Toridoki

Toridoki
No. Encountered 2-12, 10-60
Size: Small
HD: 1 (d6)
Move: 20 ft.
AC: 15
Attacks: Weapon (as weapon), Antler Charge 2d4
Special: Telepathy (Antlered animals only),
Saves: Dex, Int, Cha
Int: Average
Alignment: Neutral Good
Type: Humanoid
Treasure: 1
XP: 10 + 1/hp

Toridoki are short, one-eyed forest dwellers. Their hands and feet are oversized, and they are covered on their heads and backs with a rough coat of chicken feathers.A pair of branching antlers grow out from above their eyebrows. Like a stag's, these antlers grow larger and branch more as a Toridoki ages. unlike deer, however, both male and female Toridoki grow antlers. Different families of Toridoki have antlers that resembled different animals: elk, moose, deer, etc.

Toridoki make their homes in forests, and are fiercely defensive of their territory. They are slow to trust but very loyal. They live in villages of 10-60 Toridoki in treetop huts, carefully constructed to blend into the forest canopy. They farm mushrooms and fruits, as well as construct traps and hunt for small game. Toridoki encountered away from the village will be hunting parties, consisting of 2-12 Toridoki led by a veteran who fights as a 3rd level ranger.

Toridoki fashion weapons from wood and stone, blessing them with nature magic to work as well as steel. They favor spears and maces for battle, and short bows for hunting. They carve armor from wooden plates (scale mail equivalent). They are excellent at setting snares and other woodland traps. For every village there is a spirit shaman who casts as a 3rd level druid and often has a jackalope familiar.

Toridoki have a connection to animals in the forest, and honor any who must serve as food. They boast a special connection to deer, elk, moose, and other antlered animals that verges on telepathy.When in trouble, a Toridoki may call one of these animals to rescue it. In battle, the animal will fight as a Herd Animal (M&T 48). In cases of all-out war, Toridoki ride antlered animals as mounts. Toridoki treat antlered animals as equals, always asking permission to ride them, and mourn them when other hunt them for food.

Three Settings

So, I've designed three general settings for RPG campaigns over the years.

Attariil is an island nation, at peace internally and with the four surrounding islands. We played in a 6 month long 4e campaign there, and I think it was pretty cool. Travel time was very short, due to me not working out distances or having random encounters. I was disappointed at how small it became after letting the PCs traipse all over without regard to the distance. And then I ruined the campaign with the stupid war house rules. But I digress.

Second we have Northreach - a frontier outpost on the northern edge of civilization. Travel to the outpost was only possible through a dangerous canyon that was completely impassable for half the year. The outpost was created to spread the domain of Baron Vedron of Kor, a large city to the south. The PCs who played in that campaign got to explore the Icepeak mountains and fight a young white dragon. That game only lasted a month or two, as I was trying to make peace with 4e but couldn't force myself to keep running encounter after encounter. I made a stable of interesting NPCs for the characters to interact and bond with, but I don't know how successful that ended up being.

Third is the Guardian Forest where lived many tribes of Guardians, people who borrowed power from the earth and defended their forest from invasions. This setting never saw play because I've been tuning it endlessly for the past 10 years. Important and unchanging facts about this setting were the nature-worshiping Guardians, ancestral spirits who walk the forest and share wisdom with the living, and an evil empire ruled by the victim of a psychic menace.

So now I'm thinking each of these three places could be parts of the same game world! Attariil stays in the ocean near the other four kingdoms (mainlanders might call these the Five Kingdom Islands collectively, much to the chagrin of the Attariin people.)

There's lots more work I can do to tie the three setting together, like making the empire from the Guardian Forest the ones that sent the Northreach expedition. (ok, that's about the extent of it.) But I also get a large area of the empire that would be the main area for any campaigns. It'd be feudal and divisive, so that there'd be plenty of chance for war.

Guardian Spirit Short Story

The forest was screaming. Jarlek could hear it - he'd been able to hear the forest as a young boy, much younger than the others in his village. He heard the whispers through the tress, showing him paths to wonder, warning him against danger, and teaching him the ways of the ancients. The voice of the forest was always gentle, calm and peaceful. But now it was screaming.

Jarlek rushed from bough to bough, leaping like a frantic beast. He landed in a crouch on a tree branch, dark skinned hands and feet grasping the solid tree before propelling him forward to the next. Anything that could disturb the forest like this would be dangerous, but all Jarlek could think about was the cries of his beloved forest. He would find the source of the forest's pain. And whoever was doing this would pay.

The scream got louder and louder, and Jarlek strained against it to keep his grip on a branch. He failed, and dropped ten feet to the ground. As he sat up, the screaming stopped. He saw a strange figure in a white and gold robe turn from a great scale-bark tree to come towards him - the figure's finger was smoking, like a smoldering stick. Past the figure Jarlek could see strange symbols burned into the tree. As he watched they began healing, grey ash turning back to healthy bark. His eyes widened even more, and the figure stopped his advance to look back, and sighed.

"Now I shall have to start all over. But first, foolish primate, you will know the mark of Empire." As he said this, the figure lifted its hood to reveal a middle-aged man with expressionless eyes. Upon his forehead was a strange symbol, burned in place just as the marks in the tree. The smoldering blackness spread from the man's fingertip to the rest of his hand, and he stretched that gnarled, smoking claw toward Jarlek's face. A symbol similar to the one on the man's head glowed fiery red on the man's palm. Realization suddenly dawned on the youth, and he tried to scramble back on all fours. His limbs seemed to be frozen - he couldn't move, only stare at the dead-faced man with the burning hand..

