Farmswatter's Cacti

Description

Plants kept inside H.G. Farmswatter's waggon at the market. Two forms have been observed:

The small cacti — four small, unpotted cacti, each two to three feet tall, which appear to be pulsating. They move when not directly observed ("like the Weeping Angels but plants"): look away, and they reposition to surround you. They attack physically — a hit hurts far more than a cactus should — and spray clouds of needles. They could not be fooled by eyes drawn on an object to imply they were being watched. (Can they sense sentience?) They reminded Ms March of "some corn she once saw."

The giant cactus ("Mother") — an eight-foot-tall cactus with a pulsating red flower at its centre that looks like a human heart opened and peeled back. It sits in a tub/vat containing offal, blood, and guts, and gives off a strong rotting-meat smell. It can fire spines through the air as a ranged attack (one struck Ms March in the neck for 2 Harm; a second later split the first). Farmswatter called it "Mother" and fed it his own blood. Under heavy fleshy armour that only alcohol can strip; when its armour is gone it can be killed by gunfire. It can reproduce — a baby cactus emerged from a writhing human hand in the vat when the mother was threatened. When damaged it releases a red powdery mist (see below).

The cacti wick moisture from their surroundings: anyone near the waggon feels an unnatural, desert-beating thirst, and Alfie noticed he had stopped sweating entirely in their presence. The tonic Farmswatter sold does the same to whoever drinks it — the source of the town's thirst.

The red mist — when damaged, the plants emit the same red powdery spore mist as the red algae. Only those who had drunk the tonic are vulnerable to it (Alfie inhaled it; Cuthbert and Ms March, who abstained, were immune). Its effect is euphoria — colours brighten, people feel love/trust/affection — sliding into weeping suggestibility.

Combat Notes

Notes

• Found inside H.G. Farmswatter's waggon — the four small cacti in the front workshop (among glass vials and distilling machinery), the giant cactus behind a curtain in a back room locked with chainlink
• The giant cactus's vat of offal, blood, and guts is the source of the rotting-meat smell Alfie traced from outside the waggon
• The whole team felt an unnatural thirst near the market and waggon this session — worse than ordinary desert thirst
• The tonic is the tie: Farmswatter's "Miracle Cure" wicks moisture from drinkers (the town's thirst) and leaves them vulnerable to the red mist. Only tonic-drinkers were affected by the spores
• Farmswatter said he got the mother from "the blessed desert"
• Session 10 — the origin, from the reanimated Farmswatter: the plants came from a grove on a ledge on a mountainside near the mining village, which he marked on a map. He was alone in the grove
• There is a hum at the grove — "It had a pull, a pulse." When Farmswatter demonstrated it, Doctor Webb recognised it as the hum from his recurring nightmare, the same hum reported deep in the mine
• Farmswatter first tasted the tonic at the grove itself, tested it on himself, felt better, and experimented from there
• The mother was fed human corpses. Having researched carnivorous plants, Farmswatter first tried insects — unsuccessfully — then guessed the cactus wanted flesh, and dug up bodies from a cemetery to feed it. It grew stronger on human meat
• Under the microscope (Session 10): the red cells in the cactus flesh and juice latch onto, and manipulate, other cells. Doctor Webb reads this behaviour as extraterrestrial — the same conclusion he reached about the red algae
• Alcohol counteracts the spores and the cacti — confirmed sufficiently for Ms March to build a permanent moonshine supply, and for her to test and distribute protective bandanas as a secondary precaution
• Farmswatter's specimens were destroyed in Session 9: whiskey stripped the mother's armour; the party destroyed the mother (Doctor Webb's bullseye), the baby it birthed (Ms March), and every small cactus (Alfie's machete, Buck/Colt's rifle, Ms March). Farmswatter freed the last cacti before he died
• Session 11 — the grove is still growing. The party reached the grove and found fifteen cacti: eight normal sized and seven medium sized bearing the flower the team has seen before.
• Session 11 — they react to blood. Cuthbert cut himself with his sword while clearing sand; his blood dripped into the soil and three tiny cacti moved towards him and fired spines, startling him but causing no harm. They did not interact with him again once he had returned to the cart
• Session 11 — the roots. Doctor Webb dug up the root system and found the cacti are a plant hybrid infestation. Their roots are covered in the red fibre previously seen on Bart Fletchley's corn
• Session 11 — the plant's purpose. It is attempting to take root and alter the environment
• The party raised the question of whether the wolves interacted with the spore somehow — by eating a rabbit which had eaten the infected corn
• The fifteen cacti at the grove were left standing when the party rode on to the mining village

Session Appearances

Quotes