Monsters

Corpse Flowers
Queen of the Well
Athasian Lamia
Roper Tree
Banshee Tree
Carnivorous Plant
Ghost Bird
Toxic Spirit
Tar Spirit
Sandmole

Corpse Flowers

Description: Athasian Corpse Flowers come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Their unifying characteristic is their truly awful smell. Some corpse flowers even try to mimic rotten flesh in their appearance to attract 'clientele'. The biggest plant of this variety is the hideous Carrion Tree.

Ecology: Athasian corpse flowers can be separated into two categories: those that aim to attract insects such as beetles for pollination and spreading their species - and those who want to eat a hearty, unintelligent meal that cannot draw a weapon to hack it to pieces. This might unfortunately be your companion animal.

Combat: Most Athasian corpse flowers do not fall into the 'aggressive carnivorous plant' category. A corpse flower will, for instance, let part of itself be eaten by an animal, thus poisoning it. The poison acts so fast that the animal will stay within the plant's reach. Sometimes, the gas these plants emit is already as poisonous as it is attractive. A few rare species strangle, sting or bite their victims to death once they have approached. Even rarer is the use of psionics.

Hit dice depending on size and hardness of plant
Initiative (depending on plant)
Speed (depending on plant)
AC (depending on plant)
Damage (depending on plant)
Face/Reach (depending on plant)
Special Attacks/Qualities (depending on plant)
Saves -
Abilities -
Skills -
Feats -
Climate/Terrain any
Organisation mostly solitary
Challenge Rating (depending on plant)
Treasure -
Alignment neutral
Advancement -

Queen of the Well

Description: The Queen of the Well can be found on the surface of clean waters. In fact, it is the reason why that particular water is so clean. People who don't know about this tend to see the plant as a parasite or obstacle and remove it - only to find out a few days later that the water has become a carrier of real parasites and disease. On the surface, the Queen of the Well resembles a black scary version of a water lily mixed with sea-weed with twisted and slightly puffy leaves. On the underside is looks like a cross between the same seaweed and a jellyfish with long roots dangling into the water.
Ecology: The Queen of the Well does not have any defense mechanisms apart from a sweet smelling insect repellant which is contained in its flowers on the surface. On the underside the plant does just the opposite and consumes nasties through its 'roots' in the water.

Combat: normal dragon plants don't engage in combat unless with small to large-ish insects. Mutations will fight with any means given...

Hit dice 1 per plant
Initiative -
Speed
AC
Damage -
Face/Reach -
Special Attacks/Qualities -
Saves -
Abilities -
Skills -
Feats -
Climate/Terrain water (well, oasis, lake)
Organisation mostly solitary
Challenge Rating -
Treasure -
Alignment neutral
Advancement -

Athasian Lamia
Medium Monstrous Humanoid

The Athasian lamia has the lower body of a lion and the upper body of a beautiful woman or man. With the help of psionics, they can make their victims "forget" about the lion part of their body in order to lure desert travellers into their deadly traps.

Society:
Laminas can be found or rather will most likely find PCs in desert ruins, caves or oases. Often, they are attracted to places which are guarded by or contain a psionic artefact. Due to the intelligence and the ability to communicate, someAthasian artefacts have managed to convert lamias into guardias. These guardian lamias are lawful in alignment and serve to protect the artefact and its surrounding territory. Lamia like luxury and comfort and accumulate an attractive amount of treasure over the years. Therefore they are often connected to a specific place. The very few roaming lamias have choosen a landmark where they bury their treasure.

Athasian historians generally believe that the lamia is a mutation of the ancient wemic, a race that might have survived the Cleansing Wars. In fact, the story is very different: Wemics and lamias have always been fierce enemies. Both sides used every opportunity to kill each other. During the Cleansing Wars the lamia had the chance to get rid of their enemies, the wemics. They spied on them, set traps and led the Champion's army to their hide-outs. Without their treachery, the wemics might have had a better chance for survival.

Combat:
Athasian lamias use psionics instead of spells to charm, drain and kill their victims. Most lamias are at least 5th level psionicists, guardian lamias 10th level. A lamia will try to manipulate and charm a person. If it does not work it can hide or manipulate its own aura/alignment. Athasian lamias have immaculate human hands, but can transform their hand into claws during combat.

Psionics:
The lamia gets the following psionic powers at will: ESP, Invincible foes, aura alteration, detect thoughts, acceptance, awe, befriend, mental barrier, fatal attraction, conceal thoughts, mindlink, body weaponry, dream stalker, inaudibility.

The Guardian lamia gets: ESP, Invincible foes, awareness boundary, carry voice, dream surveyor, interceptive boundary, mental barrier, fatal attraction, conceal thoughts, body weaponry, dream stalker, inaudibility. domination.

Hit dice 9 d 10 (+ level)
Initiative +2 (+2 Dex) basis
Speed 60 ft
AC 19+
Damage Touch (psionic drain) +9 melee,
2 claws +3 melee, weapon ()
Face/Reach 5 ft. x 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks/Qualities Darkvision 60 ft. and low light vision, Psionics,
Wild Talent like abilities, PSP drain -
Lamias drain 25 (+5 per level) PSP permanently on a successful touch attack.
Saves Fort +7, Ref +8, Will +8 (basis)
Abilities Str 16, Dex 15, Con 18, Int 16, Wis 15, Cha 19
Skills Knowledge(psionic) +13, Bluff +15, Concentration +12, Survival/Wilderness Lore +8,
Feats Dodge, Iron Will, Mobility, Weapon finesse (dagger), Disarm Mind, Inertial Armor
Climate/Terrain Desert, Tableland, Wastes
Organisation solitary
Challenge Rating 6 + level of character class(es)
Treasure Gems, psionic items, (metal) jewellery, cosmetics ;)
Alignment chaotic Evil or lawful evil (Guardian Lamia)
Advancement By character class

Roper Tree

Description: The Roper Tree looks like a dead or defiled tree. It is between 15 and 20 feet tall and usually stands among other "real" dead trees. Some Roper trees are of an olive-green shade.

Combat: Roper Trees are sensitive to tremors. They wait until something passes them and then leash out with whip-like strands. The strands are rough and once they grab a victim, tiny spikes move into the victim's flesh and drain the victim's blood and life energy. Some of the spikes also inject the victim with a sustance which liquifies the rest of its body so that the tree can consume and digest all of it. Sometimes, other animals are attracted by the smell blood during the devouring process and -zzzzt- a new strand shoots out to wrap up the next victim...
The normal diet of a Roper Tree are small to medium-sized mammals, but it is extremely appreciative of larger ones…

A roper has 3d4 strands. Sometimes a strand gets chopped, bitten or burnt off and the Roper Tree has to grow a new one. This way the strands can be different lengths. The longest can grow to about 50 ft.

Attach: When a Roper Tree leashed out and manages to grab a victim, it makes 1d3 points of damage. Then it tries to either scoop up the victim or, if it is too heavy, try to drag it towards it. It moves the victim 10 ft. closer each round if it fails to break free (Escape Artist or Strength check, but also Willpower and Constitution check, because the victim has to pull free from the spikes which can be very painful. If the victim fails the Constitution check it is in such pain that it is either unable to do anything in the next round or has fainted).
A single attack with an slashing weapon which does at least 15 points of damage severs a strand.

Drain: A roper drains 1d3 of life energy per round.

A Roper Tree will suffer at least double damage from fire attacks.

