Set's page

Pages purportedly from the War Journal of General Azaersi, a few years back (and therefore out of date, since the Godsrain had not occurred yet);

Operational goals; spread out Opraki influence across Avistan and Garund, so that there is no single point of failure, no single location that can be brought to seige and tear down all that we are building.

Secure a base in the Shackles, pick an island whose inhabitants are far from beloved, such as Rampore Island, and likely to get few, if any, allies, and perhaps open covert negotiations with rivals or foes to secure support for Opraki forces attacking ‘one of their own’ in this manner, such as the vocal support of the Halflings of Bag End. One of my commanders is burning to build a hobgoblin naval presence, and this plan is at least in part to shut him up, and channel his not-inconsiderable talents into exactly the sort of thing he wants to do. Consolidate holdings on this one island, establish a naval presence and ‘be a good neighbor’ to surrounding leaders and influential sorts. Trying to take on multiple fronts is bad strategy, as is moving on to a second before securing the first. Swallow that first bite before putting more in your mouth.

Pick a River Kingdom and re-establish the ‘Kingdom of Zog.’ Preferably ones that nobody likes anyway, and will not rush to help defend, like Pitax, Touvette and / or Thornkeep. Station the majority of the goblins that have been attracted to our banner there, under a Barghest leader who is suitably loyal, with the leadership of Fort Feilong as is, so long as the local leader recognizes our overall authority. Recent events in Galt may open Gralton up to settlement by our people as well. In any event, before any incursion into the River Kingdoms, look into improved remedies for poisoning, and also establish some mutually beneficial ties with the more prominent poison-crafters and guilds of such in Daggermark, as sending assassins with poison seems to be the River Kingdom solution of choice to many threats on their laughable ‘sovereignty’ or ‘river freedoms’ or whatever nonsense they are on about. Every regional commander should have one or more alchemical antitoxins on their person, and at least one assistant at hand at all times with antitoxins on their person as well. In a more perfect world, priestly support would be available for each division leader, but attempts to train large numbers of otherwise-limited-utility goblins as adepts has proven… frustrating.

Open some quiet trade agreements with Alkenstar, to secure some familiarity with firearms. If they are not as giving as hoped, try to steal away a few of their disgruntled apprentice and journeyman craftsfolk away from them, to get at least their rudimentary secrets ‘for free.’ Actively work to ‘disgruntle’ them, if necessary. Gambling, addiction, the usual ways to compromise someone. But that’s definitely plan B, if it can be done above board, and win ‘trusted customer’ status, so much the better.

An ‘embassy’ / military outpost in Sarkoris, primarily used as a training ground for the legions, honing their skills against the demonic remnants infesting that land. No deeper plan yet, but as opportunities arise, perhaps the Sarkorian people will come to welcome a hobgoblin presence in their newly-re-established, and greatly depopulated, nation. Specialists in tracking and eliminating demon-cults, and any remaining demons themselves, will be needed here, along with supplies of the more useful materials, like alchemical silvering, for weapons. See what the Vault can provide, in that direction. The more useful in fighting the demon remnant we prove to be, the more welcome we will be, until we are simply another ‘people’ living in that land. Get them used to us.

Let the Kalistocratic envoy secure a profitable trade deal during her stay, because ties to Druma’s Kalistocracy are far more important in the long-term than some minerals available in theoretically endless supply on the plane of Earth. The better the deal, for the Kalistocrat, the more rival Kalistocrats will come sidling up with their hands out. Better to have choices, than be locked in to the first one to show up at the door.

Formulate some backup plans for what happens if / when the Stone Roads become unreliable or unavailable, and / or the Onyx Vault itself is no longer an option. Both seem like ‘too good to be true’ windfalls, and may be ‘too good to last.’ Establish multiple places on Golarion where hobgoblins can thrive, or even be seen as preferable ‘neighbors’ than the demon-cultists, slavers, lawless brigands, etc. we are replacing, such as the Shackles, Sarkoris, Numeria, the River Kingdoms, Okeno, etc.

An alternate means of travel between distant hobgoblin holdings that is not dependent on the Stone Roads, is needed. An ‘alliance’ of convenience with someone with vast arcane resources, and few pesky moral or ethical qualms, like Geb or Razmiran or Sorshen, may be necessary, however distasteful. Cons; Geb will outlast us all, a bargain with him may threaten untold future generations of our people. There are too many questions about Razmiran, and he’s relatively young and ‘unknown’ compared to the others. This has positives and negatives. Sorshen? Never meet with her personally, or trust a word from anyone who has. Do not allow her people anywhere near the troops, her libertine focus on shallow physical pleasures promises to be a disaster to troop discipline. No, even opening a dialogue with her agents invites open revolt among our people. None of these are acceptable.

Pray to the Great General that there may be some Numerian method of far-travel, or one that can be stolen from the elves, or adapted from cloud giant ‘cloud castle’ engineering.

Long-term;
Look into ways in which non-soldiers, and / or non-hobgoblins can have a secondary ‘protected’ status within our nation, below the rights and responsibilities of the military, obviously, but better than ‘slave’ or ‘serf.’ Design a tiered system in which people who do not want to enter the military can still feel valued and respected, particularly if they are engaged in useful fields like crafting, farming or mining. Soldiers should know how to maintain their own gear, and survive on the march, but should not be expected to craft their own gear or grow their own rations, and yet relying on surly uncooperative folk, slaves, or those barely above slaves, who resent their ‘oppressors’ is an unsustainable situation. A class needs to exist that is respected, where someone who makes weapons, grows food or fills other necessary roles, can feel proud and valued and safe, as if the military exists to protect them, instead of the less comfortable reality that they exist to service the military.

The optimal, and unrealistic, solution would be for every Opraki to be both citizen and soldier, able to fight, and able to perform some craft or trade, and so be doubly useful, an army that is entirely self-sufficient. But there will always be those unsuited to war, due to age, infirmity or temperament, and the next best solution is to find a way to make them not only useful, but to feel valued and respected and safe in a soldier-led society. It is not enough to force them to be useful. They need to want to be useful, to strive to earn this ‘second-class citizen’ role, and the respect and status it represents.

Other places that may be adapted to our needs;

Seize control of Starmount, in Numeria, and form our own ‘Technic League’ of Hobgoblin artificers and engineers, using the decidedly not-arcane secrets of technology to make our legions even more fearsome and unstoppable. Begin by covertly allying with rivals of the Black Sovereigns tribe, and implying that the tribe we’re helping will end up in charge of the Kellid tribes, which, for all it matters, they can, so long as we control Starmount. Of the first tier targets, this is the one must likely to draw a coordinated campaign against us securing that treasury of technological plunder, and the ‘plan B’ is to destroy Starmount, rather than allow anyone else in future to use it to oppose us, and, at the same time, make what items of Numerian engineering remaining irreplaceable and ever more precious than they already are, and since we will, hopefully, have control of most of them, so much the better. This is among the riskiest and most provocative of the moves considered here, and should not be pursued if it would jeopardize other operations, or invite an alliance to form against us. Bring the kettle to a boil slowly, lest the frog jump out.

Brevoy, stir up discontent between rival halves of the nation, serve as mercenaries on the side we can best influence, stage atrocities that will be blamed by one side on the other, etc. Not, in and of itself, all that interesting, strategically, but as a link in a greater ‘Kingdom of Zog’ with the former River Kingdoms and what we take of Numeria, it could help tie the region together.

Could a ‘fad’ for the Aldori sword techniques be introduced among our own people? Dozens of hobgoblins mastering this style, perhaps in Mivon, where standards are less restrictive on prospective students, could create a counter-surge of pride in the Aldori, that ‘their style’ is so superior that even foreign soldiers have heard of it, and are traveling great distances to learn it. A naked seedling of an idea, with no clear plan of attack or resolution, which I normally loathe, but perhaps worth planting just to see if an opportunity grows from it. Then again, it might be my own fascination with their bladework coloring my views, here. If I had less responsibilities, and were twenty years younger, I’d be itching to be sent to learn this technique myself, and not just as cover to make in-roads to the Aldori to stir up their pride and pit them against their Brevic countrymen.

Irrisen, a lot of leftover winter witches there, clinging to power, hobgoblins could offer their services as witchfinders, and get our foot in the door there. If the people come to see hobgoblins as delivering them from the threat of the remaining wicked witches, the better. Get those ‘snow goblins’ on our team, first and milk them for any useful information that can be wrung from them. Like the Sarkoris Scar, Irrisen is another land that has been greatly depopulated by, in this case, centuries of terror against the human population, and seems ripe to have some new people move in and make what use can be made of that land. Why not us?

Ustalav, no. The fractured nature of the various states seems inviting on its face, but intelligence suggests that the land itself is infested with far too many unknown horrors and not worth it. One ‘unknown horror’ is fine, and can be prepared for, and adapted to. A half dozen specialized fighting units to handle the very different regional threats in Ustalav is not an option at this time. Then again, that sort of reputation would be a valuable tool to discourage attack, if there were any chance the entire population of a nation could keep a secret that large.

Rahadoum, would the gods welcome the return of faith to the land, if it was faith in the Great General? The land itself hardly seems worth the investment.

Orision, similarly, not a welcoming land. A challenge is welcomed, but not if the ‘challenge’ is trying to sate your thirst by drinking sand. Let the gnolls have it.

Thuvia, the fractured quasi-rival city states are so temptingly vulnerable, but too many powerful people seeking to keep the Sun Orchid Elixirs source out of our hands would make too many powerful foes with endlessly deep pockets and decades, or even centuries, of experience… Incomprehensible that anyone would want a few more years, or decades, of weakness and humiliation and frustration at the end of their lives, let alone pay a king’s ransom for it.

Absalom, no. bigger mouths have attempted to swallow that morsel. The best way to win an unwinnable fight is not to start one.

Katapesh. Might be the best place to start making inroads to Garund. Coordinate with the Matanje ambassador to hammer-and-anvil it between our combined forces, and focus first on the island of Okeno and proclaim that it’s all a vast emancipation operation. Encourage those Andoran idealists into helping. Thank them politely and let them leave with all the ‘emancipated’ slaves they can transport, and then lock down the island and prepare for the ground war on the rest of Katapesh. Make use of pesh among our own people punishable by whipping-until-unconscious, and branding, first offense, death, second offense. No exceptions. Enemies succumbing to addiction are to be encouraged, but our own, never.

Ravounel, like Vidrian, new, and therefore, vulnerable, in theory, but perhaps best, in both cases, to make more diplomatic overtures, and integrate a bit, familiarize the locals with the sight of hobgoblin troops, make it seem normal. Direct invasion may result in too many regional alliances, in Ravounel’s case. Vidrian, not so much local nation-states, but arousing the direct intervention of the Magaambya is to be avoided, and there are much more tempting fish to fry.

Molthune, fractious neighbors who hate each other more than us is good for us. Save them for last.

Nirmathas, see Molthune.

Isger, some plans are best held close, for now. Cheliax needs to marinate in their own mistakes a little longer, to ensure that they won’t come to Isger’s aid.

Nidal, no. Seems like too much fight for too little gain. Let them keep their misery.

Cheliax, currently reaping what they have planted, or whatever that human proverb is. When someone is going straight to hell, stay out of their way. One can hope that their end will be suitably instructive, for those hobgoblins who pledge their faith to devils like Dispater or Moloch, as devils make poor gods, less interested in serving as an absent inspiration, and with the mistaken notion that they have some place in the chain of command, which they absolutely do not.

Gods should know their place.

Hermea, another island stronghold, and another nation that has recently gone through some traumatic change, that could be hobgoblin, for a song. But entirely too likely to still have some draconic protection. More intelligence is needed, which is true of everywhere. Sigh.

Realms of the Mammoth Lords, completely disorganized, hard to make war on a people always on the move and with few or no places to effectively siege. Plus, might be better to offer to ‘leave’ to the orcs of Belkzen as part of some temporary alliance between our peoples.

Lands of the Linnorm Kings, yet another decentralized nation with four or five competing rulers. Ripe for conquest, in theory, turning one against another in the usual gambit and ensuring that they won’t come to one another’s defense when one of them begins to fall to outside attack, but I have a bad feeling about this one. They are enthusiastic fighters, and might show up to help an enemy just to make that rival lose face by having to accept their help.

Andoran, insufferable idealists, but must be suffered, for now. Cultivate them as allies of convenience by initially targeting forces they despise, such as the slavers of Okeno, or that Rampore isle in the Shackles. Enjoy their protests when we move from Okeno to the rest of Katapesh, reminding them that Okeno was just the poisonous fruit of the Katapeshi tree, and that, of course, we had to finish the job and make sure they didn’t just make a new slaver port…

Taldor, seemed like they were tottering for ages, but might actually be pulling it together. Assassinating their new empress, and then fueling the inevitable succession crisis that follows, complete with Opraki mercenaries supplementing the forces of some ambitious short-sighted fool, seems the ideal way to set them back to ‘fading empire, ripe for conquest’ status. Look into that. Quietly. Diplomacy, very public, to make it seem like we have everything to lose if she ‘unexpectedly’ dies. If diplomacy goes surprisingly well, assassinations can always be called off…

Varisia, why has no one done anything with all this land? These new, or old, Runelords and their ‘New Thassilon’ business is troubling. Too much competition to move into this land, at this time. Let the Runelords fight and see what situation develops on the ground when the dust settles. If Envy falls, her coastal realm is far preferable to the mountainous region, so keep an eye out for that property becoming available to claim. Establish a small unit of hobgoblins in Kaer Maga, not officially ‘from Oprak,’ but still on the rolls, to get the locals there used to the sight of us. Be helpful, be friendly, find useful employ as guards or whatever, in addition to the regular soldiers pay they’ll receive. Gather intelligence. Make ‘friends.’ Normalize. Make them no longer see us as threats and let their guard down for when the Stone Road opens and thousands of troops emerge to either secure the city or march towards Edarassil.

These Shoanti seem like fierce fighters, have strong loyalties to their respective units, called qwas?, and, best of all, seem particularly unloved by the more ‘civilized’ folk of southern Varisia. Look into allying with one or more of their units, and exacerbating tension between them and the ‘soft, decadent’ city folk. Alternately, looking into turning their decentralized units against one another, but first choice is to make them fight for us, not fight each other.

Varisians, on the other hand, do not seem useful to keep around. They seem to like wandering. Let them wander somewhere else.

In the remote possibility of an actual kingdom of giants, and ogres, perhaps, ever forms in Varisia, we should make inroads with as many different giant factions and ogre tribes as possible, so that we start out well positioned to be strong allies, or at least not enemies, with them. The tentative ‘leave each alone’ pact we have with a single local ‘kingdom’ of a dozen and a half fire giants is not nearly enough, by half.

Razmiran, I’ve seen no evidence that he’s not a god, despite all the weird rumors, and in any case, he’s an arcanist powerful enough to burn cities to the ground when motivated to do so. Nor do I see the strategic value of throwing assassins away on someone who may indeed be unkillable, and be able to tell who sent them. No. If he’s a god, he’ll survive. If he’s mortal, he’s old and will die soon. Either way, not someone we need to waste resources on.

Five Kings Mountains, no, we already have our underground Vault, no need to dig them out of theirs. Plus it will be educational to see how well ‘Torag’s Shield’ works against Daralathyxl. If it works, then we might steal plans for similar engineering projects. If not, well, there may also be opportunities there, sifting through the rubble and / or attacking the weakened ‘winner’…

Kyonin, there are those rumors that elves come from another place entirely, and that they have their own ‘Stone Road’ deep within Kyonin to their home place/plane/whatever. It is beyond tempting to storm in there and toss them off this world and destroy whatever portal they use to infest this world, but that is a project for another day. On the other hand, if they do have their own Vault, what is it like? As full of useless trees as ours is full of valuable minerals? Are there more elves there than we have soldiers to cut them down and seize their Vault? Again, so much more intelligence is needed.

