Vampire Moss [Plant]

Draped over branches in swamps and jungles, vampire moss forms loose, netlike strands 1 to 4 feet long, thinner than the mats on rocks. Hungry moss is washed-out green; it darkens as it feeds until a sated patch is vivid emerald.

It feeds through the air on anyone within 10 yards. The first sign is a prickle on the nape. The target rolls a Constitution check on 1d20; success blocks the link, but the moss retries every round, forcing a new check, until he moves away. On a failure it latches on, siphoning 1 hp each round. Feeding ends with the victim's death, with his departure, or when the moss has absorbed 16 hit points (four times its own) and lets go. Several mosses can kill fast, and each grabs for the nearest being.

Once the victim drops to half his maximum hit points, he must pass a Constitution check every round or pass out, until the drain stops. At 0 hp he dies. The GM should not explain the checks or reveal the source of the drain until the consequences arrive.

Only burning or tearing it to shreds kills it; it regenerates other harm at 2 hp per week.

A parasite with no useful role, it favors mammals, the smarter the better, perhaps because their life force burns stronger. Deprived of them it survives, feeding on its host trees only when close to starving. Magic that drains energy, such as rings of weakness or cursed potions of harm (the reversed healing), may use it as a component.