World of Alidor » Brunari

How to train your dragon to be a lethal weapon

shent_lodge — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:06:33 +0000

I have been looking at the spells in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, and I noticed that a couple of them really work well with my game world of Alidor. In Alidor, dragons are top dog, and tortoises are man’s only hope. I have told players that there have been many wars between the people of Alidor, and the Dragons. Most notably was the Second War, where people had figured out how to sway the will of the mountainous tortoises, and used this ability to move them wherever they wanted, even across the open sea to the island of the greatest dragon of them all, Surma. The attack against Surma ultimately failed, leaving Ingersol stuck in a valley between two mountains, Jelling drowned at sea and Darra and Alice wandering the eastern lands of the Brunari leaderless.

The attack on their homeland, and the island now called Jelling, spurred the brunari people to design a new strategy to get back at the Children of the Slaves, as those who were free of dragon rule were called. A great forge was built just outside the cave mouth of Surma’s home.

Dragons stepped forth and volunteered to be transformed by the brunari spell smiths working in conjunction with the Daughters of Delarendel and the dragon Surma to create the ultimate weapon, essentially, common weapons that held the spirit of a dragon. If such a weapon was tossed into the air while speaking a word of summoning it would turn into a dragon and attack on its own. If the beast was slain in battle, it would return back to weapon shape and if the rite of ultimate death was not performed, the dragon would regenerate and be ready to fight again at a later day. All weapons forged this way bare Surma’s forge emblem on them.

There was one weapon found on a would be brunari assassin, that until recently, existed in the great hall in the tortoise city of Tudd, called Kingslayer, a long sword of remarkable quality. It was used in an attempt to kill Ian Russerson, the leader of the Children of the Slaves.

What inspired was the spell “Form of the Dragon I” from the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. This spell and another called Beast Shape provide an excellent way to make cool artifacts for players to find while exploring. Plus, as you adventure in Pathfinder RPG there may come a time when you need a mount and Form of the Dragon cast integrated into a melee weapon could be one possibility. Of course, first you would have to train your dragon to let you ride it. But how do you train a dragon? One way, in my game, is that you befriend it, say with Diplomacy, and have some ranks in Fly and probably Handle Animal to help get you where you want to go. Dragon weapons can be the whole gamut of alignments, so maybe you get lucky, and find a dragon sword that is closely aligned to you. If you are not lucky, then maybe bribery will work, say, by letting the dragon start a hoard, and placing the weapon on a small pile of coins from time to time. Another might be to threaten the dragon blade with the rite of ultimate death.

The Rite of Ultimate Death

Over time, the knowledge of creating weapons with spirits in them faded. What is now known, is just tidbits gleaned from ledgers and journals that speak in particular of the dragons. To get a dragon to volunteer to have it’s life force encased in a weapon for all eternity is a difficult task to start with, but to have them give up their first item they ever hoarded to complete the spell, is even harder. The ones that did, never knew of the rite of ultimate death, where, according to the ritual, if you touched that single first hoarded item, be it a trinket, gem or a king’s crown, to the weapon that contained the dragon that originally gave it up, it would instantly snuff out the beast, rendering it and the weapon to ash. Of course at the time, this was a valiant thing to do during the war, and if the dragons had known of the rite, they would have had little to fear, because the brunary spell smiths kept the lists of the weapons, the dragons and the hoard items all safe and the brunari culture was here to stay, until oh, about 600 years ago, when that last bastion of their great culture finally crumbled. Scattered throughout Alidor are great treasures and odd little books with cryptic notes and dragon blades, there are 19 known to still exist or are unaccounted for.

I think I will have to make a dungeon using this theme…. Evil GM laugh.

Some fun things I thought of: If a player confirmed a critical with a natural 20, the weapon would release a breath weapon attack that the wielder is immune to. If it were a bow or crossbow the bolt would explode into a breath weapon attack. The number of levels that the player had carrying the weapon could be used to control this effect to avoid unwanted breath weapon attacks, or to spur one on. Say, if a fighter had the weapon for 3 levels, if she rolled a natural 20 to confirm, and did not want the breath weapon, because it may kill innocents, then she could reduce the score to less than 20, and do normal critical damage for the weapon. If her confirmation roll was less than 20, say 19, and she wanted the breath weapon to be released, then she could add to adjust her role to get a twenty. The player could only control this the number of times a day equal to the number of levels they had the weapon in their possession. The fighter in this example had the weapon for three levels, so she could use this ability three times a day.