Qadira, the rumors that this nation is but the tip of a much larger spear remain unconfirmed by our, admittedly, sparse intelligence from this region. The same is true of Jalmeray and this unseen ‘Vudra.’ Best to wait for stronger intelligence about these nations, and how motivated they might or might not be to respond to an attack on these fronts, before nipping the twitching tiny tail of what turns out to be a much, much larger beast. Qadira, in particular, seems too much like bait, wiggling on the hook, inviting a nibble with their belligerence first towards Osirion, now towards Taldor. Then again, their leaders may just be fools, creating threats where none existed before, and ignoring very real threats lurking around them. Let them be fools.

Geb, no soldier signs up to battle an endless army of those who have already died, are worth no honor, and won’t properly stay dead. As well, ghosts appear to lack initiative, and be short-sightedly focused on their specific obsession. All tactics, no strategy. If we leave him alone, he should leave us alone.

Nex, a barren blighted wasteland prowled by monstrosities warped by undisciplined use of arcane forces, and defended by some of the most powerful arcanists in the world? No. Everything we don’t want is here, and nothing we do.

Mwangi Expanse, if we make inroads there, it needs to be as allies to the Matanje against the demon-apes of Usaro. Make them welcome us, and see us as saviors. Turn the tide of public sentiment against the local elven tribes, and the arcanists of the Magaambya, that have ‘failed for so long to stem the tide of Usaro’s atrocities’, as we will have done, and the region is already half ours. If ‘evidence’ can be manufactured, or, better yet, honestly found, establishing ties between either of those hated groups and the demon-cults, so much better for us. Manufacturing such evidence may require getting our hands on some Magaambyan magical techniques, or securing some genuine elven ‘allies’ for the demon-apes, so that our Matanje, and other, allies on the battlefield can see for themselves the treachery of those they had seen as allies. Distasteful, but effective, so long as we ourselves are never revealed to have any hand in creating this appearance of treachery. Faintest of rumors suggest that Old Mage Jatembe sought not only the counsel of nature spirits and angels, but even demons, to sustain the people through the ‘Age of Darkness’. If some link, however tentative, can be found, between this revered local cultural icon, or his ‘Magic Warriors,’ and the demon-apes of Usaro, it could sully the reputation of the whole school that follows his teachings.
Look into rumor that there are local tribes of gnolls that are less feral than their eastern and northern kin. Also the local kobolds might be useful sources of information, if handled with care, since they seem quite willing to sell information to others, on those who have been seeking information on them…

The Sodden Lands, demon worshippers, like the boggards and swamp giants infesting these swamps, have no place in an orderly world, well-managed and brought to heel. Such are not to be relied on as anything other than fodder to annoy and weaken our enemies. And then eradicated, sent to the abyssal realms of their equally capricious and untrustworthy patrons. Still, they remain in their swamps, and there is a lengthy list of more important matters to attend to first. While the surviving population of the nations that once thrived there might welcome us for removing this threat, nothing the land, or its people, offer, seem worth the campaign.

Galt, the people may even welcome the firm hand of a military leader, over the rampant mob violence, fear and unrest that nation has seen. Then again, the people of Galt appear to be homicidally insane and ungovernable. Could some third party be behind the constant unrest, perpetuating it for some unknown reason? Now, while the land is recovering from its long nightmare, might be the ideal time to step in and provide some firm guidance, but I do not think we are prepared to seize this immediate opportunity, as we consolidate our own recent victories. Best to finish what we are doing and make other plans, than rush too hastily into this new opportunity. Keep focus. The cat who has already caught a mouse, but gets distracted and leaps to seize a second, may in fact lose both. Don’t be that cat. Be smarter than that cat.

The ‘Gravelands.’ Worst for last. All our focus on diplomacy, with Druma, with Taldor, with Andoran, and with the various nations recovering from or tottering under instability, such as Galt or Numeria or Sarkoris, centers around the necessity of addressing this greatest of threats. There will be no world to conquer, by force of arms or diplomacy, if the entire world is a graveyard. We must organize a coalition. We must cooperate, even if I would be the logical overall commander here, a new face with no covert ties to any of the power players who might have designs on each other, or long-simmering animosities. The logical move for many of them is to sacrifice us at the outset, so that Oprak is too devastated and weak to pose a threat to them for many generations afterwards, and perhaps can even be utterly destroyed while weakened. Do not allow this. Do not make the same mistake and attempt to weaken others, not even Kyonin, ‘for later’ during this fight. It is too important that we survive.

If we survive, let the other surviving nations squabble over who gets this blighted, haunted, cursed land. Only put up the appearance of staking a claim, to allay suspicions, we don’t actually want this stone around our neck. Let them waste their resources and divine support trying to clean up this mess.

If we don’t survive, well, I don’t need to plan for that. Although I have, and even if this world dies, perhaps our surviving people can retreat into the Great Vault and close the door behind them. Golarion may die, but Oprak does not have to. They’ll need a new general, as I do not intend to survive failing in this campaign.

[last of the Sarkoris Scar demon-tainted critters inspired by demon lords, for now. Inspired by Socothbenoth.]

676. Sin Serpent This monstrous annelid resembles a large eyeless snake, but is in fact a worm, larger than even most vipers, but still smaller than an adult human. Its hide glistens, as if damp, like the scaly hide of a snake, but feels dry to the touch, leaving behind a faint trace of an oily secretion that it uses to create a scent trail, fertilize others of its kind, and to befuddle its prey. This musky oil seeps slowly into the skin, or more quickly upon the tongue, and induces a combination of lassitude and lowered inhibitions, similar to drunkenness. In the wild, the sin serpent moves around an area of grass, ‘marking’ the foliage with its oils, and waits for an herbivore to consume this grass, and be affected by its oils and sink into a curious stupor. Once an animal seems oblivious enough to allow the serpent entry into its mouth, it slithers inside and down it’s throat into its stomach. With no particular resistance to stomach acid, it dies shortly thereafter, leaving behind a half dozen or more eggs, that burrow into the animals stomach lining and form protective ulcers around themselves, as protection against the same acidic environment that slew their parent. Not all of them succeed in this endeavor, but some always do. They then gestate for weeks, absorbing nutrients from the host creature, and depleting its own reserves so that it noticeably loses weight and energy, before finally burrowing forth from the dying animal and starting the whole cycle anew.
Sin serpents are solitary creatures, veering away when they cross the scent markings of another of their kind, and also becoming fertilized at that time, as the oily secretion contains the necessary genetic information for one to fertilize another. If two are placed in the same container, they grapple to the death, the victor engulfing and devouring the other. They otherwise eat only miniscule vermin or diminutive rodents that are effectively stupefied by their chemical trail.
Despite their lack of distinct eyes, they are capable of a weak form of visual sensation through their skin, which acts as a primitive eyespot, that allows them to detect the presence of light or shadow, as well as a keen sense of taste and smell, and a limited vibrational awareness, giving it blindsense in a ten foot radius, but only to detect other things moving on the same surface. A flying target or someone on the other side of a glass pane, is effectively invisible to it.

Sin serpent oil is harvested by kept specimens in Karcau and used by cultists of Socothbenoth to lower inhibitions in ‘guests’ to their decadent salons of perversion and excess. Scantily (if at all) clad ‘dancers’ have all exposed skin glistening with oil, and spread the toxin liberally on guests they touch, or that touch them, as the party sinks further into depravity. The caged serpents themselves rarely live for more than a few months, and most be 'fed' a goat, or other unlucky creature, to birth a new generation every so often, which, among this crowd, would be a spectacle to be savored if it didn't take so long and occur at such unpredictable intervals.

[Ugh. That last one was supposed to be 674, not 676. Math is hard! And Spur Shrikes should only have four wings, like Pazuzu, which I would have gotten right if I bothered to look up Pazuzu before belching that idea up. Le sigh.]

675. Stained Doves These simple white doves have been touched by the madness of the demon-tainted Sarkoris Scar, and, specifically, of the demon lord Shax, but are not significantly different in appearance or capabilities than mundane doves, making their violent and psychotic behavior even more startling by contrast, as they have adapted to an entirely carnivorous diet. Born a pristine white in color, this quickly ends as they furiously attack creatures other than themselves, pecking and scratching at them in a frenzy, leaving their adult plumage stained brown with dried blood, no matter how fastidiously they preen or bathe.

Their size and generally ineffectual attacks mean that, even as a frenzied swarm, they inflict only nonlethal damage, at first, but they do not stop when an enemy falls, but continue until the flow of blood stops, before stopping to feed, cooing contentedly all the while, eating not only the corpse of their prey, but upon any of their fellows who died in the fight, as they are opportunistic cannibals, as well as predatory by nature. A swarm of such doves can rarely devour a medium or large sized creature entirely, and tend to use their beaks to attempt to tear their way into the torso, where they can feast on their favorite of organs, the liver, before larger carnivores and scavengers drive them from their kill.

Despite their frenzied bloodlust, they retain enough intelligence to quickly veer off and avoid a creature whom their attacks do not affect, such as many of the fiendish or demonic creatures of the Sarkoris Scar, who have damage reduction, or undead, who are immune to their feeble pecks and scratches. Indeed, they may follow such a creature at a distance, in hopes of securing fresh spoils from its own prey. Given a choice of multiple targets, stained doves seem drawn to horse and cattle-sized targets, or, in absence of those, small targets, like goats, halflings or children, choosing man-sized targets only if neither option is available, and avoiding huge or larger, or tiny or smaller targets entirely (a swarm is ten feet on a side, inflicting only 1d6 nonlethal damage with it's feeble pecks and scratches, and a target which is larger than the swarm, such as a huge target fifteen foot on a side, is seen as ‘too big’, whereas tiny or diminutive targets are seen as ‘not big enough to be worth it’, in most cases).

Sarkorian natives tend to call these murderous birds Stained Doves, but the Mendevian Crusaders sometimes referred to them by more fanciful names, like Grieving Doves, and a gathering of such as a 'lamentation.'

More demon-tainted critters for the Sarkoris Scar (and other demon-tainted areas), continuing on the theme of critters inspired by lore created by Pathfinder, not D&D (in this case, the Demon Lord Dagon);

676. Ftagn/Tentacled Eel This tiny eel has a flat muscular tail that it can use as flexibly as an octopus tentacle, and two pair of additional, smaller tentacles on each side, just behind its gill slits, where many fish have pectoral fins. A single unblinking eye completes its unnatural appearance, as it slithers through the water in search of warm-blooded prey, or anchors itself to a rock with its tail, and uses its smaller tentacles to pluck food out of the prevailing currents or tides. It eats only small insects, crustaceans, amphibians and smaller fish that it can grapple with its tentacles, but when it finds a warm-blooded creature of medium size, such as a seal or swimming humanoid, it jabs that creature with a single tooth located in its lower jaw, initiating its unique reproductive cycle and implanting a juvenile version of itself, smaller at first than a tadpole. The site of the injection swells noticeably, and is usually accompanied by a rash, fever and some fatigue, aches and pains, as well as restless nights, as the growing eel absorbs more nutrients from the host to fuel its own growth. Over the next thirty days, it matures within its now fist-sized cyst, swollen and red, taut and warm and strangely dry to the touch, which it can part slightly to protrude its tentacle tail, usually to snatch at some morsel of food lying within a few inches of its position, or its baleful eye, looking around with disturbing curiosity. Once it has reached this stage of maturity, it bursts free the next time the host creature is immersed in water, but if that does not occur, it will remain in situ, possibly for months, often leading to some gradual deterioration of the host, as it continues to pillage his own body to nourish itself. When it does emerge from a host, it swims far away in a burst of speed similar to that of a squid, which is a feat it can only perform once, burning up its entire supply of whatever chemicals it had saved against this moment, but it leaves behind a parting gift, in the cyst that served as its cradle, another juvenile, possibly condemning its host to endure this cycle yet again…

Tentacled eels, also known as Ftagn, an Aklo-loan word meaning something that loosely translates to 'sleeping viewer' or 'dreamer', to the Boggard and Marsh Giants who prize them, can be found in great numbers throughout the Sodden Lands, but also in the Varisian Mushfens and the tainted waterways of the Sarkoris Scar, one section of which is incongruously brackish, despite the great distance from the sea, not-at-all-coincidentally near various degenerate cults of Dagon, whose marsh giant and boggard followers in particular consider playing host to one, or even more, of these creatures, to be a singular honor, to the point that some elders of either species are practically, or even literally, debilitated by the voracious demands of their brood of encysted parasites, and the requirement that they deny their tiny parasites the immersion in water that would prompt them to escape. Superstitions abound about how the fevered ramblings of these individuals come straight from the maw of Dagon himself, but it there is no indication that this is so. While tentacled eels can survive for months in both fresh and salt water, they seem to thrive best in brackish water, in deltas where rivers flow into the sea, mangrove swamps and the like, which fortunately somewhat limits their range.

A host suffers a +2 difficulty to avoid affects that cause one to be fatigued or exhausted, due to the increased drain on bodily resources, and suffers 1 point of ability damage to Constitution, which cannot be healed until the creature has departed, been removed, or died.

This reduction is cumulative, and an elder marsh giant playing host to six of these creatures, will have a +12 difficulty to fatigue or exhaustion effects, and be down six points of Constitution. Small creatures, such as otters, suffer even worse, lacking the bodily reserves to sustain such life, but fortunately, such dexterous, clever and pro-social creatures rarely remain infected for long, as they ferociously dig these parasites out and happily devour them in turn. Dolphins and orca have been similarly seen to dig such creatures out of their comrades, but seals, walruses and bunyips seem particularly incapable of dealing with these unwelcome passengers, and some larger solitary whales may have a dozen or more, and seem almost unaffected, due to their great size.

More demon-tainted (but not terribly consequential) stuff for Sarkoris and other demon-taint-y places;

673. Dead Man’s Hand This withered gray fungus sprouts up a mouldering dry corpse or in disturbed soil over a grave, typically only ‘blooming’ in shadow or evening hours, and withering away within an hour upon the touch of sunlight. It typically forms three to five ‘spires’ reaching up like four to six inch ‘towers’ and often resembles an upthrust hand, withered and gray, sprouting from the soil, or ancient corpse. If such a ‘finger’ is consumed directly from the fungus, within a minute of being plucked, it causes a sudden chill and a living target must save versus Fortitude (DC 18) or become fatigued. They also receive odd visions, both immediately, and as possibly extensive dreams if they go to sleep within the next hour. These visions are hazy and sometimes subjective memories of the dead person on whose grave the fungus has grown, and consuming this particular fungus again will always repeat the same imagery in a single consumer, but different consumers may receive entirely different imagery. The initial experience of visions is disorienting, and the consumer must make a Will save at DC 15 or be nauseated by the visions for 1 minute after consumption. If they make this save, they can focus somewhat more clearly on what is really happening around them, and are only sickened.
Rolling a 1 on the initial Fortitude save exposes one to ghoul fever. Undead can benefit from the secondary effects and receive visions, but cannot be sickened, fatigued, nauseated or exposed to ghoul fever.
Ghouls greatly prize Dead Man’s Hand, which they call Kabriri’s Call, but it does not grow predictably or well, and attempts to cultivate it in Nemret Noktoria have consistently failed, even as it can often be found far afield, such as in the wastes of the Sarkoris Scar, or the blasted no man’s land between Geb and Nex, but also surprisingly common in other demon-blighted lands, such as the southern portion of Kyonin, or in and around the city of Usaro, in the Mwangi Expanse.
Almost as if Kabriri would prefer his children to roam the world, spreading their gift, and not stay home and be farmers…

[Mostly inconsequential, since the vision/memories are one-shot per character, GM determined and might not be terribly useful, and there's that 1 in 20 chance of contracting ghoul fever, which isn't a guaranteed death sentence like Mumia addiction, but can still end badly...]

