The Nature of Evil 4

Sites and Locations of Dismay

The Azure Vale

When the warlord-wizard Sriblex captured Hunche Morque, he captured all the citizens of the city and gave one to each of his orc and ogre servants. He commanded each warrior to kill his prisoner on his signal. On that day, nine thousand people all died at once, at the whim of one man. Lahm committed this vile act simply because he could.
Morque's armies moved on and eventually met defeat, but the area around the city, known as the Azure Vale, has never been the same. This place of lasting evil has since been home to strange, extremely pale plants, and the whole area has an unnatural chill that lasts even through the hot summer months.

Anyone who spends the night in the mist-shrouded valley hears faint whispers and sometimes even moans. His or her dreams are filled with nightmares of murder and hate. But the visitors who come to the vale and encounter only whispers and bad dreams are the lucky ones, for the Azure Vale is haunted by the spirits of nine thousand ghosts. Every person slain by the legions of Sriblex remains here— and they all want vengeance upon the living.

Those who make it out of the vale alive have harrowing tales to tell, but despite the horrible stories, the Azure Vale attracts adventurers. A powerful minor artifact, the amulet of Lahm, is said to lie amid the pale trees, lost in the confusion of that fateful night. Among its other powers, the amulet grants its possessor the ability to regenerate like a troll as well as a score of 24 to Strength.

The Goblinoid Pits of Tenrache

Kezzerug is a goblin chief who rules the large tribe known as the Tenrache (which in Goblin means something very close to “bloody eye lying on the ground”). When Kezzerug’s warriors met defeat at the hands of a small band of elves, he decided that something needed to be done. He commanded the tribe’s three adepts to begin working on a magical way to improve the puissance of the Tenrache tribe. After years of trial and error, they hit upon a plan.

After filling large pits with alchemical mixtures, the Tenrache tribe lowers its warriors on harnesses into the brew for as long as the goblins can stand it. When a goblin is brought out of the pit, he spends the next few days undergoing an agonizing change. One-quarter of such warriors die a howling death. Each of the others grows to Medium-size and gains a bonus to Strength and Constitution, making both of those stats 19. alongside a penalty to Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, making the stats all 6. These warriors become misshapen, lumbering mutants with twisted limbs, bulbous eyes, and festering sores. After creating a large number of these twisted goblins, the adepts began experimenting on other captured creatures. None of the experiments have been as successful as the goblin warriors, but the pits have spawned many strange creatures—and the progeny of those that are capable of reproduction are even stranger. In this way, the Tenrache tribe has amassed great power. Its underground lair has spread, and the pits are now innumerable. Terrible, twisted things roam those caves, and goblin marauders scour the countryside for the alchemical ingredients needed for the procedures, including such items as human brains and blood.

Sacrifice

Most evil gods and fiends demand sacrifice. When they say sacrifice, they mean the sacrifice of a living, intelligent creature. Commonly, the victim is a humanoid, but dark powers might demand the sacrifice of anything from a medusa to a giant to a beholder. The main criteria are that the creature be alive and have an Intelligence score of 3 or higher.

The sacrifice must be made in a ritualized manner. It’s fine for a blackguard to say that he is dedicating every foe he slays to Vecna. But in truth, Vecna appreciates and rewards his followers for victims killed in a ceremony and at a place dedicated to him. This means that the ritual takes time, and it probably involves extra participants and unholy trappings.

In a world suffused with magic, evil gods pay attention when someone makes a living sacrifice to them, and they often reward their followers for doing so. In some abstract sense, the sacrifice adds some small mote to the god’s overwhelming power, and in return the evil deity is sometimes willing to grant a boon or a blessing in return.

Sacrifice is the offering of the life of a sentient being to an evil deity or powerful fiend. The victim is trussed, tied, or otherwise immobilized so that a ceremony may be conducted that culminates with the murder. In many rituals, blood is a sacred symbol of life. When that blood spills during the ritual murder of an innocent creature, the blood (and sometimes even the soul of the creature) is dedicated to a nether power of malevolence. Bloodless forms of killing, such as strangulation and drowning, are possible during sacrifices, but usually those that are despicable enough to practice this profane art prefer bloodier deeds.

Sacrificial Reward System

The reward a servant of an evil god gets for making a living sacrifice to the god depends on many factors. The primary factor is the religion check result of the character performing the sacrifice. Each of the other factors is represented as a modifier to the check. Each evil deity has his or her own predilections and preferences for sacrifices, and different deities give different rewards to their followers. The following system of sacrifices and rewards is just a starting point; give each evil power in your campaign its own unique sacrifices and rewards.

