#Norgorber

[pathfuckery]

New Year, New Deity, Day 13: Cleric of Norgorber

Perhaps it means something that Norgorber is currently the 13th deity of Golarion's big 20, but perhaps I'm seeing secrets where there aren't any... Anyways, build below:

The cleric of Norgorber acts as an assassin, striking only when victory is assured. Spell support helps contribute to bursts of damage, while focus spells help with Stealth and survival. If you want a cleric that plays as a skirmisher with strong reconnaissance abilities, this is the build for you!

Full Build Linked Here!

[golariontoday]

Ascendance Sacrifice https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Norgorber Sometime in the middle of winter, a random person is snatched from the street, quietly murdered with poison, and the body hidden, in celebration of Norgorber's Ascension.

[wyzeowl-jubylee]

Isolde, Cleric of Norgorber. She jumped in (literally from the second floor balcony) to help our party fend off attackers when we got caught up in a murder scene at the bar. Never mind that she was the true culprit behind the murder in the first place.

She continues to pull strings behind the scenes and terrorize our party to this day. She could be anywhere at any time. Watching. Listening. Collecting all of your secrets.

Haas (inspecting the mug the now very dead loan shark drank from): Poison.

Isolde (nonchalantly): Poor shmuck. No clue how it could have happened.

Haas (narrowed eyes): You sure you don’t know anything about this?

Isolde (smirk): Now why would you say that?

To be honest, she gave me just as much trouble when I was sketching her as she does in game. My search list from this endeavor is lengthy.

“Court of black paper”

“Bloodborne choir”

“King bumi”

“Greyson arcane”

“Dark dnd character”

“Female bodybuilder”

“Female body builder side profile”

“Quaker outfit”

“Person holding smoking pipe”

“Medieval smoking pipe”

“Matted hair”

“Old woman”

IDs:

Sketches of an old woman with a scar from her chin to her right cheekbone, clefting her lip. She is drawn in layered robes similar to the bloodborne choir and wears boots and elbow length gloves. Other sketches from neck up and chest up vary her facial structure and messy style of her hair.

Drawn poses of a muscled female figure from the front and side. In some she holds a smoking pipe, only one gives her a face. One note above a sketch reads “posture???”

A finished sketch of the old woman smiling menacingly, now cloaked and holding a smoking pipe, Pathfinder Society badge on her belt. Matted hair frames her face, the scar clefting her lip is prominent. Lighter sketches of her with her hood drawn up and sitting with one leg crossed over the other are on the side.

[bi-hop]

minor curtain call spoilers under the cut

still can't get my hands on bring the house down but while I wait

MY BUDDY MY HOMIEEEEE

yes he ate a dude's soul in front of the PCs but who cares

[lizzorasaurus]

Next up for Gods of Golarion is.... Norgorber - The god of secrets, murder, poison and greed!

[monstersdownthepath]

Herald of Norgorber: The Stabbing Beast

CR 15

Neutral Evil Huge Outsider

Inner Sea Gods, pg. 300 (image from Adventure Path: Agents of Edgewatch: Assault on Hunting Lodge Seven, pg. 85)

In a list containing some impressively unimpressive names, it's still no contest: the most unfortunately-named Herald in the pantheon has to be the poor Stabbing Beast (which I will refer to as variations of "Stabs" from now on), Herald of the greediest and most ambitious of all the gods: Norgorber, god of secrets, poison, murder, greed [sound of a scroll unfurling] blackmail, assassins, theft, darkness, alchemy, anonymity, spiders, propaganda--oh whoops forget I said that last one, that hasn't happened yet. Ol' Norby has a major problem with gifting ridiculous names out to his minions, with his other divine servants bearing such titles as Yellowtooth, Secret Shade, and Venomfist, but unfortunately Stabby here draws the shortest straw, as it only does stabbing some of the time and barely qualifies as a beast!

