Editing DRYH: Ashes of Gods - Setting Details

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=MAJOR NIGHTMARES=
 
=MAJOR NIGHTMARES=
''Referred to as Boss Nightmares in DRYH, Major Nightmares constantly struggle against one another for rule of the Mad City (and perhaps the City Slumbering as well), using any tools they can bring to bear in pursuit of this goal. The Haggler King is the solid exception to this rule as he draws his power specifically from the Bizarre Bazaar itself and loses it outside the Bazaar.''
 
 
 
==The Raven King - Pain 12 (15 when using Voice)==
 
==The Raven King - Pain 12 (15 when using Voice)==
The Raven King is an old Nightmare and once ruled the Mad City completely before the Red Queen and Mistress When toppled his reign and stole his power. At a distance the Raven King is a mere silhouette of a lanky man in a long coat with a raven's head and eyes that glow a terrible sickly green.  
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The Raven King is an old Nightmare. And once ruled the Mad City completely before the Red Queen and Mistress When toppled his reign and stole his power. At a distance the Raven King is a mere silhouette of a lanky man in a long coat with a raven's head and eyes that glow a terrible sickly green.  
  
 
The presence of any of the Awakened too near him reveal his true form, all flesh falling away like shadow leaving a blackened skeleton that is mostly human, with a raven's skull and taloned hands and feet.
 
The presence of any of the Awakened too near him reveal his true form, all flesh falling away like shadow leaving a blackened skeleton that is mostly human, with a raven's skull and taloned hands and feet.
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In all her incarnations she appears as a bloodsoaked female. In the First Watch [from the first through the fourth hour] she manifests as a little girl [Pain 3]. In the Middle Watch [from the fifth through the eighth hour] she manifests as a stately woman [Pain 6]. In the Last Watch [from the ninth through the twelfth hour] she manifests as a gnarled crone with jagged nails and teeth [Pain 9]. No one even whispers about what she becomes during the Thirteenth Hour or what Pain she brings then.
 
In all her incarnations she appears as a bloodsoaked female. In the First Watch [from the first through the fourth hour] she manifests as a little girl [Pain 3]. In the Middle Watch [from the fifth through the eighth hour] she manifests as a stately woman [Pain 6]. In the Last Watch [from the ninth through the twelfth hour] she manifests as a gnarled crone with jagged nails and teeth [Pain 9]. No one even whispers about what she becomes during the Thirteenth Hour or what Pain she brings then.
  
'''Blood Gift:''' Any Human who drinks of the Blood Queen's blood is instantly transformed into a Vampir Nightmare with a Pain rating 2 less than the Blood Queen's own Pain rating at the time they drank from her - 1/4/7 during the twelve hours of the Watch or higher if created during the 13th Hour.
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'''Special:''' The Pain Rating of Nightmares who come within sight of the Blood Queen drops two points and remains reduced while in her presence. Only the Raven King and Mistress When, (and perhaps the Keeper) are known to be immune to this effect. Inklings, for whatever reason, add one pain to their rating in her presence and tend to congregate near her unless ordered to do otherwise.
 
 
'''Special:''' Vampir created during the Thirteenth Hour are not in thrall to the Blood Queen or subject to her commands.
 
 
 
'''Special:''' The Pain Rating of Nightmares who come within sight of the Blood Queen drops two points and remains reduced while in her presence. Only the Raven King and Mistress When, (and perhaps the Keeper) are known to be immune to this effect. The Blood Queen's Vampir add one pain to their rating in her presence and tend to congregate near her unless ordered to do otherwise.
 
  
  
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=NIGHTMARE LIEUTENANTS=
 
=NIGHTMARE LIEUTENANTS=
''Nightmare Lieutenants are less powerful than Major Nightmares and often answer directly to a Major Nightmare in the course of their actions and existence, but certainly not all of them do . . .''
 
 
 
==The Fool - Pain 5==
 
==The Fool - Pain 5==
 
The Fool is a thin androgynous figure in black and white motley and an oval mask, half black, half white with only a bare rectangular slit for each eye and the mouth. The Fool does not speak, but can communicate quite fluidly through pantomime. In certain light, with certain movements, the observer would swear the Fool to be a lean young man under that mask, while in other light with certain other movements, the observer would be equally certain the mask hides a slim young girl.
 
