Since he destroyed a planet, he must have a destruction portfolio. An artifact mirror might be used to turn his power back on himself. He might have lost a toe or something, and an arrow of slaying made of a toe bone might be fashioned to slay him. Steal from Superman's origin. Radioactive fragments of his home world... No wait, just chunks of ore from the world he destroyed both resonate with his own destructive energies *and* are touchstones to the vengeful spirits of those billions of lives he snuffed out, two factors that can empower them to make fearsome weapons against him.
Desna, friendly happy butterfly lady of dreams and travelers and the stars. Some demon lord Aolar starts killing clerics of various gods and gets around to those of Desna, and she responds in her peaceful hippy way by fluttering down into the Abyss and ripping his face off. At least one other god (Calistria, it's rumored) had to save her from dozens of angry demon lords, outraged that she thought she could just flutter down into their home and murder one of them! I just love that she's close to the last god you'd expect to go defcon 5 on the Abyss, and yet, there she went! Desna's definitely my favorite of the 'Big 20.' Of the 'lesser' gods, I love that Sivanah seems to be fueling at least some of Razmir's pretense at divinity, by allowing his sorcerer and wizard 'priests' to use shadow conjuration to cast curing spells (at least, back in 1st edition, I have no idea if that is now decanonized...). The notion that an actual god (of trickery and deception!) is secretly helping some mortal pretend to be a god, amuses me. And her, no doubt. And if he succeeds in actually becoming a real god, that will likely amuse her as much as his inevitable failure will...
https://forums.homecomingservers.com/getting-started/ URL for downloading the new client for City of Heroes Homecoming. I've also been playing it again the last couple of days, and loving it all over again. Still not bothering with enhancements and crafting and whatever, because I have no idea how long any given concept is going to hold my attention, but I'm enjoying some of the new stuff, like the Beastmaster Mastermind (summons wolves, lions, a dire wolf, swarms of bugs, swarms of ravens and a hawk! Fun!).
576. Light Leeches These small drab grey moths look nothing like 'leeches,' but are attracted to magic, deriving some faint sustenance from it, and are destructive to anything that is easily damaged like spellbook or scroll pages, or even, over time, magical cloth. Obviously, they are hated by wizards with an ire usually reserved for treasure-hoarding dragons and 'no magical experimentation within city limits' ordinance-passing politicians. Fortunately, they are easily distracted by continual flame, and flock to any item of that sort left out, fluttering about it attempting to feed, but unable to effectively metabolize illusion magic, they soon fall to the ground exhausted and die. Arcanists keep libraries of magical lore well lit by continual light items to ensure that if any of these pests show up, they'll flock to the lighted items, instead of the delicate magical texts, and some put-upon first-year apprentice will have the daily task of sweeping up any dead light leeches found around the various magical light sources in their mentors home (or guild hall, academy, etc.). An assortment of low level spells have been designed over the years because of them. One to repel them. One to kill them if they cross a line into one's home (or library) or alight on one's spellbook. One to conjure a swarm of them to annoy or inconvenience a rival. One to infuse a continual flame with a tiny wisp of actual fire magic so that any light leech that touches it is instantly burnt to a crisp. Another to sweep up quantities of dead bugs in a large room, gather them into a ball and fly them out the nearest door or window. And so the humble light leech at least serves some purpose, to inspire generations of fledgling wizards in their spell design.
Some random thoughts; Nurgal - sun, senseless war. Signature weapon, heavy mace with a small sun for a head. (Fiery Burst, but also radiates searing heat that damages those nearby) Powers - light from eyes and mouth when he's in combat blinds attackers and reveals invisible / strips away illusions. Murderous Command / Confusion powers, good at inciting others into fighting each other, and those affected by either his Murderous Command or Confusion powers also are affected by Rage. Jezelda - moon, werewolves. No signature weapon, she's actually very good at disarming folk and rending / sundering items. Powers - her bite causes people to *immediately* turn into werewolves and begin savagely attacking non-werewolves in the area (she cannot choose their targets, and they tend to pick the closest). She can command werewolves, and also create an area of moonlight that causes any shapeshifter (particularly were-critters) to transform (or be unable to transform) at her will, or to cast an area dispel effect that forces polymorphed / shape changed or wild shaped folk back into their native forms (or curse someone she hits to be locked into a form). Yhidothrus - age, time, worms. Powers - aura causes foes to be weakened as if they were moved into the venerable age category (save to be less aged, just 'old'). Those killed by his attacks mummify and decay within minutes, a slow disintegration, and must be revived quickly, or not at all. Can burst apart into a colossal worm-swarm, becoming immune to most weapon attacks and single-target spells. And I got nuthin' for Shivaska, that's not one I'd even noticed, somehow!
I had considered darkwood, since it was a semiprecious organic stuff available in the setting, and more 'precious' than real-world woods. Of course the other precious organic material listed in the PHB is, uh, dragonhide... But aren't all dragons already 'dragonhide dragons?' :) One fun thing about those dragon types is that they lent themselves to interesting breath weapons. An amber dragon sprays you with a copal-like sap that starts rapidly hardening. A coral dragon sprays you with tens of thousands of long filaments that flense and strip flesh from bone. Ivory? Spray of piercing tusks. Stuff like that.
