Sidequest
Welcome my fellow game master to an installment of Sidequest. This month I'll be exploring a concept that I've been working upon for my current campaign, the Siphoner.
I wish to note that I have not played any other swamp based material to source anything herein so any similarities or conflicts with such should be dealt with by your best judgement.
I hope you find the contents of this document beneficial towards your game.
Note that you can use as much or as little of the content as you please. Eg: Some operators may find the Writ of Harvest featured herein as an unnecessary facet and can feel free to remove it.
This document does not attempt to be a source material for a swamp land but does offer some Flora and Fauna to round out the provisions. For additional material or inspiration I can offer the following:
Siphoners
What is a Siphoner?
Alchemists need alchemical materials for refinement, production and eventual sale as potions, balms, salves, etc.
While adventurers certainly provide decent influx of the goods necessary, the industrious alchemist needs consistent supply.
Enter the siphoner, responsible for collecting swamp material specifically for the aforementioned purposes.
Siphoning is regarded as a poor and life threatening career choice, albeit as lucrative as it is dangerous.
A siphoner may work independently, as part of a guild, or common merchants, so long as they carry license to perform their work.
Siphoners as a body range in size, race and capability, however they're not known for long life expectancy.
"Dunno why we're called that. Better than suckas I figga." ~ Unattributed
Writ of Harvest
Harvesting natural resources for sale or magical purposes requires a Writ of harvest providing the bearer license to conduct activities in accordance to standards and defining them a harvester.
A writ is registered to an individual or company and is a public record.
Siphoners carry a License of Harvest that denotes who they are harvesting on behalf of.
A writ is a pressed vellum document with the harvesting body's name, their region of activity, and a wax seal of the regions governing body.
A siphoners license is parchment but has the relevant details and the typically a harvesters seal in wax.
What do Siphoners do?
Siphoners work to harvest material from swamps for alchemical uses. They may be independent or employed but either way they are responsible for ensuring the flow of resources.
Retrieving and replacing pump barrels
Picking up full barrels and replacing them with empty barrels involves traveling to the pumping site, pulling the full barrel onto a transport and inserting a fresh, empty barrel in its place. The barrels are then brought home to be emptied, and the material refined.
Maintenance & repair of pumps
Pumps need to be cleaned semi-regularly depending on what they're pumping. Replacing worn out parts, emptying reservoirs, or pulling clogs.
Harvesting fields of growth
Chopping and bundling the flora of the swamps in either twine, leather or crates.
Conducting trade
Meeting with the swamp denizens is a regular occurence and trade is inevitable as the native population of Bullywugs, and Lizardpeople can be friendly and may provide amenities to non-hostile travelers.
Escorts
Accompanying travelers through areas that would be hostile towards them otherwise can be a lucrative method of income. Siphoners risk being ostracized if they are escorting bad company without good reason.
Freight
Carrying goods between the hamlets and cities of the swamp lands is a dangerous affair that most merchants avoid, choosing instead to employ those who are equipped to take their goods to a destination. Siphoners should be aware of what may be considered contraband and the risk it poses on their license.
A Siphoners Life
Drovers
A catch all term for the civilized population of the swamp, Drovers live in settlements deep in the swamp with little or no easy method of travel to and from their remote homes. Drovers don't go out of their way to maintain contact with other communities but they are not necessarily anti social and can provide a welcome respite to a lost traveler in the vast muck.
Siphon stations
A siphon station is a pump or other machine that fills receptacles with material pulled from the swamp.
These pumps tend to be geothermal machines, river powered apparatuses or methane driven.
They reside where ever the resources are available, which is typically in hard to reach places.
Barrels
A barrel is a catch all term for the container used by a siphon station.
Barrels may range in size and durability from a standard sized ale barrel made of wood or say a fabricated metal drum.
Some organizations have taken to using special receptacles made of thick, fibrous, mucous lined plant matter.
Whatever the container, it should be noted that when full, they are very heavy.
Transportation
A sturdy (armored) wagon, a magic carpet, or Animate Object, the siphoners should beware of natural dangers and prepare for the worst.
Beasts of burden must be stalwart and strong in order to brave the monsters and manage the muck that will threaten progress at any moment.
Vehicles should provide cover and must have wheels large enough for the terrain.
Travel
When traveling the swamps, movement should be slow and deliberate, with navigation difficult and failure to navigate leading to dead ends where roads meet open swamp.
How you adjudicate direction and navigation is up to you although I suggest Dracodruid's Expanded Travel Rules.
Traveling more than eight hours in the swamps should incur a level of exhaustion.
Flora
The natural elements of a swamp are various and plentiful in a massive teeming spread of exotic, lush, greenery.
As expected, much of the plant life in the swamp tends to be a danger to those who stumble into it.
A Siphoner however, is tasked with doing just that, in order to harvest these materials.
Thornmoss
This red and black moss grips at whatever touches it with many tiny curled barbs growing from its surface. A creeping carpet of pain, Thornmoss is considered a terrible threat to beasts of burden. Thornmoss can be found near carcasses where the plant flourishes feeding upon the material.
