jacinto monsters, Pernicious Albion

Secret Trash

Three Lore Garbage facts about Albion:

  1. There are two secret cardinal directions in Albion, both orthogonal to the conventional four. Going Deathwise leads one closer to the Hereafters. Going there is generally a one way trip, but travelers can stop at the Sunless Lands, the miserable marches beyond the Lands of the Living where the angels, demons, and vampires make their courts. The opposite direction, Whimwards, leads into the Kingdom of Faerie, ruled by the King of Roses Red and his sprawling, decadent court. 
  2. Death is a physical entity in Albion. It is responsible for ensuring that the deceased transition to the Hereafters properly and employs a vast, sclerotic bureaucracy of psychopomps and demigods to fulfill its duty. Known as the House of Death, it largely does its job, but history is filled with powerful magicians who extended their lives by banishing, imprisoning, or binding the psychopomps sent to collect their souls. Death always wins out in the end, however–neutralizing a psychopomp means that the House will eventually get around to sending something more powerful to find out what happened to one of their agents, and at the top of the hierarchy is Death itself. (Functionally, this means rather than a Death and Dismemberment roll, there’s a Les Petites Morts table that determines which psychopomp is coming to scoop out your soul, and what you can do to stop them)
  3. Hell sent the Infernal Expeditionary Army to occupy Albion centuries ago. It failed utterly, but its leaders decided to stay–the climate was lot better, and they only had an eternity of excruciating punishment to look forward to if they returned. Now their general and her officers pass their time by waging perennial war against the angels the vampire warlords in the Sunless Lands, collecting souls and sowing sin all the while.

Here’s a monster: 
Vestal of Cinder
HD 10 Speed human (hover)
Armor none Attack throw Black Fire (as greataxe, see below)
Morale 12 Alignment Lawful
 
Vestal Virgins who blasphemously immolated themselves in the sacred flames they tended, charred skeletons in pristine white vestments. There are thirteen in all the world, and they serve Vesta Mortua, Goddess of the Cold Hearth. In their freezing temples, they endlessly perform the rituals that sustain the necromantic legacy of fallen Rome.

Vestals of Cinder can cast Necromancy spells as a 10th level magician.

Any flame ignited or tended by a Vestal of Cinder is Black Fire, which sheds cold and dark rather than heat and light. Just as true flame burns the living to death, Black Fire burns the dead back to life, raising them as malevolent undead creatures with the abilities, appearance, and knowledge they had when they lived. 

When a Vestal of Cinder dies, her body reforms in the Black Fires of her home temple the following midnight. These flames can only be extinguished through supreme magical effort–a powerful Angel of Seas or a huge quantity of Clarified Water might do the job.

Inverse Revenant
HD as in life Speed human
Armor as worn Attack as wielded weapon
Morale 12 Alignment Neutral
 
Black Fire is inverse flame, and those burned to life by it share that quality. Inverse revenants retain the memories, abilities, and attributes they possessed in life, and appear as a mirror image of their living selves. Inverse revenants do not retain their personality–they are all malicious, albeit loyal, servants of whoever started the fire that raised them. They speak to each other backwards and will do anything to avoid the sight of their own reflection. 

jacinto angels, clerics, LotFP, monsters, Pernicious Albion, spell

Lawful Awful

The Watchers are secret society of humans who have pledged themselves to the cause of the Grigori. The communicate with each other through coded messages and dreams, arranged by their angelic patrons. Most Watchers are just regular people with eccentric religious views and a casual disregard for the kind of bodily harm their masters tend to cause, but a few have been transformed as a reward for their service.

Soteriomancer
HD 2-10 Speed human
Armor none Attack staff
Morale 10 Alignment Lawful
Magicians who have sworn to aid the Grigori. They are often members of Albion’s occult aristocratic class, keeping their allegiances secret as they sabotage their fellows and excavate sleeping angels.

Soteriomancers function as magicians with levels equal to their HD. They know a number of Spiritualism spells equal to half their level and can expend any prepared spell to cast Refine Corpus instead.

Refine Corpus
The caster transforms a single human within 10 ft into a more virtuous being. The caster can apply half their level to the target’s saving throw if they so choose. This miracle has 7 variations. Soteriomancers acquire a new variation every level in ascending orders. 

  1. Subtly alters the brain structure of the target, preventing them from ever sleeping again. The target may make a Save vs Magic; on a success, they no longer need to sleep anyway. On a failure, they will suffer the effects of sleep deprivation until they go mad and die.
  2. Sublimates the target’s digestive organs into nothing. The target may make a Save vs Magic; on a success, they can subsist purely on aether and no longer need to eat or drink. On a failure, they will die or thirst and starvation during the days to come.
  3. Destroys the ability of the target’s body to regulate its temperature–they no longer produce body heat and cannot sweat or shiver. The target may Save vs Magic; on a success, they are completely untroubled by any temperature a natural climate can produce; on a failure, they die of hypothermia over the next few hours as their body becomes room temperature.
  4. The target’s lungs and associated respiratory organs dissolve into intangible golden dust. The target may make a Save vs Magic; on a success; they no longer need to breath. On a failure, they will quickly suffocate.
  5. The target no longer ages. The target may Save vs Magic; on a success, they may enjoy their new immortality. On a failure, this stasis prevents their body from healing itself–all wounds they suffer become permanent and all damage they take affects their maximum HP
  6. The target becomes perfectly androgynous and biologically sexless. The target may Save vs Magic; on a success, they become immune to Charm spells. On a failure, they henceforth automatically fail all Saves vs Poison/Death.
  7. The target must Save vs Magic or be enthralled by the soteriomancer, pledging themselves to the cause of the Grigori with no thought of previous alliance. They also undergo the seven previous versions of Refine Corpus, one per Turn in ascending order, automatically succeeding each saving throw. On the seventh Turn, they transform into an angel with HD equal to their level rounded to the nearest multiple of 3. 

Lazarene Knight
HD 1-10 Speed human
Armor none Attack sword
Morale 12 Alignment Lawful

from Darkest Dungeon

The body of a great warrior, mummified and possessed by the soul of a particularly virtuous Watcher. They wear winged golden armor, and beneath are wrapped in bandages anointed with myrrh. All Lazarene Knights carry a massive bronze jar and their back, which they use to capture souls and spirits. Knights can be Turned as undead, which is the subject of a number of heated theological debates.