More tainted wildlife of the Sarkoris Scar. Following a more Remaster friendly interpretation, and skipping D&D-derived demons and focusing on more Pathfindery stuff like, in this case, Pazuzu!

672. Spur Shrike This large shrike is the size of a raven or eagle, and has six wings. It also has spurs on it's ankles that it can use to lash at rivals on the ground, and spines amongst it's pinions that allow it to rake at a target. These spines contain an extremely weak venom, more like the irritating oil found on a cat's retractable claws, than anything immediately effective as a toxin.

Like smaller less demon-y shrikes, the Spur Shrike incapacitates prey and impales them on thorns 'for later,' picking away at the flesh as it softens from decay, or simply eating the vermin attracted to the carrion.

Spur Shrikes greatest threat is themselves. They compete viciously for territory or kills, and will rake each other with such ferocity that one or both may stagger away to die of shock and blood loss. They also display a complete lack of restraint when it comes to feeding, and have been known to gorge themselves to the point where they are too heavy to fly, and pass out, becoming easy prey for any ground-bound predator that a bird would normally be able to easily avoid.

Perhaps their most eerie trait is being able to mimic some human words, which they may rarely use to attract someone's attention, but they are not strong enough individually to threaten more than a toddler, not cooperative enough to work in groups, and not smart enough to lure someone into danger (such as quicksand, or off a cliff) and turn them into vittles.

They cannot be taken as familiars, without the Improved Familiar feat (in which case, the Spur Shrike has the Fiendish template, and is even more malevolent by nature than they typically are).

689. Mad Monkeys of Usaro.

Deep in the city of demon apes is a blood-soaked altar to Anghazan. When a sapient creature is sacrificed on that altar, it's lifeblood pours down a channel to a platform, ten feet across, before flowing down to the moat at the mastabah's base. A simian ape or monkey restrained on that platform undergoes an abyssal awakening, gaining 2d8 Intelligence, 2d6 Charisma, an evil alignment and proficiency in the Abyssal tongue. No additional Hit Dice are gained, but apes awakened in this manner often develop levels in various classes, with Abyssal Sorcerer being a popular choice, as well as Cleric of Anghazan.

On a less consequential note, dozens of gnomes were captured one year, and brought to the altar. Since there were not dozens of apes or dire apes awaiting sacrifices to be awakened, sorcerers captured dozens of local monkeys, thinking to make them into spies and servants. Sacrifice after bloody sacrifice ensued, and the monkeys grew disturbingly calm until the last was awakened, and then burst into a howling mob when freed from their cages, swarming into the trees and shunning any attempts to press them into service to Anghazan or their ape 'overlords.'

Instead of the usual abyssal awakening, the monkeys received the Intelligence and Charisma, but were universally chaotic, instead of evil, and spoke the shared tongue of the Fey, instead of Abyssal (and more likely to eventually become fey sorcerers, than abyssal sorcerers, in those rare cases). Tricksters and trouble-makers all, they plagued the apes, who retaliated by hurling destructive magic into the trees above their own city in frustration. Decades have passed since that day, and unlike the demon-apes of Usaro, who must constantly sacrifice captives on their altar to awaken new apes to their vile community, the awakened monkeys appear to be able to breed true, to the great frustration of the apes, who would exterminate them, if they could.

Superstitions have grown, and no gnome is every sacrificed on the altar in this manner, for fear of a repeat of this disaster. 'Gnomes are for eating!' the apes have ruled. And no one has tried to awaken a monkey again, again, out of belief that such would again fail.

Neither is the case, as the unsuspected truth is that the gnomish community that was razed and its survivors sacrificed was sworn to Calistria, and the 'failed' awakening was just a vengeful trick played by the goddess. A number of the 'mad monkeys' have a primitive sort of faith in her, even today, if no other ties to the gnomes that died to awaken their ancestors, although they see her as an elf-eared monkey with a wasp's stinger at the end of her tail, and dozens of fluttering wasp's wings for a 'cape.'

I never knew catfish were poisonous!!!!

And after looking it up, I got it wrong anyway. The stinging spines are on the dorsal and pectoral fins, whereas I thought they were on the whiskers at the front of the fish!

Learn something new every day!

Which is easier than it used to be, thanks to encroaching senility. :)

Tainted wildlife of the Sarkoris Scar

686. False Moth This furry spider has a pair of fluffy chelicera that resemble a moths antennae, and leaps upon and devours any moth or butterfly that brushes against the fine strands of silk descending from where it is perched. It severs the wings of its prey, and attaches them with silk to two tiny nubs on it's back, which resemble vestigial legs, and can be moved slightly, causing the attached wings to flutter. It's disguise as a moth complete, it travels by leaping and climbing to the sort of nectar rich environment where other moths and butterflies are easily found (its purloined wings are just for show, and cannot be used to fly), where it uses it's new wings to lure in fresh prey, with much less effort than all the stalking and leaping about.

[Inspired by the Succubus, the false moth disguises itself and lures in prey with the promise of nookie before devouring them.]

687. Vane-Winged Viper This snake is as large as a medium Constrictor, and prefers marshy forested terrain. It's most distinctive feature is a cobra-like hood that has vanes like the wings of a bat, or a fishes scalloped fin. Six keratin spines fan out and like the mantle of a basilisk lizard, the 'hood' expands to make it more intimidating. (It usually fans out it's hood in this manner when it does NOT intend to bite someone, and is attempting to intimidate prey into leaving without a fight. If it doesn't do a threat display, it's just going to attack...) These spines can be moved around fairly dextrously, and serve as weak 'legs' for the snake, assisting it in climbing, swimming, grappling, leaping and even using it's fan at full splay to glide short distances and falling safely to the ground from the branches of trees, it's favorite hunting tactic.

Despite the name, the Vane-winged Viper neither has wings, nor is a viper.

[Inspired by the Marilith, this snake-tailed serpent has 'six arms,' in addition to it's regular features.]

688. Demonweed These vines grow rapidly over a day on blood-soaked ground, or relatively fresh corpses upon which their spores have settled. Over the following night, they dry out and die, with the uppermost growths crumbling into new spores that travel on the wind, seeking fresh blood and decay to sprout anew. The lower reaches of growth collapse into a foul sludge that renders the area into a reeking mire, and often blights any other plant life in the area. When demonweed spores fall upon a wounded individual, or, especially, one suffering from a bleed condition, they grow with supernatural swiftness, causing 1 point of damage each round for 1 minute, and giving the creature the entangled condition, as if it had been struck with a tanglefoot bag. These vines decay at an accelerated rate, coincidentally, about as fast as an actual tanglefoot bag, although they can be removed manually before then, using the same sorts of procedures.

Rarely, demonweed spores will alight on the fresh corpse of an actual demon of medium or larger size, and this has been known to result in an assassin weed springing up, which is hardly 'inconsequential...'

[Vrock spores, but much weaker and airborne.]

685. Spiny-tailed Catfish

A unique strain of catfish found primarily in Lake Encarthan, the spiny-tailed catfish has the same venomous whiskers of most catfish, but also a matching set of spines protruding along the vanes of their tail fin, usually four to six in number. A separate gland near the tail fuels these barbs, so that it retains venom in it's tail, or face, depending on which gland it has used most recently (taking about a day to replenish a charge of venom). The meat of the spiny-tailed catfish is a popular meal to the working classes of Druma, and other lands surrounding the lake, but is not regarded as a 'pure' food by the Kalistocrats of that land, and is shunned, some suspect as much because it is nearby and 'common,' as much for the creatures bottom-feeding habits.

In recent months, two different low-status Kalistocrats of Kerse have been found murdered by a fatal dose of spiny-tailed catfish venom, which is regarded as a deliberate insult, to not just murder them, but to do so with something regarded as 'impure.' As the creature's venom is not typically life-threatening, being more painful and paralytic by nature, multiple doses had to be applied, in both cases wound patterns suggesting that the victim was bludgeoned by one or more fish, wielded like clubs, so that multiple venomous wounds occurred.

Concerned Kalistocrats have lit a fire under local Blackjackets to find and deal with this 'Fish-Slapper Killer.'

684. Hellbats Despite their name, appearance and reputation, these Varisian bats are harmless mundane omnivores most common in the Cinderlands, but seen in numbers as far south as Korvosa, where they are prized as familiars. Due to the higher than average sulfur content in the home environment, they often smell slightly sulfurous, and have black skin with ruffs of black, brown, or, most prized of all, reddish fur on their bodies and faces. Their sinister look (and smell) makes them popular choices for Korvosan conjurers who either cannot yet take an Imp familiar, or simply don't want one (although there is a fair amount of peer pressure from the Imp-having contingent to 'trade up' and 'accidents' have been known to happen where hellbat familiars 'went missing' or 'just died').

There is nothing remotely supernatural about 'hellbats,' but they have a somewhat sinister reputation among Varisians in the area of Korvosa, if only because of their association with the Academae. Further north, they are seen as no different than any other bat, and their nickname of 'hellbats' is more a label of convenience than any sort of warning.

At the edge of Korvosa, a single animal breeder raises dozens of hellbats, breeding exclusively for the pricier red-furred ones that apprentices from the Academae will pay good coin for to take as familiars. This 'crazy bat-lady' provides a bit of a public service, as her bat-brood takes its nightly toll on the nocturnal insect life around her 'mews.'

Rumors of fiendish bats led to a bit of a row in the district when there was a bumper-crop of fireflies, one summer, and her bats could sometimes be seen after gorging themselves on these creatures with 'glowing fangs' from the abundance of luciferase in their diets. But this was several years ago, and most of the locals have accepted that there was no 'outbreak' of fiendish bats, and those that haven't are dismissed and directed on to the next outbreak of hysterical conspiratorial nonsense, as the 'crazy bat lady' has proven quite adept at stirring up her more gullible neighbors into railing about dire (made up) circumstances that do not threaten her own livelihood, like magical corruption of the water supply, or an otyugh mastermind who whispers instructions to town guards on his payroll from a certain sewer grate.

She can't afford to go to the theater, so she has to make her own fun.

681. Firegrass A hearty fast-growing plains grass found in the Cinderlands of northern Varisia, firegrass sprouts up with almost supernatural swiftness after a fresh ash-fall from the various smoking calderas in the region. The long ashfall 'shadows' to the east and west of volcanic vents can stretch for miles to either side of a 'smoker' and depending on which way the seasonal winds are blowing, one side or the other will surge into a fresh carpet of hardy-brown stalks, enriched to a sudden spurt of growth by the fresh deposit of nutrient rich chemicals in the fresh fallen volcanic ash.

Deep beneath the ground, tuberous roots store quantities of water, to help fuel this growth, and the Shoanti in the area know how to dig these tubers up and treat the alkaline sulfur-tasting water within to be potable. (Magical purification is the easiest solution, for non-locals, without this experience.) The grasses are quickly devoured by the local herds of auroch that wander the Cinderlands, and the Shoanti have grown accustomed to travelling *towards* fresh volcanic eruptions seen in the distance, as their will be a brief surge of growth, and flood of prey, in the bloom to follow.

The grains that grow atop a stalk of firegrass can be removed and used as fodder for bread, or left to ferment and made into beer, but in either case, the high mineral content tends to result in a strong taste of sulfur, which the local Shoanti barely even notice, after a lifetime growing up with this taste, but visitors may find anywhere from unpleasant to actually sickening. (DC 10 Fortitude save or sickened for 1 hour after consuming a meal made from firegrass grains.)

As some smokers and caldera have been venting either predictably, or even constantly, in some cases, for generations, there are regions of the Cinderlands, highly prized, where firegrass is 'in bloom' almost constantly, and herds of aurochs (and other local wildlife, like the cinderpelts that prey on them) have remained in one place for decades, unlike the more typical life for a Cinderlands herbivore, wandering in search of fresh blooms, ever travelling to the next pillar of black volcanic smoke on the horizon, in search of new growths. Once they've stripped away the green growths, these nomadic herds move on to the next sign in the sky, and bring seeds from their current feast in their droppings to their next destination, keeping the separate pockets of firegrass diverse and strong.

Edicts: Share what you have talent, wealth, and especially food, with those who have less, Free the enslaved, Grant Undeath to those who were denied life, heal who you can.

Anathema: Force undeath against someone's will. Deny food to the hungry, prey on the dispossessed.

Areas of concern: healing, undeath, food, generosity, freedom
Divine Ability: Wisdom or Charisma
Divine Font: Heal or harm
Sanctification: May choose holy
Divine Skill: Medicine
favored weapon: Staff
Domains: Freedom, Undeath, Magic, healing, indulgence

What is kind of neat about this one, to me, is that the god is all about sharing a resource that they have placed themself beyond the need of (and encourage at least some of their followers to do as well). By becoming undead (at least, some types of undead, like skeletal or mummified dead), they no longer are competing with living folk for resources like food or clean water or even breathable air, allowing them to continue providing any benefit to society that they would be able to provide as a living person (other than producing new children...), while consuming none of the expendable / limited resources that the living need. The ultimate 'ascetic', one who has literally no need to compete with the living.

It would fit the theme for them to be tied to the growing of both food and herbs for medicine, things they have no use for, themselves, but freely give to the living folk who dwell near them.

A form of mummification that involves having plant growth interwoven with one's body, instead of linen wrappings and natron salts, might be on-theme for them, and one of their undead might be a shambling skeleton overgrown with moss and lichen, and with vines, perhaps even flowering or fruiting (in season), sprouting out of their skull and ribcage and twined around their limbs. Someone with no prior knowledge of them, might think they've encountered something more like a yellow musk zombie from previous incarnations of the game...

Is knuckleduster a sap derived from a plant, or something? That's how I'm picturing it, in my head.

677. Silverbark This grey moss grows in vertical streaks on the bark of trees, favoring the northern and western exposures, where it does not receive as much direct light, and being even more common in well-shaded areas of thick temperate rain forests or jungles with a heavy canopy. It has a strong musty odor that repels some forms of bark-devouring beetles, making it an acceptable burden to bear for trees susceptible to beetle-depredation. It is harvested by locals for the same reasons, to use as a natural insect repellant, although the odor is not particularly pleasant to people, either, and tends to make dogs and cats sneeze, or otherwise react dramatically (some dogs bark at it, some cats hiss at it).

The odor only remains potent until the moss dries out, which it does quickly if exposed to sunlight, or taken into a more arid environment, rarely lasting more than 24 hours once removed from the tree, although some alchemical treatments have been found to preserve it's effects in a powder that be kept for months in a sealed container and this is often spread on the ground near doorways and on the sills of windows, to keep insects out of homes and businesses in Mwangi communities near the deep jungles where it grows best.

668. Pestleaf-

670. Sweetleaf The leaves of this bush start out as thin tubes and unfurl into a leaf. At the point where the leaf meets the branch, a single drop of a gummy sweet smelling (and tasting) nectar forms, and all around it is the plants pollen, serving as a sort of stamen, despite the lack of flower. Insects attracted to the sweet blob of nectar track pollen from other sweetleaf bushes they have visited all over this area, and pick up it's own pollen to bring to other bushes, perpetuating the species in the same manner of a flowering bush. The leaves of sweetleaf are themselves bitter and alkaline, and few animals apart from hardy goats can stomach them, which is the primary reason sweetleaf is relatively rare. The tiny nubs of nectar are a primary source of natural sugar in the relatively arid highlands where they are usually found, where other sources of sugar, like cane, beets or bees, are rare to nonexistant. Highlands communities safeguard the bushes from their own herds of goats, as they find the tiny globs of nectar to be the perfect sweetener to the strong and bitter coffee that they love.

