Featherworks are the Holy Instruments that Keeps Radiance At Bay

Birds are an affront to Tiamat. Their feathers represent a freedom that no wyrm can have in Heaven. Coatl--feathered serpents that birth suns--laugh at their dark mirrors and spiral throughout the cosmos as dragons suffer and mutate. Because of this, feathers are to Tiamat's children as torches are to shadow.

HOLY FEATHERWORKS

Featherworks are constructed primarily from Resplendent Quetzal feathers, though a selection of birds are also chosen from. Roll 1d6 on the Featherwork Object table below to see what kind of object the featherwork is. 

Featherwork Object

1. Headdress
2. Face, ear, or throat jewelry
3. Sash
4. Cloak
5. Arm or leg decorations
6. Sewn into skin

For each featherwork, roll 1d6. This determines how many points of Draconic Radiance the featherwork can handle. When wearing your featherworks, any Radiance you would suffer instead is transferred into it. Once the object has been overloaded, it burns green and turns to ash, releasing the Radiance back into the atmosphere.

Expeditions are given 4d20 featherworks to distribute amongst themselves. They are difficult to create and more valuable than gold or obsidian and thus given out only sparingly. An expedition that loses its featherworks is doomed to total destruction. If someone dies while hunting in the Heaven Burned, they are to be buried with at least 1 unused featherwork, to prevent the soul from becoming irradiated. All others are taken and distributed amongst the party.

PLUMED WEAPONS

Expeditioner weapons plumed--that is, decorated with feathers--are the greatest survival tools Gatherers have at their disposals.

Every expeditioner is given a single plumed weapon. For each weapon, roll 1d6. This represents how big the pool of d6 the plumed weapon has. When a plumed weapon deals damage to any non-human creature in the Heaven Burned, roll the pool of d6 and add the total to the damage dealt. Remove any dice that roll a 1 from the pool permanently. Once all dice are removed, the feathers turn to ash and the weapon is no longer plumed.

Feathers are worked directly into a weapon's forging.

PLUMED GODS

There are many feathered gods in the countless heavens, but only a few ever came to the High Hunter's Heaven and all lie dead under the Heaven Burned's ashpits. Discover their relics and reach a form that even Tiamat cannot conquer and create a new Heaven under the shadow of your jade wings.

Mystic Cabals are Irradiated Societies Rebuilding the World Despite the Neverending Apocalypse

A follow up from the post here. If something "has mysticism X," the number that is the X is the number rolled on the Radiance Mysticism table in the linked blog post.

Mystic in meditation. 

CABALS

Radiant Mystics form communities called cabals with one another. These cabals are loose; they don't often gather, and to join one is to swear only to aid one another when desperation comes knocking.

The purpose of these cabals is to form a society in the Heaven Burned. "Dragons will never leave," reckon the Mystics. Likewise, the Heaven Bless'd is no home for those who have given in to the power of Radiance. These cabals, built inside the many different environs of the Heaven Burned, will be the spots civilization blossoms from in this new era. 

Discovering a cabal is never a boon or bane. The mystics will defend themselves and they will help those they stumble upon when obsidian is sheathed. Secretly, the Gatherer's Lodge has mapped out where many of these cabals are so that they can make use of them for supplies and shelters. While the propaganda machine inside the Heaven Bless'd paints them as dragon-cursed monsters, Heaven Burned veterans know them as a splintered, strange people, neither to be befriended or made enemies of--just used.

There are three well-known cabals taught to expeditioners during their final lessons. These cabals are large, carrying more than a hundred mystics each, and have established their own power-niches across the Heaven Burned. 

Each cabal is led by a guru, who is treated as the creator of the cabal or its current most capable leader.

VIVID CHILDREN

LEADER: Sees Stars in Empty Skies (Empty for short). An old guru, forever meditating underneath the boughs of a petrified tree. Has mysticism 9. Eats little, drinks less, speaks almost none unless Radiance is out of control.

