Random cults of Orcus

Some variant cults of the Demon Prince Orcus rolled created using this blog post of mine: Use Super Heroes gimmicks to create Cults.

Undead: this cult venerate a undead version of their deity. Some believe that the original deity came back from the dead, some believe in a undead double that oppose the original deity. 

Cult of Rotting Orcus: this secret cult believe that Orcus physical form was slain in the material plane and that while Orcus' demonic essence reformed in the abyss, his carcass gained a will of it own and is trying to craft it own scepter out of undead tissues. The cult believe that their necromantic art will enable them to control this manifestation of Orcus as it raise in power.   

Usurper: this cult believe that a other deity stole the powers or the name of their original deity. Some hope for the return of the original deity, some work against it. 

Cult of Orcus Executioner: the cult believe that when Orcus physical form was slain, one of his generals took over his scepter to avenge him while his essence reform in the Abyss. This new Orcus appear as a Balor demon wearing a executioner hood adorned with a ram's skull. Some believe that the Executioner should replace Orcus and are rising hooded undead warriors in his honor.  A secret splinter believe that the Executioner went too far and should return Orcus's scepter so that his demonic essence reform faster in the Abyss. 

Pet: this cult believe that the deity have a pet with a similar set of power. They believe that this pet is the herald of their deity and that it can intercede for them. They also believe that sometime divine pets work together to secretly protect humankind. 

Cult of the Carrion Ram: this cult worship a undead ram that is said to whisper to Orcus the prayers of those who wish for unlife. They also believe that making of blood offerings of horned animals to the Ram can protect them against undead. Some even believe that the Carrion Ram sometimes become a undead white ram, know as Ghost Ram, that join force with other divine pets to defend humanity against invasions from titanic extra planar animal monsters.     

Gender switched alternate: this cult believe in a gender switched alternate version of their deity that replace the original deity. (Or that their deity actually changed gender or was actually of a other gender). 

Cult of Orcusrella: this cult worship Orcusrella (also know as Orcella), the cruel daughter of Orcus, queen of vampires. Orcella is often called upon by undead women as a spirit of vengeance. She is in favor of The Executioner cult, hoping that he will defy her father when he will return. She wield her own scepter of dead that was crafted for her as a gift by undead dwarfs women. 

Divine Spouse: this cult worship the divine spouse of their deity. Those cults are often alternate or lost continuity cults. Some wish that the divine spouse would lead his or her own pantheon. 

Cult of the Mourning Mother. Wearing a funeral veil and often accompanied by the Carrion Ram, the Mourning Mother is a mortal woman that married Orcus after refusing his gift of unlife. She throne beside him in the Abyss and gave birth to Orcella with a drop of Orcus blood. She feel a lot of compassion toward undead and lost souls. The cult think that the Mourning Mother and her daughter come from a reality rift that opened in the Abyss when Orcus was slain in the material plane. They hope that their worship will anchor her existence and make Orcus remember her when his essence will reform in the Abyss.    

Noble Alien Paragon: this cult worship a utterly alien but noble version of the original deity who is often a legacy upholder or a temporary holder of power. 

Cult of Orcellion. Orcellion appear as a muscular ram headed androgynous humanoid, they have three eyes and wield a scepter adorned with a alien skull. Orcellion is the defender of people who became undead to pursue heroic goals. Their body formed in the Abyss when the Mourning Mother's reality rift closed down. Orcellion remember Orcus as a comrade of arms and don't understand why demons are chaotic evil or the concept of alignments. 

 

Video return on my Zine Quest experience

Video!! 😄

In English: https://youtu.be/0TpfX6d-TwQ

En Français: https://youtu.be/pIWljXQ5fB8

Setup of my new OSE campaign

I started a new Old School Essentials campaign, the campaign premise is something like: "what if Saruman had won and people now need to loot the dying forest of Lorien to survive?"

The Great Archwizard betrayed the elven alliance and took the throne of the Dark Lord. The elves are now gone and the Archwizard rule over the free world with his army of orcs and humans. His college of wizardry oversee cities, divine spellcasting is now forbidden. The eternal forest of the elves is slowly dying and is now in a state of eternal Autumn. Pushed by misery, desperate adventurers and renegades explore the forest in search of elven treasures and magical artefacts. 

