Seraphim's Gate Rooms

 

Seraphim's Gate is a strange, twisted place, an otherworldy cancer manifesting itself into an everchanging maze, getting more elaborate as you go deeper within. Shallow layers resemble what you could find in a humble abbey; near the center, it's a exaggerated gothic mess. Here are some of the rooms you can find within. To roll for them, roll 1d10 and add the number of layers you are in. You start at layer 0.

1. Garden: Sad, withered plants looking out onto a sad, withered wasteland
2. Kitchen: Sparse, with most of the food having rotted away. Has a couple knives, if you're desperate for weapons
3. Wine Cellar: Plain stone floors, 1d12+2 large casks of wine.Only 1d4-1 of them is actual good wine, the rest having been severely watered down by holy water, milk, honey, and/or blood
4. Sleeping Quarters: Simple bunk beds lay in rows. Hidden under a mattress is  1. A dagger  2. A bottle of whiskey  3. A pouch of 1d20 gold  4. Cheap erotica
5.  Base Camp: Several fine tents in a cleared out room, with the few remaining contents shoved against one wall. Steamer trunks are filled with fancy clothing, high-quality alcohol and tobacco, rapiers, flintlock pistols, and occult notes.
6. Crypt: Dark and dusty. Dead wrapped in white cloth are interred in stone niches. One of them is new, bearing distinctive wounds, as if they were killed by a random creature within.
7. Chapel: A humble chapel, with 1d6+2 rows of pews and a bare stone altar. The decorations remaining on the walls look old and faded.
8. Bell Tower: A spiral staircase winding around a central shaft, the top of which has a giant bell. If rung, it automatically triggers an encounter. It can also be cut to crash through the floor, creating a shortcut 1d4+1 layers lower, and attracting an encounter from that layer as it investigates.
9. Great Hall: A massive hallway that extends into the horizon. High visibility, and very easy to get flanked and cornered.
10. Confessional Chamber: Rows of confessionals set across the walls. The first character to go inside one and speak hears  1. The slurred advice of a Drunken Visionary  2. Strange, chiming angelspeak  3. Blasphemous scripture from a Penitent Demon  4. The gnashing jaws of a Confessional Mimic!
11. Library: 1d4 stories high, and filled with books on religion, philosophy, and the occult. Behind a bookshelf is a secret chamber that  1. Has a spellbook within it  2. Leads 1d2+1 layers deeper  3. Hides a bulky Golden Flame machine designed to speak to spirits  4. Has an encounter from 1d3 layers deeper hidden inside.
12. Statuary: A room filled with statues of saints and humanoid angels. They  1. Each have offering slots, with 1d20 gold in each one  2. Contain the bones of actual dead saints  3. Will animate to punish anyone who uses violence within
13. Fountain: A fountain centered around a statue of an angel gifting water to begging men and women. The water  1. Turns anything dipped within to gold  2. Can render those soaked in it invisible to holy creatures  3. Is contaminated by milk and honey  4. Is so holy that everything that isn't angelic is dissolved by its touch
14. Anchorite's Hideout: What can only be described as a tiny, spartan stone house built into the cathedral. The exit is sealed and must be broken down, and the anchorite within is  1. Dead  2. Is mad and babbles in angelspeak  3. Will give well-meaning advice  4. Will give treacherous advice
15. Saint's Shrine: A large altar and surrounding artwork dedicated to a specific saint, with gifts lying on it. Depending on whether the altar is offered to or looted/desecrated, the saint will bestow an oddly specific blessing or curse related to its portfolio/quickly-scanned Wikipedia page 
    
    
    
