Garden of the Goddess
RoomDCC 103 · p.10
Open source p.10Area 1-13 – Garden of the Goddess
The centerpiece of this garden is an ancient statue covered in dead vines (the only dead plants you’ve seen so far). Beneath, the face is so worn it’s difficult to distinguish features, but the figure appears to be a ninearmed woman with agricultural tools and products in her hands, and a belt of skulls around her waist. Some of the arms either have fallen or been broken off and lay on the ground beneath it, but the ninth arm holds aloft a jug.
A close examination shows that the statue was broken into several pieces, reassembled, and mounted on a newer base in this location. The repairs were done by an amateur, so some of the joints have come undone, resulting in the fallen arms. The jug she holds appears to be a corn whiskey jug, associated with the Feast of the Withyman, held at year’s end.
This statue of Narafaltha was moved from the undercroft (area 3-1) to this garden and reassembled. PCs should make a DC 12 Intelligence check to determine if anyone recognizes the goddess as “The Lady of the Corn” associated with village holiday festivals. The first PC taking the time to remove the vines and/or physically examine the statue receives a divination that the statue belongs somewhere else and should be moved there (area 3-1). The goddess’s influence provides that PC with a vague sense of direction. Read or paraphrase the following:
As you strip away the dead vines from the statue you are awash with sensations: You feel the warmth of a summer day, the taste the first ripe apple of autumn, and the scent of snowfall in the air. Suddenly, She is inside your mind, her face and form shining in the darkness, the world at her feet and the heavens swirling about her head. A voice, sweet and low, speaks. “If you would be faithful to this world and these people, be then faithful to me. The Enemy is wily but even now authors its own demise. Bring my effigy to its rightful place and confront the Enemy in the darkness. I will be with you, then and forever. I am Narafaltha! Do this in my name!”