Cultures of the South: Lemurian

Lemurian (Civilized Culture)

Standard Skills
Deceit, Endurance, Influence, Insight, Locale, Perception, Sing

Combat Style: Lemurian Alubari (urban commoners)
As a recent refugee community, Lemurians have worked hard to develop and maintain basic fighting skills throughout the lower orders (alubari), who are trained with short spear, dagger, hatchet, and sling. [Cultural Style - Lower]

or

Combat Style: Lemurian Pahi (urban elites)
Primarily fights with short spear and hoplite shield; also trained in mace, akinaka short sword, dagger, javelin, sling, and short bow. [Cultural Style - Upper]

Defensive Fighting (Benefit)
When parrying a blow during combat, a Lemurian pahi's weapon is considered one step higher in size.

Professional Skills
Craft (any), Commerce, Language (any), Literacy, Lore (any), Musicianship, Streetwise, Teach

Far across the world ocean was once a mysterious land of ancient cities, fertile river valleys, and arid deserts, the true name of which was unknown by those in Borea or simply forgotten to time. Vanorans called it Lemuria and spoke tall tales of demon lizard shibboleths and gods in living form ruling the land from great temple platforms in its cities. Older than Vanor, more ancient than Stygia, more antique perhaps than even Hyperborea and Atlantis, Lemuria was a primordial land -- the Garden of the Sun -- known only to those who could see into the Deep.

And then, within the living memory of only the most wizened elder, a great calamity befell Lemuria, and the land was gone.

But not its people.

The first refugees to Borea came as but a trickle, isolated landings in great sailing ships whose passengers carried statues of their gods and lamented the coming of Nibiru. Soon, a great flood of humanity swept across Borea, spreading throughout the southern lands of the continent from east to west. A proud people brought low by disaster, the arriving Lemurians were not content to remain as refugees and castoffs in a foreign land, and they soon turned their attentions to carving new homes into the face of the land.

Today, Lemurian communities are found throughout the South, both in Stygia and along the Central Coast. In some lands, they are a useful but distrusted minority, using their past learning and cultural knowledge as a currency to buy new stations from the old elites. In others, however, they have become lords and conquerers themselves. As armies prepare to clash across the South, Lemurians watch the preparations warily. They will not lose all they have regained so easily. The Doom will not befall them again.

Cultures of the South: Stygian

Stygian (Civilized Culture)

Standard Skills
Athletics, Boating, Dance, Deceit, Influence, Locale, Willpower

Combat Style: Stygian Soldier 
[Cultural Style] Primarily fights with two weapons, mixing and matching Stygian shamshir sword (scimitar), sagaris axe (one-handed battle axe), broad sword, shortspear; also trained with recurve bow, dagger, hatchet, and target shields.

Sweeping Strike (Benefit)
When dual wielding two weapons, a Stygian soldier can use a sweeping attack to push aside an enemy's defenses and immediately follow-up with another attack, as per the Flurry Special Effect. The follow-up attack must be with a different weapon than the triggering attack. Two weapons only.

Professional Skills
Bureaucracy, Commerce, Courtesy, Craft (any), Language (any), Lore (any), Musicianship, Seamanship

In the deep, distant past, Stygians were nomads and herders traveling a grass sea in a land far across the world ocean. But then that ended. They gave up their kumis, their goats, and their tent cities; built ships and learned the stars; and became nomads of the sea. That was then.

In the distant past, Stygian wayfarers made their first landings along the southwest coast of Borea, seeking plunder and good fortune. Instead, they found homes and bountiful resources, and soon the Stygian people drove their tent spikes deep into new, untamed earth. From this seed grew a great Empire, strong of ship and sail, dominant in commerce and trade, fierce in honor and pride. It spread north and east along the Borean coast, leaving its mighty stamp upon the world. And then the Witch-Kings of Vanor, covetous of all the western lands, descended on Stygia, bringing fire and war, and bent it under their yoke. That was then.

