Putrifer

A putrifer is a decaying plant creature that refuses to die, even as its body rots away. Similar in shape and appearance to a rotting ghoran, the flowers, leaves, bark, and rinds that compose a putrifer's body weep toxic black fluids. These disgusting secretions emit a foul-smelling miasma that surrounds the putrifer.

Most putrifers arise spontaneously when a gathlain, ghoran, leshy, or other intelligent plant dies traumatically from an effect that causes swift rot and decay. Others are created, either purposefully by necromancers or incidentally during magical experiments. Regardless of origin, a putrifer loses much of its intelligence during the transformation, becoming aggressive, erratic, and easily confused. Putrifers act instinctively, often lingering around the places they frequented in life. They find comfort in patterns and usually form simple daily routines that they loathe to deviate from. Often, these routines echo those they performed in life. A putrifer's memories are distant and faded, returning only periodically in short, confusing bursts that drive the putrifer to reenact moments from their past lives. Their inability to reconcile these memories with the present sometimes causes putrifers to destroy the locations they revisit and harm the people they once knew.

Returning Memories

Over time, a putrifer's memories return, with each bout of remembrance lasting longer and resulting in more vivid, accurate memories. Putrifers that survive this confusing process sometimes regain a semblance of their former, living selves.