The Rootbound Trowel

by Frazer 👁 77 views

This small gardening trowel has a broad, dark iron blade mottled with green patina. Its ashwood handle is twisted like a young root and capped with a brass acorn. Fine silver lines run along the blade in the shapes of vines, flowers, bones, coins, and tiny written letters. No matter how deeply it is used, the blade never becomes dirty; instead, flecks of fresh soil and green sparks fall from it whenever it touches the earth.

Plant What You Bury When you use the trowel to bury an object no larger than Large, the trowel magically plants that object instead of merely concealing it. The object must be buried with the intent to hide, preserve, honor, or cultivate it, and unwilling living creatures cannot be planted. After 1 minute, the buried object becomes the seed of a magical plant that reflects its nature. A buried coin might become a copper-leaf shrub, a written confession a paperbark tree bearing pages of the text, a weapon an ironwood sapling, and a corpse a gravebloom that grows flowers resembling the deceased. The original object is consumed in the transformation. The plant reaches maturity after 7 days, unless it is watered and tended by the attuned creature for at least 10 minutes each day, in which case it matures after 3 days. The plant remains permanently unless destroyed, and its appearance and properties are determined by the DM.

Harvest of Memory A mature plant created by the trowel retains a symbolic connection to the object from which it grew. Anyone who spends 1 minute touching the plant can learn one general emotional impression associated with that object, such as love, betrayal, greed, grief, or triumph. Once a plant has yielded this impression, it cannot do so again until the next dawn.

The Collector's Certainty A mysterious collector known as the Curator of Buried Things always knows the trowel's exact location, provided it is on the same plane of existence. The Curator knows the direction and distance to the trowel but cannot perceive through walls or learn who is carrying it. The Curator is somewhere in the world, patiently searching for the trowel and its next remarkable planting.

Gardener's Gift While attuned to the trowel, you have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks made to identify plants, understand their needs, or locate suitable soil. You can also cast the druidcraft cantrip at will, using Wisdom as your spellcasting ability.

Lore

The Rootbound Trowel was made by Maelin Vey, a gardener-mage who believed that nothing truly lost should remain unchanged beneath the soil. She planted letters from dead lovers, the crowns of fallen kings, the teeth of monsters, and even a shard of a shattered temple bell. Each became a strange living monument. Her final planting was never recorded, though an entire forest of silver-barked trees is said to have grown where her garden once stood.

History

After Maelin's disappearance, the trowel passed through the hands of grave tenders, collectors, smugglers, and eccentric nobles. It vanished from a museum vault three centuries ago, leaving behind a single flowering root growing through the curator's locked desk. The Curator of Buried Things has tracked it ever since, purchasing maps, interrogating gardeners, and following reports of impossible plants. No one agrees whether the Curator wants to reclaim the trowel, use it to plant something specific, or prevent someone else from burying the wrong thing.

Created by Frazer 👁 77 views