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.
