d100 Ways for villagers to react to armed adventurers

When travelling far from home there is in civilised lands a village at least every days travel and there are too many to name or remember. (I do have a village book on patreon somewhere but i have lots of tables for villages to spice them up - also see my angry mob generator). 


Maybe next time they can choose 2 roads they might ask about villages before they pass through them. Should be roleplaying opportunities.

Maybe the village has had murder hobos visit and they stabbed an innkeeper who turned out to be a spy for the Barron and got locals into lots of trouble.

d12 What would villagers do with captives
1 Send to prison
2 Sell to slavers
3 Sell to humanoids or demihumans
4 Sell to a cult to sacrifice
5 Rob them and feed corpses to pigs
6 Kill them and claim bounties on wanted posters with them
7 Perform bloody ritual torture and sacrifice
8 Marry them and make them join the local cult

9 Give local monsters a charming local custom

10 Eat them in a glorious feast thanking the cannibal gods for the bounty

11 Send them on a mission with followers or items as hostages

12 Build a wicker man with local druids and burn them

d12 Why would villagers hate adventurers
1 Spend time around inhuman beings and cursed folk
2 All murder hobos who may kill in a moment without remorse
3 All are witches who use magic to make people thrall and cursed

4 Local adventurer drunks killed everyone in tavern once

5 Deadbeat parents were adventurers who abandoned them here

6 All adventurers are members of evil cults its common knowledge

7 Adventurers are really faerie folk in disguise here to kidnap, steal and play tricks

8 All adventurers are members of brutal guilds and worse than mercenaries and theives

9 Adventurers will rob your graves and steal anything of value

10 Adventurers came here and killed lots of family members

11 Adventurers are corrupted by demons through touching forbidden things

12 Adventurers carry cursed weapons that make them mad killers

d12 Why would villagers love adventurers
1 Saved by a hero and band years ago and many remember
2 Adventurers spend good coin here and help the local economy
3 Adventurers help colonise the frontier and fight the good fight
4 Long ago adventurers saved the village from a monster, you can see artworks of this event and they know the creature's lair a few miles away
5 Adventurers are so fabulous if only we were related to them somehow, gosh i love them
6 Beleive adventurers will keep away bandits, crime and troubles from the area
7 Hopeful adventurers can deal with a local supernatural mystery
8 They have been attacked by humanoids and bandits often so adventurers seem better
9 Some of the founding villagers were adventurers and a few have trinkets and memorabilia and old maps and books
10 Adventurers stopped a wicked cult a few years back and it was better than an inquisitor visit
11 Villagers discovered caves under the village and drove away monsters, now we use as storehouses and have sealed-off tunnels
12 A cursed evil noble ruled us but adventurers came and killed them and we don't have problems now. Some day the king will send a new one i guess 

d10 Quick Ways
1 Overjoyed & welcoming

2 Friendly & kind

3 Indiferent & bored

4 Needy & desperate

5 Caution & alarm

6 Hustle & grift

7 Suspicious & alert

8 Lie & decieve

9 Abusive & mean 

10 Hostility & anger

d100 Ways for villagers to react to armed adventurers
01 Welcome visitors with flowers and cookies and singing

02 Offer them a barn or abandoned house to stay in

03 Villagers perform a celebratory traditional dance

04 Mayor presents them with a wreath of peace and welcomes

05 Sherrif (and deputies close) welcomes and offer directions

06 Locals all gather in the street to cheer the arrival and wave

07 Children follow adventurers with great excitement growing in numbers

08 Ecstatic villagers scream with delight on all fours about the arrival of saviours

09 Enthusiastic thirsty unwed youths appear to squeal and follow adventurers

10 Villagers keep offering their children as servants or to marry
11 Exited gossips get active speculating on adventurers and mutterings spread

12 Friendly local offers welcome and direction

13 Pleased local tells you to see local sheriff for available bounties on lawbreakers

14 Sherrif welcomes and asks if you would join as deputies for a raid on a gang

15 Pushcart trader wheels up to uo to offer bargains for visitors 

16 Saucy attractive mature person hanging out a window wolf whistles strangers

17 Giggling gaggle of youths come to look at outsiders and their fashion styles

18 Farmer walking his pig says hello and offers discount produce from his farm

19 Maid with a bucket of water and a cup offers you all a drink

20 Local bard appears and offers to take you to the pub

21 Surley locals look bored and barley move to acknowledge your indifference

22 A farmer looks up at you but then goes back to attending his flatulent donkey

23 A three legged dog runs up with excitement but stops when it sees strangers and walks away

24 Several drunks on a porch belch loudly

25 A black cat walks across the road

26 Grazing goats chewing cud seem more interested in newcomers than locals

27 Villagers look away grimacing and go back to chores to avoid looking

28 Drunken elderly lovers laughing and cuddling on a porch gets more attention

29 Locals are busy talking and don't want strangers to interrupt

30 Boy from tavern sees travellers, he stops then flees to get tavernkeeper out of bed
31 Beggers asking for food or money or grog swarm at new arrivals

32 Exited villagers gather and the mayor requests help with a local monster

33 Nervous villager passes a note that says the village is under the control of a cult

34 Humanoids in town are abusing people who look pleadingly at adventurers

35 Sherrif asks for assistance with local bandits who have kidnapped victims

36 Weeping parents beg for help for children taken by slavers or humanoids

37 Come across sheriff and men whipping bound peasants

38 Villager warns of an angry mob started by a local that has been killing people the leader slanders

39 Robed cultists and soldiers are collecting babies from locals for sacrifice

40 Horrible drooling monsters and humanoid followers are demanding food from the village

41 Peasants close windows, go inside and lock doors

42 Sherriff, bailiffs and beadles gather to warn adventurers to behave

43 Millitia gather and surrounds adventurers demanding to know why they are 

44 Villagers watch party suspiciously and a mob gathers 

45 Villagers make religious hand gestures and secure children

46 Villagers seem to not be about then a mob with burning torches appears to demand your reason to visit

47 Locals start to pick up weapons and look wary

48 Villagers grab holy symbols, icons and lucky charms and look terrified

49 Villagers come out in the street and glare sternly and encourage strangers to leave 

50 Hungry skinny villagers in rags come out and look with desire on visitors' rich goods and plumb bodies
51 Villager offers local dungeon maps all real!

52 Offer to mind your animals and take care of them and will run to a bigger town market

53 Villager offers cheap second-hand adventurer gear in a trunk

54 Local offers cheap potions packaged very prettily and in lots of colours

55 Local offers drugs and forbidden naughty parchments

56 Man offers to clean all your weapons properly and will flee town if gets any

57 Offer to read your fortune inside a shack close by

58 A villager who wants to stir up trouble tells a lie to encourage strangers to beat up someone 

59 Villager gives map to a monster lair but really they serve a dungeon boss and it is really a vast murder maze of monsters

60 Villagers offering cheap magic items (all fake or with a temporary spell on them to detect as magic or even cursed if they are evil)
61 Villagers scream and scatter in fear mistaking the party for local bandits or a band of adventurers who came recently

62 VIllagers sure outsiders are demon cultist perverts up to no good

63 Locals are all wary any adventurer might start stabbing people at the slightest provocation

64 Concerned visitors are plague carriers like a recent band they drove away

65 Suspicious party work for some local villain or evil boss

66 Villagers throw rotten turnips and eggs and warn that your kind not welcome

67 VIllagers look alarmed, old woman with pitchfork tells "your kind should git outta here"!

68 Angry villagers hurl abuse and slander

69 Villager spits on a traveller and walks away, other locals look furious at the party

70 Villagers cower and expect violence to break out, some sob in fear
71 Pretend to be charming and announce a festival with the party as honoured feast guests who they will drugged, tortured and sacrificed, the rest of the year they are lovely people

72 Villgaers tell of a nearby dungeon in hopes adventurers enter. Once inside doors the villagers shit the doors trapping them inside. It is just an old cold store under a hill

73 Villagers welcome them and offer cheap grog. Later the monsters who rule the town with villager assistance try to capture the party

74 Villagers try to be friendly and encourage visitors to stay while someone contacts the local evil lord who sends riders and a carriage to fetch them

75 Villagers warn of a supernatural evil and advise adventurers to stay here several days or a great beast or evil spirit rampaging the area may stop them. The villagers are really sure it cant be killed. Its just a tourist scam for money

76 Villagers tell stories of local ruins hoping adventurers are curious and stay a few days

77 Villagers declare a festival feast and travellers are invited as guests of honour. At the party climax, robed cultists arrive demanding sacrifices. Maybe villagers just wanted someone to kill the cult or maybe they were the cult, whatever story stops you from getting killed is fine

78 Welcomed in and villagers keep buying drinks and hearing adventurer stories. After light out cultists and monsters use secret doors to capture guests

79 Villagers claim to have amazing bargains and have lots of adventurer supplies second hand maybe they recognise some

80 Invited to the temple by priest for a meal and once inside doors are shut and strange black knights of a mystery order command adventurers surrender
81 Villager yells as approaches and locals scramble to get weapons and even grab rocks to defend their village

82 Angry villagers block the path and declare adventurers are not welcome

83 Angry mob gathers in response to one party member of a type they all hate and get ready to riot

84 Villagers bring out illegitimate children and demand payment from male adventurers, locals start gossiping and gather as a mob forms. An elder demands someone get married or hanged

