Weird Worlds (Part Two)

To follow Part One, where we briefly visited the grim world of The Neverwoods, we’re dropping into the very different Garden-Lands. Now seems as good a time as any to clear up- these tables aren’t meant to be extensive or exhaustive, but more to be quick and flavourful jumping-in points. Ideally suited to an abrupt and unexpected visit to a weird different-world, but with the potential to spiral into something bigger with a little ingenuity and expansion by your group.

The Garden-Lands

A whole world of fenced off little areas of about 250 square meters, each growing a weird variety of produce and plants and managed by powerful and mysterious patrons from all over the multiverse.
            The Garden-Lands were once a curious expanse of flat, featureless soil which is unusually fertile. Powerful beings began to flock there, travelling to stake out their own allotment and begin growing whatever it is they really felt like. There’s an honour system in place that, rather surprisingly, means most of the beings there stick primarily to their own allotments and do not interfere in each other’s flowerbeds.

	The Owner	The Produce	The Features
1	… is an absent-minded but ancient wizard, a master of most if not all arcane arts who has essentially transcended mortality.	… is an exceptional variety of fruit and vegetables, with 2d6 recognisable varieties and an additional 3d6x10 exotic kinds. Closer inspection will reveal it is one huge, fleshy plant which grows all of them.	… are beautiful topiary and carefully trimmed leaves, with meticulous attention to detail. Heaven forbid you should put anything out of place.
2	… is an incredibly powerful lich who has long since conquered his home-sphere	… is a small orchard growing golden varieties of many fruits- apples, pears, peaches and oranges.	… are unruly plants and messy footways, with no care taken to really organise where things are growing.
3	… is a demigod of some quality or other who tires of his otherwise two-dimensional existence and spends an increasing amount of time “away from it all”.	… is an extensive range of flowers, a few varieties of which can speak and hold intelligent conversation.	… are unusual creatures and strange little critters. All manner of alien beasts could be hiding under that hedgerow.
4	… is an extradimensional being who still finds absurd novelty in the most mundane of manual labour.	… is a range of animate plants including mounds that shamble and ivy that strangles, and a particularly characterful hydra-bush (Hydra-angea?)	… are curious little structures- a carefully constructed greenhouse or shed, possibly holding a portal to the owner’s home sphere.
5	… is an ancient god thought dead in his own mythos, largely to escape the prayers of whatever petitioners remain for him.	… is a set of holes containing little potato-goblins which will shove, fight and bite to be left in their holes.	… are bizarre statues and standing stones, placed tastefully about the allotment.
6	… is a wise arch-druid who has turned from protecting the wilderness to cultivating his own little patch of plants.	… is whatever has taken hold, since no effort to coordinate has been made. Roll again for the four nearest allotments and assume some mix of these things has spilled into this one.	… are inventive uses of water-distribution systems. A tranquil pond graces the centre.

Some possible story-hooks here in the idyllic allotment-Sphere:

What was it that drew you into a brief stint of fence-hopping?

1.      You came to find an expert organimancer who may be able to identify or heal a rare plant specimen.

2.      You have been employed to find a rare fruit for a rich noble’s banquet-hall.

3.      You need desperately to find an old and weary god, to convince him to come home and curb his wicked son.

4.      You have been hired by a wizard with an allotment to defend it from garden-hopping fruit-thieves.

5.      You have been hired by an allotment owner to clear out the thorough infestation of gremlins and goblins which is ruining his courgette-patch.

6.      You have accidentally slipped into this world when a teleportation went wrong, landing on a prize crop. Now that crop’s owner is chasing you murderously through the other gardens as you seek a way off the sphere.