THE WOODY CATCHER

CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Deciduous forested areas, usually in a shaded area, but always along brooks, streams, rivers, lake or ocean shores.

FREQUENCY: Uncommon

ORGANIZATION: Solitary, perhaps miles between each plant.

ACTIVITY CYCLE: Non winter months. (During the winter, the plant is dormant.)

DIET: Carnivore

INTELLIGENCE: Non (0)

TREASURE: Incidental (whatever inorganic items past victims may have had)

ALIGNMENT: NNNN

NO. APPEARING: 1

ARMOR CLASS: 7 (roots) 6 (main body)

MOVEMENT: 0" (Though it does have a 12 foot range)

HIT DICE: 3-4 (1d2+2)

THAC0: 17 (3-4 HD)

NO. OF ATTACKS: 1/round until it captures a victim, then an automatic venom attack that round and each subsequent round the victim struggles. Also, 1 retaliatory attack per enemy.

DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1d2 for the retaliatory whip attacks.

SPECIAL ATTACKS: Surprises on 1-5 on 1d10, whip like attack, and Enzyme digestion

MAGIC RESISTANCE: Nil

SIZE: L

MORAL: Steady

XP VALUE: 300 xp/HD

The Woody Catcher is a flesh eating plant. Its woody roots are mostly exposed and do look like dead, fallen branches, an excellent choice for firewood, but in fact the 10 roots are very much alive. The central stalk also looks like desiccated wood, resembling a dead tree stump, but it is in fact hollow. This is where ensnared creatures are brought when grabbed and held by the leaves, then the victim is enveloped by the plant's main stalk, its paralytic attacks and digestive enzymes coming from this stalk.

Creatures collecting firewood frequently fall prey to this deadly plant, while other animals may simply get too close since there is nothing to warn them away. The woody catcher may ensnare any creature that gets within 12 feet of its base. The large leaves are brown and dead looking on the bottom (and these are turned out and up when the plant senses vibrations in the area), but the tops are green. Within 24 hours after a particularly large meal, a beautiful red flower will bloom, last perhaps 5 minutes, dry up, and blow away. Few people have seen this. The dried up flower contains one seed attached to the bloom, and this will travel on the wind for days before the strand between it and the dead bloom breaks, leaving the seed to grow if the soil conditions are right.

COMBAT: Each root is AC 7 and has 10 hit points. The plant will die if all 10 roots are cut through (each reduced to 0 hit points). The rest of the plant has brownish leaves that it turns outwards at night (or when it senses vibrations within 50 yards) to more resemble a dead, dried out plant, but the greenish tops are otherwise turned out toward the sun so normal photosynthesis may occur. These large leaves (more than 2 feet long and 1 foot wide) are incredibly strong, capable of wrapping up and holding anything which doesn't make its bend bars/lift grates roll to escape (or any animal with less than 5 hit dice). So enveloped, the victim may only attack with small, hand-held weapons (like daggers). Otherwise, they may only attempt their bend bars/life grates rolls once/round until unconscious, paralyzed, or dead. Unfortunately for the plant, the conscious victim, though bound, may still employ spells that have verbal components ONLY, or they may shout for help. Shouting, however, will earn them another paralyzation attack since that vibration will be taken as struggling.

If the woody catcher already has enveloped a victim it will no longer try to engulf further victims. However, if being attacked, each attack that hits AC 10 will be met with a retaliatory response of a whip like attack from one of the leaves. If this hits, it does 1d2 damage and makes an incredibly loud cracking noise (like a whip). Mostly, this is to scare off further enemies. Note: You need only hit AC 10 to be whipped, but you must hit AC 7 (or AC 6) to actually damage the plant.

The main body (stalk) of the plant has an AC of 6 and 3 to 4 hit dice. The plant will also die if this is attacked and killed, but anyone within will also take and equal amount of damage from melee attacks (weapons, but not magic missiles for example) to the main body of the plant, though the victim is safe from attacks to the roots. In melee, the plant need only hit the AC of the victim without their shield or base armor to engulf them, though any magical pluses on shield or armor and any dexterity bonuses still count toward the potential victim's AC. For example, while wearing +2 plate mail and with a +1 shield, this victim will have an AC of 7 plus their dexterity bonus if they are not surprised; in this case they would not have the +1 shield bonus or their dexterity bonus. To whip an attacker, it must hit their normal AC. After ensnared, the Catcher will automatically hit anyone so trapped within and inject it with a paralytic poison (save vs. paralyzation or be paralyzed). It will then continue to do this once/round as long as the victim is conscious and struggling. The slow digestive enzymes take 3 turns to even begin to act, but they will eventually eat any organic material within, leaving the inorganic stuff concealed under the thick roots.

