Calendar of the Bless'd Lands

I love calendars. They are my favorite parts of a setting and super important to me when it comes to making me feel immersed and informing decisions. So, here's a calendar for the Bless'd Lands.

Sun Stone, the inspiration for this calendar.

CYCLE OF THE HALF-SUN

&

THE MEASUREMENT OF ARMAGEDDON'S HUNT

The calendar was created once it was made clear that the City of the Dragon Wife was the only city left remaining, and after the rise of Tiamat and the death of the God-King. Dates before this are unmeasured and forgotten. As it is widely believed that the Bless'd Lands are the afterlife, then its current incarnation is considered its own world, and therefore philosophically no days before the beginning of this calendar exist.

The calendar is named as it follows the cycle of days created by the half-sun, as well as a prophecy dictating how long it will take to slay Tiamat and end rebirth the world.

A day holds 6 moments. A single moment is equal to 4 hours of time, meaning that a standard day is around 24 hours. Each moment contains 240 minutes, measured one by one. The correct notation of this would be [Number of passed minutes] [Moment's name]. Example: 146 Murdered God. The moments are divided as follows.

1. Moment of the Widowed Moon. From our midnight to 4 A.M. Named as such because it is believed that this is when the moon's lover died, unleashing dragons upon the world.
2. Moment of the Murdered God. From 4 A.M to 8 A.M. Named as such because this is when the Radiant Saint murdered the God-King.
3. Moment of Butchery & Lovemaking. From 8 A.M to noon. Named as such because this is when butchers and other laborers begin their days. Also an auspicious time for having children.
4. Moment of Heliography & Law. From noon to 4 P.M. Named as such because this is when the half-sun is bright and Sintotec openly meditates, allowing painters and authorities to use their mirrors for heliography.
5. Moment of Sweat & Skill. From 4 P.M to 8 P.M. Named as such because it is the second half of the 8-hour work day, where laborers work on their more difficult projects.
6. Moment of Closed-Eyed Hashish. From 8 P.M to midnight. Named as such because it is where most workers wind down or party, smoking hashish and going to sleep.

The year consists of 365 of days, broken up into eighteen 20-day months. There are 5 additional names, which are sacred days observed throughout the year. The months are broken up into Sacred Seasons, where one god in particular is venerated and where that god is the strongest. In this way, these gods rule the city in the God-King's absence, allowing for order. Allalotl and Sintotec share one season, and Ereshteteo does not have her own season due to her exile. The days have no names, and are simply given numbers 1-20. Years are named by Handless Priests during the New Year and are prophetic. The correct way of saying the date is [Day Number] [Month Name], [Name of Year]. Example: 14 Shed Blood, Nine Lost Stars. 

People of the Bless'd Lands do not recognize a zodiac or constellations as a whole. The Handless Priests do, and so that information is best left to them, who can understand and manipulate it as needed.

Below are described the 3 Sacred Seasons and their corresponding months. Being born during a certain month ascribes you a personality trait. 

Sacred Season of the Twin Monarchs

Gods Held Sacred: Veiled Weeper Allalotl & Half-Sun Sintotec

Months

1. Days to Share Tears. Allalotl starts the year our with a month of mourning for the many losses sustained in the Bless'd Lands. Being born this month implies a character of deep sadness.
2. Days to Revere Honors. Sintotec's month is dedicated to remembering the honor of those that fought to save the God-King. Being born this month implies a character who is self-sacrificing.
3. Days to Shed Blood. Sintoteic's next month is dedicated to blood sacrifice and killing drakes. Being born this month implies one will live a violent life.
4. Days to Have Children. Allalotl's next month is dedicated to having children, and for honoring the Dragon Wives' inability to have children. Being born this month implies one will become a Dragon Wife.
5. Days to Polish Opal. Allalotl's last month is dedicated to remembering the Old Opal Kings and the worlds before now. Being born this month implies one's legacy will be bright.
6. Days to Melt Gold. Sintotec's last month is dedicated to forging weapons and making armor. Being born this month implies one will be ever-ready for problems they face in life.

Sacred Season of the Gatekeeper

God Held Sacred: Gatekeeper Metamm

Months

1. Days of Foreign Dead. Metamm starts his season with a month dedicated to foreigners appearing in the city. Being born this month implies a character that will travel far.
2. Days of Deep Blue. The next month is dedicated stories and festivals taking place between Moments of Sweat & Skills and Closed-Eye Hashish. Being born this month implies a character who loves to do wild stunts to enjoy themselves.
3. Days of Written Pslams. The next month is dedicated to laws, cuneiform tablets, and the speaking of poetry. Being born this month implies a character with artistic talent.
4. Days of Stone Angels. The next month is dedicated to improving the defenses of the city, as well as producing lots of food and goods to last for the next season. Being born this month implies a fastidious character.
5. Days of Mortal Reminders. The next month is dedicated to those with long, red shadows making preparations to go out into the dunes. Being born this month implies one will become a gatherer.
6. Days of Drunk Blood. Metamm's final month is dedicated to auto-sacrifice by the city's population, which the gods then drink and give to Xoash. Being born this month implies one will live a devout life.

Sacred Season of the Hidden Seer.

God Held Sacred: Blood Dream Xoash.

Months

1. Days when Harvests End. Xoash starts his season with the final harvest from the city's gardens. Being born this month implies a character that will become someone relied upon.
2. Days when Work Births. The next month is dedicated to working on and planning projects that will go on over the course of the next year. Being born this month implies someone who is optimistic.
3. Days when Sin Confesses. The next month is dedicated to parades of criminals and showing the virtues of a righteous person. Being born this month implies a strong sense of justice.
4. Days when Divine Rests. The next month is dedicated to writing down all the visions Xoash gives to the people in their dreams and nightmares. Being born this month implies someone has a great destiny.
5. Days when Sacrifices Bless. The next month is dedicated to the sacrifice of prisoners, volunteer warriors, and losers in games. Being born this month implies someone with a pious character.
6. Days when Handless Write. The next month is dedicated to the oracle-rants of the Handless Priests being discussed publicly. Being born this month implies someone who is of charismatic character.