I removed the elf class (to keep elven culture mysterious) and added some advanced classes like the druid and the ranger. I also included some classes that seem relevant to the premise like the half-elf and the half-orc. 

The Ruddy Dawn Forest

My goal is to run (and craft) a forest mega dungeon. the overland map is a point crawl but each points correspond to a geomorph tile when you zoom in. This way I get a series of interconnected dungeon crawl areas that contain a mix of empty and interactive "rooms" (clearings) and the feel of crawling through "corridors" (paths). 

This is the point crawl overland map I gave to the players, we are at the start of the campaign so the links are not revealed yet, my GM map naturally contain more information. The colors zones correspond to the "levels" of the dungeon, the deeper you venture into the forest the more dangerous are the encounters and the more wondrous are the treasures. 

The players can uncover new entry paths while exploring. To move between points the group must roll to see if they get lost (losing direction), if they do, I can augment the chance of the random encounter roll, make them arrive at a different point or advance time so that it get dark in the forest (I am tempted to let them choose the consequence). 

When the group arrive to a point we switch to dungeon crawling mode. To generate the forest map, I used caves geomorph and redrew the rock as forest, the tunnels and corridors as paths and the caves and rooms as clearings. 

The big difference compared to a dungeon is that there is less uses of torches but I established that the forest is very dense and that it get dark very early. Also the forest "walls" are porous, characters can move through the trees at half speed but this also mean that during random encounters, monsters can emerge through the walls. 

What else? 

I wrote four settlements for the adventurers to come from and to return to after their expeditions. The settlement they chose to rest in will influence the gear, services and retainers available. Also possibly different kinds of troubles. 

Grey Port (large port city)

• Afflicted by: unemployment and corruption 
• Occupied by the 4th Shadow Hand Legion 
• Wizard Tower (loyal to the ArchWizard) 
• House Silver-Mare (Lawful knights, secretly resist) 
• Black market, thief guilds 
• Great library (Engineer & Sage specialists) 
• Know for their candles that resist the sea breeze 
• Secretly worship the old gods in the sewers 

Wilder Town (trade post forest village)

• Afflicted by: famine and bandit raids 
• Trade with barbarian wildlings 
• Protected by House Willow-Spear (Neutral knights in exile) 
• Know for their wolf-dogs and archers 
• Specialists: Animals trainers 
• Worship the old gods in the forest 
• Druidic sect: the Mother

Gentle Anvil (small vale village)

• Afflicted by: poverty and taxation 
• Blacksmith and armorer specialists 
• Stone quarry 
• Dwarfs trading post 
• Know for their headstrong mules 
• Brave peasants and villagers 
• Proud torch makers, love bonfires 
• Secretly worship the old gods in their daily life 
• Druidic sect: the Maiden 

Castle Basilisk (swamp village protected by a fortress)

• Afflicted by sickness and scarcity 
• House Heron-claw (Chaotic knights, boldly defiant) 
• Harbor many renegades 
• Great healers and poisoners 
• Specialists: alchemists, spies and mercenaries 
• Boar hunters and great cooks 
• Openly worship the Old gods 
• Druidic sect: the Crone

I am tempted to enable the PCs to be able to spend their gold to try to help the settlements but I am not certain yet how to handle that. 

Last 24h for Where the Wheat Grows Tall!

Last 24 hours before the end of our Zine Quest KS for Where the Wheat Grows Tall. We are generously funded but I am still sharing for those who would want a printed copy.

Thanks again everyone for supporting our project, your encouragement mean a lot to us.

Seriously you have no idea how this give me and Camilla some hope. 💖

I can’t wait for everyone to have a copy in their hands. 😊

UPDATE:

500 backers!! Amazing!!

A big Thank You from Camilla and me!! 💜💜

Masha and the Barstukai are celebrating with make believe tea time!

#zinequest3 #ZineQuest

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/abandonfarmland/where-the-wheat-grows-tall

We launched our Zine Quest KS!!

