Monster Monday: Moss Folk - Tricky Tree People

Today's Monster Monday is moss folk, a race of fey forest sprites who dwell in deep, ancient woods. Moss folk can step into one tree and out another an instant later, as if by teleportation, making them difficult to track and excellent guerrilla fighters in their forest territories. Wherever they enter a tree, they leave behind a patch of fresh moss, hence their name. Well, they also look pretty mossy in general. I guess moss folk is just an apt name for them all around.

As is the case with the trees they live in, moss folk are lithe and twiggy in their youth, while with old age they become gnarled, hunched, and increasingly bark-covered. It should come as no surprise that these tree-ish fey creatures are great admirers of the mighty treants, to the point where some moss folk tribes adopt a local treant as the living embodiment of the forest they live in and worship. Some treants tolerate this attention and lend their protection to these well-meaning sprites, while others may remain oblivious to the adoration that has fallen unto them.

Moss folk, or Moosleute, are creatures of Germanic folklore, where depictions of them vary widely from place to place and story to story, sometimes beautiful, sometimes shriveled and old, sometimes dwarfish, sometimes giant. In some stories they are plague-bringers, in others  they are healers who guide humans to healing herbs. In some stories they are deathly allergic to caraway bread (don't ask me why). The picture of them left to us through the ages is as fuzzy and indistinct as an old dead tree carpeted in moss. Nevertheless, there is enough there to build on to make a pretty neat creature for your fantasy world!

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2018 Jonah Bomgaars.

This small humanoid has gnarled bark-like skin and a tangle of grey-green mossy hair

Moss Folk  CR 1

XP 400

N Small fey

Init +3; Senses low-light vision, greensight 60 ft.; Perception +11

DEFENSE

AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 11 (+3 Dex, +1 size)

hp 13 (3d6+3)

Fort +2, Ref +6, Will +6

DR 1/cold iron

Vulnerability fire

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft.

Melee club +2 (1d4)

Ranged longbow +5 (1d6) 100ft.

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1^st)

   At will – tree stride (up to 60 ft.)

   1/day – entangle (DC 14)

STATISTICS

Str 11, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 9, Wis 16, Cha 12

Base Atk +1; CMB +0; CMD 13

Feats Point-Blank Shot, Rapid Shot

Skills Acrobatics +7, Bluff +5, Climb +4, Escape Artist +7, Knowledge (nature) +3, Perception +11, Sense Motive +7, Stealth +14 (+16 in forest); Racial Modifiers +2 Stealth (in forest)

Languages sylvan

ECOLOGY

Environment any forest

Organization solitary, pair, band (3-8), tribe (9-20 plus 1 chieftain of 2^nd-4^th level), cult (9-20 plus 2 rangers of 2^nd-4^th level, 1 druid of 5^th-7^th level, and 1 treant)

Treasure standard

Moss folk are fey creatures of the deep woods who magically move between trees as easily as stepping through a doorway. They gather together in sacred groves to perform strange rites. Some moss folk tribes even take on treants as their patrons, treating them as living sacred oaks. Moss folk stand about three feet tall and have wooden skin colors ranging from pale maple to dark oak, with moss-like hair. In youth they are lithe and smooth-skinned, but as they age they become increasingly gnarled and moss-covered. The forest territories of these woodland sprites are always particularly mossy because wherever they step into a tree they leave behind a patch of fresh moss.

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Plot Hooks and Encounter Ideas

• Deep in the woods, a band of deathly worried moss folk approach you, asking for help finding the mighty treant they worship, who has been missing now for a week. It turns out the treant is tired of the moss folks' constant attention and is just trying to take a break.
• The ancient temple is far within moss folk territory, and they have sworn to let no human enter its crumbling walls.
• As the party makes camp in the forest, a lone moss folk rogue moves from tree to tree, stealing everything she can get her twiggy little hands on. When someone finally notices her, she vanishes into a tree and reappears farther into the woods making a rude gesture.

-your Schrätlein d20 despot