Demolish Decadence One Word at a Time - Tengoku Isles Summoner and Other Setting Info

THE WAY OF THE WORD

Demons always lie. Even in their command to kneel is the implicit lie that they are to be feared or worshiped. Every crack of whip and gaping yawp is a falsehood. This is the word of the priests allowed speech under the rule of the demons.

There are those who know better. In the shadows of lies, they hang on the scaffolding of truth. Inverting lies and weaving demonic narratives together to find gaps and therefore the precious hidden truth is the work of sages. These seek the words of God, buried beneath mountains of lies. The words are core to demon power, for without them there is no link between falsehood and reality.

The hidden truths are sussed out and written in Sutras, scrolls carefully scribed and hidden. Within each sutra is a single word. Within each word is the power of the toppled crumbling God. 

Thou. I. Mother. Give. Bark. Black. Fire. Ashes. Spit. Man. Hand. Hear. Sky. Old. Pull. Worm. Not.

Noxious unguents smeared beneath the nose to cloud the eyes with tears and burn away the sweet deceiving smell, the stump-legged sage burst through the bedroom door. The curse of childbirth draws cries of pain. With a glowing talisman in hand and old words on his lips, the spectre of pain is banished and a new child is born.

It is the hour of meeting evil spirits. At the daimo’s gathering a thrice hooded figure with charms around her neck slides the shoji shut behind her. Blindfolded, a glowing eye is visible on her forehead as she scans the attendees for the pestilence spirit plaguing the young girl upstairs.

CLASS- SUMMONER

The world is mired in lies and your are the torch that burns through the darkness. The SPIRIT EYE sees through deception, the SUTRAS are the keys to modifying creation, and TALISMAN provide power.

Shining brightly when open, the SPIRIT EYE reveals the vague and general presence of spooky action in an area. It is as accurate as a sense of smell.

In hidden scrolls, SUTRA provide access to the raw stuff of creation and its modification. These are the words of God and they are not spoken in vain. If you possess a sutra you can access the power associated with it. Means of Power Shape the World.

The works you perform require laborers, time, or TALISMAN to power them. For each slide you make in the sutra power, you must slide one of the power scales as well. When a talisman is used, there is a 50% chance it is expended for the day. To push your power to the limit you may make a power slide once for free, but suffer a consequence.

Means of Power - brackets indicate the power required to manifest the default effect.

Laborers [1]→2→5→10→100

Time now→[1min]→10min→1hr→1day→7days

Talisman [0],1,2,3,4,5,etc

Shape the World - brackets indicate the default effect

Thou* loyal→friendly→stranger→adversarial→enemy

I [undo]→cosmetic change→small mutation→large mutation→transform

Mother [comfort pain]→sustenance→provision→heal→restoration

Give [aid]→bane→curse→blessing→virtue

Bark silent→whisper→[indoor voice]→loud→deafening

Black* invisible→disguised→obscured→visible→true form

Fire [inferno]→pyre→bonfire→torch→light

Ashes create ghost→speak with dead→[identify corpse]→ward spirits→banish spirits

Spit acid→poison→[solvent]→glue→binding agent

Man revenant→undead servant→command dead→animate dead→[ease dying]

Hand [near/weak]→near/strong→two hands→far/weak→far/strong

Hear silence area→muffle sound→[extended hearing]→hear spirits→→→hear god

Sky* add/remove clouds→Gale→light rain→storm→call lightning

Old [reveal age]→-1day→-1month→-1year→-10yrs

Pull [mild attraction]→strong tug→pulled by oxen→irresistible/close→irresistible far

Worm [makedirty/clean]→rot→12 worms→1000 worms-100,000 worms

Not [pause action]→undo condition→undo action→freeze status→long pause

*The default effect is based on the target’s current condition.

Running the Game

This game has a simple premise. Emperor Zaro will arrive in 10 sessions. Maybe that’s 10 months, 10 weeks, 10 years in-game. Doesn’t matter much. The players need to be ready, because when he arrives he will host the Tournament of the Gods to see who will rule for the next hundred years. He has never lost.

Each character comes from a place of oppression and scarcity. Each class is built with a clear way to progress in strength and ability. There is strong reason to steal, fight, and scrap for every bit of advantage they can get to end the Age of Demons they have been suffering under.

To do so they will visit many of the Isles of Heaven to find Headbands, secret Names of God, the hidden Sutras, and artifacts of great power. In addition to the ones implied in the monk class, here are a few more islands to get you started:

Islands

Towers of Tilmin

-Shockingly sheer cliffs, threatening to scrape the clouds. Inhabitants clog the caves. From far far away you can see a face carved in the rock. Those on the cliffs are oblivious.