AESTHETIC: Vivid Children wear no cloth clothing, and instead wear gems, glass, and metal, all which hangs from their limbs, over their sex, and from their noses and hair. 

DETAILS: The Vivid Children name themselves so because of their herding of Irradiated Souls. Making their home in a strikingly large Murdered Forest, the Children use their abilities to bring in the Irradiated and to give them what the Freedom From Flesh. Through strange rituals invoking the name of the Half-Sun and of Tiamat, they have learned how to give the Irradiated the gift of reincarnation. This process fills the sky above the Murdered Forest with iridescent stars of fading radiance--a vivid sky that births vivid children.

RELATIONSHIPS: Vivid Children assist Gatherers and Dragon Wives both. If an expedition proves to be too violent, or if some other Burned power comes sweeping through, the radiant stars can be called down through ritual, overdosing anything that enters the forest and providing a swift, painful, mutated death. Because of this, the Cuanatoil and the Opal Heart cabals avoid open conflict with the Children. Expeditions are taught to avoid them unless Radiance becomes a rampant problem.

WHAT THEY WANT:

• To reincarnate Irradiated Souls.
• To control Radiance levels in the Heaven Burned.
• To create a society where Radiance elevates, not burns, it.

WHAT THEY DON'T WANT:

• For more Tzitzimitl to appear.
• For Radiance to destroy more lives than it already has.
• For the other two cabals to interfere with their Radiance studies.

SAMPLE NPCS:

• Eats Left Handed is a young girl with mysticism 6. She is the liaison between the guru and the expedition.
• Glistens Gold is an adult man with mysticism 2. He is the premiere Irradiated Soul hunter of the cabal.
• Nauiah is a genderless child around age 9. Like the guru, they have mysticism 9, and thus are believed to one day become the next guru. The adult cabal members protects and cherishes this child more than any other.

WHAT THEY MAY ASK THE PARTY FOR:

• Assistance in finding Irradiated Souls to the east for Freeing their Flesh.
• Assistance in destroying Tzitzimitl spotted to the north.
• Investigating what happened to a lone Mystic who has disappeared after venturing West, close to Cuanatoil territory.

THE CUANATOIL

LEADER: Xertlan. As a guru, he is known for his warlike methods. Has mysticism 3 and uses it to convince his people that he is omnipotent, and that dead gods have bequeathed on him Divine Authority.

AESTHETIC: Direwolf and hyena tanned leathers worn as skirts. Bones for gauntlets, shoes, weapons. Feathers to protect themselves from radiation, looted from Gatherers that they hunt and kill or trade with Dragon Wives for. Painted hieroglyphs and images on body with blue paint made from Bless'd Blood Worms.

DETAILS: Cuanatoil is the name the cabal's first guru. They are warlike, and wish to steal back the knowledge of man first stolen by hyenas. They hunt great cackles and use their brains in strange rituals, mixing it with Bless'd Blood Worms to create their enlightening body paint. All Cuanatoil believe that knowledge can be worn. They are not wrong. Direwolves hate them for taking their food source, and Cuanatoil in turn treat direwolves as their main diet. Wearing hyena-worm-brain paint increases one's intelligence to 20 and increases 1 skill to a 6-in-6 chance of success for 24 hours.

RELATIONSHIPS: Gatherers have valuables that aid the Cuanatoil on their hunts, and thus are killed and their goods taken by force. They fear Dragon Wives for they have seen their rages and will aid them when called upon. All Cuanatoil worship Ereshteteo and follow her from place to place. To sacrifice one's self to the Goddess of Annihilation is to be granted the forbidden knowledge that can only be understood by the obliterated. 

WHAT THEY WANT:

• To gain all lost knowledge.
• To achieve enlightenment and to free themselves from the cycle of reincarnation through violence.
• To earn the love of Ereshteteo.

WHAT THEY DON'T WANT:

• For knowledge to disappear for good.
• For Gatherers to steal knowledge before they can take it.
• For them to die and be reincarnated before they attain tree renunciation.

