Close up illustration of white berries with black dots on red stalks. Original photo by Robert E. Wright – uploaded from en wiki, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Safety Rating: Mildly Dangerous.
Environment: Temperate forests.
Details: Eyestalk Bush has white berries growing on red stalks. These berries have black dots that make them look like little eyeballs. When a person or animal approaches the bush, the eyes rotate toward them as if the bush is staring at them and they experience its fear-inducing magic.
Lore: It is believed that this magical fear effect is used to scare off herbivores.
Magical Fear: Anyone that gets close to this bush must roll their magical defense.
- 0 Successes: A failure means that the character must move at top speed away from the Eyestalk Bush until they can’t see, hear, or otherwise perceive it anymore.
- 1 Success: A partial success means that this bush is so creepy that the character can’t get any closer to it than they currently are, but they don’t have to move away from it.
- 2 Successes: A full success means that the character is not afraid of this bush.
- 3 Successes: An outstanding success means that the character is not afraid of this bush and has become resistant to emotion altering magic for the rest of the scene. This means that they are prepared on any mental defense rolls made to resist Emotion Magic. Alternatively, instead of becoming resistant, the character can shield another character from this fear effect.
Inspiration: Doll’s Eyes, also known as White Baneberry Plant, has red stalks that have white berries with black dot on them.
Eyestalk Bush is part of the Crossroads Setting for the tabletop role-playing game, Magic Goes Awry. Click here to go to the list of wild and whimsical magical plants from the Land of Crossroads.