Today, the southwestern Borean coast contains the scattered seeds of Stygian hegemony, rich, discordant cities ancient in culture and distrustful of each other. Although the Vanoran boot is long removed, the scars of dominion remain, as no new Stygian Empire has thus been able to reemerge. Instead, new, hungry wolves prowl through the region: Atlantean wayfarers, dead Asturian legions, Lemurian refugees. The drums of war sound in the south, and it will be Stygian cities that will burn.

(This is something related to the War in the North campaign being run by my friend and co-blogger Rich Forest, which he has been writing about over on his Superhero Necromancer blog and will presumably link to here when he has the time. However, this is also related to a possible campaign I may run after War in the North is over, simply titled War in the South. There will be more coming. Enjoy!)

Partial Roster of the Diggers' College

Herein lies a selection of the Special Task Force for the Reclamation of the Overlook, initiated by the Diggers' College of Vanor:

"Howler" Hróðvitnisson is a Varangian barbarian who came in with a crew from the distant north. He arrived with his companions on a longship just two weeks ago, having braved many months at sea and on wild rivers, following the treacherous passage across the northern reaches and down the treacherous rivers of Groznaya to reach the city. They came in the night down the river, docked, and emerged as a shield wall raiding party of cultists of the Gullet, the Wolf who Will Swallow the Sun. That very first night, they raided the ancient tomb of Sol Invictus himself, to despoil the old bastard's tomb in the name of the Gullet and show him what is to come.

There they all died horrible, gruesome, unspeakable deaths.

"Howler" was the only member of the raiding party to survive. Now he is left without shield-brothers or companions, and he is not charismatic enough to gather a crew around himself. He sleeps in the longship that brought him here, and he hires himself out as a warrior, bodyguard, soldier, and raider.

---

Ivo Hermanni, an Arcanum Delver, has as his only goals to pick clean the bones of the civilization that subjugated his ancestors and recover any Rothari artifacts that may have found there way into those tombs.  And maybe to prove that he's as much of a badass as his six brothers (most of whom are gladiators)...

---

Vasilisa, Slezan Warlock, a former urchin with a predilection for black things, dead things, vile things. When you cross her path, bad things happen...to you.

---

Once a monk devoted to Sol Invictus, Justinian Quintus Justero's curiosity, dour nature, and penchant for asking questions eventually drove him from the monastery. By then, he had taught himself the basics of magic from the monastery's considerable libraries. He now seeks to find out more about the Witch Kings and their ilk; not from a desire for power, but to see what drove them to evil. Despite his grim and pessimistic demeanor, Justinian is driven by a thirst for knowledge and desire to help his city reclaim its ruined districts. He is a proficient healer and sage in addition to his wizardry.

---

Bulb is a Kalingoi scavenger that has been shunned by her race. Her entire tribe was wiped out by a plague leaving her the sole survivor, weakened though she was. Other Kalingoi feared she would bring the disease to their camps and treated her as a pariah. She's rather used to being on her own and not fitting in, although she's made a few friends here and there. None the less, she's learned to look after herself first, and THEN think about others.  But a girl(ish)'s got to live... and thus why she's chillin' with this bunch.

---

Velis Olegovich Ustinov is a boy of probably 13 or 14. Such a charming and innocent lad! And so studious. You would be, too, if you'd been taken in by Old Mad Yaroslav. Say, whatever happened to Old Man Yaroslav, anyway? How did this boy travel so far to this place of ancient tombs and magicks with no companion but a magpie, and why has he been going in there alone?

---

Zaba Bradaslav is a Selzan Lackey that works as a porter for dungeoneering expeditions. He has a a no nonsense personality, do what has to be done, or do it because it needs doing.  He hates dead weight, because he will be the one that ends up carrying it.

