Dangerous Plant [Mystara]

This world's wilds hold many hostile plants, and most look harmless enough that few travelers can tell them apart from ordinary growth. Anyone who survives meeting one learns to recognize that species from then on. A game master may let druids spot these plants in advance with a Wisdom check at 50%, and characters with the herbalism proficiency may manage the same with a proficiency check at 50%, though the method should never be foolproof.

These blooms resemble golden water lilies the size of sunflowers floating on quiet ponds and marshes, and some kinds climb tree trunks on vines. Nothing about the peaceful scene hints at danger. The lotus reacts to footsteps: when a creature comes within 10 feet, every blossom opens and sprays a pollen cloud 40 feet across. Anyone in the cloud saves vs. poison or sleeps for 4d4 turns, and nothing can rouse them early. A fresh burst follows every 3d4 rounds. Creatures that resist sleep and charm, such as elves, half-elves and pegataurs, resist the pollen equally well.

The plant feeds normally; the pollen is purely a defense. Still, it often grows beside vampire roses, archer bushes or killer trees, and the partnership benefits all: the lotus disables the prey, its neighbors kill it and the remains fertilize every plant around. People sometimes grow it to guard homes, temples or forbidden sites, and druids and elves are said to train theirs to spray only strangers. Alchemists value the pollen for sleeping powders and for a sleep venom that can be spread on a blade; twelve flowers produce one vial, enough to coat a short sword or similar weapon.

An archer bush looks like a common wild bramble with stunted trunks, thorny brown stems and sickly brown-green leaves, and it grows in woods, scrubland and sometimes mountains. It hunts by firing a spray of small thorns up to 20 feet for 1d4 damage, three times per day. It then uproots itself and shuffles toward the wounded prey. What looks like a 3-foot heap of leaves and twigs around its base hides a huge mouth lined with hard thorns, used only for eating helpless victims, never in combat.

It feels for prey through ground vibrations, so invisible or camouflaged targets are no safer; only flyers escape notice. Groups tend to shoot together by instinct, so one bush is a minor threat but a thicket can be lethal. Druids sometimes raise and train them as guardians of holy places.

Grab grass stands 3 to 5 feet tall, looks like any tall grass and can move, often seeming to sway in a breeze. It wraps long tendrils around a victim and strangles, draining 1 point of Constitution each round; reaching 0 means death, and the rotting body feeds the patch. Escapees recover 1 point per turn of rest, and a successful bend bars roll breaks free. A patch has 1 Hit Die, always a full 8 hit points, for every 5-foot square, and each 8 points of damage kills one such square. Someone watching may notice the grass moving with no wind; the game master may allow an Intelligence or Wisdom check, whichever is higher, to sense that something is wrong.

This looks like a bush of exceptionally lovely white roses, 4 Hit Dice, carrying 2d12 blooms whose number does not affect its powers. It can uproot and creep slowly after prey. It lashes with thorny stems for 1d8; the thorns are hollow, and after a hit the bush keeps drinking blood automatically for 1d8 per round. Meanwhile the flowers give off a hypnotic perfume, and a victim who fails a save vs. spell loses all will to resist and is drained to death.

A victim with a clear head can tear loose with an open doors roll, taking another 1d8 from the ripping thorns. Cutting through any part of the rose while it is feeding makes it shriek horribly and spray blood from the wound. Characters below 5th level seeing this for the first time save vs. poison or suffer fear as the spell; later cuts repeat the effect, but anyone who has already saved need not roll again. When a victim is drained dry, the petals turn from white to blood red. These roses favor old graveyards, and some grow near vampires' crypts.