DMing Chemistry

 Wolfskin belts are one of the few magic items that don't require expensive ingredients or much magical knowledge to create. In all that is needed is the pelt of a wolf, a small offering of flesh from something a wolf would eat, and a short prayer to Wolf of the Great Beasts . If the spirit of the wolf to whom the pelt belonged to accepts the sacrifice, Wolf will allow whoever jumps through the hoop of the belt made from the pelt to take the form of the deceased wolf. To turn back, the user must jump through the hoop again, from the other direction.  For the ease of making the jumps, most wolfskin belts are made much longer than normal belts, which can help to distinguish them from normal articles of clothing. Usually they are undecorated, or only have small keepsakes of the former owner dangling from them, but the few that were made by rich and powerful sorcerers are of course suitably adorned, usually with silver and/or rubies, both associated with Wolf. As they are so easy ...

  Old Khepsu is the name of the largest river of the lands of the Reptilians , and the god that dwells in its waters. While usually calm, once a year the river floods and buries everything in its path with rich black sediment, which allows for the cultivation of the best crops in the known world. However woe betide anyone caught in these floodwaters, as they will be swept along, and their mangled corpses shall be a feast for the vultures and the crocodiles. Old Khepsu as a god is usually calm and benevolent, however he is sometimes suddenly overcome with rage, then he just attacks and destroys everything around him. According to legend, he sometimes even strikes the face of Atar-Numash , so hard he stars to cry. This is why it sometimes rains, even when the sun is shining. After he calms down, he is always very apologetic, and it is believed that his blessing of good harvest after the flood is is his way of making up for his acting in anger. To his clerics Old Khepsu bestows the po...

Most deities have a host of lesser supernatural agents helping them carry out their duties, which are collectively referred to as the servitors of the gods. Usually these are their offspring, transfigured souls of beloved followers, or creature purpose-made to fulfill their tasks. A such, their forms can vary wildly from deity to deity, and even from task to task. Some would pass for mortals, some are unbearably beautiful, and some are so alien, as to be indescribable. Generally those servitors who are meant to interact with mortals look the most like them, or at least as a mixture of things mortals can comprehend. Those that are so alien as to cause mortals to flee in terror from just glimpsing their forms, usually are meant to ensure the proper functioning of the world from behind the scenes. This, however has not stopped mortals from using magic to call forth servitors they have no business dealing with, often with tragic results.

  Nim-Kippur was a Bronze Elf hero who lived a few hundred years ago. He founded the city of Nim-Artash, slew many monsters including the dragon named The Flying Pestilence, and the man-eating giant Martok. According to the priests in Nim-Artash, when he died, he was raised to dwell among the gods. The same priests claim that one of the swords in their care once belonged to this legendary hero. The sword in question is a nice, but not overly decorated one, made out of bronze with brass decorations along the crossguard and the hilt. It is made in a style that has fallen out of style in the last century, being somewhat shorter and thicker than most swords made today, but since it is maintained so well by the temple, it is hard to say its real age. Various myths of the surrounding lands ascribe magical powers to the sword, such as being able to cut anything, up to and including boulders, chariots, and even solid bars of copper. Another often mentioned ability in those legends is its...

 In the lands of the Reptilians , in the city of Khetesh, there is a continual flame watched over by an order of clerics, which is said to have been going since the creation of the world. According to the clerics, it was lit by Hath-Ur , when she came down from the sky for a brief moment, and her heat lit a tarpit alight. After the tar was gone, the clerics kept feeding the holy flames and finally moved them to a temple built specifically to house it. While there is some debate about the authenticity of this account, it is undeniable that the Flame of Khetesh is not an ordinary flame. It burns brighter than any other fire of its size, and its color is more washed out than normal fire. There have been accounts of little pieces of the Flame being taken to dangerous quests of unparalleled importance, and reportedly no demons were able to come into the area lit by the Flame, and those that found themselves there, were immediately paralyzed with pain. There is also a report that describ...

 According to the sage Ashtun of Nashat-Ippur, otters are among the Five Wise Animals and bear the gift of prophesy. While the latter is almost certainly an exaggeration, priests, sorcerers, and other wise men have used the image of otters as a shorthand for learning and wisdom for hundreds of years.  Otter bones have a strange magical affinity to magic involving the manipulation of the weather, and are often used in magic items, or as spellcasting foci when such an effect is required. Otters are also completely immune to lightning, and their hides can be made into lightning-proof tents, or cloaks that greatly reduce or straight-up nullify the effects of lightning-based magic on the wearer.   Davepape , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 Oresians are strange, ethereal creatures that dance through a myriad worlds on rays of moonlight. Sometimes they misstep, and get trapped in our world. They don't tend to last long, given their physiology is ill-suited to a world with such rigid laws of physics, such caustic atmosphere, and such a sharp divide between dreams and reality. Still, they try their best to survive, and maybe on the night of the next full moon return to dancing across alien skies. But to do that, they need sustenance, and that can be a problem. They feed on dreams and aspirations, but unlike the more naturalized beings, they have no good way of extracting them from a person's skull, without opening it up and slurping down the brain. For a while they can subsist on animals, but the dreams of a goat or a rat can only go so far. Sooner or later they will try to take more sapient prey. They look like giant masses of tentacles with translucent, insect-like wings and large compound eyes. No two are exactly...

