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Spirits of the Rothos
Spirit Abilities
Many spirits possess the ability to subtly Influence the actions of living beings. The target will usually resist by rolling Will and Mind. Only on an Overwhemling Success can the spirit actually put the target into a trance and directly control their actions. A regular Success just indicates that the target will do what the spirit wants unless they have a good reason not to.
Example Minor Spirits
Choh-Choolh, Dead-Man's Tree
Choh-Choolh is the name of the malicious spirit that lives in an old, gnarled dead tree not too far from a Chevernaise tribe. Children are warned away from it, and warning markers are commonly posted, but always seem to disappear over time. Several travellers have died in the area.
Choh-Choolh possesses the ability to Influence the actions of others at the d8 level (resist with Mind and Will). A Success makes them more inclined to do what Choh-Choolh wants, and an Overwhemling Success also causes them to forget any reasons they might have to not do what Choh-Choolh wants. This power can only be used on people nearby, and requires several minutes per attempt.
First, Choh-Choolh wants people to approach its tree, and preferably camp there for the night. If a lone person actually falls asleep at the tree, its branches will reach down and attempt to strangle them during the night (Strength and Wrestling 2d8). If there are multiple people present, the spirit will either attempt to get them all to fall asleep, then strangle the most likely victim, or use its power of Influence to try and rile them up and make them fight.
Choh-Choolh is vicious and sadistic, but not terribly powerful, and prefers never to act openly. Burning the tree will only banish the spirit to a different spot, so the Chevernaise don't bother; they'd prefer to know where Choh-Choolh is, rather than worrying about where he'll appear next.
Choh-Choolh can't provide much help to a Darkened character unless they want information about people who have passed within sight of his tree. Choh-Choolh watches everyone very carefully, always looking for potential prey.
N'Timskeh, the Undertow
N'Timskeh lurks in the crystal-clear waters of a particularly slow moving and beautiful mountain stream. She is very vain and protective of her waters. Those who are properly reverent and merely fill jugs with water are welcome to do so. But anyone who is filthy and foul and tries to bathe in or ford the stream will likely incur her wrath.
If she is angered, she will generally wait until the offender seems completely at ease, then direct a sudden undertow at their feet. The strength of this pull can be as high as d12, depending upon how angry she is. The target must roll Speed vs the strength of the undertow, or be pulled off their feet and dragged downstream. They will immediately begin drowning (roll Body and Breath-Holding to soak 2d6 damage per turn, hits cause Fatigue). Until they can break free of the undertow (by beating its strength with their Strength and Swimming), they will be swept further downstream. Usually N'Timskeh will release them after two or three rounds, but if they were particularly offensive, she will attempt to hold them for the full five rounds necessary to reach a small cliff and drop them off onto the rocks below (2d12 falling damage).
N'Timskeh hates dirt and grime. The penalty for a darkened character who has not been ritually purified counts double when dealing with N'Timskeh, but unlike most spirits she does not expect sacrifices.
If contacted by a Darkened character, N'Timskeh can answer questions about events anywhere along her stream. If used to Walk the Darkened Path, she can take the subject to anywhere along the same area. She generally only grants totems that provide the Swimming and Breath-Holding skills. If someone vessels her, they take on an aspect and abilities (including the use of Water Magic) similar to that of an Undine.
Zhallowan, the Shadow in the Crevice
Zhallowan is the name of an unpleasant spirit that lurks in the Chevernaise pass along the caravan routes. Zhallowan isn't directly malicious, but must feed on the flesh of intelligent beings and so tends to regard all travelers as potential food. The Chevernaise will occasionally dispose of dead foes by dropping their bodies in Zhallowan's crevice to keep him sated.
Zhallowan lurks in the lightless depths of a treacherous crevice in the rocky ground of the pass. If it has not fed recently, it will use its Influence powers at the d8 level (resist with Mind and Will) to try and persuade travellers (or their steeds) to wander in its direction. The crevice is well hidden, and tends to look like ordinary ground right up to the point where you step out into space and fall into the darkness (difficulty 2d10 to spot). The crevice is 30 paces deep, but usually has snow at the bottom, reducing the falling damage to 3d12.
