My Fantasy RPG World, Feedback and Ideas appreciated

I find it intriguing how disparate world cultures that had no contact with each other indepenently came up with the idea of a World Tree surrounded by monsters.

If I went back to square one, I could easily see redesigning Scarterra's universe to look like this. I like World Trees.

This one feels a little sci fi to me. My world does hybrid elementals similar to this but while I want the four elements to be important but not overwhelmingly important like this one.

I do like this illustration and cosmic layout. I actually considered something similar. In this case the Negative Energy Plane would be the Void, where Turoch's spiritual corpse ended up and Demons spawn. I do like the idea that the Negative Energy/Void subtly tainting the elements and by proxy the material plane this way.

The Positive Energy Plane would basically be a battery that the Nine used to sustain life. My big issue with this cosmic model is that it seems imbalance. The Void is constantly spawning monsters and the Positive Energy plane doesn't do anything proactive.

It might be more balanced to have Void Demons enter through portals manifesting in unpredictable places across the world instead of being biased towards the north and south poles.

It's a great diagram that is artisitically compelling and it shows the cosmic layout in an easy to grasp format. I think it's a little overloaded with planes though.

My problem is that Arcadia, Mount Celestia, Bytopia are all so similar that I wonder why we need four "heavens." The evil realms are a bit more distinct. The Beastlands and Arborea could easily be lumped together.

I really like the idea of Mechanus but it seems weird to have a realm like that when I'm picturing a mortal plane that has very very slow technological progress. I feel like a world even partailly connected to mechanus would advance at least as fast as the real world.

As for Limbo I like the idea of a realm of Chaos but it's TOO Chaotic. I don't see how anyone can make use of this realm. I also find it weird that a lot of the supposedly Chaotic Neutral creatures native to this plane that are in the Monster Manuals but their lifestyles are not very chaotic.

In general the lower planes are more well detailed out than the upper planes but the fluff writers clearly favor the Nine Hells and the Abyss. There are far more evil realms than is necessary.

I thought about adapting this multiverse model to my setting but it got a bit clunky. I'd obviously want one realm for each of the Nine. I'd also like a couple outer realms that the Nine share, but my OCD need for balance would require me to have at least one Chaotic shared realm, at least one Lawful shared realm, at least one Evil, and at least one Good. That's 13 realms bare minimum compared to D&D's 16 realms. Given that I criticized D&D for having too many planes this would kind of be hypocritical.

The Venn diagram is great for showing what is connected to what but it's aesthetically unpleasing.

The D&D writers were very much fans of Dante's Divine Comedy. Mount Celestia and the Nine Hells are very clearly inspired from Dante's depictions of Heaven and hell.

This basic model could be a good fit for Scarterras. I certainly like the domed sky motiff. Maybe replace the Foundations of Heaven with openings to the Void. I wouldn't want to put the Void in "the Great Deep" but if the Nine maintained a prison realm or a had the spiritual equivalent of a hazmat storage realm, this would be a good place to stick it.

One my favorite games in terms of settings building (though not necessarily my favorite in game mechanics) was Werewolf: The Apocalypse. One thing I really liked was the animistic setting where contradictory things could be true at once. Nowhere was this more extreme than the Rokea supplement (Rokea are weresharks by the way). They had a very ocean-centric view of the universe. It's pretty simple but for most of the land based were creatures, Gaia was the center of the universe and their patron and mother. To the Rokea, Sea was the center of the universe and Gaia (aka Unsea) was basically Sea's little sister/daughter and sidekick.

To werewolves the great enemy was the Wyrm. A creature of cosmic decay that once stood for balance but an eternity of imprisonent drove the Wyrm mad and the Wyrm now seaks to destroy all creation to end it's pain. Rokea's great foe is Qyrrl the Mother of Cephladpods. Qyrll was goofing around in the sky (aka Oversea) against her mother Sea's wished and she ended up accidentaly wounding Oversea creating a giant burning Wound in the sky (humans call the Wound "the sun"). Qyrll is so embarassed by this daily reminder of her mistake that she wants to close the wound (ie blot out the sun for all time) but the Rokea cannot allow this because as things evolved since, the Wound is now the source of all life. That's just scratching the surface.

I really enjoy cosmologies based on messed up family dynamics. Despite being extremely unscientific it feels realistic in it's own way.

The reason I brought up all the Rokea stuff is that if I wanted to create a setting with this much spiritual water in it, I would feel obligated to come up with an alternate story for the creation of the universe that the denizens of the sea hold as gospel. The Nine would have different names, powers, and personalities at the very least.

I will ponder this further.

 

Fantasy Black Market Item, Kenku Eggs

I like Star Trek Deep Space Nine. I like Ferenghi in general and I like Quark. Kenku are not my own creation but they have very limited official fluff on them. I filled in the blanks by saying they are like Ferenghi minus the lechery because they are egg laying avians and have no interest in sex with humanoids and minus the chauvenism because avians tend to have very low sexual dimorphism.

So kenku are gold loving, risk taking individuals who play fast and loose with rules and ethnics. They can also mimic any sound they hear, but that's a kenku thing, not a Ferenghi thing. I was hoping to create a lovable scoundrel NPC but that's a very fine line. If s/he's too annoying or too selfish the players will write him/her off as a burden or even an enemy. If the kenku NPC is too helpful it's not really a scoundrel anymore. Given that the PCs are right now trying to fight crime and kenku are very frequently criminals, this is a fine balancing act.

Anyway the PCs are trying to take apart Etch's crime network and it hit me how to introduce a friendly kenku scoundrel. One of the things that puts Quark on the side of the good guys is when he stands against true evil and I have come up with something.

Fertilized kenku eggs can be used for regents for scrolls, potions, and whatnot. Kenku are harsh on their children but they don't want their children to be stolen and mulched into magic items. Given that kenku are sapient beings it makes perfect sense that Fumaya would outlaw the trading of kenku eggs. This is something that evil crimelords can traffic in.

So the PCs can meet and ally with a crooked fence who was working with Etch's crime syndicate up until he discovers that the group is trafficking in stolen kenku eggs. I think I may even have the PCs find this out first and tell the local kenku that.

I figure a black market price of 50 gold piece per egg would motivate the sleeziest and most amoral cutthroats but it'd be something a lot of criminals wouldn't stoop to. If the black market price was 500 gold pieces per egg would be so high that the number one cause of death in the kenku community is egg theft. Either way, kenku don't like their eggs being stolen.

I thought maybe an unfertilized egg (or the shell left over after a healthy hatching) could have 5% or 10% of the value of a fertilized and the market savvy kenku wouldn't mind selling it but it would be extremely easy for someone to trade in murder eggs and claim "I thought they were unfertilized!" so trade in kenku eggs is probably completely illegal assuming the powers that be care about kenku, and Fumaya's ruler aspire to be good rulers or at least maintain the appearance of goodness.

Even an evil ruler wouldn't want to collectively piss off the entire kenku race because that means the rulers enemies would find themselves receiving many favorable commercial deals. I figure an evil ruler, such as King Drosst of Upscala would officially have trade in kenku eggs be illegal but if needs fifty kenku eggs for a magical project, he's going to get them and then he's going to frame a political enemy for the heninous act of egg stealing then execute publicly to win the kenku's favor.

