These patches of tangled, lacy moss cling to the ceiling, slowly pulsing with an eerie glow. Their stems gently writhe among the soft, feathery mass, dusting the ground below with a twinkling of phosphorescent spores.
Plant Carnivore. Cavelight moss glows with a pale yellow light, but when agitated, its light changes to an icy blue. Cavelight moss is frequently mistaken for a benign organism, but it hunts living flesh and renders its meals immobile before starting the long process of digestion.
A cavelight moss is a collective of smaller life forms patched together and sharing sensations. Barely cognitive, a cavelight moss spends its time positioning itself above well-traveled sections of cavern, feeding on rats, bats, and crawling insects. When it senses larger prey, it slowly and quietly moves toward the creature.
Long-Lived Spores. A cavelight moss can survive for 200 years, shedding luminous spores and consuming vermin. Its spores germinate in the carcasses of its victims, and in lean times, these spores can grow, albeit slowly, on guano or other areas rich in moisture and organic nutrients.
Rare Colonies. If a cave system has no true protectors and food is plentiful, these creatures congregate—most commonly, in bat colonies of millions of individuals. When they gather this way, cavelight mosses function as a large colony, covering strategic locations where prey roams. When a source of food moves on, the entire colony slowly disperses as well.
Cavelight Moss
Large plant, neutralArmor Class 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points 95 (10d10 + 40)
Speed 5 ft., climb 5 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 (+7) | 10 (+0) | 18 (+4) | 1 (-5) | 13 (+1) | 5 (-3) |
Damage Resistances acid, cold, fire; slashing from nonmagical weapons
Condition Immunities charmed, deafened, frightened, paralyzed, prone, stunned, unconscious
Senses tremorsense 60 ft., passive Perception 11
Languages —
Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)
Luminescence. The chemicals within cavelight moss make the entire creature shed light as a torch. A cavelight moss cannot suppress this effect. It can, however, diminish the light produced to shed illumination as a candle.
Actions
Tendrils. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 33 (4d12 + 7) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a creature, it is grappled (escape DC 17). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the cavelight moss can’t use its tendrils against another target.
Strength Drain. Living creatures hit by the cavelight moss’s tendril attack or caught up in its grapple must make a successful DC 14 Constitution saving throw or 1 level of exhaustion. Creatures that succeed are immune to that particular cavelight moss’s Strength Drain ability for 24 hours. For every level of exhaustion drained, the cavelight moss gains 5 temporary hit points.