Lyrannikin

A lyrannikin is a treant gone bad. Some are twisted by magic, some rot from the heart outward with blight, and some of the very oldest let their hatred of forest-destroyers fester until it becomes a blind lust for revenge against everyone. Many look exactly like treants, but about 30% show plain signs of serious blight: rotting bark, sagging dead limbs and similar decay.

It clubs foes with two massive, knotted arms. Young ones, 7-8 HD, make up 10% of encounters and hit for 2-16; middle-aged ones, 9-10 HD, are 30% and hit for 3-18; elders, 11-12 HD, are 60% and hit for 4-24. Blighted specimens subtract 1 from each damage die.

Their thick bark gives them a good Armor Class, as with treants. Fire attacks such as flame blade gain +4 to hit and +1 damage against them, and they save at -4 against fire spells. Blighted ones (20% of young, 30% of middle-aged, 50% of elders) are soggy with rot and suffer neither penalty. Lyrannikin cannot animate trees, but unblighted ones deal structural damage just as treants do.

These are lone, savage killers of trespassers. Severed from nature, they can no longer hide in woodland as treants do. They hate fire-wielders and anyone who comes into the forest carrying an axe or saw. They keep little treasure and have no grasp of what gold or gems are worth.

All photosynthesize enough to live, but badly blighted ones manage far less and feed through their roots instead, often soaked in the blood of woodland creatures. Driven by rage, they sleep less than treants. They do not breed. Unblighted lyrannikin live as long as treants, blighted ones somewhat less, though they were often old when the blight struck. Elders usually die of rot, blight or hunters who come to root out the evil. Treants often attempt to capture or heal their fallen kin, especially the very young or very old.

A secretive crimson-robed brotherhood is very likely experimenting on captured treants with a blight that turns them evil without weakening them (no damage die reductions). Such bred lyrannikin may be planted in a contested eastern forest to attack scouts from a neighboring besieged realm; several sightings of young lyrannikin, normally rare, came from that wood during a recent great war.