Green Lords
In the time of the Makers, the Green Lords ruled the Great Wood and what is now Ferrier's Fen. They grew things, bred and cultivated. They bent the spirits of wild to their will, and brought forth new forms of life—some of which would eventually become the Forest Folk.
Yet while they mastered life itself, they feared death. They dreaded the bleak eternity waiting behind the Last Door. They bred the Fae out of spirit and flesh, and harnessed their power to craft false afterlives. And: it worked. Dozens of Green Lords had themselves mummified and entombed, dreaming forever of decadence and wonder.
Some of the Fae, however, grew to resent their servitude. They plotted in secret and rose up against their masters. They gutted tombs, put the living to the sword, and sent the survivors running.
The Green Lords, in panic and desperation, called on the Things Below and used their power to quash the rebellion. But this in turn drew the ire of other Makers. They worked a mighty magic that collapsed a vast swath of Green Lord territory, sinking it into a mire and killing thousands. The Fae rallied and besieged the survivors at Vor Svetelik. Their cause lost, the Green Lords unleashed a last great wave of horror before retreating into the bowels of the earth. There they have remained, growing ever more twisted and vile, becoming the Fomoraij.
Names
Slavic-sounding: Athanasi, Bogdana, Chedomir, Dozhena, Darobor, Jigorii, Kresimira, Mstislava, Nikalor, Radomira, Tikomar, Tomila, Vecheslav, Voitsek, Yaroslana, Yevena.
Hooks
- An earthquake or wildfire reveals a long-buried Green Lord ruin close to Stonetop.
- A hazardous growth is aggressively spreading through the Great Wood
- An old scholar or manuscript shows up, telling of a Green Lord relic that can greatly improve crops.
- Some fool braves a Green Lord's tomb and returns with a valuable treasure, but they're pursued by mummified servants and infected with a horrible rotting disease.
Themes
Pick, or roll .
| 1 | Beasts or vermin: bred, changed, or harnessed |
|---|---|
| 2 | Plants and growing things: grandiose and/or unusual |
| 3 | Adaptation/growth/ expansion/vitality |
| 4 | Chimerae: creatures with disparate parts, features of other organisms |
| 5 | Tombs, mummification, constructed afterlives |
| 6 | The spirits of the wild or that which they embody, bound or put to use |
| 7 | Fae servants/rebellion |
| 8 | Corruption by the Things Below, and roll again |
| 9-12 | Sized for giants, and roll again |
Sites
Pick, or have someone roll the Die of Fate.
| 1-4 | Lingering signs of their presence and influence (at right) |
|---|---|
| 5-6 | A ruin |
Lingering signs
Pick, or have someone roll the Die of Fate.
| 1 | An entity, imprisoned in a strange tree, rune-carved stone, or natural feature (next page) |
|---|---|
| 2 | Strange plants (next page) |
| 3 | A section of the Broken Roads, unearthed or still barely visible |
| 4 | A spirit of the wild, bound to some useful purpose (next page) |
| 5 | Useful or valuable flora growing in abundance |
| 6 | A waystone |
An entity, imprisoned
For example:
- A tree with a metallic sheen, its wood infused with iron. Its trunk spirals around itself, like a spool of yarn, a rebellious Fae trapped within.
- A man-sized mass of blood-sucking insects—an entity of pain and disease—imprisoned in amber.
- A mighty old elder tree, its bark like bone, oozing black sap from the deathless horror it holds bound in its roots.
- A great hunk of stone, reminiscent of a ravenous, howling beast, wrapped in petrified vines and roots and mostly buried/submerged.
- A Fae locked in the form of a tree, a snarl of defiance barely visible.
Strange plants
For example:
- A grove of trees, planted in strangely regular patterns (neat rows, spirals, etc.)
- Trees/vines, their trunks or stalks woven around each other to form walls, curtains, ceilings, etc.
- Shrubs/briars in crude topiary shapes with no obvious tending
- Grand sculptures of living wood that memorialize long-dead Green Lords
- Moss, lichen, mold, or fungus that glows, or hums, or gives off heat, etc.
- Plants made partially of impossible material (flowers/leaves of glass, bark infused with metal, a vine with thorns of bone, a petrified tree that blooms with normal flowers, etc.)
- An enormous and ancient tree, festooned with gylglyd vines that protect some Green Lord artifact.
A spirit of the wild, bound
For example:
- A spirit of winter/hibernation bound to a grotto by vines growing in runic patterns. Other runes fill those who approach with dread. An ancient being lies in torpor within.