From the journal of Zaba Bradaslav:

Holy Dungeoneers Expedition 001
A proper burial?  A proper burial?!  Feh.  Who's going to carry that meat soup and bones back up?  Me.  Who is going to dig the grave? Me.  Well I've got news for these religious delver's.  Those services cost extra.  It wasn't my idea to try to jump that puddle of pudding.  Nope.  My idea was finding an alternate route.  But this guy, wearing mail armor, rubbing a whet stone on sword every morning decides, "Nah, I can make it."  But he didn't.  Now, it turns out, the triune demands a proper burial.  I can see the satisfaction on their faces.  their shares just got a little bit bigger, and they want me, poor Zaba, to haul the dead fucking weight to the top in order to assuage their guilt.  Well, it's going to cost extra.  I'm taking his sword, and I'm getting his share.  I'm fucking done making 3 gold a day to put up with these triune worshiping bastards.

---

Korbin Vacarius is a native Vanoran Venturer. His main goal is the improvement of the city and its markets, reclamation. His general approach will be to use money to cover for his shortcomings, and to invest his fortunes so they bring even greater returns. As for dungeon delving, I suppose he sees the relics hidden away as lost opportunities. What good are the of the glories and riches lying among the ruin and the beasts, when they should be in civilized hands, circulating on the market as part of the bustle of life, their craft and aesthetics enjoyed by those who truly can appreciate them?

---

Ardo Valerianus is an Expert who has studied Natural Philosophy and Alchemy, along with Naturalism. He’s not really cut out to be the brightest candle in any guild's candelabrum, but has gotten by thus far on the Sterling Principle: Always Follow the Directions Carefully. He is native to the city, although one side of his family looks to be Rothari (and then there’s his first name).

Alas, most collegia prefer alchemists who already have a full lab, along with full training. Ardo thought he’d take over from old Brontus eventually, but then Brontus and the lab disappeared in a distinctly impressive cubic explosion of wailing mauve vapors, leaving nothing but an eight-foot-tall stone sheep statue with rather unpleasant lichen on it.

Ardo had nothing to do with that. He wasn’t even in the area at the time. You can all rest easy on that count.

“Who forgot to wash the alembic? It’s got tiny talking demons again."

“Goals? Goals? Oh, that’s a good one. Right, let me just line my plans out in front of you, since there’s probably no chance at all that you might be some variety of brigand or mountebank, let alone one of that sort of people who delight in stepping on other people’s aspirations just to hear that despairing squeak noise as they’re demolished. Wait, no, on second thought, I’ll be just a smidge less trusting. Call it a character flaw.

So. Alchemists use what you might call stuff. Stuff we need expensive stuff to do things with and to. Glassware. Ingredients. Leaves, roots, seeds, calyxes, tubers and rhizomes; integumentia, sundry organs from uncanny beasts (or at least, insufficiently canny ones), scales, horns, liquors, ichors, and oozes; effluvia, perfluvia, humours and ylem. Are you going to give me all of those free of charge? No? Then stop asking me why I’m wearing a backpack and heading into a hillside. I have a Potion of Nasal Compression I can happily jam into your face if that’ll make you happier.”

***
Image Credits:

Because these were submitted images by the players to illustrate their PCs, I've not made any effort to hunt down where they got these. Obviously, we didn't make these (except for Image #2, which was drawn by the player) and all rights belong to the artists and/or business entities that paid for the images. If anyone has the lowdown for sourcing these, please let me know, and I'll update the post.

Updated Image Credits:

Image #2: "Ivo Hermanni" by Bill Spytma (link).

Image #5: "Magia" by Andre Bdois (link).

Mapping Vanor: The City

The following post contains the neighborhood capsule descriptions I sent to my players before the Ruins of Vanor campaign started properly. All neighborhoods (or regios, as the Vanorans call them) refer to locations on the Big Board map to the left, which is mounted on a piece of poster board 3ft x 2ft in size. At this early stage of the campaign, some areas are more defined than others, hence the abundant white space for most of the map. We'll add more to the Big Board as the campaign goes on. 

Oh, and three guess which historical city I have based Vanor on...

***

The ruined city within the outer Marcian Walls consists of ten districts. Of these ten, only four have settled habitation; the remaining six are in ruins and teeming with beasts, kalingoi goblins, and undead. As residents of Vanor, you know much about the settled districts and significantly less about the ruined ones.