Random thoughts on a Magaambyan NPC I'll never use; Garylkyr 'the Garylith' Priestess N’dulu had never quite reached the savage heights of power and influence that she felt she’d long deserved, and hatched a scheme to drag her weak-minded Bekyar followers into a fresh war against the soft people that crowded their border and defiantly fished the seas just beyond their reach. She lacked the power to bind a demon to this world to lead her people into glorious victory, but with a ritual she had found, she could bring one for just one night, for a sacred purpose. The joining was grueling, but she tolerated weakness in none, least of all herself, and eight and a half months later, after a birthing as bloody as any battlefield, delivered herself of a half-demon child. Exhausted, she remained conscious long enough to smile a red smile at the infant’s six flailing arms, lusty cries and flailing serpentine tail, so like his dread father. Against all predictions, she regained at least some of her strength, enough to feel despair and rage as the weeks became months and the thing she’d labored so hard to bring into this world failed to prove the mighty and terrible half-demon champion she’d wished for. The child had demonic traits, it was true, but hardly the strength, savagery and innate spellcraft she’d sought in a warlord meant to unite the fractious tribes and inspire them into greater fervor for the glory of great Angazhan. Indeed, the child, for all his fearsome appearance, seemed little better than a lowly tiefling! She was as savage as the beasts of the jungle, as unrelenting as the storm, as unforgiving as death itself, hoping ever to beat into this wheezing disobedient soft-headed child the strength and glory of his demonic heritage, and so awaken the demonic powers of chaos and destruction, the rage and lust for carnage she knew *must* lie within him, just seeking to be called forth, like to like. He learned in that time the arts of war from the savage berserkers, to channel his anger and frustration into powerful violence, as well as to draw upon the chaotic forces in his blood, to work demon sorcery, in the tradition of his people, to rattle bones and inflame passions. It was his thirteenth year of this torment that Garylkyr, so accustomed to standing still and quiet, hoping his wrathful mother would forget his presence, overheard her plotting with a quasit that served her how she would ‘salvage’ what she could of his demonic blood, mating him to a succubus she would call forth, in hopes that at least this grandchild could finally be the demon-blood Bekyar warleader of her dreams. He knew that she would spend days in ritual purification to summon such a servant of Angazhan, and he waited until she was busy in her preparations before seizing up the messenger pouch he had born to deliver her proclamations to neighboring tribes (for she had never told those around how much she despised her weak son, counting on his fiendish appearance to deceive others into thinking she greatly honored them, to send a personal message in the hand of her half-demon firstborn) and left in the night. Seeing the beaded pouch, none stopped him, thinking him on some task for his powerful mother, and he moved quickly across the Bekyar border territories, until he reached the sea, where he threw his pouch into the water and then joined it, taking to the water as only a strong young man with six arms and a serpent’s tail could. He quickly had to abandon most of his belongings, useless impediments in the water, keeping only a gourd of fresh water, the masterwork scimitar his mother had begrudgingly gifted him after learning to channel his rage, and a pair of daggers. He swam towards the northern lands, knowing that he was leaving Bekyar-haunted waters far behind, following the current ever north, keeping the shore in sight on his right. He knew not the dangers of the ocean, nor of whatever distant shore he would land upon, but feared them less than returning to his mothers’ wicked dream of being mated to a demon, in the hopes that his blood might be more useful to her than he had been. He never even saw what bit him in those dark waters, and washed up on the beach delirious and near-death, to be found by an old blind woman and the simple young man who served as her eyes on her morning rambles. “It’s a fish-man, Auntie! But he has many arms, like a spider, a spider-fish!” Ife cried, looking to Auntie to see her reaction and judge if he should be scared or curious. She seemed more curious than afraid, and he led her to the still body. She had thought that Ife had perhaps poorly described a dead grindylow, in his simple way, or worse, a grindylow that was not quite yet dead, but upon feeling the boy’s arms and serpentine tail, she knew that she had found something quite different. She also found the wound on one of his many arms, swollen and hot with venom, which even without eyes she could tell by smell and feel was from a sea snake’s bite, and she sent Ife running back to her home to fetch her healer’s kit. And so Garylkyr awoke in the hut of the woman he only ever knew as Auntie, for no one in the village seemed to remember her actual name. The former midwife had delivered more than half the adults and all of the children in the village before a fungal infection took her sight, and she had sharp words for any who tried to convince her that she could not harbor this demon-thing from the sea in her home, striking with her walking stick to crack the shinbone of any, headman or priest, who spoke out of turn under her roof, until they threw up their hands and muttered angry empty useless words, before leaving her to her madness. Months passed, and soon the villagers stopped making warding signs against evil when he slithered along the beach, Ife in tow, chattering away happily, and it was Garylkyr’s interaction with the exasperating boy that finally eased their minds. Ife had always had a rare gift for doing exactly the wrong thing, getting himself into all sorts of dangerous situations that an ounce of common sense could have prevented. He had been assigned to ‘help’ Auntie as much for his protection, as hers, as left to his own devices, he would inevitably find trouble. And so, Garylkyr’s seemingly superhuman patience with the boy, earned him much respect with the people of the village. Still, Garylkyr had power from his demon blood, his simple sorcery being used almost furtively, as he feared then source of his power, that it was a thing of chaos and wickedness, with a will of its own. Auntie told him that was ridiculous. He used his gifts, however sparingly, to make their lives easier. Did that seem like a thing of madness and violence? She told him he needed to go to Magaambya, and learn to embrace his gift, but he balked, and she relented, not willing to give him yet more of the rejection that he had known so much of his life. Only after a rogue ape, maddened by the taint of Angazhan’s ‘blessing’ had to be killed by the villagers that he realized that the agents of his mother did not have to be Bekyar, but even a simple monkey in the trees could have a wicked mind and pass word that would reach his mother that a six-limbed serpent-tailed youth had been seen not far from Bekyar lands. Even if such a day never came, he could not sleep under Auntie’s roof knowing that he could bring doom in his wake, and he agreed to travel to Magaambya. “But Auntie, what if my doom follows me there? Her rage is mighty…” “To storm Magaambya itself? Oh dear boy, your mother had better bring her demon-god with her, and even then, I do not think she would win!” Auntie scoffed. And so she sent word around, and found a few potential students were passing near soon enough, to go to the great school, and Garylkyr met new faces. A half dozen Zenj looked upon him with wide eyes, and made the expected signs against evil, muttering prayers and brushing circles in the dirt with their sandals. He tried to look unintimidating, and forget that he had tasted the flesh of their kind as a boy. Two figures he did not