Lazarene Knights can cast Soul Harvest at will. Captured souls are trapped in the Knight’s jar and Charmed/infatuated with the angel that raised the Lazarene Knight from the dead. When encountered, Knights start with d6+1 souls in their jar.

A Knight can expend 1 soul to do any of the following:

  • Send the soul to the Hereafter that creates a pillar of golden fire that deals d6×half HD of the soul
  • Have the soul animate and control a number of HD of undead equal to its own HD. This purges any disease, decay, and corruption from the bodies.
  • Send the soul to possess someone. This functions as the Bewitch/Charm Person spell. 
  • Allow the soul to possess them. This heals the Knight for d6×half HD of the soul, and causes the Knight to speak in first person plural.
jacinto clerics, LotFP, Pernicious Albion

Albion Jobs and Hangout Session 2

I lost the notes and posts where I kept track of everything, so I’m eyeballin’ it and will do a better job this time.

Session 1: 150 XP, £100 each for the ornamental Roman armor
Session 2: 600 XP, £200 for the various goods you stole, and £1500 to be divided among you for bringing the courtier back. You also have the Engine of Avode and a barge called The Pike. You just got back to Queen’s Crossing. 

You owe Madam Eugenia £50 for rent, and she’s posted the following jobs:

From the Royal Society
A team of scholars has disappeared on an expedition to Osric’s Tor. £1,500 for returning them alive; £750 for returning their remains. We will also pay for any antiquities safely recovered from the site. Speak Professor Lately at the Queen’s College for the particulars. 

From Magus Banister
Some prole saw a carbuncle scuttle into the abandoned grotto at old Stockade Hill. Get me its Carbuncular Matrix before those simpering pretenders from the Zoological Society do. £2,000.

SESSION RECAP
Scavenger’s Weir is a town that consists of a network of islands connected by a series of weirs and bridges. The party was hired by the Postmaster of Queen’s Crossing to find some missing couriers.

  1. The people of Scavenger’s Weir were weird and pushy. Mr. and Mrs. Clasp, the town’s mayoral couple, REALLY INSISTED that they have the party for tea. Tilda the Summoner slipped away to visit an ex-nun the Clasps had badmouthed, and who had tried to get them a message.
  2. Mrs. Clasp tried to force the rest of the gang to eat her food. They got into a fight with her, and she proved to be a lot tougher than her delicate exterior would suggest, especially after said exterior cracked away beneath their weapons, revealing something approximately like the following. Her attacks make the party slow and sluggish.
  3.  Tilda the Summoner comes back with Sister Joanna, nun of the Queen Mother. She then summons a salamander, which burns down the house. Mrs. Clasp runs out with the party, reassuming her disguise. Nobody bothers to rescue the explains that she’s a demon, looking for a device stolen from her, which she had tracked here. She hadn’t been able to spirit the device out of town, because the Scavengers were abusing it to rob people and guarded it jealously. 
  4. Tilda’s salamander breaks from her control, and the party subdues it.
  5. Joanna, seeing Mrs. Clasp as a demon, fights her. They both end up in the water. The ruckus from the burning house attracts the attention of the townspeople, who lock the party up in a warehouse. 
  6. They escape with their cell-mate (one of the missing couriers), managing to acquire the key and kill both of their guards. Tilda summons the salamander, which again breaks from her control and sets the warehouse on fire.
  7. Hearing the Scavengers coming, they flee through a hidden trapdoor the courier points out to them, leading to the interior of the island.
  8. They fight their way past some Scavengers. Jessica the Vampire the blood one while he was dying. As they walk down the passage, he reanimates and attacks them, but is killed.
  9. The remaining townspeople, having heard the ruckus (guns are loud!), holed themselves up in the final room. They’re open fire when the party opens the door, so they throw all their loose gunpowder and shot into the room and send Tilda’s salamander after it. The explosion kills all of them, as well as the fighter Bartholomew III (I think?). 
  10. The party finds a large, conch-like device, filled with gears and with an X on it. Goldenloin the warlock calls on Penemue to translate the inscription on it, which reads “ENGINE OF AVODE/THAT DEMON OF LANGUOR”
  11. Through experimentation, they find that the X is a Roman numeral, and that it will put people to sleep if they feed it 10 HP worth of blood. People that have given into temptation associated with Avode (presumably the real name of Mrs. Clasp) are particularly susceptible. 
  12. They use the Engine of Avode on the townspeople who were waiting in the ruins of the warehouse, and took a scavenged barge back to Queen’s Crossing.

LESSONS LEARNED

  1. I’m going to do initiative by phase. Initiative determines who goes first within a phase.. I’m terrible with initiative and fitting monster actions logically within a round, so hopefully the extra structure will help. Brendan’s Final Castle playtest made me like the phase system.
    1. Ranged attacks
    2. Melee attacks
    3. Magic. If you want to cast a spell and you’ve taken damage that round, make a save or roll on a calamity table.
  2. The Engine of Avode is pretty powerful, but it will attract a lot of unpleasant attention. Haven’t tried something like that before (they sure never saw Avode die, did they?), but we’ll see how it goes. Politicking and navigating various factions is an important part of Albion, so having magic items be the center of a power struggle fits.
jacinto is this gonna work, new age dnd, Pernicious Albion, type v

Lamentations of the Fifth Princess

I actually like having a robust skill system. I don’t like players using skills to bludgeon past making choices. As a compromise, my new golden rule is: The player always explains their in-game actions, then the Referee tells them what skill they use. Saying “I use [skill]” means you automatically fail your next roll.

Still using LotFP HP, XP, and Spells. Using 5e’s equipment, skill, and armor system.

Your proficiency bonus equals 2. Increase it by 1 every 4 levels, or just use the 5e Player’s Handbook. Everyone is assumed to be proficient in armor; only Fighters, Barbarians, and Paladins are proficient with weapons.

Fighters

  • add their proficiency bonus to attack rolls, rather than level
  • add their proficiency bonus to Strength and Dexterity saving throws 
  • Fighters can make a number of attacks on their turn equal to half their proficiency bonus, rounded down.