The Settled Districts

Regio I. Campus Marcianus
This district (the "Fields of Marcian") is the second most populous area of the ruined city. Originally a marshy plain outside the walls of the original city, the Fourth Witch-King, Marcian the Reclaimer, had the marsh drained and used as a staging area for his wars of expansion and conquest. Eventually, the fields became a built up area of grand public buildings, temples, and theaters; refined boulevards and columned porticoes; and dense urban apartments clustered in between. Bordered by the Basana River in the west and the Via Lata (aka The Broadway) in the east, the current district is anchored by the great and still functioning Baths of Tullius and the massive but crumbling Stadium of Marcian. Retaining walls along the Basana have fallen into disrepair, and repeated flooding has turned part of the district into ruined marsh, which now serves as a den for thieves and criminals. Closeness to the neighboring Regio IX. Overlook district has meant repeated monster, undead, and vermin incursions, threatening the stability of the Marcian Fields. It has seen better days.

Regio II. Campus Vaticanus
This district ("Vatican Fields") is the smallest, newest, and most orderly of the ancient ruined city's districts. Anchored in the west by Vatican Hill and the massive Solarium of the Unconquered Sun at its base and in the east by the looming Barbican fortress, Vatican Fields is a planned district of detached villas, domus residences, marble porticoes, and religious statuary. Isolated from the ruin sprawl by the Basana River, Vatican Fields suffers little of the monstrous incursions that trouble the Regio I. Campus Marcianus district directly across the river. Silver and gold-clad sun priests stroll along the Via Cornelia on sunny days. Country gentry visiting their urban villas move through the streets on covered litters. Street vendors hawk their wares from tabernacle shops. And at night, the streets are lit by the soft blue glow of lumin lamps. Life in Vatican Fields is truly touched by the Sun.

Regio III. Transbasana
This district is the largest and most densely populated of the ruined city's districts. When access and services fell away from other districts as the city collapsed, Transbasana across the river retained key water and infrastructure services, so people poured in. Today it is a teeming slum and manufacturing district that completely covers the summit and slopes of the Janiculum Hill. It is home to the great basilica known as the Hall of Work, headquarters of the powerful Labor Collegium; the looming and twisted Tower of Mysteries, holding the secrets of the Arcanum Collegium; and the Naumachian Pits, a former artificial lake that's been converted into gladiatorial arenas.

Regio IV. Aventinus
This district was once the key port of entry into Vanor for river trade and commercial traffic, with its river banks converted into long, porticoed quays fronting row upon row of storage warehouses that reached all the way back to the slopes of the Aventine Hill. Today, commercial traffic is fairly limited, and most of the quays and warehouses have been converted for other purposes or left to ruin. Instead, due to its direct border with the ruined Regio V. Via Interius district, Aventinus is the key staging area for explorations into the city's ruins, centered on the Delver's Porch, a portico along the river serving as the key mercenary market; the Emporium, the largest quay and chief docks; and Northmen's Landing, the quay and warehouse compound taken over as a Varangian holdfast. And adding to the district's dangerous character are the two witch king tombs squatting on the Aventine's twin summits.

The Ruined Districts

Regio V. Via Interius
Sparsely built and serving as the chief overland entrance from the ports of the Inner Sea, this district is dominated by ruined caravan posts, religious shrines, and a large bath complex overrun with kalingoi goblins.

Regio VI. Celian Heights
In its heyday, this was a fashionable residential district, dotted with wealthy homes and villas, recreational baths, and opulent basilicas. Today, delvers target the family crypts dug deep into the Celian Hill's north slopes and beneath the ruined villas as sources of lost wealth.

One small section of the Imperial Necropolis on the Esquiline Hill

Regio VII. Esquillae
Largely made up of the Esquiline Hill and the upper greenbelt ridge that divides the eastern Marcian Walls with the summits of the Quirinal, Viminal, and Cispian Hills, Esquillae is a dangerous regio dominated  by the tomb of the evil Third Witch-King (remembered only as the Anti-Pater) and the imperial necropolis contained behind it, which serves as the chief source of all the undead in the ruined city.

