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 classes, spell

    The House Without Walls

    Since Magic-users can learn any number of spells or any level, the real restriction to casting how many spells they actually find. This is a good opportunity for adventuring. If a Magic-user wants to learn the Slaying Spell, they need to find the long-hidden elves of the Bone House, whereas if they want to know Invoke Elemental, they need to trek over the the Summoner’s College of the Goths.

    The elves of the Branch House live in the Hallows, a forest grown over the ruins of an antediluvian necropolis. They worship their patron and progenitor, He Walks In The Woods, a beast-god associated with poison, wolves, crows, shapeshifting, and hunting. The elves live in encampments scattered across Hallows, each positioned over one of the primary entrances to the catacombs beneath. The Branch House guards the tombs below, ensuring that the restless dead stay inside and the greedy living stay above. They are currently struggling against the rogue Warlock Liebestod, who wants access to the treasure and knowledge locked within the necropolis’ vaults.

    Spells of the Branch House Magi

    It Hunts Again
    Component: A basket woven from the stem of aglaophotis, that rarest and most potent of herbs
    Target: The corpse of an animal, placed inside the basket
    The caster falls to the ground insensate and assumes control of the creature inside the basket. The spell lasts until the caster chooses to end it, and the animal appears healthy and alive for the duration, regardless of the condition of their body. The caster can use this spell in any animal they can fit in the basket, so the larger it is, the greater the range of animals the spell works on.

    This Is The Change (Polymorph)
    Component: A long flint razor, kept in a scabbard of bear’s gut
    The caster slices open their belly with the razor, and their new form shucks itself free.

    The House Without Walls (Teleport)
    Component: A bag of oak leaves, individually consecrated
    The caster and targets vanish in a sudden billow of leaves.

    It Was But Is Not (Baleful Polymorph)
    Component: a life-sized effigy of a human or elf
    The caster traces an X over the eyes, mouth, and heart of the effigy. In this version of the spell, the target does not need to make a System Shock check, and they do not retain their intelligence, personality, or knowledge.


    The Beasts of the Branch House
    I really like the idea of players gaining new character options as they explore, but I also want to keep everything pretty simple. Multiclassing is a good outlet for this–the way multiclassing works in Delving Deeper is perfectly functional, but as it has been amply demonstrated, there are cooler ways to do it.

    An elf of the Branch House can advance as either a Thief and a Fighter or a Magic-user and a Fighter. They can transform at will into an elf-beast, which takes 1 turn. In their elf form, they function as their non-Fighter class, and cannot use the Fighter’s combat matrix or class abilities. In their elf-beast shape, they function as a Fighter only, and cannot cast spells as a Magic-user or use skills as a Thief. Though their saving throws progress as any dual-classed character, elves of the Branch House track maximum HP and damage received separately for each of their classes. They deduct damage from their Thief or Magic-user HP when they are in their elf shape and deduct damage from their Fighter HP when they are in their elf-beast shape. When one form reaches 0 HP, the elf immediately changes into the other, and cannot return to the other shape until they it has at least 1 HP. Restored HP spills over from one form to the other.

    In their beast shape, elves of the Branch House

    • can deal damage with unarmed attacks
    • have a natural AC of 5
    • are treated as having 18 Strength
    • cannot use weapons, shields, or armor of any sort.
    • cannot speak or perform complex tasks

    The Synod finds such foul sorcery gravely disordered and invites all practitioners to submit themselves to an Inquisitorial Officer, so that they may redeem themselves in the eyes of Heaven.

    Art is from Dark Souls 2, Skyrim, and Demon’s Souls, respectively

    jacinto intro, spell, table

    Odd Hack Character Creation

    Rules as written in Delving Deeper, except as follows:
    HIT POINTS: BLOOD AND GUTS
    Use rationalized hit dice progression. Also, characters have two different pools of HP.

    • All characters start out with just Blood. If a character has a Constitution score of 14+, they gain an additional point of Blood every level. If their score is 18, they gain 2 points every level.
    • Once a character reaches 6 points of Blood, their HD rolls for maximum HP go towards Guts. 

    Characters usually take damage to Guts first. If they are reduced to less than 0 Blood, they die. Blood heals at a rate of 1 point per day of rest. Guts heals at a rate of d6 points per 10 minutes of rest. Critical hits and sneak attacks deal damage to Blood, and monsters have Blood and Guts for HP as well. Largely based on this.

    RACES
    You can only start as a human, chosen from one of the following tribes. You can gain access to new tribes and species if you form a neutral or better relationship with one of their settlements or towns.

