14
Legacy of the Dragons
Arboreal Corrupter Huge Aberration Hit Dice: 16d8+96 (168 hp), dying/dead –7/–22 Initiative: –2 Speed: 10 feet AC: 20 (–2 size, –2 Dexterity, +14 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 20 Base Attack/Grapple: +12/+27 Attack: Tendril +18 melee (1d6+7 plus poison) Full Attack: 8 tendrils +18 melee (1d6+7 plus poison) Space/Reach: 10 feet/15 feet (Face/Reach: 10 feet by 10 feet/15 feet) Special Attacks: Poison, wrath of trees Special Qualities: Corrupt trees, immunity to cold and fire, immunity to mind-affecting effects, network of eyes, DR 10/good (or 15/+2), spells, SR 22 Saves: Fort +16, Ref +3, Will +11 Abilities: Str 24, Dex 6, Con 22, Int 15, Wis 18, Cha 15 Skills: Concentration +17, Disguise* +21, Listen +20, Spellcraft +18, Spot +19 Feats: Cleave, Iron Will, Power Attack, Psion, Skill Focus (Listen), Stomp, Weapon Focus (tendrils) Environment: Any forest Organization: Solitary, pair, or grove (3–8) Challenge Rating: 12 Treasure: Standard Advancement: 17–28 HD (Huge); 29–40 HD (Colossal) Level Adjustment: +5 Even on close inspection, this horrid monster appears to be little more than a mundane tree. It adopts the guise of the plants that grow around it, slowly altering its outer skin to resemble bark and its many limbs to mimic leafy branches. An arboreal corrupter slowly converts the forest around it to creatures under its control, creating a hidden threat that strikes at travelers before they are aware of the menace that surrounds them. This twisted, malevolent tree has its genesis in the fiendish workshops of the dramojh. A corrupter spreads its roots throughout an area, allowing it to infest and control normal trees. It uses these puppets to attack travelers. Usually, victims who survive an attack never realize that the animated tree was under the control of a malevolent intelligence. Arboreal corrupters communicate with each other across great distances using their roots, allowing them to coordinate large-scale campaigns. While corrupters look like plants, they are actually more like animals in function. They have fleshy interiors with strange, pulsing internal organs. Their roots resemble tentacles rather than woody growths, and their branches are actually pulpy tendrils that sprout growths that look like leaves, pine needles, and smaller branches. They feed by churning the ground around them, dragging dead or decaying animal mat-
ter into their root network. Experienced travelers learn to identify corrupters by the thick, loamy soil around their bases, a telltale sign of their churning roots. A forest infested with one or more of these monsters becomes a dark, foreboding place. Forest settlements suffer devastating attacks by corrupted trees, while many of the animals and plants that provide food for the region come under continual assault. Corrupters wage a highly coordinated campaign of terror, using their ability to communicate at great distance to launch simultaneous attacks or strike a single target from many directions. Some primitive or destructive beasts, particularly chlortheks (see page 30), worship these twisted beings as deities. These worshippers toss sacrificial victims into the root field that surrounds a corrupter, allowing it to drag the morsel into its root network. Corrupters can speak Common in wheezing, gasping tones. They are ambitious and vain. Sometimes they negotiate alliances with promising contacts their thralls bring to them, offering them mercy in return for mutual aid. A corrupter might destroy a greedy warlord’s enemies in return for protection against its enemies. Many of them fancy themselves the true lords of the forest. If a greenbond moves into a region claimed by a corrupter, a showdown is almost inevitable. While some greenbonds with violent or hateful tendencies might work with these monsters, most of them recognize corrupters as foul mockeries of the natural order.
Combat Arboreal corrupters prefer to allow their thralls to do their fighting for them, since their primary defense is to remain unnoticed by the world at large. Their slow speed makes it difficult for them to disengage from a battle. While they have many magical abilities, patient foes can simply use fire and ranged attacks to slowly whittle down their strength. Corrupters remain motionless even in the face of a determined enemy. Sometimes they take no actions until the last possible moment. An opponent might have to land the first blow before a corrupter moves to defend itself. Due to the intimate connection these creatures share with each other, they remember enemies who have slain their kin and make aggressive moves to destroy them. A hunter who defeats a corrupter may find his friends and family harassed by attacks launched by other corrupters, while these monsters’ followers dog his every step in the forest. * Skills (Ex): Arboreal corrupters gain a +10 racial bonus to all Disguise checks made to conceal themselves as mundane trees. They can attempt to disguise themselves as trees merely by remaining still. They do not need more than a standard action to make this check. Poison (Ex): An arboreal corrupter’s leafy tendrils are covered in a sticky, caustic sap that causes convulsions and the loss of motor control in creatures it injures. This poison has a Fortitude save DC of 20. It deals 1d4+1 points of temporary