Ecology: Roper trees hardly ever stand in groups as food supply and suitable terrain is usually rare. If both is readily available, there is a chance that there is more than one of them…

Hit dice 12d10+30
Initiative + 5
Speed 0 ft.
AC 24
Damage Whip
Face/Reach 50 ft. with strand
Special Attacks/Qualities Strands, attach, drain
Saves Fort +10, Ref + , Will +
Abilities Str 20, Dex 14, Con 18, Int 2-3, Wis 13, Cha 12
Skills Listen +14
Feats Alertness, Improved Initiative, Weapon Focus
Climate/Terrain Dead/Dry Forests
Organisation Usually solitary, rarely cluster or pair
Challenge Rating 3
Treasure -
Alignment neutral
Advancement 11-15 (large), 10-30 HD (huge)


Banshee Tree



Description: The palm-like banshee trees are found in oases and near small bodies of water which have in some way been affected by defiling magic. They are the nightmare version of a guardian of an oasis. People believe they are undead druids or twisted spirits trapped in defiled trees.

Habitat: Banshee trees are solitary creatures.They come alive when a psionically active creature is within 500 feet of their dwelling place.

Combat: The banshee tree has the ability to create illusions to lure its victim into its reach. Once within reach, the banshee tree can use its psionic ability to create a bone-chilling shriek that either paralyses its victims (and makes their ears bleed) or makes them go into a berserker rage that is directed at anything else but the tree (usually fellow party members who attack the banshee tree). Banshee trees seek to consume a victim's PSP and also drain their charisma once they are finished with their PSP. They aim destroy non-psionic attackers with the use of psionics, but they cannot get access to them to drain their charisma.

Hit dice 20 d8 + 48
Initiative +0
Speed 10 ft
AC 18
Damage psi drain, wail
Face/Reach 10ft by 10 ft / 15 ft.
Special Attacks/Qualities psp/energy drain, wail, fog, improved grab,
detect living, plant traits
Saves Fort +12, Ref +4, Will +4
Abilities str 24, dex 12, con 20,
int 2, wis 8, cha 16
Skills -
Feats -
Climate/Terrain any hot areas, near water
Organisation solitary
Challenge Rating 12
Treasure -
Alignment neutral
Advancement ?


Dragon plant (carnivorous)



Description: This fairly small and relatively innocent plant is a feature of many Athasian gardens as it keeps a lot of unpleasant critters away. It is a wild plant and quite difficult to breed and transport, but as most gardens are kept by noblemen anyway, they have got the resources to maintain them.
Dragon plants are carnivores which catch insects with long sticky tongues which shoot out and pull the insect into an acid which enables the plant to digest it.
What is special about them is that they are a favourite in defilers' experiments. You should see the dragon plant mutations in any dragonmonarch's garden!!!

Ecology: Dragon plants grow as 'twin plants'. However, if one half dies, they keep on living. Usually dragon plants are found on their own (due to competition for food), but in areas like cities are able to exist in groups.

Combat: normal dragon plants don't engage in combat unless with small to large-ish insects. Mutations will fight with any means given...

Hit dice depending on mutation
Initiative depending on mutation
Speed depending on mutation
AC depending on mutation
Damage depending on mutation features
Face/Reach depending on mutation
Special Attacks/Qualities depending on mutation: e.g. acid slime, blood-sucking thorns, paralysing poison, ...
Saves depending on mutation
Abilities depending on mutation
Skills -
Feats -
Climate/Terrain garden, in the wild: oasis, rocky terrain
Organisation mostly solitary
Challenge Rating depending on mutation
Treasure -
Alignment neutral
Advancement depending on mutation


Ghost Bird/Wraith Bird
Medium-large incorporeal being



Description: The ghost or 'wraith' bird is a mysterious guardian creature. Ghost birds are pale translucent creatures in the distorted shape of a bird. A ghost bird's features are usually uncannily elongated, just looking at them sends a chill down one's spine...

Habitat/Society: Ghost birds act as if commanded by a silent master. Nobody has been able to find out where they come from. Rheir aura and wraith-like abilities suggest that they are inhabitants of they grey, yet 'turn undead' spells do not seem to have an effect on them...

Combat: a ghost bird can reach into a victim's body with its claws and hold his/her heart in a tight grip which results in an attack roll penalty of -4. Ghost birds can only be harmed by enchanted weapons of +2 or better. They cannot be harmed by psionics or spells.

