The trees that lived

Over the last few weeks we've been watching the Sleepy Hollow TV series on the Universal channel. We are 9 episodes in and I still can't decide if I'm really enjoying it, or just watching because it's on. Still, it is amusing and has some interesting plot ideas to borrow.

The one we're watching tonight features a house guarded by a tree creature (see right), which seemed suitably mythos-y. During the American Revolution, the house had been home to a coven of white witches/warlocks. As the house was under constant attack from dark forces, it had been surrounded by protective boundaries. The evil bypassed the boundaries by simply growing around them and seeding this creature inside. The roots that grow throughout the house bleed when cut...

The creature and it's manner of infiltration sounds like something a Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath or Dryads would do to me.

This brings up a couple of interesting different plot hooks for players.

1) The players encounter an overgrown building and need to take shelter from a large German patrol, only to find out that the building is home to a very old Dark Young.

2) The players are aiding a group of allied warlocks, deep within German territory when they come under attack from some Dark Sun and erect a mystical barrier to keep them out. The Dark Sun mystics use the same trick as in Sleepy Hollow and grow a dryad through the barrier.

I'm sure there are many other uses for this. I just can't stop imagining a group of commandos stuck in an old, creepy mansion hacking at roots that bleed while trying to recover an old amulet (or some other macguffin) without attracting the attention of a nearby Panzer division.