| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| George Krashos |
Posted - 18 Dec 2023 : 08:45:21
Well, it's up. "The Beckoning Road: Varlo's Guide to the Cities of the Unapproachable East". Take a look if you are interested:
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/464201/The-Beckoning-Road-Varlos-Guide-to-the-Cities-of-the-Unapproachable-East?src=newest_in_dmg&filters=45469
-- George Krashos |
| 12 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 14 Mar 2024 : 14:21:14
Well, I know its a month and a half late, but the other day I noted I had enough stored cash on DMS guild to buy a few things that might catch my eye. I just downloaded it and am cherry picking through it (i.e. I skipped all the cities to go to the crunch stuff and the related lore)
I like your history so far on the Eyes of Cegilune regarding the hags and the arrival of the Rus in Rashemen. It also introduces an interesting way to have hags appearing in Rashemen via being born from the wychlarans' ranks if they interacted with the artifact, and the creation of the Bheur and shrieking hags and the renegade hathrans known as the Durthans. Personally, given the ties of Rashemen to the fey via their land though, I'd like OTHER (read EXTRA) paths for hag involvement in the region. That being said, some of that may be because hags from elsewhere have been attracted here to try and recover this holy artifact.
I like the idea of Isarrel as a deity. I would definitely stress him more with a tie to dajemma. Essentially, I'd say something along the lines that the IDEA of dajemma came from his worship, and every place that the travelling Rashemi youth stops they make essentially a small shrine to him with a sacrifice of game hunted. These may be an attempt of the nascent deity to extend his influence outside of Rashemen. However, I would try to tweak the idea of his forming somehow that's not solid in my head. Essentially, maybe there was some threat and the 4 deities temporarily sent power into some being to act as their combined "chosen" avatar. Then this mortal being infused with deific energy sacrificed himself to protect the land and survives on as a telthor tied to the land that resembles a prime bound deity. So, he's no longer tied to the 4 deities that powered him and is now a new "aspect" of them all as a result (using some old 1e terminology). Maybe even he was the first sentient (i.e. non animal) to become a telthor, and maybe the creation of other telthors from mortal beings is attributable to this Isarrel. Does this work for you? Don't know, but throwing it out for discussion if you like.
To go further into this idea, perhaps priests of Isarrel attempt to become telthors by acting like heroes in service to the realm, and perhaps the holy places are inhabited by telthors who also have the power of priests, druids, rangers, paladins, etc.... Perhaps its considered sacreligious to resurrect such individuals if they actually achieve immortality via becoming a telthor. Finally, for those on dajemma, if a particularly noteworth hunt is performed and the creature is treated as a sacrifice... perhaps there's a chance that a new telthor is formed through the power of the deity AT THAT LOCATION OUTSIDE OF RASHEMEN. It might be further seen as a place for those on dajemma to go and test themselves against a noble spirit beast.
oh well, need to go to work, will look into this more later. |
| George Krashos |
Posted - 05 Mar 2024 : 15:05:11
quote:
Originally posted by Delnyn
I got a few chuckles with Varlo's quotes, especially about the wychlaran's mask. If Varlo were a PC, Wisdom would have been the dump stat.
He lives a life blissfully unaware of his shortcomings.
-- George Krashos |
| Delnyn |
Posted - 03 Mar 2024 : 01:10:02
I got a few chuckles with Varlo's quotes, especially about the wychlaran's mask. If Varlo were a PC, Wisdom would have been the dump stat. |
| Gelcur |
Posted - 26 Feb 2024 : 02:23:08
So I'm no expert on the Unapproachable East so I can't give feedback on that specifically.
The one review on DmsGuild is a bit harsh. Though it has some valid points, lack of page numbers on the table of contents is odd, though I will say it is hyperlinked so you can just click on them. The lack of denotation of North on the maps is also weird but this stuffs not worth knocking off multiple stars. I'll add to that at least two of the (link) texts don't seem to work for me page 93 and page 100, the rest seem to work fine. I'd also suggest to link the red dots on the map to jump around in the product.