Barbarians

  • Add their proficiency bonus to attack rolls
  • add their proficiency bonus to Strength and Constitution saving throws
  • Barbarians take half damage, deal double damage, and have advantage on Strength checks when they rage. They can rage once per short rest.
  • XP as Fighter

Paladins

  • Add their proficiency bonus to attack rolls
  • Add their proficiency bonus to Constitution and Wisdom saving throws
  • Once per short rest, paladins can cast spells a cleric spell with a level less than or equal to half their level, rounded up
  • Spell Save DC = 8+proficiency bonus+Wis modifier
  • XP as Fighter

Specialists

  • Have a number of mastered skills/tools  equal to half their proficiency bonus, rounded down. Specialists have advantage by default on mastered skills.
  • Start with 2 extra skills and 2 extra tools/languages
  • When they attack a surprised or inattentive enemy, they add their proficiency bonus to the attack roll and roll an extra number of damage dice equal to their proficiency bonus. 
  • add their proficiency bonus to Strength and Dexterity saving throws 

Magic-user/Magician

  • Spell Save DC = 8+proficiency bonus+Int modifier
  • know a number of cantrips equal to their proficiency bonus. You can choose cantrips from any class list, but it can’t cause damage or shed light. You can still choose Produce Flame, but it deals d6 damage and doesn’t deal increasing damage.
  • add their proficiency bonus to Intelligence and Wisdom saving throws

Summoners

  • Add their proficiency bonus to Ritual Checks instead of their level
  • can Turn Spirits once per short rest
  • add their proficiency bonus to Wisdom and Charisma saving throws

Warlocks

  • Favor Save DC = 8+proficiency bonus+Cha modifier
  • Know a number of additional languages equal to half their proficiency bonus, rounded down.
  • add their proficiency bonus to Intelligence and Charisma saving throws

Background
Pick four skills and a total of two tool and language proficiencies. Pick a background ability from the 5e basic pdf or handbook, whichever is available. If you have an idea that’s not in the book, let me know and we can work it out. Then give your background a name that explains how you have these skills (Scholar, Beggar, Assassin, whatever)

Skills

  • Persuasion and Deception are now Charm
  • Athletics and Acrobatics are now just Athletics. 
  • Survival and Nature are now one skill. The only reason you’d have both is to distinguish a hunter from a botanist, and I don’t fucking care about that. 
  • Insight and Investigation are gone.
  • Performance is gone

Animal Handling
Arcana
Athletics
Charm
History
Intimidation
Medicine
Perception
Nature
Religion
Sleight of Hand
Stealth

Tools
In addition to the default:
Barber’s tools
Dowsing Rod
Medic’s kit
Voice (I know it’s not a tool, but I don’t like Performance as a skill, and an Albion without opera singers in no Albion at all)

Languages
Picking a language from this list means you can read it and speak it. Everyone already speaks English, so pick it again if you want to be literate.

Ara Gorash, language of abomination 
Britonnic,  the old tongue of Albion
Elegaic, language of the greater dead
English
Enochian, language of angels
Fol, language of the fairies
Lament, language of the lesser dead and the damned
Mew, the language of cats

jacinto encounters, LotFP, monsters, Pernicious Albion, table

Albion Encounter Tables

Albion’s wilderness encounter tables use 3d6. I like the distribution on this–the tail ends of the bell curve have scary/useful NPCs, while the middle bits have more common monsters and criminals.

Another trick I’m interested in trying is having monster/NPC behavior tied to the number you encounter. For example, if the Referee determines that the party encounters d6 goblins, a roll of 2 or less means that you meet 2 goblins fleeing from something else on the encounter table, while a roll of 5 or more means they are hauling a little extra treasure after a victory. This lets you vary encounters more without relying in longer tables or lots of extra dice rolling.

3d6 In the windy moors of Albion…

  • 3: The Morrígan (ancient Britonnic war-witch, majordomo of the House of Death, potential warlock signatory)
  • 4: Merchant with 2d6 bodyguards; if there are 9+, they plan on robbing their employer
  • 5: Noble with 2d6 bodyguards; if there are 9+, they are transporting a prisoner
  • 6: d6+3 knights; if there are 7+, they have sworn fealty to the lord of the nearest domain; on a 6-, they are on a mission from a distant domain
  • 7: d6+3 Watcher Cultists
  • 8: Shepherd (armed with a gun) with d6+1 Albion hounds and 3d6 sheep
  • 9: Malkin (enormous, evil cats)
  • 10: 2d6 bandits; if there are 10+, they are hauling £2d100 in trade goods
  • 11: 2d6 wolves; if there are 10+, they are attacking another creature on this table
  • 12: 2d6 Britons; if there are 7+, they are being pursued by constables
  • 13: Spakehound
  • 14: d6 Wights
  • 15: 2d6 Vampires, level equals 13-No. Appearing. Masquerading as (1-Nobles 2-Magician and servants 3-Bandits 4-Knights)
  • 16. 2d6 Werewolves, level equals 13-No. Appearing. Masquerading as (1-Bandits 2-Britons 3-Merchant and bodyguards 4-Hunters)
  • 17. Magician and d6 bodyguards. If there are 4+, the magician intends to use them in a ritual
  • 18. Lady of Joy-forgotten (sybaritic fairy-noble recently banished from her domain by a rival aristocrat)
jacinto classes, i am sick, LotFP, Pernicious Albion, spell

Warlock 3.0

Warlock, a class for Lamentations of the Flame Princess
HP, XP, and Saving Throws as Magic-user

 

Albion crawls with failed divinity: fallen angels, dethroned fairy queens, rogue incubi, all the exiles and rejects of Faerie and the Hereafter. While most look upon these beings as gods or demons, to be feared or adored, warlocks are those cunning or foolish individuals who instead see opportunity. Eschewing the hard study of magicians and the enlightenment of clerics, warlocks rely on their talent as rhetors to broker deals with these beings. All power they gain is through trade, and so they must constantly perform servies or find payments for their patrons. This struggle often pushes warlocks into the ranks of Albion’s freelancers and mercenaries.