recognize, a boisterous male and a female with a penetrating stare, were of the Matanje, and he found his first kindred spirit on the journey to Magaambya, long before reaching that place, for T’suq, the louder and more sociable orc, was also a demon-blood sorcerer, pointing to the tiny hornlets at temples, cheeks and chin, “Although not nearly so much demon-blood as you! Hah!” T’suq exclaimed, in that energetic way of his. His possible mate, it was unclear to Garylkyr their exact relationship, since neither of them seemed jealous of the others flirtations, was named Rakar, and was, like Garylkyr, both a student of the blade and the spell, although something of a scholar as well. A year in Magaambya brought about many changes. Garylkyr pestered his sponsor, an Amurran sorceress with angel-blood, wishing to know if he could somehow transmute or replace his demon-blood with angel blood, and become a celestial sorcerer like her. Rayomi Mir, who had spent her childhood a ‘divine gift’ in a temple of Bast, exploiting her heavenly light to cozen offerings of coin from the gullible, and engaging in petty theft and confidence games, assured Garylkyr that the blood of angels does not carry any innate knack for virtuous behavior, and that his own demon blood likewise does not carry a curse of destruction. “Your anger is your own, not something you can’t control, something forced upon you, but a choice you have made, and you must learn to control. No blood in your veins will master your rage. You must take responsibility for your temper, and master it yourself, or continue to blame it on your blood, and be mastered by it.” He also has learned that while sorcerers cannot readily call upon the healing gifts of priests, they can sometimes ‘trick’ a scroll of such magic to work for them, and seeks to master this knack, so that he can purchase a scroll of priestly magic to cure blindness, and travel to the Bonuwat village he has decided is his home, and give Auntie back her eyes. (He is less sure if restorative magic could help Ife find the wits he seems to have misplaced, but is willing to give it a shot.) Finally, he has noticed entirely too many of his fellow students pairing off, splitting up, and pairing off anew. An endless swirling dance, some partners always in each others orbit, others changing with the season. There are a very few Bekyar at Magaambya, tall and lean and radiating the intimidating and unfriendly aura of his people, but they speak not to each other, let alone him. The Iruxi are quiet and relaxing to be around. So long as he does not speak, he is welcome to sit with them in the sun, and enjoy a companionable silence. But he wants more. He wants to join the dance. Only his Matanje friend T’suq seems to have the will (or courage?) to flirt with him, and he remains uncertain what Rakar would think of that, with her hot-eyed judging looks. Another Bekyar would recognize his name as not being a Bekyar term. T’suq, conversant in the tongue of demons, recognizes the word ‘garylkyr,’ which the orc refuses to call his friend, instead cheekily calling him ‘the Garylith.’ His mother finally gave him that name a month after his birth, when she had determined that he lacked the powerful demon blood she sought. Garylkyr is the Abyssal word for ‘disappointment.’ [Garylkyr is an Abyssal tiefling with all sorts of extra bits. Six arms (and the multiweapon fighting feat). A serpent's tail instead of lower legs (20 ft. ground move and the dwarven slow and steady trait, as well as a 10 ft. swim speed). A broad chest and powerful lungs. (Can hold breath three times as long as normal. If demon sorcery is a bust, he'll make a hell of a pearl diver!) 1 level of Barbarian, 2 of Abyssal Sorcerer. Weapon Focus (scimitar) among his feats. Tail lacks the flexibility to constrict others or be used as a weapon, but does make him immune to being tripped, at least! He's not meant to be a PC, so his having six arms isn't that big a deal, particularly with his low level and unexceptional attributes, lacking all the 'oomph' that comes with an actual half-fiend's bennies. Oh, and even his human side is scary, 'cause he grew up a casual cannibal (which he's totally over, being good aligned by choice)... He's quite possibly the oddest student that PCs will see slithering around the Magaambya!]
Hmmm...are these eight new Dragons going to be a part of already existing True Dragon families (aka Chromatic, Metallic, Primal, Imperial, Outer, and Planar)? Back when the gem dragons came out (yes, I'm old...) I was annoyed that Pearl dragons were included next to Ruby, Emerald, etc. (Cause A) I worked in a jewelry store at the time and B) I'm pedantic AF/OCD, depending on what generation you're from.) I wanted Pearl to be part of a completely new dragon category, based on precious organic products used similarly to gemstones like Ivory, Amber, Coral, Pearl, etc. But I stalled thinking up a fifth and abandoned the idea. :)
There was a similar story from Comico’s Elementals series back in the late 80s (maybe early 90s), where the evil (yet appropriately named) Shapeshifter pretended to be Morningstar’s boyfriend and knocked her up. The result was an egg that ended up eaten by a fish. As far as I know, the series ended before they could follow that story arc any further. Man, that was a cool book! I still have the collected first six issues, but can't seem to find any of the others in my messy un-indexed collection of back issues.
Playing off the notion that cats were charged to ward against *something* (from ancient Egypt to Lovecrafts Cats of Ulthar to that horrible Stephen King movie Sleepwalkers), perhaps that 'something' bumped back and wiped the first catfolk civilization out, for trying to stop them / interfering with their plans. What was the 'something' though? Something from the Dark Tapestry, maybe something that can sorta pass for other races it's infiltrating / infesting, but catfolk's keen senses can identity? (Making the catfolk a threat to the invaders, even if the catfolk weren't specifically out to get them.) Some sort of ghoul or vampire civilization? (A ghoul civilization works well with the Lovecraftian theme. A vampire one kind of fits how Egyptians sometimes saw cats as protectors of the home (from rats, mostly) and also specifically, protectors *in the night.*) Was there a cat-god(dess) involved, or a catfolk Empyreal, or just a beloved leader who is falsely remembered to have some sort of divine mandate/blessing that got snuffed for leading the racial charge against the Other? (Or, worse, subverted and lured into serving the dark nasty, taking many of their devotees with them? Big secret there, a former celestial figure of reverence or legendary race leader turning to serve the threat they were meant to fight! Bigger secret, if the body of the great leader, still remembered by the common folk in reverence, all mention of their turn to the dark scrupulously scrubbed from history, lies in the refuge, bearing visible signs of corruption by the forces they surrendered to in life...)
I love that Carol was the combat monster/tank, Monica was the science nerd and effective brains of the outfit and Kamala was the HEART of the team. And make no mistake, Kamala (and her family to an extent) are the MVPs of this film. Also? GOOSE. I did not expect, at all, that Amir would make me laugh out loud twice during this movie, Spoiler:
.
the first time when he thanks Kamala for not getting killed 'and leaving me an only child, again, with these people.' and again when his mother sees a big house and says to him in that mom-wants-to-be-grandmother voice 'This would be a nice place to raise a family, don't you think' and he picks up and TV remote, points it at her and begins pressing the 'Mute' button repeatedly. :) Plus, as always, that cat was great. I do kind of wish there'd been some foreshadowing of Kamala rescuing a teen kid of the Skrull leader or something, that could at least hype a possible appearance of Teddy / Dorrek VIII someday in the future, along with Kamala, Kate, Cassie, etc.
