Man Eater

These grow out of the walls and floors of the underground jungle rather than walking in, so one is already in position before you arrive and there is nothing to trigger or summon. Each is a stalk rooted to a block with a biting head on the end, and the head is the only part that exists as far as combat is concerned. You can stand inside the stalk, walk through it and swing at it as long as you like with nothing happening in either direction. The root block cannot be mined out from under it either, so pulling the floor away is not an escape.

The head moves through terrain, ignores knockback, and whips around fast enough that landing a slow melee swing on it is genuinely awkward. Something with reach, or a projectile you do not have to place precisely, is far less irritating.

It has two ranges and swaps between them on its own schedule, not in response to anything you do. The longer state runs for about half as long as the shorter one but stretches noticeably further. That is exactly why someone who carefully backed off to what looked like a safe distance still gets bitten a few seconds later. Assume whatever range you just watched was the short one and give it more room than seems necessary. In for the worthy and zenith worlds both states reach further still and the head moves faster on top of that.

The Snatcher up in the jungle canopy looks nearly identical and behaves the same way, but it reaches barely half as far and drops nothing you want. This one carries vines and the ancient cobalt pieces, so if either is the goal you need to be under the jungle rather than in it. The tell at a glance is color: a brownish pink stalk with a red cast along the jaw here, plain green above ground.

• Setting one on fire makes it thrash unpredictably while glowing, and the moving light regularly exposes cave openings you had walked straight past.
• The stalk is brown and it still drops green vines.
• Its own bestiary entry claims an Angry Trapper is what one becomes after it has eaten enough.