Em-Nitir is perhaps the oldest, and most graceful benefactor of mortals, as her first gift to them was wheat. She also taught them how to farm, and how to make bread. The demons upon hearing this captured and killed her, burying her underground. Thankfully one of the Underworld deities, Etim-Naqtar, fell in love with her, and agreed to restore her to life. So now she spends half of the year up in the world of the living to help grow crops, and half in the Underworld with her new husband. For this reason, she is also the messenger between the gods of the sky and the gods of the Underworld, and thus she is also the patron of messengers and travellers who walk uncertain roads. She also helps lost souls find their way to the Underworld when she makes her yearly voyage down there.  Her holy days are the various harvest festivals in autumn, when wheat is cut and collected. These vary in their precise timing from place to place, and there are a few pilgrimage routes set up, where the fai...

 Rather rare and elusive, the woolly hippos of the northern lands are just as ferocious as their southern cousins. They are slightly larger than normal hippos, and their fur can make them seem even bigger. Like otters, they have special glands on their skin that excrete an oily substance which makes their fur waterproof. This hippo-oil is sometimes used in perfumes, incenses and magical concoctions, so even though hunting these animals is rather dangerous, there is a lucrative market not just for their meat and fur, but other body-parts as well. Woolly hippos are less social than southern hippos, they usually live in groups of only up to around five members, most of the time a female and her children. This makes hunting them a bit easier, but finding them a bit harder. Old hunters will tell you that they used to be more common in their youths, and there may be something to that. Some Sorcerer-kings even tried using them as living weapons , but it seems even with magical help, getti...

 Bands of Brothers is the name of a pair of magical leather wristbands. They are decorated with brass, and depict a ceremony in which two people cut their hands, mix their blood in a chalice, take and oath, then drink from the chalice. This is a representation of a common ceremony where two people declare each other blood-siblings, meaning they vow to treat each other like family. The ceremony itself is rather popular with the northern humans, and the eastern nomadic peoples, but almost every culture has a variation of it. When two people put on the Bands, their life becomes linked. If one is hurt, the other is also hurt. Additionally one may sacrifice some of their vital energies to heal the other (both need to consent to this). Once two people have put on the bands, they cannot be removed. Even if an arm is chopped off, the band will just appear on the other one. If both are missing, it moves to the legs, then to the neck. The bands may only be removed after one of the wearers di...

 Some say, that all gods the orcs venerate are gods of war. While this is not true, it's undeniable that orcs pray to many war-gods, and that they often ask even their less warlike deities for boons in combat. Of course some orcish gods are more than happy to provide this sort of benefit. Astor, the Most Brilliant Star, is one of these gods. While as the most brilliant star in the sky, Astor has been the patron of sailors and travellers, he is also a brutal and unforgiving god of combat, slaughter, and the horrors of war. Just as his star shines to lead people to their destination, so does it glow brilliantly over the dead and the wounded. This duality might seem paradoxical, and it is true that no small amount of ink has been spilled over Astor's true nature, but most orcs will just shrug, and say that the sea or the road can be just as cruel as a battlefield, and that just as Astor guides sailors home, so does he guide armies to war. In art, Astor is usually represented as a...

 Vampires don't exist. Alternatively, many types of vampires exist that are so different from each other, that lumping them under the same umbrella term isn't all that useful, as all of them have different habits, strengths, weaknesses, origins, and lifecycles. So here are some creatures that can be called vampires:  The Kirki-Turo are a species of remora-like creatures, which can inhabit a humanoid's body, eat the organs inside, then take control of the husk, puppeting it around, occasionally emerging from its mouth to garb onto new prey, and suck its blood. By devouring the brain, they can gain access to the memories and intellect of their host, but concepts like compassion and love are alien to them. They will always view themselves as predators, and humanoids their prey. The Laernians, are a people cursed by the gods for long-forgotten sins. While humanoid, they take on the aspect of giant ticks, their bellies swollen and red with blood, their mouths elongated and harde...