85 Villagers have barricaded roads with carts and erected a thicker fence. Angry locals from over the fence demand strangers state their purpose

86 Villagers insist a priest evaluate newcomers to see if they are evil witches who must be burned

87 Signs leading up to the village say no adventurers. They had problems and militia or sheriff or angry mob would form quickly

88 Gibbets hanging with rotten corpses of the last adventurers who caused trouble. Locals all glare suspiciously and are ready to form an angry mob to refresh the gibbets

89 Locals look unhappy and worried and if adventurers stop local authorities want to put them in stocks for a d4 days for being adventurers. They will also rob travellers and turf them from town when finished mistreating them in stocks. The local mob will have mob support from any locals

90 Villagers assemble banging pots and pans and present effigies of adventurers that they burn while screaming abuse
91 Villagers and local authorities surround and capture adventurers 

92 Villagers commanded to aid bandits to capture the party with a trap

93 Villagers need sacrifices or else tonight so are happy to see travellers. Will be welcoming and invite them in to be served by attractive youths and drugged or poisoned. Perhaps they are being coerced or perhaps it's just the old ways or a monster 

94 Village flee then later militia, local sheriff and bailiffs and beadles return with a shield wall and slings or bows with an irregular mob of angry villagers behind them. They are sure adventurers are wanted criminals because an enemy who came here to slander the party

95 Priest and some templars lead a mob with holy symbols demanding they test party for signs of evil and that they surrender themselves for investigation or be outlawed 

96 An angry local was harmed by adventurers and will try and poison adventurers with a free beer and if they get a chance stab them. Everybody else is normal but may side with the locals they know who will lie about party and invent crimes

97 A knight staying here leads a mob and he offers a duel with armed travellers. The mob love the entertainment of watching rich people fight but wont let the knight die

98 Locals all hide in ambush with slings, rocks and bows awaiting the signal to attack

99 Locals dressed in frightening bestial costumes and stay in character refusing to speak normally and managing to make do best they can

100 Villagers are infiltrated by shapeshifters like lycanthrope or spirit folk wh as humans bully locals into forming a mob to capture adventurers. Villagers believe adventurers to be baby eating cultists and outlaws who must be stopped

Dungeon Non Combatants in and out of Combat

 

Here are options for all those old dungeons where the lady monsters and children and elderly are defenceless and don't fight or just make you wonder if you are the baddies. There is also a table for high level oath locations and antics for the prisoners your keep.

Morale can be effected for warriors by family reaction.
You can also test morale of your own hirelings to make sure they treat prisoners how you want rather than they just wing it.

d12 What do most non-combatants do in battle?
1 Scream abuse at enemies and cheer on their own warriors +1 Morale

2 Abuse their warriors for every mistake -1 morale

3 Hurl rotting food, body parts, bones, dung at enemies -1 morale for enemy

4 Form a defensive wall with furnishings and any possible weapons around children +1 morale

5 Form a defensive wall using their children as shields -1 enemy morale

6 Form a defence around the treasure hoard +1 morale

7 Use slings, even old and kids +2 morale

8 Elderly charge into battle then parents then children +1 morale

9 Threaten themselves with knives unless left alone -1 morale

10 Try to sacrifice a person or pet for divine aid or summoning

11 Prepare to all drink poison if battle goes badly for their side -2 morale

12 All drink berserker potions if battle goes badly for their side +2 morale

d12 What do the non-combatants do after they lose?

1 Line up expecting to be murdered or tortured

2 Present all their possible wealth and point to treasure they know of

3 Offer to be your thralls if you spare them

4 Wave a white flag and call for end to hostilities

5 Beg to be allowed to flee if prevented from doing so

6 Denounce their fallen dead and claim to be on your side all along

7 Prey to their god 1% chance per HD any slaughtering them is cursed +1 morale

8 Ask for permission to save dying and bury their dead

9 Offer themselves to your every desire but will try and murder you later

10 Highest ranking surviving boss declares they are in change now and desire peace

11 Sob and beg for mercy, wailing and weeping loudly and writhing on the floor like worms

12 Cheer their new leaders and explain you can choose survivors to marry and unite our clans, 

d12 What do the elderly do in combat

1 Sheild children with bodies sobbing and begging for mercy

2 Slowly hobble to attack as best they can with improvised weapons

3 Prey to their gods for help begging for mercy and victory

4 Busy having naps, complaining about noise, snore

5 Rally the family pets for defence

6 Try and lead children to exit and sacrifice self if needed while children flee

7 Complain about failing young warriors not as tough as their day

8 Eat all the best food, drink all the grog and eat all the magic fungus

9 Hug each other shaking, if approached some feint, die or shit themselves

10 Take medicine and have a nap and feel no pain and fear no death

11 Pretend to be harmless idiots while moving in for ambush with poison 

12 Take berserk potions but die when they expire (or worse lycanthropes)

d12 What do the kids do in combat

1 Use slings and throw rocks

2 Charge with improvised weapons or toys

3 Try to flee in blind panic -1 morale

4 SIt and cry loudly, wet themselves if touched -1 morale

5 Try and hide anywhere even under a blanket and don't watch -1 morale

6 Sing beautiful choral inspiring folk song +d3 morale

7 Throw faeces, garbage and old bottles of fermented piss +1 morale

8 Work together to throw or sling burning oil or boiling water +1 morale

9 Charge forward with an iron grenade with a lit fuse tied on

10 Older children hurl babies at anyone who looks good -1 morale

11 Blow a whistle they use to tease local angry monster that hates them +1 morale

12 Watch excitedly and munch on toasted acorns and dried toadstools +1 morale

d12 Prisoner Conduct

1 Gloomily march to fate singing gloomy songs about being oppressed

2 One prisoner knows a guy who will buy all the survivors for cash for own freedom

3 Complain lots, don't like to march and will refuse to move if not promised food

4 Plot to escape using teamwork possibly dogpiling masters and taking their weapons

5 Prey for divine aid constantly and moan about unfairness and injustice

6 Insist they perform lots of sacred rites when they need a break or gods will kill them

7 Now they are your slaves you must teach them your magic and arts

8 Drop beads, hair or markers during transport for kin to rescue them

9 One has a poisoned knife they have hidden and will come up with an escape plot

10 Copy everything humans do for the approval of the strong who defeated them

11 Caught eating rats and giant bugs, gambling and petty vice rackets

12 Keep having babies constantly as cursed with fertility

d12 What survivors do if released
1 Flee to relatives and tell them of humiliation and murderous killers
2 Flee to allies and warn them of dangerous murder hobos razing everything
3 Flee to traditional enemies because they are better thralls with them than too weak to live
4 Flee to an evil temple that takes them in and teaches them new spells and secrets
5 Flee to slavers and sell children then pay mercenaries to kill adventurers
6 Flee to the garden of an evil hag who teaches them new oaths and provides new allies
7 Flee to a wizard who summons monsters to aid revenge in return for survivors thralldom

8 Visit a terrible monster and tell a lie about adventurers so it attacks them
9 Flee to another country and never seen again or went to ancestral burial grounds to die of sadness

10 Flee and all are killed tragically by another enemy (perhaps now angry undead)
11 Hire some monsters by offering children and elderly as food to kill adventurers

12 Join a demonic cult offering means of vengeance against their enemies

d12 What lazy and brutish hirelings would like to do to prisoners
1 Let them go and claim they couldn't catch them but really tried hard
2 Want to get to civilisation fast for sweet gold reward and booze, kill any stragglers to keep up the pace. just take their heads or ears or hands if easier and employers let them
3 Use as hostages and demand money from their ruler or kin
4 Torment prisoners while drinking as "its only fair they would do it to us"
5 Sell them to a dungeon boss needing minions and servants used to the lifestyle
6 Sell them to slavers needing extendible slaves for mines and muckraking
7 Sell them to a press gang needing ship crews and rowers
9 Kill them all as quickly as possible and dump corpses and get out of the area
10 Kill them and sell corpses and parts to the necromancer
11 Kill them and give them a decent pit burial nobody can find and wolves cannot dig up

12 Kill them and sell hair, leather, cloths, teeth and bones and scraps as dog meat

Your own followers won't suggest these unless they are crooked lazy murder hobos but the common hireling or mercenary or non-good adventurer might. Good people will object to many of these treatments and they are less likely to kill for money with adventurers than chaotic evil people. Good hirelings might have their own inappropriate behaviour but at least don't deliberately do dungeon crimes.

d12 What well-meaning hirelings would like to do to prisoners
1 Make them promise to abandon the area and not return
2 Give them some coins, rations and blankets so they can survive
3 Release them as soon as they get the chance if they promise to not seek vengeance
4 Take them to civilisation to get jobs and training in a poor workhouse for monster widows and children
5 Make them swear to join a good church and release them on conversion
6 Take them to a village or estate where they can live in peace in a diverse community
7 Have them sent to the colonies for a new life away from bad influences
8 Some volunteer to marry willing prisoners and retire to work on land or a trade
9 Give them a stern talking to about their wicked ways, perhaps a long sermon and free them
10 Take prisoners to civilisation to the court system to deal with them
11 Hand them over to a temple mission to help care for and convert prisoners
12 Take them to city and help them get jobs and accommodation

Anytime prisoners change hands with new npc's they might be treated differently so beware. You cant not expect people you hand prisoners to will do the right thing. Thats why the best thing to do is to go through the whole process of making sure your captive goblins are not just killed and sold to the rag-and-bone dealer for 1c. Good people worry about unreasonable cruelty for prisoners after all you might end up someone's prisoner one day.

