Bodytaker Podling

D&D 2024 monster: Bodytaker Podling. Source: Ravenloft: The Horrors Within. challenge rating 1/2, creature type Plant, Small or Medium size, speed 30 ft. A bodytaker podling is a near-perfect replica of a creature consumed by a bodytaker plant. A podling possesses the appearance and memories of the being it duplicates, but it is entirely loyal to the bodytaker plant that created it. Fundamentally, a podling isn't its own creature but an expendable appendage of a bodytaker plant. Bodytaker podlings frequently exhibit behaviors that suggest their true nature. Most often, they miss the nuances of social interactions. Some might talk in a stilted, jerky cadence or refer to themselves in the third person. Close friends and family members of those replaced by a podling might realize that their loved one has changed, but few imagine the cause behind such a dramatic shift. A podling might try to avoid suspicion by claiming to be ill or redirect doubt by insisting others are behaving oddly. If confronted with evidence of its plant nature, or if caught tending to a bodytaker plant, the podling throws itself into battle and fights to the death. Roll on or choose a result from the Podling Behaviors table to inspire the unusual habits a podling might demonstrate. 1 Drinking water from dirty troughs. 2 Eating one type of food for all meals. 3 Excessive and unabashed sunbathing. 4 Forgoing shoes to feel the dirt. 5 Pausing and listening to unheard sounds. 6 Whispering to flowers and houseplants. Bodytaker Plants Body-Snatching Alien Flora Bodytaker plants are intelligent organisms that originated on a long-ruined planet of the Material Plane. To outlive their doomed world, these enigmatic plants spread their seeds to the stars. In rare cases, their meteorite-like seeds fall to fertile worlds and take root. What emerges is a new bodytaker plant that seeks to grow and propagate until its kind dominates the entire world. As assistants, the plant creates eerie vegetative duplicates...