Garden of the Cursed

The Garden of the Cursed was a region inside the Tomb of Martek. Those who arrived without finding enough Star Gems of Martek would be trapped in it forever with the guilders and the palan-teen.

Description
The Garden of the Cursed was a thick jungle, approximately one mile in diameter, beneath an opalescent dome that brightened and darkened in rhytm with the sun. The walls of the dome were immune to all normal weapons, and invulnerable to magic.

Flora & Fauna
The Garden of the Cursed had the curious distinction of being one of the only two known places where Grenade Palms grew along with the Pyramid of Amun-Re. There were berries with the power to heal, fruit trees, vines, plants with thorny stems, and some plants growing on the bottom of streams. The locals ate squash, made cages out of bamboo, and roofs out of woven mats.

Animals inside the Garden included giant scorpions and giant tarantulas; the latter were eaten by the locals. Some fish lived inside the streams.

History
The people who had managed to access the teleporter at the Pillars of Martek through the centuries, but did not have the Star-Gems of Martek, all became trapped in the Garden of the Cursed: it was not possible to leave without these artifacts, as there were no exits and teleportation was blocked. Their already small number of descendants had divided into two groups, and inbreeding had depressed their intelligence.

Inhabitants
Two tribes lived inside the Garden: the guilders and the palan-teen. They were both descended from people trapped in the garden: the guilders descended from thieves and other stealth-based characters, while the palan-teen had been descended from paladins. Both had inherited some skills from their forefathers, though their understanding of the world was stunted otherwise.

Rumors & Legends
Both the guilders and the Palan-teen had their own legends regarding the origin of the universe. Per the Guilders, they had been living in Mar-Tik (their name for the world) for generations, waiting patiently by the gate, which when open would allow them to enter Grandal and fulfill their destiny, performing the greatest stealie (their name for an act of larceny) of all time, thus being admitted in the presence of the Masterguilder. Per the Palan-teen, they had been brought to Mar-Tik by a paladin named Sedarik to stop the guilders from stealing the glories of Mar-Tik. When the doors of Grandal were opened, they believed the guilders would flee and "the good would flow and pour forth across the vast universe."

Notable Locations
The Dais of Reception was an hexagonal platform rising, about across, with six pillars rising up towards an opalescent dome. The dome was actually the ceiling of the Garden. Anyone teleported from a Pillar of Martek would arrive here, being announced with a loud gong. The guilders were ready to greet anyone arriving.

Opposite the Dais of Reception lay Grandal, where twin silver doors, wide each and  tall, formed an archway. On both sides of the archway, tall waterfalls fed twin streams with water teleported from across the Garden, which had reached the Dais of Reception. There was a platform with an altar, which accepted any Star gem of Martek. By placing three of them on its indentations and speaking their names alongside the word "Re", the doors of Grandal were opened. An obelisk elsewhere in the garden, partly covered in grasses, carried the instructions to open the Grandal.

The guilders had a village in the Garden by the edge of a lake, having cleared an area about by. There were about 15 cages by the north of the lake. The palan-teen instead had a fortified camp, a wooden fort about square, with the brush cleared for about. They kept four guards posted on each corner, and were friendly towards anyone but the guilders. Both the Palan-teen and the guilders shared the use of the Mound of the Lawgivers, a small mound covered with small stones, where both groups stoned to death anyone who broke their laws.

Trifakas and Sardok lived in a hut of their own.

Notable Personalities

 * Bandik
 * Percivilis
 * Trifakas
 * Sardok
 * Pawnis

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Desert of Desolation