Well, I've got to admit, I really thought daemons would take the majority of votes in our poll to decide which creature we'd be previewing first! They did come first, but with only 48% of the vote! It was a photo finish with Dragons, who finished at 44%, and undead showing up in third with a respectable 8% competing with those powerhouses!
The complete draft manuscript for Chapter 8 will be available for all backers on Tuesday, so anyone who's joined in to support this project will have access to the entire book before any pledges are processed or payments collected!
Even with that, who wants to wait to see some goodies, so let's get a sneak peek at Daemons...
Daemons
Before the past year, the creatures of the Void had no substantial presence on Gaia, bound as they were to Rifts and temporary passages to escape the chains of their prison. With Vitrumaria bringing the practice of daemon summoning to Everend, though, the entities now play a crucial role in determining the fate of the world, whether anyone — daemons included — like it or not.
Although daemons experience the frameworks of human morality again and again as their interactions with people become more regular and thus nobody can say what the future holds for their kind, as a whole the entities are more amoral than good or evil. Eons spent in the Void forced them to adapt to a reality whose nature doesn’t align with the wellbeing of this world. In fact, most daemons ignore their kind was once native to Gaia, the secret being only known to the most ancient and cunning among them. Daemons embody concepts and forms of magic from primordial Gaia such as destruction, creation, and rebirth, twisted by an eternity passed outside the boundaries of reality. They have magic of their own, many replicating the effects the spellcasters of Everend can create, but their powers — their mere presence — corrupts the world and changes the essence of the creatures inside it, tainting them with the primordial elements.
Two broad categories of daemons exist: The lesser daemons, who vary wildly in rank and power, and the mighty sovereigns, who are more akin to actual divinities.
Rule-wise, lesser daemons use Qualities, Arts, and Magic just as any other supporting character or antagonist, but few substantial differences mark them as creatures from beyond reality.
Outside of Rifts or Void-corrupted areas, daemon can only exist on Gaia when summoned (p. XX) and return to the Void when slain or when the summoning ends.
When daemons use magic, they replicate the effects of a spell, but draw power from the Void and corrupt Gaia while doing so.
A summoned daemon gives access to their summoner and their allies to daemon magic befitting their nature, special Tricks that can be purchased for any action as long as the summoning lasts. The effects of the Tricks on characters, antagonists, objects, and environment end along with the summoning unless specified otherwise.
Some Tricks grant access to antagonists’ Qualities and Arts to characters. Activating any Art costs 1 Energy and is still subjected to cooldowns. The Trick specifies which dice pools the characters should use to employ the Art.
The cooldowns on a daemon’s Art start the moment they are summoned, meaning they need time before they can activate any.
Any player character or the antagonist who summoned a daemon can renounce their actions for a round to have the daemon gain the spotlight instead, using the creature — along with their dice pools and traits — to act.
Adept Tier
Flagros
Even more than other daemons, the flagros interact with us with eagerness: Our emotions and desires feed them, conflict helps them grow. They start as living flames, with clever eyes and fanged mouths, only to turn into furious bonfires and raging stars. Be careful with them, though: Those taking their first step into the art of summoning love flagros for how happy to fight they are, not to mention they infuse their energy into items of any sort — even buildings! — and turn them into marvelous means of transportation, but the daemons yearn to find their purest expression of self in a devasting explosion.
Both sociable and easy to summon when compared to stronger daemons, flagros nevertheless hold within their blazing form the potential to be extremely dangerous. Their essence as daemons of fire and strong emotions with a love for battle certainly make them excellent picks for any summoner in need of help to defeat their enemies, but it’s the sheer destructive potential of flagros who solidified their reputation as living weapons.
Vitrumaria dreams to employ flagros in great number someday, the daemons’ ability to explode at will after their flames are fueled a precious tool in any general’s arsenal, while the secretive summoners of Talpidium discovered their nation’s geothermically active nature suits well the flagros and that the creatures’ help can power instruments and tools away from indiscreet eyes.