    • Goth: you have a +2 bonus to your Magic saving throw
    • Norge: you are untroubled by natural cold and take half damage from magical cold
    • Saracen: You know an extra language and can pick from the expanded language list, regardless of your Intelligence score.
    • Tatar: you have a 3 in 6 chance of being able to repair or sabotage machinery, robots, or golems. If you are a Thief, your chances of success increase with your other skills.

    LANGUAGES
    If your Intelligence is 10-, you speak two of the following. If it is 12-, you speak 3. If it is 14+, you speak 4.

    • Gothic
    • Norsk
    • Saraceni
    • Tatar

    Anyone with 15+ Intelligence can pick from the following list as well:

    • Elegaic, the language of the undead
    • Twill, the language of elves and birds
    • Numen, the language of gods and spirits
    • Cipher, the language of golems and robots
    ENCUMBRANCE
    We are using this system, but you can carry an extra container if your Strength is 14+ and two extra containers if your Strength is 18.  

    CLERICS

    Clerics must choose a religion. Clerics can learn a number of Cleric miracles equal to their level. They can cast each miracle as much as they want, but when they do so, they must make a reaction roll (roll 2d6) to determine if the Heavenly/Nether forces upon which they are calling approve of their intervention. Low rolls might require favors or sacrifices. To learn a miracle, a Cleric must memorize a particular sutra, scripture, sermon, or liturgy, which they recite upon casting. Clerics start with one random miracle; if they roll a reversible miracle, they must pick one. Lawful Clerics still Turn Undead, while Chaotic Clerics Command Undead.

    1. Liturgy of Kingly Protection/The House of Four Demons: lets you cast Protection From Evil/Good
    2. Heaven’s Feast Sutra/The Famine Gift Sutra: lets you cast Purify/Putrefy Food and Drink
    3. The First Words/The Litany of Night: lets you cast Light/Darkness
    4. Rite of the Scales of Justice: lets you cast Detect Magic at will
    5. The Parable of the Shore/The Way of All Flesh: lets you cast Cure/Cause Light Wounds
    6. The Miracle of Tongues: lets you cast Speak with Beasts

    FIGHTERS
    Fighters work as written in Delving Deeper.

    MAGIC USERS
    Magicians can learn any number of Magic-user spells. They can cast each of them once, and can regain expended spells by getting a full night’s sleep. All spells require a particular object to cast; more powerful spells require rarer and more cumbersome components. Magicians start with 2 random spells and their components. When you learn a spell, such as from a scroll or a book, you find out what it requires as a component.

    1. A cloth doll: lets you cast Animate Golem, which functions the same as Invoke Elemental, except that the golem has HD equal to your level.
    2. A sack of crow feathers: Let you cast Fly. Insinuate themselves into your flesh while you are under the effects of the spell.
    3. A human rib, sharpened at one end: lets you cast Magic Missile.
    4. A silver bell, inscribed with a closed eye: lets you cast Sleep.
    5. A stained disc of bronze: lets you cast Darkness, the reversed version of Light.
    6. A book bound in red thread: lets you cast Charm Person.
    7. A giant spider carapace: lets you cast Web.
    8. A large ivory earhorn: lets you cast Sixth Sense.
    9. A cloak of human hair: lets you cast Invisibility.
    10. A giant horse skull, wired through with gold: lets you cast Fear 
    11. A mummified fish with pearls for eyes: kissing the fish lets you cast Water Breathing
    12. A tin breastplate inscribed with a pentacle: lets you cast Shield
    13. A long-stemmed ebony pipe: lets you cast Phantasm
    14. A great brass horn:  lets you cast Dispel Magic
    15. A flute carved from a human thighbone: lets you cast Hold Person
    16. A snake tattoo on the side of forefinger and thumb: lets you cast Read Magic at will
    17. A tattoo of an open eye on your palm: lets you cast Detect Magic at will
    18. An arm-sized iron nail: lets you cast Witch Lock
    19. A giant silver skeleton key: Lets you cast Knock
    20. An dead sapling studded with lead spikes:  lets you cast Plant Growth

    THIEVES
    Thieves can use any magic item or piece of equipment. They have a 3 in 6 chance of succeeding at the following. Their chances increase by to 4 in 6 at level 3 and 5 in 6 at level 6. At level 9, they roll twice and take the higher result whenever they make a skill check.

    • Climb
    • Disarm Traps
    • Hide
    • Listen
    • Pick Lock
    • Search
    • Sleight of Hand

    NEW CLASSES AND MULTICLASSINGYou can gain access to new classes by coming across them in your adventures. By default gain levels in other classes, but in the course of the game, you can find ways to bypass this–werewolves, for example, split their experience between their current class and their Fighter-equivalent wolf shape.

      jacinto adventures, intro, is this gonna work, spell

      God of the Earth

      Need to rewrite my Albion favor tables and I’m dreading it. Messing around with Delving Deeper, a Original Dungeons and Dragons clone instead.

