Demise, the land of Stone and Pride

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Mistmaster
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Demise, the land of Stone and Pride

Post by Mistmaster »

I did like Gonzoron developement of Demise in his QtR 21 article; However, I'm not a fan of small, underpopulated domains, in my campaigns, nor I thought Althea deserving of Dark Lord Status; so, I decided to rewrite it , and this is my personal take of it. The idea of Stelios belongs to Gonzoron. Sorry for eventual typos and grammar errors; English is not my mother language.

Demise

Culture level: Classical
Ecology:Full
Climate & Terrain: Temperate nearby the coast, more rigid on the massive Stone Father mountain wich dominate the land.
Languages:Demisian (Greek) and Lamordian
Religions: Olympian Pantheon (Poseidon C/G, head of the pantheon, Athena, L/E; Gorgona, L/G Deity, is seen as Poseidon wife)
Races:Human (Demisian) 47%,Medusas 47% (Maedars are18 % of Medusa's population) Other 6%.
Governement:Constitutional Monarchy.
Ruler:Stone Queen Althea Eurialidis.
Darklord:Stelios Gorgonidis.
Analog:Classical greece.

Capital City:Stonewail (L/g, Non standard, 1,000 in.)
Important towns:Stonefeast N/G, Non standard 1,800 in), Stoneward(L/N, Non standard, 2,000 In)
Borders: The Island of Agony, in Lamordia, seat 80 miles south Demise.
Domain Overview
The small Island is climatically different from the artic islamd of Agony in Lamordia; surrounded by warm water, the massive Stone Father is dotted with communities who prosper on mining and farming (farming is allowed by the Medusa's magic) The three biggest town are the Capital, Stonewail, which houses a majority of Medusas, and is seated in a natural cave of the mountain on the south; It's nature as an holy site,were Poseidon and Gorgona married, has limited its expansion, while instead the other two cities, the main mining site, Stoneward, and the main port, Stonefeast, have prospered.

The People
Demisians are a stubborn, proud, yet refined people; long ago, they struck a deal with the Medusas, the original dweller of the island. Medusas have the executive power, while Judiciary dwell in human hands, and legislative is shared. On this agreement, the Pact of Flesh and Stone, Demisians built a small but prosper civilization. Hospitality is an holy duty for Demisians, and they share willingly theyr food with people; art, expecially sculture is very appreciated, and Demisians are renowned core-wide for theyr stonecraft. Demisians have also a pretty strong marine tradition.

The Famed and the Infamous:


Stone Queen Althea Eurialidis
(Female Adult Medusa, L/G, Wizard 5.)
The onehundredseventeenth Stone Queen to rule the island since the pact of Stone and Flesh, Althea is slowly recovering from the ordeal of her first marriage; thanks to her new husband and her eight children, the Queen is back to her old self, and once again rule wisely on the island.

Prince Consort Perseus Polimenides
( Adult Human Fighter 10 (Peacemaker) C/G)
Once a common servant in the Queen's kitchen, Perseus was chosen by the Oracle of Gorgona to
save the island from Stelios; subsequiently he married the queen and fathered her last two children, a Medusa girl named Euriale and a human boy named Polymenes. He is fiercly protective of his family, which include all of Althea's children.

Lady Elena Parmenos
[Adult Human L/E Oracle of Athena 2/Expert 5 ]
Like not all Medusas appreciate the society created by the Pact of Stone and Flesh, neither do all Humans. Lady Parmenos is head of the richest merchant house and is also a notorious advocate of racial separation. Her hypocrisy the more evident if you considerate the fact her main source of income is olive oil exportation, and she would not have any of that, without Medusa's magic.

Berenix Stenelis
(Female Young Adult Medusa Sorcerer 2, N/E)
Berenix is a distant relation of the queen, and she is a spitefull, petty schemer. She was in love with Stelios, back when he was still a breathing being, and she still is; she works as a pawn for the formerPrince-consort, hoping to restore him to flesh and to become his queen. Of course, he is not even remotedly inclined to indulge her.

Homer Lysistratis
(Young Adult Human Bard 6 N/G)
A blind young man, Homer was blessed with a prodigious memory and a melodious voice. The queen does not know that, yet, but Homer is her third born children; the boy was born blind, and Stelios swapped him with a dead baby and left him on the side of the mountain to be killed by beasts and elements; but a shepard found him and raised him as his own; He was than educated in the arts of music by Apollo's priestesses.

