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Description

When traveling out in the field and trudging through the wilds, one of the most important things to remember is to watch where you step. Now that may seem incredibly obvious to some, but you would be surprised how easy it is to forget! You may be careful and watchful one second, and then you see a rare bird flutter across the sky and your eyes cannot resist the sight! Or you hear the sound of trolls getting into a dispute right over the ridge line and you are desperate to reach it before the show is over, so you thoughtlessly scramble over the rocks! Or perhaps you are navigating the darkened tunnels of the Underworld and your demoness guide is holding you close so you don't get lost and you can't help but see her visage illuminated by the wonderful glow of the lightworms which totally happened to a colleague of mine back when they went to see the Underworld but that was a different time then when I went so I wasn't really there for that but I totally heard stories about it! Ha, wild! Crazy how that happens to people! Anyways, as you can see from the myriad of examples that other people went through that I happened to hear, it is quite easy to take your eyes off your footing and blunder into an incredible mess! You might step into a hidden hole and twist a leg, or misjudge your step and trip right onto your face! Such painful and embarrassing situations that could have been easily avoided by keeping your eyes on your roots.

Another good reason to do this is so that you keep an eye out for all the critters that live in the underbrush, the tiny beasts you don't even know are there. This is good advice, as it allows you to witness the small creatures that are so vital to this world but are so easily ignored. Some may scoff at the idea of being excited by rodents and bugs, as people only really care about the big beasts. I say that is a load of rot! Those who truly appreciate nature and the vast world of life around know that some of the greatest finds can be discovered beneath rocks and hidden in grassy burrows. Plus, having an eye and appreciation for the smaller world means you are always guaranteed to see something wonderful on every trip! I know some of my excursions have been saved from dullness by the sudden arrival of an amazing insect, sometimes found in my very tent! Days without seeing a thing and then suddenly a horned rainbow centipede is skittering right across the tent floor, as if it was a gift being delivered to me! It was a fascinating sight, though a little short lived because Eucella accidentally collapsed the tent in her clumsiness after I pointed out our wonderful guest. Though she was at least insistent on me finding the poor thing, refusing to step root even near the tent until I located it. I thought that was quite considerate, as she very much didn't want to step on the little fella. And that is another reason to watch your roots! You don't want to step on any poor creatures! How terrible would it be to crush a beautiful specimen and not even notice! What a waste! Come to study the wonderful animals and then you trample them into the dirt! In some cases, though, it is important not to step on them for your own safety. Spiny little critters or venomous serpents, neither are things you want to tread on. In this case, the thing you want to watch out for is the Nettlelamb. It is a small and harmless looking thing, but its not the one in danger if your root comes down on it.

The Nettlelamb is a gastropod, in fact, it seems to have a close relation to the Gardenbacks! Imagine that! One so big related to one so small! Crazy how the world works! Anyways, the Nettlelamb is a small slug-like creature, rarely growing over more than half a foot. It is found in places with lots of grassy vegetation, like your grasslands, prairies and fields. It crawls along the ground, blending in with the surrounding brush due to its green coloration. This camouflage helps keep it safe from predators, as they can't pick it out from the greenery that is all around. This allows it to merrily munch upon smaller bugs and invertebrates, like worms, without hardly a care. It also appears that it gets some nourishment from the sun, photosynthesizing just like its big cousins! However, it obviously needs to feed on some real food, as being that small means it is easy to wind up in the shade. At times, when food is scarce, they may crawl out into a bright patch of sunlight to soak it up, which can be dangerous. When out in the open like that, it is easier for enemies to spot them. Never fear, though, as the Nettlelamb doesn't rely on just camouflage!

When they feel threatened, the Nettlelamb will raise thin spines from its back. In a moment, they will turn from a harmless green slug into a patch of nasty barbs! These spikes are incredibly fine, but are in no way delicate. They may bend but they will not break, and they have a super sharp tip on their end. Think of them like needles, so thin and sharp that you may not even notice you got pricked. These are the weapons they brandish when something big dares get close to them, and it is quite the intimidating display! Sure, they don't look that bad at first, but would you take a bite out of something coated in pointy needles? Turns out, lots of creatures say no to this. Even more so when they learn that these spines are venomous! A single puncture will send a dose of venom right into the body, and nobody wants that! So needless to say, not a lot of things mess with a Nettlelamb. At least, not on purpose...

