This dungeon area includes a small custom faction which inhabits it.
Google Docs version here.
GENERATING BOTANIC GARDENS
Roll the rest of your dice (mostly D20s) on the page and connect them as normal, both to the D4s and to each other.
Make sure you drop an “other” die on the board (a coin or something) as well. This will be the Druids’ den.
The color of a die determines how a chamber is lit
- Warm colors (red, yellow, orange) have stone faces in the walls, whose eyes radiate magical sunlight
- Cool colors (blue, purple, green) have patches of lichen on the ceiling, that glow like moonlight
- Neutral colors (brown, black, white) are lit in a wavelength not visible to the human eye. The plants there are an underground species that photosynthesizes just the same
The river is five feet deep and has six inches of air above it where it travels between rooms.
Where passages between chambers numbered 7 to 20 cross over the river, they bridge it with logs or wood planks.
INHABITANTS OF BOTANIC GARDENS
In addition to plants and animals, the botanic gardens are home to a circle of druids. These hardy mystics grow like invasive weeds in the urban hellscapes we call home, dreaming of a world choked with ivy, kudzu, and himalayan blackberries.Druidic circles are small. 2D4 Druids, a single Archdruid, D6 Root Dryads (page 225) and a few rolls on the Mundane Animals table (page 185) for their animal colleagues.
DRUID
Mystics of trash and violence, who wish to return humanity to a more natural way of life. It doesn’t hurt that, as magic users, they would rule a world without technology or medicine. They respect “innate” strength, not weapons or gadgets - what this actually means is debatable.
3 flesh (1 dice), 9 grit (3 dice). AC 12 (Agile). Saves 15+
Athletics 3 in 6, Stealth 4 in 6 among plants
Spear (+2, D10 damage).
3-in-6 chance to cast: Cure Wounds, Flay
Plants and animals of equal or lesser HD than the Archdruid will not attack them. 3-in-6 chance they understand and obey their orders.
ARCHDRUID
The leader of the Druidic circle. Tough, competent, achieved their position by killing the previous leader. Well versed in Druidic magic and schemes. Easily distracted by people misunderstanding their philosophy, compelling them to explain. It’s NOT primitivism and it’s not just a phase, dad.
3 flesh (1 dice), 15 grit (5 dice). AC 14 (Agility and Ceremonial Pelt). Saves 13+
Athletics 3 in 6, Stealth 4 in 6 among plants
Spear (+2, D10 damage).
4-in-6 chance to cast: Cure Wounds, Flay, Polymorph Self (Become a Cave Bear that retains spellcasting, pg 216)
Plants and animals of equal or lesser HD than the Archdruid will not attack them. 4-in-6 they understand and obey their orders.
New recruits are lured with offers of drugs, sex, and an escape from the drudgery of surface life. Strong recruits are initiated into the mysteries of the Idea of Thorns. The rest are sacrificed to fuel the Circle’s more powerful druidic spells.
Druidic plots run the gamut from artistic stunts to full blown terrorist attacks. They might plant guerilla gardens overnight and release friendly animals as a prank, or mass cast Feeblemind and Anti Technology Shell in a crowded area.
Druids brew herbal tinctures and elixirs that cure disease and remove curses. They sell these magic brews in exchange for favors - kill their enemies, destroy things that offend them, harvest plants from a dangerous place.
CHAMBERS IN BOTANIC GARDENS
1: A river runs through this chamber from one end to the other. Wooden planks have been laid across it to form an improvised bridge.2: The water running through this room is naught but a shallow stream. Crossing it by hopping across the stones is easy.
3: Water flows into a pond in the center of the room, flowing out at the other end. Roll for Encounters in Flooded Places on page 183 to see what’s in the pond.
4: The water flows over a small waterfall, dropping about five meters into a pool below, before exiting the room.
5: The fountain flows through a decorative water feature - a fountain carved by human hands - before flowing out the other end. Time-worn stone benches face the bubbling pool. Roll for Encounters in Flooded Places on page 183 to see what’s in the pool.
6: The room is filled with swampy water, which ranges from ankle deep to waist deep, flowing in one end of the chamber and out the other. Roll for Encounters in Flooded Places on page 183 to see what’s under the surface.
7: A field of enormous cave flowers, replete with nectar and pollen. 6D6 giant honeybees and a queen nest in fissures in the rock, along with delicious honey worth $2,000. The bees keep to the flowertops and ignore things crawling on the ground, but violently attack hive robbers.
