[Dammann]

The plant-analogues of the nightside are chemosynthetic organisms. Most of the oddly colorful organisms that form the base of the nightside food chain are subterranean, with fine filaments spreading into the rock around the many mineral springs. The portion of the organism that is above ground is primarily the reproductive organs, including flowers, fruit, and spore releasing mechanisms. Some of the visible flowers and fruit are iridescent, some are bio-luminescent, and some have structures that produce a distinct noise as the powerful wind blows through them.

As plant life on Earth proliferates where there is water, this life is richest where minerals circulate, whether by water or at the edges of tectonic plates. Volcanoes on nightside are peppered by life. Forests are always associated with earthquakes.

For the animal life of the nightside, all of which is metallic like the ursines, eating the fruit of these plants has many dangers. The plants themselves have their own defenses, but in addition, the richest sources of nutrition are in places where hot sulphurous water might erupt from the ground, where a sudden lava flow might well from below, or an earthquake might suddenly strike.

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Screaming Melons! Dart Morellheads, firing a spray of sharp, fingerlong spores into any animals feeding nearby! A bumper harvest that portends the mountain will erupt! The gratitude of an ursine to whom a PC provides a meal!