Monster: Winterseed

Winterseed

This floating pale sphere, covered in thick hairs and tendrils glows with a subtle hint of blue-tinted radiance.

CR 3; XP 800
N Medium Plant (cold)
Init +1; Senses low-light vision; Perception +1

Defense
AC 15, touch 11, flat-footed 14 (+1 Dex, +4 natural)
hp 26 (4d8+8)
Fort +7, Ref +2, Will +2
Defensive Abilities plant traits; Immune cold
Vulnerability fire

Offense
Speed fly 20 ft. (good)
Ranged 3 cold motes +4 touch (1d6 cold and entrap)
Special Attacks entrap (DC 14, 1 minute, 6 hp)

Statistics
Str 10, Dex 12, Con 14, Int —, Wis 13, Cha 1
Base Atk +3; CMB +3; CMD 14 (cannot be tripped)
Skills Fly +19; Racial Modifiers +10 Fly
SQ create spawn, death throes, insidious cold, limited starflight, no breath

Ecology
Environment any
Organization pair or flock (3-10)
Treasure standard

Special Abilities

Cold Spores (Ex): A winterseed can fire up to three motes of intense cold as a standard action. They have a range of 30 feet with no range increment and entrap creatures struck in ice.

Create Spawn (Ex): When a creature dies entrapped by a winterseed attack, a small sprout grows from its corpse growing into a 1d4+1 young winterseeds in the next week.

Death Throes (Ex): A winterseed reduced to 0 or less hit points explode in blast of intense cold and ice 1 round later. All the creatures within 10 feet suffer 2d6 cold and 2d6 slashing damage and are exposed to the winterspore's entrap special attack. A successful Reflex saving throw (DC 14) halves the damage. The saving throw is Constitution-based.

Insidious Cold (Ex): A winterseed presence lowers local temperature creating a zone of cold weather or decreasing local temperature by another 20 degree Fahrenheit if it is already cold. Gatherings of numerous winterseeds extend the range of cold weather and reduce the temperature further.

Limited Starflight (Ex): A winterspore can survive in the void of the outer space indefinitely and can fly in that environment with exceptional speed. It can travel between planets of the same planetary system in months or years but unlike creatures with full starflight, a winterspore cannot reach speeds that allow for fast and reliable interstellar travel. A winterspore can safely descend on a planet from the outer space with a successful Fly check (DC 25).

Winterseeds are strange spores that appear to fall from the sky and bring with them cold of eternal winter. Some claim they are shards of shattered star that was made of elemental frost, but their plant-like nature makes that unlikely. Others suggest that they are seeds thrown on the wind by fey deity dwelling at the far North, wishing to extend her ice gardens through the world. A few say they are falling from the Moon, where more cold-loving plants grow, or even from farther reaches of the sky, unknown to common people.

Where winterseeds come, creatures of cold and winter often follow, often feeding on victim's of the winterseed freezing attacks. Winterseeds themselves are normally aggressive only against sources of heat, and are often attracted to and attempt to quench fires. They seem to recognize sources of geothermal heat from the artificial ones, though, for they mostly ignore them.