This small gardening trowel has a leaf-shaped silver blade, dark walnut grips, and a copper ferrule engraved with curling roots. Tiny green gemstones form its rivets, and the metal remains warm even in winter soil. Along the handle is a worn inscription: "What is hidden is not forgotten; what is planted is not yours forever."
Intent Takes Root
When you use the trowel to bury an object, the trowel magically plants whatever you are consciously trying to bury. The planted object must fit within a hole no larger than 1 foot on a side and must be placed in soil, sand, or similar natural earth. The trowel cannot plant creatures or unwillingly held objects. The planted object disappears beneath the ground and is replaced by a magical plant reflecting its nature and purpose. For example, burying a coin creates a coin-bearing sapling, burying a letter creates a whispering vine that repeats its words, and burying a weapon creates a thorny ironwood shrub bearing metallic fruit shaped like the weapon.
Harvest
The plant matures after 1d4 days. You can then use an action to harvest one intact copy of the buried object from it. Once harvested, the plant withers over the next hour. A plant can produce only one copy, and a copied object is nonmagical unless the original was a consumable magic item; in that case, the copy retains its magic but loses it after 24 hours. Artifacts, sentient magic items, and objects worth more than 500 gp cannot be copied; instead, the plant grows a harmless symbolic imitation.
Seeds of Memory
A plant created by the trowel bears visible signs of the digger's intent. Any creature inspecting it can determine the general category of the buried object and whether the digger intended to hide it, preserve it, offer it, or destroy it. A creature can make a DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check to discern the object's exact form before it is harvested.
The Former Gardener
The trowel remembers its previous owner, a determined halfling botanist named Merla Vetch. While attuned to the trowel, you occasionally hear Merla's voice in rustling leaves, urging you to return it. Once every 7 days, if you have not willingly attempted to return the trowel to Merla or her descendants, the trowel plants a small brass sign beside your bed while you sleep. The sign points toward the nearest living heir of Merla, or toward Merla herself if she still lives.
Unwanted Growth
If you bury something while acting primarily to deceive, evade responsibility, or spite another creature, the resulting plant grows aggressively. For 24 hours, the ground within 10 feet of the plant is difficult terrain, and the plant produces grasping roots. A creature entering that area for the first time on a turn must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or have its speed reduced to 0 until the start of its next turn.
Lore
The Reluctant Gardener was made to preserve endangered seeds and heirlooms during a century of war. Its enchantment interprets intention rather than language, turning buried things into living records that can be harvested later. Every plant it creates resembles a fragment of the object's history, making the trowel prized by archivists, smugglers, grieving families, and criminals alike.
History
The trowel belonged to Merla Vetch, a halfling botanist who used it to hide rare seeds from an invading army. She later planted a stolen royal signet, hoping to recover it after the war, but never returned for the harvest. Merla vanished while searching for the trowel after it was taken from her garden by an adventurer who mistook it for an ordinary tool. Merla, or her descendants, has spent decades trying to reclaim it.
