ECOLOGY

Environment temperate marshes or rivers
Organization solitary, pair, or clutch (2–7)

Kawa akagos are plants that were spiritually fertilized by fragments of the restless spirits of drowned children, becoming carnivorous creatures that inhabit marshes and riversides. They resemble lily pads with a mouthlike opening guarded by fibrous strands like those of a flytrap plant. A kawa akago's gourdlike skin ranges from maroon to crimson when it is well fed, but more often, creatures encounter a kawa akago when it is hungry. In this case, it instead takes on the same hue as other lilypads in the area, usually an innocuous green.

Carnivorous and cunning, kawa akagos hunt riverbanks and waterways for both animals and travelers on which to feed. Kawa akagos' thorn-tipped fangs excrete a paininducing sap that mimics the feeling of intense, burning heat. Though they prefer to fight in water, kawa akagos usually ambush from land, using their dangerous sap to drive would-be prey toward the nearby rivers or streams that will soothe the painful effects of their fangs. Once the victim immerses itself, the plant creatures swarm their target if attacking in numbers, or a single plant strikes from the depths to wear down the victim. Although a kawa akago has no respiratory system, it's body is rife with pockets it can fill with air and expel as necessary. This network of hollow chambers allows the creature to speak on the rare occasions it wishes to communicate, and is the source of the creature's terrible wail, which is capable of breaking bones and shattering glass. The sound is often described as similar to the simultaneous mournful cries of a dozen children in serious distress.

Blood Lily

While ordinary kawa akagos feed on any prey that pass by, some kawa akagos that remain engorged with the blood and flesh of sentient creatures for a long period of time become blood lilies. Blood lilies are much larger and are red at all times. They crave the blood of sentient creatures above all other food, and their alignment changes to neutral evil. They gain the advanced and giant simple templates as well as the psychic magic ability, with spells that vary but generally include magic that can lure their desired prey into their waiting maws.

Particularly tenacious blood lilies that continue to feed on sentient creatures may evolve further, gaining greater powers and even class levels. Fortunately, most blood lilies overstep themselves before that point and are destroyed by prey that proves too much for the plants to handle.