Corpse Flower

Medium-size Plant
Hit Dice: 3d8+9 (22 hp)
Initiative: -5 (-5 Dex)
Speed: 30 ft
AC: 11 (-5 Dex, +6 natural)
Attacks:
Damage:
Face/Reach: 5 ft by 5 ft/5 ft
Special Attacks: Fetid Burst, Stench of Death
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 5/slashing, immunity to electricity, plant traits, resistance to cold 10
Saves: Fort +6, Ref -4, Will +1
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 1, Con 17, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 1
Climate/Terrain: Temperate forest
Challenge Rating: 2
Treasure: None
Alignment: Usually evil (any)

Combat:
A corpse flower is a mindless, immobile plant. It poses a threat merely by existing: its sickly odor contains a powerful neurotoxin that will paralyze and kill most living creatures. A corpse flower cannot take any sort of voluntary action, but the insects and other creatures that choose to make their home around the flower will act to preserve the plant.

Even if the plant is unprotected, destroying a corpse flower can be a dangerous task. The plant is surprisingly tough and difficult to damage; arrows have little effect, and anyone who gets close enough to use a slashing weapon is sure to be exposed to the deadly poison.

Plant traits: Immune to mind-influencing effects, poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, and polymorphing; not subject to critical hits.

Fetid Burst (Ex): When a corpse flower is destroyed, it explodes with a final burst of compressed gases, spreading its poison across a wide area. The poison cloud covers a 30-foot radius around the corpse flower and lingers for 1d4 rounds; anyone who remains in the area of effect must make a new saving throw at the start of each round. The poison is inhaled, and the person must make a Fortitude save (DC 16). Initial damage is paralysis, and secondary damage is 1d8 Constitution. The save DC is Constitution-based. The poison has no effect on insects or similar creatures.

Stench of Death (Ex): The corpse flower is surrounded by a sickly odor. This smells like rotting flesh, but is in fact a deadly poison that will paralyze and kill most creatures. Any creature that comes within 20 feet of the plant is threatened by this poison. The poison is inhaled, and its effects become more powerful the closer a creature gets to the plant.

16-20 Feet = Fort Save DC 11, Nausea, secondary 1d4 Con damage
11-15 feet = Fort Save DC 12, Paralysis, secondary 1d4 Con damage
6-10 feet = Fort Save DC 13, Paralysis, secondary 1d6 Con damage
0-5 feet = Fort Save DC 15, Paralysis, secondary 1d6 Con damage


The effect is continuous, and a creature that remains in the area of effect must make a saving throw at the start of each round. The save DC is constitution based. The poison has no effect on insects or similar creatures.

About Corpse Flowers:
This flowering plant runs counter to the normal practice of its fellows that put forth pleasing smells and provide sweet nectar to attract bees and other insects. Instead, the scent of a corpseflower is deadly poison. In the places where it is found, the plant is invariably surrounded by the corpses of those unfortunate creatures it has poisoned, which in turn attract great clouds of flies and other vermin which seem to be immune to the gas released by the flower. The stench of death that rises from these victims is often even stronger than the deadly scent of the plant that killed them, and gives warning not to approach.

The leaves of this plant are broad and shiny, and its brightly-colored flowers rise to the height of a tall man. Its squat trunk is several feet in diameter. Corpses typically lie scattered around its base, covered by clouds of flies and hordes of crawling scavengers. The stench of death and decay covers everything. Even destroying the corpse flower does not end the menace, for it bursts like a balloon when destroyed, scattering its poison over a wide area so that it may avenge itself upon those that killed it. Any victims that die from this final burst will sprout new corpse flowers in 1d4 days.

The corpse flower uses its poisonous scent as part of a complex feeding strategy. With the help of insects and other vermin attracted by the stench of death, the bodies of its victims slowly rot into the ground, providing nourishment for the plant. Its scent does not seem to affect invertebrates, and all manner of such creatures may be found crawling over and through the pile of humanoid, animal, and bird corpses that surround its base. It has a symbiotic relationship with these creatures, providing them with food and protection in return for their work breaking down its victims' carcasses.

Typical creatures found around a corpse flower include ants, centipedes, and beetles, either in swarms or as a group of monstrous individuals. Shambling mounds sometimes settle near a corpse flower to share in the nourishment it provides. These creatures will always defend the plant where they live.