More of finding Oath Givers and Cults

I thought i would add to my last post.

So one specification Ive changed is going from you can have a oath per level once to each level is  a slot you can clear and refill as it gives the possibility of traitors and people turning evil without crippling themselves and never recovering. Its obviously easier to trade towards chaotic evil. Plus integrate clerics and alignment and oaths all closer and to make him features of the campagn.

As anyone could make oaths to law and good they could get various gifs including magic, powers and items. So I've never needed a paladin class or a ranger class in my game because a wizard could do this and gain various holy spells and doodahs (Gandalf Dunnit).

The mechanism of finding a oath/gift path and patron power means if you decided to fill all your oath slots at once at the tenth level you might take a long time so its a bit of a bottleneck and possible. Even your traitors and villains might take some time. If they survive meeting adventurers they might make a bunch of oaths to evil to help get revenge.

The most common oaths are from the most popular deities. 
Maybe powerful gods have sub-cults with different benefits
Like Ishtar could have separate temples for love and war specialists
A god might have sub cult shrines for their weapons

In my current game, at least half a population at least follows the patron deity of their nation or city or tribe

Many of the remaining are other popular deities or local powerful spirits. These gods will usually be from other pantheons and gods in other close regions or kingdoms. Each pantheon usually has a preferred element also

A small percentage follow obscure unpopular beliefs for aid. Witch cults use illegal spells on law-abiding citizens and worship in secret. There are other less illegal mostly unknown spirit cults or those who serve petty gods or immortals but also more abstract  

Oath-givers per Settlement
Small VIllage of 50pop typically has one
Medeum Village of 100 pop has d3
Large Village 0f 250pop has d4+1
Town  500-1000 has 2d4
Small City 2000 has 3d4
Medeum City 5000 has 4d4
Metropolis 10k plus 5d4

So you can generate a bunch of religions/oath types in an area and players can consider which to acquire and how to get them. They could make some funny errors looking or get into trouble or some side quests. Its a whole bunch of weird stuff to do and acquire in game andshould increase roleplaying possibilities and reasons to start fights. You can tease and distract players with offers of oaths and make them investigate the best options. It makes people get into your setting religion but without being a priest and still getting a benefit. There are options that are not traditional gods for people who don't want gods.

Priests are the most obvious people to be oath-givers or facilitate with an oath spell process with a person of the same oath type of higher tier level. Druids often employ and serve various nature spirits and land divinities and even various nature gods. Arcane powers are more abstract, alien and philosophical. They might be a demon or an archon or an outsider pretending to be a weird arcane patron or ancestor. Wizards hoard their secrets to trade of grant their students. Wizards might start a school or a fellowship to share magic and research. Sorcerers are very likely to run a cult and offer oaths to higher-ranking members or donors. (In my game sorcerers can choose any spell list so a divine one would be a non-combat priesthood but granted miracles. Nature magic with druid spells have patrons or bloodline of nature spirits or faerie,  Arcane are hedonistic pleasure cults who lazily use wizard like spells without study just talent. Mentalist sorcerers are mystics, illusionists or psions using powers of the mind over themselves or the universe or weaker willed people.

Tiers & 
Zero (0 Lv) holy symbol or a 1st Lv loner or initiate priest* 
First (1-4th Lv) local shrines or weird loners 5th+ Lv  loner or any common shrine priest
Second (4-8th Lv) small temple or a 9th+ Lv loner or a temple priest
Third (9-12th Lv) major temple or 13th+ Lv loner or a high priest
Fourth (13-16th) temple complex or a 17th+ Lv loner or a theocrat of the church
Fifth (17th-20th) monumental wonder of church of from divine patron in person or in a vision
*a zero level person has 1HD so can get one oath like a 1st Lv character

This lists what grade of holy location and and rank of priest is required for an oath
Loners are persons in the higher tier of an oath path. 
An oath spell is required but if the oath-giver can't cast it any priest will do 

Spell levels provided by cult max & size
Local spirits or Immortals 1st Shrine
Petty Gods 2nd Shrine
Great spirit 3rd Small Temple
Demigods 4th Small Temple
Lesser Gods 5th Major Temple
Major Gods 6th Temple complex or small ziggurat
Greater Gods 7th Monumental wonder like large ziggurat, pyramid, wall, etc

d10 Local Oath-Giver  Availability
1-5 Local popular religions like pantheon or patron deity and family of region, city, state or tribe
6-8 Other major religions and popular spirit cults
9 Obscure minor cults

10 Unpopular illegal witch cults

Searching for the last two types you can easily get the attention of the wrong type

d10 Other major religions
1 Patron god of city, kingdom or tribe, possibly the ancestor or creator 

2 Deity and their lover, possibly first ancestors or parents

3 Married pair of gods and their popular child 

4 Deity and their various servants and demigod children and pets and weapons 

5 Goddess and her lovers and children and sisters and spirits

6 God, their family and servants, pets and heroes

7 Worship demigod heroes who lived in old days and their distant divine parents

8  Small pantheon of several generations of gods, their parents, children, pets and servants 

9  Large pantheon of several united families of gods united in the past by war

10 Mega pantheon or a ruling pantheon with thousands of approved gods and spirits

d10 Other major religions
1 Beast cult with a totem beast, abhuman beast folk guardians and their pets

2 Elemental deity or the abstract elemental plane but believes it should rule over weaker elements

3 Elemental deity or the abstract elemental plane but harmonious with all other elements 

4 Elemental deity or the abstract elemental plane but opposed to all other elements

5 Ancestors worship of sacred forebears or a unique tribal ancestor god 

6 Demihuman cult - who follow the religion of one demi human population 

7 Foreign god from a nearby kingdom but possibly isolated from its pantheon

8 Spirit cult who deal with many local spirits, daimon and nature divinities

9 Nature cult who worship the abstract powers of nature

10 Demi god cult - a half-mortal god who lived in the world and has a cult

d10 Obscure minor cults 

1 Arcane cult - abstract unclassifiable beings beyond nature who teach alien occult philosophy, geometry, alchemy, astrology and mechanics. More likely wizards or mentalists

2 Petty god cult - a minor godling embodied in the mortal plane which you can even meet

3 Demi god cult - a half-mortal god who lived in the world and has a cult 

4 Immortal cult - perhaps you will gain the secrets of the immortal and join them in eternal life

5 Local spirit cult - with only part-time devotees of limited influence, possibly object of worship is a changeling with a human form that could be sincere or fraud 

6 Saint cult - associated with a larger religion but independent order not subject to greater church

7 Draconic cult - worship dragons and their ancestors who helped the gods against the enemy

8 Death cult - who contact dead, perform exorcisms and determine the fate of departed souls

9 Mentalist cult - who pursue strange disciplines and mystical methods to master the mind and dreams

10 Plant cult - worship a vegetal spirit of grain, vegetable, flower, fruit tree, forest tree or fungus 

11 Beast cult - worship a domestic animal spirit or divinity possibly part of a greater religion farming

12 Nature cult - worship a land divinity of a river, forest, spring, swamp, hill, mountain or sea

d10 Unpopular illegal witch cults 
1 Night cult - use powers of darkness, nightmares and shadows to seize power in secret

2 Petty god cult - a minor godling embodied in the mortal plane which you can even meet

3 Daemonic cult - swell the armies of the underworld and fill its vast prison of despair 

4 Demonic cult - serve one specific demon of varied rank. power and influence  

5 Diabolic cult - serves hell often devoted so a senior devil of the infernal hierarchy

6 Giant cult - worship giant gods who lost against the gods and seek the wisdom of giants

7 Draconic cult - worship dragons and their ancestors who warred against the gods and giants

8 Necromancy cult - where mostly priests and wizards gain power over forces of death
9 Humanoid cult - follow the religion of kobolds, orcs, goblinoids or abhumans (elemental or beast folk)

10 Outer darkness cult - alien gods live outside our world hungering, it's cold there in the eternal void so let them inside

All this offers quite a bit of non-deity-based options and quick power-grubbing cults for criminals and people who need revenge like that boss villain's lover. Perhaps they were only a bandit but after seeing heroes kill their gang buddies joined a death cult to get revenge and new gifts to help them win or survive. A few changes like an oath per level ever vs oath slots per level have loosened up dramatic villainy to rules.