The 5 Holidays

1. New Year's Death. The last day of the year, where operas recreate the death of the God-King. Everyone wears black and thin blindfolds so as not to see the sun, just as their king no longer can. People eat half a portion of food and leave the other portion for the elements to devour, in hopes that it'll restore life to the Bless'd Lands. Old Opal Kings walk the wall and rooftops.
2. The Day of New Fire. The first day of the new year, where people dance naked in the streets, light fires, and share the fires with each other. Sintotec kills one of his volunteer warriors and the flame is distributed to the houses of people who have lost loved ones the previous year. Day ends with people watching the sunset of the half-sun and then festivities all night until the Moment of the Widowed Moon begins.
3. When Perfect Masks Are Worn. This holiday happens at the beginning of the Sacred Season of the Gatekeeper. Everyone wears masks and elaborate costumes throughout the day. Foreigners stand out more because of this, who are treated as honored guests and who are given guides. Some people celebrated this holiday for the entire of the Days of Foreign Dead. Funerals are held at the end of the day for all guests.
4. When Shooting Stars Are Captured. This holiday happens between the Days of Stone Angels and the Days of Mortal Reminders. Shooting stars are drawn in paint and, the next day, heliographed into buildings and bridges across the city. These shooting stars are believed to be omens that the Handless Priests can read and decipher, empowering their oracular abilities. Also a good excuse to make some dope art.
5. When Kings Walk Among Us. This holiday happens between the Days of Holy Rest and the Days of Fresh Sacrifice. Old Opal Kings and other Burned Ghosts wander the streets. They travel in a parade from dusk to dawn to the Dragon Wive's Pyramid, appearing from thin air to begin their march. People cook large meals and leave them out, and the meals are in turn turned to ash. At the end of the day, the ghosts fade, and it rains pure water over the city. There is no work done on this day.

Years

Below is a number of year names. In the final book there'll be a d100 table of these, or something similar. There are great debates surrounding the names Handless Priest give years. They always have three words making them up.

• Silks Burn Blood
• Mountains Make Queens
• Hurry Faster Hurry
• Wolves Eat Gods
• Gods Eat Wolves
• Something Rises No
• Blink And Shatter
• Moths Eat Hearts
• Moon Sets Gold
• Impossible Death Yesterday
• Sun Bleeds Sons
• Moon Makes Might
• Teeth Gnash Throat
• Nine Lost Stars
• Heaven Valleys Sunk
• Water Floods Night
• Angels Cry Plagues
• Stone Crumbles Flowers
• Feathers Blossom Birds
• Valley Deepens Brightly
• Sky Weeps Omens
• Crane Standing Still
• Wife Loses Heart
• Husband Finds Demon
• Sin In Heaven

A lot of these work as campaign titles. Pick one and say to yourself "I will decipher this and make a campaign out of it."

Tiamat Created Hyena Homunculi to Weaponize Their Conspiracies

After the radiant saint Ra'Coszcatl invaded the City of the Dragon Wives, a number of other saints wished to replicate their success. Knowing that their numbers were few and their methods unique, they took  a cackle of hyenas and an unborn child and smelted them together in a forge of dragon breath and draconic radiance. Thus was born the first Hyena Ka.

The saints paint them with radiance to look human.

The Hyena Ka looks in all ways the same as a human does. They are incredibly intelligent, to the point of surpassing genius intellect. Each has a poison-laced silver tongue. They are sociopaths, and dragons their tribes. Their DNA is too radiant to identify with human or hyena. Tiamat and her consorts can, at any time, arrest their thoughts and control them directly, but normally the Hyena Ka are left to act on their own.

With the powers of a goddess behind them, they are inserted into City culture. They get a job, find love, have a family. Their laugh is seductive and can interfere with your memories. They make conspiracies. They sabotage. They are sleeper agents waiting to bring down the city in one violent motion. They convert false friends and lied-to loved ones to dragon-worshiping cults. They poison wells and introduce radiation to butchered drake-meat. They go into gardens and piss on the tree roots and carve nasty words into the bark.

They are sly. You don't know who is a Hyena Ka and who is not. The idea that hyena-people have entered the city is lunacy. You're a saboteur yourself for thinking it; you're trying to cover up your own evil; you're going to be executed for committing these crimes. Xoco was never in the market last night; Xoco was seen with his husband; Xoco is a loyal scribe and would never change the text of the Handless rants. You are a liar. You are a slanderer. You are exiled into the Bless'd lands; may Annihilation find you swiftly.

You did not surprise them. They expected that you or something like you would appear and create this problem. The Gatekeeper still draws breath and so foreign variables are always being added to the equation. They account for this. Imagine a puzzle cube. Try to solve it. The polished sides give no hint to the way in. After years, with your obsession claiming you, you finally open it, just to find  another puzzle deeper in. This is both the common response to discovering the Hyena Ka and how the mind of the Hyena Ka works.

Their laughs can be heard as cackles in your dreams. The more you know, the more violent they are.

REALIZING THE CONSPIRACY

Every day that the party is in the City of the Dragon Wives, the Game Master should roll a d20 and not explain what it is for. On a 20, the party sees one of the following things, initiating them into the conspiracy. If a large amount of time passes without play inside the city, roll 1d20. An 18-20 triggers the encounter.

Roll 1d6 on the following table or make your own.

Hyena Conspiracy Initiation Table

d6	Odd Sign
1	An individual is seen pouring something strange into a well.
2	An individual is seen leading others into a small building. They are constantly looking behind them.
3	An individual is following the party. When looked at, they laugh and walk away. They always return.
4	An individual is sticking their fingers into their mouth and rubbing the fingers on unattended butcher's meat.
5	An individual has been watching an important building for 12 hours straight.
6	An individual walks into the gardens and walks out a moment later with blood on their hands.

Should the party follow up on these encounters and investigate, they are now in Level 1 of the Hyena Conspiracy. The levels are described below. The players rise through the levels by triggering rolls on the Hyena Conspiracy Encounter Table.

Levels

Level 1: The individual you followed is normal. They live a good life. They have many friends and their relationships are strong. They look at you. They look you in your eyes. You hear soft laughing when you sleep. They introduce themselves. They show you their life. They make you happy because they are happy. After 1 week of following, roll on the Hyena Conspiracy Encounter Table.

Level 2: Something is different. You never find them alone. Their whole group whispers when you walk by. You see them more often. They are your butcher. They are your painter. They are your room-provider. They are your merchant. Sometimes, your belongings are moved around in your bag. When you sleep, something wakes you up, and the floor creaks, but you are alone. Golden eyes can be seen in alleyways. You hear cackling when you sleep. Roll on the Hyena Conspiracy Encounter Table after you thoroughly investigate.

