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New page. BAM.
I'm running internet on my compy on Safe Mode, and my buddy who's gonna fix ér up isn't in town again until the 21st, so don't expect too much long-form texty from me until it's all back to functional.
But the good news is once it's all up and running, no long-term Akiton update blackouts!
I'd love to hear more from folks- ideas, thoughts, needs, what have you.
I ran a game for a small group on Aktion last week and they liked it! A cleric of a unknown patron appears on Aktion and with his spells cast the Priest of Arl set out a crew to purge this new found entity hoping to purged this beacon of a new divinity while they were away on mission! The clerics conscious grows heavy with the burden of the death and scarring of a entire slave tribe and Vercite mining operation.
The party was a Crusader cleric and a gnoll gunslinger who both hail from Golarion. They dont know how they got to Aktion and want answers and only the Machine Priest know the answers while the Priest of Arl want to work against this unknown threat. They are joined by a barbaric oracle who was tortured by those Priest of Arl and branded with the mark of the Dawn Flower who now acts as his patron.
I plan on expanding it once I recover my old hard drive(its host finally died or went coma, not sure yet.) and have so many ideas. Those buddies want to keep the game going and I have no issue with it what so ever, I love DMing the weird and strange. My copy of the NPC Guide and Codex are coming in handy for once! :D
Figured I would share my experience! :3
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Sounds like a blast!
There's plenty of "I just woke up on Mars" examples, so much so it's practically a trope. When/if the Akiton AP concept comes together, I'm planning on adding a trait (nicknamed The John Carter) for PCs who want to be from Golarion instead of Akitoni natives for just that reason.
Glad you're having fun with it!
:D
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Well, you start 'em off kinda slow like in Skul & Shackles, and they'd do okay. Lotta starting RP and such. Give them the chance to rob some already dead guys or steal from a few sleeping soldiers, and they'll be up and running in no time.
Actually, the APs from Paizo so far have been pretty darn good at starting of in Beginner Mode. Usually there's a lot of help from a heal-bot NPC, or the fights are pushovers (goblins dual-wielding broken dogslicers without any appropriate feats comes to mind), or it's 90% role-play. So with a forewarned group (hey guys, don't bother buying equipment) it could work pretty well.
The Glowlands, meet new friends that may or may not want you over for dinner. And come over with the friends and family and meet Spot the wonder thing. Warning. Do not feed Spot.
Also he his not house broken, and has been known to eat small beings.
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I kinda wanna make a Spot the Wonder Dog now. :P
KtA, your Lost Valley intrigues me. If it's got shoggoths, it'd be near/in the southern Winterlands, possibly warmed by some magi-technological artifact from the Elder Things' water-freezing weapon.
Nanites would not be on Akiton, certainly not in amounts large enough to be a deadly mobile cloud. Though that could be mad sweet in some parts of Silver Mount in Numeria. Supposedly that ship's so high-tech it puts all of the Golarion solar system's technical achievements to shame.
Other storms are certainly possible. Lightning storms seem highly probable. Radioactive storms would be Glowlands-only, possibly rolling out of the borders to threaten other areas, but not too far out (and with the Glowlands, borders are invisible; you know you're in it when either you get sick and die, or the sun sets and you and everything around you light up like phosphorescent moss). Because high levels of radiation by themselves just aren't evil enough, we need mobile storms of uber-deadly radioactive particulates.
And mutants. SO many mutants.
Alright, so I'll do some Glowlandia, possibly as early as tonight, and an environmental hazard PDF. I was gonna do Akiton weather tables anyway, and I'd love to add in some variant rules for Survival (similar to some of the older stuff on Katapesh, or the brand-spankin' new Worldwound book, or the middle-new Crown of the World info). PCs, gird your gullets: you're going to be eating bugs. LOTS of bugs. Big, furry, juicy bugs.
Given some time and inspirado, I'll jump onto how to roleplay a Contemplative. I can spend some time mulling over being a telepathic super-genius in between art pieces and searching for shade in this godforsaken heat.
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We have our sand worms. I only wish they were faster.
Their favored terrain might be loose-sand dune seas or areas of unstable shattered ground, either of which might count as difficult terrain for anything not them, giving them the illusion of being fast (since everyone else is moving at half speed).
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True, but the fun of it is a sandworm/sand ship chase.
I suppose I could add a minor build up steam/charge kinda thing, letting it go fast over long distances for a short amount of time. Maybe letting it go 120 feet per round for a minute, allowing it to launch breath weapons or electric jolts at a sandship and letting PCs retaliate with cannons and ranged attacks.
