Showing posts with label CR 6. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CR 6. Show all posts

Sunday, November 8, 2020

For your comparison: A different D&D interpretation of Hello Kitty (Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition)

As always, thank you to my patrons Jaina Bee, Ferny, Casey, Dave, Keeper, and Darius.  They and my other patrons saw this post a week early ~ if you would like to support my writing and my streaming (and join them in seeing all of my blog posts before anyone else), you can do so on my Patreon ~ even $1/month helps a tremendous amount!


This is the second post in my series writing up Sanrio characters in two different systems ~ Pathfinder 1st edition and Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition ~ to explore the sometimes subtle and intangible differences between the stories, worlds, and characters that emerge from the two rulesets.


I was rather surprised as I wrote the Sanri Phaivii version of Khoushye Haroktii Howait.  On the less surprising side, D&D5 seems more inclined to the sort of innocent, children's fiction element I'd hoped to capture with her.  Of course, that may be because I found a third-party writeup specifically aimed at creating a Disney-style princess (well, one of the subclasses; the other two are aimed at recreating Xena and more traditional princesses) which is not something I've found for Pathfinder 1st.  Sanri Pyefwan, perhaps unshockingly, features a Khoushye who feels much pulpier, even more sinister with her mind control and queen-of-the hive buff abilities.  Phaivii's Horaktii feels like more of a blessing to those around her, focusing on healing and temporary hit points, while Pyefwan's feels like she offers much more of the semi-fascist transhumanist package.  "Follow me," Pyefwan's Horaktii seems to say with her abilities, "and you will be made Perfect."


However, the more surprising side of that is that Haroktii and the brief sketches of the other members of her adventuring party (Mimyi, Diadani, and Mai Merod) were significantly easier to differentiate and give their own metaphor.  On Sanri Pyefwan, I felt like I had to reach to give everyone an appropriate class while also not just making everyone a bard, basically.  There's a trend in game design this has really directed my eyes toward ~ you can see it in D&D itself, as well as in Vampire: the Masquerade, and in a larger sense if you compare systems like Palladium's to more modern designs ~ where the restriction of archetypal categories gets paired to easier ways to build upon that archetype.  Fewer classes (PF1's first-party products describe a whopping 38-43 classes; even my 3rd-party expanded list of 5e classes only has 14), more subclasses.  The promise of the 3.x family of systems was that the proliferation of options would allows you to build very individualized characters that felt different across the various arenae of play.  Modern game design succeeds at that goal much more successfully.


These stats changes also helped spur a couple of differences in Haroktii's story that will likely prove to diverge Sanri Phaivii from Sanri Pyefwan much more than would be readily apparent by the amount of copypasta'd text in this post.  Gnomes seem to have a rather different role in the two worlds (or at least different cultures), as does Mai Merod's home realm of Abyayala.  The shift in gnomic culture also allowed me to push Haroktii away from a mercantile background, which was something of a relief to me.  She is much more of an artist-queen on Sanri Phaivii than the trader-queen of Sanri Pyefwan.


I do think I'm more of a fan of Sanri Pyefwan's gijinkh than I am of Sanri Phaivii's.  The size shift means almost nothing in D&D5, whereas in PF1 it alone was enough to give the gijinkh a very different feel.  Other than the size, I only shifted the free proficiencies to more friendly choices, leaving the gijinkh still more combat-oriented on Sanri Phaivii than on Sanri Pyefwan.


What do y'all think about the comparison between the two Khoushyu?  What differences and surprising similarities do you see between the two characters and the two worlds?


Haroktii Howait zep Djodj tep Mari zep Anshni tep Magret
Birthday:  The First Day of the First Decan of the Third Month of Low Water
Place of Birth:  The capitol Chowa Ta ("Harmonious City")
Gender:  Female
Race:  Gijinkh tabaxi (stats below)
Residence:  Sanri Puro Ta ("World Palace City")
Height:  Five apples
Weight:  Three apples
Age:  46 years old
Quote:  "Mishru can never have too many friends!"
Siblings:  Mimyi Howait (twin sister; clan crafter* noble in a lineage of myth 12/Family cleric 8)
Spouses:  Diadani Sutaa (gijinkh tabaxi clan crafter* bard in the college of portraiture 11) and Mai Merod (quwi goblin outlander alchemist artificer 15/bard in the college of eloquence 5)
Companions:  Kath (quwi goblin), Djib (mippei vedalken), Fif (younikh satyr), Djodi (longtooth shifter), Djowi (little paw uplifted gutterkin), Djud (little paw uplifted gutterkin), Mori (scuttler uplifted gutterkin), Rori (little paw uplifted gutterkin), Tamas (khum goliath), Tim and Tami (grappling apendages and nimble climber simic hybrid; Tami is Haroktii's attendant), Tipi (khum goliath), Takhshii Djamu (batrikh kenku), Zesi (raikhma goblin)
Pets:  Djamii Khit (rat), Shugaa (hamster), Taini Djam (brown bear; animal companion)
Enemies:  Queen Inuhakh of Shyama Ta (shyama tabaxi), Hiku (longtooth shifter), Fankhur (shyama tabaxi)
Appearance (as always, I lack any sort of visual arts skill, so I put forth two pictures to blend together to envision Haroktii)
Bastet - Wikipedia

