Brossal Sprouts

Brossal Sprouts are short-legged omnivores from the family of Fringe Animals.

Like many other Fringe Animals, it is not an animal in the common sense but an animate plant behaving much like one.

I always wonder if Brossal Sprouts just happened or if someone really sat down and said: "Man, Inquest really could use some angry Vegetables right now"

— Simon Priest, renowned Bard and Entertainer

Fragile Bullies

There have been many futile attempts to domesticate the Brossal Sprout but with the lack of genetic diversity and social interaction there is not much to work with.

As single-minded feeding machines, they attempt to devour everything, happily throwing themselves against cows and other herbivores who are delighted about the little snack.

Without human intervention, this Species would've been long extinct. And some experts wonder if that wouldn't have been for the best.

Etymology

They are named after the City of Brossal, the Capital of Drusseodia, where they were once created by unknown perpetrators.

In some northern Regions they are also known as Looming Lettuce because their body looks like oversized angry lettuce bulbs.

Basic Information

Anatomy

A Brossal Sprout has a bulbous body with a diameter of ½ a meter with a short bottom (also called stem) and 4 stumpy legs.

They do not have a mouth but can extend a flap-like fold from the transition between bulb and stem that is lined with microscopic tooth-like structures that function like a rasp or file.

To reduce potential food down into compost, they stretch back their bulb which allows the neck seam between bulb and stem to open wide enough for the flap to extend like a fold in a pillow.

The leaves that build the body are waxy on the outside and strewn with dense patches of fine hair-like growths that feels like velvet to the touch.

Genetics and Reproduction

Brossal Sprout are asexual and their reproduction is temperature sensitive.

After the cold of Icend, the first time it reaches 7°C they start producing seedlings, when the temperature hits 15°C they begin looking for loose forest floor into which they will deposit said seedlings.

These Seedlings look like tiny Saplings and are not larger than a thumb. All Brossal Sprouts are identical.

Growth Rate & Stages

After a Brossal Sprout Seedling is laid into the soil, it will begin to germinate with the first rain. It grows in size by forming leaves around itself, continously wrapping the Seedling in new grown layers.

After about six weeks, a seedling has grown enough to stretch its tiny stumps for the first time and to leave its birthplace. A Brossal Sprout that has just started roaming, will drag their seedling like a little tail behind them, after two or three days it has been fully absorbed into the body.

Ecology and Habitats

As many other Fringe Animals it can only be found in special Natural Reserves where they are actively cultivated to keep the Species alive.

They can survive in most temperatures and climates found on Inquest but prefer the cold and wet woods south of Brossal.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Brossal Sprouts eat by reducing biological matter into compost with their flaps and then wallow in the remains, absorbing Nutrients through their leaves.

They do not seem to prefer specific feed but have a sweet tooth. Rubbing a piece of Sugar or sugary pastry against the top of their bulb makes them almost docile, and they try to keep their head against the treat. This primitive but effective way of herding has been put to good use in the Nature Reserves.

Biological Cycle

These Animals do not perceptibly age much beside old Specimen starting to wilt two to three days before dying, usually not long after becoming 5 years old.

When Brossal Sprouts die, they just fall over, usually on their faces. Laying there with their little stumpy legs hanging lifeless from the stem, they appear to sleep.

Look! Dat ones sleepin!

Didn't know they can sleep.

They can't. It's dead.

— Discussion between a young Child, its Parents and a Nature Reserve Agent

Additional Information

Average Intelligence

Brossal Sprouts are not very intelligent, easily preyed upon by cattle and single-minded when startled.

Once agitated, they try to attack the aggressor by butting into them and do not seem to spend time thinking about maybe just slowly ambling away from the cow that chews its head off.

They express dissatisfaction by repeatedly bumping their foreheads into things, beings, stones, and sometimes other Brossal Sprouts

This singular response suggest it being their only real way of interacting with other beings.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

They have two forward facing rigid eyes located under the central veins of the main leaf. They have limited hearing by reacting to vibrations caused by sound in their top leaves. Brossal Sprouts have no sense of smell.

Where in normal animals, forward facing eyes usually are a sign of a predatory nature, it's much more likely to be a stylistic decision its original creators.

Not that having eyes at the sides, or more of them, would really help the Brossal Sprout stay out of danger.

While they have no way (or interest in) directly communicating with anything, they can make a sound like someone lifting their shoulders up while pressing their head back all the while saying "gnnnnn". There is no modulation which makes it hard to guess sometimes if it's out of anger, enjoyment or just because they felt like making a sound.

It is not even clear by which process or with which organ they produce this unique sound.

Brossal Sprout by Jan Kaltenecker

Copper engraving print of a Brossal Sprout

Content

Lifespan

5 years

Conservation Status

Cultivated within special Nature Reserves

Average Height

½ meter

Average Weight

5kg

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Healthy specimens are of a deep green coloration with almost white stems and veins.

Seeing a Brossal Sprout with wilted Leaf-Tops is a sure sign of sickness or imminent death of old age.

Leave the leafs be!

Should you encounter a Brossal Sprout, under no circumstances, touch or grab the leaves.

They are only connected to the animals body by the seedling at its core and patches of fine interconnecting veins. Moving leaves apart is immensely painful for the animal.

Should you see a stuck animal with a torn leaf, do not attempt to rescue it by yourself without professional aid!

Good eating?

Brossal Sprouts taste remotely like what they had to eat last, which always means compost.

The few occasions where they were officially prepared for a tasting, they were described as: "Not very tasty. Not very tasty at all."

If you were stranded on a cold hill-side, and it was a life-death decision, you would probably eat your childhood friend first, before reaching for the Sprout.

Licked to death

As described, the flap of a Brossal Sprout is covered in microscopic teeth-like structures that scrape and rasp over surfaces. Given enough time, they will reduce any biological matter into a fine mush.

Some reports of Undead exist that reanimated while being beset by a Brossal Sprout, they explain that it felt much like being sanded to death by something coarse and smooth at the same time, something like a tiny cat tongue.

Given enough time and opportunity, even a single Brossal Sprout can remove any evidence of a body.