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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 8271068" data-attributes="member: 508">In my last 3.5 campaign I had the PCs spend five adventures on Gamma Terra, the home of the Gamma World campaign setting.  While there, they encountered a group of mutant humans who had very dwarven features.  They called themselves the Brotherhood of Zontok, and this was the creation myth of their god, Zontok:"In the beginning, there was darkness and void without form.  And then Zontok said, 'Let there be light!' - and lo, there was light."And Zontok then created the heavens and the earth and the seas and all manner of animals to populate his world.  And He created mankind in His own image and sent him out to populate the world.  Zontok then went up to His castle at the top of the world and looked down upon the earth, to see what mankind would do with the gifts He had given them."For some time mankind flourished, spreading out among the world and living in harmony with nature.  But then, mankind discovered warfare and broke into separate tribes to make war upon each other.  Great was their cunning, creating more and more powerful weapons over the years to slay the other tribes, until they poisoned the air and the land and the seas with their warfare."Zontok looked down upon the poor earth and said, 'If mankind wishes to wage constant war, I will create new life to destroy mankind, that they may perish and be replaced with new masters of the earth.'  And then did Zontok open the minds of the beasts, giving them great cunning and the ability to fashion their own weapons to eradicate mankind."And the Beasts Who Think Like Men did bring mankind to its knees, nearly wiping them off the face of the world.  Only then did mankind recall the early days before warfare and how plentiful was the food and how pleasant the lands and the seas and the clean air.  And mankind cried out to Zontok, begging forgiveness and asking to be restored as the masters of the earth."Zontok replied to His creations, 'This I will not do, for you have lost favor in My sight.  But you may earn back My favor – and your right as rulers of the earth – by defeating the Beasts Who Think Like Men.  Prove to Me your worthiness to once again inherit the world and all will be as it once was.'"And that is the Brotherhood's most holy edict: to seek out the Beasts Who Think Like Men and slay them.  Only then will the world return to the paradise it once was."The Brotherhood dwarves were deferential to the elves and half-elves in the party, believing them to be members of a race of celestial beings called the Servants of Zontok, who served Him by roaming the world and spying upon the progress the Brotherhood was making against the Beasts Who Think Like Men (the intelligent creatures of animal stock, like the hissers, hoops, badders, arks, and so on from the standard Gamma World bestiary).  The PCs ended up assisting the Brotherhood band they encountered, taking on a nest of hissers that had made their lair in an abandoned missile silo.  It wasn't until the very end of that adventure, when the Brotherhood dwarves sang one of their holy hymns about bringing the word of Zontok to the remaining humans (mutated or otherwise) scattered across the globe that the players pegged just who it was these dwarves were worshiping.  (The PCs, of course, had no idea as they didn't have the cultural background to put two and two together.)  But the song, "The Laws of Zontok," began with the following words:"Oh, you'd better not pout, you'd better not cry, you better not shout, I'm telling you why, the Zontok Laws are coming to town..."Two of the Brotherhood the party met up with were named Nikolai and Kristoff, names that made perfect sense in hindsight.  And they rode "herdbeasts," mutated mounts of reindeer and elk stock.Johnathan</blockquote>

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