-A wizard in the cliffs will tattoo you with a spell for a wage. They know Heat Water, Ice to Copper, Argue with Birds

-Goats rule these cliffs, in a manner of speaking. Cross them and you will be bonked to oblivion

-If you seek real trouble… the demon of the face is heard snoring through this passage. (the mouth)

-Around the edge of the face, a little higher up, is a crack that makes an easy climb to the top. The great Roc is there and is eager to discuss history for ancient things.

Naura Town and the River of Ghosts

-A once peaceful town, now lost to ghosts.

-It is well known that the old well will spit up old things for a bit of coin. This is the dare of the children in the area.

-A gang of orcs has made camp here, relying on the ghosts to keep their camp secret.

-If you seek real trouble… the Hart of the woods is said to linger here, pierced by an ancient sword.

-Deeper still in these haunted woods lies a tower with the one responsible for all this.

Barmora, City on Sand

-A shanty town constructed in the middle of a whirlpool at the bottom of the sea.

-Merchants here are desperate to trade with outsiders. They have coconuts, sea shells, clams, sand...

-The heavy crabs used for navigation are easy to find, hard to tame.

-If you seek real trouble… King Wyoden defends the bastards of King Wylon using a sutra not known.

-Just past the edge of the whirlpool, if you can get there, is a giant clam just beginning to yawn.

Kaiwala Junji

-Series of villages built in jungle trees above a dangerous river delta.

-Guides here sell trips up river in flying canoes, antivenom, cursed idols, and poultices.

-Traditionalists eschew the economy based on hunter trappers and prefer to provide for the people in the old ways. Some say the mystic conceals a Name.

-If you seek real trouble…Ancient ruins of the time of Xi can be found, for a price.

-Beneath the villages, under murky winding eddies and rip-tides, slumbers the Great Fish Ninamazu.

Demons

GLUTTON FAMILY

A beast furred and fat, it lolls back and forth before raising its immense form. Six foul horns sprout five more. The twisting bones obscure crossed bulging eyes.

Style - Rolls over victims, matting them into his rotting fur

Weakness - food shared generously

Wroth - eating in sight of another is punishable by death

Disdain - food made with skill and love. Anything beyond hardtack and gruel

Desire - crops for its bed, more imports than exports

Minions - scavengers with clothes stuffed with rags to make them look round, Madame Rotary leads them

Troth - To be sustained without food

HIGHLY VANITY

Layered in robes and hats, the true form of HIGHLY VANITY is obscured, but their arcane power is not.

Style - Ambush from within and sow confusion with disguise

Weakness - Well designed and coordinated outfits

Wroth - Immodesty begets scars, boils, rashes

Disdain - Fire and light which expose and illuminate

Desire - Isolate each, destroy individuality

Minions - each with wide black witch hat, obscuring their face, lead by a large black panther

Troth - She holds the Sutra of “I” and “Black” making her subtle and difficult to find, but bestows these powers as gifts on her servants

ONI TWONI

Two headed ogre in bright red skin. Oni Twoni’s laugh is heard only before great tragedy.

Style - Bicker and Argue, then attack all at once

Weakness - Harmony and teamwork

Wroth - Kindness is forbidden. Perpetrators are crushed to bone meal.

Disdain - Unity between the warring clans

Desire - Kill by war and division

Minions - Crows attend and inform Oni Twoni and whisper into ears on both heads

Troth - A great horde of weapons and artifacts collected from would be heroes

PESTILENCE (Cat Dragon glass-candles.blogspot.com)

An old woman covered in all manner of festering wounds and pus. Has a single, evil green eye. Everything near her either rots or catches one of her many plagues.

Style: Rot and Wither - Shoots an anime-esque plague beam. Those hit with it contract a random disease.

Weakness - Cleansing rituals and baths.

Wroth - Trying to aid or cure someone who is diseased.

Disdain - Medicine.

Desire - To gain power. To infect others. To brew the perfect disease.

Minions - Infected berserkers seeking death, led by the POXBORN CHAMPION.

Troth - To be enhanced, Nurgle-style.

Her Charred Skin and Ash Choked Lungs (Filth Pig @ theslopyard.blogspot.com)

Naked woman, profoundly burned, head cocked to the left, neck skin melted to shoulder, left forearm melted into stomach, patch work bits of clothing melted to her body.