As small venomous creatures, many would think that they are hardly an issue to beings like humans and dryads. Just teach people not to touch them or eat them, and all is well! Unfortunately, it isn't that easy. As I said, they live in grassy areas, and hide within the vegetation. They won't invade your house to torment you, but they will become a problem if you blunder into theirs. Their size and camouflage makes them hard to see, which results in folk getting quite close to these venomous little things. When they sense a disturbance, those spines go up and they try to scare off this approaching foe. However, these barbs are thin and green, causing them to look like grass. So when a Nettlelamb goes on the defensive, they wind up blending in even more with their surroundings. So what happens is that the ignorant traveler doesn't even see them and winds up bringing their foot down right onto the poor creatures. Thankfully, their squishy mollusk nature means they have no bones or exoskeleton to break, and a flexible anatomy means they can survive a light flattening. What isn't so good is that their thin sharp needles are now being pressed down upon, which means at least one of them is piercing the unwary traveler. These spines are so fine, that they can go through thin leather and rinds, with the walker not even being aware of the attack. You hardly feel the puncture, so it is easy to miss when your mind is elsewhere. They stab right through when you step down, then slide right out when you pick your foot back up. You won't notice thing, perhaps a faint sting you might attribute to weary feet. However, it won't be long before you notice something is off, and by that point it is too late to stop it.

The first thing I want to tell my probably frightened readers is that the venom of the Nettlelamb is not lethal. Be reassured in that fact. Stepping on one won't kill you, but it may cause issues that may lead to an untimely demise. Probably not the best way to say that, but oh well. While the venom doesn't attack your blood or paralyze you, it does have some effects on the nervous system. It seems to target the brain, causing headaches, disorientation and wooziness. Some have said that it is like being drunk, losing sense of where you are at or how you are controlling your own body. Minutes after the initial injection, victims will experience cloudy thoughts and blurry vision. It will be subtle at first, with many people not even noticing it when it begins. As it ramps up, they grow more disoriented and uncontrolled, having a hard time getting their bearings or understanding what is going on. Some have even claimed brief memory loss, winding up in places and not knowing how they got there. The good news is that this venom is not long lasting, as their small size often means a tiny dose, which eventually is worked out through your body. The effects only last an hour, before fading away until you return to clarity. The bad news is that an hour of delirium can be quite the problem when you are out in the wilds. Sure, being out of it for a bit when you are at home is fine, but the untamed outdoors is not good place to be blundering about blindly. What usually happens is that the victim stumbles about randomly until they return to their senses, which causes them to wake up in a place they don't know. It is easy to get off track or waltz away from your trail, and your cloudy brain won't remember which way you went or where you are now. You just find yourself hopelessly lost or turned around, and at that point your survival depends on how good you are at recognizing your surroundings and regaining your bearings. In many cases, this isn't a deadly problem, as folks are close enough to civilization that they will eventually wander their way back to something recognizable. In worse scenarios, you are deep in unknown territory and have now walked far from your markers or camp. This is how well trained woodsmen and hunters can wind up vanishing into the wilderness, as one wrong step causes them to make stupid decisions and wind up far from safety. In the absolute worst case scenario, you never wake up to find yourself lost, because some other beast decided to eat you as you floundered about. I imagine a few creatures have found themselves an easy meal out of those who accidentally tangled with a Nettlelamb.