Sersi Delphinis (L/E Middleaged Human Witch 10)
Sersi lives in a lonely hut on the less populated side of the island; She is a very powerfull witch, she is revengfull, but does have a sense of justice, however twisted it is. She rent her services for a price, but she usually exacts the most from the most powerfull and guilty part.


The Stone-Breaker
(Minotaur Barbarian 5 C/E)
The creature called the Stone-Breaker was, once upon a time, a human stone-cutter, Deinos, falsely accused for the destruction of one of the petrified children of the Queen. The Prince-Consort declared thast for his crime, eternal prisony in the stone was not enought; this act of monstruosity should cost him his very humanity; the magic turned Deinos in a Minotaur. He was imptisoned in a labyrint under the Stone Father; recently he freed himself, and now he wants revenge against the former prince consort. He is an half-mad, raging, hulking brute, however, so he is not very discriminating between Medusas allied with his enemies or not.

The Oracle of Stone
This trio of Medusa, a young adult, an adult and an old one, is composed by three 6 level Oracles, with powers akin to those of a covent of witches. The trio is not bound to the usual limitation in Divination which applies in Ravenloft. Every ten years three different Medusas become the Oracle. Current Oracle is formed by Tisiphone, Morgana and Xantippe in growing age order. The Oracle is L/G in alignement.

Crysos and Argiros
(Griffins Int 10 Cha 12, L/G and C/G)
This twin Griffins are intelligent and gifted with the ability to speak Demisian. Crysos has Golden feathers and a golden peck, while Argyros has silvered. The two are very different in theyr personalities, one being serious and solemn (Crysos) the other being lighthearted and talkative (Argyros). In spite of that they will work as a team to do theyr job, which is to guard the royal family and to do errands for them.

Hippocras Staraukis
[Old Human Alchemist 8 (Healer) N/G]
The court phisycian and one of the greatest healer known in the core, Hippocras was fundamental for exposing the frauds of the former Prince-Consort; The latter cohorts routinely target the aging healer, forgetting a simple truth: he who knows how to preserve life does know, also, the way to end it, if forced.

The Circle of the living Stone
There are two organisation who operate under this name, one is secret sect of Medusas working in the shadows to restore Stelios to power, in an all medusas ruled society, and also return him to an humanoid life. The other is a human supremacist sect still convinced that Stelios was one of them, which wants the same but with humans in charge.

The Darklord

Stelios Gorgonidis

Adult Medium Elemental (Augmented Monstrous Humanoid, Earth, Incorporeal) ( L/E Wizard (Illusionist 10) (124 HP)
Speed:20
Initiative:+5 without a rocky body, -2 with. (+6/-1 in the Glyphar's Hall)
Armor Class:22 Incorporeal/18 rocky (23-19 in his Glyphar Hall) (+5/-2 Dex, +7/- Deflection , -/+10 Natural Armor)
Space/Reach: 1 square /1 square
Combat Manouver Defense/Combat Manouver Bonus:32/+14 // 25/+17 (+1 in the Glyphar's Hall)
Str:12/27, Dex:20/6, Con:14/20, Int:22, Wis:18, Cha 16.
Saving Throws: Fort:+10/+13, Ref:+13/+6, Wil:+14
Special Qualities:Elemental Traits, Incorporeal, Extended Illusion, Stone Walk, Ferocity, Invisibility Field, Mastery 1. Sinkhole of Evil 1. Damage Reduction 10/ Adamantine (in a stone body).
Special Attacks: Blinding Ray 8 Time a day (DC 20), Theft of Solidity (1d4 Drain Constitution)
Attack: Melee: 2 Slams [+14 (+15 Rocky) crit 20 x2, Damage: Theft of Solidity (or 1d6+5),
Spell Slots:4/6/5/4/4/3
DC:16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. (+2 for the Illusion Spells) (+1 in the Glyphar Hall)
Specialization:Illusion, Opposite Schools Divination and Necromancy
Prepared Spells: 0: Ghost Sound Detect Magic ,
Acid Splash, 1:Color Spray, Disguise Self, Magic Aura, Silent Image, Ventriloquism; Magic Missile. 2)Blur, Ipnotic Pattern, Invisibility, Magic Mouth, Minor Image. 3: Displacement, Fireball, Invisibility Sphere, Major Image. 4: Hallucinatory Terrain, Illusory Wall, Invisibility, Greater, Phantasmal Killer. 5: Nightmare, Persisting Image, Wall of Force.
Skills:Craft (Sculpture)(+9), Bluff (+20), Intimidate (+20),Knowledge (Arcana) +22, Knowledge (Nature) (+22) ,Knowledge(Nobility) (+22), Perception (+21), Spellcraft (+22).
Feats: Cast in Combat, Greater Spell Focus (Illusion), Greater Spell Penetretion, Silent Spell, Spell Focus (Illusion), Spell Penetration, Still Spell(B), Thoughtness, Silent Spell (B), Specialized Spell (Illusion), Write Perchants (B) . (+1 in the Glyphar Hall)
Challenge Rating: 16
Proprieties: nothing, excepts his Glyphar and it's sub-crystals.