This many months since our last new critter? Unnaccepable! 570. Razor Gulls Easily one of the most despised creatures a sailor can curse, the razor gull looks exactly like a normal gull, but has an unusual supernatural property that makes it's feathers, beak and talons as sharp as razors, and inflict dagger-like wounds on anything it touches (save itself, or another razor gull), that touches it, or it even brushes against. The bird has all the instincts of a normal gull, and seems blissfully unaware of the trail of devastation it leaves behind, perching on the top of masts and spars and unintentionally cutting ropes and sails it even brushes against. Thankfully, quite rare, as razor gulls are immune to the 'razor angles' of each other, but cannot readily tell each other from standard gulls, whom they 'accidentally' maim and kill in squabbles over food, territory or mates, sailors would gladly exterminate every one of them, given the chance, and in the Shackles, children are paid a gold coin for every razor gull carcass they bring to the authorities (and crewmen on ships carry slings and other ranged weapons, including alchemical weapons like thunderstones, or even gnomish fireworks, to discourage the birds from roosting atop their ships at sea, targeting any gulls indiscriminately, since any flock of gulls might have a razor gull or two among it). The property that makes razor gulls so dangerous fades within moments of their death, so that after knocking one from the air, sailors pin it to the deck with a gaff hook and wait for it to be dead, it's death throes leaving knife-scars on the deck, until it dies and becomes safe to grab by hand and throw overboard. The damage is slight, but can cause one to lose a finger, or damage a hand sufficiently to be unusable for a time, so grabbing a razor gull when it is alive is never advised. Razor gulls could be significantly more dangerous if they were not so mind-bogglingly unaware of their sharp-edged nature, and unable to recognize each other and group together in deadly flocks. Fortunately, they remain clueless, trailing unintentional damage and pain in their wake, with no understanding of why things fall apart around them... Razor gull eggs are sometimes kept, and alchemically preserved, as a curio, as they retain their sharp-edged nature even when the chick itself is no longer alive (despite being shaped like any other egg, and not *looking* sharp), a curious exception to the bird's nature. In theory, a razor gull egg preserved in this manner could be used (a single time, breaking on impact) as a sling bullet that does slashing damage, but is more likely to A) cut the hand of the fool attempting this and / or B) slice right through the sling instead and ruin it before being successfully 'slung.' But even these curios are loathed in the Shackles, and most port communities, as the notion of harvesting these eggs, instead of, more rightly, burning the entire area with fire, is infuriating to sailors who've had to run the sails back up the rigging *again* because some fool bird landed on the spar and cut the ropes again, and then fluttered to another spar to repeat this, when it got spooked by the ropes it had brushed against parting and the sails falling...
But I'd rather they die, than be 'split into male and female gods' because that just feels icky.To clarify, this absolutely wasn't what I intended to suggest and apologise if that's how I came across. As far as I know, Shimye-Magalla is as genderless as Gozreh. I just think they're a more interesting idea than Gozreh is, connected to the human and natural worlds in an interesting way/ I suspected as much, just wanted to throw that out there, since someone could get that impression, and Gozreh's identity is a cool feature. But yeah, Shimye-Magalla is also a neat concept (kind of a goofy name, tho, IMO), and the idea of a goddess like Desna, associated with the moon and tides, stars and the night sky, and travel / journeys, among other things, being connected to a god/dess of sea and sky, is neat and ties together nicely, for a nautical culture like the Bonuwat. Shimye-Magalla developing into a 'lesser god' instead of a conglomeration of Desna and Gozreh could be neat, even if this thread is more about gods dying and not new gods being born. :)
Can't wait for the Magaambyan School of Magic! Yes, I am very interested in seeing curricula for; A) Magaambyan / Halycon Mages
Just as the title says. I’m not saying that Ydersius need necessarily to get his ‘head back in the game’ but I would like to see the return of Serpentfolk as a menace- at least within the darklands as well as Garund. We also don’t have nearly the amount of bestiary options in 2e necessary to create a hombrew campaign with snakefolk as the primary antagonists. Before PF gets around to really diving deep on the Serpentfolk, Green Ronin's Freeport setting and adventures have some decent ideas for how to use them in a setting. Good to pillage ideas from, at least, even if written for PF1/D&D3.5. (Such as evil serpentfolk clerics and sorcerers manipulating cults of humans, bands of degenerate serpentfolk, drug-addicted underclasses and street gangs, occult scholars delving into forbidden texts, calling up (or actually reviving!) long-dead serpentfolk from the ancient past when they ruled the continent in Lovecraftian style, etc.) One of my favorite stories had them basically retell a Lovecraft story, only using a drug to cause humans to dream of ancient cities, and their bodies be temporarily inhabited by the minds of ancient serpentfolk, seeking knowledge of the future, to try and A) undo the calamity that felled their ancient empire, B) set up for it's eventual rebirth in our time. (A variation on The Shadow Out of Time, only with sinister serpentfolk using drugs and magic to enter the minds of future-people instead of Great Race of Yith.) One thing I liked was that there *weren't* a dozen different sub-types of serpentfolk. They manipulated and used other races and creatures that already existed in the setting, filling a sort of 'mind flayer-y' role.
If it is Asmodeus, was he wise enough to put contingency clauses in all his contracts, or was he arrogant enough to believe he was invincible.What deity would plan for his own demise? He certainly would not want to make things easier for the survivors if something did happen to him. On one hand, he's spiteful and possessive by nature, and might want all the people he's screwed over to remain well and truly screwed over even after his death. On the other hand, his ego is immense, and he might not really give a crap what happens a millisecond after his death, and find it funny to have all of his contracts expire, rather than leave a single *scrap* of power or benefit to his squabbling archdevil 'lessers,' who would be stepping up to fight over his holdings. He can't 'take it with him,' but he can certainly burn down everything of value, and leave nothing but ashes for the one who means to replace him.
Kinda hope Gozreh doesn't bite the bullet, they're the only nb rep out of the core 20 so would be a shame to lose them. Ditto. Gozreh's the go-to for a god/dess with male and female aspects, and I like that. But I'd rather they die, than be 'split into male and female gods' because that just feels icky.
Razmir having been the unwitting pawn of a deity all along would absolutely make my day. Seeds were sown as far back as Gods & Magic that Sivanah may have been covertly sponsoring Razmir, for, reasons. (Her illusionists could use shadow conjuration to fake healing spells, and the magic item for 'Razmir' did that exact thing, healing via shadow conjuration.) As goddess of deception, she's got to find the notion of a mortal *faking his way into divinity* to be utterly delicious. Being non-good, she'll likely find him spectacularly failing every bit as yummy. Either way, a new god owes her a solid, and is too clueless to recognize who holds his strings, or an entire country used to being ruled by masked folk falls into her hands. And even if she doesn't come out with shiny toys, it's been a fun game. Sivanah's greatest trick was convincing Razmir that he existed.
Wizards with Arcane, Clerics with Divine, and even Druids with Primal, have been around, more or less, for decades, and even adjusted for several new rules paradigms over that time (such as separating Druid/nature-y/elemental spells out into their own category, rather than lumping them as Divine with Clerics), they follow ancient trends and roles. Occult spells have been designed fairly recently from the ground up by game designers with years of experience at what has and has not proven sexy with those previous spells, and I suspect that these new ideas are benefitting from these decades of experience. I don't think it's blatant favoritism, so much as not being bound by trying to 'feel' like something designed many years ago for completely different rules (and no consistent sense of 'balance' or 'optimization').