SAMPLE NPCS:

• Gluttony the Seer is a withered man who consumes the eyes of the Bless'd. He has mysticism 7, and through their eyes he helps inform the hunts where they must go.
• Xoco is a middle-aged woman with mysticism 20. She believes herself to be a Goddess of Knowledge and her primary symbol is the Bless'd Blood Worm. She guides the current guru.
• Manazashah stalks after expeditions and sleeps when they are setting up camp. He has mysticism 14, and through his dreams he learns their secrets.

WHAT THEY MAY ASK THE PARTY FOR:

• To serve as bait to draw out a Fang War.
• Assistance in finding the painted, flayed skin of one of their missing mystics.
• To tell them everything they know about Ereshteteo's latest movements.

THE OPAL HEARTS OF LAMENTING DJINN

LEADER: Eleuiah, Smoker of Wishes. She has a harem of efreeti and old opal kings and old opal wraiths. She has mysticism 19, and thus is the natural enemy of all wing'd creatures. 

AESTHETIC: Long strips of cloth dyed yellow and black and embroidered like tapestries wrap around their bodies, their limbs, their mouths, and their heads in great turbans. Forever are they chewing hashish leaves traded with gatherers. Their skin is either the color of milk or the color of a starless night--both a result of their union with efreeti.

DETAILS: The Opal Hearts of Lamenting Djinn (Opal Hearts for short) are mystics who have freed efreeti from their servitude to old opal kings, and likewise serve the old opal kings as councilors and seers. They attend ghosts and wraiths and organize the pilgrimages from their home Pyre City to other parts of the Heaven Burned. They can speak with the dead and reawaken the memories of past lives in the reincarnated or reborn. All Opal Hearts spend hours staring into smoke stacks so that they can see the many pasts of the Heaven Burned.

RELATIONSHIPS: Pyre Cities are not to be invaded by any souls, and expeditions are thus their natural enemies. Dragon Wives bring expeditions with them and thus are to be rebuffed or killed. They will trade peacefully, exchanging cultural artefacts in their Pyre City home in exchange for hashish, so long as those they trade with swear to avoid any Pyre City they find. Old Dragonslayer fraternities are given refuge in exchange for them protecting pilgrimages. Efreeti are their lovers. Their children, called djinn, are believed to be scions of great mystical power.

WHAT THEY WANT:

• To usher in a new world order of djinn mysticism.
• To see all opal wraiths and kings laid to rest.
• To learn from the mistakes of the dead so that they are not ever repeated.

WHAT THEY DON'T WANT:

• For others to take secrets they have yet unearthed.
• For efreeti to remain enslaved to the folly of old opal kings.
• For the dead to keep hoarding the tools needed to create the future.

SAMPLE NPCS:

• Sharizad, who keeps a consort of Old Opal Princesses and Princes. She has mysticism 18, and uses her power to open up the way to pyre tombs and forgotten ruins.
• That Which Grieves is forever set aflame. They have mysticism 15 and use it to recover from their traumas. The immolations they go through soothe the rages of the old opal wraiths and efreeti.
• Lonely Pershatl, an old man who is in love with the dead, and who will kill others so that they can join his harem. Has mysticism 11.

WHAT THEY MAY ASK THE PARTY TO DO:

• Assist them in protecting a pilgrimage to a distant Pyre City.
• Assist them in calming the riotous souls of an Old Opal King.
• Assist them in driving out a dragon from a Pyre City.

JeuJeuBee

CREATING YOUR OWN CABAL

Roll on the following tables and connect the dots for creating your own cabal of Radiant Mystics.

