Florologians

"I could have sworn I saw a clock in the trees...wait....what is that ticking sound?" - A civilian lost in Raktika's dense woods

## About

Florologians resemble treefolk like Dryadins, but with a bit of machinery instead of plain wood and plant bodies. They usually have a clock face, hence the portmanteau of 'flora' and "horo," embedded within the main body of a trunk.

Their main body is like an amalgation of thick tree trunk, foliage and shrubbery with various mechanical appendages like pipes and gears wrought into the bark.

Their arms are made out of wood but are capable of motion due to the mechanical parts within their bodies, sticking out the side of the tree body.

The roots of the plant may look like overgrowth on the mechanical limbs, speckling the metal with leaves and shoots.

The Florologian's metallic parts tend to be intricate and unfoundedly complex by artificial standards. It is supposedly a rare construct of nature, not by means of thinking men. Their legs are also made out of thick trunks to support their heavy weights, making them a tad slow in moving.

Mechanical beings born of nature, they are the missing link between civilization and nature while also able to survive thanks to magic stored in their gears.

They are sentient but unable to speak, they do understand Common so others can communicate with them to an extent.

Their magic property allows them to 'see' rough outlines of others due to life force lingering within.

They are a curious species and love spending their days in nature, while also nourishing animals and defending both against threats.

Florologians haven't been studied extensively but it is suspected they go berserk when their patch of nature gets damaged.

All Florologians are linked together in a construction similar to a hivemind, they all share eachothers' thoughts and lifeforce. The source of their lifeforce, other than the magic in the plants sustaining it, are unknown.

## History

Florologians are believed to come from nature's magic properties seeping into deactivated/discarded machinery.

Large amounts of scrap metal and experiments are discarded into the thick woods and left to wither away.

These parts are filled with overgrowth within a few years, scholars are uncertain as to what to call this process but they currently compare it to a symbiotic relationship.

The machinal parts get a second chance after meeting a discarded end and the plants have a conduit to help preserve nature.

At the end of it, some clockworks and steampunk throwaways rise to be new creations by the power of pure nature.

From that point on, they walk with a tick and a tock in their step, patrolling the forest and protecting their new home.

## Society

The Florologians are mainly silent folk, communicating only with the ticks of their clocks or the grinds and creaks of their inner machine cog workings. Only about five will inhabit one forest at a time, though this can vary based on the expanse of greenery they need to cover. They are solitary, usually roaming only their designated quadrants to patrol. They will meet first to set the parameters for the day, and reconvene the next day, and so forth, working like clockwork. At night, they usually wind down a bit where they were roving. As such, their interaction with one another is minimal.

People have been guided through forests by these clockwork creations. They are known to be docile, if not antisocial nearly.

Their main objectives are to keep nature pristine, and so usually try and push travelers out of the forest as soon as possible. Despite their clock faces, they are not actually aware of time it seems, as their mechanisms no longer function for the purpose of even keeping chronological rhythm. They are known to be gentle with animals, supposedly, because they have a vague differentiation between what is supposed to belong in their forests and what does not.

These clock constructs use ticks and tocks of the clock to address one another, though one is never really sure what they say. It is established they have no gender and thus cannot reproduce through traditional means.

## Traits

* **Ability Score Increase**. Your Intelligence score increases by 2 and your Constitution score increases by 1.
* **Age**. Florologians have organic parts to them as well as mechanical. Both wood and mechanical will eventually wither after about 500 years and the magic stored in these constructs will return to the earth.
* **Alignment**. Florologians rarely like to have attention drawn to themselves, and so usually stray towards neutral or lawful alignments.
* **Size**. Florologians have little variation in terms of size, and they are almost always about six feet high. Your size is Medium.
* **Speed**. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
* **Darkvision**. You can see positive in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
* **Constructed Plant**. Your creature type is considered to be both construct and plant. You can attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena. Due to the partial organic parts of your body, you do require air, and you can benefit from healing spells like cure wounds, as well as healing potions. You are immune to spells like crown of madness or dominate person because they specifically target humanoids. Rather than sleeping, you enter an inactive state for 6 hours each day. You do not dream in this state; you are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal.
* **Unblighted**. You have resistance to poison damage to and immunity to diseases.
* **Natural creature**. Because you have such an intimate connection to the wild, you are proficient in the Nature skill.
* **Wooden body**: Your unconventionally shaped body makes it difficult for you to wear traditional armor, you will require an artisan to craft this by hand. Additional fees from the artisan may apply. You have a natural armor of 12AC + DEX since your body is made of wood and metal. Your wooden body is easily flammable, making you susceptible to fire damage.
* **Mendable**. When the mending spell is cast on you, it has the following alterations: It has a casting time of 1 action. If you have 0 hit points you become stable. As part of the casting of mending the caster may expend any level of spell slot to cause you to regain a number of hit points equal to 1d8, plus their spellcasting ability modifier. For each level of the spell slot expended you regain an additional 1d8 hit points.
* **Languages**. You can read and write in Common and Logian. For the verbal component of spells, you make rapid ticking sounds with your clock.