Feed The Flames: One use. When a flagros is at 1 Injury, it can activate this art as a simple action by rolling its secondary dice pool. On a success, at the beginning of the next round it heals any damage and grows by one template, up to Elite.
Rebirth: If slain by their own Explosive Demise, flagros don’t die but rather reform as Adepts on the following scene. Their demise still ends their summoning.
Flagros’s Magic
Blazing Strikes (1 hit): All the character’s attacks gain the Flaming tag.
Blazing Shield (2 hits): The character becomes immune to fire and explosions.
Incinerate(2 hits): Inflict the On Fire area effect (Minor) on the Area or increase its Complication rating by one step.
Immolation (3 hits): The flagros gains the spotlight as soon as the character passes it, detonating with the Explosive Demise Art.
Fuel (3 hits): The flagros reflexively activates the Feed the Flames Art, regardless of their current Injury.
Kronalli
Foolish summoners think the only daemons worth calling from the Void are those who can lay a battlefield to waste with fire storms or pestilential winds. Nonsense. Each daemon is creature made of pure power; it only takes for an enlightened mind to know how to employ it. Take the kronalli, for example. Alien, like few other daemons, these golden wheels covered in eyes rotate around a glowing core made of pure temporal energy, the very essence of their being and the source of their powers. Kronalli manipulate time, accelerating and slowing creatures with the same ease I can move my hand, all while showing a terrifying mastery of the forces of entropy as well and the kind of stimulating perspective I appreciate in any intelligent conversation.
Through Gaia and the Void, all daemons maintain a connection with the primordial elements of the universe. For the kronalli, said element is none other than time itself. Kronalli perceive and understand time on a scale people and most other daemons can’t even fathom, their minds traveling through odds, distant pasts, and possible futures at an impossible pace. The multitude of wheels composing a kronalli’s body whirl with eerie intensity whenever the creature meditates, only stopping — sometimes all at once, sometimes only a few — whenever events demand their attention.
Despite their nature, the kronalli hold no respect for the sanctity of time on Gaia, a consequence of their lives spent in the Void, where the boundaries of time and space lose meaning. The daemons care little about other beings, and don’t hesitate to absorb their life energies for themselves.
Entropic Strikes (1 hit): All the character’s attacks gain the Piercing tag.
Slow Down (1 hit): All the character’s attacks gain access to the following Trick:
Decelerate (1+ hit): Inflict the Slowed status effect on your target. This status effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to 1 plus any additional hits garnered on the action roll spent to inflict it.
Haste (2 hits): The character can move between Close and Medium range as a reflexive action and doesn’t need to use a mixed action when rising from prone or performing a Rush action.
Deteriorate (3 hits): The character renders the mundane gear of a target within Short range useless for the remainder of the scene. Magical gear isn’t affected by this Trick.
Time Warp (4 hits): Next round, the character can reroll one of their actions and choose which result to use to determine the outcome.
Elite Tier
Aglomps
Defining our first encounters with aglomps as disasters wouldn’t be an exaggeration. If anything, they provided a useful reminder that looks can be deceiving: Aglomps resemble strange hybrids of frogs and fish, no taller than the average person’s knees. Round, soft, and without any defining feature other than their big eyes and the luminescent lantern-like filament dangling over their heads, the aglomps don’t look like much. They’re almost cute, in an ugly sort of way. Even the few pointy crooked teeth showing out of their mouth act more as decorations than actual fangs. Things change when an aglomp opens said mouth wide to its fully uncanny extent and swallows an entire person, a chariot, a daemon ten times their size, absorbing their features to fight against whoever dares to underestimate them or hurt other daemons.
Among the weirdest daemons ever called forth from the Void, aglomps are far more terrifying than their deceptive appearance would suggest. The small daemons are a bundle of paradoxes: Seemingly embodying primordial concepts such as hunger and consumption, they’re also examples of extreme adaptability and care for those who can’t defend themselves. Their diminutive size hides the threat their all-devouring mouths — whose dangers ignore any law of reality — represent, not to mention the innate strength and mutation power each aglomp possesses.
Other daemons came to fear the aglomps, for the little beasts are both near the top of the Void’s food chain and show a penchant for feeding on whoever threatens the creatures of the Void, be them daemons or otherwise.
Gluttonous Abyss: Aglomps can use Devour on creatures of bigger size.
Absorb Power Art: 3 uses; The Aglomp copies one of the powers, Qualities, Arts, or Advantages of any creature currently subjected to their Devour Art, losing access to it at the end of the scene.
Aglomps’s Magic
Little Terror Armor (1 hit): The character gains an armor with the Elemental (One element), Padded, and Resistant tags.
Bounce (1 hit): The character gains the Leap Art and can move again after using it.
Adaptability (2 hits): End any amount of status effects the character suffers from.
Eat Whole (3 hits): The character gains the Devour Art. They can eat creatures of any size with it and the Difficulty to break out for ingested creatures amounts to 3.
Absorb (3 hits): The character gains one of the Qualities or Arts of any creature currently subjected to an instance of the Devour Art by them or their allies.
All-Devouring Hunger (3 hits): Lower the aglomp’s Devour Art current cooldown by 1. If the Art’s cooldown is at 0, the aglomp activates it right after you pass the spotlight.
Nightmare Lanterns
Summoning a nightmare lantern equals confronting your worst fears. Even when properly enticed and bound, the daemons elicit a primal response in whoever looks at them, tapping into the deepest recesses of their mind. Resembling a floating cluster of giant disembodied eyes, nightmare lanterns already look horrifying before you notice the translucid mass surrounding the eye core. The actual “body” of the daemon, an ephemeral structure made of dream matter with vague resemblance to a cephalopod or jellyfish, tentacles, and all. Whether they devastate your mind with their psychic powers or crush your bones through a combination of ectoplasmic limbs and telekinesis, nightmare lanterns are behind a good amount of the cautionary tales about botched evocations that circulate nowadays.
Among all the daemons thus far observed and summoned on Everend, nightmare lanterns achieved a dreaded reputation, although not because of sheer physical power. Many other daemons are stronger, lots are better warriors, and plenty make for more efficient tools on the battlefield. What makes the nightmare lanterns unique, though, is how they combine their formidable intellect with their terrifying control of fears and their capability to wield both as weapons.
Despite their theoretical potential for both good and evil, nightmare lanterns are born out of all the terrors that plague the mind, creatures of nightmares, panicked frenzies, and screams. For each summoner entertaining a dialogue with one, dozens of stories about the horrors routing entire battalions with a gesture or haunting the dreams of a careless scholar spread across Everend.
Template: Elite Drive: Cause nightmares and feed on fears Primary Pool: 10 (Terrorize, Analyze, Power of The Mind) Secondary Pool: 8 (Physical Combat, Intellectual Dialogue, Stealth) Desperation Pool: 5 Enhancement: +1 Terrorize, +1 Power of The Mind Defense: 2 Integrity: 2 Injury: 9 Initiative: 5 Source: 5 Qualities: Clingy 1 (Aggressive), Frightening Presence, Malleable, Natural Weapons 3 (Ectoplasmic Tentacles; Piercing, Reach, Stun), Reset, Willful, Unusual Anatomy Arts: Alter Bonds 1, Bend Minds 3, Dreadful Gaze (Stunned) 2, Drain 2, Elusive Shape 1, Hypnotize 3, Mental Disruption 3, Read Minds 2, Telekinesis 4 Magic: Fear, Illusory Image Soul: 3 (12) Extra: +2 Intellect Advantage, +1 Social Advantage
Special:
Telepathic Omniglot: Nightmare lanterns understand all languages and can communicate with any creature in the Area they can perceive.
Nightmare Lantern’s Magic
Oneiric Horror Strikes (1 hit): All the character’s attacks gain the Stun tag.
Partially Corporeal (2 hit): The character gains a +1 Enhancement on Defense rolls. Can be purchased multiple times, up to +3.
Power of The Mind (2 hits): The character gains the Telekinesis (Short Range) Art and can use it to hold grapples.
Superior Intellect (3 hits): The character gains 1 Intellect Advantage. Can be purchased multiple times, but can’t take their Intellect Advantage total above 2.
Nightmarish Flesh (3 hits): The character gains the Unusual Anatomy Quality.
Horrors Unleashed (3 hits): Lower the nightmare lantern’s Mental Disruption Art current cooldown by 1. If the Art’s cooldown is 0, the nightmare lantern activates it right after you pass the spotlight.
Archon Tier
Crystal Seraphim
Other daemons we questioned about the creatures of the Void consistently mentioned the might of crystal seraphim, but we didn’t get a true sense of it until our first successful summoning of one. Kelabaxis, that was their name. I was there on the field when my lab partner managed to call the creature to Gaia. The seraphim made their triumphant appearance in a halo of iridescent light: This vaguely anthropomorphic being made of azure crystal, wreathed in golden veins. On their back, a host of floating crystals arranged like wings. I since discovered no crystal seraphim look exactly like another, but I’ll never forget Kelabaxis. Within a few seconds since their arrival, they summoned a crystalline sword in each of their four hands. A minute later, our enemies were no more.
It’s unclear whether crystal seraphim once were creatures of different shape who eventually transformed into crystal during their time spent in the Void or if concentrated primordial magic evolved form and sentience into these mighty angelic beings, but no summoner or daemon doubts they rank among the most powerful entities from beyond the boundaries of this world.
No less dangerous to Gaia than that of other daemons, the nature of crystal seraphim speaks of luminous might, judgement, fury, and ruthless purity. While crystal seraphim maintain a distance — or a disdain — for other not-crystalline daemons that betrays a sense of longing for Gaia and its freedom, they hold little tolerance for any perceived imperfections, weakness, or whatever they consider a corrupting influence.
Template: Archon Drive: Unleash its furious might against anyone who provokes them or violates their righteous mandate. Primary Pool: 12 (Attacking, Dreadful Shows of Power, Defile an Area) Secondary Pool: 10 (Scout the Lair, Sense Where Gaia’s energies converge) Desperation Pool: 6 Enhancement: +1 Close Combat, +2 Scare Defense: 3 Integrity: 3 Injury: 10 Armor: 3 Initiative: 6 Qualities: Attentive, Magical Weapons 3 (Crystal Arsenal; Animated, Ranged: Short, Wounding), Extraordinary Speed, Frightening Presence, Immunity (Light), Reset, Willful Arts: Defensive Aura 1, Dreadful Gaze (Senses Occluded) 3, Elemental Teleportation (Light) 2, Explosive Demise 1, Hypnotize 3, Trample 2, Usurp Flesh (Petrification) 2,Wave of Destruction (Rain of crystals) 3 Magic: Magic Resistance, Judgment Soul: 5 (20) Extra: +1 Durability Advantage, +1 Power Advantage, +1 Social Advantage, +1 Speed Advantage
Special:
Luminous Champion: When activating Alter Environment, Crystal seraphim causes the Blinding Light (Major) area effect. The area effect works like Darkness (p. XX), except for its different nature and Complication rating.
Crystal Seraphim’s Magic
Shining Avenger Strikes (1 hit): All the character’s attacks gain the Crystal tag.
Crystal: The gem-like weapon turns enemies into crystal. Gain access to the following Trick when making attacks with this weapon:
Crystallize (2 hits): Inflict the Petrification status effect (p. XX) on your target.
Crystalline Wings (1 hit): The character grows wings of crystal and light, ignoring any penalty or Complication related to the terrain or weather during their movement.
Luminous Blessing (2 hits): The character becomes immune to any light-related hazard, Complication, or attack.
Judgement Light (2 hits): Inflict the Blinding Light area effect on the Area.
Crystalline Body (2 hit): The character gains the Unusual Anatomy Quality.
Bright Champion (3 hits): The crystal seraphim gets the spotlight as soon as the character passes it, acting without the need for them to renounce their actions. Can be purchased only once per round.
Sovereigns
Above any other creature, claiming the title of divinity and well worth of it, Sovereign are entities of immense power, timeless age, and otherworldly perspective, eidolons of greatness both bright and terrible unbound by the limitations affecting beings of less godly nature. Their might ignores — or shatters — the laws of Gaia and their actions reshape the world as each step and gesture they make changes the fate of entire nations. A Sovereign can raze a mountain or lay waste to an entire army with a manifestation of power, making them coveted forces to summon despite the risks channeling one of them into service entails both for the summoner, their enemies, and the nearby region.
As beings of nearly supreme power well above lesser demons, Sovereigns don’t have dice pools. Rather, their traits describe the effects they impose over the battlefield, both as formidable blessing for their summoners, terrible afflictions against their enemies, or impossible challenges to face.
Whoever summons a Sovereign into the battlefield commands a force with few equals on Gaia and beyond, but the call of the Void binds the divine creatures to temporary manifestations. Still, a single Sovereign can change the tides of history with their mere presence, a truth the inhabitants of Gaia discovered with dreadful clarity.
Summoning a Sovereign requires the expenditure of 4 Energy and works as a normal lesser daemon summoning except for the following differences:
Sovereign daemons cannot be slain.
Sovereign daemons don’t have traits, but rather impose a wide range of effects on the Area. Negative effects only influence the enemies of the character who summoned the Sovereign, with them and their allies being completely immune.
Ongoing area effects happen immediately when a Sovereign is summoned as the entity warps reality to make room for their divine presence. Once the summoning ends, said area effects end at Storyguide’s discretion.
In addition to the effects a Sovereign imposes on the Area, any player character or the antagonist who summoned the daemon can renounce all their actions for a round to activate the Sovereign Outburst Art with a single use.
Sovereign Outburst
Type: Simple Action
The Sovereign rolls an attack dice pool of 13 and +4 Enhancement against the highest Defense among all enemies. On a success, it equally affects all not-allied characters in the Area. The attack benefits from the tags listed in the Sovereign entry and ignores any Advantage both from characters and structures.
Zohaki, the Hell Wyrm
Darkness reminiscent of the nothingness before creation reclaims its domain over the world. Then, in a conflagration of chaos, anger, and hellish fire, the abyss explodes. Something that should not be, a primordial horror emerging outside the crucible of existence with nothing but hatred for a world who refused it greatness, slithers through darkness and smoke. Colossal onyx black coils rush through the darkness, the trace of a crimson underbelly beneath. The monster delights in the terror it causes, before revealing the true extent of its nightmarish majesty: A terrible serpentine cobra-like creature, as tall as the highest mountain, with six bat-like wings and two pairs of blazing eyes, hisses in triumphant delight, fire and magma spewing from its maw as it flies above. The thing laughs, as if that bellow can be called laughter, and descends on the battlefield.
The primordial horror known as Zohaki is a creature born out of chaos, fire, and darkness. Its blazing breath condemns its foes to eternal damnation.
Effects: Bearing the profane blessings of the Hell Wyrm, characters gain +1 Power Advantage on all attacks, along the Flaming and Shadow tags. Zohaki imposes the On Fire (Major) and Darkness (Moderate)area effects on the scene. The Hell Wyrm scorches the soul of any antagonist whose Injury reaches 0 during the summoning, using their pain to open a rift to summon a daemon minion of equal template — or with the same Skills and Attributes for player characters — to fight for the character’s side. The minions’ attacks benefit from the Brutal, Flaming, and Shadow tags.
Outburst Tags: Brutal, Flaming
We'll see a LOT more on daemons when we get the full chapter on Tuesday, along with all of the other Antagonist systems and information like templates, qualities, arts, and principles of encounter design. Lots of great stuff coming our way!
On Friday, we'll get a sneak peek at Dragons!
Tomorrow is officially the start of our FINAL WEEK of the campaign! I'll be sending out a schedule of key update posts to look for over the final week, possibly outlining an additional Stretch Goal or two, and generally setting up a reference page for new backers and current backers as we head into the finish!
Let's keep our momentum rolling! Please remember to invite your gaming friends and friendly gamers and share this campaign in your social circles and on your social media!
