Enchanted Mediterranean Scrub

The fey have touched this land. Paths shift between morning and evening, lights dance in the trees, and time does not always pass as it should. Everything here can be had, for a price. Dry hills of fragrant shrubs, olive and cork oak, with mild wet winters and hot dry summers. Rosemary and thyme grow wild, fires come in late summer, and the land has been farmed for thousands of years.

Over the year it averages 16 °C.

Hear it

Enchanted: Elven Forest (In the album RPG Ambiences Vol. 1)
Fey: Fairies' Garden (In the album RPG Ambiences Vol. 5)
In the woods: Mediterranean Forest (On Patreon, Guardian tier)
On foot: Walking in a Mediterranean Region (On Patreon, Guardian tier)
In summer: Cicadas Field (On Patreon, Raven tier)
In the wind: Windy Hilltop (In the album RPG Ambiences Vol. 4)
Thirst: Windy Desert (In the album RPG Ambiences Vol. 1)
Wildfire: Burning Forest (In the album RPG Ambiences Vol. 2)

For the table

Ground: rough, about 20 km a day on foot
Seasons: 10 °C in the heart of winter, 24 °C in the heart of summer
Water: by season
Foraging: rich

Hazards

Crushing heat. At midday the heat wears a walker down far faster than the road. Those who know the land travel at dawn and dusk and rest in the shade.
Thirst. Water is far apart and not always where the map says. A day without drinking in the heat is enough to put a traveller down.
Wildfire. In the dry season, grass and scrub burn fast, driven by the wind. A fire front outruns a person on foot.
Shifting paths. The path walked this morning is not there in the evening. Landmarks swap places, and the party may arrive somewhere it never meant to go.
Fey food. Fruit that is too sweet, wine poured by a smiling stranger. Whoever eats it longs for it ever after.
Lost time. A night spent dancing in a fey ring may last a week outside. Beards grow, food spoils, and friends have given up waiting.

D&D 5e

Plays as: hill, normal pace at most
Checks: forage: Survival DC 15 · find the way: DC 10 · search: DC 15
Creatures are spotted at: 2d10 × 10 ft

Crushing heat. At 38 °C (100 °F) or hotter, anyone exposed without drinkable water makes a Constitution save at the end of each hour, DC 5 then 1 higher each hour, or gains 1 Exhaustion. Medium or heavy armour gives Disadvantage; fire resistance passes automatically.
Thirst. Each Medium creature needs about 4 litres (1 gallon) of water a day. Drinking less than half of it brings 1 Exhaustion at the end of the day, which does not go until a full day's water is drunk.
Shifting paths. (House rule) Navigation checks here have Disadvantage. On a failure by 5 or more, the party arrives at a place of the GM's choosing, usually one the fey wanted it to see.
Fey food. (House rule) Whoever eats or drinks it makes a DC 13 Wisdom save or has the Charmed condition toward the host until the next sunrise, and will not leave of its own will while the host asks it to stay.
Lost time. (House rule) A creature that joins a fey revel makes a DC 14 Charisma save when it leaves. On a failure, 1d6 days have passed outside; on a 1, 1d6 months.

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 ("SRD 5.2.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

Pathfinder Second Edition

Plays as (Pathfinder Second Edition): mountain, difficult terrain, about 16 km a day at Speed 25
Checks: Subsist: Survival DC 15 · Sense Direction: Survival DC 15
Random encounters: flat check DC 16 each day

Crushing heat. Temperature bands (GM Core p. 95): from 35 °C (mild heat) travellers tire after 4 hours; from 41 °C (severe heat) they take minor fire damage (1d6 to 2d6) every hour; from 46 °C (extreme heat), every 10 minutes. In high humidity the mild and severe thresholds are about 8 °C lower.
Thirst. Without enough water a creature is fatigued; after its Constitution modifier + 1 days without drinking it takes 1d4 damage an hour, which cannot be healed until it drinks (GM Core p. 43).
Wildfire. A wildfire front advances up to about 20 m a round in forest, twice that on plains; flames are hazardous terrain (moderate damage, 4d6 to 6d6, plus persistent fire), smoke works like fog and can suffocate (GM Core p. 97).