583. Fauxfire Oak These slender oak trees appear normal for much of the year. During the autumn season, their leaves turns brilliant shades of yellow, orange and red, and at the first frost, detach over the course of several minutes, which by itself would be a dramatic sight, but is greatly enhanced by the falling leaves undergoing a chemical change that causes them to become phospherescent, similar to a firefly or faerie fire spell, for several hours, before the chemical loses it's potency. The sight of an entire tree full of 'flaming' leaves blowing away from it's bare branches (usually at night, during the first frost of the season) can be quite colorful and is considered a gift from the goddess of beauty to one of her divine suitors (which one varies with the teller), or vice versa.
Microsized Adventures has an option for sizes above Colossal. Third-party, but you can go way above colossal or way below Fine. Also a 5ft step is not the same for a colossal person as it is for a medium person. For a humanoid creature, it totally makes sense that Step would increase along with Reach. So if a Large giant had a 10' Reach, he should totally also have a 10' Step. I remember such a houserule being floated for GURPS, ages ago, and it makes as much sense to consider for d20, too.
Urgathoa seems kind of irrelevant. The only time she ever really mattered was when she flipped Pharasma the bird and didn't stay dead. Since then, she's accomplished a fat stack of jack, and if she died tomorrow, about the only one who'd care was Pharasma, who would crack a tiny smile, cross her name off a list, and say, "That took longer than I wanted, but I win again."
I couldn't agree more. I don't know if it was an intentional juxtaposition to place humankind's pettiness and ultimate insignificance against that backdrop of the universe's utter indifference, but when you put the two side by side it's so obvious that contrast is right there in front of us.Yep, if folks weren't White New Englanders with long lineages and old money, he basically felt they were trash. And this, IMO, could tie into his racist overtones. He grew up in a generation that was *desperate* to be special, above, important, in some way, and the universe was kind of laughing at them, grinding in their faces that all their education and breeding and old money was worth exactly bupkiss. The rain was gonna fall on them all. The plague came to them all. The grave waited for them all. The whole 'you are special, the ones who shape the world' thing they'd grown up so desperately believing was increasingly revealed as a cruel lie, and they responded by punching down furiously, desperate to prove that they were 'better' by at least being 'better than *those people.*' Sometimes, he almost seemed to flirt with the idea that the 'degenerate savages' were somehow better adjusted to living in the uncaring universe that his gentle hapless educated upper-class protagonists couldn't handle. (Not that he presented this as a positive, but it felt like he was this close to getting it, at a few points. He was certainly not unwilling to point out the flaws in his own class, at times, with how often they went screamingly mad and / or died, in the face of adversity.)
Yep, if folks weren't White New Englanders with long lineages and old money, he basically felt they were trash. From a distance, it's interesting to me how much his books addressed a feeling of despair, irrelevance, etc., a railing of an individual man's insignificance and impermanence in the face of the vastness of the world, time, space, etc. His protagonists all seem deeply shocked, almost offended, by how much *they don't matter* to the universe. The universe is bigger and more important than any person, and no, no matter how educated or rich or well-blooded, nobody gets out alive in the end, which is deeply distressing to a generation that's grown up thinking that their breeding, their money, their erudition, somehow makes them special or sacred or of lasting significance. Almost all of the mythos stories seem to touch upon this feeling of smallness, and how shattering it is to his gentle protagonists. His generation was kicking and screaming at the notion that they weren't the center around which the entire universe revolved, and owed a certain amount of respect from the rest of the universe...
With alignment out of the picture, it's entirely possible that playing a more LN cleric of Torag or Erastil who flirts with some of their questionable 'less good' previous characterizations, or a non-vile cleric of a formerly evil god like Norgorber or Lamashtu, focusing on their less sketchy areas of concern (like alchemy or birth) could finally be an option seen as not 'playing the game wrong.'The removal of alignment is not going to change how we portray established characters, nor is it an opportunity for us to embrace lore errors that we've worked hard to correct. Ooh, that gives me the notion that there might be a non-evil alternative patron for alchemists (other than Blackfingers), then, which would be cool. Off the top of my head, Abadar (quest for the philosopher's stone, lead to gold, dross to wealth, Artifice and Earth) or Irori (search for perfection, experimentation as meditation, internal alchemy to external alchemy, Knowledge) could make cool non-evil alchemist patrons. Thanks for the inspiration!
I think more importantly, the two disagree on fundamental philosophy. Tar-Baphon's ultimate goal is to rock the boat, and Geb's is to rule it. Tar-Baphon and the Whispering Way's end-goal is to exterminate humanity and other living creatures across first Golarion then the rest of the universe, leaving only an undead utopia with him as sole ruler. Cultists of the Whispering Way just want to be on the winning side. Geb might appreciate undead supremacy, but his ego would never allow someone who isn't him being at the top of the pyramid. He also understands that ghouls, vampires and other hungry dead still need something to feed on, and to keep the living pliant they need the illusion of safety and freedom. Tar-Baphon is a cult leader. Geb is a statesman. And there's a big difference right there. Tar-Baphon, at the end of the day, is a nihilist. His endgame of killing all life on the planet will also condemn any vampires and ghouls among his hordes to eternal starvation (and also deeply frustrate the murder-happy mohrgs, life-hungry shadows, wraiths and specters, etc.). Within a few years of Tar-Baphon extinguishing all life on Golarion, half of his undead followers will have turned on each other out of hunger and frustration, and he's fine with that, since he never liked those guys anyway, he was just using them to usher in the necropocalypse. Geb is willing to *provide for his people*, even if they are horrible life-devouring atrocities. Tarby does not give a rat's butt about them, and the eternal torment that awaits them in his undead utopia.
Learn from a Scroll: A witch can use a scroll to teach her familiar a new spell. This process takes 1 hour per level of the spell to be learned, during which time the scroll is burned and its ashes used to create a special brew or powder that is consumed by the familiar. This process destroys the scroll. So if a wizard burns a familiar and mixes the ashes into a special tea, maybe then he can learn a spell from it? :) Seriously, though, I don't think of a familiar as something that really *knows* the spells, so much as a mystical conduit connecting the witch to the patron during the 'prep time.' Another familiar can also 'link up', but not a wizard, IMO. (Although I would certainly allow for a wizard arcane discovery that allows the wizard to learn spells from a witches familiar, or one that grants 'proficiency in alchemical notation' and allows the wizard to adapt formula into spells for his own spellbook from an alchemist's formula book, etc.) It would certainly be a neat tweak to have witches familiars actually *know* the spells they 'store,' and be able to use Eldritch Aid (from Advanced Class Origins?) to Aid Other during spellcasting, even if they themselves can't actually cast a spell. Vaguely reminiscent of the black cat 'who had served many witches' from the novel Forgotten Beasts of Eld, who, while not herself able to cast spells, was a fount of knowledge about spells and arcane lore, and offered a spellcaster in the novel the secrets of a spell to melt the skeleton of a man that offended her.