Where do I find high Level oath-givers?
1 Largest temple complexes with increasingly complex bureaucracy and gatekeepers

2 A secret cult in the sewers that say has mysterious powers but nobody knows what they do really but they say they guard a secret portal to a world of strange alien deities

3 There is a secret school of wizards they say and you need to find an imp to show your the secret door location. they don't charge gold even and they want you to harm your enemies

4 A rancid corpse city of the dead appears in the southern sea once a generation and briefly you can comune with imprisoned alien gods, beware they warp your mind and reality

5 The hierophant of a great city has offered secret oaths to who can find lost relics

6 A foreign priest-king has offered heroes oaths if they aid them against their enemies

7 An isolated wizard in their tower can open planar portals that can take you to meet strange potential patron entities like alien wizards and prehuman immortals

8 Their is a crystal citadel in the sea that appears once a year where heroes of old made oaths

9 A great dragon in its vast lair will teach you but will make you swear to never interfere or harm it or its offspring

10 In the black city in the frozen north are the thousands of remains of prehuman wizards, some may know what you seek if you speak with the dead

11 They say at a certain mountain top you can see a god in their chariot pass often

12 Many beings living on the world tree or faerieland can teach you but beware they enslave you for centuries or make you a cruel plaything

Where do i find an oath-giver around here

My Patreon has an 84 page version of my Exilon setting right now

Dallas one of my players has been using my oath system and putting locations in his setting tempting players to take them as a world feature. I quite like this. I am also considering use my oath system for most religions and how clerics pick a specialty cult but fo could a fighter or thief. 

These are presented as rumours and you could set a frequency of unreliability 1in3or 1in4 or 1in6 etc are really deathtraps with cults.

You can help facilitate an oath with a lower-tiered person possibly with rituals and you may demand goods or a service of some kind intended to be a test.

also see this
https://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2021/05/oathbreaking-and-attonement.html

Oath Basics
Most oaths are alignment ones but there are also elemental and specific religious versions

The more points of oaths you put in an alignment your fanaticism increases. You can use this to impress others of the same type. The higher a score in Law the more trustworthy their word should be. 

Some alignments and powers are incongruent like law & chaos, good & evil. Elements vary per local cult wildly with tolerating alignment or other elements. Some deities or spirits or powers hate each other. Usually Good-nuetral-evil are opposed to each other as are Law-balance-chaos. If you take more than one element some sects will brand you a heretic. You can have an element and any alignment but might conflict with some sects whos idea on the right element and alignment are more serious.

You can have an oath and a gift derived from it per level 

Each Patron power or alignment has a table of basic oaths and a list of possible gifts

Being forced to break an oath is more forgivable than casually breaking oath out of convenience.

You can break or renounce an oath with supernatural consequences and loss of benefits
If you change alignment and oaths and deal with all the oathbreaker risks and a new demanding patron who might abandon you if you fail them. Finding a patron power is harder once you've renounced an oath and lawful beings might not forgive this. Chaotics are more likely to forgive this and some chaotic evil ones only accept traitors and betrayers.   

Procedure
You find a person or relic or spirit or place who will help you make the oath and provide them whatever they desire or require of you. 

Roll a d10 on the oath table for the patron power
If you roll the same one twice you can choose any you don't have on the same table
If you have all ten oaths or you choose to roll on the second oath table 

Now select one gift, you can pick the same one more than once in most cases though some have a specific gift for each level. 

Once you have the gift be careful not to lose it by breaking your oath, renouncing your oath or losing any material gifts. If this happens the oathbreaker may get a warning or 

Gifts are ranked in tiers
First (1-4th Lv) from local shrines or weird loners 5th+ Lv 
Second (4-8th Lv) from a priest in a small temple or a 9th+ Lv loner
Third (9-12th Lv) from priest of a large temple complex or 13th+ Lv loner
Fourth (13-16th) from the church leader of nation or a 17th+ Lv loner
Fifth (17th-20th) given by direct communion with powerful patron entity

The gifts improve with higher tiers

Items you adopt at lower tiers can be improved by later oaths and if you replace an existing lower tier item with a newer one you get bonus abilities. For example improving a +1 sword to a +2 sword you would qualify for a bonus ability live the weapon leaps into your hand at will instantly within 10m. Intelligent weapons are a common product of this. 

If you lose a unique item as part of your oath you are required to find it and will receive warnings if you don't. Avoiding searching for your item is breaking the oath.

d20 What does the oath-giver want?
1 Take these drugs in a ritual and report your dream visions
2 Hunt a dangerous monster or unusual animal
3 Hold a ritual festival day and perform a dance
4 Perform a generous act of charity or aid to a community in need
5 Presents usually cash or some symbolic treasure they like
6 Fight a ritual combat or duel (usually non-lethal)
7 Perform a feat of physical strength or endurance or survival
8 Enter this mysterious dark hole 
9 A magic item or multiple disposable ones (scrolls or potions)
10 Treasure, piles of nice looking loot
11 Requires a feast with vast volumes of food and drink and company
12 Win several contests in local games (or tavern games)
13 Produce a work of art such as a song, painting or rock art
14 Run a gauntlet of attackers and survive
15 Run them an errand or side quest
16 Answer a riddle or have a scholarly debate or poetry contest
17 Punish enemies of the oath-giver 
18 Meditate in a certain place undisturbed for a period of time
19r Your soul or a sacrifice provided to them (perhaps a rare animal)
20 Wants to romance with the applicant (maybe they fancy someone else and want help hooking up or maybe they want you to marry someone they know or symbolically marry some deity or the land or a tree or river or monster)

d12 Places to make an oath on the frontier 
1 Visit the old hermit who lives among the old dolmen on a plain of ancient strange stones
2 Go to the valley of stone heads and find one that is not a liar and obey it
3 Find the river spirit at their holy place or they will flee your advances
4 Visit the shaman in a dark cave complex with ancient art and ancestral remains

5 See the lone llama at the ancient ruined stupa in the haunted wasteland
6 Visit the earthwork and log temple of the tribe on a feast day when they kill strangers 
7 Visit a demihuman, humanoid or abhuman tribal holy folk but beware they don't just kill you
8 Visit the sylvan woods on full moon and find one of the kinder woodland spirits 

9 Perform this secret rite and contact a totem animal or plant spirit in the wilderness
10 Visit the prehuman graveyard ruin and speak to the undead or demons there
11 From a fellowship of hunters who have a secret lodge house you must find
12  A supernatural being living in ancient ruins has been known to help some people

d12 Places to make an oath in rural areas
1 In a small crossroads shack there is a wise woman healer who can help you if she has time for strangers
2 A woodland forest hermit often is seen at the standing stones and dolmen sites
3 A small shrine on a roadway has an old priest who might help
4 An ancient shepherd in an isolated valley they say knows the way
5 Near the local common lives a quaint village elder who can help you but they do like to interfere in your personal life after

6 Beast folk elder living in a nearby wild place who can help you if they let you find them

7 There is a secretive hooded order of some kind who some see moving at night

8 Their is a haunted old cave where a monster dwells that can advise you if you crawl on your belly into the chambers under the hill for three hundred paces
9 Their is a spirit in animal form will whisper secrets through a crack int he wall, just say this name three times when alone at night when you stay in the village and it may answer

10 There is a wise but shunned elder living by the swamp who might help you 

11 Visit the witches of the fell woodlands but watch for evil false witches who will eat you
12 Some say if you visit a faerie place on a full moon they might help or take you away to be their pets (a mushroom or flower circle, a bridge or crossing or in a wood clearing)

d12 Places to make an oath in the city
1 In a small hard to find shrine dedicated to an obscure saint
2 In a small hard to find shrine that has relic visited by swarms of pilgrims
3 In a small secret shrine in a sewer or a poor area alley
4 In a guild hall shrine dedicated to a patron god, guests must be with members
5 In a secret door to a shrine guarded by a cult   
6 In an obscure shrine built into a bridge or docks or lighthouse
7 In a small temple with lines of pilgrims, may see groups or long waits

8 In a small temple graveyard at midnight call this name and a spirit will comee
9 Temple complex but by appointment only with the patriarch or matriach
10 Temple complex but applicants are searched for impure bodily marks or mutations
11 Large temple complex if the theocrat in charge approves or will even see you
12 Ziggurat ot local wonderous holy monument such as wall or statue but only nobility or heroes approved by the ruler 

Atonement, Punishment and Renouncing Oaths
https://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2021/05/oathbreaking-and-attonement.html

Breaking an oath thoughtlessly will result in punishment
If coerced or forced or ignorant might get a warning and you'll know its a sign
this table is for a first offence or warning. The ones in link for serious breaches or renouncing the oath.

d12 Warning Omens of dangerously close to oathbreaking
1 See an animal that is a symbol of divine wrath
2 Develop a d4hp wound won't heal for a month
3 Bolt of lightning or thunder or earth rumbles
4 Food and drink all spoil for a d3 days on touch
5 Receives dreams at night and has difficulty sleeping
6 Wracked with d4 rounds of spasms and pain
7 Vission flashes before eyes of the patron's anger
8 Gifts don't work d4 days
9 Attacked by an enemy sent by the patron
10 Agents of patron appear to bring you to trial
11 Spirit of the patron appears to warn you of patron's wrath

12 Transfixed by eerie light and a booming voice scolds you

Why TSR marvel has been in my top 3 games since 80s + some villains + 1949 gameplay

I had some questions about TSR Nechanics and my version of it
I ran a game for 20 years of this

FASECRIP page on sidebars i updated with a few links to lots of free fan stuff

 TSR Marvel superheroes replaced my previous go to superhero games. I did play champions as clubs played it and you could buy book for 5 dollars and box for 10 in 1984. I came to like Superworld because you counls add to BRP stuff and because it copes with using money and buying normal gear without needing points on a character build. Ive found this issue with other hero games. Why cant i loot that guys death ray? There was a DC villain in 80s Justice league who gambled at a bar for washed up villains and ran amok with all the villain power objects. I did like Nightman show the hero learned a new weird skill every episode. 