662. Darkcandle

These wispy fungal strands glimmer with candlelight intensity, due to a concentration of luciferase in their hair-thin hollow strands. Even smaller brittle branches fork off from them along their length and break off at the slightest touch, so that any insect attracted by their light ends up surrounded by a cloud of these tiny 'hairs,' which clog their respiratory tracts and cause them to suffocate and die, their minute bodies serving to nourish the fungus that drew them in and killed them.

Darkcandle is relatively common in the Darklands, and can be found there in several colors, having been bred selectively over countless generations by various Darklands races. The light they shed is often inadequate to effectively light an area, but at least provides guidance to where the walls are, to those passing through an unlit area.

Darkcandle can also be found nearer the surface, but cannot thrive in the presence of direct sunlight, so will most often be found growing under someone's porch, or in a culvert, or deep within an animal burrow, anywhere where insects might be drawn to its light, and become it's next meal. It is, in turn, inedible to humanoid life, and toxic enough to make one nauseous and give one cramps, but not cause any lasting harm. It is, somewhat ironically, quite edible to many insects, if they could survive the encounter without themselves becoming the meal...

658. Firefruit. a species of mangrove only found in swampy southern shores, most commonly in the Sodden Lands, is notable for plum sized dull orange fruit, with the consistency of persimmons, that are filled with hydrogen extracted from the water standing at the trees base. These fruit swell throughout their growing season, and yet also lighten, as more of their hollow central cavities are filled with the lighter-than-air gas. Eventually, the wind tugs them free of their parent tree and carries the surprisingly light fruit far from where they would have fallen on their own.

These fruit could, in theory, seem like a gift from above, settling gently into one's hand or being snatched from the air as they waft lazily to the ground, but they taste like unripe persimmons as well, and the bulk of their mass is chambers filled with hydrogen, not edible flesh.

Much more notable is the once-every-few years occurrence when a bolt of lightning strikes down in the mangrove swamps, and a series of popping explosions occurs, a sudden firestorm that usually only lasts for a few moments, due to the small quantities of hydrogen in an individual fruit, the swampy environment, and that it usually happens during a raging downpour. As a result, these particular mangroves are avoided by local birds, for nesting purposes, as any who had not learned of their danger, ended up barbecued...

These irregular events, which would seem to be terrible for the trees, seem to perversely help them, discouraging the growths of parasitic mosses and burrowing beetles alike, and burning away dead growth to make room for healthier branches. Local superstition claims that the spirits of the trees can call down the lightning, 'when it's time,' and that a particularly unhealthy looking tree with multiple dead branches, or one draped with hanging moss, is 'nearing it's time' and not safe to be around.

Given how the thralls are described as being composed, its possible that they are using "Scraps" of souls. Memories being a part of that, impressions of emotion and other spiritual "Residue". not using a full soul, being why their thralls are so flimsy and weak.

Possibly making use of the same sort of 'memory of the soul' that one contacted back in the day with Speak With Dead, which was explicitly talking to the person up to the moment of their death, and couldn't answer any questions about the *current* status of that person. So no asking, 'So what's heaven like? Is it nice? Or did you go to the other place, and me casting this spell is like, a brief welcome respite from eternal torment?'

The Egyptians, IIRC, called that sort of thing the khaibit, the bit of soul or 'shadow of the soul' that stays behind in a dead body, while the 'higher soul' crossed the river Duat into what comes next.

Still, if animating a person's skeleton distressed *the khaibit* and not the actual soul-in-heaven (or wherever), it's still kinda like kicking a puppy, and not nice. :(

Khaibit's got feels!

655. Driftblooms

Scattered throughout the elemental plane of air, and the base of a unique ecosystem, driftblooms are an airborne algal bloom that feeds primarily on the diffuse light of the plane, and sends streaks of brilliant, and occasionally toxic, color across the sky. This airborne algae is fed upon by countless small winged insects and birds, with the insects themselves, in turn, being fed upon by yet other birds, and the smaller birds often serving as prey for raptors and similar more predatory birds.

The driftblooms themselves often sprout and flourish in the bodies of those insects and birds who die from drifting into the less common toxic blooms, and a flavorful and nourishing bloom can change with unusual speed to a toxic bloom at some predictable trigger that the tiny brains of the insects and birds that serve as their ‘fertilizer’ cannot always reliably anticipate or escape.

Clumps of such decaying organic matter eventually reach such size that they become host to small gardens, as seeds and spores from distant earth-islands sprout in the fertile 'soil' of the bodies of those that brought them to this streak of color in the endless sky. At other times, strong winds break such clumps up, and provide a rich substrate for the bloom to expand in new directions, such that algal blooms frequently move across the sky, in accordance to the whims of the wind.

84. Sigil Grove

Dozens of old trees preside over this glade, standing out from the surrounding trees because of A) their age and size, B) their being a completely different species from the surrounding forest and C) each tree has a unique sigil or glyph emblazoned on one of their leaves in some bright (non-green, or at least a very different and strongly contrasting shade of green) color.

Familiarity with the Arcane Mark spell, and / or the Elven language will lead to the conclusion that these trees each bear the arcane mark of a different individual, presumably elven, based on the style of the glyphs, often resembling highly stylized (and old) characters in the elven script.

Each tree was planted centuries ago by a sect of elven wizards who had each apprentice plant a tree when she graduated to work magics beyond the level of simple cantrips, and the trees matured as they grew in power.

Using one of these leaves as a 'power component' when casting the message spell, allows the caster to send a message to the elf who planted this tree, assuming they are still alive, regardless of range. Speak with dead will also function when cast upon one of these trees, if the elf who planted it has passed on. Such elves tend to be very old and quite powerful, although in different parts of the forest, one can find immature trees of the same sort, presumably planted by elves who never quite reached these lofty heights of power...

More about what lower level practitioners of that kind of magic are up to would interest me more than what the Runelords and ex-Runelords are doing.

And other traditions, for that matter. An 'iconic' (not bad guy) Hemotheurge or Winter Witch could be interesting to see in an Adventure (Path).

78. The Sword in the Stone

Not to be mistaken with;

82. The Sward in the Stone

This circular expanse of pleasant grassy meadow occurs in the middle of some place it should very much not be, such as the arctic, a desert, or an underground cavern. It is ringed by stone, and markings in a dialect of the primordial language shared by elementals seem to appear almost naturally as cracks in the stone, barely recognizable as writing. Traveling around the entire circumference of the circle and reciting the seemingly nonsense sounds those characters represent causes the entire sward to shrink to a tiny stone pendant with a mossy emerald in the center, that is oddly heavy, about a pound. Reciting the sounds again, in the reverse order, which could be a challenge if they were not transcribed, as the writing is now illegibly tiny, causes the stone disk to begin to tremble, and over the next minute, reform into the grassy meadow, if in a place large enough to contain the entire meadow, which is well over 100 feet in diameter. No matter what the climate is like outside of the meadow, inside the meadow, it is always gently breezy, sunny and warm, with fresh air and the lit as if by a mid-day sun, even if it is cold and dark outside of the meadow. Weather effects end when they reach the stone ring encircling the meadow, as if the whole thing was protected by a tiny hut spell.

The meadow does not include any source of potable water, although the grasses seem to thrive just fine, nor are any of the local plants particularly nutritious, save as fodder for horses, although one could cobble together an unsatisfying meal out of dandelion salad or something.

Also not to be mistaken with The Stone in the Sword, which is an aeon stone mounted on an otherwise unexceptional sword, which could be removed and mounted on a different weapon, if one could figure out how it was done...

Drinking so much of the sweet thunderbrew that you puke is called a thunderspew.

Or so I've heard.

Still on a 'mortal races spread throughout the planes' kick inspired by the idea of a community of oreads (descended from dwarves and orcs abducted away as workers by the Vault Builders) on the plane of Earth.

The Aeromantic Imperium
(Forgotten Shory city still thriving on the Elemental Plane of Air)

The Shory empire was in decline, but this was not readily apparent to those who lived in its magnificent flying cities. Still, for every resident of these marvels of magic and artifice, there were ten who dreamed of the sky, and cast envious eyes at those who drifted high overhead.

There were plans, most merely pipe-dreams, and almost a half-dozen more flying cities were dreamt of, with unrealistic plans to create a city centered around a grand magical academy, and others wishing to make a fantastic garden city, or a city entirely composed of artisans, musicians and entertainers, where others would flock to spend the crystals that served as currency among the sky-dwellers.

A wealthy group of merchants, weary of the way even the lowest of sky-city residents would look down at them and call them ‘grounders’ or ‘lowborn,’ pooled their resources and planned their own glorious city. Lacking the rare few mages and artificers that already knew how to craft an Aeromantic Infantibulum, they recruited from among students of Shory academies, sometimes iconoclausts, sometimes failed students, and assembled a somewhat dubious group of such to craft the Aeromantic Infantibulum that would bring the city they were having constructed, and themselves, up into the clouds, to join the elite, as they felt they deserved after toiling so long in their shadow to provide for their needs.

The city was only half-constructed, and the wealthiest of the city’s founding coalition held a lottery, in which other ‘grounders’ of means could buy a place in their new city, to help defray the not-inconsiderable costs they had already paid, when a bit of overly creative tinkering with the not-yet-operational Aeromantic Infantibulum by a student who wondered if it were possible to more directly tap into the endless power of the plane of elemental air, caused it to pulse and the entire city to be enveloped in a terrible windstorm, blowing up choking dust and debris that obscured it from sight. The beastly howling of the winds ended with a thunderous clap and an explosion of dust and wind that heralded the abrupt end of the windstorm, and, when the dust cleared, the disappearance of the city, forever.

Hundreds of citizens had already paid for a place on the new city, and were now without recourse, as the city, and those whom they had paid for a place there, were gone. Most were relieved not to have been swept from the world by the terrible accident, but there were accusations of fraud, or it all being a grand hoax to rob them of their glittering wealth, for decades thereafter. The other cities, for their part, had their own concerns, and were not terribly shocked that an aeromantic infantibulum ‘cobbled together from scraps, by scoundrels, ne’er do wells and dropouts, alarmists and iconoclausts’ would fail so catastrophically. Those who had not lost members of their family, or their livelihoods, shrugged and went on with life, remembering the vanished city, if at all, as a cautionary tale, or used to promote the elitist notion that not everyone deserved such a lofty perch among the clouds.

The city was not destroyed, as some assumed, but indeed whisked away, the malfunctioning Aeromantic Infantibulum plunging the entire thing into the elemental plane of air. The plane recoiled at this unwelcome intrusion, and a vast windstorm howled through the city, demolishing many of the incomplete structures, and only failing to topple the tallest because of clever Shory construction, in which streets were fashioned in gentle curves, to channel the wind in a spiraling pattern that diffused it’s strength and sent it upwards, a design refined over the centuries by the preceding sky-cities. The population huddled where they could, in those buildings strong enough to weather the gale, and over the course of a day that seemed like forever to the survivors, the apprentice artificers and ‘failed students’ that had assembled the Aeromantic Infantibulum managed to bend its power to hold the winds at bay, so that the city, as ravaged as it was, now floated serenely in a safe pocket of calm air at the center of the maelstrom endlessly raging around it.

And so the city, half-built and half-destroyed, not yet equipped with the stores, or even adequate foodstuffs that had yet to arrive and be stocked in its larders, and with perhaps a tenth the population it had been designed for, was adrift in the elemental plane of air, dire straits indeed.

The Shory quickly realized that the nature of the storm blocked any attempt at returning to Golarion, or even communicating with those left behind. Much finger-pointing ensued, and there were several deaths in the resulting turmoil, but the founders that remained did not lie down and die, but quickly secured every edible thing they could for the survival of what people remained. Within a week, there was no livestock left, and if no new source of meat was found, a vegetarian life seemed their fate, so they turned to plant every edible plant they could salvage from what they had brought. Entire buildings, some half in ruins, some still yet serviceable, were converted into growing spaces, and any tree that did not provide fruit or berries or nuts was cut down and used for construction, to repair what buildings they could. The ‘sun’ in this place would have been mid-day, were it not for the storm, and so the city was in perpetual stormy twilight, with diverse sources ranging from magical illumination to great mirrors being used to bring light to their crops. The air was cool, a temperate clime, and many of the more tropical crops they grew up with, citrus fruits and dates, grew poorly, if at all, and were quickly contained with greenhouses, where they could be kept warm, or simply abandoned, leaving a city now overgrown with green and nourishing plants, where all the streets are lined with cherry trees, the most popular of the fruiting trees.

Abundant rainfall fuels their magically-accelerated growth and endless power from the wind and lightning just outside the ‘storm shield’ protects the city from the tempest that surrounds it, a defense that is, itself, powered in part by the very storm raging against it, and is tapped to turn mills and power magical engines that keep the storm at bay, and the city constantly lit in a dusk-like glow.

Even these heroic efforts to feed themselves would have come to naught had they not had access to the conjured food provided by djinn crafters that had helped assemble the city. For long months, while plants were tended and slowly matured, every soul had to work to earn a ration of conjured food, which was hardly the life that any of these mostly wealthy-merchant-princes and their families, had imagined for themselves. After a rabble-rouser, who had fomented a revolt and tried to seize more food for themself and their supporters, was seized by a pair of genies and thrown bodily into the storm, there was a degree of resigned cooperation. The genies made it abundantly clear that if everyone in the city wanted to eat, they would have representation on the city council, and no longer be treated like subjects, but actual citizens of the Shory imperium. The merchant-princes turned to their arcane support, whom they hoped would quell this ‘genie uprising’ and compel their obedience, but the mages, iconoclaust to the last, shrugged and said, ‘that sounds fair.’ A single token ‘genie seat’ was added to the council, and intended to be ignored, but centuries later, there are two genies on the council, and their input is as valued as any human councilors.

The entire population of Shory remnants now have Sylph traits, after so many generations in the plane of elemental Air, but still resemble traditional Shory, tall and lean, with broad faces and frizzy clouds of fly-away hair that they rarely bother to tame, but are more prone to white, yellow, blue or cloud-gray eyes, prematurely gray or white hair, and a blue-ish tinge to their ebony skin.

In the centuries, they have forged new pacts with geniekind, and some local elemental residents, as well as the ability to form (or predict) temporary safe corridors through the storm, allowing them to travel out into the larger plane and not remain trapped within the storm that rages around them. Indeed, it is widely thought among the magical elite of the city that they could end the storm, if they committed themselves to the task, but with so many of their needs met by the tempest, fresh water, endless power, impassable protection…, they agree that it would be counter-productive to do so, and they regard the storm, once their jailer, as their provider and protector, entire generations have grown up with it raging around them, and wanting no other life.