Level 3: You receive an encoded message in the form of a painting. Your draconic radiance increases by +1. Dragon Wives start looking at you with hostility, even if you are one. Everyone seems to be talking about you, whispering--you never catch what they say. People won't serve you. Everywhere you go, something is broken. Everywhere you go, something bad happens. Children fall and die, merchant stalls break, scribes break down into tears. You are watched. Everyone has golden eyes. No one else sees them. You hear a cackle of hyenas all cackling in your nightmares. Roll three times on the Hyena Conspiracy Encounter Table.

Hyena Conspiracy Encounter Table

Roll 1d20. If an option is rerolled, roll again or make your own. Will be a 1d100 in the final book.

d20	Encounter
1	A dead, butchered drake bites off the butcher's hand. You see someone flee the scene.
2	A scribe falls from his perch and dies with a broken neck. Someone laughs.
3	Children surround you and sing about hyenas. Someone sings with them.
4	Someone approaches someone else, hands them an obsidian dagger, and looks at you.
5	Someone is attacked by someone else viciously. The victim has a hyena's shadow.
6	An old mural-message depcits dragon wives being eaten by hyenas. Someone with paint-stained hands is leaving.
7	Someone screams and a building collapses. Someone laughs and leaves.
8	A gatherer gives the party their equipment. The equipment belongs to someone else.
9	A merchant sells the party something at a discount. The thing(s) are fakes.
10	A crier is speaking news. The news is about the party, and it is fake.
11	The party recieves an invitation to the God's Pyramid. The invitation is meant for a Dragon Wife.
12	The party recieves an invitation to the Dragon Wife temple. It makes them appear as if they are draconic.
13	A state is placed into the party's room as they sleep. It is shaped like a hyena fucking a dragon.
14	Someone is running away from someone else. A spectator has golden eyes.
15	A judge puts out a warrant for the party's arrest. The judge disappears after the arrest and the party is cleared.
16	People begin to choke and die after drinking from a well. Someone with golden eyes stands back up and stumbles away.
17	A Hope of Women are found dead. A painter with golden eyes discovers the party's belongings on the scene.
18	A ravished individual stumbles out of an alleyway. They pin the crime on the party. The individual has golden eyes.
19	Something important to the gods has gone missing. An individual bumps into the party. That thing is now in the party's belongings.
20	Someone is sleeping in the party's room. The person, when woken, vomits, stumbles out, and says another individual gave them this bed to sleep in.

OSR Stats for Hyena Ka

Hyena Ka

HD 2 (10) SPEED 1.5x that of Standard Human

ARMOR As Studded Leather (unnaturally tough skin)

MORALE 6 normally

ATTACK

• Tecpatl: +4 to hit 1d4hp.

SPECIAL

• If touched by a Dragon Wife, the Hyena Ka will have the eyes of a hyena for 24 hours.
• The Hyena Ka can smell Dragon Wives.
• The Hyena Ka automatically succeeds on any check that would require intelligence.
• The Hyena Ka can increase the intensity of their laugh in someone's dreams. Save vs Magic or lose the ability to rest until a save is passed.
• The Hyena Ka can never tell the full truth, and never a full lie, but only half-truths.
• The Hyena Ka can shapeshift into a spotted hyena.
• The Hyena Ka can communicate through dreams with fellow Hyena Ka.
• If a Hyena Ka loses its radiation, it turns into a featureless thing, gaining 10 hit points, +2 to AC, and +5 to damage.

The Adventurer Idea V0.1

This is an OSR class. Working this through a series of blog posts over time. Heavily inspired by this post.

by Matt Rhodes

HD: 1d12.
Die Bonus: +1
Saves: All saves are 15 (roll under to save)

You learn 1d4 skills* of your choice.

Choose one of the following categories. You gain the benefits listed in that category. When you level up, pick the same or another category and gain the benefits again. When you level up, you can change another one of your previous levels to a new category. So if you're level 3 going to level 4, you not only choose what your level 4 category is, but can change your level 1, 2, or 3 category as well, but only one of them.

All the tables, and the list of tricks (and maybe skills) are obviously not in this blog post.

Esoteric
-Roll on the esoteric traits table (or a table marked as an esoteric replacement).
-+1 to saves vs magic.
-+1 on rolls against arcane, divine, eldritch, or mystical problems**.

Learn'd
-You learn a new skill.
-+1 to all saves.
-+1 on rolls requiring book smarts or overall intelligence to solve problems, and to creating things.

Tricky
-Learn a trick of your choice.
-+1 to saves vs poison, disease, or being coerced.
+1 on rolls to trick others, be stealthy, using equipment for problems, or steal things.

Warlike
-Roll on the warlike traits table (or a table marked as a warlike replacement).
-+1 to saves vs being restrained or intimidated.
+1 on rolls when dealing with any problem by dealing damage to it or forcing it through non-magical means.


*Skills, mechanically, allow you to take 10 and to add your Die bonus. They also allow for special things if you get over 20 with them.
**Problems, mechanically, are anything you as a player need to solve. This can be attacking a monster, solving a riddle, finding a trap, learning how to break a curse, etc.

Cantrips in the Esoteric Spellcasting System + A New Spell

I like 5e's idea of cantrips because they let magical characters have spammable magical effects that make the player feel more magical as opposed to just a dude who shoots a crossbow when not slinging the occasional spell. But I don't like most of the cantrips themselves, nor the idea of magic being easily learnable. So, my solution.

Cantrips are minor spells that a person can learn after having learned their first spell. The ability to create reality-bending effects at will, no matter how minor, is outside the realm of  mortal ability, however it can be learned in fraction.

After their 1st cantrip, a magic-user learns an additional cantrip for every 10 spells they learn. This means that someone who has somehow learned all 40 of my esoteric spells would know a grand total of 4 cantrips. This is the result of them being so thoroughly irradiated by magic that they can reliably create these effects without risk of mishandling.

Using a cantrip always costs an action. Below are some example cantrips.

Change What Thy Eye Sees
With a wave of the hand you bleed your mystic radiation into the eyes of those around you. They begin to hallucinate strange visions, which all have a 2-in-6 chance of being true.

Let Us Dance in the Fire of the Faerie
You rub your hands together and create a strange wind the color of muted rainbows. Whoever is touched by this wind within 30 feet of you radiate one of the seven colors of the rainbows. This radiation lasts for an hour, and persists in darkness of any kind, and is visible for miles.

