World: Alfheim
Diet: Small animals
Height: 3’7″ (including flower stalk)
Lifespan: 20 years
Habitat: Meadows
Activity Cycle: Diurnal
Yamblers are a common sight in any flowering meadow, but most people never realize that they saw one. This is because the only part of the creature that is visible is its lure, resembling any ordinary flower. Small herbivores who come near trigger the sensitive creature below, which uses a burst of magic to briefly turn the soil above into liquid so that their prey sinks right into their waiting jaws. With a single meal, the creature can be satisfied for several months, lying dormant under the earth. Anything that cannot be swallowed in a single bite is usually rejected, the root creature squirming deeper to avoid retaliation. Being largely harmless to any sapient being larger than your average rabbit, they are often allowed to grow in gardens and fields to defend against pests.
Although they have a flower and are mostly plantlike in anatomy, yamglers don’t reproduce via pollination. Instead, infants grow on the bodies of their mother root. After splitting free, they spend 2 years as fully mobile creatures, swimming in the earth and hunting small digging animals. Only after this do they firmly plant themselves in one location from which they will never move again. While they are born reasonably clever and curious, adults only retain the barest minimum of a brain for responding to basic feeding stimuli.
