FrivYeti/StriderGarden
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The Strider Garden
Somewhere in the East, on the borders of the Linowan nations, there lies a small valley filled with rustling trees. It is quiet and peaceful, but a faint aura of menace permeates it - sufficient to leave many of those who enter ill-at-ease and preferring to take an alternate route to their destinations. This is just as well, for the valley holds an ancient wonder left from the First Age.
For those who press through the deadly forest, avoiding angry animals, deadfalls, and the like, there is a small, walled garden in the centre of the valley, which connects to the outside through a large earthen walkway, to the outer gates. Open to the air, it is shaped in the five points of the Understanding of Wood, and each point is a room dedicated to contemplation or training. In its centre, there is a peaceful garden, with five earthen plots evenly around the central pond, from which a small vine sprouts bearing a Hearthstone socket.
In truth, the garden was a staging point for vegetative warstriders. in the later First Age. When the Usurpation came, the Solar who had designed the garden died at Meru, leaving it unattended. It is possible that some of those great weapons are still present in the garden - or perhaps they are long lost, victims of time and the wars that shook Creation. Either way, the Garden remains, awaiting a new master.
Game Mechanics
Manse Level 3.
Drawbacks: Fragility 1 (The Essence of the Garden is prone to relatively easy disruption).
Powers:
Vegetative Repair (Level 3): The primary power of the Manse lies in its ability to restore and maintain vegetative technology. Any vegetative devices brought into the centre garden are immediately maintained and repaired as though a sorcerer-engineer of sufficient skill and with sufficient resources were working on them. This includes anything that is not broken beyond repair. The garden is large enough to hold five vegetative warstriders at a time, in addition to any other smaller devices.
Archives (Level 2)<i>: Within the Manse's walls and geomancies lies information on how to replicate its effects. This provides the specialties Crafts (Genesis) [Vegetative Technology] and Craft (Wood) [Growing Plants]
<i>Minor Tricks And Traps (Level 1): The area surrounding the Manse is a natural maze, as per the description in Oedanol's Codex except that it uses Survival instead of Investigation. In addition, characters not attuned to the Manse are prone to being attacked by local wildlife if they try to press onwards.
Outside Comments
I'm not sure if you want outside comments, but as another plot suggestion, I note that plants tend to grow over time. Given the 1000+ year since the Usurpation, what were once, say, tiny warstriders would likely now be Royal, or even some larger, destructive creation. I can even imagine something that may require multiple pilots due to the Essence needs to make it move - some city-tall "Vega" (like Mecha, only not) capable of (when piloted by appropriately color-wearing Sidereals, of course) fighting the Patropolis of Ot hand-to-hand. -- GreenLantern
