Terraforming a "barrens"

[Herobizkit]

I am running a solo game of Ruins of the Dragon Lord by Mongoose Publishing. Our group is composed of a party of 4 Gestalt "evil" humanoids who are trying to be heroes, led by one Drow Sorcereress/Favoured Soul of Eilistraee.

The lands around the starting town are barrens... rocky, infertile, and generally difficult to inhabit. The Drow, however, has a plan. She wants to build her own area to live in, and wants to do it the Magical Way.

She wants to spend a year creating Feather Tokens. Specifically, Tree tokens: A token that causes a great oak to spring into being (5-foot diameter trunk, 60-foot height, 40-foot top diameter). This is an instantaneous effect. At a 100 gp value, she will be able to make 1/day, costing 4 xp and 50g each. At then end of the year, she's going to use them all and create her own grove. She will have help tending the woods as the Goblin is a Druid.

She also wants to create a Decanter of Endless Water to terraform a lake and a river to feed the trees and keep them healthy.

As a DM, do you see any potential downfalls/difficulties with such a plan? Personally, I love the idea, but I wonder what some of the more rulemongering DM's think of the concept.

 

[Mark]

I suppose the DM might declare that despite plenty of water the soil simply does not have the nutrients to sustain that level of plant life. But, I suppose, you should be able to know in advance if the Druid is sharp enough.

 

[Herobizkit]

I suppose the DM might declare that despite plenty of water the soil simply does not have the nutrients to sustain that level of plant life. But, I suppose, you should be able to know in advance if the Druid is sharp enough.

I'm the DM. And yes, I suspect that by the time that the PC in question is a sufficient level to create these items, the Druid should have a number of useful spells to facilitate the proper soils etc. necessary to sustain life.

But I'm not a agriculturalist, so I can't answer that with 100% certainty.

 

[Mark]

I'm the DM. And yes, I suspect that by the time that the PC in question is a sufficient level to create these items, the Druid should have a number of useful spells to facilitate the proper soils etc. necessary to sustain life.

But I'm not a agriculturalist, so I can't answer that with 100% certainty.

As a DM I am more a fan of deciding if something can happen based on the needs of the game, then finding a way to explain why after the fact. It sounds like a neat scenario, so I say go for it!

 

[Turjan]

I would let it happen just because I like the idea. It doesn't break the game. I see it more as a story element, where mechanics are mostly unimportant.

They could also use "Transmute Rock to Mud".

 

[Slife]

And plant growth.

 

[smootrk]

Las Vegas baby! You need gambling, not magic!

 

[Gilladian]

It sounds like a really good idea. I think the rock to mud to create soil is an excellent idea. Then some kind of spell to add organic matter to the soil. Maybe the druid could research something. The best organic matter is made up of dry brown plant parts (ie leaves and wood chips), manure, green or "wet" plant parts (ie rinds, peels, stems and other soft vegetation), and things like coffee grounds, egg shells, etc....

Buying the waste of a city and shipping it there magically could be a very good thing! Then just layer it on top of the mud to compost and a year later stir it in.

I'd be worried that your decanter lake might cause a good bit of erosion as it fills and overfills and runs off. Get it established first, before working on the soil bed. It'd be a shame to wash away dirt it has taken years to produce!

The nice thing is that if the grove does establish itself, it will create a "seed" that should, over time, gradually expand. Sheltered growing area created by the trees will allow other small plants to take root, soil will move and form pockets elsewhere, and then plants will grow there; in a couple hundred years they could have a nice little oasis in the wastes.

 

[Herobizkit]

Oh, I will certainly "let it happen" but I always like to delve the more rules-conscious DM's and players here to come up with any interesting corollaries that I haven't thought of.

 

[Umbran]

Given a source of water, it sounds like a viable plan.

The issues that come to mind first have nothing to do with making the tress grow. What is everyone nearby going to think of this grove popping up overnight? Generally, in D&D when they tell you that an area is difficult to live in, that implies that the things that do live there are not exactly nice. And groves of trees are not really defensible...