A Vile Growth

Written by Sodose

Murder

Residence 4-146 17th Street, Heria, Quantan, 16047
Physical Evidence: Body - male, middle-aged, strangled, puncture wound on the upper back, flower - On top of the body, black, red highlights, unidentified species, scraping marks on the floor from the body to shattered window - like something big and long was moved in and out of the building.
Other Observations: Increase of plant growth in the vicinity of the building, air noticeably cooler within 10 feet of the body.

In the late 40s reports of murders such as the one above began showing up all over western Quantan. All of the killings looked the same: strangled body, shattered window, and a black and red flower sitting somewhere nearby. This was most certainly the work of a serial killer.
The search went on for six months, yielding no results. Killings of the same kind occurred within minutes of each other, even though the victims were miles apart. The evidence made no sense. Why would someone kill these people? What was the source of the scraping marks? Why strangling? No property was found to be missing from the victim's homes, leading police to believe that it wasn't theft that motivated this killer, and these people had almost nothing in common, so the motivation couldn't be personal.
All these questions were answered when Jet Adamin, a mixed martial arts master, escaped the grasps of this mysterious killer. "We have it all wrong," he said to chief detective Lyra Siconor.
"The thing isn't even remotely human. It's a plant"

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Biology

Given the fact that it likes to eat everything that tries to study it, this strange plant has been extremely difficult to study. However, the most technologically advanced empire in the Void is the one doing the research, and scientists did manage to learn a few things.
This biological super-villain is difficult to define. All of its parts are separate organisms, but they all share a collective intelligence. How the various growths communicate is unknown, it can spread between islands and even worlds, so roots do not connect them. Each area of growth has a large flower somewhere at its center, this acts as a brain and center of communication from the rest of the growth. If the flower is killed, another flower in the growth takes its place. It is theorized that somewhere there is a mother bloom, the great brain for the entirety of the Vile Growth.

Origins

Given its evil nature, most believe the Vile Growth hails from The Darkness. The growth has never been observed in The Eternal Night, but there are very few other places where something so physically and morally revolting could come from. The deamon lord Gulthias has a strong connection with plant life, so he might be the source of the growth.

Cult of the Vampire Rose

I never knew humans could be so terrible.

— An innocent bystander

Wherever there is power, mortals are trying to get their hands on it. The Vile Growth has attracted an impressive cult. This malevolent super-society spans across worlds. People from all walks of life can fall into their organic grasp. Those who have seen the Growth and have lived to tell the tale often descend into madness. Their insanity eventually leads them into Cult of the Vampire Rose. The Growth doesn't kill or eat its cultists, signifying that there is some kind of method to its madness.

Bloody Rituals

Members of the Vampire Rose speak of The Awakening, a state of being where a mortal fully integrates itself into The Vile Growth. This hideous transformation dissolves a creature's mind and soul, leaving only a rotting husk. These living dead go by many names in many places, but all are bringers of plague, death, and madness. This state can be reached by way of a hideous rite, involving bathing oneself in human blood.
This cult performs other rituals too. Once every year they use the dark magics of the Vile Growth to commune with each other over long distances. May cultists also know some necromancy or fungus magic as well.

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Vampire Rose Player Options

Druid, Circle of Corruption

Druid, Circle of Corruption

Some druids reject the call of nature's power, and instead follow the path of corruption. These druid's might ally themselves with evil plant creatures or vampires. In the world of The Great Dream they are most often part of the Cult of the Vampire Rose. This is a Druid Subclass, not a class on its own.

hit dice: 1d8

hit points at 1st level: 8 + con

hit points at higher levels: 1d8 (or 5) + con

armor proficiencies: Light armor, medium armor, shields (druids will not wear armor or use shields made of metal)

weapon proficiencies: Clubs, daggers, darts, javelins, maces, quarterstaffs, scimitars, sickles, slings, spears

tools: Herbalism kit

saving throws: Intelligence, Wisdom

skills: Choose two from Arcana, Animal Handling, Insight, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Religion, and Survival

starting equipment:
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) a wooden shield or (b) any simple weapon


• (a) a scimitar or (b) any simple melee weapon


• Leather armor, an explorer's pack, and a druidic focus

spellcasting:
Same as Druid

class features:
Same as Druid

subclass options:

Circle Shapes

At second level, when you choose this subclass, your repertoire of forms you can take using wild shape expands. You can choose to take the form of a plant creature when you use wild shape. All other wild shape restriction still apply.  