The locus of a warlock’s magical power is her contract, which contains the seals and signatures of every spirit with which she has formed a pact. Contracts describe the kinds of requests signatories will grant, as well as the kinds of tasks the warlock will perform in return. Signatories reward warlocks who have proved their worth and make a greater range of favors available as they gain levels.

A warlock starts with a contract with a single spirit. She may add any number of spirits to her contract, but must first find them and make them signatories, usually in return for a some sort of service.

A warlock can request favors from her signatories as often as she wishes. However, spirits are fickle; they may grant the request without question, demand payment, or punish the warlock for pestering them unless appeased in some way. Warlocks do not need to settle their debts to signatories immediately, but outstanding obligations sour a spirit’s disposition and make it more difficult to extract favors from them.

Signatory: Old Queen Mab
She was ancient when the heath lay deep beneath the sea.
Sphere: Curses
As the sometime Queen of Faerie, Mab above all else desires revenge against the King of Roses Red, who deposed her, and the supposed allies who let him. When she speaks with her vassals, she seizes control of a nearby animal or weak-willed human and speaks through their mouth.

The Curse of Many Lances
Prerequisite: 1st level Warlock
Mab inflicts a curse of the warlock’s design that pertains to lances, bleeding, wounds, or impalement.

The Curse of Stitched Eye
Prerequisite: 3rd level Warlock 
Mab inflicts a curse of the warlock’s design that pertains to dreams, insomnia, sleep, or sleep walking.

The Curse of Eternal Darkness
Prerequisite: 5th level Warlock
Mab inflicts a curse of the warlock’s design that pertains to darkness, night, occlusion, or the color black.

The Curse of Chains
Prerequisite: 7th level Warlock 
Mab inflicts a curse of the warlock’s design that pertains to bondage, chains, imprisonment, limitation, or servitude.

The Curse of Changed Flesh
Prerequisite: 9th level Warlock 
Mab inflicts a curse of the warlock’s design that pertains to metamorphosis or any other sort of bodily transformation.

For the Referee
When a warlock calls on their signatory, the Referee makes a reaction roll to determine their initial disposition. Most favors should be no more effective than a spell a magician of the warlock’s level could cast. If they are more powerful, apply a penalty; signatories should grant extravagant requests either in modified form or in return for very difficult or dangerous services.

Feel free to apply bonuses or penalties based on the situation—favors that align with a signatory’s goals (or at least amuse them) might get a bonus, while those that offend a signatory’s sensibilities might receive a penalty.

  • Malicious: The signatory harms the warlock or otherwise complicates their situation in a manner pertaining to their Sphere, and the warlock takes a -1 penalty to the next reaction roll with this signatory
  • Annoyed: The signatory harms the warlock or otherwise complicates their situation in a manner pertaining to their Sphere
  • Bored: The signatory does nothing.
  • Interested: The signatory is inclined to grant the warlock’s request
  • Cooperative: The signatory is inclined to grant the warlock’s request, and the warlock gains a +1 bonus to the next reaction roll with this signatory.

Once the Referee has made the reaction roll, the warlock must actually convince their signatory to perform the favor. This proceeds like any other conversation with an NPC. The warlock says what they want, the signatory states their price, and then they haggle. However, this requires a great deal of extemporizing, so here is a heuristic to use if you get stuck:

There are three broad classes of things signatories want: Sacrifices, Rituals, and Services. Agreeing to perform a Ritual or Sacrifice each increases a signatory’s reaction by 1 step. Agreeing to perform a Service has a variable effect, depending on its difficulty and complexity, but a Service that takes a session to complete should increase the signatory’s reaction by two steps.

Warlocks do not need to perform Sacrifices, Rituals, or Services immediately, but for every outstanding Ritual or Sacrifice, the warlock takes an cumulative -1 penalty to signatory reaction Rolls. Services cause a -2 penalty to signatory reaction rolls.

Rituals
When a warlock offers to perform a Ritual in negotiation, roll on the following table to determine which the signatory wants.
Performing a ritual takes 1 Turn and requires chalk and incense.

  1. Perform a ritual over the body of a recently slain foe, claiming their soul for the signatory.
  2. Perform a ritual to summon an agent of the signatory into the area.
  3. Perform a ritual to banish a rival’s influence from the area.
  4. Perform a ritual to attune the area to the signatory’s sphere.
  5. Perform a ritual to erase all evidence of the signatory’s meddling.
  6. Capture someone nearby and compel or convince them to swear a binding oath, making them an agent of the signatory.

Sacrifices
When a warlock offers to perform a Sacrifice in negotiation, roll on the following table to determine which the signatory wants.
Sacrifices take 1 Round. Sacrificing a live, healthy goat (1 Turn) takes the place of any Sacrifice.

  1. Blood: d6+level damage
  2. Flesh: d4 Strength damage
  3. Grace: d4 Dexterity damage
  4. Judgment: d4 Wisdom damage
  5. Nous: d4 Charisma damage
  6. Time: incapacitated for d6 Turns
  7. Vigor: d4 Constitution damage
  8. Wit: d4 Intelligence damage 

Services
Queen Mab’s services usually involve some of the following:

Objects

  1. Explosives
  2. Poison
  3. Regalia
  4. An exquisite meal
  5. A curse
  6. An ancient and enchanted weapon
  7. A treaty from times primeval
  8. A parasol
  9. A gown
  10. A rose

People

  1. A spy
  2. A knight
  3. A child
  4. A cook
  5. A maid
  6. A shepherd
  7. A lord or lady
  8. An ambassador
  9. A magician
  10. The King of Roses Red

Incidents

  1. Sabotage
  2. Assassination
  3. Marriage
  4. Sowing the earth with salt
  5. Framing someone for a crime
  6. Transformation
  7. Defenestration
  8. Decapitation
  9. Burial
  10. A feast

Locations

  1. A busy kitchen
  2. A terrible prison
  3. A haunted barrow
  4. A decaying castle
  5. A splendid ballroom
  6. The cold and empty moor
  7. The Kingdom of Faerie
  8. A moonlit glade
  9. A backwater village
  10. A haberdashery