This product is licensed under the ORC License located at the Library of Congress at TX 9-307-067 and available online at various locations including paizo.com/orclicense, azoralaw.com/orclicense, and others. All warranties are disclaimed as set forth therein. Attribution: this rules layer is based on the following Licensed Material: Pathfinder Player Core © 2023 Paizo Inc., Designed by Logan Bonner, Jason Bulmahn, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, and Mark Seifter. Authors: Alexander Augunas, Kate Baker, Logan Bonner, Jason Bulmahn, Carlos Cabrera, Calder CaDavid, James Case, Eleanor Ferron, Steven Hammond, Joan Hong, Vanessa Hoskins, James Jacobs, Jenny Jarzabski, Erik Keith, Dustin Knight, Lyz Liddell, Luis Loza, Patchen Mortimer, Dennis Muldoon, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Mikhail Rekun, David N. Ross, Michael Sayre, Mark Seifter, Kendra Leigh Speedling, Mark Thompson, Clark Valentine, Andrew White, Landon Winkler, and Linda Zayas-Palmer; Pathfinder GM Core © 2023 Paizo Inc., Designed by Logan Bonner and Mark Seifter. Authors: Amirali Attar Olyaee, Logan Bonner, Creighton Broadhurst, Jason Bulmahn, James Case, Jesse Decker, Eleanor Ferron, Fabby Garza Marroquín, Jaym Gates, Matthew Goetz, James Jacobs, Brian R. James, Jenny Jarzabski, Dustin Knight, Jason LeMaitre, Lyz Liddell, Luis Loza, Ron Lundeen, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, David N. Ross, Michael Sayre, Mark Seifter, Owen K.C. Stephens, Amber Stewart, Clark Valentine, Landon Winkler, and Linda Zayas-Palmer; Pathfinder Monster Core © 2024 Paizo Inc., Authors: Alexander Augunas, Dennis Baker, Kate Baker, Joshua Birdsong, Joseph Blomquist, Logan Bonner, Jason Bulmahn, James Case, John Compton, Paris Crenshaw, Adam Daigle, Darrin Drader, Brian Duckwitz, Robert N. Emerson, Scott Fernandez, Eleanor Ferron, Leo Glass, Matthew Goodall, BJ Hensley, Thurston Hillman, Vanessa Hoskins, James Jacobs, Jenny Jarzabski, Miko Kallio, Jason Keeley, Jeff Lee, Lyz Liddell, Luis Loza, Ron Lundeen, Robert G. McCreary, Philippe-Antoine Menard, Jacob W. Michaels, Dave Nelson, Jason Nelson, Tim Nightengale, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Mikhail Rekun, Patrick Renie, Alex Riggs, David N. Ross, Michael Sayre, Mark Seifter, Chris S. Sims, Amber Stewart, Jeffrey Swank, William Thompson, Jason Tondro, Clark Valentine, Landon Winkler, Tonya Woldridge, and Linda Zayas-Palmer. If you use our Licensed Material in your own published work, please credit us as follows: Biomes, Pathfinder Second Edition rules layer © 2026 Michael Ghelfi. Reserved Material: the names of Biomes and its catalogues, its descriptions, sounds, art and code. Pathfinder is a registered trademark of Paizo Inc.; this site is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo Inc.

Crossing it

Besides walking, depending on the era and the season (Biomes estimates of a day’s distance):

On horseback: about 30 km a day
By camel: about 32 km a day
By wagon: about 15 km a day
By stagecoach: about 60 km a day
By train: about 400 km a day
By airship: about 900 km a day
By bush plane: about 800 km a day
By 4x4: about 100 km a day
By motorcar: about 60 km a day
By rover: about 60 km a day
On a flying mount: about 150 km a day
By flying carpet: about 100 km a day
By bicycle: about 40 km a day
By car: about 200 km a day
By truck: about 150 km a day
By motorbike: about 150 km a day
By armoured buggy: about 120 km a day

