Oppression Aware Podcast, Fairy Tales, and Games

An image of twisted vines with red flowers against a white background. On the right they are a tangled mass, with entwined tendrils arcing gracefully up and to the left. This is a modification of an image by wertyfy2.

Safety Rating: Extremely dangerous.

Environment: While they originated in temperate forests, their use as protectors has led to the development of varieties that can survive in other environments.

Details: Vampire Vines are the pack hunters of the magical plant world. Their prey is any flesh and blood creature unlucky enough to wander into their area. While their roots don’t move, they have long, mobile vines that can drain magic and lifeforce out of any flesh and blood creature they touch. Because they are anchored in place by their roots, Vampire Vine communities usually need to be established around a pathway or important resource that draws prey to them, like a hot spring in a cold region.

Physically, Vampire Vines are long, unbranching vines with medium-sized, dark-green, heart-shape leaves. Their flowers are small, scarlet, trumpets. They grow in large groups, with an extensive interconnected root system that allows them to rapidly communicate with each other and share all of the energy they get from their prey.

Their cooperative nature also means that they are ready to form mutually beneficial relationships with other magical plants and even some animals. For example, some Vampire Vine communities in boreal forests have formed relationships with wolf packs that chase large prey into their areas. The Vampire Vines subdue the prey by draining it, and the wolves eat the carcass.

How They Hunt: Their magic lets them to sense an approaching flesh and blood creature at a distance, allowing them to hide before the creature gets close enough to see or hear them. The Vampire Vines then use stealth to get close to their prey, preferring to sneak up behind isolated creatures, but they will also attack small groups. Once their prey is in the middle of their area, they start a coordinated attack.

Some of the vines distract their prey, while others touch it from behind and drain it. Being drained makes it hard for their prey to function, so once a creature has been drained, it is more vulnerable to being drained again. To avoid injury, the vines don’t hold on to struggling prey, and they retreat when attacked. By coordinating their efforts, packs of Vampire Vine can repeatedly touch their prey from behind and wear it down until it is helpless.

Vampire Vines are strongly adverse to injury. If one vine becomes injured during the hunt, the whole group becomes more careful and defensive in their tactics. If two become injured, they stop attacking all together.

Varieties: Different varieties of Vampire Vine differ in what ecosystem they live in, what their preferred food is, whether they attack from below or above, their main attack movement, and how completely they drain their prey.

• Ecosystem: Those varieties of Vampire Vine that live outside of temperate forests usually live in areas where there is lush plant growth for them to hide in, such as wetlands, tropical forests, and grasslands. There are a few desert and mountain varieties that camouflage into rough terrain.
• Preferred Food: Most Vampire Vines will drain any animal that wanders into their area, but some have been bred to be more specific, going after only large or small animals. Then there is the Ghost Eater Vampire Vine, which uses Necromantic Magic, rather than Animal Magic. It detects, hunts, and drains undead, including insubstantial undead, like ghosts.
• Where They Attack From: Attacking from below is more common than attacking from above.
• Attack Movement: The two most common attack movements are a stealthy slither tries to escape notice and a coiled strike that is like the strike of an attacking snake.
• How Far They Drain Prey: While many varieties drain their prey entirely, leaving behind only a pile of ash, quite a few others stop just short of that, leaving behind carcasses for their carnivorous plant and animal allies to eat. There are also a few varieties that have been bred by druids to capture, rather than kill, intruders, stopping as soon as their victim is unconscious.

Vampire Vine Mechanics

Spotting Them: Before the player characters get close enough to see or hear anything, all of the Vampire Vines in the area hide. Noticing the subtle signs of hiding Vampire Vine is a Perception roll.

• 0 successes: A failure means the character does not spot anything that indicates Vampire Vines are present. Instead, they’ve probably noticed something that makes them more likely to go into the Vampire Vines’ area, such as an intriguing rare plant or signs that indicate the area is safe from dangerous animals.
• 1 success: A partial success means the character notices a sign that something dangerous is nearby, but that sign doesn’t give any indication of what the danger is. For example, they may notice that animals avoid the area they are in, or they might spot unexpected movement in the underbrush as one of the vines slowly sneaks closer.
• 2 successes: A full success means the character notices a definite sign that the danger is Vampire Vine. For example, they could see the ash left by a completely drained victim, notice its distinctive stalking behaviors, or spot a Vampire Vine leaf. Identifying the danger as Vampire Vine means that the character automatically know the basics (see Knowledge Rolls).
• 3 successes: An outstanding success means the character identifies the threat as Vampire Vine and they get an additional benefit, like detecting the specific area the Vampire Vines are in or identifying the specific variety of Vampire Vine this is.

Knowledge Rolls: Because it is so dangerous, most characters know the basics about Vampire Vine. They know:

• That it drains people and is extremely dangerous.
• Being drained makes it hard for a creature to function.
• How to spot its leaves, behavior, and the ash its victims leave.
• Going back to back is the best defense.
• That it doesn’t want to be hurt.

Additional knowledge requires a Nature roll. Because this is such an important threat, characters trained in Nature are considered prepared on this roll.

• 0 Successes: A failure could mean the character can’t remember anything else about Vampire Vine, or it could mean that something else grabbed their attention.
• 1 Success: A partial success means the character knows one of the less applicable pieces of Advanced Knowledge from the list below.
• 2 Successes: A full success means the character knows the most useful pieces of Advanced Knowledge from the list plus the basics of what this particular variety of Vampire Vine can do.
• 3 Successes: An outstanding success means the character knows everything in Advanced Knowledge list plus all of the details about this specific variety of Vampire Vine. Alternatively, they might only know the most useful things and spot something in the environment that will assist their defense.