The original residents were fierce falconers, and brought well over a hundred hawks of various breeds with them when they found themselves transported to the elemental plane of air. Unable to fly free of the city, thanks to the impassable storm, they might have starved and faced extinction, if not for a pair of wererats who had been hiding among the half-completed buildings, who kept the city’s vermin under control for their own protection, and over generations, wererats have been integrated into Shory society. Every council has exactly one ‘Ratmaster,’ and those who volunteer for this position, are soon infected by one of the rare remaining wererats, who almost never number more than a half-dozen, fiercely jealous and protective of their rare status, and equally aware that they are more ‘needed’ than ‘wanted,’ and would wear their welcome thin quickly if they went on a ‘recruiting spree.’ The various rodents that made the transition have adapted to a mostly vegetarian diet, supplemented by the occasional insect, and remain under control of the ‘Ratmaster,’ who keeps them foraging in the food waste areas, and out of the gardens, meal preparation and food storage areas, and moves them to designated hunting and hawking areas, so as to provide fodder for the prized hawks of the imperium. It is to the great fortune of the Shory that none who volunteer for the position of Ratmaster have any real loyalty to, or love of, the rats that answer their call…

Have domesticated a few juvenile members of the native roc population living on plane of air, and keep them rooked inside the storm shield (which they could not reach without a Shory to guide them through the ‘safe paths’). They have to be taken outside of the shield each day to hunt and feed, as there is no food supply adequate for them in the city, and they do not thrive on conjured genie-food, needing to fly and hunt to flourish. Shory druids and some rangers can take them as companions. No full size rocs are so tamed, only large sized ‘companions,’ which the Shory call ‘rukhs’ to differentiate them from their much larger kin. The region of the elemental plane where they drift remains in a perpetual mid-dawn or early dusk, the ‘sun’s’ light (and warmth) less than that of full day, which results in few or no nocturnal creatures, like bats, owls, dire bats or giant owls, which are more common in darker regions of the plane of Air.
There are surprisingly few other animals in the city itself. Notable hives of bees, usually quite belligerent and in metallic shades of green, blue and purple, tended carefully by professional beekeepers, and a fairly small population of Osirioni wise-eye cats and ravens, many times removed offspring of familiars brought across, and occasionally still serving as such today (although well over half of familiars are some species of hawk or falcon). Even sorcerers or wizards, and some other spellcasters, like clerics, who would not normally have a familiar, will take the option when it becomes available via feat, and improved familiars include a preponderance of air scamps, small air elementals, and celestial avians, as well as the occasional odder specimen, like the miniature sphinx-kin called riddlers, six-winged ‘formian attendants’ (particularly popular again this generation, their popularity seems to wax and wane in some as-yet-undiscovered mathematical progression), or tiny linnorm-like creatures called windwyrms.
Shory of the city tend to dress warmly, in layers, due to the cooler air in the outer city, but sparsely, even, by some standards, scandalously, inside their well-warmed inner homes, which are designed to keep heat trapped within, so as not to waste their not-entirely-endless arcane power ‘trying to heat up the storm,’ which is a colloquialism for a futile endeavor. As a result of this climate, their crops tend to be the sort that thrive in cooler climes, like apples, blackberries and cherries, with the only tropical fruit like bananas, citrus fruits or dates being raised in the few enclosed (and heated) greenhouses.

Primary churches are to Shelyn and Gozreh, with a well-tended shrine to Nethys in the ‘mages quarter’ where the original Aeromantic Infantibulum used to lay, and a more perfunctory shrine to Pharasma that serves more as a funeral destination than for more traditional religious services. Those who die are ‘given to the storm’ and, reverently, allowed to fall into the endless storm raging just beyond the city’s boundaries. Since the original dissident was thrown to the storm, only seven more executions of this sort have taken place, as the Shory value the all-too-few lives available to them, murder being one of the few crimes that could lead to execution. [On Golarion, this is also the traditional means of execution among sky-city dwellers, being tossed off the island.] Smaller in-home shrines exist to diverse other patrons, such as Soralyon, or mwangi diety here, but do not have temples of their own. The Shory of the city have a marked disdain for idleness, left over from the lean times when they all had to labor to earn their ration of food, and the faith of Desna, formerly popular among some Shory, saw a marked decline, the building originally created to serve as a temple to her, now operating as a greenhouse, although still with Desnan motifs and decorations suggesting its original intended use. This ‘decline’ in popularity is fueled, at least in part, by the simple coincidence that the majority of the Desna-following branch had not arrived to take their place in the city when it abruptly departed, more than any active resistance to the goddess or her tenets.

An underground cult of Hshurha thrives, only to be more recently challenged by a new cult to Ranginori, although neither faith is yet recognized officially. Followers of Pazuzu have been a recurring threat among the riders of the great rukhs, over the centuries, and keep cropping up, in some cases with riders being driven to the faith at least partially because others seem to be expecting them all to be Pazuzu cultists anyway… Unsuspected to most, the ruling council has been infiltrated both by agents of Hshurha, one of them a genie, and a dynamic cleric of Pazuzu who seems all too close to winning the central, tiebreaker, position.

The governing council itself only meets weekly, each of its members having other duties to attend to, and issues are discussed, and alliances brokered, all through the week, so that voting happens with surprising speed, on the assigned days. There are no chairs in the council chamber (although one can be brought in for a councilor who requires one), which is the site of the former aeromantic infantibulum (which has, centuries ago, been slowly duplicated and shifted component by component, function by function, to six separate sites through the city, any three of which can ‘bear the load’ of the aging, and, admittedly, cobbled-together, original), and like so much of the city, serves multiple purposes, depending on the day of the week. Each member stands on one of the old glyphs or sigils of arcane power that are arrayed in rings, and that position is called the ‘stand of air’ or ‘the stand of stone,’ depending on the nature of the rune, but these positions carry no difference in weight, other than one central position, which has a vote that counts for two for the purposes of breaking a tie between the twelve councilors, and certain traditions, like a genie always occupying the stand of air, and the Ratmaster always standing on the glyph of talon.

ECOLOGY of Air
Wells to the plane of Fire act as ‘suns’ in some areas. The nearest one to the city is not particularly large or close, and so the area is lit as by the half-light of dawn or dusk, and the air is cool, like that of a perpetual autumn day in a temperate clime, or the rarified air of the upper altitudes that this mountain-dwelling branch of the Shory already preferred. It is, of course, even dimmer within the city itself, the howling winds and ragged bands of cloud that sprinkle them fairly regularly with a light rainfall, shading them even further. Out beyond the windstorm, clouds of pollen form into ‘drift-blooms,’ a sort of airborne algal bloom that sends streaks of brilliant, and occasionally toxic, color across the sky, which are in turn fed upon by countless small winged insects and birds, with the insects themselves, in turn, being fed upon by yet other birds, and the smaller birds often serving as prey for raptors and similar more predatory birds. The driftblooms themselves often sprout and flourish in the bodies of those insects and birds who die from drifting into the less common toxic blooms, and a flavorful and nourishing bloom can change with unusual speed to a toxic bloom at some predictable trigger that the tiny brains of the insects and birds that serve as their ‘fertilizer’ cannot reliably anticipate. In some places, pockets of elemental earth serve as lush gardens, while pockets of elemental water, some as large as terrestrial lakes, or even oceans, similarly keep the lives that flourish in this plane hydrated, and perhaps serve as a reservoir for the not infrequent storms that sweep through the plane, according to some cycle of wind currents that only the local elementals can keep track of. In areas further from the fire pockets that serve as miniature suns, it can grow dim indeed, although rarely darker than twilight, unless a storm is further darkening the sky, and nocturnal life, flying insects, owls and bats, can be found in sparser numbers, as there are less algal blooms in the darker sky to sustain the herbivores that are in turn devoured by the predators.

As a familiar it would prefer an arcane trickster. It might give a bonus to hide in shadows.

Good catch. Between that and the 'disguising self as a boulder' bit, it does sound like a bonus to Stealth checks would be right on target for it's skill bonus as a familiar!

653. Desert's Shadow
[carrion-eating camel spider that makes it's own camouflage]

The arachnid known as desert's shadow, due to it's unsettling habit of crabwalking in a taller creatures shadow, to avoid the desert sun, came originally from Qadira, but has spread across Osirion, into Thuvia, and is just now starting to appear in Rahadoum, centuries after it's arrival in Garund on Qadiran ships.

Growing to roughly the size of a human's head, with a jerky scuttling gait, desert's shadow prefers fresh carrion, and will wait patiently after biting something for it to die of it's slow necrotizing venom (which can often take hours to kill a man-sized target, a rare occurrence as desert's shadow prefers to opportunitistically scavenge prey that is already dead). They can smell decay, or fresh blood, over great distances, and come scurrying quickly, or race to sites where they see vultures circling. When they find fresh bodies, they quickly inject their liquifying venom and wait for it to do it's work, turning flesh into fluid that they can ingest, proving more than a match for most vultures, but not larger scavengers like hyenas.

When they find a rich meal, and even a single person (or camel) counts as a bountiful feast of many days), they drag many short strands of silk behind them until they are coated in sand, and then pull this 'sand blanket' over themselves and wait out the day while their toxins do their work breaking down their meal, disguised as a sandstone boulder.

In the deep desert, finding bodies with strange pits seemingly scooped out of them, reeking bitterly from the toxins at work in their flesh, and surrounded by oddly placed sandstone boulders, an experienced traveler knows not to sit on any of those 'boulders' or to probe too closely to the bodies, as the spiders waiting patiently nearby will emerge from their stony disguises to defend their bounty, hissing and waving their arms threateningly (but rarely attacking a man-sized target, which could easily squash them, even if it might die hours later from their own toxic reprisals).

Desert's shadow leave a trail of pheromones where they tread, detectable mostly to their own kind, which allows them to track each other during mating season, and to identify each other as kin or not kin. They find the scent of kin irksome, and attracted to the scent of 'not-kin,' which perhaps has protected the species from the dangers of inbreeding, and leads to the odd sight of differently colored or slightly differently shaped specimens sharing a meal together, instead of the more expected related family groups of some other species.

So the new nation of Oprak, and the Vault, have *really* intrigued me, and, as always, I have thoughts. (Disorganized! Stream of consciousness! But, thoughts!)

Veterans of the original Iron Fang divisions have become something like noble families (even if most are not at all related by blood, and children of members are more likely to advance in other ‘families’ entirely, due to a cultural resistance to showing favoritism to blood relatives, making the various factions less nepotistic than expected). Higher ranking members of different divisions or legions often have champions to handle challenges, both a form of sport, but also a serious form of conflict resolution that does not risk the commander themselves (although duels between leaders does happen, when approved by a higher up, which means Azaersi’s division commanders cannot duel each other without her permission to risk their lives in this manner!). Champions are traditionally bugbears, and are treated as honored members of the legions (although not all of them have an actual rank, as some are… undisciplined) and betting on the outcomes of champion challenges is fierce. A few hobgoblins also hold champion rank, and it is considered a point of pride for a hobgoblin officer to represent a superior in such a challenge match (particularly if the opposing champion is a member of a people known for their physical might, like an ogre, bugbear or minotaur).

The most common Opraki race is, of course, hobgoblins, but a surprising number of kobolds have shown up and adapted well to serving under hobgoblin rule, often providing unique spellcasting services, as not all hobgoblins are adverse to benefitting from ‘elf magic’ under the table, if it is cast by a discrete kobold sorcerer.

Azaersi has sent ambassadors across Avistan to find other ‘monster’ races that may wish to join her fledgling nation. The orcs of Belkzen are cautiously continuing diplomacy, while the Matanje orcs of the Mwangi Expanse have themselves expressed interest, although their ambassador being an Abyssal Sorcerer has somewhat dampened Opraki enthusiasm for an alliance on that front. The gnolls of Katapesh have no apparent central leadership to meet with, and are quietly considered unreliable and fractious, much like goblins, who are technically welcome, but tend to be treated dismissively, or even contemptuously, like little more than vermin, by disciplined hobgoblin society. (Bugbears can be similarly fractious, but at least *useful,* and so earn a soldier’s wary respect.) The ogres of Varisia have similarly been dismissed as a meaningful source of alliance (despite some overtures from that direction), but some Ogres from Omash, in Qadira, have proven to be cut from a different cloth and capable of adapting to a more regimented life. Sahuagin (or Deep Ones) have proven to be even less approachable than gnolls, and Oprak has little to offer an aquatic partner in any event. The centaur tribes of Cheliax, and the Isle of Kortos have been separately approached, and negotiations continue. A small number of Strix have relocated to the mountains near Oprak, but not enough to field more than few messengers per legion, which is their valued role. No serious effort has been made to contact any sizable enclave of iruxi (nor does Azaersi know enough about the existence of Droon to send an embassy there) or ysoki (although an unknown number of ysoki already lived within the Vault), and the boggard tribes of the Sodden Lands have been dismissed as degenerate and a ‘bad influence’ on unit discipline. The minotaurs of the Isle of Kortos have cautiously agreed to a tentative alliance, but only a few have come to Oprak, and none from Kortos itself, as those minotaurs are almost fanatically devoted to their (contested) claim on the Isle of Kortos itself. The charau-ka and awakened apes of Usaro fit under those ‘disruptive to unit cohesion’ influences, like boggards, gnolls and (most) ogres, and have not been approached, as of yet (and probably never will be). Azaersi has a wary distrust of cultures that are wholly devoted to such unruly patrons as the demon lord Angazhan as she would like to remain the uncontested top of Oprak’s pyramid. Oprak has a tentative agreement to ‘leave each other alone’ with one regional ‘kingdom’ of fire giants, but that does not hold true to any other giant communities, and for the most part, the giant holdings of the surrounding mountains want little or nothing to do with her fledgling kingdom, save perhaps some limited trade, on their own terms, or not at all. A dozen or so mites serve as ‘vermin tamers’ and wranglers, with various types of vermin serving as work-beasts, mounts and / or foodstuffs, and the mites are valued for their skills in this area. Gremlins of various sorts, but particularly pugwampi and vexgits, are regarded as despised vermin, to be eradicated on sight, with bounties for their tiny bodies, and a team consisting of a gnoll, her two sons (rangers with favored enemy (fey) and an array of cold iron weaponry) and a few bugbears calling themselves Coldest Iron Solutions, specialize in hunting them down and eradicating them. Other than the gnolls of CIS, there are few gnolls, and none in respected positions or considered ‘useful’ by hobgoblins of rank (and recognizing that her kin are not considered ‘reliable’ by the hobgoblins, the matriarch of CIS tends to let her bugbear employees negotiate with hobgoblin authorities on her behalf). So far, the Duergar/'gray dwarves' contacted have proven hostile to the idea of an alliance, and it is believed that they covet the secrets of the Vault, which they consider ‘theirs’ and the hobgoblins currently in charge as usurpers. The final population also comes from the Vault itself, like the Ysoki, and consists of Oreads, which are given special status (Ysoki, not so much), somewhat below hobgoblins, but above most others, due to their ties to the earthen Vault, and an early alliance against pech and xiomorn, of whom they provided invaluable intelligence. They often remain *in* the Vault, and so are not as likely to be recognized as any significant fraction of the population by someone viewing Oprak from Golarion. A recent infusion of both abyssal and infernal tieflings/cambions* have come from the former Worldwound, and Cheliax, respectively, both feeling distinctly unwelcome, for different reasons, in the lands of their births, but are having to prove their worth individually, in many case, as few have any organization (save for one ‘thieves guild’ from Cheliax, which has useful scouting skills, but little regard for Opraki regulations, which has resulted in a few ‘examples’, by way of summary public execution, having to be made).

*I have no idea what aasimar and tieflings are called in Remastered, but have never loved either of those names, and prefer calling them nephilim and cambions, myself.

