Ironmaw

Left in its true form, an ironmaw looks like a dead, leafless old oak with a trunk and branches far too thick for its height. An untrained traveler notices the oddity only 25% of the time; rangers, druids, elves and other woodswise folk see it at a glance 75% of the time. Up close, a few limbs are obviously too long, folded and bent to hide their reach, and a 2-foot slit low on the trunk, rimmed with blade-sharp ridges of bark, is its mouth. Shut, the slit melts into the bark's folds. A viewer near enough to spot these details earns a second roll to notice the danger, though by then he may already be within reach.

Few victims see that form, since it can mimic almost any medium-sized broadleaf tree to ambush travelers and game.

Over 2-5 days it can sprout false leaves and recolor its bark until it blends perfectly with the local woods. Fully camouflaged, it imposes a -4 penalty on victims' surprise rolls, and anyone who simply fails to spot an undisguised ironmaw suffers the same penalty.

It has 2-5 striking limbs, each reaching as far as the tree is tall. A natural 19 or 20 on a limb attack means the branch has coiled around the target and starts hauling him toward the mouth at 10 feet per round. Each limb is AC -2; cutting one off takes 15 points of edged-weapon damage, which does not count against the tree's hit points. A captive may instead roll bend bars/lift gates to wrench loose, or brace himself with a Strength check, reducing the pull by 1 foot for each point the check succeeds by: a character with Strength 16 who rolls 13 is dragged only 7 feet.

Anyone beside the trunk, by choice or by force, is in biting range. A successful bite locks on and deals its damage automatically every round until the victim or the tree dies, unless he pulls free with another bend bars/lift gates roll. Its iron-hard wood makes it immune to Type B weapons. Fire is its weakness: touching a flame to a limb makes it release its prey, and threatening the trunk with a torch frees whoever is in its jaws. It will not try to grab someone holding open flame, though it may still swat at him to drive the fire back.

Ironmaws come from Abyssal layers whose plant life can be as deadly as the tanar'ri, and have spread across the lower planes and into the neutral planes. They are loners; a mature tree tears up and kills saplings nearby to keep its territory, though rich spots in the lower planes sometimes host several. Fiends occasionally plant them as gate guards, but a poorly fed ironmaw tends to wander away. Spiteful and patient, it attacks anything passing, often waiting until a whole group is in reach.

An ironmaw eats any animal and attacks whether or not it is hungry. It cannot photosynthesize and lives by hunting, though it can get by on carrion, yet it is far more active by day than by night. It reproduces alone, budding once every 3-7 years. The parent plants the bud beside a fresh kill and leaves. The sapling feeds on that corpse, then spends several years growing as an ordinary leafy tree living on sunlight, before shedding its foliage and turning predator.