Don't ask about the name - I can't think of anything better!
The Carniverous Jaw Flower is actually an odd sort of plant that, after adapting to dungeon life, lost its power of photosynthesis and turned to eating other living creatures as its source of nutrients and energy.
The Flower starts off life as a seed which plants itself in in the ground. It develops rapidly with its roots growing down to anchor the plant in place while the stem grows a large bud from which the flower emerges. The Flower itself is lined with very sharp teeth, arranged in a spiral pattern around the flower's inside and, like a Venus Fly-Trap, can close itself if something triggers it off by stepping on it. The Flower waits patiently until its prey, anything that lands on it unwittingly in the dark, comes along. Once a monster has settled or stepped on it, the Flower's jaws immediately snap together and squash the victim, after which then proceed to chew it and then digest it by means of secretions of digestive juices.
The Flower is an immobile monster that will not react to Beethro being in the room. Instead, it will just wait until something, Beethro, any monsters, tar or any helper animal/monster (e.g. Tar Pikes), steps on it. When this happens, depending on the monster, the Flower will suddenly react. If Beethro or any single-square, vulnerable (to Beethro's sword) and non-flying monster steps onto it, it will suddenly snap shut, crushing the unfortunate victim in its jaws. It then spends one or two moves chewing it (You decide) and another one or two moves to digest it. If an armoured/invulnerable, non-flying monster steps onto it, it will spend one extra move chewing it because of the armour. If a long monster like a serpent moves onto it, it will bite the head off, and another head will grow on the square behind the head if the serpent has not been shortened to death. If the serpent continues to move towards the Flower, the Flower will go into a feeding frenzy and will eat as much of the serpent continuously as it can, until either the serpent dies, turns away, or the flower becomes full. If the flower finishes gorging itself on the serpent, then it will delay once more to chew and digest. If the Flower is engaged in eating, then it will be harmless to any other monster or Beethro and just becomes an obstacle like a wall until it has finished. Monsters that fly or float are not affected by the monster, and mimics, just to keep it consistent, are also unaffected because the flower doesn't like them - they are just obstacles to a mimic.
Unfortunately for Beethro, the Flower is actually invulnerable to his sword as its skin is very thick so it can withstand being cut by its own jaws and by the bones or shell of its prey. This means that the only way for Beethro to kill it without help is to give it enough prey to eat so that it will over-indulge and explode from having too much food inside it. After eating ten monsters or ten squares of monster, it will, after digestion, swell and explode, which will kill it instantly.
Its carniverous tendencies mean that Brains are wary of it and should one be present in a room, it will try to guide monsters around it to avoid them being eaten, although if a single passage leading to Beethro is blocked and there is no other way around, then the Flower acts like a wall, and monsters remain at normal intelligence levels.
Finally, Carniverous Jaw Flowers can be destroyed by most potions that destroy monsters, especially anything involving fire (If anything of the sort will ever exist), can be destroyed by Poisonous Gases, The Flow and be frozen by ice weapons, although it is resistant to anything electrical.
I have also thought up one or two variations to this monster:
The Sucking Flower
This flower is similar to the one above, except that it has the ability to suck monsters into it from a three-square radius around it. If any monster or Beethro, but not a mimic, though, steps into its sucking range, the force of the suck will pull it one square towards the mouth. The default suck movement direction is one square diagonally in the closest direction to the mouth, until the object is on a horizontal or vertical to the mouth, in which case it will be just sucked in horizontally or vertically. This time, however, the sucking force "
moves last"
so Beethro and all the other monsters will move first before the sucking inward happens, meaning it is possible to avoid being sucked in by moving one square outwards to "
stay in the same place"
. This monster, however, swallows its victims whole, so even though ten victims will also explode it, until it reaches this limit, it will not stop sucking, even if it has just swallowed something. Serpents and other long monsters cannot escape either. If they are sucked in, they move inwards (either horizontally or vertically) by one square each time, and will be swallowed one square at a time if the flower can get them in its mouth. Finally, if the flower is sucking something in, then nothing else can be at the same time.
Reproduction in the Flower
I've thought up two ways this could happen - decide which you prefer, or you could even have it so that both occur at the same time - the behavior switches every 30 moves or so.
Asexual Reproduction
The flower has a reproductive variant, perhaps characterised by being a different colour. Unlike most normal Flowers, it is not able to eat things because it has no teeth, and so is soft and vulnerable to Beethro's sword. Instead, what it can do is to reproduce. Every 30 moves, a runner shoots out of the parent plant. The runner will grow at the rate of one square horizontally or vertically away from Beethro per move for six moves. Runners will follow force arrows and cannot grow on walls, pits, potions or tar. At squares 3 and 6 a bud forms and develops into a flower after one move. The one at square 3 becomes an ordinary Carniverous Jaw Flower, but the one at square 6 swaps with the original and becomes the reproductive one, while the original reverts to a normal flower. After the transfer, the runners die off. If the runner grows into a wall, then it will change direction and go in the direction that takes it furthest from Beethro, unless he is standing in a horizontal or a vertical direction to it, in which case it will immediately go in a clockwise direction, unless in a dead end, in which case it stops, and the flower develops at its end. Because of this, the flower is capable of moving around, and so Beethro has to try to stop it from moving into places where he cannot reach it and spreads too fast for him to control.
Sexual Reproduction
This type involves two types of reproductive flower, one male and one female. In this type, the reproductive flower can still be killed by Beethro's sword, and will never leave the spot they were originally on, but can spread much further and propagate farther into a dungeon room. Every 30 moves each flower sends out a cloud of reproductive cells like pollen, only in this case, the clouds are alive and can move themselves around. They are attracted to each other and will move like roaches towards each other until they meet. If they do, then they join together and fall to the ground. The affected square then becomes a developing bud, which is vulnerable for three moves until it becomes a proper flower again, and becomes invulnerable to his sword again. The clouds themselves fly and will follow force arrows, but are unaffected by pits, go through other monsters, mimics and even Beethro, neither of which are harmed by the other unless, of course, the clouds meet over a monster and fall on it, in which case the monster dies of poisoning and the bud forms there instead. They, because of their behavior, can be trapped behind simple obstacles and isolated so they cannot meet and reproduce, so pose no threat, and so do not need to be destroyed as they will never be able to meet unless the wall disappears, so they will eventually die. The only exception to the monster rule is with other Carniverous Jaw Flowers - the clouds will not travel over ther flowers as they will be destroyed if they were to reproduce over one. Finally, the clouds will behave like roaches under a brain's influence if there is one present in the room, and will try to meet each other by the shortest route possible.
I think that's it. I'm sorry for any things I may have left out towards the end as I rushed a little, so if you see anything odd or something may be missing, or is improperly explained, then please tell me about it.
Phew!
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Resident Medic/Mycologist
/dy