Of special note, the Oread population is a mixed society of originally dwarvish and orcish bloodlines, abducted away to serve the Vault Builders millena ago, which are not interfertile, but are otherwise completely integrated, and show no signs of the animosity between those two races seen outside of the Vault. Family units may have oreads of both dwarven and orcish heritage, although they cannot produce children together, and mixed marriages seek the intervention of ‘free agents’ of the appropriate heritage to bless them with children. (Mixed marriages of both dwarven and orcish pairings, and partners of the same gender are much more common, to the point of the practice being accepted as ‘the norm’ by this culture.) This culture had spent centuries defending itself against the Xiomorn-loyalist Pech, and the golems that they commanded on behalf of their reclusive masters, and it had taken hundreds of oread lives to slowly whittle down the number of golems available to the point where the two factions had reached a fragile détente, as the pech lacked the military strength to go on the offense (or will to risk any more of their nigh-unstoppable, but irreplaceable, war machines). The arrival of Azaersi and her forces ended that stalemate, as her forces drove the Pech before them, and the oreads seized their chance to strike their age-old oppressors from behind.

This sowed the seeds of the oread alliance with the Hobgoblin ‘invaders,’ whom they welcomed over the Pech, while fully aware that the Hobgoblins weren’t particularly nice people either, carefully negotiating from a position of strength and usefulness, providing Azaersi with all the intelligence (such as the strengths, tactics and few weaknesses of the Xiomorn themselves) she needed to seize the Onyx Vault without a much greater loss of hobgoblin life. As useful allies to Azaersi, their position would be stronger than as the worker slaves the Xiomorn had so long ago considered them, before they freed themselves. The one thing that became clear to Azaersi was that the oreads did not care what the hobgoblins did or wanted or believed in, but were adamant that they would not be slaves again, and she chose to accept their assistance, and honor her word to them to allow them a place as citizens of Oprak, if not necessarily on the same level as a hobgoblin soldier.

How the ratfolk found their way into the Vault, why they so rarely develop oread traits, and ‘which side they are on,’ remain perpetual mysteries. Ysoki dwell in concealed warrens that seem to move around, and have provided information and sometimes assistance to either faction, over the generations, but generally side more with the oreads than the pech/xiomorn, and did so this time as well, which is why Azaersi tolerates their presence and has not ordered them hunted down and eradicated from ‘her’ Vault (as she has the Xiomorn, and the Pech). She is all too aware of how militant societies, in absence of an ‘other’, tend to turn their aggressions on each other and tear themselves apart, and she somewhat cold-bloodedly wants to save the mostly-unobjectionable Ysoki as a convenient ‘other,’ if that time arises…

Opraki citizens – Hobgoblins (only hobgoblins have full citizen status), Kobolds (hundreds, dozens of which are studiously picking up adept or alchemist abilities, to make themselves ‘valuable’ to their hobgoblin superiors, those with the talent for neither are drafted into craftsman and combat engineer roles, or, lowest of the low, miners), Oreads (thousands in the Vault, dozens outside at any given time, most originally of orcish or dwarven, both somewhat bemused that their respective ancestral kin are bitter foes still in this world), Ysoki (hundreds in the Vault, hundreds outside as well, almost never have Oread traits, for unclear reasons), Bugbears (at least a hundred, which is practically a thriving metropolis for such a solitary race), Goblins (too many!), Minotaurs (a dozen or so), Ogres (Omashi, less than a dozen, oddly erudite, sophisticated and hygenic, for ogres, acting almost like smaller (dumber) cloud giants…), Strix (around thirty), Orcs (a few ‘ambassadors’ from both the Matanje and Belkzen, as much establishing ties with *each other*, and the Vault dwelling oread/orcs, as Azaersi’s hobgoblin nation, if nothing else, it’s sowing the seeds of a trans-continental, or even trans-planar *orc* alliance!), Mites (a dozen, or more?, more than the Opraki realize…), Gnolls (like, three?), Tieflings (several dozen, with more arriving as word spreads of a land more tolerant to their kind, almost all infernal and abyssal, generally from Cheliax and the former Worldwound). Goblins, thus far, do not rank as even ‘lesser’ citizens, unless they individually prove themselves worthy of such a promotion.

An unusually patient hobgoblin cleric of Zarongel is attempting to foster dozens upon dozens of goblins into at the very least, functioning as Adepts, if not actual Clerics of the faith. It is… not going great, but he hasn’t killed nearly as many as a less patient hobgoblin would have. (Attempting to train them to be ‘wolf / worg riders’, but actually as cannon-fodder / tail-gunners for the more intelligent, disciplined and competent worgs. Also attempting to train a group of goblin pyros, mostly alchemists, but more likely to carry alchemist’s fire into a fight and then die, hopefully exploding in the midst of the enemy? Disaster imminent…)

D&D races not mentioned – Drow, Svirfneblin, Morlocks, Derro, Serpentfolk, Mongrelfolk, Dire Corbies, Tengu, Wayangs, Vishkanya, Vanara, Nagaji,

Monsters – Giants, Minotaurs, Ogres, Ettins, Hags (a single Annis Hag witch provides arcane spellcasting services for those, mostly non-hobgoblins, who seek that sort of magic), Naga (several individual naga of various types have flocked to Oprak, only to find the welcome chillier than expected, thanks to Azaersi’s lingering resentment over Zanathura’s betrayal), Lamia, Harpies, Aranea, Jorogamu, Deep Ones, Sahuagin, Locathah, Merfolk, Tritons, Aasimar, Tieflings, Barghests, Trolls, Troglodytes, Skum, Vampires, Dopplegangers (required to register their true form, which has proven unpopular), Ogre Magi, Rakshasa, Urdefan, Redcaps, Quicklings (three serve as fast messengers, competing with Strix and Scamps (primarily Dust) for this duty),

Scamps – Earth, Ooze, Magma, Dust
Crystal, Root

Earth scamps are the most common scamps, and spent centuries working on behalf of the pech and xiomorn, which they didn’t really care for, and are just happy to be freed from that onerous never-ending drudgery, although they aren't finding the hobgoblins much better... (Another group work for a Shaitan, and he alternately treats them affectionately, condescendingly or even dismissively, as the mood takes him, but they seem to adore him regardless.)

Magma and Ooze scamps want A) to be left alone and B) to expand their territories. Azaersi wants neither of these things. She’s actively planning on draining the swampy territories and reclaiming that usable land, which will probably require her to set a price on ooze scamp heads, soon enough, as they put up a feeble, but annoying, resistance.

Dust scamps had a great deal as exclusive messengers, and milked it for all that they could. They HATE that the Strix have arrived and are much more cooperative and competent and have ‘ruined this gig for them,’ but after a few scamps attacked and waylaid Strix who had ‘stolen their jobs’ and were made violent and fatal examples of by Azaersi’s commanders in the field, they have grumbled and begun to slowly comply… Many dust scamps petulantly abandoned their posts, marking them as unreliable, and ironically leading to *more* Strix finding work as messengers. Dust scamps, lazy, but also dumb.

Crystal scamps are rare, and used to being treated as living jewelry, kept as pampered pets, or treated like prized bits of treasure, and are not at all fond of the hobgoblin preference for function over form, since they much prefer being pretty and idle, than useful and doing work.
(Found primarily in the planes of Earth and Metal, and interstitial spaces between them, crystal scamps are one of the rarer breeds of scamps, often kept as decorative household accents by earth genies and other notables in the plane of Earth. It’s not clear whether nature or nurture is responsible for their truly supernatural sense of narcissism and vanity, but, given how incredibly over-the-top it can be, the best answer might be ‘yes, to both.’)

Root scamps are somewhat concerned about the amount of logging going on, and are at a loss what to do about it, other than maybe encourage the hobgoblins to build more out of earth and rock, perhaps in some way involving setting fire to some of their wooden constructions? That can only end well.
(Also a rarer breed of scamp, found primarily in the planes of Earth and Wood, root scamps are slow to, well, everything. Anger, movement, thought. They don’t get worked up for much, or, at all. They can very, very slowly move through even the strongest rock, though, and are potentially useful for crafting tunnels, for those who are in no hurry...)

Hobgoblins (or Ysoki) born in the Vault have a remote chance to have Oread traits, and / or inclinations towards Elemental (earth) sorcery, or the Stone oracle Mystery. Other races settling into the Vault include goblins (not technically invited, but it has proven challenging keeping them out…) and kobolds, both of whom breed faster than hobgoblins, are even more prone to Oread traits, or Earth Elemental sorcery or Stone Mystery oracular talents.

New division commander has integrated many ‘extended visitors’ from Koa Lin, and is herself from that community, being an Ogre Magi magus. While on ‘detached duty’ in Oprak, they represent their homeland, but also are expected to be faultlessly loyal to Oprak, so long as they are not asked to betray their homeland (so as to set a good example).

A Shaitan ambassador dwells in the Vault, and has not been seen to leave it (and is indeed rumored to be trapped there, if not by magic, by some oath or duty). He is attended by myriad scamps, who regard him as their lord, and some earth elementals of various sizes, and has malachite skin marbled with gold, his hair is fine chains of red and yellow gold, his eyes are black opals, and he has the power to create +1 Large distance spears of cold iron or silver as a free action, which disappear if anyone else lays a hand on them, or at the end of a round if they leave his grasp.

652. Trembleweed
Nibbling on this grassy plant results in it's burr-covered seeds getting stuck to an animals fur, and, nature perhaps hoped, carried far away from the parent plant. To encourage this sort of migration, trembleweed contains an alkaloid that makes most mammalian ingesters a bit jumpy and nervous, which, ideally, would have made them travel some distance from the parent plant. Instead, most creatures who live in the plains climate trembleweed thrives in, avoid the stuff after the first episode of 'nerves' knowing that it 'didn't feel safe' in the area.

Trembleweed turned out to be just too darn good at making creatures nervous for their own good! It's fairly rare in the wild, as a result, but is prized for making a tea with stimulant properties that is quite useful for dealing with a local form of 'sleeping sickness' that leaves people lethargic and feeling drained.

And so the plant has actually come full circle, as it is has proven useful to local people who cultivate it for it's medicinal uses, making it more common in herb gardens than the wild, these days.

Like any large organisation, some are in it for the grift and personal gain, some are true believers, most are probably just going with the flow because even if Razmir isn't a god, he's powerful enough (politically and magically) that functionally there's no difference.

That sounds about right. In Golarion, Aroden, Iomedae, Cayden Cailean, Norgorber, Irori, Urgathoa and Nethys all ascended from human(ish?) to god status, so it's not even unbelievable that Razmir could just be the *eighth* person to make the jump. And even if one isn't convinced that he really did, he's still powerful enough that it doesn't matter. Tar-Baphon doesn't claim to be a god, and yet still killed a (demi)god. Geb doesn't claim to be a god, and still raised one up and bound her to his side as his undead queen.

And there's the brainwashing said to happen. I suspect that 'priests' who are a little too openly Doubting Thomas' get brought to Thronestep for some attitude adjusting, and come back full-throated 'I have seen the light! Hallalujah! Have you heard the good word of Razmir?' which leads anyone with a bit more discretion to keep any doubts they have about Razmir's divinity entirely to themselves.

And, bear in mind, not a single person who doubts Razmir's 'divinity' has ever had the gall to walk up to Nethys and ask him to *prove* that he's a god, and not just a ludicrously powerful Archmage... :)

None of the 'big 20' have really provided proof of divinity. to the people of Golarion They have clerics that cast healing spells, but Razmir's got 'priests' that can, in some cases, cast healing spells as well (even if they have class levels in Bard, rather than Cleric...).

And few, if any, folk outside of Razmir's immediate borders, have any idea that Razmir doesn't have clerics, anyway. I live in a world with information about stuff going on across the world at my fingertips, and I have no idea if a dentist certified to operate as such in Indonesia, would count as a licensed dentist in the United States. I doubt someone living in Andoran would have the slightest clue about the ecclesiastical status of 'priests' in an old established nation like Qadira, let alone some little podunk River Kingdom like Razmiran.

I am curious about whether or not there are any survivors of the original ruling family (an heir to the 'Duke of Melcat'), who might find themselves propped up (possibly with their enthusiastic approval, perhaps very much against their will!) to serve as a legitimizing face for a movement to oust Razmir... Or, even if there aren't any such survivors, could an 'heir' be manufactured with some magical chicanery?

This is a world where people opposed to a woman leading Taldor would dig up a grave to find a suitable challenger for her claim...

Quark Blast wrote:

@Aaron

You mention here, in part, "For years, I've been seeking out stories - mostly novels - told from a nonhuman point of view. And I mean REAL animals, behaving as animals do; I don't mean anthropomorphic animals communicating with each other in complex sentences."

Have you tried Hollow Kingdom?

Written from exactly the POV you describe liking. My cousin's wife has been trying to get me to read this for a few years.

I've never heard of it. I just jotted down the title and author for future reference. Thank you.

I'm sure this author has been mentioned before, perhaps in this very thread, or by one you in particular (such is the rubbish that is my A) memory and B) ability to use this site's search function reliably), but Adrian Tchaikovsky [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Tchaikovsky]

The series starting with Children of Time is one of the better ones, but the series starting with the Tiger and the Wolf, and the trilogy starting with Dogs of War are also good.

None of the nations are really a 1:1 take on real world nations or cultures but some things in the setting are clearly inspired by real life.

I'm basically looking for a really repressive atmosphere, where it's due to the people and not any separate supernatural thing like the threat of the Worldwound or Tar-Baphon. A domineering government with a vast spy network of secret police dedicated more towards surveilling its own populace than outside threats.

Razmiran seems is a little like this but is there anything with a party-based leadership and not a god-king? If not, is there any place that seems like it could turn that way? There's been a lot of turnover since the setting popped up. Maybe Molthune or Ravounel?

In the 'repressed puppet state of a larger regime' stance, Isger, vassal of Cheliax, seems like it might have some East Germany vibes.

But yeah, Razmiran definitely feels like a place where your masked 'allies' would be likely to report you for an off-color joke and have you dragged off to Thronestep for 'attitude adjustment' / reprogramming.

Claxon wrote:

I think a concept within Pathfinder is that worship can grant a being divine power, but worship isn't required to maintain divine power. And also the amount of worshippers doesn't translate to amount of divine power.

That's definitely how it seems to work for the goblin gods, at least. Lamashtu and the Bargast Hero-Gods aren't happy about it, either.

Indeed, if more worshippers meant more power, then gods with relatively few devout worshippers, like Nethys, would be practically powerless compared to Lamashtu, who has large percentages of multiple races devoted to her (goblins, gnolls, minotaurs) as well as probably almost as many human followers as Nethys!

It would also introduce such wonkiness that I wouldn't love as 'the sooner your followers DIE, the sooner you harvest their power, and the less likely they are to embrace the following of one of the 29,943 other gods competing for their souls in the mortal world,' which would encourage A) kill 'em young, by encouraging wars and crusades, if nothing else, and B) gods with shorter lived followers (like goblins) being vastly more powerful than gods with long lived or deathless followers (like gods of elves, gods of androids, or gods with a lot of vampire / lich / ghoul followers).

Oh, and extra wonky bit. It would also encourage *not* killing followers of a hated deity because doing so empowers them. Very real motivation for using spells like Temporal Stasis or Imprisonment, or alternate (cheaper) techniques like Flesh to Stone or Baleful Polymorph (to some really long lived and simple creature, like a box tortoise), to take the souls of their followers that you defeat and deny them to the god they serve. If every goblin you kill just makes Lamashtu .000001% stronger than Sarenrae, suddenly her 'redeem 'em, don't kill 'em!' stance feel less merciful and more mercenary...

Golarion's gods are already a bit of a hodgepodge. You got 'gods that always were' (Pharasma), gods that clawed their way to godhood (Irori, Nethys, Urgathoa), gods that are top-tier outsiders (Lamashtu, Asmodeus), gods that became gods because of a big space rock in Absalom (Iomedae, Cayden, Norgorber) and gods who got rich the old fashioned way, by inheriting it (Shelyn, Dou-Bral/Zon-Kuthon, possibly Kurgess?).

