The Clearing's Golden Verdict | Fantasy Hazard Generated by CharGen

The hazard

This old shrine ward responds to a creature entering its stone ring while carrying fresh blood from a living creature. A low note rolls through the clearing, followed by a shaft of gold-white light that judges the intruder. It is painful rather than lethal by design, but its sudden flare can leave an injured traveler exposed.

Magical
Divine
Radiant

Stealth: Wisdom (Perception) to spot the golden veins and the central stone's hairline seam. The ward itself makes no sound until triggered.
Trigger: The ward triggers when a creature carrying fresh blood from a living creature enters the stone ring. The blood must be visible or carried on the creature, and the creature must step fully inside the ring.
Disable: A creature adjacent to the central stone can use an action to make a Dexterity check with thieves' tools to turn it a quarter-turn and break the ward's alignment. On a success, the ward is disabled until the next dawn. On a failure, the creature takes radiant damage. A successful Intelligence (Arcana or Religion) check, made as an action, suppresses the ward until the next dawn without triggering it.
Routine: The ward has no ongoing routine. It produces one burst when triggered, then becomes dormant for 1 minute.
Reset: The ward resets after 1 minute. It can trigger again if a creature carrying fresh blood from a living creature enters the ring. If disabled, it remains dormant until the next dawn.

Damage

Immunities

The ward is immune to poison and psychic damage.

Weaknesses

The ward does not trigger on blood that is more than 1 hour old.
The ward can be suppressed with the appropriate skill check or disabled at its central stone.

Effects

1

Verdict of the Clearing
DC 14
When triggered, the ward releases a burst of judgment. The triggering creature and each creature within 10 feet of it must make a Wisdom saving throw. A creature takes radiant damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The light is painful but does not ignite objects or damage plants.

Special rules

Imperfect Judgment.The ward detects fresh blood from a living creature within the ring, but does not determine who caused the wound or why. Blood older than 1 hour, dried blood, and blood from a creature that has been dead for more than 1 minute do not trigger it.

A Visible Verdict.The ward's light is visible through the trees and can be seen from up to 300 feet away in clear conditions. A creature that fails its saving throw knows the flare came from the stones, but receives no supernatural accusation or command.

Spotting it

Discovery

A character who examines the ring and succeeds on a Wisdom (Perception) check notices that the golden veins brighten faintly near fresh blood.

Perception

Wisdom (Perception) to notice the subtle gold veins in the stones and their faint response to fresh blood.

Stop it

Signs of dangerBirdsong stops abruptly near the stone ring. · The golden veins in the stones pulse when fresh blood is brought nearby. · A scorched patch of moss marks the place where someone previously stood in the ring.

Countermeasures

DC 14A creature can use an action to make a Wisdom (Nature or Religion) check to identify that the ward judges harm done to living things, rather than merely detecting blood.
DC 14A creature can use an action to make a Dexterity check with thieves' tools to turn the central stone and interrupt the ward.
DC 14A creature can use an action to make a Intelligence (Arcana or Religion) check to suppress the ward until the next dawn.
A creature can deliberately enter the ring first to trigger the ward away from the rest of the party.

In short

Avoid carrying fresh blood into the ring, or disarm the ward by carefully turning its central stone.

Its story

What it looks like

A ring of pale, smooth stones rests beneath a canopy of white-barked trees.

Why it is here

To warn intruders against bringing the blood of hunted or harmed creatures into a sacred forest shrine.

Who made it

A circle of forest druids who served a local nature deity, though the ward's divine power may have outlasted its makers.

Lore

The druids who made the ward believed that blood spilled in defense of the forest was not a stain, but blood carried into the shrine from a hunt or needless violence demanded an answer.

Where it is found

Forest

Variants

A merciful version deals 2d8 radiant damage and gives the triggering creature a brief vision of the harm the ward believes it is judging.

A more severe version marks the triggering creature with a faint golden glow for 1 hour, making it easier to track but causing no additional damage.

A damaged version triggers only at night, but its flare can be seen from a mile away.

Plot hooks

A wounded messenger must cross the clearing before nightfall, but the ward treats the blood on their clothes as an accusation.

A village hunter claims the shrine has begun striking people who never harmed the forest, and asks the party to discover why.

The ward's makers vanished after using it to judge a crime among their own circle. One of the stones bears a newly carved name.

Media

0 images

No images yet.

Visual sheet

Turn The Clearing's Golden Verdict into a sheet

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