Tendriculoses

Tendriculoses are plants.

Plants are vegetable creatures. Regular plants, such as one finds growing in gardens and fields, are not creatures, but objects, even though they are alive.

They have low-light vision.

Plants are immune to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms).

They are immune to paralysis, poison, polymorph, sleep effects, and stunning.

Plants breathe and eat, but do not sleep.

A tendriculos is a creature brought into being through a corruption of nature, often where foul magic has seeped into the environs for many years, or where the boundaries between the Material Plane and the mysterious realm of the fey have worn thin. Tales and myths speak of arcane manipulation from other planes, while others speak of a tendriculos as being the manifestation of an angered spirit of nature.

A voracious carnivore, the tendriculos is an active hunter when it needs to be but it prefers to rely on ambush tactics, choosing well-traveled areas in the forest where it can lie in wait in the undergrowth. The creature is quick to swallow any prey it happens to catch in its vines, relying upon the acid-filled reservoir in its trunk to finish off prey that may still have a bit of fight left in it. This acid not only consumes organic material with shocking ease, but also contains a powerful paralytic enzyme that further reduces a creature’s chance of escape once it’s been gulped down by the plant.

If a tendriculos hits with its bite or tentacles, it deals normal damage and attempts to start a grapple without provoking an attack of opportunity. Grab can only be used on creatures of a size equal to or smaller than the creature with this ability. The tendriculos can conduct the grapple normally, or simply use its bite or tentacles to hold the opponent. If it chooses to do the latter, it is difficult to make and maintain the grapple, but does not gain the grappled condition itself. Each successful grapple check the tendriculos makes automatically deals bite or tentacle damage.

If a tendriculos has an opponent grappled in its mouth, it can attempt to pin the opponent. If it succeeds, it swallows its prey, and the opponent takes bite damage. The opponent can be up to one size category smaller than the tendriculos. Being swallowed causes a creature to take continuous damage. A swallowed creature keeps the grappled condition, while the tendriculos does not. A swallowed creature can try to cut its way free with any light slashing or piercing weapon, or it can try to escape the grapple. If a swallowed creature cuts its way out, the tendriculos cannot use swallow whole again until the damage is healed. If the swallowed creature escapes the grapple, success puts it back in the attacker’s mouth, where it may be bitten or swallowed again.

A tendriculos renders the victim immobile. Paralyzed creatures cannot move, speak, or take any physical actions. The creature is rooted to the spot, frozen and helpless. Paralysis works on the body, and a character may resist it. Unlike hold person and similar effects, paralysis cannot be broken. A winged creature flying in the air at the time that it is paralyzed cannot flap its wings and falls. A swimmer can’t swim and may drown.

Although incapable of speech itself, the tendriculos generally understands a handful of words in a single language (usually Sylvan). While they tend to see all smaller creatures as nothing more than food, tales exist of certain creatures, particularly fey or druids, having secured a sort of alliance with local tendriculoses. In such cases, the tendriculos is more than willing to serve its ally as a guardian, so long as the ally is diligent at providing the plant with a regular supply of food.

The fact that the tendirculos displays a curious mix of plant, fungal, and even animal traits (in the form of its almost fleshy, toothed maw) has long intrigued sages. That the creature is a plant is firmly established, yet it lays egg-like spheres when the need to reproduce strikes. These “eggs” are in fact massive, puffball-like fungi filled with spores – when jostled, the cloud of spores that is released can carry for miles, ensuring that a single tendriculos can seed a huge territory.

Tendriculoses are immune to acid.

A tendriculos is 20 feet tall and weighs 3,500 pounds.

A tendriculos is difficult to kill. Tendirculoses heal damage fast, but they cannot die as long as their regeneration is still functioning (although tendriculoses still fall unconscious when severely injured). Bludgeoning and fire attacks cause a tendriculos’ regeneration to stop functioning following the attack. For a short time, the tendriculos does not heal and can die normally.

Attack forms that don’t deal damage are not healed by regeneration. Regeneration also does not restore damage lost from starvation, thirst, or suffocation. Tendriculoses can regrow lost portions of their bodies and can reattach lost body parts if they are brought together after severing. Severed parts that are not reattached wither and die normally.