NECROMANCER

Death is a natural mass spectrometer. When a living thing dies, its soul splits by weight; the higher parts are stripped away while the the base and vulgar somatic portions of the soul persist for a while longer. Those integrated into the mysteries of Necromancy are capable of speaking to these pieces. Without a higher authority, the remnants of a life are eager to obey.

An MD is a d6. It is expended on a 4 5 or 6. Invested MD don't come back when you rest, and can be left in a spell as long as you like. You can roll as many MD as you like when you cast a spell.

 

Skills: 1. Grave Robbing, 2. Surgery, 3. Poetry

A. Render Corpse, Speak With Dead +1 MD
B. Create Undead +1 MD
C. Corpse Explosion +1 MD
D. Life After Life +1 MD

(A) Render Corpse: Invest MD to transform [Dice] HD worth of dead flesh into a more useful form. Dice are invested until consciously removed, at which point the materials rot to nothing.

• Grave Wax: A pale greasy wax that can be shaped into a candle whose light is only visible to the one who lit it. When formed into a talisman of a small person, it drives nearby domestic creatures into a frenzy of fear.
• Corpse Salts: A crystalline dust that contains the information of the dead. No matter the size of the corpse, a handful of grave dust is all that is required to cast Speak With Dead.
• Skin: Slough the skin off a corpse, so long as you got all of it, you can wear it like a mask. This disguise is almost impenetrable in the dark or candlelight, but daylight will immediately mark you as uncanny.
• Marrow Thorns: Just jagged bones, can be whittled down to make 12 darts per HD, or 6 crossbow bolts per HD. +1 to hit against living creatures of the same type.
  

(A) Speak With Dead: Roll MD and call up the spirits of the departed. You can do this so long as one of the following applies.

• You currently own the dead creature's skull or a handful of their corpse salts
• The creature died in the last [sum] days
• You are standing in the dead creature's home

The spirit will answer any questions to the best of its ability but is still possessed of free will. It may ask for favors in return for information, and an enemy will not be willing to speak to the creature that killed it. Summoned spirits will answer [Dice] questions, and stay for [Sum] minutes. A creature's soul cannot be summoned twice in the same day.

(B) Create Undead: Invest MD to revive [Dice] HD worth of dead creatures in a horrific parody of life. These creatures lack their original minds and skills with weapons and tools, but keep their HP and physical statistics, as well as any biological abilities they had in life like poison or flight.

(C) Corpse Explosion: An extension of the Art of Rendering. Roll MD to explode [Dice] HD worth of dead flesh within 50', dealing [sum] damage within a 10' radius of the flesh exploded. Can be used on undead creatures you control, in which case add the dice invested in the creature to your roll. 

(D) Life After Life: You can restore the intelligence of the creatures you revive, if you do so, you no longer directly control them, and do not have to invest the dice you roll to resurrect them. After you die, provided you have all four MD remaining, you resurrect yourself in 1d4 days. The only intelligent undead you can create are sentient zombies, but there exist greater rituals and spells that can create intelligent ghouls, vampires, death knights, and zombies.

Tools of the Trade...

1. Pickling Jar: Grave materials placed into this jar don't rot when their MD are removed. They can be reinvested and removed safely. Filled with disgusting brine drained from the stomach of a dead whale.
2. Skeleton with Knife arms- 1 HD: A skeleton with knife arms. Technically a sentient undead. Comes with a disguise so that it doesn't alert the local guards.
3. Bag of Dead rats: 2d6 mummified rats. Each rat counts as 1/2 HD.
4. Dart Launcher: Fires bone darts.
5. Stonebow (2 slots): A crossbow that fires sling bullets. Load in chunks of dead meat and explode them with your magic. Or load in zombie heads and fire them to scare the living shit out of people.
6. Shovel: A shovel. Dig dig dig.
   

 

INFLICT SCIENCE

A wizard. The Science wizard. An MD is a d6, it is expended on a 4-6. You can roll as many of your MD as you want when you cast a spell.

Compatible with GLOG I guess.

(MATERIALS) SCIENCE WIZARD. Science loves you so much.

You can do science as much as you like. Your dedication to the scientific method has become something beyond mere academic rigor. You've begun to understand the concepts you employ on a fundamental level. You understand them so well, it's almost like you can reach out and touch them... Now the laws of reality bend over backwards in service of your quest for knowledge.

Skills: 1. Alcoholism, 2. Facts about Rocks, 3. Functioning without Sleep.

You never fumble with knives or pistols, and can wear up to 3 slots of armor.

Starting Equipment: Lab coat (2 slots of armor, +1 save vs fire and acid,) Goggles (immunity to being blinded by acid and shrapnel,) Combat Slide ruler (As dagger or shortsword, can be reconfigured.)