      OK, so:

      • Type V has all these interesting(ish?) material components and then immediately handwaves most of it away with arcane focuses and what have you (though I like the idea of, say, an imprisoned wizard with a confiscated wand grubbing around for bat shit so they can break out of jail with some righteous Fireballs). 
      • I go back and forth on spell slots and spell preparation. I don’t actually don’t mind them, but explaining them to players leaves me cold.
      • Are you reading Kill Six Billion Demons? You should be reading Kill Six Billion Demons. Take a look at (link leads to medium-grade spoilers) this. The six-armed blue demon lady who is so clearly a magic-user is just loaded with stuff. A doll, a book on a chain, a mask-face, glasses, a weird popcorn bottle necklace, a pair of yellow sunglasses, a humungous bag of just stuff, plus whatever she has secreted about her person. I like that.
      • I love this encumbrance system
      • I feel exactly, perfectly neutral about wizards wearing armor, but explaining equipment restrictions is work, so I ignore them.

      This all converges on wizards. So how about magic-users have no limit on the number or level of spells they can know. They can cast each spell they know once, and must rest before they can recover usage of a cast spell. Each spell requires a material component, which is not consumed in the casting. A spell’s power correlates with how burdensome and rare a component is; Magic Missile only requires a want capped with flint, while Time Stop requires a three-foot tall lead hourglass inlaid with gold. All components take up a minimum of 1 encumbrance slot. So a magic-user can wear armor, but it cuts into the number of components they can haul around. Plus they are ladened with occult accruements. 

      EXAMPLES
      • Animal Growth: a head-sized mass of crystallized pituitary fluid, harvested from a cursed beast, such as a werewolf or dire animal.
      • Animate Dead: a complete human skeleton. Does not have to be in one piece; some necromancers grind it to dust and keep it in a sack, while others strap the bones to their body.
      • Charm Person: a book with fine vellum pages, bound with red silk thread. Casting the spell requires writing the name of the target (or a description of them) in the book. 
      • Comprehend Languages: a pair of glasses tinted blue with cobalt; the caster must look through them for the spell to work
      • Darkness: a black velvet hood. The magic-user momentarily pulls it over their own eyes to cast the spell.
      • Knock: a silver skeleton key, roughly the size and weight of a longsword
      • Fireball: a fire giant’s ulna (roughly the size of a quarterstaff)
      • Fly: a sack of crow feathers (about 100 birds’ worth) that insinuate themselves into the flesh of the caster when they are under the effect of the spell
      • invisibility: a cloak woven from human hair; the caster must be wearing it for the spell to work
      • Magic Missile: an oak wand capped with flint; the caster must point the wand at their target
      • Light: a fist-sized silver sigil depicting an eye; the caster must turn its gaze towards the target
      • Shield: a small actual shield of hammered tin depicting a pentacle
      • Slaying Spell: an iron bell, at least three feet tall, inscribed with open eyes and forged in a graveyard. The caster must ring it for the spell to work.
      • Sleep: a long-handled silver bell, about the size of a dagger. It must be rung for the spell to work.
      • Water Breathing: a whole fish, often mummified or suspended in formaldehyde to prevent it from rotting into uselessness 
      • Web: a giant spider (at least the size of a terrier), usually dead for the sake of convenience. 

      Anywhere, here’s the skeleton of a open-air-dungeon-unless-it’s-a-point-crawl I’ll be maybe running this maybe filed down version of OD&D in.

      The town of Braquefort sits at the foot of a mountain (its name is taboo). A decade ago, the Ecclesium’s holy knights succeeded in exorcising (i.e. killing) Cybele, the goddess who lived on its peak, and extirpating her cult from the town itself. However, starting a year ago, a beast has begun coming down from the mountain, seizing livestock and ripping apart anyone who stands in its way. This has been accompanied by a sudden increase in fertility–the farms are yielding an unnaturally large harvest, the surviving livestock grow to prodigious size, and the mountain itself teems with dangerous life. The Ecclesium believes that some of the Braquefort villagers have begun making sacrifices to the creature, and are willing to pay the party generously if they bring back its head.