Knowledgeable people avoid the plant, but if trapped within and they manage to save versus the first injection, a smart person will not struggle and thereby avoid further injections, but only if they have friends nearby who will rescue them before 30 minutes or so when the digestive process will start to take its toll (2 hit points of damage/round after 30 minutes). This paralysis normally lasts 1d3+3 hours on victims who have been rescued. Since the digestive enzyme is particularly nasty, every organic item on the victim must save vs. acid each round (after the 30 minutes) or be destroyed. This is why it is extremely rare to find any organic items (like wood, leather, paper, bone, ivory, etc. amongst the incidental treasure, assuming it has any treasure at all. Possible exceptions would either be magical organic items (better saves?), items taken during a heavy rainstorm, or organic items contained within inorganic containers). If washed with water or alcohol before the 30-minute period is up one can avoid the effects of the digestive enzymes entirely. On the other hand, if a body is digested to the point where one reaches 1 hit point BEYOND their negative constitution score, they are forever dead (baring exceptional magic like a full powered wish or divine intervention).

ECOLOGY: The woody catcher is a feared plant because of its deceptively harmless looks, and the fact many inexperienced people are always looking for firewood. Unless destroyed by fire or hacked to bits in combat, such a plant may live for over one hundred years. It is speculated a druid, many centuries ago, cultivated this plant to protect his or her grove, thus giving the woody catcher some of its unusual characteristics since typically most normal animals would be attracted to green plants to eat, while this one tries to appear to be dead. Thus, it is decidedly more dangerous to intelligent wood-using animals (like man, orcs, gnolls, etc.) than it is to inoffensive natural animals (like deer, rabbits, and other herbivores).

Finally, as a commercial concern, this plant is sought after for several reasons:

1) If dried properly (after smoothing them in an aqueous-bleach solution), the leaves make superior parchment which is comparable to vellum. The unusually strong fiber in the leaves is highly resistant to rips and tears and makes an excellent writing surface that withstands the test of time (pages centuries old still retain the natural light brown color and strength). Many wizards use this as spell book pages or for scrolls and it counts as vellum but is +1 to saves versus tears, rips, and fire damage). Properly harvested, 10+3d6 leaves can be so obtained, each worth about 1 gp, and they may be used for spell books or magic scrolls. (Each leaf will make one page of a home spell book, but two pages of a traveling spell book).

2) The roots make excellent wood for small carvings and small objects like jewelry boxes and such. Any such object made from catcher wood is both beautiful and valuable. If not burned or too badly hacked into little pieces, the 10 roots can bring upwards of 1 gp each.

3) Also, the two glandular sacks of venom are useful. These are very small and hard to notice. A person looking for them may still miss them 10% of the time, and a person looking but unaware of them will spot them only 10% of the time. Thus, if you both know about and look for them, you will find them 90% of the time). These sacks may bring as much as 10 gp each. An alchemist may use both venom sacks to make paralytic poisons that are slightly weaker when not in its natural state. This venom is used to coat arrow tips, daggers, or swords: (save vs. paralyzation at +2 or be paralyzed for 1D10 rounds). Each pair of venom sacks may make enough poison for 6 arrows, 4 daggers, or 2 sword applications. The volatile poison evaporates quickly, so one has only a single turn (10 rounds) after application to use it and wound a creature with it before it evaporates. The cost to make this potion is 150 gp.

Thus, a properly harvested plant, if sold in a market that supports wizards, alchemists, and artisans, may bring as much as:

1X10 (roots) + 2x10 (venom sacks) + 10 +3d6 = 40+3d6 gold pieces.

Such a plant is worth 300 experience points per hit dice to those who helped kill it (divided evenly), but only half this xp to those who have already faced such a creature and go looking for it).

DM NOTES:This encounter is mostly a race against time for the adventurers. Do they know what to do? Can they free their comrade before the enzymes start working? Will their struggle to free them in time hurt the victim more than the plant hurts them? If they are freed, will they notice their items need to be washed or they, themselves, need a good bath to free them of the enzymes? Even if freed, after 30 minutes, those enzymes will start to really work!