I'm being rough on it, but in truth it's because Stabby has all the personality of a wind-up toy created to perform a single function, ignoring anything irrelevant to its mission to the point it simply bowls over any creature that doesn't get out of its way while it's walking. Any creature that sufficiently annoys it is simply dispatched without a second thought or moment's concern, and any time Stabby has interacted with another living creature through any medium other than violence, it's been to inspire that creature to violence. Whenever Stabby creeps across the world, it's most certainly to either kill someone or destroy something that Norgorber (or one of his powerful followers) wants destroyed, and even its price when called into the universe by mortal worshipers is "kill this specific person for me," presumably as a test.

When it appears, someone will die. As a Herald, it's about as direct and to the point as one could expect from a creature with such a title. But is it any more interesting in combat than any of the other giant scorpions? Let's find out...

Like most scorpions, Stabbington can strike quickly and without warning, often felling its prey before they even realize what's going on. Its Sudden Strike allows it to take a full round of actions during the surprise round rather than just a single standard action, meaning if it appears in the middle of the party via its 3/day Greater Teleport or after sneaking in with its 3/day Invisibility, someone is likely already halfway gone. Stabbington has the usual tricks for a scorpion: a pair of deadly claws (2d6+13) and a lethal stinger (2d6+11) loaded with a Strength-damaging poison to take the bite out of anyone attempting to fight back, or simply to take out the casters who dumped Str.

Each of its natural attacks inflicts a worrying 2d6 bleed damage, adding some additional strain to anyone trying to heal in combat, and worse than that: its claws Grab whatever they hit and Constrict it for an extra 2d6+12 damage every round the grapple isn't broken. Also, do you remember that poison? Because instead of delivering it via a sting, Stabby can use Poison Stream to make a ranged touch attack against a target within 180ft, exposing the victim to its poison while also blinding them for 1d4+1 rounds if they fail the save against it. It can do this either as a ranged attack on its own or by replacing the stinger attack it makes during a Full-Attack, letting it shoot distant targets while it continues to rip apart whoever it has in melee.

And speaking of, it wouldn't be a melee monster if it didn't have some extra ways to keep people from fleeing, would it? It's not any of the usual suspects, either (i.e. Step Up), but one we haven't seen before: the Scorpion Style feat! It can make a single attack as a standard action which forces a DC 20 Fortitude save, and anyone who fails is essentially pinned in place for 2 full rounds, unable to move more than 5ft as the beast tears into them. Even if they could, Combat Reflexes might make them reconsider.

Being the servant of the God Of Underhanded Tactics, Stabbo has some protection against underhanded tactics itself; it's got All-Around Vision and a permanent See Invisibility, +4 to saves versus mind-affecting effects (its base saves are +17/+17/+14!), it is immune to poison, and has Resistance to almost every element; 30 to Acid, 10 to Cold, Fire, and Electricity. Capping it all off is the laughably-easy-to-bypass DR 10/Good and Magic, and the much less easily-bypassed 26 Spell Resistance, making this a bug that's still quite tough to squash! It's got Deflect Arrows as a bonus feat to swat aside the first ranged attack made against it each round to further frustrate enemies trying to keep their distance (enemies which are likely contending with its blinding poison). Also, you can't really gum it down with summons or extra bodies; its Murderers Reward grants it 2d6 temporary HP each time it brings a victim to 0 HP, or 3d6 if its attack kills the target, and this ability has no cooldown or per-day restriction, only the minor downside that the temp HP doesn't stack with itself and cannot grant Stabbo more HP than the victim's max HP stat (so it cannot, say, sting flies out of the air to suddenly regenerate a handful of HP).

We haven't even really covered its spells yet, have we? Most of them aren't going to be immediately useful to it (with one--Keen Edge--being outright worthless to the Herald itself), but with a bit of creative thinking from the DM, it can go from an overt mass-murderer to a stealthy assassin as easily as Norgorber swaps from Father Skinsaw to the Reaper of Reputation. Of course, this mostly relies on the other half of Stabitha's statblock, the half where it's a Medium-sized humanoid.

Yes, this horror isn't always a horror! Stabathan can freely shift from a Huge scorpion to a Medium assassin and back as needed, its fierce twin claws replaced by a pair of +1 Keen Short Swords it can make upwards to five attacks with each round for 1d6+4 damage. It lacks both the reach and the sheer crushing power of its scorpion claws in this form and its sting attack (which it retains) is reduced to 1d6+4 damage, but in return it swords have a 17-20 critical hit rate and almost three times as many attacks, making its humanoid form better at sustained damage than burst damage, especially since it still inflicts bleed with ALL of its attacks... and of course, utilizing its variety of carried poisons to coat its blades.