3 flesh (1 dice), 3 grit (1 dice). AC 15 (exoskeleton and flight). Saves 16+, or 20+ vs gasses
Sting (+3, D6, deals D20 dexterity damage on hits to Flesh, bee dies after stinging)
8: A nine foot tall corpse flower in bloom. The stench of the plant has attracted 2D4 swarms of flies (pg 220) and a Swarm-That-Walks (pg 221). The flies bite anyone with open wounds (untreated damage to Flesh), confusing them for a fresh carcass. The Swarm-That-Walks is incensed at the corpse lilly’s deception, and takes it out on living humans instead.
9: A field of beautiful lotuses, azaleas, hibiscuses, rhododendrons, chrysanthemums, daisies, dandelions et al. Anyone breathing the flowers’ pollen must Save vs Poison or be rendered insensate for a turn, losing D6 Wisdom as their minds are freed from worries and unhappy feelings. They may re-attempt the save at the end of the turn. Reaching 0 Wisdom dissolves the victim’s mind in a haze of bliss, they lie down in a permanent vegetative state. There are a few corpses in the room that met this fate. If pruned, the garden yields D4 doses each of Lotus Petals, Purple Lotus, Nepenthe and White Claudia (pg 142)
10: A bog of stagnant water. The bog is populated by 2D6 carnivorous plants (page 225). They have cunning camouflage (Stealth 3 in 6), but after the first one attacks the ruse is obvious. Roll for each on the I Search the Body table (136) to see if their victims had anything valuable.
11: The room is filled with packed dirt, requiring a shovel to move through. Within the dirt are the buried root clusters of D6 Root Dryads (pg 225), of which D4-1 are currently resting there. They will fight to defend their home, but if their roots are captured they will unwillingly serve whoever holds them.
12: A room piled with mulch and compost. Plant and animal matter are mixed together here, cuttings and corpses alike. If someone digs through the reeking heaps, roll a few times on the Contraband (pg 134) and Things to Burgle (135) tables to see what’s mixed in with the dirt. The room is guarded by D4 Shambling Mounds (pg 225). They happily dispose of bodies (and intruders) for the druids, converting them to life giving compost.
13: A peaceful glade, overgrown with kudzu. The vines have grown so thickly and heavily over the arched entrances to the chamber that a good tug could collapse them, sealing the passage off and crushing anything beneath for 3D6 damage.
14: A vast root system, penetrating the chamber from fissures in the walls and ceiling. The roots form a mini-forest of their own, limiting movement and line of sight in the chamber. At the DM’s discretion, climbing the roots may lead into the hollow of a large, dead tree that goes up to the surface.
15: A psychoactive fungal garden, growing on the edge of a big pool of slime (page 126). The fungus has $1,000 of psilocybin growing among it, but harvesting it risks setting off the Sleeping Puffballs (125) growing amongst it. 3 in 6 chance that anyone put to sleep falls into the slime.
16: A peat bog, filled with anoxic, acidic water. The Druids use it as a dumping ground for corpses they don’t want to rot. They weigh them down with stones poured down their throat, then dump them under the surface. The chemical composition of the water inhibits the decomposition of the dead. There are 6D10 such corpses in the bog, each searchable (pg 146) but dredging them up takes a turn of work per body.
17: A desert biome filled with cacti. The sharp spines deal D4 damage to anyone who runs into or falls on the plants. Among the cacti is $1,500 in peyote, though the buttons must be harvested by hand 2D6 Salt Elementals keep the garden dry, and defend the Druids’ cactus candy from moochers.
1 flesh (1 dice), 8 grit (1 dice). AC 12. Saves 14+
Bash (+2, d6)
Heal by the damage dealt whenever they damage the flesh of a victim with blood or other vital fluids
18: A raised platform over a pit, connected to the room’s entrances by arched walkways. The pit below is occupied by a random Mundane Animal (pg 185)
19: A tangled thicket of Himalayan Blackberries, interwoven with roses. Movement through the maze is at half speed, and deals D4 damage per round. The blackberries fruit and the roses bloom when their thorns draw blood. They shriek when chopped or burned, alerting the Druids.
20: A group of standing stones and a stone slab etched with blood grooves. If a human or demihuman is killed on the slab, a spell is forced into the killer’s brain by the menhirs, regardless of whether they normally have the ability to cast spells. Roll a D4 to see what they memorize:
- Feeblemind
- Anti-Technology Shell
- Regenerate
- Shape Change
Other: The Druidic Den. Stone dolmens with cozy nests of fur, moss, and other soft objects they’ve scavenged, plus the few possessions they own. A big meeting area in the middle. D6-2 Druids currently sleeping, eating, getting high, fucking, masturbating, play-fighting, for real fighting, or arguing semantics. If there are four Druids, the Archdruid is also home.
Within the dolmens are a total of:
- 2D6 healing elixirs (Cure Wounds)
- D4 doses of herbal panacea (Cure Disease)
- D4 blocks of beatific hash (Remove Curse)
- A single skin of restorative mead (Regenerate)
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