Sybarite’s Garden

     We know little of the Soft Bodies’ culture. We don’t know their politics, we don’t know how their society was organized or who ruled. What we do know is that there were poor Soft Bodies and rich Soft Bodies. Sybarite’s garden is a planet that was once owned by the wealthy elite, the very biosphere sculpted to meet their decadent demands. With the fall of their empire the paradise world evolved into a dentatea planet, living luxuries turned wild once again.

    Sybarite’s Garden is a mid-sized terrestrial world with a rich biosphere. Like most late stage Soft Body worlds the atmosphere has a high oxygen level. Two major continents make up 20% of the surface area. No obvious signs of past or present settlement are visible, except for a series of rectangular lakes on the southern edge of the eastern continent  

    The Fragrant Jungle, also known as the reeking jungle, is a sweltering biome that covers most of the western continent. The flora here was once gene engineered as incense. Over the years their odors have diverged and mutated. The end result is overwhelming, the welter of different smells overlapping and combining. Together with the humidity and the chorus of screaming avians, the jungle is an assault on the senses. The pandemonium hides vicious predators and devious parasites.

Snufflers - Once bred as pets, snufflers have evolved into pack hunters. Their large heads hang low to the ground as they noisy lick the ground. Instead of smelling the air, they taste for trails. The hunt with their surprisingly dexterous hands, snatching and pummeling prey. 

Drop Worm - The apex predator of the jungle, 3 meters of corded muscle. They come in greens, yellows and oranges, all striped to hide in the canopy. They drop onto their prey and strangle them to death. Beilived to have evolved from a living scarf.

Lotus ooze - A small pink ooze. It is attracted to the smell of open wounds. It crawls inside it’s hosts, and hijacks their nervous system with opiates and hormones. The victim is compelled to dig a hole in a river bank, then seal themself inside. A flower grows out of the corpse and new oozes drip from it like nectar. 

    The Great Water Feature is a megalithic construction project left behind by the Soft Bodie. Massive stone slabs form lake beds, all connected to each other by stone channels. Today the lakes are choked by flowering weeds, creating painted vistas. Wooded isles hide the shattered remains of pleasure palaces.

Decorative leviathan - These massive aquatic serpents were once valued for the brilliant patterns on their scales. It is believed that the current leviathans are the same individuals who were alive at the height of the Soft Body Empire. They hunt by cavicating their mouths, creating powerful suction

Fighting Angels - Their beautiful flowing fins and tentacles beille their purpose as gladiatorial combatants. They have retractable barbs on their tentacles. Fiercely territorial, they attack on sight.

    Along the lake beds are hidden vaults carved into the stone. Hidden from prying eyes and protected by advanced biological security systems, the wealthy elite of the Soft Bodies used these vaults to store valuables.  In the modern era the security systems have died off and gone feral, but the vaults are still protected by the creatures of the great water feature. It is estimated that less than a quarter of the vaults have been found and looted

Contents of a vault 1d3

1d6 crates of programmable glass ingots - A form of currency used by the now extinct Silicon league. With the right protocol the glass can take any shape. Only certain archaeologists know these protocols.

1d4 ancient riddles - glass vials containing spores in long term hibernation. Inside the spores are enigmatic DNA sequences called riddles. Valuable to gene engineers 

1d2 crates of shell art - A major artform in Soft Body culture was breeding shelled animals with beautiful patterns. Only has full value to Soft Body historians, but they are pretty 

    North of the Great Water Feature is the Smoking Parie. Mud chimneys rise up out of the wildflowers. These structures are built by smokers, small eusocial animals that gather plant material and burn it in their hives. Because the flora on the planet was originally bred to entertain bored aristocrats, the plants and thus the smoke has psychoactive properties

Giggler - This is the smoker’s primary predator. The large front claws are used to rip up their nests, while the blackened skin on the face protects against the heat. Constant exposure to the smoke makes their behavior erratic. Named for their strange and continuous vocalizations   

Trade goods

Glasswood tree - Grows in the fragrant jungle. Prized by aritos for it’s strength, light weight and glass like luster.

Aching flowers- Tiny multicolored flowers that grow in the Great Water Feature. Can be distilled into a potent aphrodisiac. 

Ooze Lotus - An immature lotus ooze flower before it releases newborn oozes. A powerful narcotic

Smoker’s hash - processed and concentrated organic matter found in a smoker’s hive 

Smoker Queen - The progenitor of a smoker hive. Has great value in the Republic of Sea Serpents, where they eat monarchs