Crowdsourcing: Who is planting the assassin vines on the forest trail?

The Heretic

The Heretic

Should be playing D&D instead
You guys are very good with ideas, so I thought I'd pass this one by you.

During one of the past sessions, the PCs took a 'haunted' forest road to get back to civilization. There, they were attacked by (and successfully destroyed) an assassin vine that was feeding on people trying to use the road.

Tonight the PCs decided they wanted to clear the road to make it available as a trade route. The idea of having them traipse through the woods killing more assassin vines sounds mind-killingly boring to me. I've been toying with them being planted, but then I fall into further cliches. A mad druid? <yawn> A renegade wizard (man, it seems like every hex in the forest has a mad wizard!). Evil fey? Bleah.

Got any interesting ideas on who might be planting or maintaining the vines, what they want, and how the PCs might resolve the situation? Save my group from more cliches!


The Heretic
 
Do you want this to take on greater meaning or be entertaining and be done?

The assassin vines are the feelers of a giant murder plant at the heart of the wald?

The forest is haunted. The assassin vines mark the graves of the dead and drag their victims back to these graves.

Assassin vine berries make a sought-after, bitter wine. A mad/undead vintner is at the heart of the infestation.
 
The1True said:
The assassin vines are the feelers of a giant murder plant at the heart of the wald?
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This is what I'd suggest too. Combined with a bit of Yellow Musk Creeper style zombie thralls, it could be a decent little boss fight.

Perhaps the plants are being sown by a Little Johnny AppleMurderseed type folk character, who goes around from forest to forest with a variety bag of dangerous plantings (giant carnivorous venus flytraps, shambling mounds, blights, etc.). Probably just a some kid who doesn't know better and thought the golden flowers were pretty. Maybe being manipulated by a pissed-off dryad or a hag-in-disguise protector or something.
 
The1True said:
The assassin vines are the feelers of a giant murder plant at the heart of the wald?
Click to expand...
I was skimming an AP last night, and I'm pretty sure this is a Savage Tide subplot if you want to look for a sample giant murder plant.

How about, the plants are a harbinger. Dark deeds are happening at a nearby castle (or other population centre), granting power to an otherworldly malevolence that is slowly drawing the castle and surrounding lands into it's demiplane, which would allow the creature to feed on the fear, hate and cruelty of its inhabitants. If the castle is fully drawn in, the place will become a new domain of dread, and those in the material world will forget that it ever existed. The corrupting energies are starting by twisting plants, but the hungry dead are also rising, and it is only a matter of time before it starts affecting beasts, and then intelligent creatures. Probably the various corrupted beings should share some trait so the party will recognize they are linked.

I think I remember seeing a module that was enough like this to use as a template. Something regarding a snowglobe? It might be something Bryce reviewed, or was in NAP, or even something somebody here was doing in the early days of the forum?

Anyway, a couple of obvious ways for the party to deal with this would be to confront the creature, or put a halt to whatever evil practices attracted its attention. Finding a custom ritual or some artifact to close the rift could be another possibility, some sort of "Rod of Seven Parts" scavenger hunt, perhaps.

EDIT: I looked up the snow globe thing, it wasn't that. I really feel like it was something somebody here did, I remeber commenting on a map of the demiplane, which maybe had werewolves?
 
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Got to be the old hag that lives in the woods and eats children. It's a no brainer. :)

Just may her loopy in an interactive way and you're golden.
 
Beoric said:
How about, the plants are a harbinger. Dark deeds are happening at a nearby castle (or other population centre), granting power to an otherworldly malevolence that is slowly drawing the castle and surrounding lands into it's demiplane, which would allow the creature to feed on the fear, hate and cruelty of its inhabitants. If the castle is fully drawn in, the place will become a new domain of dread, and those in the material world will forget that it ever existed. The corrupting energies are starting by twisting plants, but the hungry dead are also rising, and it is only a matter of time before it starts affecting beasts, and then intelligent creatures. Probably the various corrupted beings should share some trait so the party will recognize they are linked.
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Not to disrespect your idea Beoric, but assuming that Heretic is playing a pre-3e version of the game or a retro clone, I think this may be getting too deep into the weeds (pun entirely intended). I mean "demiplanes" and "domain of dread" are very post-WotC plot pivots, like something you'd see in a Paizo Adventure Path. Plus, if Heretic was worried about the party getting sidetracked with this plant stuff before, I don't know if a jaunt across the entire universe is the direction he's looking to take it.

I think it's a cool idea, but I don't know if it'll work for Heretic's game.
 
DangerousPuhson said:
Not to disrespect your idea Beoric, but assuming that Heretic is playing a pre-3e version of the game or a retro clone, I think this may be getting too deep into the weeds (pun entirely intended). I mean "demiplanes" and "domain of dread" are very post-WotC plot pivots, like something you'd see in a Paizo Adventure Path. Plus, if Heretic was worried about the party getting sidetracked with this plant stuff before, I don't know if a jaunt across the entire universe is the direction he's looking to take it.

I think it's a cool idea, but I don't know if it'll work for Heretic's game.
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Agreed, it is an interesting idea but you are correct, this is meant to be a small sidetrek on the way to their main goals.

