Arythain's page

After his impromptu performance, Tristan spends the rest of the evening in his preferred manner - drinking, talking, and enjoying himself. For a short time he almost feels himself again, above the cares of 'ordinary' people, embraced in song and dance and loveliness. He sings several more songs upon request, and by the time the sun is hinting at its impending arrival he falls into bed - along with one of the ladies whom had been enjoying turns with him upon the dance floor and now sought a turn of a different kind.

Tristan wakes next to her only a few hours later, his ability to spend long periods of the morning in bed apparently ruined by his time in the Stolen Lands. He extricates himself from his lover's arms without managing to wake her, dresses, washes, and leaves, penning only a brief note to her beauty - and vigor - before departing.

”I happen to be composing a tune in ode to that very event. Will you hear it?”

Perform(Sing): 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (16) + 13 = 29

You know the tune. Except, like… somehow a bit more martial and ‘manly’.
"At first I was afraid, I was petrified -
Thinking we all would surely fall come that eventide.
The monsters of the wild had brought another still more vile,
so strong it shattered stone,
yet still only flesh and bone!
Then our Graf -
You know his face -
Strode upon the field and declared 'You shall not conquer this place!'
We are the warriors of Restov, sons and daughters of Brevoy,
Then he took up his mighty weapon, his face lit with feral joy...”

Tristan continues the energetic tune, telling a somewhat-embellished version of events at the Battle of the Post. Each of his companions features in turn, including himself and his felling of the dark wizard through a striving of songs of power. He improvises in places where he had not yet finalized the lyrics, but feels overall that the song had merit.

I do not regret this. I regret only that I don’t have the time right now to write more.

Yidi tells you that the mantids are ambush hunters mostly - they lie in wait for things to come nearby, then spring up, often leaping directly from cover to attack. Due to the tall grass in much of their chosen hunting area, they are hard to spot and possess almost no scent. He knows about the antivenom and suggests that if nothing else, whoever you have riding in the vanguard should be dosed with it, as the leading members of a group are often poisoned before they have a chance to react.

Generally speaking, your group is big enough that you won't need to fear the other hunter bands trying to kill and rob you, and there are essentially no bandits to worry about in the area the mantids threaten.

There is no field hospital nor any kind of help. Once you leave the camp, you're on your own. If you are far to the north and in need of help you can try reaching Harraw - they don't tend to love strange outsiders but they'll help people who are hunting mantids more than likely.

Garca only tends to show favoritism to especially good customers, and tends to dislike people who cause trouble in the camp and harm his business. He has ruled against Kulwa's group in several recent altercations to punish them for their antics. Beyond that simple self-interest, he seems an honest judge of things as best as he is able. Yidi is not really sure the old merchant actually trusts anybody.

Most of the bands keep to themselves, though Kulwa's group has been stirring the pot recently saying that hunting the mantids is too small a goal for the lot of warriors gathered here. Urim's group ignores most people. There are occasionally allegations of theft (that might even be true) but there's no reason to be overtly suspicious of nefarious intent by most people in the camp. Keep and eye on your stuff and you should be fine.

One possible exception is Iri the elf, an enigma even to Yidi. Probably working for someone, and always leaves the camp alone - doesn't have an association with any of the bands.

Merry's Holy Symbol is a thin sheaf of grass, hay, wicker, or other similar material looped into a figure-eight and tied in the middle with some kind of ribbon or fabric (people tend to use the richest material they can get ahold of as a method of praise, but Merry has never made a preference known. Poor people might tie the loop with simple twine or unraveled string). It is often worn on a necklace of some sort - leather thong or simple chain. Plenty of faithful adherents simply carry it in a pocket, though.

Merry has very few calls to 'mass' or assembled worship. The devout are expected to keep her in mind as they go about their day and chores. A quick prayer that the cow gave good milk, or thoughts of praise that the rains came on time - these are all Merry desires. Devout communities might say a quick prayer (or raise a tankard of ale) when they gather in the evenings for communal suppers or to share drink and gossip, if that is the way of their community. The only times when it is considered appropriate to take time away and celebrate Merry's worship more mindfully is during festival days (when you'd be taking time away anyhow!). At these times - whatever holidays and festivals the people might observe anyways - Merry loves it when people call her name in joy, as they dance and sing and drink, so she might be joyful with them.

