jacinto adventures, classifieds, djinn, new barbary, npcs, san serafín

things to do in La Habana

It occurs to me that jinetero is a perfect term for adventurers, even if it doesn’t perfectly match the real-life contemporary definition. Anyway, here’s the lowdown on some of the player-adjacent factions in La Habana.

Red Hibiscus Society
A social club/trading consortium/gang based in La Habana. Their affinity for bypassing the Emir’s taxmen has made them natural allies of the Castilians of La Florida.

The chief of the Red Hibiscus Society is Yusuf, a colossal ex-bandit who has given up direct robbery for the relative ease and comfort of running a medium-sized crime syndicate. He always smells of violet water, and is rarely seen outside of his bath–he’s had a porcelain clawfoot tub installed in the Red Hibiscus Society Hall where he conducts most of his business so he doesn’t have to get out even as he works.

The Society regularly employs vagrants, vagabonds, and soldiers-of-fortune to carry out its interests, both legitimate and illegitimate, with at least one layer of plausible deniability.

  1. Deliver a sealed cask to the bar next to the Castilian embassy by the Docks. Expect trouble on the way, and do not open the barrel.
  2. Retrieve a package from the House of Honey and Salt, and deliver it at a dead drop location at the Royal Park. Wash your hands thoroughly with hot soap and water afterwards, do not breathe heavily around the package, and do not get it wet.
  3. Yusuf’s step-daughter is attending the Emir’s birthday and he suspects some pencil-necked egghead at the College is going to ask her to attend it with him. Explain to him why this is not a viable decision, but don’t do anything worse than breaking his knees.
  4. That bastard Admiral is holding out on Yusuf–the Castilian has, through various semilegal channgel, acquired Gran Morado, violet water made from the purest and most fragrant violets, said to restore vigor lost to age, bring good luck, grow your hair back, whiten your teeth, dispel melancholy, etc etc, but now he won’t sell it to Yusuf as promised. Help the Society seize some La Florida-bound shipments of fine liquor to help the Admiral see reason.

Saints of Honey and Salt
A religious order of sybaritic assassin-surgeons who operate out of hospital-brothel-temple-laboratories called Houses of Honey and Salt. They’re the best doctors in town, but also the best murderers-for-hire, so everybody needs them and nobody trusts them. Their influence is mostly a network of debt and favors–if you don’t owe something to the Saints, you owe something to someone who does. Everyone agrees they are Up To Something, but nobody really knows what it is.

  1. The Saints need a jaguar for their experiments. Definitely healthy and whole, preferably alive, but with a minimum of injuries if that isn’t possible.
  2. One of the Saints makes weekly rounds in Old Habana, giving free care to the sick. An upstart guild of sawbones have begun to threaten her and interfere with her work–guard her  this upcoming Sunday.
  3. A deliriously ill patient undergoing an experimental treatment has broken out of the House of Honey and Salt. Find them before the metamorphosis completes their illness gets the best of them.
  4. There was a pirate raid out east two days ago, and the Saints are expecting an influx of patients. Secure an emergency shipment of bandages and laudanum from the Castilians–and you don’t have to be friends with them afterwards.

The Klatch
A loose society of brujas, brujos, shamans, sorcerers, exorcists, theologians, and philosophers who frequent La Habana’s coffee houses and salons and who maintain correspondence with practitioners across New Barbary. They tacitly and informally police the supernatural community (such as it is) of La Habana, ensuring that devils, the dead, and hostile gods cannot hunt unchecked by more mundane authorities.

  1. The La Habana chapter of the Klatch believes a devil has taken up residence in the city. A reward of 50 pesetas to anyone who brings information leading to its banishment.
  2. The Emir’s favorite dancer has been possessed by a malicious spirit, and it’s taking most of her caretakers’ efforts just to keep it under control. Take a trip out to the Hungry Grandmother’s shrine and ask her for a purgative.
  3. An ambitious young thief has found a a djinni (again). His first wish was for a king’s fortune and his second was for 100 wives. Since you can surely imagine how well that’s going, get that brass ring off of his finger before he causes another international incident.
  4. The New Barbary Trading Company of Castile wants to build a warehouse and offices on what the Klatch believes to be the tomb of Blood Dews Upon The Lilies, a sainted ancestor liable to wake up again if disturbed. They aren’t listening to a bunch of witches, but perhaps you can find a way to be more persuasive?

