An excerpt from Professor Virgil Pendrake's article, "On Extraordinary Bryophtes", from his self-published monthly newsletter, #72, August, 1973:
"There is little cause for alarm, it's just moss." This is what you should not think. Before I begin this entry, let me establish a caveat: This is not just moss. I must establish another caveat: this article is due to publish tomorrow, and I am still reeling from my run-in with the spores, so read carefully.
The Creeping Bryophyte, or, "Witch's Moss", as it has been termed by the locals, is a most unique individual of the Bryophyte family. It seems to have a singular and peculiar ability to produce spores that have wildly hallucinogenic properties (on the four subjects I have tested, at least, including my dog, my cat, myself, and the Umbral Nuthatch that I found in the locality). It also seems quite mobile for a plant, though the method of locomotion is yet unclear.
It's physical appearance is deceiving, as in its dormant state it appears as many other Bryophytes: short, curled leaves on a mass of roots taking up anywhere from a few inches to several feet (there seems to be no limit to their size). Each time I've approached a specimen, however, it has turned quite red and moved away from me.
The habitat of this moss seems to be a very specific location near the old Aether Reservoir I discovered recently, leading me to believe it has some thaumaturgical properties, or relations, but I have yet to test this.
My investigations into this were prompted when several locals were found drained of blood, with thousands of what appear to be pinprick holes in a localized area of their body. Interestingly, these holes themselves would not be enough to drain a human body of blood through bleeding alone, leading me to assume that it was removed forcibly through spine-like tubes, similar to those found on the dead Creeping Bryophyte I found.
So in brief conclusion, this appears, from my observations, to be a bloodsucking mat of moss that causes its victims to collapse in hysterics, wherein it may feed, or whatever it does. I hope to obtain a healthy specimen to test exactly what it does.
(Personal Note: All the victims were part of the same family, The Walthersons, though the implications that fact rouses are beyond my current scope of research.)