Merry does not awe, nor leave her followers trembling after her presence. She brings warmth, and comfort, and mirth. She brings joy at simple pleasures and good company. Merry is old wood and warm bread and the dull glint of steel in the corner. Merry is a newborn's laugh. Merry is a young woman dancing on a bright summer day.

I've done a little thinking on how worship of Merry might translate to an ogre tribe. No doubt it was strange at first for all parties, Merry probably had to make some rather forceful interventions, and probably considered ordering Gork to abandon his tribe entirely (or maybe she did? maybe he asked her to keep trying?). The various cruelties so common to ogres would have been the first to go - no torture, no painful sporting, no delighting in the pain of anything. But joy in the hunt? Great! Happiness at defeating an enemy? Appropriate! Love of a proper, gut-stuffing feast? You bet. Maybe even some of the tougher aspects of ogre society survive, like trials of leadership or some such when an ogre comes of age or wants a position of command (I'm spitballing now). Merry doesn't shy from voluntary pain or violence. A good brawl or wrestling match, even if dangerous and painful, can be great fun so long as all those involved are willing. Once we get your ogres on the scene, we'll have to do some work to figure out how a Merry-changed ogre society really works... (well, we won't have to necessarily, but it'd be fun).

Nope, Gork would never have seen mantids before. So far as anyone knows, they have never been seen anywhere else in the world.

In the bandit situation, Merry would be of the mind that you've done your duty by talking to them in the first place (assuming you went into it honestly trying to get them to stand down, surrender, whatever - which Merry would know). After that, killing is probably justified - though when the opportunity comes to take somebody alive without undue risk to yourself or those with you, you should probably take it.

Extenuating circumstances may come in when you account for how the bandits themselves have behaved: Have they shown willingness to extend mercy even when raiding caravans? Are they raiding because they are starving and simply trying to survive? Have they been brutal and cruel? Etc. How much violence to use will always be a judgment call.

This represents everything Merry the Golden Maid has revealed to you about her own nature.

Above all else, Merry is a guardian and helper to the simple people. Those who till the fields, tend the herds. Those who live in their villages amongst the people they've always known, and have no ambition to do any more than enjoy their life, raise their children, and watch the cycle repeat.

Merry is most present in villages and rural areas. Low population, low industry. While she does work among the poor people of the cities, there are other gods that usually outwork her for their adoration.

Merry does not shy from violence. The drunken brawl can be fun, the border fight can be necessary - hell, the destruction of true evil can be joyful. But Merry recognizes that 'true evil' is rare. Most people just want to get by. Thus, Merry prefers her worshipers value life and take it only at great need. Merry understands that sometimes killing is necessary - but she teaches that where the strong and capable folk might need to kill to establish peace, the very strong and capable folk establish peace by only knocking a few folk about.

Basically this means that Gork should shy away from killing people unless he is convinced their deaths will protect more people.

Merry values hard work. People should not sit idle, even the those who are needy. People do not deserve kindness just for existing, but if they are willing to do something, anything to earn their way, then those with the means should provide. (There is an exception for recognized holidays - Merry loves a good festival! Nobody should have to labor on a holiday when they should be getting drunk and enjoying life).

When it comes to the needy, Merry does not necessarily look down on beggars/panhandlers/etc, but she much prefers people who are willing to do some kind of work. Those who are severely disabled should still be willing to try and work when a task can be found that suits their abilities. In this sense, Merry holds a special love for the elderly - advising and sharing wisdom, giving council etc is very much a task worthy of compensation and honor.

As far as relations between peoples goes, Merry is adamant that all thinking people should be accepted as equal. Neither the place or wealth of one's birth really makes a difference. People are people. If you're willing to get along, you should be gotten along with.

There is no room in Merry's theology for speciesism, racism, classism, or any other kind of bigotry. She protects and loves all good, kind, simple people. This has probably been one of the biggest hurdles for Gork and his people - learning to treat non-ogres the same as ogres, and other ogres the same as others of their own tribe.

Okay, so trying to devise even the basics of an ethics system directly handed down by a god is hard. I think this gives you the right idea. If you think there is a major topic that Gork would have run into already that isn't either covered or could be inferred by what I've written above, go ahead and ask.