The Souk
Almost any merchant in the Souk will part with goods or services in return for a favor. You can buy most things there, but here are a few of the odder services you can get:

FOOD

  • a nice hot meal. 10 pesetas. A hot meal and a rest fully heals your HP, though you might have lingering injuries, depending.
  • ingredients. 5 pesetas. If you have the skills, you can cook a hot meal without paying a premium for it, and you can do it out in the jungle or bush if you bring the right equipment. 
  • snack. If you take 10 and eat a snack, you recover 1d6 HP. You can only do this 1/day OR 1/genuine hazard faced.

TRANSPORT

  • emperor ghost spider. The most reliable form of transportation in New Barbary, these colossal spider spirits are bound and trained to carry passengers and cargo. Their castle-sized carapaces are hollowed out: the abdomen holds lodging and cargo storage, while their handlers work in the thorax and head, where the blood of their animal sacrifices propagates through channels carved into the spider’s chitin, and where the handler’s soothing prayers can more easily heard. The largest emperor ghost spiders can traverse across the shallower parts of the Caribbean, their legs long enough to reach the sea floor. 
  • magot porter. New Barbary macaques are big enough to stare a draft horse in the eyes without getting off all fours. They aren’t particularly fast, but they are strong enough to carry a person and all of their gear, and can traverse dense jungle and mountainous terrain. Overall reliable, handy, and peaceable, but if you do manage to anger or spook them they can pull your arms off without trying very hard. 
  • sedan chair. Mostly used in the city of Otra Tétuan. They have a faintly sinister reputation, since devils and the dead can use them to travel unseen, and powerful brujas will travel on sedan chairs carried by zombis. The spouses of Dead Ixe are infamous for being carried by their husband’s mummified servants. Normally, though, it’s old money, D-list royalty, and regular joes willing to pay a little extra for some swift and discrete transportation. 
  • cars. rare, expensive, loud, smelly. They drive spirits crazy, and most cars require apotropaics from front bumper to back just to keep ambient divine rage from shutting it down. Beloved by the nouveau riche and Flowerland industrialists. They can be rented. 

HELP

  • Competent mercenaries and guards will work for 50 pesetas a day, plus danger pay.
  • Hooligans, desperados, and ne’er-do-wells will work for 15 pesetas a day, and might try to squeeze danger pay out of you if they think they can get it.
  • Minor ghosts and spirits will work for 50 pesetas in sacrifices a day, though they are more erratic than the living and might demand further favors.
  • Godlings, loas, orishas, and the like don’t really have a pay rate–you have to negotiate on a case by case basis, and you usually have to find a medium in good standing with the entity to want to call on first.

jacinto classes, clerics, demon, djinn, LotFP, occult, original dungeons and dragons, san serafín

a god is a kind of monster

This blog is slowly turning into an extended and not very good meditation on how clerics work, so bear with me while I get it out of my system. I’m working on some dice drop tables that could actually be of use to someone for next post. I recently did a reread of the Games With Others archives, so this post leans on Pearce’s work here.

SO:
Fighters solve problems with violence.
Thieves solve problems with trickery.
Magic-users solve problems by knowing things, or, depending on how you see it, breaking the rules.
Clerics tend to exist in this space between  fighters and magic-users: they have okay spells and an okay capacity for violence. This is perfectly fine, but when I crunch clerics down to the aesthetic core that actually appeals to me, I get:

Clerics solve problems by getting someone else to do it for them.

Reading over the Original Dungeons and Dragons rules, the 2d6 reaction check was originally used to determine the outcome of transactions, rather than a more general way to figure out an NPC’s attitude towards the players. This meshes well with the idea of clerics doing things by proxy, but I think there is a better, easier, and more satisfying way to do that then my old warlock class.

From Monstress 1. written by Marjorie Liu,, art by Sana Takeda
Spirit Medium

Progression
HP, XP, attack bonus, saving throws as Cleric. Equipment restrictions as magic-user.

Commune
You understand and can be understood by any monster, even if you do not share a language.

Bargain
Influence a monster or band of allied monsters. You can do this to soothe hostile creatures or extract services from neutral to friendly ones. To Bargain, you must offer the monsters some form of payment and then make a reaction check. Mediums can only do this once per band of allied monsters per encounter. 

     2: The monster becomes hostile and attacks. If it was already hostile, it attacks the medium.
     3-5: The monster refuses the offer, or continues its current course of action.
     6-8: The monster refuses the offer, but will reconsider if the medium gives better terms.
     9-11: The monster accepts the offer.
     12: The monster accepts the offer and gives the medium its name.

by Bertha Lum

This is predicated on the medium offering suitable terms. Monsters pretty universally accept fresh blood (d6 HP worth for something simple like getting them to cast a 1st level spell, help in a fight, give information on the locals, or settle down if they have only a few HD, but a major secret, protection for a whole adventure, or calming a dragon could require quite a bit more); however, if the medium has an item appropriate for the monster (rare incense for a mummy, or a flower for a dryad, for example), they can use it as payment instead. These items are quite probably expensive, but they also encumber as at least 1 significant item each. Mediums can also offer to kill rivals, track down treasure, restore shrines, observe a taboo, whatever. Referees should feel free to have monsters make suggestions.

Summon
When you knows a monster’s true name, you can call it forth whenever you wish. Chant its name, carve its name into the ground, burn a paper doll with its name on it, whatever. A Turn later, it shows up, stepping out of a shadow, welling up out of the earth, or scuttling down from the ceiling. You can then Bargain with it.

Miracle
If a monster knows a spell, you can Bargain for the ability to cast it once.

Mitsukuni Defying the Skeleton Spectre Invoked by Princess Takiyasha by Utagawa Kuniyoshi

The way I use “monster” here presupposed a Princess Mononoke-esque animist universe where animals, gods, and monsters all sort of exist on the same spectrum. Mediums shouldn’t be able to use Bargain on a bandit (though it would be fun to put otherwise human magic-users in the monster category, now that I think about it). If you’re going for a more naturalist feel, you could limit Bargain to only explicitly supernatural critters (ghosts, djinni, elementals, etc).

jacinto classes, demon, djinn, spell, type v

pokédungeon

I don’t like Find Familiar or Conjure X spells in 5e D&D, and I’ve been circling around the idea on how to fix them for a while. I think this is how I will do it next time I run Type V–spells that call up a critter what does as you say, but prevents the caster from recovering the spell slot used until the creature is dismissed. This sort of amortizes the benefit of a spell slot over the course of a day, as opposed to making them a single-use get-out-of-jail-free cards. It also gives me a measure for what these creatures should be able to do–there needs to be a reason to pick this spell over any other 1st level spell. Finally, it means I don’t have to fuss with class mechanics, which is a big plus. How to implement this:

  • Wizards can get this spell as is.
  • Warlocks can get this as an Invocation that lets them use a Warlock slot to cast it 1/day.  (Being able to cast it 1/short rest would let warlocks be able to easily circumvent the cost of losing the spell for the day, since they could just dismiss the creature and take a short rest.)

I’ll probably make a version for 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th levels, as well. Stronger versions might only be for a single creature.

Minor Covenant
1st-level conjuration 

Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: 10 feet
Component: V, S, M (an opal, ruby, piece of quartz, or sapphire worth at least 50 gp)
Duration: Permanent

You summon a lesser spirit that appears in an unoccupied space that you can see in range. A spirit summoned by this spell disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or you choose to end the spell, which takes an action. As long as this spell is in effect, you cannot regain use of the spell slot you used to cast it.

The kind of material component you use determines the kind of lesser spirit this spell summons.

  • An opal summons a sylph
  • A ruby summons a least djinn
  • A piece of quartz summons an true gnome
  • A sapphire summons an undine

The spirit will not attempt to harm you or your companions. It receives its own place in initiative. The spirit obeys any verbal commands you issue it (no action required by you). If you don’t issue any commands to it, the spirit will follow you without taking any other action.

As an action, you can temporarily dismiss the lesser spirit. It disappears into the Void where it awaits your summons. As an action while it is temporarily dismissed, you can cause it to reappear in any unoccupied space within 10 feet of you.

The spirit can break free from the bonds of this spell. It may make a Wisdom save whenever

  • you give the spirit a new command
  • you insult the spirit or place it in egregious danger
  • you command the spirit to perform an action that requires it to ignore one of its compulsions or perform one of its taboos.

If the spirit succeeds its Wisdom saving throw, it breaks free from your control, becomes hostile to you and no longer obeys your commands. You cannot temporarily dismiss it, and ending the spell no longer causes the spirit to disappear, though it does allow you to recover the spell slot used to cast this spell.

Sylph

from bravely default

Small elemental, unaligned                                                          

AC: 15
HP: 6
Speed: 0 ft, fly 30 ft.                                              
STR: 4 (-3) DEX: 20 (+5) CON: 8 (-1)
INT: 10 (+0) WIS: 10 (+0) CHA: 12 (+1)                   
Skills: Perception +2, Sleight of Hand +7, Stealth +7
Damage Resistances: slashing, piercing, bludgeoning
Languages: Common, Sylvan
CR: 1/8                                                         

ABILITIES

  • Innate Spellcasting (at will): The sylph can innately cast the cantrip Gust. Its spellcasting ability is Charisma. 
  • Keen Smell: The sylph has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell. 
  • Ethereal: Sylphs can squeeze through spaces as if they were Tiny creatures

                                                                              
ACTIONS

  • Superior Invisibility: The sylph magically turns invisible until its concentration ends (as if concentrating on a spell). Any equipment the sylph wears or carries turns invisible with it.

    DISPOSITION
    Sylphs are spirits of air and propriety. They despise rudeness, ugliness, and violence, and delight in courtesy, beauty, quietude, and refined conversation. Despite their ostensibly peaceable and orderly natures, sylphs will steal, murder, and torment to punish those they have deemed transgressors. 

    from final fantasy 12 revenant wings

    True Gnome

    Medium elemental, unaligned                                                    

    AC: 11 (natural armor)
    HP: 19
    Speed: 30 ft                                                              
    STR: 15 (+2) DEX: 10 (+0) CON: 14 (+2)
    INT: 4 (-3) WIS: 12 (+1) CHA: 12 (+1)                   
    Skills: Perception +2, Nature +4
    Damage Resistances: slashing, piercing
    Languages: Common, Celestial                                 
    ABILITIES

    • Innate Spellcasting (at will): The true gnome can innately cast the cantrip Mold Earth. Its spellcasting ability is Charisma. 
    • Quiet Strength: The true gnome has advantage on Strength checks to lift, carry, bend, break, and otherwise manipulate inanimate objects

                                                                                  
    ACTIONS

    • Punch: Melee Weapon Attack. +4 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. 2d4+2 bludgeoning damage.

    DISPOSITION
    Ursulines are spirits of earth and obligation. They dislike dishonesty, destruction, and disorder, and appreciate respect for wildlife, honesty, prudence, and sleeping. 

    from final fantasy

    Least Djinni

    Small elemental, unaligned                                                    

    AC: 15 (natural armor)
    HP: 2
    Speed: 0 ft, fly 40 ft                                                              
    STR: 18 (+4) DEX: 12 (+1) CON: 10 (+0)
    INT: 10 (+0) WIS: 8 (-1) CHA: 14 (+2)                   
    Skills: Stealth +3, Athletics +6
    Damage Resistances: slashing, piercing, bludgeoning
    Damage Immunities: fire
    Languages: Common, Primordial                                 
    ABILITIES

    • Innate Spellcasting (at will): The ursuline can innately cast the cantrip Control Flames. Its spellcasting ability is Charisma. 

                                                                                  
    ACTIONS

    • Discern Desire: The least djinni touches a creature and magically knows what the creature most desires at that moment. 
    • Bite: Melee Weapon Attack, +6 to hit, 1 reach 5 ft, one target. d4+4 piercing damage, and the target must succeed in a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or become poisoned for 1 minute.
    • Invisibility: The least djinni magically turns invisible until it attacks or casts a spell, or until concentration ends (as if concentrating on a spell). Any equipment the least djinn wears or carries is invisible with it.

    DISPOSITION
    Djinn are spirits of flame and desire. They dislike equivocation, moderation, and cowardice. They love the exertion of power, achieving desires, and eating.

    Undine

    Medium elemental, unaligned                                                    

    AC: 2
    HP: 9
    Speed: 25 ft, swim 40 ft                            
    STR: 6 (+2) DEX: 12 (+1) CON: 8 (+2)
    INT: 11 (+0) WIS: 10 (+0) CHA: 16 (+3)                   
    Skills: Persuasion +5, Performance +5
    Damage Resistances: slashing, piercing, bludgeoning
    Languages: Common, Primordial                                 
    ABILITIES

    • Innate Spellcasting (at will): The undine can innately cast the cantrip Shape Water. Its spellcasting ability is Charisma. 
    • Translucency: The undine can become invisible in water as a bonus action
    • Amorphous:The undine can squeeze through a space as narrow as 1 inch without squeezing

                                                                                  
    ABILITIES

    • Claw: Melee Weapon Attack, +3 to hit, 1 reach 5 ft, one target. d6+1 piercing damage, and the target must succeed in a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or become poisoned for 1 minute.

    DISPOSITION
    Undine are spirits of water and vanity. They dislike dirt, modesty, poverty, and circumspection. They like performance, ostentation, and cleanliness. They really love drowning people.

    jacinto classes, demon, djinn, LotFP

    the happy dead

    Another revision of my summoner class, along with two more spirits.


    Las Muertas
    If a summoner learns the True Name of a dead human, they can call their spirit forth from the Lands of the Dead. These ghosts are invisible to all but their summoner (or those with the means to see magic) and care utterly incapable of interacting with the physical world. However, if their summoner commands them to possess a corpse, they can use it as an intermediary to interfere with the living. Las Muertas retain all of their knowledge, mental capacity, and abilities from life, but acquire all of the physical capabilities and limitations of their host. When a host is destroyed, its possessor is banished back to the Lands of the Dead and cannot be summoned until the following midnight.

    While the personalities and motivations of Las Muertas vary as much as the living, they are uniformly incapable of boredom, though they may enjoy some activities more than others. One of the dead can spend a decade at the bottom of a well unphased. Moreover, leaving the stultifying Lands of the Dead makes them labile and manic–Las Muertas have a notorious taste for rich food, liquor, and tobacco. 

    There are rumors of a town in the northernmost reaches of Las Taifas where summoners call up the dead and willingly release them into the Lands of the Living. The sheikhs denies such speculation.

    Búho  
    Búho is a spirit consisting of 12 porcelain owl dolls.

    • Their heads turn to face the most powerful Chaotic creature in the immediate vicinity
    • Their bodies rattle in the presence of magic. 
    • Each time someone lies in Búho’s presence, one of the dolls breaks. 

    The dolls must remain within 12 feet of each other. They can move as fast as a human, but only when nobody can see them. While unobserved, they can carry small objects. As long as an area has an egress accessible to a normal human, they can leave, even if they aren’t large or strong enough normally (so if Búho is in a room with a closed door, the dolls can leave if nobody can see them. If the door’s locked or actually a heavy portcullis, they’re stuck) If all the dolls break, Búho is banished. Búho cannot speak.

    Búho always tries to reveal secrets and uncover the truth, regardless of the consequences. The older and darker the secret, the more Búho tries to reveal it. It most commonly comes into conflict with humans when it comes across a powerful secret–murder, infidelity, falsified noble lineages. It haunts those it believes to be responsible, hoping that observers can figure out the rules of its abilities to put together the truth.

    jacinto classes, demon, djinn, LotFP

    to slay a king or rout a host

    My abridged copy of 1001 Nights is filed with dubious Victorianisms, but every once in a while it just really comes together. The genie Al-Ra’ad Al-Kasif to the puckishly homocidal fisherman Judar:

    Ask what thou wilt and it shall be given to thee. Hast thou a mind to people a ruined city or ruin a populous one? To slay a king or rout a host?

    So now I’m thinking about summoner types again. The last iteration was a bit too complicated and wasn’t quite doing what I wanted it to do. Here is yet another iteration, one that’s probably pretty close to complete, incorporating some advice from +Arnold K.

    Summoner 3.0
    by Kawanabe Kyōsa


    HP, XP, Saves as magic-user
    Summoners cannot perform magic under their own power, and instead call forth spirits to do it for them. First, a summoner must acquire the true name of a spirit. They can do this by finding it while adventuring or extracting it from the spirit itself, through trickery, violence, or diplomacy. Then, they must bind it. This is analogous to a magic-user preparing spells; the spirits a summoner has bound determines which ones they can summon over the course of a day. Finally, they can summon the spirit, which requires the traditional Loyalty roll (2d6 under a target number between 3 and 12).

    At midnight, summoners can bind spirits whose true names they know. This takes as long as a magic-user memorizing spells from a spell book. Bound spirits, whether they are currently summoned or not, count against a summoner’s retainer total (if applicable to your rules of choice. Otherwise, they can bind a number of spirits equal to half level+Cha mod).

    Summoning a spirit takes as long as casting a spell. When you summon a spirit, make a Loyalty check to see if you retain control of it. A spirit’s base Loyalty is increased by 1/3 your level (if your ruleset of choice does not provide a method for retainer loyalty, start it at 6) If you succeed, the spirit performs a single task for you to the best of its ability, then returns to the void, ready to be summoned again. If you fail, the spirit is free to do as it pleases until you subdue it or bind it again. Malicious spirits will attack you or otherwise sabotage your progress, while benign or neutral spirits will just leave or watch you get eaten by skeletons.

    • If you command a spirit to cast a spell, add the spell level to the 2d6 roll.
    • Spirits commanded to perform exceedingly long-terms tasks might require multiple Loyalty rolls. A spirit commanded to guard its summoner for an entire day would require Loyalty rolls every time it sustained significant damage, for example.
    • For every spirit you have currently summoned, you suffer a -1 penalty to Loyalty rolls.
    • Spirits have their own motives and personalities. If you command a spirit to act against its truest nature, you suffer a -1 to -3 penalty to the Loyalty roll, depending on how egregious the breach of its code would be.
    • You can gain a +1 bonus to a single Loyalty roll by giving the spirit an offering. This can be anything from a bottle of rum to a live goat, but the upshot is a single offering encumbers at least as a significant item and costs at least 50gp×the spirit’s HD.
    • A summoner can banish any spirit under their control at will, but they must be in earshot.
    • Spirits that die return to the void, and cannot be summoned until bound again.

    Example Spirits
    Inklings

    from legend of zelda: wind waker

    Spirits of hexed ink and sublimated shadow, about as intelligent as a human toddler. They possess a catlike susceptibility to affection, but also delight in cruelty.

    Stats: As goblin
    Can spider-climb and squeeze through spaces coin-sized or larger. Inklings take d4 damage per turn in lightless environments are their substance bleeds off into the ambient darkness.

    from dark souls 2

    Agrode
    A crow the size of a mastiff. She has many red eyes, and speaks through the small human face hidden inside her beak. She is obscene, manic, funny, and enthusiastically anthropophagous. Agrode holds power over sight and thought.

    Agrode adores children, and most commonly comes into conflict with humans when she starts kidnapping sons and daughters. Despite the fact that she is a giant, filthy, demonic crow, she actually takes quite good care of them, loving them with all her evil heart and teaching them all the secrets of her wicked wisdom. Some of the greatest witches in history were raised by Agrode. Occassionally, desperate parents leave their children out where Agrode is known to roost. She gratefully accepts them, then kills the parents for neglect.

    Stats: As giant bat, no blood drain, Alignment is Chaotic
    Can cast Comprehend/Obscure Languages, Phantasmal Force, and Forget at will. She can cast Charm Person at will, but only on those below the age of 18.

    from final fantasy xii

    The Queen of Lions
    The spirit of the Queen of Sheba’s consort. Her features are concealed behind red lacquer armor and samite, but she stands a full head taller than the tallest man. She is taciturn, patient, suspicious of magicians, and wrathful towards liars. Hers are the powers of fortitude and purity.

    Stats: As Ogre, Alignment is Lawful, cannot be harmed by man-made weapons
    Can Turn Undead as a 3rd level Cleric, can speak to animals

    Al-Ra’ad al-Kasif

    from tales of vesperia

    An ifrit, once immensely powerful, now sadly dissipated. He appears as a louche, middle-aged man in rich clothes. He is a knowledgeable accountant and talented lawyer, though leaving him to his own devices in financial matters is not necessarily wise, as his reach exceeds his considerable grasp.

    Al-Ra’ad is a traditionalist djinn, and does not try to push too hard against his summoner’s orders. However, he desperately wishes to repair his ring, broken millennia ago by the wife of an old master, in hopes of restoring his former power. He is also a gourmand and a minor alcoholic, and his appetites occasionally surpass his best efforts and good intentions.

    Stats: As Gnoll, Alignment is Lawful
    Can Change Self at will. Al-Ra’ad is abnormally strong, and can carry twice as many items as normal. He can easily perform any feat of Strength a normal human is capable of, and automatically succeeds all such Strength checks. He only makes checks for tasks that would exceed the capabilities of a single person.

    jacinto classes, djinn, is this gonna work, LotFP

    bound djinni class

     Bound Djinni
    a class for Old School D&D-alikes
    by edmund dulac

    HP, XP, Saves, Attack Bonus, Equipment Restrictions as Elf.

    You are a spirit of flame and desire, sealed inside a magical vessel such as a ring, lamp, or sword. You must obey the commands of the person who holds your vessel. In fact, you must try to bring about all desires they verbally express in your hearing, whether they want you to or not (they can, of course, tell you to immediately stop what you are doing). You must always follow the letter of your vessel-carrier’s wishes, though you can otherwise interpret them however you want. This isn’t a matter of threat of punishment–this is simply what bound djinn do, though they certainly don’t always like it.

    You do not need to eat, drink, breathe, or sleep. However, once you have completed all outstanding wishes, you are compelled to return to their vessel until called forth again. You must be within a few feet of your vessel into enter it. You cannot take any items with you.

    Djinn vessels are indestructible, barring Wish-level magic, the fire of an ancient dragon, or divine intervention. Should you manage to get your vessel destroyed, you will be free to do as you please, assuming a magician doesn’t manage to cram you into a snuff box again.

    Water and earth are anathema to djinn. You take d4 damage per turn of submersion or interment. 

    by edmund dulac

    Act of Change
    When outside of your vessel, you can assume any shape you desire, within the parameters of Polymorph Self or Disguise Self. However, your height and length cannot exceed twice your level in feet. Changing shape is also tiring–every time you do so, Save vs Magic or take d4 Constitution damage. You do not need to make this Save the first time you assume a shape after resting inside your prison.

    Act of Creation
    Starting at level 3, you can create objects from nothing, but only to fulfill a command by the owner of your djinn-prison. The total value in gold pieces of objects you create over the course of a day cannot exceed your current experience total divided by 10. If a created object leaves your presence a number of turns greater than your level, it vanishes into black smoke. Djinni-created food and drink nourishes like any other meal if eaten before it vanishes.

    Act of Strength
    Starting at level 5, when in human or demihuman form, you can easily perform any feat of Strength a normal human is capable of and automatically succeed all such Strength checks. You only need to make Strength checks for tasks that would surpass the abilities of a single person. You can carry twice as many objects without being encumbered, as well. This does not confer any bonuses to combat.

    Act of Nature
    Starting at level 7, when in human or demihuman form, you can fly on a whirlwind at will, albeit clumsily, as the Chariot of Air spell.

    Act of Desire
    At level 9, you can grant a Limited Wish to the possessor of your vessel 1/week.

    Etc

    • Typically, the carrier of a djinni’s prison is another PC, though it could be some magician who decided to give the mercenaries a little help. The relationship between a bound djinni and the carrier of their prison comes down to the players, though circumstances will probably conspire to keep them from outright wanting to kill each other–if a djinni engineers a TPK, they might end up stuck in their prison in the bottom of a dungeon for a couple centuries.
    • If you see a tower of diamond or a castle of steel, it probably has a powerful djinni bound at the bottom, supporting the structure’s existence with their presence. Releasing them destroys the edifice, and releases a barely-sane spirit of epochal rage into the world at large.
    • You could have a djinn-binder class who has half thief skill progression and MU XP who automatically gets an NPC djinni. For the semi-competent hero who stumbles onto awesome magical power.
    • There are plenty of people who want a bound djinni of their own. Careless owners of a djinn-prison might find their former servants fighting against them.