Regio VIII. Alta Semita
Containing the Quirinal, Viminal, and Cispian Hills and the upper summit behind the hills, Alta Semita was a rich and sumptuous district of villas, basilicas, schools, and temples affording excellent views of the lower regios of the city. Today, it is perhaps the most dangerous and overrun ruin in the city, due to the presence of two witch king tombs on the lower summits of two hills and one witch king tomb built beneath a massive and ruined bath complex on the upper summit.

The old Temple of Sol Invictus

Regio IX. Overlook
Dominated by the long ridge of the Pincian Hill, Overlook was known as the Hill of Gardens due to the overabundance of pleasures gardens and recreational complexes. Bordering with the Regio I. Campus Marcianus district, this densely built district is a key focus for exploration delves and holds the ruins of the first Temple of Sol Invictus, rumored to be filled with great wealth in its hidden lower vaults.

Regio X. Velabrum
Once the political heart of the mighty city centered on the Capitoline and Palatine Hills, today the Velabrum is littered with ruined forums, crumbling market porticoes, overgrown horse tracks and amphitheaters, and, at the heart of it all, the dangerous and deadly tomb of the First Witch King, Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun, perched atop the Palatine Hill.

***
Image Credits:

Images #1-#5: Map by author, working from the public domain image "Plan of the Hills of Ancient Rome," engraved by C. Smith, Strand (link).

Image #6: Roman Graveyard Image from Lapham's Quarterly (link).

Image #7: "Model Temple of Aphaia Glyptothek Munich" (link).

Play Report #1: Beer Wisdom in the Ruins of Vanor

Scene: A quiet evening of drink and talk in the Laughing Goat, a salty tavern built on a pier jutting out into the Basana River from the Transbasana regio, is this very night concerned with the recent workings of the Diggers College.

"Heard the Diggers are makin' a push into the Overlook."

"Really? Thought they did most of their delvin' in old villas outside the walls?"

"Well, the head man, John of Tharsensis--"

"Oh, shame how he died...."

"Certe, certe, seems like the wolves are gettin' worse every season. Anyway, ole John set his best Diggers to task on it before he met the Sun. Even rounded up some burly, mute Northmen and a gobbo turncoat to fill the delve out. It's the talk of the Fields, or so I hear."

"Mute Northmen?!? Gobbo turncoats? Was John tryin' to kill it before it started?"

"Don't be talkin' ill o' the dead. The Diggers seem like alright people. And they care about this city a whole heap more than some others I could name."

"Hey, ab imo pectore, friend, didn't mean nothin' by it. Just surprising is all. How's the push going?"

"Well, friend of mine who frequents the Digger flea market heard talk they made their first delves into the old Temple of Sol Invictus."

"The one on the Palatine?"

"Certe non, I said Overlook. This one is apparently on the lower slopes of the Quirinal."

"Huh, didn't know there was one there. What'd they find?"

"Slime, skeletons, stinkin' gobbos, and some death to finish it off. One of the Northmen drank poison."

"Drank poison?!? Just swilled it down? He lose a bet or something?"

"Who knows. You know Varangians. They'll drink anythin' if it's in a horn or looks like bee juice."

"Certe, friend, certe."

***
Image Sources:

Image #1: "Mead" by Eldoras (link).

Religion in Vanor: The Church of the Unconquered Sun

Sol Invictus is the Sun Personified; the Sun as Light, Warmth, Rebirth, and Symmetry; the Martial Sun who forges order throughout the cosmos; the Great Sun who rises each day to bring light and life to the world, then descends into the Star Sea to do battle with the Chaotic Night Below. He has never lost this war. He is the Unconquered Sun.

