(TFT) Ents

[Margaret Tapley <barnswallow@sbcglobal.net>]

Hmm... time to feed the list!

This is something I cooked up (ripped off?) for our current campaign.  
It ended up being a great plot twist - details in a minute.

Ents:
(Also called tree-Ents, but the wise know that's redundant terminology.)

ST: 15 for a very young Ent, to well over 100.
DX: 9-11
IQ 12 to 24 or better
MA 4

Basically like in LOTR - or, for that matter, the talking trees from  
Chronicles of Narnia. Because of their tree-like form, and the fact  
that they live in forests and keep to themselves, it takes a roll of  
3vIQ to notice an Ent standing still in a forest, which is what tehy  
spend most of their time doing. 4 dice if it's been standing there a  
while and has "settled in", 5 if it's trying particularly hard to  
escape notice. 1 less if you know it's there and are looking for it, 1  
more if you didn't know they existed. (Most people who aren't a  
Naturalist or Scholar, and don't live near a forest with Ents, won't.)

In combat, they typically punch with their wooden fists for (at least)  
2 dice damage. Bark/wood stops 4 hits, except against axes and  
lightning. It does work against fire, but only for 2 turns - after  
that, they're on fire, and take 4 hits/turn until the flames are  
extinguished (via Magic Rainstorm, dunking in a body of water, or some  
other means.) They also stop 8 hits of fireball damage before igniting.

Some large, old Ents are hollow, and can trap (smallish) 1-hex figures  
inside them. To do this, they attack that figure for HTH, and attemt  
to trap, making a 3vDX roll. The target figure gets a saving roll of 7  
dice vs. combined ST and DX. If that fails, they are trapped until a)  
their friends kill the Ent and chop them out, or b) the Ent decides to  
release them. An Ent can kill an entrapped figure anytime it wants, by  
shutting off ventilation, or by crushing, but Ents are not violent by  
nature, so rarely take that option.

Ents don't like dwarves, orcs, humans, or dragons very well, but do  
like centaurs and some elves and hobbits. They have never been known  
to train as wizards, but some Ents know spells just the same. Magic  
Rainstorm is a popular choice.

Ents have males and females, and need both to reproduce. However,  
instead of methods of reproduction used by most humanoids, a  male and  
female Ent will dance together (yep - PG-rated sex if ever there  
was!). This ends up distributing the male's pollen quite nicely over  
the female's carpels, and the female will bear seeds later that  
season. Many of the seeds will not sprout, though. Of the ones that  
do, they don't "awaken" to become full Ents until they're at least as  
big around as an average human, and many never "awaken", remaining  
merely semi-sentient (IQ 3) trees (which can be contacted via  
Telepathy, and may, very occasionally, have useful information). So  
the Entish reproduction rate is usually barely above a replacement  
level.

The wooden flesh of Ents, harvested while they're still Entlings that  
haven't "awakened" yet, happens to be really good to make things out  
of. It resembles a dark walnut, but with a deep shimmering grain, and  
can take a high polish. Weapons made from it are 1/3 as likely to  
break during combat, and shields stop 1 extra hit. The wood is worth  
at least 3 times its weight in silver, due to its desirability and  
occupational hazards of harvesting it (destroying Entlings is probably  
the only way to make an Ent really murderously angry).

Ok, so now for the use as a plot twist: The party had been sent out to  
find this amazing wood. The king who sent them had found out what it  
looked like, and approximately where it was, via Crystal Ball, but  
didn't know the full story of its origins. So the characters, after  
some aimless wandering through the forest, find a stand of trees that  
fits the description and pictures they were given. Gleefully, they  
take out their axes and saws - unaware they're being very intently  
watched...

- Meg
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