What I will say is there is a LOT of content in here! Oh here is a section on True Naming, here's a nice list of the ruling lines for the region, oh look some stats for the Simbul (she uses her hair to attack!). Then there's a ton of maps, and mage sigils, and symbols, and heraldic crests. And links and references, I love when products reference other products. It something that comes second nature on the internet but before the web existed good books did this. I especially like that it also links to other DMsGuild products. The art is also pretty good, surprisingly like 90% of it hits home. The character portraits especially help me visualize, and I always like having the short abbreviated NPC stats.
I'm giving it 5 stars. If nothing else to make up for that 3 star review. The only other thing I can think is maybe in a future product see if you can reference the Amarune series of products. Be nice to create some sort unofficial Realms canon ring of products. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 26 Jan 2024 : 14:27:56
Intrigued, but can't take time to look at right now... work killing me... but... tell whoever said it that the country doesn't have a silent D at the end.
I am intrigued to see what you did for telthor as a template and bheur hags, as I tried to take a stab at them years ago when I was first learning 5e rules. In looking back with time past and more knowledge of the 5e rules, I know that I need to rework a good bit of what I initially wrote rulewise, but I was doing it for the fun at the time.
Just to see if I can get you to show me what you did for telthors... because I'm nosy... and I figure that if you share a tidbit here people might be intrigued more.
Here's what I did for the template, and also a pair of ritual spell that was only obtainable by people who took certain spellcasting subclasses that I created (i.e. Durthans and Vremyonni). In short the Vremyonni idea that I put forth is that their research into constructs involved spirit magic, and they were summoning telthors in the form of ancestor spirits to inhabit weapons, shields, and eventually armor.
Telthor Template
A beast, humanoid, giant, or monstrosity can become a telthor. Generally these beings are most often beasts, with human heroes following soon behind. Often these heroes return by appearing inside the empty suits of armor and picking up the weapons they wielded in life, and thus many families keep the armor and weapons of the fallen in their households in places of reverence so that they can easily return if the family should need. When a creature becomes a telthor, it retains its statistics except as noted below.
Condition Immunities. Exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, prone, restrained
Damage Resistances: bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from non-magical weapons
Incorporeal Movement. The telthor can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.
Bound to the Land. A telthor is tied to the place it guards and is weakened if it moves more than 1 mile from that place. Outside of this area, it takes 1 point of damage every minute. This damage ends immediately if it enters its home area again. Telthors can sense the boundaries of their territory and normally do not leave them except to warn others of danger. Rashemen legends tell of telthors that traveled miles to warn the hathrans of an invasion and then died from the pain of separation before they could be healed.
Native Animal Empathy. Telthors can communicate and empathize with animals of their kind. This gives them a +4 bonus on checks to influence the animal’s attitude and allows the communication of simple concepts and (if the animal is friendly) commands, such as “friend,” “enemy,” “flee,” and “attack.” A humanoid telthor chooses one kind of animal for its empathic bond and gains this ability for that kind of animal only.
Telthor Telepathy. Telthors can communicate with one another telepathically, regardless of language, at a range of 100 feet.
NEW RITUAL MAGICS
The rituals in this section are not specific to any one class' spell list. They are learned via feats or class abilities that open you to specific regional types of spellcasters and how they learn their magic. As a result, these spells cannot be learned by outsiders unless they somehow obtain the appropriate feats, class abilities, or through DM adjudication.
Bind Vremyonni Telthor Construct Familiar
1st-level enchantment (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: 10 feet
Components: V,S,M (10 gp worth of charcoal, incense, and herbs that must be consumed by fire in a brass brazier. Also, the caster must have something that belonged to the Telthor Spirit that he is attempting to bind. Also, there must be the item that the Telthor spirit will be bound to. Also, note the special note about hit dice. Only the charcoal, incense, and herbs are lost during this casting)
Duration: Instantaneous
This spell works similar to the spell find familiar, and the character cannot use this spell and find familiar at the same time. There are some important differences though. The main one is that casting this spell requires the spellcaster to give some of their essence to the land. This takes the form of the character expending one of its hit dice for the day. Next, the standard find familiar spell summons the spirts of a celestial, fey, or fiend that is of a selection of certain small beast types that the caster can choose. The find familiar spirit takes on corporeal form. Bind Vremyonni Telthor Construct Familiar spell does not create this corporeal form and thus this spell requires you to provide an item of special construction (essentially, the item should have been one that once held some kind of elemental, fey, or plant spirit). Also, Bind Vremyonni Telthor Construct Familiar summons a special otherworldly fey spirit known as a Telthor (see new monsters) to inhabit the item. Most Telthor spirits are simple animals, but the Vremyonni specifically call upon humanoid spirits with this spell (mostly humans from the Raumathar Empire or the country of Rashemen) that were turned into Telthor upon their death.