Going across the world to East Collassia, I haven't decided whether or not the dark elves have any kenku slaves. If they did have kenku slaves, they probably take a percentage of their fertilized eggs to use as regents. If the dark elves did such a thing, the kenku would naturally become very staunch allies of the Colassian Confederacy. On the other hand I like the idea of kenku and dark elves being business partners. As long as someone isn't trading in kenku eggs, kenku are shady enough to engage in trade with anyone over anything. The pragmatic dark elves might decide it's a better idea to play nice-nice with the kenku in which case enterprising kenku might sell humanoid slaves to the dark elves in which case kenku, even the innocent ones, would be pariahs in the Colassian Confederacy.

I don't need to deal with that now, but the PCs do have coded directions to a vague lost treasure and I'm thinking of making that treasure's rumor location be in the mountains between the dark elves of Kahdisteria or in the sprawling canons of Mineralland. So I do plan to use all the material I came up with for East Colassia eventually.


For reference, in most human nations, kenku make up 1 to 2% of the population. Kenku are comfortable in crowds and prefer working in large cities so a populous city is likely going to have 3% to 7% of it's population be kenku. A small village is probably going to have zero kenku unless a peddler is passing through. Kenku tend to travel widely the first decade or so of their adult lives, then they settle down and start a nest somewhere and usually stay in one place.

When a kenku completes his/her adulthood ceremony, his or her parents will bestow them a modest amount of money and equipment and then kick out the young adult and tell them not to come back until and unless they become a success. Kenku communities have their hatching cycles in sync, so usually five or six kenku reach adulthood at the same time and are kicked out at the same time. In this manner kenku have spread around the world.

 

Yeah.... wait what?
Many avians have very high sexual dimorphism, the males being colorful and the females being very plain.
Ducks come to mind.

Or huge differences in size, like with some owls (the Harry Potter movies for example used male owls since the females would have been way too heavy for the young actors) or birds of prey like the Hawk (males and females of the Sparrowhawk for example even hunt different kinds of animals since they are so radically different in size).

That being said: Of course it is OK for your species to not have that. There are birds that don't have it.
I just wouldn't call it rare, generally speaking.

 

I hadn't actually thought of summoning creatures as a form of exploitation. Well elementals yes. It's on par with exploiting animals at least, as far as 99% of magical scholars believe.

My game system allows arcane casters to summon fighting monsters and it allows divine spell casters to summon fighting monsters, but so far every NPC that has used summoning was a divine caster. Divine casters automatically summon spirits affiliated with their god or goddess. That's more like calling a friend for help than forcing a poor creature to fight for you. Also, a summoned creature cannot actually die unless it's killed by an energy draining attack. In most cases, "destroying" a summoning creature merely banishes it.

I suppose an arcane spell caster summoning a creature could easily be summoning creatures against ther will. I hadn't actually dived very deep into this. For starters none of my players (or friends who might become players later) are remotely interested in playing an arcane summoner. Also, I don't have any NPCs that do this yet. This might change if Swynfaredia invades.

I created a sandbox where the players can do whatever they want as long as they do something. Fumaya has to deal with orc incursions, a potential Swynfaredian invasion, assorted monsters, rampant crime, and political divisions between noble houses. The players have communicated that assorted monsters and rampant crime are the sorts of problems they would prefer to deal with. Thus I probably won't have Swynfaredia invade anytime soon.

Yes, every species has their rotten eggs (pun). Kenku that exploit their own kind are naturally loathed by their kin. Kenku have a very high literacy rate compared to humans and they often run message delivery services. If a kenku breaks kenku rules, he or she will probably be found out quickly unless the villain is exceptionally sneaky within a race known for being sneaky.

One of my favorite mythological stories (truncated) involves a raven or crow stealing the sun. Before stealing the sun, ravens were either pure white or had beautiful rainbow plumage. They gained their black coloration after being scorched by fire.

I like the idea of the kenku having a similar legend about their ancestors trying to steal divine fire or something similar and having their feathers turned black. If kenku all have black feather if gives less options for variant plumage.



I would imagine that shiny feathers would be a sign of good health and it would be something that male and female kenku alike would seek out in prospective mates.

I do like the idea of having plumage dictate social standing so I will continue considering the idea. I just think it would be hard to implement in a race that is so nomadic and widely scattered. Even if you think you are better than this other kenku at the very least you know that the other kenku is better than a human and the humans have superior numbers "so we birds need to flock together." I guess it could be "Me against my brother, my brother and I against my uncle, my uncle and I against the stranger."

One thing that kenku have in D&D that I kept for my setting and adapted to my different dice system is that kenku get a small dice bonus on cooperative efforts, even with non-kenku. I imagine a race that literally has a power based on cooperation would have very little social stratification. So I guess a brutal meritocracy with hints of social darwinism is prefered over a snobby aristrocracy with hints of racism.

Yes definitely. Anyone taken alive by goblins is in for a rough time. Goblins love to take proxy revenge by torturing prisoners and making them perform hard, boring labor. Goblins don't have institutionalized slavery across generations though because they invariably work their slaves to death and they like to eat humanoid children.

I don't see why not. Indentured servitude comes in a lot of flavors. If a person wants passage on a ship and has no money to pay for passage and they pay for their passage by doing the crew's dishes that's technically indentured servititude.

In most cases, new recruits to priesthoods have to work for free for a very long time until they get paid. That's sort of indentured servitude.

"I work for X period of time in exchange for Y" is a form of indentured servitude is Y is anything but money.

I don't think indentured servitude is automatically unjust. Just like there is a difference between an underpaid worker and wage slavery. That's probably too nuanced for a table top RPG.

Not bad. I'll have to think on this though. When I changed the goddess Phyra into the goddess Nami (she was confusing readers with the similarly named Phidas) it took me a long time to find and change all the "Phyra's." Now I have a lot more documents of notes.

I am aware of some birds being very sexually dimorphic. Kenku are based on the crovid family, the genus that includes crows and ravens. If I look up "How big are elephants?" the Internet will give me a different size for males and females. If Iook up lions, orcas, or various subsets of humans by nationality I will find a male and female break down of height/length and weight. I eventually gave up (five minutes) finding a definitive scientific analysis of crow size by sex.

Unlock a flock of ducks, I certainly cannot tell the difference between the males and females in a flock of ravens or crows (though I can tell a raven apart from a crow). While the 3.5 Monster Manual 3 entry for kenku didn't separate male and female height and weight either. They did say that female dwarves are slightly shorter and considerably lighter than male dwarves (though dwarves get a much longer description).

Elves are less sexual dimorphic than humans are and kenku in my world were created in the Age of Elves, better known as the Second Age. Because elves were the baseline of what a humanoid creature was, in general Second Age creatures are not very sexual dimorphic. Creatures originating in the Third Age are usually sexual dimorphic in terms of height and mass are proportionally similar to humans.

 

Crows (and other Corvidae) are indeed among the least sexually dimorphic species among birds.
Without an endoscope or a DNA test it is VERY hard to tell who is what. Even when observing their mating rituals.

 

Cool, so kenku males and females are hard to tell apart if they don't cooperate.

Kenku are good at assimilation and they can make their voice sound like anything, so kenku might adopt the voice of a human male or female to identify themselves to non-kenku if they choose. Though it may be in their best interest to hide their gender to avoid sex based discrimination.

Kenku might change their voices frequently for fun to show off. On the other hand, kenku might underplay their voice changing ability so people don't have it in the front of their mind. It's harder to trick people with voice changes if everyone expects you to mess with them with their voices.

Covering the kenku language. The kenku have their own language but they have been living among other races for so many generations that they have assimilated the Elven and Common tongue into their own. There are only about five hundred words of the Kenku tongue still in use. Amongst themselves kenku speak in mix of Kenku, Elven, and Common words that is frustrating for humanoids to follow. When speaking to non kenku, they will flawlessly adopt the language of whoever they are talking to. Assuming they know the language which is likely. Most kenku can speak three for four languages and my world only has about a dozen languages in it barring a couple really obscure languages like Yeti.

Here's a question. If kenku can make their voice sound like anything they want. What would they choose to sound like when talking to other people? Squawking parrot talk? Innocent children? Polished nobleman's diction? Sensual? Colloquial man on the street? TV informerical announcers?

What voice is most likely to get people to buy stuff and not hassle them?

Here's what my kenku have crunch wise

Spoiler: Kenku character creation rules

Kenku players have the same attribute spread as human characters. They receive no bonus freebie points and no freebie point penalty.
Light Frame: Kenku have a slightly faster base movment rate than humans
Graceful: -1 difficulty all non-magical rolls involving Dexterity
Keen Eyesight: -1 difficulty all Alertness rolls that involve eyesight
Mimicry: Kenku can mimic any voice or accent they hear. They cannot use their mimicry to speak a language they do not know. If they are trying to impersonate someone a listener knows very well such as a family member or boon companion, an opposed roll is necessary pitting the kenku’s Manipulation + Subterfuge against the listener’s Perception + Empathy.
Profit Driven: Kenkus treat Commerce as a simple skill, and they receive a bonus die on all rolls involving Commerce.
Cooperative: Kenku gain a bonus die on rolls when making a cooperative roll with one or more other people. This applies both with other kenkus and other races.

Hollow Bones: Kenku have hollow bones which enables their fast base movement and their excellent Dexterity but it comes with the drawback of greater vulnerability. When hit by blunt trauma or bludgeoning weapons, kenku receive a +1 penalty on their soak roll, even if using armor or magic to soak it. Kenku also have one fewer bruise level than humans.

 

Cool ideas!

About which voice they would choose:
Maybe dependent on their profession.

A Kenku working in a clothes store for mostly Elven/ Human women would probably talk in a deep, Male voice. Women tend to find those attractive.
Same for a Kenku dealing with men, they might decide to have a beautiful female voice.

Generally speaking I think they are better off with a female sounding voice, because females are often less aggressive (at least in the real world), so that might work in de-escalating.

 

That makes perfect sense. If they are selling fresh produce they probably take a stereotypical farmer voice. "Apples so fresh they are practically right off the tree!"

If they want to peddle goods in a rural village they probably want to sound well traveled and worldly. "Oh it's not just a knife, it's a knife crafted by elven mystics!"

If they want to sell weapons they probably want to sound tough. "This axe can chop through the thickest helmets...and skulls. Buy this and you'll be cleaning your foes brains off it weekly!"


A sexy voice may or may not be too weird since kenku would not look sexy to most humanoids but then again we give sexy voices to robots and computers so who knows what works and what doesn't.

A male voice can be soft and de-escalating but either way I think trying to appear de-escalating and non-threatening would be the default kenku response to most situations.

Kenku are fast and nimble, but they aren't good at taking a punch. Of all the PC eligible races, kenku are the worst front line fighters apart from gnomes who are hampered by their small size and also prefer to talk their way out of problems. In most cases a kenku's preferred method of engaging in warfare is thoroughly research their enemies' secret. Then expose the enemy's dirty secrets to sew discord among the enemy's allies while the kenku are quietly selling military supplies to their enemies rivals at steep discounts.

I'm sure there is a Rule of Aquisition that covers this somewhere...

That said, kenku are not helpless baby chicks. They will fight in defense of themselves or their families but only if they have no other choice. And you get a few oddballs in every group. The kenku probably have some very skilled bowmen and very deadly assassins.

 

Okay so let’s talk about spirits. This might help flesh out the planes. In D&D terminology, spirits would be classified as Outsiders with a capital “O” meaning they are literally born on other planes or born of the essence of other planes.

This piece had a lot of words in it so I put in spoiler tabs for organization and I created a 23 word summary.

23 word summary: Spirits are minions of the Nine created from their own essence to be eyes, mouths, hands and sometimes fists in the mortal plane.

So the Nine are gods but they either can’t deal with the mortal plane directly because their power is limited or they won’t interfere directly because their power is so vast they would devastate the world doing even simple things. Haven’t figure out which one but either way the Nine use spirits to be their hands in the mortal world.

Spoiler: Where spirits come from

So spirits come from two sources. Most commonly the Nine take a very tiny portion of their selves and create an independent being out of their essence. These are called exogenic spirits. Less commonly the Nine take the soul of a deceased mortal whose actions and piety pleased them and infuse them with a tiny portion of their power. These are called exemplar spirits. Exogenic and exemplar spirits are very hard to tell apart. They both could be very powerful or very weak. The main difference is that exemplars have free will and the full creativity of a mortal while exogenic spirits are usually pretty singled minded and task oriented.

The Nine can each empower thousands of spirits but their power isn’t limited. If a spirit is destroyed, this weakens the deity a tiny bit but they can heal from it pretty easily. In game mechanics they have a rechargeable maximum to the number of spirits.

Spoiler: Spirits Numbers by Deity

It also takes a tiny portion of a deity’s power to empower a mortal to cast divine magic. This is why theologians and magic theoreticians notice that the gods that have lots of priests and holy warriors seem to utilize spirit minions very rarely and the deities that have few empowered mortal servants usually utilize many spirits.

Hallisan, Khemra, Phidas, and Mera have very large priesthoods and comparatively few active spirit minions. Greymoria, Maylar, Nami and Zarthus have relatively small priesthoods and relatively numerous active spirit minions. Per usual, Korus is neutral lies between both extremes with a modest number of both types of empowered servants.

Granted I'm still fuzzy on what is a lot of spirits and what is few spirits.

Lots: 3000, Few 300.
Lots: 3,000,000 Few: 300,000

There is a lot of leeway.

Spoiler: What Spirits Usually Look Like

Many exceptions exist but I figure most flavors of spirit would have a predominant color.

Mera: Blue like the sea, orange like flames
Hallisan: Metallic like steel, grey like the stones
Zarthus: Silver like the moon, yellow like the light of a lantern
Korus: Green like plants, brown like the earth
Khemra: Gold like the sun, red like the dawn and dusk
Nami: White like clouds, blue like sky
Greymoria: Purple because of magic I guess, black cause she’s mean.
Phidas: Silver like the Barrier, gold like the wealth he covets
Maylar: Red like blood, dull brown like pestilence.


