#unknown armies homebrew

[ghoulangerlee]

Your dnd characters 👀

i will always be down to talk about my d&d boys!!!

I don't....actually have actual photos of them because I cannot draw, and so they live vividly in my mind. I Will Eventually commission someone to draw them though I think. ANYWAY.

Jamir - he's a half-dead (as in, that is his race, homebrewed myself) ranger who isn't wise enough to multiclass (his death took away some of his wisdom). He was human before his death--not the best sort of human, joined the army at a young age because that's all he could do, really. His parents well. He made a deal with someone not so nice and in exchange for their souls, he gained the ability to perform magic; simple things though, nothing too crazy. A few cantrips here and there.

Along the way, the faction of soldiers he's with are sent out to aid a dragonborn clan that's having issues of their own with infighting.

This is where he meets Elias, eventually, and they hit it off pretty much immediately. Jamir is of course, jaded all the hell, he's been fighting for half his life in an army of soldiers who just seem to be making things worse.

Elias gives him a way out, a chance at freedom, because Elias was also looking to somehow distance himself from all the fighting. They make a pact to leave together.

Until Elias's brother Arjhan catches wind of this and kills Jamir.

I can't go too much into Elias's backstory because I haven't delved much into it during the campaign and ofc both my players follow me here haha! But, Elias takes Jamir's body and finds a necromancer, makes a deal with her to bring Jamir back.

She readily agrees and makes sure he understands the consequences of this, of what could happen. The possibilities of Jamir coming back wrong.

Elias accepts these consequences readily.

And he does, of course, come back wrong. He's no longer human, smells of rot and decay and has to constantly drink potions to keep his skin from looking too pale. He has aches and pains despite being practically unkillable now. But, along with his new chance at life, he's also gained more access to magic.

Elias [Redacted] is a dragonborn paladin (he has a family name ofc but it's unknown for now, for a good reason)

is the son of a monarch, a clan leader, and he hates it. His clan is constantly at war with each other, with other dragonborn. with humans. you name it, they have a distrust of most other races, for good reason of course.

Long ago, a curse was placed on this clan, meaning that any children born to them would die. There is no known way to reverse this, until, one day, Elias's brother Arjhan was born.

Arjhan, he had not succumbed to the curse, and no one knows why, but this makes Arjhan a very popular target.

Elias had, for years, felt like he had to protect his brother from anyone. From the weird scientists and magic folk that their father had hired to test Arjhan to see if there was something about his blood that made him different, to the older kids that the two of them grew up around.

Arjhan was, in a way, viewed as the savior of the clan, much to the distaste of Elias.

The campaign actually begins with Elias and Jamir recruiting people to help them find Arjhan haha. At this point in time, there is still no cure to the curse and Arjhan is practically hated by the party (minus Elias and begrudgingly, Jamir--but also like wouldn't u also hate the person who killed you???)

ANYWAY. Elias and Jamir are in love, they are my mid-thirties baby boys who are just tired soldiers who want to rest their head somewhere but can't because they keep getting pulled into bullshit!

(also if you vaguely guessed that Elias's family story sounds eerily like the Krogan Genophage from Mass Effect then u would be correct. Elias is based on Wrex and Jamir is based on male Shepard but with a lil gay twist LMAO)

[sheep-magik]

Well, other thing I forgot to post this when I first done them, you see a year ago I was trying to gm a homebrew a pathfinder campaing I made because I couldn’t find material to use to do my first campaign as gm, long-story-short it was a flop. But I did few designs of few characters and just like it’s world, I kept it to recycle everthing I built for that campaign for other personal projects of mine. But for now I want to show you guys the first designs I did for that campaign, the first Boss and his allies, of course, I’ll be naming them by order: Sargent Oliver Cervantes: The Great Hobgoblin Sargent, Oliver Cervantes Bardin. The first boss that my party of players first face in the introduction of my homebrew world, he's a charismatic, heroic but weary man of the Hobgoblin Republic, who likes to prepare everything beforehand to ensure victory in any mission he leads, his troops -hobgoblin or not- love him for this qualities of and would show their devoltion and loyalty on the battlefield, but despite his leadership skills, great renown, unfaltering tactics and successes, his tender heart and care for his troops, leads him to often disagree with his superiors, preventing him from advancing further in the ranks to the point that his own wife and children outrank him. This conflict and the poor leadership of his superiors, will lead to his downfall at the hands of the heroes of the story, after getting sent off to a suicide mission, alongside his most fresh recruits under the excuse of artillery training. Lieutenant Loretta Cortéz: Lieutenant and field medic who works under Sargent, Oliver Cervantes, as his right hand, as she aids him and his men during the first boss fight against my players on the homebrew campaign I made. She is grumpy, and very perfectionist, but has a soft side hidden deep within her, unknown to everyone but her twin sister, and those close to her. She enjoys to write romantic poems and melodies, as well paint beautiful landscapes in her free time. She's also known for her natural skill in fencing and tactics, as well medicine, making many think that she's what a hobgoblin should aspire to be in the army, but because of this idea that the people has of her, she considers this artistic side of her a weakness of sorts, and she embarrasses greatly whenever she’s seen doing this activities, so she tends to hide whenever she’s creating art. Superior Private, Annetta Cortéz: Hobgoblin Superior Private and Engineer, Annetta, who works under Sargent, Oliver Cervantes, as engineer and siege gunner in charge of testing their army newly developed artillery, as well, she's Loretta's twin sister, and while she's not a genius like her sister, she knows her way with machinery, and firearms, originally she was gonna be firing cannon balls to my players while they were trying to attack the first boss, but my players were smarter, and destroyed the black powder reserves before facing the Sargent Cervantes, so instead, she's firing her musket from a safe distance to cover her sister, Loretta, while she heals her fallen comrades. She's a bit cowardly and timid, and prefers to be left alone as she tinkers with all sorts of things, specially, her beloved musket, which she takes pride that she builted up herself, but despite her introvert demeanor, she rarely strays away too far from her twin. Recruit, Serena Angelos: Minotaur Recruit, Serena, who works under Hobgoblin Sargent, Oliver, she's a strong barbaric warrior that managed to overcome the eternal rage that runs through her boiling minotaur blood and instead enters into a state of eternal tranquility and awereness, and while she doesn't gets stronger and tougher out of this like the average minotaur does with their anger, she does get nimbler and clear of mind, originally she was going to be helping Annetta to possition the cannon to fire at my players during the first boss, before becoming a recurrent miniboss later on, but for how my players are handled her situation, and imprison everyone before trying to befriend them, so that never happened... Personality wise, she's a wise, calm and docile gal, that behaves very mother-like towards those close to her, wanting to help them in pretty much any situation they might get into, this motherly devotion also extends to the battlefield as she won't think twice before sacrificing herself and willingly taking a hit in place of one of her comrades just to ensure their safety. But don’t let this laid back demeanor fool you, she’s still a minotaur through and through, so she more than happily take up your challenge if you think you can fight her. Recruit, Victoria Montenegro: Gnoll Recruit, Victoria, who works under Hobgoblin Sargent, Oliver. She's a fast and strong soldier of the hobgoblin republic, specialized on entering and exit the battlefield quickly and shredding anything and anyone inside it even faster before the enemy can even react, but she also has a knack for machinery, and scouting. She's a bit cynic who grew under the ideology imposed by her parents that the weak serves the strong and so that she's must be the strongest of them all in order to succeed in life before she was dumped into the military academy when she was at a young age, where this ideology was reinforced even more, and so, she grew up with with an oppressive expectation that she must prove herself on everything she does, and by the time she graduated from the military academy, she was so strong that she could outwrestle even the mighty minotaurs that trained her with ease, but during her training, she became close friends with the minotaur, Serena, as well a small half-goblin with a big zweihander, who together showed Victoria that there’s more to life than might alone, and became almost inseparable since then. On the surfice, she’s blunt, brutish, hot-headed and very aggressive towards anyone, a natural cynic that pretty much mocks you with her presence alone, as it is obvious that she doesn’t believe anything you say to her, but deep underneath her rough exterior she’s caring, honest and very loyal friend, that would go to the ends of the world for the sake of those close to her. Originally, she was gonna be a recurring miniboss for my party, alongside Serena the minotaur, but in after the cannon thing happen, she was gonna fight my players on the first boss fight to put pressure on my party, but I didn't knew that one of my players had ray of enfeeblement, and got hit by it before getting ganked and k.o.'d cold as soon she showed up... Though she did started improving once the party started to take her into their adventures. Recruit, April De La Rosa: Half-Goblin recruit, April, who works under Sargent, Oliver, and daughter to the late Hobgoblin General Warlord who used to rule her nation. Despite her size and appearance, she's a capable fighter, strong enough to wield that sword that's twice as big as herself with relative nimbleness and ease, unlike her compatriots, she enlisted on to the Republic’s Army, in hopes to become strong enough to avenge her parents after she lost them in during an siege at the capital of the Republic at the end of a devastating war, that took place 5 years prior the story of the homebrew takes place. During this siege, she witnessed the moment her mother fell in combat trying to defend her and her people, while barely surviving the merciless onslaught herself, as proven by the terrible scars that mark her entire body, a massacre that only stopped when her father was declared dead, after he was exectured during a judicial duel against the leader of the enemy who led the siege. After that day, she picked up her father's zwaihander, as well parts of her mother's armor, before swearing to claim the life of the man who responsable of their deaths, using those very items to serve justice. She would grew up alone and full of hatred until she met Victoria and Serena, who becomes likes sisters to her, as they help her to see the world beyong just vengeance, and while she still desires to avenge her parents, she also started to wish to follow her in father’s footsteps to protect her people and to prevent them of suffering the same as her. Just like Victoria and Serena she was gonna be miniboss later on after the first boss, also, she was simply a normal goblin, but her Strength was too low to carry the sword, so I made her a half-goblin instead. She got K.O'd pretty quickly too, after getting ganked, she tanked enough to be able to at least attack, but the die I rolled a 2... so yeah, no way she hit a paralyzed and prone giant with a roll that low...

[velvetwarfare]

for as much crack shit I post about my dnd cos group it’s mainly because if we DIDN’T insert awful jokes and actions, it would be incredibly fucked up and depressing all around HFHGJVB

so far we got uhhh

- Beth: Had her entire vardo slaughtered by her vampire lord, was bitten and turned into a nosferatu ✨ for funsies by him ✨ , constantly poked at by him, he then proceeds to slaughter another Vistani village after she got close to them and killed our past wizard, witnessed UNFATHOMABLE gore in the fog, had her first love interest tortured and kidnapped (then killed by the opposing vampire army to be set against us) , betrayed her original oath and the God’s sentient sword seppuku’d her as a fuck you. Desperate to redeem Cassandra (Strahd) before it’s too late. the most damaged punching bag here HFHFHCBV

- Oren: Our second cinnamon bun. A changeling who cannot remember at all who she is. Changes into other people to feel ANY familiarity. Her father(?) was Beth’s first love interest — who likely no longer remembers her or has to kill her now due to being on the opposite faction. Her love interest was a warforge that got torn to absolute pieces by Beth’s vampire lord when he ambushed the masquerade and put Ireena in a comatose state.