- A clearing or meadow lush with an edible grain, tended by a fertility spirit bound to a menhir standing in the field's center.
- An orchard of fruit trees, guarded by a birdwaig and her glasbren daughters, a long family of spirits and trees bound by an ancient oath to the Green Lords.
- A ring of five ancient willow trees, each with a rune-carved hollow, surrounding a stretch of mire. A spirit of reclamation and decay is bound within. Anything that enters the mire will soon be sucked into the muck, where it will decompose and dissolve at an alarming rate.
- A huge stone altar on a treeless hilltop, exposed to the sun. A spirit of growth and vitality is bound within, fed by blood and bestowing gifts of strength.
- An obelisk of milky white crystal, pushing out of the loamy soil, shot through with tendrils of vine that form looping runes of binding. The spirit bound within can pull forth maladies and afflictions from those who touch it, but the spirit is willful and the process is excruciating.
Ruins
Pick or roll for theme, structure, purpose, architectural elements, and condition. Place it in an appropriate terrain (see The Great Wood for the Great Wood or Ferrier's Fen for Ferrier's Fen). Populate it with lingering signs, artifacts and/or dangers of the Green Lords or the appropriate region.
| 1 | Sprawling compound of "smaller" buildings |
|---|---|
| 2 | Single, smaller building |
| 3 | Earth-covered mound |
| 4 | Ancient trees, rooms and structures built into hollows and on crooks |
| 5 | Underground vault(s) |
| 6 | Ziggurat/pyramid/dome |
| 1 | Dwelling (home, barracks, dormitory, etc.) |
|---|---|
| 2 | Containment (fortress, prison, kennel, menagerie, etc.) |
| 3 | Storage (cellar, vault, warehouse, library, collection, etc.) |
| 4 | Production (workshop, nursery, factory, kitchen, abattoir, etc.) |
| 5 | Esoteric (laboratory, shrine, surgery, etc.) |
| 6 | Tomb (of a Green Lord, their ancestors, their servants, their creations, etc.) |
| 1 | Huge slabs of smooth stone (white marble, granite, serpentine) carved with scrollwork and bas reliefs |
|---|---|
| 2 | Moss and lichen, of striking colors, growing in decorative patterns |
| 3 | Amber, agate, geodes, even unworked boulders of interesting shape |
| 4 | Ivory, bone, horn, antler, fur, silk—sometimes fused with or growing from wood or stone |
| 5 | Pillars, arches, or even walls of petrified wood, seemingly grown into shape |
| 6 | Vines and tendrils (often petrified or metal-infused) clinging to surfaces in branching whorls, sigils, and runes Most Maker-ruins are sized for giants—people two or even three times as tall as humans—but often with smaller-scale rooms, passages, and so forth for their servants. |
| 1-2 | Shattered and laid waste by time, war, or vandalism; mostly buried, submerged, and/or overgrown; its purpose unrecognizable |
|---|---|
| 3-4 | Crumbling, largely buried, submerged, and/or overgrown |
| 5 | Buried, submerged, and/or overgrown, but mostly intact |
| 6 | Fully visible and strangely well-preserved See Vor Svetelik (the ruined city of the Green Lords, Vor Svetelik) for additional examples. Many Green Lord ruins feature (or are preserved by) Fae domains. The PCs are tracking nailadd (giant jumping spiders) through the Great Wood, and I think that they're heading for a Green Lord ruin. I roll a 6 for theme (the spirits of the wild, bound or put to use), a 6 for structure (ziggurat/pyramid/dome), a 4 for purpose (production), a 4 for architectural elements (ivory, bone, horn, antler, fur, silk), and 3 for condition (crumbling, largely buried and overgrown). I ponder for a little, then come up with this: A crumbling ziggurat, half-collapsed and mostly covered with dirt, trees, and webs. Inside is a smaller ziggurat that bears a silk tapestry of the Mother-of-Spiders, a powerful elemental spirit. In days of yore, this place was filled with spiders of all sizes, spinning silk and weaving impossible fabrics for the Green Lords. Now, the spiders merely grow large, and hungry, and strangely intelligent. |
Artifacts
Various Treasures
- A mummified bird in a clay pot◇ (fragile, Value 0)
- A number of corroded bronze ◇ hatchets of ancient make, with beautifully preserved wooden grips (crude and Value 0 as-is; hand and Value 1 if restored)
- A beautiful silk shirt, embroidered with vine-like patterns (Value 1)
- Stacks of raw, unworked timber with a metallic sheen to the grain; incredibly strong but incredibly difficult to work (immobile, Value 2)
- A coat of scale armor for someone 20 feet tall. The scales are strange, organic, semi-translucent and iridescent around the edges. Thick, twisting vines grow from the armor where a body should be; nothing else grows nearby. The armor is impractical and creepy, but if extracted intact, it could fetch a decent price (immobile, Value 2) to a collector.
