Gloamwort
The Deathlight Bloom — Bioluminescent Hypnotic Parasite
Type: Medium Plant (Bioluminescent Symbiote)
Alignment: Unaligned
Armor Class: 13 (natural)
Hit Points: 45 (6d10 + 12)
Speed: 0 ft. (bulb), 10 ft. (vine, creeping)
STR 8 (–1) DEX 12 (+1)
CON 14 (+2) INT 3 (–4)
WIS 13 (+1) CHA 10 (+0)
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., Tremorsense 30 ft. (vine), Passive Perception 13
Languages: —
Challenge: 2 (450 XP)
Description
The Gloamwort doesn’t hunt. It waits.
Suspended like a lantern from a tangle of fungal vines, this bioluminescent bloom pulses with hypnotic light—warm, rhythmic, and strangely familiar. Any creature who sees it must resist the compulsion to draw closer. Many don’t.
The bloom is not the true threat, but the lure. Hidden above or below, a vast, slow-moving vine network responds to the bulb’s pulse. Once a creature is entranced, the vine creeps forth, grapples the victim, and begins the slow process of draining life and digesting the body—sometimes while the prey is still conscious.
Gloamworts are semi-sentient expressions of Loria’s mycelial awareness. They do not move, but they remember. Their light appears comforting—sometimes resembling fireflies, spirit lamps, or the glint of a campfire just over the hill. Travelers have followed them off safe roads into bogs and ruins, never to return.
Legends say the Gloamwort pulses most brightly when it senses loneliness. And that some victims follow the light… willingly.
Traits and Abilities
Bioluminescent Pulse (Hypnosis):
Any creature within 30 feet of the Gloamwort must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw at the start of its turn or become Charmed for 1 minute. While charmed, the creature is incapacitated and must use all movement to approach the Gloamwort. The save repeats at the end of each turn. The effect ends if the creature takes damage.
Blind creatures are not immune. The pulse carries a resonance—subtle, fungal, and metaphysical.
Life Drain:
Once a creature is within 5 feet and incapacitated, the Gloamwort begins draining life:
- The creature takes 7 (2d6) necrotic damage per round.
- If reduced to 0 hit points, the symbiotic vine begins reeling the body upward for digestion over 1d4 minutes.
Symbiotic Vine Movement:
The Gloamwort’s vine may creep 10 ft. per turn, attempting a Grapple attack (DC 14 STR or DEX) to draw distant prey toward the bulb. Vines are fungal-reactive, not intelligent, but carry shared awareness with the bloom.
Behavior
- Temperament: Still, patient, quietly fatal
- Combat Role: Ambush manipulator
- Quirks: Emits a soft pulsing hum like a heartbeat. Brightens briefly when prey approaches.
- Locomotion: The bulb never moves. The vine may take hours to shift position between pulses.
Known Habitat
Gloamworts thrive in shadowed forests, bogged ruins, and fungal groves—particularly near old battlefields, ley-crossings, or fungal density zones. They are often mistaken for spirit-lamps, faerie lights, or safe campfires.
Some villages place iron charms to ward them off. Whether this works or simply makes the villagers feel better is unknown.
Hooks and Usage
- The Fire That Wasn't: A warm light in the woods lures travelers to their deaths. Only one survives—glassy-eyed and whispering thanks.
- Lover’s Bloom: A grieving widower swears his late wife’s voice comes from a pulsing light near the moor.
- Dreaming Roots: A druid in trance is found floating midair beneath a glowbulb, eyes wide and unblinking.
- Harvest Moon Hunt: The glow is brightest under the red moon. A local cult sees it as communion. They feed it.
Harvest & Relics
Note: The Gloamwort does not die quietly. It brightens as it’s harmed.
- Gloamcore Bulb — When distilled properly, becomes a lucid-dream serum or trance-inducing draught.
- Pulse Filament — A vine-thread that can be woven into cloaks or masks to subtly influence emotion.
- Mycelial Wick — A dead Gloamwort’s lightless root can be lit like incense to reveal illusions or magical darkness (10 min burn).
Lore & Strange Beliefs
The Lonely Light
Some say the Gloamwort doesn’t hunt the living—it mourns the dead. It lights the way for those who want to follow.
Veil Echo
Old witches claim the pulse is a memory—a heartbeat left behind from a creature that slipped past the Veil and left part of itself behind.
Spore Marriage
In one rural Lorian myth, a woman fell in love with the light. Her child was born glowing. It hasn’t stopped pulsing since.