A generation ago, the Gelkrosh region - in the midst of an economic and population boom - was struck by disaster: prehistorical monsters dubbed mantids were unearthed from an ancient slumber beneath the vast coal and tarpits of the central badlands and spread rapidly, driving people away from a vast swath of the area and cutting off travel and trade for even more. But this was before the lands of the Dragon bordered Gelkrosh. She has had her alchemists devise a antidote for the most powerful weapon of the mantids - their paralytic poison. With this, she believes she can begin to make inroads to taking the region and its mines and farms for her own.

But how to do it? She is already at war with the giants to the north, and has no interest opening another front in the combat. She wishes to take the region more subtly. Picking a small number of her loyal followers, she directs them to subdue the region as much as possible before revealing her involvement.

There are many paths they can take to victory, by stealth, intrigue, and assassination, by the steady grind of clever economics, by sheer bold brutality, or by these and others mixed in a deft combination. All possible, and legitimate, paths to domination. But there will be worthy and clever opponents at every turn, and should they fail in their charge they'll have no refuge back in the Dragon's lands...

This campaign will begin with 3-5 players (one being the acknowledged leader, appointed by the Dragon herself) along with a company of around a dozen 'soldiers' (a motley crew of brutes, fit for fighting but not much else) being dispatched to the region known as Gelkrosh. They will decide on how and where to enter the region, how they'll go about building up a power base, how to deal with the other factions and threats, and how they'll rule the lands they control. It is entirely possible that they'll get in over their heads and end up assassinated, defeated in open battle, or simply deposed by an unruly populace.

Furthermore, after the players have established the "kingdom" aspect of the game, they'll be able to roll up secondary characters. These characters will be controlled as NPCs (but be available to inhabit kingdom roles that need filling, if desired) unless and until their corresponding player's primary character dies (a very real possibility), in which case they'll take over the secondary character.

I like high roleplay focus, low loot-focus games. I've created Eldreon to be a world where magic is rampant but magic items are rare. You won't be getting wealth-by-level, and even powerful characters might not have much in the form of permanent magical gear.

On Alignments: You can be any alignment. Generally speaking, I treat the alignment of any mortal character as "light." They have some leanings in that direction, but obviously are not embodiments of the alignment. The exceptions being divine spellcasters, other extremely religious people, and characters who single-mindedly fulfill their alignments tenets (mass-murdering psychos or feed-the-hungry philanthropists, to pick extreme examples). This extends to the use of Detect Evil/Good/etc spells: most regular people won't show up as anything in particular.

Also just a heads up, the economy is silver-based instead of gold based. Mostly that just means we transpose "gold pieces" to "silver pieces" and leave gold for much larger sums of wealth.

I don't want full-on character builds! I select players based on their ability to dream up and role-play a personality first and foremost. What I want to see are character concepts. Use the details about the Dragon's Realm below, sketch in a few details of your own, and run with it. You will be playing a character hand-selected by the Dragon (or at least, her top lackeys) to subjugate a region and add it to her lands. What skillsets do you have that aid that goal?

You SHOULD include at least one tidbit of history - what you have done to bring your name to the Dragon's attention. Have you worked for her directly up until now? Were you merely a notable resident somewhere in her realm? The scion of another loyal servant? Whatever. Give me some of that history.

You can include thoughts on crunch if you like, but the fluff/background is what I'm really interested in. Once characters are selected, we'll do character builds and such in the discussion thread before beginning the campaign.

As far as race/class choices go:
Race - this region of the world is highly diverse. With all sorts of races living alongside each other (though not always peacefully).

Human - common, many human cultures both sedentary and nomadic live in the area.
Hobgoblin - just as common and varied as humans (fun fact, hobgoblins in Eldreon have no native concept of gender and reproduce asexually).
Halfling - The halflings in this part of the world tend to be more rough-and-tumble than elsewhere.
Goblin - Goblins tend to be short-sighted and prone to violence, but their communities are still tolerated in some places due to their surprising industriousness and their willingness to do dirty, dangerous jobs.
Ogre - Ogres tend to be quite dumb and violent, but they're also incredibly strong. Found frequently as bodyguards and laborers when their employers have the talents and means to keep them under control.
Elf (and half-elf) - Elves are generally disliked by the other races of the region (and vice versa) due to myriad old grudges as well as the tendency for elven communities of this part of the world to "cause trouble" (freeing slaves and such). However, some elves have managed to carve a place for themselves (often by matching the violence and savagery of their neighbors). Half-elves are more common, but also frequently the subject of bigotry.
Orc (and half-orc) - Several orc tribes exist in the area and are often found in martial trades.
Kobold - Kobolds tend to stick to themselves and don't often interact with other races, but in a kingdom ruled by a Dragon several of them have risen to prominence.
Dwarf - Dwarves found in the region are usually outcasts from their holds, or the descendants of outcasts.
Gnolls - Gnolls are uncommon in this part of the world, but not unknown.
And finally, a homebrewed race called the Drecna which you can read about here. They're uncommon here as well, but are famed travelers.