Dispositions

  1. A hated rival
  2. A friend betrayed
  3. A wrathful widow(er)
  4. A murderous parent
  5. An erstwhile ally
  6. An aging guardian
  7. A fading beauty
  8. A vengeful victim
  9. An old friend
  10. A loyal servant
    jacinto angels, clerics, LotFP, Pernicious Albion, table

    Advanced Angelology

    RUMORS

    1. The Grigori Fell because they gave knowledge to humanity before the divinely appointed time.
    2. Even the angels do not know why they were banished from Heaven.
    3. The Grigori live in the Sunless Lands because it is closer to Paradise.
    4. The Grigori are actually just demons. They look like that to confuse you.
    5. The Grigori snatch people up and take them to Heaven, in hopes that God will forgive them
    6. If the Grigori catch you, they will whisper spells into your ear until you think like them.
    7. The Grigori see out of the eyes of their Watchers
    8. If you become a Watcher, the Grigori will carry you to Heaven when you die
    9. If you become a Watcher, the Grigori will eat your soul when you die
    10. There are exactly 2401 Grigori in the world.
    11. If you use a Grigori’s weapon, it will hunt you down for stealing it.
    12. The Grigori fight endlessly against the legions of Hell.
    13. Out in the wilderness, there’s a paradise built by angels.
    14. The Grigori are secretly allies with the legions of Hell.
    15. Some Grigori are buried underground, trapped there when they Fell.
    16. The fairies are children of the Grigori
    17. The giants are children of the Grigori
    18. If you swear yourself into their service, some Grigori will tell you their secrets
    19. Grigori can’t be harmed by humans.
    20. The hearts of the Grigori are giant jewels.

    Angel/Grigori
    HD: Variable
    AC: 18/Armor Gematria
    Damage: Angelic Weapon, based on sphere
    MV: 1.5x Unencumbered human (fly and hover)
    Alignment: Lawful, duh

    Angels’ abilities are determine by their Sphere, Domain, and Weapon. They always have goals related to their domain; Angels of Love will try to matchmake while Angels of the Truth will try to bring old crimes to light. They are unsubtle, react with violence when opposed in any way, and have such a poor understanding of human anatomy that they can easily kill someone on accident. The Grigori are not stupid, however, and often work through human proxies.
     
    Armor Gematria: Angels do not take damage that is a multiple of or contains the same digit as their sphere. So an Angel of the Sixth Sphere would suffer no HP loss if their attacker rolled 6, 12, 16, or 18 damage. Angels of the First Sphere only take damage that is a multiple of 13 or 666.

    SPHERE

    1. First Sphere: 21 HD
    2. Second Sphere: 18 HD
    3. Third Sphere: 15 HD
    4. Fourth Sphere: 12 HD
    5. Fifth Sphere: 9 HD
    6. Sixth Sphere: 6 HD
    7. Seventh Sphere: 3 HD
    8. Reroll, has lost its weapon

    DOMAIN

    1. Artifice
      • Can cast Major Creation at will without the material component
      • Can cause any man-made device to cease function
    2. Death
      • Those who see its dreadful countenance must Save vs Poison or be reduced to 0 HP
      • Can Speak With Dead and Animate Dead at will
      • While in line of sight of the angel, when any creature makes a saving throw that would prevent instant death, they roll twice and take the lower result
      • While in line of sight of the angel, all HP recover is as half as effective.
    3. Dreams
      • Immune to sleep spells. 
      • Can physically enter dreams
      • Can cast Sleep and Change Self at will. 
      • Can create a waking dream at will. This functions as casting Phantasmal Supergoria, except that the illusion can consist of any number of objects and creatures with no volume restriction and can target all creatures in line of sight of the angel. Watchers, though insane, generally retain their sense of fair play and will not dream anyone into the bottom of the ocean or the center of the Earth unless they’re really angry.
    4. Fire
      • Immune to heat and flame. 
      • Wrapped in a fiery shroud with a radius equal to its HD in feet that deals damage equal to its HD per Turn/10 minutes and ignites anything flammable. 
      • Can cast Heat Metal, Resist Fire, and Faerie Fire at will.
      • Can snuff flame with a volume equal to 10*HD in cubic feet.
    5. Fury
      • Can cast Howl of the Moon at full potency at any time. 
      • For every 25% of its HP it loses, the angel doubles in size and deals an extra d8 damage with melee attacks.
    6. Life: 
      • The angel can change its shape into that of any non-magical animal
      • Can create a non-magical animal once per day
      • Can speak with animals
      • Can Charm animals with no saving throw.
      • The angel can raise the dead, though there are Consequences.
    7. Love
      • At will, the angel can make any two sentient creatures in line of sight fall in love with each other; both must Save vs Magic or feel as though they had successfully and simultaneously cast Charm Person on each other. If one saves and the other doesn’t, the love is unreciprocated, and if anyone succeeds on their save to resist the angel’s power, they are forever immune to it.
    8. Mathematics: Once per Turn, the Angel can ban a quantity of numbers equal to 8-its sphere.
      • Whenever a dice roll results in a banned number, the check counts as a failure, the damage counts as 0, or the random roll results in nothing.
      • If you are using a grid, no one can move a number of spaces equal to a banned number
      • Groups with a banned number of members cannot approach the angel; if “1”, “2”, and “4” are banned, a party of 5 combatants could only attack the angel as a group of 3 or 5.
      • While in line of sight of the angel, any representations of a banned number are illegible, and no one can say the number’s name.
      • The angel cannot ban the same number two Turns in row.
    9. Moon
      • Can cast Veil, Disguise Self, and Faerie Fire at will
      • Can cast Reverse Gravity once. 1 in 12 chance each Turn/10 minutes of regaining the ability to cast.
    10. Mercy
      • No one under the gaze of the angel can feel pain. Successful sneak attacks and backstabs go unnoticed
      • Anyone who flees in line of sight of the angel moves twice as fast
      • Anyone under 10% of their maximum HP must Save vs Magic or die every Turn while in line of sight of the angel.
    11. Night 
      • Can cast Darkness at will.
      • Can create a 240 ft diameter circle of Night around itself, a creature, an object or a point in space. At the outermost edge of the area of effect, the sun hangs low on the horizon; halfway to the epicenter, strange constellations and a sickly red moon hang in the sky; at the epicenter, it is as dark as a moonless night. It can maintain a number of these zones equal to its Sphere.
    12. Poetry 
      • Can cast Comprehend Languages and Obscure Languages on any creature it sees at will
      • Can banish prosody–while this is in effect, characters in line of sight of the angel can only perform actions that their players describe in metered or rhyming verse
    13. Prophecy
      • Can cast Quest once a day
      • Can cast Vision with no risk of price or failure once a week
      • Once per Turn/10 minutes, the angel can determine whether or not a creature in line of sight would be successful if they 
    14. Storms
      • Can cast Control Weather at will
      • Can cast Magic Missile in the form of lightning as a Magic-user with as many levels as it has HD
    15. Sea: 
      • Can cast Airy Water, Part Water, Strange Waters Water Breathing, and Water Walk at will. 
      • Can also create a number of gallons of water equal to 10*its HD once; it has a 1 in 6 chance of regaining this ability per Turn/10 minutes.
    16. Sorcery 
      • Knows 3 spells of each spell level from the Magic-user list. Can cast each 1/day
    17. Sun
      • Can cast Light at will
      • Can create a 240 ft diameter circle of Day around itself, a creature, an object or a point in space. At the outermost edge of the area of effect, a warm sun hangs in perpetual daybreak; halfway to the epicenter, the sun is orange and the air unseasonably warm; at the epicenter, the sun is an alarming golden-red and everything is unbearably hot, preventing anyone there from naturally recovering HP and requiring them to drink twice as much water. The center slowly changes into a desert. The angel can maintain a number of these zones equal to its Sphere.
    18. Time 
      • Always Hasted
      • Can create a field of distorted time, Slowing everything but itself within 100 ft
      • Can cast Time Stop and Temporal Stasis 1/day each
      • If you ask nice, it can send you through time
    19. Truth 
      • Always knows when someone is lying or not; whenever someone in their presence lies, they take d6*half Angel’s HD (rounded up) damage, Save vs Magic for half.
      • Constant True Seeing effect
    20.  Two domains; roll twice on this table