Additionally, spells like 5e's thaumaturgy/prestidigitation/druidcraft are good cantrips. Cantrips don't really do damaging stuff, though they might if creatively used. They are really just meant to give magic-users a cool, spammable gimmick effect to affect the game with beyond that of their actual spells.

And now, for a real spell.

Steal away the sun.

Quiet the Sun with the Left ; Brush Away Stars with the Right

Quiet the Sun with the Left; Brush Away Stars with the Right requires two hands with 5 digits each as its primary ingredient. Additionally, the sun must be in its 9 A.M position and you must know the true names of at least 100 constellations, all of which must be uttered in preparation for this spell to be completed.

The stars are sentient beings, and every star is apart of a larger hivemind--a constellation. Were it not for our sun, whom is curiously protective of life, the constellations would have long since consumed all mortals to slurp on their blood and to consume their souls. For just a while, it is possible to quiet the sun's light and to brush away the constellations, bringing a total, peaceful darkness to the earth--one that is cold and absolute.

Once the names of 100 constellations have been uttered, the caster raises their left hand and covers the sun with it. Slowly they must clench their hand into a fist. As this happens, the sun's light will dim, stolen and consumed by the caster's now raised fist. Then, with the right hand, the caster must spend 1 hour moving their hand across the now revealed cosmos, erasing starlight where it is. Once this is done, there world will effectively be one with neither sun nor stars existing.

In addition to an absolute darkness that bathes the planet, this has numerous other effects. As long as the left hand is clenched, the sun will not return, and in a few days all small plants will die. Within 1 week, the temperature will plummet globally by 32* F. Within 1 month's time, death will freeze, mortals will cease to die, and the world will become a place of quiet, meditating undead, free from the ambitious but lying light of the creation.

Should the caster's fist ever become unclenched or the hand be severed from their body, the stars return over a period of an hour and the sun over a period of 10 minutes. Death will thaw soon after, and all those who should have died will die.

Notable uses of this spell have been to terrify populaces, force monarchs into unreasonable demands, and to create a cover of darkness and awe-inspiring terror to allow the magic-user and their allies to do whatever they feel must be done.

If casting this spell fails, roll 1d6 on the mishandling table below.

1. The sun grows angry with your attempt and focuses its light on you. You take 10 fire damage within 6 seconds, and then 100 fire damage in the next minute, and 1000 fire damage in the next hour. This damage continues until even your soul is turned to embers.
2. The light you've stolen overwhelms your body. You glow as brightly as the sun for 1d10 hours, after which it fades and the sun regains its light.
3. The constellations are upset that you brushed them away. At night, they watch you, and will enter into your dreams to seed your mind with lies and conspiracies.
4. Your hands cannot perform the celestial feats you command them too. The flesh is flayed from them, reducing them to bones.
5. The sun rebels against you as you capture its light. The spell fails, and you are consumed by the star and forced to live for a thousand years burning inside its core.
6. The constellations respond to your magic before you can brush them away. In a flash of starlight you disappear, captured by them to be sacrificed and consumed.

A New Spellcasting System and a Spell

I haven't liked most spellcasting systems I've seen, so I've made my own.

You have a number of d6 equal to your proficiency bonus + your spellcasting ability modifier. If you're playing an OSR game, you have a number of d6 equal to your magic-user levels + your number of spell slots.

You don't actually have spell slots.

When you cast a spell, roll your pool of d6. You need at least a single 6 to succeed. Any dice showing a 1 are removed from the pool until you complete 8 hours of rest. If you have your success, voila, the spell is cast. If you fail to cast the spell, you roll on the spell mishandling table.

You can cast a number of spells this way equal to your total magic-user levels. Additional spells past that point require 1 additional success per casting. So if you're level 5, you can cast 5 spells for 1 success. The 6th spell will require 2, the 7th three, etc.

Spells are serious shit. They are esoteric, weird, powerful, hard to understand, and not always useful but always impactful. A wizard casting a spell is an impressive thing that creates legends and burns itself into the memory of all who see it. For this reason, you can only cast spells "safely" (read 1 success=cast) again after a week of meditation and rest, righting yourself with the world in the process.

This may seem restrictive if you're thinking of spells as one-off effects like Fireball or Magic Missile or Charm Person. But those aren't spells, those are the weak efforts of hack-wizards pretending to be the real deal. No, with this magic system, you don't bother with such trite shit. Instead, you cast real spells.

Below is an example.

Probably a Warlock, Witch, or Wizard spell.

MALEDICTION & MISFORTUNES BESTOWED UPON THY SOUL

Malediction & Misfortunes Bestowed Upon Thy Soul involves the ingredients of one ounce of innocent's blood, a lock of hair from your intended target, the heart string of a woman wronged by her lover, and an impossibly visceral hatred or sense of disgust at the target of the spell. Their location does not matter. Casting the spell can be done in a single instant, consuming all of the ingredients in a conflagration of nightmare-flame--black and slick as oil--or over an 8 hour period, in which case the spell's effects are greater than anticipated. The ritual for performing this spell requires an environment closed off from sunlight, filled with incense smoke that smells of corpses and strawberry, and candles arranged in three half-circles around the ingredients. 

Hatred and disgust are emotions easily weaponized by magic. The casting of this spell turns them into literal swords, invisible to the mortal eye, that fly through the dream-space of the mind and impale the muse and genius of a target. The target is allowed a save vs Magic (or Wisdom save for 5e). On a success, the swords are rebuked back on the caster, who must make the same save 24 hours later. This effect ping-pongs until someone is impaled or 8 days have passed. Once a target fails, their muse and genius are impaled. This, in turn, causes their fortune to bleed out. Within 24 hours of affliction, the effects of this are first seen.

Roll 1d6 on the table below for the initial effect. If you have spent 8 hours casting this spell, roll 1d6 times instead.

1. The target is struck by unseen paranoia. They cannot benefit from any sort of rest.
2. The target attracts the attention of thieves and con artists. Every 8 hours, someone will attempt to rob or trick the target.
3. The target's wounds, or any wounds they suffer from here on out, become infected. Their constitution lowers by 1 point each week. 0 constitution results in instant death.
4. Insects are attracted to the target. Their food is covered in cockroaches, maggots infest their wounds, and wasps beat the shit out of them every so often.
5. The 4 closest people to the target begin to lose their love for them. Within 1 week, they will no longer care for or associate with the target.
6. The God of War lusts for the target. Enemies the target faces in battle have a +3 to hit and add +3 to their damage when facing the target.

