Items of Power: Part 1

Items of Power

Enchanted things are scattered throughout the realm. Most are lost to time, stumbled upon by intrepid adventurers in the horde of a troll, or vault of a deceased old wizard, on the corpse of a knight, or long hidden beneath the underbrush, these magical items can be rings, mirrors, weapons, armor, scrolls, staves, and sometimes specific items, valued by the enchanter or simply loved or hated so much that over time the emotional connection changes it. Some magic items even develop a personality and on rare occasions develop the ability to express it. Enchanted things are effectively priceless.

Arthur Rackham

Weapons

Magic weapons are strengthened and valuable. Many have an ability that manifests in a particular way.

Aglac: The epic of Synne includes many tales about the warrior woman. On her quests, Aglac is often her favorite tool for dispatching foes. Seldom told is the story about when she took Aglac from her father and turned it on him. Drain up to 1d6 Life in addition to damage on a successful hit. Spend 1 Power per Life drained this way.

Anmod: Found in the forest by the baron of Keth and passed down his line, Anmod is noted as much in local legends as in history. It is said that its blade is tempered with wyrm’s breath. Anmod grants its wielder a random knightly art at the start of each combat encounter.

Hraezla: When Hraezla sings, foes hear doom, doom, doom. It is one of three famous artifacts in the Vára Saga. When Hraezla is turned on an enemy it becomes shaken. The target is allowed a Will resistance check, DC 15. If it fails by 5 it is frightened instead. The target cannot be immune to this effect.

Konok: Fashioned in the time of fear, Konok is a bastion of tenacity and hope. Over three longs days, Etel the Brave led her people to the Benes Heights with only Konok and a dozen able bodied villagers. Her achievement is immortalized in a series of tapestries that grace the halls of Fér nobility. Konok cannot be sheathed while undead are near. Double any ability modifier bonus to resistance checks against undead abilities and spells that target you.

Reithi: Lo’ steel alight, if I should doubt, in blackest night, thine creeping end, banish the blight, nigh comes the dawn. Reithi bursts into fire in spells that produce cold or darkness effects and negates the effects in a 10 ft. radius.

Scyppend: A relic of Storgeard in the time of Aerden and the free kings, Scyppend wrought Flameheart and Spellbrand and other great weapons. All things are malleable under its heavy blows. Scyppend ignores material hardness and shapes metal without needing to heat it in a furnace.

Armor
 
Armor includes suits of armor and shields. Magic armor is stronger and many times more valuable than normal armor. Some suits of armor have an ability that manifests in a particular way.

Endrthaga: This iron shield never rusts. It is plain, unremarkable except that on its flatness it bears no mark or indentation, not even a rivet. When Endrthaga is hammered with a mallet or heavy object, its clamor frightens away fae creatures. The effect allows a Will resistance check DC 10.

Hundred Hands Shield: This wooden shield is painted with a wreath of hands on a green background. When struck (an enemy strikes and misses and you are not Flat Footed) the hands move and grasp the weapon. Immediately roll opposing Strength checks, if you succeed you wrench the weapon away from your foe. Later you can easily draw out the weapon from the shield. If too many weapons are attached to the shield the Hundred Hands Shield becomes useless to you.

Strazar: Maetrian war masks are famous, even in the human world, but Strazar is famous even in Maetra. The king bestows Strazar upon a worthy warrior before important battles. Once donned, its wearer gains Temporary Life equal to its Power.

Potions

A potion is a liquid purposefully mixed and endowed with a spell-like effect. The entire potion must be consumed otherwise only a fraction of the effect imparts on the drinker (usually in terms of the duration of the spell).  

Demon’s Draught: The Demon’s Draught is a potion of black sludge. How it came to the world is a mystery. Pouring it out is like pouring out tar. Draining its entire contents transforms you into a fiend, though no one’s every tried. Consuming only a portion of the draught kills the drinker.

Liquid Light: At rest, the bottle appears to contain a dull-colored liquid, like old milk. But aggravated, the vial produces a profound light. If poured out, the liquid concentrates into a slender vertical door, shimmering with pure light. It is a gateway into the Aether. If one were to drink Liquid Light instead, then a powerful theurgy spell becomes a part of the drinker.

