The Ostarian Gardens

These delightful gardens are home to a fellowship of tree elementals, who act as representatives of Ostaria’s ecosystem. They are guardians and inheritors to a consciousness stretching back to the origins of life. Some are so ancient, they don't recollect a time they did not exist. The roots of these trees extend deep, mingling with the roots of all plants throughout the region. The gardens are self-maintaining, the grass grows perfectly even, and everything functions as intended. Gardens such as this can be found throughout Aquilus, each with varieties of plant life reflective of the region in which they’re situated.

What's makes the gardens enigmatic?

• Close observation will reveal the gardens appear to rearrange themselves. They cannot be mapped or remembered. Visitors who return on another occasion will find their recollections of the gardens are useless.
• Fragments of the trees can be used to create +2 wooden weapons such as clubs, spears, and arrows. Visitors will face wrath if attempts to remove any wood. They will be attacked by leeches who attach themselves, draining hit points and possibly levels from everyone, and additionally, magic itself permanently from casters.
• Visitors spending time here discover their deeds — both good and bad — are widely known by the elementals.

What else will visitors find here? (d8):

1. Cave-entrances hidden by illusions which PCs of a lawful alignment can detect. They lead to other places.
2. Tree elementals attempting to make babies.
3. Numerous garden mazes, which are highly complex.
4. A small pool of black water. Visitors looking in will see their reflections showing the deepest darkest evil within each of them. Clerics of lawful alignment feel wrath from their god and must make a WIS check, or lose abilities until they atone.
5. Hundred or thousands of statues, possi- bly petrified by nature or otherworldly powers.
6. Enchanting birds weaving new sections of the gardens.
7. Fruit never falls from trees, but is ripe for picking and eating. Some fruit possesses magical properties, a few varieties are deadly.
8. Anything which dies immediately turns to dust.

20 NPCs for a Weird-Fantasy Setting

Roll (d20):

1. A woman with long silver hair. She seems ageless, and has a face like a perfect mask. Wears a cloak of white feathers, and carries a scepter tipped with a great black pearl.
2. A blind man, with a cane made of human bone. He has no eyes, only pits of darkness in his sockets. He is always surrounded by a cloud of flies.
3. A small child, with matted hair and big eyes. Dressed in filthy rags, and always giggling. Seemingly immune to harm.
4. A great hulking brute of a man, with arms the size of tree trunks. Dressed in a loincloth of animal hide, and tattooed from head to toe with arcane symbols.
5. An elf with golden skin and silver eyes. They always seems to be surrounded by a shimmering aura. Wears diaphanous robes that float in the wind.
6. A small blue-skinned man with a wide head and large eyes. Wears a crown of barbed wire.
7. A beautiful woman with long white hair and perfect features. Her eyes are cold and dead, and her hands are blackened claws.
8. A small, sickly-looking man, with a hunched back and a beard of tangled weeds. Carries a large book bound in human skin.
9. A shimmering, inhuman creature, composed of swirling energy. It cannot be looked at directly, and leaves burning afterimages in the retina.
10. A world-weary woman, with a sharp tongue and a ready knife. She has a kestrel perched on her shoulder, and wears a faded scarf over her hair.
11. A grinning man, always cheerful, no matter the circumstance. He has a wild mane of orange hair, and is never seen without his jester's motley.
12. A taciturn man, with a face like a slab of granite. He has a great axe strapped to his back, and a pet badger that follows him everywhere.
13. A cheerful halfling, with a quick wit and an even quicker temper. He has a penchant for drink and gambling, and is never seen without his lucky hat.
14. A sober dwarf, with a long beard and a serious expression. He is a master craftsman, and always has his hands full with some new project.
15. Enormous, body like a bloated tick. Beady black eyes on a asymmetrical face. A mouth full of fangs, and tech grafted onto its arms.
16. Blue-skinned, and strikingly beautiful. Wears billowing white robes, and has six delicate wings. A necklace of delicate silver vertebrae dangles from her long neck.
17. A tiny figure, barely larger than a child. Dressed in a raggedy patchwork coat. Its eyes are large and black, and seem to stare into your soul.
18. A creature made entirely of clockwork. Cogs and gears whir and click as it moves. It has no face, only a blank metal plate where a head should be.
19. A walking, talking pile of garbage. Clothes made of rags and tatters, face hidden behind a mask of grime and grime. It smells like rotting flesh, and its eyes shimmer with a sickening green light.
20. A being of pure energy. It crackles and pops, and its form is ever-changing. It speaks in a voice that echoes and reverberates, and its eyes are two blinding suns.
    
    

Art by Shusei Nagaoka