Shrines of Small Gods
Messing around with the following tables:
- Trick's Tales' God-Spirit Generator
- Sly Flourish's General Purpose Domains
- D4 Caltrops, Altars and Shrines
- Wizard Name Tables from The Nameless Grimoire by Johnstone Metzger
- My standby, the Myth Motifs roller
Sajsida, Spirit of Streams and Insects
On the bank of a small stream, sits a fishlike ceramic helmet with an open mouth, painted gold, teal and white. A family of muskrats has used it as the entrance to their burrow. Brightly coloured flags, skillfully embroidered with various insects are strung between the trees overhead. The first time a supplicant adds flags of their own, one of the muskrats will emerge to address them in Sajsida's childlike voice. In the future there is a 4-in-6 chance of a similar reception.
Sajsida will answer questions about the stream and insects, but for each will expect their own answer about mortals and life in settlements. They hint that they will grant a blessing in exchange for an offering of sweetness and silver, but playfully refuse to give more context. Any nearby spirit or druid knows that they want an offering of honey and fish. These the muskrats will gobble up and the supplicant will be unbothered by normal insects and have +2 reaction from giant insects for a week.
Anyone who wears the helmet can hear Sajsida's voice directly in their mind. They are fascinated by anyone bold enough to try such a thing and will encourage the thief to prove themself worthy. The muskrats abandon their burrow to infest the wearer's clothes, helping themselves to 1 ration per day, or 1d6hp per day if no rations are available. The wearer suffers -2 to reaction rolls and saving throws against fish and insects. They make an additional encounter roll per day in the wilderness, with either an insect or swimmer result. The mouth of the helmet closes when approaching a settlement, Sajsida makes it clear they would rather suffocate the wearer than enter mortal-built walls. If the wearer survives a month, Sajsida declares them her new avatar, the reaction and save penalties are replaced with a +2 bonus, and the wearer can summon a random insect or flyer once per day.
Ghay-Tamiz, God of The Sea, Sunsets and Wine
On the tide line in a hidden bay, a small hut made of driftwood sits amid a tangle of feral grape vines. Runes carved in the hut's pillars explain what is expected of supplicants. No one who has had sexual intercourse within a mile of the shrine may ever enter it. Supplicants must spend an hour gathering seaweed, rinsing it in the freshwater stream and laying it among the vines to fertilize them. As the sun goes down they may enter the shrine and kneel to receive Ghay-Tamiz' blessing, a 3-in-6 chance of favourable weather and wind per day of sea travel, and any wine drank becoming the finest quality, bestowing 1 extra HP for each day wine is imbibed.
On the third time this blessing is granted, Ghay-Tamiz will put an empathic conviction on the supplicant. A band of kobolds nesting in the nearby scrublands harvested his grapes without his leave, and left the vineyard in disarray. He wants the skulls of those responsible to decorate his altar. If the quest is accepted, the supplicant will know a desecrator on sight. There are three among the kobolds who are so marked. If the supplicant is successful, Ghay-Tamiz grants them knowledge of a tidal cave where 10 clay jars of the finest wine worth 1000sp each sit aging. If they fail or refuse, Ghay-Tamiz never grants them his blessing again.
Habrisheem, Goddess of Hunger and Revelry
In the dark of the untracked forest, in the centre of a cloud of mist that dances at night with tiny arcs and specks of blue-green light, sits a conical tin shrine topped with a bowl, and decorated with embossed woodland creatures. Around the base of the shrine is a circular game board, on one of the spaces is a birdlike pawn, in the bowl a single stone die, heavier than it should be. Local druids and fey know that to play the game before making preparations is foolish, a day spent fasting, broken by tea from the wild raspberry leaves that grow in the clearing is required to receive Habrisheem's attention. This is not true, Habrisheem grants her blessings or banes to any who play her game. There are 21 spaces around the game board, the pawn begins on a random one (Never the skull):
| 1d20 | Symbol | 1d20 | Symbol | 1d20 | Symbol |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spiral, Star | 2 | Spiral | 3 | Spiral, Diamond |
| 4 | Blade | 5 | Spiral, Leaf | 6 | Diamond |
| 7 | Hand | 8 | Spiral, Blade | 9 | Diamond |
| 10 | Leaf | 11 | Blank | 12 | Blade, Diamond |
| 13 | Spiral | 14 | Hand | 15 | Leaf, Diamond |
| 16 | Blade | 17 | Blank | 18 | Two Diamonds |
| 19 | Blank | 20 | Blade, Leaf | 21 | Spiral, Skull |
Supplicants can roll the die and move the pawn that many spaces in either direction. So long as they follow these rules, they gain the effects of each icon on the final space. If they don't move the pawn as indicated by the die, they must immediately save vs death or suffer a heart attack.
| Symbol | Effect |
|---|---|
| Blank | None |
| Diamond | Gain the ability to sense gems within 100' for 1d6+1 days. There is a 1-in-6 chance per day of travel that you find a hidden gemstone worth 1d10x1000sp |
| Hand | You become marked a hospitable person for 1d6+1 days. You gain +2 to reactions by all humanoids, and if you feed and entertain them, they will treat you as a friend. For each friend gained this way, the lavishness of your expected hospitality increases, starting with 1sp, then doubling (bread and water, stew and beer, roast fowl and wine, venison and brandy, etc) |
| Leaf | A small plant with a single leaf sprouts from your skin. Each week it grows a new leaf. Each leaf increases your HP by 1. When you take damage, you lose leaves before your base HP, and if a plant loses all of its leaves, it withers and dies. At the end of each month, the plants growing out of you have a collective [leaves]-in-20 chance of flowering, each flower attracts a tiny, helpful hummingbird ally (HD 0, AC as Plate +1 on account of being tiny, Attack as toothpick to the eye) |
| Skull | Reduce to 1 HP. For each HP lost, 1d6 blood-red gems fall from your mouth, each worth 10sp |
| Spiral | Roll again and move, clockwise, only counting the other spiral spaces. Ignore the spiral that you land on or else you'll never stop |
| Tooth | A painful gnawing eats away at your insides. Lose 1d6 HP. Gain 10 XP per HP lost |
Listening to: Dead Letters: You Got a Job on the Garbage Barge
Reading: Arm of the Sphynx by Josiah Bancroft
Watching: Babylon 5, Season 1