They should produce some incredible powerful magic/alchemical component and have teeth that serve as magical or at least very special material blades etc.
Lately there were also some small folk spotted on Akiton.
It´s just a rumor, but according to that those resemble halflings that seem to be able to see in the dark and are very sneaky. They are said to prefer mountains and cliffs near deserts as their natural habitat, where they live in big communities in cave systems. It seems they have some unknown connection to that sandworms and their teeth are one of their favorite weapons next to some device resembling a musket.
At night they often come out there riding through the desert on acclimated riding dogs, which makes them very fast and silent. Might be something else then dogs, records are not clear on this.
Anyway they need to be real survivalists.
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True, but the fun of it is a sandworm/sand ship chase.
I suppose I could add a minor build up steam/charge kinda thing, letting it go fast over long distances for a short amount of time. Maybe letting it go 120 feet per round for a minute, allowing it to launch breath weapons or electric jolts at a sandship and letting PCs retaliate with cannons and ranged attacks.
That sounds appropriately awesomely cinematic!
It could be rationalized as having something to do with the static charge it builds up and which the iron-rich sands of the red planet react with, allowing it to 'skate' along the surface of the sands really fast (with mostly harmless lightning shooting off in all directions as it does) before it burns out this stored up static charge and has to spend an hour tunneling through the sands to built it up again.
The lumpy ferrocrystalline organs inside the creature that are said to have something to do with this ability are highly sought after as power-storage devices for airships and whatnot.
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Hayato: I might make an alternate, even nastier sand worm with teeth that cut through steel like adamantine. That could be super fun.
divineshadow: Yes. Send ALL the GMs. :D
Set: I'm liking where you're going with this. I purposefully never described exactly what powered the vehicles on Akiton (though it's assumed the Vercites bring their own techno-magical power supplies for their stuff, probably something that sounds like it came out of Jules Verne), but a crystalline organ found within a giant sand worm could certainly fit the bill, and be a reason for PCs to go off and hunt for one.
Unintended side-effect: what if these power-generating organs powering sand ships are the REASON sand worms attack sand ships? Sends out some sort of frequency that resonates in their brains and makes them go insane in a fury of destruction?
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K, I think I'll get started on some Glowlands now. Whip up a bit before I jump back onto some time-sensitive Doctor Who minis for a buddy to give to his wife as a birthday present. The typing mojo grows strong, and honestly, it's like a blasted apocalypse wasteland in town the last few weeks, so I'm feelin' it in my bones.
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Close to 500 words of opening copy whipped up. NOTE: as with all of this stuff, it's subject to change at any time. This is all off-the-top-of-my-head babble, folks.
Stretching between the southeastern foothills of Mount Ka and the southern Winterlands, the Glowlands are a blight upon the cold deserts of Akiton. By day, the borders of the Glowlands look essentially the same as any other stretch of badlands, though travel deeper into its reaches reveals areas where the surface takes on a melted, glassy sheen, and native flora and fauna are practically nonexistent (though odd piles of powdery bone or organic puddles are disturbingly common). At night, however, the reason for the land's name becomes evident, as everything within its borders takes on a sickly, phosphorescent green glow. Strange, mutated creatures prowl the illuminated night, using unnatural evolutions to blend with the surrounding ghostly light, or even phase between realities to hunt their unwary prey. Even the air and soil turn against outsiders, for the Glowlands' most dire threat is an invisible malaise, an affliction that rots the body and taints the mind. Known as glow sickness, this disease is what truly leaves the Glowlands an uninhabited waste.
The cause of the Glowlands is a mystery to Akitoni scholars; whatever may have created it did so long before the start of the Arl Count, and it may possibly date back to the ages of the Great Seas. Some suggest an impact aeons in the past, possibly from some far-flung bit of what became the Diaspora between Verces and Eox. Others point to a truly alien incursion, noting spotty reports of civilization hiding within its deepest reaches. A few with more metaphysical leanings state that it is further proof of Akiton's planetary death when Fueha-Re met her end at the hands of Calistria, a physical decay on the corpse of the world. Regardless of what created the Glowlands, none can claim it a good omen.