Style - Projects an aura of extreme heat that burns anyone who approaches her alive, exhales bolts of superheated ash.

Weakness - Frozen weapons, being submerged in water or sand. 

Wroth - Severe drought, drastically increased temperatures, extreme risk of fire. 

Disdain - Rituals to bring rain, any means of artificial rain or irrigation. 

Desire - Seeking to calm a nearby active volcano and steal the spark of True Fire that it holds. 

Minions - Apprentice Pyromancers, led by Master of Fire burned and disfigured in the same manner as the demon.

Troth - The secret initiation rites to Pyromancy, nearly any fire-based spell that exists in setting. 

That Which Writhes and Devours (Filth Pig @ theslopyard.blogspot.com)

A length of moist, undulating intestine-like flesh, the size of a wagon, that feeds in on itself impossibly, seemingly without beginning or end. 

Style - Smashes or suffocates downed foes under its girth or absorbs foes through the front of its central orifice, slowly digesting them and excreting them from the rear of its central orifice. Victims of this facsimile of digestion continue to live and fight as normal, but soon develop and die of an aggressive wasting sickness.

Weakness - Salt 

Wroth - Kills living creatures and destroys structures through its oblivious and uncaring locomotion.

Disdain - A random object, piece of equipment, or trinket; something completely harmless. 

Desire - To return to dormancy in the unknowable realm from whence it came. 

Minions - Masses of flesh whose roiling surface produces bubbles filled with toxic gasses that throw anyone exposed to them into a hallucinogenic rage, led by a shimmering cloud of gas cycling through colors unknown to mortal minds. 

Troth - The Writhing Devourer offers nothing, but an unshakeable feeling that serving it is what you’re destined to do, what you’re meant for.

Flying Pigs - Usurpers Rise Up!

The shutters creak in the wind.

Wide of crown, 

long of beard, 

Hawaiian of shirt. 

The ancient master rises and plants his feet on the practice floor.

Outside, a storm gathers.

The ancient master has grown slow, weighted by wisdom and concern. "Core-mechanics" he murmurs as the floor of the dojo voices its age. "shitiest-rulesets" comes his screed against all challengers. "Very-Advanced" he takes his stance.

Flying Pigs

This is a GLOG-hack about the power of love, wings, and machine guns.

The Facts:

• You are an anthropomorphic animal. This transformation was inflicted upon you at the end of your Pilot training. It was necessary to increase your capacity to breathe in low-oxygen environments and keep your eyes open in high winds. The animal facade you permanently wear was a side effect.
• You were probably trained by a Guild, rather than a nation's military. Guilds are small military forces that sign contracts and work for money.
• The world is fractured and weak. The strength of nations has been greatly reduced in the Last War. No one has the capability to raise a proper force to threaten another nation. Minor (nation-scale) objectives are accomplished by hiring Guilds. Guilds also often work for Aristocrats who have their own significant funds and obscure motives.
• Airborn skirmishes are the grand spectacle. No battle is fought unobserved by cheering crowds, crying children, screaming reporters, and would-be patrons.
• Your plane is everything.

Character creation:

• Your base chance of success on any random rollable task is 50%. 
• You have a background that lets you roll twice on related tasks OR avoid the downside of a failure.
• mechanic
• penniless aristocrat
• radio operator
• street racer
• pugilist
• stowaway
• 8hp
• You know 2 maneuvers
• You can buy maneuvers and plane upgrades with your winnings.

Your Plane:

Cobbled together from scrap, yet beautiful in your eyes. Cleaned from the blood of her last pilot, she is yours. She is a biplane with bright paint and a Foster mounted Lewis gun strapped on her front.

• Hull - your plane's hp. Larger hulls can mount more stuff and have more hp. Your hull starts at 1slot and provides 1HD. Weapons and other add-ons to your plane will fill hull slots. Your hull also determines how much Fuel you carry. You carry 5 Fuel per point of Hull.
• Engine - your plane's ability to generate power. Roll your engine dice at the start of each combat round and distribute the sum between Altitude or Speed. Your engine is a d4.
• Jazz - your plane's style factor. Complex patterns, bright paint, testicles dangling from the tail. Your bravado manifested in plane form. Fancy maneuvers can increase your Jazz mid-flight. Jazz is used to modify saving throws, woo lovers and patrons, and reduce your result on the "I'm Hit!" table. Your jazz starts at 0.
• Choose one stat to upgrade by 1 step. (Hull to 2, Engine to d6, Jazz to 1)

Foster Mount - The gun can slide up or down the rail to change the ammunition drum or shoot at a higher angle.

