Sporeling

From Monsterbook

Revision as of 03:33, 31 October 2006

These creatures appear to be formed out of the material of the forest. Their bodies look like vaguely bipedal mounds of damp shredded leaves bundled together with vines and twigs. They have yellow points of light in the shallow recesses where their eyes should be and some kind of ivory teeth lining their crooked maws.

Sporeling, Common (CR 1)

• Always N Small plant
• Init -1; Senses low-light, tremorsense 30 ft.(only in forest); Listen +4, Spot +0
• Languages: none

• AC 12, touch 10, flat-footed 12
  • (+1 size, -1 Dex, +2 natural)
• hp 8 (1 HD); DR 5/slashing and cold iron
• Immune: plant immunities
• Resist fire 5, elec 5, cold 5
• Fort +2, Ref -1, Will +0

• Speed 30 ft., forest step
• Melee/Ranged +0 slam (1d3-1, plus entangle and constrict)
• Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
• Base Atk +0; Grp -1
• Special Actions entangling limbs, constrict

• Abilities Str 9, Dex 8, Con 11, Int 1, Wis 10, Cha 1
• SQ plant traits
• Feats toughness
• Skills listen 4(+4)
• Advancement none

Forest Step (Su): The movement of a sporeling is not hampered by any sort of forest terrain, including magical effects such as entangle and plant growth.

Entangling Limbs (Ex): The sporeling's limbs unravel and grab onto any creature they strike. A sporeling that hits with a successful slam attack can automatically attempt to start a grapple as a free action. The entangling limbs grant a +4 racial bonus on grapple checks.

Constrict (Ex): A sporeling automatically deals its slam damage (1d3-1) each round against an opponent it is grappling.

Sporeling, Warrior (CR 4)

• Always NE Medium plant
• Init +1; Senses low-light, tremorsense 30 ft. (only in forest); Listen +5, Spot +5
• Languages: none

• AC 17, touch 11, flat-footed 16
  • (+1 Dex, +6 natural)
• hp 22 (3 HD); DR 5/slashing and cold iron
• Immune: plant immunities
• Resist cold 10, electricity 10, fire 10
• Fort +4, Ref +2, Will +3

• Speed 30 ft., forest step
• Melee 2 claws +4 (1d6+1, plus entangle and constrict)
• Space 5 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
• Base Atk +2; Grp +7
• Special Actions absorb sporeling, entangling limbs, constrict

• Abilities Str 13, Dex 12, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 1
• SQ plant traits
• Feats toughness, weapon focus (claws)
• Skills Listen 3(+5), Spot 3(+5)
• Advancement 4-6 HD (Medium), 7-12 HD (Large), 13-21 HD (Huge)

Forest Step (Su): The movement of a warrior sporeling is not hampered by any sort of forest terrain, including magical effects such as entangle and plant growth.

Absorb Sporeling (Ex): As a move action, a warrior sporeling can absorb an adjacent sporeling that is one or more size categories smaller than it. The warrior sporeling recovers 2d6 hit points and destroys the absorbed sporeling.

Entangling Limbs (Ex): The warrior sporeling's limbs unravel and grab onto any creature they strike. A warrior sporeling that hits with a successful claw attack can automatically attempt to start a grapple as a free action. The entangling limbs grant a +4 racial bonus on grapple checks.

Constrict (Ex): A warrior sporeling automatically deals its claw damage (1d6+1) each round against an opponent it is grappling.

Sporeling, Feral (CR 8)

• Always NE Large plant
• Init +0; Senses low-light, tremorsense 60 ft. (forest only); Listen +7, Spot +4
• Languages: none

• AC 21, touch 9, flat-footed 21
  • (-1 size, +0 Dex, +12 natural)
• hp 60 (6 HD); DR 10/slashing and cold iron
• Immune: plant immunities
• Resist cold 10, electricity 10, fire 10
• Fort ++10, Ref +2, Will +3

• Speed 20 ft., forest step
• Melee 2 claws +10 (1d8+6) and bite +5 (2d6+3) plus entangle and swallow whole
• Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
• Base Atk +4; Grp +18
• Special Actions absorb sporeling, entangling limbs, swallow whole

• Abilities Str 23, Dex 11, Con 21, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 1
• SQ plant traits
• Feats toughness, weapon focus (claw), weapon focus (bite)
• Skills listen 6(+7), spot 3(+4)
• Advancement 7-11 HD (Large), 12-18 HD (Huge), 19-24 HD (Gargantuan)

Forest Step (Su): The movement of a feral sporeling is not hampered by any sort of forest terrain, including magical effects such as entangle and plant growth.

Absorb Sporeling (Ex): As a move action, a feral sporeling can absorb any sporeling within reach that is one or more size categories smaller than it. The feral sporeling recovers 2d6 hit points and gains a +1 bonus to Strength and Constitution per HD of the absorbed sporeling. The absorbed sporeling is destroyed. The ability bonuses last for 24 hours.