The Fool is a thin androgynous figure in black and white motley and an oval mask, half black, half white with only a bare rectangular slit for each eye and the mouth. The Fool does not speak, but can communicate quite fluidly through pantomime. In certain light, with certain movements, the observer would swear the Fool to be a lean young man under that mask, while in other light with certain other movements, the observer would be equally certain the mask hides a slim young girl.
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The Fool commands the '''Inklings'''.
 
The Fool commands the '''Inklings'''.
 
  
  
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'''Special:''' The Jack is rarely encountered except that he is called or summoned by an Awakened, usually through inadvertently interacting with the discarded broken toys of the Scampers. When summoned in this fashion the Jack adds the summoning Awakened's current exhaustion AND any permanent madness to his Pain rating.
 
'''Special:''' The Jack is rarely encountered except that he is called or summoned by an Awakened, usually through inadvertently interacting with the discarded broken toys of the Scampers. When summoned in this fashion the Jack adds the summoning Awakened's current exhaustion AND any permanent madness to his Pain rating.
  
The Jack is one of only two Nightmares known to serve lesser Nightmares - whether by weakness, madness, or design - and the Major Nightmares allow it. They do not approach the Jack or interfere in his designs.
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The Jack is the only Nightmare known to serve lesser Nightmares - whether by weakness, madness, or design - and the Major Nightmares allow it. They do not approach the Jack or interfere in his designs.
 
 
 
 
 
 
==Vampir - Pain 1/4/7==
 
Vampir are pale humanoid Nightmares created by the Blood Queen from raw human stock and conform closely to the Vampires of popular human lore. Vampir of Pain 1 are rare, usually created in emergencies and afterward given to higher pain Vampir as servants or destroyed outright. Vampir follow a close hierarchy based on pain rating (further delineated by age within each pain rating).
 
  
Two Vampir of higher than 7 pain are known to exist. They do not answer to the Blood Queen, but there is nothing to say they would refuse her either.
 
 
  
  
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==The Hartshorn - Pain 3==
 
==The Hartshorn - Pain 3==
 
Three shadowy human figures in rugged tasseled buckskins, tall and lean, with the skulls of great stags hovering where their heads should be, wander the  Ways between the Mad City and the City Slumbering, doing the Keeper's bidding. No one knows if the Hartshorn are real Nightmares born from the souls of men or if they are creations of the Keeper, but their loyalty and devotion is uncanny and unquestioned. Tricks of the mind are the demesne of the Hartshorn, weaving the mists and damp into illusions of loss and pain in the minds of their prey.
 
Three shadowy human figures in rugged tasseled buckskins, tall and lean, with the skulls of great stags hovering where their heads should be, wander the  Ways between the Mad City and the City Slumbering, doing the Keeper's bidding. No one knows if the Hartshorn are real Nightmares born from the souls of men or if they are creations of the Keeper, but their loyalty and devotion is uncanny and unquestioned. Tricks of the mind are the demesne of the Hartshorn, weaving the mists and damp into illusions of loss and pain in the minds of their prey.
 
  
  
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Old Scratch's Pain rating is not known.
 
Old Scratch's Pain rating is not known.
  
 
  
 
==Catspaw - Pain 4==
 
==Catspaw - Pain 4==
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The Catspaw can leap great distances and always land on their feet.
 
The Catspaw can leap great distances and always land on their feet.
 
 
  
 
==Techno Babblers - Pain 3==
 
==Techno Babblers - Pain 3==
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==The Nightling Gale - Pain 7==
 
With the chiming of the Thirteenth Hour, the Rooftop Jungle becomes a particularly uninviting place as the Nightling Gale rushes among the rooftops, sweeping away anything not properly anchored as it rages through the hour. The Nightling Gale has no sentience or thought. It will not attack with malice or tactics, but when it arrives it is an unrelenting force of madness.
 