Haroktii Howait, a female gijinkh catfolk, wears the ancestral red bow known as Beru shen Hap-Ered ("Hair-Bow of the River-Child") on her left ear as the Koushye ("The Great House") who rules the land of Mishru.  A cute, bright, sweet, kind-hearted, tomboyishly beautiful girl who's very close with her twin sister Mimyi, Haroktii's rulership has spread the influence of Mishru throughout all the world, affecting the art, writing, cuisine, theatre, clothing, bodywork, and technology of many realms.  A small but widespread cult has even sprung up scattered amongst many countries, hailing her as a new goddess, the prophesied Ras Tefer.  Stylized versions of her likeness adorn the vehicles, purses, plumbing, ovens, hearths, pottery, and jewelry of these worshipers, and several plays about her are performed on stages frequented by them.  Dolls, icons, tableware, and furniture are common gifts even in far-foreign lands.


An avid collector of treasures of all kinds, Koushye Haroktii's love for her mother Magret's dhourra (a kind of rye galette stuffed with honey and apples) compelled her to learn many alchemical skills from her wife Mai Merod, blending the foreign chemistries with Mishrun cuisine to create many new things.  When she is not governing ~ or even sometimes when she is! ~ she practices music and paints beautifully.  The library at Sanri Puro Ta has grown to wondrous levels during her reign, as she loves to read the fiction and poetry of all the world; Mishru's other scattered libraries have enjoyed this patronage as well.  Haroktii is a devoted worshiper of Manekh Nekhor, a nonbinary tabaxi goddix represented with the antennae and shell of a snail and butterfly wings behind.


Twelve years before Haroktii's birth, her father Djodj wore the Beru shen Hap-Ered and busied himself with a traditional Mishrun practice of weaving sandals from flowers and strips of bark.  Haroktii and her twin sister were two of several children he sired with Magret.  She was born with a rare congenital defect which makes her mouth remarkably small, with thin lips that cause it to almost disappear when her mouth is shut.  Many have said that those in her presence find this unusual trait comforting, as they can be happy or sad together with the Koushye and always find their emotion reflected on her face.


Koushye Djodj negotiated a political marriage between Haroktii and the Abyayalan princess Mai Merod while visiting that distant land during her second year.  The rituals of their respective cultures were performed the next year, although any marriage between two three-year-olds is by need more ceremonial than anything. They do remain happily married 43 years later, however.  The marriage brought attention to the toddler Haroktii, though her first international fame faded within a couple of years and international gossip turned to her elder siblings and their new families.  Haroktii entered her first musical competition in the middle of this period of celebrity, at the age of four.  She didn't win, of course, but her skill with the dulcimer at such a young age nonetheless was the subject of much surprised gossip.  By the time she was 32, she'd expanded her musical studies to include the lyre as well as the dulcimer and her voice.


When Haroktii was a small child, Koushye Djodj didn't have strong opinions about her among his throng of heirs, but he warmed up to her as a youth when she found herself central to Koushye Djodj's foreign relations.  A gnome of the Kurpokhor Bes clan of gnomes by the name of Adalheidis struck up an intimate friendship with the young tabaxi as the gnomes made an embassy to Djodj's court.  Sadly, their respective peoples require duties of them that have pulled them apart in the years since.  While the friendship lasted, however, it provided a fertile soil for diplomacy between Mishru and the gnomes.  Haroktii spent months in the mountains learning the arts of painting from the diminutive recluses while her attendants forged ever-closer relations between the two polities.  This cemented Haroktii's status as Djodj's chosen heir.  By the time she was 28, Haroktii's fame had been eclipsed by that of the adventurer An Pamman.  It wouldn't be regained until she took the Beru shen Hap-Ered six years later.  However, as the chosen heir of the Koushye was fading into the background of her people's imaginations, famous heroes of foreign countries such as the changeling warlock who swore a pact of the talisman with the Perfect Chord Lady Agag and the aasimar bard in the college of glamour hai-Ramyerac began to champion her as an ideal of power and beauty.


Hai-Ramyerac had an airship built for Haroktii's 31st birthday in her favorite colors (there's lots of pink) with her image painted on its sails and a carving of her on its prow.  Lady Agag, on the other hand, hired the famous gnome jeweler Kimorali Snommis of the Benedetto Jasz clan to produce an entire collection of unique jewelry for the Mishrun princess that she still wears to this day.  Horaktii liked this gift so much that three years later, she hired Kimorali herself to add to it!