In the ruins of mighty Vanor, the Church of the Unconquered Sun conducts and maintains the Solian creed, directing the proper rituals; ministering to the faithful; and recording the litany of the past from the Great Solarium in the Campus Vaticanus regio. It is a henotheistic faith, which means it worships and holds preeminent a single god while also tolerating the existence of other deities, sects, spirits, and cosmologies in the world. In the past, this tolerance has not always manifested itself very positively in the Church's dealings with other faiths, but since the fall, it has generally comported itself more liberally, out of necessity if nothing else.

Sol Invictus's chief symbols are the sun disc, the sun star (a sun disc with six star points), and the flaming pilum (a short throwing spear).

The Creed
According to tradition, a Vanoran's life is one of cyclical change and perpetual renewal. The Church teaches that all life in the universe comes from the Great Sun in the form of sun sparks, which constitute one's conscious being (i.e., one's soul). Upon death, an individual's sun spark ascends up into the Great Sun, becomes cleansed in the holy fire, and then descends once more to the world to be reborn. Vanorans usually symbolize this process through funeral pyres and cremation rituals followed by the erection of ustrina, or cremation altars.

This perpetual and enduring process changed slightly with the coming of Lucius Aurelius Solius Invictus, the first Witch-King of Vanor. According to the Church, the first Witch-King, at the height of his glory, prowess, and might, discovered the immutable truth of the universe. This ur knowledge, normally beyond the ken of human understanding or comprehension, gave Sol Invictus the means to achieve Unitas ("unity") with the hyper cosmos (i.e., that which is beyond all). Upon his death, the sun spark of Sol Invictus rose up into the Great Sun and, instead of returning anew into the world once more, it transcended beyond.

Now when a person's sun spark joins with the Great Sun upon death, Sol Invictus himself sits in judgment. Those deemed worthy and ready are allowed to achieve Unitas and join the Hypersol ("The Sun Beyond"). Those deemed not ready for judgment are returned to the world to be born anew and to continue working toward the higher path of Unitas. Those deemed unworthy are cast out of the Great Sun into the Star Sea, never to be reborn or reach Unitas, to float for all eternity in the Blackest Night.

Therefore, those wishing to transcend beyond and join the Hypersol receive guidance and instruction in the higher mysteries from the Church itself, which remains the terrestrial arbiter of Sol Invictus's spiritual path to Unitas, and the Collegium Solare, or Solar College, which consists of saintly individuals past and present whose lives and deeds demonstrate this path.

The Calendar
One of the Church's most vital yet taxing obligations is the maintenance of the celestial calendar called the Decimemoria. Nominally for record-keeping and the timing of festivals and holy weeks, the Decimemoria represents the Church's efforts to provide the faithful with some semblance of order and structure in the chaotic world left in the wake of the Vanoran collapse. The Church has maintained the Decimemoria for over 420 years.

Measured by the regular if inconsistent movements of constellations and other stellar objects in the Star Sea (most notably the ringed planet Helios), the Decimemoria is a decennial calendar where one celestial year consists of 129 months of twenty-eight days each and forty-three festival/holy weeks of seven days each. This makes each celestial year 3,913 days long, or approximately ten solar years and nine months in length.

The Decimemoria is a complex calendrical system that proves difficult for the Church to maintain adequately. There are a number of reasons for this. First, the imprecise movements of stellar objects in the Star Sea and the irregular pattern of seasons make it difficult to measure consistently the passage of time in the world. As such, the Church regularly needs to revise the calendar, leading in some instances to the rearranging or removal of entire months of festival weeks. In one notorious incident, the Church decreed the removal of an entire solar year from Celestial Year XXXII (thirty-two).

Second, there is considerable debate within the Church over the proper role of the Decimemoria and the use of more accurate calendrical systems. Thus, while the Decimemoria is the canonical church calendar, other orders and sects associated with the Church regularly advocate their own idiosyncratic calendars. For instance, the Stylite Monks of the Seeping Dawn, popularly known as the Column Pissers (not a term of endearment), claim to have discerned a pattern of time keeping in the occurrences of rainfall upon the ruined city, leading to their insistent proclamations that it is currently the year 8,631 since the first rains fell on Vanor (this date has not changed for a number of years).