Base line for what they would probably look like though a spirit’s appearance is going to be more influenced by its assigned task then its creator’s nature.

Mera: Beautiful and serene
Hallisan: Strong and stoic
Zarthus: Keen eyed and lithe
Korus: One with nature
Khemra: Noble and aloof
Nami: Clever and nimble
Greymoria: Intense and mysterious
Phidas: Covetous and ugly or masked
Maylar: Lean and hungry or visibly sick and emaciated

Spoiler: Messenger Spirits

Messengers: Communciating their divine will is something all of the Nine like to do.

I haven’t come up with any specific concepts for messenger spirits because ANY spirit can be a messenger. They don’t even have to talk. If a spirit shows up and provides some aid or even just smiles at you that’s like “Good job, buddy!” from your god. If a spirit shows up and gives you the stink eye or tries to kill you that’s like “Watch it buddy!” from your god.

A full time messenger spirit might have amazing language skills but I am thinking of making “understand all languages” be a universal trait to all spirits and “speak all languages” be a trait for most spirits.”

Spoiler: Soldier Spirits

Soldiers: Divine spell-casters who have the lore of Spirit Magic need to be able summon backup. So far, I have the concept that most of these soldiers are enhanced versions of ordinary animals. Each deity would probably have a small core of humanoid shaped elite warriors for when they really need to do some divine smiting.

Maylar, Zarthus, and Hallisan are very martial gods that are fond of smiting their enemies, so they would probably have lots of soldier spirits. On the other hand, all three of these gods would prefer their mortal followers kill their own enemies.

Mera is a peacenik and Nami is pretty laisezfaire, so they probably have very few soldiers spirits.

I haven’t come up with any concrete ideas on what any elite fighting spirits look like or what their powers are.

Spoiler: Guardian Spirits

Guardians: This is probably the type of spirit that a PC is most likely to encounter. Hallisan, Mera, and Phidas all have protection as part of their divine identity, so they would probably have a lot of guardians relative to the others. Hallisan is big on the protection aspects of chivalry, Mera loves all living creatures, and Phidas is the first line of defense against the Void. Korus would have spirits guarding sites of natural wonder, but everyone wants to defend something sometimes.

Gargoyles: My first spirit concept and my only guardian concept so far is gargoyles. I originally figured them as exclusive to Phidas as they they are ugly sentinels with a thematic tie-in to the earth and stone. I figured a gargoyle spirit could possess a consecrated gargoyle statue when the situations calls for it. Small gargoyles would wail like banshees and serve as alarm systems while larger gargoyles would wail on intruders with their giant stone fists.

Guardian statues that come to life and protect fortresses, temples, or vaults is something everyone would want, not just Phidas. I’d be open for suggestions on how to make the concept more appropriate for the other gods. Maybe Korus guardians would materialize out of trees and Mera guardians would rise out of sacred pools.

Spoiler: Spirits of Wisdom

Teachers, Advisors and Oracles: When the human race was young, the Nine had many teacher spirits teach the humans things like writing, agriculture, animal husbandry and whatnot. Same goes for when the other races were young. Now there aren’t nearly as many teacher-spirits because it’s much easier to let mortals teach the next generation.

Greymoria has the lion share of teacher spirits. First off, Greymoria creates new races quite often, so her newest children need someone to show them ropes. Second off, she is the goddess of arcane magic and arcane magic is difficult often requiring one-on-one instruction. In most cases, if someone wants to learn arcane magic from a spirit, a price of some sort must be paid, usually in the form of a service. Zarthus has a tiny number of spirits capable of teaching arcane magic. This is against the spirit of the Divine Compact, but Zarthus thinks it’s important that good moral people learn arcane magic and not just Greymoria’s followers. Nami has a few arcane spirits as well, mainly out of curiosity and because she doesn’t like being told what she can and can’t do.

Favored souls are mortals that are born with natural divine capabilities or else they are bestowed with this power at a very young age. In most cases, each of the Nine periodically sends a spirit to check on their favored souls. At least once to explain to them what they are. Sometimes a favored soul ends up with a lifetime protector, friend, and mentor.

Priests that are very high ranking such that they make worldwide decisions for their religion can regularly expect visits from advisor spirits. A few governments that are very tight with one of the Nine, such as Khemra and the nation of Khemarok have advisor spirits regularly talk to kings and similar governmental leaders, but this is fairly rare. Other spirits can serve as oracles providing warnings and prophecies. In most cases, the Nine prefer their mortal priests serve as advisors and oracles but spirits can step in when mortal priests can’t or won’t.

While Khemra doesn’t have a lot of spirit advisors, she has more than the rest of the Nine because Khemra is sort of a micromanager. Unknown to my players, one of these advisor spirits is Neshik’s mother. Eventually I’ll introduce her as a recurring character when I come up with a dramatically appropriate time. I probably will have her introduce herself as a generic Khemra spirit the first time they meet. I haven’t named her yet. In any event she was forbidden from revealing herself as Neshik’s mother because Neshik is the product of a scandalous love affair.

Spoiler: Half-Spirit Half-Mortal

Half-Spirit/Half Mortal Children

So D&D 3rd edition had Half-Fiends and Half-Celestials. Half-fiends are the children of couplings between mortals and devils or demons. Half-Celestials are the children of couplings between mortals and angels or archons. They explicitly stated that half-celestials are always conceived out of mutual love but source material either implies or openly states that half-fiends are often conceived by deception or force.

In D&D 4th and 5th edition, half-fiends are far more common and they are called Tieflings. Okay a technically a Tiefling might not be a half-fiend. A tiefling can be a quarter-fiend or one eighth fiend. Tiefling might be a less extreme version of half-fiend. I don’t really care.


What I do care about is the Birds and the Bees of Half-Spirits in my world. Because rape is a very serious subject I prefer to state a metaphysical rule that in order to produce a half-mortal/half-spirit child, the sex has to be consensual. If spirits can create half-spirit babies through rape, I imagine all three of my evil deities would be more than willing to order their spirits to do this to flood the world with minions. So I’m setting the metaphysical rule that for a spirit and mortal to produce viable offspring they need to have some sort of legitimate spiritual connection.

Another requirement is that the spirit and the mortal have to have at least somewhat similar physiology. A horse spirit wouldn’t be able to make a horse-spirit hybrid baby with a human (gross!) but a horse spirit could say have a half-spirit offspring with a mortal horse. That’s probably what I’m going to use for the origin of the first pegasi.


I don’t have standardized rules for half-spirits (or quarter-spirits). If a player wants their PC to have their character to have spirit blood, there are a whole bunch of supernatural merits and flaws a player can take. A half-spirit is going to be a normal human (or gnome or elf or whatever) in most respective, just have a few oddball extras. For instance Neshik has a merit that makes him exceptionally good at healing magic, the favored soul merit makes him a very quick learner for magic in general. He has a flaw of golden skin, so he is very easy to pick out in crowds. In most places he goes, strangers say “You must be Neshik!” Another flaw gives him a divine aura that attracts Khemra’s enemies to his location. He also took the Amnesia flaw. I made up the explanation for this as Neshik was an illegitimate love child and Khemra wanted to hide his origin so he was deposited in a Khemra temple to be raised there as a child, unsure of how he got there.