Advanced Knowledge List: ­­

• When one Vampire Vine is injured, the rest become more cautious (they are harder to target, but easier to defend against). When two are injured, they stop attacking all together.
• Vampire Vines don’t attack large groups because there too much risk of injury. Successfully simulating a large group can prevent them from attacking.
• Because Vampire Vine prefers isolated prey, magical decoys that split off from a group and go off alone are likely to grab their attention.
• An option that sometimes works is disguising all flesh and blood characters as plants. This can be risky, because it is hard to know how well the disguise is working.
• Certain types of magic, like Animal, Analytic, and Protection Magic, can be used to block the Vampire Vines’ ability drain energy.
• Vampire Vines can be negotiated with, as long as long as you give them something they want. Most often what they want is to partially drain multiple people.

Targeting Individual Vampire Vines: Before any of the Vampire Vines have been injured, targeting one of them with a skill or ability happens normally. The main exception is that characters drained by a vine in the preceding round take a one die penalty to all rolls.

Once one of the Vampire Vines has been injured, they start acting defensively, which gives the player character a one die penalty to any action that targets one of the vines. For example, if a player character attempts to use melee fighting to injure a defensive vine, the player character takes a one die penalty to their roll, however it will be easier for the player character to defend against them.

After a second Vampire Vine is injured, all of the vines retreat and are impossible to individually target.

When They Attack: A pack of Vampire Vines will wait until their prey is in the middle of their area before attacking. If the prey starts to leave before they get to the middle, the pack will attack then. The Vampire Vines only stop attacking if something on the Advanced Knowledge list happens.

If the player characters spot the Vampire Vines before they attack, they may choose to act first. If they don’t, the Vampire Vines will be the first to act, with the player characters having to defend themselves before they get a chance to take any other action.

Defense Rolls: Unless it is a rare variety, Vampire Vines only attack flesh and blood characters. Once they start attacking these characters, the Vampire Vines will keep attacking each round until the characters leave their area or find a way to stop them. Each time a character is attacked, they can roll either their physical or mental defense with these modifications:

• They take a one die penalty if they are on their own, their group is unaware that there is something dangerous nearby, they have been maneuvered into a vulnerable position (they got a partial success on a previous defense roll), or they failed their defense roll last round and a capacity was drained from them.
• They get a die for being prepared if the Vampire Vines are fighting defensively (someone in their group has injured one of the vines) or the player characters are positioned back to back.

The results of each character’s defense roll determine whether or not one of the vines was able to touch and drain them.

• 0 Successes: A failure means that a Vampire Vine touches them and drains one of their capacities (see Capacity Drain below). If the Vampire Vines haven’t been injured yet, this vine will keep touching and draining the character until something happens to make it let go. It is possible for multiple Vampire Vines to touch and drain the same character if they repeatedly fail their defense rolls. However, once one of the vines has been injured, the pack changes their behavior and they start retreating as soon as one capacity has been drained.
• 1 Success: A partial success means that none of the Vampire Vines were able to touch them, but they have been maneuvered into a vulnerable position that will give them a one die penalty on their next defense roll against the Vampire Vines.
• 2 Successes: A full success means that they are fully able to defend themselves from the Vampire Vines, including resisting the vines’ attempts to maneuver them into a vulnerable position.
• 3 Successes: The character is able to fully defend themselves and they get an additional benefit, such as being able to help an ally defend themselves or getting into an advantageous position for targeting one of the vines.

Capacity Drain: Most varieties of Vampire Vine drain their prey’s magic and lifeforce using an unusual form of Animal Magic. This magic only works on flesh and blood species, not magical plants or constructs. Each round that a Vampire Vine touches a flesh and blood being, it drains one capacity, such as an ability or species trait, from that being. If multiple Vampire Vines touch the same being, each vine drains a capacity from it. If the being runs out of capacities to drain, the next Vampire Vine to drain it either renders it unconscious or kills it, depending on the variety (please don’t kill player characters without player consent).

Vampire Vines drain capacities in a specific order. Characters are completely unable to use drained capacities.

1. Any ability that lets a character cast magic is drained first. These abilities are drained individually.
2. All other abilities are drained individually.
3. Mental Skills are drained in three groups: Knowledge Skills, Social Skills, and Awareness Skills.
4. Physical Skills are drained in three groups: Martial Skills, Strength Skills, and Dexterity Skills.
5. Defenses are drained individually: Physical Defense and Mental Defense.
6. Species traits are drained individually.
7. The character’s remaining lifeforce is drained, leaving them unconscious or dead.

Being drained is an awful experience that leaves the character struggling to function for short while. Mechanically, when a character is drained, they take a one die penalty to all rolls for the next round.

Recovery: Capacity drain can be cured with Healing Magic. If the drain is severe, it may take a while to completely cure. Without the benefit of Healing Magic, characters recover one capacity per hour of focused rest.

Vampire Vine is part of the Crossroads Setting for the tabletop role-playing game, Magic Goes Awry. Click here to go to the list of strange and whimsical magical plants from the Land of Crossroads.

Tags: Crossroads, dangerous, drain, forest, lifeforce, magic, Magic Goes Awry, pack, plant, predator, vampire, vampiric, vine