Adventure hooks

A traveller came back from the enchanted land with a basket of fruit and is now sixty, though he left at twenty. He wants the years back, and the fey who sold him the fruit do not give refunds, only exchanges.
A local girl has been promised as a bride to a fey prince, by a grandfather who has since died. She is curious about the prince, and wants the party to find out what he is like before the wedding.
The paths here change between morning and evening, and a merchant has made a fortune selling maps that update themselves. His maps have started showing a place that does not exist, and people are walking into it.
A dancing light leads the party to a feast where they are guests of honour. Everything is free, as long as nobody eats, and someone already has.
A family’s olive grove is older than the town, and the new magistrate has claimed it for a road. The trees go at the next new moon, unless someone finds the old boundary stone that proves the grant.
A fire has started in the late-summer hills and everyone knows who set it. Proving it is harder, because the man is also the only one in the village with a water cart, and he is out there saving houses.
A beekeeper’s honey has always tasted of rosemary and thyme; since spring it tastes of wine. He wants to know where his bees are going, and he suspects the abbey cellar.
Cork strippers peeling an old cork oak found a face carved into the trunk beneath the bark, years ago by the look of it. It is the face of the oldest stripper, and he will not go back to the grove.

What grows here

Carob (tree). An evergreen tree of the pea family, up to about 15 m tall with a broad rounded crown, native to the Mediterranean and the Middle East. It grows wild in warm Mediterranean woodland, often beside the mastic tree, and stands drought and poor soils. Its long pods take a full year to ripen, are a third to a half sugar, and feed people and livestock alike. Food of: Cattle. Food of: European Rabbit. Gives: Carob Pod.
Common Fig (tree). A deciduous tree or large shrub, 7 to 10 m tall with smooth pale bark and big lobed leaves, native to the Mediterranean and western Asia. It grows wild on dry, sunny and rocky ground from the sea up to about 1,700 m. Its milky sap burns the skin in sunlight. Gives: Figs.
Cork Oak (tree). A medium evergreen oak, ten to fifteen metres tall, wrapped in a thick, cracked bark of cork. It grows in the coastal lands of the western Mediterranean, from Portugal and Spain to Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, in open woodland on well-drained soils. The cork is peeled from the trunk every nine to twelve years without killing the tree, and its acorns fatten pigs. Gives: Cork.
Holm Oak (tree). A large evergreen oak, 21 to 28 m tall in good ground, with small leathery leaves that are spiny-toothed on young trees, like holly. It grows across the Mediterranean from Turkey to Iberia and the Atlas, in pure stands, mixed woods and the garrigue, and lives for centuries. Truffles grow on its roots, and jays bury its acorns and so plant new trees. Gives: Holm Oak Acorns, Holm Oak Wood.
Olive (tree). An evergreen tree about ten metres tall with a gnarled, twisted trunk, grey bark and narrow leaves, grey-green above and whitish below. It has been grown around the Mediterranean for six to eight thousand years and likes sunny limestone slopes and coasts. Most of the crop is pressed for oil, the rest cured as table olives, and the dense wood is turned into small objects. Gives: Olives, Olive Wood.
Stone Pine (tree). A pine usually 12 to 20 m tall whose flat umbrella crown marks Mediterranean coasts from Portugal to Lebanon. It grows in Mediterranean woods and scrub and on coastal sands, and is planted to hold dunes. Its cones take three years to ripen, longer than any other pine, and hold large edible nuts traded since early times. Gives: Pine Nuts, Stone Pine Wood.
Strawberry Tree (tree). An evergreen shrub or small tree, usually 4 to 7 m tall, of the western Mediterranean and Atlantic Europe as far as western Ireland. It stands drought, frost, shade and salt. Its round red fruits take a year to ripen and are gritty and rather bland; Pliny said of them 'I eat only one', hence the name unedo. Gives: Strawberry Tree Fruit.
Sweet Chestnut (tree). A large deciduous tree of southern Europe and Anatolia, with a deeply furrowed bark and spiny husks that hold the nuts. It was planted widely across western and central Europe from the Middle Ages, both for its nuts, a staple ground into flour, roasted or boiled, and for coppice wood. The tannin-rich wood resists rot and makes posts, fencing, barrels and roof beams. Gives: Sweet Chestnuts, Chestnut Wood.
Caper (shrub). A much-branched shrub with round fleshy leaves, hooked thorns and white or pink flowers with long violet stamens. It ranges from the Canaries and Morocco across the Mediterranean and Arabia to the Black Sea and the Caspian, in semi-arid and arid country from sea level up to 2,000 m. It bears fierce sun, heat and dry soil. Gives: Capers.
