Bringers of Death: The Zal'honans!

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Jester of the FoS
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Post by Jester of the FoS »

I think most people here would just use the curse rules from the Ravenloft Campaign Setting. The Book o' Vile Darkness is not held in high regard here. I'm not fond of it myself after a couple of the spells proved very quickly to be unbalanced. How someone managed to squeak some of that stuff past common sense startles me.
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Post by Brandi »

Jester wrote:I think most people here would just use the curse rules from the Ravenloft Campaign Setting. The Book o' Vile Darkness is not held in high regard here. I'm not fond of it myself after a couple of the spells proved very quickly to be unbalanced.
Which spells, just for curiosity's sake? I know at least one of those spells was probably lifted from d20 Call of Cthulhu....
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Post by HuManBing »

I don't want to bump a thread if there's nothing new to add. That having been said, that's exactly what I intend to do :D

I also think a Legacy of Blood featuring the Zal'Honans would be good. Perhaps bearing in mind that Azalin could only transfer some of his essence to each woman, you could easily make it so that each child only got a template rather than a complete set of ability scores.

I like the idea of each child having strange mutations or unusual aspects, and the fact that S herself seems fairly normal but happens to be female (the opposite of Azalin) is a neat touch too.

It could be that the Zal'Honans have a natural bonus to Int or to Cha (the former obviously taking after Firan, the latter taking after Irik or their father, Turalitan). They could be calibans, assuming they come out of the womb having failed a Powers' Check already (the Dark Powers are very interested in any offspring of their favorite dark lord prisoner), and these powers could be any of the following:

Fiend-touched - taking after Irik the Elder (Firan's younger brother) who died after being possessed by a fiend Firan summoned.

Dissipate - taking after Ranald (Firan's older brother). Character has a predilection for overindulging. In Ranald's case, it was food and wine. For a descendant, it could easily be wine, sensuality, and song.

Anti-magic - taking after Turalitan, who hated and outlawed arcane magic throughout Knurl.

Sterile - Firan's wife Olessa sought magical means to render him sterile. Although he overcame this with counter magic of his own, it's possible that the curse was passed down to offspring. It is also possible that a caliban, like a mule, might be sterile for simple genetic reasons. Also, similar to a liger, which would also be sterile, these offspring would be "bred for their skills in magic", and would be "pretty much my favorite animal".

Another issue is that Azalin would almost certainly pursue and discover his offspring, especially those who manifested arcane powers, either as wizards or as sorcerors. Usually by the time an offspring reaches a certain level of arcane spellcaster, the Kargat has informed Azalin of the offspring's whereabouts and Azalin makes it a personal quest to pursue them across the Demiplane in his Star Destroyer into asteroid fields and compelling them to join the Dark Side.
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Post by tomokaicho »

Rotipher of the FoS wrote: Tue Mar 14, 2006 8:28 am I still think a write-up of the clones would've been one of the high points in a "Legacies II" book, had one ever been published. It'd be chock full of calibans at the very least, which is something we haven't seen yet, and the nature of the clone's surrogate family would influence his (S is likely a unique case of transgender "calibanhood") development and psychology.
Is anyone up for a Legacy of the Blood style write-up of the the Zal'honan bloodline in the next QtR? It exists due to Azalin's cloning experiments, and probably many non clones as "grandchildren" also.
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Re: Bringers of Death: The Zal'honans!

Post by Joël of the FoS »

Sure!!!
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Re: Bringers of Death: The Zal'honans!

Post by tomokaicho »

Joël of the FoS wrote: Tue May 24, 2022 8:51 am Sure!!!
Great. I'm looking forward to seeing your work.
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Re: Bringers of Death: The Zal'honans!

Post by Joël of the FoS »

Ooops, it was more a "sure! Looking forward to read this!" :)
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Re: Bringers of Death: The Zal'honans!

Post by Mephisto of the FoS »

Really good idea, maybe it can be added in the QtR#29 requests
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Re: Bringers of Death: The Zal'honans!

Post by tomokaicho »

Joël of the FoS wrote: Wed May 25, 2022 2:03 pm Ooops, it was more a "sure! Looking forward to read this!" :)
We both face a powers check for this one.
Mephisto of the FoS wrote: Wed May 25, 2022 4:05 pm Really good idea, maybe it can be added in the QtR#29 requests
Good idea. I'll do that instead of asking you to do it.
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