Twigjack

Twigjack Creature3

CE Tiny Fey Plant

Senses Perception +9; darkvision

Languages Common, Sylvan

Skills Acrobatics +11, Athletics +9, Nature +7, Stealth +11

Str +2, Dex +4, Con +2, Int +0, Wis +2, Cha +1

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AC 19; Fort +9, Ref +11, Will +7

HP 50; Weaknesses fire 5

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Speed 25 feet

Melee [one-action] claw +11 (agile, finesse), Damage 1d10+4 slashing

Ranged [one-action] splinter +11 (deadly 1d6, range increment 30 feet), Damage 1d6+4 piercing

Bramble Jump [three-actions] (conjuration, plant, primal, teleportation) Requirements The twigjack is in undergrowth; Effect The twigjack scrambles into the undergrowth and instantly teleports to a square of undergrowth within 60 feet. This movement doesn’t trigger reactions.

Splinter Spray [two-actions] The twigjack sprays a barrage of splinters and brambles from its body in a 15-foot cone, dealing 4d6 piercing damage (DC 20 basic Reflex save). It can’t use Splinter Spray again for 1d4 rounds.

About

Maladjusted forest denizens, twigjacks form from the cruel and prankish combination of fey and the very woods in which they reside. A twigjack’s body is made up of prickly brambles woven with vines. Shaggy, mossy growth, not unlike hair, tops a twigjack’s head. Its mouth is just a canyon of splintered and broken sticks bisecting its face. Leaves and sprigs of new growth randomly sprout from the creature’s body. Many dense forests have at least a handful of twigjacks living in the undergrowth.

While truculent and violent, twigjacks care deeply for what they consider to be their forests. These creatures harass outsiders who delve deep into their wooded domains, forcing back even the most determined explorers, foresters, and travelers, especially when those intruders cut roads through the forest. However, they are not terribly territorial when it comes to other forest creatures. When sylvan creatures, especially fey, rally against an outside threat, twigjacks in the area eagerly arrive to fight, even if they were not invited.

Less seasoned travelers who encounter twigjacks in their canopied homes often mistake them for leshys, a tendency that frustrates twigjacks, as they have a low opinion of such creatures. More broadly, twigjacks resent being considered mere animated plants at all. Rather, they embrace their fey heritage-often to a foolish end. Twigjacks go out of their way to ingratiate themselves to the fey creatures they live among. Several popular comic songs weave the tale of a twigjack attempting to woo a powerful and graceful dryad, only to be comically disgraced after many loutish attempts. Many fey seem embarrassed by these strange cousins, but some spriggans, quicklings, and redcaps harness the twigjacks’ violent urges and disruptive behavior for their own purposes.

While twigjacks are fey, and as such are often found in the world of the fey, it’s somewhat curious that those twigjacks who find religion only rarely turn to the Eldest of the world of the fey. Instead, twigjacks tend to worship false deities of their own design: figures spotted in tangles of tree branches, clots of undergrowth, or other hidden nooks in the natural world. These religions are always highly localized, and while these faiths do not support clerics, they often inspire zealous crusades against non-fey.

Sometimes groups of twigjacks gather and form temporary communities called “brambles,” usually to aid in times of need for the forest or to enact some great vengeance. These groups can consist of anywhere from three to 30 twigjacks. Once their task is complete, the twigjacks go their separate ways.