16. Reliquary Chamber: Filled with holy artifacts, dead saint parts, and the like. Among all the religious bric-a-brac is a magic item
17. Choral Chamber: A semicircular room, with raised seats for choir singers. Those who try to sing inside  1. Manifest a choir collar  2. Cause ghostly singers to appear alongside them  3. Are filled with a sense of inner tranquility  4. Attract a Castrato Choir
18. Sacred Flame: A chamber centered around a stone basin with a golden-white flame burning inside. Those who stoke the flame are rewarded with its loyalty, while those who try to extinguish it are attacked by a Sacred Flame Elemental
19. Prayer Labyrinth: A massive labyrinth design, spread across the floor. Those who follow the path the entire way have one question vaguely answered. Those who cross any lines are struck down with holy fire.
20. Organ Room: A pipe organ dominates one part of this room. Playing it is very loud, and triggers an encounter roll, as well as  1. Giving one the ability to understand angelspeak  2. Causing 1d20*50 gold to blast out of the pipes  3. Deafening the player  4. Shaking the chamber hard enough to make it collapse
21. Grand Cathedral: 1d20+10 rows of pews, elaborate altar, stained glass windows, grand gothic excess. High traffic, so you'll always have an encounter here.
22. Ossuary: A crypt for saints, where everything is made of bones. Should one disturb the valuable-strewn graves, all centered around a magic item here, the bones will lash out to attack, and assemble themselves into guardians
23. Outdoor Grotto: A room open to the starry night sky, far lovelier looking than actual night. A grove of trees ring the room, guarded by an invisible angel wielding a flaming sword that punishes anyone who sins within the room
24. Bridge: A long bridge, connecting two huge floating chunks of cathedral across  1. A massive, Blame!-esque expanse of more cathedral on all sides  2. Empty void  3. Blue skies  4. Blinding white light. In any case, don't fall!
25. On a 25 or over, you suddenly exit onto a ledge near the top of a blasted crater. Far down, the wracked, dying body of Araquiel can be seen, chunks of cubic gold weeping milk and honey.

5G Bestiary #2: Blood

Art Source Here

 Bloodtanks: Vampires and blood go together like peanut butter and chocolate. The decadent ones (and that's a lot of them) have great blood fountains, mix it into perfumes and makeup, bathe in it, and do all other sorts of ridiculous, wasteful things. But blood collection is messy, and you can't sit in a bathtub of blood for forever. That realization caused a particularly bloodthirsty vampire to invent the Bloodtank. With this wonderful invention, one could float in a tank of blood, controlling hypodermic needle-tendrils to quickly and cleanly extract more supply. The main "drawback" if the users even realize it, is that all that blood puts them in a constant blood high, making them constantly spacey. If you destroy it, well, then, be prepared to deal with a pissed-off naked vampire going through a blood withdrawl.

HD: 5  AC: As Chain  Speed: Normal, but hovers above the ground

Damage: 1d6, from blood-draining needle, and drains 1d3 strength until the next rest. Regain 1d2 of that strength every day/rest.

Blood Soak: The Bloodtank can vent a small amount of blood to make the surrounding ground slippery

Outer Shell: If destroyed, you still have to deal with the vampire inside

Wants: To keep its tank full and its brain nice and fuzzy, to get any parts need for repairs/tune-ups

There are occasional rumors that some Bloodtanks are designed to slot into larger Bloodmechas as a cockpit; however, this is ridiculous fearmongering, and you shouldn't have to worry about it.

Bloodmecha

HD: 6  AC: As Plate  Speed: Fast, and can scale walls

Damage: 2d6 from needle-tendrils, and drains 1d4+1 strength 

Ripper Claws: Deals 1d6 damage, and gives a -1 penalty to armor each time it hits

Outer Shell: If destroyed, you still need to deal with the Bloodtank inside

Drunken Visionary

There are many different kinds of liquids inside Seraphim's Gate. Milk, honey, holy water, and the blood of both men and angels all flow throughout in artificial creeks eroded into the cathedral floors. Occasionally, one can find a monk or nun drinking from one of these. Their clothes soaked with all these liquids, they're thoroughly drunk with the holy power within them, experiencing swirling holy visions. If you ask nicely, they may help you find the way, describing two separate, nearby locations, and their details and inhabitants in vague, cryptic descriptions of their hallucinations.