Vial of Darkness: Within the glass jar is a roiling cloud, absent of light. Pouring it out floods a space 100 ft. in radius and 10 ft. high in utter darkness. The darkness consumes all light. It cannot be extinguished, but it can be coaxed back into a vessel with the right tools. If one dares to drink it, they become a shadow and exist as such forever.

Rings

Rings are powerful magic items. They are some of the rarest things in the world. Rings are a circular band worn on the finger with a passive spell-like power.

Bertalan’s Shroud: Bertalan the amazing. Bertalan the sweet spoken. Bertalan the thief. Bertalan’s Shroud renders one invisible in shadows for as long as they do not move.

Ring of Discretion: Leane, first ruling queen of Storgeard was said to have such a ring. When she tired of parties she would don the ring and slip from notice. Those in the vicinity apply only ½ the result of their Perception checks to notice the ring wearer. Only when speaking (or garnering attention) can the wearer be unerringly noticed.

Valak’s Rings: Valak prominently wore three silver rings. In them he invested a part of himself. When worn, the wearer gains immunity from one of the following: any resistance check based on Intuition, Dexterity, or Strength. With time the wearer also gains some characteristics of a Noble, to the point that the wearer becomes a thrall (the process cannot be reversed, but it can be stopped).

Scrolls
 
A scroll is a spell magically inscribed on parchment so that it can be used later. The scroll may be used only once. Once the spell is cast, the words remain, but no longer contain any power. To cast the scribed spell you must be able to read it and spend a full round casting it. Creating a scroll requires knowing the spell you intend to scribe, the Spellcraft skill, and spending Power equivalent to its spell level. Cantrip and luck dice cannot be added to a spell on a scroll, likewise, the Power spent creating the scroll cannot exceed the spell’s level. Casting a spell from a scroll triggers the identical dice effect.

Bend Reality: Wulfric, that most famous of wizards, known to every child in the Free Realm, his stories include many wondrous and fantastical things. In his bag of tricks are doodads, charms, and scrolls. One such is the infamous Traveling spell. As it’s read, the world begins to change. The reader must hold fast in their mind the location they wish to travel to. To complete the spell the reader must roll a successful Will check or lose consciousness.

Havren’s Scroll: There’s nothing more strange, more secretive, more unknown than the enigma of the Havren. Their connection to previous Havren binds them to history but divorces them from humanity. Reading the Havren’s Scroll lays the first foundations to the Palace of Memory, connecting the reader to all the past minds of the Havren.

Transference: On this tan piece of parchment is illegible scribble. Its symbols cannot be deciphered. All that this scroll requires is a name, a true name. Once spoken, the thoughts of the speaker reverberate as a thousand deafening voices, overwhelming the target’s mind. If the reader is a magician, the named target also becomes the target of a random spell the magician knows. The spell is cast as if the Spell Dice result were 24 (it does not trigger the identical dice effect).

Arthur Rackham

My Approach to Combat Tactics

When it comes to D20 games, combat strategy has always felt to me a lot like Magic the Gathering in that the majority of strategy comes in the build. In games like 3.5e and Pathfinder your choice of spells, equipment, feats, and skill distribution are 90% of the strategy. Different tactical choices of course matter, but your tool chest so to speak vastly narrows your options. 5e and other games have made a lot of changes to this, simplifying the process, but its seems to me that it's mostly lowered the certainty level. I may be overstating the issue here, but these are the thoughts I had/have going into applying tactics to Northern Realm.

Let me preface this with my aim for Northern Realm is not to build a war game. However, I want players to be faced with intuitive and meaningful choices, especially in combat. I also want to keep things simple. This is a difficult tightrope to walk.

With these thoughts in mind, I broke the build process into 3 layers of complexity, with the idea that the most complex layer only exists deep in the text, so it could be ignored for new players or for people that want a more casual game (that's the general idea anyway). These rules are meant to add more options for players or create more interesting situations. For example, you would only know a quarterstaff is half effective against heavy armor if you actually read its description and didn't just look at the table with its stats.

Arthur Rackham

On the first layer are Time and Order. They aren't much different from the traditional d20 systems, but I tried to make them a bit more simple:

Time

Within combat, time is broken into 5-second rounds. You can execute three types of actions each round on your turn, an Action, Movement, and an Immediate Action. An action includes attacking, grappling, and casting spells, a movement is the time it takes to move a distance no greater than your movement speed, and an immediate action can be performed out of turn, at any time.

Order

When combat begins, it follows a certain order. Combat breaks down into two parts, the surprise round and the combat round.

The turn orders always follow these steps: 1. Surprise round (if applicable),

2. Take turns in order of Initiative. Decide what to do and then perform your action, and then repeat beginning at step 2.

The idea here is that with an immediate action and the short decision time makes the combat feel less turn-based more heat of battle. If you go first you must decide quickly or do nothing, whereas if you go last you have more time to think and react, but even if you do nothing, you can still perform an immediate action.

Initiative: Initiative determines order in combat. Characters with the highest Initiative go first, then next highest goes second, and so on. If you and another character have the same Initiative, go simultaneously. If an effect would lower or increase your Dexterity or Intuition it also lowers or increases your Initiative. You may spend an immediate action to improve your Initiative order by 1d6 until the end of the round. 

Surprise Round: Essentially, a surprise round is the round which not all characters are ready for the attack. This happens when one or more characters initiate an attack against targets that are unknowing or not ready. To initiate the attack, state your intentions and go in order of declaration rather than Initiative. During the surprise round previously unaware targets take their turns after the aware targets in order of Initiative. 
 

Action Round: Each character takes a turn during the action round in order of Initiative. On your turn, state your intentions. Then attempt it, be it casting a spell, running, tackling someone, attacking, etc. On your turn, you may not deliberate– in fact you must act in a timely manner (generally within 10 seconds not inlcuding any questions/descriptions concerning the environment). If you have not decided what to do quickly, your character too, stands there at a loss for what to do.

There is also an advantage to going first. If you harm your target, it gains a wound. Wounds give the target a cumulative -1 penalty to AC and attack.

Tactics

So here is the second layer of complexity. We have a trade-off, going early means you have less time to think, but a greater likelihood of success (and you can still use an immediate action) and going late means you can better react to what's happening and you have more time to decide what to do.

The biggest tactical aspect of all this, however, is the action economy surrounding immediate actions. Use your immediate action and you can't perform a free attack (basically an attack of opportunity) or counter a spell (a viable and often necessary tactic in this game).

Here is a list of basic immediate actions:

Improve your initiative for 1 round
Free attack
Counter a spell
Quicken a spell
Feint
Parry
Draw out a weapon or object

And there are many more specific immediate actions special to certain skills and attributes. To put some of this into context (because an attack of opportunity isn't always so important), something like a free attack is the only thing preventing a wizard from touching you to cast a spell or a warrior from starting a grapple to trip/pin/run over/choke you out. That's because there is no such thing as a touch attack. A touch automatically succeeds if you are Flat-Footed or don't have/or choose not to take a free attack. Also, on the spell side, most spells have an unpreventable partial effect. If a devastating spell is not countered, even a successful resistance check could mean bad things for everyone. So basically, if you're paying attention in combat, an action you recognize or suspect as an immediate action means that your target is now vulnerable or open, which leads to my second biggest point, grappling.

Grapple

To grapple is to wrestle. There are whole builds for this in a lot of games. The difference here is you cannot build an ungrapple-able character and there's no way to avoid a free attack when attempting to initiate a grapple- you have to wait for an opening. Then why do it or at least why do it often? Because not only can you not build an unstoppable grappling machine, you also can't build an unstoppable weapons master. If your target is in full plate there may be no way to successfully attack it. If you're both in full plate the both of you could literally hit each other with swords for a dozen rounds and not hurt each other. This is where grappling comes in. In the typical situation you would wait for an opening- the target is distracted, used its immediate action, is Flat-Footed, or you just risk a Free Attack, then you are no longer required to exceed your target's AC, now you're rolling opposing grapple checks.

To grapple:

1. Touch your target. 2. Make an opposing grapple check (d6 + Strength). 3. On a success, perform a grapple action. If still grappled on the next turn start at step 2. Tied checks result in no action.