At 33 years of age, Haroktii's archrival since the age of 13, Queen Inuhakh of Shyama Ta, began forcing members of her army that committed a variety of transgressions to wear pink badges with her face on them in order to embarrass and shame them.  The next year, shortly before accepting the Beru shen Hap-Ered from her father, Haroktii spent half the year in Tabgach Washya and half in he-Ong Keang establishing Mishrun embassies in each country.  However, her first major act as Koushye was in response to a financial crisis that struck the country during this period as the Hap Kau, the main river whose silty banks fed the nation, refused its yearly flood.  In the midst of famine, Haroktii built on and expanded the functioning of the Mishrun granary system to create a complex, massive system of banks, storing deposits of wealth and making loans to citizens both domestic and foreign.  These banks operated in two forms of pseudo-currency ~ grain-money and cattle-money ~ and helped revitalize Mishru's marketplaces, leaving them bustling and crowded even in the midst of austerity.  In the process, the foreign practice of coinage made greater inroads into Mishrun culture, with pieces of ceramic, copper, steel, silver, and gold from all the world over making their way through the populace.


This influx of foreign money and foreign culture brought the idea of skating to Mishru.  Lacking any ice, Haroktii's inventive subjects simply replaced the blades of foreign ice-skates with wheels, and then the island peoples of Mishru had the brilliant idea of using this as a way to bring their tradition of surfing to the land, attaching similar lines of wheels to small boards and using those to get around.  This fad was especially popular among Mishrun women, who enjoyed the speed with which they could complete chores by land-surfing.  


Two years after taking on the Beru shen Hap-Ered, Haroktii brought prosperity back to the farmers of Mishru by subsidizing the wine industry and merchants who sold the wine in foreign countries.  In the 5th year of Haroktii's reign, having pulled her realm from starvation by building even more foreign connections, the Koushye ordered the opening of an embassy and marketplace in the southern country of Kiima Krengaa, the third such foreign embassy she had personally ordered and overseen.  To celebrate, she accompanied the Kiima Krengaan lungyeye goblin hero Sonikku za Hejjiyeye, an incredibly fast barbarian on the path of the juggernaut 5/monk on the way of the trickster, on a traditional adventure in which they recovered the magical urn that had been used by the pirate known as the Quedagh Kid to contain the Phantasmal Fog.  This monstrous mist made evil doubles of those creatures who walked through it.  As is the usual practice in that country, the story was memorialized through the creation of a special costume called an amyibo.  Because of the rank and fame of the two heroes involved, this specific amyibo was enchanted, and two years later it was ritually gifted to the halfling fighter Maryush Maryush to use in his own adventures with his fungus folk and grung companions against his rival Waryush Blutosh (who had stolen the Phantasmal Fog).


One vicious rumor often told about Koushye Haroktii claims that the Vlaaraltfloumi princess Mivvi used magic to create a mystical copy of herself and installed said copy on the throne of Mishru.


Haroktii Howait
(This writeup uses the noble class from here and the Chef feat, armor of tools infusion, and mind sharpener infusion from Unearthed Arcana)
Female gijinkh* tabaxi clan crafter** noble in a lineage of myth 14/alchemist artificer 6
Tiny humanoid (tabaxi), neutral good
Armor Class  18; attacks from creatures immune to or with advantage against charm have advantage; sanctuary effect from maidenshield
Hit Points 97 (14d6+6d8+26)
Speed 30 ft., climbing 20 ft.; feline agility
Strength 8 (-1) Dexterity 15 (+2) Constitution 12 (+1) Intelligence 20 (+5) Wisdom 10 (0) Charisma 20 (+5) 
Proficiencies alchemist's supplies (expertise) +12, Animal Handling +6, Antique Catfolk language, Arcana +11, Charisma saving throws +12, cook's utensils (expertise) +12, Deception (cannot roll lower than majesty score as long as that's 6+) +11, dulcimer (expertise) +12, Gnomic language, harp (expertise) +12, History +11, Insight +6, light armor, mace, medium armor, painter's supplies (expertise) +12, Performance +11, Persuasion (expertise; cannot roll lower than majesty score as long as that's 6+) +17, Religion +11, shields, thieves' tools (expertise) +12, tinker's tools (expertise) +12, Wisdom saving throws +7, Yukor language
Other Saving Throws Strength 0, Dexterity +3, Constitution +2, Intelligence +6
Feats Chef (Con)
Equipment mace, dulcimer, horse with chariot and bit and bridle, diplomat's pack, set of fine clothes, signet ring, cook's utensils, a maker's mark chisel used to mark your handiwork with the symbol of the Kurpokhor Bes clan of gnomes, a set of traveler's clothes, a pouch containing 5gp and a 10gp gem, 22,250 gp, Refukhu shen Afit-Affi ("Robe of the Sun-Rat," a blue and white coverall-style garment; treat as mantle of spell resistance), Shu Unkh ("Feather Shirt," a yellow shirt worn beneath the Refukhu shen Afit-Affi; treat as cloak of protection), Beru shen Hap-Ered ("Hair-Bow of the River-Child;" treat as helm of comprehending languages inlaid with a gem of seeing), driftglobe, carpet of flying
Senses Darkvision
Challenge 6 (4 defensive, 9 offensive, minimum 17 by proficiency bonus)
Respect of the Glint-Eyed Folk:   As well respected as clan crafters are among outsiders, no one esteems them quite so highly as gnomes do.  Haroktii always have free room and board in any place where gnomes dwell, and the individuals in such a settlement might vie among themselves to determine who can offer her (and possibly her compatriots) the finest accommodations and assistance.
Majesty Score When Haroktii finishes a short or long rest, roll 5d4+5. Use this result, applying bonuses or penalties based on the Majesty Score Table below, to formulate her majesty score.  No matter what she rolls, it cannot be less than 14. Any saving throw to resist a class feature using her majesty score is equal to 19.

