Editing E6 3.5 The Motley Crew (section)

=Nearby Places and Facts=

==Bladhame==
Bladhame, "Son of the Stones", was a dwarven fortress at some point in the distant past; a mountain hollowed out through unknown magics or unimaginable labor. A handful of dwarves dwell today, along with elves, gnomes, and a great many humans. Precisely what killed the original inhabitants of the city remains a mystery, but stories and theories abound. Ask any two Bladhamers, and you'll hear half a dozen tales between them.

It remains, however, one of the few remaining gateways to the World Below. Behind enormous stone doors, sealed with runes and sigils of obscure and arcane power, Taggit Dal Uggrit ("The Road That The Sun Never Sees") still runs deep into the earth, bringing the occasional caravan from the peoples who dwell below.

The trade in strange goods and stranger knowledge, these merchants, and none can truthfully claim to have seen their faces. But they deal honestly and well, and their occasional presence has drawn folk from great distances with the hope of learning...or acquiring...something that will give them a bit of power.

==The Older Ones==
Premise: Kuo-Toa are evil aztec fishmen from a different, older evolutionary path before Man.

Late on the quietest winter nights, some of the shormost residents of Odd Arbage say that they can hear, just for a moment in the dead of night, a strange bell tolling out across the waters. By day, the stories are ridiculed, dismissed; but on those nights, the people of Odd Arbage shutter their windows tight and keep a roaring fire.

The oldest among them speak tales, when in their cups, of a time when the bells were answered by bells from the shore, and when they were they drew closer, and dark happenings took place at the shoreline.

But that hasn't happened for nigh-on twenty years, they say, though they glance fearfully at the odd gold trinkets that are in some family heirloom collections: little-worn and ill-favoured by all but the most brazen, who often come to a bad end.

Have new trinkets been seen around the town of Odd Arbage? None are sure. Perhaps the stories are so long-forgotten that the pieces are no longer seen as cursed. Perhaps some benighted jeweller is replicating them out of ignorance or misguided curiosity.

But the fishing this year has been the best ever; better even than the year before that, which was better again than the year before that... and some of the old folk wonder to themselves, and stoke roaring fires...

==The Movealong Shadows==
Once there were villages in the foothills of the Karstfells, to the west. Some of the elders can still remember when they were burned out, or found empty. Now only wild men, the nomads, dare to dwell there, and even they speak of enemies that come in the dark, through some moonless night or thick fog, leaving behind only empty tents to be found in the morning. None know who or what they are, but they move through the rocky hills like ghosts, evading watches and guards. Each dark night you camp in the same place you risk them finding you, and then you are never seen again.

==The Karstfells==
The Fells have a bad reputation, getting steadily worse the further west you go...which pushes Bladhames trade route undergound, where these attacks, oddly, never occur.

Your character might have been driven out of the Karstfells as a child...or know more than he's telling.

Considering the Karstfells as the fantasy equivalent of Bolivia/Central America cave system wise, this creates an environment where the surface is bleak and dangerous and the underearth is possibly safer and a more diverse, vibrant ecology...probably connecting to underwater rivers and ocean openings [a sunless sea or two?], where ancient marine races have found their contemptuous
conquerers to now be a thing of history... 

==The Hellas clan==

The Hellas clan has been in Motley since the world changed...though their circumstances have changed somewhat. The result of twisted, magical crossbreeding between higher and lower outsider bloodlines, the Hellas were magical accessories, bred much as pets are in some cultures.
Those few in Motley at the time of the world change were part of the retinue of a minor local Power. When he vanished in a flash of light along with his inner circle, those Hellas left banded together with a few refugees to form their own clan - specialising in otherworldly magics.

There is only one family of Hellas clan in Odd Arbage - Natt the healer, his wife Eleanor the Herber and their daughter Bough - who seems to have a way with spirits and such.

==The Brotherhood of the Blessed Bolt==
The Brotherhood of the Blessed Bolt

This organization of wandering ranger/paladins formed after the Fall of the Moon's Tear to deal with the monstrosities that still roamed the land.

They do not crusade. They hunt and protect.

As monstrosities declined, so did the Brotherhood. Most went on far-ranging journeys to find evil, and few ever came back. Those that stayed became more like knights-errant, wandering and dispensing justice as they saw fit. Those few though kept the memory of the traditions alive, the techniques of monster-hunting, of the various weaknesss and vulnerbilites of demons, devils, lycanthropes and worse.

They revere the Father Sun, whose face watches and judges them by their actions everyday.

A fallen Brother is said to have forgotten the face of his father.

They train not so much in direct combat, as in stealth and attack from a distance, using specially crafted repeating crossbows.

==The Archivists Order==
They call themselves, in their clandestine meetings, the Archivists. Others call them thieves. Some few refer to them as the Bookwyrms, and regard them with a special sort of loathing.

The Archivists feel that is their divinely appointed task to accumulate as much knowledge as possible, in any and all possible form, and to cache it in hidden places to keep it from being lost forever the next time that the Moon sheds a tear.

Some, it must be admitted, take this sacred duty rather more seriously than others.....

==The Sambaqui Mounds==
Dotted along the coast of the Lesser Sea are barrow-like mounds known as Sambaquis, mostly overgrown and unnoticeable. The Church maintains that they are simply piles of refuse, shells and broken pottery, from ancient primitives who once lived here.

The common people know better, however. The Sambaqui are burial mounds for the first of the Kuo-Toa kings. Any man who sets foot on one of the mounds is blighted - he will never raise a son to take his place and his dreams will shrivel. A woman who steps on a Sambaqui will have her children taken by the Kuo-Toa but will be blessed with unnatural health.

It is said that the Barons, ignorant of common wisdom, have all stepped on Sambaqui and have even taken taken some of their wealth from the mounds. But they have paid the price.

*Characters are part of a small community who lose the majority of their defenders in a conflict - the PC's are the apprentices, squires and initiates who were left behind to provide a skeleton guard. Now they are all that is left. Using a 'points of light' [more a 'dark ages', really] background for the setting, the game becomes about dealing with the outcome of most of your workforce [and family] being dead, keeping the community alive and replacing all the lost resources that losing most of its fighting population results in. This will be hard to do in a resource poor world [if you consider population as a resource].

*The concept is fairly different to 'normal' [in the loosest sense] D&D, in that the characters start with a vital objective [save the village] and a resource poor environment to do it in [no high levels, no magic traders]. The community itself becomes the 'treasure' and the characters need to defend it from bands of looting orcs, various baddies and other adventurers... and the replacement of people in a small community is a long term objective, inclined to tie the party to one area.


==Gods and the Rude Pantheon==
The relationship between mortals and gods is fundamentally different in this campaign.
The Grand and High Powers planted their heels firmly on the neck of many deities, great and small, during their increasingly insane reign. Some, like Pelor, Ehlonna and Boccob, who's existence is woven into the make of the world, were supressed into little more than their earthly manifestations [Sun, woods and magic]. Others, like Lolth and Yondalla, were enslaved. Some fled and hid, some were killed. All were humbled.
When Bahamut fell and the Winds stilled, the world paused...and one of his semi divine sons took the mantle of Bahamut. The magical and philosophical implications of this are still being fought out in the hearts of mortals and Outsiders alike.

Only the primal forces of Nature and the Middle Way endured unchanged as their existence was the canvas on which the Powers made their marks. The Old Ways, woven into the interdependence of existence, were only in danger near the end, when the Powers began to claw down existence and were flattened by nudging the Wheel. As those clerics who have had [oddly frank] divine messages answered can attest to, the Moon's Tear had a number of effects across all the planes, all fatal to the powers and their ilk - and many others besides. Apparently, Hell and the Abyss are pretty much empty.

The Gods of the Rude Pantheon

This is a religion - a new approach to faith between the devout and the Deities that remain. Inspired by Caeran Twiceborn, who died and lived again after talking with the god of Death, who was a god without a name. Returning to life is not unknown, but returning after a year and a day is.
The story from there is long and involved, but the part crucial to the church is the compact it promises between gods and mortals - namely that gods will strive together to ceate a better world as mortals must. Old emnities are not part of the Church's way, and the
"Rude Pantheon" is called so with understanding of it's possible interpretations.

In practical terms, the Rude Pantheon is a collection of the remnants of the gods of another age...and the few who have arisen since the Moon's Tear.
There are many other Gods and semidivine beings, but they are generally unimportant in the area.

==The Gods and goddesses that remain.==
All deities except for Crom cruach are from the 3.5 greyhawk campaign, so theres a pile of information on them out there if you need it.

All the Gods and goddesses of the rude Pantheon are in bold. The Church is built around a combination of romanesque local god acquisition and the practicalities of both mortal and divinity surviving the age of Powers.
a note on the condition of Gods.

A [[Returning God]] is one who was suppressed during the reign of the Powers. Their influence in the world is now far more embedded in what they represent, with much less free will.

A [[Broken God]]is one who was used and abused in some manner by the Powers. most have suffered power loss and permanent disabling/crippling injuries of some sort. they cannot really be worshipped with any regular expectation of help, but provide a general amount of power for clerics of a pantheon [such as the rude Pantheon]to draw upon.

A [[Dead God]] is just that - gone from the world. you will not that no major god is truly dead - someone/thing has taken their place.
more minor deities tend not to have as well defined a portfolio for some ambitious demibeing to occupy.

Lords of Law Major

* '''Bahamut''' [G] Wind Cold (Metal Dragons). Was killed and 're embodied' in one of his sons.
* '''Heironeous''' [G] Chivalry, valor, war. A Broken God.
* '''Hextor''' [E] Tryranny, conflict, fitness to rule. A Broken God.
These brothers, while they have not set aside their viewpoints, now have a truce of compact. 
* Kurtulmak [E] Traps, (Kobolds). A Silent God, unheard from since the time of Powers.
* '''Moradin''' [G] Smithing, building (Dwarves-once). A returned God. Dwarves refuse to worship him.
* Tiamat [E] Conquest, Trickery (Chromatic Dragons). A broken Goddess. Her worshippers now only gain divine aid through blood relation.
* '''Wee Jas''' [N] Death, magic, vanity. Scarred and enslaved by the powers, she is now the Goddess of Death only, and consort to the unnamed god of Afterlife.
* '''Yondalla'''[G] Protection, exploration (Halflings). A Broken Goddess.  

Lesser

* Cyndor[N] Time, the infinite. Dead - the post is now filled by a league of Outsiders
* Delleb[G] Scribes, writing, study, lore. Dead, though many strive to fill this position.
* Osprem[N] Ships, sea voyages, sailors. A returned God, now considered fickle. Proprietry worship only.
* '''Pholtus'''[G] Light, Order, Stability, steadfastness. Dead. A Solar of odd heritage holds this 'post'
* '''Rao'''[G] Peace, serenity, inner knowing [monks] Dead and returned. One of he few gods to come through the time of Powers with inner honor intact.
* Wastri[N] Animals, bigotry, purification. Gave himself to the Old Ways as is now part of their 'pantheon'

Circle of Nature Major

* '''Boccob''' [N] Knowledge, Magic. A Broken god, enslaved and drained by the Powers.
* Crom Cruach [N] Darkness, earth, stealth, trickery. Something awoken by the Deepfolk during the time of Powers, a grim, silent goddess who survived by never being anywhere.
* '''Ehlonna''' [G] Nature, forests, fertility, flora/fauna.(Humans). A returned goddess. 
* Fharlanghn [N] Roads, travel, trade. Dead.
* '''Garl Glitter Gold''' [G] Humor, wisdom, trickery. The other God to survive without betraying his nature, Garl played a dangerous game of high Drama cat and mouse with the Powers most decadent and most in need of amusement . He is now the prime dwarf god...
* '''Nerull''' [E] Underworld, crimes, murder. A broken God, made blind.
* Obod-Hai [N] Nature, Freedom, hunting, animals.(Humans). A formerly enslaved God, broken to the demands of the Powers to service their creations. Now a suspicious, lonely and haunted version of himself.
* '''Pelor''' [G] The Sun, Light, Healing. A returned God, whose special place as ruler is now reduced to humble tasks.
* Vecna [E] Secrets, intrigue. A Broken god, literally a twisted Shadow of its former self.

Lesser

* Bralm[N] Insects and industry. Broken and twisted to many tasks. Now beyond the reach of all but a few followers of the Old Way.
* Celestian[N] Astronomy, Wanderers. Dead. His dying was cruel and long.
* Geshtai[N] rivers and lakes. Broken and enslaved, now a haunting echo confined to magic gifts over or in water.
* Incubalos[E] Plague, famine, disaster. Dead. His sphere is contested by foul things of the outer planes.
* Istus[N] Destiny, the future, foretelling. A Returned God, now considered fickle.
* Joramy[N] Volcanoes, wrath. Dead.
* Moquol[N] Trade and negotiation. Dead
* Pyremius[E] assassins, poison, fire. Dead
* Tharizdun [E] Insanity, destruction. Dead
* Xan Yae [N] shadows and stealth. Dead
* Zuoken[N] Mental power, inner strength [monks] Dead

Courts of Chaos: Major

* '''Corellon Larethian''' [G/N] Arts, Music, Magic. (Elves) A partly enslaved and broken god who survived by dissappearing into their spheres of influence. Now darker in attitude.
* Erythrul [E] War, frenzy, slaughter, panic. Broken and enslaved. This god is now near mindless and lends only the powers that bear his name.
* '''Gruumsh''' [E] War, territory, leadership. (Orc kind) Now blind, crippled and forced to depend on others.
* Kord [G] Strength, courage, fitness. [monks] Dead. A human with mighty relics of the god stands in his stead.
* Lolth [E] Darkness, spiders, deceit (Dark Elves). Broken and enslaved. 

Lesser

* Beltar[E] Malice, caves. Dead
* Iuz[E] Deceit Dead
* Llir[G] Poetry and the Arts. Insane.
* '''Llerg[N]''' Beasts, nature. Broken
* '''Procan'''[N] Oceans, seas, water. Broken and enslaved.
* Telchur[N] Cold, winter.
* '''Tritherion'''[G] Individuality, Liberty. Broken.


Religion, like other things, goes through cycles. The current cycle in