Last week, I posted some gods I had written years ago — I think for a 4e game that was never going to happen.
I was really inspired by dungeon doll’s Dungeon Gods and Dungeon Shrines posts, so I wanted to write out some shrines + rituals as a way to flesh out these gods a bit more.
Mudru the Stone Matron
A shrine to The Matron is as likely to appear in the lair of a revolutionary as it is in the dungeon’s deepest prisons. A bas relief form will be shackled to the wall in stone manacles, a simple stone dish cradled in its lap. The chain connecting the two hands is obscured by the skeletal figure’s head — are they broken?
Deposit an item, stolen or liberated, in the figure’s lap. She’ll seize it in return. Once per day, you can bind someone from movement or free yourself from bondage. If you ever fail to assert your autonomy, you lose this ability forever.
Devotion to Mudru confers the ability to cast Hold Person and its reverse, Free Person: the target is freed from any magical or mundane bonds holding it in place.
Ketra the Twofold Guide
These shrines can always be approached from two directions. Subtle differences will be gleaned upon reverse examination.
Perform a ritual, any ritual will do. Now, once more with feeling. You will be allowed to invert a reaction roll once. The ability is lost until you return to the shrine and ritualize a new action.
Devotion to Ketra grants the ability to cast Cure Wounds or its reversal, with one twist: excess healing or damage is converted to its negative.
The Armored Pestilence
A barnacle-encrusted boulder will reveal itself to have segmented, cankerous limbs. It’s foreclaw is extended hungrily.
Leave behind an ungent, herb, or poison from a distant place. The greater the distance, the greater your resistance to poison will be.
Devotion to The Armored Pestilence gives you armor as chain in the form of chitinous plates. This armor does not make noise, nor prevent you from swimming. Anyone sharing rank with you is at a 1% chance to contract a deadly illness.
Always Falling
Never still is this shrine, always in motion it is Always Falling. You will know it as you see it and will unknow it as you don’t know it is Always Falling.
Fall. Fall with me to deep and up and up and away to fall with me. Offer the fall and change what you are prepared, like clockwork.
Devotion to Always Falling is an always moving sweeping whirlwind affair. Feather Falling, fall weather, blow wind blow, at ease at will and want. (cast Feather Fall at will)
Pikonos
A table, set for two. A beckoning game, pieces prepared. Sit, and you never sit alone.
Play a game and lose, turn your favor that day. GM rerolls encounter dice after you glimpse a potential fate. Play a game and win, be changed forever.
Devotion to chance is a foolish endeavor. Prepare to see your fate twisted, a devil’s cube each day. Rise to the bait to return the favor. (The GM can roll 1d6 and subtract it from any roll you make. They then hand you the die, which you can use to add 1d6 to any roll you make.)
Teague the One in Two
A secreted cloister, where two may speak but never know the other. The shadows of anonymity.
Leave a loveletter. Form a bond that can’t be broken — neither can die while the other lives. If another supplants them, you will die for lack.
Devotion to Teague is a devotion indeed. You will never love another, you have room only for Teague. You can prepare an extra spell each day. If you ever channel magic from another source, you lose your spellcasting forever.
image by Thomas Smillie
Byra, Who Imagined the Sky
A simple writing desk. Quill, ink, and blank parchment all neatly arranged.
Write a secret into the scroll, roll it up, and seal it. It will vanish when you aren’t looking, and someone will learn its contents. In return, you will find one question answered for you sometime in the next 24 hours.
Devotion to Byra grants the spell Continual Light and its reversal, Continual Darkness.
Ghilgol the Bright Steward
A square, stone altar, a watching eye clutched in an armored fist.
Kneel and recount your duties. Receive a blessing that will help you carry them out. The blessing is lost, and your Charisma forever penalized, if you shirk those duties.
Devotion to Ghilgol means embracing a life of duty. Once per day, shake off a hit without injury. Dereliction of your duty will bring all injuries you’ve avoided to bear at once.
Bagdahar the Invisible Reflection
A lone, silver mirror hanging on the wall. The person inside is not your reflection, but you.
Swear yourself to a course of action. Increase one attribute by four until you accomplish the task. Should you fail, the bonus is inverted forever. The next boast will need to be greater.
Devotion to Bagdahar means always striving. Against higher HD foes, you gain +1 to hit. Against lower HD foes, you take -1.
Vinveyn
A cornucopia of fruits and vegetables from different regions. It is always fresh, and there is always something you’ve never tasted.
Eat from the cornucopia to become part of the panopoly. Give up a spell, trick, or even ability score to receive a useful gift from the crowd.
Devotion to Vinveyn is never lonely. Treat your Charisma as 18 for anything to do with hirelings, be it inspiring or coercing.