Help Me Brainstorm: Yellow Musk Creeper Assassin

[WizarDru]

So help me brainstorm here.

My players are travelling cross-country from their previous adventure and returning back to the island-castle that their order calls home. More importantly, they have come into possession of a very powerful artifact that they are gingerly transporting to have their order put in a vault somewhere.

Enroute, they encounter some humans attacking a cart of some goblins. However, it quickly becomes obvious that the goblins are good merchants and the players realize that there's something very, very wrong with the humans. After the battle, they deduce that the humans were all slave/zombies under the control of a Yellow Musk Creeper...but were more intelligent, apparently, then the normal thralls of same. They end the adventure arriving at a large town, Lindenfall, safe but concerned since they never actually encountered the creeper itself.

That said, how would you proceed if you were the Yellow Musk Creeper? I haven't really figured out HOW, but this Yellow Musk Creeper is intelligent...and I'm working with the idea that the Creeper can control some of his thralls, though perhaps only one at a time as a puppet (versus general orders/control). The creeper most likely doesn't know much about the contents of the town, but he knows that he can't risk exposing himself to such a large settlement (especially if there are more members of the ArbokGuard there).

If you were such a creature, what would you do to try and get at the players?

 

[The 1 and the Prime]

I think you need to understand more about the ecology of the Yellow Creeper.

Why does the Creeper need the animal hosts in the first place: it doesn't derive energy sustenance from them? The creeper uses the animal hosts to create a nitrogen rich bed for its offspring. Additionally, the hosts serve the purpose of transporting the young to an ideal location, typically in a swamp in an area exposed to light. The creeper can take advantage of the nervous system of the host to make a very precise placement for it's offspring and some sub-species cause their hosts to go into a frenzy of "lawn mowing" shortly before death in which they rip up and destroy nearby plant life to make additional room for the young creeper.

He knows that he can't risk exposing himself to such a large settlement (especially if there are more members of the ArbokGuard there).

While this particular creeper may be aware of the PCs and the power they possess somehow (maybe it can instinctively sense the artifact), then it may lie low. However, typically the main function of the zombies during the initial phase of the infestation is the capture and arrest of new potential hosts for the plant parasite. It is not uncommon for a population of alligators to be decimated during the infrequent blossomings of the plant. If the blossom is near a humanoid settlement and begins infesting the humanoids, there is a possibility that a chain reaction of increasingly large numbers of the humanoids getting captured and in turn capturing additional hosts for the plant parasites. While this is a rare event, a typical blossoming of the flower may produce hundreds of infested hosts, although usually these are non-sentient life forms.

Little is known of these plants. Even if the PCs knew of the plant, how would they find out what it looked like (besides looking it up in the Fiend Folio), let alone where it was, unless they were being dragged there semi-conscious by the enthralled zombies and getting infected? The townspeople would likely be totally ignorant and may possibly blame necromancy or even the (powerful strange) PCs for the disappearances around town recently.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Point to another thread on the same lines: http://www.enworld.org/forum/plots-places/277596-cromweld-died-but-wouldnt-lie-down.html

 

[WizarDru]

Little is known of these plants. Even if the PCs knew of the plant, how would they find out what it looked like (besides looking it up in the Fiend Folio), let alone where it was, unless they were being dragged there semi-conscious by the enthralled zombies and getting infected? The townspeople would likely be totally ignorant and may possibly blame necromancy or even the (powerful strange) PCs for the disappearances around town recently.

Well, in this case, not so much. The PCs are members of an order of monster hunters. One of the pcs made his check and IDed what they were facing, as well as that this one was unusual. The townsfolk would turn to them for help in such a case.

Sending scouts in the town might work, but probably is too risky: it's thralls are valuable and it just lost some to the pcs. The town has a population of hundreds, possibly more than that. The creeper is nothing if not cautious...it didn't intend to fight the pcs before, at least not under the conditions it did.

 

[WizarDru]

Point to another thread on the same lines:

Interesting thread, but not really similar to what I'm doing, other than a sorta similar monster. Thanks, though.

 

[Aeolius]

How about a yellow musk creeper under control of a myconid sovereign, then?

You could take a cue from "The Ruins" and have either a gargantuan intelligent plant infesting ancient ruins, or perhaps the ruins themselves are haunted/magical and thus animating the nearby flora.

 

[The 1 and the Prime]

Well, in this case, not so much. The PCs are members of an order of monster hunters. One of the pcs made his check and IDed what they were facing, as well as that this one was unusual. The townsfolk would turn to them for help in such a case.

Fine. They know it is something called a yellow creeper. Do they know what it looks like? I mean, I remembered vaguely the yellow creeper from years back when I read the OP, and I can't even remember right now from earlier today what the description said the plant looked like. So the PCs know kinda what the plant is capable of, but c'mon, it's no shark with a freakin laserbeam attached to its head.

Maybe toss the PCs a bone and say they remember it has purple flowers and suggest to them a search party should be organized by the townspeople. The townspeople go out, search around, and bring back twenty different clippings of stuff they find all around that has purple flowers. Except not all the townspeople who went out came back.

Or maybe you don't throw them a bone and they have to send someone on a trip to ask the sage at the local university in the provincial capital what a Yellow Creeper looks like. Adventure hook.

And you're telling me that NO ONE in a town of potentially a thousand people dislikes the PCs? There isn't a like local mall cop always trying to show the Feds up and embarrass them (and maybe will blame the PCs for bungles)? There aren't any peacenik druid types around who like think it is a tragedy, but it is just one of mother earth's creatures man, and you gotta just let the wild areas be wild, man (you don't like OWN a Yellow Creeper, man!)?

Sending scouts in the town might work, but probably is too risky: it's thralls are valuable and it just lost some to the pcs. The town has a population of hundreds, possibly more than that. The creeper is nothing if not cautious...it didn't intend to fight the pcs before, at least not under the conditions it did.

Fine. It really isn't that high risk. The initial stages of the infestation simply cause the host to linger near the edges of their home territory until they are noticed, typically by a family member. They then flee if they are pursued, luring a family member with them deeper into the woods. There intermediate stage hosts ambush the unsuspecting family member and bring it to the plant for infestation. If the intermediate stage hosts are unable to subdue the party pursuing the initial stage host, they will die without revealing the location or identity of the Flower.

Regardless, the flower has largely accomplished its goal of seed dispersion and creating a fertile capsule for the seeds, even if the placement is somewhat more haphazard than would happen if the cycle completed in the slain hosts. I don't think you understand the plant that well, why exactly are these zombies that valuable? They are marginally more valuable to the plant than stowing seeds away in digestive tracts or letting them fly on the wind.

What did the PCs do with the thrall's bodies BTW? I'm guessing next year may be a bumper crop of Yellow Creepers in the Grave Yard if they just let the ignorant townspeople handle them.

Still, even if the flower is something special and actually intelligent, it probably would rustle cattle to get new hosts (rather than townspeople).

 

[the Jester]

If you were such a creature, what would you do to try and get at the players?

Did the raid on the wagon have an important goal for the creeper? If not, I'd let it go. OTOH, if the pcs foiled an important mission, the creeper might try to find a way to synthesize its musk gas into a portable format that its zombies can carry in a bag (or something) and use it to recruit the pcs. "You foiled my plans once- but now you shall execute them!!"

 

[WizarDru]

Did the raid on the wagon have an important goal for the creeper? If not, I'd let it go. OTOH, if the pcs foiled an important mission, the creeper might try to find a way to synthesize its musk gas into a portable format that its zombies can carry in a bag (or something) and use it to recruit the pcs. "You foiled my plans once- but now you shall execute them!!"

I should clarify a little of what happened, prior.

The players have been travelling from a town called Geartooth, where they were sent on a fact-finding mission to meet someone called the Clockwork Mage. There were killer lumberjack automatons and crazed assassins...the usual. At the end of it, the Clockwork Mage gave them one of the fourteen Highblades, deific-created weapons meant to advance the agenda of their associated pantheon member in the world. Think Fred Saberhagen, here.

The players are members of the ArbokGuard...the king's monster hunters, essentially. So in the CM's eyes, this was getting rid of both a terrible temptation and putting it in the 'right hands', with the expectation that they would do the right thing and keep the blade out of evil hands (unless the blade has other ideas, which is a common fact of them). So the players set out, taking an alternate route home, hoping to get the item back to their chapterhouse and into the Guard's vault. Along the way, they encounter the goblins being attacked, quickly suss who's good and who's bad and lay down the smack.

The goblins reveal that they don't know why they were attacked (beyond simple thievery or human intolerance). But while making space to carry some of the wounded, they discover that the goblins unwittingly have a powerful artifact in their possesion...a mummified giants hand called Mordag's Big Fist. The players know this is probably not a coincidence.

I told you all that to tell you THIS: that the creeper is actually looking for (was sent to find) the highblade (BlueWand, the Sorceror's Blade) that the players have, but mistakenly zoned in on the goblin's artifact, instead. So he's going to want to get at them, but was unprepared for their initial attack. He was hired by a group known as the Cruel Wizards, with the express intention of killing the members of the guard (the PCs) and then taking Bluewand and bringing it to them. He has some capacity (either by item or ability) to sense powerful magic items...and when the goblins came by he made the wrong assumption.

It's been suggested that the creeper might take over an outlying farm around the town and then keep one of the family members unmolested and let them escape into town to send a warning (and lure the players). I rather like this idea.

 

[Pbartender]

It's been suggested that the creeper might take over an outlying farm around the town and then keep one of the family members unmolested and let them escape into town to send a warning (and lure the players). I rather like this idea.

Okay, here's an idea:

When it comes to plant creatures, no one ever really considers the role of pollinators in propagation. So...

Turn the outlying farm into an orchard with a large apiary. Add in some insect (bee) swarms to the Creeper's roster of minions (maybe he's using some of these bees to scout out the surrounding area, and spy on the PCs). Also, give him a harem of non-sapient potted Yellow Musk Creepers (he carefully bred them specifically to produce seeds that create the advanced Yellow Musk Zombies, when he cross-pollinates with them).

Use the bees as innocuous tells for the PCs... One of them is always inconspicuously buzzing around in the background, just before a group of Yellow Musk Zombies shows up.