Finally, the complexity of the Decimemoria and the proffering of competing calendars has led to much lay resistance in adopting any calendrical system. Most living in the ruins of Vanor maintain a rough attachment to straightforward solar-based calendars pegged to any number of foundational years or merely note the passage of time by the seasons, with no particular care whether or not there are calculation errors or misalignments in the systems. This has made the Church's advocacy of the Decimemoria that much more challenging.

***
Image Sources:

Image #1: Sun Disc by Bulldoggenliebchen (link).

Image #2: Giant Prominence on the Sun Erupted (link).

Image #3: Ars Pacis Virtual Recreation (link).

Vanor Custom Class: The Trickster

This is another custom class for the Ruins of Vanor campaign (the others thus far: the Holy Dungeoneer and the Arcanum Delver), but unlike the others that I made, this one was made by one of my players (using the ACKS Player's Companion, as always). He had a very distinct concept in mind, as you will see.

Tricksters are touched by magic, descended or reincarnated of chaotic gods or immortals. They frequently manifest their latent abilities in their early teens, and sometimes even younger. While most tricksters spend their entire lives on the run, some are called to adventure by dreams and visions; others adventure out of a desire to learn the secrets of the gods.

Prime Requisite: CHA
Requirements: INT 9
Hit Dice: 1d4
Maximum Level: 14

Because of their frequent need to abandon the life they've led, tricksters receive limited combat training. At first level, tricksters hit an unarmored foe (AC 0) with an attack throw of 10+. They advance in attack throws only two points every six levels of experience (i.e., half as fast as fighters), though they advance in saving throws by two points every four levels of experience. Because of their need of free hands and movement, they may only fight with quarterstaffs, clubs, daggers, and darts. They are unable to use shields, fight with two weapons, or wear any kind of armor. For these reasons, tricksters are quite vulnerable to physical danger, and in an adventuring group they should be protected.

Because of a trickster’s magical nature, he does not reincarnate as other classes can. Instead of the usual result, a Trickster must roll 1d10; for results 1-6, also make an unmodified 1d20 roll on Tampering With Mortality, and use the 1d10 value in place of the usual 1d6 to determine additional effects.

1. Human Trickster
2. Human Trickster
3. Human Trickster
4. Human Trickster
5. Human Trickster
6. Human Trickster
7. Human Trickster (No mortality roll)
8. Human (pick Class)
9. Demi-Human (roll 1d4, 1-2 Elf, 3-4 Dwarf, pick Class)
10. Monster

Starting at 1st level, a trickster has the ability to move silently and/or hide in shadows as a Thief does. While Tricksters are not natural pickpockets, their first manifestation allows them to use prestidigitation and pick pockets as a thief of half-class level. At 2nd level, a trickster gains the running and skulking proficiencies (already factored into the table below).

At 3rd level, tricksters can learn and cast arcane spells as a Mage of 1/3-class level. They also manifest a silver tongue (command of voice) that gives them +2 to reaction rolls to reaction rolls with creatures he speaks to. If this bonus results in a total of 12 or more, the subjects act as if charmed while in his presence. Creatures with a WIS greater than the trickster’s CHA are immune to this power (and the trickster will know they are immune). Additionally, a trickster of 3rd level can perceive intentions, knowing the exact reaction result (Hostile, Unfriendly, etc.) of creatures he interacts with, even if the creatures attempt to lie or conceal their reactions. Creatures with a CHA greater than the trickster’s WIS are immune to this power (and the trickster will know they are immune).

At 4th level, tricksters are capable of sensing power (as the proficiency), detecting spellcasters within 60’ and estimate their level of power relative to his own. He can tell when arcane magic has been used within the last 24 hours within the same vicinity. (The trickster cannot necessarily sense whether an item is magic, unless it has been used in the last 24 hours.) Each use takes a turn. He can also use alter self as a spell-like ability once per hour with a 1 turn casting time.

At 5th level, once per day, a trickster can use charm monster as a spell like-ability with a 1 turn casting time.