  • +4:  Haroktii is in a region where your noble house or title is considered influential.
  • +2:  Haroktii is in a region where noble houses or aristocratic titles are considered influential.
  • +1:  Haroktii is travelling with individuals (other than her attendants) who consider your title or nobility as influential or worthy of respect.
  • -3:  Haroktii is in a region where noble houses or titles are not respected, valued, or honored.
  • -2:  Haroktii is travelling with individuals (other than her attendants) who consider your title or nobility as something that is not very influential or worthy of respect.
  • Attendant Haroktii is always accompanied by an attendant to take care of all tasks she desires them to take care of.  Her attendant is always with her, obeys her commands to the best of their ability, but will only put themselves at risk when it is directly related to Haroktii's well-being. Should her attendant ever die, Haroktii will receive another within one month's time from the palace, assuming you take to the proper channels to request, recruit, or demand one.  Attendants take their turn on Haroktii's initiative, though they don't take an action unless she commands them to. On her turn, she can verbally command them where to move (no action required by Haroktii).  She can use an action to verbally command them to take the attack, dash, disengage, dodge, or help actions.

    • Tami
    • Medium humanoid (grappling apendages and nimble climber simic hybrid), neutral good 
    • Armor Class 14 (leather) 
    • Hit Points 12 (2d8 + 2) 
    • Speed 30 ft. 
    • Str 10 (0) Dex 15 (+2) Con 12 (+1) Int 12 (+1) Wis 13 (+1) Cha 14 (+2)
    • Skills Perception +2 
    • Senses passive Perception 13 
    • Proficiencies dagger, light armor 
    • Languages Yukor and Antique Catfolk
    • Actions 
      • Dagger. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit 5 (1d4 + 2)
    Animal Companion:   Haroktii's animal companion is the brown bear Taini Djam.  The beast obeys her commands as best as it can. It takes its turn on her initiative, though it doesn't take an action unless she commands it to. On her turn, she can verbally command the beast where to move (no action required by her).  Haroktii can use a bonus action to verbally command it to take the attack, dash, disengage, dodge, or help action.  If the beast dies, Haroktii can obtain another one by spending 8 hours bonding with another beast that isn't hostile to her, either the same type of beast as before or a different one.
    • Taini Djam, a brown bear
    • Large beast, unaligned
    • Armor Class 17 (natural armor, Haroktii's proficiency bonus) 
    • Hit Points 56 (4d10 + 12; superseded by 4 times Haroktii's noble level)
    • Speed 40 ft., climb 30 ft.
    • Str 19 (+4) Dex 10 (+0) Con 16 (+3) Int 2 (−4) Wis 13 (+1) Cha 7 (−2)
    • Skills Perception +9
    • Senses passive Perception 19
    • Languages
    • Challenge 1 (200 XP)
    • Keen Smell. The bear has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.
    • Actions 
      • Multiattack. The bear makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claws.
      • Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (1d8 + 10) piercing damage.
      • Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d6 + 10) slashing damage.
    Mythic Woe (Princess Charming)  Whenever Haroktii performs any action that is a betrayal, goes against her conscience or moral code, leaves the innocent in danger, or goes against justice, truth, honesty, love, and charity, she incurs one point on the toll of goodness, which weighs against her conscience, affecting how she functions. All tolls are cumulative, thus if Haroktii has 4 toll points, she incurs 1, 2, 3, and 4 tolls. After a long rest or a significant gesture of goodwill, Haroktii loses 1 toll point.  She cannot lose more than 2 toll points within 24 hours of losing a point. If she has no toll points, Haroktii may call upon her family and kingdom for assistance in some way once per month.
    • 1 toll point:  Haroktii realizes that she has done something wrong and she awaits some form of punishment. After every long rest she has at least 1 toll point, her first saving throw is made with disadvantage. 
    • 2 toll points:  The weight of further bad deeds weighs on Haroktii's conscience.  She refuses to eat, feast, be merry, or enjoy the delights of the world. 
    • 3 toll points: At this point, Haroktii considers herself truly sinful and deserving of harsh punishment. For every day she retains at least 3 toll points, word gets back to her family of her deeds and her reputation suffers.  She loses 1 majesty point after rolling your majesty score. 
    • 4 toll points:  Haroktii's deeds have gained the attention of religious or noble individuals who wish to intervene in what is perceived to be "her fall of grace". 
    • 5 toll points:  Haroktii's deeds have gained the attention of evil religious, noble, and magical creatures who wish to take advantage of her state.  Her alignment is in danger of shifting away from good and she may be propositioned some scenario in which she trades something for wealth, knowledge, and/or power from a powerful creature.