 
Awake who find themselves in the Jungle at the striking of the Thirteenth hour are well advised to find a portal or descend quickly. Those caught in the Gale must roll against Pain 7 or be swept to a random location selected by the GM. In a successful encounter, the character selects where they end up or are able to anchor themselves against the Nightling Gales mindless rage.
 
 
'''Special:''' If sufficiently threatened, the Night Callers are able to summon the Nightling gale outside the Thirteenth Hour. They must roll their collective Pain versus the current exhaustion of all Awakened present on the scene. Dominance does not play into this roll and players do not have to roll any dice.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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=MINOR NIGHTMARES=
 
=MINOR NIGHTMARES=
''Minor Nightmares are the least powerful Nightmares, usually under the direct control of Lieutenant Nightmares and by proxy Major Nightmares. DRYH uses the term Minion instead of Minor.''
 
 
 
==Willow Women - Pain 1 (6 during a Forced Gaze)==
 
==Willow Women - Pain 1 (6 during a Forced Gaze)==
 
Lithe and flexible and tall, the Willow Women are fair skinned with extremely long limbs and hands and feet and toes and fingers and their hair drops down all about them in a curtain of fine pale braids, like the hanging branches of the willow tree, hiding their faces and most of their form. The Willow Women will not willingly move aside their braids and look directly on another being and tend to keep their heads down and their faces hidden, but if someone were to part those pale braids, stark black eyes with no color or whites would stare back. Anyone caught in that naked gaze faces Pain 6 in a confrontation that cannot be avoided. In this special encounter all 6s rolled for Pain count towards Madness instead when determining dominance.
 
Lithe and flexible and tall, the Willow Women are fair skinned with extremely long limbs and hands and feet and toes and fingers and their hair drops down all about them in a curtain of fine pale braids, like the hanging branches of the willow tree, hiding their faces and most of their form. The Willow Women will not willingly move aside their braids and look directly on another being and tend to keep their heads down and their faces hidden, but if someone were to part those pale braids, stark black eyes with no color or whites would stare back. Anyone caught in that naked gaze faces Pain 6 in a confrontation that cannot be avoided. In this special encounter all 6s rolled for Pain count towards Madness instead when determining dominance.
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Not only do the Willow Women never speak, they have no mouths to do so.
 
Not only do the Willow Women never speak, they have no mouths to do so.
  
'''Special:''' The Willow Women typically do not engage in conflict, but if defeated they (each) add one madness die to the character's next roll, whatever that roll may be, at which time the Willow Woman passes from existence forever. This die does not count against the total madness dice allowed to a character, but any madness dice that come up six during that roll count as two sixes for the purpose of determining strength. Further, any madness dice in the pool when the Willow Women were defeated do not fall off until the end of the next roll. These dice do count against the character's allowed total since they are his own dice, just hanging around for one more roll.
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'''Special:'' The Willow Women typically do not engage in conflict, but if defeated they (each) add one madness die to the character's next roll, whatever that roll may be, at which time the Willow Woman passes from existence forever. This die does not count against the total madness dice allowed to a character, but any madness dice that come up six during that roll count as two sixes for the purpose of determining strength. Further, any madness dice in the pool when the Willow Women were defeated do not fall off until the end of the next roll. These dice do count against the character's allowed total since they are his own dice, just hanging around for one more roll.
  
 
If other characters added dice to help the main protagonist defeat the Willow Women they share his fate on the subsequent roll as well.
 
If other characters added dice to help the main protagonist defeat the Willow Women they share his fate on the subsequent roll as well.
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The Night Callers crowd the Rooftop Jungle, leaping from one building to another with fearless abandon, shouting to one another as they go through their constant game of motion. They are of a size and shape with little children but have the faces of birds and beasts and might have fur or feathers or tails to match the face, though their main limbs remain more human than beast. For instance while one might have feathers on it's arms that hang down like wings, they are still arms, not actual wings. Not that that makes them any less mobile as they flit about from spire to spire.
 
The Night Callers crowd the Rooftop Jungle, leaping from one building to another with fearless abandon, shouting to one another as they go through their constant game of motion. They are of a size and shape with little children but have the faces of birds and beasts and might have fur or feathers or tails to match the face, though their main limbs remain more human than beast. For instance while one might have feathers on it's arms that hang down like wings, they are still arms, not actual wings. Not that that makes them any less mobile as they flit about from spire to spire.
  
