The Esoteric Order of the Golden Flame

    

From Hellboy, Into The Silent Sea

    The quest for immortality is a long and storied one, filled with rich idiots who don't really know what they're talking about. The Esoteric Order of the Golden Flame was no different. When scrolls detailing the calling and summoning of angels was first found by the honorable explorer Sir Percival Aylesworth, immortality was immediately on his mind. Rather than share the knowledge with filthy commoners, he instead created a secret club order of equally rich men and women to conduct experiments alongside with. An idle distraction soon turned into genuine occult obsession, and soon Aylesworth's manor was gutted and filled with ritual signs and communication devices. At the height of their madness, they were contacted by Araquiel, a Throne who offered them the secret to eternal life.

    And then he was promptly cast out of heaven for daring to share the secrets of God.

    By the time that they got to where he fell, the cathedrals of the Seraphim's Gate was already filling the crater and sending spires up. Undeterred, they brought equipment and entered, where they promptly all met horrible fates. Some became Ghouls, which will be detailed in a later post. Others became these.

Also from Hellboy, Almost Colossus

Homunculus

HD: 4 AC: As leather + shield 

Damage: 1d6, from slam

Appearance: A roughly sculpted approximation of a naked human, made from clay. A hole in its chest burns with a dim flame.

Wants: To escape, although it doesn't know how or why.

Treasure: None, although if you leave the body mostly intact, you could use it as a Homunculus Shell.

Some Golden Dawn members, attempting to avoid becoming Ghouls or being possessed by angels, transferred their souls into hastily made shells. Much had to be stripped away to fit within clay and mud, and now they're confused and panicking, lashing out at any who might try to stop their escape.

Angel-Possessed

HD: 5  AC: As Chain

Damage: Roll 1d6 to see how it deals damage

1. Speaks the language of God. 1d8 damage to all who hear it each round
2. Controls a dancing sword. 1d8 damage
3. Tongue of fire hovering above them that lashes out with flames. 1d6 damage
4. Holds censer of choking incense. Blocks visibility, and deals 1d4 damage to all within the cloud who don't hold their breath
5. Wrathful gaze that can tear a person apart. 1d10 damage, but it has to focus on the target
6. Surrounded by hovering geometric stones, which it can shoot at high speeds. 2d4 damage, which it can split between multiple targets

Appearance: A person in beige robes, with wings bursting out of their back. Roll 1d6 for additional traits

1. Eyes. Far too many eyes, all over their wings and on every inch of visible flesh
2. Extremities turned into white stone, gilded and bejeweled
3. Turned into a being of living, blindingly bright light
4. Even more wings. Wings everywhere. Is there even a person left?
5. Shrouded in holy flame. The person underneath seems to be totally untouched
6. Looks perfect and beautiful, in an almost uncanny valley sort of way

The bodies of the best and brightest members of the Golden Flame, possessed and twisted by the angels that they tried to communicate with. Percival himself was possessed by an angel of knowledge of sight and perception, "gifting" him with Damage 5 and Appearance 1, as well as 3 extra hit dice.

Seraphim's Gate Overview

    

    Araquiel was once a great Throne, an angel of God with domain over earth and stone. But he taught forbidden knowledge to Man, and for that he was cast out of heaven and thrown into the earth which he once had power over. He lays dying now, but his sheer heavenly presence drains the land of its beauty and goodness, drawing it around himself. To stop this process, the party must delve into a heavenly half-reality of twisted cathedrals and monasteries, and kill him to close... The Seraphim's Gate.

Many thanks to Archon's Court for this useful template

Aesthetic: Endless Gothic Cathedral. Everything is ornate and overwrought; the few utilitarian rooms have been turned into this by the angelic presence within.

Threat: Many. The two primary forces are the Ghouls, humans with the beauty and goodness drained from them, reduced to envious, half-dead horrors, and the Angels, servants of heaven drawn to Araquiel's power like moths to a flame. Beyond that, there's many other strange religious creatures, from confessional mimics and angel-possessed lions to undead saints and repentant demons.

Goal: Kill Araquiel to purge the influence of Heaven. Barring that, there's a shit ton of treasure inside the Gate, including entire rooms that are bejeweled or gilded.

Playlist: Already made. If  you have any good suggestions, feel free to let me know.

This post is more of a mission statement than anything else. I'll have a list of locations up soon.