- Yona: Our detective satyr. Her descendants were the closest to killing Cassandra (Strahd). So naturally, this crack shit demon blackmails her innocent ass into signing a contract to murder Cass herself or he’ll let the party die in the future. She literally just wants to find her family. Is constantly going through a crisis because she knows how attached Beth is to Cass already and really doesn’t want to both murder her and butcher the bond she has with Beth.

- Nova: Our first cinnamon bun. A himbo half elf. God bless this bard because holy shit do we need his vibes — that are slowly faltering after everything. Aldo just wants to find his family. The love interest of Ireena — and had to watch her get fucked over by Beth’s vampire lord. Has been hellbent on trying to reverse the feeble minded state. Just wants his damn girlfriend back.

- Morian: This dwarf dude who got such a hard bonk on his head that it both gave him amnesia, ptsd, and he can only speak in grumbles. Dude gets ptsd attacks and cannot decipher between reality and past. Starts genuinely speaking common and calling all of us some names he remembers from his past from his family. He lost all of his family.

- Elias: Centaur war horse. His lover was torn apart and he only has his hand left. Has been desperately trying to revive him. It’s not going well. He carries around this hand. Also hellbent on helping Ireena as part of the royal guard.

- Cass, so far of what we know, heavily homebrewed: Her fiance (Tatyana) was murdered in front of her. They supposedly had a child, but the child’s whereabouts are unknown. Literally has her child’s drawings pinned to her dorm’s walls. The court corrupted her with power and took advantage of her lingering humanity to meld her into what she is today. Turned to vampirism to save her people — regrets it. Was once a kind baroness.

[talen77703]

By:  Insect King

AKA The True Namers, the Baal Chem

In the Beginning was YHVH and He created all life.

The Holy Tetragrammaton has puzzled religious thinkers and mystical speculators about its simplicity, complexity, and its promise for climbing closer in our understanding of Him. Each letter was an engine of creation which pointed in different directions but was the whole. Although it was a sacred duty to meditate upon these things, there where hucksters who also worshiped the power of God but sought to manipulate it. Through rearranging the order of words so the combinations could unlock power, create magick.

These sorcerers were the Baal Shem; the thieves of knowledge and blasphemers with the ability to decode and remake all creation. They were true adepts of their time, recognizable in their attitude and execution of their magick.

As the years waned and cultures grew, interest in sorcery changed, new things were accepted and old ideas lost their flexibility. And so did the Baal Shem, with their ever ready YHVH words of power. Their rules went into the cold storage of old books written by magickally dry occultists. And so they were passed down, flittered about in discussions, and occasionally studied.

But old, powerful ideas do not die easy, they can spontaneously resurrect when the correct grail is found, the hollow idea which can be filled with the liquid of pure imagination and will. And so with one student of ancient occult, it happened, he saw the book and magazine lying side by side, open to the right pages.

On one page was YHVH, the other, AGCT. And then everything just fell into place like a puzzle assembling in reverse motion. Religious philosophy and genetic science were one and the same.

It wasn’t a complete cohesion, some puzzle pieces where in backwards, or the wrong way around. He would have to keep looking at the larger pattern, before finding the small inconsistencies. Of course changing one tiny piece altered the larger pattern, so it is hard work and the gains are few but one day it will be completed, and God’s face will be seen.

AGCT is the Tetragrammaton, the True Genome, the Unpronounceable Name of God. Our individual genomes are our True Names two-billion characters long, and by rewriting our True Names, we can cause a miraculous change, a new creation.

As above, so below is the running irony of the Baal Chem. It is the apotheosis of everything else that makes us human, but not actually us; deep in all the bone, blood, meat, gristle is where God sits, in the tiny arrangements of molecules, the delicate chains of deoxyribonucleic acid that exists innocuously in every living parcel. The most powerful information coherence in the world built of the most of fragile filigree. The most powerful being of the universe is the also one of the weakest.

Through our consensual landfill of waste religious orthodoxy and mythology we abandoned God, and through our embrace of science and experiment, we have found Him again. We have found him in all of us, the destiny in everything that lives.

And so the school of the Baal Chemistry was born, alchemically uniting old magick and modern science;  uniting Baal Shem and Genetics, and making the magick of God’s Chemicals.

STATS

Baal Chemistry is in not in its infancy, but there are few practitioners, mostly in the Middle East, but migrating outwards. The basics are already down but the school is not going to progress unless the students learn Hebrew, or the science of molecular chemistry, or both. It doesn’t have to be to rigorous academic standards but the skills must be bought.

Although firmly rooted in Hebrew mysticism Baal Chemistry isn’t a Jewish school. Anyone with adept potential can learn the school.

Baal Chem relies on the sympathetic law of imitation. The law is quite simple, if anything appears like something else, it will act upon that something else. The Baal Chem use a symbolic version of the Law of Imitation, the Law of Names.

One side of the Baal Chemist’s genetic sorcery is that successful significant effects alter the DNA permanently which might throw off testing.

Blast Style: The Baal Chem can bobby trap scrolls to give blasts but it cause sickness or even cancer. Although the spells are slow they may be fatal over a long period of time.

Random Magick Domain: random magick is antithetical to Baal Chemistry. They might lack true diversity, but the Tetragrammatists can stack magicakal effects on top of each other unlike any other school.

Generate a minor charge: For four hours study the Bible, cabala, The Tetragrammaton, and other tracts of Jewish mysticism, or write an essay condensing your findings.

Generate a significant charge: There are no Significant charges only significant effects generated by actively manipulating the genetic code in yourself or others.

Generate a major charge: Discover a lost tract on the Tetragrammaton and be the first to study it. Discover a break though in genetics research, such as controlling the telomere cancer-cellular mitosis relationship. Work a change over ten years that works.

Taboo: Their work is sacred and may never be abandoned. If the Baal Chemist is ever interrupted from his significant works, they reset and have to be started over again.

The Baal Chem cannot touch any separated tissue or fluids of the target that are derived from injury. Touching blood and other tissues breaks taboo as the law of imitation is subverting by the law of contagion. If the Baal Chem gets splashed with a limited amount of tissue, he can scrub off to avoid taboo.

The temple of the Baal Chemist is generally as close to sterile as any scientific laboratory.

Unlike other adepts, The renamers can incorporate different spells into one, as long as they add up the time taken and roll their Magick: Baal Chemistry skill.

Minor Baal Chemistry Formula Spells

A (one minor charge) The Baal Chemist can diagnose any living body and give a pretty accurate idea of what is going on at that time.

T (one minor charge) The Baal Chemist can correct minor imperfections, purge the body of toxins, exhaustion, and turn back the body’s clock limitedly for about as many months as the sum of the Magick: Ball Chemistry skill. This doesn’t regenerate lost limbs or heal damage, but it removes and smoothes imperfections like scars, wrinkles, and acne, hangovers, reduces infections, cleans the system, and improves the person’s sense of well being. A person with this spell heals 1 wound point has a +10% on all his first stress check afterwards.

The Baal Chemist will use T as a cleansing preparation before performing a procedure.

C (two minor charges) The Genetic Tetragrammatist can improve healing and assist in recovery by rolling his Magick: Baal Chemistry skill as if he was a doctor.

G (three minor charges) This minor blast spell makes the target’s body react as if it were invaded by foreign germs. The target suffers from a debilitating fever. Unless the character gets bed rest for as many days as the sum of the Magick: Baal Chemistry skill, he cannot heal through convalescence. If the character is actively physically stressing his body, he takes one wound point per roll whether successful or not.

Significant Baal Chemistry formula effects

Targeted effects The significant effects do not have to be performed with the target present, but the Baal Chemist must at least have some knowledge of who the person is, to have some idea of the person’s True Name. Basically this: no name -10%, no picture -10%, no basic personality profile -10%, or no truthful history -10%. If the Baal Chemist can touch the victim, the penalty is reduced by 30%. The Baal Chem cannot increase his skill this way.

Rearranging Genomes The spells are basically formulations, long strings of the Tetragrammaton characters AG and CT written on paper scrolls. The paper can be worn as an amulet or scrunched up and swallowed as a pill. Placing the spell on unknowing or unwilling targets is a bit problematic but nothing that can be solving without some quick thinking, sneaky long-fingers or elbow-greasing thugs.

Once the spell is on the person’s body, it takes about an hour to ready or activate. Removing the scroll before then diffuses the magick but the scroll is still active.

For a safety measure the scrolls can actually described to target a specific person, who is listed Tetragrammatically in the formulation.

The Abundance of God’s Blessing (One days work) By spending one day working the Baal Chemist can regenerate one point of Body. This includes the slow re-growth of lost limbs and organs. This spell cannot replace damaged tissue just replace what is missing. Due to the complexity of tissue re-growth it might take many weeks or months before the area is restored.

The Passion of David (One days work) The target may re-roll one failed but non-magickal Soul-based skill and Speed-based skill roll.

A Visitation from the Angel of Betrayal (Two days work) The Baal Chemist can disrupt cellular activity by scribbling over the cell’s ability to control their own division, allowing them to multiply unstoppably into cancerous tissue.

After spell is cast, the opponent rolls his Body stat once per week. If it fails he takes the highest die in damage to his Body. This roll continues once per week until either the cancer kills the target or he successful convalesces, healing his Body back to full while not taking any damage. At which point the cancer has gone into permanent remission. Otherwise, if the cancer is detected within the first month, it can be safely removed.

The Legacy for Esau (Three days work) The next four Mind stat or skill checks are flip-flopped to their worst result. Obsession skills simply do not flip-flop.

The Sword of God (Three days work) The Sword of God is a strange blast spell. It invokes rage in anyone interacting with the target. No everyday things like buying from the market or speaking to people at your office, but when a roll is required. If the roll fails, it triggers their Rage Passion.

There isn’t much control over the situation, but at the wrong time with the right person, the results can be fatal. The person tagged with the Sword of God comes across as hiding crucial personal secrets, arrogant, and irritating. Triggering the anger doesn’t cause a stress check, only the results of it do.

The Sword of God works once.

Blessings on the House (Four days work) With this spell the ability to conceive a child is made better. Not only is the act blessed to be fruitful (the Fertility chance is half of Body), one partner gets a flip-flopping and the other, a re-roll, but the sex of the child can be chosen by the one who rolled highest. This scroll works once per sexual encounter.