It should be known that the target does not have to be human, or even a person. It can be a city (in which case the lock of hair would be a brick or map of the city), a lineage, or even a religion. In this case, sacred temples of a religion, if the 4th effect is rolled, would be infested with spiders and other insects. If the target is a city and 6 is rolled, then enemies attacking the city will appear stronger than normal and more violent too.

After 1 week has passed, a new, more powerful cursed effect begins. Roll 1d10 on the table below. For every additional month, roll another 1d10. If the same effect is rolled, it increases in potency OR you cross out the old effect and create a new one.

1. The target is haunted by a variety of specters, wraiths, banshees, and other undead. They appear every night at midnight to assail the target.
2. Everything the target is touched by or touches is turned into a precious gem or metal of your choice.
3. Anything that looks at the target or that the target locks eyes with is petrified.
4. Any water that comes into contact with the target turns into blood.
5. Someone close to the target dies a sudden, horrible, ghastly death. If rerolled, another person dies.
6. A powerful, otherworldly force becomes aware of the target's existence and wishes to either end it or enslave it.
7. The target vomits up vermin such as spiders, snakes, and rats every night at midnight. These vermin are hostile towards the target once spawned.
8. The target's health begins to plummet wildly. They lose point in their Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution scores per day. If any are reduced to 0, they die.
9. The target becomes obsessed with some insane goal or nonsensical plan. If a place or religion, anything that considers it a high priest or official is instead obsessed with some insane goal or nonsensical plan.
10. Everything the target owns begins to rot away. Food molds, armor rusts or spoils, weapons break, etc.

Curses can only be broken through esoteric and strange ways. Each way is different, and the caster knows how the curse can be broken the moment it is cast. See Frostbitten & Mutilated for a bunch of ways to break a curse. I'll make my own up later.

If you fail the casting of this spell, roll 1d6 on the mishandling table below.

1. You are instantly afflicted by the spell.
2. You are instantly afflicted by one of the more potent d10 effects of the spell.
3. The spell curses the person you most love in this world. This can be a place or religion as well.
4. The spell calls forth the attention of an angel, who seeks to smite or enslave you for casting such a wicked thing.
5. Your hate spirals out of control. You become obsessed with your target and will only take actions to destroy them.
6. Your target knows your location, that you attempted to curse them, and how to most easily kill you. They are also given an emotional drive to do so.

The Old Dragonslayers

Before the first Dragon Wife bathed herself in blood, and indeed for centuries afterwards, the Old Dragonslayers were simply just the Dragonslayers, and they were the heroes of men. They recruited veterans at first, then seasoned soldiers, and then boys and girls of all ages, for there were no armies left to recruit from, and the dragon's tide would not ebb.

Old & Majestic they are.

Old Dragonslayers are those who cling to the tradition. They believe that well-made equipment, battle tactics, and now-forgotten but once-innovative spells are all that are needed to bring an end to the end of all things. They ignore the fact that once there were hundreds of Dragonslayer orders, and now there are but three. They ignore the evidence that is their destroyed monasteries and their broken landings and the graveyards of artefacts drowned beneath ash and radiance.

They are not welcome in the City of the Dragon Wife. Though they were once the favorites of the gods and even drew power from their symbols and arts, with the death of the King and the corruption of Fertility, those divinities that remain put their faith into wives, not slayers. Thus those who are disillusioned with this prolonged apocalypse or foreigners brought in by Gatekeeper Metamm are the prime recruits for the orders that remain.

Underneath dunes and buried beneath blackened walls are countless weapons, pieces of armor, and grimoires. These are reminders of what once was. Gatherers find them and give them to the Dragon Wives so that they may hone their craft. Others use them as protection while out in the field. Others trade them to aristocrats for favors or break them down to be used somewhere else. They are the only true magic left in the world, relics of the age of wizards and gods. As no one works spells anymore, they cannot be be reverse engineered, nor can they be recreated.

When you encounter an Old Dragonslayer, roll a d6 for its encounter-reaction.

1-2: Driven into a craze by the elements, the bloodshed, and the loneliness. Attacks on sight, and will cannibalize who they kill. When they roll damage, roll twice and take the highest result.
3-4: Wary and unhelpful. If a Dragon Wife is in the party, they will trail the party and try to kill her in her sleep. Will only assist if Dragon or Drake threat is near-by. Reroll encounter-reaction after battle to see mindset of Old Dragonslayer.
5-6: Glad to see another face and looking for a comrade. Is tracking a dragon and in need of assistance to kill it. If a Dragon Wife is in party, will consider this to be option 3-4.


Below are the three remaining Old Dragonslayer orders, as well as some tables to create your own.

Order of the Gold-Fanged Lion
Led by Jornstei, a man bordering his 60s, the Order of the Gold-Fanged Lion prides themselves on their pragmatism and ability. They are best known for wielding old lightning spells that flay the scale and skin from dragons, making it easier to kill or track them. They have a monastery in the Opal Mountains, gilded from ground to dome. It is under constant draconic assault. Rare is it they venture out into the Bless'd Lands.

St. Xolotl's Paladins
A group of 12 Old Dragonslayers of various ages who have no leader. They vote democratically on all issues. They roam from ruin to ruin, homeless, looking for the Old Opal King that first initiated their order. They believe that by finding his corpse, they will discover a grimoire whose contents will teach them how to crash the first moon into the world, ending the dragon threat forever. They are correct.

Fierce & Flaming.

Fraternity of the Bless'd & Burned
A fraternity of lepers who, through powerful artefacts, are able to keep themselves going as warriors. Their armor burns their flesh and holds their ruined forms together with dragon teeth harvested from their kills. Old Dragonslayers of this fraternity fight until their bodies are mush and their minds destroyed. They believe that draconic radiance will free their minds from their ills, and so they bathe in the blood of their skills, not knowing that it merely contorts their bodies further.


Order's Name
Choose or roll 1d10.

1. Survivors of Ruin & Redemption.
2. Order of the Scorched Knights.
3. Fraternity of the Direwolf
4. Order of the Full-Crescent Sun.
5. The Watchers of the Opal Gates
6. Annihilation's Apostoles
7. Those That Remain
8. Brotherhood of the Glass Spear
9. Slayers of the Second Moon
10. Order of the Bloodied Messiah

Defining Features

Choose or roll 1d10

1. They wear golden armor engraved with predator faces.
2. They blind themselves, replacing their eyes with opals through which they can see.
3. They ritually scar themselves for every drake or dragon or dragon wife that they kill.
4. Their armor is lacquered wood dipped in god blood.
5. They prey to the sun during their battles.
6. They are celibate, only having sex with one another when a dragon has been felled.
7. They sew their mouths shut, removing the stitches to pray only when a dragon has been felled.
8. Their armaments consume light, shining brightly only when making contact with dragon flesh.
9. They are immune to draconic radiance.
10. They are highly susceptible to draconic radiance, and ritually flay those who succumb to it before sewing their skin back to their bodies.

