Barbarians of Lemuria: The Breath Of A Demon God

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This is a tale of a distant time, a time that may be long gone or yet to come, when the cities of Lemuria stands as bastions of rough civilisation in a world of savage wilderness, haunted by strange beasts and filled with the buried secrets of a past long fallen into ruin. It is the age of Parsool, city of high masts, its dominance of the seas challenged by the crude pirates setting sail from the hidden Port of the Sea Lords; of Lysor, where the days are filled with light and learning but the nights haunted by madness and fever dreams; of Zalut, bloated with the poisonous legacy of the Sorcerer Kings, and Tyrus, whose men are grim and vengeful and sworn to slay any magician who comes within a longbow's shot of their high walls. But greatest of them all is Satarla, the Jewel of Lemuria, with its libraries and its tall towers, whose fleet of flying silver ships soars through the sky through the sciences of the long-lost Golden Age...


The Breath of a Demon God is a play-by-post campaign for Barbarians of Lemuria (Legendary Edition), Game Mastered by Baeraad.


Links[edit]


Player Characters[edit]


Past Player Characters[edit]


Origin summary[edit]

Axos Mountains - you are one of the fair, rangy barbarians from the Axos Mountains. You are tough and hardy, but unfamiliar with life outside of your mountain home.

Beshaar Desert - you are one of the fierce, wiry nomads from the Beshaar Desert, suspicious of outsiders and capable of thriving in climates that would be death to others.

Halakh - you come from Halakh, the City of Assassins, where the night is full of secrets and blades, and only a quick wit survives.

Lysor - you come from Lysor, the City of Healing, second only to Satarla in civilised refinement but haunted by madness and strange addictions.

Malakut - you come from Malakut, the City of Thieves, whose people are fierce in battle but ill-regarded by other Lemurians for their dishonourable ways.

Oomis - you come from Oomis, the City of Merchants that lies at the edge of the plains of Klaar and trades with the diverse non-human races there.

Parsool - you come from Parsool, the City of Mariners, whose trade empire is built on the toil of hearty sailors but threatened by piracy and staggering beneath high taxes needed to pay for efforts to root out the pirate menace.

Port of the Sea Lords - you come from the Port of the Sea Lords, hidden deep among the uncharted waters of the Pirate Isles, where every Captain is a King and savvy seamanship and strength of arms is the measure of any man.

Satarla - you come from Satarla, the Jewel of Lemuria, most civilised, wealthy and powerful of cities, whose people have a reputation for being overly aware of this fact.

Shamballah - you come from Shamballah, the savage city standing above the jungles of Qush, whose people are the most keen-eyed hunters in the world but regarded as bumpkins and near-barbarians by other city-dwellers.

Tyrus - you come from the city of Tyrus, that is home to the best archers in the world but currently brooding over its recent defeats in war and looking for sorcerous betrayal to explain its defeats, leading to a place of distrust and inner strife, but also to the place whose warriors are most capable of fighting off magic with steel.

Urceb - you come from Urceb, the Forgotten City, built on the ruins of an older civilisation and full of treasure-hunters digging through the ruins for its spoils.

Valgard - you are a barbarian of the Ice Wastes, stout of limb and artless of speech, believing beyond all things in the honest power of steel.

Zalut, the City of Magicians - you come from Zalut, the City of Magicians, where sorcery is commonplace and power is everything.


Rule summaries[edit]

The basic system[edit]

When you do most things, you roll 2d6+relevant attribute+relevant career (if any)+situational modifiers (if any). If you roll 9 or higher, you succeed. If you roll a natural 12, you always succeed, and if you roll a 12 and the roll would have succeeded even without that rule, you've rolled a Mighty Success. If you roll a natural 2, you always fail, and if you roll a 2 and the roll would have been a failure anyway, you've rolled a Calamitous Failure. Both of those are, obviously, fancy barbarian-talk for critical successes and botches. You can spend a Hero Point to transform a Mighty Success into a Legendary Success - see below for rules on Hero Points.