Half-spirits usually are loyal to their divine patron, but they have full free will and they can act against their deity’s agenda if they choose. This is one reason why Khemra (and the other two Lawful deities) tend to discourage their spirit minions from conceiving half-mortal children. The Lawful deities absolutely hate to see their power turned against them. The Chaotic deities are merely annoyed when their half-spirit grandchildren turn against them. Also the Chaotic deities have such a huge number of spirits running around, so it’s not practical to micromanage their personal lives.

In case it must be said, I opted not to have the gods themselves sleep with mortals like so many pantheons from real world myth have. I suppose spirits are part of their deity so the line is blurred but that’s something I don’t want to dive into too deeply.

Spoiler: Questing Spirits

Questing Spirits

The whole point of a questing spirit is that defeating them is difficult but not impossible. Maylar loves to send questing spirits to test the mettle of mortals. At any given time there are at least a hundred Maylar spirits wandering around inflicting misery until a hero takes them down. Unlike the rest of the Nine, Maylar actually doesn’t hold a grudge when his spirits are slain, at least not his questing spirits. They are supposed to be destroyed. Anyone who can beat them is truly strong and Maylar respects the strong, even when they oppose his him. It’s the protecting the weak thing that bugs him. If there is a monster from real world mythology that is really weird looking such as kappa of Eastern folklore or the Fachan of Celtic myth, they would be good fit for a Maylar questing beast.

Maylar doesn’t have a monopoly on questing spirits, the rest of the Nine are just far more discriminate. If a priest or holy warrior wants to ascend to a high rank, they often have to defeat a questing spirit to prove their worth. The Nine also possess a variety of powerful magical items, available to only the worthy. In many cases to get these items, aspiring champions have to defeat a succession of questing spirits. Questing spirits are not always giant monsters. It’s very common that questing spirits provide riddles or puzzles to solve.

Spoiler: Punishment Spirits

Punishment Spirits

All the Nine have at least some desire to punish those who displease them. Greymoria considers 90% of all mortals to be deserving of punishment. Unlike Maylar’s questing beasts, Greymoria’s horde of spirit minions isn’t trying to make anyone stronger or serve any justified greater purpose, they are trying to inflict misery on death on mortals who don’t love and worship Greymoria as much as they deserve.

The concept I came up with so far is a variation of the concept of a river hag. River hags look like emaciated old women who are perpetually dripping wet. They hide at treacherous river crossing and grapple unwary people who draw to close and drown them, especially children. I like the Kelpies of Celtic myth that are horses that try to entice people to ride them, then they run straight into the nearest water body at breakneck speed and drown their riders. Greymoria’s punishment spirits don’t exclusively have to use drowning, but that’s a very common tactic.

Three lawful deities have a small squad of punishment spirits to hunt down law breakers who their mortals cannot seem to catch. Phidas, has the most of these because Phidas embodies the concept of punishment more than the others. I came up with the concept of the Maskless. The Maskless are tall muscular (and ugly faced) humanoids that ruthlessly chase down oath breakers like divine bounty hunters. They are a fairly common sight in nations that have Phidas as a patron deity. Phidas doesn’t have nearly as many nations under his thumb as Hallisan and Khemra and he wants to make himself valuable to kings and queens who properly honor him.

Trickster spirits combine the concept of punishment and teaching into one as the lessons can be fairly harsh. It’s hard to get Nami truly mad, but I figure most of her punishment spirits would be tricksters. The other gods could employ tricksters as well. Tricksters are great concepts in works of fiction, but they are difficult to use in RPGs because it often seems like the Game Master is just trying to annoy the players and not the player characters. Tricksters are a little offputting in live action media. That’s why I’m not a big fan of how often Q shows up in Star Trek. I figure all the chaotic gods would employ tricksters, Maylar’s tricks would be very brutal indeed. Zarthus’ tricks would usually be pretty benign but Zarthus loves to humble the proud. Trickster spirits is a category I would especially be interested in input and suggestions for.

Korus would send punishment spirits against those who despoil nature. Either the punishment spirits would kill or wound the offenders or blight the offender’s crops. The latter is sort of a nuclear option but it’s always on the table. That is why even most iron fisted tyrants try to avoid offending Korus.

Mera is the deity least likely to punish wrongdoers but she will withhold aid form those who displease her.

Spoiler: Healing Spirits

Healing Spirits

Mera is the goddess of healing so she has dozens if not hundreds of spirits roaming Scarterras to help those in need. Since most of Mera’s divine spell-casters have some sort of healing power, she usually deploys her spirits to remote areas where her mortal minions cannot go easily.

I came up with the concept of Blue Healers not realizes I subconsciously named a spirit type after a breed of dog. Anyway, Blue Healers are spirits that take the form of handsome blue men and beautiful blue women who heal those in need. They can shape change a little bit to take the base form of whatever humanoid they are dealing with (human, elf, gnome, kobold, whatever). They can turn invisible almost at will so in many cases no one knows where the miracle recovery comes from. Blue Healers like to hang out invisibly near sources of clean drinking water which of course leads mortals to tell stories about how the water from this place has healing powers, due to Mera’s blessing. In a way that’s true. I figure Blue Healers are especially likely to get Florence Nightingale Syndrome and fall in love with their patients, so they would sire or bear a lot of half-spirit children.


The rest of the Nine would have some healing spirits because all the Nine care about the welfare of their followers, at least a little bit. In most cases outside of Mera’s retinue, healer spirits are not just a healer spirit. They are usually guardian, soldier, or advisor spirits that can also heal. Neshik’s mother is an advisor/healer spirit. Other healing spirits could nourish the land or repair buildings and objects.

The most notorious healer spirits are the extortionists in Maylar’s retinue. They cause disease with the left hand and cure disease with their right, for a price.

Spoiler: Muses

Muses

Muses are spirits of inspiration. Zarthus is the god of all forms of art so he probably has a lot of these. Nami also has inspiration in her preview so she probably has a few. Hallsian is a god of craftsmen so he might have a handful of muses in his employ. I’m not sure about the rest of the Nine. I guess for the rest of the Nine, inspiration would be more like inspiration for courage or inspiration for compassion as opposed to inspiration for creativity. This kind of moves into the territory of teacher or advisor spirits.

Spoiler: Assisting Spirits

Assistants or Sidekicks

Zarthus is a god of righteous retribution but he expects his followers to find their own justice. He provides a hand up, not a hand out. Instead of a spirit smiting the bad guy, the spirit is probably going to walk up to one of the bad guy’s enemies and then transform itself into a talking sword (or axe or bow or whatever). A talking sword is sort of a combination advisor/guardian/soldier.

The rest of the Nine eventually decided Zarthus had a good idea. Most sentient magical items of divine origin are either a spirit transformed into an item or bound into it. I haven’t decided how difficult or common it is to bind a spirit into a magic item against the spirit’s will. I’d like there to be some way an arcane spell caster can craft a sentient magic item without enslaving a spirit. I’m still at the drawing board for that one.

Besides talking magic items, a spirit can serve as a person’s familiar (commonly but no exclusive for Greymoria’s worshippers) or animal companion (commonly but not exclusively for Korus’ worshippers). A few important temples might have a local butler type spirit to help with mundane tasks.