Also, Domains of Dread was 2e Ravenloft. I think Necromancer Games took over the Ravenloft license in the 3e era but I don't think they did much with it.

Beoric said:
I think I remember seeing a module that was enough like this to use as a template. Something regarding a snowglobe? It might be something Bryce reviewed, or was in NAP, or even something somebody here was doing in the early days of the forum?

EDIT: I looked up the snow globe thing, it wasn't that. I really feel like it was something somebody here did, I remeber commenting on a map of the demiplane, which maybe had werewolves?
Click to expand...

That was the ending of the Kingmaker adventure path. The evil nymph steals the PC's domain and locks it in a snowglobe, IIRC. Interesting stuff.

I am leaning towards either the undead idea or maybe something similar to the johnny murderseed idea, with it being an ambivalent fey dropping the seeds.

Definitely 'entertaining and be done' like @The1True said.

Speaking of Ravenloft, I have the Ravenloft monstrous compendium (and the 3e Necromancer monster hardcover). I should look through those for some ideas.

The Heretic
 
I wrote an adventure a long time ago, called A Thorn in the Side, of a haunted forest, but it has a mad druid (who, wasnt the cause of the problem, was just an encounter), and also..umm..evil fey--a Thorn Dryad...but some factions with a banshee group, a leaf creature group and a fungus group (not your ordinary fungi). So I chuckled when you talked about cliches....I tried to make it a 3 level dungeon, with a root dungeon, the surface, and then the canopy with long branch highways. Not sure I was too successful with the idea but its out there in the world...

Anyways, I attached a small encounter from Of Beasts and Men. Perhaps the assassin vines are in some way connected with the Rootmaw creature and it could be a little side trek for them to take care of the problem. Maybe there is a Johnny Murderseed/hag that is helping the Rootmaw, thus the PCs have something to track to the lair.


Or maybe they are good intentioned (neutral?) gnomes, who's hideout got ransacked by hobgoblins...so they are using these plants to kill travelers so they can gather much needed supplies as there is a war brewing. They finally are getting enough, and now feel bad about the vines and not sure how to stop them but have too much other stuff to worry about as they now need to take the supplies to other hideouts to bolster their defenses against some threat.
 
Malrex said:
I wrote an adventure a long time ago, called A Thorn in the Side, of a haunted forest, but it has a mad druid (who, wasnt the cause of the problem, was just an encounter), and also..umm..evil fey--a Thorn Dryad...but some factions with a banshee group, a leaf creature group and a fungus group (not your ordinary fungi). So I chuckled when you talked about cliches....I tried to make it a 3 level dungeon, with a root dungeon, the surface, and then the canopy with long branch highways. Not sure I was too successful with the idea but its out there in the world...
Click to expand...

That sounds pretty cool. S3 was an effective deterrent to keep me from ever wanting to write a plant adventure of my own. Those vegepygmies were annoying!

Malrex said:
Anyways, I attached a small encounter from Of Beasts and Men. Perhaps the assassin vines are in some way connected with the Rootmaw creature and it could be a little side trek for them to take care of the problem. Maybe there is a Johnny Murderseed/hag that is helping the Rootmaw, thus the PCs have something to track to the lair.
Click to expand...

Oh rats. I seem to be missing the attachment. Maybe you removed it? I see from another thread you've decided to leave the message board. Boo.

Malrex said:
Or maybe they are good intentioned (neutral?) gnomes, who's hideout got ransacked by hobgoblins...so they are using these plants to kill travelers so they can gather much needed supplies as there is a war brewing. They finally are getting enough, and now feel bad about the vines and not sure how to stop them but have too much other stuff to worry about as they now need to take the supplies to other hideouts to bolster their defenses against some threat.
Click to expand...

Thanks everybody for your input. I decided to go with a variant nymph. I saw on another blog (maybe Goblin Punch?) stats for a 'graveyard nymph'. I'm taking that idea and making it my own. The nymph that was living in this part of the woods has been changed due to the large number of unburied bodies left by a previous battle. They can negotiate with her to bury the dead, or put up a monument, to appease her fickle nature. Or they could attack her. Her abilities are different than a normal nymph. She can sing a death chant to cause fear, and if she removes the shroud covering her head, anyone who views her must make a save or be turned to stone.

The Heretic
 
Update: I used the nymph a couple of weeks ago and thought I'd give you guys an update.

The encounter went very well. The players seemed a little freaked out by the strange, singing woman and asked to do a sense motive. Instead of rolling I told them that she seems to be unthreatening, and also very childlike. They talked to her and discovered that there was a mass grave (battlefield site) in her grove and that animated skeletal orcs were preventing her from entering. @The1True this being PFRPG, I used the skeleton variant (I forget what it's called) where they keep their class levels, and this was a group of six 1st level orc fight skeletons. One of the PCs was knocked unconscious in the ensuing combat (falchions are nasty weapons that threaten a critical on rolls of 18-20) but they were successful. They made an agreement, she wouldn't plant any more vines and they would make sure that the March would show her the proper amount of respect.


The Heretic
 
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