When I first Played Marvel i was impressed by speed and simplicity and fun of punching people through walls with less dice to roll than champions and less maths. One table did most of the work and despite ppl complain about this it is very fast for players to learn and are able to use it after a few dice rolls. People complain it had no character gen system which is just untrue. It did - even first edition had several Advanced version had 4. Every campaign I've made new character generation systems for the power level i want. 

My first 20 year campaign was gritty with heroes being a secret early on until players helped to blow it in play. It was influenced more by Zenith, Wildcards, New Statesmen, Martial Law, and Watchmen than marvel comics. In Many ways it was like Marvel Ultimates comics with more gritty explanations, deaths and only one oragin. Everyone was from bloodlines made by waring aliens who planned to harvest superhumans for some galactic-scale arms deal. I started with 4 types of superhuman with a default Gd Power and list for others with set stat mods. After a 20 year game we ended up with a dozen of these "classes".

In more recent years, I opened up the types of oragin and realism and used my River City setting a fictional city between Adelaide & Melbourne Australia formed by mobsters and industrialists in the 30s that was used after the war for industrial immigrants for post war construction and it boomed. Also its a city where lots of former Nazi scientists were given jobs as the Cold War heated up. These later games had one system to creat all characters and worked for several years.

In my current campaign, I have set it in 1949. Partly based on Golden Age WW2 comics and Alan Moore;s 49ers comic and Terra Obscura. My current system allows for people to have no powers as humans which has been good finally. 

I did offer to run a Justice League Style worlds best team with higher power ranks and players have never been interested. They are happy with kinda street to xmen level characters. I ran as a Kaiju game where everyone had a city smashing monster and their human contacts were used for human drama but monsters did the big fight events. Was awesome. None of these games used the Marvel Universe. I did play it but I rapidly made my own building on ideas from Champions SUperworld and Supersquadron. Id seen V&V ads and some books but not many to pick from (i now have a few). 

One series of modules based on the x-men future past story where terminator like time travel shenanigans happen and robots take over to protect people from super heroes. It was darker and grittier and had rule mods for the karma system. This in part got me using darker comics than Marvel or DC. Probably many ideas in this game I ended up becoming mainstream by end of 90s. I did work in a comics studio also and tried to be a writer.      

Mechanics 
Mostly its a table with dice number vs your rank number giving you a colour outcome.

Red yellow green white - quite a few ppl add a fumble black - on mine this odd drops to 1% chance at Excellent

Really its like a prettier easier version for d100 BRP critical special success fail fumble

Why it's so good? People learn the basics very fast and learn basics in one fight
Is the system evocative? the attributes and power ranks have names to describe power levels
Everything is ranked - My version is a bit meaner as I cap humans at Excellent
I'm pretty sure martial arts in comics makes you have superhuman attributes  

Feeble (2) - for people in comas or hospital
Poor (4) - for children, elderly or low-average people
Typical (6) - for most competent people 
Good (10) - id rate for professionals, experts, athletes, scholars
Excellent (20) - id rate at Olympic, Noble Prize, top tier humans
Remarkable (30) - Strength lift 1t
Incredible (40) - Strength lift 10t
Amazing (50) - Strength lift 50t 
Monsterous (75) - Strength lift 85t
Unearthly (100) - Strength lift 100t
etc

You can add a rank to another if equal or one rank less
Talents mostly add +1  some cost two slots and do more

These are the attributes
We added a charisma stat after playing the X-men dark future stuff
Most ppl call it FASERIP my variant is FASECRIP
Most humans have Poor Fighting and Strength if no real training or exercise

F Fighting - most punching and hand weapons use this 
A Agility - missiles, dodging and athletics stuff uses this
S Strength - lifting and breaking stuff, base damage = Strengtth
E Endurance - surviving bad stuff and labour, helps foot speed
C Charisma - convincing people stuff
R Reason - inventing, using gear and fixing stuff
I Intuition - noticing clues, who goes first
P Psyche - resisting mental effects and powers 

Health or H is first four stats added and is HP
Zero is not death but you might need a doctor to save you at some point and you might have to stop to do first aid to your enemies might want to run while you stop to save some injured people. It would be rare to die but you can make players fearful of failure or death.

Karma or K is last four stats added and are used to make successful rolls when needed or improve your character which is well paced. If your hero disobeys comic code this you may lose some or all karma. One book had a treatment for wolverine that he didn't lose as much karma but he jeopardised the whole party getting any which worked. We played with some alt Karma systems for heroes (defender or avenger) and villains (based on destruction or conquest).  In my current game and the era is just pre code but sighns are it is coming. If you don't directly kill mooks but say shoot a cliff which crumbles and kills 40 gangsters its totally ok and the coroner calls death by misadventure. In my game public reaction to stuff is changing as they move into 50s coldwar paranoia und unheroic affairs committees. Im finding popularity works as a goad also. Basically, you can make the game no killing easily or you can make more complex. In old Marvel villains had ways of earning karma you tracked and some amusing things for them to earn karma like explaining to a hero your plans and putting them in a deathtrap. Various good deeds like catching up with a contact and charity can earn you karma - I made a dependant contact type just for those kids, parts or elderly that get into your adventures and cant do much except bait bad guys or get kidnapped but they earn you karma if you work them into play. I also give players their base karma every session to their current karma and makes smart people do well.

Popularity is a measure of how well-known you are. Negative pop is for villains and can make people afraid. Mostly heroes are used to persuade people and to see how far your fame has spread. Australian Realms magazine in 80s wrote an article claiming it had no such stat and proposed a system that is a core stat in the game already. We found it inadequate for the more espionage tone of our game which for years the public knew nothing. You can gain or lose POP in game. I allow you to stack it with Charisma. Your various identities can have own POP scores.

Resources is a stat for money. In old marvel, it was points to buy stuff, in advanced you just roll vs rank of what you need so a millionaire will auto-succeed at stuff many ranks lower. When I ran a fantasy varient of game we had treasure heaps in hordes with a resource value and you could split and add to your personal stash. I quite like this stat that works against treasure hoarding in game. Our players end up always donating cash to charity and doing personal appearances and using powers to help public all to earn karma and popularity. Inventing and gadgets resources are handy. Having a rich contact like SHEILD might help.

Talents are skills - their are ones for fighting, sciences, technology and certain occupations. You can learn one a year and each should make you basically an expert. In my games occupations give you wide range of professional knowledge id give most ppl a penalty to do plus give you a bonus contact. Martial arts come in types ABCD. We added more and made amount you could start with based on fighting. We also added a similar meditations which are more your semi-mystical abilities and linked to Psyche.

Contacts are people you know but could be organisations. Some have money or skills or influence or are linked to your occupations. Could be clubs, secret societies, cults, spy orgs, fan clubs, gangs police also. I also put cultural groups also here for language and culture groups so you could get French or German as a contact and it would help a bit dealing with a big group.  I would allow a city or a suburb or some specific region also. Contacts are one of the cheaper things to buy with Karma at 400 a pop so you can adopt ant NPCs you meet in play. I have a dependant class of NPC that basically help earn karma doing stuff for them but also they miraculously are danger magnets and plot hooks. You can pick a villain who is a jerk but might answer your questions for various reasons. 

Powers are based on ranks and cover a wide variety. The Ultimate powers book and the missing bits that were in Dragon are essential to make own powers. Usually every character profile of a MU character which most people play have own versions of their power. Home made heroes tend to conform to the book.

Character in the game can be chosen from a pregen, made with Referee and player negotiation, random tables or built based on evidence in a comic. Some people made own systems or claimed there were no systems. In the X-men Dark Future you were encouraged to make game your own town and possibly make selves as older bitter revolutionary. That module series opened lots of doors. I used a Sentinal rip off robot type in my games for decades. I used Dire wraiths from Rom in my own game for a players personal problem and it was awesome. Players still linked to that mythois 30 years later.

I have played a few games with random powers and I might again just to see how ppl brand their weird heroes. I once had a patriotic were lion sorcerer from Britain who could make villains sleep or banish them to a plane of torment for 50 years in Super Squadron (kinda a V&V rip off).

I include options in my character gen to cover some weird stuff powers don't quiet work with providing wealth, headquarters, bonus abilities or talents, one to make contacts cheaper, immortality, probability control dice, utility beltsm vehicles, costumes that survive fights and other hero stuff. I most recently added disadvantages to get extra options.

One mechanic i like is developing power stunts - a new version of your power usually one rank lower which you buy spending karma in play that gets cheaper as you go until its a regular thing you can do. We probably added some stuff here too.

The weirdest game was a fantasy campaign where each power was a spell list and stunts were new spells of the school. Also made evocation rules based on supernatural contacts and the more power they had the better help but more likely they would snub you or be angry. I may still bolt this onto my current game with an evocation magic talent. There was a very good book on magic before the advanced edition but its pretty interesting.  

So basically the system is simple, removes all kinds of issues like murder in games if you want and greed and has players focused on action, investigation and roleplaying. We also now give +5 karma anytime someone does anything cool or says anything awesome in play like a hero catch phrase or moralizing to a villain. 

So I need some famous city heroes for Players to meet in a Vice raid - rumours are hero team holding a party to audition new sidekicks. 