Entangling Limbs (Ex): The feral sporeling's limbs unravel and grab onto any creature they come into contact with. A feral sporeling that hits with a successful claw or bite attack can automatically attempt to start a grapple as a free action. If it wins the grapple check, it can attempt to swallow whole the next round. The entangling limbs grant a +4 racial bonus on grapple checks.

Swallow Whole (Ex): A feral sporeling can try to swallow an entangled opponent that is one or more size categories smaller than it by making a successful grapple check. The swallowed creature takes 2d6+3 points of slashing damage each round from internal rows of teeth. A swallowed creature can attempt to cut its way out by using a light slashing or piercing weapon to deal 12 points of damage to its body or by bursting out with a DC 22 Strength check (this deals no damage to the feral sporeling). Once the creature exits, the hole seals, and another swallowed opponent must cut its own way out. A large feral sporeling can hold 1 medium, 4 small, 16 tiny, or 64 diminutive or smaller opponents.

Sporelings are living plant creaures created by a spore maiden inside her fetid grove. They are as intelligent as animals and incapable of speech, although they will obey the commands of their spore maiden. Because of the fey magic used to harvest them, they are resistant to weapon attacks except for those formed of cold iron.

Strategies and Tactics

Sporelings will attack as a swarm once summoned and ordered. When spore maidens summon them, she summons the common sporelings first to form a living barrier between herself and her opponents. Common sporelings attack without any regard to tactics, latching onto foes and trying to squeeze the life out of them.

Next she will summon warrior sporelings, that can hopefully attack past their small brethren with their superior reach. A wounded warrior sporeling will always absorb an adjacent sporeling if one is available (always prefering one that is wounded or dying to one that is not).

Last she will summon a feral sporeling, that attacks immediately. If the feral sporeling cannot reach an opponent, it will greedily snatch up and absorb any smaller sporelings near it (starting with the most wounded) in order to enhance its own strength. Note, that the feral sporeling can absorb any sporeling within its reach, rather than only those that are adjacent to it.

Adventure Hooks

Five spore maidens in a vengeance pact have agreed to summon all of their sporelings at once near a logging village. The army marches across the farmlands towards the town center. Or, one single feral sporeling consumes the entire group and marches across as a leviathon of destruction.

A necromancer has forged an agreement with a powerful spore maiden. As her part of the bargain, she has given him a sporeling so that he can create a fetid grove of his own in his keep. He has been harvesting sporelings and infusing them with undead energy (add the vampire spawn template to his creations).

An evil druid has cast an awaken spell on a warrior sporeling. It has struck out on its own, developing considerable skill as a ranger, returning to the fetid grove where he was spawned only to steal sporelings to heal itself. It has become the bane of the elves living in the area, and adventurers are needed to hunt it down and destroy it.

Ecology and Society

Sporelings are cultivated and nurtured within a fetid grove by a spore maiden. It takes roughly 3 months to grow a full-sized sporeling, 6 months for a warrior, and one full year for a feral (although they are all grown at the same time). Most of their time is spent underground in submerged furrows, with their bodies strewn through the mud, only forming into their mobile forms when they are summoned by their creator. A single fetid grove can contain hundreds of sporelings (in various stages of growth), although the spore maiden can summon only a limited number per day.

Sporelings are not intelligent and only obey commands from the spore maiden that grew them. They are incredibly patient and will literally do nothing except wait for a command, although they will fight to defend themselves. There is an obvious pecking order, as the larger sporelings can absorb smaller ones in order to heal themselves.

If the spore maiden that created them is killed, they will return to the grove that spawned them until a new spore maiden arrives. If the grove is destroyed, sporelings wander about until they begin to dry out and die (treat as if they are starving). One of the slain sporelings, usually the largest, will begin to contaminate the nearby foliage, and over the course of a year, will form into a new fetid grove. The fetid grove in turn will produce a spore maiden and the spore maiden will begin growing sporelings. No one is sure exactly which came first.

The average common sporeling is three feet tall and weighs 40 pounds. The average warrior sporeling stands at 7 feet tall and weighs 200 pounds. The average feral sporeling is 12 feet tall and weighs about 2500 pounds.

Destroying a Fetid Grove: A fetid grove has a diameter of 10 to 50 feet. Because the ground and foliage is damp it is difficult to burn, and simply chopping down the trees won't destroy the magic in the grove. 50 points of magical fire per 5-foot square is sufficient to destroy the grove, while non-magical fire does not burn long enough or hot enough to sufficiently wipe out the vegetation. A hallow spell will destroy the evil fey magic in the area, although cold iron shavings need to be scattered over the area (substituted for the normal material components). Aside from that, only more powerful magic such as a limited wish or miracle spell will easily destroy a fetid grove.

Sporeling Lore

Knowledge (Nature)

DC 11: These creatures are living rotted plants.

DC 15: This result reveals all plant traits.

DC 16: They are created and controlled by an evil nature spirit that lives in the forest.

DC 21: Because of the fey magic that animates them, they are vulnerable to cold iron blades.

DC 26: In order to keep them from multiplying, they must ALL be destroyed, along with the grove that spawns them, and the witch that creates them.