Yet They Did Not Listen To Their Judges (GLOG Class: Scion)

You are anointed by God to deliver your people and lead them to true faith. It is an odd situation when the gods are the ones your people must be delivered from

SCION

+2 WILL and +1 Save per Template. 

Extra Starting Items: Estranged noble family located in a different district, heirloom trinket, excellent sandals. 

A - Influence, Reputation 

B - Diplomancy

C - Deliverance, +1 MD and Ritual Square

D - Founder

Influence

If in good reputation it is assumed that you speak for any district under your control or other group of people you credibly claim to represent. For this reason you are always granted audience with rulers, warlords, captains, and generals.

Any district you control or use an action to visit is considered to have a temple holding equal to your level.

Reputation

Choose a virtue; Glory, Loyalty, Generosity, Silence. As long as you publicly embody this virtue your words have meaning and your class abilities function. 

If you lose your public reputation for holding your central virtue, lose all class abilities until you regain it. Instead, increase your STR bonus and hp by your WILL bonus and become immune to charms, geas, and sanctuary.

If you return to the city with a rare resource, defeat a foe against all odds, or return from the underworld, regain your reputation.

Diplomancy

Normal weapons are always light weapons when used against you. Implements of laborers, shepherds, smiths and the like are as weapons in your hands. One handed implements are light weapons, 1-2 handed implements are medium, and 2 handed implements are large weapons.

Deliverance

When you return to the City with a rare resource or after defeating a foe against all odds you may rouse your population to greater devotion, industry, or service as if you had spent an action to lead them. For example; create an asset, end a public dispute, establish a new local custom.

If you defeat a foe against all odds and return with the source of a rare resource, you may create a holding or increase the level of a holding as long as it does not surpass your own level.

Founder

When you establish a holding outside the City walls you gain [template] actions to create or level up holdings in the new district. One of these actions is spent automatically per season after the creation of the new district. Only one district may be founded in this way at a time.

A class written for Ashes to Ashes, a setting and ongoing game by Locheil

T O W E R D U N G E O N

Click Here For Hack

I read a manga. I'm not a manga head, but this one was linked in the OSR server and I took a peak. After reading, I briefly tried to find other enjoyable manga to read online and took immeasurable psychic damage. I'm not sure if I'll recover.

But before my brain melts into a puddle of ooze, I have used this inspiration induced fugue to create a hack. It is about climbing the T O W E R D U N G E O N and contains little to no unique or interesting ideas created by me. 

I rip, borrow, and steal from several sources and mash them together without hardly editing them. This is what I do when my goal is to make a fun game to play with friends and not to write a cool blog post. So consider this me sharing some prep. 

Sources include the manga called something like Dungeon Tower or visa versa, Wolves on the Coast, White Hand wizards from Skerples who took it almost whole cloth from Arnold K, and town rules taken directly with minimal editing from Mad Queen's Court who developed the idea from Arrogant Wizard.

The result is a game about dying in a dangerous tower while trying to rescue the princess. Each subsequent party will have more knowledge than those who died before and a more robust town to support them. This includes more/better hirelings, unlocked classes, better smiths and markets, etc.

I have the first floor of the dungeon completed and the next ten mapped out. So, let's see what happens.

Summon ye, the Wise-ard!

Early “lunch hour” class today. What if wizards could be boiled down in the same way the fighter was? 

Courts are filled with magicians, masses gather in temples for the wisdom of god. These prophets and priests follow the well trod paths to wisdom and power. Study, practice, listen carefully to master, learn well before you act. They forget this ancient lesson. Fortune favors the bold.

When the hills grow dark with the shadow of evil,

When those who know better turn their back on the great flaming eye,

When whispers of an evil once banished find their way your ears,

When the prophecy long lost and largely forgotten holds the crucial kernel of truth,

Summon ye, the wise-ard.

The Wise-ard

Mastery of the self is the first and least of the lessons you have learned. It is but a step on the road to true power. And power is what is needed. Forces not understood and armies unseen threaten the realm and there is no time for earned wisdom. It must be taken.

The Wise-ard cannot have a position of status in your setting. They are necessarily an outsider and disruptor. Their goals are inscrutable and aim singular. They are not easily diverted or distracted into the comfortable categories those in power would thrust upon them and they will bear warnings of cataclysm. Their mission will certainly be opposed.

Skills: 1. Drinking, 2. Doom saying, 3. Manipulation, 4. Flirting, 5. Courtesy, 6. Oratory

Starting Equipment: Robes that are comfortable and easy to wear, a tall and striking hat that makes you immune to being ignored, an acquaintance in every town, a small and easily overlooked golden ring, a satchel of fireworks. 

A Self Possession, Purveyor of Cheap Tricks

B Older Paths

C Master of One

D Reflection

Self Possession - You cannot be compelled to do something you do not want to do. This does not account for physical force, or death, or mightier wizards, but does count for charms, ruses, diseases, blackmail and the like. Save to act for the benefit of others if there is no clear and immediate benefit to you. You are always as beefy or athletic or scrawny as you prefer with stats to reflect this.

Purveyor of cheap tricks - You may manifest minor magical effects. These include classical spells such as mage hand, prestidigitation, minor illusion.

