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[Let's Read] The Delver's Guide to Beast World
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8948679" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/4kWHkEI.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>Chapter 9: Factions of the Beast World</strong></p><p></p><p>The prior chapters have covered the groups and societies specific to nations, along with Delver culture in general. This chapter focuses on groups who aren’t limited to one region but still have a prominent role in the Beast World.</p><p></p><p><strong>The Motherguard</strong> are an order of Dramphinian paladins dedicated to hunting demons and undead above and beyond regular paladins whose duties typically reflect a broader range of smiting evil. Their single-minded dedication doesn’t leave much room for variance: their organization only recruits people who identify as women, they must not be in a relationship or have children as dependents can distract from the mission, and they prioritize the killing of Unnature’s enablers rather than risk them continuing to do evil via a false surrender. They may allow an evil person to live if doing so means they can destroy a greater evil.</p><p></p><p><strong>The Shamans</strong> are a mostly-Brethren organization of historians and preservers of human culture. The unraveling of the Broken World didn’t happen suddenly, but was a gradual process over generations; the Shamans' precursors were those that grew aware of what was being lost and what would be lost, creating isolated enclaves and exploring the dangerously-changing landscape to save who and what they could. Now that humanity lives on in the Beast World, their dedication is stronger than ever to preserve their culture.</p><p></p><p>The exact causes of the Broken World’s deterioration is unknown, but several side effects contributed to the loss of Brethren history: the loss of skilled technicians and resources for creating their world’s technology, combined with magic robbing knowledge of most of their languages, reduced much of their culture to skills used for survival. While written languages can be found in the Broken World, the unstable natural laws means that even magical attempts of discerning the texts fail. As of now, shamans are the ones best capable of understanding Broken World items, which are popularly known as curios in the Beast World and tend to be things light enough for survivors to carry.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/UQT0nYw.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><strong>The Thieves’ Army</strong> grew out of the Invader War, which touched the lives of virtually every inhabitant in the Beast World. It wasn’t just the leaders of nations and soldiers who found themselves fighting the Brethren, but also the dregs of society defending a home that didn’t necessarily want them. Smugglers, pirates, gangsters, and other criminal malcontents had useful skills in hindering the extraplanar occupation, and their various organizations banded together under a greater Thieves’ Army. But now the war is done, and they went back to their old lives, now stronger than before.</p><p></p><p>The Thieves’ Army operates like a more “civilized” organized crime syndicate. They recruit among poor and disenfranchised groups, including even Brethren, offering them food and shelter in exchange for service, and they create dependents out of local legitimate businesses by paying off their debts and loans. Overt “street crime” like muggings are discouraged, for they give a negative reputation as they still rely on public goodwill for their roles in the Invader War. There is one line the Thieves’ Army won’t cross, and that is slave trafficking; the more violent criminals are given an outlet via a “Special Section” to hunt down and murder slavers, and as a result of these hard-edged methods outright slavery is extremely rare in the Beast World.</p><p></p><p><strong>Sunset Lounge</strong> is an exclusive and secret club headquartered in the Astral Sea, counting among its number some of the most famous and powerful individuals in the Beast World. Their members rarely arrive in person, instead having proxies or magical projections interacting with each other at this neutral ground, and entry to the Lounge is via a magical invitation card that can summon a submersible within the nearest body of water to transport the holder.</p><p></p><p>The Sunset Lounge is a high-class place with all manner of diversions, but their entertainments are far stranger than your regular “rich people games.” Chess is played by trained animals on giant boards, fighting rings have dueling golems controlled by contestants, and one famous mixer had a contest where every guest was polymorphed into a peasant named Ned, where Ned would win the title of nobility if nobody could correctly guess his identity.</p><p></p><p><strong>Ferals</strong> are an anti-Brethren hate group that has not forgotten nor forgiven the death and destruction wrought by the Invader War. They believe that humans are still plotting their destruction, as soldiers-in-disguise adopting the role of civilians in order to stage a second war once everyone’s guard is down. And like many real-life bigots they engage in the act of projection by doing exactly what they accuse their enemies of doing. Ferals put on more respectable faces in public, but don iron masks when they seek to perform more violent acts of terrorism.</p><p></p><p>Beyond decentralized acts of violence, the most lasting legacy of the Ferals is the invention of lycanthropy, where a scholar in Beylik created a disease that could turn humans into rampaging monsters and was fatal to Beasts who became infected. One town with a Brethren minority was to serve as a testing ground, with the hopes that the Beasts would purge the humans out of a sense of grim necessity. Instead, the townsfolk took pity on the first lycanthrope when it was found they had no memory or control of their actions, and other infected humans fled the town to avoid hurting others. Lycanthropy has since sprung up throughout Arneria and is now spreading to other lands.