Silent Creeper

This mass of leafy vines slithers across the ground like a writhing swarm of vipers.

Silent Creeper (CR 3) XP 800 N Large plant Init +0; Senses low-light vision, tremorsense 30 ft.; Perception +1 Aura silence (as per the spell, CL 8th, 30 ft. radius) --- AC 15, touch 9, flat-footed 15 (+6 natural, –1 size) hp 30 (4d8+12) Fort +7, Ref +1, Will +2 Immune plant traits --- Speed 10 ft. Melee slam +7 (1d8+7 plus grab) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks constrict (1d8+7) --- Str 20, Dex 10, Con 16, Int —, Wis 13, Cha 9 Base Atk +3; CMB +9 (+13 grapple); CMD 19 (can't be tripped) Skills Stealth –4 (+8 in undergrowth); Racial Modifiers +12 Stealth in undergrowth --- Environment temperate forests Organization solitary, pair, or patch (3–6) Treasure incidental

A plant that feeds on sound instead of light, a silent creeper hides in the shadows of other forest plants, emanating an aura of absolute silence as they magically absorb the sounds around them. The nourishment a silent creeper derives from a given sound is unrelated to its would-be volume; a noise that would have been loud sustains it no better than one that would have been faint. Instead, the pitch of the silenced sound determines its nutritional value. Specifically, silent creepers derive the most nourishment from silencing the screams of the dying.

Because of this, silent creepers are driven to hunt and kill, or to lurk near other creatures that hunt and kill. When not feeding off the screams of another monster's prey, a silent creeper instinctively targets lone travelers and stragglers separated from their groups. A silent creeper that kills such a creature has no use for the creature's body once the killing and screaming is over, as the silent creeper derives no nourishment from dead flesh. Accordingly, it will leave such bodies for local scavengers to consume, spurring the growth of scavenger populations within its chosen hunting grounds.