Dog-Fights

The spectacle, fireworks, twinkling stars. Crowds will come to see you fly or die. They will cheer for dashing heroes on My Side and boo the evil skill-less savages on Their Side. Crowds are quick to forget which Guild was hired last week to air-drop their food and supplies and drive off the raiding pirates. All that matters is Now.

The stage is set with iron sleet, black smoke, shining planes, and thunder. Perform or die.

When planes meet in the air, roll 2d4 for starting Altitude and Speed. Both stats are bound from 0-10.  If your Altitude reaches 10 you stall and lose d4 Altitude each turn until you roll under your Speed. If ever Altitude reaches 0 you crash. Planes take turns in order of Speed. If your speed reaches 0 you stall.

At the start of your turn, you may expend one fuel to roll your engine dice, distributing the result between Altitude and Speed. These resources are spent to take maneuvers.

You can attack another plane if you fulfill your weapon's requirement, or if you are Tailing someone. To attack, simply roll weapon damage against them. 

Basic Maneuvers:

1. Climb - trade d4 speed for altitude.
2. Dive - trade d4 altitude for speed.
3. Tail - Tail an enemy within 1 altitude and speed of your plane

Ace Maneuvers (position changes are Alt/Speed):

1. Yo-Yo (+2/-4) - Tail a plane that is higher and slower than you.
2. Wingover (0/-2)- lose a Tail that is within 2 of your altitude and speed.
3. Immelman (+4/-3) - Tail a plane that is higher than you.
4. Split S (-3/+4) - Tail a plane that is lower than you.
5. Thach Weave (0/-2) - A slower partner makes an immediate attack on the plane tailing you.
6. Chandelle (+1/-d4) - roll over Speed to lose a Tail.
7. Barrel Roll (0/-3) - Tail a target slower than you.
8. Bug Out (-d6/+1) - roll over Altitude to lose a Tail.
9. Frolov Chakra (0/-d10) - perform a stalled somersault. +2 Jazz. You cannot be shot this round.
10. Cobra (0/-d6) - perform a post-stall brake. +3 Jazz. Trade a tail with a plane faster than you.

Guns (Slots/Range/Damage)

Guns have a range. A target must be within that many Altitude and Speed to attack them. Or you must Tail them.

• Lewis gun (1/2/d6), only fire at planes above you or of equal altitude.
• Pistol (0/1/d4), may immediately fire at a plane you have Tailed.
• Oerlikon 20mm Cannon (3/3/d8), thunderous defender of airships.
• Vickers-Crayford Rocket Gun (1/2/d8) - misfires on a 1, doesn't shoot rockets.
• Davis gun (2/3/d6) - two machine guns mounted back to back, the rear-facing gun firing wads of lead and grease to counter the recoil of the forward-facing gun.
• Fokker-Leimberger (2/2/d8) - 12 barrel rotary gun. Deal 1d4 damage the first time it is shot as it spins up.

Names

• Roland Garros
• Morane Saulnier
• Anthony Fokker
• Max Immelman
• Oswald Boelcke
• Lanoe Hawker
• Manfred von Richthofen
• Rene Fonck
• Billy Bishop
• Ernst Udet
• Adolphe Pegoud
• Mick Mannock
• Donald MacLaren
• Josef Jacobs
• Werner Voss
• Tom F. Hazell
• Charles George Gass
• William Gordon Claxton
• Willy Coppens
• Maurice Boyau
• Emili Thuy
• Eddie Rickenbacker

Monikers

• Aggy
• Blondie
• Cats Eyes
• Dolfo
• Eagle
• Fish
• Ginger
• Hoagy
• Igo
• Johnny
• Killer
• Lightning
• Mouse
• Never
• Olly
• Petit Rouge
• Ratsy
• Sexy Rexy
• Tex
• Uncle Wiggly Wings
• Wrong-Way
• Zulu

By Thy Scorn

 When by thy scorn, O murd’ress, I am dead

And that thou think’st thee free

From all solicitation from me,

Then shall my ghost come to thy bed,

And thee, feign’d vestal, in worse arms shall see …

Been watching Lockwood & Co. with my wife. This is rare, as I never watch TV, but this show has got me. Here goes. This is for Everythings.

Maybe spoilers for the show. Lots of ideas stolen, but they are stolen from my fever dreams about spooky London. I’m sure I have tons of details wrong even if I meant to rip it straight.

