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 for your games, but they can easily be converted over into any fantasy system. So it’s been a while, after the Dungeon Creation series, but let’s head back to someplace full of life: the Botanical Sanctum.
Botanical Sanctum
The Botanical Sanctum is an odd and eclectic mix of nature, technology, and magic. Here, one drives the other. Magic starts technology, that helps life grow, and through the growth of life, the magic gets stronger. It is an area covered in a vast crystal dome, perfectly smooth, but as hard to the touch as the strongest diamond. It stands as a monument to the strength and belief of the first high priest of Gaia, Mother Nature. Around the place she was interred, the dome grew over a decade, and within it, life flourished. Trees here are bigger than anywhere else, more vibrant somehow. Any plant, regardless of origin, can take root here – including the dangerous ones, which are regularly pruned back, and kept fenced-in. Destruction of them goes against the teaching of Mother Nature, so the faithful restrain themselves to keeping them in check.
Lay of the Land
The crystal dome is impenetrable, except at the openings. The trees and plants within come from all over the world and multiverse. At the center of it all stands the Vitae Machina – the Machine of Life. Centered directly over the burial site of the high priestess, it resembles a glass grow house, covered in brass hoses, gears, and strange knobs. The priesthood has no idea of how it works, but it was a gift to the memory of the high priest that came from the deep bowels of the Elemental Plane of Earth, supposedly from Grumbar, the lord of Earth Elementals himself. The machinery is always humming, putting out mild steam that seems to enhance the growth of the plants here – keeping them always just moistened enough, while the crystal dome modifies the sunlight. It makes the area incredibly humid, and many of those who come here complain about the constant moisture and have difficulty breathing, at least for the first week.
Dangers
The dangers from within the Botanical Sanctum come from the plants that live here. Any plant can be found here at the right time, but the dangerous ones are normally trimmed back. Currently, the biggest threat belongs to a witch tree, that has infiltrated the place. The priesthood has put out a call for adventurers to get rid of the tree, as it will need to be destroyed – because it is luring the faithful away from the true path, presenting a great danger.
Kim Frandsen
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