A grapple action is unique to other forms of attacks in that it accounts for both characters’ turns. In subsequent rounds make one grapple check on the initiating character’s turn. Once a grapple has been successfully initiated, a grappled creature cannot take any action besides a grapple action. If the creature succeeds in breaking free from the grapple, it can once again perform an immediate action otherwise it is unable.

Grapple Actions:

1. The target is dealt grapple damage equal to your Strength modifier.

2. Escape the grapple (move out of reach).

3. Draw a weapon or item, draw the target’s weapon, wrestle an item away from the target, disarm the target, cover the target’s mouth, pull out materials...

4. Attack the target with a dagger or similarly sharp object. Roll only the one grapple check (do not roll a separate attack check; the attack cannot score a critical hit). The weapon must be in hand.

5. Run over your target. You can only run over the target if you performed a movement this turn. You move past the target a distance up to your movement speed and the target is knocked prone. You are not considered grappled in the next round.

6. Move, shove, or throw the target as many feet as your Strength modifier or trip the target. In addition, the shoved or tripped target must roll a Dexterity check or be knocked prone (DC is your grapple check). You are not considered grappled in the next round.

7. Cast a spell.

8. Pin the target. This action makes it so the pinned target can only attempt to break the pin and nothing else. You can deal grapple damage as part maintaining but not initiating a pin. You can only pin the target in the turn following your first grapple check.

9. Start a chokehold. The target must first be pinned. Once pinned you may start a chokehold. If you make a successful chokehold check 3 times in a row, your target falls unconscious for 1d20 minutes.

10. Break a pin or chokehold. You and the target are still grappling, but you are no longer pinned.

Injuries: If damage from a critical hit drops you to less than half your Life, you become injured. Roll 3d6 and refer to the Injury Table or if the target is completely immobile, choose an injury (depending on the situation). You may wish to change out some of the injuries in the table, particularly if they are not applicable to the attack, for example, an attack with fire would have a chance to badly burn, but not crush bones. Note, other effects can result in an injury; for example, if you are held down and unable to defend yourself, your enemy may injure you however it wants. In other words, you do not need to drop below half your Life to become injured.

There's more, but those are the biggest points. How does that read?

 Arthur Rackham

One Page Adventure!

The Thadar's Catacombs one-page adventure I made for the One Page Dungeon Contest. 

I've just now realized that the rules say A4 paper and not A3, but what are you gonna do, eh? I've got a month to fix it.

The Things That Fill The Space Between

Outsiders 
Outsiders were only accidently allowed into the world. A thousand and five hundred years ago, the Material Plane and the Outside came into contact for an instant, and in that instant, millions of its inhabitants appeared in the world. But then the planes (Shadow Realm and Aether) once again separated the Outside from the Material Plane and they became trapped. For decades outsiders ‘plagued’ the Northern Realm. Their sudden appearance brought chaos and confusion down on all the inhabitants of the world. Now, all but eradicated, a few have escaped to the deep, ancient places under the earth.

Outsiders are as peculiar as they are horrible to behold. They are not native to Rhen. Rare and hidden in inconspicuous places, many take refuge deep underground. Powerful outsiders often reside alone, while other outsiders tend to come together, probably for better protection from the inhabitants of this world that seem to hate them.

The presence of outsiders is discombobulating. The room seems to breathe. The ground fluctuates like thick mud with each step. Sense of self, control over emotions and physical reactions have a complete disconnect from reality. After an experience with an outsider, one could describe it as an overwhelming sense of horror or madness, but only for a complete lack of ability to cope with the sensation.

Environmental Effects: Once in the affected area creatures have a tenuous grasp on their sanity. Creatures forced to make any check risk becoming confused if they fail it. Making a full movement requires an Intuition check.  

·  Outsiders have alien minds; they are unaffected by mind-affecting spells. If a spell or ability attempts to see into the mind of an outsider it necessitates a Will resistance check, DC 10 or it falls unconscious for 1d4 minutes. A successful check leaves the creature dazed for 1 round.

·  The physical laws that govern the Material Plane do not limit outsiders; they can change size at the cost of a movement within one size category of their stated size (for example a Large outsider can become a Huge or Medium sized outsider).

