Talk Sense to Fools (GLOG Class: Maenad)

For the Eikonokosmos. 

Revelry is one of the five Red Gods, who were born just after Humanity from the suppurating wounds of the Titan called Blood. Their four siblings are Lies, Love, Ritual and War, and Revelry is fond of all of them -

Yes! Even War! Revelry might be the sole thing on the face of the Kosmos that can tolerate that creature. 

She is full of appreciation for her siblings, and for everything, really. The only issue is… everyone’s taking this all a little seriously, aren’t they? All the kings, the debts, the ostracisms, and yes, the wars too...

Why don’t we all calm down and have a drink, eh? 

The Maenad is someone who’s had that drink. She’s seen the, let's be frank, absurdity of it all, and is ready to sing, dance and tear as her whims demand.

Maenads form travelling groups or secret societies on the edges of the Heptapolis, living counter to the constraints and luxuries of the Poleis. Like many, their rites and ceremonies have been outlawed by the Despot. 

For most, this is simply another reason to go further inland, to abandon civilization and live in the wilderness.

For some, it’s a call - a call to break chains, topple walls, and rip tyrants limb from bloody limb. 

THE MAENAD 

+1 to Hit and +1 Animal per Template

Starting Items: Heavy Thyrsus, Animal Hide, Aulos, one Intoxicant. 

Starting Skill: 1) Brewing 2) Singing 3) Dancing 4) Animal Taming 5) Foraging 6) Poetry 

A - Intoxication, Revel, Charm 

B - Bad Influence

C - Sparagmos

D - Wild Myth 

Animals

Each template, the Goddess Revelry sends you a servant - in the form of a 1HD animal. They’re perfectly loyal and can understand human speech - albeit, they cannot speak themselves. 

These can be birds, snakes, rats, dogs, horses - you name it, you can be allied with it. You can even call upon the monkey, Revelry’s holy animal - whatever that is? You’ve certainly never seen one.  If your animals are killed, Revelry can return them to you, so long as you undertake an hour long ritual in which you sacrifice at least one dose of an Intoxicant.

Intoxication

Your Maenad powers rely on altering your state of mind, with any such drinks and drugs that you can find. 

Whenever you consume a dose of an intoxicant you gain a floating Intoxication Dice. See the end of this post for examples.

You can only get 1 Dice per Intoxicant, until you sleep, drink, and clear your system of its presence. When you sleep, and so on, you lose any floating Intoxication Dice. 

Intoxication Dice can be rolled to:

• Regain an equal amount of HP.

• Increase a damage roll by an equal amount.

• Activate the Revel. 

It is intended that the Maenad will be crossing the Kosmos, looking for better wine and stronger drugs. 

Revel

By consuming an Intoxication Dice, you may enter The Revel, an ecstatic state in which you dance uncontrollably, can attack twice per round, and are generally incapable of speech, diplomacy, or subtlety. You shout, leap and howl almost uncontrollably while Revelling. 

Your foolish mortal passions are amplified and mixed, forming a kind of kaleidoscopic frenzy of emotion - you’re immune to Fear, Charm and other effects which rely on messing with your mind during the Revel. 

If you begin your Revel, any and all Maenads nearby may begin their Revel as well - those following on have no need to consume an Intoxication Dice. 

The Revel ends if the circumstance in which you originally began it (combat, ceremony, party) ends. You may attempt a save to end it early. 

Your Revel ends instantly if you’re affected by Hellebore-derived poison. This isn’t common knowledge, and you’d be well-served to keep it such. 

Charm

By sharing an intoxicant with someone, you can charm them, forming a bond of drunken friendship. They’re willing to undertake minor favours, overlook minor crimes, and won’t attack you - but won’t fight or break their moral codes to help you. 

This is permanent, unless you harm or insult them significantly. 

Bad Influence

Yes, Revelry is a creature of joy, but she is a creature of simple, plain joys - philosophy and reason die under her spinning heel. 

Whenever you Revel, intoxicated or inebriated creatures nearby will join any ongoing combat as your ally. 

Even the most “refined” will act like wild animals, howling and tearing with their hands. After the combat ends, they will have no memory of their actions or what occurred. 

Supernatural creatures (a category which includes most other PCs) can save to resist the urge to violence. 

Sparagmos

You gain a terrible power to tear and split. One must not forget that, for all her joyousness, Revelry was still born in Blood - she is a creature of chaos and disruption above all. To anger one of her Maenads is to be torn apart - all in the name of bettering the world, of course. 

While Revelling, your hands are magical weapons that can split flesh, uproot trees and crack stone. They deal 1d12 Damage, and deal maximum damage to inanimate objects, especially metal ones like chains. 

Groups of maenads working together can really fuck some shit up - if at least one Maenad present in a group Revel has this feature, then all present Maenads can use it. 

Wild Myth

Revelry protects you, favoured servant, from the tools of civilisation and its agents. Now you might go as you please. Split chains and dance headily in the flames. The little joys of others freed, they build to form your transcendence. 

You cannot be harmed by iron or fire. At all. You can be stabbed a hundred times and leap through flames, and you’ll be just fine. 

Note - adamant and bronze are not iron. Lava and boiling steam are not fire. 

Furthermore, you attract 1d4+1 Level 1 Maenads, who have heard that you throw good parties and burn the right buildings. They’re interested in learning from you. 

Example Intoxicants (1d12):

All of the following intoxicants occupy a single inventory slot. 

1. Retsina - Pungent wine, flavoured with the resin used to seal its amphora. Popular, but considered uncouth. One amphora contains 5 doses. 

2. Satyr’s Wine - Traded by the Satyrs of the west in small black amphora. Terrifically strong - a single sip will have you drunk. Horrible flavour. One amphora contains 10 doses. 

3. Kımız - A drink made from fermented mare’s milk. Popular with the horse nomads who live on the Steppe beyond the City of Gold. 5 doses fit in a watertight skin.

4. Mey - The wine favored by the Amazons of the north-east - it is delightfully flavoured, and its creation could be regarded as an art. 5 doses in a capped rhyton shaped like a horse’s head.

5. Poppy Gum - Sticky, yellow-brown gum. Flung into a fire or smoked. Dulls pain to almost nothing. 5 doses come wrapped in linen, from the City of Song.

6. Hemp Seeds - Often shared over a brazier. Makes you friendly, slow and hungry. The bundled bags of seeds contain 10 doses. 

7. Mandragora Root - A big root that looks like an odd little fellow. Juice from it causes strange hallucinations of rude little creatures (perhaps the mythical Kobaloi?) insulting you. It also might give you a heart attack, so mind that - not too many doses now. A big root can be turned into 5 doses. 

8. Hemlock Brew - Derived from the favoured plant of a famous Dryad. A dangerous thing to drink for fun - more than a single dose and you’re dead as a doornail. Causes terrific vertigo and a violent spinning feeling otherwise. A small jar contains 5 doses.  

9. Daimon’s Cap - White mushrooms striated with red and yellow. Causes honestly unpleasant hallucinations of bright colours and flashing lights. 5 doses consists of three dried and bundled fungi. 

10. Ketos’ Mercy - Thick and bluish sea-weed. When chewed, it makes the entire body feel cold and painless, as if immersed in deep water. The great leviathans swallow tons of it when their end approaches. 5 doses in a dried bundle from the City of Sails. 

11. Oneiroi’s Blessing - The leaves of a plant which only grows in the white and silver forests of the shifting Moon. Loosen’s Earth’s hold on your mortal form, letting you leap high and fall slowly. Some in the City of Night came by seeds, somehow, but the location of the garden is a secret kept in blood. 1 dose, a single leaf, an incomparable rarity. 

12. Harvest’s Own - Golden plants with large leaves that grow nowhere but the personal garden of Goddess Harvest. She hands the eternal leaves only to her most loyal servants and closest offspring, and would destroy the Kosmos to recover a lost seed.
    If you have a leaf - you’ve likely robbed or defrauded a Hero or high priest. Consuming a dose of this drug totally restores your health, and adds 2d10 years to your lifespan. 1 dose, a single heart shaped leaf.