A ravenous predator of marshlands and tidal pools, kelpies are carnivorous plants that are saturated with magical energies, only being able to grow or take root in areas of naturally high background magic. Using powerful illustions, as well as an innate ability to somewhat change their shape, kelpies will appear to be a being in distress—usually an attractive member of the opposite sex, an elder or youngster, but sometimes an animal or pet.

Once within arm’s reach, the kelpie will lash out with a leaf or stem coated with a sticky secretion that serves as both a trap and a powerful digestive acid. A victim so consumed will have its memories and personality made available to the kelpie, allowing them to become more effectice mimics with time. In one instance, the Muir Moor Tragedy, a single kelpie was able to wipe out all but one member of a Lower Verge village by mimicking each of its victims in turn.

In their investigations, the Collegium has found that kelpies are intelligent and capable of conversation, but appear generally disinterested in communication unless there is the possibility of a meal. Collegister Au’Brin was only able to obtain answers to simple questions by repeatedly placing himself into peril, with the kelpie ignoring him and his entreaties unless it seemed like he might be slain and consumed. From this can be gathered that kelpie intelligence came about primarily as a hunting tool, with the creatures being tempermentally unable—or perhaps consciously unwilling—to use it for anything but predation.

The keeping of cultivated “interrogator kelpies,” once common, has largely ceased due to the difficulty of extracting reliable information once a victim has been slain and digested.

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