The Lions of Daniel (Four days work) While the target is protected by the Lions of Daniel, it triggers or creates the Noble Passion of the animals for the benefit of the target, regardless of how they are feeling or trained to act. The animal certainly won’t attack but it might not let the character pass an area it was set to guard. Animals might even get playful and unintentionally hurt the target.

Wild dogs will not attack her, but they will maul clothing and bags to get to food, rats will climb and nuzzle their way inside her clothing. Once the spell is in effect it lasts twenty-four hours.

Loss of the Innocence of Eden (Five days work) This spell rewrites history recorded onto genetic memory, the target’s twenty billion character True Name. The successful roll can rearrange three failed and hard notches from any three chosen meters. The notches can be placed on any other gauge, Hard or Failed.

Perfecting the Perfect (Five days work) This scroll permanently removes any inherited genetic disease from a person unless the disease has already manifested. The disease’s harmfulness is eradicated and will not pass it along the target’s germline from that point.

Once the genetic malfunction has manifested, there is nothing the Baal Chem can do about it.

The Flesh of Methuselah (Six days work) This spell rejuvenates the target’s body effectively removing the debilitating effects of tissue damage, decrepitude, injury, and internally halving the person’s age. Externally there is little actual change but the spry person may act and thus look younger. Cosmetic surgery and extensive spa treatments may help further at this point.

This spell heals Wound Points equal to the sum of the Magick: Ball Chemistry roll.

Void of the Nameless (Seven days work) The dead are generally beyond the purview of the Baal Chemist. If you do not have a body you have no True Name, their lives are over and thus Nameless. With Void of the Nameless, a possessed person can regain control over his or her body by imprisoning the demon within their mind, and like an oyster, form a psychic pearl around the irritant.

This spell forces the demon to roll possession to escape or be trapped in the victim’s mind as he regains control. It is crushed underneath the awakening mind, trapped. The victim may have dim dreams.

Unless the demon has some magickal means of escaping it is trapped in some disused and sound-proofed basement of the victim’s mind. Over time the entity just decays into oblivion.

The Void of the Nameless is also proof against possession attempts in the first place. The possessing entity just smacks into the target’s body like it was solid.

Once the demon is imprisoned, it is there permanently. The spell gives twenty-four hours protection once activated.

The Lamentations of Solomon (Eight days work) The spell allows the target to increase his Mind and Soul stat at a rate of one experience point per Stat point. The maximum number of purchases is equal to the sum of the Magick: Baal Chemistry roll. This spell only raises the stats, not the skills.

Major Baal Chemistry Effects Change one species into another, read God’s will in someone’s genome, eradicate aging, raise stats to superhuman levels, create the perfect killer immune system, grow a perfect clone body in a few hours, permanently remove all genetic imperfections and disease from a person.

[scionsbrighteststar]

art from the past few weeks!

first is a WiP for my FFXIV rp fc!! millie got tempered due to a batch of faulty scales as well as having more than one soul to protect. her allagan prowess she always holds back is unleashed. her event will be a hack and slash against her gathered army of bahamut transformed garlean soldiers, and finally holding her down to sunder her from her two shards and get her treatment

next, it looks like one of my fav campaigns is getting picked up again soon, so i made some updated character refs for my group. we're all artists, so i wanted to have those there. we have Rowe (she/they) who was kidnapped into the woods by an unknown force while deep in prayer. then, Aislen (he/him) who has grown close to Rowe. he's incredibly concerned, which is a stark difference to his usual carefree personality. finally, Scorn (she/her) who is understandably pissed because her best friend in the group abandoned her (in her eyes) for some holy mission and she was never told goodbye.

then, a fun illustration of Rowe, Aislen, and Blain in my own homebrew campaign! they r poly, in that they all date each other, but is consists of a lot of protecting Rowe.

finally, i was really inspired by the train scene right after the fight in Altissia in FFXV, so i drew a scene of Millie in the windowed car. she blames herself for not being able to help Lunafreya, and believes it should've been her to die and not Luna.

[ask-jaghatai-khan]

The Host of the Lost Flame

//Another homebrew! This one features unaligned daemons - zealous mercenaries with a fetish for everyone’s favorite method of destruction: fire.

“To fire goes life. From fire comes power.”

History

Vast are the mysteries of Chaos, existing beyond mortal conceptions of time and space, and as fathomless and ancient as all that has ever been mirrored within the tides of the Warp. Though any who are familiar with the horrors of the Dark Realm might know the tales of the Four Great Gods, countless other entities exist within the Immaterium, of which even the most pitiful might rend a mortal’s soul to pieces as if formed of parchment. Princes scheme and daemons are birthed from concepts which exist between the cracks of the Four’s dominance, while enterprising daemon generals seek domains of their own, being granted greater autonomy only for the most loyal service to their masters.

None can say just when the Host of the Lost Flame came about, even if such concepts of time were not already futile within the Realm of Chaos. They are a strange legion beholden not to one god or the other, but who partake in cooperation with any daemonic forces who might agree to their pacts. Like the Soul Forge or the followers of Be’lakor, the Host seeks to further Chaos’ goals yet will not tie itself to one irrefutable deity. It is said that the Host was born during the conquest of the Rift by the daemon lord known as Aval’rakh’undai. The Rift of the Lost Flame was both a confluence and a wellspring within the Warp for the energies of fire – Aqshy as it is known in the language of magic. Long had it been warred over in forgotten reaches outside of time by various daemonic forces, such as the legions of Khorne, the followers of Tzeentch, independent daemons, and other mysterious entities. Yet it was Aval’rakh’undai, who would later be known as the Burning Lord, who would at last claim the powerful realm as his own. By playing the most significant factions of daemons against each other before moving in his own army upon the exhausted survivors, the Burning Lord conquered the Rift and built upon it Bar Udummu, the Molten Fortress.

Though the Gods resent those who seek power outside of their dominions, the Rift and the Host that now owned it became valuable allies for those wise enough to seek accord, much like the Soul Forge or other groups of “mercenary daemons” who roamed the Formless Wastes. For eons the Molten Fortress has been a centerpiece of daemonic “industry”, harvesting souls and converting and corrupting the raw Aqshyan energies to dark purposes. The Burning Lord is a shrewd creature, and has called many daemons to his cause, including greater daemons of the Great Four, all at the chance of profiting from the many pacts woven between the Warp and the realms of mortals. Few can guess at just what the Burning Lord’s true motivations are – if he seeks to rival the gods, or attain some uncertain and unexplored power, or simply grow fat upon the wealth of influence his realm has attained. Regardless, the flames of the Host hunger for souls of the damned and pure alike

Behavior

It seems as though the primary motivator for the Host is – according to both outside observation and their own battle-cries – to feed the Lost Flame. What this means exactly is indeterminate, but by the most straightforward assessment it appears that this refers to harvesting souls for the great forges of Bar Udummu. Daemons have many uses for mortal souls – food, a source of slaves, raw materials to work their dark crafts, or simple playthings. The forges of the Rift are said to be both fueled and maintained by countless harvested souls, in the Burning Lord’s endeavor to turn the great magical conflux’s power towards the production of fell works, daemon engines and grand ritual sorceries. For this reason, beyond even their love for destruction or corruption, it is hunger which fuels the fiends of the Host.

The most practical method of gathering souls is, of course, through the conquest of mortal domains. This is accomplished in much the same way as with other Chaotic forces – tempting burgeoning cults with promises of power, saving up enough energy until the time is right to strike, before these mortal servants tear open the veil and allow the holocaust of the Host to burst through in full might. Other times these harvests are more subtle. For how much the Host embodies the chaotic and violent nature of fire, a good many of their high command appear to possess strong senses of discipline, and conniving minds. Mortals hungry for power may be persuaded into various pacts, most of which benefit the daemons more in the end. Fell-smiths and Chaos sorcerers are both keen to gain the services of such powerful fire-daemons as make up the Host, and will promise great tithes of souls in exchange for the permission to bind such a creature to their service, or otherwise obtain their magics. Such pacts are always beneficial to the Host, as if they are fulfilled then it will mean a great harvest for them, while if the ambitious mortal fails, them and any acolytes who surround them can be consumed just as well, sending a grim message to any who would short-change the Burning Lord.

Creatures of paradox, as all Chaotic entities are, the daemons of the Host embody both the unbridled, boundless nature of warpfire, as well as a certain grim discipline and focus. They revel in the power the Rift grants them, and the fantastic heights blending flame-sorcery and Chaos energies might bring one to. Yet they also realize such power can be too much even for mighty daemonkind. Lesser or “younger” daemons within the Host tend towards the former, more wild behavior, as they seek nothing more than to spread destruction and reduce all they see to ash, or otherwise bend the powers of their flame to corrupt and torment their foes. Yet the greater daemons who lead the hordes are often more focused, their flames burning lower yet hotter, as a bright white flare compared to a crackling bonfire. These daemons have delved the other secrets of fire – how it might be used to craft even more dreadful creations when slaved to the forges, or imbue life into inanimate stone and iron, or even warm a lonely soul – the last power is especially deadly. Many a future cult-leader has started as but a cold, lonesome creature until they were warmed by a faint light that seemed to come from beyond the veil. It is always too late when such individuals realize that what they believed to be the touch of some heavenly realm was in fact just a pinprick hole to a vast Rift of fire and madness.

Notable Members

The Burning Lord, Aval’rakh’undai – Also known as the Burning Night, the Nightfire, the Prince of the Lost Flame, or the Furnace Lord. The Burning One was responsible for the conquest of the Rift of the Lost Flame, securing its immense power for his own fiery daemons and constructing a fortified Warp-citadel from which to defend his trove. It is a great mystery to occultists just where the Burning Lord originated from. Depictions by mortal acolytes have suggested to some that he was once a greater daemon of Khorne, since defected by some unknown means. Others posit him to be a ancient daemon prince due to his independence, though no one can provide proof that he was once mortal. Whatever he once was, the Burning Lord has since become something of a demigod or high king in his own right, as the secured power of the Rift and his own legions of enthralled souls has ensured him safety from full reprisal by the Ruinous Powers. He is known to be a bold and conniving creature, fearsome beyond reckoning those few times he – supposedly – has manifested within reality, though with a marked preference for pacts, deals, subtle rituals, and other means of securing the maximum amount of soul-currency for the least amount of personal risk. Though prone to rages not uncommon among daemons of the Blood God, it is the Burning Lord’s mastery of cunning tactics and dark magics which makes him unique.

Depictions of the Prince of Lost Flame tend to resemble Bloodthirsters in many ways, such as their overall shape and armament. However, like all Host daemons, the Burning Lord’s flesh is charred black and volcanic, and his entire form is wreathed in fire. Great bull-like horns crown his iron-helmed head, and burning wings leave a trail of desolation in his wake.