At 7th level, the trickster gains a +2 bonus to reaction rolls when encountering intelligent chaotic monsters from his ancestors or former self’s ancient pacts. Intelligent chaotic monsters suffer a -2 penalty to saving throws against any charm spells cast by the character.

At 9th level, the trickster can establish a court of 2d6-1 thief apprentices of 1st level and a 1st level trickster will come to work with the character. If hired, they must be paid standard rates for ruffians. A successful character might use these followers to start a Thieves’ Guild. Additional rules for hideouts are detailed in the Campaign chapter. Additionally, the trickster also can teleport as a spell-like ability once per month, and can scry as a spell-like ability once per day with a casting time of 1 turn.

At 12th level, the trickster can use programmed illusion as a spell-like ability once per month with a casting time of 1 turn.

Upon reaching 14th level, the trickster faces a choice, and must select one of these two options:

1. immediate reincarnation that also reduces level to 1 and XP to 0 using the table above, but without the required mortality roll on 1-6
2. forever more roll both the 1d20 and 1d6 twice whenever rolling on the Tampering With Mortality table, taking the lower result of each.

Proficiencies: acrobatics, alertness, arcane dabbling, bargaining, bribery, contortionism, craft, diplomacy, disguise, elven bloodline, familiar, gambling, illusion resistance, knowledge, language, lip reading, loremastery, magical engineering, mapping, mimicry, performance, profession, quiet magic, running, seduction, skirmishing, skulking, and soothsaying

Trickster Level Progression				Trickster Attack and Saving Throws
Experience	Title	Level	Hit Dice	Abilities	Petrif. & Paralysis	Poison & Death	Blast & Breath	Staffs & Wands	Spells	Atk. Thr.
0	Stray	1	1d4	Hide in Shadows, Move Silently, Prestidigitation	13+	13+	16+	15+	14+	10+
1325	Urchin	2	2d4	Skulking, Running	13+	13+	16+	15+	14+	10+
2650	Ragamuffin	3	3d4	Command of Voice, Perceive Intentions	12+	12+	15+	13+	14+	10+
5300	Guttersnipe	4	4d4	Sense Power, Alter Self 1/hour (1 turn)	12+	12+	15+	13+	14+	9+
10600	Vagrant	5	5d4	Charm Monster 1/day (1 turn)	11+	11+	14+	12+	13+	9+
21200	Swindler	6	6d4		11+	11+	14+	12+	13+	9+
40000	Shyster	7	7d4	Ancient Pacts	10+	10+	13+	11+	12+	8+
80000	Flimflammer	8	8d4		10+	10+	13+	11+	12+	8+
180000	Trickster	9	9d4	Teleport 1/month (1 round), Scry 1/day (1 turn)	9+	9+	12+	10+	11+	8+
280000	Scoundrel	10	9d4+1		9+	9+	12+	10+	11+	7+
380000	Mountebank	11	9d4+2		8+	8+	11+	9+	10+	7+
480000	Imposter	12	9d4+3	Programmed Illusion 1/month (1 turn)	8+	8+	11+	9+	10+	7+
580000	Pretender	13	9d4+4		7+	7+	10+	8+	9+	6+
680000	Deceiver	14	9d4+5	Reincarnation	7+	7+	10+	8+	9+	6+

Trickster Special Abilities				Trickster Spells
Level	Move Silently	Hide in Shadows	Prestidigitation	1	2
1	17+	19+	17+	-	-
2	14+	16+	17+	-	-
3	13+	15+	16+	1	-
4	12+	14+	16+	1	-
5	11+	13+	15+	1	-
6	10+	12+	15+	2	-
7	8+	10+	14+	2	-
8	6+	8+	14+	2	-
9	4+	6+	13+	2	1
10	2+	4+	13+	2	1
11	1+	2+	12+	2	1
12	1+	1+	12+	2	2
13	1+	1+	10+	2	2
14	1+	1+	10+	2	2

Image Credit

"Crow Man" by James Zapata (link).