Typical Sacrifice Elements

Sacrifice Element	Religion Modifier
Conducted in a ceremony lasting at least an hour	+1
Conducted on an altar	+2
Conducted in a desecrated area	+1
Conducted in an unhallowed area	+2
Conducted in the presence of a creature important to the deity (a demon servant, for example)	+2
Conducted publicly (in the street or on the steps of a public Institution)	+1
Conducted before more than 10 followers	+1
Conducted before more than 100 followers	+2
Conducted before more than 1000 Followers	+3
Sacrifice is tortured 1 day before death	+1
Sacrifice loses extremities to hungry demon prior to death	+1
Sacrifice is good-aligned	+1
Sacrifice has 0–5 CR or Levels	+1
Sacrifice as 6-10 CR or Levels	+2
Sacrifice has 11–15 CR or Levels	+3
Sacrifice has 16+ CR or Levels	+4
Sacrifice is a cleric of another god	+2
Sacrifice is a Class or Race hated by they deity/cultist leader	+1
Sacrifice is Willing, if duped or controlled	+1
Sacrifice is genuinely willing.	+2

If a follower performs multiple sacrifices, the bonuses on the follower’s Religion check do not stack for every sacrifice; a separate check is made for each victim. Most deities give only one reward per day per temple, no matter how many victims are slain. The leader of the sacrifice, called the celebrant, can perform multiple sacrifices and consequently make multiple Religion checks, then use the best result to determine what reward might be granted by the deity.

The actual reward earned by the performance of a living sacrifice varies from religion to religion. See Table 2–2, below, for some typical rewards that might be granted by an evil deity and the DC of the Knowledge (religion) check to qualify for each one. Many deities will have their own specific rewards to offer. The celebrant can choose what reward is sought and prayed for, but the deity might grant another reward, especially if the Knowledge (religion) check result is significantly higher than the DC of the reward sought. The celebrant can’t take 10 or take 20 on this check, and no one else can help with the check.

Sometimes a special situation may arise in which rather than granting a boon, a deity demands a sacrifice to avoid divine punishment. An evil god might demand a sacrifice from a disobedient cleric (or one who has failed to perform a required duty or quest) before granting him new spells. Periodic sacrifices might also be required to power a temple’s defence system, such as an antimagic field, prismatic walls, a unique forbiddance or unhallow effect, or something similar. Typically, the religion check DC for such required sacrifices is 25, and no other reward is forthcoming for conducting the evil ritual.

Typical Sacrificial Rewards

Check Result	Effect
15	Aid upon the celebrant for 24 hours.
15	Enhance Ability upon the celebrant for 24 hours.
15	Fortune's Favour upon the celebrant for 24 hours.
15	Spider Climb upon the celebrant for 24 hours.
20	Beacon of Hope upon the celebrant for 24 hours.
20	Clairvoyance upon the celebrant for 24 hours.
20	Gaseous Form upon the celebrant for 24 hours.
25	Polymorph upon the celebrant for 24 hours.
25	Fiend of the deity's choosing appears and serves celebrant for 1 hour per HD/Level of the victim.
25	Control Water upon the celebrant for 24 hours.
30	Aid upon the watchers of the ceremony for 24 hours.
30	Enhance Ability upon the watchers of the ceremony for 24 hours.
30	Beacon of Hope upon the watchers of the ceremony for 24 hours.
30	Clairvoyance upon the watchers of the ceremony for 24 hours.
30	Gaseous Form upon the watchers of the ceremony for 24 hours.
30	Circle of Power upon the celebrant for 24 hours.
35	5 points of inspiration for the celebrant.
35	Control Weather upon the celebrant for 24 hours.
35	Glibness upon the celebrant for 24 Hours.
40	7 Points of inspiration for the celebrant.
40	Limited Wish for the celebrant.
45	True/Mass polymorph upon the celebrant for 24 hours.
50	Wish for the Celebrant.

Curses

Curses are an important type of evil magic. Although good or neutral-aligned characters sometimes use curses to strike at their enemies, curses are usually the domain of spiteful and malicious creatures.

Alternative Curses

When a spellcaster uses bestow curse, the following curses can be substituted for those given in the spell description.

