Zombie Plant

The plant looks like a thriving, leafy berry bush. Its fruit ripens all year, plump red berries hanging in pairs and triplets like cherries, and it gives off a clean, wholesome scent heightened by psionic attraction. The name refers not to the bush but to the empty-eyed servants it keeps.

Semi-intelligent but unable to fight, the plant has one trick: lure someone close and get them to eat. The berries are delicious, harmless and nourishing; ten quench thirst like half a gallon of water, and each one heals 1 point of damage. One turn after the first berry, though, the eater saves vs. poison at -1 for every berry past the first (ten berries means -9). Failure means addiction, and the victim's only remaining desire is to guard the plant.

Slaves live on nothing but berries, which keep them physically fit, but each day of that diet permanently costs 1 point of Intelligence until it bottoms out at 1, where it stays until the slave dies of neglect or in the plant's defense. Slaves pour their water on the bush, feed it and fight to the death for it. They use any weapons they carry but forget spells, psionics and other special abilities. The berries make them immune to hold, charm and sleep magic and to telepathic powers.

Most plants keep one slave and use attraction only when none is present and a candidate wanders near. Up to five is possible, but that many strip the bush bare; the starving slaves weaken, and when new fruit appears they fight until usually only the strongest survives.

Each plant guards a clear territory and can sense rivals within a mile. If two grow that close, whichever gains a slave first sends it to destroy the other. A plant bears 101-200 berries (d100+100) and regrows a full crop weekly; ten a day keeps one slave healthy and mindless. Between chores the slave mostly lies in the bush's shade.

Each plant needs a man's share of water and grows best by streams and lakes on a forested ridge, sometimes in scrublands, and favors trade routes and oases where water and new slaves are easy to come by.