Now I know people are wondering, "hey, Chlora, have you ever stepped on a Nettlelamb? How did you get out of that situation?" Everyone figures that my many travels have caused me to encounter and experience every danger and disaster, so obviously I have dealt with one of these before. And I have, but not in the way you think. Recall that dryads have a pretty good tolerance to poisons and venoms, as they are usually designed for meaty beings and not plant folk. There are a few cases where they can still have the same effect on us, but it isn't common. The Nettlelamb does not cause the delirium in us, as our nervous system is too different. However, dryads do feel an effect from Nettlelamb venom. It seems like the design of this poison is close enough that it effects other parts of our brain, quite unintentionally! We don't feel disoriented or dizzy, instead dryads get hungry. For whatever reason, it appears that the venom hits the part of our brain that tells us when we are hungry and full, and causes it to think we are starving. Like the comparison to being drunk, our effect is that endless hunger you get when you are buzzed. Even with a full stomach, we are ravenous, tearing into any food we got and still looking for more. What tends to happen is overeating to the point of sickness, vomiting it all back up well before it is done digesting. While it doesn't make us get lost, it can lead us to depleting our rations quickly and making stupid decisions to get food. One dryad that was recovered from the wilderness wound up breaking her leg from scrambling up a tree after a squirrel. So desperate for food, that she thought she could snag one of those slippery critters with her bare hands! Another disastrous encounter had a group of hunters hike for three days into the wilderness for game, only to have one get poisoned and wind up eating all their food. With empty stomachs, they had a hard time concentrating to bring down any animals, and wound up stumbling back home half-starved. And as I mentioned, I too have accidentally stepped on a Nettlelamb. Thankfully, it was on the way back from an expedition, where I was so tired and eager to get back to civilization that I wasn't paying attention. At some point I got jabbed, so when I entered that quaint little village I was like a wild animal. That poor old man selling sausages never saw it coming, I hit that cart like a pack of wild dogs. To be fair, I did pay for them, but my manners while eating them were...rather sloppy. After some time the effects wore out, especially after emptying my stomach into the nearest latrine, and I was sure to apologize and compensate him for the incident. Thankfully, most people thought I was drunk or on something, so they let it slide rather easily.

So to avoid these dangerous, or embarrassing, scenarios, what should you do? Well, the biggest thing is to watch where you walk. Keep an eye on the ground at your feet and you may spot the Nettlelamb before you stomp them. The other thing you can do is have decent footwear. A sturdy pair of boots will prevent the spines from getting all the way through, while cheap or flimsy stuff will be punched through like paper. As for dryads, those with thicker bark may have a better chance of avoiding a puncture, while those with softer rinds are vulnerable. Even then, there is a chance one spine can find a chink in the armor and pierce right through. My bark is pretty decent, but apparently it hit just the right spot to stab one of my roots. Another thing to keep in mind is that if you aren't feeling good or feel that you are out of it, sit down and take a break. Don't trek on thinking it will wear off, as that is how you get in trouble. If that dizzy feeling kicks in, drop where you are at and rest. From the many stories we gathered about those who get poisoned, it seems that stopping your movements means a higher chance that your delirious self won't go much farther. In that state, a sitting person is more likely to fall asleep or blank out for a good long while, which means you will wake up in a more recognizable spot. If you don't want to end up as another person who "vanished into the wilderness" take this advice to heart.

Which brings to mind a really weird song that the human children would sing, it was about this creature but its been a long time since I heard it. It just goes to show you how even the smallest animal can make such an impact, to the point where it shows up in nursery rhymes. Now if only I could remember it! Seems kind of silly to bring up this piece of trivia and then not tell you folks the song! Oh, how did it go again? It was "Mary found a Nettlelamb, Nettlelamb, Nettlelamb" or wait, was it "Mary tramped a Nettlelamb?" Or maybe the word was "stomped?" Oh what a mess this is! Regardless, it was something like "Mary found a Nettlelamb, Nettlelamb, Nettlelamb" and then....something. Goodness, I am really getting a knot from this! Well, what I do know is that they say that part a lot, then one of those lines ends with "They only found her bones."

Chlora Myron

Dryad Natural Historian

------------------------------------------------------

This critter comes from a collaboration between Lediblock2 and me, where we looked to turn the mythical Stray Sod into an actual organism. I decided to sprinkle in some Hungry Grass while we were at it.