      THE MOUNTAIN
      SMELLS

      • overripe fruit
      • rotting plants
      • rotting meat
      • animal musk
      SIGHTS
      • haze of flies
      • swarms of bloated rabbits scrambling over the corpses of their fellows
      • tumorous fruit hanging heavy on the branch
      • handprints in solid stone, haloed with fractures

      ENCOUNTERS
      ENCOUNTER TABLE

      1-2. Wolf (1d6)
      3-4. Cougar (1d6)
      5-6. Serpent (1d6)
      7-8. Die-off
      9. Artesse, last shaman of the mountain
      10. Sacrifice-bearers (2d6)
      11. Vigilant Benbraches
      12. God of the Earth

      THE GOD OF THE EARTH

      Statistics as Hill Giant. Cannot surprise enemies.
      He stands as tall as two men, filthy, naked, covered in matted hair, and when you first see him, he will be doing something appalling like grinding the hind legs off of a screaming goat with his blocky white teeth or gouging obscene pictures into stone with his fingertips. He smells, and smells bad, and it is awful and awesome in the old religious sense, a profound glandular stench that puts animals in heat and stirs plants into frantic growth.
           The God of the Earth is the orphaned son of Cybele. He is a divine feral child and cannot speak, though he instinctively understands Numen, the language of gods and spirits. The presence of his dead mother’s corpse-tree on the mountain drives him to rage and despair, though he can be appeased for a time with a meal of livestock. He will attack and consume anyone without such propitiations. His heart is a god-seed, and will sprout into a new divinity if planted and tended.

      THE EARTH’S TEEMING CHILDREN
      Statistics as dire wolf, cave bear, or giant snake. Can eat their HD in corpses before they choke to death.
      The predators of the mountain have grown enormous and corpulent, maddened by the buzzing of insects and the reek of dead flesh and the God’s musk. They attack in numbers, and will devour defeated prey until it kills them.
      When passing by a die-off, make a DC 12 Constitution save or acquire the Poisoned condition. Those afflicted can make another save at the end of every long rest to recover.
      Under the God’s influence, the lesser beasts of the mountain live and die like mayflies, generations of rats and rock hares passing over the course of a week. They are born in massive litters and subsist on the endlessly growing plants and bloated fruit of the mountain. Their thousands of corpses have made fertile ground for disease and insects.

      ARTESSE, LAST SHAMAN OF THE MOUNTAIN
      statistics as a 5th level magic user
      Artesse is an elf of the old school: lambent red eyes and filed canines, deep black tattoos delineating strange geometries, emaciated body scored with scars. He is the oldest being on the mountain, older even than the God of the Earth. He was the high priest of Cybele when she lived, and he wants nothing more than to return the mountain to the way it was under her reign. To do that, he must acquire the divine seed in the God of the Earth’s heart and use to grow a new god, this one raised under his careful tutelage rather than the wind and wolves.
           Artesse hates the Ecclesium. They killed his goddess and drove him away from his holy ground, leaving the infant God of the Earth to grow mad in its solitude. However, he is perfectly willing to negotiate with the party–he will reward them with a scroll of Speak with Animals if they provide him with the God’s heart, and is even willing to let them take the God’s head back to the Ecclesium to prove they killed him, with the understanding they will keep Artesse’s presence a secret.
           The shaman can cast Invisibility, Animate Reptiles, Plant Growth, and Create Food and Water in addition to any other spells you see fit.

      SACRIFICE BEARERS
      Statistics as Bandit
      Villagers from Braquefort desperate enough to risk the censure of the Ecclesium and dangers of the mountain. They are armed and each carries a squirming bag. Each contains a contains goat, with which the villagers hope to appease the God of the Earth. They will be hostile to anyone they come across–as far as they know, the only other people on the mountain are servants of the Ecclesium. If they are cornered, the villagers will release their goat, attracting the attention of mountain predators or the God himself.

      VIGILANT BENBRACHES
      Statistics as a 5th level Fighter; wears chain and wields a longsword
      Vigilant Benbraches believes in sanitation and traffic laws as much as he believes in God, and he really believes in God. Even in the warped wilds of the mountaintop, he polishes his armor, shaves daily, and cooks nutritionally complete meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This may indicate a man out of his depth, but Vigilant Benbraches has survived thus far on the mountain by his talent for spectacular acts of violence. He was in the area when the God of the Earth began attacking Braquefort, and climbed the mountain to deal kill the God without waiting for further instruction from the Ecclesium. If encountered, he will be polite and helpful if the party is working for the Ecclesium, and wordlessly hostile if they are not. Should their allegiance be uncertain, he will insist on escorting them off the mountain, forcibly if necessary.
        Benbraches carries the blessed sword Galconda. None of the wounds it inflicts bleed, and the Ecclesium teaches that anyone killed by its blade are delivered unto the Heavens, redeemed in their final moments. Benbraches finds both of these characteristics pleasingly tidy.

