Friday, June 5, 2015

Shrine of the Ploughfather

So perfectionism means I took way too long on this damn thing. Without further ado (whilst shamelessly pilfering from Patrick Stuart):


Pic unrelated. From here
Dwarvenkind has always excelled in technology, crafting the tools they need to create even better tools. One might say that they are too focused and unimaginative, though that is inaccurate. They lack the vision to create something new out of whole cloth, yes, but the wonders they work by adapting and honing the ideas of others have led to their current legacy of advancement.

Long ago, when they lived on the skin of the world, a young dwarf (hungry and sick of foraging) (envious of the elves and their bond with nature) (curious of the humans and their new 'dogs') witnessed a shooting star land in a field of aurochs. Excited, he ran to it...

Shrine of the Ploughfather

1- Elf ruler has heard of a very embarrassing secret hidden within the farm-dwarves’ temple. Find out what it is so he can gossip with the drow queen about it and tease the Underking over social media.
2- A fashionable doomsday cult has been unable to summon a certain messenger imp. Auguries give his location as underground, near an abandoned dwarven surface town. He is required to herald the apocalypse.
3- Lassie returned to town barking that little Timmy has fallen down a well, near the wild potato patch in the woods.
4- The usurper king has offered his daughter’s hand to anyone who can cut the adamantine lock off the throneroom door. A lecherous old scholar sends you here, having researched the starmetal forgings of the dwarves.
5- Legends speak of a giant Doomsday Hourglass counting down until the eschaton. Calculations guess it is nearing an end. However, the magic is such that if more grains are added to the top, such a fate can be waylaid…(obv you would need to put a huge wheat hourglass somewhere in the temple. Or not, it’s your game)
6- You find and ancient dwarven manuscript that sounds like a blog post about the evils of some overarching agricultural organization, a la Monsanto. It gives the location of their base of operations...and says they hoarded their riches.

There are seven necessary ones plus 3 or 4d6? That sounds reasonable. Just use something from Dyson or whatever. This could work:

>>>>Drop a d4 and d6 on the map until they land on rooms. The d4 is First Plough and the d6 is Udril’s head. But more on that later.

NECESSARY ROOMS are the Oblatorium and Shrines of the Lesser Fathers.

The Oblatorium should be close to the center. Inside are statues of the Ploughfather and the Lessers, and a burn altar. A chimney leads up to the woods above. This is the (now) main entrance, though there is another one, buried in rubble and known to locals as a wild potato patch. Multiple doors to different parts of the temple fork from here.

The Lesser Fathers’ shrines are plain altars with names, scattered in rooms throughout the temple. Their statues depict them with symbols of their craft:
1- Lenod, Sowing. Bears a seed bag
2- Tig, Fertilizer. Gull perched on arm
3- Tegir, Breeding. Two stems in his hand
4- Golud, Reaping. Bears a sickle
5- Lolum, Carpentry. A share-less wooden plough frame
6- [Head missing from statue in Oblatorium. His altar says “Udril”], he bears a yoke

The Lesser Shrines get an extra roll for what they contain, plus all have an OFFERING (d6):
1- Lazarene Linen: wrap this blindfold-sized white cloth around the eyes of a dead person and they will raise as a blinded intelligent zombie, compelled to obey you. Both corpse and linen turn to dust when killed again, or if the blindfold is removed.
2- 1d4 Warding Salts: a line of this on the ground will make plant creatures halt. Enough for a 5ft line or circle 1 medium creature.
3- Blessed Kernels: bag of grain that can be thrown. Works like holy water.
4- Blessed Birdseed: sprinkle over 5ft sq under open sky and birds will flock to eat. They will be distracted and easily caught.
5- Cask of Malt Whiskey from the Barley Baron hobbits. Worth 300gp in a city. Flammable in a pinch
6- Distilled hot pepper pesticide from the Maize Pyramids across the sea. Basically pepper spray, but ouble lethal damage to bugs.


>All rooms without creatures have 1d6 hoppers of 1-3:Wheat(50gp each) 4-5:Maize(60gp) 6:Barley(40gp)

roll 2d20 or a d20 and d12
Plus roll one here every couple rooms. d12 for creatures only
1- Nothing! but the grains.
2- Dismembered priest, red paint drips
3- Red paint: “THE GRAIN IS A LIE”
5- Dead radical with d3 intact firebombs
6- Mosaic of dwarf pointing at shooting star
7- Mosaic of dwarf at forge w/ ploughshare
8- Mosaic of dwarf at field w oxen; stash of coins
9- Mosaic of dwarves bearing heaps of food
10- Collapsed tiles litter floor; d4 radical bodies
11- Floor is map of continent as-was 200 yr ago
12- Dead radical, firebomb; pale overgrown carrots
13- d3 ceremonial gold leaf bull masks
14- Crumbling papyri re: control of economy
15- Thick mycelium floor covering, d3 kegs beer
16- Two scorched priest bodies, jewelry
17- d6 Jars of valuable heirloom grain seeds
18- Lazarene Linen and a contaminated hopper
19- Bin of tribute corn cobs w/ sacrificial dagger
20- Wheat hopper w/ preserved pontiff corpse
1- d3 Myconids and fungus-covered priest body
2- Corpse of a radical; Root Titan guarding
3- Linen wrapped priest mummy
4- Beheaded priest skeleton; room torched
5- Shambling radical corpse, mushrooms on head
6- Undead armored guard, plough-shaped khopesh
7- Radical poltergeist, restless til room is burnt
8- Roach swarm; coin coffers hidden beneath straw
9- d4 Scarecrows; cask of malt whiskey
10- 2d6 smoke-preserved monks, one is ‘all’ wight
11- 1d6 idiot kenku snuck in. Equipped as thieves
12- Heap of bones; fruits d6 myconids after 2 min
13- a Root Titan fighting...(roll d12)
14- Polished brass mirrors alter spell targets
15- Door releases spores; save or roll mutation
16- Psi Pscarab: attaches, +2 Con but can’t track HP
17- Mosaic of field; sun face has petrify laser eyes
18- Imp trapped within circle of blessed kernels
19- Golden-bull-masked skeleton in ploughcophagus
20- Giant plough-like blade trap, d4 scarecrows