A carpet of Thornmoss may be crossed with a DC 11 Dexterity check every 30 feet, provided the wearer has boots on and they fall prone if this check is failed by 5 or more.
Any creature who comes in contact with wall or ceiling borne Thornmoss must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw to pull away from it, receiving 3d4+3 damage or half as much on a successful save.
If a creature is prone upon or attempts to cross a carpet of Thornmoss without adequate footwear (eg: leather boots) they must make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw to escape, receiving 3d4+3 damage or half as much on a successful save.
When dried, the barbs become brittle and easily shake loose of the moss. The moss then makes excellent insulation, can be cured as animal feed and or crushed into a spice similar to nutmeg.
A 5 ft x 5 ft square carpet of Thornmoss typically takes 2 creatures 1 hour to harvest and can be sold for 3 gp.
Gaspods
Growing to sometimes massive size in methane rich areas, these pod plants resemble large balloons floating and tethered above the waters surface by a thick umbilical root through which they continue to collect methane rich with nutrients that they use to continue growing.
They are harvested for their gas used in lamps, cooking and heating among those who can afford it, and for fuel in alchemy, smithing and so on. The tether is covered in a thick sticky mucous, can be uprooted or severed safely and can be used to transport the floating Gaspod and is an umbilical hose from which the methane will expel.
Their skin is resilient to puncture (AC 13, 8 HP) and when popped they deflate harmlessly, causing the area to reek even more of their collected methane.
A Gaspod that ends a round touching open flame may take damage causing the skin to thin and rupture then igniting the contents and causing an explosion depending on the size of the Gaspod.
Gaspods larger than Medium are rare as they tend to become so big they wipe out entire fields if detonated by a lightning storm or a strong wind pushing them into something sharp.
| Gaspod Size | Explosion Diameter | Explosion Damage | Market Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tiny | 1 foot | 1d4 | 5gp |
| Small | 5 feet | 2d6 | 25gp |
| Medium | 10 feet | 8d6 + 10 | 100gp |
| Large | 30 feet | 10d10 + 10 | 300gp |
| Huge | 240 feet | 10d10 + 10 | 500gp |
| Gargantuan | 360 feet | 20d10 + 10 | 100pp |
Fauna
The swamp is rife with all matter of life from all matter of origins. The many forms of life that exist here do so in a tenuous balance that can shift as seasonally as the current of the Tun river.
Fallen Trees
When a Treant gets fed up with life wherever they come from, they may end up here.
Some want to be left alone, while others will actively harass, inhibit or even ambush and outright attack travelers.
While there are some friendly figures amidst them they are notably rare and there are no reported social circles or societhy to speak of among them.
Travelers are warned to be wary of any large log in the road, where they see no other trees.
| d20 | Fallen Tree Behaviour |
|---|---|
| 1-3 | Run |
| 4-12 | Ambush |
| 13-18 | Attack |
| 19-20 | Friendly |
Run
The Fallen Tree hides and runs away if discovered, fighting back only if necessary and animating whatever flora around it to defend its escape. If undiscovered while hiding, they may never reveal themselves. Some may be Friendly but wary of travelers until they feel they can safely reveal themselves.
Ambush
The Fallen Tree may dislike or hate travelers and will hide and attack when it feels the time is right, animating surrounding flora to aide it in its assault to either sabotage or outright murder.
Attack
The Fallen Tree despises travelers and will attack them on sight animating surrounding flora to aide it in destroying its target.
Friendly
The Fallen Tree is friendly towards travelers and may enjoy chatting, may be seeking to trade, looking for information, or offering warnings, advice or directions. They are typically pacifistic and slow to anger, fighting defensively when necessary.
Adventure Hooks
The life of a siphoner is a chance for those who can't find other work, for those who wish to disappear, or those who seek different sort of adventure.
A character may become a siphoner for any of the following reasons:
- They inherit or have family with a Writ of Harvest and siphoning stations.
- They work for a harvesting company or independent alchemist with a writ.
- They are actually smugglers working to deliver goods to swamp denizens and/or Drovers.
- They are in hiding from law enforcement or a criminal organization.
- They work to provide their family or tribe with alchemical goods.
- They are apprenticed to the writ holder.
- They are supplying Drover villages with medicine, employment, or commerce.
- They are trying to harvest a particular type of material for a particular type of alchemical endeavor.
- They are unwillfully pressed into service.
Backgrounds
Characters with the following backgrounds gain the respectively described benefits.
Outlander
You have advantage on social checks with Drovers. You can make a DC 14 Nature or Investigation roll to find safe shelter from the elements.
Hermit
You have advantage on social checks with Drovers.
Haunted One
You feel at home in the mire. You do not suffer exhaustion from traveling in the swamp.
Thank you
I appreciate anyone who takes the time to read through a body of work I've produced and I hope that this particular work provided you some inspiration or perhaps more. I have always loved the art of world building and providing these creations is a sheer passion of mine.