- An oversized ◇◇ drinking horn, gold and amber fused into the horn in impossible ways (Value 3)
- A tall, thick, gnarled tree bearing large, delicious fruits in early autumn. Provides as many provisions (4 uses) ◇ as the PCs care to take, and could be cultivated into a rhoillyg orchard.
A Large Urn
When the urn is unoccupied and a Fae looks inside, it is compelled to crawl in (it can always fit). If you then close the lid, the Fae is trapped and the urn slowly and painfully peels away its knowledge, essence, and sense of self. In time, nothing remains but a pile of pearls (Value 2).
Steading improvement
Rhoillyg Orchard
Requires both:
And either of these, to germinate the seeds:
And then each of these:
When you mark all the requirements, increase Fortunes by 1 and add "Rhoillyg Orchard" to both the Resources list and the steading map. Henceforth, the steading generates +1 Surplus in summer and another +1 Surplus when the autumn harvest is complete.
A Vine in a Rune-Carved Pot
clever, playful; HP 3
Damage 0
Instinct to not let go
Cost affection, play time.
◇, magical
It's about as thick as your finger and maybe 30 feet long stretched out, with skinny little tendrils. It looks rather dried out, but moves slightly if you touch it or its pot. If you water it, it twitches excitedly.
A plant spirit is bound to the vine and pot. If you befriend it and carry its pot, it will animate and act as a follower: grabby,
A Fang-Dagger
An 8-inch fang, bound to a wooden hilt by fiber that never rots. A cruel-looking thing, with strange carvings along the blade.
Something interesting: The fang looks like it came from a cynddaraig, and the markings are definitely some sort of spell related to blood and soil.
Something useful: When you bury the fang-dagger and water the soil with blood, the ground buckles and bulges. A minute later, a full-grown cynddaraig bursts from the soil—angry, confused, and hungry. The spell grants no control over the beast and provides no way to dismiss it. The dagger is gone, now a tooth in the rage-drake's maw.
A Big Stone Coffer
Carved from serpentine, 4 feet by 2 feet by 2, with a heavy stone lid. When found, it's likely half-full with soil. To those sensitive to such things, it thrums with the power of fertility and growth.
When you add fresh soil to the coffer, plant seeds in it, and close the lid, the seeds will germinate and sprout overnight. Each seed will sprout only once, and the sprouts henceforth grow at a regular rate, regardless of whether they stay in the coffer or are planted elsewhere.
With coordination, this could lead to a boom in Stonetop's gardens and +1 Surplus each summer. In the hands of a skilled herbalist, this can greatly improve an herb garden and allow the cultivation of rare or difficult plants. The herbalists of Marshedge would kill over this—or even start a war.
Small Clay Jars
A number of earthenware jars, about the size of a pinecone, sealed with wax and seemingly empty. When opened (or broken) a fine cloud of dust puffs out. The dust is, in fact, chogor spores.
When someone is exposed to chogor spores, the spores quickly start to grow on them in masses of vine-like ferns. They will—in a matter of seconds—ensnare and restrain their victim. After about an hour, the ferns die and rapidly dry out, but until then, it's like being bound up in twine.
Minor Arcana
Pick 1 or have someone roll.
| 1 | A strange skull and antlers |
|---|---|
| 2 | A giant oak leaf |
| 3 | A huge wooden sphere |
| 4 | A stretched vellum |
| 5 | A patch of rainbow moss |
| 6 | A crumbling arch |
Major arcana
These might very well be associated with the Green Lords.
Dangers
Bound Entities
- Spirits of the wild, forced or enticed to perform a particular task or to protect a particular place
- Fae, loyal and still serving their embalmed masters (possibly bitter and questioning their fate) or rebellious and imprisoned for their crimes
- Spirits and beasts corrupted by the Things Below, either locked away by the Green Lords, or weaponized against the Fae
- Plasmic horrors, which once served as blank canvases for fleshweaving
Chimerae
The Green Lords meddled wantonly with life, mixing creatures in impossible ways to suit need or whim. Some such creatures linger, breeding true or having survived for hundreds of years.