SETTING:

The Problem started four decades ago. No one knows why, but regardless the dead have become dangerous again. Violent death, suicide, or sufficient trauma result in persistent ghosts. They are invisible to most and their touch is lethal. The same year, talents started emerging. Sight, Listening, Touch. Perhaps they already existed, there just weren’t any ghosts before. Perhaps they share a cause with the Problem. The Bureau was founded to study and combat the new threat.

A decade ago, a powerful Listener had a *conversation* with a Type III ghost. It has never happened before or since, but as a result she discovered Sources. Every ghost has a source, and if it’s destroyed or secured, the ghost cannot manifest and is rendered “safe”. She used her fame to start one of the two great firms, Trotter & Throckmorton.

A year ago the Problem got worse. Rumors began circulating of the walking dead. Soon after, a curfew was set and stories stranger things yet began populating the evening news. It got so bad that occultists, priests, and psychics were being hired to handle jobs the Duopoly was too busy for. In response, The Bureau opened liscencing to firms who could prove they were capable of handling psychical incidents and coloring within the lines. All the Talented that could be found were trained and graded. Enterprising individuals, or those unable to secure employment at either of the grandfathered firms could strike out on their own. Oh, and you discovered you have a talent.

A month ago your first job went sideways. Bad info and a touch of hubris sent you and your scrub team on a collision course with a Type II. Most of your team was Touched and your closest friend Ghost-Locked. They are in a psych-ward at the Bureau. It’s rare for anyone to come out of the ward.

Yesterday, you were acquired by a cut-rate firm desperate for work and reliable employees.

REMEMBER YOUR TRAINING:

Talents emerge during puberty and fade with age.

All ghosts are spiteful and extremely lethal. Pure metals, salt, running water. These are the common things capable of discouraging a ghost. 

Ghosts are weak during daylight hours and are unlikely to manifest. They get stronger as night passes.

A Type I can be discouraged with a line of salt, a blessed iron chain, a spark of magnesium, an iron sword.

A Type II are powerful enough to frequently break the rules. Be prepared.

The remains of the dead are the most common Sources. Covering them with a silver net is the quickest way to secure them. A hand grenade is a decent alternative.

There are those who use the waking dead for their own gain. Their activities are illicit and unsanctioned by the Bureau; relic-men, ghost cults, soothsayers and mediums. 

CLASSES:

Talented:

Stats: as a teenager

Equipment: an Iron Rapier, a Practitioner’s License, and *something special*

You are sensitive to the disturbances caused by lingering spirits. Most of the time this means you can see them if you are in their presence, like a glowing form. You have an additional aptitude. This takes one of three forms. Listening, Sight, Touch. 

Listener:

1. You can hear spirits well before others. When in their presence you can make out their insane tortured ramblings.

2. Their ramblings become clearer, corpse-sources give off the sound of a beating heart.

3. Somehow, they can hear you back. No ghost understands you, but if you scream they are pushed out of earshot in an instant.

4. Wait, did that ghost understand you?!

Sight:

1. You can see Death Glow, a lingering sillouette left when someone dies. You see ghosts clear enough to make out their face.

2. You can see trails very recently left by the supernatural and Sources just hidden behind one layer of concealment leave a faint glow you can detect if not distracted.

3. Relics now glow to you as well. Once per night you can see 15 seconds into the future.

4. If you hold a relic, you can see the scene which caused it to be so.

Touch:

1. You feel the presence of a spirit as temperature change at a fair range. In proximity, you detect their emotion.

2. The first time you touch a ghost, you don’t die.

3. Iron you wield or place is twice as powerful.

4. Touch a source to briefly banish a ghost. Touch someone Ghost-Locked to give them another save. These only work once per target.

SPOOKY SPIRITS:

Combat is as GLOG with the following exceptions. Ghosts follow the rules unless they expend power to break them. Ghosts have a starting power level and gain 1 power every hour after sunset. Type II ghosts gain 2 power each hour.

Power is spent by the GM (ghost-master) to break rules. Pass a salt line, break a chain, re-manifest after defeat, spring a trap.

If a ghost hits on an attack roll the target must Save or Die. On a sucessful save, they are Ghost-Locked. “Fight the ghost” is never the correct plan. 

If a ghost is defeated enough times to deplete it’s power or its Source is destroyed/secured, it is rendered safe.

Items have a quality that indicates their power. The thrice-consecrated rapier Le Coup De Foudre is a more powerful weapon than the mass produced stick of iron given to you upon graduation. The default rapier has no damage bonus against a ghost. An iron chain costs more power to pass than a ring of salt.