Classes: You don't actually have to decide on one now, but I'm open to considering any class except barbarian, monk, and alchemist, and psionic-types. (Barbarian and monk 'flavors' can be worked into other classes if desired). I tend to favor people who work within the basic classes (fighter, ranger, wizard, etc) and their archetypes.

This campaign sticks to the region of Gelkrosh, and the players don't need to know much about the world-at large. If you would like to read a bit just to see if I'm a terrible or passable world-builder, I threw some stuff up on a blog awhile back (including some things about religion, which might be useful). The Blog Is Here.

Information you'll actually want to know is in the spoiler marked "The Gelkrosh Region" or in the attached documents.

In this folder you'll find a map and a document with some initial information on the various notable settlements.

Gelkrosh is a hinterlands region bordering The Dragon's controlled lands and a couple other regional powers, one of which (a nation ruled by giants) the Dragon is engaged in a border war with. She believes the time has come to claim it, but she wants to start things off quietly by building up a base of support so that she doesn't anger the other nations before her control of Gelkrosh is already a done deal. That is where the players come in.

General History:

In the distant past, the region was very sparsely populated, with mostly nomadic populations of humans, halflings, and hobgoblins living and warring over the grazing regions. More recently burgeoning populations to both the east and west drove settlers into the area, mostly displacing or assimilating the original tribes. Once the river floodplains were found to be incredibly fertile, the increased food production began a population and expansion boom in the area. Discovery of the tar pits and coal seams in the eastern badlands region only accelerated this. However, disaster struck early into the process - coal mining opened up a cavern which held some dormant monstrosity from earlier times, enormous venomous insectoids that were dubbed Mantids. Awakened, they erupted from their cave, slaughtering most of the nearby mining town overnight and spreading rapidly. Over the coming months they caused nearly the entirety of the badlands regions populace to flee or die, and even threatened the farming towns to the north. Furthermore, they made travel so dangerous that it choked off most of the region's trade.

Almost 25 years later, the region has reached a sort of stability. The central portion is still mostly deserted, and dominated by the mantids. Gelkrosh still provides food to the rest of the area, but must transport it along a threatened route in heavily guarded caravans. Hafton has survived on its own surrounding lands and trade from unthreatened routes to the north and west. Swampside has remaining largely cut off from the rest of the region except for a small trade in magical and alchemical goods, small enough to be carried by more highly-mobile merchants who skirt the mantid's territory or pass through it by unknown means.

As a GM, I may beat, burn, rob, abuse, and kill your characters – but I will never abandon them. I have been in several dropped games on these forums, and so here is my pledge to you as players: I will never, ever abandon a game if even one player wants to continue. We will find other players or make it a solo adventure. Due to real-life reasons, games may be delayed and they may slow down – but so long as I have players, my players have a game.

A generation ago, the Gelkrosh region - in the midst of an economic and population boom - was struck by disaster: prehistorical monsters dubbed mantids were unearthed from an ancient slumber beneath the vast coal and tarpits of the central badlands and spread rapidly, driving people away from a vast swath of the area and cutting off travel and trade for even more. But this was before the lands of the Dragon bordered Gelkrosh. She has had her alchemists devise a antidote for the most powerful weapon of the mantids - their paralytic poison. With this, she believes she can begin to make inroads to taking the region and its mines and farms for her own.

But how to do it? She is already at war with the giants to the north, and has no interest opening another front in the combat. She wishes to take the region more subtly. Picking a small number of her loyal followers, she directs them to subdue the region as much as possible before revealing her involvement.

There are many paths they can take to victory, by stealth, intrigue, and assassination, by the steady grind of clever economics, by sheer bold brutality, or by these and others mixed in a deft combination. All possible, and legitimate, paths to domination. But there will be worthy and clever opponents at every turn, and should they fail in their charge they'll have no refuge back in the Dragon's lands...