      WEAPON
      Determine Weapon CharacteristicsSphere and Damage

      1. Angel of the First Sphere: 2d12 damage
      2. Angel of the Second Sphere: 1d20 damage
      3. Angel of the Third Sphere: 1d12 damage
      4. Angel of the Fourth Sphere: 1d10 damage
      5. Angel of the Fifth Sphere: 1d8 damage
      6. Angel of the Sixth Sphere: 1d6 damage
      7. Angel of the Seventh Sphere: 1d4 damage
      8. Roll again; has lost weapon (if you find a weapon, this means the original owner is dead)

      Device

      1. Hierogram, to be embedded in the wielder’s palm
      2. Halo, activated at will 
      3. Scroll, 1 handed
      4. Trumpet, 1 handed
      5. Sword, 1 handed, can be used as a regular melee weapon for 1d12 damage
      6. Crosier, 2 handed
      7. Bow, 2 handed, can fire mundane projectile as longbow at double range
      8. Icon, human sized and very heavy, business end is an outstretched hand
      9. Armor*, piloted
      10. Chariot*, piloted

      Power

      1. 1d6 uses
      2. 2d6 uses
      3. 3d6 uses
      4. 4d6 uses
      5. 5d6 uses
      6. 6d6 uses

      Adorned With

      1. Beautiful Wings
      2. Exquisite Faces
      3. Slender Hands
      4. Watchful Eyes
      5. Singing mouths
      6. Heavenly Verses
      7. Celestial Diagrams

      Wrought from… (roll twice)

      1. Gold
      2. Silver
      3. Platinum
      4. Jet
      5. Ivory
      6. Alabaster
      7. Chalcedony
      8. Marble

      Medium

      1. Silver Flame
      2. Brilliant Arrows
      3. Spears of Lightning
      4. Invisible Force
      5. Shining Spheres
      6. Spirals of Molten Gold
      7. Burning Words
      8. Crystal Feathers
      Trajectory 

      1. Medium plummets from heavens to target (doesn’t work inside, but will ruin the roof)
      2. Medium launches in a straight line from device 
      3. Medium issues in a cone shape from device
      4. Medium erupts from target’s orifices
      5. Medium erupts from ground beneath target (can’t strike high-flying targets)
      6. Medium forms a circle around user, than lashes outward 

      Miraculous Properties

      Each device has a 1 in 6 chance of having one of the following:

      1. Survivors of this weapon’s attack are branded with a sigil that prevents them from lying
      2. This weapon can take on the shape and properties of any melee weapon at the will of its wielder
      3. This weapon can take on the shape and properties of any ranged at the will of its wielder
      4. Wielder can sacrifice this device to bring the recently dead to life, though there are side-effect
      5. Those slayed by this weapon have a 1 in 6 chance of returning as 1 HP cherubs loyal to the wielder
      6. Wielder can use this device to summon any angel whose true name they know
      7. If the wielder defeats or finds the device’s original owner, they can cast a spell relating to the angel’s domain 1/day
      8. Operates on the principles of warfare gematria; when this weapon’s damage roll is a number that is a multiple of the wielder’s level or HD, double the damage

      *Armor and Chariots
      These work as ships in combat. Armor has 5 SP and a 2 in 6 chance of being able to fly; Chariots have 10 SP and always can fly.. 

       
        jacinto classifieds, intro, Pernicious Albion

        A Perfidious Primer

        Queen’s Crossing is a mercantile town perched atop the greatest bridge spanning Albion’s River Dour. It teems with social climbing merchants (much to the revulsion of House Herpetu, Queen’s Crossing’s resident Old Money and the object of an endless parade of nouveau riche marriage proposals) and an equal number of cultists, who traffic with the wayward Spawn of Agorath that dream on the riverbed below.

        You each have a room at the Hateford Home, a boarding house of middling reputation and adequate sanitation located in one of the rougher neighborhoods of Queen’s Crossing. It is run by Madam Eugenia, a truculent widow locally famous for the diameter of her forearms and talent with a hatchet. She often rents rooms to freelancers, vagabonds, and soldiers-of-fortune, and so hopeful clients often leave job postings, which as of yesterday are as follows:

        From High House Herpetou
        A sum of £1,500 for any who apprehend the despicable person or persons responsible for circulating threats against  that most majestic and virtuous of fairies, the Lord of No-pity, who has graced our Lady Herpetu with a visit. Contact Dame Balustrade at Castle Herpetu for details.

