Chapter 123: Behind the Scenes

Today we're going to talk about Demons, Dragons, Orcs, Shapers, and a bit about gear and adventurers.

Demons:

A demon is essentially an extra-dimensional entity that's summoned to this world. Not necessarily evil, but their moral code (if any) differs from ours. There are (generally speaking) three different kinds of demons:

There are the rational form, who will negotiate and bargain with people. Equal exchange, magical power for something else. You can think of them as businessmen or tourists as the situation calls. Most demon summoners want magical power to fuel their spells, seeing as naturally-occurring magical power is low to nonexistent. Demons (that are willing to trade) want things that don't naturally occur in their realm. This can be anything from material components like trees, metal, etc, to esoteric things like magical containers, golems, etc. Of course, there are plenty of malicious demons (or bored demons with a flair for the dramatic) that play on humans' expectations and simply demand countless and pointless sacrifices, onerous tasks, etc.

There are the irrational form, who will possess, corrupt, and destroy for no greater reason than to do so. These are lunatics, sadists, cruel, etc. They just want to watch the world burn, because they have no stake.

Finally, there are demonic animals: animals from a demonic dimension that will crawl, swim, run, or fly around as they please.

Because of the inconsistent, contradictory, and fragmented documentation on demonic summoning, there are no guarantees that you get what you want when you try to summon. Demonology is forbidden in every nation, and the texts are badly written, damaged, or have large portions omitted for various reasons. You want to summon a demon, you roll the dice, you take your chance. Good luck.

Also, there's a low-key superstition that demons can spread influence via the wind. Nobody knows where it came from, it's just something that has always been around. Thus, whenever someone comes up with a baffling, incredibly stupid, or incredibly insane or risky statement (or a plan), the typical response is "What sort of wind had to blow for you to get that idea?"

Dragons:

Dragons aren't real. They're stories. Fanciful things to scare the kids at night, like oni. Actually... dragons are real. But there's only twelve of them in Aggenmor. They're unbelievably powerful, could easily crush major cities with ease, have a natural affinity for magic. In this way, Dragons can sometimes be appealed to as Gods. Draconic intelligence exceeds other races; they're nigh-immortal, command legions of followers and offspring, and have limitless magical power. Basically, the only thing that separates a Dragon from a God is that Dragons aren't interested in managing souls. Only Gods (and demons) care about souls. In a fight between a Dragon and a God, who would win? Nobody knows, and neither the Gods or the Dragons want to find out, so they try to stay out of each others' way.

Incidentally, there's a dragon in Katarina the Witch Hunter. I won't tell you who, and there are zero clues in the books. You'll actually have to read a spinoff story (coming... eventually) that mentions a specific character in Katarina's story, and you'll be able to do the math yourself. That's all you get as far as hints.

Drakes are cousins to Dragons. Larger than a horse, they have a human-level intelligence (though they can't speak human language) and every nation wants drake eggs. Male drakes are flightless quadrupeds; females are winged hexapod (six-limbed) versions. Many countries will raise drakes from hatchlings and indoctrinate them into their roles. (this is why Katarina didn't capture the drakes in Aston: they'd already hatched and were capable of making their own decisions. It's simply better to raise them from hatchlings.) Some nations will affix magical devices to their drakes, allowing two-way communication between drake and rider. The Anglish don't do that, since they're not particularly interested in the opinions of non-human races.

Orcs:

Orcs were an offshoot of the elven race that completely interbred with humanity. So, strictly speaking, there's no such thing as Orcs anymore. However, people with Orcish heritage have a few things in common: In D&D 3.5 terms, they're humans that get a +1 to assign in any stat they choose, are resistant to disease, and heal just a little bit faster than the average person.

Orcs are a passionate people. They love fighting, making love, making art, dancing, laughing, the arts, whatever. Lady Cardinal Gabrielle Valentine is a consummate orcish woman, she loves wine, has a harem of men she rotates through, loves to "stir the pot" to incite lively debate, and is inclined to follow where her heart leads her.

Around puberty, people with orcish blood are suddenly afflicted with an overwhelming urge to scar themselves. It's irrational, there's no reasonable justification for it, they just have a burning need to do it. Incidentally, if they don't they go insane and regress to a berserker fury. Ritual scarification is usually done on the arms, legs, and cheekbones or temples.

Shapers:

Shapers are this world's equivalent for dwarves, except that Shapers are usually around seven feet tall, have obsidian-black skin, and rather than building underground cities, they build skyscrapers. Shapers are universally respected; absolutely nobody will fuck with them. Not much is known about them. It's considered extremely rude (by them) to greet someone with your hands covered, so if you want to make a good impression with a Shaper, take off your gloves before introducing yourself to them.

Shapers are known for technological and mystical marvels. They're the source of Tomes of Power, books that contain not only the information written on the pages but also the wisdom of the person who wrote the books temselves. Strangely, the Anglish seem to have forgotten this fact.

Their skin is unusually dense and can turn aside blows from swords and spears. They usually live for about 500 years, but because there's so few of them, none of them are interested at all in becoming adventurers. (Not a playable race).

Incidentally, I fucked up in a few places in the books where I called them Dwarves. I'm correcting that.