This campaign will begin with 3-5 players (one being the acknowledged leader, appointed by the Dragon herself) along with a company of around a dozen 'soldiers' (a motley crew of brutes, fit for fighting but not much else) being dispatched to the region known as Gelkrosh. They will decide on how and where to enter the region, how they'll go about building up a power base, how to deal with the other factions and threats, and how they'll rule the lands they control. It is entirely possible that they'll get in over their heads and end up assassinated, defeated in open battle, or simply deposed by an unruly populace.

Furthermore, after the players have established the "kingdom" aspect of the game, they'll be able to roll up secondary characters. These characters will be controlled as NPCs (but be available to inhabit kingdom roles that need filling, if desired) unless and until their corresponding player's primary character dies (a very real possibility), in which case they'll take over the secondary character.

I like high roleplay focus, low loot-focus games. I've created Eldreon to be a world where magic is rampant but magic items are rare. You won't be getting wealth-by-level, and even powerful characters might not have much in the form of permanent magical gear.

On Alignments: You can be any alignment. Generally speaking, I treat the alignment of any mortal character as "light." They have some leanings in that direction, but obviously are not embodiments of the alignment. The exceptions being divine spellcasters, other extremely religious people, and characters who single-mindedly fulfill their alignments tenets (mass-murdering psychos or feed-the-hungry philanthropists, to pick extreme examples). This extends to the use of Detect Evil/Good/etc spells: most regular people won't show up as anything in particular.

Also just a heads up, the economy is silver-based instead of gold based. Mostly that just means we transpose "gold pieces" to "silver pieces" and leave gold for much larger sums of wealth.

The ideal kind of player who's fit to be the "leader" of the group should enjoy the idea of the managerial aspects of a Kingdom Building game, as they'll need to be able to consider a lot of info over the course of the campaign. They also need to be able to make decisions and tell other people what to do, naturally.

I don't want full-on character builds! I select players based on their ability to dream up and role-play a personality first and foremost. What I want to see are character concepts. Use the details about the Dragon's Realm below, sketch in a few details of your own, and run with it. Will you be a clever but formidable fighter leading your subordinates in battle? A priest who wants to see the region they subdue come to the worship of a particular god? A spider-in-the-web puppetmaster who'll come to power by wit and machination? Something much less cliché than these?

You SHOULD include at least one tidbit of history - what you have done to bring your name to the Dragon's attention. Have you worked for her directly up until now? Were you merely a notable resident somewhere in her realm? The scion of another loyal servant? Whatever. Give me some of that history.

You can include thoughts on crunch if you like, but the fluff/background is what I'm really interested in. Once characters are selected, we'll do character builds and such in the discussion thread before beginning the campaign.

As far as race/class choices go:
Race - this region of the world is highly diverse. With all sorts of races living alongside each other (though not always peacefully).

Human - common, many human cultures both sedentary and nomadic live in the area.
Hobgoblin - just as common and varied as humans (fun fact, hobgoblins in Eldreon have no native concept of gender and reproduce asexually).
Halfling - The halflings in this part of the world tend to be more rough-and-tumble than elsewhere.
Goblin - Goblins tend to be short-sighted and prone to violence, but their communities are still tolerated in some places due to their surprising industriousness and their willingness to do dirty, dangerous jobs.
Ogre - Ogres tend to be quite dumb and violent, but they're also incredibly strong. Found frequently as bodyguards and laborers when their employers have the talents and means to keep them under control.
Elf (and half-elf) - Elves are generally disliked by the other races of the region (and vice versa) due to myriad old grudges as well as the tendency for elven communities of this part of the world to "cause trouble" (freeing slaves and such). However, some elves have managed to carve a place for themselves (often by matching the violence and savagery of their neighbors). Half-elves are more common, but also frequently the subject of bigotry.
Orc (and half-orc) - Several orc tribes exist in the area and are often found in martial trades.
Kobold - Kobolds tend to stick to themselves and don't often interact with other races, but in a kingdom ruled by a Dragon several of them have risen to prominence.
Gnoll - Gnolls are uncommon in this part of the world, but not unknown.
And finally, a homebrewed race called the Drecna which you can read about here. They're uncommon here as well, but are famed travelers.

