Moonflower

Moonflower

Creature 8

Perception +16; darkvision

Languages telepathy 1 mile (other moonflowers only)

Skills Athletics +19 (can’t Jump or Swim), Stealth +14 (+18 in thick vegetation)

Str +7, Dex +0, Con +4, Int –2, Wis +4, Cha +3

AC 24; Fort +18, Ref +10, Will +16

HP 120, fast healing 10; Immunities electricity; Weaknesses fire 10; Resistances physical 10 (except slashing)

Speed 20 feet

Melee bite +20 (reach 15 feet), Damage 2d10+10 piercing plus Grab

Melee root +20 (agile, reach 15 feet), Damage 2d8+10 bludgeoning

Light Pulse (evocation, light, primal, visual) 50 feet. The moonflower releases a pulse of bright light. Each non-moonflower creature in the emanation must attempt a DC 23 Fortitude save. The moonflower can’t use Light Pulse again for 1d4 rounds.

Success The creature is unaffected.

Failure The creature is dazzled for 1d4 rounds.

Critical Failure The creature is blinded for 1d4 rounds.

Pod Prison Trigger The moonflower has swallowed a creature; Effect The swallowed creature is wrapped in a tight cocoon and extruded from the moonflower’s body into an adjacent square. The creature continues to be Swallowed Whole. It can’t use Acrobatics to Escape a pod, but other creatures can attempt to Rupture the pod. The cocooned creature takes half damage from any damage dealt to the cocoon. Once the cocoon is Ruptured, it deflates and decays.

Pod Spawn Should a Small or larger creature die within a pod prison, the pod transforms into an adult moonflower with full Hit Points after 1d4 hours of growth. The newly formed moonflower has its own consciousness, but some aspect of its trunk or blossoms resembles the creature that died within. The dead creature’s equipment remains inside the new moonflower and can be retrieved if the moonflower is slain.

Swallow Whole (attack) Large, 2d10+10 bludgeoning and 2d6 acid, Rupture 21

Moonflower

These enormous plants have thick, knotted trunks festooned with fanged blossoms. A gaping mouth sits at the top of the trunk, capable of swallowing most creatures smaller than the moonflower whole. Moonflowers can move slowly on their powerful roots or use them to attack, but usually they dig them deeply into the surrounding ground and remain stationary to await prey.

Though moonflowers can’t speak in the conventional sense, they communicate telepathically with other moonflowers. Explorers who encounter a single moonflower can thus be assured that any other moonflowers in the vicinity will be prepared for them. Those who manage to intercept a moonflower’s telepathic communications are assaulted by visions of dreadful, primeval jungles ruled over by titanic plant life. Whether this is some vision of the past or a dream of the future shared by all moonflowers is unknown.

Moonflowers are alien life-forms from a long-dead planet, but their proliferation throughout the galaxy has been ensured through the machinations of the Dominion of the Black, a sinister, alien organization from the dark places between the stars.