In particular, when the Night Callers spot one of the Awake in their domain, or other surface dwellers climb up, they let out an odd warbling cry that brings more of their kind and - perhaps more importantly - summons the Nightling Gale. [See Special]
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In particular, when the Night Callers spot one of the Awake in their domain, or other surface dwellers climb up, they let out an odd warbling cry that brings more of their kind and - perhaps more importantly - summons the Nightling Gale.
 
 
'''Special:''' If sufficiently threatened, the Night Callers are able to summon the Nightling gale outside the Thirteenth Hour. They must roll their collective Pain versus the current exhaustion of all Awakened present on the scene. Dominance does not play into this roll and players do not have to roll any dice.
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
==The Menagerie - Pain 1==
 
==The Menagerie - Pain 1==
What happens to Nightmares who grow up? In the Mad City, where Time is sluggish with paradox and reluctance, they never should. But in Mistress When's capable hands, they do. The Menagerie is what happens to the Night Callers who leap too close to her tower. The girls anyway. The broken remains of the few boys who do survive her malice can be found throughout the Mad City tormenting broken Denizens in dark holes and cracks and wishing for their own deaths.
 
 
The girls are another story. They remain mostly young but grow tall and straight where they ought and plumply curved where she demands. Their animal faces become idealized porcelain masks of the same animal, but can never be removed. Tails and feathers and fur become part of a costume made more of skin than anything else.
 
 
This is Mistress When's Menagerie, traded, loaned, even gifted to Nightmares to do with as they will, to butcher and harm, to flay alive and subject to all manner of torture until the clocks sound the Thirteenth Hour, at which time the contract ends and the Menagerie returns to Mistress When, broken but terribly, terribly whole. Ready to be given to new Nightmares again at the beginning of the first watch.
 
 
  
  
 
==The Broken Ones - Pain 2==
 
==The Broken Ones - Pain 2==
Male Night Callers who survive Mistress When's tortures flee, broken in body and spirit, their animal flesh torn away, never to regrow, open wounds exposed to the air, faceless faces terrifying to behold. Beast shaped masks of blood. Gone are the nights leaping between the Rooftops of the Jungle. The Broken Ones live only to visit the same torture that was visited upon them on others, though they are often too weak to manage it effectively.
 
 
 
 
==Rag Girls - Pain 1==
 
Rag Girls are pretty little orphans with pock marked faces in tattered dresses made from scraps and old rags dragging a little rag doll in one hand as they skip and dance about chanting vile versions of Ring Around the Rosie that seems like it might be as much about various venereal diseases as plague.
 
 
They seem mostly harmless until they are right upon their marked prey, whom they will follow for blocks with no hint of threat. But when they draw nigh their rag dolls dissolve into wickedly sharp tools of rusted metal in their grubby little fists and their faces become something translucent that shows the sharp and empty outline of the skull beneath the skin.
 
 
  
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The Rag Girls - Molly Rags of RK
  
 
==Plaguerats - Pain 2==
 
==Plaguerats - Pain 2==
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==Urchins - Pain 1 1/3==
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Urchins - Gas Mask Faced kids in wartime period garb, England WW1. Minor Nightmares
The vast majority of Urchins are child sized, but may sometimes be equivalent to teens or adults. Clad in WWI-WWII era garb with gas masks from that era covering and completely concealing their faces. They move singly, in pairs, small groups, or mobs but always calmly and in precise order. Urchins will rarely act out so long as their perceived routine is not interrupted or hindered in any way.
 
 
 
'''Special:''' Urchins bring one extra pain die to their total Pain rating for every three of them present. This trumps the normal rule for adding pain for groups of Nightmares.
 