Art by Yuuki Mokuya

A GLOG Bard Genre: The Lizard Wizard

Lexi's Bard class is very fun, but I've felt like there's only a couple of genres available to it, and that's a shame. So I've decided to be the change that I want to see in the world, and create my own, starting with one themed around one of my favorite bands, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Is starting with one of my favorite bands self-indulgent, self-absorbed, self-masturbatory, and all other kinds of "self"? Yes. Do I care? No. So here's a genre with a song from each of their albums.

Your average Lizard Wizard bard

       Perk: Seamless Transition: You can choose to instantly end one song and switch to another while keeping the previous Intensity. You can only do this once per song.

• Tomb/Beach: For the duration of this song, you create a coffin that's exactly your size. Your music isn't muffled by it, and you can breathe fine while sealed inside. At Intensity 1, it's made of wood, at Intensity 2, it's made of stone, at Intensity 3, it's made of steel, at Intensity 4, it's made of the hardest material in your setting.
  
• Danger $$$: While playing this song, you can spend 25 gp to automatically make a roll fail. At Intensity 3, you can spend 50 gp to make the roll fumble.
• Uh Oh, I Called Mum: You call your mom and ask her three questions, the connection spanning across dimensions and the veil of death, if need be. At Intensity 1, her answers are what she would normally say, at Intensity 2, she answers with unusual wisdom, at Intensity 3, she answers with the intelligence of a great sage, and at Intensity 4, she answers as if she was the wisest, smartest creature in the world.
  
• Drum Run: You and your allies move with the swiftness of the wind adding [Intensity]x30ft to your speed.
  
• Head On/Pill: You cause intense psychedelic hallucinations in up to [Intensity]x3 creatures of your choice.
  
• Vegemite: You create [Intensity]x5 pounds of Vegemite. The uses of this ability are limited only by your imagination.
  
• I'm In Your Mind Fuzz: You reach into a person's head to change their mind. At Intensity 1, you change what they're currently thinking of, at Intensity 2 you can change how they feel about something, at Intensity 3 you can change a major motivation of theirs, and at Intensity 4, you can rewrite their entire personality.
  
• The River: You and your allies become buoyant in the air for [Intensity]x10 minutes, becoming able to swim in it like water.
  
• Sense: You knock some common sense into up to [Intensity] creatures, purging any overwhelming emotions and making them consider things from a more rational, kinder perspective.
  
• Gamma Knife: You summon an invisible dagger of pure radiation that affects everything besides you for the duration of the song. At Intensity 1, the radiation it gives off is largely harmless, at Intensity 2, it can cause long-term cancer, mutations, and birth defects, at Intensity 3 its very presence causes headaches, nausea, and weakness, at at Intensity 4, the radiation from a single blow will cause death in a matter of days.
  
• Nuclear Fusion: You turn yourself and [Intensity] allies into incorporeal spirits for the duration of the song, able to fly, and experience each other's senses.
  
• Murder of the Universe: You transform yourself into a vomit elemental for the duration of the song. At Intensity 1, you stay the same size, at Intensity 2 you are the size of an ogre, at Intensity 3 you are the size of a house, and at Intensity 4, you are the size of a dragon. Also at Intensity 4, you make mental contact with Han-Tyumi, the insane, suicidal cyborg who accidentally became omnipresent in his quest to vomit, and can ask him a single question.
  
• The Spider And Me: At the end of the song, you summon a single, friendly talking spider for [Intensity] hours. They will follow your commands to the best of their abilities. 
  
• Crumbling Castle: At the end of the song, you take an object and rapidly accelerate it through time. At Intensity 1, the object can be the size of a dog and be affected by up to a week of relative time. At Intensity 2, it can be the size of a person, and be affected by up to a month. At Intensity 3, it can be the size of an elephant and up to a year, and at Intensity 4, it can be the size of a castle and up to a decade.
• The Great Chain Of Being: You sow intense distrust and and hatred of tradition in all that hear your song. At Intensity 1, it can be a minor tradition among the immediate group, at Intensity 2 it can be a town-wide tradition, at Intensity 3 it can be a culturewide tradition, and at Intensity 4 it can be a massive, universal "tradition", like law or religion.
• Plastic Boogie: For the duration of the song, you fill the lungs of [Intensity] creatures with choking microplastics, causing 1d4 damage each round as the cough and struggle to breathe.
  
• Hell: You summon [Intensity]x2 pissed-off gun-toting flaming leftist paratrooper skeletons from hell for the duration of the song. They'll follow your orders, but have a fixation on killing the rich, and will turn on you if you appear too wealthy.
  

        Who knows, maybe in the future, I'll double down on all the selfs and make genres based off of albums.