·  Outsiders are immune to temporal effects.

·  Immunity to all conditions and critical hits, except catching fire, falling, and death.

·  Damage reduction/magic.

·  Outsiders have no Luck score.

·  Outsiders have no shadow in the Shadow Realm.

 Art by Magdalena Zwierzchowska

Aspect Thief 
This truly horrible sight creeps and pulsates, summoning limbs, heads, and tails from its grotesque body. It constantly changes appendages as it copies the forms of the creatures it consumes.

Aspect thieves are an amalgamation of horrors. Like an amoeba, its fluid form collapses on itself and spreads across the ground, spontaneously forming legs that push and arms that pull it along. It can form multiple appendages to attack its foe, but most often it attempts to grab its target and draw it into its body. Unlike a chimera, an aspect thief never seems to form a whole body, though it comes close. Its body has the consistency and appearance of inside-out flesh except where it has morphed its body into familiar, albeit misshapen shapes. 

Cave Maw 
Smooth cave walls, dagger-like stalactites, dripping water, nothing gives warning to this creature’s presence until a low rumble just seconds before its attack reveals the true nature of this living geological mimic.

The cave maw is named for its seemingly singular purpose. Hiding in the deep dark, this creature can lie in wait for long years without eating. Cave maws may also be found mimicking cave entrances, the halls of abandoned castles, even underwater tunnels. When opportunity strikes, the cave maw is deadly efficient. The ceiling falls on its prey as if collapsed. As it moves the scraping of its body against the stone emits a peculiar rumble. This is the only warning any of its prey receive before its mass envelopes it. In the event it misses its prey the cave maw can pursue it through the darkness. It is nearly invisible while it moves even in the light. Only by finding a means of marking its body can it be ‘seen’. And though it is slow moving and betrayed by the sound it makes, it is a relentless pursuer, aided by the confusion of navigating in the dark, tight places it resides. Surprisingly, the cave maw is also able to make short quick attacks. A cave maw is able to use parts of its body to quickly strike out at prey at close range.

Chimera
 Head of a wolf and body of a giant spider, wings of a bat or body of a lion, tail of a snake, breathing fire from the goat head rising from its back, or a two-headed horse arising from a long slimy body with no legs, a chimera can be anything, but always an abomination.

The chimera is one of few outsiders that enter into the mythology of several cultures. In the Tegean mythos, chimeras are commonly depicted as monstrous creatures with the body and head of a lion, snake for a tail, and with the head of a goat rising from its back. In the Free Realm, chimeras are depicted in many different ways, in particular there are dozens of old carvings around the Free City depicting a wolf-like creature with two heads and wings of a giant bat. In much art, however, there is no distinct pattern to the chimera’s form. In the greater Free Realm, one particularly famous carving depicts the winged two-headed wolf partnered with a similar creature, but with scales and a spiny ridge on its back. After much debate, the scholars of the Free City Library have determined that it too, is a chimera.

Chimeras like other outsiders are alien to the Material Plane. Their true state is amorphous and mindset inconceivable. Attempting to read its mind is dangerous. In turn, a chimera is able to read the minds of any living being and change its shape in accordance to the shapes familiar to its target. The chimera is almost certainly unable to sort through the thoughts of creatures on this Plane, being a creature of the Outside, but it is able to see into them, resulting in a discombobulated jumble of thoughts. It combines the many creatures’ thoughts taking on aspects of many forms in an attempt to appear more familiar, thereby becoming something quite the opposite. Chimeras have been hunted to near extinction, but some still exist. They are powerful creatures and the few surviving after the Great War and the long years following are a testament to that.

Art by Magdalena Zwierzchowska

Doppelgänger 
Standing as tall as a man, thin, gaunt; or with the appearance of a woman, lovely, buxom; or an aelf, broad and strong; the doppelgänger is anything it wills itself to be. It has no native shape in the Material Realm.

After the Great War, the invading outsiders were hunted, and ultimately wiped out or escaped to hidden places. Only the cleverest, well-hidden outsiders survived. Doppelgängers are the shrewdest, most adaptable of the invaders, hiding amongst the creatures that would hunt them until they were forgotten with time.

