Souls, people

Thornlings are weak demons who seek to attract victims & devour them, their souls, & leave any survivors filled with horrible poison. They reproduce via this poison--victims die & their bodies slowly turn into new thornlings.

They are bound to the spot where they grow, but they have a seductive quality to their appearance. Anyone looking at them (especially of the opposite sex/right sexuality) must roll will power or be consumed with lust for the empuse.

The thorns of the empuse are incredibly poisonous, injecting potent venom into anyone who is cut by them. This poison will only weaken a normally healthy person at first, leaving them alive for several weaks until they appear to recover for a few days, when they will suddenly have a lust for fertile ground. Whether they reach fertile ground or not, they will die & grow into a new empuse within a few days, generally with the knowledges of the victim. Empuses also have the ability to devour a person soul & all, by cutting them to pieces with their thorns & eating them bit by bit. Empuses, in dry weather, are very susceptible to fire. Envy or dark magic or faith can summon a thornling at a difficulty of 10.

Empuses attempt to live in fertile areas where people will travel occassionally, like forests or rural hills, near roadways. Some empuses live in unholy gardens. They live to eat & reproduce, often in groups (multiple victims of the same thornling often die in the same place), which are referred to as thorn patches. Amongst themselves, empuses speak demonic, but they also learn the local languages (if they are not born with them) to better lure prey. Up until they kill their victims, they will usually speak seductively in the local language or language of the victim if they know it. If a thorn master comes to the area, empuses will do whatever they can to get his or her attention.