I've come to a bit of a stumbling block and hoped my fellow forumites might have some suggestions.
The Setup: A wilderness shrine is home to its Venerable-age-category caretaker and sole resident, an expert-turned-cleric (3 levels of cleric) who was essentially the tour guide who took over as the priest when the other residents of the shrine retired, died, or left. As of now, he's old, really really old, and as per the random aging rules, he'll die sometime later in the year.
The conditions/stipulations:
•He's too old to effectively garden or provide for himself.
•He's out in the middle of nowhere, with no one to trade for supplies.
•He's too low in cleric levels to cast create food and water, and were he high enough to do so, he'd be strong enough to deal with the things lurking in the basement (thus not needing the PCs' help).
•A sustaining spoon is far out of the price range for this low-level adventure, and most of the cheaper solutions were by WotC and very much closed content. I'm looking for a homebrew or otherwise Open Content solution.
The question: How does he eat?
My Thoughts Thus Far:
•A magic item similar to the spoon, but for one character. (Price check?)
•A second-level spell that can feed one character, possibly with range personal (tentatively entitled "sustain self"), or has the ability to feed multiple creatures, but has a drawback (e.g. subsisting on the spell-fare for an extended period makes creatures continually fatigued).
•A magic item based on the above second-level spell (Price check?)
I'm open for ideas and suggestions for something sensible and flavorful, that lets the above fluff and the crunch work together in harmony. Any thoughts?
Why he has a Clear Spindle shaped ioun stone float around his head of course.
He's too old to effectively garden or provide for himself.
If this is the case, then I think you could safely make him high enough level to cast create food and water. Just say he's a cripple, and as such can't make it down to the basement. He just tends to the main level in his old age.
Would it be possible to introduce some minor entity with a relationship to the shrine that occasonally leaves the old man food? Perhaps a small circle of fey nearby? Someone the party can possibly seek out and interact with, but not likely to give much of an advantage.
If it REALLY matters how he is surviving out there, just make him high enough level to create food and water. He's venerable - he has a -6 to Str, Dex, and Con, what is he going to do to any challenges? Fall on them and break his hip?
Perhaps too much of a stretch, but could he have access to a goodberry spell (1st level druid spell), either via an item or a special spell.
'findel
After some ponderment, it looks like the method I'll be going with is the caretaker being aided by a brownie (who has a level of druid), said brownie having been the shrine's mascot, effective-groundskeeper and even considered a lay priest during the shrine's heyday. :3
Sounds like the run down English farm in Farmville. Ok, you replace the stable with a shrine, replace the 2 sheep with some chickens. Some of the fencing the old man used to keep the cellar door closed. I would make his cellar into one of several enterances to a low level dungeon. Probably kobolds. If you want to go dark, he could be receiving help from a Lamia who is posing as the shrine's diety. Lamia's lend themselves to hipocracy.