pits for holding criminals and their ilk. These fine guest houses are built in the center of a garden of rooted mazak vines. The fine building and the beauty of the garden gives the hostage the sense of being an honored guest. However, after a guest consumes a meal or drink laced with mazak juice, the hostage can never leave the house for fear of the thick maze of mazak vine that encircles it.
Combat
Upon catching the scent of one who has eaten a mazak fruit, mazak vines swiftly converge on their victims. Fearless and unrelenting, mazak vines swarm their prey, aiding one anoth- er in immobilizing a target and soaking it in their poisonous, acidic pollen. A great distance may separate the fruit bearing female plants and violent acid-spewing males. With luck one might pass the seeds before becoming victim of the deadly pollination process.
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Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a mazak vine
must hit with its slam attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity.
Limited Mobility (Ex): The female vine has no mobility
(speed 0 ft.) and the male vine only moves when it sense seed- lings. It moves by uprooting (requiring a move action), lashing its vines about objects, and pulling itself forward. If it has nothing to cling to, a mazak vine cannot move.
Pollen Spray (Ex): Three times per day, a mazak vine can
release a spray of acidic pollen at a single opponent within 10 feet. This attack deals 1d8 points of acid damage, which a Reflex save (DC 14) negates. This pollen infiltrates the bloodstream of those who take damage, forcing a Fortitude save (DC 13) to avoid poisoning on the following round. This poison deals initial and secondary damage of 1d4 Strength. Mazak vines can only use this ability once every 5 rounds. Mazak vines are immune to the acid and poison of this attack. A mazak vine can use this attack on an opponent it is grap- pling. The save DCs are Constitution based.
Restraining Roots (Ex): Rather than joining a grapple,
mazak vines can use the aid another action to improve an adja- cent mazak vine’s grapple check. Upon successfully making an attack against AC 10, a mazak vine grants its ally a +3 bonus on its next grapple check. Multiple mazak vines can aid the same ally and the bonuses stack. Typically, one trying to escape the grapple of numerous mazak vines must only overcome one augmented grapple check and not the grapple checks of numerous participants.
Seedling Scent (Ex): Treat mazak vines as having scent for
the purposes of detecting creatures who have eaten a mazak fruit within 24 hours. This form of scent functions at double the normal range (can detect creatures at a range of 60 feet, 120 upwind, 30 downwind).
Mazak vines have poor perception beyond this ability. Treat them as having tremorsense at a range of 5 feet but as effectively blind beyond that.
Vulnerability to fire: Mazak vines suffer half again as
much (+50%) damage as normal from fire.
Legends & Lore
Common: Mazak are fruiting vines that grow in
wide patches, often in the shadows of rocky outcroppings or other sheltered areas.
Uncommon: One of the few ready food sources
in the desert, any creature that eats a mazak fruit exudes an almost undetectable sent. This scent allows the plant’s thick, thorny, and mobile vines to detect the creature and strangle it in an attempt to germinate the seeds within its stomach.
Rare: Aside from its deadly constricting abilities, a mazak
vine can spray deadly, acidic pollen. This pollen can taint a creature’s blood, weakening it and preventing it from fighting the plant’s clutching roots.
Obscure: The skorne consider mazak fruit a delicacy, and it
produces a fine wine coveted throughout their empire. The skorne term “mazak run” means to purposefully send another into a dangerous situation.
Treasure
The bodies of sentient creatures tangled in among mazak vines often retain their equipment and any treasure they might have carried before dying. A Search check (DC 18) of a mazak
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patch’s tangled undergrowth has a 40% chance of revealing such remains with standard treasure.
Despite the deadly nature of their vines, female mazak produce sweet and temptingly juicy fruit for a desert plant. A delicacy among the skorne, the difficulty in cultivating them leads some noble houses to pay as much as 5 gp for a ripe mazak fruit. The juice from a mazak fruit ferments into a refreshing wine, with bottles of even average vintages selling for at least 10 gp.
Hooks
As a test to determine their worthiness, a noble of house Sivtaashi sends the PCs on a literal “mazak run”. The skorne instruct them to return with six bushels of fruit but let them discover and deal with the plants’ deadly nature themselves. Skorne soldiers camped near Ternon Crag started several growths of mazak vine in hopes of making their favorite wine. After a successful raid on these camps, trollkin warriors discov- ered the vines and found the fruit to their taste. They intend to bring cutting of the growths back to their village with little knowledge of what danger the plant holds.