Description

When traveling out in the field and trudging through the wilds, one of the most important things to remember is to watch where you step. Now that may seem incredibly obvious to some, but you would be surprised how easy it is to forget! You may be careful and watchful one second, and then you see a rare bird flutter across the sky and your eyes cannot resist the sight! Or you hear the sound of trolls getting into a dispute right over the ridge line and you are desperate to reach it before the show is over, so you thoughtlessly scramble over the rocks! Or perhaps you are navigating the darkened tunnels of the Underworld and your demoness guide is holding you close so you don't get lost and you can't help but see her visage illuminated by the wonderful glow of the lightworms which totally happened to a colleague of mine back when they went to see the Underworld but that was a different time then when I went so I wasn't really there for that but I totally heard stories about it! Ha, wild! Crazy how that happens to people! Anyways, as you can see from the myriad of examples that other people went through that I happened to hear, it is quite easy to take your eyes off your footing and blunder into an incredible mess! You might step into a hidden hole and twist a leg, or misjudge your step and trip right onto your face! Such painful and embarrassing situations that could have been easily avoided by keeping your eyes on your roots.

Another good reason to do this is so that you keep an eye out for all the critters that live in the underbrush, the tiny beasts you don't even know are there. This is good advice, as it allows you to witness the small creatures that are so vital to this world but are so easily ignored. Some may scoff at the idea of being excited by rodents and bugs, as people only really care about the big beasts. I say that is a load of rot! Those who truly appreciate nature and the vast world of life around know that some of the greatest finds can be discovered beneath rocks and hidden in grassy burrows. Plus, having an eye and appreciation for the smaller world means you are always guaranteed to see something wonderful on every trip! I know some of my excursions have been saved from dullness by the sudden arrival of an amazing insect, sometimes found in my very tent! Days without seeing a thing and then suddenly a horned rainbow centipede is skittering right across the tent floor, as if it was a gift being delivered to me! It was a fascinating sight, though a little short lived because Eucella accidentally collapsed the tent in her clumsiness after I pointed out our wonderful guest. Though she was at least insistent on me finding the poor thing, refusing to step root even near the tent until I located it. I thought that was quite considerate, as she very much didn't want to step on the little fella. And that is another reason to watch your roots! You don't want to step on any poor creatures! How terrible would it be to crush a beautiful specimen and not even notice! What a waste! Come to study the wonderful animals and then you trample them into the dirt! In some cases, though, it is important not to step on them for your own safety. Spiny little critters or venomous serpents, neither are things you want to tread on. In this case, the thing you want to watch out for is the Nettlelamb. It is a small and harmless looking thing, but its not the one in danger if your root comes down on it.

The Nettlelamb is a gastropod, in fact, it seems to have a close relation to the Gardenbacks! Imagine that! One so big related to one so small! Crazy how the world works! Anyways, the Nettlelamb is a small slug-like creature, rarely growing over more than half a foot. It is found in places with lots of grassy vegetation, like your grasslands, prairies and fields. It crawls along the ground, blending in with the surrounding brush due to its green coloration. This camouflage helps keep it safe from predators, as they can't pick it out from the greenery that is all around. This allows it to merrily munch upon smaller bugs and invertebrates, like worms, without hardly a care. It also appears that it gets some nourishment from the sun, photosynthesizing just like its big cousins! However, it obviously needs to feed on some real food, as being that small means it is easy to wind up in the shade. At times, when food is scarce, they may crawl out into a bright patch of sunlight to soak it up, which can be dangerous. When out in the open like that, it is easier for enemies to spot them. Never fear, though, as the Nettlelamb doesn't rely on just camouflage!

When they feel threatened, the Nettlelamb will raise thin spines from its back. In a moment, they will turn from a harmless green slug into a patch of nasty barbs! These spikes are incredibly fine, but are in no way delicate. They may bend but they will not break, and they have a super sharp tip on their end. Think of them like needles, so thin and sharp that you may not even notice you got pricked. These are the weapons they brandish when something big dares get close to them, and it is quite the intimidating display! Sure, they don't look that bad at first, but would you take a bite out of something coated in pointy needles? Turns out, lots of creatures say no to this. Even more so when they learn that these spines are venomous! A single puncture will send a dose of venom right into the body, and nobody wants that! So needless to say, not a lot of things mess with a Nettlelamb. At least, not on purpose...