Background:
Stelios was the scion of a proud and old Medusa family, traking his origins back to Gorgona herself; he was raised with great contempt for humans, believing the pact of Stone and Flesh being a fraud which forced Medusas to mingle theyr holy blood with humans; Hypocritly, instead of dedicating himself to martial arts, like traditions would compel him to do, Stelios pursued arcane arts; he specialized himself in the art of illusion, and used them to disguise himsel as a human, and woe Queen Althea; he had a double goal in mind, to break the pact of Stone and Flesh, and steal the power from the weak Eurialidis line; to achieve those goal, he sacrificed his own children, the first two of which were born human, like often happens both with Medusas and Maedar, and with Medusas and Humans; Medusas on Demise use particular precautions to avoid petrifying them, but Stelios hindered her efforts, and set an innocent stonecutter to be wrongly punished for the apparent breaking of the statues. Althea's grief was heart-breaking, and she started to delegate to her husband many governmental duties; he used his position to seed discord beetween humans and medusas.
Two more children were born, both human girl, Eritra and Lisippe; both were victims of incidents related to theyr mother nature, Eritra was bitten by her mother's hair (Stelios anointed her with a triggering oint) and Lisippe contracted the stone fever, an illness Medusa's can unwittingly carry (in truth the disease was carried by a stuffed serpent Stelios put in the crib). However the two girls did not die as all were lead to believe; the court phisician, Hippocras Staurakis, who already had suspicions on Stelios, saved the two girls, but kept theyr continued existence a secret; he needed proof to expose the Prince-Consort. Actually, Stelios was starting to have second thoughts; the smile his daughter Lisippe flashed him when he gifted her the disease ridden toy haunted him and he was growing attached to his wife; he decided to stop; he would have returned his first born children to theyr living flesh, and tried to be the husband and father his family needed, but he discovered theyr next egg would have hatched a Maedar boy; Only Maedar can father Maedars, and he could not allow his fraud to be exposed, so he used his illusion power to disguse the boy as human, than he switched him with a human boy with the look he had govenm his son; But his scent was different and the snake-hair knew it; he had to kill the little human kid with poison, and Althea's sanity declined further; his own stability started to decline as remorse and frustration became heavy handed policies; a human servant was chosen by the Oracleof Stone to save Demise from Stelios tyranny; together with Hippocras he finally discovered, after another human boy was born, his eysight damaged because of Stelios manipulation of his egg, and after the boy's apparent death ,(See Homer Lysistratis above) while the almost completly mad queen was waiting her seventh children the two humans exposed the Stelios, revealing him as a Maedar and giving back to the queen her five children (regretfully, of Homer no tracks were found. In a last act of spite he tried to destroy the last egg but he was killed by Perseus, or, to be exact, his body was killed; his soul survived inside his Glyphar, a magical crystal hidden in the deph of the Stone Father. The Mist engulfed Demise in that moment.


Current Sketches
Stelios is now an incorporeal Elemental spirit; he has regained a bit of lucidity, but he lost any residual love for his family; he can posses bodies made of stone, but only if they are crafted by humans; Medusa's craft is off-limit for him. His life is tied to the Glypgat crystal and his many copies; should they all be destroyed he would die for good, and he is terrified by that prospective; For a control-freak like him, the idea of his fate to be at the mercy of others is something almost unbeareble; and, instead, he needs humans to be able to interact with the phisical world, and he needs Medusas and Maedars to protect and mend his Crystals, costantly menaced by mining. His curse is thus fear and dependence frpm others; his goals of dominions are alwaydìs there in his agenda, but ge is often too busy tyo protect himself to think about that.