      AREAS

      THE ASCENT
      The most difficult to traverse part of the mountain: a 500 foot slope of scree and loose rock. Climbing checks without equipment are at disadvantage, and all climbers move half their normal rate. Failure sends the climber tumbling down the slope, taking d6 damage per 100 feet. Smart parties will lure the God of the Earth here.

      THE SHAMAN’S HOUSE
      A house built on the limbs of a great tree. Everything is covered with a poisonous powder, which causes anyone who comes in contact with it to hemorrhage from all orifices (DC 15 Constitution save or d6 damage/hour. Victim can make an additional save at the end of each short rest), because Artesse is not stupid and knows that the Ecclesium wants him dead.
           His actual home is underneath the tree, accessible from a small hole between the tree’s roots. It is underground, reasonably warm and dry. A locked stone casket contains a scroll of Speak with Animals. A random philtre and a lesser ester sit on a crude table. Artesse also keeps his Gallows Prophet here. It is a four-foot tall mummified corpse, proportioned like an adult, with a noose tried around its neck. If strung up on a gallows or tree, it can Detect Magic on everything in a 13 mile radius and report the results back to its owner. It can also make Arcana checks with a +5 bonus. The Ecclesium will want it burned.

      THE GOD’S CAVE
      70% chance the God is here when the party enters. Roll on the encounter table as normal.
       when the party enters. Filled with bones, rotting viscera, and piles of shit. Scattered beneath the mess are 10d100 copper pieces worth of jewelry, the former possessions of the God’s many victims. There are d6 Rare ingredients of the same type here, as well. Major structural damage to the back of the save will open up vents of toxic vapor, which inflict the Poisoned condition on anyone who breathes them. After d6 Rounds of direct exposure, the sufferer must make a DC 10 Constitution save or be paralyzed until removed from the gas cloud. 
           The God’s smell/influence is overpowering here; animals become hostile to their masters, and intelligence creatures must make a DC 10 Wisdom save or be frightened of the God for a round. They must make the save every round they are in the cave.

      CYBELE’S TREE
      50% chance the God is here when the party arrives. Roll on the encounter table as normal.
      A large, dead oak on the edge of a cliff face. Everything here is dead and withered, and the animals avoid this place. If the God is here, he will be some distance from the tree, screaming, weeping, and throwing stones at it. He will not come closer unless provoked by someone near the tree.
           The tree can be safely destroyed by harvesting the Grand Poison ester inside of it. This turns the tree to dust. Otherwise, harming the tree releases sprays of poisonous ichor (all within 10 feet of the tree must make a DC 12 Dexterity save or take d6 poison damage). This ichor deals double damage to the God of the Earth.

      AFTERWARDS

      • If the party kills the God of the Earth, all vegetation on and around the mountain will wither and all soil nearby will turn to dust without his influence within months. This will end Braquefort as a habitable town. The Ecclesium will reward the party and blame the blight on the God’s curse.
      • If the party destroys Cybele’s tree, the God of the Earth will become less violent. The mountain will become a verdant, wild place: still dangerous, but without the riot of telluric forces warping flora and fauna. The villagers will continue to propitiate the God, and the Ecclesium will send inquisitors to destroy the heresy, investigate the party’s failure, and kill the God of the Earth for good.
      • If the party kills the God of the Earth and gives the god-seed to Artesse (or plants it themselves), it will grow into another divinity. Artesse will raise it to be more circumspect that the God of the Earth, but it will be no friend to mankind. If the seed is planted and abandoned, it will grow into another beast like the God. If the party raises it, use your imagination. 
      jacinto spell, type v

      Type 5 Ritual Lists

      Some feats and class features let characters cast ritual spells, and as far as I can tell there is no list of them in the Player’s Handbook. Here’s a collection of them so you don’t have to go through the spell list entry by entry.

      Rituals-By Level
      1st Level
      Alarm
      Comprehend Languages
      Detect Magic
      Detect Poison and Disease
      Find Familiar
      Identify

      Purify Food and Drink
      Speak With Animals
      Tenser’s Floating Disk
      Unseen Servant 

      2nd Level
      Animal Messenger
      Augury
      Beast Sense
      Gentle Repose
      Locate Animals or Plants
      Magic Mouth
      Silence

      3rd Level
      Feign Death
      Leomund’s Tiny Hut
      Meld Into Stone
      Phantom Steed
      Water Breathing
      Water Walk

      4th Level
      Divination

      5th Level
      Commune
      Commune With Nature
      Contact Other Plane
      Rary’s Telepathic Bond

