A zombie waiting patiently in a sarcophagus |
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
[Session Report 10 - 10/14/24] Return to the Crypt
[Session Report 9 - 10/13/24] The Cult of Zellek'ur
The Ruined Church |
Sapheera |
Sunday, October 13, 2024
[Session Report 8 - 10/12/24] The Redfang Hideout
Kratos dealing an excessive amount of damage to kill a lowly 2 HP goblin. |
Not really interested in dealing with the cultists at this time, the party decided that they wanted to further explore the mountain caves that they had fled from just a few days ago. They left the safe walls of Dragonwrath and set out for adventure. On day 19, the party got turned around while exploring the mountains and ended up seeing some rocs fly overhead that thankfully didn't take an interest in their small group. The next day, as they were getting closer to their destination they saw a sizeable retinue men on horseback. The party thought it best to stay low and hide and were able to evade the strangers.
Now the party was at the cave entrance and were eager to see what treasures awaited them. They entered cautiously, not knowing how many goblins (or any other monsters) were in this cave system. As they traveled, Sir Peter fell down a pit but as it was the only way forward, the party dropped down into the pit and they climbed out on the other side. Eventually, they came upon a group of 8 goblins that got the drop on them. After a few rounds of combat, Gotas the Elf was killed, 2 goblins were dead, 2 asleep, and the remaining goblins surrendered. In a fit of rage, Kratos executed Gotas' killer and the rest of the goblins were bound.
Kratos and the dwarf both spoke with the goblins to see if there were any traps, treasure, or other goblins that the party should know about. Quickly, the goblins explained that their leader Gribbnuk, an exiled son of the tribe's chieftain, was in a nearby room along with his 2 wives. The party gathered the goblins, with the intention of using them as a bargaining chip, and walked to the leader's quarters.
They met with Gribbnuk and a deal was made. In exchange for letting the goblin prisoners leave, the party would be given the goblins' treasure (3,000 sp and a single gem). Soon, the party was on their way out of the cave and headed back to Dragonwrath. The travel back to town went by fast and on day 23, they were once again greeted by the welcoming gates of civilization.
Thursday, September 19, 2024
[Lore] Worldbuilding Part 2: The Gods!
As I mentioned in earlier posts, the people of the Great Kingdom belong to the Church of Radiance which is a universal, monolatrous religion centered around the worship of Ohm the Almighty. The Church also canonizes many saints, particularly martyrs, who are prayed to for assistance and guidance by followers.
Ohm is a Lawful and jealous god among several, but his powers are greater than any god the people of the Great Kingdom has ever encountered so they elected to worship him alone, while still acknowledging the existence of "lesser" gods. This insistence is one of the causes of strife within the alliance between man and demi-human. While the Great Kingdom does claim that their god is king of all others, the fact that they are able to accept the existence of other gods allows for alliances to be made with other cultures and races that follow different Lawful gods. Still, the clerics of the Great Kingdom are encouraged and commanded to spread the faith and convert as many people as possible.
The Church holds honesty, selflessness, fairness, obedience, compassion, justice, and keeping your promises as virtues. While most followers are human, they are (mostly) accepting and encouraging of nonhuman converts. They strive to do good and help their fellow brothers and sisters. Their holy symbol is a cross, often made of wood or precious metals. The cross symbolizes Ohm the Almighty and his outreaching arms that protect all of His followers.
Unless stated otherwise by the player, human characters are all assumed to be members of the Church. The Church of Radiance has a strict hierarchy and canonizes many saints, whom followers are expected to pray to for guidance and help. Player character clerics must choose (or create) a patron saint to dedicate themselves to. A saint might have a different holy symbol than the cross but a cross will always suffice. Each saint has at least one domain and can be invoked against certain things (such as plague, death, famine, etc) in times of need. Characters can also donate money, in addition to being a devout follower, to the Church in the name of their patron saint in order to gain a blessing (such as a +1 on saves vs death) from their patron saint. Characters are only allowed to have a single patron saint (and therefore only a single blessing) at a time and it should be rare for a character to change their patron saint, although they are allowed and encouraged to pray to any and all saints.
List of Saints & Blessing Rules:
In order for a character to receive a blessing, they must donate at least 10% of their level XP cost in gold coins, per month and follow the teachings of the Church.
