Scarlet Pimpernel/Crimson Delight
by Jamie BatySCMC
Small Plant
Hit Dice: 1d8+3 (7 hp)
Initiative: -1 (-5 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative)
Speed: 0 ft. (0 squares)
Armour Class: 10 (+1 size, -5 Dex, +4 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 10
Base Attack/Grapple: 0/-4
Attack: Legacies
Full Attack: Legacies
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Legacy boon
Special Qualities: Blindsight 60ft, low-light vision, plant traits
Saves: Fort +5, Ref +0, Will +1
Abilities: Str 0, Dex 0, Con 17, Int 3, Wis 13, Cha 14
Skills: Listen +3, Spot +3
Feats: Improved Initiative
Environment: Any land
Organisation: Bed (2-8) or Field (9-20)
Challenge Rating: 1
Treasure: See Below
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 2 HD (Small); 3 HD (Medium)
Level Adjustment: -
These elegant-looking orchids grow on cinnabryl deposits and the graves of dead, Legacy-using creatures, often along with vermilia. They are 2ft to 3ft tall.
Although scarlet pimpernels and crimson delights look alike and are often found mixed together, they each have alchemical properties that are very different. Voats are sometimes used to distinguish between the two, although a successful Knowledge (Nature) check vs DC 20 can also recognise which is which. Druids and rangers native to the Savage Coast get a +4 bonus to this check.
When eaten fresh, scarlet pimpernel temporarily boosts the effects of Legacies. The effect lasts ten minutes, during which time all Legacy effects (duration, range, damage, etc.) are boosted by 10% and any save DCs receive a +1 bonus. The dried form is three times stronger (lasts 30 minutes, boosts Legacy effects by 30%, save DCs are +3) than the fresh form, but it also can cause delirium. Anyone who eats dried scarlet pimpernel must make a successful Fortitude save vs. DC 16 or suffer a hallucination. This hallucination lasts for 1d6x10 minutes, during which time the victim is unable to respond to events in the real world, even those that are potentially deadly (the victim is considered stunned).
The crimson delight is deadly in its fresh form; anyone who eats fresh crimson delight must make a successful Fortitude saving throw vs. DC 16 or be poisoned (2d6 Con damage, both primary and secondary.) In its dried form, it prevents the use of Legacies for 24 hours.
A bed of plants depletes cinnabryl at the normal speed (one ounce per week). Without cinnabryl, the plants quickly dry up. If this happens, they release spores that ride the wind in search of new deposits.
Combat
Scarlet pimpernels and crimson delights can only attack through legacies.
Legacy Boon (Su): Each time a scarlet pimpernel exhausts the daily uses of a legacy, it immediately gains a new legacy to replace the old one. The scarlet pimpernel may use the newly acquired legacy up to 3/day. This cycle can occur an unlimited number of times per day.
Blindsight (Ex): Using nonvisual senses, such as sensitivity to vibrations, keen smell, acute hearing, or echolocation, a scarlet pimpernel manoeuvres and fights as well as a sighted creature. Invisibility, darkness, and most kinds of concealment are irrelevant, though the scarlet pimpernel must have line of effect to a creature or object to discern that creature or object. The scarlet pimpernel usually does not need to make Spot or Listen checks to notice creatures within 60ft.
Plant Traits: A plant creature possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature's entry): Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects); Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, polymorph, and stunning; Not subject to critical hits; Plants breathe and eat, but do not sleep.
The Red Curse
Any scarlet pimpernels and crimson delights encountered will possess a Legacy appropriate to the region they are found in. They do not suffer from Afflictions, though they do require cinnabryl to survive.