    Hair of Gold:   Once per week, Haroktii may cut a piece of her hair without affecting its length that is worth 500 gp (equivalent to $100,000-$250,000).  Her hair also radiates magical energies that is desired by many. Each week Haroktii's hair is not cut, she continues to grow that amount in golden hair; thus, after four weeks, cutting all her hair to normal length is worth 2,000 gp (equivalent to $400,000-$1,000,000). After one month of not cutting her hair it is down to Haroktii's feet; her hair continues to grow beyond that but has no gold value past 2,000gp. When at least one month has fully grown, however, it acts as though Haroktii is wearing a shield she is proficient in.  She gains +2 Armor Class that stacks with her class ability to add her Charisma modifier to her Armor Class.
    Maidenshield:   So long as Haroktii has abstained from sex, alcohol, and general gluttony, she treats herself as constantly surrounded by a sanctuary spell. Should this effect ever be broken by targeting a creature with an attack or using an ability that affects a hostile creature that is not designed to simply calm or protect it, Haroktii is no longer protected by the sanctuary spell.  She may, as a bonus action, impart this effect on another creature within 30 feet of her that she believes to have also abstained, but she loses the effect on herself.  She may sustain this effect as a bonus action so long as she is within 30 feet of the chosen creature and they continue abstaining.  Haroktii must spend 1 minute in concentration to regain the effects of this ability on herself. Should she intentionally engage in an activity such as sex, drinking alcohol, eating beyond general sustenance, or harming another individual that is innocent, Haroktii must spend one full day in prayer or practice of atonement to regain this feature.
    Voice of Wonder:   So long as Haroktii has a 10 majesty score, she may cast geas once before she must take a long rest to do so again.
    Affecting Persona:   Haroktii may reduce her majesty score to affect others in a fashion similar to any of the following spells, except the effect is non-magical: calm emotions (1 point), command (1 point), and suggestion (2 points).  The only components required is a verbal component. Otherwise, treat the spell as normal except it is a non-magical effect and requiring no concentration.
    Spellcasting Haroktii can prepare any 9 spells from the artificer spell list, as well as casting the cantrips resistance and spare the dying.  She has 4 1st-level and 2 2nd-level spell slots with which to do so; her spell save DC is 19 and her spell attack modifier is +11.  She can cast spells with the ritual tag as rituals.  She usually has the following artificer spells prepared:  aidcure wounds, detect magic, enhance abilityfaerie fireflaming sphere (free from alchemist), healing word (free from alchemist), identify, lesser restorationMelf's acid arrow (free from alchemist), protection from poisonray of sickness (free from alchemist), skywrite.  Whenever Haroktii casts a spell using alchemist's supplies as the spellcasting focus, she gains a +5 bonus to one roll of the spell. That roll must restore hit points or be a damage roll that deals acid, fire, necrotic, or poison damage.
    Infuse Item After a long rest, Haroktii can touch a nonmagical object and imbue it with an artificer infusion, turning it into a magic item.  If the item requires attunement, Haroktii can attune herself to it the instant she infuses the item, or she can forgo attunement so that someone else can attune to the item.  The infusion remains in an item indefinitely, but vanishes 5 days after her death. The infusion also vanishes if Haroktii gives up her knowledge of the infusion for another one.  Haroktii can infuse up to 3 nonmagical objects at the end of a long rest.  She must touch each of the objects, and each of her infusions can be in only one object at a time. Moreover, no object can bear more than one of her infusions at a time. If Haroktii tries to exceed her maximum number of infusions, the oldest infusion immediately ends, and then the new infusion applies.  She knows these infusions: armor of tools, mind sharpener, replicate magic item (alchemy jug), replicate magic item (lantern of revealing), replicate magic item (sending stones), replicate magic item (wand of magic detection), and repulsion shield.
    The Right Tool for the Job With tinker's tools in hand, Haroktii can magically create one set of artisan's tools in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of her. This creation requires 1 hour of uninterrupted work, which can coincide with a short or long rest. Though the product of magic, the tools are nonmagical, and they vanish when she uses this feature again.
    Experimental Elixir Whenever Haroktii finishes a long rest, she can magically produce two experimental elixirs in an empty flask she touches; each requires its own flask. Roll on the Experimental Elixir table separately for each elixir's effect, which is triggered when someone drinks the elixir. As an action, a creature can drink the elixir or administer it to an incapacitated creature.  Creating an experimental elixir requires Haroktii to have alchemist supplies, and it lasts until it is drunk or until the end of her next long rest.  Haroktii can create additional experimental elixirs by expending a spell slot of 1st level or higher for each one. When she does so, she uses her action to create the elixir in an empty flask she touches, and she chooses the elixir's effect from the Experimental Elixir table.  Roll a d6:

    1. Healing. The drinker regains a number of hit points equal to 2d4 + your Intelligence Modifier
    2. Swiftness. The drinker's walking speed increases by 10 feet for 1 hour.
    3. Resilience. The drinker gains a +1 bonus to AC for 10 minutes.
    4. Boldness. The drinker can roll a d4 and add the number rolled to every attack roll and saving throw they make for the next minute.
    5. Flight. The drinker gains a flying speed of 10 feet for 10 minutes.
    6. Transformation. The drinker's body is transformed as if by the alter self spell. The drinker determines the transformation caused by the spell, the effects of which last for 10 minutes.

    Actions
    Cat’s Claws: Melee Weapon Attack: ? to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.  Hit:  2 (1d4-1) slashing damage.
    Encouraging Words with Voice of Wonder:   Haroktii has a pool of 70 hit points that she can use to impart temporary hit points to an ally. As an action, she encourage an ally within 5 feet of herself and instill a portion of the temporary hit points or all of it, at her choice.  She must be within 10 feet of an ally, due to the intimacy of these encouraging words.  She cannot give an ally temporary hit points in this way if they do not already have at least 1 hit point.  She cannot use your encouraging words on herself.  Her pool of hit points for encouraging words fully replenish after a long rest.  Haroktii may use her encouraging words to heal her allies, instead of instilling temporary hit points.  She can only do so when her majesty score equals 14 or greater.  She cannot heal a creature in this way unless they have at least 1 hit point.  If Haroktii chooses, affected creatures also gain 1d12 temporary hit points beyond those from the pool or the healing, so long as she sings. When she gives these additional temporary hit points, she cannot do so again until she finishes a long rest. 
    Sublime Majesty:   Haroktii may reassert her noble self if she feels her influence wavering. If her majesty score is below 20, she may use a bonus action to roll 1d4 to add to her majesty score. Haroktii may do so once before she must take a short or long rest to do so again.
    Allure:   Haroktii can use her action to force all eyes on her by unveiling herself or doing some dramatic action, such as singing, playing an instrument, or some other form of displaying herself. 3d6 creatures of her choice that can see her within 30 feet must make a Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by her until the beginning of her next turn. While they are charmed, attacks against them have advantage and their attacks against others have disadvantage.  Haroktii must have a majesty score of at least 6 to use this feature and a use of this feature reduces her majesty score by 2.
    Magical Tinkering With tinker’s tools or other artisan’s tools in hand, Haroktii touches a Tiny nonmagical object and gives it one of the following magical properties of her choice:

    • The object sheds bright light in a 5-foot radius and dim light for an additional 5 feet.
    • Whenever tapped by a creature, the object emits a recorded message that can be heard up to 10 feet away. Haroktii utters the message when she bestows this property on the object, and the recording can be no more than 6 seconds long.
    • The object continuously emits Haroktii's choice of an odor or a nonverbal sound (wind, waves, chirping, or the like). The chosen phenomenon is perceivable up to 10 feet away.
    • A static visual effect appears on one of the object’s surfaces. This effect can be a picture, up to 25 words of text, lines and shapes, or a mixture of these elements, as Haroktii likes.

    The chosen property lasts indefinitely. As an action, Haroktii can touch the object and end the property early.  Haroktii can give the magic of this feature to as many as 5 objects, touching one object each time she uses the feature, and a single object can bear only one of the properties at a time. If she tries to exceed her maximum, the oldest property immediately ends, and then the new property applies.

    Reaction
    Uncanny Presence As a bonus action or reaction to being targeted by an attack, Haroktii may reduce her majesty score by 4 to have an Armor Class of 20+1d4. This Armor Class lasts until the end of her next turn. Creatures immune to or who have advantage to resisting the charmed condition roll attacks against this armor class with advantage.

    *  Gijinkh Tabaxi
    Ability Score Increase:
     Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Charisma score increases by 1.
    Age: Gijinkh tabaxi have lifespans equivalent to humans.
    Alignment: Gijinkh tabaxi tend toward chaotic alignments, as they let impulse and fancy guide their decisions. They are rarely evil, with most of them driven by curiosity rather than greed or other dark impulses.
    Size: Gijinkh tabaxi are adorably miniature in size.  Your size is Tiny.
    Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
    Darkvision: You have a cat's keen senses, especially in the dark. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
    Cat’s Claws: Because of your claws, you have a climbing speed of 20 feet. In addition, your claws are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
    Gijinkh Talent: You have proficiency in the Insight and Persuasion skills. 
    Feline Agility: Your reflexes and agility allow you to move with a burst of speed. When you move on your tum in combat, you can double your speed until the end of the tum. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you move 0 feet on one of your turns. 
    Languages: You can speak, read, and write the language of your homeland and Antique Catfolk.

    **  Clan Crafter
    This background has been modified to reflect the nature of Mishrun gnomes such as the Kurpokor Bes clan, replacing the skill proficiency in Insight with proficiency with Arcana, Dwarfin language with Gnomic, and the hospitality from Respect of the Stout Folk from dwarfs to gnomes (renamed Respect of the Glint-Eyed Folk). 

    Wednesday, June 1, 2016

    Diell Beead

    We were the Babylon Five, a small coven utilizing reconstructed ancient Mesopotamian ritual technologies, grounded in a Thelema-inspired Aeonics and syncretized with the western magickal tradition -- with a big dose of post-Discordian post-Dada post-Situationist scifi-focused pop-culture-based chaos magick -- to find new places for the human race to inhabit.  With NASA defunded and the space program worldwide a joke, we believed we were the last best hope for the survival of the human race as we reached the carrying capacity of Big Mama Earth.  Well, us and a massive depopulation die-off, near-extinction kind of event, but we were hoping to avoid that.

    Then we found Nibiru.

    Who knows if what we found was actually the planet Sitchin described in those sacks of excrement he called books.  Who cares, really?  It's quite possible that out our rituals _created_ Nibiru out of all our Ouranian Barbaric chanting and cut-up bibliomancy and die-roll personality creation.  Once again, who cares?  What mattered is that we had found a reliable way -- much cheaper than the spaceships the governments of the world had deemed too impractical -- to escape the coming death-by-crowding of our species.

    We published our work, and discovered that its promise was popular.  Now, we have found ourselves at the vanguard and forefront of a movement of thousands, maybe millions, from all around the world.  We call ourselves the Tenth Billion, in reference to the median projected carrying capacity of Big Mama Earth as of a 2001 report to the United Nations, which was 10 billion humans.  Others sometimes call us the Renegade Colonizers or the Disunited Federation of Planets.

    I still call us the Only Hope.  In fact, it has become my handle in the various message boards and mailing lists that dot the web, connecting our widespread network of people working to prepare Nibiru for largescale human habitation.

    I think it is the only way we will survive what we have done, are doing, and will do to the planet.  We are a cancer, and this is the only compassionate cure.  Even if we are crazy.

    *******************

    After the Babylon Five discovered or created Nibiru, we began to explore it and to collect various data on the conditions and life there.  One of the first entities I myself was first confronted with was an eight-limbed creature with a hard, shiny red and black carapace that looked like it might conceal wings, but it acted only as durable armor over much, but not all of its fat body.  What brown, leathery skin was visible was dotted with dry, stubby warts.  Only four of its limbs were normal, walking legs.  Its two rearmost limbs were large and powerful legs used for the sole purpose of jumping far distances; they were held tucked up under the rear of the body when not in use.  On the front of the creature, two jointed, agile, and wickedly hooked claws groped the air before its four beady, black, insectoid eyes and sharp, jagged mandible.  These wide and gaping mouthparts sat below a brow ridge that formed the base of a massive, hornlike, chitinous protrusion looking for all the world like the bell of a massive trumpet, from which I could hear a faint, high-pitched warbling.  This protrusion tapered above the creature's shoulders and flared out over its sharp jaws.  Essentially, the creature lacked a true head; in its place is the large horn, which warbled and trumpeted when it communicated with others of its species.  Its throat bulged and rippled as though it was about to croak.

    I quickly fingered the small bag of apple seeds, yew leaves, and processors at my hip, reciting the Charge of the First Ancestor (translated here from the Ancient Aramaic I used in the moment):
    "Oh holy, vibrating Breath Over the Unformed Waters,
    You it was
    Who created
    my firstmost, many infinity times great-grandfather
    from the red dirt.
    You it was
    Who had sound but not yet language,
    and You it was who charged him
    with finding the names of things
    and speaking them to You,
    teaching You,
    even You,
    to speak.
    In gratitude for this history,
    and in order to dutifully perform my species's forgotten task,
    I call to You
    who is now called simply
    the Name.
    Summon memories of my human magick from the code of my cells,
    and I will teach You,
    even You,
    much and more names,
    the names of all things,
    seen and unseen,
    felt and unfelt,
    thought and unthought."

    Upon completion of the prayer, the name "diell baeed" floated from my brain out through my lips like the dirt that has been washed from your body down the shower drain.  It appeared that this was the fearful thing's name.

    I became fascinated with the hideous, nauseating thing.  You know, I've read and reread every account of the Garden of Eden -- the Books of Genesis and Ezekiel in at least 4 languages, surat Sad, surat al-Baqarah, surat al-A'raf, surat al-Hijr, the Doctrines and Covenants, all manner of commentaries and revelations about those accounts, and endless divinations, numerological transformations, and cryptological breakdowns concerning the Garden.  The one thing none of them ever told me was the sensuous intimacy that comes in a rush with the naming of a thing.  There's a kind of merging on a fundamental level that occurs.

