Plants

Twisting and Growing Things

The new world is covered with all kinds of plants, but the ones that interest most adventurers are the most hostile varieties. Born from both genetic research, escaped experiments, weird reactions from toxic waste dumping, and even just plain old natural selection, plants can be just as dangerous as any beast or mutant. Many plants have incredibly outsized defensive mechanisms, even limited, or complete, mobility, as methods of surviving in the new world, where they must compete with massively strengthened and improved animal species, while also dealing with the extremes of weather.

Animate Plants

Stolen Shrub

High level corpos put defensive systems into almost everything in their homes, even the decorative plants. When such topiaries are stolen, they inevitably turn on every human that comes near them, identifying them as intruders or thieves, even after being transplanted into a new home.

Small plant
Armor Class 9
Hit Points 10 (3d6)
Speed 20ft.

STR 3 (-4)
DEX 8 (-1)
CON 11 (+0)
INT 10 (+0)
WIS 10 (+0)
CHA 6 (-2)

Damage Vulnerabilities fire
Damage Resistances piercing
Senses passive Perception 10
Challenge 0 (10 XP)
Proficiency +2

False Appearance. While the shrub remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a normal shrub.

ACTIONS
Rake. Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 1 (1d4- 1) slashing damage.

Taken Tree

The larger, more impressive version of a stolen shrub, rarely actually stolen, and far more often the result of an ancient stolen shrub that has survived long enough to grow to enormous size.

Huge plant
Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points 59 (7d12 + 14)
Speed 20ft.

STR 19 (+4)
DEX 6 (-2)
CON 15 (+2)
INT 10 (+0)
WIS 10 (+0)
CHA 7 (-2)

Damage Vulnerabilities fire
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing
Senses passive Perception 10
Challenge 2 (450 XP)
Proficiency +2

False Appearance. While the tree remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a normal tree.

ACTIONS
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10ft., one target.
Hit: 14 (3d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage.

Shambling Mound

Very very rarely, between all of the nanobots flowing through everything, toxic waste dumped into the swampy sumps at the bases or under megacities (or even between towers on their ground floors), ruined greenhouse floors, and just plain insane genetic manipulation projects, something goes wrong. No one is sure at the common thread, but the result is the same. An energy surge floods out, lightning strikes a plant, and it is energized to the point that it is able to move, and seek out prey. Carnivorous, and nearly invisible, mounds become a terrifying threat that seeks to devour any who come into contact with it. When driven into desert environments, they will attempt to keep their prey alive longer, milking them for fluids rather than killing them outright for nutrients.

Large plant

Armor Class 15 (natural armor)

Hit Points 136 (16d10 + 48)

Speed 20ft., swim 20ft.

STR 18 (+4)

DEX 8 (-1)

CON 16 (+3)

INT 5 (-3)

WIS 10 (+0)

CHA 5 (-3)

Skills Stealth +2

Damage Resistances cold, fire

Damage Immunities lightning

Condition Immunities blinded, deafened, exhaustion

Senses blindsight 60ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 10

Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +3

Lightning Absorption. Whenever the shambling mound is subjected to lightning damage, it takes no damage and regains a number of hit points equal to the lightning damage dealt.

ACTIONS

Multiattack. The shambling mound makes two slam attacks. If both attacks hit a Medium or smaller target, the target is grappled (escape DC 14), and the shambling mound uses its Engulf on it.

Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.

Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage.

Engulf The shambling mound engulfs a Medium or smaller creature grappled by it. The engulfed target is blinded, restrained, and unable to breathe, and it must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw at the start of each of the mound's turns or take 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage. If the mound moves, the engulfed target moves with it. The mound can have only one creature engulfed at a time.

Killer Kudzu

Kudzu was always an endemic blight on any part of the world it wasn't native to before the climate crisis, but as the ecosystems began to progressively collapse, it was found that Kudzu was actually hardy enough, and edible enough for most livestock, to be worth saving. It spread fast, could act as an oxygenating agent, and all it needed was a little genetic manipulation. While this eventually produced results that were serviceable, Killer Kudzu was one of the failed attempts. Killer Kudzus are mutated kudzu variants that infest the world. They were spliced with carnivorous plants in an attempt to give them alternative nutritional intake for areas where soil nutrition was too low, with the goal of being a first in soil renutrient program. Restoring nutrients to the soil as they died having harvested them from insects released around the same time (another genetic modification project gone wrong). Today, they are the bane of farm groves and orchards and even the few wild jungle areas that remain in the world. They are a constant threat to reseeding projects, the bulbs that lead to them having been spread almost randomly during the original reseeding projects in the early anti-desertification projects before the flaws in their design were discovered. Thus, they can appear in any reclaimed desert soil where soil nutrition raises enough to allow them to appear. From there they will become mobile, and attempt to hunt down further animal life to feed from, reproducing and spreading through all viable areas they can.

