30 Day Challenge: Day 18 Immortals - St. Chald

Day 18 brings us to Gods and Immortals.

In spite of the fact that I've written some immortals of my own, I've never actually made a big use of religion in my games. It's a shame too, because there's so much good stuff you can use it for. Quests especially. Weird quests, especially if you get some really small gods, local, petty gods demanding all sorts of crazy things. It works even better when there's a cleric in the party.

One way of using gods that doesn't work is with big gods. Gods that look down over continents, and count their followers in the tens and hundreds of thousands. Then you end up with gods who aren't going to take much interest in a low level party. It's the same problem the Forgotten Realms has with it's super high level NPCs.

St. Chald The Brilliant
Immortal of The Great Bay

St. Chald was a sailor and fisherman on the great bay, before he became an adventurer. No matter where his travels took him, he always returned home, and back to the water, even when he achieved his immortality.


Symbol: Blue Crab
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 120' (40')
Armor Class: -2
Hit Points (HD) 75 (15)
Attacks: Claws +4 and special
Damage: 2d6+2 and Special
Save: F15
Morale: 10
Treasure Type: Hx2
XP: 8,000


Chald's avatar appears as a giant stained glass blue crab which will attack with it's great claws, and an hot oily breath weapon (2d6 damage, 1d6 additional damage for3 rounds, 30' range). He is fiercely protective of his waters, those who sail on them, and fish in them, but has little interest in the goings on beyond his beaches, except as they impact the water. Like the waters of the bay, St. Chald is a capricious godling, and the sailors and fishermen who ply the Great Bay make frequent offerings to him, often of bottles of the local spiced brew.

Reaction Roll
2: Will calm the waters of the bay, share the best fishing spots, and may even point out location of sunken ships and beach caves.
3-4: Will perform favors as above, but will demand favors and tribute.
5-7: Ignore
8-10: Rough waters, and empty nets.
11-12: A storm or water spout will immediately develop, and St. Chald will attempt to drown the target of his displeasure.

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Source: callinectes douglassi

30 Day Challenge: Day 6 - Favorite Deity

I'm afraid I'm going to have to step away from D&D for my favorite deity, because my favorite is not one from a D&D game I ran, played in, or even heard about. It isn't even one I created myself... He's one I played.

Caleb Marsh, Baron of Moths.

A Boston dandy from the late 1700's who cheated the previous god of moths out of his mantle, and his life.

Now, moths may not be much of a portfolio, and there certainly aren't a lot of worshipers, but Caleb didn't care. As the CEO of MarshCorp, and a god, his life for the last several hundred years has been everything he'd ever dreamed of. Minus the attempts of rival gods to take his power, or of entropy to utterly destroy him, of course.

His best friend is Crackerjack, an evil sentient ivy plant (also a god) who he plays cards with (they both cheat). His older sister is the Lady of Summer, an older brother is the Lord of Eagles, and he once caused the sun to set in the East to save his overgod's very existence.

If you're interested in reading about the scenario I played Caleb in, you can download Briar & Honeysuckle, the scenario for Nobilis here: http://www.irishgaming.com/scenario_storage/gh/briar.zip

Zeteh Zandana - Cosmology of my Home Setting

More thoughts on my home setting:

As cool as Planescape is, I hate the cosmology that goes with it. The idea that everything fits neatly into a plane of a specific alignment, that it’s set up as a giant wheel, that there are elemental planes, para-elemental planes, quasi-elemental planes, energy planes, etc. is both stupidly overly complicated, and for the most part incredibly boring!

Look at that mess! And somehow it all wraps together in Sigil...

Now, 4e cleaned things up quite a bit. The Mortal world has a pair of reflections, the Feywild and the Shadowfell, and they are pretty much what they sound like. Ravenloft? In the Shadowfell. The court of Oberon and Titania? Feywild. It fits together with the implied cosmology of most fairy tales so much better than the Great Wheel ever did.

The Astral Sea will be much like it’s usually portrayed, including dead gods, strange worlds, demi-planes, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe/Callahan's Bar/The Captain’s Table/etc., and of course Sigil itself. The currencies of the realm are magical power and souls.

What about the gods? I’m going to stick with the idea that there are no gods, per se, but rather the immortals from classic D&D. Mortals who have become so powerful they ascend to demi- and lesser-god like status. They live in realms that float in the astral sea, and interfere as much or as little as they like in the mortal realms. Clerics and other “divine” characters may worship these immortals, and their worship does have an impact on the immortals’ power and standing, but divine power does not derive from individual immortals, but rather from all of them. That isn’t to say that an immortal can’t focus on one individual and boost or block them, but it takes effort and energy on their part. This will allow divine characters to choose just about any god or ideal to worship.

Demons and devils? I’ll stick with the 4e idea that they all come from the elemental chaos. The upper levels of it resemble the classic idea of the underworld, and the deeper you go the more twisted and chaotic it becomes. Players will never visit the lowest levels, as reality breaks down if you go too deep, and this blends right into the far realm - aka outside the player’s universe. I’ll never send my players there, but it’s a great place for *things that are not meant to be* to come from.

Return to Stonehell

After spending a pleasant evening recovering from his first delve into Stonehell, Nick the Pike hired Randolph the Herald to let it be known that he was looking for a few strong arms to accompany him into the dungeon. 4 men answered his call - Kaldue, a foreigner clad in chainmail and armed with spear and shield, Gygard in leather and shield, Sacco, Gygard's companion ad torch bearer, and Boarface, also in chainmail with a sword and defaced shield.* Nick hired them all, and also acquired 2 dogs from the Shrine of St. Guinefort.

Another outlander, an elf named Lemincanin (played by Michael Curtis) also expressed interest in seeing the famed halls of Stonehell for himself.

"Medwyn said he was going to come too, but I don't think he or Drak had finished recovering from the bender they went on when we got back last time. So we left without them. Now, the last time we went, like I think i told you before, Drak was looking for a talisman, and he offered a bounty of 500 gold for it. I figured, why not keep looking for it? So we retraced our steps from last time. At the door of the dance macabre we heard someone lurking behind us. It turned out to be an ugly orc. Now, I know, not really fair of me to call anyone ugly, as I'm only slightly more attractive than old Boarface over there!" Nick laughed.

"Was it just one orc?" Nick's companion asked.

"Yeah... odd that. I was told that the orcs and goblins of Stonehell are at war with each other, so seeing one alone was odd... but Lemincanin could speak it's language... a useful skill that. Anyway, he said his name was Bruck - or something close to that, and that going into the Quiet Halls was a bad idea, lots of skeletons and zombies. I said we should have brought a priest or two. Lemincanin agreed, which wasn't particularly helpful, but then told me that Bruck said that if we bring the orcs goblin heads that we can be friends, like Gruck. I don't know who Gruck is, but apparently he lives on the surface."

"After Bruck left us, we passed through the door of the dance macabre, and got back to the spot with the pit trap. It was easy to find because the spike that Drak put into the floor to help secure the rope was still there. We went on past the trap and into a room with a giant bull statue. It had an open mouth, and the room was scorched. Hugging the wall furthest away from the statue we moved through the room, and come to an open doorway. Beyond was a great room. Our torches barely making a dent into the darkness." Nick paused "There were whispers coming from inside... even Lemincanin's elf-ears couldn't make out what, if anything was being said..."

"Not wanting to press our luck, we moved on, and came to another doorway opening into a similar room. In fact it could even have been the same room. This time though I could see something. A body, or at least that's what I thought it was. So I lit a torch and tossed it into the room."

"Tossing that torch was perhaps not my wisest decision, but it was smarter than going in and seeing for myself! It was indeed a body on the floor, and it was only one of many, and they started to move! By St. Guinefort's scruff that was a bad spot to be in! And it turned out I was right, the two doorways did indeed lead to the same room. I yelled to everyone to head back to the pit trap and before we could get past the first doorway a pair of skeletons popped out. Luckily my investment in dogs paid off, and they and Boarface dropped them. Boarface took a hit, but it wasn't too bad. We managed to get on the far side of the pit before the skeletons, and the first one on it triggered the trap, and down he went."

"How many were there?"

By Nelson Daniel

"I didn't really have the chance to get an exact count, but we were outnumbered for sure. Probably around a score of them. We set up a shield wall with Kaldue and Gygard at the front, Lemincanin with his bow and me with my pike behind. Boarface and the dogs guarding our backs. It felt like forever as they kept pressing forward. The zombies behind did a lot of the work for us on the skeletons, pushing relentlessly forward, and pitching he bones down the pit. Some of the zombies did make it across the span, eventually shattering our shields, and then bringing Gygard down. By this point there were only 2 zombies left. One was busy eating Gygard, the other made to attack Kaldue. I grabbed the spare shield from Sacco, and pushed them both into the pit. They took Gygard with them..."

"After tending to our wounds we explored a little more and discovered an embalming chamber. We decided to grab what we could from it, and come back to town."

"So what are you going to do now?"

"Now? I'm going to finish this ale, and then another, and enjoy my time tonight with you! After that, I'm going to get ready for next time! We're going to need a priest or two if we're going to find that talisman and get the bounty!"

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Hirelings generated with the ever useful Meatshields!.

Dazmig: The Red Dawn

It seems my submission to Grognardia's Petty Gods didn't make the cut.   I'm not too surprised, as the level of talent out in the OSR is pretty amazing.  However, I did enjoy coming up with this god, and so I've decided to share him here.  If he sounds familiar, it's because I posted about some of his followers earlier.

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Dazmig was said to be a wandering warlord who burned with an unending anger before taking his place among the immortals.  Famous for his predawn attacks, he would raze sleepy cities to the ground before the sun fully crested the horizon.  Once he attained immortality, he claimed those who suffered from Unending Anger as his charges.   He appears as a spear wielding warrior in chain.  His symbol is woven into the armor with colored links as well as adorning the crest of his helm. 

Name: Dazmig The Red Dawn
Symbol: Red sun cresting over horizon with 5 sharp rays radiating outward
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 120’ (30’)
Armor Class: -2
Hit Points (Hit Dice): 100 (22HD)
Attacks: 2 or special
Damage: 2d6+3 or special
Save: C22
Morale: 12
Hoard Class: IX, XIV
XP:

The Red Dawn fights as a level 22 fighter, and can also cast clerical spells as a level 10 cleric.  He also may enrage anyone who he chooses unless a Saving Throw vs Spells is made.  Should the target fail their saving throw they will suffer a -2 penalty to their armor class, saving throws, and attack rolls, and they will gain a +4 to all damage on all successful attacks.  The effect lasts for 24 hours. 

Reaction Chart

1-2 Sociable	You have interested Dazmig!  Do not spoil this opportunity!
3-5 Disinterested	Dazmig is willing to listen, but you had best make it worth his time.
6-9 Annoyed	Turning his eyes upon you, you can feel Dazmig’s displeasure.
10-11 Angered	You have approximately 10 seconds before Dazmig spites you.
12 Enraged	Think you can face a god in combat?  Good luck with that.

St. D'Arnson The World Builder

St. D'Arnson has a slightly smaller following than that of St. Gaxgy, but they are perhaps a more devoted group.  When the Primordials began to form the world, and the gods intervened, an early being of light helped shape things on the microscale.  Where the gods were concerned with shaping entire worlds, D'Arnson raised cliffs, drew rivers, and dug ravines, and when life was seeded on the worlds, his voice spoke to many in the early days of fighting back the chaos.   In modern worship, St. D'Arnson is the patron of builders and storytellers, those who help to bring order to the chaos.

St. Gaxgy The Lawgiver

It has never been a big part of my games, but I have always included Saint Gaxgy the Lawgiver in all of my games.  In the pantheon he is usually a lesser god under whatever the main lawful good god happens to exist.  On the surface his shrines are almost always attached to the main temples, and there are very few who venerate him primarily.

Yet deep in the dungeons and caves of the world, where the forces of chaos (elemental or otherwise) threaten, all adventurers know his name, and many seek his blessing before they tackle their toughest challenges.  Because of this, many shrines to St. Gaxgy can be found deep underground.  Most of them are impromptu setups, but a few fully equipped shrines do exist, usually in the larger complexes.  

Shrines to St. Gaxgy give lawful characters a +1 bonus to their defenses and saving throws while they are within it.  Any character, after visiting a shrine to St. Gaxgy may call out to St. Gaxgy for a +1 untyped bonus to any roll.  Such a call must be spoken aloud by the player, and will only function once ever.  Examples of such pleas include "By Gygax's Beard!" and "Gygax preserve us!" but a DM should encourage creativity in their players pleas.