Common Myrtle (shrub). A bushy evergreen shrub up to 5 m tall with small fragrant leaves, native to southern Europe, North Africa and western Asia. Its white flowers open from June to October and give dark purple, sometimes white, berries. In Rome its white flowers stood for maidenly grace and myrtle crowns adorned young girls and the newly wed; in Corsica and Sardinia the berries make a liqueur. Gives: Myrtle Berry, Myrtle Leaf.
Common Thyme (shrub). A small woody evergreen bush, 15 to 30 cm tall, with tiny grey-green aromatic leaves and pink or purple flowers from April to July. It grows on sunny garrigue and dry rocky ground of southern Europe, from the western Mediterranean to southern Italy. It is the thyme of the kitchen and of herbal medicine. Gives: Thyme Sprig.
Jojoba (shrub). An evergreen shrub of one to two metres from the Sonoran, Colorado and Baja California deserts and the California chaparral, on sandy or gravelly ground, with a taproot that can reach twenty-five metres down. Its seeds are about half a liquid wax, prized for skin and hair care and burnt in lamps; Native Americans made a salve of the heated seeds and used it to cure hides. The seeds are sometimes parched and eaten or brewed like coffee, but the wax purges and the seed meal is toxic to many mammals in quantity. Gives: Jojoba Seed.
Mastic Tree (shrub). An evergreen shrub or small tree, 1 to 5 m tall, with leathery compound leaves and small red berries turning black, from Morocco to Iraq. It fills the garrigue, maquis and rocky hillsides and is common by the sea, as it bears salt. Birds and other beasts shelter and feed in it. Gives: Chios Mastic.
Prickly Pear (shrub). A cactus shrub up to five metres, built of flat jointed pads, born in central Mexico and now wild in dry, rocky places around the Mediterranean, in North Africa and in many frost-free lands, invasive in some. Its sweet fruits are eaten raw, cooked or dried, the young pads are cooked as a vegetable (nopalitos), and spineless forms feed cattle through droughts. Mind the glochids: tiny barbed bristles that come off at a touch and are hard to get out of the skin. Gives: Prickly Pears, Prickly Pear Pads.
Rosemary (shrub). An aromatic evergreen shrub of the mint family, up to about two metres tall, with needle-like leaves and small white, pink or blue flowers. It is native to the Mediterranean and grows best near the coast, enduring drought. Its leaves season food and give an oil used in perfume, and the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans held it sacred. Gives: Rosemary Sprig.
True Lavender (shrub). A strongly scented evergreen shrub with narrow leaves and spikes of purple flowers, native to the Mediterranean basin, above all its sunny mountain slopes. It wants dry, well-drained ground and hates wet soil. It flowers from late June to early July and is a good bee plant. Gives: True Lavender Flowers.
Century Plant (herb). A big agave of sandy desert scrub in Texas and eastern Mexico, now naturalised round the Mediterranean, in Africa and far beyond, with grey-green spine-tipped leaves. Despite its name it lives ten to thirty years, flowers once on a stalk eight or nine metres tall, then dies, leaving shoots at its base. Cut before it flowers, its heart gives a sweet sap, aguamiel, that ferments into pulque, and its leaves give a strong fibre for rope, nets and cloth; the fresh sap can inflame sensitive skin. Gives: Aguamiel, Century Plant Fibre.
Common Wormwood (herb). An aromatic perennial of North Africa and temperate Eurasia with small pale yellow flower heads, growing wild on dry uncultivated ground, rocky slopes and field edges. Its herb is intensely bitter and most forms contain thujone. It flavours absinthe and vermouth, once bittered farmhouse beer in place of hops, and was long given as a remedy against intestinal worms. Gives: Wormwood Sprig.
Syrian Rue (herb). A bushy, foul-smelling perennial of dry and often salty ground in temperate deserts and Mediterranean lands, from Morocco and Spain across the Middle East and Central Asia to western Mongolia and northern China, where it grows on salty sands near oases. Its roots go deep and it is near impossible to uproot. It poisons livestock, above all in drought. In Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan strings of its dried capsules hang in homes and vehicles against the evil eye, and its seeds, esfand, are burnt at Persian weddings. Gives: Esfand Seeds.
Porcini (fungus). A big brown-capped bolete, the cap up to 30 cm, that lives bound to the roots of pine, spruce, hemlock and fir, and also chestnut, beech and oak, across Europe, North America and Asia. It comes up in summer and autumn, in rafts after warm rain. One of the safest wild mushrooms to pick: its worst lookalikes are the devil's bolete (red stem, bruises blue) and the very bitter bitter bolete. Gives: Porcini Cap.