Just then, Jarlek heard a voice to his left. "Move, boy! This man is nothing to you, a slave of someone far away. You are here, in the Ancient Forest! You have the power of your ancestors all around you. Move!" At this shout, Jarlek's head darted to the left, where stood one of the guardian spirits of the forest. A translucent figure, dressed in the leathers of a hunter in the forest. His wild white hair and beard framed his dark face like a lion's mane. Jarlek's mind drifted to the elder who taught the names and faces of the ancestral spirits. This was Korenak, a defender of the forest, he remembered. And then he recalled his predicament. The youth was up in a flash, running through the forest as fast as the spirits' guidance could take him.

Jarlek stopped a few minutes later to catch his breath. What had happened? Whoever that man was, he was hurting the forest. The forest was life for the Guardians, the tribes who lived here for centuries, and drew on the life within for their magic. This dead-faced figure had to be stopped. And though he may have some sort of magic of his own, he was no match for the might of the Ancient Forest embodied. Jarlek knew the rites to channel the power into himself, though he hadn't used them since his naming day ritual. He stood with his back against a great oak, breathing heavily and trying to recall the words to the ritual. Then Korenak appeared.

Jarlek dropped to his knees, hands over one another in front of him. "All honor to you, Great Ancestor!" the youth squeaked. This time, at least, he would observe traditions.

The spirit absently waved the greeting away. "Enough of that, boy," it said, looking back in the direction of the dead-faced man. "you've got heavier rocks to haul. You're from the, what, Raven's Feather tribe?" The spirit looked toward him, and Jarlek felt insignificant. This man had served the forest for centuries, protecting it in death as he had in life. He had a commanding presence even in death. As one of the Ancestor Spirits, he had incredible powers, and could grant them to living Guardians he deemed worthy of the honor. Many young warriors dreamed of becoming the Chosen of the Spirits, wielding the might of the Ancient Forest against outside forces. Maybe he appeared to Jarlek to-

"Don't even think about it," Korenak laughed, guessing easily the route the boy's thoughts had taken. "You're good, don't get me wrong. Eyes sharp enough to see me clearly and good ears to hear the forest's signal. But you've got years of training ahead of you before I just hand over any powers." The youth's cheeks turned red, bright against his dark skin. The spirit reached down to ruffle Jarlek's hair, though all he felt was a slight warm wind. "Don't worry, you've a part to play, boy. Your tribe, it's the Raven's Feathers, right?" the spirit asked again.

"Yes, Great Ancestor" Jarlek manage to meekly reply.

"Then run to them. Find an old man by the name of Tor Blacknail. Tell him the old fox sent you. Explain everything. the calls of the forest, the hooded man, everything. Lead him back to the screaming tree. And if you don't find that blank-faced man, dead on the ground, tell him I did all I could." Before the youth could even protest, the spirit of Korenak, ancient defender of the forest, had faded away. Jarlek hesitated for a moment more, then took off through the forest, climbing a tree and leaping from branch to branch back to his village.

As he leaped, the young guardian's mind raced. Tor Blacknail was an old shaman, estranged from the rest of the tribe and living on his own. Jarlek had seen his hut many times, and been warned away from visiting. Sometimes he and the other boys would throw a stone at it and run - The one who threw last was the bravest. Jarlek had been taught to stay away from the mad old shaman, but he'd been given a command by one of the great ancestor spirits! He knew there was no shirking this responsibility. Suddenly, the cries of the forest began again. He had to bring Tor Blacknail as fast as possible!

Awakened Ones

In the Guardian Spirit world, there are many people. Some of them are normal citizens, living in a fantasy medieval Europe-style country. But there are tribes of Guardians, people sworn to save the world from itself. Among these Guardians are the Awakened Ones, normal people who've discovered great powers and taught to use them to help and protect others.

Awakened Ones are the PCs of the Guardian Spirit world. They have a few specific classes, but I think I want to go with a point buy system so players could pick whatever powers they want. The classes of Awakened Ones are:

-Spirit Tamer
-Weapon master
-Firecaller (or windcaller, or water, earth, anything really)
-Shadow Walker
-Lifekeeper
-Time Watcher

In a game writeup, each of these classes would have their own powers and stuffs. I'll write more posts about each class soon.

Guardian Spirit

Guardian spirit is a game/comic/novel/what-have-you idea I've had stuck in my head for years. It's a fantasy world where people have awesome powers. Some of the powers let people create weapons from thin air, or shoot lightning bolts from their hands. Some people use their powers to summon and control the monsters that roam the lands.

I've flip-flopped on the execution of this idea forever. Seriously; I have 13 text files with information about this world or ways to possibly turn it into a project. Comic, novel, GBA game, BYOND game; action, RPG, or strategy; if it's possible, I've considered it. Magic has worked at least three different ways. At one point, it was monster raising only, and each person had a base monster a la Digimon that was altered through the use of crystals. (The crystals captured energy from defeated monsters. This wasn't too bad of an idea - I might use that again)

And therein lies my problem - I never actually DO anything with my ideas, and I'm constantly updating them. So this entire world just exists in my head. But this blog thing might be just the trick, either to clear my head or finally get Guardian Spirit out into the real world.