Session One, A Scene at The Crossroads

THE CAST SO FAR- 

Viserial - Viserial was the chosen of a deity, or so he thought, or perhaps it just wasn't the deity he had thought it was, wished perhaps. He'd spent a lifetime in that darkness, but he had lifetimes to spare. He had found ways to harness the darkness that pressed in around him, it gave him a cloak to hide beneath, and the means to find his way back to the surface, but Viserial could feel the pull of destiny still upon him, and it's touch was chilling. He fled from anything that had the smallest whiff of fate upon it, like Jonah in the whale, hiding from... well their name didn't really matter.

Ramunth the Drifter - A weathered sack of leather, this old hermit spent most of the last 40 years marooned, more or less alone on an island. He's now the fervent last worshiper of the ancient storm god Baarl. A generally ornery piece of shit who tends to get himself into trouble. 

Sköll - Not long ago something happened. He wasn't sure what, or why, or why he knew, but Sköll knew, like one knows when their arm is numb. A profound sense of emptiness, of loss. Something was missing, his brother, he couldn't remember though, everything before a few weeks ago was a blur. He needed answers, and he knew he would have to search long to find them, and maybe, his brother. 

Side Characters Encountered -

Kim Longflower - An elven herbalist who dabbles in potion magics. She was travelling north east, towards the elven forests of her homeland. A refugee after the township she watched over turned on her in the night. She had cured 3 generations of families of all manner of illness, but when the mage war started it wasn't long until the local farm folk began to look at her with fear and anger. She had fled with the help of a young man who payed for his kindness with his life. She has been on the run now for weeks and has long since run out of food. In a fit of hunger she tried to sell an herbal infusion which would cure most diseases (think semi-magic EmergenC powder) in a village to a man whose wife had a severe fever. She had only been trying to help, but the man ran to fetch a nearby soldier who had arrested her as a witch, and charged her with bewitching and cursing the mans wife, and trying to sell him a cure. She proclaimed her innocence, but the man asked her if the potion was magic, to which she replied earnestly that it was a very simple magical enhancement, that it wasn't in anyway dangerous.
She was sentenced to death as a mob began to form, no one wanted to look like they weren't defending the community from this traveling hex witch. She was dragged to the cross roads, where the bodies of a number of other mages, each of them executed in similar fashions, were hanging from thick posts by their necks.

It was here that our brave band intervened. Through the crude negotiations of Ramunth and the posturing of Skoll, the party managed to get the herbalist released to them, on the pretext that her tongue be cut out by Viserial if she were to live. Viserial had other plans, weaving a cloak of darkness that blocked the sun for a hundred feet in every direction. With the mob thrown into fear and confusion the group made their break for it. 

The group followed the road when it became clear no one was following, but their travelling party includded a child and an elderly couple, so shelter was needed overnight. Viserial searched the nearby hills in vain for a suitable cave to shelter in together. The group trudged on, a light in the distance beckoning them northward along the road. After several hours of trudging along the muddied track they found a small, almost fort like, abbey, dedicated to a fiery Sun god. There was a great bonfire atop the stone roof and torches and lamps in many windows.

Garkn Thinbeard - Despite the many torches and bright fires, the dwarf who answered the door at this abbey did so in his night gown, after some preliminary questions, and realizing that bandits seldom send 3 elderly folk and a young woman to the door the Garkn let the band in. Viserial, visibly uncomfortable as he stepped over the threshold seemed to fly beneath the sun clerics radar, but Viserial noted silently that this cleric, dressed in his night gown true, had no holy symbol on him.

Their host offered two beds upstairs to the elderly couple and Kim the elven herbalist, then explained he had much to do in the morning and would need to retire soon. Perhaps if you are in no great hurry he can get your assistance with a troublesome task on the morrow. 

From here 

The party has options 

• Pursue the Quest that Garkn needs help with
• Travel Northeast with Kim toward the Ruins of Trystero, or perhaps convince her to pursue a safer path which skirts around the ruins. 
• Travel Due East, to Salendar, the last city of Quaya, stopping for supplies at villages along the way. 
• Continue North, eventually you'll pass into the warm hills, the dwarves are less mage phobic than these humans. 

Underdark Part 2.0 - Pillars of Play Part 1 - Exploration Procedures, Hunger Mechanics

Before I begin I just want to credit Hack Slash Master, who wrote much of the Pillars of Play in an amazing publication title Mega Dungeon #1, the first in what is now three very solid and useful tools that are designed less as shiny stories or inspiration porn and more as useful tools to help a game master run a table effectively.

Go read his shit, n buy some of his material, it's super dope.

The hunger mechanics are reworded and lifted from Veins of the Earth, a grimdark OSR setting manual that I'm currently in love with. The discussion in the previous post about light as a currency was heavily inspired by that book and I highly recommend buying it because it will blow your mind.

PILLARS OF MEGADUNGEON PLAY 

The core procedural aspects of our Megadungeon play are going to be split into three-ish primary components; Exploration, which will happen at two different levels, (to be discussed later) Encounters, and Extraction. Each of these happens at different levels of scope and consume different levels of resources as well as invoking different kinds of decisions and dilemmas. 

Today I wanna talk about

Exploration : 

(And Hunger)

This is the process of exploring the environment. Far from being a movement across simple grid aligned rooms, this will be a delving through organic spaces, many alien and difficult to navigate. Safety and preparedness must be weighed against ever-mounting resource drain, in the form of food and light and hitpoints. 

The points of focus for exploration will be moving from area to area, navigation decisions and distances, all measured in hours, as oil spent and torches burnt, and examining things and searching for secrets, avoiding traps, and mapping. Your choices struggle to conserve resources against the encroaching darkness. Your approaches determines your preparedness for battle. Gaining knowledge about your environment allows discoveries of hidden chambers and the ability to flee or find safety in the dark. 

• Are you scouting ahead? Or will you be surprised by monsters? 

 • Will you avoid the traps and the relevant reduction in resources?

 • Have you made good choices to maximize your distance moved against the cost in terms of the various resources? 

Subpoint - Hunger Mechanics --- 

Rather than obsessively tracking rations, thereby adding another element of accountancy to the game, I am going to assume that the party is constantly foraging and resupplying. They are on the border of starvation at almost all times. The counter-effects of starvation versus drive and determination are considered to even themselves out in most cases. Instead of measuring and tracking food carried, all that matters is "What actions PCs have taken to get food?"

PCs begin as Hungry. In this stage the PCs get bonuses for performing certain actions to acquire food. So long as they perform at least one action every three days, they stay hungry. This is good. 

If the team fails to perform regular actions they enter the Starving stage. In this stage the PCs have to eat. If they have an opportunity to eat and do not then they suffer penalties. If the team incurs too many negative effects they enter the third stage. They are now Dying. Terminal starvation has set in. 

An edible opponent is one whose biochemistry matches yours. So, Dvargir, Goblin, or Dragon but not something like a Toxic Ooze, Silichominid or Archean. What matters is not the exact amount of food recovered but what the party are willing to do for for food. If PCs are willing to steal from starving refugees, or to attack an apparently peaceful group and consume them, to eat each other, or to eat their henchmen, then it doesn’t matter exactly how exactly how many calories they got out of it. It is the will to live that matters. The cash values listed only exist to give a general idea you guys want to do something dull like pay for food.  

STAGE ONE : HUNGRY -  The party must do at least one of these things every three days. If they do not, they begin to starve. 

PAYING FOR FOOD. The party must spend at least 300sp per party member. PCs can also try to steal this amount of food. 

EATING THE FLESH OF AN EDIBLE OPPONENT, PC OR HENCHMAN. If prepared by a Monster Chef, this gains PCs experience equal to the hit points of the creature or colleague consumed. However many creatures can cause adverse effects and disgusting mutations when consumed, (Monster Chefs can make rolls to attempt to remove these effects through cooking) and cannibalism, the consumption of a humanoid intelligence, is enough to drive any man into twisted states. At this stage the party can ignore the effects of one day on their "hunger bar" if they spend the whole 24 hours resting, conserving energy and doing nothing. 

So if they have spent 3 days exploring, and gained no bonuses, they can simply sit down to wait. If someone turns up, they can buy food, steal food or just kill and eat them to avoid moving to Stage Two. 

STAGE TWO : STARVING - At this stage the party is desperate. They must do one of the following within the next three days. 

PAYING FOR FOOD. You must buy at least 600sp worth of food per party member. PCs can also try to steal this amount of food. Doing this resets the party to Stage One. 

EATING AN EDIBLE OPPONENT, PC OR HENCHMAN. If the party performs one of these actions within three days, they go back to Stage One. They are simply Hungry. All exhaustion levels are lost. 

Every time the opportunity to perform one of the above actions occurs – say a henchman falls and breaks their leg and the party do not finish them off and eat them, or the possibility of stealing food exists and they do not attempt it – all PCs suffer a level of exhaustion. The party must act; if they spend 24 hours resting, conserving energy and doing nothing then all PCs will still suffer a level of exhaustion. After three days at Stage Two, PCs move to Stage Three. They are now Dying.  

STAGE THREE: DYING - PCs must eat or die. Every member of the party gains a level of exhaustion every 8 hours. 

PAYING FOR FOOD. PCs must spend at least 1000sp per party member. This will put them back at Stage One. PCs can also try to steal this amount of food. 

CONSUMING AN EDIBLE OPPONENT, PC OR HENCHMAN entirely will also send them back to Stage One. If a party member’s exhaustion level reaches level 6, they die.

 You'll note that food is very expensive, that is because food is very rare deep in the earth, and even the great matriarch in the towering drow cities beneath the granite wastes are hungry despite their jewels and their silks. It is also because buying food is boring and you should be actively seeking out interesting ways to acquire what you need.

Procedure - 
Exploration will usually be measured in 10 minute "Turns" however there will often be times when I will tell you that something will take a number of turns or even hours to accomplish, generally the time it takes to complete any significant action or interaction will be counted as an Exploration turn. Lockpicking, Scouting, Climbing your speed, (climbing will be discussed in detail during session zero) Etc all usually take 1 turn.

At the end of every other turn, or if the PCs make a bunch of noise, or if I feel like it, we'll roll a D6 Hazard Die, this helps us track lots of stuff and adds that random dice smell that we all know and love.

The Hazard Die for our campaign will be as follows.
1. Encounter
2. Rest or gain a level of exhaustion
3-4. Torches & Lanterns burn fuel, Ongoing effects, conditions, and statuses tick down
5. Monster Sign
6. Dungeon or Regional Effect

For our purposes 3-4 will allow us to burn through about 1 lumen of oil an hour without having to meticulously track these things, it also gives us a simple hour flag for diseases, effects, conditions, poisons etc. Whenever this result is rolled, each active lantern consumes its hourly rate of fuel. This result can be rolled back to back, as time work strangely beneath the Earth. If it is ever rolled a 3rd time in a row, ignore it and treat the turn as a free turn.

I have purchased Megadungeon #1 which discusses what to do for each of these other Hazard Die results, but if you wanna know more about them then you gotta go buy it yourself.

 

 

Underdark Part 1 - Moods and Tones, Light Mechanics.

LIGHT IS THE CORE RESOURCE from which all others spring.
 If you only measure one thing, if you only remember one thing, remember light. Not ropes or food or even time, but light. The key difference between this and other imagined underground spaces is the totality and necessity of the enfolding dark When most games describe a place, they do so with a series of assumptions. They use a kind of shorthand. It’s the same shorthand we use in our daily lives to arrange the spaces through which we move.

“You walk into a room.”
 OK, so how do you know it’s a room at all?
Because you can see the walls and edges from beginning to end
Because you have seen thousands of rooms before and they all follow the same logic
Because this room is arranged in a grid pattern with other rooms in the same area.
That’s what ‘room’ means.
A thing like the other things you have already seen.

In a natural cave system this is not the case. You may not be able to see the roof or opposing wall. You may never have seen a place like this before. You will not understand the logic of their arrangement. When someone enters a new underground space, never say “you enter a cave”. Because they don’t know that.

And they can only see so far.

For this campaign I'm going to always assume darkness over vision. I like to imagine the darkness as alive within the Underdark. Instead of being a simple, black absence, I regard it as a kind of active liquid. It does not meekly disappear on the lighting of a candle. It follows the players like a stalking predator.  It backs away reluctantly before the light, it follows carefully and relentlessly, creeping as close as it can. It leaves chew marks in the corners of your sight. It should be almost embodied. Not a general awareness or a set of laws but an actual person. Like someone standing silently in the corner of the room, watching you as you read this.

 The darkness is a character. It only wants one thing....

L U M E N S 

The means of carrying and projecting light are central to the Underdark Adventurer Economy. Light is firstly something you have to carry in the form of fuel, secondly your only means of finding your way and securing more life, thirdly a valuable thing which you can trade for, exchange and seek out, and fourthly a resource that is always being eaten away.

In addition, distance relates to time. Solar cycles have no meaning in the Underdark.  The main measurement of travel is how long it takes to get somewhere. This is measured by a loss of resources.
So time, distance, light, money, life, everything are all bound together.

Light is a currency and the currency is The Lumen.

A Lumen is a measure of light over time. It is also worth one silver piece, or SP
1 Hour of Light = 1 Lumen = 1 Silver Piece.

The Lumen is most perfectly expressed in oil. If you have oil, you can always trade it underground as if it were silver. If you have other means of making light then you can trade that as well.Oil becomes light.

Light gets you more time.
Time gets you more money.
Money gets you more oil.
Oil, money, light and time all in one.

But other things are also measured in Lumens. This makes light about ten times as expensive as that in standard gaming. It kind-of makes sense as light is much more valuable down here, and much harder to get. Lumens are how you measure wealth in the Underdark. It replaces the gold and silver coins of the surface world. Of course not everyone carries the same kinds of light production. Of course not everyone carries oil. It can be assumed that the necessary exchanges and conversions are being done in the background. This is irritating and unrealistic; the means to create and sustain bio-luminescence are not those used to create and light candles.

But we have pushed all that complexity into a simple number that tells you everything you need to know about how rich, and how safe, you are, how far you can go and how long you can see. Like hit points, Lumens may not make much sense on an individual basis, but they do make sense as a game object. And like hit points you can assume Lumens lost or found to be whatever you need them to be.

Elemantist Class

This is my take on a sorcerer class, I'm working with some fundamental assumptions in place but I by no means think the numbers represented here are fixed. One of the primary mechanics of the 5th Edition Sorcerer is their ability to use sorcery points to be more flexible casters.  In this class I want to embrace the idea behind 5th Editions Sorcery Points while shedding the vancian spell slots system entirely.



The Elements
There are 4 primary elements, Earth, Fire, Air, and Water but elementalists have specialized in any countless sub-elements, from Ice or Lightning Elementalists to Light, Sand, and Metal Elementalists, rumor has it there was once an Elementalist who specialized in wielding a liquid metal similar to Galium.

Elementalists are unlike other classes in that they choose their path at first level instead of third. Each path has it's own minor drawback. Elementalists gain +3 to their saves vs any spell that involves their element. (Pyromancers get +3 to their dex save vs fireball, the Air Bender gains +3 to his save against lightning bolt spell because lightning is a subdomain of Air)

Pools of power 

Elementalists draw on a wellspring of elemental power within themselves in order to manifest different effects. This wellspring of power is represented by a pool of Affinity Points as laid out below. When creating a spell effect the Elementalist describes what they are doing and the GM will determine how many Affinity points the effect would cost. An Elementalist can also cast any spell from the traditional sorcerer spell list that contains their element for a number of points equal to the level of the spell.

1 point damage moves are usually maxed at 2d6 on a single target or  1d8 in an AoE, in practice I would want to let players describe their actions and about how much damage/AOE they are aiming for before the DM determines the cost/viability of such a manifestation. Keeping in mind that the math of how the DM chooses to ration points directly relates to how powerful the class is.

The Elementalist Class

Level 1 - 2 Affinity Points - Choose Primary Element 

Level 2 - 3 Affinity Points

Level 3 - 8 Affinity Points - Signature Move
Level 4 - 10 Affinity Points -  Ability Score Improvement
Level 5 - 16 Affinity Points
Level 6 - 19 Affinity Points - Elemental Bonus
Level 7 - 23 Affinity Points
Level 8 - 27 Affinity Points - Ability Score Improvement
Level 9 - 36 Affinity Points
Level 10 - 41 Affinity Points - 2nd Signature Move
Level 11 - 47 Affinity Points 
Level 12 - 47 Affinity Points 
Level 13 - 54 Affinity Points 
Level 14 - 54 Affinity Points 
Level 15 62 Affinity Points 
Level 16 62 Affinity Points 
Level 17 71 Affinity Points 
Level 18 77 Affinity Points 
Level 19 - 84 Affinity Points 
Level 20 - 90 Affinity Points 

Element List- 

- Earth: +3 Saves vs  Acid and Poison, Constitution Casting Stat, Cannot Cast if not on the ground or in a stone building that is touching ground. 

- Water: +3 Saves vs Ice and Forced Movement effects, Wisdom Casting Stat, Cannot cast while dehydrated

 - Fire: +3 Saves vs Fire Effects, Charisma Casting Stat, Cannot cast while soaking wet or in water.

- Air: +3 Save vs Lightning effects, Dexterity Casting Stat, Cannot cast without access to the sky (defined by whether or not a crow could fly from their mouth to the sky unimpeded)

Signature Move - 
At 3rd, 5th and 10th level you have developed habits in your interaction with your chosen element. Choose a particular manifestation you have been favoring and reduce its AP cost by 1, this is the only way Elementalists can manifest cantrips, however a pyromancer elementalist could also make a 3 point fireball type spell his signature move and reduce its AP cost to 2, making it much more spammable.
Design Note - This is also a way to reward players for creating a distinct style in combat, allowing for smoother combat interactions and to solidify a players arsenal, however, the sheer amount of points at higher levels should assure that players will continue to find ways to creatively use their points without feeling pinched. 



Elemental Bonus
Earth: Earthen Defenses- Your default AC Becomes - 10 + Con + Dex. In addition you may spend an action during combat to pull earth and dirt towards you, increasing your armor class by +1, this can stack to a maximum of +3

Water: Water Healing - You can spend a minute and a point of AP to grant someone (1d4 + Wis) temporary HP. This consumes a full rations worth of water and works best in lakes, rivers, ponds, wells, oceans, etc. (3d4+Wis/AP over the course of a minute in such places)

Air: Airmasters Acrobatics - You gain resistance to all falling damage. In addition you can spend a single AP to gain 10 feet of movement and not invoke attacks of opportunity until end of turn.

Fire: Cloak of the Pheonix - You can ignite most flammable objects with a touch, requiring 0 AP. In addition you may spend 3AP to enter a stance with a duration of 10 minutes. This stance wreathes the user in flames, requiring concentration and granting the following benefits -

• The Elementalist sheds bright light out to 15 feet and dim light an additional 15 feet.  

•  Any creature which hits the Elementalist with a melee attack takes damage equal to double the Elementalists charisma modifier.  

•  Whenever the Elementalist spends AP to deal fire damage they may add their charisma modifier to the damage rolled

Sample Shenanigans --- 

Earth - 

The Door Maker - After taking a few deep breaths the Earth Elementalist shoves a section of stone wall aside, if nothing is behind the wall then a hole is blown through it wide enough for a medium sized creature to pass comfortably. - 4AP

Anklecrusher - Send a small tremor through the earth between you and an opponent, causing the earth to swallow and then crush their ankle. Dex save vs 2d8 bludgeoning and movement speed reduced to zero. Can either spend a full round action digging their ankle out or can yank it out, dealing an additional d8 of damage - 2AP (Single Target CC + 3d8 Damage)

Boulder Hurl - Sling a small boulder at a nearby enemy (floor tiles, large earthen clods, bricks and masonry) spell attack vs AC for 2d8 bludgeoning damage - 1AP

Hail of Stones - Sharp stones rain down in a 5 foot radius circle dealing 1d6 piercing damage Dex save for half - AP 1

Water - 

Phase Change - A water elementalist can change the phase of the water they are manipulating at will (free action, can occur on enemy turns etc.) - 1AP

Water Jet - A stream of water bludgeons and knocks enemies prone or backward (caster choice) 1AP/Round to pin enemies to the ground, hamper movement and generally create a bad time, an additional 1AP / round deals 2d6 bludgeoning per round. Concentration, combos nicely with phase change.

Water Cloak - Wielders use their water as a form of armor with tentacle-like arms. The Elementalist can use these arms to grab objects or enemies, blast enemies with water, etc. Depending on how much water they have very experienced water masters might have up to 8 water arms. (Bashing an enemy with an arm deals 1d8 damage. Creating the cloak with one are is 2AP a minute and an additional 2AP per extra attack up to 8 attacks / round, at 8AP/Minute. Concentration duh.)

Water Shield - Reaction vs Attack against caster or an adjacent ally, granting disadvantage on the attack. 2AP

Note - I avoided talking about ice manipulations because I feel like those are easier to think of than liquid water manipulations but this doesn't mean you shouldn't or can't use ice. 

This post is probably not useful

Just as the title says; this post is going to be a lot of rambling and will probably help no one. But that's okay because I'm here to rant about some shit that's in my brain, and if it happens to ever be useful to someone that's great.

5E is a combat rules system masquerading as a roleplaying system.  The main purpose of mechanics in roleplaying systems that I run is to inform the storytelling and to add an element of risk/reward to the interactions. The problem, of course, is that in order for that to be true or for such mechanics to be useful the DM must have a certain amount of foundational knowledge about gameplay etc. That makes it hard to market a product based on this assumption and so instead the rules are designed for simplest possible accessibility and there is nothing wrong with that. At the end of the day though, mechanics inform the gameplay experience for players and by designing more combat mechanics you inform the players that this game is about combat. Today I'm picking on Monks as an example of a few overarching 5E design critiques and then maybe somewhere in there I can produce useful ideas.

I Got Beef With Monks - 

So this isn't a fair title, monks themselves have done nothing to me or my family. (Unlike warlocks, who know EXACTLY what they've done!) I mean I do think they're a bit over tuned that's not really important here. I'm just using Monks as a punching bag because I was thinking about design and monks and what monks could be, but this same thing stands true for basically all classes.

You ever notice how much of a monks kit is combat oriented? I could replace "monk kit" with 5E and still feel comfortable making that accusation, but again, we're gang beating monks today. Monks have a variety of moves and styles and the like, but all of their abilities are essentially geared towards combat, (The open palm is an interesting exception) and almost universally these are boxed in by very specific rules. And those rules get in the way of the Cinematic Bullshit that I want to see out of my monk players.

Jackie Chan doing Cinematic Monk Bullshit

So, remember earlier I said this would be a discussion about how mechanics inform gameplay right? So what kind of gameplay do we want from monks and how can we inform the player what the monk class means in terms of gameplay through mechanics which encourage the type of play we want? (The idea of class decisions informing DMs about the type of gameplay a player wants is a whole other discussion, but for now, let's just assume that you know about that.) 

What 

I mean what the actual fuck is happening here? 

Answer: Cinematic Monk Bullshit

Okay okay, at this point you're really irritated and you want me to just make my point and shut up already so here it is. Monks should be able to use their Ki points to just will things into existence. Or, more accurately the Monks should be able to will thematic (shadow monks have different abilities than open palm monks have different abilities than a kensei) bullshit into existence. 

You're fighting an Ogre, it misses you with an attack and you go "I use a ki point to slip inside his attack and try to land a blow to make him drop the club" and yeah dude, fuckin roll an attack and make that dude drop his club.

Your party is facing an adult red dragon and you know it's going poorly. You're front lining but you know you're hit dice aren't exactly huge so you'll need to find ways to introduce some Cinematic Bullshit to save yourself. The dragon lands a bite but only barely, you burn a few Ki points to boost your AC by doing the classic "grab the teeth" cinematic bullshit move. This creates an absurd tug of war between you and the dragon that can reduce it's DPS significantly or be rendered useless after around, either way, it's cinematic and simple. 

So how do you write rules for this? To be honest, I don't think you write the rules for this, I think you just put a big label of "Cinematic Cutscene Fights" and explain to your players what monks look like in your world. (Jackie Chan is a level 20 monk in my example characters list)  I love the cinematic bullshit, and I love the idea of using Ki as a resource that can be spent to do various cinematic bullshits. 

Minotaur Lore and History Part 1

The Minotaur race is a nomadic people, they seldom build long term structures, preferring yurts and longships converted to temporary shelters.  They herded small herds of oxen but relied heavily on raiding to sustain their numbers. For this reason, they often determined their leadership through combat and for a long age only the strongest minotaur could lead the tribes.

According to the vague histories that have survived the ages, the first traces of the clan split started when some great hero of the minotaur race returned as an ally to the other races of the world after facing a grave threat which threatened to destroy the entire realm. This seems to be a recurring pattern with adventuring parties, something about them unites races in ways that seem illogical. More research is required on this topic.

 This split inevitably turned violent, but the violence escalated far beyond any skirmish or internal feud that had been seen before, after a decade of fighting the war had cost nearly a quarter of the minotaur population, millions lay dead on burnt battlefields. These mass battlefield graves are a favorite lairing place for necromancers who favor minotaur skeletons for their denser bone structure and larger size.

Finally a hero emerged, at the head of another adventuring party and gathered every clan behind his banner in ritual combat. The wise hero, knowing that the ideological differences of the clans could not be resolved split the minotaur race into 4 nations. He then set a yearly time and place for the 4 Minotaur nations to meet and trade goods and information. This gathering became known as the Gathering of Asterion, after the hero who founded it.

These four nations each set out in search of their own lands to roam across.  One clan went into the Badlands where they lived as conquerers and slavers, they became known as the Bonehorn clan. Another settled in the vast forests of the Life Cradle to live and hunt the living plants and great behemoths that live there. They became known as the Clan of the Green Axe, after the unique axes they forged from rare materials found only in the Life Cradle. The third, the Stonehoof clan settled in the plains to live a simple life of farming and grazing, the clans' warriors herd great oxen across the central steppe to be sold at the Gathering of Asterion. These herds are one of the few things in the central steppe which are considered above the rule of the Orcish warlords. The final tribe, the Fellhide tribe, went to the Mountains of Madness where they were bent to cruelty and violence. The tribe conquered the local goblins, creating vast mountainside temples to minotaur might on the backs of goblin slave labor. They dwell now in these massive stone temples, raiding the villages below for supplies. Every few years a warlord will lead an army of goblins and minotaurs down to reave through the countryside, returning fat with meat and plunder.  

Minotaur Clans Part 2

A History of Minotaur Clans Written By The Great Archeologist and Anthropologist Endiara Cavendish

The Bonehorn Clan

Any Desert Traveler will tell you to avoid the maze-like canyons that bisect the Badlands. Everyone knows that is the Domain of the Bonehorn clan and their slave army. The Bonehorn clan are brutal minotaur slavers, famous for raiding unwary caravans and Orcish war parties alike, often selling their captives off to the Gnoll Druids of the central desert in exchange for harvested water fruits and stolen waterskins.

The Bonehorn clan are excellent glass smiths and frequently wield elegant glass bladed weaponry. These glass weapons are extraordinarily keen cutting blades and leave wounds that often bleed profusely. The few Bonehorn representatives who travel to the annual gathering Gathering of Asterion bring glass trading goods such as flasks, glass weapons, and various glass containers and jars. They primarily trade for water and slaves.

The Bonehorn Clan select their leader once every few years, Any minotaur who wishes may attempt the challenge and the first to return is crowned the Chieftain for 3 years. The challenge is simple but dangerous. Each contestant walks into the desert with nothing but a glass dagger and small glass water flask. The first to return riding a Bullete is the new chief. The Bonehorn Clan use Bulletes as raiding beasts as well as pulling heavy loads such as slave carts and sand loads. Rumor has it a great Bonehorn chief once constructed a great temple made of glass, but no outsider has ever seen it and lived.

Stonehoof Clan 

The Stonehoof clan is by far the most peaceful of the 4 Minotaur nation. Settled in the Northern Steppes the Stonehoof clan has traded swords for plow blades. Their size assures that no wandering bandit would care to attack a Stonehoof village. The warriors of the clan drive cattle south through orcish territories with impunity. The Oxen of the Stonehoof clan grow to be nearly 9 feet tall at the shoulder and make some of the finest jerky and leather goods on the market. (Stonehoof leather armor grants +1 AC vs Slashing damage)

The clans elders are greatly adept at the creation of traveling foods that last for weeks on end but do not go stale. Aside from the great drying racks of ox jerky, Rodrigez the explorer once recorded a Stonehoof Travel Biscuit (made from almond flour and mixed with ox fat) lasting well over a year without growing stale. The clan typically trades these food goods for whatever their needs may be, typically tools and wood.

The Stonehoof are not great smiths, and they prefer to purchase tools and utensils from traveling merchants rather than forge things themselves. They also rely on trade at the Gathering of Asterion where they bring Oxen and Prepared Travel foods to trade for tools and containers of various sorts. Though less of a tradecraft the Stonehoof clan typically makes most of their clothing from shaved Ox fur.

Clan Green Axe 

This clan was near impossible to track down, but when I finally made contact they agreed to let me follow them a brief time. They've taken isolationism to extremes, migrating in some permanent pilgrimage through the massive living forests of the Life Cradle from one great temple to another, arriving at each temple in time to conduct a great ritual to waken the sun from his slumber that the world might live again. There are several family groups who seldom interact with one another during their travels, except when a few families will gather at a hidden outpost made from carved hollows in the trunks of small world trees. As far as I can tell these family groups have no heirarchal structure and when multiple groups meet up they gather in what appears to be some kind of general assembly to address family needs and spread news.

The temples of the Green Axe clan are sacred territory, and at each clan meet up one family group is selected to stay behind and guard the temple. The remaining groups will bring offerings of slain beasts and foraged fruits upon their return for this great service. The Green Axe clan are highly protective of their temples, I once witnessed the family group guarding the southern temple, wipe out 3 dozen high elven water dancers that strayed too close to their temple. The Minotaur took a single casualty and he was given a funeral pyre the same night.

The Green Axe clans are great beast hunters, priding themselves on killing beasts like giant otters and the hulking nameless behemoths of the ancient forest alike. Their weapons are made from a deep green mineral called Malachanium, it holds a sharp edge and rumors of a deeper latent magic abound but the minotaur that I spoke with were coldly silent on the topic.

The Fellhide Clan

It Has been many years since my last entry in this book. Much has happened in the time of my travels but that lies beyond the scope of this tome. I have finally reached the ancient fortress of
the mountain clan and discovered their historical records. The entry that follows is my interpretation
of that history. I believe the Mountain clan to be lost to history, their existence stomped out by a powerful sorcerer king.

The Minotaurs that moved into the mountains were arguably the most warlike of the clans. They came to conquer, viewing themselves as the rightful rulers of the meek in a very nietzsche-esque "Powerful always dominate the weak" way. They held to the old traditions of ritual combat for leadership and were highly militaristic. It seems they grew very little of there own food, and didn't trade for it either. By all accounts, much of their diet consisted of plundered food, and jerky from the Gathering of Asterion. (Minotaur are equals and therefore worth trading with)


 When the four nations of the Minotaur tribes split their separate ways the Fellhide clan, already the most bloodthirsty of the clans retreated to the Mountains of Madness where the dark energies of that land warped them into cruel creatures, long bereft of any humanity. It did not take long for them to enslave the many goblin clans that inhabited the area, the great chieftain known only as Duuvera Fellhide built a fortress of iron on the backs of goblin slave labor. He had the mountain stripped of its resources quickly for this fortress, and it stands to this day. The walls are rusted over and the great spike battlement lays devoid of life, inside nothing but empty halls and dust.

It is hard to imagine this fortress would have been like in its hay day. This is my final entry regarding the culture of the majestic Minotaur species. None of this work would have been possible without help from my kind friend and fellow researcher Ernesto LaVenta.

Working Draft -- Dragon Gods

The Elder dragon gods -  Before Tiamat and her brother Bahamut created the 10 bloodlines, dragons grew more chaotic and wilder than mortals today could imagine. Many were both the first and last of their lines, others have kin still lurking in darkened glens or forgotten mountains, colorless and feral, some cherished few attained Godhood.

(Clean this later)


Amatsuma the Eternal Storm – A great serpentine Dragon of with vivid yellow scales and the pales of white streaks across his sides. In his mortal life this great dragonlord was a talented elementalist who could wield whole storms as a weapon. He later achieved godhood and became the Eternal Storm, his mere presence spawning horrific hurricanes and massive lightning storms. His worship is found in elementalist temples and ancient draconic shrines a like. Sailors are most often those who call Amatsuma often ask for his mercy in passing through storms, a sea witch on the other hand might curse a sailor by drawing Amatsumas wrath upon them.

Myojin Dragon God of Fire and War.  - One of the first dragon gods, Myojin predates even Tiamat, it is said that all dragon fire was handed down through Myojin who swallowed a long dead dwarven fire god. Myojin is a war god among dragons, but not the petty genocides that dragons might inflict upon mortals, Myojin is a god of draconic war. To invoke Myojins name is to invoke clan rights, and it is under his watchful eye that draconic parlay occurs. For a dragon to breach draconic treaty is to invite Myojins wrath. Dragons seldom wage clan wars, but when they do every ancient rule is abided by on both sides out of fear and respect for Great Myojin


Nerio – A great lumbering beast of a dragon. It is said she was once black scaled, and payed an elvish smith handsomely to gold plait each of her scales. Statues to her honor are often solid gold and depict her with diamond studded wings. Nerio is the Goddess of Draconic wealth, and the richest dragon to have ever lived. She is the original hoarder, from whom all draconic hoarding stems, but she is also suave and cunning. It is said that she coveted the world and so became a god,  but as a god she became of aware of much greater things to covet. Few invoke her name but the desperate and the greedy, once it was said that melting a golden coin in her name could bring good fortune, but those who curry true favor give up so much more to this envious god.


Uthanlos God of Ice and Mountains, Father of Drakes -- The Great White Terror Uthanlos was always a feral dragon, throwing around his sheer size and brutality to get his way. His territory was absolute and he had no need for language or civility, he would wage war against any who dare impede on his domain. It did not take long for Uthanlos to become despised among the great elder dragons, and soon Myojin came to bring Uthanlos into line. The two raged across the mountain tops, ice and fire leveling whole mountains and creating whole glaciers. Dwarves believe this fight is what created the first volcanoes as the two dragons drove the mountains to a boiling rage. After several years myojin, victoriously tore off Uthanlos wings and cast him to the mountain side to die. But Uthanlos did not die, and though he healed his wings never regrew, and his hatred for all dragon kind drove him mad. Uthanlos is the father of drakes, and though his name is seldom worshipped, the druids sometimes whisper his name in their chants of rage, and barbarians depict the great white terror, a coiled wingless beast upon their standards.


Xetesk the Pale – Somber, black eyed Xetesk is a pale and ancient goddess of passing. Xetesk was once a great purple scaled dragon, a ruler of kingdoms, she fond herself immersed in the lives of mortals and their praises rang in her ears. But Xetesk found that none of these mortal praises lasted long, and the sorrow and loss when her favorite humans wilted before her eyes outweighed their praise. She committed ritualized suicide and became a draconic goddess of death in order to be reunited with her lost worshippers, and now she serves as a shepherd of souls. Her worshippers despise necromancy in all it's forms and strive to act as shepherds to both the living and the dead, helping the living to find their "Death Path", a phrase which here  means the path of life which leads them to the best possible death (think of it as really grim dark legacy crafting, how will people remember you?) and helping the dead to find peace with the paths they walked in life. Xeteskian priests are common funeral orators. 

How to kill a God Part 1

 This is mostly a stat workshop for a friend

As such I'm not gonna worry about the lore aspects beyond Fara is an imposter god of lightning. She was a mere titan who usurped the proper lightning god, kinda similar to Orcus. She was imprisoned for that shit and for some reason that's not working out so now the heroes are on their way to kill a would be god.

I feel like I learned a lot from trying to run a God Slaying Encounter of my own about a year ago, in which I did something pretty right but a lot of things really wrong. In the end though, my players felt like they had fought and vanquished a god, and that's what I was aiming for.

Okay hold up. Let's talk about killing a god.

How to Kill a God

Firstly you'll need weapons worthy of such a feat. Deities are immune to most mortal weapons and recovering the weapon or the material that can actually harm them should be a not insignificant aspect of the quest to kill a god. Spells certainly won't impact a Deity and as such she'll simply ignore spells below a certain level. Lastly, while a Gods physical form could die, unless you follow them to the Astral Sea or bind them in the material, it's usually impossible to actually slay the god with physical means.

D6 ways to kill a god -- 

1.  The Mud God draws his power from the earth and can only take damage if they are separated from the ground. (Grappling a mudgod is hard but possible, Gravity reversal would also work, etc) 
2. Ooblek the Ooze God can rearrange his organs at will, regenerating and restitching himself from even the smallest scrap. If Ooblek has less than 100HP at the start of the round he instead has 100HP. (Simple DPS check, stasis and time magic, haste, and action surge could all seal his demise, this information should be known before the fight) 
3. The Huntress Arduin can only be killed by an arrow which has been ritually prepared in the blood of a Stag in heat. (This should happen on screen. Make them track the stag, have it flee, let her divinely intervene in vague ways) 
4. The War God Achilates has never been bested in combat, but prophecy says his death will be at the hands of a trickster. (The final blow must be a sneak attack, this might not be obvious to the players from their initial investigations but if they look into what the prophecies means they should be made aware of this caveat) 
5. Apollon the Sun God is protected by his sister Navara the moon. If he is slain, or endangered, she will heal him. The only way to kill him is during the new moon, however, he is at his strongest during the day. (This one has a lot of nuance, make the decision to fight at night under the new moon impactful, Apollon knows he can only be killed during this time and will try to flee into the darkness and let his followers hold you off rather than fight) 
6. Hekate the Goddess of Magic has no true physical form and can only be killed by the legendary mage slaying sword Weave Reaver, which is attuned to the weave of magic and cuts spells and flesh alike. She is also immune to magic and magic weapons (Resistance to normal weapons, immunity to magic ones and she can only be dropped below 1HP by Weave Reaver, a sentient sword which can only be attuned to by a non-caster who has killed at least 10 mages with it) 

I like some of those, I don't like others, but it's 3AM so fight me.

The key here is that the actual mechanics of D&D combat are mostly what I would call "Solved Problems" There is a Most Effective Tactic to utilize a characters stat block, and most players know what that tactic is by their 3rd or 4th level as that character. Attempting to add wrinkles to this combat in the form of hazards traps and encounter diversity is great but a Deity should go beyond that. A barbarian could swing at the Mud Gods 14 AC forever, but he has no HP bar as long as he is connected to the Earth. Meanwhile Apollon knows about the narrow window to kill him and will try to flee into the darkness when challenged.

You should probably not fight the Mud God

None of these have explicit solutions grounded in the sheet there is no built in answer in a classes kit. (Except for Achilates but again, fight me) Suddenly your players are making decisions, and choices that aren't grounded in "What does my class do?" or "What is my best standard DPS option?" instead you'll have Barbarians trying to wrestle the Mud God off the ground (dificult and he will try to escape the grapple every round) or else find creative ways to push him off a cliff etc. The mage might haste the fighter so he can keep up with the Fleeing Apollon, but can the fighter and the monk 2v1 a God long enough for the main party to catch up? Or is it better to haste the ranger so that he can better track the fleeing God?

The Beastfolk

The Druhokas -

Their name for themselves is druhok, pronounced d-ruh-hawk (males) or druhoka, pronounced d-ruh-hawk-uh (females). Druhokas for plural, and in combat, they're known for being tough-as-hell to kill. 

They all have large horns or large antlers, sometimes both and a sloping face, but these features are defined more-or-less randomly during puberty.  Sometimes this chaotic process produces results that are similar to elk or deer, but their faces just as often resemble no other known animal.  While their faces are furry the rest of their body is hairless, which makes the bestial face look a bit odd. 

Druhok are incomprehensibly virile.  They can certainly impregnate any mammal, and quite a few non-mammals.  Smaller mammals give birth to skewed little halfbreeds that are usually sterile and sometimes have small horns of their own.  (Animals in their homelands sometimes feature horns for this reason.)  Larger mammals actually produce genetically normal Druhokas, so in theory, a solitary beastman could buy a cow and repopulate.

And it's not just the usual methods of transmission.  Even their blood and spit carry their seed, and fertilization can occur like catching a cold (aside from the more traditional vectors).  After warring with beastfolk, soldiers are advised to wash their hands before returning to their wives.

Druhokan warbands on extended campaigns sometimes travel with herds of goats that they use for food, recreation, and procreation.  Druhok warbands are bad news.  Sometimes they go on world tours.  Twenty years later, the warband that returns home contains only a few original members and quite a lot of their children.  Also lots of plunder.  Also a shit-ton of goats.

When a druhok is born, it resembles a baby goat or lamb.  After about six years, the young druhok quickly metamorphizes into their adult forms.  It's a more awkward puberty than most.  It's also a good reason to only buy your baby goats from licensed goat sellers.

Druhoks remember their childhood, when they walked on four legs and could only bleat.  For this reason, many of them empathize with horses, deer, goats, sheep, etc.  It certainly doesn't stop them from hunting, but they treat baby farm animals very well, and most beastfolk are at least mildly uncomfortable with horseback riding, some even defend horses against this abuse with force. 


Beastmen lack a nimble tongue and full lips. Their language is a mixture of grunts, barks, and hand signals.  It's a complex language full of nuance, metaphor, and meme-forms (not the internet meme)










Culture and Women
The Beastfolk worship in hot springs, believing all hot springs to be sacred places.  They cover their kings and queens with ribbons and bells, and their two biggest trades are brewing vast amounts of wine and being the only race known to have perfected yogurt making. The techniques and recipes needed to make yogurt are religiously kept secrets. The Druhok word for Yogurt is Dahirm (Dah-heer-m) 

They're a bit misogynistic, as you might suspect, though not in the "I beat up women" way, but rather in the "Women have a role and Men have theirs, and these should not be mixed" way.  Most people don't know about Druhoka, the beastfolk women.  Unlike the males, they lose most of their animal affections during their pubescent metamorphosis, so that they perfectly resemble humans in adulthood. The only bestial aspect that Druhoka retain are their cloven feet and their unguligrade legs which add 6" to their height.  They still speak in the grunts and waves of their mother tongue, but their perfectly human faces allow them to learn other languages with relative ease.  They, like their male counterparts they retain their goat eyes.

Diagram of Unguligrade legs that I stole from some furry artist.

Only the women can ever learn to be magic-users, since the males can't pronounce words. The women also fulfill the religious niches of society and  wield significant sway on domestic issues.  It's consider vulgar in their society for women to arm themselves, and so the women that do must use "non-weapons" like flat, bladed shovels and big kitchen knives (sometimes with a hilt).  A beastman would likely blush and faint if he saw a woman fighting with a broadsword.

Most beastfolk come from big families and the family bond of a Druhokan family group cannot be overstated. Druhokans are nomadic people, and they usually travel within these tight knit family groups. Most have a few dead siblings that they quietly honor by setting out bowls of water in quiet places, and then letting them evaporate. It is said that a sibling who goes thirsty in death must truly be hated. 

STATS N SHITT

• +2 Con, +2 Wis, -1 Cha
• Men can't speak or wear helmets; women can't wear shoes.
• Can survive just fine on grass and leaves, although they must eat a lot of it.
• Men can gore/butt with their horns when they charge.  1d6+Str bludgeoning damage.
• Women can easily run through rocky terrain and steep hillsides. While you're hammering pitons they're jogging up.  They can climb non-vertical surfaces without using their hands.
• If you have Cha 13+, and die from an injury (drop to 0 hp) you may attempt to roll under half your charisma score on a d20, if you succeed you instead survive with 1 hit point.  (This doesn't work if their head is cut off or something.)

And you know that Beastfolk warlords have, like, 16 charisma. 

Quaya Part 2 Trystero and Salendar

Monkeyrats -

In the cities and towns of Quaya, you'll find very few of the huge, diseased rats found in other parts of the world.  Instead you'll find monkeyrats.

Monkeyrats are the same size as rats, but they're better climbers, and most importantly, they're smart as hell. They're rare in the wild, but extremely common in the cities,  living in huge troops of up to 100 individuals, usually inside roofs or in the drier parts of the sewers. They're smart enough to figure out ways to subsist on human excess, by stealing a couple of nuts here, eating some garbage here, and avoiding people whenever possible. Some Trysteran Lenguamancers claim the Monkeyrats are smarter than the average peasant, although whether this is meant as a compliment to the tiny beasts.

They fight a constant, invisible war with rats, which they usually win (by virtue of cooperation) and also with cats, which they usually lose (because cats are murder machines).  Still, cats in Trystero frequently die when they get surrounded by monkeyrats, or when the monkeyrats drop a brick on them from 3 stories up, so owners beware.

The cities have a complicated relationship with monkeyrats.  They're seen as pests, but they're a bit too intelligent to treat like vermin.  And they're too numerous to ignore.  Huge extermination attempts have been enacted in Salendar with partial success.  But whenever the monkeyrats are killed, normal rats jump up to replace them.


Trystero the city that never thirsts-

The gleaming city of Trystero is surrounded by a gleaming sandstone wall, the stones of which were mined over 80 miles south long before the Moon Emperor descended to the earth. Fragrant fields of hops and wheat grow alongside ginger root beds and raspberry vines grow along the warm hillsides past the west wall of the city, the eastern wall protects the Trysteran Citrus Grove, a sprawling grove with over 15 varieties of lemon grapefruit and various citrus trees as well as a large stand of cocoa trees.

There are 3 major factions in the city of Trystero:

The Casque Masters Guild, where beer masters of renown the world over make finely crafted, often magically imbued ales and wines. The head of the Guild is Mug Brewington, famous for his Eisbock, a strong lager style beer made by partially freezing the beer during fermentation and removing the ice that forms before finishing the brewing process.

The Confectionaires Guild: Where sweets and cakes of a thousand varieties are made, where chefs come to study the art of sugar blowing and chocolate making. There are whispers that the confectionaires guild sometimes dabbles in dangerous and rare ingredients such as the infamous Red Honey and Underdark Cocoa Beans, which must be grown and harvested in the flesh of still living slaves.

The Lenguamancers College, where mages study the magic of the Tongue. The lenguamancers have an ongoing rivalry with the confectionaires guild over who can construct the most universally appealing and ecstasy inducing flavors. They had a brief rivalry with the Casque Masters, but lost miserably as Mages have no idea what people find appealing in their alcohol.



Salendar the city of chimes -

The road between Salendar and Trystero is 40 miles longer when you travel northward from Salendar to Trystero than it is when you travel south from Trystero to Salendar. No one is really sure why, a number of mages have investigated it and believe it might be related to a long dead a lamellar labyrinth of hypertoroidal tissues.

Salendar is known for it's uncountable chimes. Homeless children build chimes of broken glass and junk string, while the richest nobles and merchants build massive chimes from entire buildings. The chimes are all dedicated to the wind spirits who call Salendar home, there's a great cliffside at the edge of the city wear the veil between realities wore thin thousands of years ago, now it's a minor gateway to the elemental plane of air, and air elementals of all sizes and dispositions pass into and out of our reality with relative ease.

There was once an elementalist college here,  mages studied how to bind and control the spirits of the wind now it's great halls and towers lay in ruins, a reminder of the past. A great tempest elemental was summoned and then bound by the elementalists long long ago, but it escaped it's bondage and destroyed the mages, shatteand leveled half the city before becoming entranced with childlike joy over a childs wind chime. Ever since the city has lived in awed respect and admiration for the great creatures and view mages with distrust. 

Quaya Part 1 - The Warm Hills

The Warm Hills 

Sometimes called the Yellow Hills for the variety of wild wheats which grow abundantly in the rocky soil there, the Warm Hills are home to 2 major populations.

The first group call themselves The Dwarven Common Grace, a half dozen villages of mostly hill dwarves who are essentially Dwarven Calvinists. They worship a god of labor and humility which they have dubbed Armok, God of Sweat and Blood. To labor and toil is to praise their God, and most things outside of honorable labor are considered sinful in someway or another. The dwarves of the common grace are notoriously dull and uncreative creatures, as creative endeavors are often sinful and children are taught what they must know to shepherd the great goat herds or work the fields.


Their villages usually consist of a handful of communal dwellings in hollowed out hills, where the dwarves sleep in triple bunk beds packed tightly together with neither personal aesthetics nor privacy allowed. These are usually built in a ring  around a central meeting area and communal dining hall.  On the surface of these holowed out hills the dwarves usually grow wheat or else pen their great goat herds. A dwarven great goat can grow to be massive, some growing as large as 8 feet tall at the shoulder. The dwarves use them as beasts of both labor and warfare.

The largest dwarven community in the warm hills is the town of Great Mill, (the common grace dwarves detest fancy names and believe a thing should be named for what it does) so called because of the massive millstone the town is built around. The stone has a radius of just over 40' wide and weighs several thousands of pounds. It's operated by 20 massive goats, the largest goat from each village is sent to help pull the millstone. A village which sends a small or weak goat to pull the millstone is generally considered shameful and dishonest. The dwarves pay nicely for fertilizer and produce a vast ammount of flour which they sell far and wide. Despite all this seemingly impressive economic activity, the dwarves own no luxuries, and store all of their communal wealth in neatly stacked gold bars beneath their hills, a rainy day fund they'll never actually use.

The second group living in the Yellow Hills are the Great Goblin Encampment of Thanorek Thanorek is one of the least powerful goblin encampments in terms of its ability to wage war, but it is widely regarded as a place of pleasure and excess where those with the coin can purchase all manner of intoxicants and carnal experiences. Thanorek is run by a Hobgoblin named Niu Bo Wei.

Niu Bo Wei is a sybarite and hedonist; he does not care for the responsibilities that leading the Thanorek encampment imposes on him, but he does thoroughly enjoy the pleasures that his position allows. Niu Bo Wei maintains power mostly through his intense charisma and charming decadence—he sees his encampment as the worlds greatest brothel,  where all are welcome and where all appetites are satisfied.

While most goblin hordes move from place to place the Thanorek encampment, is more permanent having been built around The Brazier; a fire pit made of rune-etched iron in which an efreeti is bound by magic. The goblins of Thanorek worship the “Flame Lord” as a god, but the efreeti wishes only to be fre
ed. The majority of Thanoreks population are goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears, but all races are welcome and it is not uncommon for people to come to Thanorek to disappear or hide frome their troubles. The goblin locals live in low round yurts, and live a hunter gatherer lifestyle for the most part. The pleasure domes, decorated in garish colors, some laced with magic pigments that sear into the eyes of those who view them, are large and varied. It is said there is no pleasure in the Material Realm that Thanorek cannot provide, and few pleasures beyond the material which it cannot find for the man with the right coin.

Melpomene the Fallen Muse

Melpomene was once the Muse of Song, and the Mother of the Sirens. One day she fell in love with the great hero Farnir, becoming infatuated. The two were married, Farnir completely oblivious of his wifes divine origins, and they retired to a quiet life alone in a small village, Farnir happy to leave behind his days of grandeur and adventure for the woman of his dreams. 

Farnir and Melpomene were not to live in peace for long, however, the retired adventurer had made a fair number of enemies, and before long they found him, the village burned, their children dead, Farnir and Melpomene wept tears of bitter rage and Farnir swore a solemn oath of vengeance. But the slope into darkness is steep and slippery, and as Farnir hunted down those who had wronged him, his soul slowly blackened, sacking whole towns, looting evil artifacts of power, all in the name of his children and his village. Melpomene's soul followed suit, her songs turning to funeral dirges and her heart turning harder and harder, neither realized when or how they had crossed the threshold to evil, gradual change is insidious that way.

Farnir hasn't been seen in an age now, and is assumed dead, his hidden tomb rumored to be full of his bloodstained riches. Melpomene languished in his absence, the only light in her immortal life, now snuffed out. Her twisted heart festered until she was reborn, as the demon now known as Mormo.



Hmm... So, I would give it like... 3 Songs of Discord (which any bard worth his salt can countersong and also learn afterwards) that it switches between during battle, while relying on it's minions and brute strength for actual damage First would be like Song of Kinslaying - 30' AOE centered on the demon that causes a DC 16 Will save or you have to move towards and attack your nearest ally, can be countered by calm emotions or countersong, the demon would lead with this, as it distracts and disorganizes his enemies, allowing him to close the gap and wade in while their in chaos Next would be Song of Corruption - Which heals all fiends within the 30' AOE and causes any good aligned creature to take Necrotic Damage, DC 16 Con save for half, I'd go with something like 2D8, save for half, and fiends heal for 2D8, because he can use this constantly it's pretty brutal and increasing those numbers can lead to TPK pretty easily Lastly would be the fiends trump card Song of Death, which causes any living creature that hears it to take 10D8 damage, DC 15 Charisma save negates and grants 24 hour immunity. This dmg bypasses ALL damage reduction so the barbarian is gonna be pretty tilted Being Deafened, casting silence, or otherwise preventing the music from reaching your ears is the only way to negate the effects of the Songs of Discord Give the demon a buttload of HP and resistances, maybe make it vulnerable to bardic magic in someway and give it like... 2 claws that deal 2d6+6 damage on hit