The Red Bane, Enaav-Khanakh – He whose other titles include the Brazen Hammer, the Burnt Reaper, and the Old King of Enaav. The Red Bane was once a mighty Bloodthirster of Khorne who turned his service to the Host in a bygone age as a part of some dark pact. Other servants of the Blood God speak of the traitor, the misguided Enaav-Khanakh, but the Red Bane’s servitude has had some distinct benefits. Undiminished is his primal fury, his fiery innate powers enhanced by the energies of the Rift, the daemon remains a horrific combatant. Yet in some ways the Red Bane’s mind has cooled – he is among the few “burnt” Bloodthirsters to rule over a foundry as well as a legion within the Host, having applied the martial discipline of Khorne towards the making of Chaos armor and daemon weapons. Still, while many a prospective champion might benefit from one of the Red Bane’s creations, far more prefer to summon him for the sheer destructive potential. His is the might to lay low entire armies, and the Bloodthirster’s chosen method of soul harvesting remains the simplest one – the bloody reaping.

Like all daemons of the Host, the Red Bane displays the unique mutations to his base form brought about by the energies of the Rift. Dark iron armor smothered in soot staples together a blackened form bursting with fiery magics. The Red Bane’s eyes and mouth shine like fissures in the earth from behind a heavy helm, and his charred muscles flake ash and burst with molten veins. Much like his master, the Red Bane’s wings are known to kick up storms of smoke and flame, blinding and searing any who come too close.

The Dark Seraph, Domonzet – The Pactmaker, the Chains of Smoke, the Fair Deceiver. One of the most devious and clever daemons within the host, Domonzet’s history is also among the most shrouded, next to her master’s alone. Some say the Dark Seraph was once a creature of Tzeentch – perhaps a greater daemon – while others posit Slaanesh, though by her “feminine” appearance alone. Others still claim the Dark Seraph is in fact an old daemon prince, though like with the Burning Lord nothing can be found as to the true origins of this being. Under the master of Bar Udummu, the Dark Seraph leads the Host in all manners relating to pact-making, dealings with other daemonic factions, clandestine corruption, and other more “subtle” means of gaining power. Afforded some of the greatest freedoms within the Rift, the Dark Seraph nonetheless seems to be chained to the will of the Burning Lord through unknown means – though the sole proof of Domonzet’s apparent enslavement is the fact that she has not yet sought to overthrow her master, despite appearing just as ingenious and near as powerful. The Dark Seraph acts as the most common medium through which the Host contacts other forces, as the daemon lord is able to affect a charismatic, almost angelic air, hence her title.

Indeed, Domonzet’s war-form appears as a great humanoid figure cloaked in flame and shadow, bearing wings of cinder-tipped feathers and numerous arms bearing blades and curses. Greatest sorcerer of the Host besides the Burning Lord himself, the Dark Seraph is a master of shadowflame Chaos magics, though may still display great proficiency in simple melee. Still, the Seraph’s preference is not for open combat, but corruption. In this, she may adopt a more conventional angelic form, which has led to the damnation of many pious human nations.

Kur Akul, Prince of the Hellforge – Once a mighty warlord of an ancient human civilization which fell to the predations of Chaos, Kur Akul has since become one of the greatest lieutenants of the Burning Lord, and a rare example of true mortal exceptionalism within the Host. Bursting with ambition, Kur Akul sacrificed his entire people in the name of power and continues to rail against the defiance of greater daemons at having to take orders from a once-mortal. Intelligent, bloodthirsty, ruthless – Kur Akul brooks no dissention, and is defined more by those few limitations he still faces within the Host as one who has not always been immortal and undying than by any “true” shortcomings. Save perhaps for a bad temper. Few details are known about his past or his mortal life, though he retains the honor guard he once had as a Champion of Chaos, preserved in the form of living suits of armor imbued with the flaming souls of his former comrades, who act as a vanguard during invasions not unlike Rubric Marines. While not “merciful” or “empathetic” in the slightest, he does have unique insights into how to seduce humans to his cause, and is not opposed to rewarding loyal servants – especially other daemon princes, given that he can play upon their shared resentment for the Neverborn.

Taking a form not unlike that he held in life, Kur Akul is as an animate suit of Chaos-imbued black iron armor flowing from within with molten Rift flame. He tends to take the field astride a mighty daemon engine of his own design, given as he takes pride in his status as Prince of the Hellforge – the largest forge within Bar Udummu. As opposed to his fellow lieutenants, Kur Akul favors daemon-engines and hordes of cultists for his army over pure daemonkin.

Organization

Like most daemonic forces, the Host of the Lost Flame holds to a kratocratic model, with the easiest way of determining standing being the sheer intimidating power of any given member. Neverborn daemons seem to have some privilege over princes, though “senior” daemons are considered superior to both – beings who have spent long millennia within the molten lands and so have assured loyalties, their black souls having turned to fire and their old colors burned away to ash. Higher ranking lieutenants of the Burning Lord may be granted dominion over sub-forges or armories within the sprawling, directionless halls of Bar Udummu, allowed to forge their own pacts and pursue their own crafts in service to the Host’s mission, so long as they remain under the gaze of their master.

While prowess in battle is of course valued due to the destructive nature of daemonkind, the Host is also known for valuing creativity and guile –traits which can be lacking in the denizens of the Warp, whose great power makes concepts such as “restraint” are alien to them. Those who can accrue the most souls are favored by the Burning Lord, and so those daemons who work the greatest crafts of metal, or enthrall the most mortals, or otherwise gain new wealth for the legions without squandering their reputation on pyrrhic victories tend to be exalted. For those who fail beyond acceptable parameters – the forges are not so discerning about what they consume.

Within the hierarchy, mortal thralls make up the very basest level. Most mortal souls harvested by the Host will be expended in short order as fuel for various dark arts, though others – especially those who pledged themselves to the daemons freely – will be kept as thralls whose lifeless vestiges are used to work the furnaces and otherwise perform the impossible “drudge work” which is ever present in a timeless and spaceless realm like the Rift. Above them are the lesser daemons, whose status relative to each other is in turn determined by power and seniority. A newly enslaved Fury will hold far less sway than an elder Horror, whose blues and pinks have long since turned to molten red and black. Above them are the heralds and lesser princes, and above them the greater daemons and princes. In particular, the Host is known for having an odd number of greater daemons within its ranks, as well as bizarre daemons who do not fall under typical classifications. Bloodthirsters are most common of all. This is perhaps due to how easy it is for a powerful daemonic faction with substantial cunning to enslave the rather guileless brutes. After a few centuries of soul-burning and mindshaping, any Bloodthirster might be turned into a suitable blunt instrument for the Host’s armies. Other converted greater daemons and princes tend to serve as “foremen” or actual leaders of foundries rather than military forces, having droves of lesser thralls to perform the actual work of their stations.

Common daemonic strains within the Host include the aforementioned Burnt Bloodthirsters, as well as Ashen Changelords, Keepers of Flame, Molten Horrors, Firedancers, Brandblades and Fireys, as well as Chained Ones, K’daai, Shadowflame Whisps, and Burnt Vestiges. Also of note are the many daemon engines held within the halls of Bar Udummu – the Host is quite fond of enslaving even the boundless fire from which they draw their strength, and some daemons even take it as a point of pride to be bound to a daemon engine, as they make for efficient means of harvesting souls and are believed to demonstrate a degree of mastery over one’s inner flame. At the same time, those who prove too reckless or otherwise show that they cannot be trusted to wreak destruction as according to the Burning Lord’s whims may also find themselves enchained to a mighty creation of iron.

Appearance

By the powerful Aqshyan energies that pour through the Rift of the Lost Flame, the daemons of the Host have their immaterial forms mutated even further than the already mutable nature of Chaos. Over time, through exposure and channeling, daemons of the Host take on a “burnt” appearance – their flesh charring and sloughing away, and their bodies glowing from within with infernal energies. More ancient and powerful daemons with demonstrate these to a greater affect, with their silhouettes becoming obscured in smoke and shadow, while their eyes burn out into glowing coals, and their veins run like cracks in the mantle of the earth. The exact ways these traits manifest are of course different from daemon to daemon, and those with powers over illusions and glamours may conceal them, but they mark that Neverborn as having become bound to the Host for eternity, bent to the whim of the Burning Lord.

Armor of black iron is most favored by both devotees and members of the Host, with things like brass and gold being rarer than on other high servants of Chaos. Banners tend to be carried by mortal servants alone, given that the standards of the Host itself are but braziers of flame. Red and black are common colors of Lost Flame cults, though the exact manner of their dress may vary. There can actually be found much diversity within the damned horde underneath their common colors – brazen jewelry draped around the ebon form of a former Keeper of Secrets, their bladed hair having turned to tendrils of fire; or the ever-smoldering feathers upon a Lord of Change’s back. Flamedancers, glamorous seducers made of fire, prance into battle alongside Horrors formed of magma and Bloodletters with blackened skin flaking from their exposed skulls. Though the flame touches all, the diversity of the Warp is still apparent.

Followers of the Host within the mortal realm are fond of the typical Chaotic mutilations, with branding being popular, along with adornments of cast iron. From backwoods tribals to high hierophants subverted from the holy faiths, fire tends to become a predictable fixation, ranging from a marked preference for candles to full pyromania. The Host does not maintain a high opinion of mortals, given their preference for enslaving, consuming, and exhausting the remnants of their valuable souls, but the Burning Lord is nothing if not pragmatic, and so those who distinguish themselves can expect a fair degree of free reign and chances at high status within Bar Udummu, raising their own cults in service to the Host and ruling like kings within their own brazen towers which branch off from the dark citadel itself. These rare and ever-so exceptional mortals could expect afterlives directing grand processions of forge-laborers in the crafting of dark armaments, from high balconies wreathed in flame and served by enthralling Flamedancers. Of course, such souls are one in a hundred thousand.

Notable Battles (The Dying Galaxy)

The Doom of Senath – The Imperial industrial world of Senath finds itself torn apart by a horrific plague of the Fly Lord’s making. Millions of mutagenic zombies scourge the surface of the planet of all life, from the lowest hive sewer to the highest peak. Putting up a valiant resistance, the native human citizens are nonetheless confined to the outskirts and backwaters as they fight to maintain control of their world and purge the taint – or at least survive long enough that some hope of evacuation might come. In a desperate gambit, a group of surviving operatives delves into the depths of a compromised Imperial facility looking for a rumored solution to the undead plague. What is discovered is the remains of a bizarre cult whose members seemed to have also been slain and devoured during the pandemic, leaving behind this fabled cleansing artifact of presumed xenos origin. With the war too far gone to assess the risks, the survivors find a way to activate the weapon, opening a Warp portal to Bar Udummu. Hordes of daemons from the Host of the Lost Flame pour out onto devastated Senath, exterminating the last of the humans and waging a colossal war with the monstrosities of Nurgle. The Plague God’s legions prove too vast, though they are disorganized. Scouring the dying planet for anything of value, the masters of the Host enact a ritual to exterminate Senath rather than let it be claimed by Nurgle, delighting in the sheer destruction.

