Black Willow [Carnivorous Plant]

The black willow is a sentient, mobile tree of wicked temperament. It can reshape its trunk and branches to pass for any common willow, and 90% of the time nobody notices. Some show smooth bark and broad, welcoming limbs; others offer inviting hollows at the root or high on the trunk. Treants recognize one at a glance, but even druids need magic such as locate plants to spot it.

Its basic attack is a flurry of whipping branches dealing 1d4 each, but it has two special tricks and usually leads with them. When someone climbs out on one of its friendly-looking limbs, it radiates drowsiness in a 20-foot radius. Creatures already settling down to sleep, such as travelers resting or a party making camp, get no save; active creatures like foraging animals or passing adventurers save vs. spell. No spell is cast and the tree takes no hostile action, so those who resist just feel a little weary and move on. Those who fail, or who were tired already, do not collapse but feel they must stop and rest awhile.

Then a hole opens beneath them and one or more are swallowed into a hollow branch, which tips to slide them down into the trunk. The tree's inviting openings close to seal them inside. The gut is lined with sticky sap that will not burn. Digestive fluid seeps up from the roots, rising a foot every ten rounds until the eight-foot cavity is full, and it deals 1d4 acid damage per round until the victim dies. Once a victim reaches -20 hit points they are completely digested and cannot be resurrected.

Inside, there is room only for short, sharp weapons, which deal at most 1 point per round plus magical and Strength bonuses. Spells cannot be cast from inside unless the caster is size S or smaller, so rescue usually has to come from outside. The willow regenerates 1 hit point per turn and is immune to electricity as long as its roots are firmly in the ground.

It usually grows wherever ordinary willows do, but it can turn up anywhere a tree would not look strange, from underground lakes to abandoned ruins. A few have been found in druids' sacred groves, though only when the druid neglected the grove or was gone a long time, perhaps adventuring.

Only some of its nourishment comes from sun, air, water and soil; it is a fierce meat-eater with a taste for elves, gnomes and humans. Bones, other hard-to-digest leftovers and sometimes treasure lie buried beneath it, if the victims carried goods the weak acid could not dissolve (items save at +4) and if the tree stayed put for several weeks, which it generally does unless hunting has been poor. It may be a poorly understood branch of the treant family or a corruption of the quickwood, and druids debate the question for hours whenever another is seen.