Combat
Usually, he uses magic to confuse and distract his opponents, and then leaves the fields to his minions. If forced, he uses his powerful body of Stone as a weapon.

Special Abilities:

Theft of Solidity: if Stelios, while uncorporeal, hit a person close ( 20 feet) to his Glyfar or the other crystals, with a slam, he drains 1d4 Constitution from his enemy; if that constitution drps to 0 the creature turns in a specter, not under his command.

Stone Body : he can posses any Stone statue of a medium humanoid as a move action. (Su)

Sense Crystals: He can locate any of his crystals in 90 feet radius. (Su)

Lair:
The Glyphar Hall is a secret room in the deep of the Stone Father.

Closing the Border:
If someone try to cross the Demisian borders when they are closed, A stone wall appear and so hight and thick that only natural or supernatural flight can work. Stelios can keep the barrier up for a maximum of a month.

As usual, any feedback is wellcomed.
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Re: Demise, the land of Stone and Pride

Post by ewancummins »

In the Ravenloft Religions thread I started, I wrote (very briefly) about using the Olympian Pantheon for Lamordia.

That seems to fit with what you have done with Demise.

Is the Earthshaker aspect of Poseidon important on this island? Does it suffer tremors at all?
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
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Re: Demise, the land of Stone and Pride

Post by ewancummins »

Oh, and are you going with Athena as the daughter of Zeus or the daughter of Poseidon?
I suggest the latter (it does have precedent, though now obscure and seldom-mentioned).

An evil Athena? Interesting. What's she like?
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
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Re: Demise, the land of Stone and Pride

Post by Mistmaster »

ewancummins wrote:In the Ravenloft Religions thread I started, I wrote (very briefly) about using the Olympian Pantheon for Lamordia.

That seems to fit with what you have done with Demise.

Is the Earthshaker aspect of Poseidon important on this island? Does it suffer tremors at all?
It does, exactly because the absence of sysmic activity is shown as a sihn of favour by Poseidon.
ewancummins wrote:Oh, and are you going with Athena as the daughter of Zeus or the daughter of Poseidon?
I suggest the latter (it does have precedent, though now obscure and seldom-mentioned).

An evil Athena? Interesting. What's she like?
I do prefer the former, because I picture this Athena as a jealous and vengeful schemer, which cursed the line of Gorgona for revenge, having failed to marry Poseidon (it's the exact opposite to the real mith, were it was Athena to spurn Poseidon attentions)
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Re: Demise, the land of Stone and Pride

Post by Rock of the Fraternity »

Ah, the Olympian pantheon. Jackassery and dysfunctional family issues at their worst, combined with supernatural superpower. A volatile mix right at home in Ravenloft...
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Re: Demise, the land of Stone and Pride

Post by Mistmaster »

On theyr defense Hades (more or less) Hestia and Eolo are perfectly decent people. And sometime the jerkassary was justified.
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Re: Demise, the land of Stone and Pride

Post by Rock of the Fraternity »

Hades and Hestia had the good sense to stick to the job and not get involved with the family's insanities. :p
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Re: Demise, the land of Stone and Pride

Post by ewancummins »

Hades does abduct Persephone, but then makes her, in effect, his queen.
Rather better record with women than his brother, Zeus.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
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Re: Demise, the land of Stone and Pride

Post by Rock of the Fraternity »

Jim Butcher gave an interesting twist on that, claiming Hades invited Persephone to become his queen, and Demeter just threw a huge stink because of empty nest syndrome. He even cites Hekate's leading Demeter to Hades' realm, leading her around ... and around ... and around ... so Hades and Persephone could enjoy their honeymoon without Persephone interrupting them. A wedding present from the goddess of witchcraft and crossroads. :P

But even if we go with the classical interpretation, Hades is indeed one of the more temperate and well-mannered of the Olympians; he just does his job, thankless as it often must be, apart from the once incident with Persephone. He's certainly the better brother, compared to Zeus and Poseidon.
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Re: Demise, the land of Stone and Pride

Post by Mistmaster »

Hades is the best husband, Poseidon is the best father (in my version he is also faithful to Gorgona), Zeus.... better stop before I get hit by a thunderbolt, lol.
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Re: Demise, the land of Stone and Pride

Post by brilliantlight »

Interesting, I take it that Althea Eurialidis is your Light Lord?
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Re: Demise, the land of Stone and Pride

Post by Mistmaster »

No, Perseus is;
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