Variant
Perception +30; blood scent, low-light vision
Languages Abyssal, Common
Skills Acrobatics +32, Athletics +29, Stealth +34 (+38 in vegetation)
Str +5, Dex +8, Con +6, Int –1, Wis +6, Cha +0
Blood Scent As mandragora.
AC 42; Fort +30, Ref +34, Will +28
HP 230, fast healing 15; Immunities precision, swarm mind; Weaknesses area damage 15, fire 15, splash damage 15; Resistances bludgeoning 15, electricity 15, piercing 15, slashing 7
Vulnerability to Supernatural Darkness As mandragora.
Speed 30 feet, burrow 10 feet, climb 30 feet
Swarming Bites Each enemy in the swarm’s space takes 7d8 piercing damage (DC 40 basic Reflex save) and is exposed to mandragora swarm venom. A successful save negates the poison exposure.
Blood Drain Trigger An enemy takes damage from the mandragora swarm’s Swarming Bites action; Effect The mandragora swarm drains blood from the creature, dealing 9d6 damage. If the creature is a demon, fey, or sorcerer, the mandragora gains temporary Hit Points equal to the damage dealt. A creature that has its blood drained by a mandragora is drained 2 until it receives healing of any kind or amount.
Mandragora Swarm Venom (poison) Saving Throw DC 40 Fortitude; Maximum Duration 6 rounds; Stage 1 4d6 poison damage and stupefied 1 (1 round); Stage 2 4d6 poison damage, confused, and stupefied 1 (1 round); Stage 3 6d6 poison damage, confused, and stupefied 1 (1 round)
Piercing Shriek (auditory, evocation, mental, primal) As mandragora, but DC 40 Will save.
Mandragora
A mandragora looks like a freshly pulled tuber that has grown into the malformed shape of a child with a grotesque face and hideously bloated body. These insidious little plants typically form when a mandrake root is watered with a demon’s blood. Upon absorbing the otherworldly properties of the demon’s blood, the root animates and is forced to seek out blood to feast from, lest it die of thirst.
Always famished and in search for sustenance, mandragoras live haunted, pained lives and perform vile and desperate acts to acquire the blood they crave. While they prefer magically infused blood such as that of unicorns, fey, or sorcerers, and they can also feed off of potions, alchemical bombs, and other magical elixirs, a mandragora can subsist on the blood of non-magical creatures. They find the flavor of mundane blood to be bland and bitter, and they do not blanch at voicing these complaints to the creatures from which they drink.
While the typical mandragora is the size of a human child, some of these evil plants continue to grow and grow, reaching sizes more comparable to those of giants. Sometimes as they grow, they form additional limbs or rudimentary faces, eventually transforming into truly hideous mockeries of the human form.
Mandragora Sucklings
Sometimes a mandragora offers its services to a spellcaster in exchange for sustenance. Tales tell of sorcerers or other magical creatures who keep mandragora “familiars” whose loyalty is sustained by feeding the little beasts with their own blood. These tales generally have gruesome endings wherein the mandragora is overcome with bloodlust and, unable to control itself, devours its master.