Pattern Wine Stalker

To a Pattern Wine Stalker our hunts are just a game of hide-and-seek...a game it has already won a long time ago.
~ Sudiviv Musarem, Archhuntress

Known as Rolocis'rev ("Changer of Colors") by the Curnias the Pattern Wine Stalker is a highly elusive botanical lifeform that inhapits the dense rainforests of Cenorad.
While its name is based upon its remarkable color-changing abilities, this hardly does justice to the true capabilities of the Patter Wine Stalker, for which one of the best forms of optical camouflage is just a small piece of its elaborate deception strategies, which aim to not only mislead the perception of both prey and predators but to make them outright distrust their own senses.
These strategies are so effective that it took the best huntresses of the Curnias -a species that specializes in the hunt of botanical creatures- over a century of continuous effort just to be able to prove that Pattern Wine Stalkers even exist. Mentioning the fact that this evidence was only found because this particular Stalker actually wanted to be found, is a surefire way to have one's head bolted to the nearest wall with an obsidian-tipped arrow.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Given just how elusive Pattern Wine Stalkers are, few have ever seen one and even fewer of those that actually saw one lived long enough to tell their tales. Because of this, the few descriptions of the creature that exists are often vague and imprecise.
According to the hunting party, which firstly encountered the creature a Pattern Wine Stalker possesses five to six vine-like appendages that are covered in color-changing leaves.
Despite being hard enough to block Treeslayer arrows at close ranges, these appendages, as well as the remaining body of the Stalker, are highly flexible and able to twist and bend far beyond anything that regular joints would ever be able to handle.
This allows the Stalker to contorts its body into seemingly impossible shapes, enabling it to easily fit through fist-sized crevices and physically integrate itself into its current environment, no matter if it is a dense forest or a block of buildings.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Rolocis'rev are herbivores so they won't eat you, but that doesn't mean that they won't kill you.

Patter Wine Stalkers are heterotrophic plants, which means that unlike regular plants they are unable to synthesize their nutrients via photosynthesis and instead rely on the consumption of other plants in order to stay alive.
While they are perfectly able to feed off regular, unmoving plants like other herbivores Pattern Wine Stalkers show a great preference towards the consumption of Living Plants, including other Pattern Wine Stalkers.
Because of these cannibalistic tendencies, it is commonly theoried that the highly developed camouflage abilities and deception tactics of the Patter Wine Stalker are the direct results of millennia of intraspecies predation.
In addition to their herbivore diet, Pattern Wine Stalkers are also able to pull Botas-flavored Fairy Dust from the currents of the Green River and use it as a supplement to their regular food, which greatly reduced their food requirements and enables them to display a great deal of patience during their hunts that few other creatures can afford.

Additional Information

Uses, Products & Exploitation

I always wanted to taste wine made from the blood of a creature most people don't even know exists.
~ Lingura "Razortongue", Agsimer gourmet

To the Curnias Pattern Wine Stalkers are some of the most highly valued types of sacrificial plants as their resin is full of shamanic energies that can be used to fuel the Amber Suns the Curnias rely upon to combat the effects of their magical affliction.
When the Stalker's resin is not used to fuel the Amber Suns it is fermented and mixed with numerous precious condiments in order to create an extremely valuable and almost sacred delicacy, which due to its multicolored appearance is commonly called "Pattern Wine".

Average Intelligence

It doesn't even have a brain, and yet it has outsmarted several huntresses that claimed to possess one.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Pattern Wine Stalkers possess a dazzling array of sensory organs spread over their entire body, which enables them to perceive a plethora of different kinds of sensations, ranging from colors in the ultraviolet spectrum to faint waves of infrasound.
In addition to the sensory organs on their bodies, Pattern Wine Stalkers are also able to place external sensory organs -a so-called Oti'tal ("Hidden Eye")- into their environment, which emit a specific visual, acoustic or olfactory signal once they detect a stimulus above a certain threshold.
This allows a Pattern Wine Stalker to surveil an area far larger than its own already impressive field of perception. In addition, to its mundane senses, the Patter Wine Stalker is also able to read the currents of both the Green and Brown River in order to cover its extrasensory needs.

You will never take a Stalker by surprise.
And when you do it, it's because it wants you to.

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

Pattern Wine Stalkers are able to remove small parts of their own bodies and inject them into other plants where they will grow into parasitic tumors that serve as decoys for the Stalker's River signature and make it nearly impossible to accurately determine the current location of a Stalker via the currents of the Green River.
Yet perhaps the greatest ace up a Stalker' sleeve are the symbiotic fungi it cultivates within clusters of small grape-like fruits, which are stored within hollowed out portions of its own body. As these fungi grow they periodically release clouds of psychoactive spores, which when inhaled induce numerous visual and acoustic hallucinations making it even harder to accuratly perceive a Pattern Wine Stalker.

Scientific Name

Phytolium chamaleo

Lifespan

1,300 years

Average Height

2.4 m, though older exemplars can be substantially larger.

Average Weight

230-260 kg

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Both their leaves and bark are able to quickly change their coloration, which allows them to actively blend in with their environment, thereby making clear visual observations almost impossible.

Plants that Walk

Pattern Wine Stalkers are so-called Rovi'olp which is the name the Curnias gave to the numerous species of mobile plants that inhabit the rainforests of their homeland.
Given that most Rovi'olp act far more "animal-like" than regular plants, they are also refered to as either "Flauna" or "Planimals".

Bait& Beans

You might now have a trail that you can follow, but what tells you that it doesn't lead you into a trap?

Given just how elusive Pattern Wine Stalkers are, the Curnias use specially created types of herbal baits in order to at least somewhat levele the playing field.

A Vest of Vines

With my quarry no longer being able to perceive me, the hunt has lost much of its charm.
~ Al'uben-Xudart, Ideal of the Huntress

The Alla'carac Sitiv ("Vestment of Vine") is a magnificent coat made from the leaves of a Pattern Wine Stalker, which was once worn by the Ideal Huntress herself before she gifted it to the city-state of Natacu'y.
Due to the legendary status of its wearers as well as the precious materials it is made off, few Curnias are worthy enough to even glance at the Alla'carac Sitiv.
Unworthy ones that that dare to do so regardless have their eyes sealed with boiling resin.