Once someone has fallen into the crevice, Zhallowan will manifest itself as a creeping shadow and attempt to feed upon their flesh. It has no Body trait, and all of its other stats are at the d8 level. It rolls 2d8 to attack and its attack does 2d6 damage that ignores armor as it magically dissolves the flesh right off of the target. The "Special" for its attack is Slaying damage. Wounds inflicted by Zhallowan are hideously gruesome and very slow to heal. If a victim lives, each wound that they took from Zhallowan should be considered to be 4 wounds for healing purposes.
Zhallowan, however, has no tolerance for light, and can be driven away by 2 rounds of exposure to torchlight or a single round of exposure to magical light or flame. Its shadowy flesh will make audible sizzling noises when exposed to light and will rapidly shrink away.
The shadows at the base of Zhallowan's pit are filled with the bones of people and small animals. Zhallowan's power dissolves flesh, but leaves the bones polished and undamaged.
If invoked by a Darkened character, Zhallowan will be helpful, but the sacrifice that he expects is always the flesh of a recently deceased living being. He can see into dark and hidden places all over Calabria and can create totems that either grant the bearer Night Vision, extra Stealth, or weapons that inflict an extra d6 damage by dissolving the flesh in the wound.
Example Major Spirits
Hormgar, patron spirit of Hormgar's Mouth
Little is known about this spirit, who rules over the valley known as Hormgar's Mouth. His sacred ground includes a tiny cavern in the mountainside. The tribesmen of the valley place warning markers around the area to keep travellers from entering the cave and offending Hormgar. On the occasions when Hormgar manifests, he is seen as a huge and terrible Chevernaise warrior.
Shamans who have served Hormgar well are sometimes taken into the spirit realm to serve him there. When Hormgar desires to communicate with the tribesmen who live in his valley, he sends one of those followers back to the physical world to act on his behalf.
Hormgar seems to be relatively benign. He demands worship from the inhabitants of his valley, but little in the way of sacrifices. He does have a wrathful nature, however, so his worshippers are generally quick to placate him when they suspect that he has been angered.
The Seven Storms
The fearsome storms that occasionally rage across the Rothos are attributed to the games of seven brothers, the children of Femort. Each is associated with a slightly different kind of storm (Haju with driving rain, Palu with icy sleet, etc.), and someone skilled in Darkened Lore can often tell what spirit is responsible for the storm.
The brothers are rarely invoked, unless ill weather is actually desired. They will never stop a storm, but they can often bring one about, at least in the area they have been invoked in. All seven spirits have a similar personality- that of a bored and spoiled child. They care little to nothing about the well being of those who have to suffer through their storms, but they are excellent at predicting future weather conditions.
It's unlikely that the seven brothers really cause the storms, but they do seem to travel with them. It's possible that they are actually seven different facets of the same spirit.
Gods of the Rothos
The pantheon of deities worshipped by the Chevernaise clearly has some similarity to that followed by the Doloreaux, although the importance of Lutara is much less, and that of Femort correspondingly greater. The Chevernaise visualize these deities as goatlike rather than boarlike, but otherwise there are striking similarities.
Femort, the Cold Lady
The Lady of Winter is probably the most universally feared and revered of the Chevernaise gods. She is the goddess of winter, snow and death, three things that are very commonly linked in the Rothos. Her name is never spoken save by those who actually desire her attentions. She is depicted as an almost skeletal female goat with no eyes, always covered with an icy blue shroud.
The Cold Lady is served by monstrous goat-shaped warriors made out of animate ice. Her awareness stretches to every part of the world where snow ever falls, and she can command the spirits of anyone who has perished in the snow. Her touch causes instant frostbite and any invocation of her causes the temperature in the immediate area to plunge, instantly.
The Chevernaise believe that the tallest peaks are sacred to her, and that sudden blizzards are caused by mortals who have offended her.
Lutara, the Daughter of Spring
Femort's daughter, Lutara is depicted as a young Chevernaise (or occasionally Doloreaux) girl, usually just a child. She is the goddess of spring and brings forth new growth and fertility. She visits her mother's lands only briefly each year, prefering to spend most of her time to the south in the lands of the Doloreaux.
The Chevernaise do not raid Lutarist shrines, out of respect for Lutara, but otherwise they affix little importance to her. She is considered a minor deity, and is never invoked with the Darkened paths, although they will often offer small sacrifices to her. It is widely believed that Lutara is incapable of inflicting any harm, and some of the more isolated Chevernaise tribes assume that her followers are similarly pacifistic.
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