The Great Pact of Eygil – A monumental slaughter perpetrated upon the planet of Ichorus-II, through a pact formed between the Dark Seraph and the fallen Mechanicus techpriest Eygil Iotan. Possessed of a terrible mania, enraged by the ideological limitations and endless power-struggles of his homeworld, Eygil’s fomenting madness was detected by Domonzet and before long the archmagos had agreed to a dark contract – half the souls upon all of Ichorus-II in exchange for a legion of undying war machines. This pact was achieved through the corruption of the Imperial Knight house Odynos, one of the chief chivalrous houses upon Ichorus, whose greater system was home to three minor knightly families as well as serving as a waystation specifically for Questoris warhosts. From the shells of Odynos were forged terrible daemon engines as not seen outside the Eye of Terror for a millennium or more, led by the Bloody Duchess Anatha Odyna. The war that followed near shattered the entire star system, and ended with the pact fulfilled – a rare thing, though much appreciated. Archmagos Eygil departed with House Odynos for greater reaving across the stars, spreading the word of the Host to ambitious “business partners”.

Notable Battles (The Mortal Realms)

The Desolation of Greenfort – Within the Realm of Light, in the provincia of Greenfort, a black pall falls over the land. By unknown means, the ever-present sun of Hysh one day is shrouded, as a great gloom is cast across the sky. In place of sun or moon there is just what the mad prophets called the “Burnt Sun”, unmoving and emitting a baleful red glow that is the sole light which pierces the clouds. For three days nothing occurs save for madness in the streets and across the countryside. The next eight days after that, disappearances begin to occur and former kin and comrades slay each other out of fear. After that, the Host came, swooping down from the red skies or crawling up from hidden places in the earth. Witch-hunters and knights errant who investigated the scene later found naught but the burnt remnants of the Greenfort, while all the crops in the fields were likewise withered, and not a soul remained save for a few insane doomsayers. Despite efforts by the devout of Sigmar to keep the incident under wraps, the Omen of the Burning Sky became known throughout all eight realms before long.

The Contest of the Three Gates – In Aqshy, in lands controlled by the mighty Everchosen, a duel is undertaken to secure the Gates of Gauthir, a grand nexus connecting the realms of Fire, Light, and Shadow. Once conquered by a great warlord of Khorne in ages past, it had since fallen to ruin and become infested with fell monsters. The Everchosen wished to reclaim the valuable territory, but none who had ever sought its conquest had ever returned. Seeking to preserve resources and grant an opportunity for potential inductees to distinguish themselves, Archaon proclaimed that whoever should capture the Gates in his name would be named a Lord of Chaos and their followers hosted and armed in the Varanspire. Three tribes sought this prize – the Pale Crows, the Blinded, and the Brazen Scions. Their battle lasted for months, as the three barbaric factions sought both victory and mere survival in the face of the Gate-city’s horrors. It was when Maghan Redeye managed to secure the Threefold Lodestones that victory came at last. Maghan remembered the old gods of his homeland, and used the power of the three controlling gems to summon forth the Host of the Lost Flame. Maghan’s tribe conquered the Gates for the price of all the souls within the city, and bought themselves a place by the Everchosen’s side.

[drcreatureflix]

New Artifact: The Book of Invasions

I had this idea for this after reading about the irish mythology around the Book of Invasions, a fictional history of the first settlers of ireland. This in turn made me want to make my own version. This is designed more towards my own homebrew but I am not beyond some sharing. So try it out and tell me what dastardly plans you would do with this.

Komanderendetum, The Book of Invasions

(Requires Attunement)

The Book of Invasions is a forever expanding book as it catalogues its use throughout the ages, though its original author is unknown though a follower of the lore gods is believed to be to have some involvement due to their domain over history. It is commonly described to have a metal cover made from fallen warriors and is written in ink reconstituted from family crests of houses that failed to stand against the book. The front cover bears the gnawing shield seal of the Arvsspisere Company, the Legacy Eaters. Supposedly just holding this book makes creatures have an urge to respect you as if you were a high-rank military officer.

Attunement of this book requires the reader to spend 80 hours to read, digesting the historical contents and to gain the benefits this book gives. Any creature of a chaotic alignment that attempts to read the book or attune to it must make a DC 20 Charisma saving throw or they switch to a lawful alignment. Attunement grants the following benefits:

-Increased Charisma. After you spend the requisite amount of time reading and studying the book, your Charisma score increases by 2, to a maximum of 24. You cannot gain this benefit from the book more than once. -Random Properties. The Book of Invasions has the following random properties.

2 minor beneficial properties

1 major beneficial property

1 minor beneficial property

-Mantle of Leader. You gain an ethereal symbol of leadership, it can be a spectral cape that billows by itself, your armour possesses a heavenly glow, your skin is emblazoned with the Seal of the Legacy Eaters or any other mark the DM chooses. With this mantle, you have advantage on history checks about knowledge of battles and conflict. -Commanding Presence. Anyone within 30 feet of you cannot be charmed or frightened by spells unless you allow it. Anyone that attempts to inflict the charmed or frightened condition within 30 feet of you takes 2d6 psychic damage. -Commanding Tone. You can cast the ‘command’ spell (save DC: 18) at will at a level equal to half your Charisma modifier. -The Legacy Eaters. Once per year you can perform a ritual to call forth the Legacy Eaters. The Book of Invasions states what the ritual’s semantics are. This ritual must be performed at night and to be performed at the shore of an ocean. The components are gold or precious gems that totals up to 100,000 gold which is consumed as the ritual starts and takes two hours to perform. If you are interpreted during this ritual, you must make a Constitution saving throw (save DC: 18) to continue the ritual. Upon compilation of the ritual, 1d6 +1 galleons bearing the insignia of the Legacy Eaters will be brought to this plane from the ocean its shore the ritual was performed on. Each ship holds 50 Legacy Eater Soldiers, 2 Captains, 2 Shamans, 1 General and 1 War brute (All listed below) and has supplies to make camp for them. You choose the looks of the army though the soldiers most commonly appear humanoid with blue gel-like skin with a singular eye within their head. This small selection of the Legacy Eaters is loyal to you alone and will follow your commands. If a member of the army (minus the generals or the war brutes) dies, they will revive themselves at the next day’s dusk. If you or all the general’s die, the army disbands and returns to their plane. The army disappears after a year unless you perform the ritual again at the same shore you summoned them from. The army will disappear early  if some else attunes to the book while they are summoned, if the book is destroyed or if the book is dropped to the bottom of the ocean where the army was summoned. You may only attempt this ritual once per year.

Destroying this book. It is believed Book of Invasions cannot be destroyed or damaged as long as conflict between two beings exists. However, it is believe bringing to a celestial being serves the Word Spinner such as a Solar or the Word Spinner himself can erase the books contents for 1d100 years.

[wratts]

5 Things About Me

I was tagged by @faetales-weaver (much appreciated!) to do the 5 things about me game!

The Rules: List five things about yourself you want your followers to know. they can be as simple as your age or as complex as your deepest fear, as long as it’s something you’re comfortable with sharing. when you’re done, send this to (tag) 10 people you want to get to know better.

1. My biggest inspirations for writing, both when I started, back when I was 12 as well as now in my thirties, were the German author Wolfgang Hohlbein, author of over 200 books across multiple genres; the inventor of the poetic sword and sorcery adventures of Conan the Barbarian, Robert E. Howard; and a renowned little horror writer you all may have heard of, Stephen King. The three things they taught me, respectively, were to

not stay in my lane. To write in any genre I felt like writing. If you do it well, you’re allowed to write whatever you want.

use modifiers and poetic rhythm despite common advice to the contrary. Which generally tells me to just do what a lot of people advise against in writing. All rules like “write this way” and “don’t do this” are made up. There’s a time and a place for every stylistic choice. It’s one thing to learn rules just like you need to study grammar, but once you’ve learned them, you’re allowed to break them if you have a good reason.

favor immersion and natural character development over rigid and artificial story structures.

Obviously, back in the day, I just thought their stuff was cool. But I can now identify what must have unconsciously stood out to me, and they became lessons that I continue to internalize.

2. Although I have ridiculous, borderline encyclopedic knowledge of the Star Wars universe, I was always more of an Indiana Jones kid. I got into Star Trek much later, and I kind of prefer it over Star Wars by now. Speaking of movies, I will never shut up about how much I love Point Break. Or Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Hmm. Might be some pattern in there.

3. One of my all-time favorite video game series is Saints Row, which is what my avatar pays homage to. I love stories about street gangs, the series has an impeccable sense of aesthetic, and they’re obviously made by people who know how to make games really fun to play. Speaking of video games, the first I ever played was Castlevania on the NES.

4. I’m an avid fan of tabletop role-playing games. I run two game sessions every weekend, in two different groups. I love the format of storytelling it creates where you cannot write the story. It writes itself in play, and as a GM, you only set up situations and then reactively spin tales from whatever the players do. One of the games is a long-running D&D campaign using the Pathfinder scenario Rise of the Runelords, while the other group alternates between different ones in bursts of short series across different systems and genres, notably Unknown Armies, Monster of the Week, or The Mecha Hack. And the latter is currently getting started with Pitchforks & Torches, which uses my own homebrew game, settled in my gaslight romance / Gothic horror / Edwardian era / Victorian era world of the Crimsonport chronicles.

5. My screen name is a synthesis of “wraith”, “wrath”, and “rats.” It’s the chosen name of a devil and pivotal character in a long piece of fiction which I wrote in my early twenties, and will eventually revisit in full when I feel that my skill matches my ambition for the story. If you encounter a “wrattsy” out in the wild of some other platform, that’s usually also me, which I choose as an alternative for whenever “wratts” is already taken.

---

I tag @tlbodine @evanthenerd83 @matt-i-guess @emilyelizabethfowl but no pressure—feel free to do this if you want and say I tagged you!

[aberrantforge]

Pan (Remnant From The Ashes)

Unlike the past 2 homebrew creations I’ve made is a race from a video game. I’ve stated before but otherwise from time to time will pull from video games, movies, and other media. It should go without saying but, just to be safe I’m not endorsed nor am I planning monetary gain from this creation. The concepts, and ideas of this belong the creators of the respective media, Gunfire Games and Kyle Enochs For the art.