The primary use for its humanoid form, however, is stealth. A 16-foot-long scorpion isn't exactly subtle, but Stabbity's human form can easily utilize its +32 Stealth modifier to go wherever it needs to, and more easily use its various espionage-focused spell-likes to its advantage. An at-will Charm Person and 3/day Suggestion isn't especially useful to the scorpion, but infinitely useful to the human to get it into wherever it needs to go. Its at-will Poison is less effective than its claws and its own venom, but useful for giving a target a casual pat on the back and watching them collapse dead on the floor 30 seconds later. Similarly, an at-will Absorbing Touch isn't especially useful for the scorpion but allows the human shape to sneak weapons into places they aren't allowed, steal valuables, hide important documents, or any number of other useful tricks. Between False Alibi and Modify Memory at 3/day each, Stabbity can shape the minds of any witnesses to its crimes, either erasing them entirely or making the victims think they did it.

There is only one flaw in Stabamillion's disguise: Its humanoid form is a muscular, armored, masculine entity. This, alongside many of its other weaknesses, is easily rectified by a very powerful at-will: Alchemical Allocation. This spell alone changes the beast's abilities quite drastically, allowing it to essentially use any potion it obtains an infinite number of times. It has no built-in healing, but that doesn't matter if it can just drink a Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds over and over. It can only take one alternate shape, but a Potion of Disguise Self may as well be a Hat of Disguise. It has no climb speed for... some reason, but a Potion of Climbing easily rectifies this. And let's not get into what an endlessly-usable Potion of Haste can do...

Sometimes, it's the smallest things that make the biggest difference! Be it a single spell, a single line of text, or a single stab in the ribs with a poisoned knife. And then another. And then four more, just to be sure.

You can read more about it here.

[jean-dieu]

yes i trust u with my life neutral evil dhampir that worships norgorber

art fight revenge for @molochka-koshka with her character Amor hehe

[artofekurzweil]

Blackfingers.

Inspired by the god Norgorber from Pathfinder.

[dreadfutures]

Pathfinder is about to kill off one of its core 20 deities.

And they're really milking the wind-up in the best way:

Every week on the Paizo blog, an in-universe scholar serving the Goddess of Death and Prophecy, Pharasma, reads one of the mysterious Godsrain Prophecies. Each tale describes the cosmic consequences of a deity's hypothetical death, and some of them are truly moving.

The trick is, every deity who gets a story is safe.

My current bet is that Shelyn, Goddess of Art and Beauty, is going to die. Somehow, in the process, she'll redeem her tormented brother Zon-Kuthon, God of Torture, who was once known as Dou-bral.

But we shall see. 👀

Left to Right, Top to Bottom:

God of the Hunt, Erastil | Goddess of Valor, Iomedae | God of Dwarves, Torah | Goddess of Redemption, Sarenrae

Goddess of Beauty and Art, Shelyn | God of Freedom, Cayden Cailean | Goddess of Dreams, Desna | God of Capitalism, Abadar | God of Physical Perfection, Irori | Deity of Nature, Gozreh | God of Magic, Nethys | Goddess of Life, Death, and Prophecy, Pharasma

Goddess of Lust, Calistria | God of War, Gorum | King of Hell, Asmodeus | God of Pain, Zon-Kuthon

God of Lies, Norgorber | Goddess of Excess and the Undead, Urgathoa | Goddess of the Monstrous, Lamashtu | The Unmaker, Rovagug

If Rovagug kicked it, I think no one would care and nothing would change -- he's trapped in the cosmic center of the earth. If Lamashtu died, I feel like life would be much the same, since the demon lords are always killing each other. She killed another demon lord to get this title anyway. If Abadar kicked it, I think there'd be a lot of chaos but I don't know that it's the most interesting story and may not really set the stage for future Adventure Paths.

But Shelyn? Sarenrae? Iomedae?! Now we're talking huge cosmic fallout and great significance for the gods and mortals alike.