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The Dragon Surma as a God

shent_lodge — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:17:10 +0000

Surma is the first dragon of Alidor, known to few as the mount of Alidor. It was the first dragon to antagonize players in my game. Over the years, many have lead campaigns to kill the great beast, few ever imagined why it was so difficult until now. As part of my never ending updates to my game world, I have decided to give Surma god status. This does not mean players can not go off and quest to defeat Surma. It just means it will be trickier, and require more thought and skill, like they will need to make alliances with other gods or find some special trinket or artifact that will be the beast’s achilles heal.

Surma
Mother of all dragons, Goddess beyond reach. Among men, Surma is known best as three beings, the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone all at once. Maiden is Fertility and Love, Mother is Healing, Nurturance and Sustenance, the Crone is the Destroyer, the Judge and most commonly Death.

Surma is always seeking treasures and precious items. Tributes to Surma are collected from a list that is sent to each community within range or interest to her. Most notably is the Nation of Jelling where people may worship other gods, but always carry small trinkets or charms to Surma or have them placed near doorways the other religions accept this behavior lest they loose parishioners or worse, anger the dragon.

Most common symbol is a red winged dragon resting on a great hoard held up by centaurs (I still need to draw this). The god is also seen as small green maiden charms used by young women hoping to become pregnant. A red mature woman cross-legged and meditating is sometimes found in medical clinics on the island. The crone is a black coin that carried by the elderly and sometimes nailed to the door of a criminals house while that person works of his sentence.

Symbols:

As a god Surma is quite active among her non-dragon followers and has been known to engage in games and conversation with mortals. When she does she is either a red haired female who could be young middle aged or old. Red haired women are always given respect and cautious reverence in regions where she is worshipped. She does not go out of her way to help followers and rarely answers prayers directly though she never forgets to collect her yearly tithe. She has been known to stop by and collect what is expected in person from time to time, though it has been many years since she has done so.

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Typical Brunari Burial Vault

shent_lodge — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:33:06 +0000

In Alidor different cultures deal with the dead in different ways. In Jelling the dead are burned in funeral pyres this came out of necessity to protect the populations from disease and from a common problem of the dead not staying still for long. The ancient Brunari people tended to bury their dead in deep pits, 20 to 30 feet deep; the wealthy would build up the pits to resemble great trophy rooms and have their prized possessions entombed with them. The burial vaults of wealthy Brunari were almost always designed with two to three rooms, and usually marked above ground by a stone monolith carved with images of dragons and a tomb tree. The tree was planted after the vault was sealed and it is know for its steal hard roots the grow vigorously down deep into the earth. The roots of the tree would encase the vault entirely in about 20years making the place nearly impossible to break into by common grave robbers. Wizards and druids who know the language of the tomb trees can coax the tree into releasing its grip.

By design these are very simple dungeons to run; there is a top or surface level feature consisting of a tree and a lone standing stone. A large stone laying flat on the ground near the monolith is the only entrance. Spells or some supernatural force is needed to break the trees grip on the vault stone door. Once open there is typically a vertical shaft leading 20 to 30 feet to the room below. The room can be barren, if grave robbers have been there in the past, or full of treasures or trapped. Real important Brunari trapped their vaults with false floor pit traps and all kinds of clever and usually deadly devices.

Leading off the main room was usually a false vault and a secret vault where the dead were laid to rest. In jelling the dead are almost always not resting, but in other parts of the world they are usually quite dead. Only the wealthiest of the Brunari had extra rooms and secret doors and traps.

The secret door into the actual burial chamber in the vault.

Knowledge of these vaults is not common but can be researched in places like the great library of the City of Alidor or at the headquarters of the Queens Archeological Society in Port Headland, Jelling. I almost always use these as introductory dungeons or for side stories that help introduce players to the history of the world.