Spoiler: Sign here in blood

Faustian or Warlock spirits

A warlock is an arcane caster that gains power by making a pact with an otherworldly being. In Scarterras, otherworldly being usually means “Spirit minion of Greymoria.” Most Greymoria backed warlocks are pledged to perform some kind of task in Greymoria’s service. Nami has warlock spirits too, but not nearly as many. She doesn’t usually demand service but she usually enacts a very unusual price such “a life time of deception.” A mortal who offers Nami a lifetime of deception suddenly finds himself unable to lie…at all, much like Jim Carrey.

While far less common than warlocks, a spirit could bestow something other than magical power. Great beauty, great strength, the ability to talk to animals. This is something almost any of the Nine might do, but this is more the province of the Fair Folk than the gods.

Spoiler: "Little gods"

Little Gods

If a village or other population center is near the location of a healer or guardian spirit, they might provide offerings of food, praise, or other gifts to said healer spirit. A punishment or questing spirit may be offered gifts in placation to avoid its wrath. Whatever the spirit’s original intent, a spirit that is regularly given praise and gifts by a group of locals is likely to develop fondness or loyalty for the mortals who honor it. In extreme cases a hostile spirit can be rehabilitated into a guardian spirit.

Spirits that are localized in one area and use their powers on behalf of the inhabitants of that area are often nicknamed little gods. Spirits of any affiliation and any type can theoretically become little gods

Spoiler: Nature Spirits

Nature Spirits

The Nine each have dominion over some aspect of nature. Spirits can help with this.

The sun and the moon are pretty self-regulating but Khemra and Zarthus could have spirits that can shine light in the darkness.

Hallisan can have spirits which bring minerals to the surface, but I prefer Pendrake’s illustration of metal bubbling up to the surface from deep within the planet’s core.

Phidas doesn’t need spirits to maintain the Barrier against the Void but he probably has spirits that identify and/or kill Void Demons that sneak through. That’s why gargoyles were eventually created.

Nami controls the weather. She probably has a huge army of spirit minions. Thunder men, ice maidens, lightning men, etc. Nami doesn’t need a spirit to be behind every rainbow, shower, or heat wave, but if you see highly unusual weather such as blizzards in the middle of summer, one or more spirits are probably involved.

Korus could employ fertility spirits that can make the plants grow faster. Phidas and Hallisan can bestow life stones with power for a similar effect underground. Spirit middle men are probably involved. Korus spirits can also influence animal behavior. I have created a benign Mera spirit called “Fisherman’s Friends” that can summon fish towards fishermen that Mera is pleased with or repel fish from those Mera is displeased with.

Mera probably has a few spirits that can create or move fresh water to those in need.

Spoiler: Spirits that defy easy classification???

Unaffiliated Spirits

I have pondered including a class of spirits that serve the Nine collectively but don’t play favorites. I’m leaning towards no, but a voice in my head tells me not to throw the idea away.

Void Demons, in a lot of ways are very similar to spirits. They are the spirit minions of Turoch and are hostile to the Nine and the Nine’s minions and worshippers.

The Fair Folk are sort of like spirits that are neutral. They are not hostile to the Nine but they are not friendly with them either. Some theorists state that the Fair Folk are the lesser spirit servants of Turoch who chose to remain neutral when the Nine battled Turoch. Others hypothesize that the original Fair Folk are the original spirit minions of the Traitor deity (aka the Tenth) and they went their own way after the Traitor died. Others believe that the Fair Folk are the result of spirits who deserted the Nine’s service. Either way, the Fair Folk and many spirits have very similar powers, weaknesses, and often appearance. The main difference besides that spirits are relatively easy to predict and Fair Folk are not is that the Fair Folk seem to sexually reproduce.

In D&D terms, Void Demons, Spirits of the Nine, and Elementals are all Outsiders which means they are native to another plane. Fair Folk are fey not outsiders, because…uh reasons. Elementals in Scarterras are not “outsiders” they are “insiders.” Elementals are creatures that are born from the center of the earth. Void Demons are spawned from the Void, spirits come from the sky, and Fair Folk come from the Fae Realm which happens to be co-existent with the material plane.

Spoiler: Soul Collectors????

Soul Collectors

I am not 100% I want to have soul collectors at all. Souls of the departed may or may not be able to make it to the afterlife without the intervention of a helpful spirit. If the Nine have any spirit minions that serve the Nine as a collective rather than as individuals, soul collectors would likely be a good fit.

Spoiler: Spirit Weaknesses

Spirit Weaknesses

Nearly all spirits are repelled by a line or a circle of salt. Weaker spirits cannot cross a line of salt at all. Stronger spirits can do so but it causes great pain and weakens them. This is because salt is the essence of Turoch’s blood and Turoch hates the Nine. Fair Folk usually share this weakness.

Nearly all spirits are vulnerable to cold iron otherwise known as wrought iron. Now technically the vast majority of the iron in the medieval world is/was wrought iron. For the purpose of Scarterras, cast iron and hardened iron (proto-steel) is not considered cold iron. A spirit’s weakness to cold iron is not extreme. Cold iron weapons do bonus damage but it is hardly an insta-kill weapon. Fair Folk usually share this weakness.

I am still weighing two additional aspects of cold iron. So cold iron does more damage, that’s is something I’m set on. Two things I’ve pondered adding to this.

1) Spirits and Fair Folk heal wounds inflicted by cold iron very slowly.

2) Spirits and Fair Folk that are destroyed by something other than cold iron will reincarnate eventually (though they may not be recognizable when they do). Spirits and Fair Folk destroyed by cold iron are very much truly dead with no rebirth and no afterlife.


Either or both of these things would make spirits a lot more cautious in the material plane. If I implement option 2) this could make cold iron weapons somewhat taboo by orthodox priests and their followers. This also means the Nine are probably going to be a lot more vengeful if a mortal is offing a bunch of their spirits with cold iron as opposed to merely annoyed if a bunch of spirits are being offed without cold iron.

In any event, Void Demons will certainly have the capacity to strike a Fae or Spirit down extra dead with their energy draining attack.


The more powerful a spirit (or Fair Folk) is, the more weaknesses a spirit can develop. For instance, a Kappa has a bowl shaped head filled with water. They are very strong and cunning but if the water in their bowl is ever spilled they will begin to rapidly weaken. I only read one full version of the Fachan, but in the version I read the Fachan hate hundreds of humans but left its victim’s livers intact. That’s because livers are poisonous to the Fachan. One noble hero guessed this after examining the carnage left in the Fachan’s wake, she gathered up a bunch of livers and then threw the livers down the Fachan’s throat killing it.

Metaphysically, since spirits (and Fair Folk) are not native to the material plane, they develop echoes or weaknesses as they adapt to grow in power in the material plane.

Meta-game speaking, I want to reward players who do research, detective work and come up with clever plan. Sure, you can beat a Fachan by hitting it with a magic sword over and over again, but I like to reward players for being clever and careful.

It’s a safe bet that a weather spirit of ice and snow is going to not like being attacked by fire.

Another common weakness for spirits is a completely inability to perform certain actions. A Blue Healer for instance would be literally incapable of harming a mortal even in self-defense (they can harm undead or Void Demons all they want though).