Animals

Brown Bear (man-killer, alone, at dawn and dusk)
Cougar (man-killer, alone, by night)
American Black Bear (can wound or kill, alone, at dawn and dusk)
Grey Wolf (can wound or kill, in packs, by night)
European Mouflon (dangerous if cornered, in herds, by day)
Golden Eagle (dangerous if cornered, in pairs, by day)
Iberian Lynx (dangerous if cornered, alone, at dawn and dusk)
Chukar Partridge (harmless, in flocks, by day)
Common Raven (harmless, in pairs, by day)
Edible Dormouse (harmless, alone, by night)
European Pine Marten (harmless, alone, by night)
European Rabbit (harmless, in colonies, by night)
Hermann's Tortoise (harmless, alone, by day)
Mexican Free-tailed Bat (harmless, in colonies, by night)
Pronghorn (harmless, in herds, day and night)
Red-legged Partridge (harmless, in flocks, by day)

Kept here

Cattle (can wound or kill, in herds, by day)
Goat (dangerous if cornered, in herds, by day)
Sheep (dangerous if cornered, in flocks, by day)

Creatures

Awakened Shrub (a threat to the unwary, Challenge 0)
Satyr (a threat to the unwary, Challenge 1/2)
Druid (a threat to the unwary, Challenge 2)

Also met here

Bandit (a threat to the unwary, Challenge 1/8-2)
Cockatrice (a threat to the unwary, Challenge 1/2)
Giant Wasp (a threat to the unwary, Challenge 1/2)
Brass Dragon (a fight to fear, Challenge 1-20)
Manticore (a fight to fear, Challenge 3)
Gorgon (deadly, Challenge 5)
Chimera (deadly, Challenge 6)
Wyvern (deadly, Challenge 6)

To gather

Moonstone Dragon Scale, Black Bear Fat, Black Bear Hide, Black Bear Meat, Beeswax Block, Capers, Carob Pod, Cattle Fat, Cattle Hide, Cow Milk, Century Plant Fibre, Aguamiel, Chukar Egg, Chukar Meat, Figs, Myrtle Berry, Myrtle Leaf, Thyme Sprig, Cork, Dormouse Fur, Dormouse Meat, Mouflon Meat, European Rabbit Skin, Goat Hide, Goat Milk, Goat Wool, Grey Wolf Pelt, Holm Oak Acorns, Holm Oak Wood, Honey Comb, Jojoba Seed, Free-tailed Bat Guano, Olives, Olive Wood, Porcini Cap, Prickly Pears, Prickly Pear Pads, Pronghorn Meat, Red-legged Partridge Meat, Rosemary Sprig, Sheep Hide, Sheep Milk, Sheep Wool, Pine Nuts, Stone Pine Wood, Strawberry Tree Fruit, Sweet Chestnuts, Chestnut Wood, True Lavender Flowers, Brown Bear Bile, Brown Bear Hide, Chios Mastic, Cougar Pelt, Crystallized Honey, Mouflon Horn, Pine Marten Pelt, Golden Eagle Feather, Esfand Seeds, Hermann's Tortoise Meat, Wormwood Sprig, Iberian Lynx Pelt, Agave Leaf, Amaranth Seed, Beetle Wing, Garlic Clove, Hemlock Stem, Mandrake Root, Poppy Petal, Rue Sprig, Snake Venom, Vervain Leaves, Alchemical Resin, Treated Dragon's Blood Resin, Dragonblood Sap, Enchanted Sugar Pinch, Eucalyptus Leaf, Henbane Leaf, Opium Extract, Pomegranate Wine, Concentrated Venom, First Morning Dew, Lightning Strike Ash

Beneath

Near the surface the rock keeps the year's mean warmth, without seasons; it warms as one goes down.

At the surface: 16 °C
100 m: 19 °C
500 m: 30 °C
1 km: 44 °C
3 km: 99 °C

A town here

How large a town this land can feed, what it makes and what it must buy. Build it in Hearth

The same milieu, otherwise

Mediterranean Scrub, Blessed Mediterranean Scrub, Burning Mediterranean Scrub

Open it in Biomes — MGS Toolbox