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 travel through the Centaur Gardens and avoid spilling blood!
Centaur Garden
The Centaur Gardens are something of a mystery, as they are immaculately groomed, even though no caretaker has ever been found. Even the Centaur Tribes that roam the lands nearby, and from whom the Gardens are named, are unaware of who founded and takes care of the garden. They reason that it might be an unseen dryad of some sort, or maybe even the plants themselves that are sentient.
The centaurs never enter the Garden, believing it to be a curse upon their people. At the same time, they recognize that they need to protect it from those who might use it for malicious purposes. In this manner, they run the greatest risk of exposure to the curse. That said, the curse’s effects upon the Centaurs may well be its greatest defense.
Lay of the Land
The Centaur Garden is an immaculately kept garden, complete with hedges and short cut grass, exactly 1-mile square. 4 banners stand near the center, with flags hoisted in the air. Each of the flags represents one of the 4 Centaur Tribes that live in the region nearby (an area roughly 50 miles in diameter) and changes whenever one of the tribes is replaced (as has sometimes happened in the past, due to the curse’s effects). It’s very peaceful here, but anyone who spends more than an hour here feels a strange creeping sensation down the back of their heads. Anyone who actually makes it here will also find themselves under siege by the Centaur Tribes as they surround the Garden on all sides, to ensure that the intruder is dealt with appropriately.
Dangers
The “Curse of the Centaur Garden” is one that poses little danger to the average traveler, but it is of great threat to the Centaurs. If ANY blood is spilled within the Garden, all centaurs within a 20-mile radius are afflicted with an insane bloodlust, physically growing larger as their veins bulge and their eyes flame red. And then they go berserk.
(For Pathfinder 2, they gain the following attack: Berserk Strike [one action] Requirement The centaur has gone berserk. Effect the centaur Strikes with weapons or hooves at a -1 circumstance penalty. If it hits, it deals an additional 1d10 damage and knocks the target prone. )
(For 5e: The centaur gains advantage on all melee attack rolls.)
The Centaurs keep attacking until no living creature is in sight, except centaurs. They do not attack other centaurs (or creatures that appear to be centaurs) during this.
Regrettably, the hedges of the Centaur Garden grow berries that, when ingested by centaurs, have the same effect, which lasts for 10 minutes. This has been used in the past by those wanting to use centaurs to cause havoc or to be used as unknowing attackers. The berries are unheard of outside of centaur society and therefore, a few otherwise innocent centaurs have ended in prison or worse, due to the effect of these berries.
And that concludes this week. Remember, do not annoy the centaurs.
Kim Frandsen
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- Finder’s Archive – Crypt of the Eternals - June 2, 2023
The berries are a great hook.
Added to the Blog Database.
https://jonbupp.wordpress.com/blog-database/for-dungeon-masters/chapter-5-adventure-environments/wilderness/forest/