Help with Vegepygmies in Omu
My players have just arrived in Omu, and made a beeline for the lake of lava. The text for this area says:
The first time the characters arrive, they encounter a small vegepygmy tribe preparing to sacrifice a grung to the rift.
In my campaign, the grung are lawful neutral/good, and the players are allied with them after their visit to Dungrunglung. Just as importantly, one of my players is a circle of spore druid who is infatuated with the vegepygmies, so they're all heavily invested in this encounter. They immediately initiated combat to save the grung, and killed all but the vegepygmy chief. The problem is, I can't find any great resources for vegepygmies. They can't speak, but can apparently communicate, so I feel it's fair to let them try to interrogate this guy using Comprehend Languages and/or Adapt Linguist, but what could they possibly learn? Who were they sacrificing this grung to? How can I make the vegepygmies a more exciting aspect of Omu?
Posted May 12, 2021, 2:20 PM UTC
Check out this article for some ideas/flavor: https://www.rjd20.com/2018/07/vegepygmies-forgotten-fungi.html?m=1
In my campaign I did a similar encounter, tweaked a bit. The vegepygmies had set up their village near an arcane stones that trapped an aberration (otyugh) and fiend (rakshasa). The Rakshasa was influencing the otyugh, driving it mad in an attempt to have it telepathically convince the speachless vegepygmies to release them both. They are all driven crazy by the dark magic and Hellish imagery that is incompatible with their little plant brains and start sacrificing to their trapped deity (otyugh), turning the tree roots they live in into a monster itself (roper stats). The party had Qawasha and his buddy "Weed" with them to communicate via handgestures and they ultimately agreed to break the stone and free their "god" to see what would happen. The otyugh breaks out, sends Hellish images into everyone's head (blood wars imagery) and immediately attacks the first person that looks willing, wanting to end its suffering. The players fight, killing the otyugh, and the horrified vegepygmies activate their bloody root systems to attack. The other stone is broken open during the fight (fireball, destroying root arms) and all vegepygmies get killed. The Rakshasa thanks then for freeing him, makes some fiendish contracts including future help if they summon him in exchange for a soul each time, and vanishes.
Tldr - maybe have the vegepygmies under the influence of some otherworldly power, or some curse emanating from deeper in the jungle. Maybe tie in the succubi that the merchant prince Kwayothé consorts with (Ixis and Indar) having some fun with the natives in their downtime. Perhaps they have their own agenda, appeasing a monster in the jungle with fresh kills (gorillon zombie?) or they are able to transform into shambling mound-like beasts via sacrifices and that gives them an edge against other natives (the Batiri?)
I really like this idea for tangible vegepygmy "gods" the party can interact with, thanks! Being driven mad makes it a lot easier to explain why they're throwing people into lava.