X-men Red continues its streak of excellence with Al Ewing's deft hand doing some good lifting along with the start of the Genesis War. It's pretty awesome to see the fights and especially now that we see Isca stay on the sidelines. We'll see it if that lasts. Or if other things change on the ground. I would STILL love to see Nova in his own series. This book has been the reason I still go to the comic shop every month (and get all sorts of other stuff while I'm there anyway). It's so darn good! Never in a million years would I have been imagining getting a book where the fun characters are newish creations like Sunspot and 'Kobak Never-Held'. (Who made me laugh out loud this issue, counting on his fingers and saying, 'That's not a haiku?') And man, he writes a great Sunspot, and a regal Storm! This issue even had the one Isca appearance, like, ever, in which I didn't loathe her and her dumb plot device power. :)
Like Torag dying as part of an apology to the Orcish people making them allies to the Dwarves, or Shelyn dying to save her brother just works better than other reasons they might have died. The notion of Torag dying to save Belkzen, for instance, sounds kind of amazing. Countless orcs renouncing Gorum (or their own racial gods) after seeing the god of their hated enemies dying to save them, when 'their' gods did not could be a cool setting change. And, as much as I would have loved the idea of Shelyn and Zon-Kuthon 'saving each other' by merging into a single goddess of pain and beauty, all goth-y and body art-sy, is kind of 'been there, done that' now that the setting has gods like Nocticula and Arazni all up in that 'hot, dark and tragic goth goddess' niche.
Dispater is way fonder of military power than Asmodeus, from what I'm seeing, which makes me think that Asmodeus dying and Dispater stepping in could lead to Cheliax going to war. The obvious targets of Andoran and Taldor seem like they'd make good red herrings, while, being of a more strategic bent, Dispater might go straight across the Arch of Aroden and seize Rahadoum, catching *everyone* off-guard, since that's not the 'obvious' target. As Sun Tzu would advise, "Do not go where your enemies expect you to go. Be where they are not." Mammon taking charge would have me ponder Druma as a target, but they aren't going to be a soft target, giving the massive ramping up of their defense forces, and ability to call in support from people who owe them money in, oh, every country in the Inner Sea. (Then again, if the guy you owe a ton of money to looks like he's about to get killed, that's the perfect time to be away from the phone...) Just for the storytelling possibilities, Asmodeus is definitely one of my top picks. Sarenrae (driving Qadira, and possibly Kel, to war) or Urgathoa (to be replaced by Tar-Baphon, creating a situation where there's an evil expansionist death-god *living on the planet*) or a Shelyn / Zon-Kuthon server merge (affecting both Taldor and, much more so, Nidal) also have lots of dramatic potential. Quite a few other gods deaths, by comparison, would be like non-events, from a geo-political standpoint, no matter how momentous to their followers.
I also think the Desna's true form is eldritch in nature. I do think she was created in this universe from the seal, and isn't necessarily related to the Elder Gods even if they look like kin. Something about the vast, unknowable primordial nature of the current reality she set off to explore molded her form. It was only when coming back to structure and reason when she realized that she was monstrous. I could see her at least in part going to more of a 'pretty butterfly lady' appearance simply because she wanted to be the goddess of dreams, and her previous appearance, no matter her kindly intentions, was only causing nightmares... But when she fluttered down into the Abyss and ripped that demon lord schmuck Aolar's face off? Oh, it was on, and her 'pretty butterfly lady' costume was the first thing to hit the floor when the claws came out.
Something something four halflings in a trenchcoat la dee da dee da... The Gray Master (Rogue), Blackfingers (Alchemist) and the Reaper of Reputation (Bard) team up to gank the Skinsaw Man (Barbarian), but find out to their eternal regret that he was the best fighter... "Crap, I knew we had that crazy murderclown in the party for a reason!"
Random thoughts; Abadar - too much like Aroden, IMO. Doesn't really promise any interesting change to the setting. He's even less relevant culturally, than Aroden. Asmodeus - he *is* one of the less interesting Archdevils, IMO, so it would be intriguing to see Dispater, Mephistopheles or Mammon take over his spot. Plus, yes, Cheliax would be all aflutter, since the whole *point* of embracing the infernal system was it's *stability.* If Asmodeus can fall, how stable is it, really, they hitched their cart to this goat because it seemed *safer* than the alternative, and now it looks shaky... Calistria - would have interesting effects on the elves, as a people, both to have 'their goddess' no longer in the 'top 20,' perhaps as a 'making the subtext, text' hint towards their own decreased relevance on Golarion, specifically, while also perhaps pumping up the faiths of the more elf-specific gods, and also sending some off in the direction of other patrons of lust (Nocticula), trickery (Sivanah) or vengeance (Gyronna). Cayden Cailean - eh god, his death would also be eh, IMO. Desna - oh no, nobody touches my totally-not-Elder-God! Erastil - again, kinda boring, so no real drama here. Gorum - his death *and* Asmodeus' death could lead to Dispater, the Iron General, taking over both of their niches. I need a moment. This excites me. But if Gorum dies, the armor needs to fly apart, and there be no body. Nobody knows if there was every anyone inside that armor, or if the god *was* the iron... Gozreh - I like them too much, and while it could be neat for one of the Elemental gods to move in here, they are just too neat. Plus their death could result in terrible Eye of Abendago related shenanigans. Or, conversely, perhaps the Eye of Abendago could disperse with their death, and the remnant central isle of Ghol-Gan concealed all these years by the storm revealed? (new land opened up!) Did Gozreh create the Eye, deliberately? Was he containing the evil on this cyclopean isle, perhaps the same demon-lord that corrupted the Ghol-Gan in the first place? Iomedae - her following in the martyr-y footsteps of Aroden and, kinda sorta, Arazni seems like a boring retread of a story we've already seen. Plus every setting needs someone who has 'god of Paladins' stamped on their brow, a Heironeous or Torm or Corean, and I like that she's not 100% like those previous 'paladin-gods.' Irori - eh. Lacks drama. Lamashtu - too much potential, as mentioned upthread, in an alignment adjacent setting, to explore her motherhood aspect, and potential conflicts with Pharasma in that niche. Nethys - it would be totally in-character for him to blow himself up, or split into two halves and fight to the death in a cage-match, but also, been done (both the death of the god of magic, in the Realms, or the multiple gods of magic of different alignments, in Krynn). Norgorber - three of the aspects of Norgorber coming together and ganking the fourth, that annoying color-blind murder-clown the Skinsaw Man, would be absolutely my cup of tea. So it won't happen. Pharasma - not likely. I'm not a huge fan of her, but she was here to turn on the lights, and she'll be hear to turn them off at the end of all things. Rovagug - fulfills a vital role just where he is, as a source of festering corruption, wrath and violence, deep within Golarion. Sarenrae - The effects of her falling and being replaced by some other Empyreal Lord (like Ragathiel!) could be amazing, as well as for the shocking violent changes that her death would bring about to Qadira and 'greater Kel.' Nothing seems more