Anyways,

Pan are a race of upright mammalian creatures resembling satyr esque goats, but lacking most humanoid aspects. They are highly dexterous and very fast. As a species they are very territorial and protective of their beautifully constructed villages against “Paxultek”, or outsiders, which they have historically had issues with.

Pan society is dictated by two castes, one is the bulk of their society, the workers, laborers and standing army. The other is nobility, priests and the queen, the upper caste is noted for its immortality, allowing them to rule over others without fear of death.

Pan live almost exclusively in deep wooded jungles. In these wooded jungles the trees here grow incredibly large, in fact they grow so tall Pan often build villages halfway up the trees in interconnecting circular wooden structures. These villages above the ground are so high up comparatively that the canopies of smaller trees seem like the ground whilst the canopies above them are still thick enough to blot out the sun. Those that do live up this high use the massive branches as farmland and harvest rain in large catches.Those that live on the ground are not too different, though they often have patrols that stalk the thick ground foliage for enemies and prey for them to hunt.

The Pan have a cultural reverence for death. They entomb their dead with thick wrappings of cloth straps, making a mummified coffin. They deposit the deceased in massive underground mausoleums.

In addition, pan warriors are not dictated by gender, and some of the mightiest warriors are female pan, who are pulled from a festival where they prove themselves in the arena.

The Pan civilization is lead by a queen, with a sort of ruling class beneath her. In the heart of the great forest lies a tree the Pan revere as sacred. Within this tree grow fruits that when consumed, grant unending life, allowing them to live forever sans the other mortal ends one may meet. How old the queen has ruled is unknown, but some Pan tell of rumors that the tree is corrupted, and the fruits no longer give them their immortal lives.

They also are noted for their harnessing and reverence for the power of storms and electricity. Mages among the Pan tend to not only be among the upper echelons of Pan society, but usually learn magics pertaining to storms and lighting.

In combat, the Pan are fast, aggressive and generally favor hit and run tactics, utilizing their natural speed and acrobatics.

Besides combat, Pan are also excellent musicians, noted for being great flute players.

Racial Traits

Ability Score Improvement: Pan gain +2 to Dexterity, and +1 to Charisma

Age: Pan normally live well into their third century, but can be extended.

Size: Pan are medium

Alignment: Pan normally are neutral, but can sway into lawful and chaotic. Different factions within their culture generally dictate this.

Speed: Pan are very nimble, their land speed is 35ft

Language: Pan Speak Xatek, their racial language, and common at start.

Nimble: Pan are naturally nimble creatures, they are always proficient with acrobatics and have advantage to dexterity saving throws.

StormKeepers: The Pan’s reverence for thunder and lightning has granted them a racial resistance to electrical damage

This is concept art made by Kyle Enochs, Senior Concept artist at Gunfire games, he has a lot of other incredible pieces here: 

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8lm8zQ ,

[tabletop-ready]

Phobos Lieutenant I was thinking about my homebrew csm army when I painted this guy so the helmet on the base got to be my warband’s red/gold. If you scroll wayyyy back you will see the army. I haven’t painted them in years. I’ve been trying to avoid bits with faces or skin, but the start collecting box only had the one head for him and I didn’t have any extra infiltrator/incursor/reiver.bits. Since my army is LotD inspired, I decided to make the skin look pale and ghoulish. I actually followed the gw tutorial for Belisarius Cawl’s skin.  I also finally got my chapter’s lore fleshed out. I call them the “Inheritors of the Specter”. Originally they went by the name Space Hawks and were a successor chapter of an unknown founding before the 13th Black Crusade. Their geneseed mutation causes most recruits’ skin to turn a pale, sickly hue (although this has no otherwise apparent effects on their health or abilities). The chapter was nearly wiped out during a Tyranid invasion of their fortress monastery. At the 11th hour, when all seemed lost, the Legion of the Damned showed up out of nowhere, killing thousands of xenos and bought enough time for the chapter’s command to escape with their geneseed reserves and relics. In honor of this event, the survivors chose to rename their chapter. They painted their armor black in memory of their failure and added flames to the black to remember their saviors. Now they fight to honor both the God Emperor and the memory of the mysterious astartes that saved them long ago. After the Indomitus Crusade and the return of Guilliman, the chapter welcomed the addition of primaris marines with open arms. It finally gave them the chance to restore their numbers and take their fight back to the enemies of mankind.  

[voiceofghilannain]

The Voice of Ghilan’nain: Introduction to my Blog

My beloved subjects: This is my first post on this blog so I will take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Gerasimos (though Jerry is what I usually introduce myself as out of courtesy, as both my name and surname sound like gibberish to most people). I’m a 23-year-old male biology student currently studying in Greece, and an aspiring entrepreneur with quite a long way ahead until I make that dream come true.

Before I introduce you to this blog, I would like to say a few more words about myself. I am a firm believer in education (scientific, technological, and financial) and I do enjoy learning new things, especially if they can be used to solve problems. I am interested in astronomy, biology with emphasis on plant biology, game design, and video game art. I also enjoy walking outdoors, cooking, relaxing at a beach while stargazing, talking about politics and money, teasing the cat (my friend, not the feline pet) and playing video games. 

In regards to the latest subject, Bioware’s Mass Effect was the first RPG game I ever played. Though it took me a year to appreciate it due to its lackluster gameplay and limited weapon options, I eventually managed to see it for what it was rather than what I wanted it to be. I played through the trilogy with a dictionary next to me as my English skills were laughable back then. It was through Mass Effect and later Halo that I built my English skills, with the later giving me the opportunity to be part of a great community filled with incredible members such as Haruspis, Covenant Canon, HiddenXperia, LateNightGaming, and Halo Canon. I also had my ride as part of the Halo Archive community, with wonderful discussions and theories throughout the years, and I was fortunate enough to watch the community grow from 40 to over 2000 members and survive several crises until its eventual collapse. During the three or so years that I was part of the Halo Archive (known there as Faber of Will and Might), I got to see video games as far more than just games and develop a passion for delving deep into the lore of video game franchises and their extended media. It is for this reason, that I would like to take a moment and thank every member of the Halo Archive for the incredible conversations and debates we had during that time and particularly Haruspis, whose incredible analyses partially inspired me to start this endeavour (You can visit his blog by clicking here: https://haruspis.blog).

It was during the end of my first year at University that I got into tabletop gaming, but it took several years for me to discover the existence of Dragon Age. Eventually, both the release of disappointing games, like Halo 5: Guardians and Mass Effect Andromeda, and toxic fans caused my interest in these franchises to wane and the Halo Archive to fade. This caused me to search for new franchisees to fall in love with and this is how I got into the world of Dragon Age, starting with Inquisition. THE Dragon Age Setting is currently my favourite fantasy setting and the reason I started making “my own” tabletop RPG for it in order to play Inquisition with my friends. I used the quotation marks in the previous sentence because I started by homebrewing for the Official Tabletop DA RPG with each update and homebrew rule making it more and more distinct from the RPG it derived from and pushing it closer to the feel of the games, with mechanics like Barrier, Guard, Status Effects, Critical Hits, the addition of several dozen warrior, rogue and mage abilities and spells, the removal of the stunt mechanic, the introduction of sustained abilities and many more features.

I have always found Medieval English themed settings and happy worlds boring and dull. I don’t see fiction as escapism from problems but as an opportunity to do things I would normally be unable to do, such as setting foot on alien worlds, standing against the Covenant as they kill billions in their genocidal campaign or simply playing as an elf that throws fireballs at sleeping targets in the midsts of a death cloud and then paralyzing them or scaring them to death by casting Horror. Due to my bias against the classic medieval fantasy setting, Ferelden is the least interesting part of the Dragon Age setting for me. I do enjoy the extravagant gold and blue themes of Orlais, the Necropolis of Nevarra, the villainous city of Kirkwall, the Blighted Anderfels, the decadent Rome/Byzantium inspired Tevinter cities, the war-torn Seheron, the pirate heaven of Estwatch, the exotic Rivain and Par Vollen, the assassin filled Antiva and the mystery of the tainted Black City far more than the mostly bland Ferelden. It is thanks to these locations and their stories that, for me, Thedas trumps any setting with a million races each worth half a page of text or settings made for adventurers that go on a killing spree to get rich within a fixed world that refuses to change.

Thedas is a continent that never stops changing. Old feuds are resolved and new conflicts emerge. Racism, blood magic, squandering nobles, the blight and other horrors make the life of most people in the setting a challenge at best and a nightmare at worst. Within the span of three games, the setting has changed dramatically and the world has moved forward. Thedas is thus very different from what it used to be when Dragon Age Origins released. Being dynamic and reacting to player choice is a very important aspect of the setting, which is both a testament to Bioware’s own talent and the setting’s innate simplicity.

Thedas’ richness doesn’t derive from an army of races or from endless classes and deities, but from its smaller scale, with fewer races and emphasis on the dynamics between their societies and the struggles that various groups, societies, scholars, nations and individuals face. With fewer things in the setting, there is more room for them to be fleshed out and explored in depth. Furthermore, Thedas has a rich history, exposed to players mostly via codex entries written from an in-universe perspective. This allows events to be portrayed differently depending on whose perspective they have been witnessed by, encourages fan discussions and theories, turns new contradicting information into a quest for the truth that often results in revisiting old passages and finding new meanings after certain revelations. Unlike most fictional universes, Dragon Age’s lore takes effort to extract and while this might not be for everyone it has kept the community far more engaged and alive throughout the years.

Thedas is a land full of mysteries filled with danger. The Horror of Hormak, the Black City and the Blights, the Old Gods, Arlathan, the curse of Nahar, the Pyramids of Par Vollen, the Kossith, the ships from beyond the Volca Sea, the Executors, the history of the Dwarves, the Second Sin, the Cekorax and many more are all shrouded by the element of the unknown, which drives the curiosity, fear, dread, nostalgia and most feelings associated with them. It is elements like these that make me want to write about and share with others stories set in this world, whether official or my own.

Thus, after several months of thinking about it, I decided to create my own blog about Dragon Age. The Voice of Ghilan’nain is a blog named after my favourite Elven Goddess, Ghilan’nain, with me acting as an echo of her guiding voice through the world of Thedas. Just like She focused on creation, so will this blog focus on the things that can be, the transformation of what exists and the discussion of content that many people don’t talk about, navigating through the darkest, deepest and most obscure parts of the lore in search of stories, characters, creatures and their potential, expressing it either through my analyses or through attempts at poetry and short story writing. I will also make some posts that serve as feedback for Bioware on issues regarding gameplay mechanics, UI and story and if people are willing I can provide a few builds or ideas for DMs who want to introduce their friends to the world of Thedas through tabletop gaming. With that said, I hope you enjoy reading my future posts and I am looking forward to your feedback, suggestions and comments.

