Supplement #3 First Distribution: August 9, 1989 This supplement: A Campaign Mythology (Part II) (Richard Nuttall) -------------------- ------------8<----------------------8<------------------8<-------------8<---- This is part 2 of a multi-part article on my campaign mythology. Part 1 introduced the system and the cults. This part covers some more of the cults in detail. THOR, The Thunderer. TYR, God of War. BRAGI, God of Poetry. IDUN, Goddess of youth and immortality. ***************************************************************************** THOR, The Thunderer Rune : THUNDER (DEATH) (This is not intended as a player-character cult, but could be played as one.) Thor is not inately evil! Rather, it is the scant disregard for the lives of others that ensures his reputation. This is somewhat unfair, since Thor was originally a good god. His reputation stems from his dwarven followers (== dark elves in my game, an evil warrior nation) who have frightened off all but the keenest of his other followers. The attitude towards life stems mainly from the inborn attitude of dwarves in general. LAY MEMEBRSHIP Lay Membership is open to all humans and dwarves. Any warrior dwarves will pick this cult to the exclusion of all others. The cult in general disregards other cults roughly equally, but hates other warrior cults (TYR, VALI, HEL). Temples are ALL underground, the deeper, the better. Benefits : Protection, Lodgings. Skills : Evaluate treasure (1/2 price) Spot Trap (or Spot Hidden) (1/2 price) Crossbow (1/2 price) Great Hammer (1/2 price) Thrown Hammer (1/2 price) Masonry (free) Battle Magic : Darkwall (1/2 price) Detect gold (free) Protection (1/2 price) Bludgeon (1/2 price) Darksee (1/2 price) All members must sacrifice 1 point of power every Festday (1/month in my game). INITIATE MEMBERSHIP To join, the initiate must give a good quality weapon (preferably Hammer, Axe or Crossbow) to the cult. Hammer skill must be at least 60%. Power must be least 10. Must have at least 2 battle magic spells. Must sacrifice 2 points of Power every festday. After the weapon has been accepted, the new member must go through an initiation ceremony. In time of war (most of the time if the they can find someone to fight) the initiation will consist of taking front rank in the next battle and bringing back the head of an enemy. If this is achieved, the initiate will be allowed to hang the head outside his tent/cave and will be acclaimed at the feast after the battle. Benefits : 1-3 gifts and geases (as per Humakt in Cults of Prax). Initiates will mistrust all non-cultists. Initiates will get Elan for pro-cult deeds. (i.e. 1 point per enemy killed). Initiates are expected to have utter disregard for their own life as well as the life of their enemies. They will not take prisoners unless the want to torture and or rape them. The prisoners will be killed shortly after the cult has had its fun. In exceptional circumstances, the courage and bravery of an enemy who has been captured may cause them to release the hero. The fact that allowing oneself to be captured is seen as cowardly makes this unlikely. RUNELORDS (Player characters cannot sensibly become Runelords, since the demands of Runelord membership mean that the character would need to spend all his time devoted to the cult and at war. It might work if the whole party are devoted to Thor) I have not detailed the various aspects of being a Runelord of Thor since player-characters are unlikely to become Runelords. NPC Runelords will be high ranking military heros, with suitable combat abilites/spells and trappings. RUNEPRIESTS (The same comment applies regarding PCs.) Runepriests are a much lower status than Runelords, and are there only to lead the various cult rituals. Since no warrior would chose to become a Runepriest, is is common for priests to be ex-warriors who have been invalided out of battle (missing arm/leg/eyes). ***************************************************************************** Tyr, The God of War. Rune : WARRIOR I have used Humakt from Cults of Prax for Tyr. I will assume everyone has this or can get hold of a copy. A summary follows. No particular centre of power. (In my game, an ex-PC, Lord Brovnik is Runelord/Runepriest of Tyr and Vali and has a castle which contains one of 2 known temples to TYR). LAY MEMBERSHIP All may join who swear to keep discipline and uphold the cult sense of honour. 10% of income must be tithed to the cult. Benefits : Sword, dagger, ride, hide, see, spot hidden at 1/2 price. Battle Magic : Bladesharp, Coordination, Detect enemies, Detect undead, Fireblade, Glamour at 1/2 price. INITIATE MEMBERSHIP 1-3 gifts and corresponding geases. Benefits : Bladesharp 1-4 free. RUNELORD MEMBERSHIP Must have 90% with at least 3 combat and 2 other skills. Must have at least 15 Power. Must take one new gift of choice and corresponding geases. Gains an allied spirit and Divine Intervention. RUNEPRIEST MEMBERSHIP Subservient to Runelords. Must have at least 18 Power. Must take one new gift of choice and corresponding geases. ***************************************************************************** BRAGI, God of Poetry. Rune : CONSTRAINT (Not intended as a PC cult) I have not yet filled out this cult in detail. It is intended only as a god whom a poet, bard or minstrel might say a quick prayer to. Thus, there are no temples and no cult as such. ***************************************************************************** IDUN, Goddess of youth and immortality. Rune : YOUTH (Not intended as a PC cult) Worshippers of Idun are obsessed with remaining young and living forever. They are obsessed with this to the exclusion of most other things. Cult priests and initiates usually wander the world, trading their skills for other people's youth. There is no lay membership. There are no temples. INITIATE MEMBERSHIP Becoming an initate is difficult and perverse. The main spell used by the cult, Take Youth is only known by the priests of the cult. In order for someone to become an initiate, they must first find a priest who will teach them the spell. This will take 1 week. The problem is to persuade the priest to teach the spell. The priest will want payment. The normal payment to a priest of Idun for a serious job like this is some years of youth, taken by the priest using the Take Youth spell. The initiate must therefore negotiate with the priest as to how many years of youth are to be taken in payment. 10 is a suggested reasonable number. Thus, the new initiate is likely to start as an initiate 10 years older than before he joined!!! Benefits : Take Youth spell. SPELL : Take Youth. This spell takes 1 hour to cast. During the ritual that accompanies the spell, the caster can drain years of life from the 'victim' of the spell. For each year drained, the victim ages 1 year and the caster gets 1/2 a year younger. The victim MUST BE WILLING. The spell is usually performed to take youth in part payment for a service performed. *** As mentioned above, the spell is usually performed as payment for a service by the initiate/priest. It is therefore important for the priest to have sufficiently good skills that people are willing to pay for the service with years of their life. Gaining these skills is in itself a difficult task, and so the thirst for youth becomes all-consuming. Healing 6, Resurrection, Regeneration are probably the more common services required. Idun priests are reknowned for being good healers. (An example from my game : A PC was caught stealing, and was sentnced to have his hand cut off. Unfortunately for him (actually her, a female character) the hand was not returned, so even Healing 6 would not help. Having also been thrown out of town, the character came across a priest of Idun (what a stroke of luck) who offered to restore the hand at the cost of 4 years of youth. The character agreed and got a hand back. Unfortunately the hand grew back as a gorgeous pink colour which didn't go too well with her otherwise dark colouring. Well, you can't have everything.) If the players see Idun priests as an easy way to get healing ("What's a few years?"), put the prices up. It should be a difficult decision as to whether to use Idun priests, not a "Oh no, my legss been eaten by a Troll again. That's the fourth time this week. Oh, well, back to my mate John, priest of Idun, he'll have right as rain in a jiffy". Priests are trustworthy themselves (to protect their way of life) but are likelly to ask for payment in advance for some services, or do the service and the Take Youth in the same ritual (as in the example above). RUNELORDS There are no Runelords. RUNEPRIESTS Initiates become Priests by sacrificing 25 years of youth to Idun. (This means 20 years of the priest's youth, equal to 40 years of drained youth.) This may be done in stages, rather than all at once, so that the initiate can remain on a fairly constant chronological age, while sacrificing the occasional year to Idun. After the first 25 years, each further 25 years sacrificed gains the Priest 1 point of power. Overall, therefore, priests of Idun that PCs are likely to meet will : A) be old, but look young (commonly late 20s) B) be on the look out for a way to Take Youth from the PCs (willingly remember) C) have several very high skills or spells. A particular priest will probably specialise. D) know of other priests who may be able to perform a service even if they cannot. (they may have done deals to point customers in their direction). E) possibly join the party if their skills will be required. Payment will usually be asked in advance. F) have a high power. (In proportion to actual age). G) not like danger. Example : Ailisimiliarn is 430 years old. His apparent age is 28. He has sarcificed 86 years of life to Idun, gaining 2 points of power, (the first 25 made him a priest and he has 11 years towards his next point of power). He has also had to drain another (430 - 28) * 2 = 804 years of youth from other people. In total, therefore, he has drained (804 + (86 * 2)) 976 years of youth from people! ***************************************************************************** Wait for the next installment of this multi-part series. I would be very interested in any feedback, whether constructive criticism or questions. ***************************************************************************** Copyright Richard Nuttall 1989. PERMISSON GRANTED TO COPY THIS WORK FOR PRIVATE USE. THIS WORK MUST NOT BE SOLD IN ANY FORM WITHOUT EXPRESS PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR. ***************************************************************************** Richard Nuttall | ukc!stc!datlog!torch!richard Torch Technology Ltd. | richard@torch.co.uk Cambridge England | 0223 841000 X 308