Homebrew Heart Landmarks 3

May the fourth

The shows mostly deserve to be dropped into the Sarlacc’s maw, the fandom is more toxic than the bite of an Ewok (you just know those little guys are spreading rabies,) and the heyday of Star Wars was a Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away. But I do love a non-standard holiday as an excuse to play an RPG. Today, abiding by the Tables and Tales May the Fourth rule, Isaac is going to run us through a Star Wars themed adventure using Vaults of Vaarn (the rule is that we have to have a Star Wars themed game but we can’t use any official Star Wars games to do it.)

But not before I come up with a Star Wars themed Heart Landmark! You lucky readers!

Oddya’s Bog

Name: Oddya’s Bog
Domains: Religion, Cursed
Tier: 1
Default Stress: d4
Haunts: The Proving Cave (Echo/Mind d6)

Description:
All the inhabitants of Oddya’s Bog are one with it. Most of them have become one with it over the course of years and decades, adding their own energy to that of all living things in this place. I mean, they add their flesh too, but you can’t make an omelette etc. The Bog needs the bodies and life-force of the people and other animals who find themselves drawn here.

The bog, a treeless, stinking expanse of fetid, untrustworthy marshland, writhes and undulates, as some such places do due to the waters concealed beneath the turf surface. Oddya’s Bog moves in this way because it is made mostly of people and animals, living beings that are absorbed bodily by the landscape to add their essences to the entity known as the Compulsion. They live still, in a terrible mockery of life, slowly learning what it means to be both one and many under the sway of the Compulsion.

Master Oddya is the Compulsion’s greatest champion that has not been fully absorbed. He has existed in the forgotten bog for longer than he can remember. It is possible that he is nothing more than a creation of the Compulsion’s microscopic constituent parts, the chlorimediants. Either way, he is a sour old prune that many have mistaken for a Gutterkin. Perhaps he was once a drow; he shares their pallor and long ears; but he can reach no more than knee-height to most elves and he walks the discomforting bog, unclothed and usually sucking on a recently plucked eyeball or knucklebone.

Many come to the Bog in search of Oddya, believing him to be some sort of wiseman or priest of a forgotten god. The downtrodden and addled residents of the lower levels of Spire have a great need for a saint or a leader to believe in. Rumours have been circulated by a certain, rather smelly sect of blank-eyed, robed and hooded drow on the streets of Pilgrim’s Walk. They have been telling tales, in the voice of the earth itself, of a prophet and holy man named Oddya who holds the secret to oneness. They appear every few years before inevitably disintegrating into the bog-stuff that they are and slowly making their way through the waters back to Oddya’s Bog, where he will re-constitute them and send them back to the City Above again the recruit once more. The pilgrims who come are brought under the sway of the Compulsion as Oddya speaks his strange backwards sermons to them, urging them to surrender to the Compulsion, to trust it and to use it. Most are captured and merge with the bog. Some escape but Bog Folk will follow them to prevent them from spreading the truth of the Bog beyond its borders.

Only one cave at the edge of the Bog is free of the Compulsion, the Proving Cave. If you enter it, you will be forced to contend with the thing you are most desirous of. If you manage to resist it, you will be healed by the cave at the price of a D6 Resource. If you do not, you will gain the Fallout, Unproven. See the Special Rules section.
Special Rules:
Master Oddya – If he is allowed to speak his strange mystic mumbo-jumbo, he may ensnare the listener and bring them under the influence of the Compulsion. Endure/Religion or Cursed roll to resist or suffer d4 Echo Stress. If a PC suffers fallout from this, use the following:
Fallout There is No Try (Minor Echo.) Next time you might need to roll to do anything in Oddya’s Bog, you succeed automatically, but you lose a part of yourself to the Bog and the Complusion. All actions not directly in the service of the Compulsion are Risky.

Fallout I Have a Bad Feeling About This (Major Echo.) You are becoming one with the Bog and the Compulsion. All actions not taken directly in the service of the Compulsion are Dangerous.

Fallout Become Greater than You Can Possibly Imagine (Critical Echo.) Your body has become one with Oddya’s Bog and your essence serves only the Compulsion.

The Proving Cave – Ask the player what their character most desires if you need to. This thing will appear in the Cave as though it were the Heart itself. But it is fleeting and dangerous. If they attempt to take the thing or make it there own in any way, they will gain d6 Echo stress. If they get fallout from this, use the following:
Fallout Unproven (Minor, Echo) If they see the object of their desires again, they will be compelled to pursue it. If they resist, any other actions will be Risky. (Ongoing)

Resources:
Everything here is tainted but Oddya’s Bog Turf is a d4 Cursed Resource.