Needle Kudzu

A variant of killer kudzu that uses sharp, conifer and cactus like needles that it flings at potential prey, bringing it down and then uprooting itself in order to reroot itself in the corpse, after thoroughly penetrating the downed target with it's needles.

Medium plant

Armor Class 12 (natural armor)

Hit Points 11 (2d8 + 2) -

Speed 30 ft.

STR 12 (+1)

DEX 12 (+1)

CON 13 (+1)

INT 4 (-3) WIS 8 (-1)

CHA 3 (-4)

Condition Immunities blinded, deafened

Senses blindsight 60ft. (blind beyond this radius)

passive Perception 9

Challenge 1/4 (50 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +2

ACTIONS

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target.

Hit: 6 (2d4 + 1) piercing damage.

Needles. Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, range 30/60 ft., one target.

Hit: 8 (2d6 + 1) piercing damage.

Twig Kudzu

Giving Kudzu a barky surface and broader leaves was an attempt to boost both the oxygenation and nitrogen anchoring effects. Now they act as particularly stealthy killer kudzu, hiding themselves, especially near places that are frequented by animals such as game trails and watering holes.

Small plant

Armor Class 13 (natural armor)

Hit Points 4 (ld6 + 1)

Speed 20ft.

STR 6 (-2)

DEX 13 (+1)

CON 12 (+1)

INT 4 (-3)

WIS 8 (-1)

CHA 3 (- 4)

Skills Stealth +3

Damage Vulnerabilities fire

Condition Immunities blinded, deafened

Senses blindsight 60ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 9

Challenge 1/8 (25 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +2

False Appearance. While the kudzu remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a dead shrub.

ACTIONS

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.

Hit: 3 (1d4 + 1) piercing damage.

Vine Kudzu

The closest variant of Kudzu to the original kind, only now instead of strangling trees and ponds, they strangle anything they can get their leafy tendrils on.

Medium plant

Armor Class 12 (natural armor)

Hit Points 26 (4d8 + 8)

Speed 10ft.

STR 15 (+2)

DEX 8 (-1)

CON 14 (+2)

INT 5 (-3)

WIS 10 (+0)

CHA 3 (-4)

Skills Stealth + 1

Condition Immunities blinded, deafened

Senses blindsight 60ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 10

Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +2

False Appearance. While the kudzu remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a tangle of vines.

ACTIONS

Constrict. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 10ft., one target.

Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) bludgeoning damage, and a Large or smaller target is grappled (escape DC 12) . Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the blight can't constrict another target.

Entangling Plants (Recharge 5-6). Grasping roots and vines sprout in a 15-foot radius centered on the blight, withering away after 1 minute. For the duration, that area is difficult terrain for non plant creatures. In addition, each creature of the kudzu's choice in that area when the plants appear must succeed on a DC 12 Strength saving throw or become restrained . A creature can use its action to make a DC 12 Strength check, freeing itself or another entangled creature within reach on a success.

Fungi

Mushrooms, lichen, algae, and mosses are all common forms of life within the megacities, both in their central piles to help with oxygenation and air cleansing, and below them to act as food and oxygenation and even light sources in the undercities. These are often designed to exist more or less autonomously, requiring minimal input and caretaking. Sometimes they mutate and break out, flooding out into the chambers surrounding their containment pods and cultivation pools. Sometimes this is a boon, giving access to edible or hallucinagenic properties to the surrounding populace... poisons and carnivorous mutant behaviors are more often the norm.

Infested AD Drone

Advertisement drones are ubiquitous, small, easily printed, filled with hydrogen or other lighter than air gases, and then released to go and pester the public. Nobody thinks twice about giving one a smack to get it out of their face. They're mass printed, and produced in such quantities that they get EVERYWHERE, adventurers don't think twice about running into them in old abandoned hive.ai infested towers, undercity tunnels, or maintenance shafts. When they do, they tend to shoot them just to get rid of them, as the drone's basic programming simply pushes it to annoy the hell out of whoever it can detect, and when not in a crowd, you'll be the only target. Occasionally though, this is a mistake. The Ad drone's interior makes the perfect space for certain breeds of spore infestations. These drones, when struck, explode into a cloud of poisonous spores that will reproduce, creating poisonous fields of their spores, which will in time, come to infest new ad drones.

