| Class: | Animate Plant |
| Hab: | Arid wastes |
| Fre: | Uncommon |
| Num: | 3-18 or by culture |
| Lair: | 30% |
| Size: | 2-8' diameter coils 6-15' long |
| Move: | Horse-fast |
| Def: | Tough skin armored by interlaced thorns |
| Att: | Spines = multiple dagger attacks |
| Int: | Basic beast |
| Spec: | 10% have envenomed spines |
| Posns: | Cores make very strong, supple wooden springs |
These cacti are mobile plants, just a step below having a sufficiently complex nervous system to be considered a true vegimal. Rolling coil cacti move in a spiral laying horizontally on the ground; they look rather like Caltrop Worms, which SEE. They roll about the desert by shifting their weight internally by means of a sophisticated hydrostatic vascular system. Their spines provide excellent traction; the coil cacti have no difficulty perusing prey up slopes.
Rolling coil cacti hunt in widely dispersed packs of 4-13 (D10+3). When one member of the pack senses prey, it alters the rest. (They communicate by clicking thorns together, producing sharp snaps or clicks.) They circle around so they can attack from all sides.
Seedlings grow as vertical twists until they are large enough to roll effectively. When a mature coil grows too tall to support its vertical weight, the upper part breaks off, the separate pieces growing and propagating as clones.
| Class: | Vegimal |
| Hab: | Arid wastes |
| Fre: | Uncommon |
| Num: | Large: 3-18 / Small: 10-100 |
| Lair: | 10% in shade or watering hole |
| Size: | Large: 8'-12' tall, 200-300 lbs., small 5' tall, 50-100 lbs. |
| Move: | Very fast springing hop; leap 10 x height |
| Def: | Agile, very tough skin |
| Att: | Wraps prey in coils studded with many dagger-like spines |
| Int: | Basic beast |
| Spec: | Hypodermic spines exsanguinate victims |
| Posns: | Water-rich slimy sap inside + Cores for strong, supple springs |
Between constriction, the cutting of its spines, and weakening the prey by exsanguinations, the spring-sproing soon reduces even hearty prey to a limp corpse. Happily, the spring-sproing has a limited appetite; it will only drain a volume of body fluids of "hit point value" equal to its own hit points. Satiated, it then releases its prey and bounces away, letting the prey to recover and be caught again another day.
Spring-sproings hunt in small groups of 2 to 7. Should they encounter prey in greater numbers, they will bounce off in different directions to summon their kin; soon, spring-sproings will been seen on all sides, traveling in parallel to the prospective prey - and hemming it in, guiding it towards a good hunting area. Only when the spring-sproings outnumber the prey (generally by 2 to 7) do they attack. Note that they will consider vehicles as well as Folk and pack animals as targets; they aren't very bright.
The sap of the spring-sproing is an invigorating tonic, so effective that, drunk fresh, it can speed healing.
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