      6th Level
      Drawmij’s Instant Summons
      Forbiddance


      Rituals-Alphabetical
      Alarm (1st)
      Animal Messenger (2nd)
      Augury (2nd)
      Beast Sense (2nd)
      Commune (5th)
      Commune With Nature (5th)
      Comprehend Languages (1st)
      Contact Other Plane (5th)
      Detect Magic (1st)
      Detect Poison and Disease (1st)
      Divination (4th)
      Drawmij’s Instant Summons (6th)
      Feign Death (3rd)
      Find Familiar (1st)
      Forbiddance (6th)
      Gentle Repose (2nd)
      Identify (1st)
      Leomund’s Tiny Hut (3rd)
      Locate Animals or Plants (2nd)
      Magic Mouth (2nd)
      Meld Into Stone (3rd)
      Phantom Steed (3rd)
      Purify Food and Drink (1st)
      Rary’s Telepathic Bond (5th)
      Silence (2nd)
      Speak With Animals (1st)
      Tenser’s Floating Disk (1st)
      Unseen Servant (1st)
      Water Breathing (3rd)
      Water Walk (3rd)

      jacinto adventures, LotFP, spell

      The Hungry Crone

      Another spirit for the Warlock.

      She witnessed the invention of sin, watched the stars enter the sky, saw the earth’s skin when it was liquid and light. She has commanded the adoration of empires and suffered in the servitude of hedge-witches. She is the Hungry Crone, Grandmother of All. Hers are the powers of darkness and blood, and her pact is with you. 

      When she fully enters the temporal world, the Hungry Crone appears as an old woman, aged beyond reckoning but still unbent. In her right hand she carries a shepherd’s crook and in her left, a stone knife. She can fly astride the crook, and wounds caused by the knife can only be healed with magic.

      Starting spell. Roll 1d4

      1. Cause Fear (reverse of Remove Fear)
      2. Cause Light Wounds (Reverse of Cure Light Wounds)
      3. Cure Light Wounds
      4. Darkness (Reverse of Light)

      Example spells at higher levels are Delay Poison, Cure/Cause Disease, Bestow Curse, Neutralize/Inflict Poison, Unholy Word, or Shadow Monsters.

      Major favors

      1. In a random village, a man murdered his wife and child and ran off into the night. In doing this, he violated a taboo sacred even to the bloody-minded powers of old. Find him and kill him.
      2. It has been a few millennia since the Hungry Crone had a shrine that truly pleased her. Commission one that is both within your means and to her specifications (must cost at least 25% of the silver pieces necessary to reach the next level) in a village or city.
      3. A high ranking official in the nearest major city sold his soul to the Hungry Crone for her help in killing his weak-willed superior, and now it is time to collect. 
      4. The last time the Hungry Crone walked the world of mortals, a minor demon insulted her, and now she detects his presence in a random Hex. Find it and destroy its bodily form.
      5. A scholar has unearthed the skull belonging to the Hungry Crone’s first child and placed it in a museum in the nearest major city. Steal it back and return it to the Hungry Crone.
      6. Long ago, a wizard bound the Hungry Crone as a slave. Though he is long dead, his tower is in a location 2d10 miles away. Find it and burn it down to the foundation.
      jacinto flowerland, Pernicious Albion, spell, World of Dungeons

      Sorcery in Flowerland

      The Sorcery of Flowerland is the magic of Night. It is unsubtle and unlovely. It excels at destruction, imposition, corrosion, subjugation, and transformation, while succor, mending, light, heat, and delicacy are fundamentally contrary to its nature. Animals fear it, and spirits go mad in its presence. When Sorcery can be seen or felt, it is cloying, chilling, sinuous, and dark. 

      distributed by Stefano Corso under Creative Commons


      Anyone with the Sorcery skill can learn magical Arts. To do so, they must spend a full day studying one of the Night Tribe’s monoliths, murals, or texts. At sunset, they roll 2d6+Soul. 

      • On a 10+ they learn the Art.
      • On a 7-9 they learn the Art and are scarred or altered by the experience.
      • On a 6- they transform into a Night Demon and try to murder or subjugate everything around them.
      Upon learning their first Art, a sorcerer’s blood turns an inky black and becomes terribly poisonous. Practiced sorcerers have use for the blood of their fellows, but extraction is seldom pleasant.


      There are nine Greater Arts of Night known to the sorcerers of Flowerland. Lesser disciplines abound, and of course no one knows what magics lie forgotten in the Night Tribe ruins out in the wilds. A sorcerer can bring about any magical effect, so long as it pertains to one of the Arts they know and it does not contradict anything about Sorcery’s nature.

