a Mad Treant

[Gilladian]

I've wanted to do an adventure based around the concept of a treant that has gone insane for quite a while now - don't ask wny, as I don't know!

The basic idea I have, with a few sketchy details, is that the treant was friendly until recently (a few days or weeks ago) but now attacks anyone who comes near it or into its territory.

The reason it is crazed is purely from pain/poisoning. A parasitic plant has attached itself to the tree and is inflicting intense pain and possibly poisoning the tree. What I don't know is how the plant got on the tree (is it intentional or accidental, and if intentional, is it the plant or someone/something behind the plant?)

If it is intentional, then there's a whole adventure figuring out why. And there's a whole adventure in trying to save/rescue the treant. What would disable/kill the parasite but not the treant? Could the treant be subdued and then something done, or would it have to be killed for the good of all?

Any ideas are welcome; I'll grab some and run with them (but note that my current PC's are only 2-3rd level so I'd prefer ideas suitable for the lower end of the level spectrum - say under 5th).

 

[MongooseFamiliar]

Hmmmm. The first thing that sprang to my mind was that the plant might be an escaped wizard's experiment. Could be accidentally created, could be purposeful. If you wanted to go in an evil wizard direction, the wizard could be trying to find ways of controlling plants and animals for his own evil ends. I'm thinking monstrously twisted forest, here.

It could also be something that a good wizard had come across and was experimenting on in order to fix or cure it, and it is actually a sign of something worse lurking in the background. This parasitic plant could be drawn to sentient creatures and designed to corrupt them or make them insane. Any number of evil creatures or factions could be behind that one.

It could also have been sent purposely at the treant if the treant serves as the protector of that area. Perhaps there are ruins or a gate or a sacred site that the treant is supposed to be keeping watch over, and he can't do that if he is distracted with pain and insanity.

 

[frankthedm]

Danger! Danger!PCs have a habit of biting off more than they can chew. Try and drop clues that a direct confrontation will be a disaster. The Treant's damage output and his ability to animate trees will splat a low level party very fast.

 

[Gilladian]

Yeah, the idea is that the PCs will narrowly avoid the treant - maybe observe it attacking something else, and have to flee/help someone else flee. That would set up the problem quite well, and would allow them to be involved personally.

I like the idea that this plant escaped from a wizard's lab, or was released as a final "test" of a new weapon. This area of my world is loaded with ancient ruins and remnants of evil going back 4-500 years, so perhaps it is something that escaped from a greenhouse that had, until recently, been surviving undisturbed, cared for by automated caretakers left over from an ancient experiment...

But what disturbed it? I think some creature stumbled into the ancient experimental greenhouse, realized there was potential for mayhem, and released the plant to see what would happen. The plant was drawn to the treant by its own evil nature.

Now, how to rescue the treant? Could be that the wizard who grew it originally had notes that would lead to a cure. That would lead the PCs back to confronting the being that set the plant loose, and discovering its motivation...

More advice, refinements, or other options is more than welcome...

 

[Three_Haligonians]

When you say "go mad" do you mean like a psychotic frenzy? If you do, then Frank is right - it's gonna force a messy combat.

Perhaps instead it could "go mad" in a more subtle, yet disturbing, way. Some examples could include:

- In order to keep the peace, it has segregated all the animals. The herbivores in one area, the carnivores in another, the birds in their own, and the fish in their own, etc.

- It has decided that all the carnivores must eat vegtables and all the herbivores must now hunt the carnivores for some amount of time - this is so that the scales will tip back into balance to make up for all the time it's gone the other way.

- Maybe it has worked out a hierarchy among all the plants and now prunes the forest accordingly - so that young trees of a "lower" stature must be destroyed or removed in favour of older plants of a higher position. Doing so even if it's actually bad for the plants involved.

- It had decided to re-arrange the forest, using its animation abilities. The movement is nonsensical and random (though the treant sees important patterns). This is playing havoc with the local wildlife. Perhaps the treant thinks the forest should move around the landscape as well.


And so forth...

This way, you still get the plot hook of a treant gone crazy without the danger of having it kill the PCs. Besides, doing it this way may get the PCs to feel sorry for the treant and more open to looking for the dastardly wizard behind it all - rather than just feeling threatened by an enemy and reaching for the hatchets and saws.


J from Three Haligonians

 

[Endur]

Think Lord of the Rings.

Tree tries to crush the hobbits before Tom Bombadil comes along.

Then the potential problem when Treebeard first encounters hobbits.

Finally the Ents marching to war.

Lots of opportunities to twist those types of encounters with an insane treant.