What happens when a tongue tendril spell fails the grapple check?

Question

Tongue tendrilspell (book of vile darkness) reads :

"The caster's tongue becomes a powerful tendril that she may spit up to 30 feet away. This tendril wraps around a target, lashing it to something if possible. The tendril makes a grapple attack using the caster's melee attack bonus, dealing no damage but starting a grapple as a Small creature with a Strength score of 20. (-1 size, +5 STR, +1 caster attack = +5) If (emphasis mine) the tendril wins the grapple check, it wraps around a limb or whatever is appropriate for the foe, lashing it to any nearby object."

Now here is the question. If the tendril fails the check... what happens to it? Does it attempt to grapple again the next round? Does it become inert? I am assuming it cannot move as this is outside the confines of the spell, but would it attempt a grapple in the original space it was cast in each round if it failed?

Answer 1

The 1st-level Sor/Wiz spell tongue tendrils [trans] (Book of Vile Darkness 107) allows the caster, during the spell's 1 hour/level duration, to take a standard action to spit a magic version of his tongue that attempts to grapple a foe up to 30 ft. away. This magic tongue detaches from the caster's mouth when it's spat and, since there's no mention of what happens if the caster fails the grapple check, nothing does happen—that use of the spell tongue tendrils is simply wasted, the tongue splattered somewhere near the foe until "[a]t the end of the spell’s duration, [it becomes] bloody bits of organic matter."

Were the tongue tendril effect to continue to attempt grapples round after round until its duration expired (1 hour/level!) or it was destroyed (AC 14, hp 10—better than many level 1 PCs!), it would likely exceed the power of a 1st-level spell.