The spirit drawn can be coerced into inhabiting a non-magical simple or martial one-handed melee weapon if said melee weapon is composed of some materials that were formerly of elemental, fey, or living plant origin (it should be noted here that the Vremyonni over the last century have taken to secretly mining ironfell from the body of Telos in Vaasa for just this express purpose and have had interesting results in their experimentation). The cost of a simple weapon made of these materials is typically 10 times the cost of a normal weapon of similar make (so a war pick or trident is 50 gp, a battle axe, flail, or shortsword is 100 gp, a longsword, morningstar, or warhammer is 150 gp, and a rapier or scimitar is 250 gp). Silvering the weapon costs the normal 100 gp extra.
This weapon inhabited by the familiar is treated as an animated object similar to a Flying Sword (and exactly like a flying sword if your weapon is a longsword). See the monster manual entry for animated objects for statistics. The weapon also takes on the intelligence, wisdom, and charisma characteristics of the Telthor Spirit inhabiting it (choose a 16, 13, and 11 and allow the caster to determine to which it applies). Typically, higher intelligence Telthors are former Eldritch Knights or wizards, higher wisdom ones are clerical or druid Hathrans or male paladins or rangers, and higher charisma ones are former bards, sorcerers, paladins, rogues, or occasionally fey or spirit shaman pact warlocks. Take this into account if roleplaying this familiar. The type of weapon can also change its other statistics as follows from that of a Flying Sword.
Trident, damage is 1d6+1 piercing
Battle Axe, is treated exactly the same as a Flying Sword
Flail & Warhammer, simply change the damage type to bludgeoning
Morningstar & Warpick, simply change the damage type to piercing
Shortsword/Scimitar/Rapier – change to +4 to hit, but only 1d6+1 slashing damage
All rules about familiar's apply, except that it can attack, and when the familiar is dismissed it leaves behind the weapon that it had animated. If the familiar drops to 0 hit points, the weapon is destroyed and cannot be reused by a newly summoned familiar (unless of course the weapon is mended with a mending cantrip or similar). Since the familiar's “body” is just a non-magical item, it can be repaired of damage through castings of the mending cantrip (repairing 1d4 hit points of damage per casting).
At Higher Levels. As you cast this spell at higher and higher levels, it requires the spellcaster to sacrifice more of his essence to the land in order to call a more powerful telthor spirit. Mechanically, this means the character must expend hit dice equal to the spell slot level used in order to cast this spell (so casting it as a 5th level spell requires the expenditure of 5 hit dice). Hit dice expended are regained after a long rest as usual.
When you cast this ritual using a spell slot of 2nd level the weapon can be a non-magical simple or martial Heavy, two-handed melee weapon. In addition, the strength of the telthor increases from 12 to 14. This makes the changes the following from that of a Flying Sword
Glaive & Halberd, +4 to hit, 1d10+2 slashing, plus having reach
Greataxe +4 to hit, 1d12+2 slashing
Greatsword +4 to hit, 2d6+2 slashing
Maul +4 to hit, 2d6+2 bludgeoning
Pike +4 to hit, 1d10+2 piercing, plus having reach
When you cast this ritual using a spell slot of 3rd level the “weapon” can actually be a combination of two devices working in concert. First would be a non-magical one-handed martial weapon like that made at first level. The second could either be a non-magical light one-handed martial weapon (i.e. shortsword, scimitar, etc...) OR a non-magical shield instead (giving a constant +2 shield bonus to the spellcaster's AC). When you cast this ritual using a spell slot of 4th level you have learned enough to give the telthor much more control over that which it possesses. You can have the telthor possess a suit of non-magical plate armor instead, becoming effectively Animated Armor (see animated objects in the monster manual), which you may arm with whatever weapon or shield that you like (even magical ones), such that you can modify its statistics accordingly. When you cast this ritual using a spell slot of 5th level, change the Animated Armor's Strength from 14 to 16 (giving an additional +1 to hit and damage) and its Constitution from 13 to 14 (raising its hit points to 39).
