Snares

A snare is something us humans see as an innovative way to secure sustenance when stranded in the woods; a basic means of survival. The Snare being discussed today is something foreign… something hungry.

Snares are a type of plant from a different world, stranded here along with all the other Supernatural entities surrounding us. Even to those of us with The Sight, a Snare looks just like a normal tree. However, there are signs we can look for. They are common along sparsely used walking trails, often deep in the woods. Trails that are maintained maybe once or twice a year, and they have even less foot traffic. A Snare needs enough human prey to sustain it, but not enough that they begin to notice when people begin to go missing. They appear intelligent, but they have as much sentience as a common tree. They are truly a pinnacle of magical evolution.

The way a Snare operates is similar to how a human would set a snare. There is a distracting component to draw a human’s attention, and then there is the trap itself. The distracting component in this case is an organ resembling a root crossing the trail. This root has a reflex that triggers sudden movement in one direction when someone steps on it. This is designed to cause rustling in the bushes that cause the human in question to flinch away from it.

Simultaneously, there is a hanging branch at roughly neck height in the direction the person flinches. When touched, this branch tighly wraps around the person’s neck. Not in a suffocating manner, but rather in a restraining manner. The person is not lifted off the ground. They are instead trapped in place. Over the course of several hours, spines within the restraining branch administer a neurotoxin which induces a state similar to rigor mortis while also inducing an intense feeling of euphoria.

The Snare uses that state of euphoria to generate magic which it then uses to stimulate growth of the surrounding vegetation and promote fertile wildlife while also maintaining it’s own biologic processes. It then slowly drags the person towards the trunk of the Snare, where it then incorporates the person’s body into it’s own. It nourishes the body as much as possible so as to lengthen the time with which it can generate magic, providing simple sugars directly into the blood stream. However, it is unable to provide fats and protein, so the person ultimately dies. The Snare uses the nutrients provided by the decomposing body to fertilize it’s root bed.

Notes regarding the usefullness of Snares. This passage is of concern to Dryads and Resurrection Men.

Due to the nature of the euphoric response induced by a Snare, they are incredibly useful when pain management is a problem in the terminally ill. Resurrection Men have been known to use Snares on terminally ill patients when a Shadow Man is either not desired or is unavailable to the patient.

Dryads enjoy having Snares within their domains because they keep the human population in the area in check as well as stimulate the growth of the surrounding nature. Dryads have been known to cultivate Snare seedlings. It is unknown if they are in communication with Resurrection Men.

Notes regarding handling of Snares by Seventh Son Personel.

Snares are not sentient creatures and do pose a benefit to the ecosystem. While humans are a primary source of magic for them, they have been known to make use of Supernatural creatures when humans are not available. Should this be the case, close monitoring of the Snare should be undertaken. If it is near human settlements or has been known to make use of human prey for whatever reason, the Snare should be promptly dealt with in the following way:

Use iron wire or iron filings to encircle the snare, giving the trunk a wide berth. A Snare should always be dealt with in pairs of two, with one Seventh Son doing the labor while another acts as an observer. Should the laborer become insnared by accident, the observer should sever the branch and seek immediate medical attention for the observer. Heavy machinery may be required to deal with Snares such as this. Otherwise, the laberor should continue to lay down a circle of iron to restrict the magical flow to the Snares extremities. A surface level of iron should be sufficient. Rainfall will ionize the surface of the iron and penetrate the soil, thus entering it’s root bed. Due to it’s reliance on magical mechanisms to sustain life, the Snare should perish over the course of three to four weeks with sufficient rainfall. In the event of a drought, regular watering of the iron circle should be undertaken while maintaining the laberor-observer system. The pair of Seventh Sons should continue to monitor the area for human travel and work diligently to restrict it.

The trophy provided by a Snare is a piece of core wood. When reduced to Tar, it is known to endow those that consume it with an increase in grip strength. Some have noted that when gripping people after consuming three to four doses of this particular Tar, they are able to induce a sense of calm in their subjects. This is ideal for interrogation and restraint purposes in sentient Supernatural.