Void Demons have their own weaknesses. SInce the Barrier is created out of divine blessed silver, Void Demons take extra damage from silver weapons. They often can easily be tricked or led into ambushes when they haven't fed recently.

I am still on the fence on whether Void Demons should be harmed by healing magic the way undead are.

So I’m open to any and all ideas for ideas for spirit characters and how to implement them. Especially Neshik’s mom. Among other things, the thing she does best is magical healing. That’s something Neshik will probably never need because Neshik is amazing at healing magic, so I'm hard pressed to come up with a good scenario for her to fly to the rescue as of yet.


Spirits directly relate to two things I covered before. 1) I like the idea that gems are the tears of spirits unless the idea is too stupid and un-implementable like my idea of making coal be dragon poop 2) Whatever I decide planar geography will look like will need to take spirits into account.

 

It's unlikely that Maylar would empower an exemplar as a questing spirit. If he did make an exemplar a questing spirit it would probably a comparatively friendly questing spirit that tests Maylar worshippers, rarely killing them but frequently savagely beating them.

Alternatively Maylar might not tell an exemplar that he/she/it is actually being unleashed as an expendable Questing Spirit. In this case, if say a soul in Maylar's retinue really hates elves, or Swynfaredians, or some other specific group, Maylar could just unleash the exemplar upon the object of his hatred and say "Have fun!" In the case of blind hatred they could go tear apart the countryside in a robotic manner.

That is a good idea. I had mostly considered Maylar a mindless brute but psychological torture is a new sort of evil.

Maylar goes through phases where he is courting Nami, phases where he is courting Greymoria, and phases where he is going his own way. I imagine Maylar would be big on psychological torture when he is an item with Greymoria.

Alternatively he might go all out to tear a mortal down to it's figurative core if he really loathes that mortal. Alternatively he might be trying to toughen up one of his own followers being very fond of "That which does not kill you makes you stronger."

My thoughts exactly. Nami is all about unorthodox wisdom. I'm not a huge fan of the motiff where gods disguises themselves as lowly mortals all the time, but if anyone did that I figure Nami would do that a lot. It is probably more consistent with my setting if Nami's minions do this.

Along those lines, I am pondering ways to have Nami mess with Neshik the gnome. Neshik is a favored soul of Khemra (nicknamed elcipse caste) and he took the character flaw that his divine aura attracts Khemra's enemies.

In one case, the PCs fought a priest of Maylar who summoned some spirit wolves. They killed the summoner figuring this would banish the wolves, but the wolves wanted to stick around to taste the flesh of the golden gnome. In a lot of cases Maylar's minions want to take down Neshik because eclipse castes are so rare in general and eclipse gnomes are basically unheard of.

Nami's spirit minions and mortal followers would probably not want to kill Neshik, just annoy him. The problem is I don't want it to come across as me as the Game Master annoying Neshik's player.

The best I have so far is a really cheap insult.

"An eclipse born gnome. I didn't realize that the stick Khemra shoves up the eclipse caste butt comes in such small sizes!"

Zarthus' minions may or may not hassle Neshik. Neshik is so charismatic and he is very generous to poor people, so I doubt they would stay suspicious of him for long. It would almost be like if the party frat house meets the crusty old dean and the dean gives them a free keg. They would be very confused.

Also, Neshik's best buddy Aranil is a Zarthus worshipper, but as Aranil's player says "Aranil is a Christmas and Easter Zarthus worshipper."

That's a good idea.

That's a good idea. I also bet that because people see what they want to see, it's common for mortals to claim random phenonenon as a sign of the gods' favor.

 

"What are you spraying me with?"
"Rum, so no one will believe your story!"

I think blue birds of paradise sound like a good fit for the official messengers of Mera.

That is sort of by design. The thing is, who has the best claim to being the god of fire is hotly contested (pun!).

Khemra is the goddess of the sun
Mera is the goddess of the hearth
Nami is the goddess of arson and uses flame as a metaphor for inspiration
Hallisan is the god of the forge
Zarthus's symbol is a lantern
Korus is sort of the the custodian of the four classic elements, of which one is fire.
Maylar values the destructive power of fire.
Greymoria the goddess of arcane magic, has a mild preference for fire magic when going on the offensive.

Phidas isn't particularly concerned with fire.

Helping freezing travelers is certainly something Mera would endorse though most gods would consider intervening to prevent their followers from freezing to death. Random destruction is something Maylar and Nami would endorse.

The fiction piece I'm brainstorming is probalby going to have a favored soul of Mera as the protagonist, and I like the idea of him getting his butt saved in the freezing wilderness by a tiny bird carrying a hundred pounds of coal. Got to be careful and not have Mera bail him out too much.

The thing about phoenixes is that fire is not their most interesting trait. Their most interesting trait is that they ressurect themselves after death. That's something I'm not sure about metaphysically.

Interesting. I thought of black knights in terms of an elite version of undead, but I think I like the idea of them being dark spirits more...

Great concept!

Even if I don't have spirits involved at all, I am fond of the idea of most scarecrows being effigies of knights. This could also work as a comparatively inexpensive golem. I have yet to come up with game stats or prices for any gold. I still need to work out ordinary magical items, but I wrote in my player's handbook that level five Crafts magic can make golems so I need to get around to it eventually.

I want golems in general to be expensive ways to get loyal expendable soldiers without the moral implications of using undead soldiers, but emphasis on expensive. Just like with magical items I need to price them so rich people can conceivably afford them.

I guess my world has classic chimera in it (dragon, goat, lion) roaming the remote wilderness and I'm probably going to have sphinxes be another monstrous race. Hybrids of multiple creatures would be a great way to come up with a spirit concept quickly. The weirder the better.

Phoenixes in literature and media are nearly always very powerful being. They could of course have a wide variety of powers including healing even if their patron isn't super big on healing. Blue birds of course would probably have healing because Mera is all about healing.

 

Back to the Criminal Empire

I already detailed Etch and his two main lieutenants, now it's time to come up with some other criminals who should have names and motivations.

Recap, a doppleganger named Etch is actually impersonating two rival crime lords that are supposedly at war with each other over controlling the underworld in Fumaya, the Guild of Shadows and the Black Hand. Kroket Caskfoot, outcast dwarf and leader of the Guild of Shadows and Bledig, bastard son of a Swynfareidan noble and leader of the Black Hand.

Etch only revealed himself to two lieutenants. A fork tongued gnome enchanter named Vusnitt and a ruthless cutthroat human named Wenham.

I'm not statting out all the characters below crunchwise because that would be a waste of time but it's important for all characters to want something and have a potential to interact with the PCs somehow.

Oh if you see the phrase "King's Lake" that's what I'm naming Fumaya's capital. Because the capital is bordering a large lake. Literal named cities are easier to remember. In fact, a profile of the city of King's Lake is coming soon.


Arkady Buras (human)

Officially Wenham is the chief enforcer for the Guild of Shadows even though he is really the enforcer for both the Guild of Shadows and the Black Hand. Sometimes it’s inconvenient to have Wenham beat someone up on behalf of the Black Hand. Arkady Buras is the chief enforcer for the Black Hand, answering directly to Bledig, completely oblivious of his boss’ grand scheme.