  
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Gibbering Prophet - as per RK
  
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Hermit - as per RKish
  
==Hermit - Pain 1 (+ special)==
 
The Hermit is an old balding man in a simple robe with bushy mustaches and liver spotted scalp and hands. Those huge, impossibly bony hands clutch a gnarled staff crooked at the top like a shepherd's staff, from which crook hangs a simple bronze lantern. In any confrontation, the Hermit may dash his lantern to the ground encircling himself and one other in a ring of fire. Other characters are unable to add their discipline to the character in the ring of fire and the Hermit's Pain rating increases by whatever Exhaustion dice are in the character's pool before the encounter (if the character adds an exhaustion die for the encounter itself, that die does not count towards the Hermit's Pain rating).
 
  
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==DENIZENS==
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Hagglers - Denizens of the Bizarre Bazaar
  
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Cogs - as per RK
  
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The Eyeless (wax king esque)
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=DENIZENS=
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The Fallen Legion - as per RK soldiers, gang members, etc
''Not every inhabitant of the Mad City is a Nightmare. Not even most of them. Denizens are specific examples of what DRYH refers to as Locals. ''
 
  
==Hagglers==
 
More self aware and independent than most of the Denizens of the Mad City because of their lack of a major Nightmare actively directing the form and direction of the Bazaar, Hagglers are probably the most adept vendors of information and resources available to the Awakened. There is still a price. Always there is a price. But there is little that cannot be had here, and the Hagglers are the ones to provide it.
 
  
Hagglers often adopt the form of Nightmares and other oddities but they have no Pain rating.
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==OTHER==
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Clockwork Insects
  
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Wisps - as per RKish
  
  
==Cogs==
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The Nethers - places where the Mad City bleeds over into the City Slumbering wholesale
Cogs are clockwork men and women and can be found throughout the Mad City.
 
  
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The Bizarre Bazaar - as per DRYH/RK
  
 
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The Labyrinth - an overlay of confusion when the Mad City is close to the surface of the City Slumbering
==The Eyeless==
 
As their name implies, these men and women have no eyes, but sallow amber flames flicker in their empty sockets and their skin seems waxy and almost fluid.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
==The Fallen Legion==
 
Many who meet their end in horrible circumstances find their way into the Mad City just before that last moment, escaping one horrifying end for another.
 
 
 
'''Special:''' No matter how hard you kill them to death, the Fallen always get back up.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
==Gibbering Prophet==
 
Gibbering prophets are broken denizens who wander the Quarters aimlessly, endlessly, shouting out broken truths that may or may not be truths for the ones being shouted at. Gibbering Prophets know neither fear nor bravery, neither hesitation nor resolve. They approach beings as their madness demands and scream what they see out of some desperate instinct.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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=OTHER=
 
''Some things encountered in the Mad City are properly neither Nighmare nor Denizen nor from the City Slumbering.''
 
 
 
==Clockwork Insects==
 
Delicately wrought of copper, brass, and iron to perfectly resemble and mimic actual insects - flies, roaches, locusts, centipedes - Clockwork Insects can be found in abundance everywhere within the Bizarre Bazaar, flitting about, examining everything, suddenly there and suddenly gone. But it is when they are spotted outside the Bazaar that they are most valuable. If a Clockwork Insect is seen outside the Bizarre Bazaar it means that a hidden entrance to the Bazaar is close at hand. The Awake can use these sightings to enter the Bazaar. This does not require a dice roll, merely a willingness to follow the Clockwork Insect where it leads.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
==Wisps==
 
Wisps are drifting balls of misty light that drift about the Mad City and may be as small as sparklike motes to as large as a child's balloon, but there is nothing solid to them and as far as anyone knows, the patterns of movement that they follow are completely random, though they have showed a certain willingness to obey both Nightmares and the Awake when ordered to illuminate a nearby thing or to float ahead and light the way,
 
 
 
'''Special:''' Black Dogs are hesitant to approach Wisps and will whimper and run if approached by one.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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=SPECIAL TERMS=
 
''A few terms are used specifically for the Ashes of Gods setting to name specific effects.''
 
 
 
==The Nethers ==
 
Places where the Mad City bleeds over into the City Slumbering wholesale. The Bizarre Bazaar is apt to do this on a regular basis.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
==Labyrinth==
 
This represents an overlay of confusion when the Mad City is close to the surface of the City Slumbering that makes travel between the two incredibly easy. Some Nightmares can cross over without the benefit of the Ways.
 
 
 
 
 
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