        His Grace, the Lord of No-pity

        From the Royal Society
        A team of scholars has disappeared on an expedition to Osric’s Tor. £1,500 for returning them alive; £750 for returning their remains. We will also pay for any antiquities safely recovered from the site. Speak Professor Lately at the Queen’s College for the particulars.

        Osric’s Tor
        by Martin Bodman

        From the Postmaster
        Three of our couriers have failed to return from the village of Scavenger’s Weir. While it is admittedly a wretched little town, the sentimental bleating of those with relatives there has begun to wear on me, and these disappearances are interfering with my office’s function. £1,500 for resolving the situation.

        jacinto adventures, Pernicious Albion

        Cinders of the Servant Queen Play Report

        Ran Servants of the Cinder Queen and it went really well. Spoilers ahead:

        Gor Krestle the warlock Vassal of Mab and Valeria the vampire fled north from Albion after preventing the rogue magician Jessica Gristle from freeing the fairy Lord of Last-Breath from his millennial prison, because they had accepted payment from the noble House Cromlech to do the opposite and didn’t want to deal with the fallout. They reached the land of the Norge and stumbled upon the miserable little town of Meervold. They stayed the night at the dilapidated inn for free, because the innkeeper, Armar, had no will to live or, evidently, to charge them for anything. So many people had gone missing and so man incinerated human skeletons had shown up in their place that he figured the town was lost. The next day (conveniently mist-shrouded and overcast, allowing the party’s vampire to walk about freely) Armar was gone, leaving behind only smudged ashes on the threshold.

        The party next encounters Finni, a simple young turnip-farmer, weeping and eating his last turnip in a mud puddle. Valeria finds out from him that a suspicious wizard-type and his band of hooded acolytes passed by, taking up residence in the ruins of Kaldhammer, a monastery lost to a fire demon invasion/volcanic eruption five centuries ago, which was only halted by a calamitous flood caused by Storm God Hvitr. Berta Solsisdottir, the town’s unofficial leader, offers them a reward to defeat this wizard (since she figures he is trying to release Gildarthe, the fire goddess that erupted the volcano), sells them equipment, and lets them look for hirelings. Gor Krestle offers the townspeople half the reward as payment (to Valeria’s horror), but only Aghnildg, armed with a broken sword, takes them up on the offer. They head out, Valeria swings back to vampirize Finni, but is stymied by the number of witnesses, so she join up with the main group.

        They arrive at the ruins of Kaldhammer just after nightfall and proceed to was four hours looking for food so Valeria doesn’t need to eat their only henchwoman. They fail miserably until they ask Aghnildg for help, who succeeds in finding a raccoon on her first attempt. At this point, hooded cultists crawl out of a tunnel in the ruins of Kaldhammer to attack. Valeria and Gor flail ineptly as Aghnildg dispatches them. She suffers some trauma at so much death, but Gor says they are just “dirty rotten turnips”. Aghnildg takes this to heart.

        The go down the tunnel and encounter two burning skeletons. Aghnildg kills one easily as Gor and Valeria struggle with the remaining monster. It kills Valeria in an incandescent bear-hug before Gor takes it down. He calls on Mab to identify these creatures (she possesses Aghnildg and sucks half his HP out of his arm in recompense), and it turns out they are Servants of the Cinder Queen, undead that remain animate so long as they burn. Gor readies his water skins and goes deeper into the tunnels, braving skeletons on the way. After a couple dead ends, he finds a guarded chamber and just runs past the Cinder Servant Guards.

        He finds sleeping quarters, but with the Servants hot on his heels, he runs down another passageway, finding a dead end with a giant pit filled with villagers. Hoping to rally them to his cause, he rushes down the rope ladder with Aghnildg, only for the Cinder Servants to pull the ladder up once he reaches the bottom. He snags the bottom rung and yanks on it, pulling the Servants into the pit. They die in the fall. Inside the pit in Gunnva, a Magic-user and Aghnildg’s sister. By means of a rousing and slightly threatening speech, she galvanizes the villagers into a determined, if malnourished and unarmed, fighting force. Aghnildg makes a habit of crushing the skulls of her enemies while calling them dirty, rotten turnips.

        They go deeper into the mountain and come across a chamber with a fissure in the far wall and three stone doors. They decipher the runes on the door and acquire Jafnir, a hammer than returns to the wielder when thrown (Gunnva keeps this), Spakri, a cloak that allows the wearer to fly brief distances (Aghnildg takes this), and a magical hourglass that they promptly forget about. They then go into the fissure and enter the volcano’s caldera, only to find the wizard reading aloud from a book and waving a staff, moments away from releasing Gildarthe.

        They have a pretty harrowing fight. Gor and Valeria focus on preventing the wizard from reading from the book as Aghnildg and the rock-throwing villagers take on the cultists and Cinder Servants. Aghnildg dies heroically from a fire blast to the face (courtesy of the wizard) after she single-handedly kills nearly all the cultists, and the villagers flee after taking out most of the Cinder Servants. Gor and Gunnva finish of wizard, but the last cultists takes them down and restarts the ritual. They have three turns to stop the ritual–Gildarthe’s massive face is visible pressing up against the floor of the caldera.

        They are both below 0 HP, and I say if they succeed a Poison saving throw they can get back up at 1 HP, but if they fail, they take 1 damage, and die at -4. It’s pretty lenient, but whatever. Turn 1, Gunnva and Gor fail their saving throw. Gor dies. Turn 2, Gunnva fails her saving throw. The cultist is still reading from the book and chanting. Turn 3, she succeeds, calls Jafnir, throws it, and makes a critical hit, killing the last cultists stone cold dead. She loots the bodies, collects the valuables of her companions, says goodbye to her sister, and returns to Meervold.