As small venomous creatures, many would think that they are hardly an issue to beings like humans and dryads. Just teach people not to touch them or eat them, and all is well! Unfortunately, it isn't that easy. As I said, they live in grassy areas, and hide within the vegetation. They won't invade your house to torment you, but they will become a problem if you blunder into theirs. Their size and camouflage makes them hard to see, which results in folk getting quite close to these venomous little things. When they sense a disturbance, those spines go up and they try to scare off this approaching foe. However, these barbs are thin and green, causing them to look like grass. So when a Nettlelamb goes on the defensive, they wind up blending in even more with their surroundings. So what happens is that the ignorant traveler doesn't even see them and winds up bringing their foot down right onto the poor creatures. Thankfully, their squishy mollusk nature means they have no bones or exoskeleton to break, and a flexible anatomy means they can survive a light flattening. What isn't so good is that their thin sharp needles are now being pressed down upon, which means at least one of them is piercing the unwary traveler. These spines are so fine, that they can go through thin leather and rinds, with the walker not even being aware of the attack. You hardly feel the puncture, so it is easy to miss when your mind is elsewhere. They stab right through when you step down, then slide right out when you pick your foot back up. You won't notice thing, perhaps a faint sting you might attribute to weary feet. However, it won't be long before you notice something is off, and by that point it is too late to stop it.

The first thing I want to tell my probably frightened readers is that the venom of the Nettlelamb is not lethal. Be reassured in that fact. Stepping on one won't kill you, but it may cause issues that may lead to an untimely demise. Probably not the best way to say that, but oh well. While the venom doesn't attack your blood or paralyze you, it does have some effects on the nervous system. It seems to target the brain, causing headaches, disorientation and wooziness. Some have said that it is like being drunk, losing sense of where you are at or how you are controlling your own body. Minutes after the initial injection, victims will experience cloudy thoughts and blurry vision. It will be subtle at first, with many people not even noticing it when it begins. As it ramps up, they grow more disoriented and uncontrolled, having a hard time getting their bearings or understanding what is going on. Some have even claimed brief memory loss, winding up in places and not knowing how they got there. The good news is that this venom is not long lasting, as their small size often means a tiny dose, which eventually is worked out through your body. The effects only last an hour, before fading away until you return to clarity. The bad news is that an hour of delirium can be quite the problem when you are out in the wilds. Sure, being out of it for a bit when you are at home is fine, but the untamed outdoors is not good place to be blundering about blindly. What usually happens is that the victim stumbles about randomly until they return to their senses, which causes them to wake up in a place they don't know. It is easy to get off track or waltz away from your trail, and your cloudy brain won't remember which way you went or where you are now. You just find yourself hopelessly lost or turned around, and at that point your survival depends on how good you are at recognizing your surroundings and regaining your bearings. In many cases, this isn't a deadly problem, as folks are close enough to civilization that they will eventually wander their way back to something recognizable. In worse scenarios, you are deep in unknown territory and have now walked far from your markers or camp. This is how well trained woodsmen and hunters can wind up vanishing into the wilderness, as one wrong step causes them to make stupid decisions and wind up far from safety. In the absolute worst case scenario, you never wake up to find yourself lost, because some other beast decided to eat you as you floundered about. I imagine a few creatures have found themselves an easy meal out of those who accidentally tangled with a Nettlelamb.

