Forest Guardian

What — A dryad/treant variant infused with mushroom poisons (10–12 ft, four venomous tentacle appendages); a territorial nature-guardian that emerged in the over-logged woods ~8 miles north of Ponterford in response to timber-harvesting for Laewendas's war machine.

Threat — Deadly. Carries a save-or-die venom (doomed toxicore, 3 days to live) plus an area-blinding dirt cloud; reportedly killed three of four commoners in six seconds.

Observed abilities

• Dirt cloud — casts a massive concentration-based cloud that blinds/obscures everyone in the area (GM compared it to Fog Cloud but with aerated dirt; ruled at least heavy obscuration) Session 38.
• Venomous wooden needles — on slamming into the battlefield, explodes wooden needles outward in a cone/AoE; needles are dipped in venom Session 38 Session 39.
• Doomed toxicore venom — failed CON save inflicts a fatal condition: skin pustules, death within ~3 days, curable only by powerful restorative magic (or, as assumed in-fiction, its own gland). Silithane and Yngraf both failed their saves Session 38.
• Cleaving Thrash — cone melee hitting Lash, Salamandine, and Varg for 11 damage each in one turn (missed Silithane, AC too high) Session 39.
• Earth regeneration — sank its fists into the ground and regenerated 26 HP from the earth Session 39.
• Speak with Flesh — monologues at opponents mid-fight Session 38.
• Thrown voice — booms and reflects its voice off different patches of ground so the monologue gives away nothing about where it stands. It cannot do the same with its footsteps: filtering out the wind, the armour and the shouting, Thalia heard them and placed it 50–80 ft to her left while everyone was still blind in the dirt cloud Session 38.

Resistances / immunities / weaknesses

• Concentration is breakable — Fenric's Spellbreaker shut down its dirt cloud, the turning point of the fight Session 38 Session 39.
• Can be restrained — held throughout the fight by Thalia's Entangle vines Session 39.
• Pure plant: it has no venom sac of its own (confirmed by Fenric's survival check, 26); all poison was externally harvested by dipping wood shards in Wyrmstooth Venom drawn from a draconic worm skull atop a nearby 150 ft spire Session 39.
• Gap: no stated AC, HP, save DC, or needle damage in the evidence.

Tactics & behavior — Opens at range with the blinding dirt cloud, then closes by slamming down to spray venomous needles before lashing with tentacles/fists in melee; relies on the venom's lethality over raw output. Attacks anyone carrying cut wood, perceiving timber as the corpses of its kin. Gap: no flee/surrender behavior observed — it fought to unconsciousness and did not back down (no sign it fears Fenric or spellbreakers specifically, though Spellbreaker neutralized its key ability).

Disposition to the party — Hostile but not malicious: a territorial protector provoked by the party's wood-laden galley wagon. The fey mushroom-person Billy's Mom sided with it and refused to help the party while lumberjacks remained, since the Guardian kept woodsmen away Session 38.

Status — Dead. Knocked unconscious (non-lethal) by Fenric with the final 9 HP, then butchered by Varg for trophies Session 39. Thalia replanted its seed pods with Druidcraft — five-plus sprouts survived, so its lineage may regrow over several years. Last seen Session 39.

SUMMARY: Plant-guardian with blinding cloud and save-or-die venom; slain Session 39.