Golden Gladiator
Powerful visitor from another planet, Alar Glorion lives as Millionaire Alan Glory   

F Fighting - Excellent (20)
A Agility -  Excellent (20)
S Strength -  Remarkable (30)
E Endurance - Remarkable (30)
C Charisma - Excellent (20)
R Reason -  Good (Gd)
I Intuition -  Excellent (20)
P Psyche -  Remarkable (30)

H 100
K 80

POP secret ID 20/ hero ID 40
Resources Remarkable (30)

Powers
Flight - Excellent (20)
-levitate (can float without moving)
Heat Ray - Remarkable
-second emission point a second shot at Ex(20)
Body Armour - Remarkable (30)
Hyper Senses - Excellent (20)
-penetration vision
-telescopic vision

Talents
Martial arts B, Blades, Body Building, Astronomy, Pilot, Astronaut. Planetology 

Contacts
Governor General, Archbishop, Banker, General, Doctor, Planet Goldar High Command, 
Golden Boy (sidekick imbued with some of his alien essence) 

Options
Rich, alien technology, secret HQ (trophy room, pool, gym, dining hall, office, guest rooms)
Vulnerable to radiation (Alpha, Beta, Gamma ignore defences)

Golden Boy     

F Ty A Ty S Gd E Gd C Ty R Ty I Ty P Gd
H 32 K 28 POP 10 Rs Gd
Talents: Martial Arts B, Pilot
Flight - Typical (6)
Heat Ray - Good (10)
Body Armour - Good (10)
Hypersenses - Typical (6)
-track by scent
                      
Oragin
A strange visitor come to our world during WW2 and uses superior abilities to smash puny human crime and despotism. Wearing his golden suit, sash, cape and domino mask he is a glamourous super hero with spectacular superhuman muscletone. The golden gladiator saw from a telescope on his hidden utopian far away planet and saw the strife of ww2 and came to help. With his sidekick Golden Boy who has been imbued with golden gladiator alien powers via regular medical  l treatments.

Secrets
There have been nine different sidekicks since 1940 and some girl Golden Gladiatrixes. Most adopted from war or crime-related orphans he adopted as his wards. Most died in action during war with three since the war but the formula is also unstable. The gladiator is really sent to spy for a conquering civilisation and wants to be worshipped as a god and do whatever he wants to people for fun. All the remains of the dead sidekicks are in a secret vault - a museum and tomb

New golden boys and girls have been throwing themselves at the popular superhero for a chance to be a sidekick. Recently journalists have begun to ask questions about his sidekicks, wild parties and vices.

Gill Man
Aquatic Prince and Adventurer

F Fighting - Remarkable (30
A Agility -  Good (Gd)
S Strength -  Excellent (20)
E Endurance - Remarkable (30)
C Charisma - Poor (4)
R Reason -  Good (10)
I Intuition -  Remarkable (30
P Psyche -  Excellent (20)

H 90
K 64

POP secret ID -20 hero ID 20
Resources Excellent (20)

Powers
Amphibious Remarkable (30)
-water bolt
-control water
Gd Body Armour  Good (10)
-human form changes by shedding

Talents
Biology, Archaeology, Occult, Deep One Weapons (trident, speargun, net, spear), Sailor, SCUBA

Contacts
Warlord of "Atlants" (Antarctic deep one city), Priestess of "Atlantis", seaside fishing village of  Mermaids Bay, sea scout troop, naval ship patrol boat captain, merchant seaman, scuba diver sea explorer, fabulous finny five his youth gang

Options
Patron Alien Civilisation where wife and kids live, Pet shoggoth that transforms into luminous alien marine vehicles, Driven to reproduce with human hosts 

Deep One Hybrid Sidekicks
F Gd A Gd S Gd E Gd C Pr R Ty I Ty P Gd
H 40 K 26 POP 10 Rs Gd
Talents: Scuba Diver, Deep One Weapons (trident, speargun, net, spear)
Amphibious - Good (10)
-control water or control fish or water bolt
Body Armour - Good (10)
-natural weapons (edged)
-human form (shed skin to change)

Oragin
A visitor from a secret lost marine civilisation of Atlantis was granted sea powers by Poseidon. Came to help fight in ww2 vs German and Japanese subs who damaged Atlantis. With his fabulous finny five sidekicks, he now fights marine crime and helps antarctic explorers to find a lost city his people spoke of.   

Secrets
Hybrid Deep One spy on the surface for people to aid the deep one cult and their goals of marine domination. Regularly recruits new teens to be sidekicks and some vanish as they are carried away to deep one city near Antarctica. Wants to help humans find lost city of the old ones to drive humans mad and recover occult lore on the spacial stargates of the old ones. 

Has green scaly metallic skin and pointy ears and wears purple swimming trunks that are a bit indecent.. A popular mascot of youth swimming events he has access to fit youths fit to become parents of hybrids. Selected youths intend to beach parties and are never seen again. Some are hidden as boating accidents. A journalist investigating this was killed by a harpoon.

Clarity
Mistress of the Mystic Arts, the silken sorceress, aks heiress Amber Alucard

F Fighting - Good (10)
A Agility -  Excellent (20)
S Strength -  Good (10)
E Endurance - Remarkable (30)
C Charisma - Remarkable (30)
R Reason -  Good (10)
I Intuition -  Excellent (20)
P Psyche -  Remarkable (30)

H 70
K 90

POP secret ID 15 hero ID 30
Resources Excellent (20)

Powers
Telepathy (30)
-illusions
-mind wipe
-mind control
Shapeshift  Excellent (20)
-regeneration (1/round)
-glider membranes
-vapour form

Talents
Occult, Hipnosis, Parapsychology. Psychanalasys, Pharmacist, Finance, Evocation, Stage magic

Contacts
Various wealthy victims, Sisterhood of SIlver Twilight a women & children's charity, Ebon Order her personal cult who believes she is a god, cult of the Black Sun, cult of the Dweller in Darkness, Star Vampire, Byakee, Magicians Club, Loyal assassin/driver who loves her, dancing troupe, familiar rabbit Mr Jankyre 

Options
Magical Technology, Secret Society, Magic costume for quick change, Magic Dimensional Travelling Coffin, Utility Belt of magic tricks (infinite scarves, flowers, coins, egg, doves, kittens, cards, lengths of cord, lit candles or her rabbit from any pocket or sleeve 

Cultist
F Ty A Ty S Ty E Ty C Gd R Gd I Gd P Gd
H 24 K 40 POP 6 Rs Gd
Talents: Occult +1 speciality occupation
Carry a dagger, drugged needle ring, firebomb, smokebomb

Oragin
A magician who worked way up through talent and hard work to solve mysteries nad take magi spells and relics from those she defeats. Puts on large stage shows with her dancers and often on the road with them doing magic. In war she helped recover occult objects hoarded by the nazis. 

Secrets
A colonial era witch who has worked with various cults and worked with allies to steal important occult items held by nazis. She recruits youths into her cult and has the ones who are a liability sacrificed or fed to monsters.  

Wears tuxedo top with silk suspender stockings, top hat, cane. several occult investigators seeking her have died from the tentacles of her alien god contacts she can evoke. 

In Marvel 1949 Play Staring:

Ace of Aces - the air hero
Ramases -  the Egyptian god-pharoh
Dr Strong - monstrous german scientist
The Amazing Bionic Woman - prototype electronic bionic hero
The Conjurere - masked magician and illusionist

Heroes had own various drams but all coincedently with a contact having lunch when a gangster bank raid was heard. Cleaned up the mess and Dr STrong lifted the escape truck over his head. This battle had some criminals harmed when the truck was dropped by accident and a mind controlled gangster machine gunned a team mate. The police were quite cool and put down as death by misadventure for running away from a super powered person and taking dangerous risks. 

Police chief and dept head of Super Human Command & Control asked heroes to help raid a popular team of heroes they were busting for vice. The unheroic affairs committee had built up a case against alien heroes Golden Gladiator and a pool party audition to join the groups sidekicks was being held with teenager entrants. Gill Man the Atlantean prince and Clarity the lady wizard would also be their to judge their recruits, 

Heroes thought this sounded really bad and unsure about this committee but it turned out post war - heroes with sidekicks were all being investigated. Heroes were being hunted as war criminals for bringing children into battlefields.  Golden gladiator's sidekick Goldenboy was the tenth so far. Six of those in a period in the war. With three more dead after the war dead by 1949. The Fabulous Finny FIve of Gillmans teen mystery solving companions who ride in his van along the coast had quite a few replacements missing older members, In the war Gill man made whole crews and cargos of Axis subs vanish. Turned out the wizard lady had real cult connections and her magic coffin is a dread artefact fortold in prophecies. So party convinced that the unheroic affairs committee was doing the lords work and they began to prepare.

Ace of Aces loaded up his plane with rubber bullets and tear gas bombs assuming killing lots of youths might look bad. Dr Strong ask his kid gang for help and the gang complained the were to young to apply. Ramases had some trouble with people stealing his gold but managed to finance Dr Strong and the Conjurere making mind boosting drugs for meeting the silk stocking sorceress Clarity. Most heroes found thousands of dollars a dose a bit much.