The Glowlands take up an impressive amount of Akiton's southeastern hemisphere, though there is plenty of room around its borders for travelers to pass, if they have an idea of where the realm's invisible borders lie. Mount Ka proves an invaluable (and easily spotted) landmark for those traveling north of the Glowlands, and travelers skirting its southern borders generally prefer to pass through the southern Winterlands rather than risk succumbing to glow sickness. Some travel exclusively at night to better their odds of avoiding the toxic landscape, though this does leave them as stationary targets for daytime raiders.
Indeed, with so many ways and reasons to avoid it, and with little in the region to draw travelers, why should the Glowlands receive more than a cursory warning? Because despite the dangers inherent in its very existence, explorers often delve into its borders, often quite deep, in search of lore. After all, if one could put a stop to the corrupting influence of the Glowlands, one would become a hero. And if one could harness its power for their own ends, one would become an unstoppable god.
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...And a poop-inducing locale hiding within Mother Mutation's borders:
The Pock and the Tower: At the geographic center of the Glowlands sits an odd crater, several miles wide but surprisingly shallow, seemingly made of smooth obsidian. Here and there, razor-sharp cracks or protrusions jut from the surface, making travel across the slippery surface of the crater immensely dangerous for creatures incapable of flight. Sickly phosphorescent fog fills much of the crater, further adding to the danger as visibility drops to zero the farther one travels and concealed shards wait to slash and tear intruders to ribbons. In addition, the invisible radiation of the Glowlands is strongest at its epicenter, and can kill a traveler within minutes of entering its borders without protection.
What draws the curious, the adventurous, and the dangerously insane, however, is the rumors of a tower that peeks from the deadly mists, a strangely organic-looking, obsidian monolith stretching half a mile into the sky. Flashes of green light, from sudden bright beams to steady emanations to eldritch symbols, both static and moving, dance across its surface in seemingly random patterns. No one who has entered the tower has lived to tell what hides within its depths, but that merely serves to fuel the curiosity of explorers, and each year, at least a few expeditions set out into the Glowlands, never to return.
Perhaps the most educated guess of what the tower contains comes from scholars of the Under, who have verified sightings of mi-go traveling with mutated, glowing beasts unlike any found in nature. These scholars posit that because of their alien, fungal physiology, mi-go may be immune to the Glowlands' radiation, and, taking advantage of its remoteness and strange properties, constructed a laboratory for vile experimentation and selective breeding of tainted fauna. This hypothesis, if true, may sadly be the least disturbing possibility of the origin and function of the Glowlands' infamous heart.
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Unintended side-effect: what if these power-generating organs powering sand ships are the REASON sand worms attack sand ships? Sends out some sort of frequency that resonates in their brains and makes them go insane in a fury of destruction?
Indeed! The signal sent out could, A) sound sick and wrong and make the living sand-worm want to attend the 'dying' worm and help put it out of its misery, B) just piss them off, inspiring some sort of 'fight over this territory to the death' instinct or C) 'sound' like the mating call of a receptive partner...
That's why you need a trained crystal-engineer, to keep the crystal humming at the right pitch. Of course any damage to the ship or, gasp, sabotage!, could lead to the wrong signal going out, and since it resonates at a sub-sonic pitch that travels for miles, the crew might not realize it if their trained engineer is kaput or sleeping it off somewhere (or they foolishly don't have a trained engineer, having just commandeered the ship for a daring escape, only to find more than their former captors pursuing them)...
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KtA- The Glowlands take up most of the space, forming an irregular blot, but the outer regions can be mild enough to make exact dimensions hard to account for. I do plan for it to fill a lot of space, though, since so far, there's not much going on in that spot, and it further divides many of the already-spread-out city-states. Between that and some of the larger Dune Seas, it becomes obvious travel over Akiton is no picnic.
I'm considering something like remove disease helping, but of course if you're still in the Glowlands, you'll just be saving again soon after the spell wears off. A Vercite pressure suit and probably a few new magic items could ward off some or all of the effect, but I'd like to make sure that access to immunity to the worst of the Glowlands keeps it a level-appropriate threat. I see the outer Glowlands as CR 5-7, deeper in running 7-10, and the deepest parts as CR 10+, allowing a level spread for PCs wanting to explore the place.
The bones are just because I like the flavor. Having critters that didn't mutate into monsters melt into bio-goo or crumbly bone helps set the scene.
Matt- I don't have "When the Sky Falls," but I've got some concepts for levels of radiation sickness working like a disease, with low, moderate, severe, and critical exposure levels having lower to higher save DCs and doing less to more Con damage (eventually leading to Con drain).