Hit dice 12 d12
Initiative +7
Speed 80 (at least)
AC 16
Damage incorporeal/chill touch 1d8/19-20, ...
Face/Reach ?
Special Attacks/Qualities chill touch, heart grip, horrific appearance
Saves Fort 8, Ref 6, Will +4
Abilities Str -, Dex 18, Con -, Int 16, Wis 15, Cha 17,
Skills -
Feats Alertness, Improved Initiative, etc.
Climate/Terrain any
Organisation flock
Challenge Rating 18
Treasure -
Alignment lawful neutral
Advancement ?


Toxic Spirit

Description: Sometimes when the land is defiled, the spirits of the land do not vanish, but mutate into toxic spirits.

Habitat/Society: Toxic Spirits are twisted, and unfortunately quite powerful, creatures who do not realise what has become of them (they don't remember their past). They just feel anger and the need to destroy.

Combat: Toxic Spirits cast spells like a defiler, pulling the energy from the victims or from somehow from themselves. For some reasion, toxic spirits actually become more powerful the more defiling magic is cast around them.

Hit dice 7d12
Initiative +5
Speed 30 ft.
AC 12 (canonly be harmed by +1 and better magical weapons, other incorporeal creatures or (preserver) magic. The toxic spirit acually becomes more powerful when a defiler draws the energy for a spell near it.
Damage Incorporeal touch corruption
Face/Reach 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks/Qualities Manifestation, Possession (Malevolence), Frightful Presence, Corrupting Touch
Saves Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +4
Abilities Str 20, Dex 16, Con -, Int 17, Wis 12, Cha 20.
Skills Spot +13
Feats Improved Initiative, Improved Critical, Empower Spell, Combat Reflexes
Climate/Terrain Defiled Lands
Organisation Solitary
Challenge Rating 7
Treasure -
Alignment chaotic evil
Advancement 5-7 HD


Tar Spirit

Description: The tar spirit is also a result of magic abuse. This type of spirit is not intelligent. Treat it like a more dextrous ooze creature.

Habitat/Society: Tar Spirit live in rivers, puddles and on the ground. In certain parts of Athas, such as the Deadlands, there are virtual rivers of this stuff.

Combat: Tar spirits can sense life energy and aim to engulf the potential source whose life-energy is sucked from them. What remains is a pile of ashes.

Hit dice 8d10+10
Initiative +1
Speed 30 ft.
AC 13 (+1 Dex, +2 natural)
Damage suffocate, 1d4 drain
Face/Reach 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks/Qualities Improved grap, suffocation, drain
Saves Fort +5, Ref +5 , Will 0
Abilities Str 16, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 3, Wis 6. Cha 12
Skills Listen, Escape Artist, Intimidate
Feats Awareness, Dodge, Great Fortitude, Mobility
Climate/Terrain Defiled Lands
Organisation Solitary or colony (1-20)
Challenge Rating 5
Treasure -
Alignment neutral (evil)
Advancement 7-9 HD


Sandmole

Sandmoles burrow themselves in the sand. They look less than moles, but more like miniature rust-monsters crossed with woodlice. Occasionally they can be seen scuttling across the ground away from people or towards a potential food source (they eat e.g. scorpions, spiders, other insects).
They are about half a foot long and have four main claws which they use to move through the sand, and a couple of smaller legs which they use to move around very fast.

HD
Initiative +3 (Dex)
Speed 40 ft.
AC 20 (+3 Dex, +5 natural, +2 size)
Attacks bite +4 melee
Damage 1d4
Face/Reach 2 1/2 ft. by 2 1/2 ft./0 ft.
Special attacks: acid
Special qualities: Sensitive to tremors
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +1
Abilities: Str 4, Dex 17, Con 18, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 3
Skills Listen +9, Spot +7
Feats Alertness
Alignment neutral
Organisation 1d20
Climate/Terrain: Sand
Treasure none