Calculating points[edit]

There are four kinds of points in BoL that can be spent or lost in the course of adventure:

  • Every character has a number of Lifeblood (LB) points equal to 10+Strength. LB points lost to unarmed attacks (that is, ones inflicted with the Brawl ability) are regained in full with 15 minutes of rest and relaxation. For LB points lost to more serious damage, half the LB points lost (round down) are regained the first time the wounded character manages to take 15 minutes to rest. In addition, a successful Mind+Physician roll by another character can restore another number of LB points equal to the other character's ranks in Physician. The remaining points must be recovered at a page of 1 per day spent resting.
  • Every character has a number of Hero Points (HP). Most characters have a maximum of 5, though this can vary depending on what Boons they have taken - see Boons and Flaws below. Spent HP replenish to their maximum after each adventure.
  • A character with the Magician career (even if it is at rank 0) has a number of Arcane Power (AP) points equal to 10+Magician. Arcane Power points replenish differently depending on how they are spent; a sorcerer regains 4 AP spent on cantrips every noon and every midnight, and 4 AP spent on spells of the First Magnitude every noon or midnight (the sorcerer decides which one when he first takes the Magician career, and it can not be changed thereafter).
  • A character with the Priest career has a number of Fate points equal to their Priest rank. By spending 1 Fate point, the priest can aid or hinder a single die roll of another character. The aided/hindered character rolls an extra die for the task, and drops the highest (if hindered) or lowest (if aided). The assistance or hindrance must somehow be linked to the priest's god's domain - for instance, a priest of Filliana, the Goddess of the Night, might bless an attempt to stay hidden in the shadows, and a priest of Chiomalla, the Goddess of Crops, might curse the efforts of a raider to strike down a peasant defending his fields. To restore spent Fate points, the priest must visit a temple to his deity and make devotions for one hour per Fate point spent.


Combat[edit]

To decide your initiative in combat, roll 1d6+Agility at the start. Highest result goes first. In the event of a tie, the character with the highest rank in the combat ability he or she is using goes first; in an event of a tie even there, the character with the highest rank in an appropriate career goes first. For simplicity, you keep the same initiative order until the combat ends. All rabble of the same kind goes on a single initiative, though standard NPCs and villains get their own.

To hit, you roll 2d6+Agility+Brawl/Melee/Ranged (depending on the type of attack)+situational modifiers (if any) - the target's Defense. As usual, a roll of 9 or more is a success and means that you hit the enemy. Sometimes, you might also add a career to the roll - for instance, you might add Assassin when trying to stab someone in the back, or Pirate when boarding an enemy ship. This is the exception rather than the rule, though, and such bonuses rarely apply more often than once in a single battle.

Upon hit, the attacker inflicts the weapon's damage plus their Strength rank if fighting unarmed or with a melee weapon, or weapon damage plus half their Strength (round down) if fighting with a ranged weapon. An unarmed attack does 1d2 + the attacker's Strength rank.

If the defender is wearing armour, they may roll the armour's Protection (for example, 1d6-2 for Light Armour) and subtract the result from the damage inflicted. Negative results on the Protection roll counts as 0.

The defender loses Lifeblood points equal to the damage taken. A character whose Lifeblood is reduced to 0 has fallen unconscious. If a character's Lifeblood is reduced below 0, they will slowly bleed out, losing 1 point of Lifeblood per turn. If Lifeblood ever sinks below -5, the character is dead. A dying character can be stabilised by someone making a Mind roll along with an appropriate career (most commonly Physician), with a penalty equal to the wounded character's current negative Lifeblood.

A Mighty Success on an attack roll against a hero, villain or standard NPC does the maximum damage for the weapon used +1d6. When inflicting a Mighty Success against rabble (nameless, non-powered NPCs), a hero rolls damage as usual, but the result is the number of rabble that are immediately removed from the fight. The hero's player decides just how it happens - perhaps he cut them all down with a single mighty swing, he managed to cut the supports for a balcony and make it crash down on their heads, or maybe he just dispatched one of them so gruesomely that the others fled in fear.

As usual, a Mighty Success that was achieved through a natural roll of 12 that would even otherwise have been a success can be turned into a Legendary Success. Such an epic blow deals the maximum amount of damage for the hero's weapon + 6 + 1d6 damage to a villain or standard NPC. When achieving a Legendary Success against rabble, the hero rolls damage as usual, but rolls the damage die twice. (thus, a hero of Strength 2 wielding a sword that does 1d6 damage would roll 2d6+2) The result is the number of rabble removed from battle.

A combatant who find themselves overwhelmed can declare full defense. This precludes any action except some limited movement (like leaping behind a convenient wall, say) but gives +2 to the combatant's Defense for that round.

Alternatively, a combatant might choose to focus on parrying one particular blow in lieu of acting themselves for that round. This is a normal Agility+Melee roll, with a penalty equal to the attacker's Melee rank. At a roll of 9 or higher, the blow is fully parried and does no damage.

