Leechroots look
like plant monsters. But actually,
they're undead. And instead of creeping
along like most plant creatures, they tend to burrow. In fact, they can even grapple creatures and
then drag them underground, literally burying them alive. And their slashing roots cause bleed damage
that resists even magical healing.
Bestiary 5 notes
that leechroots “emerge from the remains of plants poisoned by the
blood-drenched soils of war-torn forests.”
This makes sense—battlefields tend to have coherent battle plans, clear
rules of engagement, and hospital tents (however makeshift) nearby. On the other hand, fighting in the forest is close-up,
dirty, and deadly, full of ambushes, quiet knifings, and men dying in the
underbrush because their fellows couldn’t find them in time—all providing rich
necromantic compost for an undead root.
Though it doesn't provide mechanics for it, B5 also suggests leechroots can turn dead
plants into their spawn—a good excuse to slap an undead template onto your favorite
plant creature. And while the exact mechanics
are again not explicitly stated, leechroots in groups of four or more can form
a sentient network known as a hivemind that serves primarily as a
mutual-defense pact…and a promise of deadly, soil-covered retribution.
The secret vampire
lords of Ornov quietly encourage the growth of leechroot on their lands,
procuring cuttings from over the border in war-torn Haig. A leechroot’s presence easily explains any
poorly buried, exsanguinated corpses, and a posse of men-at-arms leading a
militia to burn out a leechroot infestation is a very visible—and
popular—symbol of the princes’ dedication to their peasants’ well-being.
Vanaras and humans
are engaged in a deadly battle over territory and logging rights. This long-running conflict has only festered
with age—so much so that leechroots are now responsible for most of the
casualties.
Wars of ideas can be
as deadly as wars of arrows and blades.
Adventurers visit an overgrown agora where philosophers used to debate
in public. Here Galen abandoned the
utilitarianism of his teachers, transforming his master’s model of the Cunning
Mind to the brutal Culling Blade—his first step to becoming the genocidal
monster known as the Hand in Bone. As
the adventurers move throughout the complex, haunts offer glimpses of Galen’s
development and fall—or rather, willful leap—from grace. Not only is surviving the haunts a challenge,
but the agora is infested with leechroots, born from the hate engendered by
Galen’s cruel, honeyed words.
—Pathfinder Bestiary 5
155
Pedro Coelho created the leechroot as an RPG Superstar
entry. Check it and the judges’ comments
out here.
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