Older Paths - When you ruminate and smoke select herbs from your pipe, you are able to determine the steps to accomplishing a goal. You must be personally committed to the goal. This includes routes across the earth, pieces of magical rituals, necessary implements such as keys, and who knows what it is that you don’t know. This does not include the steps to accomplish the goals of others. You are not a soothsayer, oracle, or prophet. You are a wise-ard.

Master of One - Select a single mighty working of legend. Lightning Ray, Dimensional Portal, Killing Finger, Commune of Angels, Walking Dead, Explosion, Become Animal, Hastega, or any other. Choose wisely, ye of unearned wisdom. This spell is now your constant companion, but will be your doom. 

Roll a d6 each time you cast it, plus 1 for each recent use of the spell. On a 5+ you take d6 damage as the spell fries the breaches you, its conduit.

If you are playing GLOG (good for you, good for you) then this spell is always cast with 4 dice. Mishaps and dooms are irrelevant as this so-called wise-ard will soon kill themself with this power. If you are using another system and have somehow found this post, my god, what have you done?

Reflection - Your mastery grows and with it your appearance is altered. Other spells that share a common thread with your constant companion are now under your command. Casting these spells does not require a hazard roll as before, but does increase your bonus to that hazard roll.

Companion, accompanying spells, accompanying spells, accompanying spells

Lightning Ray, shocking touch, animate metal, static trap, static cling

Dimensional Portal, blink, knock, hold portal, lock, locate key, talking stones

Killing Finger, accurate missiles, agony, poison cloud, bifurcate

Commune of Angels, command, consecrate, light, banish

Walking Dead, empower dead, corpse jar, soul walk, seem lifeless

Explosion, smokescreen, meteor shower, burning fan, wall of fire

Become Animal, summon squirrels, call bear, fairy moot, speak with birds

Hastega, mend, flight, shield, invisible barrier, invisible servant

Niche Protection Status: Secure

This class was a fun lunch hour diversion. This class follows in the foot steps of those who sought to emulate Aragorn and the mighty fighters before and since. Those fighters who bring soft uncalloused feet through the harsh and dangerous wilds to serve a purpose greater than blood shed. Yet blood will be shed.

When your game is not about fighting.

When the princess and her animal friends set out to change the dangerous world with the power of love and friendship.

When the wicked witch and her dragon master darken the wood and make safe roads uncertain.

When the battered resistance has only one last thread of hope against their terrible oppressors. Just before the fall of the last bastion of goodness and light.

Summon ye, the fighter.

THE FIGHTER

There is something in your blood that will not give you rest. No matter how far you run into the peaceful and quiet countryside, destiny has chosen you. Rise again, ye tarni… er, rise up, ye of noble blood. Fight the battle you were born for.

There can only be one fighter in your group, indeed there might be only one in your setting. Gain +2 to hit for every template in this class.

Skills: 1. Farming, 2. Logging, 3. Fishing ,4. Hunting, 5. Carpentry, 6. Reading 

Starting equipment: Wood cutting axe, leather overcoat, oiled fox-skin pouch, bear trap, your great great grandfather’s heirloom shortsword Wound Digger, fishing pole.

A To Its Purpose, Dolorous Stroke

B Reaper

C Heavy Handed

D Exemplar

To its purpose - No one except fighters may put a weapon to their true purpose. They do not have the requisite skill.

Dolorous stroke - Any attack roll with a result of 20 or more is a crit. Roll double damage.

Reaper - When you only carry weapons and armor, gain 1 additional attack for each template in this class you possess.

Heavy Handed - When attacking an adversary you could kill with a normal non-crit damage roll, if you hit them they are killed.

Exemplar - When you are reaping, those allies who can touch you cannot be attacked whilst you stand, those allies who can see you may use your to-hit bonus. Those who can hear you will never break from morale.

Weapons you know full well:

1. Hand-axe - light, throwable, On successful attack, forgo damage to deny an enemy the use of their weapon.

2. Battle-axe - medium, may reduce damage dealt in half to disarm enemy of one weapon.

3. Two handed-axe - heavy, on damage roll of a 6 roll, roll another d6 and add to the damage. repeatable.

4. Club - light, on a hit, forgo damage to stun for one round.

5. Dagger - light, throwable, counts as heavy vs prone or surprised enemies.

6. Flail - medium, Target always counts as having AC 10. Deals d4 damage.

7. Greatsword - heavy, upon killing an enemy the wielder can make an additional attack.

8. Pike - Heavy, in formation, attacks against your unit count as if you are wearing medium armor. 

9. Poleaxe - heavy, reach, target always counts as having AC 10 unless they are adjacent to you.

10. Javelin - medium, thrown,

11. Longbow - Medium, +1 to hit per round spent aiming

12. Mace - Medium, target always counts as having AC 12.

13. Quarterstaff - Target must make a dodge save to approach, failure results in automatic damage from this weapon.

14. Shortbow - light, may split move and fire and fire from horseback.

15. Shortsword - light, riposte twice.

16. Sling - light, deals no damage unless it crits, unlimited ammunition.

17. Spear - may hold your attack to attack anyone who approaches you first.

18. Sword - medium, riposte.

19. Warhammer - heavy, those struck are thrown back 1ft for every point you hit them by.

20. Haja-no-Ontachi (Great Evil-Crushing Blade) - Super Heavy, those without divine blood are slain when cut. Those who are evil and demons, must save vs fear when it is drawn even if they are immune to such things. If the wielder strikes one whose heart is more pure, they are slain instead in a fountain of black gore and pulled into the underworld.

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.