Pollen Rot

The hazard

Pollen Rot is an area curse that makes living creatures weaken as if their vigor were being harvested for an unseen garden. It also spoils exposed food and water, turning provisions into carriers of the curse. The pollen itself is beautiful, fragrant, and faintly amused.

complex
cursed
magical
area
fey

Stealth: to notice the pollen before it begins to drift. The hazard is not concealed once its grains are visibly moving.
Trigger: A creature enters the cursed area, or exposed food or water is left within it. The hazard then rolls into its routine.
Disable: The hazard has a hidden focus, often a flower, a carved token, or a knot of roots beneath the ground. Identify it with a Occultism, Nature, or Religion check, then disable it with three successful checks using an appropriate skill or dispelling magic. Each check takes 2 actions. A failed check by 10 or more triggers the hazard's routine. Destroying the focus with a potent curse-removing effect ends the hazard; mundane damage can break its vessel but does not dispel the curse.
Initiative: At the start of each round, the pollen stirs and the hazard acts. It does not roll initiative.
Routine: Each round, the pollen billows through the cursed area and exposes creatures without sealed protection. Each exposed creature attempts the Pollen Rot Fortitude save once per round. Exposed food and water become tainted after one routine. A creature already exposed to the pollen during that round is not exposed again by contaminated provisions until the next round.
Reset: The hazard is always active while its focus remains intact. It resumes its routine at the start of the next round after any interruption.

Damage

Immunities

mental effects, poison, precision damage

Resistances

physical damage 40, except damage dealt directly to the exposed focus

Weaknesses

A potent curse-removing effect applied to the focus ends the hazard.
A sealed environment or airtight covering prevents exposure while maintained.

Effects

2

Pollen Rot
DC 120
A creature exposed to the pollen must attempt a Fortitude save. On a failure, it loses Fortitude and Power. On a critical failure, it loses the same amount and is sickened for 1 minute. On a success, it loses half the rolled amount of each attribute, rounded down; on a critical success, it resists that exposure. Attribute loss persists until restored by potent restorative magic or a similarly powerful effect. If a target has no Power attribute, it instead loses an equivalent amount of its primary magical resource.
Blighted Provisions
Exposed food and water become tainted after one routine. A creature consuming a tainted portion is exposed to Pollen Rot and attempts the same Fortitude save. Each small ration or drink is one exposure; larger supplies can be divided into portions at the GM's discretion. Tainted provisions smell sweet and floral, but their taste is bitter after the first swallow.

Special rules

Cursed Reach.The curse's area extends 120 feet from its focus, passing through ordinary cracks and doorways but not through airtight barriers. A strong wind moves the pollen but does not end the curse.

Epic-Scale Calibration.The hazard's level and DCs are epic-scale guidance for a Generic Fantasy campaign. If the characters cannot reasonably attempt checks, reduce the DC and defenses together to fit their scale while preserving the three-success disable procedure.

Spotting it

Discovery

The pollen's scent is strongest near the hidden focus.

Perception

to notice the pollen's unnatural drift or the hidden focus.

Stop it

Signs of dangerA sweet, overripe floral scent hangs in air that should be too cold or dry for flowers. · Fresh bread and clean water develop a dusting of gold despite being covered. · Moths and bees avoid the area, while small fey creatures watch from places where no one stood a moment earlier.

Countermeasures

A sealed mask or airtight enclosure prevents inhalation, but does not protect exposed food or water.
DC 120A successful Occultism, Nature, or Religion check identifies the curse's active focus. Disabling it requires three successful checks, each taking 2 actions, using a fitting skill or dispelling magic.
Destroying or cleansing the focus with a potent curse-removing effect ends the hazard immediately. Ordinary fire scatters the pollen but does not destroy the curse.
Sealed, untainted supplies remain safe. Boiling or filtering contaminated water prevents ingestion, but does not remove the curse from the area.

In short

Prevent exposure with sealed containers, filtered air, or a ward against curses.

Its story

What it looks like

A waist-high drift of golden pollen gathers in still air, though no flower grows nearby.

Why it is here

To punish trespassers, protect a fey territory, or secretly harvest vitality for a magical garden.

Who made it

Usually a fey courtier, aggrieved dryad, or mortal ritualist seeking to punish an intrusion without leaving obvious wounds.

Lore

Fey tales describe pollen that steals the strength of trespassers and feeds it to a hidden garden.

Where it is found

Cursed groves, abandoned fey roads, overgrown halls, and campsites where provisions have been left exposed.

Variants

Silver Sleep: The pollen is silver-blue and drains Fortitude and Power while also making affected creatures dream of a fey revel.

Harvest Feast: Only food and drink are tainted at first. The curse spreads to the surrounding area when someone consumes a portion.

Laughing Orchard: The focus is a fruit-bearing tree. Each round, the pollen forms teasing faces and shifts the apparent location of the focus.

Plot hooks

A village's stored grain has turned fragrant and golden, and every person who ate from it has begun to weaken.

A fey host invites the party to a feast where every dish is tainted, then insists that refusing to eat is an insult.

The curse is slowly feeding a sleeping flower beneath a ruined keep. Its bloom will open when the stored Fortitude and Power reach a threshold.

A rival has planted a decoy focus, while the true focus is hidden inside a living person's keepsake.

Media

0 images

No images yet.

Visual sheet

Turn Pollen Rot into a sheet

A high-res, share-ready sheet you can post or print.