Delver’s Guide: Hanging Gardens

The cavern you’re in opens wide into a vast, roughly spherical chamber, dug out from the dirt and rock: 60 feet high with a 50-foot diameter at the centerline where you stand at the cavern entrance halfway up the western side of the chamber, a last stony outcropping before plunging steeply 30 feet to what appears to be a lake. Directly ahead and filling the majority of the space are fungal pods that appear to be floating throughout the room. On closer inspection, you realize they are dangling at various heights from ropey stalks that anchor them to the ceiling. The pods glow, filling the space with dim light. There appear to be an additional three similar cave entrances equidistant around the room.

If you’re going adventuring, you best be prepared. Know what you might be getting yourself into and be ready for anything. It’s important to be mindful of your environment. Use it to turn any situation to your advantage.

Hanging Gardens

This particular variety of fungal bloom is not at all uncommon. The fungal pods can be found anywhere in open underground spaces, often as a lonely individual pod or in a small copse. But given the right conditions, they will quickly reproduce to fill the space.

Fungal Pods. The pods—up to 5 feet in diameter—dangle from the ceiling and sway in the eddies of wind that percolate throughout the tunnels. They can take the weight of a medium creature and are packed closely enough that they could be potentially traversed. The pods tend to fill the 20-foot central band of the room, at varying heights; below that is a 20-foot band of mostly empty air and the lake surface, and above is a 20-foot band of just the ropey stalks.

A creature must succeed a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to move 5 feet, stepping onto and balancing on one of the pods; for each additional 5 the check is over, the creature can move an additional 5 feet. On a failed check, the creature falls, landing prone (but taking no damage) on another pod below its starting point; each additional 5 the check fails by is treated as an additional fall. For each fall, roll a d6; on a 6, the pod bursts, resulting in yet another fall and erupting in a cloud of phosphorescent spores, and the creature is treated as if effected by a faerie firespell for 1 minute (or until submerged in water) and takes 1d6 poison damage and must make a DC 12 Constitution save or be poisoned for 1 minute. If a creature suffers three falls (no matter the cause) before making a successful movement roll, the creature falls to the water below, taking 2d6 bludgeoning damage.

There are several other considerations with the pods:

• The pods can be thrown as improvised weapons at targets within 20 feet. On a hit, the pod bursts, and the target is treated as if effected by a faerie fire spell for 1 minute (or until submerged in water) and takes 1d6 poison damage and must make a DC 12 Constitution save or be poisoned for 1 minute.
• The ropey stalks can be cut by a slashing weapon (10 hp) or broken with a DC 15 Strength check, but they’re hollow, and all creatures within a 5-feet radius are exposed to the spores and must succeed a DC 12 Dexterity check or be effected as if by a faerie fire spell for 1 minute (or until submerged in water) and take 1d6 poison damage and also make a DC 12 Constitution save or be poisoned for 1 minute. A pod will burst if it takes any damage.
• If a Large creature steps on a pod, roll a d6; on a 5–6, the pod’s stalk snaps, and that creature is treated as if both failing a movement check and bursting the pod. This happens automatically if an even larger creature steps on one.
• Within the top two bands (that is, the upper 40 feet of the chamber), flying creatures can only fly 15 feet before having to land, due to crowding from the pods and stalks, unless they can hover.

Additional Hazards

The following are all things I’ve witnessed within a subterranean hanging garden:

• Likho. A squad of likho (see Tome of Beasts) are laying low to lick their wounds from a recent fight in one of the adjoining caverns. They often pass through here on their hunting forays.
• Ratfolk. A nearby colony of ratfolk (see Tome of Beasts) have claimed these gardens, finding the fungus to be incredibly useful and versatile—as food, once properly prepared, and as poison. They’ve grown rather possessive of the chamber and will likely assume the worst of any visitors.
• Water Leaper. A water leaper (see Tome of Beasts) calls the lake home. It immediately attacks any creature that lands in the water. It also harasses any creature that has failed two consecutive movement rolls, thus being on one of the lower pods. A favored tactic is to land on such a pod, assuming that the shared weight will burst the pod and send the interloper into the lake for further aggression.

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The Delver's Guide series explores the exciting world of dungeoneering by giving you interesting new locations to explore! Each is intended to give encounters a little something extra, designed to complicate encounters with more varied, dynamic, and exciting options, with hazards to avoid and features to utilize and surprises for the unwary. Are you ready for the delve? —by Scott Gable (Warlock Editor).