    I embarked on a study of the diell beead, arranging for repeated ritual journeys to Nibiru (alienating my coven endlessly, by the way -- I eventually began organizing trips just to get away from the endless arguing they caused) and spending my free time doing endless divinations to learn more.  I rather quickly thereafter lost my job as a canvasser.

    Diell beead, I learned, thrive in underground colonies, constructing immense, convoluted tunnel complexes reminiscent of anthills.  Though often shy and nonaggressive, they are mindless hunters who live to breed and expand their warrens, breaking off into new colonies when one has grown too large for an area (typically when a colony has amassed more than 28 members).  Diell beead have been used as mounts by many of the more intelligent races of Nibiru.  Loorged scoxo have domesticated them in the past, as have some foresevu kelvlin tribes.  These groups know that in great numbers diell beead only become more effective, and mounted units of diell beead riders sometimes form the elite fighting units for certain of the tribes or cities of Nibiru.

    --@OnlyHope01

    Medium-Size Vermin
    Hit Dice 8d8+32 (68 hp)
    Initiative +1
    Speed 40 feet, burrow 5 feet
    Armor Class 20 (+1 Dex, +9 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 19, CMD 21
    Base Attack Bonus/Combat Maneuver Bonus +6/+10
    Attack Claw +10 melee (1d8+4), or tongue +7 ranged (grab)
    Full Attack 2 claws +10 melee (1d8+4) and bite +7 melee (1d6+2 plus poison saliva and grab), or tongue +7 ranged (grab)
    Space/Reach 5 feet/5 feet
    Special Attacks Fast swallow, rend (2 claws, 2d8+6), shake the earth, sonic chime, swallow whole (1d3 bludgeoning plus 1d2 acid damage, AC 14, 7 hp), trample (2d6+6, DC 18)
    Special Qualities Darkvision 60 feet, immunity to sonic, low-light vision, scent, sonic healing, vermin traits
    Saves Fort +10, Ref +3, Will +3
    Abilities Str 18, Dex 12, Con 19, Int --, Wis 13, Cha 9
    Skills Acrobatics +9, Perception +7, Stealth +3
    Feats Improved Natural Attack (claw) x2 (B), Multiattack (B)
    Environment Temperate land and underground
    Organization Solitary or colony (7-56)
    Challenge Rating 6
    Treasure None
    Alignment Always neutral
    Advancement 9-10 HD (Medium-size), 11 HD (Large)

    Combat
    Diell beead in groups fight by using their shake the earth ability, attempting to knock prone as many enemies as possible.  They then rush in and trample whatever foes they can before switching to claw, bite, and rend attacks.  The creatures only resort to their sonic chime attacks if necessary.  Although mindless vermin, diell beead fight with a certain amount of savage cunning.  A diell beead's tongue attack has a range of 10 feet with no range increment.
    Diell Beead Saliva (Ex):  Bite—injury; save Fort DC 18, frequency 1/round for 2 rounds, effect 1d3 Con, cure 1 save.
    Shake the Earth (Ex):  A diell beead can channel some of the sonic energy within its body by performing a rhythmic stomping on the ground as a standard action.  Any creature within 5 feet of a diell beead when it activates this ability must make a DC 18 Reflex save or fall prone as the ground lurches and buckles beneath it.  Diell beead are immune to shake the earth generated by themselves or other diell beead and never need to save against the effect.
    If multiple diell beead activate their shake the earth ability in the same round, the radius of the effect expands as the resonance in the ground combines.  For every diell beead within 5 feet using shake the earth, the radius of the effect expands another 5 feet.  Thus, two diell beead within 5 feet of one another generate a shaking that effects all creatures within 10 feet of either diell beead.  Three diell beead within 5 feet using the ability would generate an effect that affects all creatures within 15 feet of any one of the diell beead.
    Creatures with stability or that are considered stable against trip attempts receive a bonus on their Reflex save as if they were being tripped (so a dwarf would receive the +4 bonus on the save to resist being knocked prone).  The save DC is Strength-based.
    Sonic Chime (Su):  Once per day, a diell beead ca emit a cone of sonic energy from the chitinous bell above its head.  The cone is 15 feet long, and activating the chime is a full-round action.  Creatures within the cone take 5d6 points of sonic damage (Reflex DC 18 half).  A diell beead is immune to its own sonic chime attack and that of other diell beead.  Diell beead attacking in numbers use this ability instinctually to heal their fellow diell beead once several have taken damage (see sonic healing below).  The save DC is Constitution-based.
    Sonic Healing (Su):  For every 5 points of damage a sonic attack would deal to a diell beead, the creature instead heals 1 point of damage it has already sustained.  If a diell beead receives more healing than its current hit point maximum, the extra hit points are wasted (the creature does not gain temporary hit points from exposure to sonic damage).  A diell beead gets no saving throw against attacks that deal sonic damage.
    Skills:  Diell beead have a +8 racial bonus on Acrobatics, a +6 racial bonus on Perception checks, and a +2 racial bonus on Stealth checks.