      1. Razor Dance
      2. Dominion Song
      3. Rapture Eye
      4. Night Grasp
      5. Void Gate
      6. Venom Scream
      7. Dream Chain
      8. Soul Stitch
      9. Rime Key

      When a sorcerer draws upon the powers of Night to cast a spell, on a 10+, they pick 2 of the following, and on a 7-9, they pick 1. On a 6-, it all goes it shit. (EDIT: This bit is adapted from one of the Druid’s moves in Dungeon World.)
      • The spell achieves what they wanted it to.
      • They are uncorrupted and unharmed by Night’s influence.
      • They keep control of their magic

      The effects of Sorcery can last indefinitely. However, there are two limiting factors: any Sorcery effect that does not take place instantaneously ends the moment sunlight touches it, and Sorcery tends to destroy or transform objects and people under its influence. 

      Sorcerers have a Curse score. It goes up when they fail to resist the corruption intrinsic to magic. If a Sorcerer’s Curse score is at any point higher than their current HP, they immediately roll 2d6+Soul:

      • On a 10+, they retain control and reduce their Curse by 1.
      • On a 7-9, their control slips, and they increase their Curse by 1.
      • On a 6- they transform into a Night Demon and try to murder or subjugate everything around them.
      jacinto classes, is this gonna work, spell

      As You Wish It…

      I lurve monster-conjuring, but Sword and Wizardry’s Conjure Monster spells just don’t do it for me, and LotFP’s Summon has too many Radiant Frond Phallus Crabs. I wanted a class that was thematically similar to Final Fantasy style summoning, but also something that matched the King Solomon style bossing-genies-around. Rotten Pulp has an excellent take on this, but I was looking for something a little different. Here it is.


      SUMMONER, a class for LotFP and retroclones

      HP as Cleric, Saves and Equipment restrictions as Magic-User, XP as Elf

      from final fantasy XIV

      Summoners call forth spirits. When they do so, the spirit appears before them and obeys all of their spoken commands to the letter. In order to call forth a spirit, a Summoner must make a pact with it. 

      There are 5 Order of spirits. A spirit’s Order determines how powerful it is and what kinds of spells it can cast. A Summoner can only make a pact with one spirit from each Order. This requires no more than the Summoner requesting a pact and the spirit accepting, though spirits are rarely accomodating. A Summoner can induce a spirit to accept a pact through bargaining, trickery, or violence.

      Summoning or dismissing a spirit takes a number of rounds equal to half the spirit’s HD. If a spirit is reduced to 0 HP, its Summoner takes d6 damage for every HD the spirit had and cannot summon that spirit again for a full day. Spirits recover 1 HP a day no matter what, and cannot be magically healed. 

      SPIRIT ORDERS

      Note: All spirits can cast at least 1 spell per day, and no spirit can cast more than 5 spells per day. Spirits learn spells by eating them, and can cast any spell they know; they do not need to memorize them beforehand like a traditional Magic-User
      1st Order Spirit: can cast a number of first level spells per day equal to the Summoner’s level. Has 2 HD, 10 AC, and deals d4 damage on a hit.

      2nd Order Spirit: can cast a number of second level spells per day equal to half the Summoner’s level. Has 4 HD, 12 AC, and deals d6 damage on a hit.

      3rd Order Spirit: can cast a number of third level spells per day equal to one third the Summoner’s level. Has 6 HD, 14 AC, and deals d8 damage on a hit.

      4th Order Spirit: can cast a number of fourth level spells per day equal to one fourth the Summoner’s level. Has 8 HD, 16 AC, and deals d10 damage on a hit.

      5th Order Spirit: can cast a number of fifth level spells per day equal to one fifth the Summoner’s level. Has 10 HD, 18 AC, and deals d12 damage on a hit.

      So ideally this class will be as much about phrasing commands intelligently and managing Spirits in multiple location as it is about having the right spell. I think I might set up a random tables for for when players send spirits out on a mission unsupervised. 


      OLD BAD WORSE VERSION FOLLOWS:

      Summoners call up Spirits. In order to do so, they must first enter a pact with it. Spirits in a pact will fight and cast spells at their Summoner’s command.


      Each Spirit is associated with a Spell Level; they can only cast spells of that level–no higher and no lower. Spirits can cast any spell of the appropriate level known to them. They learn spells by eating them (in written form).


      Spirits must agree to enter a pact. Summoners may induce a spirit to do so, through bargaining, trickery, or force. A Summoner cannot have a pact with two or more spirits with the same Spell Level. However, they can enter a pact with a Spirit more powerful than them. If a Summoner can track down and bind a Spirit, it is theirs to command.