A. Query, Lab Procedure +1 MD
B. Bootstrap Paradox, Substitution +1 MD
C. Broken Heart +1 MD
D. The Left Hand +1 MD


(A) Query: Telescopic or Microscopic. If you can see something in the distance and hold up your slide ruler and squint at it, you know either; how far away it is, how big it is, whether or not it’s moving. When you are within arm’s reach of something, you know (roughly) what it’s made out of and whether or not it is explosive or corrosive without having to touch it. Expend 1 MD without rolling it to ask a simple question of cause and effect about an object. IE, what will happen if this object gets wet? The DM must answer truthfully.


(A) Lab Procedure: Roll your MD and cause effects.

• Desiccate a [sum]x5’ diameter patch of ground, removing all water and turning sloppy mud to stable ground. Impure solutions like blood and acid leave a horrible mess of stains behind.
• Blow a gust of fresh, breathable air with enough force to clear a cloud of smoke or fog. Clears a persistent effect for [dice] rounds. Blasts unattended small objects [sum] feet.
• Sweep a [sum]x5’ diameter patch of debris into a neat pile or dustbin.
• Gently spray a stream of [dice] liters of deionized water out of your fingertip.

(B) Bootstrap Paradox: Roll your MD and be launched [sum]x10’ in any direction of your choosing. Save vs wands or take the [sum] bashing damage from whiplash, in addition to any falling damage from your bad decisions. Anybody you hit takes the same damage.


(B) Substitution: Science lets you fudge the numbers. When you expend 1 MD without bothering to roll it, you cause one of the following effects:

• Cause a nearby roll that failed or succeeded to instead succeed or fail.
• Swap an item in your inventory with something similar. Wrenches into crowbars, bows into crossbows, water into wine. If the difference in price between the two items is greater than 1 gold, then the substitution only lasts for 1 round before swapping back.
• Swap the position of two allies or two enemies within 30’ of one another. You cannot swap an ally for an enemy or an enemy for an ally.
• Instantly kill a living cat, or revive a dead one. This only works when nobody's looking.

(C) Broken Heart: Make something more or less dense. If something is more dense, it drops a size category and becomes much more heavy. This does not affect the number of slots an item takes up, because it is now less convenient to carry in either case. If something is less dense, it increases a size category and becomes lighter. Dense items sink in water no matter what, and buoyant items always float. Hostile creatures may save vs wands against having their body or items affected. Range: [dice]x10’ Duration: [dice] rounds.


(D) The Left Hand: Roll MD, and progress a process within [sum] feet by [Dice] rounds. An arrow in flight reaches its destination by ignoring all obstacles that might have blocked it, falling objects harmlessly appear on the ground, bleeding creatures die. The process is entirely internal, and none of the effects of the process can affect anything during the skipped time, or be affected by anything. That said, it does affect spell and potion duration, bug your DM.

SCIENCE EQUIPMENT

1. Sturdy boots: a pair of good boots. +1 armor, immunity to stepping in chemical spills and electrified floors.
2. Flask full of acid, ⅓ slot: Melts through 1 slot of metal or flesh.
3. Erlenmeyer flask: A conical flask used to mix potions. Lets you safely mix any two potions you pour into it into one.
4. Relative watch: Tells you the time. Will tell you the time at specific locations if you ask nicely.
5. A lead box. 2 slots. Has a chunk of uranium inside.
6. Syringe, ⅓ slot. Lets you Suck up small amounts of liquid and inject it.
7. Graduate student, person sized. A Grad student. They do what you tell them and take up a hireling slot. If they die you can mail the university and get a replacement in 1d6 days. Mediocre stats, mediocre grades.
8. Weight sets and scale, 2 slots. Let me tell you exactly how heavy things are.
9. Bag of mice. Animal testing is perfectly ethical. 2d6 mice inside.
10. Name placard. Let everyone know that you are Dr. Coomer.

I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW GODS WORK (PART1)

RELIGIONS ARE A LITTLE WEIRD

THE CHURCH OF OHM

OHM is the all-devourer. OHM must feed on other gods, in order to take their essence. Though it is technically only one god, it represents itself through a variety of forms, which it takes from the gods it devours. How does it devour the other gods? It has help from its paladins and clerics. They hunt down the high priest of enemy religions and capture them, then bring them to the high cathedral of Valm. It's there that an Archangel descends and devours the high priest. There's more to the devouring than that, but like an iceberg, only the portion of the ritual that dips into the world of men can be observed.

THE PALADINS OF OHM

Paladins of Valm take after their god. You can recognize them by the veils that they wear to cover their mouths. They bear the sign of OHM, a circular maw filled with endless stars. The paladins remove their veils only to feed. They aren't cannibals, though they have been suspected of it from time to time. Their meal of choice is demon flesh, freshly slaughtered. They tend to simply squat over a still steaming battlefield, lower their veils, and get to doing their lord's work. Though demon flesh is usually toxic, or far from palatable, paladins of OHM find the meat edible enough. The paladins reap special benefits for devouring demons. Typically, the warrior will absorb some of the mutagenic power within the creature's corpse, and gain an attribute or ability of the creature. A paladin cracking open the marrow of a bone demon could find long calcium spines jutting from their shoulders in the morning. Sometimes, however, the paladins are too zealous in their consumption. These paladins soon lose themselves to an endless stream of mutation, their flesh warping and changing into a mass of monstrous features. Occasionally, they can be stabilized into Eater Hounds. Most of the time, they have to be fed to an angel.

