These creatures are a strange crossbreed between flora and fauna. Whilst their general anatomy is similar to that of a plant, they are capable of scavenging, hunting, and defending themselves much like any animal is able to.

Their physical appearance varies wildly between different individuals, but this is likely due to their reproductive methods. Despite this, there are distinct features that will identify them from other creatures.

Internally, they lack most organs, only having a heart and a stomach. This highly simplistic anatomy allows them to sustain heavy injury without succumbing to death. They do have a sap-like blood that flows through their body, that is of a royal purple colour.

Externally, they have purple and black flesh, with thorns often covering most of their body. Heads will be on long necks, although the length of these necks will vary. Their heads will consist of little more than a pointed snout with a mouth filled with sharp teeth. Legs will have tree root-esque feet with the roots being dexterous like fingers or tendrils.

These creatures, despite their appearance, are quite fearful and skittish in nature. They are scavengers, and will not hunt prey unless needed. They will also avoid conflict where possible, but will attack when sufficiently threatened.

If provoked into an attack, they will be ferocious and unrelenting, not letting up until their attacker is dead. They will forgo limbs, heads, and significant portions of their body if needed, only letting up when they feel no longer threatened.

These creatures have an extreme healing capability, although this seems to come at a cost. When healing from injury, these creatures show a high risk of mutation. This results in distorted appearances, extra limbs, longer limbs, extra necks and heads, or even jaws on their body and limbs. This often doesn’t hinder the creature in it’s movement or capabilities, and often can give it a combat advantage.

The only way to properly kill the Vineyard is to destroy the seed that works as it’s heart. This is often a challenge though, as the outer flesh of the seed petrifies during maturation into a durable shell. If removed, then the seed can take over the flesh of another creature, or metabolise plant matter around it to eventually build a new body.

It’s flesh and sap are highly toxic to most forms of life, both flora and fauna. Packed full of herbicides and neurotoxins, attacking the creature is most likely to result in death for most animals or plants. It’s flesh is also bitter in nature, and the sap is a sickly sweet flavour, also deterring predators. The spines over it’s body are also fragile, breaking off easily to embed in the flesh of attackers to inject these toxins more directly.

Despite this, seasonally the creature will produce fruit upon it’s body that will drop off when ripe. These fruits are a rich purple and have a pleasant aroma. They are sweet and juicy, being quite appealing to eat. They are however, quite dangerous to eat when raw.

These seeds will release spores into any creature that consumes them. These spores will make their way into the blood stream, then infest the heart. Over time, the heart will enlarge, slowly changing in nature until it becomes a seed, the seed of the Necrotic Vineyard. This seed will then petrify the outer flesh to build it’s shell, ensuring it’s survival.