Illustration of a flock of purple bat-like shapes silhouetted against pink and purple clouds at sunset.
Safety Rating: Dangerous.
Environment: Tropical forests.
Details: Bat Seed Bush is a shade-loving bush with broad, pointed leaves. It has dramatic purple seed pods that open to release seeds with gray-purple bat wings. These seeds fly off in flocks that gather together in the treetops for mutual protection.
Anytime that the flock spots someone approaching them, the bat seeds start flying in a mesmerizing pattern that entrances or disorients anything that sees it. Bat seed flocks have been known to cause collisions and make travelers lose their way. Even those who resist the mesmerizing magic of the bat seed flock find that the pattern seriously limits visibility, making safe travel more difficult. As a result, most people do their best to avoid bat seed flocks.
Lore: Some flying predators, like eagles and hawks, take advantage of bat seed flocks. These predators perch near a flock, waiting for a hapless animal to be mesmerized or disoriented by its magic.
Getting Past Unnoticed: Characters can use the Stealth skill, or creatively use their other skills and abilities, to get past the bat seed flock without being noticed by it.
Mesmerizing Pattern: Anytime that a bat seed flock perceives someone approaching it, the bat seeds start flying in their mesmerizing pattern. Player characters that see this pattern must roll their mental defense.
- 0 Successes: A failure means that the character is mesmerized by the pattern. A mesmerized character must stare at the pattern. They can’t look away from it and they are only partially aware of what is going on around them. The character can still take actions, as long as those actions don’t require too much focus. If a mesmerized character experiences a physical shock, collides with something, or gets hurt, then they are no longer mesmerized.
- 1 Success: A partial success means that the character is disoriented by the pattern. As a result, they end up somewhere they don’t want to be. Depending on the circumstances, this could be the character going in the wrong direction, losing track of where they are, or getting close to something dangerous.
- 2 Successes: A full success means that the character is able to resist the magical effects of mesmerizing pattern, however the pattern still makes it hard to see and visibility is greatly limited.
- 3 Successes: An outstanding success means that the character is able to resist the mesmerizing pattern of the bat seeds so well that they are able to anticipate openings in the pattern where they can glimpse their surroundings. This means that the character can see anything they are focusing on as if they had an unobstructed view.
Inspiration: Bat Seed Bush was inspired by Chinese black bat flower.
Bat Seed 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.