It is possible to fight with a weapon in each hand. This allows for two attacks or two parries per round, but inflicts a -2 penalty to both of them.


Boons and Flaws[edit]

Boons and Flaws are extra strengths and weaknesses you can take. Every character automatically gets to pick 1 Boon from his origin. He can get one more Boon by also choosing a Flaw from his origin as well. You can only take one extra Flaw for one extra Boon - after that, you can't get more Boons that way. In addition, you can pay 2 permanent Hero Points per additional Boon (so in practice, you can get at most 2 extra Boons that way).

Boons and Flaws have a variety of effects, but most commonly they describe some situation in which you "roll an extra die." That means that you roll 3d6 instead of 2d6 when doing something in that situation, and then drop the lowest (for a Boon) or highest (for a Flaw) die.


Hero Points[edit]

You can use Hero Points to affect the outcome of a battle or situation and swing the odds to your favour. The following options are available to you:


• A Twist of Fate

• The Luck of the Gods

• Mighty Success

• Legendary Success

• Defy death

• Shake off wounds

• Other


A Twist of Fate

Where the narrative of a scene has not clearly defined a certain piece of information the player might suggest something that sounds reasonable and make that suggestion become fact. Use of a Hero Point in this manner should be at the discretion of the GM and shouldn’t be to effect major changes in a scene and can’t be used to change something that has already been ascertained. For example, if the characters are locked in a dungeon cell, one of them could use a Hero Point to find a loose stone in the wall, that he can pry away, maybe to use to bash the guard over the head when he comes in to serve their slops. A magician could use a Hero Point to account for one of his spell requirements in this way – for example, if the time of day hasn’t already been established, he could state “ah, the hour is perfect for my conjuration”.


The Luck of the Gods

You can spend a point to roll the dice again whenever you make a task resolution roll (even if you roll a 2, which would otherwise be an automatic failure). If you do this you must use the result of your second roll. If you have a boon that allows you to use three dice instead of two, you use all three dice the second time as well.


Turn a success into a Mighty Success

Whenever a player succeeds in combat (or even in non-combat situations), he can turn the success into a Mighty Success at the expenditure of a Hero Point. The results of a Mighty Success depend on what the character is doing.

Note: This is effectively the same as rolling 12 on your Task roll, where 12 would normally have been a success. You can do this even if you spent a Hero Point rolling the dice again.


Turn a Mighty Success into a Legendary Success

If you roll a natural 12 when making your task roll that would have been a success in any event (a Mighty Success), at the expenditure of a Hero Point, you can turn that into a Legendary Success. You can do this even if you spent a Hero Point rolling the dice again (as long as you got 12 on the second roll). However, you cannot make a Legendary Success unless you roll 12 on the dice. (In other words you cannot bump up a normal success into a Mighty Success and then spend another Hero Point to make it a Legendary Success).


Defy death

Hero Points can always be used to keep a Hero alive where he would otherwise be killed. If you have taken sufficient damage to put you below zero LB but above -6, you may spend a point to put your LB to zero: alive but unconscious. If you have received sufficient damage to put you below –5 LB, you may spend a Hero Point to stabilize and remain alive. You are still unconscious but will recover with several days rest.


Shake off wounds

When a hero has just suffered damage, he can take a momentary pause (using his next action) to shake off some of the effects of that wound. In other words, somehow the wound wasn’t quite as bad as it first seemed. Roll a d6 – this is the number of LB he gets back (but he cannot exceed the LB damage he just took).


Other

Anything else your GM allows.


Sorcery[edit]

Briefly, there are two kinds of magic you need to worry about - cantrips and spells of the First Magnitude. There are spells of greater Magnitudes, but those require extensive preparation, so you don't need to worry about those just yet.

Cantrips are minor special effects - flickering lights, phantom sounds, levitating coins, that sort of thing. If you have the Magician career, you are assumed to be carrying around a bunch of amulets and trinkets that you can use to cast cantrips, and they have no other Requirements. They generally cost 1 point of Arcane Power to use and do not usually require a roll. If you are trying to use a cantrip to directly affect someone else (like creating a noise in the other direction that you hope a guard will go and investigate), or you are for some reason trying to cast a cantrip without having your equipment handy, they require a roll of 2d6+Mind+Magician and cost 2 points of Arcane Power. A roll of 8 or 9 will generally be a success.

