| Hit Dice: | 6d8+30 (57 hp) |
| Initiative: | +3 |
| Speed: | 5 ft. (1 square) |
| Armor Class: | 17 (−2 size, +3 Dex, +6 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 14 |
| Base Attack/Grapple: | +4/+12 |
| Attack: | Vine whip +5 melee (1d6), or musk puff +5 ranged touch |
| Full Attack: | 6 vine whips +5 melee (1d6), or musk puff +5 ranged touch |
| Space/Reach: | 15 ft./15 ft. |
| Special Attacks: | Consume Intelligence, musk puff |
| Special Qualities: | Blindsight 30 ft., plant traits, regeneration 5 |
| Saves: | Fort +10, Ref +5, Will +2 |
| Abilities: | Str 10, Dex 16, Con 21, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 9 |
| Skills: | — |
| Feats: | Weapon Finesse [bonus] |
| Environment: | Any land and underground |
| Organization: | Solitary or infestation (1 yellow musk creeper plus 2–8 yellow musk zombies) |
| Challenge Rating: | 4 |
| Treasure: | Standard |
| Alignment: | Always neutral |
| Advancement: | 7–12 HD (Huge); 13–18 HD (Gargantuan) ♊ |
| Level Adjustment: | — |
A yellow musk creeper is an immense climbing plant with long, grasping green tendrils and large, vibrant leaves. Beautiful yellow and purple orchidlike flowers positioned throughout the creature’s body emit a heady, entrancing odor. The plant’s musk draws victims to the heart of the creeper, where hungry, naturally sharp vines probe at its head, extracting brain matter in gluttonous gulps. Drained victims become yellow musk zombies, mindless servants who care for the insidious plant.
Despite their bulk, yellow musk creepers react swiftly to potential prey and maneuver their flowers within spraying distance. The plants grow from a single bulbous root that is submerged beneath the creature alongside the buried trappings of previous victims.
Yellow musk creepers usually grow in underground regions that have some amount of loose soil, and they shrink from direct sunlight. Occasionally the plants thrive under the canopy of deep woods or forests. They make excellent guards, and some have been deliberately planted in a given location to protect nearby treasure. Particularly paranoid hoarders sometimes bury their treasure several feet below the base of the plant.
A yellow musk creeper has a symbiotic relationship with the yellow musk zombies it creates. The zombies attempt to protect the yellow musk creeper to the best of their ability. The creeper attempts to ensnare any living creature that approaches within range of its musk, and it defends itself with its vines only if it comes under attack.
A yellow musk creeper can be summoned using a summon nature’s ally IV spell.
Consume Intelligence (Ex): As a free action, a yellow musk creeper can extend dozens of probing, sharp-edged tendrils into the head of any helpless or unresisting creature that also occupies its space. These tendrils begin to devour the victim’s brain, dealing 1d4 points of Intelligence damage each round. If the damage reduces a victim’s Intelligence to 0, the victim must make a Fortitude save (DC 18). Those who fail die, and their bodies grant sustenance to the hungry plant. Those who succeed are implanted with a seed and become yellow musk zombies.
The only way to stop a yellow musk creeper from consuming a victim’s Intelligence is to kill either the victim or the creeper.
Musk Puff (Ex): Yellow musk creepers attack by puffing a spray of potent-smelling dust upon a nearby target. The musk has a range of 30 feet and can target one creature per round.
Creatures struck by a yellow musk creeper’s musk puff must make a Fortitude save (DC 18) or fall under a mind-affecting compulsion to get closer to the entrancing source of the musk. The duration of the effect is 2d8 rounds, although creatures within the plant remain under the compulsion until removed from the creeper.
Creatures under the yellow musk creeper’s compulsion can take no actions other than moving to enter the plant’s space. (The creeper does not oppose these attempts, of course.) Affected creatures do anything they can to comply with the compulsion and even attack companions who seek to restrain them. Once within the plant, the affected creature drops anything in hand and stands motionless. The creature is dazed and does not resist the creeper’s attacks as long as it remains within the plant.
Blindsight (Ex): A yellow musk creeper maneuvers and fights not only by sight, but also by using hearing and smell to ascertain its surroundings. This ability enables it to discern objects and creatures within 30 feet. See Blindsight.
Regeneration (Ex): Fire and acid deal normal damage to a yellow musk creeper. See Regeneration.
Source: Fiend Folio, page 190. Changes applied as per the D&D® v.3.5 Accessory Update.
Yellow musk zombies are not zombies at all, though their low groans, sickly yellow skin, and vacant stares lead many to believe they are undead. Rather, the wretched creatures are all that remains of victims of the deadly yellow musk creeper. During their thankfully brief lives, yellow musk zombies do everything within their power to protect and support the plant that spawned them.
Outwardly, a yellow musk zombie resembles a normal member of its species except for its hollow, dead eyes and pallid, jaundiced skin. It has another important distinction that cannot be seen with the naked eye: When the yellow musk creeper responsible for its transformation devours a creature’s brain, it leaves a fleshy seed within the creature’s head that slowly germinates over a period of two months.
The mindless zombies are not truly evil, though their unswerving loyalty to their progenitor makes them determined and deadly opponents. A yellow musk zombie retains a vestige of intelligence, although it is incapable of using abilities or skills requiring special training or knowledge (including most class abilities or any tool or device more complicated than a weapon).
“Yellow musk zombie” is an acquired template that can be applied to any living creature that would ordinarily have an Intelligence score, and whose physiology includes a brain (referred to hereafter as the base creature). It uses all the base creature’s statistics and abilities except as noted here.
Type and Size: The creature’s type becomes plant.
Hit Dice: Change to d8.
Armor Class: Natural armor increases by +2.
Attacks: A yellow musk zombie retains all the attacks of the base creature. Most yellow musk zombies use the weapons they used before their transformation.
Special Qualities: A yellow musk zombie gains the following special qualities.
Creeper Loyalty (Ex): Yellow musk zombies always act to protect and nurture the yellow musk creeper that created them. They can range no farther than 100 feet from their progenitor for the first two months of their existence. Thereafter, they wander freely for 1d4 days before dropping dead. Unless cured (see below), a yellow musk zombie automatically dies two days after the death of its patron creeper.
Deadened Mind (Ex): A yellow musk zombie recalls nothing of its previous life, and it exists only to serve its parent plant. It cannot make use of class abilities, skills, or feats it previously knew. It also cannot use magic devices, although it can still wield weapons and use armor.
Low-Light Vision (Ex): As a plant creature, yellow musk zombies gain low-light vision.
Plant Traits (Ex): A yellow musk zombie is gains plant traits.
Seeded (Ex): If a yellow musk zombie dies, the growing seed inside its head takes root and grows into a yellow musk creeper within 1 hour.
Abilities: Same as the base creature, except that the yellow musk zombie has an Intelligence of 2, and Dexterity and Wisdom change to 10, unless they were already lower.
Skills: A yellow musk zombie has no skills.
Feats: A yellow musk zombie has no feats.
Environment: Any land and underground.
Organization: Solitary or gang (2–8).
Treasure: Same as the base creature, although the zombie retains only whatever it was wearing or carrying when transformed.
Alignment: Always neutral.
A yellow musk zombie’s patron plant must be killed before the zombie can be cured of its affliction. Thereafter, a cleric of at least 12th level must cast regenerate or heal upon the character before the implanted seed germinates.
Source: Fiend Folio, page 191. Changes applied as per the D&D® v.3.5 Accessory Update.