Frighten Plants and Animals

You invoke the power of corruption, striking fear in the hearts of natural beings near you. You can expend one use of your Wild Shape feature to force each Beast and Plant creature within 30 feet of you to make a wisdom save with a DC equal to your spell save DC. On a failure the creature is frightened of you for one minute. The creature can repeat the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success. Inanimate plants are also frightened of you. For the minute after using this ability, you are unaffected by difficult terrain caused by plants and undergrowth, and have advantage a dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide in shrubbery and undergrowth.  

Animate Plants

At 6th level you learn to evoke the power of corruption to reanimate dead plants and animals into undead. You recite an unholy chant that causes a dead plant of Small size within 30 feet of you to stand up and turn into a twig blight. This blight follows your spoken commands for the next 24 hours. At the end of this time it dies once more. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your wisdom modifier (minimum of once).  

Vampiric Strike

Your cantrips and weapon attacks deal extra necrotic damage equal to your wisdom modifier. When you reduce a creature to 0 hit points with a cantrip or weapon attack, you regain a number of hit points equal to the damage dealt by the attack that reduced the creature to 0 hit points. If this heals you above your hit point maximum, you gain temporary hit points equal to the excess healing. These temporary hit points can stack with temporary hit points gained through this ability.  

Avatar of Vile Growth

Starting at 14th level your ability to reanimate dead things becomes more potent. When you use your Animate plants ability you can instead create 3 twig blights, 2 needle blights, or 1 vine blight. You must provide a dead plant for each blight created in this way, and the plants must be medium sized if you want to create needle or vine blights.

Warlock, Creeping Vine

Warlock of the Creeping Vine

This is content from Tasha's Crucible of Everything Else Volume 1
Your patron is a magical plant, a powerful primal spirit, or some other grand entity of nature and growth, such as a powerful treant, an ancient green dragon, a Totoro, or an archdryad. This being might seek to expand itself and its influence through seed or spore, or it might want to simply perpetuate, accelerate, or otherwise enable the natural cycles of life. In the Forgotten Realms, such beings include the Great Oak of Kuldahar and Zuggtmoy, the Demon Queen of Fungi. In the world of Ebberon, the daelkyr Avassh might be your patron, and in the world of Ravnica, the Selesnya Conclave might be the source of your powers

hit dice: As Warlock

hit points at 1st level: As Warlock

hit points at higher levels: As Warlock

armor proficiencies: As Warlock

weapon proficiencies: As Warlock

tools: As Warlock

saving throws: As Warlock

skills: As Warlock

starting equipment:
As Warlock

spellcasting:
As Warlock

class features:
As Warlock

subclass options:

Expanded Spell List

1st-level Creeping Vine feature
The Creeping Vine lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.