EATER HOUNDS

Paladins that lose control of the monstrous powers that they steal are sometimes transformed into these bizarre creatures. Imagine a fleshy grey creature that looks as if it should stand upright walking on all fours. Its head shaped like a man's, but split into quarters by a ghoulish mouth reminiscent of a blueberry's top. They also have long tapered tails that stretch like rubber, and can be used as a whip. Eater hounds have lost much: their minds, their bodies, their sanity, but not their devotion to OHM. In many ways, eater hounds are even more devoted than their sentient brothers and sisters. Eater hounds are often armored. Simple shoulder and hip plates to protect the joints, and a cloth veil draped over their heads to hide their mouths until it's time to eat. Eater hounds have not lost the blessing of mutation, it merely manifests in bizarre ways. For example, an eater hound's arms can split apart like a peeled banana, revealing long telescoping bone skewers. they use these skewers to cripple escaping heretics, and to stab between chinks in an enemy's shield wall.

CLERICS OF OHM

OHM needs to know. It needs to know everything about everything. That might be why it decided to eat everything that ever existed. While paladins focus on devouring monsters and demons, clerics focus on devouring books, scrolls, and minds. Clerics of OHM hunt down scholars of every kind and squeeze out every last drop of knowledge. Sometimes, tribes refuse to allow clerics to write down their oral histories. That isn't an option for OHM. Clerics of OHM, given enough time, can read minds. It's not very pleasant, as it erases everything that the cleric reads from the mind of the victim. This gets problematic when the cleric accidentally reads the part of their brain that stores the knowledge of breathing. Clerics run out of room in the folds of their brain at an alarming rate. Out of necessity, they often take to storing their knowledge externally. Books are too large, and too easily stolen. The favored method is storing the knowledge inside a quartz prism. Entirely different paragraphs can be read by simply tilting the prism by half a degree.

SO YOU FOUND A GUN IN A TREASURE CHEST

I love guns in fantasy settings! Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to think that the only guns that can show up are flintlocks. I defy that. Guns should be just as weird as any other magical item.

What kind of gun is it?

1 Flintlock pistol
2 Flintlock rifle
3 Revolver
4 Rocket launcher style tube
5 Arm cannon
6 Staff of bullet-shooting
7 Wrist-mounted
8 Shoulder mounted
9 On a belt, can fire without hands
10 Head-mounted
11 Shaped like a crossbow
12 Repeater
13 Machine pistol
14 Rifle hooked up to a backpack, Ghostbusters style
15 Turret, tripod-mounted
16 Stinger missile style, needs two people to hold it
17 Double barreled
18 Attached to a melee weapon's hilt
19 Crank-to-reload rifle
20 Wand of bullet-shooting

What is the gun made of?

1 Copper
2 Rusted metal
3 Steel
4 Bronze
5 Ceramic
6 Titanium
7 Wood
8 Mummified flesh
9 Still living flesh
10 Sculpted marble
11 Jade
12 Onyx
13 Seashell
14 Ivory
15 Frozen fire
16 Unmelting Ice
17 Amorphous metal
18 Bone
19 Crab shell
20 A lot of insects stuck together
21 Living plants
22 Sandstone
23 Invisible material (Roll again to see what it feels like)
24 Mythril
25 Adamantite
26 Solidified magic
27 Quartz
28 Woven hair
29 Folded paper
30 Hardened light
31 Plastic
32 Twisting and writhing souls bonded together
33 Sculpted sugar crystal
34 Petrified living material
35 It's imaginary, not made of anything (Still shoots bullets though)
36 Tangible shadows
37 It's a ghost gun (Roll again for what it used to be)
38 Brass piping
39 Tungsten
40 The skull of a sentient creature
41 An ape's hand
42 Water that somehow holds its shape
43 Glass
44 White hot metal (Doesn't burn though)
45 The feather of an angel
46 A twisted mess of electronic parts
47 A demon's horn
48 Crystallized opium
49 Salt
50 Many teeth fused together

But wait! There's more! What does it shoot?

1 Ceramic shards
2 Crystal shards
3 Super-heated blood
4 Gel that hardens on impact
5 It shoots in reverse; It sucks up materials and spits them out the back as bullets
6 laser beams
7 Bees, stinger first
8 Tiny demons with pointy horns
9 Little bits of zombie
10 Acid
11 Fire
12 Ice
13 Petrifying liquid
14 Slag
15 Boring bullets
16 Gold coins
17 Paper swans
18 Teeth
19 Arrowheads
20 shrapnel