So the raid was set. The Amazing Bionic Woman disguised herself with pigtails and a pop dress and a fake ticket walked in. The Conjurer had posted his poltergiest contact over earlier and it reported that the Golden Gladiators manion was crawling is "all manner of vile habits". His hobo wizard friend reported two separate cults came in busses and wearing robes that were now all dressed as clowns.

Ace was above in his advanced custom Skyhawk loaded with devastating non lethal weapons of mass destruction with his co pilot contact. 

Conjurer made an illusion for Dr Strong, Ramases and himself to look like clowns. They came through the first floor where contestants were getting their bathing costumes before going to the downstairs pool and they saw Gill Man teaching youths to shave arms and legs over like he does for extra speed. Heroes all went into the basement pool and studio to find Golden Gladiator consuming drugs with his chosen finalists and flexing his gigantic muscles. Heroes decided they had seen enough and after a brush with CLarity who was telepathic and a known mindcontroller they attacked her first. The Amazing Biolic Woman tried to garotte her while talking to her new magic caberet dancers but only got a shoulder. Dr Strong dogpiled on top and they both worked on crushing her while she tried to mind control the team back. Thanks to the drug she was hampered. She would probably change her spell in future to stop such a effect again from a potion.

Managed to stun and injure Golden Gladiator but it was quite a struggle and his dense body hurt the attackers charging him as he was so armoured. With Clarity knocked out they dogpiled the Gladiator and saw his gold alien blood. Outside Ace was strafing and bombing the house with rubber bullets and tear gas bombs and had Gill man attack and damage the plane. While out hero pilot climbed out to fix damage while the co pilot took over and machine gunned the fish man. 

Eventually, Gillman was warn down and stopped. Golden Gladiator was hard to stop even with two heroes holding him, Ramases stabbing him with a burning magic bronze kopesh and the Conjurer using telekinesis to cover the Gladiator's face.  Finally they brought him down badly injured and Dr Strong was badly injured needing a weeks rest but he wanted to keep fighting. 

The evidence vs Golden Gladiator was pretty tight and Gill Mad lived in Atlantean base near Antarctica but had various coastal towns he was frequently seen in. Mermaid Cove was one such place the party investigated and found a basement level with cages for humans and occult statues to Dagon. Was enough to keep Gill Man in prison and scientists keen to disecth him and followers. Clarity was found to have lots of contacts but her magic coffin appeared in her cell and she escaped. All the heroes reps were destroyed and the heroes had mixed reactions from the mob for popularity. Some heroes now hated by fans of the former heroes.

Will try and do a session of this a month and think of more awful repugnant villains and start of the Cold War antics. One other session with other group also. WIll start up Ctulhi in space again. 

Quick Class backgrounds for Exilon

Probably not what i wanted by the end but here it is.

d12 Priest
Most priests are from religious families and are recruited for a life as templars to crusade against the church enemies. Many are found to be talented at letters as a child and show a talent for language and learning. Most priests lives are subject to more powerful priests, especially in the city states.
1 Had a talent for literacy as a child

2 Found to have a body free of marks the gods find displeasing

3 Sent to serve the temple by your noble family

4 Spoke in the language of the scriptures without being taught

5 Had dreams calling you to serve the gods

6 Adopted by the church as a child

7 Joined the warrior priest order during a war

8 Joined church in penance for some great mistake

9 Performed minor miracles as a child and was sent to the temple

10 Priesthood found you as a child and took you in

11 Parent was a priest and raised with temple orphans

12 Swore to serve the church for a miracle 

d12 Rogue
Most are from urban crime guilds but may also include other specialty criminals, con artists, killers and worse. Most start young as urchins and are recruited after being tested. Many don't reach adulthood as they are used as expendable when there are plenty of them. Your family were probably a crime guild.
1 Child urchin on the streets worked way up through various gangs

2 From a family of thieves involved in a faction of the city crime guild

3 From a clan of tomb robbers thieving from the dead for generations

4 Raised by bandit gang plundering merchant caravans 

5 Living on fringes, stealing food from houses and fleeing to wild

6 Hunter and trapper of beasts in the wilds, often poaching to afford to live

7 Grew up parentless with siblings and you all learned to be thieves

8 Raised by travelling grifter and charlatan who used you for scams

9 Raised by a clan of snake charmers and entertainers who dabble in crime and fraud

10 Worked on a ship at sea or a riverboat and occasionally as a pirate

11 Raised by a gang of small-time robbers and burglars in big city

12 Family killed by gang then adopted by assassin-spy clan adopted you

d12 Warrior
Professional fighting specialists, elite skilled soldiers who mostly are recruited from bastard children risen to age one parent then taken to the mercenary to educate. Some recruit youths form orphans. From being servants to veterans they gain experience and their own reputation
1 Years lost in the underland surviving in caves with strange allies and enemies

2 Raised a steppe nomad horse archer from the Sythron tribes who guard their huge wagons

3 Axe warriors from the frontiers often living as barbarians on the fringe of civilisation

4 Warrior from a wasteland tribe who protects herds and land and from civilisation

5 Found as an urchin picking valuables on battle fields, adopted by mercenaries

6  Phalanx soldiers from a city state, disciplined freemen

7 Adopted as urchin to be personel servant of a well off warrior

8 Swordsman for hire a mercenary serving highest bidding cities at war

9 Archer from an army, often scouts and food gatherers, disciplined regular troops

10 House guard of a warlord or noble sworn to a now dead employer

11 Youngest child of a noble clan of an urban millitary aristocracy

12 Charioteers from a city part of a war or sport chariot team in service of a lord

d12 Wizard
Wizards generally learn from the written word or the proto-writing of glyphs and runes of the ancients, Wizards are either from rich families or selected from talented youths with tests. Wizard apprentices work like slaves for years for their masters to get their first proper spells. 
1 Born under the right stars and bought by a wizard who became your master

2 Performed well in school so recruited by the local wizard

3 Family sent you here for an education and the master favoured you

4 Came from a family of wizards who hide their arts

5 Studied at a prestigious wizard school in the city in hopes of getting a royal commission

6 Studied with a shunned master on the frontier far from wizard guilds and schools

7 Born with a prestigious birthmark and family gave to the local wizard to be raised 

8 Mother dipped you in water in moonlight as a baby then sent you to study in a small wizard school

9 Wizard noticed your knack for languages and made you an apprentice 

10 Taught by a wizard in secret in a magnificent palace until you finally escaped

11 Taught wizardry by imps who tried to tempt you to accept lessons in the black school if you would just sell your soul to hell for free tutorials

12 A family member knew a smattering of magic and found your talent and a proper master

d12 Bard
Most are selected from youth for looks, charm and musical ability. They often are selected in competitions or service of a master or a bardic school a temples/ Once they finish study most go wandering to learn new songs and perform in as many places as they can for reputation.
1 Served in a noble house as a cupbearer learning your trade

2 Learned performing in taverns with a broken instrument you found

3 Heard the singing of a supernatural being as a child and inspired to music

4 Trained in a formal school for bards and in demand for performances and rituals 

5 Were a barbarian tribal skald, glorifying your master's ancestors with stories

6 Learned secrets of the universe from tribal druid priests of the wild  

7 Trained in a temple for ritual performances

8 Began as a lecherous tavern brawler who eventually was trained by a master

9 Zealot troublemaker from the city who stirred up the mob 

10 War orphan raised as child marching musician for the millitary until finally left service

11 Servant for courtier and learned arts of diplomacy and espionage

12 Professional mourner who wailed at funerals, temples and theatre performances

d12 Druid
Druids may have various signs of their destiny and many of these signs is likely. Druids are most often part of a wild faith worshipped in rural areas, gardens, parks or firlds. Druids study in schools for years to learn their secret lore and abilities

1 Was a shepherd and noted by  the druids as good with animals and living in the wilds

2 Adopted by tribal holy person from a wasteland barbarian tribe

3 Worked in courtyard perfumed gardens of a vast private palace or temple

4 Hermit of the wasteland had the calling from spirits in dreams

5 Served in the great garden of a city caring for mysterious and rare plants from around the world

6 Born to an ancient line of druid priests and kings of an urban nature cult

7 Spent years missing in faerieland but learned unusual things and is wary of fey creatures 

8 Served a druid sage since a child and taught secret druid arts

9 Feral child tamed by druids and animal spirits who taught their secrets

10 From mountain forest tribes, dedicated to protecting woods from civilisation

11 Grew up with simple rural farm folk and chosen to assist the druids for gifts of caring for animals and plants 

12 Survived days of fevered dreams after a mysterious snake or spider bite

d12 Savant
Often from a school or temple or from a lone master in secret fighting techniques. A life of discipline from a young age is the most common start and eventually graduated. Many wander world before returning to serve a temple or perhaps they might be founders of their own.
1 Chosen to be temple guardian as an orphan in a distant mountain temple

2 Family factions were killed but some survivors were taken to serve in secret assassin schools

3 Studied an image of a great master and developed your skills alone

4 Trained with a master who duelled other fighters to test skill and finally was killed by enemy

5 Served in royal bodyguards and learned secret techniques

6 Studied in a school specialising in a single weapon or martial arts

7 Abandoned baby at a temple taught secret fighting techniques   

8 Street fighter for money when young, then tournaments to becoming a serious martial artist                  9 From a family of martial artists killed by a rival family who think you are dead

