2025 Sep 17: Bramble Men

Created by the Wood Elves, Bramble men are strange masses of thorny vegetation in a vaguely humanoid shape, that can move around and follow simple orders. They are used most often as guardians of the forests, ordered to attack anyone who dares enter without the permission of their makers. 

I combat Bramble Men can be unexpectedly fearsome, as they can uncoil the thorny vines making up their arms to strike their foes from a respectable distance. These same vines can also be used to grab their opponents and drag them closer. Once close enough the Bramble Man can engulf its victim, killing them with a thousand small puncture wounds. Bramble Men are fond of attacking the eyes and ears of their victims, using their thorns to blind and deafen them. Those trying to strike them in melee will soon find that the thorny vines can unravel and strike back at any foolish enough to stay too close.

 While Bramble Men are mute, there is some indication that they are quite intelligent. The scholar Amnarak-Rau, whom the Wood Elves of Caeledor named their sap-sibling, wrote that when nobody is nearby, Bramble Men often stare at the clouds, stack stones in strange patterns, or even play gently with young animals, miraculously without hurting them. Amnarak-Rau even records instances of Bramble Men digging up flowers, and planting them between the vines making up their "head", as a sort of living flower crown.