Dragon 370 - Riven Justice: The Mercykillers

[Shroomy]

Its up. Read it here.

The first part is the history of the Mercykillers faction, with a lot of focus on the post-Faction War splintering (Sons of Mercy, Sodkillers, and indepedent Mercykiller factions). The second part focuses on the three factions and their respective leaders. The third part focuses on using them in your game. The fourth part is a paragon path open to any defender character.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Rob Schwalb gets the old Planescape cant right in the fiction intro, that's for sure.

The second page mentions that the Lady of Pain banned the factions, but that they persist in secret even if they can't have any official role in government anymore. The Sensates and the Doomguard are specifically mentioned there, while the Fraternity of Order, the Harmonium, and the Fated appear on the third page.

When the Mercykillers split up again after the Faction War (which is blamed on Rowan Darkwood, though not by name), the Sons of Mercy were permitted to continue to administer the Prison and expanded their role to policing the streets, while the Sodkillers went underground, either fleeing the city or hiding themselves behind the Minders' Guild of bounty hunters and killers. "True" Mercykillers still existed throughout the cosmos, in cells on every plane.

The leader of the Sons of Mercy is Arwyl Swan's Son, a 150-year-old human. The leader of the Sodkillers is the tiefling Cruel Seirrah, the daughter of Alisohn Nilesia. There's also a leader of a renegade Mercykiller chapter named Andrezhej. All three are statted up and given short but useful descriptions.

There's a description of Sigil's Prison, and then several other important locations: the Tower of Law in the Astral Sea, inhabited by a faction of Mercykillers that still call themselves the Red Death, and a description of where in Sigil you might find the Minders' Guild.

There are some adventure seeds, including one involving the return of Alisohn. Some members of the various Mercykiller factions are statted - Son of Mercy warden, Mercykiller recruit, Sodkiller foot soldier, Minder assassin. There's also information about joining each of the three subfactions, and the Son of Mercy paragon path.

 

[yesnomu]

Hmm, I was expecting a multiclass-only class. Oh well, paragon paths are fine too.

I only know of the Mercykillers from Planescape: Torment, where they were jerks. I wonder what Shemeska's going to say about this article?

 

[tsadkiel]

There's also a leader of a renegade Mercykiller chapter named Andrezhej.

Who is almost certainly a Deva; he has a reincarnation-based racial power, and is described as unusually pale, with strange patterns on his skin.

 

[thecasualoblivion]

That Son of Mercy Paragon Path is teh sex. Its one of the best Paragon Paths I've seen, and works well for Fighters, Strenth based Paladins, and even Assault Swordmages.

 

[yesnomu]

Who is almost certainly a Deva; he has a reincarnation-based racial power, and is described as unusually pale, with strange patterns on his skin.

Ooh, I wonder if Memory of a Thousand Lifetimes'll be the Deva racial power? Seems a bit strong, Tieflings only get a +1 to attack, Deva get +1d6?

Good catch, anyway!

 

[Shemeska]

I wonder what Shemeska's going to say about this article?

Speak the 'loth's name and the 'loth shall appear...

I only know of the Mercykillers from Planescape: Torment, where they were jerks.

No, they were often jerks pretty much everywhere.

Rob Schwalb gets the old Planescape cant right in the fiction intro, that's for sure.

Schwalb has been one of the authors in late 3e and now 4e who has done his homework on planar stuff, which hasn't always been the case with all in-house efforts (Mona and Jacobs being the other two who did an awesome, awesome job in this respect).

The leader of the Sons of Mercy is Arwyl Swan's Son, a 150-year-old human. The leader of the Sodkillers is the tiefling Cruel Seirrah, the daughter of Alisohn Nilesia.

Well it's a different setting and cosmology, so things are prone to change. But looks like they've bumped the timeline a good century or so post-FW if Arwyl is well into a second century of life. And given Nilesia's rumored fate post FW (either sold into fiendish slavery or publically flayed by The Lady*) it's interesting to speculate on who exactly her daughter might be (the idea of it being Darkwood's kid is an -awesome- plot hook to play with...)

*any mention of that possible fate? I feel kinda guilty on that...

And what do they mention as hooks for a possible Nilesia return?

I'd have deeper comments, but I don't subscribe to the DDI, and otherwise I haven't yet had the opportunity to read the article in full. But from what I've heard here, and elsewhere, it's rather well written and again while it's a variant Sigil set in a different setting, it seems faithful to Sigil's atmosphere and much of its prior history when possible. It did not receive a 4e FR treatment, which is very nice to see.

And if they did bump the timeline up a century or so, that's about what I did with my current campaign, so no complaints there for me.

 

[Jack99]

Yeah, good article.

I think that I just remembered why I used to love PS. Also, I have a feeling that a good batch of Mercykillers fled the Cage after the FW and ended up in my homebrew, installing themselves in a metropolis there, and rapidly expanding their sphere of influence..

<3 my DDI subscription.

 

[FireLance]

Ooh, I wonder if Memory of a Thousand Lifetimes'll be the Deva racial power? Seems a bit strong, Tieflings only get a +1 to attack, Deva get +1d6?!

Tieflings also get their Charisma bonus to damage.

+1d6 to a d20 roll is about on par with the elven reroll ability, and its broader usage (it can also be used with saving throws, skill checks and ability checks) seems to there to balance the fact that it's going to be generally less useful - the elven reroll can turn any miss into a hit, but this ability will only be useful when the character has missed by a few points.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I am frankly surprised and delighted by how close to the PS canon this actually is. This is great, and a really good sign that the fate that befell FR might not plague the rest of the settings.

Interesting Things of Note:
There is Cant: First time since 2e seeing the word "berk" in print. Makes me smile. But it is where it belongs: in the fiction.

Law vs. Chaos In Full Swing: By basically ignoring alignments, the Law vs. Chaos thing can still be in great force. Cruel Serriah's stat block says Evil, but her fluff says Lawful Evil.

4e isms Make Some Sense: The way they identified Primordials as Chaos, and how they linked the gods fighting them to the Sodkiller's philosophy of Ultimate Justice is very cool. It gives me the sense that Limbo didn't so much disappear as that the Elemental Planes disappeared.

Nilesia's Return: It's a plot hook. I like it.

4e tieflings!...but SPIKEY ARMOR!: There's no artwork of the goofy 4e tieflings, but they are described. Not a big deal. It's really cool that the art retains the distinctive bladed style of Planescape, really, really cool.

Sigil is the Center of All again!: Arwyl is still from Toril. This could be AWESOME for linking cosmologies and having the old Planescape classic "Priest of Osiris in Full Plate with an ancient Greek Wizard and an Arthurian knight" kitchen-sink feel.

In general, did his homework nicely, lots of good fluff, didn't kill the past and take it stuff, but built on what had come before.

It took a few months, and it's only a Dragon article, but this one wins a prize.

As an aside, I just realized that Schwalb also wrote some of my favorite 3.5 books (the Elder Evils and Exemplars of Evil), so that guy's on my Watch List.

This makes me look forward to the Manual of the Planes. I really want to see what they've done with the thing.

This is good. This is cool. This makes me a content lil' banana for my favorite setting, and it bodes well for what might come in the future.

The gripes I have about 4e's mechanics don't come out in great force here, and are washed down with delightfully useful fluff for me.

This might inspire me to take back up my PS4e work, after I read the MotP...