Explaining the Underground Sun

 

So the underground sun garden has a Sun, it floats through the sector in a pattern

It goes ascending, then descending.

This is why plants are able to grow here, along with the things that water the plants.

Being a room away or nearby will be ominous, as a thrumming churning sound and bright natural light will slowly grow, as the sun floats towards the party.

Exposure to the actual sun is not super dangerous, but being in it’s presence more than 1 minute will sunburn, more than 5 minutes anybody else, more than 10 and the sunburn can deal actual damage. The time exposed is cumulative, so getting burned and then not waiting the amount of days it takes to heal will lead to more and more possible damage.

It follows the line of best fit between each numbered section. Touching it deals 4 damage, and lights inflammable things.

It moves from one number to the next every 1d8 minutes - so for example, you would see that the sun is at 1, then you roll a 1d8, and roll a 7, that means the sun travels from 1 to 2 in 7 minutes.

Whenever the players are in the Underground Sun Garden, Track the Sun meticulously, and it's first sighting should be terrifying. It is very important, as switchbacks and avoiding it is important, and if the players can figure out it's pattern, the rooms that activate or fruit or pollinate can be better or different shortly after being exposed to the sun. The sun can light torches also, and can be a useful thing for random encounters, with creatures avoiding the sun, throwing PCs into the sun, or vice versa.

This all means that tracking each minute in this area is essential, and to that end, I will be making lots of references to minutes spent - when in doubt, establish a minute count for normal travel, and create values for or use values given for actions taken (EG Searching has time rules in LotFP)