Large plant,

Armor Class 5

Hit Points 1 (1d10 - 4)

Speed 0 ft., fly 10ft. (hover)

STR 5 (- 3)

DEX 1 (-5)

CON 3 (-4)

INT 1 (-5)

WIS 1 (-5)

CHA 1 (-5)

Damage Immunities poison

Condition Immunities blinded, deafened, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned, prone

Senses blind sight 30ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 5

Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +2

Death Burst. The AD Drone explodes when it drops to 0 hit points. Each creature within 20 feet of it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 10 (3d6) poison damage and become infected with a disease on a failed save. Creatures immune to the poisoned condition are immune to this disease. Spores invade an infected creature's system, killing the creature in a number of hours equal to 1d12 +the creature's Constitution score, unless the disease is removed. In half that time, the creature becomes poisoned for the rest of the duration. After the creature dies, it sprouts 2d4 Tiny gas spores that grow to full size in 7 days.

Eerie Resemblance. The Infested AD Drone resembles some variety of advertisement drone. A creature that can see the AD Drone can discern its true nature with a successful DC 15 Intelligence (Nature) check.

ACTIONS

Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +0 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature.

Hit: 1 poison damage, and the creature must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or become infected with the disease described in the Death Burst trait.

Fungal Infestation

Certain breeds of fungi are designed to assist in rapidly breaking down biological waste in the tower into components that can be used in other industries, as well as to maintain the life of the fungie. When these fungi break free from their containment vats, they end up attacking anything and everything biological that they can get their tendrils onto!

Medium plant

Armor Class 5

Hit Points 18 (4d8) speed 5 ft.

STR 3 (- 4)

DEX 1 (-5)

CON 10 (+0)

INT 1 (- 5)

WIS 3 (- 4)

CHA 1 (- 5)

Condition Immunities blinded, deafened, frightened

Senses blindsight 30ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 6

Challenge 1/4 (50 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +2

False Appearance. While the fungal infestation remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from an ordinary fungus.

ACTIONS

Multiattack. The fungal infestation makes 1d4 Rotting Touch attacks.

Rotting Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 10ft., one creature.

Hit: 4 (1d8) necrotic damage.

Infested Alarm System

Occasionally fungi will infest alarm and sensor systems, things meant to send out clarion calls and alert the guards. While they are rarely, if ever, lethal in and of themselves, they use the clarion calls of suborned alarm systems to scare away anything that might feed on them. Predators throughout abandoned structures have long ago learned to flock to these alarm calls, as it means that there is often prey there.

Medium plant,

Armor Class 5

Hit Points 13 (3d8)

Speed 0 ft.

STR 1 (- 5)

DEX 1 (-5)

CON 10 (+0)

INT 1 (-5)

WIS 3 (- 4)

CHA 1 (- 5)

Condition Immunities blinded, deafened, frightened

Senses blindsight 30ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 6

Challenge 0 (10 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +2

False Appearance. While the infested alarm remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from an ordinary, broken, alarm system.

Alarum. When bright light or a creature is within 30 feet of the Infested Alarm, it emits a shriek audible within 300 feet of it. The infested alarm continues to shriek until the disturbance moves out of range and for 1d4 of the infested alarm's turns afterward.

Shrooms

There were multiple projects involving adapting humanity, when the bunker network was first considered, offshoots of the gobbo project lead to the creation of a fungal variant rather than a plant based one. No one recalls the original name for them, indeed, if any records survive they are buried deep in the sounds of the south or in the most centralized, and thus mutant infested, sections of the bunker networks. Today they are called Shrooms, both for their similarity to the product many gobbo family groups produce and for their penchant for infesting machine networks with their fungal spores which they seem to retain some limited control over. Reports suggest they are also capable of infesting humans, or at least, cybernetically enhanced ones, and puppeteering them as well. They form tight nit communities deep in the bunker networks, and are some of the fiercest opponents of the Undercity Elf technocults devoted to the expansion of the web.

Shroom Sprout
The youngest and most basic form of shroom, and by for the most common. They will spend most of their youth in a sessile form, before entering into a mobile stage in late adolescence provided they survive.

Small plant
Armor Class 10
Hit Points 7 (2d6)
Speed 10ft

STR 8 (- 1)
DEX 10 (+0)
CON 10 (+0)
INT 8 (-1)
WIS 11 (+0)
CHA 5 (-3)

Senses darkvision 120ft., passive Perception 10
Challenge 0 (10 XP)
Proficiency +2

Distress Spores. When the shroom takes damage, all other shroom within 240 feet of it can sense its pain.
Sun Sickness. While in sunlight, the shroom has disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws. The shroom dies if it spends more than 1 hour in direct sunlight.