Defining Tools

Choose or roll 2d10

1. Sacred helmets emblazoned with cosmic imagery.
2. Spears made from glass and opal.
3. Armor made out of dragon hide.
4. Shields with a dragon's face sewn into them.
5. Crossbows whose bolts are dyed in god-blood.
6. Ropes made from the tendons of women slain by dragon fire.
7. Masks made from the bones of children consumed by dragons.
8. Poisons made from the ammonia found inside a dragon or drake's brain.
9. Traps designed to suck in anything with even a slight amount of draconic radiance.
10. Grimoires containing Old Dragonslaying spells.

Goal

Choose or roll 1d20. This is in addition to "Slaying Dragons."

1. To domesticate wyrmlings for steeds.
2. To hunt beasts of all kinds.
3. To remove the stain that Dragon Wives leave by killing them.
4. To devour the flesh of the First Dragons so that no more drakes can be created.
5. To rebuild the second moon, and to seal the Dragons away inside of it.
6. To break open the second moon, in hopes that something powerful will come from it.
7. To earn the favor of the gods.
8. To create a God of Dragonslaying.
9. To purge Tiamat of her radiance so that fertility returns to the world.
10. To rebuild the orders of old.
11. To rebuild the cities of old.
12. To bring about an end of all things, in hopes that dragons die too.
13. To restore the half-sun to its full splendor.
14. To build a safe place free of radiance and gods.
15. To create a world where sex and alcohol and drugs exist.
16. To gather all the old relics of the Old Dragonslayers.
17. To destroy the City of the Dragon Wife in hopes that it will placate the dragons.
18. To travel through the Opal Mountains and to discover a new afterlife beyond.
19. To be reborn in the world of the living, should such a thing exist at all.
20. To ruin the plans of a Radiant Saint.

Base Location

Choose or roll 1d10.

1. A temple in the Opal Mountains carved of tungsten steel.
2. The chest cavity of a First Dragon.
3. Underneath the City of the Dragon Wife.
4. An old pyramid, half-buried by ash, desecrated by dragon fire and consecrated with god-blood.
5. A tower made of ivory, stained black and grey, surrounded by a mile-wide moat of radiance.
6. A monastery built into the clouds.
7. Surrounded by mile-high dunes.
8. Built into a broken chunk of moon.
9. In the blood-stained lair of a slain ancient dragon.
10. Inside of an Old Opal King's mausoleum.

Dragonslaying Tactic

Choose or roll 1d10.

1. Pierce their wings with giant ballista bolts and kill them via the crash.
2. Throw vials of reactive chemicals into their mouths when they Breath, killing them via the explosion.
3. Use lightning bolts to strip skin and scale from flesh and let them bleed out and die.
4. Create poisoned objects that are added to the dragons horde and let it rot in its lair.
5. Lure the dragon into caves, tunnels, or canyons and then collapse the stone on top of them.
6. Force the dragon to fly higher into the sky and, eventually, freeze and plummet to its death.
7. Lure the dragon to the ground with horde-objects and then ambush it via jumping onto the skull and cleaving the neck.
8. Track Ereshteteo, Goddess of Death & Annihilation, and let her kill the dragon.
9. Send one dragon into a craze and bait it into battle with another dragon, leading to mutual destruction.
10. Brute force.

Better have rolled up a good ass sword.

Old Dragonslayer Artefacts

Below is a list of abilities. Choose or roll a 1d30. Attach them to random items at your leisure and throw them into treasure tables. The master is whoever owns the artefact in question.

1. Has a dragon heart inside of it. Drinks the blood of dragons and drakes, restoring half-damage dealt as HP back to master.
2. Made from dragon vocal chords. Allows master to issue commands to drakes, who have a 3-in-6 chance of listening.
3. Makes master resistant to dragon fire.
4. Makes master resistant to emotional breath weapons.
5. Makes master resistant to non-elemental, non-emotional breath weapons.
6. Gives master the ability to follow green-gold trails of radiance that dragons leave behind.
7. Makes master immune to the effects of Draconic Radiance.
8. Uses dragon teeth to sew master's wounds shut. Master cannot die at 0 HP unless brain is destroyed.
9. Gives master the ability to dispel draconic magic.
10. When master rolls a critical hit against a dragon or drake, kill it instantly.
11. When master rolls a critical miss against a dragon or drake, it becomes a critical hit.
12. Gives master the ability to run for 40 leagues before tiring.
13. Gives master the ability to go without food or water for a number of days equal to their total Hit Dice before feeling negative effects.
14. Allows master to sleep, and in their dreams, see the location of a random dragon.
15. Makes master's skin hard against the teeth of Direwolves or Cackles of Hyenas.
16. Allows master to walk in deep ash as if it were flat ground.
17. When master is wounded, bleeds out radiance at a rate of 1 point per round.
18. Allows master to conjure item by merely thinking about it, no matter where it is.
19. Seals master's soul into item when dead, allowing them to continue fighting by possessing it.
20. Allows master to attack twice per round.
21. Raises master's AC by +3.
22. Gives master a pair of wings on which to fly at x2 human speed.
23. Allows master to reflect breath weapon back on the breather.
24. Allows master to destroy one mutation caused by radiance.
25. Makes master move at x2 human speed.
26. Makes master invisible to dragon eyes for 1 hour each day.
27. Allows for master to destroy the heart(s) of whatever creature kills them.
28. Allows for master to live for 100 years in their prime starting at age 25.
29. Gives master the ability to break stone with a single strike.
30. Uses a dragon's tail to give +3 to hit and +3 to damage.

Old Dragonslayer Curses

Artefacts have a 1-in-6 chance of being cursed by their former masters, draconic radiance, or the will of the dragons slain. If cursed, choose one from below or roll 1d6.

1. Requires the master to consume dragon meat daily or else cannibalize their comrades.
2. The master can understand the pained screams of dragons and, slowly, becomes sympathetic to them. 1-in-6 chance every month of seeing them as allies.
3. The artefact increases the master's radiance score by +2 every day.
4. The artefact thirsts for dragon blood, and compels the master to kill dragon wives to slate it.
5. The artefact has a pull that calls dragons to it from up to 100 miles away.
6. The master has dreams of all the violence the artefact has seen, and cannot recover hit points until the curse is broken.

The Five Spells of Dragonslaying

The following five spells were devised during the opening wars of Armageddon. They must be memorized, and only one can be memorized at a time, and only a single one of these spells can be cast per day. Attempting to memorize or cast another results in the character falling to 0 hit points and their radiance increasing to its threshold. One spell of dragonslaying fills an entire spellbook. When a character casts a spell, they must save vs Magic or else have their radiation score increase to its threshold.

Here's one.

One Trillion Hunters Coming Forth From Ash & Soot & Hatred All

If the gods and handless priest are to be believed, than the Bless'd lands is an afterlife reserved for those who have hunted well in their lives. The dragons, therefore, are damnation; sin made manifest and intent on reducing souls to ash and soot. The Old Dragonslayers saw the truth in this, and devised a spell to call forth the trillions killed in order to hunt Armageddon to the end of time.

After invoking the spell, the caster must stab a bladed weapon into the ground. Then, 10d100 skeletons rise from the ground, burned black and made of ash and soot. Each skeleton is another victim claimed in the Radiance Wars, and, at times, appears to be a fully-formed human being, and at others the charred remains of a fallen hunter.

These 1 HD undead hunters will all molest a single dragon of the caster's choice. They will climb over each other to form great pillars to reach them if they fly and will bite and tear at their prey's wings, throat, and eyes. The weapon the caster used to invoke the spell appears in the hands of every undead hunter.

Every turn that the undead horse spends swarming the dragon, roll 1d6. If the dragon is a wymrling or young, it dies automatically. If it is adult, it has a 4-in-6 chance of being slain. If it is ancient, it has a 3-in-6 chance of being slain. If it is a First, it has a 1-in-6 chance of being slain. Every round the dragon goes without being slain, it loses half its total hit points.

Once the target dragon is dead, the hunters return from whence they came and become mounds of ash. A dragon that successfully use its breath weapon 1 time per 100 (rounded down) skeletons on the horde destroys it, increasing by 1 time for each age category below first.

 

Some Cool Places I Want to Run Games

Below are some cool places I'd like to run games.

One of the best books I've ever read.

• Blood Meridian's version of the Wild West, but pushed one step further where the Wild West is actually Hell on Earth, and every river is the River Styx. People live here because their ancestors sinned, because they want to save the souls and free the people here, because they want to bring someone back to life from the River Styx, or because they need to find the Devil in the Desert.
• A dream world that is entirely Vaporwave in aesthetic. People take special drugs and participate in weird rituals to travel here, living their entire lives in luxury and strangeness. Very technology advanced compared to the real world, but it's a dream world, so these are the vaporwave fever dreams of like elves or something that people just live in. Mysterious, unknown Dream Gods lurk deep inside this place and cause issues and influence the Lucid (waking) world a lot.
• Maze of the Blue Medusa.
• A modern day, Aztec-Culture city, where Yuan-Ti rule and weird conspiracies happen.
• A setting based entirely off of fantasy ideas from Xanathar's Guide to Everything. A world without demons, fey, and great old ones, but instead mysterious beings from a world of hollow shadow and the celestial heavens. Maybe make it Zoroastrian in flavor.

Terms of Venery for the Bless'd Lands

Terms of Venery are terms used for animals collectives. Venery is an archaic word used for hunting, so Terms of Hunting is just as valid.

A Poison of Wyrms & A Tomb of Dragonslayers.

Since the Bless'd lands are believed to be an invaded hunter's heaven, it makes sense to me that the Terms of Venery are divine gospel; everything is organized by them. Or was, since dragons made society collapse and what not.

Some interesting IRL ones are a Sloth of Bears, a Sounder of Buffalo, a Coalition of (male) Cheetahs, and a Plague of Grackles.

Some IRL ones relevant for the Bless'd Lands are a Cackle of Hyenas and a Pack of Direwolves.

Now onto the fun ones.

A Painting of Gods. Drawing on the Mesoamerican themes here, where painting was also writing and this is how the priests often worshiped.

An Armageddon of Dragons. Pretty obvious why, but also since Tiamat is the Goddess of Armageddon (among other things), this makes the most sense to me.

A Poison of Wyrms. For the more mutated dragons.

A Love of Dragon Wives. Paradoxical, since they don't actually love dragons, but the act of slaughtering them, so it works out.

A Tomb of Dragonslayers. Old Dragonslayers are outdated and are pretty much relics, hence people calling them a tomb.

A Prophecy of Drakes. Because seeing drakes means that, somewhere nearby, there be dragons.

A Curse of Bonfires. Bonfires attract the souls of the dead and from them come both curses and blessings, so this sounded cool to me.

A Crown of Kings. The Old Opal Kings who used to rule with the god's aid are referenced to by this term when their wraiths gather.

A Wail of Widows. Burned Widows rarely gather; when they do, their wails are their defining traits.

A Hysteria of Insects. Insects in the Bless'd Lands are mutated, and their swarms are made up of weird colonies of different species.

A Hunt of Gatherers. Pretty easy to understand.

A Hysteria of Priests. Many consider the nonsense of insect swarms to be equal to the nonsense of Handless Priests.

A Library of Scribes. On account of their clay tablets.

A Well of Men. A social caste, those who are well-off and liberal with their resources.

A Shame of Poor. Another social caste, for those who are poor and who must go outside the city to find resources to live. Basically adventurers.

A Truth of Operas. Another social caste, referring to the opera singers who sing of past glories.

A Hope of Women. Another social caste, referring to women who are prospective Dragon Wives.

A Worm of Hunters. Another social caste, referring to the average people of the City of the Dragon Wives.

Will work on more in my spare time. 

Tiamat's Consorts & Her Radiant Saints

When the Goddess of Queens, Rulership, Divorce, and Rebirth was consumed by dragons, her symbols became perverted and her powers stained by draconian radiance. From the hellish space between worlds where souls are tortured and memories are lost she pulled her new consorts to serve both her and the crazed dragons she now ruled.

Tiamat; Goddess of Radiance & Armageddon & Life Cycles
Also known as Cihuacoatl

These consorts are half-dragons each, for she births them when the shattered moon eclipses the whole and when the sun can just barely rise over the blasted horizon. Those whose souls are not plucked from Somewhere Else instead must lay with Tiamat for a night. Regardless of their sex, they will awaken the next day changed and morphed. The radiance pulls apart their DNA and replaces precious chromosomes with dragon runes and rewrites their biology to be more like their goddess. When they step into sunlight the next day they are Ascended.

Precious few Consorts ever live long. Many are fed to wyrms in order to wipe the madness from their mind. Others are hunted by Dragon Wives, who see them as blasphemies that must be destroyed; Old Dragonslayers think much the same way. Those who do survive are those who have done something amazing. In the name of Tiamat, they have performed a miracle, and thus they have become Saints.

Drake Saints, Wyrm Saints, Radiant Saints and more--they are the greatest enemies of the Dragon Wives, beyond that of the Burned Widows and their apocalyptic husbands. They are intelligent and powerful, manipulators of draconian radiance and capable of performing feats of magic that test even the gods. Indeed, they are deiciders. It was they who killed the Father of Cities, and who vanquished much of the old pantheon.

The miracles of Saints are beautiful to behold to all with dragon eyes. Poor bastards lacking in blessings cannot distinguish the difference between them and the end of days.

Dragonmaster Swain is an inspiration for the Saints.

6 SAINTS AND THEIR GENERATOR

St. Itzcoatl, Who Widowed Armageddon

He who killed Tiamat's husband, the Father of Cities. He conjured fireballs the size of cities and laid waste to many gods. As the blood trickled down his arm and into his mouth, a Dragon Wife grabbed him my the throat and ripped the organs from his chest. His death led to apotheosis of Tiamat.

St. Papalotl, Weaver of the Chrysalis

She learned how to turn draconian radiance into a cocoon in which someone could be reborn as a consort, drake, or even a wyrmling. Countless survivors in the Bless'd Lands have been kidnapped and transformed by her. Eventually she weaved a cocoon around herself after perfecting her art; she has yet to eme

St. Roksana, Eater of Prophecies & Flesh

She infiltrated the City of the Dragon Wives and devoured the flesh of a hundred gatherers, a thousand civilizations, ten handless priests, and a single god. In addition to crippling the forces of the city, she momentarily achieved the ability to peer into the future. She shared her visions with Tiamat and the other consorts before being caught and flayed by a Dragon Wife.

St. Sargon, Sun-Throttler

He studied the sun for ten years, meditating on a mountain that only had one side and whose surface was made of swirling fire and melted ash. In a moment of enlightenment, he spoke a prayer to Tiamat, slicing the sun in half. This act allowed countless wyrmlings to devour the severed fire, and thus grow rapidly into ancient wyrms. The prayer turned St. Sargon into an obsidian statue when it finished.

St. Mixminu, Saint of First Blood

They took it upon themselves to duel the first Dragon Wife before the city walls. The battle was so ferocious that neither sister-wife nor dragon could intervene. In the end, Mixminu severed the head and removed the heart of the First Wife before succumbing to their wounds.

St. Ra'Coszcatl, Who Told the Truth

The first Conspirator-Consort of Tiamat, they used their ability to shift form to invade the City of the Dragon Wives and baited one of their gods out to be devoured by direwolves. The direwolves, it is said, did not trust them, but upon seeing that they told the truth, the wolves swore themselves to St. Ra'Coszcatl. Since then, they have proven invaluable allies to the will of dragons.

Creating a New Saint

Identifying Feature(s)

1. Their horns replace both their ears and their eyes.
2. They have a second mouth on their throat which speaks in draconic.
3. From the shadows of their cape's folds sprout massive dragon wings.
4. Wyrmlings crawl out of their mouth when they talk, consume a bit of their flesh, and fly back inside.
5. Where they walk, ash turns to fire, and fire to ash.
6. Draconian radiance is so strong around them that they appear covered in static and white noise.
7. Their arms are missing, replaced by limbs made out of dragon breath. Roll to see which kind.
8. They are scaled, but the scales change from flesh to glass to human skin as they move.
9. An umbilical chord hangs from their stomach. At the end of it is a wyrmling.
10. They are nude, and instead of sex organs they have the heads of dragons.

Saintly Moment

1. Became a saint because they somehow killed and devoured a god.
2. Became a saint because they turned a number of Dragon Wives into Burned Widows.
3. They reduced a city to ash and fed the inhabitants to Tiamat.
4. They died killing Old Dragonslayers and were born from their pyres 5 days later.
5. They learned how to replace destroyed dragon hearts out of obsidian and gold.
6. They fed themselves to a clutch of wyrmlings and were reborn from their eggs. There are d100 of copies of this Saint.
7. They found the lost symbols of a god and wear them, stealing their power.
8. They've cut the left arms off of a dozen Dragon Wives.
9. They learned Draconic words and wrote them down for other consorts to speak.
10. They used fragments of the Shattered Moon to birth a new First Dragon.

There are never more than 5 Saints at any one time.

OSR Stats for Tiamat's Consorts & Saints

Typical Consort
HD 5 (30) SPEED As per human
ARMOR As Studded Leather (unnaturally tough skin)
MORALE 12 normally ; 20 in Tiamat's presence
ATTACK

• Smite: +5 to hit 2d6hp
• Claws: +5 to hit d4hp
• Gore: +5 to hit d6hp

SPECIAL

Roll a d6 when generating a Consort or a group of Consorts. They have the following ability on the below tables.

1. Roll on the Dragon Breath Weapon table.
2. Roll on the Dragon Roar table.
3. The Consort knows Draconic; give it 3 spells of 4th level or lower. Can cast each once per day.
4. The Consort has scales; increase AC to Scale Mail + Shield.
5. The Consort has wings; has a flying speed human x2
6. Roll twice on this table.

Typical Saint

HD 10 (60) SPEED As per human

ARMOR As half-plate + shield

MORALE 16 ; 20 in Tiamat's presence

ATTACK

• Choke: +7 to hit 1d10hp
• Smite: +7 to hit 2d10hp

SPECIAL

• The Radiant Saint knows magic as if a magic user. They have 1 spell for levels 6-9, and then 3 spell slots for 1-5. 
• The Radiant Saint has all 5 features of the Typical Consort.
• The Radiant Saint can ignite their hands with their breath weapons. Any melee attacks made create the breath weapon's effect on touch.
• Dragons & Drakes will always follow the commands of Radiant Saints.
• Damage from Radiant Saints increases your Radiance Score by the same amount.