Now I know people are wondering, "hey, Chlora, have you ever stepped on a Nettlelamb? How did you get out of that situation?" Everyone figures that my many travels have caused me to encounter and experience every danger and disaster, so obviously I have dealt with one of these before. And I have, but not in the way you think. Recall that dryads have a pretty good tolerance to poisons and venoms, as they are usually designed for meaty beings and not plant folk. There are a few cases where they can still have the same effect on us, but it isn't common. The Nettlelamb does not cause the delirium in us, as our nervous system is too different. However, dryads do feel an effect from Nettlelamb venom. It seems like the design of this poison is close enough that it effects other parts of our brain, quite unintentionally! We don't feel disoriented or dizzy, instead dryads get hungry. For whatever reason, it appears that the venom hits the part of our brain that tells us when we are hungry and full, and causes it to think we are starving. Like the comparison to being drunk, our effect is that endless hunger you get when you are buzzed. Even with a full stomach, we are ravenous, tearing into any food we got and still looking for more. What tends to happen is overeating to the point of sickness, vomiting it all back up well before it is done digesting. While it doesn't make us get lost, it can lead us to depleting our rations quickly and making stupid decisions to get food. One dryad that was recovered from the wilderness wound up breaking her leg from scrambling up a tree after a squirrel. So desperate for food, that she thought she could snag one of those slippery critters with her bare hands! Another disastrous encounter had a group of hunters hike for three days into the wilderness for game, only to have one get poisoned and wind up eating all their food. With empty stomachs, they had a hard time concentrating to bring down any animals, and wound up stumbling back home half-starved. And as I mentioned, I too have accidentally stepped on a Nettlelamb. Thankfully, it was on the way back from an expedition, where I was so tired and eager to get back to civilization that I wasn't paying attention. At some point I got jabbed, so when I entered that quaint little village I was like a wild animal. That poor old man selling sausages never saw it coming, I hit that cart like a pack of wild dogs. To be fair, I did pay for them, but my manners while eating them were...rather sloppy. After some time the effects wore out, especially after emptying my stomach into the nearest latrine, and I was sure to apologize and compensate him for the incident. Thankfully, most people thought I was drunk or on something, so they let it slide rather easily.

So to avoid these dangerous, or embarrassing, scenarios, what should you do? Well, the biggest thing is to watch where you walk. Keep an eye on the ground at your feet and you may spot the Nettlelamb before you stomp them. The other thing you can do is have decent footwear. A sturdy pair of boots will prevent the spines from getting all the way through, while cheap or flimsy stuff will be punched through like paper. As for dryads, those with thicker bark may have a better chance of avoiding a puncture, while those with softer rinds are vulnerable. Even then, there is a chance one spine can find a chink in the armor and pierce right through. My bark is pretty decent, but apparently it hit just the right spot to stab one of my roots. Another thing to keep in mind is that if you aren't feeling good or feel that you are out of it, sit down and take a break. Don't trek on thinking it will wear off, as that is how you get in trouble. If that dizzy feeling kicks in, drop where you are at and rest. From the many stories we gathered about those who get poisoned, it seems that stopping your movements means a higher chance that your delirious self won't go much farther. In that state, a sitting person is more likely to fall asleep or blank out for a good long while, which means you will wake up in a more recognizable spot. If you don't want to end up as another person who "vanished into the wilderness" take this advice to heart.

Which brings to mind a really weird song that the human children would sing, it was about this creature but its been a long time since I heard it. It just goes to show you how even the smallest animal can make such an impact, to the point where it shows up in nursery rhymes. Now if only I could remember it! Seems kind of silly to bring up this piece of trivia and then not tell you folks the song! Oh, how did it go again? It was "Mary found a Nettlelamb, Nettlelamb, Nettlelamb" or wait, was it "Mary tramped a Nettlelamb?" Or maybe the word was "stomped?" Oh what a mess this is! Regardless, it was something like "Mary found a Nettlelamb, Nettlelamb, Nettlelamb" and then....something. Goodness, I am really getting a knot from this! Well, what I do know is that they say that part a lot, then one of those lines ends with "They only found her bones."

Chlora Myron

Dryad Natural Historian

------------------------------------------------------

This critter comes from a collaboration between Lediblock2 and me, where we looked to turn the mythical Stray Sod into an actual organism. I decided to sprinkle in some Hungry Grass while we were at it.