ACTIONS
Fist. Melee Weapon Attack:+ 1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1 (1d4- 1) bludgeoning damage plus 2 (1d4) poison damage.

Rapport Spores (3/Day). A 10-foot radius of spores extends from the shroom . These spores can go around corners and affect only creatures with an Intelligence of 2 or higher that are not hacked,constructs, or surges. Affected creatures can communicate telepathically with one another while they are within 30 feet of each other. The effect lasts for 1 hour.

Deep Beastman Spore Servant
A deep beastkin, the cybernetics that once supported his adventuring career into the bunkers now turned against him, making him a shroom servant.

Medium plant
Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points 45 (6d8 + 18)
Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft.

STR 17 (+3)
DEX 12 (+1)
CON 16 (+3)
INT 2 (- 4)
WIS 6 (- 2)
CHA 1 (- 5)

Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, frightened,
paralyzed, poisoned
Senses blinds ight 30ft. (blind beyond this radius),
passive Perception 8
Challenge 1 (200 XP)
Proficiency +2

ACTIONS
Multiattack. The spore servant makes two claw attacks.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) slashing damage.

Grown Shroom
After several years of slow growth, a Shroom Sprout will begin to stop resembling the gobbo product, and begin taking on the appearance of something else, more alien, as it's spore like growth accelerates.

Medium plant
-Armor Class 12 (natural armor)
- Hit Points 22 (4d8 + 4)
Speed 20ft.

STR 10 (+0)
DEX 10 (+0)
CON 12 (+1)
INT 10 (+0)
WIS 13 (+1)
CHA 7 (-2)

Senses darkvision 120ft., passive Perception 11
Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)
Proficiency +2

Distress Spores. When the shroom takes damage, all other shrooms within 240 feet of it can sense its pain.
Sun Sickness. While in sunlight, the shroom has disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws. The shroom dies if it spends more than 1 hour in direct sunlight.

ACTIONS
Fist. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 5 (2d4) bludgeoning damage plus 5 (2d4) poison damage.

Pacifying Spores (3fDay). The shroom ejects spores at one creature it can see within 5 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or be stunned for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

Rapport Spores. A 20-foot radius of spores extends from the shroom. These spores can go around corners and affect only creatures with an Intelligence of 2 or higher that are not hacked,constructs, or surges. Affected creatures can communicate telepathically with one another while they are within 30 feet of each other. The effect lasts for 1 hour.

Shroom Sovereign
Assuming that a Shroom survives long years in the bunker network, enduring all kinds of dangers and pitfalls, it may one day grow to the point of becoming a Sovereign. Towering over anything that might normally be considered a Gobbo, the Sovereign is capable of cultivating the specialized fungal mats from which new, healthy, Shrooms can safely sprout. A Sovereign will either challenge a shroom colony's existing sovereign for dominance over the colony (an event that inevitably ends in the death of one or both sovereigns), or more commonly, seek out a new place to seed their own colony, perhaps accompanied by other shrooms, or at least, a collection of spore servants.

Large plant
Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points 60 (8d10 + 16)
Speed 30ft.

STR 12 (+1)
DEX 10 (+0)
CON 14 (+2)
INT 13 (+1)
WIS 15 (+2)
CHA 10 (+0)

Senses darkvision 120ft., passive Perception 12
Challenge 2 (450 XP)
Proficiency +2

Distress Spores. When the shroom takes damage, all other shroom within 240 feet of it can sense its pain.
Sun Sickness. While in sunlight, the shroom has disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws. The shroom dies if it spends more than 1 hour in direct sunlight.
ACTIONS
Multiattack. The shroom uses either its Hallucination Spores or its Pacifying Spores, then makes a fist attack.

Fist. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 8 (3d4 + 1) bludgeoning damage plus 7 (3d4) poison damage.

Animating Spores (3/Day). The shroom targets one corpse of a humanoid or a Large or smaller beast within 5 feet of it and releases spores at the corpse. In 24 hours, the corpse rises as a spore servant. The corpse stays animated for 1d4 + 1 weeks or until destroyed, and it can't be animated again in this way.

Hallucination Spores. The shroom ejects spores at one creature it can see within 5 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 minute. The poisoned target is incapacitated while it hallucinates. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

Pacifying Spores. The shroom ejects spores at one creature it can see within 5 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or be stunned for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the condition on itself on a success.
Rapport Spores. A 30-foot radius of spores extends from the shroom. These spores can go around corners and affect only creatures with an Intelligence of 2 or higher that are not hacked,constructs, or surges. Affected creatures can communicate telepathically with one another while they are within 30 feet of each other. The effect lasts for 1 hour.