</p><p></p><p><strong>Vampires</strong> are different in the Beast World, namely in that they are Fiends rather than Undead. Their origin dates back several hundred years when some upper-class hobbyists sought out immortality by trafficking with demons, who possessed their bodies after a fell ritual. Most vampires today belong to or stem from this foul origin, invariably being well-connected masterminds who had generations worth of plots and schemes to build upon. In spite of their power, every vampire struggles against the demon within, who has no pretense of civility and wishes more than anything to ruin all of existence. Due to this, many vampires seek out an “archenemy” in the form of a heroic person, playing out a parody of a storybook tale but one where the vampire seeks to quench every trace of life and goodness from their chosen foe. The Intruders, or demons inhabiting their body, reward the defeat of an Archenemy with indescribable euphoria. Vampires can reproduce, and while their children thankfully don’t bear demonic possession they still require blood for sustenance. Such progeny are known as fiend-vessel spawn, and unlike vampires they can run the gamut of alignments although many are evil.</p><p></p><p>We have several stats for vampires and their ilk: Fiend-Inhabited Vampires are a variation of the standard one, being equally powerful with many of the same features but whose unique features are more suitably shadow-themed or demonic. For example, they change into a shadow instead of gaseous mist, have a weakness where they can be Charmed by a sphere of annihilation, and they summon batwolves instead of wolves, bats, and rats. Intruders are CR 1 creatures who inhabit the bodies of vampires, and they don’t have any threatening abilities or actions of their own save the ability to inhabit the bodies of willing creatures to turn into vampires as well as take control of the vampires they inhabit if they go without drinking blood for 3 days or otherwise damage themselves. Batwolves are CR 2 monsters who are basically flying vampire dogs which can shapechange between a bat, a mastiff, or their true form. Finally, Fiend-Vessel Spawn are CR 5 fiends who are basically less powerful vampires, with their major abilities of note being able to regenerate hit points and a draining bite and claw attacks.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/xoT4UOx.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><strong>Laurent and the Ecclesiasts</strong> are an alliance of those who would otherwise be foes directing their mutual hatred towards a shared enemy. Laurent, the Dread Advisor, is a wolf lich who disguised his true nature and wormed his way into the court of an Allemagnian queen. During the Invader War he secretly met with the Invader Kings, offering to help the occupation in exchange for experimental subjects to enhance his necromantic knowledge. As the war started to turn against the Brethren, Laurent recruited the leaders of the Broken World most loyal to him into his tower. He melds the bodies and minds of helpless Beasts into their human forms, making them powerful mage-warriors in their own right. These souls are known as the Ecclesiasts, and with the Invader War over they view Laurent as their true master. However, known only to Laurent and a rare handful, one Invader King still survives in an unknown location, and he and Laurent regularly communicate.</p><p></p><p>Laurent has the stats of a lich, although his secret tower has its own unique lair actions appropriate to a necromantic mad scientist. We also have stats for three different kinds of Ecclesiasts. Their Challenge Ratings are pretty high, being 8, 12, and 16 and their roles in battle can be summed up as necromantic gishes. They fight primarily with greatswords and can let loose necromantic ranged attacks, and they can cast up to two related spells with one action, which include combinations such as Heal and Harm, Cloudkill and Flame Strike, and Fireball and Blight.</p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> I don’t have overall thoughts on this chapter so much as individual thoughts on the organizations. About half of the groups are “PC friendly” in having aims that would align with delving crews or certain classes. The Motherguard and Shamans are ones who would have plot hooks relevant to many adventurers, and the Thieves’ Army can serve as an origin or contact for a Rogue/criminal PC who still wants to have a sense of “honor.” For that reason the Shamans and Thieves’ Army are my favorites.</p><p></p><p>The Sunset Lounge isn’t an organization with an explicit goal so much as a strange and whimsical place the PCs would go to in order to make contact with a powerful figure, so its use in a campaign can vary but is pretty broad. The Ferals, Vampires, and Ecclesiasts are unambiguously villainous entrees. I like how the Ferals and Ecclesiasts represent two toxic sides of the outcome of the Invader War, although the Ferals may be a bit one-and-done in what kinds of plots they can be used: “protect Brethren communities from violent bigots.”</p><p></p><p>I’m a bit mum on vampires. The author does explain why he changed the creature type to give them more of a unique niche in the world: there’s already a bevy of predatory undead archetypes, and he wanted there to be a demon-worshiping analogue to liches rather than having two “powerful undead” types for mortals to become. Still, I feel that the stat blocks could’ve instead been “use vampire, but with X” rather than a full-page entry, which could’ve easily gone to fleshing out the existing factions further.