Root Radicals - corpses have threadbare clothes and red cloth gas masks, all falling apart. History has forgotten how they toppled the Grain Hegemony. All carried jars of dirt on back filled with root veggies, 1 in 3 are still usable (see Root Jar below). You find one, hiding but dead, in the room that holds the First Plough, clutching it tight.

Root Titan - See below

Myconids - Seeping up from below. They have tried to find purchase in the stores of dried grain but have a hard time digesting it, so are often sickly and weak. Try to encourage damp.

Priests - officials of the grain hegemony; lived in the temple. Their descendants live on among exiled surface dwarves. Their bodies are dressed in fine linens (mostly rotted) and some gold leaf jewelry (mostly valuable). Some were given unlife through the Lazarene Linens.

Random Encounters in the Plough Temple (Roll d6)

1-2 : Root Titan AC-inverse of chain (like a penalty) HD-3 Attack-d8.
Like a big vegetable gorilla. Very slow; always goes last. Can Body Slam for d8 but must spend a turn getting back up from prone. If owned, will defend owner until dead or called off. See Root Jar below.

3-4 : 1d6 Scarecrows AC-as chain HD-2 Attack-d4
Trail straw as they hop around on a single pole. Can cast Cause Fear or Enervate or whatever, plus will smell and track down any birds in the temple (every random encounter is a hostile scarecrow encounter if you brought a bird).

5 : Corn Smut Myconid AC-as chain HD-(roll d6) Attack-d6
Fungus is slowly creeping up into the temple from below. A bloated, saggy blue-gray mushroom man with half a dried corn cob sticking out his head. Really dumb. Edible, restores 1 health per HD it had. A delicacy among Mountain Dwarves who will pay 50gp per HD

6 : The Salt Druid AC-as scale HD-4 Attack-1d3 plus blinds (flings salt)
Hates everything that was here since they were all asshole farmers. Can be parleyed with and assist you. Wants the First Plough in his keeping or destroyed.
Knows Plant Growth, Enrage Plants and Metal to Salt.
Also has an allied rock salt Geodude (small earth elemental) named Geddy Lee. Weak to water.


Pic unrelated
Root Jar.
A big clay jar with runes and straps to wear it on your back. Full o dirt. Plant root veggies inside: pull one out for a portable meal, or dump it all at once to create a Root Titan. It can't speak but will obey your spoken commands. Guards you til dead. You can cut off its eyes to replant but it will be blind. Takes a week to grow enough for a new one.

Udril’s Head. He had vestigial horns, very embarrassing. Attaching it back to his statue will open the way down to The Undertemple beneath the burn altar. At that time (or earlier if you use Speak With Animals) he can tell you what he's seen in the room he was in - usually something regarding the root/grain conflict. When you ask what’s up with his horns, makes it clear he will not talk about The Undertemple.
Things Udril might tell about the Undertemple:
1- Do not go! But when you do, ask my kin to visit. It has been an age of this world.
2- My father knew what he was doing. The weak minds of this age do not. The blood runs strong.
3- Remember: drink deep of immortality, or not at all! Such forces are not to be dabbled in!
4- Be careful to know your way back. There is no other way.

First Plough. This is matte black and razor sharp. It makes a zipper sound if you run your finger down the side and will shred it if you run it the other way, like insane sharkskin. It can plough anything. Soil, rocky soil, packed soil, rubble, lava, solid stone, water, human flesh and bone, piles of grain, linen, a tree trunk. Anything. You need to reattach it to a frame and hitch it to an ox to do it properly though.

Pic Semirelated

Anything you plant in the furrow it leaves will grow. This leads to all sorts of wacky effects, obviously, because it is from space and it’s replicating something (you can dig up the ‘seed’ when it’s done). Lots of people will want this. Apart from normal nearby kingdoms etc, one of these will track you down per week if word gets out you have it:
1- Sisyphian Marxist Tritons, to plough the sea...for the proletariat
2- The sole Coeurl trapped on this world, to replicate necessary stargate parts
3- Illithids. They forgot how to reproduce a long time ago so want to try cloning

4- Le Culte D’Arthur, to plant more swords in stones (to up their chances)

The Undertemple is basically a whole ‘nother dungeon which will be revealed in time.

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