As for a Glowlands/Lamashtu connection... :D
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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"I'm not a baby, I'm a tumor." Somehow I now have the idea of Lamashtu and Urgotha each vying to become the new goddess of Akiton, one to make it the planet of monsters the other to make it her own planet of gluttony and death.
So imagine the Glowlands making a sentient tumor (or Tumor Familiar) and the host looking at it as 'immaculate conception' from Lamashtu...
Lost one Valley of the Mutants. Please send search parties to feed <blink> I meant to say free the slaves of the horrible witch queen Harkoween Mal'zal. I am sending guards <blink> loyal soldiers <blink> fellow followers of the one path to protect you from the vile mutant threat.
You know evil three eyed things that eat warm pink skins right?
Barsoom was largely covered in red-orange scrub, if I recall correctly.
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Wow, wake up from a bottle of vino, check the messages just in case, and find that the thread has posts a-go-go! I love it. Gonna try to tackle stuff in order here.
KtA- I'm happy with putting the "lost valley" either in the Glowlands or the southern Winterlands, though I'm leaning towards the southern Winterlands if only to prevent Akiton from having a diametrically-opposite Earthnavel from the one on Golarion (Golarion has weird alien cities on the north pole, but no spooky fertile valleys).
As to native flora, I assume the badlands/mesas have scrublands, but Akiton is definitely lacking in even minor surface water. Most plants that survived the freezing of the water evolved or already had incredibly deep taproots that reach the subterranean water supplies. Springs and other surface water exist, but are like oases in the desert, and often the site of small communities (who benefit not just from the water, but also from traveling caravans paying bullet price for water refills). I've considered throwing in some big fungi sucking moisture out of the rocks and stuff, but I want to make it different from, like, Morrowind (no big mushrooms- more like odd undersea-style growths that adapted for dry surface living).
Maro is canonically built from the base of the Edaio Rift up to the surface. My unfinished Maro map is designed with the idea that vertical swathes of the city aren't suitable for building structures, but natural and artificial cave systems are dug into the wall, attaching the different levels of the city where needed. The surface level is where the Arsis Holdings sit, as well as my add-in, the Everspan (may get a remaining to keep it from being confused with Magnimar's Irespan; naming suggestions accepted).
There's definitely plants that hold water, like desert cacti, though I'm leaning towards making them more like water-storing fungi or maybe weird moss. There may be a handful of hardy fruit-bearing plants, but they most likely grow something akin to dried fruit than juicy apples and stuff.
As for shobhads, they're definitely a reason humanoid civilization is limited to city-states or small settlements dotting the landscape. They're most certainly nomadic, though I'd love to make a shobhad city-state or something somewhere (probably an old holding from before the water froze). The net effect on humanoid cities is that communities tend to be either villages or smaller (generally too small to bother raiding) or large cities or larger (generally too large to assault).
Brian- NICE! I demand updates.
Matt- I think I'll do a more thorough write-up of Fueha-Re today. Gonna take a nap first. Sleep, they tell me, is important.
Anyhoo, everyone, keep it going! I'm happy to see other folks' thoughts developing on the same lines as mine.
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Putting together an article on Fueha-Re; it's in parts and pieces right now, but here's said parts and pieces.
Note that Fueha-Re's domains have changed. Might as well add undeath to the shtick.
NE goddess of Akiton, failure, hubris, and undeath
Fueha-Re (FEW-ay-ha RAY) was once a living goddess and the patron goddess of Akiton. Aeons ago, when Akitoni natives first assaulted their rival planet Castrovel, Fueha-Re was slain by Calistria, returning as an undead divinity dedicated to leading every living creature down the path of undeath- or slaying anyone who stands in her way. Despite being undead, Fueha-Re still considers herself the patron divinity of all Akiton, and seeks to dominate, subjugate, or transform all deities worshiped on the red planet, native or foreign.
Since her demise, Akiton has suffered a spiritual and physical malaise, its culture stuck in a form of arrested development and its core cooling, threatening the stagnation or outright demise of the planet and its denizens. Some scholars claim her death coincided with the freezing of Akiton's surface water during the war between the proto-shobhads and the elder things, while others insist that the battle that led to her murder occurred after the rise of Akiton's smaller races. Whatever the truth, as long as Fueha-Re exists, her fate is inextricably linked with that of Akiton.