        In retrospect

        • If the players don’t do anything, the wizard succeeds in releasing Gildarthe and the volcano erupts, annihilating Meervold and releasing a bunch of fire monsters. I dropped clues that this was happening, but I should have just straight-up told them. I’d also suggest making some of the Grim Portents (Dungeon World’s jargon for the bad things that happen in the absence of player intervention) more obvious to players, regardless of location.
        • The villagers and Aghnildg rolled freakishly well the entire time, and it made me glad I roll in front of players., Hidden rolls would have made Aghnildg feel like an GMNPC when really she was a wildly lucky incompetent. My players loved her, and were really upset when she died.
        • The ending was super perfect. Nearly averted TPK, a Hail Mary critical hit.
        • I am more and more starting to think that dying should be easy, but death should be hard. The drama of trying to resuscitate downed characters is great. I think I’ll transplant 5e’s death saving throws mechanic to whatever it is I’m running from now on. 
        • Hvitr’s Vault (the room with the hourglass, cloak, and hammer) was a little frustrating. As written, it is hard for players to figure out how to open the stone doors. Each requires a different action (one opens by striking it with your fist, the other opens by applying bodily fluid, the other opens when you blow on it), but there really isn’t any way to figure this out. I put markings on the door that gave clues, but they were pretty obvious. I’d suggest putting a book in the monastery library that explains how to open the doors. 
        • I gave the Servants 18 HP and had them take d6 damage a turn just from being on fire. My players were at level 1, so this was still plenty dangerous, but I think giving them more HP could be good–it makes fleeing and waiting a valuable offensive strategy, something that distinguishes Servants more from other monsters.
        jacinto LotFP, Pernicious Albion

        let’s make a deal II

        Decided Pernicious Albion warlocks can’t summon patrons. It was confusing, and it would make more sense to represent it as a spell. Also changed how reaction rolls work:

        • 2: the warlock must perform a major favor or the spirit will cast the spell in a destructive manner
        • 2-5: the warlock must perform a minor favor or the spirit will cast the spell in a destructive manner
        • 6-9: the warlock must perform a minor favor or the spirit will do nothing
        • 10-11: the warlock must argue or grovel for a few rounds before the spirit will cast the spell
        • 12: the spirit casts the spell right away.

        “Destructive manner” being destructive for the warlock an their allies (Fireball centered on caster, Invisibility on the strongest enemy, and so on. It also makes major favors rarer, which is good because having a lot of them can be overwhelming (the old table had 1 in 4 spells requiring a major favor to cast, which is a bit much). The new table also makes it harder to say no to favors, since the consequence is usually chaos instead of nothing.

        Mad Angel PENEMVE, Warlock patron

        PENEMVE is a twice-exiled angel, first cast out from Heaven with the Grigori, then abandoned by its fellows when it went mad with grief. PENEMVE opposes both its former comrades and the forces of Hell, and aims to defeat them with a mysterious Project, which generally involves unorthodox methods. 

        PENEMVE is a spirit of knowledge and secrets. It knows when someone is burdened by a deep secret, and when they act to cover a secret up, but it cannot perceive the secrets themselves. PENEMVE requires writing to communicate; when it wishes to speak with someone (including its warlock), it alters nearby text and arranges it to cross paths with them. A warlock of PENEMVE starts with the ability to cast Comprehend Languages, and can learn spells of discernment and divination, such as Augury, Divination,  and True Seeing.

        Major favors for PENEMVE
        PENEMVE is maybe insane and cannot interact with the world only by altering existing bodies of text, so the idea it to be unclear if these favors are simply random acts of madness, part of an elaborate Rube Goldberg scheme to save/end the world, or the product of PENEMVE’s original message be garbled by its method of communication. 

        1. letter: My dearest Joanna, This summer has been most troublesome, for there is an agent of the Cause set to be executed in [nearest village] in 2d20 days. See to it that they escape. Give the children my love. Your sister, Charlotte.
        2. broadside: DR BRUNEL’S WONDROUS SERUM! DO YOU SUFFER FROM FATIGUE, MELANCHOLY, OR CONJUGAL TROUBLES? THEN find this doctor, drown him in a barrel of brandy, and burn down his workshop. He lives in [the mercantile quarter of the nearest large city]. Proceed with caution. He has sold his soul to Hell FOR THE REASONABLE PRICE OF £100!
        3. shopping list: 1 lb carrots, 1 lb beef, a white dove, 1 lb chalcedony, 10 ft of golden wire, a silvered sword, a virgin, 100 pairs of scissors, jam.
        4. book: …the mating ritual of the polychromatic bumblebee clearly indicates the need for you to infiltrate the home of [a wealthy family in the nearest large city] and find the black sculpture they have recently acquired. I want you to paint it bright red without being discovered, thus demonstrating the advantages of such bright pigmentation…
        5. letter: Jessica, You are all I can think of, you are my day and my night, you are to find for me the book called The Enochian Heresies. There is a copy in [the nearest, largest, most dangerous library]. Once you have it, feed it to a goat, and if don’t see you soon, I think I shall die. Your love, Eugene
        6. newspaper: NUDE BUTCHER STRIKES AGAIN! Local farmer John Hector experienced a rude awakening last week when the morning sun revealed several demons have been investigating my activities. They tread in your footsteps and will catch you in (d6) hours. Prepare yourself. The Constabulary has provided a thorough sketch of the fugitive.
        7. novel: …bosom heaving, Loretta tore at her bosom. “No!” she cried out, her shapely arms clutching at Heinrich’s chest, “I won’t leave you! I need you to capture the man known as Julia Lascelle in [farthest village in area]. She has knows the location of an angelic device, and I must acquire it before my siblings do.”
        8. grafitti: FUK THE QUEEN FUK THE CITY SHIT ON the vandals responsible for this message are powerful, wise, and beautiful. Find them and convince them to offer their services to me. I am willing to remunerate them for their troubles DICKS DICKS DICKS
        9. a textbook: amo, amas, amat, a child in [the nearest village] has lost his family, and the villagers will do nothing to help him. Retrieve him and bring him to [the orphanage in the nearest large city] amabo amabis amabit…
        10. a cow with the following painted on its side: Go to [the nearest village] and cut off the head of the statue standing in its central square. It is an Infernal device and will lead the yeoman to nothing but perdition.