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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8754995" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 117: March 1996part 3/5Forgotten Deities: The deity entry this month is rather larger than the previous ones, filling a whole two pages. Bright Nydra, goddess of the winter moon, worshipped by the marsh drovers of Farsea. At some point she might have been an independent goddess, but now she's merely another aspect of Selune who's church is allowed to maintain it's own customs, like Pixar after becoming part of Disney. Most notable of these customs is the extremely dangerous occupation of catoblepas farming, with the cheese they make from their milk an infamous (and very expensive) delicacy. This close association does have it's benefits though, as they can use the cheese as a material component in a spell that replicates their death gaze, so it's not a good idea to mess with them. Other than that, they have the same requirements, equipment limitations and spell spheres as druids, but a different set of granted powers, making them particularly good at dealing with the murky swampy terrain they live in, but not quite as powerful overall as the things you can do with wild shape. An entry that's particularly interesting for the amount of worldbuilding included, letting you know more about the worshippers rather than the god and showing that while small, this is a living faith integrated into the community rather than something secretly practiced by a few evil cultists in their spare time who wouldn't know what to do if their god did get powerful again. That gives players plenty of material to work with if they want to play a character from this region, which is all for the good.Mr Whiplash, I Presume?: No plan survives contact with the enemy once again! No sooner have they introduced Fame Points to the Living City, than they have to revise them in response to feedback. So here's two new categories. Infamy points, for if you do something villainous, or people think you did due to being framed or deliberately choosing to take the credit from someone else. Accruing many of those will definitely make your life more interesting. (at least until you go too far, actually switch alignment and they take your character away from you) And Null Points, for when you do an act that would get you fame, but intentionally avoid having it connected with your day-to-day identity via doing it secretly or in disguise. These won't count for general reaction rolls, but are still worth noting down so other GM's know your character has superheroic tendencies, and if you build up a lot of them it may become plot-relevant later. Another couple of stats to keep track of that might improve storytelling, or might just slow things down and result in more admin after every tournament. It still remains to be seen whether this system proves to be a net positive or negative. Elminster's Everwinking Eye: The Border Kingdoms apparently have no places that start with C, as we skip directly from B to D this issue. The tightly packed river town of Dapplegate, kept from expanding outwards too much by marshy ground along the river banks, so what safe land there is is highly urbanised, noisy and bustling with trade. It's protector is the seemingly immortal archmage Danchilaer, who's in the habit of picking one or two people a year and giving them permanent magical enhancements in return for a quest, then being generally cryptically helpful for the rest of their lives. Basically, he's Zordon or the Dungeon Master from the D&D cartoon, which means adventurers from here have an easy route to lots of CR appropriate challenges. A little further down the river is the port of Derlusk, which is notable not just for trading raw materials, but it's unusually large and sophisticated literary scene. Whether you're looking to buy, sell, or merely ask a sage to find an obscure bit of information for you in the libraries, this is a good place to go, and then you can sell your autobiography when you come back from your adventures and make even more money. It's also notable for it's Mage-Fairs, a yearly event where spellcasters from all over the realms teleport in to engage in hijinks suspiciously similar to real world RPG conventions, only with magic to enhance their drunken tomfoolery. Ed does love his 4th wall jokes, and this is one that make extra sense put in here rather than Dragon, so I approve of this. Both of these locations offer their own distinctive adventure opportunities to make visiting them desirable for certain types of players over the thousands of other choices you have in the Realms.</blockquote>

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