Doppelgängers are extraordinarily intelligent. They are creatures of strategy, manipulation, and patience. They are perhaps the most dangerous of the outsiders that came to the Northern Realm. Able to take on the appearance of any humanoid and practically immortal, doppelgängers are not only intelligent, but also experienced in the various crafts, professions, and talents that are required to survive in the Material Plane. And though they thrive in secret, as all outsiders, doppelgängers wish to return to their native environment, the Outside. The means to accomplish this is unknown, the secret having died with the last of the Ancients, but doppelgängers are patient and cunning. They know that someday the secret will be discovered.

Gryre

This beast seems to be made up of mirrors. Its body is plated with countless immaculate reflective surfaces. It has no head, four limbs, and innumerable sharp edges. Its movement is the sound of a thousand mirrors breaking, its assault the source of nightmares.

The gryre was a creature most dreaded during the Great War. The aelfs called it deimos and the dunaelfs, strach. Its appearance struck fear into the hardiest of warriors. Hunted to extinction, gryre were thought long dead until the Aelf War, when one was discovered locked away in the deepest dungeon of Old Mramor. These creatures destroy the flesh with their claws and razor sharp edges, but otherwise stand immobile until sensed by another. Gryre can only "see" if seen, "hear" if heard, otherwise they are immaculate sculptures with no senses. Wizards of the aelfin House of Maleinos discovered that gryre trap the souls of creatures they destroy, somehow imprisoning them within their body. Only by destroying a gryre can the souls of the creatures killed by it be released.

Horror 
An abomination in every sense of the word, it is a churning mass of toothed orifices, plant growths, rocks, groping tendrils, eyes, and shadows; its appearance changing into ever more monstrous forms.

A confused mass of ever-changing organic and inorganic materials, a horror can appear as a groping mound of vines, stumps, and rocks one moment and then erupt into a hoard of what seems like squirrels, skittering across its surface out of a dozen gaps in its body, which then change again into sharp teeth and mouths that clack together as if made from wood. Horrors bear a strong resemblance to aspect thieves, except that a horror is actually a number of organisms clumped together. It’s nearly impossible to tell that they are an amalgamation of creatures, but after great violence a horror will break apart and flee, or feign retreat. One way to tell a horror and aspect thief apart is that a horror does not change forms at rest. It can sit without moving or changing for many weeks before it needs to feed. Another way to tell them apart is the feeling of dread it emits as psychic energy. In fact, this is how it got its name. 

Mimic 
This creature, like other outsiders is able to change its appearance. It is set apart by its knack for mimicking objects. It may appear as large as a treasure chest or as small as an axe. Its victims may not realize a mimic’s true nature until the claws of the beast reach out from the axe pommel, holdfast, and turn on its wielder.

Like doppelgängers, mimics have survived by hiding amongst the population of Rhen. It mimics objects from Small to Large. Its purpose is the same as other outsiders; to survive until it is free to once again roam the infinity of the Outside, with the additional motivation to feed. Mimics lure victims by impersonating objects familiar to them. When a victim comes near to a mimic, it strikes, reaching for its victim with strong appendages and strangling its prey before absorbing it into its body to digest.

  

Demons

The hunters approach the three men. Whispering to one another, each makes a motion to hush. It takes a few moments before they realize neither of them is speaking. It seems some malicious spirit wants to distract them from their quarry, mocking them with sounds identical to their own voices. Discouraged, the hunters look at one another and then start to turn– but at that same moment, the whispers abruptly silence. Then a single raspy voice echoes in their minds, ‘I see you.’ The two men and fire disappear. The other turns and faces them. It peers at the hunters and grows like a shadow, then its maw splits its dark featureless face from end to end. The hunters freeze in place as the eyes of the huge dark form glimmer like lanterns…

Demons have a long history entwined with the creatures and kingdoms of Rhen. The fae refer to them as shadow. Not many know of the relationship between the fae and shadow. They are rarely mentioned in stories, though sometimes they are mentioned cryptically or by other names. The Galdru sometimes call them púca. Outside of the fairy world, those practiced in the arcane arts sometimes elicit a demon's help (at their own peril) usually as a means of acquiring information.

