[PF] Grudge Site Hazard

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MichaelTumey
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[PF] Grudge Site Hazard

Post by MichaelTumey »

Steve Russell of Rite Publishing recently released 101 Hazards and Disasters for PFRPG. Since I'm a freelancer for Rite, I get free copies of all his releases - so I got to get a closer look at hazards and disasters, which work like traps or haunts. I'm used to 1e/2e where a yellow mold was a monster, well for 3x/PF it's a hazard. Any spore spewing, madness inducing, non-moving threat to a party of adventurers fits the concept. Also Steve just released the first in a new product series called #10 Feats for the Luckshaper class - and not to get into the "Luckshaper" so much as a product consisting of 10 things, rather than 30 or 101, which makes it much easier for me to create short bits of game content, as 10 things PDF for $1.00

So I've already built my 10 hazards for Kaidan - since this will be a short supplement for the Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story setting. Here's one, a particularly cool one I think, but one that needs looked at for playability. If anyone has seen either the original Ju-on, or the American made The Grudge, the concept is of a site where some dark event (murder, etc.) involved such violent emotions that more than a haunt, rather a curse lingers on at that location. Here's my interpretation in PF mechanics.

Grudge Site hazard (CR Varies)
Yurei ghosts are purpose driven undead spirits created by horrid events involving great rage, terror and anguish at the moment of death. For some of these vile spirits exacting a final revenge upon it's perpetrator is enough to lay it to rest, for others the hatred is so great, it lingers, as a grudge. Anyone spending more than 1 hour within a grudge site suffers the grudge curse affliction. Even if you leave the location, the curse follows you relentlessly. Grudge sites always contain multiple haunts and undead creatures.

Grudge
Type curse; Save Will DC varies
Effect: target becomes hunted by a specific ghost with a CR greater or equal to the curse victim (ghost attacks and attempts to slay victim, after the victim fails 3 saving throws) plus 2 points of Con damage.
Cure: Lay the ghost to rest. Attempts to remove curse or break enchantment suffer a -10 penalty.

Base creature CR or NPC levels + ghost template CR | Will DC
CR 3 = DC 16
CR 6 = DC 17
CR 12 = DC 20
CR 15+ = DC 25

The idea is you can always slay a ghost through channel energy or turn undead, and other spells of positive energy, but a ghost requires it being laid to rest usually related to the events leading up to the end that caused the ghost to form, paying debts, honoring promises, getting revenge - which lays a ghost to final rest. It's no easy thing and requires some investigation to learn the means of laying the spirit to rest. This hazard forces a specific ghost to haunt you trying to defeat you for acquiring the curse. You can kill it today, but it will be back for you tomorrow night - until you lay it to rest...

Combine such a site at a haunted house, forgotten cemetery, abandoned temple or shrine, a brothel in the Floating World district, add in appropriate haunts, magical traps, and all kinds of undead, especially ghosts, and you'll have the makings for a campaign in Kaidan (and usable in Ravenloft, as well).

I intend to create a #10 Yurei Ghost Templates as well, to make available specific Japanese ghost templates to follow folklore closely, then build the mechanics to work in Pathfinder. And fill the role of the specific ghost of a particular grudge site hazard.
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Re: [PF] Grudge Site Hazard

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

To-shi-o! :twisted:
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Re: [PF] Grudge Site Hazard

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Like.
MichaelTumey
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Re: [PF] Grudge Site Hazard

Post by MichaelTumey »

I published the Grudge site hazard (except I made it into a curse instead of a hazard) in the Haiku of Horror: Autumn Moon Bath House product, I released.
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