 Brother to Atar-Numash , Adan-Imros is the god that rules over all saltwater. He his petty, and can be quite antagonistic, even if he allows humans to fish from his waters. According to myth, he was co-ruling the skies with his brother, but then got banished to only rule the oceans after a drunken rampage, during which he insulted most other gods, and passed out in a pig pen. He retained his dominion over snakes and meteors however, and he is credited with sinking Ei-Lantis when its people unknowingly helped someone he cursed to perish on the waves. He is often depicted as a bearded man with the lower body of a fish, holding a fisherman's spear. His sacred symbols are the snake eating its own tail, the armor-headed fish, and the seven-spoked wheel, as a representation of a myth where he was challenged to make the best wheel for a chariot race, so he forged the world into a wheel, with the earth being the hub, the sky being the rim, and the seven seas being the spokes. His holy da...

 Many strange creatures inhabit the bogs of the Starfallen Beast , but none are stranger than the alien creatures known as the parasites from beyond the stars. As the name suggests, they were most likely parasites on the body of the fallen behemoth, not unlike lice or ticks. However, with the death of their host, they were forced to adapt to a more terrestrial lifestyle. A change, which they have successfully made, despite some difficulties. Nowadays these parasites fit well into the ecosystem of the bogs, functioning as large carnivores, that are still kept in check by crocodiles, and other apex predators.  While not sapient, these creatures do show signs of intelligence, as they are capable of working together, and form packs of up to ten individuals, which sleep, move, and hunt together. The outward appearance of the parasites leaves no doubt about their alien origins. They look like a curious mix of a tick, a spider and a monkey, completely hairless, and covered in whit...

  This horn is made from an unknown keratinous substance, and its origin is said to be one of the horns of a strange creature that fell to the earth . It has a strange, purplish hue to it, and is decorated with elaborate carvings of the many otherworldly creatures the beast bore onto this world. It is currently in the possession of King Tarmakan, one of the preeminent leaders of the people of the bog, though he often loans it to his sons when they are sent on diplomatic missions to the surrounding lands.  Whenever the Horn is blown, its sound can be heard in the entirety of the bog. It will also attract some of the stranger creatures dwelling there, which will arrive after a few moments if within the bog, or within minutes or hours, depending on the horn's distance to the body of the Starfallen Beast. Nobody currently knows how these creatures are able to traverse entire kingdoms in a matter of hours, but theories abound. Some suggest teleportation, others that they move thro...

  The Bogs of the Starfallen Beast, are a strange place. Long ago the carcass of a massive creature fell from the stars, landing in a riverbed, forcing the water to take unpredictable courses around and under it. So huge was the body that the river could not just go around it, instead having to form lakes, bogs, and bayous in the vicinity until it finally finds its way back into the riverbed. This created an environment those that know their way around the myriad waterways can cross easily, while foreigners are left lost and are thwarted every step of the way.  The decaying remains of the titanic creature that fell also warped the land in strange and mysterious ways. Plants and animals are always just a bit strange, and even people from the area exhibit a sort of ethereal quality rarely seen in folks from elsewhere. Sometimes it also seems as if the land itself was protecting its inhabitants, shielding them with strange mists, winds carrying their voices close when they are fa...

 The Eiridian Clam is a rather average merchant vessel sailing the seas. Previously most of its business was coming from ferrying tin from Caeledor all the way around the mainland to the various empires of the Inner Sea. However, with the political instability in Caeledor and the threat of the Invaders plundering sea trade, the crew was forced to run less ambitious trading routes, where their lack of familiarity, and the frequent raids caused the enterprise to slowly run out of money. The ship is currently anchored in the harbor of Ak-Setresh, a city on the northern coast of the empire of the Reptilians .  The captain of the Clam is a morose orc named Telemakhos, who is all too aware that he cannot afford to buy cargo anymore, and is desperately looking for either a patron, or someone rich that might hire his ship and crew. If he doesn't find one soon, he will be forced to choose between piracy or selling his ship, neither of which sits well with him. Other important people o...

 The land of Ei-Lantis is protected by many enchantments. They have been weaved over hundreds of years, by many Sorcerer-Kings, priests, and other masters of the divine arts. However there is one item that, that is so interwoven with the magic of the land, that its wearer can control all these spells, and through them, assume almost direct control over much of the land itself. This artifact is of course the Royal Crown of Ei-Lantis, bestowed upon its Sorcerer-King. The Crown itself is a strange design: a steel circlet, with golden spikes jutting upwards from it, decorated with coral and pearls. It emits a subtle bluish green glow that always illuminates the wearer. It also makes the wearer's eyes glow menacingly, if they wish. Besides its use as a sort of control panel for the kingdom's defensive spells, the Crown also has a few enchantments on its own, that are independent of the land of Ei-Lantis, and work outside of it. The first is that it grants the wearer a sort of echolo...