likely to set that eastern empire on the march to war against all of Avistan than the death of their patron goddess. (So much the more so if she dies in a fight that some regional Avistani god, like Asmodeus, survives, and they can 'blame' his 'cowardice' or 'treachery' for the death of their goddess. Cheliax must be purged, and all those weak nations that surrounded it and yet did nothing to stop it all those years!) Shelyn - the notion that herself or her brother might be mortally wounded during the fight, and one or the other feel compelled to merge the two into a single god, dark and beautiful, an artist of anguish, could be totally cool. A goth-y non-evil god(dess) into piercings and tattoos and body modification? Yes, please. Torag - as with Asmodeus being the least interesting Archdevil, Torag is one of the less interesting dwarven gods, to me. Magrim or Bolka moving in to take up the leadership after Torag's fall seems like it could lead to some interesting changes to dwarven society. Droskar, of course, would try to slide in to the spot, but eff that guy. (Dwarven civil war!) Magrim would make an interesting choice if Pharasma *also* stepped down. Bolka, the same, if Erastil or Shelyn bit it. Urgathoa - she's a bit of a non-entity, it feels like, and replacing her with a Daemon Harbinger, or with some other undead-friendly sort like Kabriri or Zura could be interesting, but the number one choice to replace her, IMO, would be Tar-Baphon, who is, IMO, a much more interesting choice for 'god of undead.' Zon-Kuthon - see Shelyn. Name the new god(dess) Shay-Thon? Sheybral? Doulyn? So many ports to manteau... So, kill 'em and make new stories! Yes - Asmodeus, Urgathoa, Shelyn (merged with Zon-Kuthon) I could see it - Calistria, Gozreh, Gorum, Norgorber (1/4th), Sarenrae, Torag Nah, boring, no drama - Abadar, Cayden Cailean, Erastil, Iomedae, Irori, Lamashtu, Nethys, Pharasma, Rovagug, Never! - Desna
Well, if it's going to be a god that's 'somebody's favorite,' it can't be Gorum, because I've never played with anybody who likes that guy. :) Not-Crom is somehow even less interesting than Rovagug or Groetus or that giant mosquito-thing. Ooh, I take that back. Hanspur. God of drowned rats, or whatever.
Ilizmagorti (Mediogalti isle) - city of assassins.
Yeah, having a dozen minions tromping along behind you, all taking their own actions, is a time waster anyway, given how weak said minions tended to be in earlier editions. But having an attack that does X damage and it represents a swarm of flying skulls or summoned spirits attacking en masse, or various afflictions (or buffs!) representing spirits attacking (or possessing and assisting!) people, would be a decent way to get around the problem of 'okay, zombies 1 through 4 shuffle at the mobs, but don't make it there this round. skeleton archers 5 through 8 fire arrows, and miss, miss, miss and hit for 3 pts of damage...' I played a few necromancer types, and generally, the hordes of minions were just an enormous pain in the butt, more than anything, and not terribly useful, unless you could make an undead dragon or hydra or something (or command a horde of shadows, which, yikes, great way to accidentally kill your entire party, when they Create Spawn a dozen more shadows that you *don't* control, that immediately turn on your party...)
Most of the colorful items you want aren't what will sell a hardbound or softbound book, so they are only a section of other products. Today no one will write an article describing a dozen different magic spellbooks. Yeah, I loved Dragon, for all the great stuff. The ecology articles, which I rarely agreed with, but always enjoyed reading, the new gods, spells, magic items, etc. (And I loved the old articles that went into the weeds of stuff like 'How Heavy is my Giant?' Just fun, and so tangentially useful for superhero games where people are turning into metal or ice or stone!) Kobold Quarterly scratched that itch, to a lesser extent, but that's gone too, it seems. Which is a shame I love things like that or the familiar satchel and the tents in Harry Potter which are pretty much the ultimate in Glamping two bedrooms, kitchen, bathrooms, living room and a stove all in a normal tent sized space on the outside. After reading about the Arcanamirium's goal of sort of normalizing magic and getting it into common accepted use for daily or mundane tasks, de-mystifying it, and various other places like Nex and the Magaambya doing the same, I've very much wanted to see a book about practical magic, both spells and items that have barely any application for an adventurer, but are purely convenience or 'common use' or 'quality of life' magics. (As well as a section on practical uses of existing spells. Shrink item, for instance, combined with something like animal messenger, or just a flying familiar, would make transporting heavy or precious items quickly and quietly across town, a snap. Also be great for smuggling. Just ignore that sail flapping over your head, Mr. Port Inspector, it's totally NOT a 1/12th scale-and-flattened pile of crates of contraband wrapped in a tarp...)
Erastil: He just seems to be forest dad. I like the woodsy feel without coming off as "destroy all city folk" and I am also very community oriented in my philosophy so I appreciate him for this ideals and motivation. I like that he's not Artemis/Ehlonna/Mielikki/Tanil, the archer goddess of the hunt and woodlands. And ditto, not your dad's stern all-seeing sun god in Sarenrae or cranky sky father / pantheon head #362 in Gozreh. Mixing things up and getting away from the more common tropes is cool, so long as it isn't difference for difference's sake.
I love the aesthetic of Osirion, or at least its start. I have no problem with the use of the Egyptian pantheon, but I feel like it either needs to be explored, or ignored entirely. As it is now, its basically just a "yeah, it's Egypt so here are some Egyptian gods" when it could be so much cooler. What I would love to see is the return of these gods, maybe in different styling than before, as they seek to reclaim dominion over their land. Maybe as a way to show the locals are rekindling their connection to their past and seek to ignore and expel the foreign gods. This could be interesting with their current pharaoh being a cleric of Abadar. I would also like to see more about Nethys and his connection to the region. That is just ripe for a local university or something. Very much agree with this. For a magical steeped culture, with Nethys literally baked into the nation's founding, the sole 'Egyptian-themed' magical society / faction we get is... the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye, a bunch of Osirioni-obsessed wannabes in Ustalav? Ugh. I would love to see some sort of arcane school in Sothis, perhaps intimately tied to the church of Nethys, perhaps bitter rivals for disagreements on matters that even to a wizard could be described as 'arcane.' *Katapesh*, with it's Pesh magic, has more of a distinctive local magical tradition than Osirion, it seems. That strikes me as weird, like all the Osirioni wizards left for Nex (or Geb) and it's just floundered ever since. (Which is certainly an option, just not one that's I've seen explicitly stated, that there's a 'brain drain' of arcanists fleeing Osirion for more magically-forward-thinking nations like Nex and Geb.) But really, same for all the nations. More about Thuvian alchemy, and traditions that are not alchemy, and sort of fighting to remain relevant in a land so centered around alchemy. More about Rahadoum's attempts to fill the missing gaps in magical utility from their cutting out divine magic, and turning to arcane (occult, primal?) solutions for their people's needs. Qadira's focus on elemental magic, or magic related to / inspired by genies (I could see a heavy focus on illusion magic and conjuration (creation) spells, since those are associated with genies).