Spells of the First Magnitude can achieve anything that a single man could achieve with the right equipment and training. They can't let you fly through the air like a bird, but they can let you levitate up a castle wall. They can't smash a wall to rubble, but they can unlock a door. They can't turn someone into your mindless slave, but they can make someone positively disposed to you that has no pressing reason not to be. This also applies in a meta sense: spells of the First Magnitude can be used to conjure simple items out of thin air, since the rules of BoL are pretty lax about what equipment a character is carrying. They can be used offensively, to fling a fireball or similar, in which case they automatically hit and do 1d6 damage. A spell of the First Magnitude requires a roll of 2d6+Mind+Magician and costs 5 points of Arcane Power. A roll of 9 or 10 will generally be a success.

Here's the somewhat tricky bit. A spell of the First Magnitude must meet at least one Requirement - something you must do or have handy in order to cast that spell. If you meet more than one Requirement, each one after the first lowers the casting cost with 1 point of Arcane Power, to a minimum of a cost of 2 points. The possible Requirements are:


• Special Item: An ancient tome, heavy tablet or delicate scroll is required but is relatively easy to come by (some bartering, a short journey or a minor expenditure)

• Line of Sight: The caster must be able to clearly see his or her intended target

• Casting Time: The spell will take at least 1d6 x 30 minutes of meditation, chanting, dancing etc. to correctly execute

• Intimate Materials: A personal item of the intended target (or a tile from the target building, for example) is required

• Special Knowledge: The caster must conduct lengthy research before he or she has the necessary information to cast the spell

• Obvious Technique: The caster must gesture, chant, dance or make strange sounds during the brief casting process

• Hour Power: The spell may only be cast at a specific hour of the day

• Ritual Cleansing: The caster must bathe in clean water and essential oils and shave all bodily hair from his or her body

• Wounds: The magician suffers d3 LB of damage when the spell is cast


Magic can not be used to heal wounds in living creatures, though it can be used to repair broken inanimate objects.

Any cantrip or spell that tries to mess with someone's mind or perception, directly or indirectly, takes the target's Mind stat as a penalty to the Mind+Magician roll.


Character Advancement[edit]

Heroes receive Advancement Points after each completed adventure. The default amount is 2, but it may be raised to 3 to reward roleplaying. Advancement Points can be spent to improve character statistics as follows:

  • Raise an Attribute by 1 point: {current value of Attribute + 3} Advancement points. This has been altered from the RAW.
  • Raise an Ability by 1 point: {current value of Ability + 2} Advancement points.
  • Raise a Career by 1 point: {current value of Career + 1} Advancement points.
  • Get a new Career at a value of 0: 1 Advancement Point. An explanation of how the new Career was acquired is appreciated but not necessary.
  • Get a new Boon that is offered by your origin: 2 Advancement Points. An explanation of how the new Boon was acquired is appreciated but not necessary.
  • Get a new Boon that is not offered by your origin: 3 Advancement Points. An explanation of how the new Boon was acquired is appreciated but not necessary. This has been altered from the RAW.
  • Remove a Flaw: 5 Advancement Points. This has been altered from the RAW.


House Rules[edit]

Improvised Weapons[edit]

An improvised weapon is something like a rock, a chair, a bottle or a stick - something that you can snatch up from the environment but which isn't a real weapon. An improvised weapon can be wielded either with Brawl or Melee (the wielder decides). In either case, it bestows a -1 penalty on the roll and does 1d2 + 1 damage.


Entanglement[edit]

Certain weapons - whips, nets, bolas - can be used to entangle an opponent. An entanglement attack is made with Melee or Ranged, depending on the type of weapon, and has a -1 penalty. If successful, the attack does no damage but the target becomes entangled. While entangled, the target has a -3 penalty to all actions that require the free use of his or her limbs, except for rolls to break free of the entanglement. Such a roll takes one action, unless it achieves a Mighty Success, in which case the target may act normally in the same round as breaking free. The roll to break free can be made with Strength+Barbarian (in which case it breaks the weapon upon success), Agility+Dancer or Agility+Gladiator. The target is considered to have a Defense score of -1 while entangled.

An entanglement must be actively maintained by the attacker, or the target gets loose without the need for a roll. The attacker can perform attacks on the target or on other enemies while still maintaining the entanglement, but his or her damage die is capped at 1d3. The attacker can of course not use the weapon used for the entanglement in any way while still maintaining the entanglement.

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