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The Town of Yatton

shent_lodge — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:14:04 +0000

For many years, the first major obstacle on the River Surma for armies traveling up to attack the dragon, was the waterfall at Yatton. Initially a portage point for boatloads of troops, wishing to press further up river. At the portage point, one would have to offload all cargo and passengers from the boat, and then carry it and all your gear, two miles up and around the falls. Many campaigns against the dragon of the lake ended here in a bloody massacre. The now ruined brunari fort at the top of the falls fell in JY 900; its sister fort down at the portage site fell to the army of Port Headland in JY 560. A bridge now connects Myrtle road from Four Wells road to the famous Strawberry road, which leads up through Shent, and further on to North Point. At Three corners Myrtle Road and Strawberry Road meet up with Queen’s Road a toll road down to Port Headland. Much of the towns buildings come from scavenged stones from ruins midway up the Strawberry Road. Gold silver and salt mines are found in the area around Yatton though it is best known for its many pig and dairy farms.

Outside the defeat of the Brunari at the upper falls in JY 900, the only other historical note is that Harold the Bold made his stand from here against the Merchants Alliance who had ousted his father King Fortifer the Lazy four years earlier. On King Fortifers deathbed, Harold proclaimed that once he was King, he would make Jelling right again, and remove the Merchants Alliance, and give power back to the people by opening up large tracks of land to be purchased by anyone with the money and allowing land owners rights to vote in pubic meetings about the affairs of the state. Harold made this statement to a crowd of drunken farmers at Jinnys Pub, which to this day has a slab of stone in the floor with two well-worn footprints called proclamation point. Patrons of the pub are allowed to stand on the impressions of King Harold’s feet and proclaim anything they desire without fear of being sacked by the crowd.

A city in the Nation of Jelling

Stats:

Town Size Large Town
Population 4,981
Gold piece limit 2,193
Ready cash 545,808
Power Center(s)
Conventional – Good town council
Community Authority Highest-level Fighter
Guards/Soldiers 193
Militia 249

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The City of Bryce

shent_lodge — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 19:21:17 +0000

Established in the 1st century; it was for nearly 1,200 years the capital city of the Brunari Empire, built under the guidance of Surma, and the Daughters of Darandel. Today, only statues and symbols of dragon Surma, and many nameless brunari heroes are left, found throughout the city. One great structure still stands as testament of the true power of the brunari culture, the great castle and fortress called Bryce which sits on cliff overlooking the city and bay below. Its stone walls tower over 150 feet high and were later plated with gold dipped iron by the Iseghey Dwarves after the city fell to Harold of Yatton in JY 1239. The walls were never breached in times of war. The castle fell to the dwarves and men of Jelling who tunneled under the walls to take the castle from within.

Bryce had always been in competition with Port Headland, but after it fell to King Harold the Bold, and became the capital city of Jelling from JY 1240-1269 it grew immensely, initially it traded solely with the city of Brunar on the mainland, east across the Winwell Sea, when slave trade became popular after the fall of the Brunari Empire, Bryce made huge profits selling and transporting slaves throughout Alidor until the majority of its slave fleet was scuttled by abolitionists lead by Thomas Flagler in JY 1407. Thomas was eventually caught and beheaded for his crimes; his head is on display in the great hall of castle Bryce along side the head of Jessley the Haughty, last king of the Bruni. Occasionally, on the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade (August 15th of JY 1507) Flagler’s head goes missing and is often found floating in the air outside the den of black market slavers who have taken up shop in the city, or outside of the house of some corrupt alderman. But most times it is found outside the home of the Megenly family whose ancestors where members of the cities executioners guild and may have been responsible for executing Flagler. These days the family is best known for its dried beef and lamb cutlets and owns one of the best butcher shops in the city called The Cow‘s Rose. The family has been known to hang a sign on the head with list of items for sale on Abolition Day if it appears by them.

In 1545 Castle Bryce was attacked by Surma and lost its highest tower, called kings tower to the beast, though losses were not as severe in Bryce as they were in Port Headland, the rulers of Bryce no longer take part in plots against the dragon of the island.

A city in the Nation of Jelling

Stats:

Town Size Large City
Population 13,660
Gold piece limit 29,987
Ready cash 20,481,804
Power Center(s)
Conventional – Unaligned 
Conventional – Lawful good 
Magical – Lawful good 
Community Authority Highest-level cleric
Guards/Soldiers 193
Militia 967
Sheriff Horifer the Bold fighter 14

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