The Nature GM

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Introduction

When the world is held in balance by the powers of Land, Sea, Sky, and Volcano, and these powers become unbalanced, calamity strikes the land.

It takes a hero to face the pure, unbridled might of these raw elements, and the hero is forever changed from the experience. They have a connection with the element they faced; an intimation of the power’s source; and intuition and respect for its strengths, and its shortcomings.

I have written elsewhere about the Creature of the Land and the Creature of the Sky that my party faced in their quest to restore elemental harmony to The Smoldering Isles. After defeating each of these, the player character who is most in tune with that element received a boon to represent the mark that element left on the character.

Here are the four elemental boons, and the logic behind their design.

Design of the Boons

When creating the boons, I had the following goals:

• Capture the thematic spirit of the element.
• Grant a meaningful power.
• Avoid yet another “once a day, you can X” power, as the heroes have many of these already.

What I settled on was an ability score improvement, a cantrip, and a critical hit effect for each.

The Elemental Boons

Boon of the Land

• Your Constitution score increases by 1.
• You learn the cantrip Mold Earth.
• When you score a critical hit, if your target is a Medium or smaller creature they are restrained in vines (escape DC 15).

Boon of the Sky

• Your Dexterity score increases by 1.
• You learn the cantrip Gust.
• When you score a critical hit, if your target is a Medium or smaller creature they are knocked prone by a blast of wind.

Boon of the Sea

• Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
• You learn the cantrip Shape Water.
• When you score a critical hit, if your target has eyes they are blinded for one round by a jet of water.

Boon of the Volcano

• Your Strength score increases by 1.
• You learn the cantrip Control Flames.
• When you score a critical hit, your target catches on fire and takes an addition 1d6 damage at the start of their turn.

Closing

As it happens, my party consists of a dwarf, aarakocra, triton, and a human, so the elemental boons that each will receive are fairly obvious. They have enjoyed the boons thus far.

The party knows for certain that they will face creatures of Land, Sky, and Sea. They do not know if they will face a creature of Volcano (other than Ulekihonuhonu the dragon overlord, of course) but I suspect the human player character is hopeful that they will in fact face the Creature of the Volcano so that she may receive an epic boon.

We must play to find out. Until then, keep exploring.

(Post cover image by Enrique Meseguer.)