Twigjack Bramble
Level 6Abilities
Thresholds 68 (3 segments), 34 (2 segments)
The twigjack bramble swarms over any creatures in their path, shredding their foes with razor-sharp thorns. The bramble Forms Up and Strides twice, moving through the space of any Medium or smaller creatures. Each creature whose space the bramble moves through takes 4d6 slashing damage (DC 21 reflex save). On a critical failure, the creature is also knocked Prone.
The twigjack bramble uses Form Up to redistribute its squares into any configuration wherein all squares are in undergrowth, then instantly teleports to another square within 60 feet, using Form Up again on the target square. The configuration of the second Form Up must also place all of the bramble's squares in undergrowth. This movement doesn't trigger reactions.
The twigjack bramble launches a volley of splinters and brambles in a 10-foot area within 30 feet that deals 4d6 piercing damage (DC 21 reflex save). When the bramble is reduced to 8 or fewer squares, this area decreases to a 5-foot area.
Whenever the twigjack bramble Strides, it first Forms Up as a free action to condense into a 20-foot-by-20-foot area (minus any missing squares), then moves up to its Speed. This works just like a Gargantuan creature moving; for instance, if any square of the bramble enters difficult terrain, the extra movement cost applies to the whole group.
A single twigjack is a dangerous and unpredictable creature with a capacity for sudden violence. A group of twigjacks united by shared purpose is a substantive force for destruction. The impetus behind the formation of a twigjack group, colloquially known as a "bramble," can be almost anything, although they nearly always form around a particularly charismatic or demagogic individual. Religious fanaticism is another common factor; notably, however, twigjacks rarely worship established deities and instead devote themselves to strange new gods of their own imagining who, inevitably, demand that their worshippers purge the twigjacks' territory of those whose presence displeases them.
Proactive Vigilantes
Twigjacks frequently justify their violent and antisocial tendencies by declaring themselves the guardians of the forests in which they dwell, and that their duty is to keep those protected lands free of non-fey intruders by any means necessary. Rarely patient enough to wait for opportunities to come to them, roving brambles of twigjacks often seek out what they consider to be impending conflicts between forest-folk and outside threats in order to impose their "assistance," nearly always resulting in brutality and bloodshed that benefits neither side and only serves to escalate the situation.