I’m reading right now Gareth Hanrahan’s debut novel
- ‘The Gutter Prayer’. It is an amazing dark fantasy book, filled with ghouls,
alchemical superscience, bloodthirsty goods and super-powered lepers. It is
that good. You don’t know Gareth Hanrahan? Well, he is the guy responsible for
13th Age’s megadungeon - The Eyes of the Stone Thief. When I first heard that
Pelgrane Press was doing a megadungeon for 13th Age I was devastated… c’om, the
most funny and vanguard d20 Fantasy RPG out there doing a frigging
megadungeon?! Then I started reading the book. Oh boy! I have used the Stone
Thief in all my 13th Age campaigns (and even in D&D 5E). It does to
megadungeons what 13th Ages does to D&D (if you don’t know what that means
stop everything and get 13th Age). Gareth Hanrahan’s stuff is also worth your
time. He is responsible for an absurd amount of good material, from the The One
Ring to Night Black’s Agents. I just treat him like Kenneth Hite: buy it first,
read it later, never regret it.
Enough marketing… As I said, ‘The Gutter Prayer’ is
a dark fantasy novel focused on the underworld of Guerdon, a city filled with
thieves and scoundrels, that sell alchemical doomsday weapons and tries to
remain neutral in the apocalyptic Godswar, a world conflict powered by the best
version of D&D’s clerics that I have ever seen in literature. But Gareth
loves Yog-Sothothery, so Guerdon has ghouls. No your D&D-style undead
ghouls. Something more flavorful and close to Lovecraft’s Dreamlands Cycle
(which I absolutely love and tried once to mix with Fritz Leiber’s ghouls). Another thing that screams Cthulhu is the past
of Guerdon and the origins of the ghouls - there is a Sarnath/Ib written all
over Guerdon’s murky origins.
OK, so I loved ‘The Gutter Prayer’ and I also have
the bad habit of translating things to d20 Fantasy before finishing the damn
novel (hello Malazan Book of the Fallen!). So here is how I would run Guerdon
in D&D 5E (its races at least… excluding Crawling Ones, that deserves a
special post):
RACES
Ghouls: you’re a Lovercraftian
ghoul. Carrion-eater humanoids with hooves and slightly canine features. Cunny
but bestial, you’re comfortable in dark places and the underground. You
constantly fight your unholy urge to consume the bodies of the dead and frolic
in the stinky and loathsome depths, but you’re also afraid that your hunger
will transform you in the feral form of your parents… deadly predators that
stalk the deeper levels below Guerdon. Actually, you’re afraid that you might
not only go feral but “live” long enough to become an elder ghoul - a giant and
obscene carrion mystic that channels the darkest sorcery and communes with
Elder Things best left unsaid.
Ability Score Increase. Your
Dexterity score increases by 2 and your Constitution by 1.
Size. Medium.
Darkvision. 60 ft.
Speed. 30 feel. Your claws and
heightened senses gives you a 30 feet climb speed.
Keen Senses. A ghoul has
advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on scent. A ghoul can also
use an action to pinpoint, by scent, within 30 ft, the space where a hidden or
invisible creature is (but still attacks such target with disadvantage). Ghouls
are naturally attuned to magic and can roll a special Wisdom (Perception)
check, with disadvantage, to feel if magic is being used within 30 ft (just the
presence of magic, not its location).
Corpse Eater. You have
cold, radiant and necrotic resistance. However, you only gain half the benefit
of healing magic.
Unholly Hungry. You have
advantage on Constitution checks to resist the effects of hungry and thirsty.
While you can consume food as a normal humanoid, you find it bland and
tasteless. However, if you consume the flesh of a fallen humanoid (at least
half a corpse), you can recover 1 Hit Dice plus your level in hit points. You
must wait a short rest before gaining hit points in this fashion again. In
narrative terms, eatings tons of corpse flesh is a sure way to become a feral
ghoul and leave the campaign, but let us leave that to each DM and table.
Criptbound. You thrive in
the underworld. While in a dungeon, cave or underground terrain (DM’s call),
you can reroll a Strength (Athletics), Dexterity, Intelligence (Investigation)
or Wisdom (Perception) check. You must declare your reroll before the DM
declares the outcome of your action. You must wait a short rest before using
this feature again.
Stone Men: funny how
this one even has the exact same name from the magic plague of A Song of Ice
and Fire. Anyway, this one is more dramatic (and definitely best for RPGs).
