Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Finder’s Archives.
In this column, we take some of the lands from Magic: The Gathering and turn them into something you can use for your fantasy games.
The stats given in each entry assumes that you’re using Pathfinder or 5e for your games, but they can easily be converted over into any fantasy system. This week we help foster rebellions and revolutions while hiding from the watchful eye of the law.
Caves of Koilos
The Caves of Koilos lie in a desert that wanders the face of the planet itself, in patterns that are impossible to discern. The desert itself seems drawn towards conflict, especially civil wars and those battles that pitch two different classes or castes against each other. Here, in the Caves of Koilos the rebels fighting against authorities (whether underdog or not) can always find refuge, but the moment that they assume power, the Caves disappear and the desert starts looking for the next place to go.
Lay of the Land
The Caves of Koilos are named after the first rebel that took refuge here. From here, the ancient warrior was able to plan a revolution and overthrow an oppressive regime that was hurting the common people. It is unknown if the Caves of Koilos had the power to move before or after the coming of the ancient rebel, but as Koilos grew to be a powerful spellcaster it seems likely that she wanted others to be able to take advantage of the Caves in a similar manner to herself.
The Caves are always filled with fresh water and enough crops to sustain a small army for an extended (years at the least, in some instances decades) period of time, though only those that are fighting against an authority are able to find and use the Caves. Those who might be otherwise languishing, such as from starvation, under an otherwise just rule, are on their own.
The Caves are easily defended against attackers as they are deep and offer many chokepoints where a defender can hold off multiple attackers at once, and even the very terrain itself seems to rise up against anyone invading the sanctity of the Caves, making it difficult to walk for those on the attack.
Dangers
The Caves of Koilos do come with a set of clockwork guardians (5e / PF2), but these are inactive whenever the Caves are occupied by fresh rebels, which is most of the time. Only when the Caves are undefended do the constructs come alive, and then only until the next set of rebels starts moving in. How the Caves and the constructs determine who is a rebel or revolutionary is unknown, but so far they have never failed to get it right, leading many to speculate as to whether they deliberately seek out those most likely to cause trouble for the authorities or whether they simply react to the already existing presence of those kinds of sentiments.
And that concludes this week. Are you one of the rebels or do you fight on the side of the authorities?
Kim Frandsen
Latest posts by Kim Frandsen (see all)
- Finder’s Archive – Crypt of the Eternals - June 2, 2023
Fits what could be happening in my game soon! I’ll have to work it in.
Added to the Blog Database.
https://jonbupp.wordpress.com/blog-database/for-dungeon-masters/chapter-5-adventure-environments/wilderness/desert/