I love that they have multiple origin points, and aren't all one big (incestuous) family, like the Greek or Norse or Egyptian pantheons can sometimes appear.

Bardic inspiration die?

Level of exhaustion?

Yeah, that was Golarion stuff adapted to D&D 5e, so not necessarily useful to Pathfinder 1e or 2e fans.

I go where my friends go, which did broaden my Realms-specific horizons back in the day and get me into Greyhawk and even Spelljammer, so it's not all dire!

Adapting stuff, I noted that there was a lot for some classes, like the Wizard, in particular (Cyphermage, Hemotheurge, Magaambyan, Arclord, Thassilonian Sin-Specialist), and not a ton for others, like the Ranger.

So, something for the Ranger;

Chernasado Warden (Ranger)

Level 3: Sprite’s Teachings. You become Proficient in Stealth and Survival. If you are already Proficient in one of these skills, you gain Expertise with that skill.

Additionally, you have Advantage on Acrobatics and Athletics checks in forested terrain.

Finally, you add Find Familiar to your spell list, but can only use it to summon a Fey spirit, or, at 11th level, a Sprite.

Level 3: Guerilla Tactics. If you have Advantage on an Attack roll, and have Weapon Mastery with the weapon with which you made the attack, you can choose to use Vex, Sap or Slow, instead of the usual Weapon Mastery property. If the weapon is a Heavy Crossbow, Longbow, Heavy weapon or Two-Handed weapon, you can also use Cleave, Graze, Push or Topple instead of the weapon’s normal Mastery property.

Additionally, you ignore Difficult Terrain when using the Dash or Disengage maneuvers in forested terrain.

Level 7: Sneak Attack. You gain 2d6 Sneak Attack, like the Rogue feature of the same name.

Level 11: Unchained Heart. As a Reaction, you can give yourself Advantage on a saving throw versus compulsions and mind-affecting effects, if you succeed on the resulting saving throw, you then have Advantage on attack rolls against the source of the spell until the end of your next turn. You can take this action twice, and then must complete a Long Rest before doing so again.

Level 15: Phantom Strike. You are no longer affected by nonmagical Difficult Terrain, and do not treat a Heavily Obscured area as Difficult Terrain.

Additionally, when you hit a creature who is unaware of your presence, they take an additional 2d6 Sneak Attack damage and must make a Wisdom save or be Frightened for 1 minute. They are allowed another Wisdom save each round to end the Frightened condition. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier, and then must complete a Long Rest before doing so again.

Finally, as a Magic Action, you can create a Sylvan Hideaway, creating a passageway within the ground that acts like Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion with the following changes; Range is 30 feet, floorplan is a number of 10 foot cubes equal to your Proficiency Bonus, only has enough food and water for 10 people, and there are no servants. The furnishings are decidedly less opulent, and more rural in character, but no less functional. You can create a Sylvan Hideaway once, and then must complete a Long Rest before doing so again. Any existing Sylvan Hideaway ends if you create a new one.

[Most of the spells that Chernasado Wardens get as SLAs are already on the Ranger list, but obviously no substitute for the Spectral Scout or Sylvan Hideaway spells, so I just sort of tweaked Find Familiar to fit the theme and be usable as a scout, and Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion, which, as it was written was a few levels above what a Ranger could ever have anyway, to downgrade it to more Sylvan Hideaway levels of effect. The Chernasado Warden, unlike some other adaptations where I feel like I'm chainsawing off class features to squeeze them into the much tighter 5e subclass format, actually came out leaner than usual for me, which is way closer to how 5e tends to do it.]

Random other Golarian specific stuff adapted for the D&D 5e rules.

Varisian Harrower (Bard)
3, 3, 6, 14 or 3, 6, 6, 14

Level 3: Harrow Deck
You receive a special Harrow Deck, which is treated as a Gaming Set, and are Proficient in its use, but can also be used as one or more Daggers. The individual cards are never lost or damaged by being Thrown, and reappear in your deck when you next complete a Long Rest, if lost, stolen or destroyed. If you expend a Bardic Inspiration die when you Attack with your Harrow Cards in this fashion, you do Bonus damage equal to your Inspiration die, and can choose for this attack to do Force or Psychic damage.

Your Harrow Deck can also be used as a Spellcasting Focus.

At 6th level, the cards from your deck are treated as magical weapons, for the purposes of Resistance to damage from non-magical weapons, you gain the Mastery Property of Nick when using your Harrow cards as daggers, and you are treated as holding a shield and receive a +1 bonus to Armor Class when holding your special Harrow cards in one or both hands.

Level 3: Blessing of the Harrow
When you complete a Long Rest, you can perform a Harrow reading for yourself and a number of allies equal to your Charisma modifier. Roll 6d6, with 1’s representing Strength, 2’s Dexterity, 3’s Constitution, 4’s Intelligence, 5’s Wisdom and 6’s Charisma. Those affected can choose to have Advantage with a number of d20 Tests with the Attribute that appears the most in your roll, equal to your Proficiency Bonus, until the end of your next Long Rest. In case of a tie, you choose which of those Attributes receives the buff.

Level 6: Harrow Casting
You can draw a single card as part of the action of casting a spell. Roll 1d6, and if the number on the card is 2, representing Dexterity, and your spell requires an Attack roll, you can grant yourself Advantage on that Attack roll. If your spell gives the target a saving throw, and you rolled the number associated with that Attribute, you can give the opponent Disadvantage on that saving throw. You can always draw a card as part of casting a spell, but can only choose to give yourself Advantage, or a target Disadvantage in this manner if you choose to expend a Bardic Inspiration die.

You can also use your Harrow deck to cast Augury or Cloud of Daggers, and always have both spells prepared. You can cast Cloud of Daggers, which manifests as a cloud of razor-edged Harrow cards, twice without expending a spell slot, but cannot do so again before completing a Long Rest.

Level 14: Dancer with Destiny
Using your Harrow Deck, you can cast Blade Barrier, Contact Other Plane, Divination or Speak with Dead, and always have these spells Prepared. When you cast Speak with Dead in this manner, the spell takes 10 minutes to cast, and your Blade Barrier manifests as a swirling barrier of razor edged Harrow cards.

[As usual, trying to capture the theme of the Prestige Class, and setting, and the cool visuals from the Harrow Handbook!, while keeping to the preferred mechanics of D&D 5e subclasses. Some Prestige Classes, are narrow enough that they *might* even work as Feats... Some attempts at that follow.]

Thassilonian Sin-Mage
General Feat (Prerequisite: Level 4+, Specialist Wizard (Abjurer, Conjurer, Enchanter, Evoker, Illusionist, Necromancer or Transmuter))
Starting at the level you take this feat, one of the two Wizard spells you gain each level must be from your School of Specialization. In addition, the spell you gain each level from the ‘Savant’ class feature for your School of Specialization must still be a spell of a level you can cast, and from your School of Specialization, but it can come from *any* class list.

[On the one hand, this Feat leaves the Thassilonian Specialist with no additional spells over any other Wizard of the same level, but does widely open up their versatility, particularly for Specialists in schools whose spells have a lot of options on other lists, like Enchanters and Conjurers. It is, perhaps, not so great for Evokers, since many of the sexy Evocation spells are already on the Wizard list...]

Risen Guard
General Feat (Prerequisite: Level 4+, Must have been raised, reincarnated or resurrected from the dead, Revivify is not sufficient for this purpose.)
Your soul has been anchored to your body after being called back from the Boneyard by a gem embedded into your forehead called a Ka stone. This stone cannot be destroyed or removed, and gives you the ability to avoid a repeat of your original death. Whenever you take damage that would reduce you to 0 Hit Points, you can instead choose to remain at 1 Hit Point. Taking this action gives you 1 level of Exhaustion, and you cannot take it again until you no longer have any levels of Exhaustion.

Razmiran Priest
(General Feat, Prerequisite: Level 4+, Spellcasting or Pact Magic Feature)
You add False Life to your spells known and always have it prepared. Additionally, you can cast False Life (either by spell or invocation) on an ally by Touch.

If a target is suffering from Hit Point damage, and you affect them with a spell or invocation that grants them Temporary Hit Points, the target must make a Medicine or Religion check at your spell DC or believe that you have cured them of Hit Point damage they have received by using a spell such as Cure Wounds or Word of Healing.

Finally, at 14th level, you add Power Word Fortify to your spells known and always have it prepared.

Masked Caster (available toboth Halycon Speakers and Hellknight Signifers)
(General Feat, Prerequisite: Level 4+, Spellcasting or Pact Magic Feature)
You have a mask that conceals your features, but does not impede your vision, hearing or speech. If it is lost or destroyed, you can replace or repair it over your next Long Rest. It functions as an Arcane Focus, Druidic Focus or Holy Symbol, as appropriate to your spellcasting class.

While wearing this mask, you have Advantage on any saving throw to resist a Divination spell cast by any creature that does not know your true name and identity. In addition, while wearing this mask, as a Reaction you can give yourself Advantage on any saving throw against an Enchantment spell cast by a creature that does not know your true name and identity. If you succeed on this saving throw, the caster of the Enchantment spell is Frightened of you until the end of your next turn. Once you use this Reaction, you must complete a Long or Short rest before you can do so again.

So the Forgotten Realms setting had like, a bajillion new spells, and it felt like 20% of them followed a pattern. Weapon (sword, staff, whip, mace) of (force, fire, lightning). Floating balls what spin around the caster and absorb attacks (maybe spells, maybe a specific energy like lightning or force) and can be sent off to deliver that energy (or cast those absorbed spells). Ways to cast multiple spells in a round (variations on Contingency, by such luminaries as Elminster and the Witch-Queen of Aglarond).

Inspired by that sort of spell design philosophy, but with Golarion flavor, I present;

Sihedron Strike
You conjure a spinning sihedron rune that floats above and behind your head, the seven 'blades' of the sihedron individually as long as short swords and made of force. When you cast it, you can cause one or all of the blades to strike any target within medium range, doing force damage as a short sword. Those not commanded to strike will remain orbiting you and provide you with a +1 bonus to Armor Class and Reflex saves (for each remaining blade), as they move to intercept attacks directed at you. Blades that are sent to attack hit automatically and continue attacking their selected target as long as they remain within range, returning to station behind you if the target dies, or leaves range, or if you use a movement action to call them back (you can recall one or more of them as part of the same movement action).

At any time during the spell's duration, you can assign one or more blades to attack a single or separate targets as a standard action, but those blades will not be available for defensive purposes while attacking.

This is a snippet of an idea, which I haven't really worked out the mechanics for, but I kind of like the idea of using one settings 'design philosophy' to create something with flavor from a very different setting.

And a spell that sends sihedron blades spinning off to slash and stab folk? That's just good fun!

Friends have been playing D&D 5e, but have been using Golarion, as WotC seems weirdly embarrassed by their own lushly realized settings like Greyhawk, Athas, Krynn or Eberron, and is shy about really diving back into them.

So, some random ideas for Golarion-specific subclases;

Winter Witch (Warlock) 3,3, 6, 10, 14
Spells
3rd Find Familiar, Hex, Hold Person, Ice Knife, Ray of Frost
5th Bestow Curse, Sleet Storm
7th Charm Monster, Ice Storm
9th Cone of Cold, Geas

3rd Winter Witchery. Spells using the Warlocks spell slots that normally inflict Cold damage take effect as if cast with a spell slot one level higher. Additionally, spells or invocations that inflict acid, fire, lightning, necrotic, radiant or thunder damage, can instead inflict cold damage, but these spells do not qualify for the automatic heightening effect.

3rd Hexcraft / Beast of Ill Omen. If you have a Familiar and it is summoned, you can choose when you cast Bane, Hex or Bestow Curse that the Familiar maintains the Concentration on that spell, in your stead. Your Familiar can only maintain Concentration on a single spell, and must remain within 30 ft. of you to do so.
Additionally, have the Potent Cantrip feature of an Evoker, but it only applies to Ray of Frost.

6th Winter Walker / The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway. You have Resistance to Cold damage. You do not treat snow or ice as Difficult terrain, and if winter conditions, including magical ones, such as from the Sleet Storm spell, would make an area Heavily Obscured, you treat it as Lightly Obscured. If such conditions would make an area Lightly Obscured, you are unpenalized.
Additionally, Ray of Frost’s damage dice become d8s.

10th Uttercold. The only targets that have Resistance against Cold damage from your spells or invocations are those that would normally be Immune to Cold damage.
Additionally, Ray of Frost’s damage dice become d10’s.

14th Advanced Witchery / Grand Mal Damme. You add Otiluke’s Freezing Sphere and Wall of Ice to your spells known, and like other spells you cast with Warlock slots that inflict Cold damage, they are automatically heightened to use slots one higher than your current slot level.
Additionally, Ray of Frost’s damage dice become d12s.

Umbral Court Shadowcaster (Sorcerer) 3, 3, 6, 14, 18

Tenebrous Spells
3rd Bane, Darkness, Entangle, Phantasmal Force, Thorn Whip
5th Phantom Steed, Vampiric Touch
7th Evard’s Black Tentacles, Phantasmal Killer
9th Dominate Person, Hold Monster

3rd Eyes of Night. You gain Darkvision with a range of 60 ft. If you already have Darkvision, its range increases by 60 ft. You can also see in magical darkness of your own creation. Additionally, you are Proficient in Stealth.

6th Shadowcraft. You can spend one minute weaving together threads of shadow into simple tangible objects. Any item that can be made by Fast Crafting (p 201) can be crafted, and will remain in existence until you dismiss it, or the completion of your next Long Rest. You can have a number of such shadowcraft objects equal to your Charisma modifier.
Additionally, if you have a Tool proficiency in an Artisan Tool, at the end of a Long Rest, you can craft one item from those craftable items on p 220-221. You do not need to actually have Artisan Tools or materials for this crafting, but do need the Proficiency. In the case of a Spell Scroll, it must be one of a spell that you know. This item also remains in existence until you dismiss it or the completion of your next Long Rest. You can only have one of these special shadowcraft creations in existence at any time, and expendable items, such as Spell Scrolls, Potions of Healing or alchemical Acid, are consumed when used, as normal for such items.

14th Shadows Dance. You add Summon Beast, Summon Undead, Summon Aberration, Summon Dragon and Summon Fiend to your spells known, but these spells are Illusion spells, the creatures summoned have half normal hit points, and are Vulnerable to Radiant damage. You can cast these spells with spell slots, or by expending Sorcery Points equal to the level of the spell.
Additionally, If you are entirely within Dim Light or Darkness, you can use a Bonus Action to teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space that you can see that is also in Dim Light or Darkness. You can do this a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus and then require a Long Rest to recover. If you have no uses remaining when you finish a Short Rest, you recover a single use.

18th Shadow of Yourself. As a Bonus Action or Reaction, you can transform into shadow, becoming Immune to Bludgeoning, Piercing and Slashing damage, Resistant to Acid, Cold and Necrotic damage, and Vulnerable to Radiant damage. In this form, you move at twice your normal ground speed, and are Partially Incorporeal and can move through occupied spaces as if they were Difficult Terrain. If you end your turn in such a space, you are shunted to the last unoccupied space you were in. You cannot make any physical attacks or manipulate any solid object in this form. This effect lasts 1 minute, unless Dismissed early, and once you return to your corporeal form, you cannot return to shadow until you have completed a Short or Long Rest.