And now the melody begins, calling you to the depths of darkness:

Na melana sah’lin, La mala suledin nadas. Vir’enfenim ghilana Sulevin’an. Ma garas mir renan La ir las mir enansal.

[krinsbez]

GI Joe: Remixed, the Stygians

Another set of OCs by the brilliant Night_stalker, this time of the Baroness’ elite personal black ops goon squad, the Stygians:

Team leader:

Name: Waylon Calthrope Codename: Obelisk DoB: Classified Orientation: Homosexual Former Affiliation: Force Research Unit Bio: Waylon comes from a long line of military men, so when he was picked for the FRU, eyebrows were raised. Yet, the hardened NCO had been chosen, so he went into it eyes open. Needless to say, by the time he was transferred out, he had picked up quite a few unsettling habits. Needless to say, these habits weren't what Her Majesty's Armed Forces particularly liked, so he was sent down to Gibraltar, in order to cool off. Alas, he was involved in Operation Flavius, which was the final straw for many of the brass. Come 1990, he was handed his kit in a box, told to leave, and politely reminded of the Official Secrets Act while on his way out the door. Naturally, he did what anyone would do in such a time, and went off to join ArmorGroup, a PMC, where he actually was doing very well for himself. Well, nobody doubted his skills, stories are still circulating throughout their barracks of his daring deeds, the problem was, stories were circulating. Including one or two that showed he hadn't quite lost those habits that had gotten his discharge papers in the first place. In an attempt to avoid losing such a highly valued member, AG just had him rotated into a training position, figuring that he could be far less harmful there then in the field. A reasonable argument, it failed to consider one possibility. Namely, that he would occasionally be called up as a Floater (Guard used to fill temp holes in schedules), which was exploited once the people in charge of staffing realized the potential gold mine they had on tap. Then the company was acquired by G4S, and one of the changes they made was letting go of personnel who they deemed to be unfit to have under their umbrella. Waylon was one such person, but this time, he had done some prep work. As he walked out the door of his old office, a worn cardboard box with the few personal belongings he had inside it, he pulled out a business card, and dialed it. The phone rang twice, before a woman with a Eastern European accent picked up the phone. "Baroness? This is Waylon, are you still looking for another member of that outfit you're setting up?" Hobbies: Knife Throwing, Weightlifting, Fantasy Football, and Homebrewing.

Members:

Name: Matsui Yunosuke Codename: Goryō DoB: June 19th, 1979 Former Affiliation: Inagawa-kai Specialty: Close In Protection Orientation: Het, Married to Console (see below) Bio: Born into a Yakuza family, Matsui grew up with the ethos of the movement as his nursery rhymes. However, he didn't seem to fit quite in. Despite his best efforts, the only things he seemed to be good at were keeping silent, and when keeping silent wasn't enough, cracking skulls. As one would imagine, while it makes him a great bodyguard and enforcer, when it comes to stuff that requires a bit more of a business mind, he didn't fit in. The local boss, seeking to capitalize on his talents, assigned him to guard his beloved sister, who was responsible for handling the books side of the business. However, even he couldn't protect her from an full sized hit squad sent by a angry rival. While in hospital, his boss tried to silence him, which failed horrifically. Once he was done recovering from some torn stitches, he was contacted by one of the Athenes, and made a very appealing offer..... Revenge for service, in essence. Stricken with rage, he agreed, and the boss was soon killed in what was described as "A gangland deal gone wrong", and what was described by a police offical off record as "The single biggest bloodbath he'd seen in his career". Hobbies: Kendo, Spider keeping, listening to punk rock, and watching trashy romance anime.

Name: Balbina Krajewska Codename: Baba Yaga DoB: Classified Former Affiliation: Medi-Vipers, before that, [REDACTED] Orientation: Asexual. Specialty: Medical/Interrogation Bio: Much of Balbina's life before Cobra is left blank. Mostly as she comes from the Medi-Vipers, and that stuff is kept classified as hell, and also because well, nobody wants to look too deep into the Abyss. That said, it is known that she's a combat medic par none, winning several commendations for her life saving methods, as well as managing to uncover a organ theft ring. Totally unrelated, according to her. That said, she did ruffle some feathers, as well as other parts of their bodies, so a sideways transfer was in order. Hobbies: Cosplaying, Ballet, Medical experimentation, and Medical Cosplaying (Don't ask. Seriously.).

Name: [REDACTED] Codename: Console DoB: Unknown Former Affiliation: Cyber-Vipers, before that, Unknown Orientation: Het, married to Goryo Specialty: Heavy Weapons/Cyberwarfare Bio: While little is known about Console's previous life, given the usual Cyber-Viper "Welcome Basket", what is known is that she's got a fondness for heavy weapons, in particular DShK's, a hatred for GI Joe that seems rather intense, implying a personal connection to them, and finally, some very interesting tattoos on her body. Or at least, the remains of some tattoos, implying the Cybers laser removed them before her conversion occurred. Hobbies: World of Tanks, Knitting, Trolling forums, and deadlifting weights.

Name: Romeo Moretti Codename: Gaucho DoB: Unknown Former Affiliation: None Orientation: Single Target Sexuality, believed to be Baroness Specialty: Long Range Threat Neutralization Bio: Growing up in the Atacama Desert on the compound of a former Argentinian military sharpshooter and his wives, Romeo's childhood wasn't really the best. Between the daily marches to toughen them up for the impending apocolaypse, the hard shooting conditions, tight rations, and the annual tradition of being dumped someplace to find their way back, well, the fact that it took Romeo until his 16th birthday before he finally put a bullet through his father's skull could be taken as a sign of how patient he was. Or how long before he was allowed live rounds and some trigger time. Fleeing the compound with a old Mosin-Nagant rifle on his back, a canteen of water, and his favorite horse, it wasn't expected he'd show up anytime soon. Yet he survived in the wilderness, becoming a poacher, and on occasion when hunting was lean, a hitman. His natural charm and skill with a rifle somewhat impressed the locals, a fact which he started exploiting, trading animal pelts and teeth for ammo and other nescessities. However, soon the heat became too much for him, both figuratively and literally, so he started looking for a way out. As luck would have it, Baroness had heard rumors about this daring man's skills, and made him a offer. It's rumored he accepted as soon as he saw a photo of his new boss, but there probably isn't any truth to them. Hobbies: Horseback riding, hunting, meditation, collecting stuff for his secret shrine to Baroness. 

Name: Goktas Muhiddin Codename: Askari DoB: March 5, 1983 Former Affiliation: Special Forces Command, Turkey Orientation: Het Specality: General Combat Bio: [REDACTED] Hobbies: Wargaming, Baccarat, playing Overwatch (Reaper Main), and cross country running. 

BONUS: The leader of Athene, The Baroness’ personal paramilitary unit (because her boyfriend has the Iron Grenadiers and she can’t stand not being having an army of her own)

Name: Moira Burns Codename: Lozen DoB: December 19th, 1980 Former Affiliation: 1st Marine Battalion, A Company Orientation: Gay, currently engaged to a Track-Viper and a Rock-Viper at the same time. Bio: Why Moira left the Marines is a matter of some debate amongst her new command. Some claim that she was forced out before Don't Ask was repealed, and held a grudge over the matter. Others make the argument that the "Apricot Incident" was the last straw for her military career. And then we just have people who think she joined out of true love. The answer may never be known, as all parties involve remain silent. What is known is that she left the Marines with a bit of ax to grind against them, which made her rather appealing to the Baroness. Why she picked Moira for the Athene unit's lead isn't as concealed. According to Baroness: "Moira's professionalism and aggressive leadership style made her a perfect fit for the Athene Unit", which has been accepted as the gospel truth. Or at least nobody feels a desire to really push matters much further past that. Hobbies: Burning down Apricot trees, movie reviews, dog breeding, and weight lifting.

[boisterousbard]

I am starting a Homebrew Campaign in a month or so here and have been building up both map and world! Here’s a sneak peak; a map I did on Inkarnate and a note left by an NPC.

I will likely be posting more as everything progresses. Thanks for reading!

Father,    It has been seven years since I last saw Elizabeth, before the attack on Bressol. Five years since they burned our capital. And the now the interlopers have set ablaze a sacred forest. We need her. If the people see her, if they just know she’s alive; there’s hope, they’ll keep fighting. And in the coming battle we will need all of the allies that we can muster, even if that foul Wizard doesn’t return, the army will be more than enough of a challenge on it’s own.    I must go. I know I’m not the strongest, the bravest, nor the quickest, but she needs me. And seeing as you have not set anyone to the task, the duty falls to me. Even if it takes me to places unknown, even if my search means the end of my life, if my lady yet draws breath I will find her. They cannot destroy all the light in this world. They cannot be allowed to destroy everything sacred. By my word they will not have our Elizabeth. 

                                  - Dessa Blackwell                         Bastard Daughter of Lord Tedres’

[alchemiccyborg]

Elhorn; The Devil of Cremation Creek

Character Type: Personal (PC)

Starting Level 5 (3 Fighter 2 Warlock)

In Use: Yes

Setting: Homebrew

As a child, Elhorn's parents worked on a farm, on the outskirts of Adalan. While they did not own much, they did own the land their house was on. His father, Arwen, managed meat processing at a local farm; slaughtering cows and fowl, butchering them and drying them for the Bicker Wars. And his mom, Vo, ran their books. Without the two of them the farm would surely have been run into the ground.

While exploring the wilderness outside of their town, Elhorn and one of his six siblings had a close encounter in the burrow of a giant spider. He survived with just a scar, but his sister, Lilia had succumbed to the spider's poison, dying five days later. Elhorn felt an intense guilt, it was his idea to check out the "abandoned" spider burrow, she wouldn't have gotten bitten if he just listened to her, "a burrow is always home to something." In an effort to redeem himself, he vowed to follow in her footsteps, and join the Adalan Army.

Until Lilia's death, Elhorn had been apprenticing at the local blacksmith. He had only just started working the anvil, when Lilia had come home from her most recent tour. Not many soldiers get multiple tours, but from the sounds of it, Lilia was like a hero, out there saving lives and killing the dirty Northerns! She was his hero, and his dream was to make the weapons that she would use to defend their people.

After shortcutting basic training, Elhorn immediately signed up for a combat tour. And he quickly learned that war was hell. His first tour was a siege on what could have been his own town. He hated it, but it was what his sister did, so he must persevere. Eventually years pass, and he is promoted to officer, and with a command rank, comes a company, eight soldiers, hand selected for infiltration and sabotage. Truth be told they were a distraction for a weapon that Remeral’s forces were very close to discovering. Elhorn's team did, in fact, manage to draw the Remeral forces away from the weapon, but at the loss of 5 of his soldiers. When the weapon was finally deployed, it had killed thousands, and disfigured just as many.

