers.
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5. EYE PLANT
Habitat: Deepwater
Description: A bulbous sea serpent with green and blue segments and a violet spine down its black and crest around its neck. Its blue eye is on a stalk on the top of its head.
Diet: Small fish, krill
Notes: Named for its resemblance to some species of Baba, the Eye Plant is an imposter: it is a sea serpent which, when irritated, will gather up objects (gravel, seeds, stones or even fish) in its mouth and spit them at the shore or at ships. Its tendency to spring up abruptly has been known to cause ships to capsize.
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6. PICKIT PLANTS
A group of plant creatures known to thieve.
Dexivine
Habitat: Forest and tall grasses
Type: Trap
Description: A long, prehensile vine of dark blue.
Diet: Magic
Notes: The dexivine is a magic thief, often planted to guard treasure. It is drawn to magic like sunflowers follow the sun and grasps at it: if the dexivine catches hold of magi it will try to drain their reserves. It is possible to struggle out of its hold.
Kalle Demos
Habitat: m
Type: Chameleon
Description: Primarily blue, green and violet, the Kalle Demos most resembles a Dekulike crossed with a squid. On its vines are hooks, some of which are a bright magenta: these are toxic.
Diet: Omnivore (whatever it can hold)
Notes: Either bred by green magi or mutated by wild or curse magic, the Kalle Demos is large and violently territorial, often making meals of intruders. It moves by walking on its vines and by hanging from them, although it can also put down roots.
Pickits
Habitat: Forests, caves
Type: Chameleon
Description: The smaller cousin of the Kalle Demos, the pickit walks on short purple vines and has a large orange bloom which can grow to be two feet wide and three tall. The bloom contains more prehensile vines. Like the Kalle Demos it can also have roots.
Diet: Insects, small mammals, small lizards, soil
Notes: The picket behaves similarly to the Kalle Demos, but is known to use its vines to snatch objects from passersby.
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7. LEEVER
Habitat: Sand, light soil
Type: Chameleon
Description: A sentient and plant which is mostly a very strong root system surrounding a tuber and a few small blooming growths used sense activity on the surface. The roots hold together stones and rich soils which feed and protect the leever.
Diet: sun and soil
Notes: The leever, which prefers hot and dry climates, is known for spinning and burrowing at high speeds. It has been known to defend its territory and self from trampling.
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8. PEAHAT
A group of plants with rotor leaves and varying levels of awareness. It flies during the day and rests its roots in the ground by night. Peahats are Chameleon type flowers, and all abhor the cold.
Drifter
Habitat: Desert
Description: A root bundle with stiff rotating branches of leaves on its crown.
Diet: Sun, soil
Notes: The drifter is the original peahat, from which all others were made by magi or spirits or demons. It is completely non-sentient and is transported by its leaves which spin in the morning and evening breezes, and by lift created by hot desert air. It settles down at night and gets what it can from the soil.
Peahat
Habitat: Various.
Description: A plant in red, orange or yellow with a red, yellow, orange or white bloom on its head. The blossom rotates quickly, allowing flight. The root-sack is found on the bottom of the peahat.
Diet: Sun and soil.
Notes: Peahats, a sentient plant, fly in swarms and are highly offensive. Yellow peahats are a maritime variety only.
Pihatto
Habitat: Fields
Description: A gigantic variety of peahat, growing to over twice the height of a man. The body is covered in a tough but light leathery skin of orange yellow and green, and topped with a ruddy flower. Unlike most peahats, its propeller leaves are low: between the body and vulnerable root sack. The propellers' span is several times wider than the peahat, and they are very ridged.
Diet: Sun, soil (which may include the remains of attackers)
Notes: An unusually solitary breed, and very dangerous.
Ropa
Habitat: tropical and coastal forests
Description: A green bodied and orange vined peahat. It resembles an anemone.
Diet: Insects, birds, small animals.
Notes: The ropa propels itself through the air by leaps and by spinning its vines/tentacles and is known to attack in swarms. It was created by a green mage, a cross of an anemone and a common peahat. It is especially hostile and prone to theft.
Seahat
Habitat: Maritimes
Description: The largest of the peahats, it is dark grey with yellow and light grey markings. It has only three propellers but is surprisingly light for its size.
Diet: Sun, krill, water-born nutrients
Notes: The seahat is unique in that it cannot rest on land, but acts like a seaweed clump while resting in the water. It can use its propellers to fly for a short time or to drag itself through the water at high speeds. The seahat is well known for knocking sailor overboard.
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