Fueha-Re is nothing if not patient. She is willing to out-wait most any threat, retreating her forces and laying low, slowly turning her most promising followers to undeath so that they can outlive the overt threat, only striking when her enemies become complacent. Many a city-state has been devored from within by lies, threats, and murder meted out by Fueha-Re's servants, and outside areas under her complete control, worship of Fueha-Re is actively forbidden. That said, eliminating her worshipers is impossible, as any nihilistic noble, truth-seeking historian, or proud Akitoni can be turned to her faith with appropriate promises, gifts, and propagada.
Temples and Shrines
Fueha-Re's most sacred temples are those reconsecrated to her faith within fallen city-states, built upon the defaced ruins of other deities' temples. The lost city-state of Korrun, a metropolis destroyed by her faithful and converted to a sort of “living necropolis” where her favored undead minions dwell, is her faith's most sacred site, but other locations exist.
A Priest's Role
Fueha-Re's faith meshes well with the philosophy of the Whispering Way- indeed, her new herald, the subjugated Eoxian demigod Nogn (NAW-gun) was once an ascended follower of the Whispering Way, and is believed to be the mentor of Tar-Baphon the Whispering Tyrant.
Relations with Other Religions
Of Akiton's native deities, Fueha-Re reserves most of her cold fury for Vesk Armillas, her traitorous former herald. Being that Vesk Armillas' followers are universally genocidal psychopaths, Feuha-Re and her follower's most common allegiance is against the followers of the Carved Son.
Fueha-Re is especially hostile to the interloper faiths of Arl's pantheon, and seeks to undermine their efforts at every turn. A number of separatist clerics (see Ultimate Magic) with the Trickery domain serve her whims, ripping at Arl's societal fabric while pretending to be members of Arl's foreign deities.
Religious Training
Fueha-Re's favored weapon is the short sword, her cleric domains are Air, Death, Evil, Knowledge, and Magic, and her subdomains are Daemon, Divine, Memory, Undead, and Wind.
Clerics and oracles of Fueha-Re may prepare message as a 0-level spell, and the undead anatomy spells as if they were cleric spells of their sorcerer/wizard level. In addition, priests of Fueha-Re have access to the following spell.
DYING CURSE
School necromancy; Level cleric 4
Casting Time 1 immediate action
Components V
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
This spell functions like bestow curse, except that the spell can only be cast as an immediate action by a creature reduced to 0 or fewer hit points on the creature that dealt it damage last. Casting this spell causes the caster to die if the damage dealt that reduced their hit points to 0 or fewer did not already do so.
Variant Summon Monster List
Summon Monster III
Ghast*
Summon Monster V
Daemon, ceustodaemon
Summon Monster VII
Vampire*
Summon Monster IX
Demilich*
*This creature has the extraplanar subtype but is otherwise normal for its kind.
Planar Allies
Fueha-Re's herald is Nogn, a subjugated Eoxian bone-sage deity and scholar of the Whispering Way, who helps lead her followers to undeath and spreads dangerous, life-exterminating technologies among Akiton's unwary populace.
Yaaaay I make a return briefly! I love what you've put down N'wah, I use it in my aktion game that occurs once a week. Though I've added some of my own ideas to it. I've got several tribes of 'Native' Gnolls who love primal magic and live in primal zones which I place around the Glowlands and the Hivemarket. When the Tech-Priest gather at the Hivemarket the gnolls come and attempt to barter for new goods and tech as they combat disciples of the Devourer, the Feasting Wurm which my players equate to Rovagug and truth be told I kind of think of it as a pseudo-spawn so why not. They still heavily worship Lamashtu and her 'son' a local deity who speaks of being the Mothers true Scion.
also introduced Reds, former azlanti 'experiments/slaves' who upon exposure to Aktions wild magic and iron filled water and sand mutated to a race of humans who have short attention spans and cant use regular magic and any attempts to do so triggers small primal magic events.
My players discovered while gold is nice it holds no weight to iron or adamantine. My Gnoll Gunslinger discovered this and keeps his handy haversack filled with trade goods, usually iron and ivory. They have drown to hate religion as they've been the target of not one but 4 attacks by Arlian Priest. Seems the priest dont like outsiders who have certain 'things'in their future.
Also curious N'wah, how do undead deal with Aktion? Light, sand storms, weird creatures, and worse? Thinking Bone-sages might be to blame, though I have used altered ghouls recently for desert encounters. Ideas?
Don't mind me, happy little dot.
Just here to steal many ideas, though I'm doing airships differently, having them powered by bound augmented air elementals taking advantage of the low gravity.