| Class: | Symbiont Fungus of plants |
| Hab: | Any vegetated area |
| Fre: | Uncommon |
| Num: | Innumerable in area |
| Lair: | 100%; sessile |
| Size: | Permeates area; exposed hoops 6" to 3' in width; "giant:" 5'-20' |
| Move: | None; sessile |
| Def: | Tough as any hardwood, main "body" is safe underground / inside tree roots |
| Att: | Tripping loops - w-a-a-a-y trippy, man, if combined with hallucinogenics |
| Int: | None |
| Spec: | Unlikely, or, it constitutes a "special" for the plants it infects |
| Posns: | Possibly incidental |
Hoop-hook is not particular plant but a fungal infection or symbiont that affects all the larger plants in an area. Hoop-hook groves are notable for the way the ground is broken by innumerable loops of heavy roots, thrust up above the surface. When walking slowly and carefully watching one's feet, it is no great achievement to set ones foot between the woody hoops and proceed through such a grove, but should one look up or have to run, a foot it sure to be caught, and he who would have sped away is instead hurled to the ground, bruised and vulnerable.
In some areas, the older hoop-hooks have grown immense, forming great arches of smooth wood (often strangely elegant in Fairywoods) or snarled labyrinths of gnarled root (perfect for a "Maze" spell-trap barrier "moat;" add "Animate Plant (Fungus)" for additional trouble.)
If cultivated as a barrier, hoop-hook swaths may be "enhanced" with funguses or flowers that release hallucinogens; as trespassers stumble, they become disoriented, dazed and confused. Easy prey.
Needless to say, fighting in such a terrain is more a comedic buffoonery than a dramatic danger; it just might be easier to go around, over, or under a hoop-hook grove than to try to force ones way through. Which is the whole idea.
The hoop-hook effect on the plants' roots usually includes their underground extensions into caves and tunnels as well, with effects similar to their above ground hoops but with the hoops protruding from the ceiling and walls of the subterranean space.
Wise herb-women say the roots crave air, and breathe, making their parent trees and shrubs to grow with greater ease.
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