Pick or roll for purpose, ability, size, and composition. Allow purpose, ability, and size to inform the elements of its composition, and what traits it has from each element.
| 1-2 | War/destruction/murder/hunting |
|---|---|
| 3-4 | Defense/protection/companionship |
| 5-6 | Experimentation/insight/curiosity |
| 7-8 | Labor/industry/mundane tasks/ convenience |
| 9-10 | Something obscure, or very specific |
| 11-12 | Roll twice and combine |
| 1 | Burn/dissolve/destroy/drain |
|---|---|
| 2 | Transform/mutate/change |
| 3 | Control/influence minds or emotions |
| 4 | Wield/produce/ignore elements or energy |
| 5 | Poison/disease/infect |
| 6 | Hide/mimic/disguise |
| 7 | Entangle/trap/engulf/subdue |
| 8 | Attack at range/over an area |
| 9 | Prowess/mobility/speed |
| 10 | Strength/toughness/durability |
| 11-12 | Roll twice |
| 1-2 | Cat-sized or smaller (tiny) |
|---|---|
| 3-4 | Like a human child (small) |
| 5-8 | Human-sized |
| 9-11 | Like a horse, a cart, etc. (large) |
| 12 | Like an elephant, or bigger (huge) |
| 1-4 | Beast + beast |
|---|---|
| 5-6 | Beast + plant |
| 7-8 | Beast + mineral |
| 9-11 | Beast + roll again with |
| 12 | Person + roll again with |
Hazardous growth
Pick or roll for form and peril, possibly rolling the Die of Fate for size/scope/ scale. Maybe consider how it's useful/ valuable as well.
| 1-2 | Invisible to the naked eye/ spores/dust |
|---|---|
| 3-4 | Mold/moss/lichen/slime |
| 5-6 | Mushrooms/puffballs/stinkhorns/ fungus |
| 7-8 | Vines/briars/brambles/shoots |
| 9-10 | Flowers/plants/ferns/grasses |
| 11-12 | Tree(s)/shrubs/bushes/hedges |
| 1 | Crushes, strangles, cuts, stabs (possibly animate) |
|---|---|
| 2 | Eats away, dissolves, absorbs (tissue or specific material) |
| 3 | Grows incredibly quickly, overwhelms, ensnares |
| 4 | Infects, colonizes, sickens, changes |
| 5 | Poisons, weakens, subdues |
| 6 | Causes dizziness, hallucinations, delusions |
| 7 | Releases spores/pollen/etc. that irritate, obscure, agitate |
| 8 | Draws attention (via noise, phosphorescence, scent, etc.) |
| 9-10 | Roll twice and combine |
| 11-12 | Roll again with but make it weird—elemental, psychic, spiritual, extremely specific, etc. See Vor Svetelik (ruined city of the Green Lords, Vor Svetelik) for specific examples. |
The Unquiet Dead
- Ghosts of the Green Lords and their many servants, who died in battle or sudden cataclysm.
- Specters of Green Lords who were murdered by trusted servants.
- Wraiths of Green Lords who were mummified and entombed, only to have their false afterlives ruined by treachery and war.
- Nemurvojak, the corpses of mortal servants, reanimated by demon-seed
Llamudwr
HP 16; Armor 4 (resilience), 0 vs. bronze
Damage stinging tail (reach), crunching bite (hand, grabby, messy, 1 piercing)
Special qualities clumsy when grounded, hates the sun
Instinct to fill its belly and retreat beneath the water
- Lurk unseen, pick a target, and wait until sunset
- Leap out of the water with shocking speed
- Follow prey from the sky, or hanging from trees
- Strafe its prey and deliver a painful, debilitating sting
- Chomp down, and then swallow whole
Everyone knows to shun deep, still water, and the llamudwr (or "water leapers") are surely one reason why. Take the body of a frog, 6 or 7 feet long. Add another 8 or 9 feet of whipping tail, tipped with a venomous barb. Get rid of its legs, not even stumps, but give it bat wings, a span of nearly 20 feet unfurled. Hide it in a lake or fen, away from the sun's cruel light.
And finally, make it hungry. Very, very hungry.
