Red Meadows

 A sweet smell drifts on the breeze. The trees part to reveal a red stained scar across the forest, spreading far in either direction: tall grass--bobbing lazily in the breeze. All is quiet until a wild goat ventures forth from the tree-line to graze. One step, then two, into the tall grass. It bleats in satisfaction, lowers it's head to feed, and for a moment all is well. 

A struggle, and a cry.

The goat is pulled to the ground, writhing, bleating in fear. Then silence.

This is no ordinary grass. It is the grasping-grass, the choking-weed, blood-barley--dyed red with the life of it's victims. It draws them in, and it feeds. 

Commentary

Science-fiction art is full of depictions of planets with wild and unnatural colors. Most recently, I think it was a piece for No Man's Sky that stuck in my mind. Red grass is just so delightfully alien. I wanted to infuse a fantasy world with a dash of that strangeness.

On another occasion, I was thinking about Forestcrawls and was pondering about interesting hazards that would feel at home in a forest setting. I thought of glades of tall, innocent looking grass that would wrap around you like choking vines and pull you down into the soil. 

These two ideas seemed to fit well together, and the result feels quite versatile. A splash of red grass in a forest makes a meaningful obstacle, and a vast sea of red (I think the Wizard of Oz might have contributed to this image as well) makes for a great hex or pointcrawl feature--I imagine such a meadow blocking the path for miles in all directions, and a ferryman helming a pedal-driven cart with huge wagon wheels to hold the chassis and passengers above the grass...

Oh, also red grass is apparently a real thing. Neat!

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