We launched our Zine Quest KS: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/abandonfarmland/where-the-wheat-grows-tall

I can't wait for you to tell me about your group encounter Old Svarg! 

Where the Wheat Grows Tall

After a lot of anxiety, stress and work we were able to setup our Zine Quest Kick Starter page. We will probably launch this Monday.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/abandonfarmland/where-the-wheat-grows-tall

Tomb of the Butterflies

I drew a dungeon using Isometric Blanks, a small isometric maps zine that Geoff offer to print with Zine Quest 3. 

I will maybe try to describe the rooms more in details the next time I procrastinate. 

Doodle maps 2021 calendar

I made a 2021 calendar (thanks for Shel for hosting) 

You can get a copy here: https://gumroad.com/l/HgNdF

Megadungeon School of Magic!

I am playing the excellent and wonderful Inkenfell, it is a RPG adventure that happen entirely in a school of magic, a uncontrollable magic force have been unleashed and the spirits of mundane items awaken and turn them into whimsical monsters. So you fight flowers, floor tiles, chairs, lanterns, books and other mundane items as you explore the school and uncover it secrets. This made me think that you could could play a magical school like a megadungeon or turn a megadungeon into a magical school. 

You can craft your own megadungeon school or, in the spirit of my post about playing the orcs moms in the classic B2 Keep of the Borderlands module, you could hack a megadungeon to turn it into a gigantic school and play characters who study there. 

If you craft your own megadungeon school of magic it could be fun to use the Ikenfell formula: you craft a gigantic school and you add a ton of secret areas, then you unleash a magical force in it. At the beginning of the campaign the school is your "ordinary" whimsical school of magic, the players can explore it freely, only expecting danger in specific mysterious areas. But once they gain a level or two you escalate things by unleashing a wild magical force that turn all the school areas into dangerous ones. That magical force could be enchanting people, animals and items, awakening spirits or opening portals to import monsters. The end goal of the campaign would probably be to seal that magical force and to make the school relatively safe again. The main advantage of this formula is that the player can familiarize themselves with the school before it become dangerous.  

But if you feel like hacking, to create your school, you could take your favorite megadungeon and turn some of it rooms into school's facilities like classrooms, cafeteria, dormitory, lecture hall, library, courtyard, headmistress office, etc... And turn some of it monsters or occupants into teachers, librarians and the ground keeper. The big difference is that instead of starting with a safe school you start with a dangerous one. Maybe the megadungeon school was once safe and have only recently become unsafe. The campaign goal could still be to make the school safe again or it could be to prevent a dangerous force from awakening and making things even worse. Or you can simply play in sandbox mode and see what kind of goals will emerge. Even if the school is dangerous from the beginning I would assign some areas of the mega dungeon as no or low encounters zones. These warded zones could grow or shrink depending of the characters actions.

As for the characters themselves? They could all play young magic users but it would be more interesting to have a variety of classes or archetypes. Maybe a class less system like Macchiato Monsters could be a better fit to run that kind of campaign. But then again it could be somekind of school for adventurers that teach fighting, thievery, thaumaturgy and wizardry. 

Let try to turn a dungeon room into a class room, I present you Barrowmaze High, School of Necromancy. 

Room 103 (original text)

A Runic Golem (1) appears as a large pile of runic tablets in the northwest corner of the room. It will flicker to life with magical energy when the PCs proceed into the crypt.

A large elaborate mirror on a pedestal is positioned near the southern wall of this room surrounded by burial alcoves. Five feet in from the mirror is a bottomless pit. Anyone vain enough stand in front of the mirror will fall in. 

Burial Alcoves: hexagonal, disturbed remains. Content: 87ep, Sapphire (75gp) and a Tome of Clear Thought. 

Classroom 103 

The Runic Golem is clearly a teacher and is teaching magical runes and writing. The mirror work like a black board and is sometimes used as a test. Falling into the bottomless pit take you back to the study or detention room. The burial alcoves contain the remain of past students, you can cast "speak with dead" to get help for your assignment or to gossip. The one with the Sapphire probably have a sidequest. The Tome of Clear Thought can be borrowed by asking the teacher.