Basically, you’re slowly being petrified by a curse that carries all the stigma
and prejudice that leper did in our world. Your fate is literally to become a
living statue, entombed in your own body and slowly dying of hunger or
asphyxiated (if your lungs petrify first). The only thing that can keep the
Stone Plague away - for a time - is alkahest, an expensive alchemical
concoction. Meanwhile you’re a moving stone body. The more the disease
advances, the more resistant and stronger you are. Its an awesome concept for a
novel or RPG - the PC that gets more power but also is closer to death. I don’t
remember reading something this cool since the Book of the Shadowlands for L5R.
Here is how I’m doing it. First, to keep things
simple, it only works in Humans and it is represented by feats.
Stone Men I
You are afflicted with the mysterious Stone Plague.
After the shocking news you probably tried to get alkahest to avoid the worst
effects. This feat represents those that failed in that first attempt, either
because they were too late or because they didn’t have a way to find alkahest.
You suffered the first stage of the plague, gaining a shell of stone shards
over your body. You gain the following traits:
- Increase your Strength score by 1, to a
maximum of 20. You have advantage on Strength checks to break or lift
things.
- Your stone skin gives you an AC of 16
(no Dex bonus). You can’t use armor, only shields. Reduce all slashing, piercing and bludgeoning
damage by 3.
- You’re very slow, reduce your speed to
20 feet.
- You’re bulky. You have disadvantage on
Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand and Stealth checks, and automatically fails
Athletics checks to swim (you sink).
- Your unarmed attacks deal 1d4 points of
damage.
- Alkahest: you must take constant doses
of alkahest. That means expeding the equivalent of a Comfortable Lifestyle
(60 GP/month) just to pay your doses. Failing to do that gives your a
Stone Plague level 1. This works (almost) like Exhaustion. Increase your
Stone Plague level by 1 after 1d6 days not taking the alchemical drug (the
GM rolls secretly) and it increases 1d6 days after (also a secret roll).
Only alkahest (or a wish?) will reduce the Stone Plague level, usually by
1 per week at most. See
the track:
1) Disadvantage on all non-Strength ability checks.
2) Your Speed is reduced to 10 feet and you can’t Dash.
3) Disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws. You gain Stone Men II
feat, if you don’t have it.
4) Hit points maximum halved. You gain Stone Men III feat, if you don’t
have it.
5) Speed reduced to 0.
6) Death by petrification.
Stone Men II
If you stop more than a few hours you’re probably
stuck. Here is the rule stuff (besides what you gained before).
- Increase your Strength score by 2, to a
maximum of 24. You can use a two-handed weapon in one hand.
- Increase your AC by your proficiency
bonus. You have resistance against cold, fire, poison, slashing, piercing
and bludgeoning damage.
- Your unarmed attacks deal 1d6 points of
damage.
- You’re too clumsy, especially with what
is left of your hands (they probably look more like pads). You
automatically fail Acrobatic, Sleight of Hand and Stealth checks (your
passive Stealth is 0). You can’t use Light weapons (or anything that
requires more finesse, probably stuff like crossbows). Finally, you have
disadvantage on Initiative checks. Don’t take this feat if you want to
cast spells with somatic components (because you can’t).
- Alkahest: same stuff, but now you’re
paying a Wealthy Lifestyle (120 GP/month).
Stone Men III
You are a living stone golem!
- Increase your Strength score by 3, to a
maximum of 24. Your strength is a danger to you and others. You can’t feel
things by touch. On the other side, Stone Men at this level are
ridiculously strong, so you always deal maximum damage against objects and
structures and can probably walk through a brick wall as if it was paper
(5E likes to play fast and loose with object rules, so this trait
basically gives your PC “free collateral damage”).
- Your unarmed attacks deal 1d8 points of
damage and you can grapple creatures of any size.
- You don’t feel anything, remember? That
includes pain. You can postone, as a Reaction, any damage, for 1 round.
That means that if you took 50 hit points of damage, you can set it aside
for 1 round (and if you get healed meanwhile, you can use any healing or
hit point recovery to reduce postponed damage). You’re immune to massive
damage if your DM uses that rule.
- You’re immune to petrification, because
- c’mon! - you’re already in that stone grave.
- You have resistance to acid damage, because
there is too much stone between the acid and your (remaining) flesh.
- You have disadvantage on any Wisdom
(Perception) check that relies on sight, smell or taste, and fail anything
based on touch (you probably won’t feel that halfling on your back).
- Your petrification is so advanced that
stopping for more than a few hours will literally kill you. You just can’t
sleep more than 4 hours in the same stop. You have a permanent Exhaustion
level 1 (excluding Strength ability checks to break stuff).
- Alkahest: you need a dose every day
basically. That means paying 300/month and probably making you the slave
of someone. And the good news is, if you miss your alkahest dose, your
Stone Plague level rises by 1d4 instantly (the bad news is that, after the
dose, it still only goes down 1 per week).
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