The fallout from the weapon had thinned the veil between planes. This thinning allowed for various fiends to spread their influence to the prime material plane. Some of those that were affected by the fallout suffered hideous mutations, causing them to grow horns and a tail, and sometimes changing their skin color to a deep red. Others were forced into pacts with these fiends. The unlucky ones got both. Elhorn was unlucky. He kept his skin color, tan olive, and grew two spiral horns that curve down to the either side of his head. He also grew a tail that starts in his skin color, and turns to a deep black at the tip. His eyes remained the same malachite green, but his sclera had taken on the color of his iris.

Mutated by the magical fallout, Elhorn tried to return to his home land of Adalan, only to be chased out of wherever he landed. His horns and tail earned him the nickname the Devil of cremation creek. With no home to return to, Elhorn wanders the continent, trying to keep the new voice in his head silent. Heading north, Elhorn was making a new name for himself. He joined a guard company of former soldiers that were affected by the cataclysmic explosion that had mutated him. They went by the name “The Devils” embracing their new appearance, in a way that can only be done in the north. They were based out of Remeral, and specialized in getting VIP’s to and from the front lines of the war to the far north.

Plot Hooks: Dead Hero Sister Former Members of His company Parents are still alive Has a nickname that can come back to haunt him Was disfigured Pact with an unknown entity

[talen77703]

By:  TedPro

The world is bigger than it seems, but most of it is forbidden. Every block you walk has buildings and spaces kept special and reserved. Houses. Cars. Apartments. Mailboxes. So much space is locked up, available only to special people.

You aim to be as special as possible. You seek to open the world back up, but only for you.

The secret to that power is keys. Bits of metal and plastic that make us who we are. In the modern world, humans are a collection of possessions, and the world is divided up into fiefdoms of who can own what.

The more keys you get, the closer you are to becoming the ruler of all dominion.

Generate a Minor Charge: Get a key or passcard to some new restricted area or object. This could be a set of car keys, an apartment or office key, or even a lockbox key if something worthwhile is in the lockbox. It doesn’t matter if you got the key legitimately or not, and you don’t even have to use it. The key must be a physical object that lets you bypass physical barriers – passcodes and backstage passes won’t work. Getting new copies of keys you already has won’t earn new charges, either.

Generate a Significant Charge: Acquire a key to a coveted location. This has to be a place or thing that’s well-protected, valuable, and specifically desired by more than a dozen people.

Generate a Major Charge: Cleidomancers cannot gain major charges.

Generate a Major Charge mod by Anon:  Acquire a key to, and be seen as the legitimate owner of, something that could directly affect at least five million people (The White House or a nuclear missile silo might work) OR acquire the keys to the homes of everybody in a neighborhood of at least five thousand people.

Taboo: Give away any key. Physical possession is what counts here. You can’t lend out a key, leave a key out of your arm’s reach of your keys, or let someone else touch a key. You can’t even return a key you borrowed from someone else.

Also, you must treat all keys with reverence. Keeping them on a chain is fine, but using a key to open a package, insulting a key, or allowing any a key to be damaged breaks taboo.

Random Magic: Access and identity.

Symbolic Tension: Keys are external possessions, but they convey a social status of identity and membership.

Blast: The Cleidomancy blast opens up a hole in the target. This blast also works equally well on objects.

Charging Tips: You can probably get a charge or two every week, by renting storage space, requesting access to work areas, and so on. Janitors, postal carriers and facility managers can get a lot more – a charge a day is pretty likely. Jail and bank guards could probably get a significant charge every month or two.

Starting Charges: 4 minor

Minor formulas

Let’s Get Past This 1 minor charge The most obvious Cleidomancy formula. You can open any kind of door or lock.

Swordfish 2 minor charges Successfully guess any password. If there’s a single word (or combination of characters) that’ll get you what you want, you’ll say it. If you’re at a keyboard, you’ll type it too. This is usually a password, but it can be used for other situations. For instance, if someone asks “Who sent you?” looking for a good reference, you might blurt out a trusted contact’s name, like “Eponymous!” though you won’t know anything more than what you’ve just said. If the required response is more than one word (or involves any spaces, for a written password) you won’t say a thing and your charges are wasted.

Lockdown 2 minor charges A single door (or hinge, or compartment) becomes impossible to open for the next hour. Destroying the door will still do the job, but even magic won’t make it open.

Window to the Soul 3 minor charges This is the Cleidomancy minor blast.

Security System 5 minor charges Hold an object in left hand (the “Key”), and touch an object with your right hand (the “Treasure”). The Treasure can’t be used by anyone unless they’re holding the Key. It will just remain inert, or so clumsy it’s impossible to use. You can even stop artifacts from functioning. Only intentional triggered uses are stopped – you could prevent a car from starting or a sword from swinging, but you couldn’t stop a brick of uranium from causing cancer. The effects last a day.

Significant Formula

New Grounds 1 significant charge Open a locked door you’ve never opened or passed through. Instead of the usual destination, the door will open into Otherspace. Specifically, it’ll be a windowless furnished apartment, with a simple kitchen and normal appliances. Anyone who enters with you will come along, but once the door closes, those on the outside can’t get in. Anyone who opens the door from the Otherspace will open the portal again, and anyone can enter or leave as usual. When the last person leaves, the apartment is gone for good. Each time this formula is used, it goes to a new apartment. The apartment gets water and electricity from an unknown source, but there’s no phone, radio or television access.

Total Lockdown 1 significant charges A curse for a single victim withing line of sight. For the next day, anything with a lock within the target’s reach will lock immediately, and can’t be unlocked while the target is nearby.

Open Your Heart To Me 2 significant charges This is the Cleidomancy significant blast. The victim’s ribcage opens, causing hideous physical damage. Objects are ripped open.

Skeleton Key 2 significant charges Touch a key to a dead body. All your possessions will change to identify you as that person. Your keys will unlock the body’s car and house, your driver’s license has your picture but the body’s name, and your credit card will access the body’s account. You won’t be remembered any differently by people, though. You can’t unlock anything you own, though, or access your own accounts with any objects. This formula ends when the Skeleton Key is destroyed or used on its original lock.

Lockness Monster 5 significant charges This puts a terrible trap on a single door you touch. The next time the door is opened, it’ll open into a void-like Otherspace. A tentacle will lash out from the other side and attempt to drag the nearest person back into the Void. The tentacle has a Body, Speed, Initiative and Struggle score equal to whatever you got on your Cleidomancy roll, is mindless, and automatically dodges anything that can be dodged. If the tentacle drags someone inside, the door closes and the victim is gone forever. (If anyone else enters, they’re gone too.) Once the door closes, the formula ends.

Major Effects mod by Anon: Create a permanent Skeleton Key, capable of opening any lock, anywhere. Create a permanent palatial New Grounds for yourself.

Major Effects (ext.) by Neville Yale Cronten: Open your mind. Open your heart. Or open those around you.

Lock something forever… including certain limited abstracts like “Jenny’s lips” as well as the normal “old chest” and “spoooooky door” (except to you… which would be a great quest as various folk go questing for X but need person Y to open it… unfortunately, person Y is dead and just throwing the corpse at the door doesn’t seem to work, until someone figures out that maybe a key made of their bones might work… and onward and grislier)

Open a door that leads into any Otherspace you’re aware of (including being the only way out of many of the rooms of the House of Renunciation without being Renunciated).

[midrangers]

Seneljï • “The Shrinking World”

Senelji [ SEHN-IHL-JEE ] is a homebrew Dungeons and Dragons medieval-fantasy world and an overarching location for a series of future connected campaigns and one-shots, based on a simple, burning question: How do sentient species respond to the knowledge that their realm is finite, and becoming more finite with each passing year? I’m interested in examining and exploring beyond traditional fantasy tropes, and engaging with the social, cultural, and political institutions and traditions that would arise over centuries spent watching the land shrink before your eyes. Have no fear - the world is vast, and select few ordinary folk concern themselves with distant, unknowable, and greedy borders. But across salty marshes and mist-drowned jungles, coastal cliffs and arid mesas, verdant steppes and arctic wastelands, a few rare individuals are watching: with trepidation, fear, and excitement. 

As I move forward with planning and worldbuilding, I’ll continue to share more about the strange and diverse lands that make up this world. I’ve based a lot of my ideas on ancient civilizations, apocalyptic literature, and the idea that fantasy worlds should be as diverse, or more so, than our own. For now, here’s a little more about the fundamentals of Senelji: what governs it and what makes this world tick.

↣ Nature is alien.

Forests grow, self-seeding and expanding with alarming speed. Sandstorms batter like living fists at tumbling walls. Oceans turn treacherous, deeper and darker and constantly swept with storms. At the edges of the jungle, mists grow so thick and the air so saturated that even ocean-dwellers would lack breath and movement. In the arctic, despite entire civilizations building deeper and deeper in crystal caverns below the earth, nights wax cold enough to freeze raindrops from clouds. As years pass, the borders between inhabited land and the dangerous unknown creep forward. All of these forces act with a cold, deliberate intent, a vengefulness and ambition so intelligent it seems almost… alive.

↣ Monsters stalk the wild.

For centuries, creatures and beasts have emerged from wood and water and air as if shaped by a pair of experimental hands. Some call them god-sent, some call them predators, some a premonition or just another species. But most call them the Wyldwalkers, for the spaces they haunt and the aura they bring. Livestock sicken and crops wilt. Plague spreads, children vanish, and the shadows of flora and fauna gain a darker, threatening edge. These monsters turn the wild into the Wyld like flies spreading disease. And in response to growing numbers and constant threats, as they must, heroes, armies, and empires arise to protect the weak.

↣ Mortals, as always, have bigger concerns.

This world, with such pressing dangers, also beats like a cancerous heart with great and terrible forces: temperamental gods, awesome magics, tyrannical and  innovative political powers in equal measure. In response? Most of humanity shrugs and goes back to their lives. Oh, sure, great minds in the world devote energy and resources to keeping back the Unfamiliar (land beyond the borders) and the Wyld. But what makes Senelji not a world, but a living land, is the familiar. Academics study at great universities. Students fall asleep on books. Knights train and duel and live and die by their swords. Historians research lost civilizations, and then go home and raise their kids. The impoverished dream of being nobility, and the noble dream of being gods. Roving minstrels train quips with traveling salesmen and exhausted priests in the local brewery as their pockets are picked by a clever thief. Once or twice a dragon crosses the sky. This is, after all, D&D.

Thanks for reading. I’m one of the founders of Midrangers, you can call me Icarian or Ikaros, and if you have any questions or ideas, send them our way!