      When a Summoner calls up a Spirit, it appears before them and asks for orders. It will follow orders to the letter, and continue to follow a command until its conditions are met or told to do something else. Spirits only follow orders directly vocalized by their Summoner. It takes a number rounds equal to a Spirit’s Spell Level to summon or dismiss it, and giving a Spirit a new command takes up a Summoner’s entire turn. If a Spirit dies, the Summoner takes d6 damage for every HD the Spirit had, and the Spirit cannot be summoned again until the following day. Otherwise, spirits can be called forth as often as the Summoner wishes. Spirits regain 1 HP per day, and cannot be magically healed.


      Spell Level
      HD
      AC
      Damage
      Spell Slot Progression
      I
      2
      10
      d4
      1/Summoner level
      II
      4
      12
      d6
      1/even  level
      III
      6
      14
      d8
      1/level divisible by 3
      IV
      8
      16
      d10
      1/level divisible by 4
      V
      10
      18
      d12
      1/level divisible by 5


      *Spirits start with 1 random spell of their Spell Level, regardless of Summoner level. The maximum number of spell slots a Spirit can have is 5.


      A Summoner begins play with a pact with a Level I Spirit who knows 1 random 1st level spell.


      EXAMPLE SPIRITS


      LEVEL I
      Homunculus: Child-sized figure made of darkness; possesses a toothy grin. Summoner can see through its eyes and speak through its mouth.
      LEVEL II
      Phantom: Can possess the remains of the fallen to gain +1 HP per HD the creature had in life.
      LEVEL III
      Lamia: Upper body of a human, lower body of a great serpent. Mundane snakes follow her commands.
      LEVEL IV
      Ifrit: Can throw balls of fire that deal d10 damage on a hit.
      LEVEL V
      Seraph: Can learn Level V Cleric spells, as well.


      jacinto is this gonna work, Pernicious Albion, spell, table

      A Pernicious Shortcut


      Agrace, The Not-World, God’s Garden, the Vestibulum, The Third Kingdom

      The shortest route between any two points is through Agrace. Some say it was once the Garden of Eden, abandoned by God since the Fall. Some say it is the Raven King’s third domain (after England and Faerie), leased from Lucifer until the Apocalypse.  Still others think it is simply a cosmic midden, where the refuse of Creation molders once it has served its purpose. Regardless, it is a perfectly interstitial space; it shares topologies with all worlds. All nations share a border with it; all rivers eventually drain into its ocean; all roads lead to its causeways. Enterprising magicians have found a way to use this to their advantage.
      There are no teleportation spells in Pernicious Albion. Instead, magicians in a hurry must pry open a door into Agrace. This, naturally is extremely dangerous.
      Agrace is silent and almost completely empty; its plains are a dark red, its seas a bitter green; its forests twisted and tired and grey. The sky in Agrace is always a pale gold.  There are neither rain nor clouds in The Third Kingdom.
      Weirding Gate
      Magic-User 3
      Duration: 5 minutes, or until dismissed by the caster.
      Creates a doorway between Albion and Agrace. Anything can pass through the gate as long as it fits, and remains in Agrace until it can find an exit. Distance works differently in The Third Kingdom, and so every mile travelled in Agrace translates to two miles travelled in Albion. 
      By Zazisław Beksińki; a gnostic titan

       Denizens of Agrace are as dangerous as they are uncommon. There is a 1 in 10 chance of having an encounter per day. I will stat these up over the next few days.
      1. Corpus Inverter
      2. Debased Sorcerer
      3. Gnostic Titan
      4. Microcosmic Sun
      5. Travelling Fairy Lord-roll 1d4 (1-Duke of Sighs; 2-Bone Knight; 3-The Lady Electric; 4-The Lazarus King)
      6. Chaos of ravens
      7. Eternal haruspex
      8. Infernal dignitary-roll 1d4 (1—Alrinach, Whose Domain is Shipwrecks; 2—Agares; 3—Adramelech, the Hypocrite; 4—Ahriman)
      9. Heavenly ambassador-roll 1d4(1–Zephekiel, who rules Mercy; 2–Jophiel, guarding a tree; 3–Remiel, searching for a relic; 3–an angry cherub; 4–one angel and one demon, fighting)
      10. One of the winds-roll 1d4 (1—Boreas the North Wind, 2—Notus the South Wind, 3—Eurus the East Wind, 4—Zephyrus the West Wind
      11. Travelling Vampire Lord
      12. The Wild Hunt
      13. Bewitched Knight
      14. Splinter of Imperium
      15. The Green Knight
      16. Displaced djinn
      17. Servant of Steel
      18. Diminished god
      19. Dragon
      20. Death  

      As a note, this is entirely based off of a footnote in Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell