May’s Marvellous Magical Mantraps

May’s would be best described as quaint. If you didn’t know it was there, you might miss it, tucked down a small side street just off of the Hawkins Bazaar. To those not in the know, May’s looks like a florist, and I suppose it is. She does sell flowers and plants from every one of the founding civilizations. But that’s not the unique selling point of May’s Marvellous Magical Mantraps. Mays specializes in carnivorous plants, specifically mantraps. But not just any mantraps, guard mantraps.   With the help of her wife Cody, May figured out a way to magically bind a mantrap to a creature. Before they plant the bulb, Cody performs a magical ritual that allows the mantrap to form a blood tie with up to 8 creatures at once. This ritual also inhibits the mantrap’s size until the bond is formed and a command word is spoken. Likewise, when the command word is spoken a second time, the bond is broken and the mantrap shrinks back down to the size of a mundane house plant.   May sells these mantraps for the low price of 50gp but always makes sure her “babies” are going to a good home. Potential customers must correctly answer a few choice questions first (DC10 Nature Check). A lot of her customers use the mantraps like you would a guard dog. That said, with crime being so low in the Citadel, May doesn’t have many customers within the Citadel itself. Most of her clientele come from one of the founding civilizations.  

How the Magical Mantraps Work

To begin with, the mantraps appear as regular potted plants or miniature harmless versions of mantraps. However, they have the potential to become formidable once up to 8 creatures bond with them. To bond with the mantrap, each creature must provide a drop of their blood and speak the plant’s specific command word. May will provide the command word upon purchasing the plant, as each mantrap has its own unique word.   Once the command word is spoken, the plant will rapidly grow to the size of a fully matured mantrap. It remains stationary unless it needs to pursue an adversary, and it will consider anyone who has fed it blood as an ally. However, it will perceive everyone else as an enemy or potential meal. May designed these plants as deterrents, which is why she suppressed their Attractive Pollen ability.