Mummified Green Lord
HP 24; Armor 4 (potent wards), 0 vs. fire
Damage mighty blows (hand, close, forceful)
Special qualities tethered to canopic jars, can sense all that happens in its tomb
Instinct to preserve its glorious afterlife
- Animate its preserved corpse
- Overawe anyone in its presence
- Twist, mutate, or transform living things with a gesture
- Wield nearby plants and beasts as extensions of itself
- Regenerate its corpse, even if burned, unless its canopic jars destroyed
They lie entombed, their corpses embalmed, their souls bound to the heavily-warded canopic jars that store their most-vital organs. Yet those souls linger forever in Fae-woven realms of glamour and delight.
In these realms, the Green Lords are as gods. They are loathe to leave them, and rarely need to. But should their existence be truly threatened, they will return to this world of base flesh, inhabit their long-dead bodies, and punish any intruders with the savagery of the cruelest beasts.
Mummified Servant
HP 11; Armor 0
Damage choking grip (hand, grabby), spear (close, 1 piercing)
Special qualities takes + damage from fire, tethered to canopic jars
Instinct to destroy intruders
- Animate its preserved corpse
- Surround intruders and hem them in, cutting off escape
- Keep fighting with limbs that have been severed
- Regenerate its corpse, unless burned or its canopic jars destroyed
Some of the Green Lords were mummified and interred with their most faithful mortal servants. These servants get to enjoy their master's false afterlife, but when threats to the tomb arise, they are sent back to their corpses, to rise and crush any intruders they find.
Rhagedn
HP 3; Armor 2 (woody hide)
Damage talons, antlers (hand, messy, 1 piercing)
Special qualities clumsy fliers
Instinct to protect their nests
- Shift into a better position while unobserved
- Strafe their prey (forceful) and return to the skies
- Roost on earth or stone or wood, sinking in talons, furling its wings, and becoming like woody stumps or boughs
Hunched humanoid forms carved of wood, with great wings, taloned feet, and heads crowned with branch-like antlers.
They were made by the Green Lords to be sentinels and guardians, to watch over their borders and their most important sites.
Now, ages and generations later, they still watch, and wait, and protect their nests.
Something interesting: The tales say that the song of a redbreasted bluebird will keep the rhagedn still, letting folk pass unmolested.
Something useful: It just so happens that you know how to whistle the tune (whether or not you can whistle it well enough is questionable).
Swyn
HP 20; Armor 4 (resilience), 2 vs. bronze (scales)
Damage bite & constriction (hand, close, forceful, grabby)
Instinct to indulge its ego
- Appear out of nowhere and lock eyes
- Hold its prey fast with gaze and soothing words
- Plant a suggestion in its victim's mind
- Turn the weak-willed into fawning servants
Swyn are great serpents with simian heads and hypnotic eyes. The Green Lords bred them out of desperation, borrowing secrets from the Things Below. They wanted spymasters and saboteurs. What they got was a race of petty, craven narcissists.
Each swyn fancies itself the greatest, the most beautiful, the most magnificent of beings. They have exacting tastes, far more subtle and refined than any of their peers.
But should you embarrass, defy, or simply bore one, expect to be brutally devoured.
Few of these creatures survive, thankfully.
The Fae hunt them and they shun others of their kind, jealous of territory and wealth. But every dozen years or so, some urge drives them all to the ruins of Vor Svetelik, entourage in tow, where they engage in ostentatious displays and mating rituals. There, amidst the sick white trees, the next brood of swyn are seeded. There, perhaps, these foul things might be wiped out once and for all.
When the swyn compels you to act against your will, mark XP if you do what it wants.
If you resist, you are Defying Danger.
Zrajedak
HP 16; Armor 4 (resilience), 1 vs. bronze (hide)
Damage maw full of iron teeth (hand, messy, grabby, 1 piercing, advantage), iron tail-quills (near, area, reload)
Special qualities keen sense of smell
Instinct to torment its prey
- Assume a form similar to that of its prey, but just a little off
- Reveal its horrible, smiling maw
- Cripple a victim and let it suffer
- Chew right through a limb
When the Fae rebelled, the Green Lords made living weapons to use against them.
The zrajedak—or "treachery-eaters"—were one such weapon. They merged the body of a lion, the tail of a spiney drake, and the face of their mortal servants, and then infused it all with iron, and malice, and the cruel power of the Things Below.
Some of these horrors are trapped by Fae magic. Others remain in stasis, yet to be unleashed on the world. But surely some few stalk the world still, for the Forest Folk would tell hushed tales of them. "Never trust someone who will not show you their teeth," they'd say, "for Zrajedak smiles only before he bites."