10 From a secret cult guarding a holy site from robbers

11 Family killed and adopted by a secret fighting order disguised as a village

12 Orphaned and taken by a noble to a secret village where secret agents are trained by an order

d12 Sorcerer
Sorcerers are the indolent natural spell casters who require little training just some kind of blood ties through generations (the blood pact) or they made contact through dreams with otherworldly beings or local spirits who are the source of their power. 
1 Born to line of sorcerers who made a blood pact generations ago

2 Made a pact with an entity during a moment of desperation or crisis

3 Born under an ominous sign and recruited by witch cult

4 Belonged to a vast cult and tested and found to be a chosen one

5 Found a secret family tree linking you by blood to a supernatural ancestor

6 Spirits spoke to you in dreams offering you revenge against those who wronged you

7 Bred for generations by a cult who believe your magical blood has useful purposes

8 Told the secret way to contact strange powers who made a bloodpact with you for generations

9 Casting spells as a baby so sent by kin to train with supernatural beings until safe

10 Taken by supernatural beings until bored and they abandoned you to the world but but with a bond to their powerful nobility

11 Aided a disguised supernatural being who was impressed to give you a pact

12 Increasingly over time spirits came to you to teach you about the pact until you accept quite young 

d12 Dwarf
Dwarves come in many typed but mostly underground or inside hills or mountains and far from humans if possible. Their are still many intact dwarf kingdoms at this time just out of reach of humans. Dwarves often come to trade, or see what humans have been up to with their stolen technology like metal.
1 Grew up a feral dwarf living in ruins of a ancient city until found by travellers

2 From a clan long lived among humans in cities and master crafters

3 Grew up with magical forest folk in a cottage under a huge tree

4 Grew up prospecting in lonely hills and mountains with poor social skills 

5 From a strong but isolated citadel surrounded by constant enemies

6 From grubby mining folk in a subterranean shanty town trading minerals 

7 From an isolated village who avoid outsiders with suspicion

8 Live inside a bridge, dam or wall

9 Lived in a vast underground city a bastion against enemies

10 Grew up living on edge of a dwarven ruin full of monsters with small family only

11 From evil clan of slavers and demon worshipers long fallen to chaos

12 Clan lived in vast monster filled cavern with many monsters and peoples

d12 Elf
Faerie are a branch of nature spirits with their own world who serve the gods and nature. Over time many became earthborn and mortal and established their kingdoms in places of great natural power like forests and stars and reefs and other more hidden places. There are many kinds of elves descended from many faerie from various faerie worlds and other planes. They tend to be snooty and act like they are better than everyone but also know their numbers are reduced and they are vulnerable so they are polite about their contempt. 
1 Human baby was taken by elves and reincarnated as elves sometimes with a magic ritual

2 From the fair forest bright elves who fight for light everlasting

3 From the grim forest dark elves fight for darkness and vengeance everlasting

4 The last born child in your small doomed community in centuries, rest are fading away

5 Fell from the heavens, servants from celestial palaces from the stars

6 Sole survivor as a youth of a massacre of your centuries-old family home

7 Sent to the human world to learn if they are worth supporting or eliminating

8 The forest you frolicked in was cut down and humans built a town there instead

9 Lived in a citadel grown from a great coral reef surrounded by sea

10 Lived in an underground citadel hidden from humans 

11 Lived on an invisible citadel on an island hiding from humanity

12 You lived in a secret borderlands tree or hill fort helping humans and elves keep apart without war

d12 Gnome
These small hidden folk come in many tribes some good, evil or indifferent. You can reskin a gnome as other small magical humanoids such as brownies or small mystical trolls. Mostly gnomes are famous for hidden homes, magic craft and small size. Gnomes are often harmless but not always.

1 From a greencap clan in the forest living with smaller animal and faerie friends in a tree-stump or mushroom cottage

2 Came from a browncap crafting clan burrow complex under frontier hill country

3 Froma a browncap mountain trade citadel with strange surface and underland peoples visiting

4 Lived underneath a city unknown to huge clumsy humans but dress much like them

5 Craggy mountain redcap clan robbing victims who travelled through the territory

6 Family lived in a city operating a respectable business and well-liked and dress like local guilds

7 Blackcap burrow clan would enslave human children using magic to trap them inside

8 Frozen northlands whitecaps who hide from humans and enjoy whiteouts and snowstorms

9 Clan who used magic to infiltrate and influence humans, use similar material culture to humans and will use magic deception to trade with humans and hide their existance

10 Came from greycap Underland clan who use alchemical, clockwork and steam devices

11 From a greycap clan in the underland famous for being gloomy thralls who farm fungus and insect. Many are enthralled by more numerous invading peoples

12 From a greycap colony who lived generations on the moon but you escaped via a ballon or giant moth

d12 Abhuman
Abhumans are hybrid humanoids of great stature and might made to fight and serve. They were first created by gods, nature spirits, elementals, giants and dragons in the dawn times. Monster kings in the age of forbidden magic made human minions to serve and the orc and human ones rebelled. Even in more recent times, wizards keep making servants. Some methods are cruel and the confused abhumans are usually manipulated to obey

1 Ancestors in the dawn of time made by totem powers to protect a great wilderness

2 Ancestors made from the intermingling of animals and nature spirits who became earthbound 

3 Ancestors made to wage wars by wizards in ancient times now hate all masters and magic

4 Ancestors were slaves of wizards waging war, until they revolted

5 Ancestors made by druids to protect a wilderness from civilisation 

6 Ancestors made by faerie folk to serve but many of you have gone feral

7 Ancestors came from another world and hybridized with a local life form 

8 Clan finally killed the immortal wizard overlord and has roamed the wastes and frontier since seeking a home

9 Clan in service as elite warriors for a king of another people and are held in respect

10 Live among humans in cities in non-human-gettos and certain districts as poor labour and muscle

11 Gladiator since a child working in a pit fight scene while master got rich and you escaped

12 Clan served a wizard who was kind and allowed you to work his estate away from angry mobs until the wizard died

d12 Changeling
Changelings all shift between a human/elf form into another true form or any transition in between they wish. All are highly magical but earthborn spirit or faerie folk. The most common are animal and plant spirits but planar hybrids are possible (elemental, demonic, angelic, faerie or other types are possible). Most hide on the human world among humans or in wilderness. There are secret villages of them and larger communities in faerieland and other planes. 

1 Child of a great spirit in the dawn age performing your earthly duties since then

2 Child of planar and mortal beings, born in mortal world and raised in no time at all in the other world

3 Child of a minor divinity or spirit or planar noble

4 Child of a regional land spirit and part of the royal court  

5 Family toiled ceaselessly for generations in service of the being who created them in a magical kingdom

6 Family for generations live in the wilderness occasionally meeting distant kin and talking to humans

7 Family lived as humans in frontier keeping their origin secret for generations gathering information

8 Family live in a location they guard from some enemy under orders of a god or great spirit

9 Family of artists famed for craft living in secret among humans but really assassins and spies

10 Family hide in wilderness training to fight and cast spells. Some may even adopt a few humans

11 Serve in a fantastic palace of divine beings who have not been home in centuries

12 Banished from the secret otherworldly kingdom you have to face the mortal world

d12 Giant
Giants grow and eat lots and many end up changing their class so they can enter buildings and some other perks. Some giants are more acceptable than other types. Some are brutish and enjoy man's flesh. Some are hideous chaos monsters others are civilised and take after the Titans of old
1 Clan wandered the mountains gathering honey and meat living a simple life

2 Clan live among ancient ruins of Giantland and keep out defilers and vermin 

3 Clan lived in deep underland caves but had to move on as food was scarce

4 Clan lived in isolated family homesteads with pets avoiding humans

5 Came from an island of giants who were descended form the gods and titans long ago

6 Clan of brutish chaos giants who wallowed in filth and depravity

7 Clan of giants who work for cities building walls and other constructions for gold

8 Clan pf giants in service of a dark lord but you escaped captivity

9 Clan of high giants living in a hidden mountain citadel ruling a domain

10 Clan of giants live in an invisible flying castle in the clouds but left you behind

11 Clan of fallen high giants once glorious, now filthy drunks with claims of nobility

12 Clan of giants from another plane have assimilated to life in the mortal world

d12 Tako
Octopus fairies from undersea magical kingdoms where they and other beings serve the sea gods and the great spirit rulers who administrate them. Tako from time to time come onto the land to flee problems under the sea or to trade or from curiosity or greed. Many tribes have stayed on land for generations but they are more common near salt waters. Many find the surface strange and alien and most people find them to be weird.

1 From an honourable clan in service to the imperial undersea bureaucracy for generations  

2 From a clan of undersea barbarians waging war against fish and eel folk and other enemies

3 From a millitary clan in the imperial undersea emperor's army for generations of glory

4 From a clan of surface explorers who communicate with native life

5 From a family of fisherfolk who occasionally interact with humans in stories

6 From a clan hidden in a forest lake who watch over the wilderness 

7 From a clan living like human villagers who just want to be left alone

8 From clans in the underland seas and rivers who gather information in secret

9 From an evil clan who take human slaves into the deep forever

10 From a great cave lake underground beneath a dangerous wilderness

11 Clan who occupied a strange semi-sunken swamp city of some prehistoric civilisation.  Many are exposed to strange occult lore

12 From a clan of merchants who trade with surface folk for goods the emperor of the sea desires