Trees creak and sway ominously in the dark, their branches reaching like monstrous hands for the frightened villager among them. Pushing back his terror by patting the satchel of medicine he had been tasked with delivering, the young man stumbles diligently along the path, his way lit by a flickering torch that threatens to sputter out with every lurching misstep. Between keeping his gaze out for scratching branches and tripping roots, it’s a struggle to stay on his path, but one he manages – until one of the roots move. It writhes up and twines about his ankle, stealing his balance and sending him crashing to the ground, his torch tumbling from his grasp. More roots bind about him as another throws a wave of dirt upon the torch, snuffing it out.
“Fire? In my domain?” A vaguely feminine voice creeks from the darkness as the roots holding him flip him onto his back. He gives a small cry of pain as a branch scratches his face, opening a wound. “How rude. How presumptuous. I’m afraid that’s not something I can simply let go. So why don’t you just stay there and think about what you’ve done?”
The medicine never makes it to the village beyond the forest. Suspicions of the young man are cast about and some use his name as a curse, but none ever find him. None think to look at the new tree that stands in the forest among a copse of other, strangely twisted trees.
Featuring art by Vildevitus#2346
The basis for the witchwillow actually arose from a discussion on the Discord about building a trevenant and I really liked the idea we settled on for its 'forest's curse' power. He ended up never making the trevenant, but I really liked the idea we had come up for with the ability, so I wanted to create the witchwillow! Born from the seeds of trees soaked in the blood of hags and evil witches, witchwillows ended up being built as a sort of cross between a hag and a treant. Its claws can inflict its forest's curse, which I based off the cockatrice's petrification ability except for the fact that it turns people to trees. Since petrification can normally be solved with stone to flesh, I wanted to put some stuff in place so that it can be potentially solved with other methods. The treespeech is based off of the ability of the same name that treants possess. Given that witchwillows are born from hags, I wanted to give them a good selection of spells with a focus on plant spells.
Pathfinder 1e:
I actually ended up adding quite a bit of stuff to the 2e version that felt difficult to incorporate into the 1e version. First off, witchwillows do get the coven ability so that they can join forces with hags or other witchwillows. Secondly, I ended up putting some focus on the witchwillow's roots with Extend Roots, Tangling Roots, and Choking Roots. Creatures that get tripped by her tangling roots or her willow whip, which are lashing branches, have to quickly stand or move out of the area or else the roots will start trying to choke the life out of them. Beyond that, she wields her claws and Forest's Curse alongside her spells to overcome foes though I ended up having to pick up a different assortment of spells.
Pathfinder 2e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Into the Woods: A local forest has become unusually dangerous as of late - those traveling through the forest have been going missing before they ever reach their destination. When treants from the forest announce that they are no longer allowing others into the domain, they heroes are asked to venture in with a delegate to broker a peace - or are asked to broker it themselves. Within the court of the treants, they find that they are being manipulated by an insidious witchwillow. Simply slaying her would upset the court, meaning that they must either reveal her machinations to the court, after which she attacks them in a rage, or find a more subtle way to disrupt her plot.
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