• Target is rendered sterile.
• The next person introduced to the target for the first time will hate him or her uncontrollably forever. Even if this curse is removed, the person still hates the victim of the curse, but the victim can improve the person’s attitude normally after the curse is gone.
• Each time the target attempts to help a friend or ally, there is a 50% chance the attempt fails and causes the ally to fail at the task.
• Target is struck blind and deaf.
• Each round in combat, there is a 25% chance that the target will attack the nearest creature rather than choosing an opponent normally.
• Every time the victim makes a d20 roll, a roll of 20 counts as a 1.
• The victim effectively ages, until the curse is removed.
• At some point within the next week (or whenever it is feasible), thieves are able to steal all monetary wealth the victim has.
• Animals refuse to be within 5 feet of the target and do not respond to the target’s commands or requests.
• Each time the target meets someone for the first time, there is a 50% chance that the new person will confuse the target with a hated enemy, a well-known criminal, or a raving lunatic.
• All creatures of a specific kind (such as orcs, owlbears, or black dragons) are permanently invisible to the sight of the victim (invisibility purge does not help, but see invisibility and true seeing do). The spellcaster chooses the kind of creature.

If bestow curse is cast at a spell slot of 5th level or higher, than the following curses are also available;

• A random friend or family member of the target contracts a disease. If the disease is magically cured or runs its course (regardless of the outcome), another loved one contracts a new disease.
• The target’s most powerful and/or cherished item falls apart, becoming forever useless.
• Valuable metals (such as platinum, gold, silver, and copper) turn to lead in the target’s possession, even if they are in a bag of holding or stored away from the target. The target’s touch transmutes valuable metals (including coins) into lead as well.
• 1d4+1 of the target’s loved ones or allies are affected by a curse chosen from the bestow curse list above.
•  All of the target’s loved ones and allies suddenly despise him and are considered to have unfriendly attitudes.
•  The target cannot cast spells, use spell-like abilities, or activate spell completion or spell trigger items

Family Curses

Sometimes curses are passed through the generations of a single family like a hereditary disease. A family curse can pass from a parent to all children, or the curse can simply pass to the oldest child, the youngest child, the oldest child of a particular gender, a child with a particular trait, and so on. A family curse can be the result of a particularly powerful dying curse, a wish spell, the use of an artifact, or the interventions of a god. It can take the form of a regular curse, or it can seem to force a character toward a particular fate. Because curses of the latter sort lie in the realm of destiny and can be vague in their application, they are usually best left in the hands of the DM, rather than obeying a simple set of rules. 

Lifting a family curse requires more than a simple remove curse spell if the cursed bloodline has more than 10 Hit Dice or levels. A miracle or wish spell removes the curse, but each family curse also must have a single means of removing the curse with some deed that the DM designates. The deed must be something that the target can accomplish within one year, assuming the task is undertaken immediately. For example, the deed might be “Slay the dragon under Castle Bluecraft,” or “Climb the tallest mountain in the world.” The target of the dying curse can have help accomplishing the deed. In fact, someone else can accomplish the deed as long as removing the curse is the expressed purpose of the deed. Thus, the king’s champion can climb the tallest mountain in the world to remove the curse on the royal family, for example. But if someone who doesn’t know about the curse climbs the mountain, the curse remains. Family curses are generally the province of evil creatures, but this isn’t always the case. A good creature that was terribly wronged and tricked into its death may also bestow a family curse, at the DM’s discretion. 

Some fate-based family curses can be forever broken if one member of the family can simply resist the doomed destiny. Some sample family curses are given below;
Each oldest son is doomed to murder his father.

• The youngest daughter in each generation is doomed to become an evil spellcaster.
• The children of the family born with red hair are all terribly unlucky (as described in the bestow curse spell).
• One male child of each generation is doomed to be eaten by a dragon.
• The sixth daughter of a sixth daughter will bring doom to her entire land.

Using Curses

At times, curses may appear trivial. Why would a villain curse a foe rather than just using the same amount of magical power to obliterate the enemy instead? Because curses are an ultimate expression of true malice. It is often far more cruel to allow something to live in pain and disfigurement than to kill it and end the creature’s misery. If a villain is particularly evil, such as a devil or a demon, great delight comes from causing harm rather than causing death. Assuming that your villain is confident or powerful enough to risk a curse, it’s hard to resist the temptation of showing the world what happens to anyone who crosses her. But curses are always a risky proposition: The cursed victim might get the curse removed and seek revenge on the curse-giver. Dying curses and greater curses can become wonderful springboards for D&D scenarios. If something cannot simply be undone with a spell, the action or remedy required to lift the curse is something that great adventures are made of. On the other hand, don’t overuse curses. Don’t have every defeated villain speak a dying curse, and don’t let the dying curse become routine.  Let a curse be a rare moment of true drama for your campaign.