Can't wait to see who it turns out to be.

[moral-autism]

Working on expanding the religious symbol twemoji. I hope to do all the core deities at some point.

(Images depict the holy symbols of Abadar, Asmodeus, Desna, Gorum, Gozreh, Irori, Lamashtu, Nethys, and Norgorber and are derivatives of CC-BY 4.0 work by Twitter.)

[dailycharacteroption]

Class Feature Friday: Streets Mystery (Oracle Mystery)

(art by Maxa-art on DeviantArt)

The bustle of the market square, the unique cuisine forged from multiple cultures coming together, the local dialect in all it’s charming idiosyncrasies… Truly it is the people that make a city, giving it the unique character that spawns forth the architectural styles and other wonders that others might think of when they think of city culture.

And with the divine being so numerous and diverse in Pathfinder, it should be no surprise that there would be deities of civilization that focus on the more urbane aspects, both the public and shady underside. These aren’t your lofty high-minded civilization deities like Abadar, but rather the gods that really get in there and know beating heart of the people, be they Cayden Cailean, Milani, or even Norgorber and more.

And so when these deities decide to bless a mortal as an oracle that feels the people and city the way they do, it is often the Streets mystery that results.

As we’ll soon see, this mystery has aspects of being streetwise, stealthy, and sometimes underhanded. After all, it’s often a rough life in the streets, but how it is used is still up to the oracle themselves, either as a street-savvy protector of the people, or as a fearful shadow within it.

The magic of this mystery includes illusions, not just to hide their own appearance, but also to create false walls, as well as create and obscure areas from remote viewing. Beyond such illusions, mind reading is also among them, as is creating magical wards and teleporting themselves and others away from harm to a safe place. The more powerful among them can create extravagant extradimensional housing and even create cloned bodies to revive from after death.

Many of these oracles always seem to find the right tool for the job hidden away in the refuse. Whether these tattered mundane items were always there or were conjured is a matter of debate, but they always prove useful.

Some learn to conjure a phantom rat, pigeon, or other small urban vermin to serve as their eyes. Later on, they can summon large numbers of them at once, giving them lots of coverage.

A crowd can be perfect for those who do not wish to be seen, and the more stealthy of these oracles have a knack for disappearing into the crowd.

Additionally, many learn to use every available piece of terrain as cover, especially against destructive areas of effect.

Some can draw upon  supernatural knowledge of weak points to attack with the training of cutthroats and brigands for quick takedowns on occasion.

The city can be hard to maneuver through, but some street oracles can navigate bustling crowds, construction sites, and other situations that would impede their movements with ease.

Cities have many secrets, and those that utilize divination magic can invoke the rumor mills and whispered conversations to double the effective range of such information-gathering magic through the power of association.

When it becomes necessary to move in disguise, some are able to enshroud themselves and others in a veil, blending in with those that are supposed to be there.

Calling upon the spirit of the city itself, some of these mystics are able to subtly help their allies in various tasks… a brick juts out to provide a handhold, a convenient sign points the way, a series of minor events puts someone in a good mood, more amenable to diplomacy, and so on.

The most powerful among them become truly in tune with the urban landscape. They are able to learn if a particular individual is in a city, as well as ask questions of the city directly, the way a druid might commune with the terrain.

If you ever wanted a very rogue-ish divine caster, a street oracle could definitely fill that role quite well. The illusions and information-gathering provide lots of utility, and if you spec for stealth and melee you can even enjoy being a good flanker that can even sneak attack a few times. I personally recommend building with stealth, divination, and a variety of other tools in mind so you can really take advantage of the urban environment. That being said, plenty of their utility is lost when you leave behind the cities for the wilds and dungeons.

As mentioned before, a lot of the revelations tied to this mystery involve being quite sneaky and underhanded. While this does lend itself to villainy, consider also the antihero that uses such tactics because of how harsh life can be in the slums and lower-class areas of civilization. And also recall that there are also abilities that are less clandestine as well, allowing one to play a more benevolent keeper of the city and its people.

