Chia Golem

A chia golem is a baked sculpture of terra cotta or other porous stone that acts as a planter. Its maker soaks it, scatters seed over its surface and waits; until the plants mature it looks very odd indeed. Almost any seed will do. Grass gives it a dense green pelt, low flowering creepers like alyssum or phlox a soft pastel fur, poison ivy or oxalis a toxic coat, and vines such as grape, ivy or morning glory a trailing cloak that can hurt opponents. Some makers mix species for artistic effect.

The results run from graceful topiary to sickly, overgrown monstrosities. Royal gardens might hold giant mice, rabbits, camels, lions, dragons or even uniformed guardsmen. The yards of evil temples or deserted wizards' towers may hide werebeasts, vampires, minotaurs, giants, insects and stranger shapes. They stand 6 to 8 feet tall; anything smaller cannot hold the enchantment.

These golems are sentries. Some are posted in one spot; others are ordered to creep around an estate's border so slowly that nobody notices them moving. Their mindlessness and glacial stealth suit them to this work.

A chia golem punches with both fists for 2d4 each. Lashing vine tendrils add +1 to each fist, and thorny or noxious plantings may give other bonuses at the creator's choosing.

Sleep, hold and paralysis spells do not affect it. Heat and cold spells deal normal damage and may wilt its foliage. It ignores plant growth, entangle and warp wood, though antiplant shell and hold plant function on it normally. Transmute rock to mud destroys the golem, though its plants can go on growing in the mud if conditions allow.

Planted with hardy perennials, a chia golem can stay outside all year; one with delicate plants can be brought in when cold weather arrives, and some live indoors permanently. Its hollow body must always hold a little soil, it needs watering suited to its plants, and about once a month it should be fed with compost. Curiously, nobody is known to have made one for personal use; every known chia golem was a gift.

Chia golems are artificial and exist only through magic. Each begins as a sculpture of the desired creature using at least 1,000 pounds of material that stays porous when hardened so roots and water can penetrate: limestone or fired clay will work, granite will not.

Three kinds of caster can animate one. A priest of 11th level or higher prepares the terra cotta figure through long ritual and casts commune, prayer, animate object and plant growth. A wizard of 14th level or higher, after building the fired clay form and performing extensive preliminary rites, casts charm plants, geas, fabricate and limited wish. A druid of 14th level or higher uses plant growth and animate rock over a month of fertility rites timed to end the night before midwinter's solstice.