(Many thanks to Daemons and Deathrays, for inspiring the first creature, and for being the first RPG blog I ever stumbled upon.)

The Grotesque Grimoire of GLOGgish Ghouls and Goblins #1: Gundead

 When you really think about it, being shot is a brutal way to go. A tiny chunk of hot lead, ripping through skin, muscle, fat, and bone at over 1.5k miles an hour. Headshots, especially, are nasty. It isn't like a game or movie, where it's a small, clean hole; no, when you shoot someone in the head, bone sprays out and brain splatters. Is it any wonder that, when a weapon causes this much violence, sometimes it hungers for more?

When a gun kills enough, when it sends enough souls to heaven or hell or wherever else, it occasionally becomes aware, a Gundead. It gains a mind and personality, and the power to overwrite the minds and personalities of others. Gundead are always arrogant and bloodthirsty, though this manifests in different ways. A shotgun might be brutal and vulgar, a sniper rifle would be cold and distant, a revolver might have a superficial sense of honor, and so on. Whatever the case, they'll try to make the rest of your life short and painful.

Gundead have 1 HD and no physical stats. Their host has HD, AC, and physical stats appropriate to what they were before they were overwritten. Although they speak through their host, they try not to reveal their true state, so that they aren't immediately destroyed. If a person picks up a Gundead, they must make a CHA save, or have their movements hijacked by the Gundead. If they fail a second save the turn after, their mind is overwritten by the Gundead's; even if freed, they'll still keep lingering personality traits.  

Wants: To kill for fun, to do it in the most impressive/brutal way possible, to boast and be flattered

Greater Gundead: Sometimes, a Gundead is wielded for so long by a single body that they begin to favor it. Even if the body is killed, rather than find a new host, they'll command it to rise again. Eventually, the body will become a walking skeleton, still clutching its gun. These Gundead can only be killed if their host is destroyed, and the host can't be destroyed unless it is turned to ash and scattered to the four winds.

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.

D10 Angelic Magic Items

I'm in the process of making an angelic depthcrawl, and I decided that I need some cool magic items to lure players into the depths of the deadly abbey. So, I've created this list.

1. Tongue of Tongues. Long and purple, this is one of the 144,000 tongues of Metatron, the Voice of God. If you cut off your own tongue and replace it with this, you can speak and understand all languages.
2. Martyr's Skull. Belonging a to a person who was killed in some hideously painful way, you can heal someone for up to 6 hp while holding the skull, but lose that same amount of hp as the martyr's wounds form on your body.
3. Goblet of Filth. This golden goblet can generate up to 5 gallons of churning, squirming, foul-smelling filth at a time. You can't tell if it's alive or not.
4. Thundering Lantern. This lantern is lit by a feather of an angel of thunder, and has a mechanism that lets you focus the light into a small beam. If you speak his name while doing so, the light will slowly but surely melt through any inanimate object it touches.
5. Cherubim's Chime. This small bell, when rung, summons a cherubim, a floating marble head surrounded by wings and gold filigree. It can create light, and will alert you of danger.
6. Saint's Sarcophagus. A gilded and bejeweled coffin with a glass lid and inner velvet cushioning, held aloft by cherubim. You can still cast spells while sealed inside, and you won't suffocate.
7. Sanctified Blood. This vial of blood acts as a simple healing potion, though it is also mildly intoxicating. Large amounts can cause hallucinations of a religious nature.
8. Homunculus Shell. A crude clay statue of a person, with a hole in its chest. You can bind someone's soul to the shell; if they would die, their soul transfers to the shell, and they lose 1D3 from each stat, to a minimum of 3 in that stat.
9. Chains of the Penitent. These platinum shackles do not restrict movement when a person acts morally just. However, if they do something unjust by an angel's standards, they suddenly draw tight, restricting movement and becoming painfully tight and hot until the wearer repents.
10. Choir Collar. This golden choker raises the wearer's singing voice to a beautiful soprano, high and loud enough to shatter glass, and given enough time, crystals and gems.