A lover of architecture, Pilob the gnome could spend years exploring the ins and outs of every city he visits, and he often does, wandering them for as long as they hold his interest. The fact that this fascination often ends up with him discovering the secret byways of the criminal underbelly does not bother him though, for his divine calling is also to put a stop to such activities wherever he can.

Tallstep is so named because the mountainous city was originally settled and built for giants. However, since then it has expanded it’s infrastructure to accommodate peoples of a smaller stature, with roads and stairs having lanes for the smaller folk to move with ease without being trampled. One of the oldest human residents, an oracle named Tagi, knows almost everything there is to know about the city, including ancient burial grounds where the clay-shod bodies of giants are comsumed by corrosive worm-filled oozes, creating the guardians known as benaioh.

For now Third-Eye Tolkan is nothing more than a lesser gang leader, but he has an expansive vision, desiring to rule the city from the shadows, and to do that he’ll leverage his prophetic power in the name of the Shadow God to absorb and destroy all opposition in the city’s underworld.

[enddaysengine]

Xulgaths (Paths Beyond)

One of the reasons for my posting slowdown last year was looking ahead and send daunting prospect of covering every xulgath variant featured in Extinction Curse.  Don’t get me wrong, I was also excited about it, xulgaths are great! At the pace I was moving out though, it would’ve taken months. Today we are going to cover the base model and expect those variations to pop up occasionally as side quests. And yes, if you plan on doing anything related to xulgaths, make sure you check out the Extinction Curse adventure path, along with Occult Bestiary, Monster Codex, and Darklands Revisited.  

Xulgath's defining cultural feature is that they got knocked back several civilizational levels thousands of years ago and have been unwilling or unable to recover. While they are a Stone Age civilization, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, while they don't have the rest of Golarion's fancy new technologies, a lot can be achieved with stone, bone, and sinew, so they still have skilled laborers. Second, the ruined cities of their ancestors could contain just about anything, so they absolutely could reverse engineer lost technologies unexpectedly. Third, magic is still a thing and xulgaths definitely have access to it, with the arcane tradition being the only one that doesn’t fit. Plus, those unexpected past technologies could absolutely include magical innovations, not just engineering. 

Biologically, xulgaths have two main features. Xulgath stench is iconic, so expect them to not be as bothered by the rotten and the foul as other humanoids. If the table is comfortable with it, this is a good opportunity to make the encounter more visceral. Smells don’t get involved as much in writing and games as sight and sound, so take advantage of that olfactory opportunity. The other thing about xulgaths is the generations of exposure to the Outer Rifts and (unrelated) magical radiation have made them extremely prone to mutation. This could be to a body horror aficionado��s delight, but it’s also a great excuse to throw new and weird variants of these reptiles at your players. Again, see Extinction Curse for exemplars.  

Finally, the T-Rex in the living room. Xulgaths have a strong affinity for dinosaurs, which is a great excuse to haul out every prehistoric critter in the book. It’s also a useful way to distinguish xulgaths from serpentfolk, who also live in the underground ruins of their empire and are also highly prone to mutation. The dino aspect does wonders for giving xulgaths their own identity, so make sure you use it. 

Relations between xulgaths and other humanoids range from uneasy tension to outright violence almost everywhere. They are likely the calmest in the Land of the Mammoth Lords, although they still aren't exactly friendly. Nevertheless, the region's Kellids and Xulgath respect each other's drive to survive and admiration of massive, prehistoric creatures. Once every decade, xulgath emissaries emerge from the Darklands for the Night of Skin and Scales, where they exchange tales of gods, spirits, and shamans alongside hallucinogenic fire pits. 

Szvean the Iconoclast spurns all gods, declaring that all deities have exploited and marginalized the Xulgath people. She hates demon lords, but truly despises Aroden. More than any other mortal, she has mapped the tunnels beneath Axis in search of a way into the Last Azlanti's realm. Once within, she plans to destroy the last of his legacy as he destroyed her people, but in the meanwhile, she must contend with Norgorber and Thamir's minions. 

