Tribal Troubles: Corruption Blooms

Corruption_BloomsCorruption Blooms     CR 5
A vast field of beautifully vibrant argent and carmine flowers.
Type: magical/living; Perception: DC 25 / Knowledge (nature) DC 20); Disable Device: Special (destruction of plants, damaging the blooms triggers the trap) [hp 10 / 5 ft. square]
Trigger: location; Reset: automatic
Each of the flowers has six pear-shaped petals that are deeply red in color with metallic silver specks erratically splashed throughout. The field is nearly 60 ft. wide and stretches from visible horizon-to-horizon. The verdant stalks of the blooms are tall, some standing as high as a halfling, and create an almost hypnotic pattern as they gently sway in the breeze.

Corruption Blooms are known to the people of the K’naghi tribe as “Soulweed” due to their ability to transform any creature that wanders into their field into a corruption bloom.
They are carnivorous plants and their bite is both venomous and magical, first paralyzing its prey before slowly mutating them into a plant type creature. Eventually, if left untreated, the mutating effect changes the victim into another corruption bloom.

ENVIRONMENT
Exceedingly rare in the wild, corruption blooms are magic plants (of true neutral alignment) that can grow in any climate from the icy abode of the arctic tundra to the harshest of deserts. Their only means to reproduce is through the mutating effects of their venom. They can have a lifespan of centuries.

The blooms are often planted by proprietors of sacred or secret sites to deter and prevent passage by unwanted visitors. This is the case with the K’naghi tribe who plant the “soulweed” as a defense around the far outskirts of their village. The members of the tribe have been bestowed with a supernatural protection from the blooms by their tribal god, and the plants do not attempt to attack them. However, this protection is afforded to them only when they travel within their ancestral homelands.

ACTIVATION
A field (or infestation) of corruption blooms does not immediately trigger with the presence of potential prey, instead waiting for creatures to wander into the center area of the field (at least 30 ft.) where they are surrounded.

Once a creature is near the center of the infestation, the trap triggers and all corruption blooms surrounding the creature lash out with gaping maws that were hidden beneath their large flowers.

To avoid the bite of the corruption blooms, a targeted creature must make an immediate DC 15 Reflex saving throw that repeats at the beginning of any turn they begin their turn in a square occupied by corruption blooms. Traveling through a square occupied by corruption blooms requires a DC 10 Reflex saving throw to avoid the reach of the trap.

A creature bitten by corruption blooms takes 1-2 damage and must make a DC 15 Fortitude saving throw or suffer from one of the effects listed on the table below. On a success the creature is not affected by the venom.

1d8     Venom Effect
1-5      Paralysis that lasts for 1d4 rounds. Slow (1d12/1d12 hours) mutating effect.
6-7      Paralysis that lasts for 1d4 minutes. Moderate (1d4/1d4 hours) mutating effect.
8          Paralysis that lasts for 1d4 hours. Fast (immediate; see below) mutating effect.
Once the corruption bloom venom effect has been determined, subsequent failures do not alter or augment the effects for that creature.

Mutating Effects
The affected creature begins a painful mutation process, turning from a creature of its type to a plant type creature. If left untreated, after the first increment of time the creature loses its ability to move, speak or communicate. After the second increment, it becomes a corruption bloom. A fast mutating effect takes hold immediately; after 1d10 minutes the affected creature begins to gestate, and 1d4 hours later is transformed into a corruption bloom.

The effects of this mutation, while in process, can only be mitigated by use of the antidote. Once the mutation process is complete, and the creature has been turned into a corruption bloom, it is permanent. Only a greater restoration spell (CL 20th) can reverse and negate the permanent mutation.

The Antidote
An antidote for the mutating effects caused by corruption blooms can be concocted from the petals of the flowers crowning the plants. With two dozen petals (each bloom has 6) the antidote can be created with a DC 20 Spellcraft check or DC 30 Knowledge (nature) check.

It takes 30-minutes of focused effort to create enough antidote to reverse and negate the mutating effects suffered by one Medium creature, half as long for a Smaller creature, and Twice as long for a larger creature. The antidote is applied topically. If the mutating process is completed, it provides no benefit.

The people of the K’naghi tribe keep a few doses of the antidote within their village, reserved for accidental triggering of the trap by friendly visitors. However, they are not willing to just hand over their stock of antidote without either ample compensation or until they are sufficiently convinced that the affected creature is worthy of saving from their botanical fate.

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