The Market's Vengeance (Erastus (VII) 15th, 4712 AR)

The thugs drew their weapons when the heroes did the same, and fought anyone standing between them and Zeeva. When their spellcaster was killed, any remaining thugs tried to flee the market. One of them escaped, one of them was killed, while the last was captured.

The spellcaster tried to employ crowd-control spells to confound the heroes. Zeeva is unarmed and ill prepared for combat. She tried to stay out of harm's way. She pled in vain with the Pathfinders not to kill the Aspis attackers.

The heroes had little time after the last of the Consortium agents was defeated. The goon who was conscious to witness the haunting experience is visibly shaken.

Soon after the conclusion of the Aspis Consortium's attack on Zeeva Foxglove, a haunt manifested by animating two piles of produce into shambling mounds and the market's central tree into an angry quickwood.

Despite being indoors, a terrible wind began blowing through the Green Market, shaking the tree in the central plaza and the many decorations placed in the various stalls. Fruit and vegetables in carts, bins, and baskets shifted about as the ground shook as if an earthquake were hitting. Seemingly at once, several of the previously inanimate objects affected by the strange weather sprung to life and attacked the heroes.

Hundreds of pounds of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and other produce rose telekinetically from the adjoining stalls to fly dangerously fast in a swirling tornado around the center court. They coalesced into the hulking forms of two shambling mounds with potatoes for eyes, carrots for a noses, and sinuous grape and pumpkin vines threaded through their broccoli-blotched bodies.

As the shambling mounds were forming, the tree in the garden to the north awakened as a quickwood who quietly pulled itself free from the ground and shambled free from the enclosure.

The animated creatures single-mindedly attacked the heroes. The creatures ignored Zeeva, any Korvosan citizens (who all fled the scene screaming), and the Aspis Consortium agent. Throughout the encounter, all three creatures shouted in the Shoanti language warnings against the heroes' actions, such as "This is Shoanti land!", "You will bring no war here!", and "My people will be avenged!"

When the creatures were defeated, there was an implosion. They reverted back to whatever they were before their transformation, such as a toppled and damaged tree and giant piles of vegetables. Certain parts of the creatures were precious or magical treasures that the heroes detected and harvested.

As Zeeva assessed the damage to the market, she mentioned the strange Shoanti phrases the creatures shouted. She swore that nothing like this had ever happened before, and seems worried that it could happen again and threaten her clients. She suggested the heroes seek out a Shoanti shaman who frequents the Green Market to shop for herbs and other supplies. The woman, named Telmayne Fire-Eyes, lives in the Skaldwood, a copse of forest not far from Korvosa's walls in which Shoanti who have yet to assimilate into Korvosan culture make their home. Zeeva indicated that Telmayne has, from time to time, mentioned that she senses a strong connection to her people within the market. Perhaps, Zeeva said, the shaman can provide the heroes with the answers they seek.

Using detect magic after the supernatural event revealed multiple faint conjuration, enchantment, and transmutation auras throughout the market. The heroes revealed that the magic isn't that of a spell or even the result of a magic item. They identified the animation of the market's plants and decor as consistent with a haunt.

Several pieces of what were formerly the animated creatures attacking the heroes radiate magic as the item they replicate, and the heroes identified them through normal means despite their unique appearances. The produce function in all ways as potions, including requiring a standard action and provoking attacks of opportunity to ingest.

The heroes can harvest the equivalent of a potion of speak with plants, 2 potions of resist energy (fire), a potion of tree shape, and a potion of rage, as well as three shambler vines from the pair of shambling mounds. A branch from the former quickwood can be cut and trimmed to serve as +1 ghost touch/mwk quarterstaff.  The bark can be cut and trimmed to serve as a caster’s shield (with web shelter on it). Twenty oak leaves can be collected from the fallen tree that have transformed to platinum and are worth 50 gp each as exotic art objects.