Many xulgath communities consider conjoined twins, or twinskulls, to be blessed by one of several demon lords. Some less orthodox communities believe this blessing to come from the First World rather than the Outer Rifts. They believe twinskulls are touched by Imbrex, granting the power over stone and oracular insights. Many of these twinskulls dream of the Statue Lords, but in the place of the fey city of Anophaeus at Imbrex's feet, they see a vast plain of ancient ruins and megalithic stones. Most scholars are quick to dismiss these as flights of fancy, but some maintain they contain some element of truth. Whether these are prophecies of the future, recollections of the past, or some kind of dreamscape within Imbrex itself remains to be seen.

[starlightcleric]

I was pairing up my Kingmaker and Wrath characters for worldstates, and I just realized my most recent are both dlc companion romancers.

(More details on the various worldstates below the cut)

Queen Adia Rih, NG tiefling Kineticist and Lorraine Summerglen, halfling Monk/Rogue/Paladin, mythic Angel. The goody-two-shoes, first playthrough of both games state. They both also romanced the blonde healer man of their parties.

Baroness Bella Dorso, CE tiefling Cleric of Norgorber and Poetry, CG tiefling Warpriest of Cayden Cailean, mythic Trickster. I'm not super sold on this pairing, but since Poetry is kind of a canon worldstate to my version of Golarion, it felt weird to not have someone with her. Although if I ever play or run a tabletop game of Kingmaker that would upset this state.

Baroness Liza Ylvaris, CG half-orc Alchemist and Angelina Ylvaris, CN half-elf Bard/Witch, Legend. The cousins universe! I keep going back and forth on if Liza should really be a Baroness or if I should make her a dlc protagonist, but I like her enough that for now she'll chill here.

Baroness Amber Orlovsky, LN half-elf Investigator and Caroline Gemsledge, LG dwarf Cleric of Torag, mythic Angel. This is the new one, and what they have in common is that both of these are a result of sitting down and looking at the lore around the games and crafting characters to fit into it. They both are also planned to romance the dlc companions (Kanerah and Ulbrig).

I have some Knight Commanders without Kingmaker counterparts just because I have more Wrath characters. If I ever figure out Secret Ending games for both games, those characters will probably also share a worldstate.

[pathfuckery]

New Year, New Deity Masterpost!

Thanks for all who followed along with this little theme for January. For the final day, I've put together a masterpost, making it easy to go back and read prior posts you may have missed or wanted to visit again. If you liked this month and want to see more things like it, let me know! What would you like to see?

Day 1 - Cleric of Abadar

Day 2 - Cleric of Asmodeus

Day 3 - Cleric of Calistria

Day 4 - Cleric of Cayden Cailean

Day 5 - Cleric of Desna

Day 6 - Cleric of Erastil

Day 7 - Cleric of Gorum

Day 8 - Cleric of Gozreh

Day 9 - Cleric of Iomedae

Day 10 - Cleric of Irori

Day 11 - Cleric of Lamashtu

Day 12 - Cleric of Nethys

Day 13 - Cleric of Norgorber

Day 14 - Cleric of Pharasma

Day 15 - Cleric of Rovagug

Day 16 - Cleric of Sarenrae

Day 17 - Cleric of Shelyn

Day 18 - Cleric of Torag

Day 19 - Cleric of Urgathoa

Day 20 - Cleric of Zon-Kuthon

Day 21 - Cloistered Cleric vs. Warpriest

Day 22 - Early Cleric Feats

Day 23 - Low-Level Divine Spells

Day 24 - Mid-Level Cleric Feats

Day 25 - Mid-Level Divine Spells

Day 26 - High-Level Cleric Feats

Day 27 - High-Level Divine Spells

Day 28 - Cool Cleric Art

Day 29 - What About You?

Day 30 - Foundry Sheets!

[bi-hop]

the way the instant I clicked order and refreshed an archive, it updated with the file I've been anxiously waiting for for the entire week... what joke can I make out of this

welp bought a binder. I have two weeks to wait until it arrives lmao

[coffeewithacold]

-OH, GOD, COME HERE! My spells are out of reach! -So I came up

We have a campaign in the Falcon's Hollow, and there was NPC, Aida, who was not the last person in town. But well, she also was the cultist of Norgorber in his aspect of Father Skinsaw. Aida tried to perform a ritual requiring 9 victims, but we stopped her from removing the skin from the face of the eighth and killing the ninth. And there was so many traps....