GLoGmas 2025: Treasures Glow In the Dark

 A GLOGmas gift for Grek of Grackle Court, and their post-apocalyptic GLOGhack, GLoW. Merry GLOGmas!

Purity Is The Power To Contemplate Defilement - Ritual Purity for OSR Clerics

This came from a casual discussion on the glogosphere, but struck me as such a good idea that I had to write it down. 

Many Cleric spells in several OSR rulesets have reversed forms, but it's often unclear how legal they are for PC's to employ. Sometimes they are interpreted as being limited to Evil Priest NPCs, other times that they might be permitted for use by PC's in extremis, or just that a nebulous warning that using them too much might result in alignment change. This is how I'm going to start handling the matter.

At any given time, a Cleric can be in one of two ritual states: Purity or Defilement.

While in a state of Ritual Purity, their spells heal, restore, and preserve, returning the fallen world to its proper state. All spells produce their normal effect.

While in a state of Ritual Defilement, their spells harm, break, and corrupt, reflecting human sin back upon the world. All spells produce their reversed effect.

At any time, a cleric in a state of ritual purity may choose to break the state, converting any memorised spells to their reversed forms. However, returning to ritual purity is harder than breaking it, typically requiring a return to a temple and spending a day in ablution and annointment - this explicitly does not require an Atonement spell to be cast nor is it accompanied with any sort of Geas or Quest; ritual purity is not the same thing as moral purity, and defilement is not punished, just rectified.

This presents an interesting logistical decision, particularly on a deep dungeon crawl - the party may encounter enemies potent enough to make a Slay Living or Harm very welcome, but once that bridge is crossed, then that Cleric is no longer able to provide healing, traditionally one of their most valuable party roles. At the bottom of a multi-level dungeon, with potentially dozens of encounter rolls between you and safety, this is no small thing. Bringing multiple clerics might be the meta strat, which is probably not too difficult - clerics are a pretty solid class, with few great weaknesses. I rarely ever actually see the stereotype of tables where nobody wants to play the healer; clerics are great at every level, and party composition tends to reflect that.

Settings where clerics of opposing alignments can be part of the same religion, or at least acknowledge the same cosmology - like Skerples' contextless OD&D, Deus Ex Parabola's Unfinished World, or WotC's Eberron - might be best suited to this idea. Some sects may even voluntarily choose to exist in a state of defilement for reasons both practical and theological.

Besides voluntary defilement, certain creatures or situations might induce it - getting energy drained by an undead, dealing peaceably with a demon, or getting extremely dirty, especially from something ritually unclean like gore, excrement or corpse-ash, would probably break your ritual purity. Maybe I'd allow a save for those sort of involuntary situations, but maybe also not - it might be amusing to figure out how the party gets their healbot through the sewer level.

It might possibly be prudent to introduce a magical item or even a mundane equipment item that allows Ritual Purity to be restored in the field, but make it either rare, expensive or awkward.

There's No Trick To It - Magician (GLOG Class)

Just a classic wizard.

Class: Magician

You might be a High Magician in a star-spangled robe and pointed hat who studied in the storied halls of academia, or the son of a village witch who learned your mother's craft for she had no daughter to pass it on to, or a fur-clad shaman with a spirit's face painted on your own who drags mysteries out of the primal dark. However you came by it, you have knowledge of the secret ways that move the world that mortals were never meant to know.

Equipment: Robes & Hat, Satchel, Staff, Dagger, Lantern, 2 x Bonus pieces of equipment based on starting Magic Art (see below).

+1 to Saves per Template
A: 2 Magical Arts, Magesight
B: Familiar or Implement, +1 Magical Art
C: Ritualist, +1 Magical Art
D: Secret of Secrets, +1 Magical Art

∆: Archmage
Know at least 5 Magical Arts, find one of the five Pillars of Creation, and etch your personal mark onto it.
Create a new Magical Art, negotiated with your DM. Further negotiations can take place after it's created if it proves too strong or too weak - new magic has a tendency to "settle" over time.

A: Magical Arts
You begin with knowledge of two of the known Magical Arts; others may exist - probably in strange and foreign parts - but you will have to find them first if you want to learn them. You gain a bonus item from each of your starting Magical Arts. At each subsequent Template, learn a new Magical Art and gain the Advanced form of one Art you already know.

A: Magesight
You can perceive the presence of the supernatural. Just ask the DM if something is magical, and they are obliged to tell you the truth of the matter. With a Turn of careful examination, you can also determine in general terms what a given magical effect's purpose is, e.g. "Stepping into this circle will teleport you elsewhere.". This manifests for you in symbolic terms; a sword enchanted such that it bursts into fire in combat might appear to have a large salamander sitting on its blade, while an enchanted shirt of mail being unfurled might sound like a distant army roaring in victory to your ears. Magesight explicitly cannot reveal the presence or nature of illusions and curses, which by their very nature conceal and deceive.

B: Familiar
You have summoned a minor tutelary spirit to aid you in your magical practice. This spirit can switch between two forms: one a mundane animal no larger than a fox, the other a knee-high, horned, winged, homunculus with luridly coloured skin. It has a flight speed equal to its Movement speed in its homunculus form and whatever abilities are common to its species in its animal form. They have 1HD, +1HP/Level of the magician, AC12, 6' Movement (plus flight in homunculus form). Familiars can fight, using whatever natural weapons their animal form has or wielding small (d4) weapons in their homunculus form. Familiars can speak any tongue their summoner can, and in animal form can speak in animal noises that only their summoner can understand. Familiars are absolutely loyal to their summoner, though they often affect argumentative or grating personalities to teach their mage humility. Besides this, they can perform several useful services in return for a bit of their summoner's life force;

• For d6 Hit Points, they can answer 1 question as if consulting a Sage NPC for a short-term study.
• For 2d6 Hit Points, they can perform any Magical Art the magician knows or has observed being used, without any component required.
• For 3d6 Hit Points, they can transform into a monstrous guardian form, gaining additional HD, attack bonus, AC, and damage equal to their summoner's Templates, plus natural weapons that deal a base 2d6 damage. This is either a Dire version of their animal form or that of a fire-snorting cloven-hooved demon. The transformation lasts until the next Dawn or until dismissed by the magician's command, whichever comes first.

A familiar cannot be killed while its summoner lives, but can be dispersed. If reduced to 0HP they disappear and reform the next day at dusk.

B: Implement
You have a bound tool of your craft; a wand, blade, chalice, ring, or lantern is traditional, but others exist. It takes up one equipment slot or inventory space, depending on its form. As long as you have it on your person, you can perform Magical Arts without any reagent or other tool up to [Templates] times per day, just using the occult authority bound up in your implement. Your implement also has a significant magical ability based on its form. Negotiate this with your DM, some examples are;

• A wand that allows you to telekinetically manipulate objects at a distance as if you were standing at the position you point it at.
• A chalice that allows you to store a magical effect by drawing it into itself as an effervescent liquid. Save or the effect spills onto you if it is not your creation. The liquid magic can be poured or drunk to transfer the effect. 
• A ring that can make one magical effect at a time permanent - the effect it is perpetuating can be changed, which ends the previous effect.
• A blade that can damage incorporeal beings and counts as having a magical plus equal to the Magician's Templates for purposes of determining whether it can harm beings with supernatural resilience. In addition, you never fumble with an implement blade.
• A lantern that can illuminate the presence of invisible beings within its brightly lit area (typically a 30" radius).

C: Ritualist
You can now formulate rituals that enact modified or exaggerated versions of the effect of your Magical Arts. A ritual casting can bend or break the rules of the Magical Arts or combine multiple Arts into one, but must still fall within the general purview of the Arts you know. A ritual enactment of Elementalism could summon a known element from nowhere, for example, or bind an elemental to an extended service. For each modification you add, the DM can specify one of the following requirements;

• Ritual must be enacted in a place of innate magical power.
• Ritual requires expenditure of a lot of money, often in the form of large quantities of Granulated Azoth (500gp x Total Requirements).
• Ritual can only be performed once every week/month/year/decade, or only at a specific time or celestial confluence, such as a full moon, a planetary alignment or a seasonal equinox.
• Ritual requires the assistance of a particular person or category of person, like an Alchemist or a bearer of royal blood.
• Ritual has a X:6 chance of backlashing in some kind of Monkey's Paw fashion (each increase of X:6 counts as one Requirement).

This is also how you can create magical items. Single-use items typically add only a single requirement; items with daily uses add 1-3 per use, and permanent items at least 5.

D: Secret of Secrets
You can now perform the single greatest act of magic a mortal can enact, the legendary Wish. A Wish can do almost anything, but it is neither totally omnipotent or wholly convenient. A Wish for wealth or a specific magic item is usually answered with a vision revealing where such a treasure can be found and legally claimed, rather than instantly dropping it into the magician's hands. Likewise, a Wish for an enemy to die will usually reveal the location of a weapon or ally capable of slaying them. Wishes for deliverance from peril are usually answered more immediately; deathtraps break down, avalanches part to leave the magician unharmed, and deadly poisons mysteriously burn themselves through the victim's system without any lasting harm. Wishes are very quick and can be used as interrupts outside of initiative order, even as part of another action - Wishing for a powerful enemy to fail their save against your magic is entirely valid. You can only perform one Wish per level safely, so once you reach this level you have four Wishes. For each Wish you cast above this number, reroll your HD until you roll lower than your current HP and take that as your new HP total. Certain beings of demigodlike stature may be able to bestow additional free Wishes as a reward for services rendered.

Grimoire of the Known Magical Arts

Unless otherwise specified, using a magical art must be declared at the beginning of the round and is enacted at the end. A magician who is injured before then has their magic interrupted, wasting any uses of material components.

• Elementalism
  Bonus Item: Tin of Granulated Azoth (10 pinches)
  Pick one of the four classical elements; others exist, like gravity and light, but for now, you only know the secret name of one. Sprinkle a pinch of Granulated Azoth on your tongue and whisper that name, and it will respond. Issue a command up to [Templates] words long and it will obey automatically. A target of the command can be specified by gesture. For every additional word you want to add, take another pinch of Azoth and make a Save vs. Poison with a penalty equal to the number of extra pinches. On a failure, the command still takes effect, but you are incapacitated for 1 Turn per additional word. On a critical failure, the element goes haywire in some way that is detrimental to everyone around. The element has to actually be present for you to command it; this Art doesn't summon it up. Creatures affected by elemental manifestations you command are entitled to a Save, and any manifestation that would deal damage is limited to d6 per [Template] of the magician, Save for half damage. It takes a week of downtime and 100gp of ritual tools (mostly lots of different examples of the element in question) to learn a new element; each research roll has a progressive 1:6 chance of success (so 2:6 on the second attempt, 3:6 on the third, etc).
• Advanced Elementalism: You can now call up elementals, sentient manifestations of the element you speak to. The summoned elementals have HD equal to your [Templates] and can be increased by consuming extra Azoth as above. A summoned elemental will obey you for 1 Turn before dispersing back into a mundane manifestation of its element.
• Conjuration
  Bonus Item: Stick of Wizard Chalk (10 uses)
  Visualise a mundane item of up to [Templates] equipment slots large and draw a circle big enough to fit it with Wizard Chalk, using up chalk equal to its size. It appears within the circle and can be used as normal, but vanishes after 1 Turn if you stop holding it. The item conjured is generally a generic version of whatever is visualised, but you can also place a rune on a specific item (costing 1 use of Wizard Chalk) and later conjure it into the circle.
• Advanced Conjuration: You can now create teleport circles by marking a target location with a special magical circle, expending one use of Wizard Chalk. At a later time, you can scribe a new circle, either expending as many uses of Wizard Chalk as the time in rounds you want it to stay open or else keeping it open with your own body by standing within the circle, and anyone stepping into the circle is transported to a previously created magical circle of your choice.
• Divination
  Bonus Item: Ephemeris
  By means of consulting your Ephemeris, or if not available, the entrails of a domestic animal at least as large as a goat, you can determine if a specified course of action to be undertaken in the next hour will yield weal, woe, both, or neither. Woe indicates the action of monsters, traps, or hazards, and Weal indicates that the action will lead to a treasure, boon, or useful information. You can divine the future no more than d3+[Templates] times per day.
• Advanced Divination: In place of an entreaty to reveal weal or woe, you can now present up to [Templates] possible actions and divine which of them would be the best. It is possible that none of them yield any positive or negative result, in which case the auguries will reveal this.
• Transmutation
  Bonus Item: Tin of Granulated Azoth (10 pinches)
  Sprinkle a pinch of Granulated  Azoth on a target non-living object no larger than [Templates]x5' cubes and focus your will upon it. Magical materials such as mithril, adamant, and enchanted objects cannot be transmuted. For every [Template] you possess, you may alter one of its physical properties, such as opacity, hardness, elasticity, insulation, permeability, colour, taste, or odour. You can also grant it special properties by including a piece of material that possesses that quality in the reaction; for example, adding a measure of gunpowder to an alchemical reaction could make the target explosive, or a flask of acid to make it corrosive. The transmutation lasts 1 Turn per [Template] you possess. It is possible to increase the number of properties altered by adding additional Azoth, but this has the risk of making the reaction unstable: make a Save vs. Blasts with a penalty equal to the number of additional pinches of Powdered Azoth added; on a failure, the magician and everyone in a 10' area suffers (d6xPinches of Azoth) damage as it blows up in their face. 
• Advanced Transmutation: You can now transmute form as well as substance. The transmuted object can be reshaped into anything of approximately the same mass and holds its shape for up to the magician's [Templates] in Turns if the material it is made from is not normally capable. For example, a mass of water could be formed into a statue or the like, and would collapse into a puddle when the time elapsed, while the same statue formed of stone would remain in the same shape.
• Enchantment
  Bonus Item: Flask of Lotus Wine (10 sips)
  Take a sip of lotus wine, let it coat your vocal chords, and make eye contact with another thinking being - they will find themselves thinking your thoughts. You can issue a command up to [Templates] words long, and the target will obey it if they fail their Save. The target of the command can be specified with a gesture. The commands are obeyed for as long as it takes to execute them or one Turn, whichever is shorter. Suicidal commands permit the Save to be made twice, picking the best result, but if it still fails, they are executed. You can increase the number of Words by taking an additional sip of lotus wine, each of which adds an additional word to the command. After doing so, make a Save with a penalty equal to the additional sips or experience a loss of identity, having to obey your own command as if your victim issued it to you! Enchantment transcends the language barrier and may even affect creatures without a language - but not creatures without eyes.
• Advanced Enchantment: You can now keep up to [Templates] creatures bound in semi-permanent thrall to you, rather than issuing a specific command. Additional lotus wine can be drunk to penalise the target's Save by -1 per additional sip, but you too must also make the Save with an equal penalty and on a roll lower than your victim's are bound to serve them until freed, such is the magical Law of Dichotomy - there can be only masters and slaves! Thralls obey your commands without question, but receive a Save if they are forced up against blatantly suicidal odds.
• Illusionism
  Bonus Item: Flask of Lotus Wine (10 sips)
  Drink a sip of lotus wine and allow your vision to fuzz and unfocus, imagine a change in the world, and the magic will make it appear. You can make the image of almost anything you can imagine, but illusions can only be additive - you can change something's appearance or create the image of something new, but you cannot remove anything from the world. Others do not normally get a Save to see through illusions unless they directly interact with them. Illusions can deal psychosomatic damage, but cannot reduce a victim to below 0hp and stable unconsciousness. The maximum damage an illusion can inflict is d6 per [Template] of the magician and permits a Save to negate. It is possible to make an illusion more compelling by increasing the dose of lotus wine, which allows the magician to visualise their illusion more clearly at a risk of becoming lost in it; for each additional sip of lotus wine taken penalises all Saves by -1, but the magician must Save vs. Illusion with an equal penalty or become confused for 1 Turn per sip, acting randomly each round; d6: 1-2. Stand and stare into the middle distance. 3-4. Attack the nearest moving thing. 5. Use a random Magical Art. 6. Covered in spiders! Attack self.
• Advanced Illusionism: Your illusions can now be subtractive, such as making people or objects invisible or creating zones of silence.
• Transformation
  Bonus Item: Pouch containing three sparrows' feathers, a mouse's skull, a tuft of horse's mane, and a bear's claw.
  Place a piece of an animal in your mouth, breathe deeply three times, and on the third inhalation, it vanishes as you become the creature it came from. The transformation lasts up to your [Templates] in Turns if the creature you are becoming has HD equal to or below your own; otherwise, it lasts [Templates] rounds. You can attempt to extend this duration by making a Save vs. Illusions each Turn or round after the duration has expired. On a failure, you become lost in the beast-mind and cannot return to your own form until you next sleep. You can transform into monsters and magical creatures, but in this case, its heart or heart-analogue must be consumed. Note that some creatures may have hearts so large that shapeshifting into other, larger forms may be required first just to consume them! A monster form's supernatural powers may be employed a maximum number of times in total across all abilities equal to your [Templates] in a single transformation.
• Advanced Transformation: Place the reagent in your mouth as usual and exhale three times forcefully in the direction of another, and they shall take on the animal's form instead of you. This can be a blessing or a curse, depending on the circumstance - an unwilling victim is entitled to a Save to avoid your transmogrifying breath. 
• Abjuration
  Bonus Item: Stick of Wizard Chalk (10 uses)
  By drawing a line or circle with Wizard Chalk you can define an area that hedges out a single specified phenomenon, such as sound, light, heat, radiation, or a specific type of magic. It can also contain a specified type of creature, which must make a Save to move through the barrier or else be axiomatically incapable of passing the chalk line, or able to use any of its powers beyond it. The area covered is either 10" wide for a line or 5" radius for a circle per use of Wizard Chalk expended. These wards can technically last forever, but can be easily removed by anyone they don't specifically ward against.
• Advanced Abjuration: You can now expend additional Wizard Chalk to increase the number of phenomena that a ward hedges out, at a rate of 1:1. 
  

Other Magical Arts that might be found in foreign parts may include Necromancy and Diabolism, which are said to employ black candles made of human tallow, Body Control, which turns the power of the black lotus inwards, and Maleficia, which uses inscribed tablets of stygian lead to inflict terrible curses.

The Magic Shop
Unless otherwise stated, each item takes up 1 equipment slot.

Ephemeris - 250gp
A book of tables and charts showing calculations of the position of various astronomical bodies over time. Needs to be replaced with an updated version every quarter at the seasonal Equinoxes. 

Dried Monster Hearts - 10gp x HD of Monster

Salted and preserved in clay-sealed jars under anaerobic conditions. Availability of any given species is not guaranteed, and is based on a cottage industry of processing the kills adventurers bring back.

Goat - 1gp
A common example of Capra Hircus, the silver standard in sacrificial animals. Takes up no equipment slots, but must be herded or led around by a string.

Granulated Azoth, 10 pinches - 100gp
Resembles table salt but with a faint silvery metallic tint. Acts as a bridge between consciousness and the world of matter that is normally deaf to mortal concerns. Tastes salty, metallic, and oddly limey, with an electric spark. 

Lotus Wine, 10 sips - 100gp
Slightly viscous, inky-purple fluid created by fermenting the macerated roots of the Black Lotus. Allows the drinker's mind to escape the cage of its skull and project itself upon the outside world. Mildly dissociative in small doses, highly hallucinogenic in larger.

Wizard Chalk, 10 uses - 100gp
Sulphur-yellow and similar to a tailor's wax chalk, which leaves long-lasting and waterproof marks. Acts as a medium to define boundaries between the physical and magical worlds.

Four Grimoires - GLOG

The Secret Diary of Archbishop Oda of Nêmes

Probably not actually written by the titular archbishop, who was mostly known for a poorly recieved tractate on the sacramental role of poultry, and certainly not secret given its wide distribution. Its spells are no less efficacious for their dubious origins.

The Expedient Banishment

The caster forcefully presents their hand with fingers splayed in the sign of the horns and imperiously declares "Apo Pantos Kakodaimonos!", which causes all beings of lower spiritual vibration - typically Chaotic spirits and disembodied undead - in a 12" cone to flee his presence unless they pass a Save with a -[best] penalty, returning to their own home plane if possible. Cacodemons specifically Save against this spell with Disadvantage.

Talisman of the Dorian Mysteries

By means of this spell, two ounces of bronze, a pinch of frankincense, a dram of olive oil and a piece of clay from a holy river the caster is able to craft and sanctify a protective talisman. The whole mess of ingredients costs about 50gp in any reasonably cosmopolitan town. The spell takes an hour to cast, including the time spent forming the clay into a mould, melting the bronze and anointing the talisman. Once created it will grant the wearer one of the following protections;

• [best]+[dice] bonus HP, restoring at dawn each day.
• Immunity to possession or mind-controlling spells cast with fewer [dice].
• The first [dice] levels of energy drain are ignored, the talisman being destroyed when this reaches 0.
• Seeing in darkness out to a distance of [dice]*20'  (the dark also being a manifestation of primal evil).

No more than one talisman can be worn at once. The caster can have up to their max MD talismans in existance at any one time, and must destroy one before they can create another once they reach their maximum. The caster has a general sense of where all their created talismans are, but cannot destroy or depower them remotely without some other magic.

The Pyramid of Power

The caster must acquire a piece of stone from the wall of a temple more than a century old and carve it into a tetrahedron mathematically equilateral to within an accuracy of one fifth of a milimeter that is large enough to take up 2 equipment slots. This spell may be intoned over the resultant pyramid to perform one of several feats; if a blade is placed beneath it it acquires a [dice] magical plus until the next dawn and will not grow dull or break by any natural force during this time, if a person rests while the pyramid is placed above them (usually by means of a tripod stand) they will heal at x [dice] speed with a [best] bonus to Saves vs disease, and up to [best]+[dice] phials of water poured over it are transformed into magic water which is as efficacious as holy water for all purposes besides performing sacraments.

Bane Against A Basilisk

The magus must first acquire a weasel, either wild or domesticated matters not, and feed it the meat of a chicken or snake that has been soused in vinegar while casting this spell. Between the time of casting and the next dawn the weasel acquires a compulsion to attack any basilisk it sees or smells. A basilisk bitten by the enchanted weasel must Save vs Death with a [dice] penalty or be instantly slain. 

The Rakshasa Yoga

Bound in pale blue silk and smelling of spice and exotic flowers, this slim manual describes the discoveries of the limitations and potential of the mortal body and mind by generations of bodyworkers and hypnotists. Studying its spells requires a regimen of calisthenics and a strict diet of pickled vegetables and fish which brings on strange dreams where beast-headed tutelary spirits initiate the magus.

Asura's Grasp

As much an esoteric martial arts maneuver as it is a spell, the caster is able to increase their grip strength and the torque generated by their wrists and shoulders to extraordinary levels. This requires a whole Turn spent flexing, stretching and swinging your arms around. Until the next dawn, the caster makes all brawl/grapple attack with a [dice] bonus, on a success they dislocate one of the subject's limbs of their choice - on a critical success they can snap the subject's neck, requiring a Save vs Death unless the subject is blessed with multiple heads or doesn't have a neck to snap.

Light  As A Feather, Stiff As A Board

The target of this spell must Save or immediately stretch their body to its full extension - arms above their head, standing on tip toes for humanoids, other body plans are affected as one would imagine, it's especially funny on serpents. The target becomes as rigid as a solid oak plank for [sum] minutes, while simultaneously weighing so little that they can be lifted easily with one hand. Subjects of this spell can be used as sturdy bridges across pit traps, 10' poles, short ladders or similar such handling without snapping them out of the effect, but directly causing them harm will permit another Save with a bonus equal to the previous number of Saves.

Brew Shakti Oil

This spell requires an hour, a flask of mustard oil and a measure each of dried jasmine, oleander, cinnamon and hibiscus, all costing about 10gp x MD together. This produces a fragrant oil which when rubbed onto the body increases the muscles explosive strength and toughens skin to extraordinary levels. A dose of Shakti Oil grants a [dice] bonus to damage and grants an unarmoured AC of 10+2 x [dice]. A man using Shakti Oil of 2MD or more can kick down an ordinary wooden door without slowing down. A magus can keep no more than phials of Shakti Oil fresh than they have max MD.

Roar, Lightning Mind

The yogin closes their eyes and takes a deep breath then releases a silent roar of pure Self that blasts outwards in a 10' x [dice] radius in an electric crackle that is felt rather than heard. This restores anything that has been magically transformed back to its original form for [sum] rounds, or permanently if the spell's [dice] exceed that of the magic that caused the inital transformation (in the case of monster abilities that cause transformations, such as a basilisk's gaze, use the monster's HD). 

Distant Aethyrs

Transcribed from the inner surface of a large oblong meteorite that fell to earth. It describes a number of phenomena and physical laws that are outside of the known paradigm of physics. Included are a number of beautiful hand-etched astronomical plates detailing the author's attempts to determine the meteor's star of origin. 

Zeta Ray

The caster projects beams of searing yellow-green-purple weirdlight from their eyes that zip through the air at right angles around obstacles to strike any target within 60' unfailingly. A target of the Zeta Ray with HD lower than [best]+[dice] is instantly teleported to another place the caster can see within 60'.

Adamantize

The caster touches a single contiguous piece of metal and hums a low tune that rapidly descends into the deep dark reaches of the ULF range. This induces a phase-shift rendering it as indestructible as adamant for [dice] Turns.

Nexus Tuning

This spell targets borders planes and alternate universes. The caster strikes a strange posture, waving their arms and standing on one leg as they form their body into a multiversal "antenna" and adjust the information flow through the targeted dimensional valence. Pull up whatever version of the Great Wheel of Planes you use, the caster can rotate the plane the target links to up to [best] steps, at a cost of 2 steps they can shift one step toward or away from the centre. This one works fine, if you find others then you can use those too;

For every step that the nexus is retuned, a whole day must pass before it can be subject to any further retuning.

Time Crystal

The right kind of math can do more than analyze, but enact change through the plane of platonic numbers. Perform this alogrithm to collapse your local light cone into a crystaline structure that you can percieve all at once. Gain a number of Portents (d20's that are immediately rolled and kept) equal to the [dice] of the spell, swap out the result of these Portents with any rolls made by you or anyone who interacts with you (such as an enemy swinging a sword at your neck) before the end of your next round. Any unused Portents at the end of your round become extra attacks you must make immediately. When you use a Portent to interfere with the course of causality everyone present remembers both the original event and the new one simultaneously (i.e. the aformentioned foe remembers hacking his sword into your neck and you deftly parrying it at the same time), in a kind of weird déjà vu like feeling. 

The Copper Crowne

This book contains the written rites of the ancient Draoidhe priest-kings that ruled in the era between the end of the Elven Imperium and the rise of the One Church, and consists mostly of fragmented but still invaluable parts of the elves' occult science which was inherited by the very former human servants who deposed them.

Glamour-Awe

The caster must either wear a circlet of three twisted copper wires or else bathe in rain or river water and draw a star upon their brow with oil of mint or lavender - this satisfies the conditions of the spell until they become dirtied or the next dawn, whichever comes first. Upon casting this  spell the caster radiates an aura of supernal awe that overwhelms the senses of all who behold them. Everyone with fewer than [dice] HD who lays eyes upon the caster must Save or be unable to do the caster harm or otherwise act against them, even their speech must be respectful and reverant. Anyone who fails by more than 5 points becomes Charmed, obeying any non-suicidal or abhorrent command given by the caster. Both effects of the spell lasts [sum] rounds.

Craft Blasting Rod

The caster must take a stanged (forked) branch of lightning oak and bind a piece of rock crystal between its forks with copper wire which is wrapped around the rod in a specific knotwork pattern. The result is a magical weapon that deals d10 nonlethal damage to anyone touched by it, adding the caster's Intelligence bonus to attack rolls. Only magic provides protection from the blasting rod (treat nonmagical armour as having AC 10). The 1MD version does only that, more advanced versions of the blasting rod have greater powers;

1. A 2MD blasting rod gains a range of 30'.
2. A 3MD blasting rod can blast away clouds, clearing precipitous and overcast weather, or alternatively cause a cloud to rain - it's all in the wrist.
3. A 4MD blasting rod deals d12 damage and increases its range to 60'.

A caster can only have one blasting rod in existence at any one time as it draws upon his personal thaumaturgic field for power. Elfin battlemages and draoidhe alike wielded them as their badge of office.

Barrowhide

The ancient elves used this spell to ward the entrances to their keeps benath the mounds from their human slaves, such that even if they meant to storm their masters' homes they could not even find them to begin with. The caster crafts a wreath of local plant life and hangs it above a door. The door will thereafter be impercievable to anyone other than the caster and those carrying their personal rune (which every magus has). Attempts to find it without magic suffer a -[dice] penalty and may not be retried by the same person twice. The spell lasts until the next solstice but can be refreshed at any time during the day.

Bake Starbread

The caster must bake farls from wild grains, herbs and berries gathered under starlight while chanting this spell, a process that takes about an hour assuming the materials are already gathered. A campfire will not suffice, a true oven is needed. The result are [sum] farls of enchanted starbread - a thin crisp crust hiding down-soft and fragrant butter-yellow crumb. Starbread never rots and repels vermin as long as the crust is unbroken, and banishes a single unit of Fatigue when eaten in addition to its nutritional effect. Abandoned elfin barrow-keeps are still sometimes found with stores of uneaten starbread, as fresh as the day they were baked. Legends say that a man who eats naught but starbread for a year and a day will become an elf, for this reason the draoidhe rationed it out in small quantities to travelling warriors.

Misplaced Samurai - Cloak-and-Sword Class

 Just getting on the semi-regular GLOG bandwagon for single-level Cloak-and-Sword classes, this one comes from the future.

Class: Sword Dancer
Start with all-encompasing swathes (Medium Armour), a ritual sword (d4: 1. Mandau 2. Kaskara 3. Daab 4. Chokuto) and a five-point code of honour that you cannot be compelled to break by any force.

+1 to Attack and Defence when you have an audience.

Vessel: You can replicate any act of swordsmanship you have ever witnessed, as long as your body is fully covered. This ability has a usage die of d6, and is refreshed by spending four hours performing a ceremonial play that tells the tales of heroic deeds. 

Speaker: You can see ghosts through your mask and can allow them to speak and act through you while in your swathes, if you permit this you are allowed to ask the ghost a favour in return which it must abide by. This favour can be "don't attack my friends" if you're feeling suspicious.

Empty: You can at any time choose to be invisible as long as you are surrounded by people, trees or long grass.

Actor: Your alignment is whatever you want it to be in the moment, this allows you to wield any intelligent swords without complaint.

Stage: While you wear your swathes you can detect all illusions (you can't see though them, you just know what is and isn't an illusion) and can selectively choose to treat them as real to you - walking over an illusionary bridge, cooking food on an illusionary fire, wresling an illusionary sword off a phantom soldier, etc. While you treat them as real, the illusionist who cast them cannot alter their parameters.  

Yojimbo: If someone pays you to defend them or kill another, you have a number of +1's to apply to Defence or Attack equal to the amount of GP paid divided by 10. Each +1 can only be used once, but can be stacked as many times as you like.

Wanderer: Any Esprit rolls of 2-5 that your group makes with anyone who might be described as a noble or warlord are made with promises of ample compensation in return for your service. 

Shed: If you choose to doff your swathes and stand naked beneath the sun with only a sword in your hand, you have only 1hp but cannot be harmed by anything but a sword.

Legend of the 5 Rings Samurai - GLOG

I love Legend of the 5 Rings, or more accurately I love its setting of Rokugan. It is not an attempt at authenticity to feudal Japan, rather it's a gloriously technicolour pan-asian mishmash running entirely on vibes. Real samurai were mostly horse-archers during the time they were militarily significant but Rokugani samurai have a cult of the sword because that's what Kurosawa and anime taught us. I love it because it's inauthentic, imaginative and wide-eyedly romantic. It also happens to be eminently GLOG'able due to its School system. Here I render a few of my favourites, in the fashion of Deus-ex-Parabola's 5e conversions.

Samurai
You have a number of Void Points equal to the highest of your Wis or Xha modifiers (in a proper Rokugan game I'd probably replace the usual six attributes with the five elements, but this will do for purposes of general OSR compatibility) plus your School Rank (i.e. your Templates in Samurai Schools, you don't get any Void Point increase from following strange dishonourable ways of other classes). You can spend Void Points to add +d6 to any weapon attack or skill roll taught by your School, if you have trained in multiple schools (rare, but it does happen) you can use this on them all, some School techniques give other options for spending Void Points. The maximum number of Void Points that can be spent in any one round is equal to your School Rank. You get any used Void Points back after you sleep a full night.

Samural Schools are categorised as either Bushi, Shugenja, Ninja or Courtier, plus occasionally some weird ones like Artisan. For now I will just be covering Bushi, who are Fighting Men and as such never fumble with conventional weapons. Maybe I'll do Shugenja if people like this.

I will not fail.

Crab Clan: Hida Avenger
You are a warrior in a clan that hasn't been off a war footing in over a thousand years. You guard a wall that seperates the Empire from a literal incursion of hell into the material plane. Not for you is learning how to elegantly kill a man in one stroke after staring at eachother for five minutes or how to attain oneness with the universe through meditation on the sword. You drilled in full armour until you collapsed from exhaustion, then recovered your stamina listeing to lectures on military philosophy, siege tactics and monster recognition, and when that was done you drilled again. Eventually you did not collapse, and you were ready.

Skills: Athletics, Tactics, Shadowlands Lore, Intimidation.
Weapons: Sword, Bow, Hammer, Mace, Greataxe
Starting Equipment: Light or Heavy Armour (your choice) with slate grey lacquer, hardwearing clothes, katana & wakizashi, one heavy weapon or polearm that is part of the School's weapon groups, furoshiki, a finger-sized bar of jade, 3 koku (about 10gp each).

+1 Attack and +2 HP per Template, the Crab Clan are tough and seasoned soldiers.

A: Way of the Crab, The Mountain Does Not Move
B: Two Pincers One Mind
C: Hida's Rage
D: The Mountain Does Not Fall

A: The Way of the Crab
The crab is not encumbered by his shell, neither are you. You can do everything except stealth in heavy armour as well as you could without, even swimming. When wielding a heavy weapon, any damage rolls below your School Rank+1 are treated as being equal to it.

A: The Mountain Does Not Move
You reduce all damage by your Con modifier or 1, whichever is higher. This is counted against each attack made against you, and even applies to psychic or spiritual damage.

B: Two Pincers One Mind
You can make two attacks per round when wielding your School's weapons. Any penalties to your attack rolls - such as from hostile spells, exhaustion, difficulty or darkness - are reduced by 2 points.

C: Hida's Rage
At this rank, you have learned to channel a portion of the legendary berserker fury of the Clan's founder. You may allow any enemy in close combat with you an attack of opportunity against you, in return you get an additional attack against them this round.

D: The Mountain Does Not Fall
Spend a Void Point to ignore being stunned, dazed, fatigued, subject to magically induced emotions, or the need to sleep for 8 hours (obviously, you don't regain any Void Points if you don't sleep).

For the coward there is no life.
For the hero there is no death.

Crane Clan: Kakita Duellist
You remember that crack up page about killing a man with one stroke? That's these guys. The Kakita family are descended from (and bear the name of) the literal greatest swordsman who ever lived - and by the Kami did he know it. The Crane are however at heart not a warlike clan, their power is in the realm of politics, fashion and money - damn near every Empress in history has been a Crane and they practically designed Rokugani high culture from the ground up - art styles, poetry, cuisine, dress sense, all the things that make a Rokugani distinct from the gaijin beyond. As such, you weren't trained for the battlefield but for the court - to win honour duels on behalf of a Doji courtier according to the precepts of Kakita's foundational text, The Sword. Does this make you any less deadly than the Lion or the Crab? Oh, goodness, no. Not at all.

Skills: Etiquette, Heraldry, Any three artforms of your choice; ikebana, poetry and painting are popular.
Weapons: Sword, Bow, Spear.
Starting Equipment: Light armour with sky-blue lacquer, fashionable clothes, katana & wakizashi, any 1 other weapon, furoshiki, hair bleach, 10 koku.

+1 to Attack and +1 to Defence per Template, the Crane are precise and careful.

A: Way of the Crane, The Speed of Lightning
B: The First and Last Strike
C: Strike From The Void
D: Strike With No Thought

A: Way of the Crane
You act as a "third side" during initative, rolling on your own with a modifier equal to your School Rank. If your initiative is higher than your opponent, you may add the difference to your damage rolls.

A: The Speed of Lightning
You are immune to ambush, and still act as normal during a surprise round.

B: The First and Last Strike
Kakita taught that any fight could be won with a single blow - and should be. You may choose to hold your attack back to the end of the round during the spellcasting phase, if you do then your attack can be interrupted - if you take damage you must Save or lose your attack. If you succeed, however, your damage is doubled - including the bonus damage from Way of the Crane, if any. This is typically done in a iaijutsu strike where you unsheathe your sword, strike, flick it clean and resheathe it in the same motion - a fighting style both wildly impractical and unbearably cool.

C: Strike From The Void
You can now spend Void Points on damage with any School weapon. Not everyone knows this, but when you do so your weapon counts as having a magical plus equal to your School Rank for purposes of bypassing supernatural resistance.

D: Strike With No Thought
A true student of the sword needs no technique, he simply acts as the sword demands. You get an attack of opportunity against anyone entering melee with you, a number of times per round equal to your School Rank.

Defy Definition

Dragon Clan: Mirumoto Niten
If Kakita was the stamp from which all people judge a swordsman, Mirumoto was the guy who completely broke the mold. Win every fight with one strike? Then why am I wearing two swords? He thought. Like all Dragons, he had a bad habit of flying in the face of all established wisdom and somehow still winning regardless. So was the Niten style created, wielding both katana and wakizashi simultaneously, emphasising fluidity and practicality over stance and technique. The Mirumoto are also the Kakita's primary rival for title of best duellists in Rokugan. Combats between the two families are usually tense and have surprising outcomes - it was Mirumoto's son Hojatsu who finally defeated Kakita, though he too died in the act.

Skills: Athletics, Magic Lore, Meditation, Theology.
Weapons: Sword, Bow, Any one weapon group of your choice.
Starting Equipment: Light armour with green lacquer, tough clothing, katana and wakizashi, any one weapon, furoshiki, copy of Niten, 5 koku.

+1 to Attack and Saves per Template, the Dragon are uncanny and perceptive.

A: Way of the Dragon, Calm Amidst Thunder
B: Strong And Swift
C: Furious Retaliation
D: Heart of the Dragon

A: Way of the Dragon
When wielding the katana and wakizashi simultaneously you may riposte any attacks that roll 1+School Rank on the d20, immediately making a counterattack and adding your School Rank to your damage on a hit.

A: Calm Amidst Thunder
When you fight an opponent in simultaneous initative with you and your damage would kill him, his damage is not applied to you even if it would hit. You may also make a double attack when wielding the katana and wakizashi simultaneously, but if your damage does not kill your target they get a free attack of opportunity against you.

B: Strong And Swift
Niten is not a set of instructions to follow, but a map to be explored - in a thousand years of study, there is always something new to find. You may now attack twice per round when wielding School weapons. Furthermore, attempts to perform special maneuvers like trips, pushes, disarms and the like are made with a bonus equal to your School Rank.

C: Furious Retaliation
You gain advantage on all attacks against anyone who has dealt you damage within the last round.

D: Heart of the Dragon
The Dragon is everywhere and nowhere, his claws and teeth and scales are all around you. You may now spend Void Points to gain additional attacks on a one-for-one basis. You can do this even outside of your turn in response to an attack against you, in which case you count as being in simultaneous initative with your attacker.

Duty, Honor, Leadership

Lion Clan: Akodo Bushi
The Lion are among the most traditionalist clans in Rokugan and their fighting style shows it. While other schools teach elaborate specialised techniques and compare their swordsmanship to painting or caligraphy, the Akodo family drill the foundations of kenjutsu and military theory into their students again and again in a fashion more like hammering nails than high art. Who cares about complicated tactics and showy "secret techniques"? Just strike exactly as you intended, repeat until dead - a tactic that works every time. The Lion's way is the way of victory, and if you have any doubt as to the efficacy of their simple, traditional ways, just ask to whom the Emperor has trusted the bulk of his legions to command - perhaps it would be better to call it the Lion's share. 

Skills: Athletics, Tactics, History, Heraldry.
Weapons: Sword, Bow, Spear, Polearms.
Starting Equipment: Light Armour with yellow lacquer, conservative clothing, katana and wakizashi, any one weapon, furoshiki, tessen, 5 koku.

+1 to Attacks per Template, +1 to Damage on A, C. +1 to Defence on B, D. Lions are fierce and natural warriors.

A: Way of the Lion, Strength of Purity
B: Fangs of My Fathers
C: The Hand of Destiny
D: The Final Lesson

A: Way of the Lion
You critically hit range expands to 19-20, this stacks with any other effects that expand critical hit range. If the system you're playing in doesn't usually have double damage on natural 20 attack rolls, you still do - tell the DM I told you so.

A: Strength of Purity
The wicked man fears the blade held in the hand of the righteous. You add your Xha modifier to damage against creatures of supernatural evil, chaotic humanoids and foreigners (unless the Emperor permits their presence on Rokugan).

B: Fangs of My Fathers
You can make two attacks per round when fighting with your School weapons. The first blow is yours, the second from you ancestors - it still does minimum damage on a miss (1 per damage die plus your Strength and Damage modifier, usually), even to targets that have magical resistance to your attacks.

C: The Hand of Destiny
All things are predestined, there is no such thing as luck. At the start of the day you recieve a number of d20 rolls equal to your School Rank - note down the results, these can be used to replace any of your own attack rolls or the attack rolls of anyone else within 10' of you. If you wish you may spend Void Points during your morning meditations to gain additional rolls.

D: Akodo's Final Lesson
There are no failures. Your attacks now deal a minimum of your School Rank damage, even on a miss. Furthermore, you have advantage on your next attack made after a miss.

Choosing between two evils
is still choosing evil.

Phoenix Clan: Shiba Yojimbo
The Shiba are unusual in many ways, unlike all the other kami-descended families they are subservient to the Isawa clan who are descended from a human hero - arguably the greatest mortal man in history, having single-handedly elevated the practice of magic from simple divinations and blood rites to the elemental glory of the shugenja's art but merely a man all the same. In a clan that espouses pacifism as the highest ideal they train for war. With the Phoenix way of war focusing on the judicious application of their unmatched magical power, the bushi of the Shiba clan concentrate on defending their vulnerable shugenja cousins so they can invoke their spells in safety. Intensely spiritual, devoting as much time to mastery of the self through the no-mind technique, the Shiba produce warriors with the aspect of monks and the purity of fire.

Skills: Athletics, Etiquette, Magic Lore, Theology.
Weapons: Sword, Bow, Spear, Mace.
Starting Equipment: Light Armour with red lacquer, austere clothing, katana and wakizashi, any 1 other weapon, furoshiki, oil lamp, 5 koku.

+1 to Attacks and Void Points per Template. Phoenix are focused and spiritually strong.

A: Way of the Phoenix, A Single Life
B: One With Nothing
C: Everywhere and Nowhere
D: The Purity of Fire

A: Way of the Phoenix
Mastery of "no-thought" sharpens your sensitivity to the Void. Your Void Points now count as d8s, and return to your pool on a roll equal to or below your School Rank.

A: A Single Life
Understanding your place in the universe makes it easy to sacrifice your life for another. You can attune yourself to another person by spending a Turn in shared meditation with them, thereafter until the next dawn you may intercept any attacks directed against them using your own Defence as long as you remain within 10' of them. At a cost of a further Void Point you can also intercept hostile spells and other effects that require a Save.

B: One With Nothing
Whenever a spellcaster (even an enemy) in your immediate area loses a Magic Die to a roll of 6, you gain a Void Point - these can exceed your maximum but are lost at the next dawn if unspent. When you lose a void point on a roll of 8 a spellcaster of your choice in the immediate area gains a Magic Die.

C: Everywhere and Nowhere
Flowing with the Void, the bushi can now attack twice per round with any School weapon. You can strike incorporeal beings as if they were solid, and your weapons count as having a magical plus equal to your School Rank for purposes of damaging supernatural enemies. If you spend a Void Point this becomes an actual magical plus to attacks and damage for a number of rounds equal to the d8 roll.

D: The Purity of Fire
Your spirit burns so brightly it is nearly inextinguishable, surely all heavens and earth will fall before a warrior with such purity does. When you are subject to an attack that deals multiple damage dice, or multiple successful attacks in a single round, you may spend a Void Point to reduce the damage you take by a number of dice equal to your School Rank to a minimum of 1.

I can swim.

Scorpion Clan: Bayushi Ambusher
The Bayushi clan's version of the Frog and Scorpion aesop has a different ending. If the Crane are the Emperor's left hand, and the Lion his right, then the Scorpion are his under-hand. The Kami Bayushi was less idealistic when it came to human nature than the rest of his brothers and sisters, and knew that an empire ran by people devoted to honour would inevitably fall to those without. So he chose to play the villain to spare the others the shame of having to dirty their hands, recruiting thieves, spies and assassins into his new clan. The shadow-people of the Empire, to do the things that tarnished their own honour so that others didn't have to. To be mistrusted, so others would have an example of what not to live up to. No clan is more maligned, has fewer allies or more enemies.

And yet, they still keep swimming.

Skills: Athletics, Etiquette, Stealth, Dissembling.
Weapons: Sword, Spear, Dagger, Chain.
Starting Equipment: Light Armour with black lacquer, dark clothing, katana and wakizashi, any 1 other weapon, furoshiki, personalised mask, 5 koku.

+1 to Attacks and Surprise Rolls per Template. Scorpions strike fast and from the shadows.

A: Way of the Scorpion, Pincers & Tail
B: Strike At The Tail
C: Above & Below
D: Pincers Hold & Tail Strikes

A: Way of the Scorpion
Tied initative always breaks in your favour, when initative is in your favour you gain a bonus to your Defence and Attack rolls equal to your School Rank.

A: Pincers & Tail
You have a Tail Die of d6, which is dealt as unmodified automatic damage to the target in combat with you that has the lowest HP. This represents a multitude of probing jabs, kicks, thrown stones, pommel-clonks and shivvings you deal alongside your usual attacks to cull the weak. If this damage kills a foe, it may be rolled again against the next-weakest a number of times equal to your School Rank.

B: Strike At The Tail
If an opponent is stronger than you then first, take away his strength. When you successfully perform a maneuver to trip or disarm an opponent, you may immediately make an extra attack against them.

C: Above & Below
When you attack, do so from unexpected angles. You may now attack twice per round, futhermore your Tail Die increases to d8.

D: Pincers Hold & Tail Strikes
When you hit the same opponent with both your attacks, you may make a third. If you spend a Void Point on this third attack, the opponent who survives must Save or be stunned for 1 round by the psychic venom of your attack.

One cannot capture the wind

Unicorn Clan: Shinjo Horsemen
The Kirin Clan spent eight centuries outside Rokugan, scouting the surrounding lands for external threats. When they returned, riding from the West through the Shadowlands like an invading army, it caused one of the biggest upheavals in the Empire's history, as their ancient territories held in trust by other clans were once again ceded back to their old masters. What's more, though they had done their best to preserve their Rokugani traditions, time and extremity had led to the now Unicorn Clan having picked up a number of odious foreign customs like eating meat, leatherworking, and some decidedly unconventional fighting styles.

Skills: Athletics, Riding, Gaijin Lore, Hunting.
Weapons: Sword, Spear, Bow, Polearms.
Starting Equipment: Heavy Armour with purple lacquer, rugged clothing, katana and wakizashi, any 1 other weapon, furoshiki, quality riding horse, 10 koku.

+1 to Attacks per Template, +1 to Initative on A, C. +1 to Defence on B, D. Unicorn warriors strike like the wind and are gone before foes can retaliate.

A: Way of the Unicorn, Dance of the Blade/Yomanri
B: Four Winds Strike
C: One Spirit
D: Dancing With The Fortunes

A: Way of the Unicorn
Most Unicorns learn to ride before they can even walk. On horseback you add your School Rank to Defence and Damage. Your steed uses your Defence score.

A: Dance of the Blade/Yomanri
You learn one of the techniques the Unicorn picked up on their long sojourn;

• Dance of the Blade: In response to an attack against you, once per round you may make your own attack roll; if it exceeds your foes' roll their damage is reduced by d6.
• Yomanri: Traditional Rokugani archery holds that the loosing of an arrow should be instinctual, meditative, letting the arrow find its way. Gaijin think it's better to just aim. You can delay an archery attack until the end of the round, like declaring a spell. If you do, and are not interrupted by an attack, your shot automatically hits.

B: Four Winds Strike
You may now attack twice per round. You may make a move action between attacks without provoking an attack of opportunity.

C: One Spirit
The bond between you and your steed is now on an almost spiritual level. You can bond with a horse by investing a Void Point in the animal, which remains invested for as long as you choose to maintain the bond. While invested, your steed responds to even complex commands with human-like intelligence and you can perform impressively improbable feats of horsemanship like mounting your steed while it is galloping full speed or fighting proficiently while hanging sideways on the saddle. Your bonded steed will never fumble an athletic feat like jumping a fence and the damage multiplier for charging with a lance increases to x3 while riding it.

D: Dancing With The Fortunes
Unicorns are famously lucky, they had to be to survive 800 years of self-imposed exile. Once per round you can spend a Void Point to reroll a die (any die, including damage) rather than gain a bonus to your roll, even critical failures. 

Reinventing The Beholder - The Ontocritic (GLOG Bandwagoning)

 Another day, another GLOG blogosphere bandwagon. This time it's a classic monster; the Beholder.

Also Spellweavers, a criminally underused monster.

Ontocritics are powerful and by human standards quite insane. They are tall many-limbed humanoids that dwell in remote cavern grottoes deep in the roots of mountains, These lairs are often entirely inaccessible without access to powerful magic (which the creatures have innately), but may sometimes contain some ventilation shafts or claustraphobic crawlways to allow its servants to come and go without needing to call upon their master's power. The creatures are fortunately quite rare and universally solitary for a simple but defining reason; every Ontocritic develops unique personal beliefs during adolescence that once hardened as they enter adulthood they will defend with megalomaniacal fervour beyond that of any human zealot. 

An Ontocritic literally cannot stand to have their opinions criticised in any way, reacting to even the slightest disagreement with merciless violence as if disagreement caused it physical pain. Given that every Ontocritic has a unique idiosyncratic worldview they by their nature cannot form communities among themselves, instead they use their powers to brainwash members of other races into sycophantic obedience and set themselves up as petty kings of their own delusional fiefdoms. Only a once-a-decade estrus cycle brings them to meet in groups, where they conduct their courtship rituals in careful silence and part wordlessly once consumated. Young Ontocritcs flee their mothers' lair once they realise their own identity has asserted itself, the only time in their lives where their instinctive rage at disagreement is replaced with fear.

However, once fully grown and established an Ontocritic has little to fear from anything. Within the palms of each of their six hands is an eye-like organ capable of projecting a reality interdiction field that negates or replaces some aspect of the world within its field of view. With these fields it can render reality into forms more agreeable to it, like a painter layering pigment upon a canvas. The noted diabolist Zhu Fengming in his opus 'Fire Meditations' numbered being subjected to all six of an Ontocritic's fields at once as one of the eight Corporeal Hells that can be experienced while still alive which he recommended all practitioners of the Path of Screams to seek out so that they might steel themselves for the afterlife.

Ontocritic

12HD (72hp) AC 15 (leathery keratinous skin), Morale 8, 12 if criticised (see below)

Alignment: Any

No. Appearing: 1, plus 4d4+4 sycophants of Normal Stature (1-3HD).

Movement: 12", employs its Field of Intangibility to walk through walls.

% In Lair: 80%

Attacks: An Ontocritic will not typically fight conventionally, instead relying on its fields to disorient and disable its foes. Each round the Ontocritic can choose which direction its fields are pointed, each being 9" cones. Eight potential options are presented below, others may exist. At any one time the Ontocritic can only have six fields active, one for each hand. It may change what kind of field each hand projects on its initiative, and may have more than once instance of the same field active. Unless otherwise specified, exposure to any Ontocritic field requires a seperate Save vs. Wands each.

• Field of Blindness: Save or be rendered blind, as the spell Blindess.
• Field of Deafness: Save or be rendered deaf, as the spell Deafness, ho hum.
• Field of Anhedonia: Save or become unable to benefit from plusses outside of your base stats, including from class abilities, spells and magic items - whatever's on your character table is all you get Sonny-Jim.
• Field of Agnosia: Save or all your attacks are directed against random targets, as per the Confusion spell, nobody is more familiar to you than anyone else. Ontocritcs' sycophants are not immune to this, which doesn't stop their master sending them in to the fight anyway.
• Field of Achronia: Save or time's passage becomes incomprehensible, minutes seem to pass in centuries, hours in attoseconds. This is a gussied up stun effect, save or lose your action each round.
• Field of Agony: Save or take 8d6 illusory damage (all restored if you succeed a save). This cannot actually kill, but those reduced to 0hp are rendered unconscious and if not saved will likely be taken back to the Ontocritic's Lair and be hypnotised into sycophancy.
• Field of Intangibility: Renders matter within its area incapable of interaction with matter outside it. The Ontocritic uses this to walk through walls to its hidden cave Lair and disable foes with ranged weapons.
• Field of Entropy: Save or become unable to heal or otherwise restore expended resources until you are outside the field.

Ontocritics prefer to fight in narrow corridors where they can direct all their fields on attackers at once, ideally on a corner where they can keep ranged attackers suppressed with their Field of Intangibility. If attacked from multiple sides, engaged in melee or subjected to ranged weapons they will attempt to flee back to their lair. Defeated enemies are usually left disabled by their Field of Agony rather than dead, and if not recovered by their companions will be hauled off to the Ontocritic's lair for brainwashing into a Charmed sycophant by means of a combination of torture, sensory deprivation and application of the Ontocritic's hypnotic gaze (a little known feature of the species). This process takes 1 hour per HD of the victim, and can only be removed by application of a combination of Remove Curse, Modify Memory and Dispel Magic cast in sequence. They are capable of wielding weapons, but largely distain doing so as it requires them to use a hand which could otherwise be employed to project a field, but some Ontocritics do employ Magic User tools such as Wands of Frost.

One of the best tactics for fighting an Ontocritic is to capture and interrogate one of its sycophants for the details of their master's worldview. Faced with criticism of their cherished beliefs an Ontocritics' morale becomes unbreakable and it will fight to the death without fleeing, seeking to destroy or utterly humble its detractor.

What does this Ontocritic believe? D12:

1. Birds are homunculi created by wizards to spy on the surface world.
2. Elven swords are folded 10,000 times and can cut through plate armour like paper.
3. Elven swords are made of moldy pig iron and can be snapped over your knee.
4. Fireballs aren't real, are you kidding me? You really expect me to believe that a 3rd level spell could do that much damage?
5. Of COURSE the Derr0 control the world's banks.
6. The human kingdoms' success is just a front for the return of the serpent people.
7. STRICT TIME RECORDS MUST BE KEPT.
8. Peasantry is just a stalling tactic by low-skill kings who can't manage a kingdom where citizens are capable of rising to power.
9. Pick a religion, this Ontocritic is really into it.
10. All religions are false! I am the only true god!
11. The nobles don't want you to know this but the halflings in the Shire are free you can take them home I have 458 halflings.
12. I am not subject to maritime law!