</p><p></p><p>For that reason the Ecclesiasts are my favorite villainous faction.</p><p></p><p><strong>Join us next time as we finally get to the playable furry options in Chapter 10: Species!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 8948679, member: 6750502"] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/4kWHkEI.png[/img] [b]Chapter 9: Factions of the Beast World[/b][/center] The prior chapters have covered the groups and societies specific to nations, along with Delver culture in general. This chapter focuses on groups who aren’t limited to one region but still have a prominent role in the Beast World. [b]The Motherguard[/b] are an order of Dramphinian paladins dedicated to hunting demons and undead above and beyond regular paladins whose duties typically reflect a broader range of smiting evil. Their single-minded dedication doesn’t leave much room for variance: their organization only recruits people who identify as women, they must not be in a relationship or have children as dependents can distract from the mission, and they prioritize the killing of Unnature’s enablers rather than risk them continuing to do evil via a false surrender. They may allow an evil person to live if doing so means they can destroy a greater evil. [b]The Shamans[/b] are a mostly-Brethren organization of historians and preservers of human culture. The unraveling of the Broken World didn’t happen suddenly, but was a gradual process over generations; the Shamans' precursors were those that grew aware of what was being lost and what would be lost, creating isolated enclaves and exploring the dangerously-changing landscape to save who and what they could. Now that humanity lives on in the Beast World, their dedication is stronger than ever to preserve their culture. The exact causes of the Broken World’s deterioration is unknown, but several side effects contributed to the loss of Brethren history: the loss of skilled technicians and resources for creating their world’s technology, combined with magic robbing knowledge of most of their languages, reduced much of their culture to skills used for survival. While written languages can be found in the Broken World, the unstable natural laws means that even magical attempts of discerning the texts fail. As of now, shamans are the ones best capable of understanding Broken World items, which are popularly known as curios in the Beast World and tend to be things light enough for survivors to carry. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/UQT0nYw.png[/img][/center] [b]The Thieves’ Army[/b] grew out of the Invader War, which touched the lives of virtually every inhabitant in the Beast World. It wasn’t just the leaders of nations and soldiers who found themselves fighting the Brethren, but also the dregs of society defending a home that didn’t necessarily want them. Smugglers, pirates, gangsters, and other criminal malcontents had useful skills in hindering the extraplanar occupation, and their various organizations banded together under a greater Thieves’ Army. But now the war is done, and they went back to their old lives, now stronger than before. The Thieves’ Army operates like a more “civilized” organized crime syndicate. They recruit among poor and disenfranchised groups, including even Brethren, offering them food and shelter in exchange for service, and they create dependents out of local legitimate businesses by paying off their debts and loans. Overt “street crime” like muggings are discouraged, for they give a negative reputation as they still rely on public goodwill for their roles in the Invader War. There is one line the Thieves’ Army won’t cross, and that is slave trafficking; the more violent criminals are given an outlet via a “Special Section” to hunt down and murder slavers, and as a result of these hard-edged methods outright slavery is extremely rare in the Beast World. [b]Sunset Lounge[/b] is an exclusive and secret club headquartered in the Astral Sea, counting among its number some of the most famous and powerful individuals in the Beast World. Their members rarely arrive in person, instead having proxies or magical projections interacting with each other at this neutral ground, and entry to the Lounge is via a magical invitation card that can summon a submersible within the nearest body of water to transport the holder. The Sunset Lounge is a high-class place with all manner of diversions, but their entertainments are far stranger than your regular “rich people games.” Chess is played by trained animals on giant boards, fighting rings have dueling golems controlled by contestants, and one famous mixer had a contest where every guest was polymorphed into a peasant named Ned, where Ned would win the title of nobility if nobody could correctly guess his identity. [b]Ferals[/b] are an anti-Brethren hate group that has not forgotten nor forgiven the death and destruction wrought by the Invader War. They believe that humans are still plotting their destruction, as soldiers-in-disguise adopting the role of civilians in order to stage a second war once everyone’s guard is down. And like many real-life bigots they engage in the act of projection by doing exactly what they accuse their enemies of doing. Ferals put on more respectable faces in public, but don iron masks when they seek to perform more violent acts of terrorism. Beyond decentralized acts of violence, the most lasting legacy of the Ferals is the invention of lycanthropy, where a scholar in Beylik created a disease that could turn humans into rampaging monsters and was fatal to Beasts who became infected. One town with a Brethren minority was to serve as a testing ground, with the hopes that the Beasts would purge the humans out of a sense of grim necessity. Instead, the townsfolk took pity on the first lycanthrope when it was found they had no