Corrupted Garden of the Ancients

This long-abanded garden features plants and pathways arranged in numbers and shapes in line with numerology and holy symbology. The plants here are of rare varietals, some of them thought to have been extinct for hundreds of years.

Ancient Knowledge. A successful Religion check reveals the garden itself is meant as a place of worship, and tending it for at least 1 hour is the proper way to show respect to the garden’s deity (this can be done while gathering plants but must be declared). Adventurers who do so gain the benefits of a long rest next time they take a short rest .

Corrupt. Upon entering the area, each adventurer must make a Constitution saving throw . On a failure, they suffer one level of corruption. At the end of each short or long rest in the area, each adventurer makes another Constitution saving throw, suffering an additional level of corruption on a failure.

Cursed Negligence. Failure to tend to the garden at all results in each adventurer suffering two levels of strife and adventurers are cursed until the end of the next phase of the moon (each phase is about 4 to 5 days). The nature of the curse is determined by the Narrator and functions as a bestow curse spell cast at 8th-level (see Chapter 10: Spellcasting, in the Adventurer’s Guide).

Adventurers suffer this curse for one moon phase if they fail or critically fail this challenge. This does not stack with Cursed Negligence.

Sacred Place. The entire garden is filled with a feeling of ancient power that seems to beat to an almost tangible rhythm. Magic is suppressed while within the area of the garden as if in an antimagic field .

Strange Plants. The plants were at one point especially cultivated, but that was many years ago. Adventurers without experience with this region’s history and plantlife can’t benefit from any specialities in Medicine, Nature, or Survival such as herbalism, plant lore, or foraging.