Vine blight

Vine blights are medium blights, bloodthirsty plant creatures spawned by Gulthias trees.

Description
Appearing as masses of slithering creepers, vine blights hide in undergrowth and wait for prey to draw near. By animating the plants around them, vine blights entangle and hinder their foes before attacking.

Vine blights are the only blights capable of speech. Through its connection to the evil spirit of the Gulthias tree it serves, a vine blight speaks in a fractured version of its dead master’s voice, taunting victims or bargaining with powerful foes.

Behavior
Although vine blights are independent creatures, most of them are directly controlled by a Gulthias tree.

Vine blights could subsist by drawing nutrients from the ground through their roots, but vastly preferred to feast on blood.

When unable to find living prey, vine blights often sought out watering holes and campsites, taking root and disguising themselves as shrubs to ambush potential victims.

Ecology
As with other blights, vine blights are created by Gulthias trees, a type of malevolent tree created when a plant became contaminated by an evil mind. As the roots of a Gulthias tree spread, it infested surrounding plants and trees, either killing them or turning them into blights. These blights further spread the influence of the Gulthias tree, removing competing flora and replacing it with brambles, toxic plants, and other blights. Blight infestations could spread very rapidly, taking over large swaths of forest, and swallowing up roads, buildings, or entire villages in the space of days.

Unlike many normal plants, vine blights reproduced through their root systems rather than through producing fruit.

Rumors & Legends
According to legend, the very first blights were spawned from the stake that pierced the heart of the dread vampire Gulthias of Nightfang Spire. The stake grew to become the first Gulthias tree sapling, watched over and cared for by a mad druid.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Curse of Strahd
 * Tales from the Yawning Portal: "The Sunless Citadel"
 * Dungeons & Dragons Essentials Kit: "Dragon of Icespire Peak"
 * Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set: "Lost Mine of Phandelver"


 * Video Games
 * Neverwinter
 * Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms