Footsteps, Pain and Pain, and “Just Like the White Winged Dove…”

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The Path of Light 

“I saw the path…” the girl said, “I saw it and I followed.”

She was a slip of a girl, and the large man in his beaten but polished armor breathed heavily as he towered over her. The woods were no place for a little girl. Her presence would only make this harder. His colleagues were startled when she came bounding out of the bushes and Kilrock nearly put an arrow through her tiny beating heart before catching himself and shuddering at the thought of what he’d almost done in haste.

“Get behind me”, the large man said, in a weary tone that brooked no argument. Losing her smile, and listening for the first time to the sounds of branches breaking behind her, she went pale and scrambled behind the towering armored man.

The bounding creatures leapt fallen trees and scrambled faster than any man or beast Sir Paravel had ever seen. Long limbed and hairy, hunched and running–but he knew when they stood, they’d tower over even him and he was a man known to be tall. Wolfmen. Evil, slavering beasts made from cursed lineage. His colleagues armed themselves and crouched waiting while a horde of them crashed through the twilight trees. Following the glowing footsteps, they couldn’t help but find their prey..

System: The Path of Light are a pair of boots made of banded dark Kurian leather, oiled and seasoned by the higher order priests of the Eternal Lantern. Only a few pairs have ever been made, they are rare, and blessed by The Lantern itself in a year-long ceremony to the sun.

The wearer must attune to the boots over the course of a full, out loud reading of The Radiance (the Church of the Eternal Lantern’s holy book). The boots slip on easily and allow the wearer to double their base movement speed if they are advancing toward an ally to assist, help, bless, rescue, or save them only.

However, each step taken in the boots–at all times–leaves a perfect boot print glowing in the ground that lasts 1d20 minutes. It leaves a trail of glowing (luminous to 1 ft around it) footsteps that leads directly to the wearer. NPCs, monsters, for many the curiosity of a trail of light is too tempting not to investigate–the Lantern intended this effect to bring people to his servant that they might follow the light and then follow The Light.

Aubritan’s Sacrifice

When they brought the woman, her voice was a silent churn of hacks and dry, silent screaming. She’d torn her own vocal cords in wild pain and roaring her anguish for hours. The temple was too far into the forest, and Silvia knew it. Delirious with pain, the woman rocked back and forth while her companions held her against the gurney. Her leg was a motley of bruises, bloody gashes, and broken bones. One of the men heaved onto the temple floor when a bone pierced through the woman’s thigh. It was a grisly situation, and Silvia’s heart wept. She drew forth a silver-lined knife–hardly bigger than her palm–and took the woman’s hand. Her companions protested for a moment as Silvia cut a deep gash in the woman’s palm, and then stood confused as she cut a twin gash in her own. Silvia grasped the agonizing woman’s hand and whispered some words to the Lord of Silver Linings–please, one more time.

System: The Sacrifice is an item carried by precious few ranking clerics and priests of the Church of the Everlasting Hope. It is precious to them, and dangerous, the originator–a cleric named Aubritan centuries ago–died on his first attempted use.

By using an action to cut the palm of another creature and their own palm, the knife bearer may grasp hands with that creature and take on the Sacrifice–both take 1 damage. Should nothing break the connection, at the end of that creature’s next turn, the knife bearer may trade their HP for the creature’s HP (assuming the bearer’s HP is higher) up to the creature’s max, may remove any disease, paralysis, petrification, poisoning, curse, or other inflicted condition and take it on himself (treat as the exact same condition or stage of condition the creature was at, automatically).

The knife bearer may use this once per day, it refreshes at dawn. Each use grants 1 inspiration (from divine favor).

The Circlet of Joining

As the beast swung its massive axe, twice the height of a man, down over the Green Knight, he roared his rage and pain into the blow. So heavy was the strike, so fast did the great sharp head of it arc through the air that the Knight’s squire felt his pulse stop and time seen to freeze… the death-blow would cleave the Knight in two. Almost as though he wished it.

And as the blade struck his armor with the force of a storm on the ocean, the world burst into the flapping of countless birds–ripe with life and hope and promise… flying up and up… and descending on the giant like an angry rebuke from the sky itself.

System: The holly branches are woven tightly, but ever green and unchanging. Wrapped in a bangle and adorned on one’s clothing or armor in a circlet, the wild itself–teeming with life and power–marks the bearer as a green knight. A protector of the world. A champion of all that breathes and swims and flies and lives. It protects its own.

The circlet recharges once a day when dipped into pure water. The wearer is protected from the first critical hit they take that day–instead of taking damage, they explode into a number of white doves equal to their level x their Con modifier. Use the stats for a bird from the book (smallest one). The bearer takes no damage from the strike and must spend his Con modifier in rounds in the form of a flock of birds. Should all of them die, however, he reverts back to normal in the center of the flock. The flock cannot spread apart more than a 10ft radius and can make a number of attacks equal to the number of 5ft squares they occupy (so if tightly packing into a 5×5 area, the flock can attack once with bird stats; if occupying a full 20 x 20 area, they may make 12-due to radius not square). Changing the shape of the flock such that part of it leaves a threatened area can provoke a reaction opportunity attack. The flock cannot conduct different actions–all move, all attack, all help, etc. Can’t have half do one thing and half another. The knight can stay in this form as long as they like, but minimum duration is set by Con modifier.