Demons come in all varieties. Like the fae, they are enigmatic, willful, and governed by their own laws, including physical ones. They are very alike. Discerning their motivations and following along is nearly impossible, and as they say, people fear what they do not understand. Do not make the mistake of thinking all demons are evil and motivations malicious. Demons are extraordinarily complex creatures as well as interesting resources. You may never fully understand what drives them but like the fae and their seemingly uniform affinity for riddles, demons are unable to break a promise, at least not directly. One of the oldest stories ever told concerns the Horned King (also called the Demon King). In the long forgotten story, the Demon Hing is banished from the world for fulfilling a promise. Interestingly, the promise was to a mortal man and to fulfill his promise the Horned King had to stay his execution.

Creating a Demon: Demons typically have high Intellect, Intuition, Will, and Luck scores. All demons speak Dalriatan and most also speak Prydian, the language of the fae.

Size and Type: Demons are planar creatures. A demon’s Intellect, Intuition, Will, and Luck ability scores, skills, Resistance Die, and Acumen bonus, regardless of their form. A demon has no true shape. They can change form. Their size and shape changes according to their form; see the special quality, Shapechange below. In the Shadow Realm demons possess additional magical abilities unique to each individual demon.

Speed: Demons have the speed of their shapechanged form. If that creature has a swim or fly speed, the demon gains these capabilities while in that shape.

Armor Class: Demons gain a bonus to natural armor equal to their level.

Attack: When manifested on the Material Plane demons exist in both the Shadow and Material; demons can interact with incorporeal creatures as if they were solid.

Special Attacks: Demons are summoned to the Material Plane in a guise of their choosing. They gain all the special attacks of their chosen form (see Shapechange special quality) and the following attacks.

Spell Drain (M): On a successful attack, demons drain 1d4 Power, no matter its form.

Special Qualities: Demons exist in the Shadow Realm. When summoned to the Material Plane, they are still anchored to the Shadow Realm, existing in both places simultaneously.

Planesvision (M): Demons have vision that spans the planes. Demons see through magical impediments such as magical darkness. When manifested on the Material Plane, they are able to see into the Shadow Realm and the Material Plane simultaneously.

Return (M): Demons are able to spend 1 Power and a movement to return to the Shadow Realm. If a demon voluntarily returns to the Shadow Realm it may not return to the Material Plane, unless summoned again or by some other means. 

Shapechange (M): Demons are shapeshifters. A demon has no true form. It may spend 1 Power and a movement to assume any form of equal or less level. A demon retains its Intellect, Intuition, Will, and Luck ability scores, skills, Resistance Die, and Acumen bonus, and gains the physical attributes of its new form. A demon’s Life does not increase or decrease with its Strength score, but it does gain the magical qualities of its new form. If it dies, it is exiled from the Material Plane and returns to the Shadow Realm in a weakened state. Regardless of a demon’s shape in the Material Plane, it appears cloaked in shadow and fire in the Shadow Realm.

Spells: Demon magic.

 

Westhaven

I've been meaning to sketch out a map for the Dark Crown adventure at the end of The Northern Realm Campaign book, so I finally sat down and did it. Now I just need to write chapter 2...

Westhaven: Westhaven falls under the jurisdiction of the Earl of Stoddard. The village runs along a single road called the Hunter’s Road, ending at a marina on the southern tip of Blackburn Lake. The citizens of Westhaven are normal townsfolk fallen on hard times when its mines dried up. Since then much of the populace has departed, leaving the town only two-thirds the size it once was and filled with abandoned houses. Few go to Westhaven, as there is little reason to travel there. Recently, terrifying rumors of murdered townsfolk have made their way down to the King’s Road. Some believe that these grisly murders are part of a growing practice of human sacrifice. And though the more levelheaded know this is most likely an exaggeration, few dare to travel up the Hunter’s Road to Westhaven to find out.

Stone plaques are scattered throughout the town on the oldest structures and the foundations of new structures. These plaques bear the mark of a shield with the crest of a rose. This same crest appears in old surveys found in the Free City Library, demarking the area of Westhaven as a territory once called Meren.