The Underground Complex is an expansive subterranean environment with shallow water sections and raised stone platforms. A distant golden glow emanates from a tree at its center, serving as a focal point. Supernatural threats, including stonewraiths that resist conventional weaponry and retaliate with destabilizing subsonic attacks, lurk within.
The complex features a massive stone creature that emerges from the walls, emphasizing its supernatural nature. Goblin mechanics inhabit the area, highlighting a dual focus on engineering alongside the site's conflicts. A mysterious force in the water can ensnare explorers, adding to the dangers present.
Mellon's ghost reveals the complex's spiritual connections, while an Ancient Spirit warns of a Guardian tethered to the tree at its heart. This Guardian protects Blessed Branch sought by intruders. Goblins provide insights into the Guardian's behavior and the surrounding territory, indicating a need for strategic planning and alliances.
The Sacred Tree
At the complex's center stands the Sacred Tree — the source of that golden glow, once vibrant and blessed, and sought by nearby settlements for its Blessed Branches. It was watched over by its Guardian, a powerful, multi-eyed, purple feline-like demon that held a Blessed Branch in its mouth; intelligent, hostile, and evidently corrupted or summoned, the Guardian was physically and mystically linked to the tree, and fiercely territorial. A Goblin Envoy, warning of the Guardian's lethal capabilities, once offered an alliance to eliminate it in exchange for safe passage to a branch.
After the Guardian beast was vanquished with Explosive Barrels and magical force, a Guardian's collar was recovered as evidence of that bond, and a Blessed Branch carried by the beast still emitted a brief warmth — a sign of continued divine power. The party harvested two further branches, three in all. The return of goblins with explosives then triggered a catastrophic detonation that destroyed the tree; it now stands burned and regrown, its wood brittle and charred, ringed by tight, rugged oval seed containers that hint at the growth of similar sacred trees to come.