Creeping Vine Expanded Spells

Level	Spells
1st	entangle, ensnaring strike
2nd	pass without trace, spike growth
3rd	plant growth, stinking cloud
4th	Evard’s black tentacles, grasping vine
5th	tree stride, wratch of nature

Biome

1st-level Creeping Vine feature
You gain one of the following features, based on a biome of your choice.
Arid. You retain scarce resources like a cactus retains water. When you expend a Pact Magic spell slot on a spell that targets only one creature, and that spell has no effect on the target, you regain the spell slot.
Boreal. Like a pine tree in the taiga, you can enter a state of hibernation. As an action, you can turn yourself and your equipment to solid wood. You are petrified in a special way. You have all the traits of the petrified condition, except you remain conscious of your surroundings, you can perceive through your senses as normal, and your weight remains the same. You float in water, you are inflammable, and you do not need to eat, breathe, drink, or sleep. You cannot benefit from short or long rests while in this form. You can exit this state at any time (no action required), but no sooner than 1 hour after entering it. Once you have used this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
Jungle. You can entangle and ensnare your foes in creepers and vines. You learn the thorn whip cantrip. It counts as a warlock spell for you but doesn’t count against the number of cantrips you can know. When you cast it, you can make one melee weapon attack as a bonus action. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.

Defensive Growth

6th-level Creeping Vine feature
As a reaction when a Huge or smaller creature makes a melee attack against you, you can summon spectral vines to entangle it immediately before it strikes you. The creature must succeed on a Strength saving throw or become restrained until the end of your next turn. Once you have used this feature, you cannot do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

Flora Speaker

10th-level Creeping Vine feature
You can imbue limited sentience and animation to plants within 5 feet of you, giving them the ability to communicate with you. You can question plants about events in the area within the past day, gaining information about creatures that have passed, weather, and other circumstances.

Natural Defense

10th-level Creeping Vine feature
You can adapt your form to become plant-like, making you resilient against certain types of damage. Whenever you finish a long rest, choose one of the following plant types to emulate. Algae. You gain resistance to slashing damage. Leaf. You gain resistance to bludgeoning damage. Wood. You gain resistance to piercing damage.

Force of Nature

14th-level Creeping Vine feature
As an action, you can cast the awaken or wall of thorns spell once without expending a spell slot and without material components. When you cast awaken in this way, the awakened plant returns to mundanity after 8 hours.Once you use this feature, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest.

Flag of the Cult

Context Info

Quantan: A sub-tropical world inhabited by humans and a small population of Naga.
World Federation of Quantan: The most technologically advanced civilization in The Void. Based in Quantan.
Heria: The capital city of the World Federation of Quantan.
The Darkness: A dark abyss at the outer edges of the cosmos filled with evil creatures and dark magic.
Deamons: Evil monsters that hail to the Darkness.
Necromancy/Fungus Magic: Magic that calls on the power of The Darkness.

On Other Worlds

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The Vile Growth has spread far and wide across The Void. It is known to overgrow entire islands. In The Outer Reaches of Suberia there is an island completely covered in the Growth’s vines. This realm of terror is called Zo Istal Kiv Gretya, or The Isle of Creeping Deamons.
The Growth also has a significant presence in Araborea, where it takes the form of a fungus instead of its normal vines and thorns. Some people believe that all of Araborea's fungal life is part of the Growth, but proving such a thing would be hard.
Despite being a cosmic serial killer, the Growth has made its way into Quantanian pop culture. The protection of the Federation has soiled its people, making them disregard even the most dangerous threats. Black rose stuffies can be found in many stores, and the Growth is painted less like a terror of the night, and more as a laughable boogieman.

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Reproduction

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The way that The Vile Growth creates more of its self is truly terrifying. Each flower, large or small, has a network of tendrils, these vines connect to other flowers and can growth like any other plant. However, the tendrils of a flower cannot sprout more flowers. In order to bloom The Growth must consume a sentient creature. To do such a thing The Growth must wrap its vines around the creature and squeeze the life out of it, at the end of this process a hole is punctured at the back of the neck, extracting the person's conciseness.
After this feeding is complete a fleshing ball forms at the end of one of the Growth's vines. This cancer-like blob develops into a full-sized copy of the head of the creature it consumed. After the head has grown (which usualy takes 7 days) a bulb grows around it and then blooms into a new flower of the Vile Growth. If one of the Growth's flowers is cut open, one can find the head of the creature that was used to create it.