memory or control of their actions, and other infected humans fled the town to avoid hurting others. Lycanthropy has since sprung up throughout Arneria and is now spreading to other lands. [b]Vampires[/b] are different in the Beast World, namely in that they are Fiends rather than Undead. Their origin dates back several hundred years when some upper-class hobbyists sought out immortality by trafficking with demons, who possessed their bodies after a fell ritual. Most vampires today belong to or stem from this foul origin, invariably being well-connected masterminds who had generations worth of plots and schemes to build upon. In spite of their power, every vampire struggles against the demon within, who has no pretense of civility and wishes more than anything to ruin all of existence. Due to this, many vampires seek out an “archenemy” in the form of a heroic person, playing out a parody of a storybook tale but one where the vampire seeks to quench every trace of life and goodness from their chosen foe. The Intruders, or demons inhabiting their body, reward the defeat of an Archenemy with indescribable euphoria. Vampires can reproduce, and while their children thankfully don’t bear demonic possession they still require blood for sustenance. Such progeny are known as fiend-vessel spawn, and unlike vampires they can run the gamut of alignments although many are evil. We have several stats for vampires and their ilk: Fiend-Inhabited Vampires are a variation of the standard one, being equally powerful with many of the same features but whose unique features are more suitably shadow-themed or demonic. For example, they change into a shadow instead of gaseous mist, have a weakness where they can be Charmed by a sphere of annihilation, and they summon batwolves instead of wolves, bats, and rats. Intruders are CR 1 creatures who inhabit the bodies of vampires, and they don’t have any threatening abilities or actions of their own save the ability to inhabit the bodies of willing creatures to turn into vampires as well as take control of the vampires they inhabit if they go without drinking blood for 3 days or otherwise damage themselves. Batwolves are CR 2 monsters who are basically flying vampire dogs which can shapechange between a bat, a mastiff, or their true form. Finally, Fiend-Vessel Spawn are CR 5 fiends who are basically less powerful vampires, with their major abilities of note being able to regenerate hit points and a draining bite and claw attacks. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/xoT4UOx.png[/img][/center] [b]Laurent and the Ecclesiasts[/b] are an alliance of those who would otherwise be foes directing their mutual hatred towards a shared enemy. Laurent, the Dread Advisor, is a wolf lich who disguised his true nature and wormed his way into the court of an Allemagnian queen. During the Invader War he secretly met with the Invader Kings, offering to help the occupation in exchange for experimental subjects to enhance his necromantic knowledge. As the war started to turn against the Brethren, Laurent recruited the leaders of the Broken World most loyal to him into his tower. He melds the bodies and minds of helpless Beasts into their human forms, making them powerful mage-warriors in their own right. These souls are known as the Ecclesiasts, and with the Invader War over they view Laurent as their true master. However, known only to Laurent and a rare handful, one Invader King still survives in an unknown location, and he and Laurent regularly communicate. Laurent has the stats of a lich, although his secret tower has its own unique lair actions appropriate to a necromantic mad scientist. We also have stats for three different kinds of Ecclesiasts. Their Challenge Ratings are pretty high, being 8, 12, and 16 and their roles in battle can be summed up as necromantic gishes. They fight primarily with greatswords and can let loose necromantic ranged attacks, and they can cast up to two related spells with one action, which include combinations such as Heal and Harm, Cloudkill and Flame Strike, and Fireball and Blight. [b]Thoughts So Far:[/b] I don’t have overall thoughts on this chapter so much as individual thoughts on the organizations. About half of the groups are “PC friendly” in having aims that would align with delving crews or certain classes. The Motherguard and Shamans are ones who would have plot hooks relevant to many adventurers, and the Thieves’ Army can serve as an origin or contact for a Rogue/criminal PC who still wants to have a sense of “honor.” For that reason the Shamans and Thieves’ Army are my favorites. The Sunset Lounge isn’t an organization with an explicit goal so much as a strange and whimsical place the PCs would go to in order to make contact with a powerful figure, so its use in a campaign can vary but is pretty broad. The Ferals, Vampires, and Ecclesiasts are unambiguously villainous entrees. I like how the Ferals and Ecclesiasts represent two toxic sides of the outcome of the Invader War, although the Ferals may be a bit one-and-done in what kinds of plots they can be used: “protect Brethren communities from violent bigots.” I’m a bit mum on vampires. The author does explain why he changed the creature type to give them more of a unique niche in the world: there’s already a bevy of predatory undead archetypes, and he wanted there to be a demon-worshiping analogue to liches rather than having two “powerful undead” types for mortals to become. Still, I feel that the stat blocks could’ve instead been “use vampire, but with X” rather than a full-page entry, which could’ve easily gone to fleshing out the existing factions further. For that reason the Ecclesiasts are my favorite villainous faction. [b]Join us next time as we finally get to the playable furry options in Chapter 10: Species![/b] [/QUOTE]
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