The Sfantos is a potent area denial weapon designed by the Elysian Celestial Empire in order to serve as a force multiplier and also restrict the movement of an enemy on a planets surface – as well as serving as a possible unconventional attack technique.
The Sfanthos works in a very simple basis – once the seeds are planted (a process which can simply consist of scattering them upon the ground) or after a period of time (differing on their internal genetics - the plants begging to grow at a prodigious speed, within hours growing into a metre tall bamboo like plant – the difference is that whereas bamboo has leaves and smaller branches this only comes to a sharp ragged point, and while normal bamboo is largely harmless this secretes a powerful toxin. The toxin in question is a combined Neurotoxin, Necrotocin and Mycotoxin – the severity of the toxin is almost entirely fatal to humans and equivalent and is sufficient to cause even ‘superior’ being a struggle as their immune systems compensate for it. One particularly horrible variant actually injects a seed into the target through the target, which in the rich ‘fertiliser’ quickly sprouts out directly upwards – to horrendous effect.
When placed next to ground the Sfanthos quickly grows roots which burrow under the ground, before creating its central stem. After the stem is finished the plant sends off seeds which increase the density of the area and as a side effect spreads the plant over a wider area. This is not a problem for the Elysians given that they have the only known effective herbicide for it. Beyond that the Sfanthos is very resistant to almost all known chemicals – and even when it dies it simply becomes a hard dead version of what it was before. Indeed the Sfanthos can even adapt to counter new chemicals used against it – its only ‘blind spot’ is the Elysian chemical. Destroying the Sfanthos without the herbicide is a problem because not only does it grow very fast but it also sends roots with secondary egg sacks deep into the soil in a productive spore only to sprout and continue the plague later.