The whole notion of items in body slots feels a bit EverQuest-y to me, but I'm used to it. But I was always surprised that clerics and wizards, the two primary sources of magic item creation, don't spend more time crafting items specific to clerical and wizardly needs. There absolutely should be magical holy symbols with powers related to clerical spellcasting (like metamagic rods, for clerics), or channeling (bonuses to, variants of, etc.), or their deities domains (spontaneously cast domain spells, add the domain abilities of a third domain, enhance the domain abilities of one or both chosen domains), etc. Nearly every cleric has to have a holy symbol, and yet none of them seem to bother making them magical. Similarly, there should be many options for magical spellbooks. (Boccob's) Blessed Book is a step in the right direction, but there should be spellbooks with a permanent Shrink Item on it that can be stored in a belt pouch when not in use, and then made to grow to full size when they need to read it (or kept at that size if they also have Eyes of Minute Seeing!), and (Leomund's) Secret Books that store their pages in an extradimensional space and appear to be two flat book covers pressed together when 'closed,' and permanent image spellbooks made from shadow and glamer that the illusionist can manipulate and read, but everybody else finds to be incorporeal and translucent. Just a ton of options. This spellbook is resistant to energy. That spellbook floats with permanent unseen servant type effect (that counts as attended, and follows regardless of speed, even if the wizard teleports), so that the wizard can be reading from it while walking, while it just floats along in front of him. If *I* was a cleric or a wizard, and could make magical items, I'd surely create something like a magical holy symbol or a magical spellbook, way before pumping out +1 swords or cloaks of elvenkind for my fighter and rogue buddies. :)
Also, "Cthonic/Cthonian" are real words, so you can go to a place like dictionary.com and click a speaker button there to hear the word pronounced out loud. Well, poo. I shouldn't have clicked the link, but I did, and I was pronouncing it wrong all this time, which means I've been pronouncing Cthulhu wrong for the last [redacted] decades. At least this isn't on par with renaming Tyrannosaurus Rex 'Swordtooth Razortitan' or calling demons and devils tanari and baatezu or something. :)
What does the city really look like? Thanks in advance! Check out this youtube video and this model for details.
Vulcan behavior suggests a deeply traumatized people, powerfully terrified of their own potential for violent emotional reactions, and prone to hiding behind endless layers of slow, tedious, unchanging ritual to prevent anyone from ever going 'off-script' and doing anything impulsive or reckless or dangerous, because they are so scarred by whatever has happened in their past when some of them just did whatever the hell they felt like doing. They got hurt (and / or hurt others) last time they ran, laughing wildly and arms flailing, so now they walk slowly, in small measured overly-careful steps, ever watchful for anyone anywhere showing any signs of 'out of control' or 'reckless' behavior.
559. Numb This plains grass/grain is tall, with stringy stalks and a faint greasy texture due to natural oils the grass secretes, making it unpalatable to most humanoid life, and only marginally tolerable as fodder for grazing livestock, who would move elsewhere for more pleasant food if not for the mild numbing qualities of the bitter-tasting oily coating. Eating Numb causes a mild lassitude, but only after eating at least a pound of the stuff (which no human would willingly do, as it tastes foul and is extremely hard to chew, and, for non-ruminants, hard to digest and gain any significant nutritional value. A human can starve to death with a belly full of Numb, although it can sustain cattle or goats.) The will-sapping quality of Numb makes it more likely that cattle or goats will remain placidly grazing even this marginal foodstuff, and it popular in Geb, as it makes the livestock more accepting and docile, able to be herded even by corporeal undead, who might otherwise frighten or upset them. It's mildly toxic effects result in very slow Wisdom damage (1d2 / day), slow enough that most creatures can feed off it for weeks (since they recover 1 pt/day, normally) before slipping into a state of such lethargy that they lose interest even in eating! (when they reach 0 Wisdom) At this point, they stand around for as long as it takes for their body to purge enough of the toxin to recover their wits (24 hours to heal a single point of Wisdom damage), and then, being stupified, and yet probably also hungry (since they haven't fed for a day), go right back to eating the same grain... Stupified animals are easy prey for predators, as they stand placidly even while being killed, while other animals slide into and out of a stupified state for days on end, until their body finally slides into shock and they lie down and die, their bodies fertilizing the grass that robbed them of their wits, and their lives. Numb does have the dubious distinction of thriving in the harsh Gebbite climate, but even the locals know to rotate their livestock into and out of fields of Numb every week or so, to avoid losing any livestock to it's gradual toxicity. Animals spend enough time in the Numb fields to remain docile, while also giving the 'better' fields time to regenerate from the animals previous weeks grazing. Humans living in Geb have been known to chew on stalks of Numb to 'dull the edge' of living in such a trauma-inducing land, a thing that residents of neighboring countries regard as yet another horror of this land, that some people resort to drugging themselves just to ignore the sad desperation of their lives. (Numb is not addictive, and generally a human who regularly chews Numb will only suffer a single point of Wisdom damage, which will never be able to recover, so long as they continue chewing it daily.)
Very much agree. I've always been annoyed how some spells seem so clearly to belong in box A and are instead in box B. Mage Armor is Conjuration (despite conjuring no actual thing, just Force, which is usually Evocation?), not Abjuration? Cause Fear isn't Enchantment? Creating light or darkness is Evocation, but creating shadows or *colored* light is Illusion? I'd much prefer a squiffier set of 'schools' in which a spell can exist in multiple categories.
Years ago I had expressed a desire for elemental planes of metal and wood, and elementals, mephits and perhaps even genies (and other creatures, such as dragons, with the plant or metal 'types') of those sorts, and I'm psyched that it might finally be happening.There is no 'might'... though Mephits are now Elemental Scamps. Awesome! And now I'm all curious about whether elemental 'wood' type dragons could exist as a part of a current paradigm, or be their own 'five man band' with cruel shrike-like Thorn Dragons, symbiotic-swarm-controlling Acacia Dragons, sinuous aquatic Kelp Dragons and ginormous, but ponderous, Redwood Dragons... So many options!
|