Classes: You don't actually have to decide on one now, but I'm open to considering any class except barbarian, monk, and alchemist, and psionic-types. (Barbarian and monk 'flavors' can be worked into other classes if desired). I tend to favor people who work within the basic classes (fighter, ranger, wizard, etc) and their archetypes.

Currently, I'm planning to post a separate recruitment thread for the rest of the party once this recruitment is done.

This campaign sticks to the region of Gelkrosh, and the players don't need to know much about the world-at large. If you would like to read a bit just to see if I'm a terrible or passable world-builder, I threw some stuff up on a blog awhile back (including some things about religion, which might be useful). The Blog Is Here.

Information you'll actually want to know is in the spoiler marked "The Gelkrosh Region" or in the attached documents.

In this folder you'll find a map and a document with some initial information on the various notable settlements.

Gelkrosh is a hinterlands region bordering The Dragon's controlled lands and a couple other regional powers, one of which (a nation ruled by giants) the Dragon is engaged in a border war with. She believes the time has come to claim it, but she wants to start things off quietly by building up a base of support so that she doesn't anger the other nations before her control of Gelkrosh is already a done deal. That is where the players come in.

General History:

In the distant past, the region was very sparsely populated, with mostly nomadic populations of humans, halflings, and hobgoblins living and warring over the grazing regions. More recently burgeoning populations to both the east and west drove settlers into the area, mostly displacing or assimilating the original tribes. Once the river floodplains were found to be incredibly fertile, the increased food production began a population and expansion boom in the area. Discovery of the tar pits and coal seams in the eastern badlands region only accelerated this. However, disaster struck early into the process - coal mining opened up a cavern which held some dormant monstrosity from earlier times, enormous venomous insectoids that were dubbed Mantids. Awakened, they erupted from their cave, slaughtering most of the nearby mining town overnight and spreading rapidly. Over the coming months they caused nearly the entirety of the badlands regions populace to flee or die, and even threatened the farming towns to the north. Furthermore, they made travel so dangerous that it choked off most of the region's trade.

Almost 25 years later, the region has reached a sort of stability. The central portion is still mostly deserted, and dominated by the mantids. Gelkrosh still provides food to the rest of the area, but must transport it along a threatened route in heavily guarded caravans. Hafton has survived on its own surrounding lands and trade from unthreatened routes to the north and west. Swampside has remaining largely cut off from the rest of the region except for a small trade in magical and alchemical goods, small enough to be carried by more highly-mobile merchants who skirt the mantid's territory or pass through it by unknown means.

As a GM, I may beat, burn, rob, abuse, and kill your characters – but I will never abandon them. I have been in several dropped games on these forums, and so here is my pledge to you as players: I will never, ever abandon a game if even one player wants to continue. We will find other players or make it a solo adventure. Due to real-life reasons, games may be delayed and they may slow down – but so long as I have players, my players have a game.

At long last I've ironed out what I'll want to see for the research on this new spell.

The added zombie-raising bit certainly raises some interesting possibilities. Still, given that the zombie is uncontrolled and is meant more as an interesting side-effect (and one you'd assumedly not want to see happen often), I'd say this spell can stay at level 2, as it represents a personalized upgrade to an existing spell.

We'll also assume that Tyrus has been idly considering a spell of this type for awhile, so the cost in time can be a bit lower as you're drawing upon expertise you already have to address a problem the group has been facing for awhile now, and the effects are right in your wheelhouse. The cost to finalize research will likewise not be particularly high - I'll roll 10d20 for the cost in silver pieces (representing necessary materials).

I'll require three rolls, which can only be taken during relatively non-threatened and unbothered downtime. You cannot take 10 or 20 on these rolls. The DC value represents that required to get the behaviors you want. Failing by 10 or more will introduce a penalty into the spell. Exceeding by 10 or more will introduce a boon (or allow a reroll of a different roll). I'll describe the likely areas of effect along with the rolls.

Heal DC 16: You know the pathways to deaden pain, but to also trick the brain into a state of ferocity, possibly before danger has even presented itself... that could be more complex than meets the eye. You cannot fail this except on a Nat 1 on purpose. Great Failure will result in you needing to do some damage to the target, or only cast it on a target which is already damaged, in order for the spell to take effect. Great Success has a number of possible effects, chief among them the possibility of granting temporary HP to your target a la your commonly used False Life.