Gear:

So you want to get geared up!

Boarwood - Boarwood is a dense fine-grained hardwood that is difficult to manipulate, but when turned, can be used to make extremely lightweight but useful armor. It'll stop an arrow or two in its tracks, will stop a determined knife thrust, but beyond that, you're best served by looking elsewhere. Incidentally, mages can wear boarwood armor without caster penalty.

Bronze - Bronze is still used in some areas because there was a point in Anglish history where the making of steel was lost. Plus it's easier to maintain than steel.

Speaking of steel, there's several kinds...

Low Steel (sometimes called red steel, it's basically pot metal) primarily used in construction, though low-ranking soldiers will use it for weapons and armor.

True Steel - only rare in that it is expensive and there are not many people that know how to forge steel properly. (this being a "explore the wild frontier" campaign, there aren't many blacksmiths yet)

The 'best metal' is Damascus, comparable to Earth's titanium; it's rare and expensive, usually only found in the hand of very, very, very rich and powerful people. It's so rare that it's practically mythical.

- Mentioned for reference, but there is another form of steel that's present, it's essentially stainless steel, and its sole purpose is to be forged into 'talents' or coin. These talents are not typical money, and you usually would not carry any on you, as most transactions are done with silver coin or bronze tokens. A steel talent is something of a 'promissory note' or bearer bond.

- All are alloys, 'normal', non-magical metal.

But what about magical stuff?!

The first is Mithral: a creamy white metal with naturally occuring veins of gold throughout. Made strong, light, durable ... and holiest of holies. It's roughly 10 times stronger than steel weapons. On the other hand, since it comes from the Divine Planes and is strictly reserved for the hands of their best servants (or allies), such as Templars, Clerics or Paladins. Anyone with an item made from Mithral is thought of as being a part of one cult or another. Extremely rare, considering mithral items are only handed out by Gods/ Goddesses or their angelic servants. Mithral weapons are considered extremely toxic for magic users and magical beings- roughly akin to heaving a bucket of salt water into a server rack. It "shorts out" a caster's ability to cast anything. There are very few Mithral pieces known to exist, and they are jealously guarded secrets.

"Starmetal" occasionally is discovered here or there, a brilliant emerald green glassy material. Another property of "starmetal" is its ability to draw in magical energies from its surroundings. It's used to store magical spells, and is inserted into weapons to make them "magical". Starmetal is considered 'sacred' to magic users.

Fulgurite - Lightning Glass. Attractive to look at, lovely to hold, impossible to break. An axe made with Lightning glass (assuming you found enough of it, and someone who knew how to forge it) could cut down a boarwood tree. Fulgurite is considered 'sacred' to psychics.

Orichalcum: A soft white metal that can hold clerical power.

Jade: a somewhat brittle green mineral that can hold a magical enchantment.

Miscellaneous Gear:

A weapon can be enchanted during the forging process; however several methods exist for "installing" enhancements into gear

Seal: A Seal is (usually) a strip of paper or fabric with scriptures inked on them. Generally considered temporary boosts (+1 for x number of turns, etc), though some seals can be permanently etched into things.

Inlays: for clerical weapons, an orichalcum inlay will confer a blessing of some kind into the armor or weapon. Likewise, a jade inlay will confer a magical bonus.

Item slots: I'm a lot more flexible when it comes to item slots than D&D is. Basically if you can find a way to equip an item in a way that doesn't impede your ability to do things, you can equip it. For instance, Katarina wears several necklaces, three different belts, gloves, bracers, a vest, a shirt, pants, boots, a variety of trinkets and the like, each of which confer some form of bonus to her abilities. At this point however, Katarina is nearing the end of her career, so she should be over the top.

Adventurers:

Adventurers are typically normal people that want to make a little side cash. Usually they're people that can afford the training and freedom that'll allow them to take on adventurer's quests. This usually means low-ranking nobility- people with money and time and resources that can afford training, but are ranked so low (second or third sons or daughters, people with low expectations of succeeding the family name/ line) that they have the freedom to pursue aggressive tasks or engage in training for those tasks.

However, since the Anglish have begun migrating to a new continent, there are many "basic" level quests that are usually taken up by peasants.

Peasants typically have large families. There's usually one or two (usually the oldest man or woman) that'll succeed the family obligation, be it farming, mining, animal husbandry, or whatever, and then there's usually three or four additional children that may or may not die off because of poor living conditions, illiteracy, or illness or the like. They'll often take on simple quests that are offered by the local church: "Mark fifty trees for lumberjacks for harvesting." or "Collect this type of plant." or "Check this area for signs of this mineral." Usually the survival rate for these quests is pretty high, and the payout is generally low, just a few coppers.

However, being as this is a largely unexplored continent, there are all sorts of unprecedented dangers from the local flora and fauna, so it's entirely possible that adventurerers of any caliber will die horrible deaths. If ruins or dungeons are involved, usually a representative of the church will accompany the adventurers in order to ensure that the mission is completed.

"Quests" are typically handed out on a Church Job Board. Adventurer groups are typically are called "auxillaries", "mercenaries", or "adventurers", depending on the location, and are subject to any rules or regulations by the local Arm of the Sword (the military branch of the Anglish Church).