My Campaign Notes

[Samloyal23]

The Tower of Woe
The Aarakocra of Skytop Village are leery of any use of fire in their village for safety reasons and the natural fear they have of closed in spaces is respected even in death, so both cremation and burial of the dead are frowned upon. To deal with this they have built a remote spire away from the rest of the village, the Tower of Woe, where the dead are left to be fed upon by vultures and other carrion eaters. Thus the dead, one with the flesh of the creatures that eat them, live on in these birds and continue to soar into the sky rather than being trapped in the dead soil.

 

[Samloyal23]

In the city of Shosnar the smoking of hookahs and the use of incense for meditation and relaxation are a common custom. Apothecaries sell a wide variety of incense and tobacco, cafes rent hookah pipes, and the local arcanists use tobacco and incense in lieu of potions. Follow this thread for more information:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?366191-Tobacco-Hookah-Incense-and-Magic

 

[Samloyal23]

A small group of female Bullywugs has taken up residence ina swamp just outside of Shosnar. Having long given up the gods of their ancestors and being ashamed of the way their legends say they were cursed by a Thosian witch, they have taken to adopting Thosian customs and have started to worship Heqet, the Thosian goddess of frogs. A human priestess and midwife of this minor Thosian goddess has started teaching the Bullywug females the arts of healing and midwifery. So far the male Bullywugs, showing their traditional cynicism and disdain for spiritual matters, have avoided the small shrine to the goddess of frogs and birth. Some have even tried to stop their wives from visiting the shrine. The priestess has even received a few death threats, though so far none have been credible.

 

[Samloyal23]

One of the few gods of Thosia to be popular and known outside of Shosnar is Nefertem, the god of perfumes. Every shop that sells incense, scented oils, or perfumes in Shosnar has a small icon of this god. The cult of Set tends to ignore the benevolent deity, but his worship is technically banned and he has no temple within the city. But merchants from Shosnar use his image to advertise their sweet smelling wares when they are in other cities. Many of his clerics are apothecaries or alchemists and they believe sweet odours can actually heal. Any shop in Burghausen or Ys or Skytop selling incense, opium, or essential oils from Shosnar is in effect a temple of Nefertem, usually having a small meeting room and shrine hidden in back where a cleric of the god uses aromas and potions to heal and grant visions to his flock.

 

[Samloyal23]

Nefertem
Appearance: a man with a crown of lotus blossoms
Description: Nefertem was the god of the sunrise who helped to bring the sun into the sky where Ra was. According to myth, he had no father and no mother, instead being born from a lotus blossom.
Worship: Nefertem had no formal cult or temple. His primary devotion seems to have been in the form of small statues of him carried by people, similar to modern saints medals.

Read more: http://www.touregypt.net/godsofegypt/nefertem.htm#ixzz3FZgcxlSQ

 

[Samloyal23]

I found this on Wikipedia:

Barbegazi are mythical creatures from Swiss and French mythology. A variety of dwarf or gnome, a barbegazi resembles a small white-furred man with a long beard and enormous feet. They travel in the mountains that are their home by skiing with their massive feet, or using them as snowshoes. In the summer they aestivate in caves and tunnels and do not come out until the first snowfall. The word barbegazi comes from the French barbe-glacée, meaning "frozen beard". Because of their penchant for high altitudes and low temperatures, they are rarely sighted by humans, but sometimes help shepherds round up lost sheep. Their greatest known excitement is surfing on avalanches with their remarkably large feet, but they are said to give low whistling cries to warn humans of the danger above, sometimes they will give their best effort to dig humans out from the snow.

Now, I thought about making this a new creature, but it occurred to me that this could actually be a class. Imagine if there were a group of dwarves who acted as guardians of the wilderness and protected travelers. The local Humans have no idea who they are, so they just assume they are some kind of spirit. They are actually dwarves with access to a spell that gives them the ability to run or glide on snow. I am think this is a 3-level prestige class. It would be available to anyone from Burghausen...

 

[Samloyal23]

I found this on Wikipedia:

Barbegazi are mythical creatures from Swiss and French mythology. A variety of dwarf or gnome, a barbegazi resembles a small white-furred man with a long beard and enormous feet. They travel in the mountains that are their home by skiing with their massive feet, or using them as snowshoes. In the summer they aestivate in caves and tunnels and do not come out until the first snowfall. The word barbegazi comes from the French barbe-glacée, meaning "frozen beard". Because of their penchant for high altitudes and low temperatures, they are rarely sighted by humans, but sometimes help shepherds round up lost sheep. Their greatest known excitement is surfing on avalanches with their remarkably large feet, but they are said to give low whistling cries to warn humans of the danger above, sometimes they will give their best effort to dig humans out from the snow.

Now, I thought about making this a new creature, but it occurred to me that this could actually be a class. Imagine if there were a group of dwarves who acted as guardians of the wilderness and protected travelers. The local Humans have no idea who they are, so they just assume they are some kind of spirit. They are actually dwarves with access to a spell that gives them the ability to run or glide on snow. I am think this is a 3-level prestige class. It would be available to anyone from Burghausen...

 

[Samloyal23]

More inspiration from Wikipedia:

According to popular belief, the Buckriders (Dutch: Bokkenrijders), were ghosts, who used fly through the sky on the back of goats. During the 18th century, groups of thieves and other criminals used this belief to frighten the inhabitants of Southern Limburg (A province in the southern part of the Netherlands). Using the name buckriders, these criminal bands infested 'Overmaas', a region that includes Southern Limburg, but also parts of Germany and Belgium. Commonly, the buckriders raided peaceful communities and farms.

Earliest records mentioning the buckriders originate from a tome called Oorzaeke, bewys en ondekkinge van een goddelooze, bezwoorne bende nagtdieven en knevelaers binnen de landen van Overmaeze en aenpalende landstreeken, which means something like: Causes, proof and discovery of a godless, averted gang of night thieves and gaggers within the lands of 'Overmaas' and adjacent regions. This book was written in 1779 by S.J.P. Sleinada (His real name however was Pastor A. Daniels). This pastor, who lived in Landgraaf, knew several buckriders personally. The author tells us that these robbers made a pact with the Devil and rode their bucks at night. The common people told stories about them flying through the sky, pronouncing the following spell: 'Over huis, over tuin, over staak, en dat tot Keulen in de wijnkelder!' (across houses, across gardens, across stakes, even across Köln into the wine cellar!). Once a year, they would visit their master, the Devil, on the 'Mookerheide'.

Later on, the buckriders held a reputation that resembles Robin Hood and his gang. Present interpretation is that a number of criminal gangs robbed houses and committed other crimes, using the myth in their advantage. Also, many of the buckriders that were arrested are thought to be innocent, as confessions were given by means of torturing.

So, how about a magic using rogue-based prestige class based on the Buckriders? Hmm...

 

[Samloyal23]

In Iron Dwarf folklore, the Tatzelwurm is a stubby, lizard-like creature. It takes the appearance of a cat with the hind-end of a serpent with no hind legs. It is rumored to live in several densely forested areas near Burghausen. The reality is even worse than the legend as this medium sized relative of dragons a vicious predator with venomous breath. Burghausers are rarely in the woods except in large groups, so they do not often run into the elusive creature, but every year there are cases of livestock and the occasional farmer or logger being killed by it.

 

[Samloyal23]

The tatzlwurm---