Arkady was a captain of the city guards that abused his power in a lot of petty ways. He managed to intimidate enough victims that the end result was “all the evidence against me is purely circumstantial.” Henryk chose not to punish Arkady because he would rather a guilty man go free than an innocent man get punished. Under the advice of Jaromir, King Henryk did fire him from the city guardsmen under the guise of cost saving measures.

Several other members of the guard that were on Jaromir’s naughty list were also fired under the guise of cost saving measures. Most of these men now work for Arkady and the Black Hand as Arkady’s brute squad. One of these ex-guards, Leonard, decided working a criminal organization was crossing a line he didn’t want to cross. If the PCs investigate the ex-guards thoroughly, Leonard might be persuaded to give up intel on Arkady and his gang.

Arkady is quite large and imposing. He is not dumb, but he often acts dumb to put people off guard. Arkady’s main weakness is his hedonism. He’s a heavy drinker, womanizer and gambler. Another weakness is Arkady is a little too hands off leading his men. A lot of men who were former guardsmen were not fired for corruption but they were fired because they were lazy and sometimes half-ass actions on behalf of the Black Hand.


Wenham’s Gang (all human)

Wenham is an utterly evil man, but he is loyal to the street gang he grew up with. While Wenham will cut loose and betray almost any of his minions he will not sacrifice his core crew. There are five left. Wenham has promised Etch not to tell his crew that Etch is a doppleganger, but Wenham made Etch promise not to sacrifice or abandon Wenham’s core crew. None of Wenham’s gang would knowingly betray Wenham except maybe at the point of death. All of Wenham’s crew work for the Guild of Shadows, not the Black Hand. They are aware that need Wenham’s permission to attack the Black Hand.

Maryn is a master class thief. His main weakness is that he likes to show off and this pushes him to take unnecessary risks.

Edmund is Wenham’s chief brute muscle. His main weakness is that he is somewhat gullible.

Patryk is the most ruthless of Wenham’s gang, the one he calls when he needs something truly reprehensible done. His main weakness is that he has a sadistic streak and will sometimes shed more blood than is required to get the job done. Patryk is the only one of the crew aware that the Black Hand and the Guild of Shadows are secretly allies.

Markary is sort of a jack-of-all trades who is trying to style himself to be just like Wenham. His main weakness is that he lacks initiative and requires Wenham micromanaging him.

Dymtr is the weak link of the group. Dymtr isn’t really dumb or weak, he just is considerably less competent than the others and gets soft jobs. This gives him an inferiority complex of sorts.


Reeyak (kenku)

Reeyak officially runs a curiosity shop (though I might have him run a tavern instead). Unofficially he is the most important fence in Fumaya. He has no compunctions about dealing in stolen goods, but he greatly dislikes the idea of bloodshed and will perform considerable mental gymnastics to create plausible deniability for himself.

He deals with both the Black Hand and the Guild of Shadows. Reeyak is aware that their supposed turf war is a lot tamer than they are advertising but it hasn’t occurred to him that the two organizations are one and the same. If it’s revealed that the organizations are dealing in stolen kenku eggs he will eagerly work behind the scenes to take them down. Which in this case, them is the Guild of Shadows because they handle nearly all of Etch’s trade in regents.

This is the character I’m going to try to meld into a version of Quark.


Madame Zofia (half-elf)

Zofia the half elf is madame of a fairly high end brothel. Zofia is ex-prostitute that used the proceeds of her trade to hire a tutor in the mystic arts. Besides mundane guards her brothel is protected by abjuration spells. Still her abjurations are not absolute and she has to pay protection money to both the Black Hand and the Guild of Shadows and this double extortion galls her.

Beyond this the street walkers and pimps that are the low end of the prostitution racket pay protection money to either or both criminal guilds.


Bolesaw (human)

Bolesaw is a bastard half-brother of King Henryk that has long been jealous of his half-brother inheriting the crown. He is selling information on the inner workings of royal court and the noble houses to criminals for gold and what he thinks is underworld clout. He believes he is manipulating the Guild of Shadows and the Black Hand against each other, with the eventual goal of turning them both in to the authorities and then picking up the pieces of both criminal empires.

Bolesaw is unaware that both of his secret contacts are really Etch. Etch is figuring most of Bolesaw’s information is outdated. Once Etch milks Bolesaw for every bit of information he has, he plans to have Wenham kill Bolesaw.


Gardoun Frostrock (dwarf)

Gardoun is an outcast dwarf. A pariah from his people for dealing with criminals. Gardoun sells custom weapon and armor jobs for disreputable people. He also moonlights in grunt muscle work when his metalworking gig is slow. More interestingly, he is quietly waiting for his moment to move against the Black Hand.

Etch and his triumvirate murdered the previous influential criminals in King’s Lake to make room for Etch’s alter ego crimelords to take over. Gardoun is one of the few criminals still alive who was actually loyal to his dead boss. He does his work for the Guild of Shadows, unaware that the Guild of Shadows and Black Hand are the same group.


Mistress Agata (human)

Eth would dearly love to get a magical healer in his inner circle, but very few magical healers in Fumaya are willing to work with criminals. Those that are willing to work with criminals are not inclined to join with criminals, and they will charge lots of gold for their services.

Mistress Agata is a very skilled non-magical healer. She is the one that both the Black Hand and the Guild of Shadows both need someone to sew up their wounds, so the two rival crime lords “reluctantly” (wink) agreed that Agata’s tenement is a sort of demilitarized zone in their rivalry.

Agata is a kind soul and is not naïve about who she works for. She rationalizes that taking gold from mobsters frees her up to give discounted services to innocent people. Also, she has a lot of dependents to feed.


Carcelli (gnome)

The priesthood of Greymoria has been spying on Neshik and his colleagues in the priesthood of Khemra and knows that they are trying to take a bite of crime. The Children of Greymoria sort of wish to see Khemra’s Keepers fall on their face, but all things considered, the Keepers are a low priority rival.

The local leader of the Children has no love or loyalty for King Henryk, and no interest in working with criminals, but she doesn’t want to see Fumaya collapse and Swynfaredia take over. Therefore she doesn’t want to see King’s Lake drown in crime. She told her inner circle not to get involved in the Keeper’s war on crime. Carcelli the illusionist is disobeying this directive.

One of Carcelli’s friends was killed as collateral damage by Wenham’s pet murderer Patryk. She is investigating her friend’s death and is sure the Guild of Shadows is involved. She is going to provide Neshik and Aranil some under the table aid with the home that they will take down the Guild of Shadows or at least shake up things to let Carcelli do some detective work. If asked “Why is a priestess of Greymoria helping us” her answer is that the Guild of Shadows is muscling out the Children of Greymoria’s regent trade (not a pure lie, but greatly exaggerated).


Anyway I'm open to any suggestions on how to flesh out these characters, or any new characters of import. One thing I wouldn't mind doing is adding a Swynfaredian spy into the underworld, but I'm not sure what kind of minion a Swynfaredian would send into the King's Lake (it would take an unusual combination of loyalty, skill, and expendability that is hard to find) or what a Swynfardian sabeteur would try to do with criminals.