Cyphermage (Wizard)
Wizard 3, 3, 6, 10, 14

3rd Swift Scrivener. You start with Calligrapher’s Supplies and are Proficient with them. Additionally, you can Fast Craft a level 0 or 1 Spell Scroll after completing a Long Rest, so long as you have Calligrapher’s Supplies. As with normal Fast Crafted materials, these Scrolls become nonmagical after you complete your next Long Rest.

3rd Scroll Specialist. When you Activate a Scroll of a spell in your Spellbook, you can use your own attack roll or Save DC, instead of the flat +5 / DC 13, if you wish.
When you Craft (but not Fast Craft!) a Scroll, you no longer need to have that spell prepared, but it must be in your Spellbook.

6th Bibliophile You can now Fast Craft a Scroll of a 2nd level spell, or two Scrolls of Cantrips or 1st level spells. Additionally, you can now Fast Craft a 1st level Scroll after a Short Rest, but these Scrolls become nonmagical after your next Short Rest.
You no longer need to have a spell prepared to Fast Craft a Scroll of it, but the spell must be in your Spellbook.

10th Archivist You can now Fast Craft Scrolls of up to 3 levels of spells after a Long Rest, or 2 levels of spells after a Short Rest (which become nonmagical after your next Short Rest).
When you Craft (but not Fast Craft!) a Scroll, it can be any spell on your spell list, even if you do not have that spell in your Spellbook.

14th Master Inscriptionist You can now Fast Craft Scrolls of up to 6 levels of spells after a Long Rest, or 3 levels of spells after a Short Rest (which become nonmagical after your next Short Rest).
When you Fast Craft a spell after a Long Rest, it can be any spell on your spell list, even if you do not have that spell in your Spellbook.

[As much as possible, I do not want to reinvent the wheel, so I tried to use rules and concepts that already existed in 5e, like Fast Crafting or Potent Cantrips.]

I loved Clancy Brown's Kurgan, but Rutger Hauer as the Kurgan? Ooh. I'd also like to see the movie that would have been!

Winter Witch / Irriseni curses

46) Summer Will Never Return - when the temperature is normal or lower, you experience it one step lower, to a maximum of extreme cold (if the temperature is punishingly hot, you receive no such modification). If you have cold resistance, it does not apply to the nonlethal damage of extreme cold exposure.

47) Respect Your Betters - whenever you strike a Jadwiga (insert class of individuals for non-Winter Witch uses, Nethyn priests might curse you when you strike spellcasters, Calistrians when you strike elves, etc.), the Jadwiga takes half damage, and you take the other half (as if they benefited from a Shield Other, with you are the damage-recipient). This applies to damage from physical attacks, spells or spell-like abilities alike.

48) No Escape - any step outside of the borders of Irrisen counts as difficult terrain, and you remain shaken the entire time. This stacks with other forms of difficult terrain (but not with other sources of fear). Movement that is (more or less) *back* towards the border is not penalized. Mother forgives those who stray and return. Not really, but it sounds nice...

Chelish / Asmodean curses

Respect Your Betters is obviously popular.

49) Asmodean Brand - a glaring red pentacle appears branded on your flesh, usually in a visible area like the cheek or forehead or throat. Any cleric of Asmodeus or member of House Thrune can, as a standard action, cause it to flare up, nauseating you with pain, once per round. [Similar to the 'lose 50% of actions', but requires a foe to spend their own action to hinder yours.] Additionally, whenever you attack or otherwise oppose (even in a contested skill check, like attempting to Bluff one) against a cleric of Asmodeus or member of House Thrune, you suffer the penalties of being sickened. This is a pain effect.

50) Fires of Hell - fire damage directed at you counts as half fire damage and half profane damage (which ignores fire resistance). Any time you take hit points of fire damage equal to your total Hit Dice, you catch on fire, and the DC to extinguish these infernal flames is equal to the DC of the original attack. Against attacks that already cause one to catch on fire, the DC to extinguish this condition increases by five.

51) Evil Is as Evil Does - you radiate a strong aura of evil, like a cleric of Asmodeus, and when you cast a spell like summon monster that optionally *can* be an Evil spell, it automatically becomes an evil spell. Any animal you attempt to summon always has the fiendish quality, and you cannot summon any creature with the Good type, such as an archon, angel or azata. You are treated as evil for the purposes of any spells or abilities that detrimentally affect evil individuals, such as Holy Smite, Holy Word, Holy Aura or Protection from Evil.

Eagly rocks harder than ever in this 5th episode.

I wonder if

Other people do other stuff, but whatever. Eagly!

I am kinda hoping Adrian gets a chance to shine soon. I'm not sure if we've even seen him in costume yet?

Oh, that had better have been foreshadowing when Adrian said, 'I wonder if there's another version of me over there?' Anyone else might learn something from meeting an AU version of themselves, perhaps a hard lesson about how other people see them. Not Adrian, I suspect!

IIRC, in Byrne's Man of Steel, Lara expressed some unease at humans for being 'savages' and wondered aloud to Jor-El if their son would 'teach them proper Kryptonian values,' and Jor-El seemed less concerned about such things. (In her defense, she was seeing humans for the first time, in the context of 'these people are going to be raising my baby,' and Jor-El had been studying and acclimating himself to Earth and humanity for weeks, if not months. Plus Byrne can be wildly misogynistic at times, so there's also that.)

I could see this message as a shout-out to this story beat.

It would hardly be the first Superman treatment to present Krypton as far from idyllic. The last run of movies had a caste system where the 'leader caste' seemed stone-cold terrible at leadership, the 'military caste' seemed completely bugnuts crazy, and the 'science caste' seemed to be, if Jor-El's scene in the beginning was any indication, way better at fighty stuff than half the military caste!

I'm personally more interested in Lex having faked the message, but I'm willing to see what Gunn has in mind if it's genuine, since we've always had unpleasant Kryptonian factions, like General Zod's people, and we've always had a version of Krypton that is, one way or another, more or less responsible for their own genocide (whether they caused it, in some versions, or simply ignored warnings and let it happen, in others).

I'm a little confused by that particular headcanon. If the Kelesh Empire's fallen apart, then what kind of imperial censure is the ruler of Qadira restraining his ambitions for? The whole thing keeping the Taldan-Qadiran conflict from reigniting is the much bigger fish that would eat the Satrap if he got cocky.

Oh, that's easy. The Satrap is lying. He talks a lot of smack, but really doesn't want to get into a fight and have his total lack of powerful backing exposed. (By pretending that Qadira is just a border province of a vast and powerful empire, that, uh, you can't see from here, he hopes to discourage anyone else from attacking *him.*)

He's totally the sketchy guy with a hot girlfriend, but you wouldn't know her, she's from Canada...

He gets to blame his own hesitance among the more red-meat-hungry members of his own forces, on 'orders from above.' Almost nobody in Qadira has made the long journey into 'greater Kel' and knows that they have spent the last few decades squabbling over some succession crisis, and are more or less a beast without a head, ineffectual and lacking the sort of power and influence that Qadirans take such pride in.

But it is just headcanon. I just like the idea of some things being 'known' (in this case by an entire culture) being, in fact, misleading, or wildly exaggerated.

An animated zombie that doesnt even have a soul

At various times, even mindless undead have been described as requiring a fragment of a soul torn from the original. This seems unlikely to be always true, given spontaneous undead, but ymmv

I could see the creation of undead as anathema to *all* gods, from Iomedae to Asmodeus, if animating a corpse as a zombie could tear souls (or fragments of souls) out of Asmodeus's hells or Iomedae's heavens.

Once Pharasma has sent someone's soul on to it's final destination, I'm not sure I love the idea of a spell being able to drag them back, particularly for a process of animation that is, IMO, not particularly advantageous over what transmutation already does through animate objects.

Necromancy, more and more, is kind of junk, and should just be removed from the game, rather than all sorts of arbitrary 'some god says you are destroying the universe by using it!' not-really-rules.

Save the space in the book for stuff we are supposed to use (and not going to be judged for using, or even finding interesting)!

If you reject the idea undeath hurts the cycle of souls in some way, then you are unlikely to agree with Pharasma's view. If you agree that undeath damages souls and degrades the cycle, hastening the death of the universe and potentially damaging future births of universes...then it becomes obvious why undeath is inherently a problem, even if its not a problem for any specific (non-deity) to worry about (because you wont exist when it becomes a problem).

I am somewhat intrigued by how this cycle of souls requires a timely process of birth->life->death to function. An animated zombie, who doesn't even have a soul, last a mere decade, before collapsing into rot and ruin, or being 'killed', and yet an elf, who keeps her soul out of the cycle for centuries, or someone who drinks the Sun Orchid Elixir, to do likewise, is not 'gumming up the works' in the same way.

If the cycle of souls being delayed or degraded is 'the answer', it's applied inconsistently, at best. As a non-good, non-lawful entity, it would make sense for Pharasma to be almost as opposed to races that live for centuries (like elves), or individuals (like high level Thassilonian wizards named Sorshen) who just flip her off and refuse to age and die and surrender their soul back to the cycle.

I wonder also what sort of creatures have souls, in game. She clearly isn't a goddess of vegetarians, so killing animals and 'desecrating' their corpses by making leather and meat out of them, seems perfectly fine with much of her church. (Although eating nothing but cold turnip stew sounds appropriately 'ugh' for the 'life must be misery' Pharasmin Penitence...) Are people's culturally inclined to those sorts of behaviors (eating 'people,' making stuff out of bone), like lizardfolk or gnolls, automatically anathema to her church? Are animals that desecrate the dead by their very nature, like worms, vultures, hyenas, etc. seen as part of the natural order, or filthy creatures? (I could see different orders of Pharasmins having wildly different views on this point, and Pharasma herself perhaps not caring in the slightest, if animals don't have souls and are just 'doing their job!')

It does seem she draws a hard line at undead, even if some undead (skeletons and zombies) don't *appear* to have bupkiss to do with the river of souls, while others (liches and mummies) don't do more than an elf or Sun Orchid elixir purchaser in keeping their own soul past their sell-by date. (Shadows, wraiths, spectres, any sort of undead that pretty much *is* a (usually discorporate) soul, and can, with a touch, pull some other living person out of the cycle, I could see being her enemy #1, by this logic.)

Coincidentally, the exact sort of undead that I, when playing a necromancer, loathe as well. :)

What would another con based class look like?

A 'Vitalist' that manipulates life-force to damage others (by draining their life force), heals allies (by infusing them with their own life force), buffs allies (more vitality!), debuffs foes (fatigue, etc.) and enhances themselves (burn that excess vitality for Rage like benefits) could be interesting.

Somewhat more adjacent abilities could allow them to manipulate people's or animals feelings (depress or energize them), or cause plants to grow or wither, or food to decay or freshen. A bit of 'psychic vampire' on the side, perhaps, able to bring down a room, or get a crowd pumped.

I think a mesmerist, or mesmerist-like class with a different name, would be a cool addition. Their method of implanting abilities in their friends via their mental tricks, sort of setting up multiple tiny contingency spells, and locking down a singular enemy with their stare could blossome into something to really help them stand out from other casters.

Assuming they stayed casters at all. I think you could make a fun mesmerist who doesn't do any slotted spellcasting and have a cool mesmerist.

I found the Mesmerist to be an embarrassment of riches. I would have *loved* a Mesmerist AT that focused *entirely* on Tricks, implanting them all day long in multiple allies, etc. but had no spells at all.

OR another Mesmerist who focused entirely on the Stare abilities, and, again, no need for spells. A 'Basilisk' AT that could focus Stares on two people at a time, and take extra Stare feats, and just gaze of doom enemies!

Much like the Alchemist (bombs or mutagens), before it, or the Druid (wild shape or animal companion), even before that, it was a class that had multiple class abilities that would, IMO, have been a great chassis for an entire class, with all the other stuff feeling like it just split the focus and made it not really great at the one thing I wanted to focus on (or any of the other things, it seemed, too many very distinct class features, that often didn't synergize particularly well).

That's one reason why I wanted to discuss this, frankly: it feels like there's a disconnect between Pathfinder and Starfinder's opinions on undeath, Starfinder treating undead as morally neutral while Pathfinder implies they're not.

While yes, the devs have stated one game's canon doesn't impact the other, I feel like this is something that could cause problems for writers of both games in the future, as they have different ideas on the fundamental metaphysics of the game world and the intended moral and ethical dynamics of their respective narratives.

** spoiler omitted **

It is possible that something can change, metaphysically or cosmologically, and that there *weren't* any 'morally neutral' forms of undeath, until, in the Starfinder era, yes, there was *now* one.

Either that specific form of undeath was special, perhaps even specifically designed in such a way as to avoid the cosmologically bad thing (much how liches or mummies pump so much magical energy into their creation process that they can exist for millenia that it slows most forms of entropic decay and get away from the sorts of hunger / degeneration faced by ghouls or vampires) *or* the entire universe has changed in such a way that the process itself is no longer hurtful to the river of souls.

So it doesn't *have* to mean that Gray Lady was wrong. Just that this is A) a specific exception that just came into existence recently or B) she was right *then*, but things are different *now.*

Admittedly, my preference, as always, is to find a reason why both things can be true. I prefer offering solutions to just pointing out problems!

And I prefer not to be part of the problem, when I can be *the entire problem!* :)

Eagly remains the best thing I never knew I wanted.

Wow, that was the least sexy orgy, ever. (And, clearly, deliberately so?)

Economos walking next to his boss makes him look like a fricking bear in a people suit. He's gigantic! (And / or the actor playing Flagg Sr. was shot in such a way to make him look tiny!)

175. Ring of Animal Fiendship This cold iron band resembles a creature with the head of a cat, lower body of a snake, and folded wings of a bat, coiled around one's finger. Once worn, it cannot be removed, and any familiar, animal companion or summoned animal gains the fiendish template, an evil alignment and does not respond to your commands (although it does not *automatically* attack you exclusively)...

176. Cloak of Arachnids This fine spider-silk cloak has a web motif and appears to be decorated with hundreds of barely visible spiders crafted of metal and stone. Once donned, if you try to remove it, or if it suffers any damage (from being specifically targeted, or the wearer being affected by AoE damage), it immediately transforms into a spider swarm and attacks the wearer.

177. Defunding weapon This magical weapon was intended to steal coin from the target struck, and transfer it to the user. But, no. It steals coin from the user, equal to 1 gp / hit point of damage inflicted, and that money goes straight to Mammon's vault, because he's like that.

If you run out of gold, damage inflicted is reduced appropriately, and if you have not a single gold worth of coinage, you can whale away all day and inflict zero damage. (A small saving grace, the weapon only consumes coinage, and will not devour jewelry or gemstones or valuable equipment to cover the expense of doing damage.)

I really want to know more about the greater Empire. the 1e book Qadira Jewel of the east really added a whole lot of details and fleshed out that satrapy and details on the Kelishites. Notably the Kelishite ethnicity is a delibertly constructed identity to bring about unity to the empire. There are six major ethnicities(Aishmayars, Althameri, Khattibi, Mideans, Susianams, Tzorehiyi) Each is associated with a virtue , and the kelishite identity as a whole is associated with Unity.

While it's 100% headcanon, I love the notion that Qadira is IT, and that this great empire barely even exists, having collapsed into feuding city-states, and being even more 'vaporware' than the 'great Taldan empire' (which itself has fragmented into several other countries).

Qadira talks all sorts of talk about how they are just the tip of a much, MUCH bigger spear, and have this 800 lb. gorilla backing them up, but they are just a last lingering echo of the empire's former glory, and it's such a successful smokescreen that the average citizen of Qadira (who, like most people in that day and age, will never travel more than a few days away from where they were born), *have no idea* that they are alone, and that there isn't some magical super-empire standing behind them.