When you cast this ritual using a spell slot of 6th level, the suit of armor animated becomes the equivalent of a Helmed Horror. The armor must be non-magical still, but the weapon and/or shield used by the Helmed Horror may be whatever you supply it. You may also choose the spells that it is immune to. When you cast this ritual using a spell slot of 7th level, the Helmed Horror gains the use of one of your damaging cantrips, and when it uses its action to cast this cantrip, it may make one weapon attack as a bonus action (similar to the war magic feature of the eldritch knight). When you cast this ritual using a spell slot of 8th level, it gains all previous features from the 7th level version, plus it learns a second damaging cantrip and its strength increases to 20 and constitution increases to 18. When you cast this ritual using a spell slot of 9th level, it gains all previous features from the 7th & 8th level version, plus it gains the ability to cast Magic Missile and Chromatic Orb up to 3 times per day (as if cast using a 4th level spell slot).
Call Telthor Spirit
4th-level enchantment (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: 10 feet
Components: V,S,M (10 gp worth of charcoal, incense, and herbs that must be consumed by fire in a brass brazier. Also, note the special note about hit dice.)
Duration: Instantaneous
This spell works similar to the spell find familiar, but this spell does not replace the spellcaster's familiar and the Telthor Spirit summoned is free to attack or defend itself. There are some important differences though. The main one is that casting this spell requires the spellcaster to give some of their essence to the land. This takes the form of the character expending four of its hit dice for the day. Secondly, the Telthor Spirit takes on the Telthor Template (thus, being ghostly in form rather than being a standard beast). The Telthor Spirit called can take on the form of a beast that is no larger than medium and that has a challenge rating of 1/4 or lower (from appendix D of the player's handbook, good examples include boar, mastiff, mule, panther, and wolf, or from the monster manual pony, giant wolf spider, giant weasel, giant rat, giant poisonous snake, giant frog, giant crab, giant badger, giant centipede, blood hawk). Add your proficiency bonus to the beast's AC, attack rolls, and damage rolls, as well as to any saving throws and skills it is proficient in. Its hit point maximum equals its normal hit point maximum or four times your Character Level. As a bonus action each round, you may telepathically order your familiar to perform any action it is capable of. The caster may only control the Spirits called by a single casting of Call Telthor Spirit at any one time.
At Higher Levels. As you cast this spell at higher and higher levels, it requires the spellcaster to sacrifice more of his essence to the land in order to call more telthor spirits. Mechanically, this means the character must expend hit dice equal to the spell slot level used in order to cast this spell (so casting it as a 6th level spell requires the expenditure of 6 hit dice). Hit dice expended are regained after a long rest as usual. When you cast this ritual using a spell slot of 6th lvl or higher, the number of Tethor Spirits that answer the call increases by one for every two slot levels above 4th.
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| George Krashos |
Posted - 26 Jan 2024 : 02:55:45
Really appreciate the response. Thank you.
-- George Krashos |
| Lyethriel |
Posted - 25 Jan 2024 : 00:45:36
Been on here forever but have never posted, but just wanted to say I love it and don’t have anything bad to say at all. It reminds me of the best of the Volo guides and the 2E Forgotten Realms Adventures book, which are some of my favorites ever released. Tons of good lore and really gets the imagination going. This and the guide you and Eric wrote about Jergal are both phenomenal. Thanks, and nice work! |
| ericlboyd |
Posted - 03 Jan 2024 : 22:24:15
Definitely pick it up! George spent a ton of time detailing a little known part of the Realms. Truly fantastic.
Well, except for all the gnomes.
--Eric |
| George Krashos |
Posted - 30 Dec 2023 : 03:10:27
If anyone has picked this up, just interested in any feedback - good and/or bad. Cheers.
-- George Krashos |
| Ayrik |
Posted - 19 Dec 2023 : 08:11:37
Probably the classic story of twins split at birth. One was pampered, loved, became powerful and respected and wise. The other became the village idiot. I haven't read this guidebook so I'm not really sure which of the two is which. |
| George Krashos |
Posted - 19 Dec 2023 : 07:59:36
He's a wannabe Volo. Which isn't saying much.
-- George Krashos |
| Delnyn |
Posted - 18 Dec 2023 : 23:37:50
Is Varlo a twin sibling of Volo? |
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