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 head to the relative calm of the Brushland.
Brushland
The Brushland is a relatively peaceful stretch of land that stretches on for about 100 miles in diameter. There isn’t much here, as the brush tends to drown out things like trees from growing. It’s filled with shorter types of vegetation though, and there are many bushes of things like strawberries, raspberries, and the like, while the ground holds many tubers – including a particularly delicious type of potato that holds well for transportation.
The land is not without dangers though, both from the inhabitants, but also from the land itself. It takes a toll on all who harvest its bounties, and those that pay the toll in advance find that the ground is more fertile for it.
Lay of the Land
If you were to stand in the middle of the Brushland all you’d see for at least 100 miles in any direction would be relatively flat ground. While there a few hills, none of them rise above 100 feet, but they’re just enough to obscure vision and have mist and fog collect in the “valleys” that they create. The Brushlands have plenty of water just a few feet below the surface, due to the rather high water table. But there are very few lakes or streams that cross the land, so the animal life tends to congregate around the few waterways making them a bit more dangerous than other places of the area.
Dangers
The Brushlands are more fertile in those areas where blood has been spilled, and the locals know this. They often fight wars over nothing more than the sheer bloodshed that can be found, hoping to shed more of the enemies’ blood than of their own. Where blood has been spilled within the last year, the crops grow twice as fast and twice as big, and children raised on this food grow both stronger and tougher than they would otherwise (though they also grow more aggressive, making teenagers of any race almost impossible to control).
The greatest danger to anyone who passes through are the gnoll (PF 2 / 5e ) bands that roam the Brushlands. The Darktooth band (as they call themselves) are far bigger and stronger than gnolls found elsewhere. They have 10% more hit points than normal and deal a further 1d4 damage on any melee hits that they do. Recently they’ve been forced to take a slightly different tack, as they had to fight off a centaur ( PF 2 / 5e ) clan that’s trying to muscle in on their territory (also with the increase in hit points and damage). The bigger centaurs have successfully confined the gnolls to the northern section of the brushlands, but the Darktooth chieftain is planning to strike back, and unleash an orgy of violence and bloodshed, the likes of which the centaurs have never seen.
And with that, we hope to see you next week. 😊
Kim Frandsen
Latest posts by Kim Frandsen (see all)
- Finder’s Archive – Crypt of the Eternals - June 2, 2023