Know(Arcana) DC 12: You're modeling this on a spell you know to exist, but don't actually know yourself. You have confidence you can duplicate most of it and get away with merely a slightly more complex incantation. Great Failure will result in possible decreased range or duration. Great success may result in a possible reduced casting time, or reduced components.

Know(Religion) DC 20 OR Spellcraft DC 25
If Religion: Your experience with Applied Theology gives you the theoretical framework wherein you could apply limited mental control of the target should their own cognition fail (IE, in essential brain-death despite the body's continued operation). The created zombie can tell friend from foe - but the CASTER decides who that will be. This is the success effect - there is no fail effect.

If Spellcraft: There are some interesting principles at play here. Maybe you can formalize and generalize them enough to be of some worth to the other wizards you may come across in your travels. I'm going to give you a stat called Shareable Research, which will come up in rolls to make money off of... sharing your original research. Currently you're at a 1 in that, success here boosts it to a 3. This is the success effect - there is no fail effect.

What do you think? Seem fun enough to take a crack at it?

What a strange time you've had of it. You've been in no shortage of scrapes in your life - many of them life or death - but enormous maggots and acid-blood creatures were never on the menu before. For a brief moment you consider the possibility that coming with these folks was a mistake...

Nah. You put the enemy on the ground in the end, right? You're standing and they're not (even if only just barely). This trip has been all right.

You may immediately ascend to Level 6.

Every time you stray close to another source of power, the Void leans in. Learns. Grows. You feel a surge of it inside you, the familiar feeling of falling backward through an inky nothingness, and then suddenly you are yourself again.

The Void has learned much through you. To what end?

You may immediately ascend to Level 5.

Temples, cities, sacrificial pits, all built for one person, this Priest-King. Enchantments the likes of which you've never seen woven for his benefit and protection. He had commanded more than respect. He had commanded fear.

He had commanded an entire nation, by force of his arcane might alone.

You have ascended to level 5 and may apply the effect once you have gotten a full restful night's sleep.

Mariana is a devoted servant of Dagon, demon prince of the sea. She wants to grant her lord and his aquatic servants greater reign over the world of Golarion by raising the sea levels - but she doesn't want the land-based creatures to die. Oh no, Dagon needs them, for servants and slaves and worshipers... and food. So much food.

Mariana has devised a plan to flood the world of Golarion with a water-like substance that is hospitable to both sea creatures and air-breathers. This would allow the creatures of the deep to roam anywhere they liked and render nearly the entirety of Golarion save for the highest mountain peaks open to Dagon's servants - and even Dagon himself. Land-based creatures would be able to continue their lives, though they'd certainly need to adapt a little.

(This is still in broad strokes)

Mariana is a gorgeous Undine women. She has light bluish skin and silvery hair alongside largely elvish features. She is generally amiable and soft spoken, but is also wholly amoral. She lives to serve her appetites and those of her master Dagon's. For herself, she is greatly fond of most physical desires, be it for food, sex, art, music, or any other. She is also fond of great depths of knowledge and mystery, and she tends to enjoy the company of the elderly and the learned (though few of them ever truly earn her respect, as she is merely using them to slake a lust like any other).

Mariana keeps her true intentions secret from nearly everybody, usually professing an overtly hedonistic worldview with no other aims than pleasure. In reality, she secretly gathers knowledge, followers, and raw power to enact her lord's wishes, as well as a dire grand plan for Dagon's resurgence in the Prime Material plane (see above).

For partners, minions, and servants, Mariana would have those who are likewise devoted to Dagon or to a compatible goal/master (an allied Demon lord, for instance), or to herself directly in the case of smitten lovers or hedonistic "friends" (insofar as somebody like her can feel friendship).

A few quirks in no particular order:

Mariana enjoys shapeshifting (through magic item use or spells of a follower) into sea creatures and eating people for some of her meals.

Mariana ironically despises sea travel on ships and boats, preferring to swim or conjure up seaborn mounts.

Mariana is fond of creating lakes or other bodies of water in unexpected places, often where they'll be a boon to the inhabitants (high mountain areas, deserts, badlands, etc). But she also likes conjuring nasty creatures to live in said "surprise lakes."

Mariana likes it when her followers and others give her flattering nicknames. One of her favorites is "Deepfathom" which some people mistake as her surname. It was given to her by an old lover who said it described her eyes, her beauty, and her mind.