The Gameatory

Plants & Potions

Creighton Broadhurst -

Gardens surrounded by a moss-wreathed drystone wall surround this one-storey cottage and attached outbuildings and barn.

Herein dwells Bleakhaven’s apothecary, the red-headed Tuure Tornia. Popular—both with his customers and the local ladies—this thin, charming man lives alone. Herbs grow throughout his vegetable garden in great profusion; it is here and in the nearby gloomy woods of Warberry Hill that Tuure Tornia gathers that which he needs for his trade. Tuure has a secret, however; he is a werefox.

The Offering

Various items and services can be had at Plants & Potions:

  • Healing: Tuure will mend broken bones, tend fevers and perform other miscellaneous tasks. He charges 1 sp for a consultation or one-off session. Patients requiring full-time care can stay with Tuure for 1 gp a day. Kind-hearted, Tuure waives these fees for children and those he knows cannot pay.
  • Guide: Tuure is well known as someone who knows his way around Warberry Hill. If the characters want a guide to the place, his name inevitably crops up. As long as he has no urgent patients, he is happy to show the characters around for 1 gp a day.

For Sale: Various items are for sale at Plants & Potions.

  1. Herbs (Miscellaneous): Tuure has a wide range of herbs available for the visiting herbalist, healer or apothecary.
  2. Mistletoe (1 gp/sprig): Harvested on a night of the full moon, these fresh sprigs of mistletoe are of particular interest to druids.
  3. Healer’s Kit (10 gp): This small pack holds clean bandages, splints and other medical supplies as well as a selection of unguents.

Notable Folk

Certain folk are often encountered at Plants & Potions.

  • Tuure Tornia (NG middle-aged male human werefox) hides his true identity with the practised ease of a natural lycanthrope—one born with the condition. Tuure came to Bleakhaven two decades ago to escape those hell-bent on hunting down his kind. He has tried to keep himself to himself, but lately, he has realised he has developed feelings for his apprentice, Maarit.
  • Maarit Rautia (CG female human commoner) assists Tuure in the garden and with his patients. She is well on the way to becoming a skilled apothecary herself but has fallen hard for her debonair teacher.
  • Eevi Rautia (CN young female human commoner) helps her mother with gardening work but knows nothing about the healing arts. She has recently found some interesting tracks in the garden and likes to go “monster hunting” in her spare time. Tuure has seen her on her “expeditions” and worries about what she might find.

What’s Going On?

While the characters are at Plants & Potions, one or more things from the list below may occur.

  1. Coughing: The sound of coughing and spluttering comes from the outbuilding Tuure uses to treat his disease-riddled patients.
  2. Gardening: A middle-aged woman and child, Maarit and her daughter, Eevi, are busily engaged in gardening. Maarit greets the characters and asks if she can help them.
  3. Broken Arm: A man with his arm in a sling takes his leave of Tuure as the characters arrive.
  4. Something’s Cooking: The fair smell of some kind of cooking reaches the characters’ nostrils. A thin trail of smoke drifts from an outhouse’s chimney.
  5. Tuure in the Garden: Tuure is in the garden with Maarit explaining an obtuse piece of herb lore. Perceptive characters might notice that the two stand dangerously close to one another and that their gazes linger a little too long on each other’s faces.
  6. Odd Smell: Tuure is boiling and brewing several odd potions for a patient. Greyish smoke drifts from the chimney of one of the outbuildings, and an odd smell fills the air.

Opportunities & Complications

Lucky adventurers find opportunities almost anywhere. Unlucky adventurers find complications almost anywhere.

  1. Monster Hunting: Eevi (see “Notable Folk”) rushes up to the characters and breathlessly explains that she is on a monster hunt! Would the characters like to come with her? (If they come with her, she leads them around and around the garden, but they find no monsters.)
  2. Tuure Away: Tuure (see “Notable Folk”) is away, gathering herbs and plants when the characters arrive. Maarit (see “Notable Folk”) does her best to help them but explains that Tuure might not be back until late. They are welcome to wait if they would like.
  3. The Plague?: A sailor has staggered into Plants & Potions complaining of fever and sickness. He also has a rash all over his face and neck, and the townsfolk who have seen him worry that plague has come to Bleakhaven. A small group has gathered outside Tuure’s home to await news.
  4. Tuure Seeing a Patient: Tuure (see “Notable Folk”) is with a patient—a sick child and their worried parents—when the characters arrive. They must wait or come back some other time.
  5. Eevi Pounces: Eevi (see “Notable Folk”) is hiding in the garden, waiting for the monster to blunder past. If any of the characters are of odd ancestry or they have strange animals with them, she yells, leaps out and brandishes a stick at them.
  6. Another Adventurer: Another adventurer (roll on “Other Adventurers”)—down on their luck and unable to afford magical healing—has come to Plants & Potions in search of healing. The adventurer has a bandage over their right ankle and seems to be suffering from some form of sickness.

Learn More

This location is part of my design for Citadel on the Wilderlands. Citadel on the Wilderlands is my love letter to B2 Keep on the Borderlands and B5 Horror on the Hill. I'm writing 500 words every weekday for a year.