Underground Oracle Publishing

Happy Valentine's Week, folks!

Because the holiday has us all feeling a little mushy on this end of things, we're providing a free focus for all of our members this month: is Devoted to the Heart Song!

Some of you may recognize this from our release last year, Heralds of Love and Beauty. That title has a ton of great Cypher System add-ons, so if you like the focus below and want to see everything else included, feel free to snag it from one of our storefront links. 

UO Store | Drivethru

Enjoy, happy gaming, and happy Valentine's Day. 💝

~ Jess

Focus: is Devoted to the Heart Song

The Beautiful One, the Heart Song, the Eternal Lover. No matter what you call your goddess, you have been wholly ensnared by AlayalBreen and devoted your life to her edicts. For you, the world is driven by beauty, love, and music, and you see it as your divine directive to spread and inspire as much of your goddess’s attributes as possible. You fall in love freely and fearlessly, following your heart wherever it may guide you. You grasp the inherent romance of every moment and never turn down an opportunity to show the world the power that comes from an open heart and mind. 

  Warrior types Devoted to the Heart Song are paladins, striving to live as the earthly embodiment of their goddess and defending what she holds dear. Adept types Devoted to the Heart Song are clerics, proselytizers of AlayalBreen’s words, ways, and unending love. Other types that find themselves Devoted to the Heart Song may be one of the goddess’s worshipping bards or rarely chosen muses. 

  Connection: Choose two PCs. You have either been involved in romantic entanglements with them directly or someone close to them at separate times in the past and remained friends after you moved on.

  GM Intrusions: A jilted ex-lover makes things difficult. Your church’s reputation proceeds you. 

Tier 1: AlayalBreen’s Gifts. AlayalBreen has blessed you with the tools necessary to sing her praises. You are trained in all positive social interactions and one area of musical performance. Enabler. 

Tier 1: Beauty’s Aegis (2 Intellect points). The beauty of your goddess shines through you and deters even your enemies from wanting to see you harmed. For the next minute, all foes that can see you have attacks that they make against you hindered. Once an enemy has successfully attacked you, this effect ends for them. Action to initiate. 

Tier 2: Glorious Inspiration (3+ Intellect points). Choose a target within a short range (potentially yourself) to inspire. The target can choose Might, Speed, or Intellect. For the next minute, they gain an asset on all tasks related to their chosen stat. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can use Effort to select an additional target to inspire, one additional creature per level of Effort applied. Action to initiate. 

Tier 3: Passion’s Bloom (5 Intellect points). You create a melody that causes passion to well within the chests of your friends. All allies that can hear you within short range immediately recover 4 points in a stat Pool of their choice. Additionally, their next defense roll with their chosen stat in the next 24 hours is eased. Action. 

Tier 4: Lover’s Acumen. AlayalBreen’s charm and allure are passed on through you. You are considered specialized in all positive social interactions and one area of musical performance. Enabler. 

Tier 5: Beauty’s Aura (6 Intellect points). You extend your Beauty’s Aegis ability to all your allies within short range. Action to initiate.

Tier 6: Heart Song (9 Intellect points). You raise your voice to the heavens, hold your holy symbol aloft, and sing your goddess’s Heart Song. All allies that can hear you within short range immediately recover 6 points in each of their stat Pools and may choose attack, defense, or task rolls. For the next minute, their selected rolls are eased by three steps. Action to initiate.

Copyright © 2024 Underground Oracle Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means or in any form without express written permission from the publisher.

This product is an independent production and is not affiliated with Monte Cook Games, LLC. It is published under the Cypher System Open License, found at http://csol.montecookgames.com.

CYPHER SYSTEM and its logo are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. All Monte Cook Games characters and character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC

Happy Sunday, folks!

With the Harrow core book on the very near horizon, we've dropped the kickstarter-funded wallpaper pack on our site for free to get you properly stoked to explore the wonders of the Blighted Plane.

This wallpaper set features 8 amazing scenes from the world of Harrow beautifully realized by Tasca Skelton and formatted for your desktop, laptop, or mobile screens.

Snag yours here

Enjoy and happy gaming!

~ Jess

P.S. If anyone wanted to try out that new share post option to show this to your social feeds, that would be both super rad and appreciated. 

Happy Friday, folks!

Despite the various calamities and inconveniences that have been unleashed upon the Pendley household as of late, we bring you another free offering for Spooktober. 

Savvy patrons of the $5 tier and up will probably recognize today's creature from the Cypher Short A Nightmare in Orange, from Cypher Shorts: Fantasy Shorts Vol. 1. It made a truncated appearance there, but I simply loved the little goon too much to allow its full lore and stats to remain in the vault. 

Enjoy and happy gaming!

~ Jess
Bluesky | Mastodon | Discord

Jack-o’-the-Grove 1(3)

“That thing has put me off of pie entirely.”

– Scarlett Natham, Adventurer

Although the cult known as the Chain of Ophciphael was foiled in their grand attempt to merge the physical realm with the plane of nightmares, there was some resulting fallout from the influx of energy that flooded the area near the portal that they briefly opened. The most (relatively) harmless of which was the creation of the first patch of creatures now known as jack-o’-the-groves. 

  Pumpkin-like plants twisted and empowered by the magic of the nightmare dimension, jack-o’-the-groves are strange and impish creatures that scuttle along the dark forest floors and overgrown spinneys of the world. Drawn to the presence of mortals, jack-o’-the-groves are most commonly encountered hidden among squash and gourd gardens on the outskirts of towns and villages. Although it’s very rare that these disturbing little plants become violent unless threatened, they’re considered a wholly unwelcome presence by nearly anyone who discovers them for two primary reasons. The first is that jack-o’-the-groves are parasites by nature, feeding off of the nutrients of the plants around them to sustain themselves, so their long-term presence in a garden can have a catastrophic impact on harvests. The second is that they have a penchant for jumping out of hiding and startling any man, woman, or child that they can, basking in their temporary fear and scurrying away before they can meet the business end of whatever farming implement their victim may have been carrying.

The plane of nightmares is known as Ophciphael. Named for the celestial being that destroyed itself to see the sins of mortals punished, Ophciphael is a labyrinthian dimension composed of the multitudes of fears and terrors of the mortals of the planes and is filled with terrifying nightmare creatures defined by their ability to skew perception and steal hope and inspiration. 

Motive: Scare mortals, cause mischief, feed on fear

Environment: Anywhere mortals are farming and gardening

Health: 5

Damage inflicted: 1 point

Movement: Short; short when climbing

Modifications: Immune to effects that cause fear or revulsion

Combat: A jack-o’-the-grove will bite or lash out with its vines when threatened. 

As an action, it can force an intelligent creature within immediate range to make an Intellect defense roll. On a failure, the target is stunned and cannot act on their turn and the jack-o’-the-grove regains 1 point of health. 

Two jack-o’-the-groves within short range of one another will empower their connection to Ophciphael, allowing them to scare two targets at once as a level 2 creature, each regaining 2 points of health afterward. Four within short range of each can scare as one level 3 creature, each regaining 3 points of health afterward.

Interaction: Although jack-o’-the-groves express themselves through gibberish and high-pitched giggles, they understand enough language to be communicated with on a basic level. The process may be frustrating for those involved, but given that jack-o’-the-groves lack the truly malicious intent of their brethren, it’s possible to convince them to leave an area peacefully. 

Use: A town known for its yearly pumpkin festival is thrown into minor chaos. A remote village is experiencing a variety of terrifying new events after a strange merchant passed through a few weeks back.

GM Intrusion: A scared character runs into an ally, knocking them both prone and hindering their next actions.

Copyright © 2023 Underground Oracle Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means or in any form without express written permission from the publisher.

This product is an independent production and is not affiliated with Monte Cook Games, LLC. It is published under the Cypher System Open License, found at http://csol.montecookgames.com.

CYPHER SYSTEM and its logo are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. All Monte Cook Games characters and character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC

The last Friday of our Advent Calendar Event is upon us and the Gift Bearer has once again decided to spread her good tidings to all of our followers. Which means...

Free public creature!

This NPC ties directly to our last free public gift, the Firstdawn festival, and is one of my favorite NPCs from our core fantasy setting of Quaseloth. Even though I wrote her, each time I encounter her in one of our games I can't help but think "I can fix her."

I have been consistently wrong, but Firstdawn miracles do exist.

Enjoy and happy gaming!

~ Jess
Bluesky | Mastodon | Discord

Day Twenty-One - Creature (NPC)

Setting: Quaseloth

Genre(s): Fantasy

Ralhl Gwyr 6 (18)

“In another world, she may have been a hero. But fate gives and takes in equal measure, and so our tale is instead of one who was shaped to walk a darker path.”

- Sage Malden Hull, Epics of Firstdawn, Volume 1.

Ralhl Gwyr is a woman defined by revenge. Born into a love that was snatched from her all too soon and destined to live under the watchful eye of her mother’s bloody shadow, Ralhl Gwyr stalks the Pragenmoorian mountains like a terror from wintery myth. At any given time, crossing Ralhl Gwyr’s path is almost certain to end in tragedy, but on Firstdawn, her implacable fury is truly focused in earnest.

Ralhl Gwyr was born to two parents who loved her as fiercely as they did one another. Her mother, a barbarian from Mazenhark who had been cast out after the defeat of her clan, and her father, a rarvashe troll whose own knot had been killed during a skirmish with patrolling dwarves, had managed to carve out a place for themselves in the depths of the mountains. The trio lived happily on their own for several joyous years, her father teaching Ralhl Gwyr how to survive the dangers of the Pragenmoorians and her mother doing her best to teach her how to become one.  It was on Firstdawn, during one of these training sessions that Ralhl Gwyr’s father left the pair to their playful sparring while he went out to check their snares and forage for the other necessities of the evening’s humble feast. Hours later, when he still had not returned, Ralhl Gwyr and her mother set off into the dark to find him.

Ralhl Gwyr’s father had died fighting, which despite the absence of the dwarven patrol that had fallen upon him was evident by the swathes of scarlet that smeared across his own violet blood in the snow. There was no storm to mark the grim occasion, no upending of nature to match Ralhl Gwyr’s own world crashing to an end. Just she and her mother standing side by side under the clear skies and crushing silence of Firstdawn. Until that silence was shattered by the dwarven victory song coming from the ridge below.

Their encounter with that first patrol was in many ways a baptism for Ralhl Gwyr. It marked her first kill, her first wounds, and the first time she had seen her mother give herself completely over to the darkness that lived within her. Ralhl Gwyr’s father had tempered her mother’s blind fury, had eased the bitterness and heartache that the loss of her people had caused, but without him to soothe those wounds her rage quickly became a septic and all-consuming thing.

Ralhl Gwyr’s mother moved them from the warm home their small family had built together and they began to roam the mountains like lost spirits, staying in one place for a few weeks before moving along. The training sessions that had once been filled with laughter and gentle guidance became punishing and grueling exercises in destroying their enemies, which her mother saw in every living thing walking Pragenmoore. They hunted dwarven patrols like a pair of wolves, striking in storms or taking down scouts whenever advantage was possible. Except on Firstdawn, when her mother would lash out with a reckless ferocity that threatened to consume them as much as the unfortunate souls they fell upon. It was during one of these Firstdawn raids, a decade after the death of her father, that Ralhl Gwyr’s mother was finally lost, more a victim to her own seething wrath than the weapons that pierced her flesh. Ralhl Gwyr managed to escape back into the mountains with her life, where thanks to her trollkin heritage she was able to recuperate. But although her father’s blood was able to heal her body, her mother’s sickness had long ago taken root in her spirit.

Now, Ralhl Gwyr still roams the mountains and its foothills, although she doesn’t seek out enemies to destroy in the way she did when she was with her mother, instead preferring to dispatch those who go out of their way to find her. That is, of course, with the exception of one day of the year, when the sounds of Firstdawn festivities in her ears are drowned out by her mother’s cries for vengeance.

Motive: Ralhl Gwyr is often torn between two motives; her mother’s endless quest for vengeance against the world and her father’s hope that she live peacefully within it.

Environment: The Pragenmoorian mountains or its surrounding area

Health: 30

Damage inflicted: 7

Armor: 1

Movement: Short

Modifications: Might, attack, athletic, deception, local lore, stealth, and survival tasks as level 7; immune to damage from ice or cold

Combat: Ralhl Gwyr was trained from a young age to be a brutal and opportunistic combatant and will use her environment and any perceived weaknesses of her enemy to her fullest advantage. Honor is of no concern to her and her dirty fighting style makes that evident. She prefers to ambush her opponents and force them into close-quarters melee combat and if the tide turns against her and it looks like she may be defeated, she’ll perform a particularly brutal strike to cover herself enough to escape.

Ralhl Gwyr is a skilled warrior and can attack up to three foes on her turn as one action.

As an action, she can swing her weapon in a wide arc, damaging all foes around her and knocking them back 10 feet (3m) and rendering them prone on a failed Might defense roll.

Once per round, when Ralhl Gwyr is damaged by a melee attack, she may immediately use Mother’s Fury (her sword) to deal 8 cold damage to the attacker.

Ralhl Gwyr regains 3 points of health each round she isn’t subjected to fire damage.

Interaction: Ralhl Gwyr is much more cunning and deceptive than unwary foes give her credit for, and she uses that—like she uses everything—to her own advantage. Although she is filled with inherited rage and pain, a kernel of her father still remains within her and could be accessed by the right individual.

Use: A young dwarf is looking for heroes to aid him in his quest for revenge. His father was a patrolman who he believes was killed by Ralhl Gwyr deep within the mountains and he wants to track her down before Firstdawn.

Loot: Ralhl Gwyr wields her deceased mother’s weapon, Garulka’s Fury (which she refers to as “Mother’s Fury”). If she is defeated in battle, it’s possible to gain her deadly artifact.

GM Intrusion: Ralhl Gwyr brutally stomps the chest of the nearest prone character, rendering them breathless and stunned for one round.

Copyright © 2023 Underground Oracle Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means or in any form without express written permission from the publisher.

This product is an independent production and is not affiliated with Monte Cook Games, LLC. It is published under the Cypher System Open License, found at http://csol.montecookgames.com.

CYPHER SYSTEM and its logo are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. All Monte Cook Games characters and character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC

Happy Friday, folks!

The Gift Bearer was once again filled with the spirit of the season and decided to leave another gift that our free members can enjoy as well! 

(If you missed our last public gift, you can find it here.)

Today we have a winter/new year celebration that you can add to your upcoming holiday games. Those of you who have been with us since our 5e days will probably recognize Firstdawn, but we've converted the festival activities to Cypher for our newer folks to also enjoy. If you're interested in the 5e pdf, you can find it here.

And if you're one of our free followers reading this, we have 14 previous posts with new cyphers, creatures, descriptors, rules options, and more for your Cypher games and we'll be continuing these drops through 12/24/23.

Hit that membership button now and get fully in on the festive fun for only $3 per month!

Enjoy and happy gaming!

~ Jess
Bluesky | Mastodon | Discord

Day Fifteen - Lore

Setting: Quaseloth

Genre(s): Fantasy

Firstdawn: The Festival of Spirit

“On this day of Firstdawn, I feel my heart jump at the thought of the songs, the celebrations, of the fellowship that we become a part of! Children run to and fro under the glow of the star crystals, darting from decorated houses to hang painted grables on trees outside. Families gather by the hearth between festivities, making gifts and preparing for feasts. In all of our actions, we celebrate the gods and heroes who have led us to this new year. Truly we capture the spirit of the first day!”

-Maliim Remoure, Poet of High Lirren

Firstdawn is a festival celebrating the coming of the new year and the good of the Aeonian Spirit, the raw energy of creation that flows throughout the universe and energizes the beings of the material realm. It’s a day to celebrate the heroes who have taken that spark from the Aeonian Spirit and turned it into something grand. And it is a day to honor those gods who have blessed the people and kept the realms safe for mortals.

A Month of Reflection

Although Firstdawn itself is only celebrated one day—the day believed to mark the start of all creation—the entire month leading up to the festival is often a whirlwind of activity. Around hamlets, villages, and cities, people begin hanging decorations and ornaments as soon as they can. Blue and orange star crystals are gathered from the caves where they grow and hung on trees and windowsills, left to catch the moonlight and give off their soft glow during the long nights. Wreaths wound from branches of grablenut trees are hung on the thresholds of homes and businesses, the normally brown, stippled surfaces of the nuts painted in bright festive colors by friends and family members of those within.

People shop, bake, and make crafts in preparation for the holiday at the month’s end, but despite all of the celebratory hustle and bustle, the month of Firstdawn is truly a time of reflection and gratitude. As they settle into the depths of winter and with the bulk of the season’s work behind them, most take it as an opportunity to rest and acknowledge their family and friends by playing, telling stories of heroism and adventure, and treating themselves to the quality time that they may miss throughout the rest of year.

The Eve of Firstdawn

The night before Firstdawn a new slew of activities begins, as people prepare themselves for the ceremony of gifting the following day. Everyone takes the presents that they have bought or crafted and places them in carved wooden boxes, colorful silk wraps, or simple burlap bags, all wrapped in elaborately knotted strings and bows. The knots are the most important part of the practice, representing the stages of life through feast and famine, as well as the heroes’ struggle as they safeguard the lands. It’s an acknowledgment that, no matter how hard things may seem in the moment, there are always gifts to be found in the end and that for those willing to fight and allow the Aeonian Spirit to ignite the spark within, great rewards await. Although the knots themselves represent something truly deep and meaningful, many people take this as the perfect opportunity to tease those that they love. It’s not uncommon for a friend or cousin to devise a series of knots meant only to confuse and frustrate the unfortunate recipient of their gift.

As night falls on the Eve of Firstdawn, the heads of every household clean their house from top to bottom, making sure that everything is perfect for the following day and that all of the woes and stresses from the year before do not follow their family into the year to come. After the cleaning and final preparations are done, everyone settles by the hearth and enjoys a hot and soothing cup of Firstdawn tea, known in some areas of the continent as crimson tea. A seasonal delicacy, Firstdawn tea is crimson in color and naturally soothes any aches, pains, and anxieties that the drinker may have, allowing them to wake up on the dawn of the new year feeling completely rested and thoroughly rejuvenated.

A New Year Dawns

On the morning of Firstdawn, family and friends gather together to perform the ceremony of gifting and enjoy the traditional breakfast of cold meats, bread rolls, and boiled eggs. Before the day’s festivities begin, the head of the household gives the customary Firstdawn toast, saluting the heroes of the land and giving thanks to the gods that have watched over them. After the opening ceremonies of the day, the entire community comes together for games and competitions. Sleigh racing is most common, or chariot racing in areas where snow isn’t available, but there’s a variety of activities to keep spirits high and to bring the community together. As the day progresses, food and ale flow freely, and in the evening the closing ceremony of Firstdawn begins.

The Hero’s Fight is the traditional end to Firstdawn. Everyone gathers together for wrestling and sparring matches meant to celebrate and honor the heroes of the land. Bards play songs celebrating the great deeds of champions of legend and of local adventurers alike, and children run and play, having their own mock fights while mimicking those they admire. Once the fights are done and the ribbons and commendations have been handed out, everyone goes home happy and feeling completely prepared to face whatever the year ahead may bring. For they have shared in the courage of heroes and felt the renewal that the Aeonian Spirit brings with Firstdawn.

The Firstdawn Toast

The following is a traditional Firstdawn toast, as told by Empiric Lord Crougan Lasteel of the DackTerran Empire:

You must dance and celebrate, my people. The Aeonian Spirit of Firstdawn is upon us and life begins again. Let us hold our glasses high for our heroes, for life, and for goodness. Tonight the Aeonian Spirit is at its highest and our sparks are strengthened with it. We live another year and begin a new chance to change our lives and the lives of others. For this was the day we were given life, the first day of existence. For all of us who came before, for all now, and for all of those who will follow, this is the first dawn!

Festival Activities

Although the essence of Firstdawn is one of giving and self-reflection, there’s also an air of friendly competition that flows through all of the various activities and games that accompany the festival. Whether it’s the hanging of decorations or the final Hero’s Fight, folks can’t help but test themselves against their friends and neighbors in the spirit of fun and community.

Below are a few of the typical festivities that can be enjoyed during Firstdawn celebrations.

Bardic Blitz

A highlight of more metropolitan celebrations, the bardic blitz is a friendly competition that pits talented musicians against one another in an attempt to win over the affection of the crowd through their festive melodies. Although it can be hosted on its own center stage in a city square or parade grounds, the bardic blitz is normally held in a large canvas tent directly in the heart of the other festivities where it can draw the biggest crowds.

The bardic blitz takes place over 3 turns. In each turn, participating PCs must succeed on a music task against their opponent. The participant who wins 2 of the 3 turns is declared the winner of that round and moves on to the next round and a new opponent. The participant still standing in the final round is declared the winner of the competition. The number of total participants determines the number of rounds in the bardic blitz, although the average length is 5 rounds.

During their turn, a participant may attempt to garner extra favor from the crowd by attempting to sway them with their innate charm, dance moves, or some other means of hyping the crowd. Attempting to sway the crowd is a difficulty level 4 task. On a success, the participant’s hyping provides an additional +3 to their music roll.

Grablenut Hunt

A simple holiday activity, the grablenut hunt has become a staple tradition in a majority of Firstdawn celebrations around the continent by virtue of its beloved place among the grandparents and elders of communities. On the Eve of Firstdawn, a grablenut is selected and painted—both to camouflage its presence and distinguish it from the other decorative grablenuts on display—and hidden somewhere in the boundaries of the town, where it waits to be found before the Heroe’s Fight signifies the end of Firstdawn. Whoever is able to find the special grablenut before the festivities end is presented with a special gift and the envy of their peers.

Before the start of any Firstdawn activities, the GM rolls a d20 and records the result. As participants search for the special grablenut, the first one to roll the GM’s recorded result on their d20 finds the grablenut and wins the grablenut hunt.

Firstdawn Bake-Off

The creating and consuming of sumptuous baked goods is a staple of the entire month of Firstdawn, but many generous folks producing the various cakes, pies, and cookies are simply using the time to test and perfect the dessert recipes that they plan to enter into the Firstdawn bake-off. During the bake-off, contestants present their prized recipe to a panel of judges who determine who the winner of that season’s contest will be based on the technical ability, taste, and presentation of the holiday dish.

PCs participating in the Firstdawn bake-off make 3 separate rolls. The first determines their technical ability creating the bake, the second determines the bake’s taste, and the third determines the presentation of their bake. If the participating PC has a skill, ability, asset, or other effect that would normally ease their attempt at the task at hand, they may add 3 to their roll for each step reduction (+3 for one step, +6 for two steps, and so on). After adding their 3 scores together, take the average to find the score of the participant’s dish. The participant with the highest score has prepared the dish most pleasing to the judges and wins the bake-off.

Participants may attempt to enhance their score through magic or trickery. Attempting to enhance a dish through the use of magic without being mundanely detected is a difficulty level 4 Intellect task. On a success, the participant receives a +5 bonus to their overall score. On a failure, they are disqualified from the competition. Attempting to sabotage an opponent without being discovered by the competition is a difficulty level 4 task. On a success, the target of the participant’s sabotage receives a -5 bonus to their overall score. On a failure, the particpant is disqualified from the competition.

The Hero’s Fight

The Hero’s Fight is the most important Firstdawn festival activity and the only one that is central to the celebration itself. Those who partake in the event spar with one another voraciously, until an opponent either gives up or can no longer continue the match. Everyone parts the Hero’s Fight as friends, whether they were the recipient of a ribbon or a whipping, ready to start the next phase of their season off right.

The Hero’s Fight is always between 2 participants. The event proceeds exactly as normal combat, with the following exceptions:

• Weapons are not allowed.
• If a participant makes a roll of a 20, they immediately knock out their opponent.

Copyright © 2023 Underground Oracle Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means or in any form without express written permission from the publisher.

This product is an independent production and is not affiliated with Monte Cook Games, LLC. It is published under the Cypher System Open License, found at http://csol.montecookgames.com.

CYPHER SYSTEM and its logo are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. All Monte Cook Games characters and character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC

Today's present left by the mighty Gift Bearer is a new anti-hero that you can drop into your superhero games. 

Stygian is a great character and one that has frustrated and delighted PCs in UO headquarters for years, so I know you fine GMs out there will put her to good use. 

Enjoy and happy gaming!

~ Jess
Bluesky | Mastodon | Discord

Day Twelve - Creature (NPC)

Setting: -
Genre(s): Superheroes

Stygian 5 (15)

Cursed Anti-Hero Bound To Shalhain

“Everyone loves reading about history, but the lucky ones get to hold it in their hand. If you’ve got the cash, I can make you that lucky too.”

Aria Scavallo was always drawn to relics and artifacts of the past. As a child, she would beg her father to take her to the Celestia Ancient History Museum every week so that she could pour over the exhibits and dream of holding artifacts like the ones that she saw in her hands. To his credit, her father—Dante Scavallo—enthusiastically nurtured his daughter’s interest. An art dealer who catered to a variety of specialty and underworld clients, Dante had more than enough money to ensure that his daughter attended the best private schools and enough pull to make sure that she passed even when she spent more time on extracurricular activities than her studies.

Due to her father’s generous endowments and despite her severe lack of interest in sitting behind a desk, Aria attended Celestia University to pursue her dream of becoming an archeologist. But even though her passion for the subject matter was obvious to her father, she struggled with the many degree requirements that came with her chosen field. Frustrated and angry, she spent most of her time partying and enjoying college life as much as possible, and when her father was arrested her sophomore year for art theft, that was all the push she needed to give up on the academic side of her dream. Using her father’s old contacts and calling in a few of his favors, Aria sloughed off the chains of legitimacy holding her back from the life she envisioned for herself and became a mercenary relic hunter.

Aria spent the next decade traveling the world and hunting down hard-to-find items for people who would rather keep their names and businesses from the prying eyes of customs agents. Using her gut instincts, love for adventure, and devilishly charming personality, Aria thrived in the life she created and became the go-to name for many in the illegal antiquities trade. However, the trajectory of her life took a sudden turn while exploring a hidden temple deep within a frozen mountain. While searching for an item for a mystery client, Aria spotted a twisted sword stuck in the hand of a long desiccated corpse. Not one to pass up an excellent find when it presented itself, Aria reached out to grasp the blade, only to be immediately bound to a stygian spirit from Shalhain, a dimension filled with dark energy and nefarious beings.

After struggling alone with the dark urges and waves of energy that the Shalhain entity had set in her for months, Aria finally regained control. Unable to find a way to destroy the sword or get rid of the being that had invaded her, Aria returned home to Celestia to gather herself before another expedition. But unlike her prior visits home, she was unable to ignore the violence that plagued the streets. As far as she was concerned, she and her father committed victimless crimes, but the ones she saw playing out in her city left a lot of victims in their wake—and made the entity inside of her go wild. To release the pressure that the dark being filled her with, Aria took to the streets and used her newfound powers to end the burgeoning criminal reigns of several very bad people. Finding that her actions sated Shal—as she had started referring to her new “friend”— and helped out the less fortunate of Celestia, Aria decided to take on the name Stygian and continue her new vigilante lifestyle. In between relic jobs, of course.

Motive: Focus the dark urges inspired by "Shal", the Shalhain entity on those who deserve it, relic hunting for hire

Environment: Anywhere where valuable artifacts can be found or at her safehouse in Celestia

Health: 25

Damage inflicted: 7

Armor: 2 (Shal)

Movement: Short

Modifications: Might and Speed defense as level 7; all athletic, perception, and Shalhain-powered tasks as level 7; history, geography, and social tasks as level 6

Combat: Stygian gets all of her parahuman abilities from Shal, the entity that she is bound to. She uses her own martial and athletic talents (enhanced by Shal) to make attacks with her sword and can attack two targets within range as a part of the same action. Stygian can also blast a ray of dark energy from the cursed blade into a foe within long range (ignores Armor).

When feeling overwhelmed or trapped, Stygian can use her action to fill the area in short range around her with gloom. Creatures other than her within the gloom perceive their movements as slow and hear all speech as garbled and slurred. Attacks made against Stygian while in the gloom are hindered. Creatures that begin their turns in the gloom must succeed on an Intellect defense roll or be overcome with a feeling of dread and stunned for one round.

As a last resort, Stygian can allow Shal to fully consume her and lash out at all foes within long range, damaging them with dark energy (ignores Armor) and pushing them back ten feet. After using this power she is hindered in resisting any dark or violent urges that she may have by two steps.

The presence of Shal within her also provides Stygian with various lesser abilities, like obscuring her in darkness to assist in stealth tasks or spotting foes that are attempting to sneak up on her.

Interaction: Stygian is brash, sarcastic, and devilishly charming when she’s interacting with friends or foes. She has no qualms with anything that she sees as a victimless crime but will intervene and (brutally) stop any violent or evil crime, especially if it affects the weak or disenfranchised. She also has no problem helping a hero dispatch a villain one day and facing off against the same hero the next when they try to deter her from retrieving an item for one of her clients. She sees these interactions as a game more than anything else. When she allows Shal to have too much influence on her body (by overusing her parahuman abilities within 24 hours), she becomes angrier, edgier, and more violent and must retreat for a few days to center herself and gain back control.

Use: The characters are tasked with protecting a rare artifact in transport that Stygian has been hired to steal.

GM Intrusion: The character is noticed by the entity within Stygian and is wrapped in dark energy.

You can find Stygian in the short "A Darkening Light" in Cypher Shorts: Dark Supers Shorts Vol. 1

Copyright © 2023 Underground Oracle Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means or in any form without express written permission from the publisher.

This product is an independent production and is not affiliated with Monte Cook Games, LLC. It is published under the Cypher System Open License, found at http://csol.montecookgames.com.

CYPHER SYSTEM and its logo are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. All Monte Cook Games characters and character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC

Happy Friday, folks!

It looks like the Gift Bearer was feeling particularly generous today because she's left a gift not just for the patrons of The Underground, but for our free followers as well!

Bless her shaggy, horned head. 💜

Below we have the perfect cypher flavor for you to use to fully capture your ideal sultry, seductive, and coldly calculating character, the heartthrob fatale. (Big shoutout to Kayla not just for creating this fun flavor but for finding a good gender-neutral name to capture it.)

If you're one of our free followers reading this, we have 7 previous posts with new cyphers, creatures, descriptors, rules options, and more for your Cypher games and we'll be continuing these drops through 12/24/23. 

Hit that membership button now and get fully in on the festive fun for only $2 per month!

Enjoy and happy gaming!

~ Jess
Bluesky | Mastodon | Discord

Day Eight - Flavor

Setting: -
Genre(s): Noir, Fantasy, Modern, Sci-Fi, Superhero

Heartthrob Fatale

Characters with the heartthrob fatale flavor are the brooding, seductive focus of any room that they enter and are just as likely to draw distress and disaster as they are lingering eyes. These characters bend those around them to take on the hardship and danger their bad luck (or bad decisions) has pulled toward them—though fate often has other plans. Characters with this flavor know their worth and do what they want unapologetically and this strong, confident nature is the lure that attracts others into unwittingly becoming their shields.

If your setting is not noir-focused, this character may go for a less overtly dramatic version of the heartthrob fatale by focusing instead on the aspects of drawing others in to manipulate them into protecting them or doing their dirty work. For non-magic or magic-light settings, we suggest that any abilities that directly alter others, like Erase Memories, be described as the result of expert manipulation rather than a supernatural effect on the target.

The full description for each listed ability below can be found in Chapter 9 of the Cypher System Rulebook or for free at Old Gus' Cypher System Reference Document.

First-Tier Heartthrob Fatale Abilities

• Contortionist
• Demeanor of Command
• Erase Memories
• Fast Talk
• Negotiate

Second-Tier Heartthrob Fatale Abilities

• Babel
• Danger Instinct
• Enthrall
• Perfect Stranger
• Unexpected Betrayal

Third-Tier Heartthrob Fatale Abilities

• Flamboyant Boast
• Got a Feeling
• Grand Deception
• Know Their Faults
• Spot Weakness

Fourth-Tier Heartthrob Fatale Abilities

• Captivate or Inspire
• Center of Attention
• Group Friendship
• Taking Advantage

Fifth-Tier Heartthrob Fatale Abilities

• Asserting Your Privilege
• Knowing the Unknown
• Lethal Ploy
• Suggestion

Sixth-Tier Heartthrob Fatale Abilities

• All-Out Con
• Dirty Fighter
• Do You Know Who I Am?
• Twisting the Knife

Copyright © 2023 Underground Oracle Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means or in any form without express written permission from the publisher.

This product is an independent production and is not affiliated with Monte Cook Games, LLC. It is published under the Cypher System Open License, found at http://csol.montecookgames.com.

CYPHER SYSTEM and its logo are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. All Monte Cook Games characters and character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC

Let's kick this week off right with another very awesome cypher goodie, this time in the form of a new optional rule—Insidious Knowledge.

Here at UO headquarters, we have had a lot of incredible roleplay moments using the Insidious Knowledge rule. We've traveled the Plane of Nightmares and faced our worst fears made manifest, we've encountered devils that used our flaws against us to gain leverage, and we faced a telepath who used illusions that tapped right into our subconscious and completely upended our superhero shenanigans.  The list goes on and on. Handing a great GM your character's deepest flaw and fear is a recipe for great moments later on in the game, no matter the genre or setting.

Enjoy and happy gaming!

~ Jess
Bluesky | Mastodon | Discord

Day Four - Optional Rule

Setting: -
Genre(s): Any

Insidious Knowledge

Characters being forced to reckon with the ugliest parts of themselves is a staple of fiction. Whether the protagonist is facing an otherworldly being that reveals their darkest flaw to weaken their resolve or they are dropped into a pit filled with the writhing, scaled embodiment of their most primal fear, witnessing a character succumb or triumph in these scenes makes immensely satisfying narrative moments. With the Insidious Knowledge optional rule, GMs can emulate those character moments in their own games.

At character creation, each player provides the GM—secretly or openly, as the table prefers—with their PC’s core flaw and core fear. A PC’s core flaw should be something simple and narrative, but nonmechanical. For instance, greed, apathy, or materialism are all core flaws that don’t affect a PC’s abilities or tasks but carry narrative weight for the character. A core fear could be something as deep as everyone finding out that the character in question is a fraud or as literal as snakes or the dark.

In situations where the PC is forced to brush against their core flaw or core fear, they must make an Intellect defense roll against the creature’s level (if triggered by a creature) or as determined for the situation by the GM (if triggered environmentally). If they fail, their actions are hindered for the remainder of the scene and the GM can make a free intrusion and doesn’t have to award XP for it.

GMs that utilize the Insidious Knowledge optional rule are encouraged to use the PCs’ core flaws and core fears to provide interesting character moments and high-stakes scenes that drive the game forward but should avoid the trap of using them as a constant bludgeon that makes players feel like they lack agency in the story.

When PCs advance their characters to the next tier, they may reexamine their character’s core flaw and core fear and determine whether or not they should be adjusted to reflect the growth or decline of their character’s personal arc.

Copyright © 2023 Underground Oracle Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means or in any form without express written permission from the publisher.

This product is an independent production and is not affiliated with Monte Cook Games, LLC. It is published under the Cypher System Open License, found at http://csol.montecookgames.com.

CYPHER SYSTEM and its logo are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. All Monte Cook Games characters and character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC