The Slow, Green War

The slow war is all around us, but few of us can see it.

Some few druids of Khaldun know about it; those who can cast speak with plants or awaken sometimes come to understand the outer edges of the slow war. The dreaming druids of the Foxfire Forest were vexed (but somewhat sympathetic) when their fellow druid Bardo Urrok announced that the slow war of the wood is too noisy for him, and left their company for less-forested climes. Some travelers have since reported running into the eccentric halfling in the Hoarfrost Ridge, above the timberline.

Those Who Remember awakened a hawthorn bush, and were surprised (and amused) to learn that its morality was totally alien, with a very pragmatic view of murder and a lack of understanding of their own, seemingly-contradictory moral stances. (The bush didn't understand the elf druid's concept of an "invasive species," for example; a creature that outperforms others in an environment is clearly the victor to be lauded rather than lamented.) The bush's exploration of animal-scale life was sadly cut short by a group of dark elves as part of the far-reaching consequences of the Battle of Scandshar.

The key is this: plants are involved in an aeons-long struggle to survive amidst dwindling resources and increasing predation. There is plenty of sunlight and nutrients, but "arbitrarily large" is different than "infinite." They have defenses against herbivores, and are evolving new ones all the time, but herbivores are also adapting at the same glacial pace and move much more quickly. Humans and their ilk choose some plants and inhibit others, seemingly with no rhyme or reason. (And those selfsame creatures will often cultivate land in ways that make it inaccessible to plants of any sort.)

All of this to say that there is a war out there, happening much more slowly than any of us can readily bear witness. This is the slow war of plants. And while plants in folklore and stories are often ancient and placid, depicted as living in harmony with their environment, real plants are bloodthirsty, impatient, and downright Darwinian. They compete for resources, parasitize each other, or even engage in biological warfare. (To say nothing of defenses against herbivores such as poisons and spinose teeth.)

More grist for the mill of common druidic misconceptions.

Troikan Effluvia

My Troika! players are currently running through Slow Sleigh to Plankton Downs, and while they have successfully solved the problem of a Parchment Witch trying to steal the package they're delivering, they still have another problem: the Maxillary Uslurper from the original published adventure. It hasn't targeted them yet, but if it does, they're ready for it, having acquired several cilantro-laden burritos from the café. (They initially hit the Parchment Witch with a burrito, assuming it was somehow connected to the Maxillary Uslurper. It, uh, didn't work.)

While cilantro doesn't help, here's a fun tip for you if you're ever fighting a Parchment Witch: the Sorcerer of the College of Friends used the Animate spell on its stolen skin, causing the face to deform and rendering the Parchment Witch blind during most of the fight until it ate its own face.

Troika! rules, by the way.

As part of my prep for Slow Sleigh to Plankton Downs, I made two handouts: the Ice Tomorrow advert quoted in the book, and a political pamphlet for the ice miners on Out-of-Order and Myung's Misstep. If you're running it (or even if you're not), you might find them useful.

Design Notes:

• The reverse of the Ice Tomorrow advert features a portion of an article regarding the creation of CompoGel, a Troikan version of pykrete. Canonical references include the Ice Cream Sphere from Axes & Orcs' High Fructose Hyperspace and Winters-Thawing Collegium of Eldritch Academics, a randomly-generated wizard college from Academies of the Arcane. Shakespeare-Marjanovic Heavy Industries and The Prince of Seven Moons are from our campaign, as The Prince of Seven Moons is a recurring antagonist and it is occasionally useful to remind the player characters that he's doing stuff about which they probably ought to worry. The details of his devious plans are left to your own devising, although the seed kernel of The Prince of Seven Moons is The Moon King from The Moon King Wants to Party. (In our game, they are separate but likely related entities.)
• I was originally considering having the Myung Icers' Liberation Front be a greater presence while on Out-of-Order, thus the pamphlet, but I ultimately decided to stick with Slow Sleigh to Plankton Downs (and The Forest Primordia on the return trip). As such, fleshing out their ranks is best left to the individual gamesmaster, If you need stats, Knights of the Road from Troika! are probably a fine start, although several of the working class factions from Get It at Sutlers (such as Codwallopers, Oligopolists, Palyngers, Rippiers, and Victualers) might be better.