Source Pathfinder #144: Midwives to Death pg. 65
CR 8; XP 4,800
N persistent botanical haunt (up to 40-foot radius)
Caster Level 8th
Notice Knowledge (nature) or Survival DC 25 (to notice abnormalities in its fruits)
hp 72; Trigger touch; Reset 1 hour
Effect This haunt appears as a large grove of trees or patch of berry-laden bushes covered in perfectly ripe and delicious-looking fruit native to the area. The haunt notices Small or larger creatures and triggers as soon as such a creature attempts to grab a fruit. As soon as it is triggered, the fruits near every Small or larger creature in the area explode into a cloud of carnivorous seeds coated in poison that infest their targets’ flesh.
These seeds have two effects. First, the poison is a powerful neurotoxin that paralyzes its victims (bountiful feast poison: contact; save Fort DC 20; frequency 1/ round for 10 rounds; effect paralysis for 1 round; cure 2 consecutive saves). Second, the seeds quickly feed upon unmoving prey; on each round that an infested creature does not spend a move action to move at least 10 feet, it must succeed at a DC 18 Fortitude save or take 1d6 points of Constitution damage as the seeds feed upon the nutrients in its body. This effect ends only if the haunt is destroyed or the seeds are removed from the creature’s body (see below). If a creature dies from this Constitution damage, its body explodes into a 5-foot-radius area of fruiting plants that is added to the haunt’s area (even if it is outside of the haunt’s typical radius). For each point of Constitution damage the seeds deal, the haunt gains 3 temporary hit points. These temporary hit points last for 1 hour.
Extracting the seeds from an affected creature requires a successful DC 25 Heal check as a standard action. Regardless of whether the check succeeds or fails, the target takes an amount of damage equal to 1d6 times the amount of Constitution damage it has already taken from the seeds. Spells such as remove disease and heal can also treat the affliction, in which case the target doesn’t take hit point damage.
Destruction The demon-possessed dryad in the nearby crypt must be defeated and its ashes scattered around the dryad’s tree.
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