St. Omes the Old, forced to take iocane powder, patron saint of elders and hermits, invoked against death, poison, and plague. (+1 to Saves vs Death Ray and Poison)
St. Zernmet the Pious, burned within a wicker man, patron saint of elves and magic users, invoked against magic wands, witchcraft, and heathens. (+1 to Saves vs Magic Wands)
St. Yorrana the Merciful, stoned to death, patron saint of dwarves, invoked against paralysis, turning to stone, cave-ins, and greed. (+1 to Saves vs Paralysis and Turn to Stone)
St. Arik the Bold, beheaded, patron saint of men-at-arms, justice, and bravery, invoked against dragon breath, cowardice, and impotency. (+1 to Saves vs Dragon Breath)
St. Erazell the Pure, killed by the iron maiden, patron saint of women, chastity, and the family invoked against rods, staves, spells, and demonic possession. (+1 to Saves vs Rods, Staves, and Spells)
St. Moldvay the Wise, burned at the stake, patron saint of clerics and children, invoked against the undead. (+1 to Turn Undead)
St. Zeb, exiled into the wilderness, patron saint of halflings, travelers, and reformed thieves, invoked against getting lost, banditry, and restlessness. (-1 to Lost Chance)
Other Gods
The various tribes and clans of humans and humanoids worship too many gods to count. If a player character wishes to be of a tribal ancestry, they are free to create their own god(s) as they desire.
The elves worship several celestial, musical, and nature based gods. The dwarves worship gods of mountains, smithing, gold, axes, and alcohol, etc. Halflings don't really have organized religions but will generally make offerings to whatever spirits are in the area. Again, player characters are free to design their own gods if they play a demi-human, but even a player-made god should fit thematically with the general domains already listed.
In the next post (hopefully), I'll have a way for characters to call upon their gods and goddesses in their time of need.
[Lore] Worldbuilding Part 1: The Campaign Area & Political Divisions
The Wild Reaches (aka Outdoor Survival) |
[Lore][Homebrew] Gods and Saints
St. George slaying a dragon |
In order to incentivize characters interacting with the Church in my setting, which I will go into more detail in a future post, I thought it might be cool to give patron saints specific domains that directly tied into game mechanics like turning undead and saving throws. Originally, I was going to keep the gods and saints fairly distant from the player characters but when I was creating some saints I had remembered the stories about St. George killing dragons and thought that a devout follower of his would likely get a bonus on saves vs dragon breath. That's when I edited my saints to directly tie into game features and mechanics.
Basically, how it's gonna work is that a character, of any class, can select a patron saint whom they can pray to for assistance. The actual mechanical benefit comes at a cost though. Characters are expected to not only be devoted to their patron saint (you know, following their teachings and actually roleplaying your character's beliefs) as well as a payment in gold of a value equal to 10% of their XP cost. The donation to the Church would be a monthly thing and the price only goes up as the character levels up so a 1st level cleric who's devoted to St. Carr the Vampire Slayer would only need to pay 150 gp per month to the Church in order to get a +1 vs turning undead (or maybe turning vampires specifically).
I might also add specific requirements for each saint that is somewhat independent of the religion as a whole. Right now all I have for a code of conduct is a set of commandments (given to humanity on a golden scroll) but it could be fun for saints to have their own little objectives. St. Carr the Vampire Slayer might require his followers to never leave an undead... alive. I'm not sure the right word for that but basically he could have a rule where his followers HAVE TO kill any and all undead they come across and if they don't, they'd lose the blessing. This could make for interesting religious orders but it could be a bit much imo. I'll have to work on it some more.
I want to keep the blessings useful but also somewhat minor. Basically I want them to just be in the background as something that's kinda cool and useful but isn't too complicated for players to the point of making them disinterested. That's why I feel that a +1 bonus to a saving throw or something similar could be a cool mechanic, plus it encourages the players to interact with the setting's religion a bit more. One thing I find really lame is when a player chooses to play a cleric simply because they think the party needs a healer as opposed to actually wanting to run a character who is devoted to god(s). To me, a cleric should be similar to Sister Rebecca in the Moldvay Basic example of play. They've sworn an oath to their deity and are willing to take a stand, even against their own party members, to stay true to their beliefs. From what I've seen, a lot of clerics (and paladins) are all too willing to turn a blind eye to the evil committed by their fellow adventurers because they don't want to cause any friction or conflict. Clerics, imo, should be some of the most annoying people as well as some of the most beloved people by their party. Sure, it might be frustrating riding with a cleric when all you want to do is kick in doors and kill monsters but you'll be glad they're with you when you come across hordes of the undead or if you need your burial site to be consecrated so that you don't end up rising up again.
Currently, I'm still fleshing out my starting saints (players will be able to make their own and I'll make more as the campaign progresses but I wanted to have a handful of options for players to select from to start off with) and once I'm done with them I'll make a post about them.
Friday, September 13, 2024
[Homebrew] Cyclops Race-as-Class
Krull |
Rell the Cyclops |
[Session Report 10 - 10/14/24] Return to the Crypt
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