NAME

1. Those Whose Eyes Bleed Lies
2. Seers of Haunted Moons
3. The Coatlkander
4. Order of the Quiets
5. Choirs That Sing Memories
6. Wanderers of Mictkalla

ENVIRON WHERE THEIR CABAL'S BASE IS

1. The Abyss
2. The Ashpits
3. Blood Bogs
4. A Murdered Forest
5. A Pyre City
6. The Shattered Crowns

IDENTIFYING AESTHETIC

1. Ritual scarification forming intricate patterns across the skin.
2. Strange masks forged from opal and soot.
3. Lower jaw and five random fingers are replaced with irradiated clay.
4. Eyes, mouth, ears, and nose all stitched shut.
5. Right arm held up and kept there until it atrophies and freezes in place.
6. Bundled head to toe in strange skins to hide their identities.

CURRENT GURU

1. Someone possessed by a legion of Old Opal Wraiths.
2. The caretaker of a dying Burned Widow.
3. A great hunter who has eaten the hearts of one of every type of creature.
4. An old sage who has survived since the hatching of dragons.
5. A dead god whose symbols bleed orders into the thoughts of the cabal.
6. Four children who share the same mind and identity.

CULTURAL BELIEF

1. The Heaven Burned needs Bless'd blood to restore it self. This cabal captures and sacrifices human victims.
2. That the Heaven Burned is actually a paradise, and that one must simply be high off narcotics and radiance to see it.
3. That stuffing wounds with direwolf saliva and soot that they can become immortal and invulnerable.
4. That deep underground there is a seed waiting to blossom into a new forest. They are forever searching for an Abyss that leads to the center of the world.
5. That by replacing an eye with opal they can see through it all other Heavens and thus travel to them.
6. That by meditating in their chosen environ and ignoring all other things, they will exit the cycle of reincarnation and become something greater.

After rolling for these 5 options, decide their connections, if any, to the following factions:

• The Gatherers.
• Dragon Wives.
• Hyenas or Direwolves.
• Other cabals.
• Ereshteteo or Tiamat.

Then name 3 things they want and three things they don't want. Your cabal is now complete and ready to make things weird. 

Burned Widows are Dragon Wives Possessed by Radiance and Doomed Wyrms

When a dragon wife slays her husband, a piece of the wyrm follows her. These pieces are what keep the divine engine inside of her roaring whenever she encounters something draconic to kill. But, should her Radiance score double past its threshold, the grief of these doomed dragon souls will blossom into something more. If not given immediate attention, she is immolated in the sickening light of Radiance and transforms.

Rises from the pyre doth the Burned Widow.

She is grief and hatred and regret. A wife who has murdered her lover. She is a threat to the Heaven Bless'd and a weeping queen of the Heaven Burned.

Tiamat claims them as her greatest warriors.

Commission from Ragnar Pendon

WHAT DOES A BURNED WIDOW WANT?
Choose 1d4.

• To kill all Dragon Wives, so that they do not suffer as the Burned Widow does.
• To bear children again. The Burned Widow will sacrifice 1000 human hearts to regain her fertility.
• To die. The Burned Widow will attack anything she finds, in hopes that it kills her.
• To forget the dragons she's killed. The Burned Widow will defend any draconic beings being attacked.
• For dragons to go extinct. The Burned Widow will guard a clutch of dragon eggs with her life.

WHAT DOES A BURNED WIDOW NOT WANT?

Choose 1.

• To hear about the City. The Burned Widow will rip the tongues out of anyone who mentions it.
• To be reminded of what she was.
• To be alone. The Burned Widow will sever the limbs of her enemies and drag them to her lair to keep her company.
• 1 thing that all other Burned Widows want.

SIGNS OF A NEARBY BURNED WIDOW

Choose 1. All effects begin within 1 mile of the Burned Widow.

• It begins to rain ash and soot and visibility drops to 5 feet.
• The shadows of dragons race around the environment, but no dragons are in sight.
• Thunder forms clear words in your language. They are threatening and regretful.
• Draconic Radiance increases in the area. All living creatures hear white noise and their vision frequently fills with static.
• The world appears darker, and every living creature experiences their own form of the chills, as if they were being watched.

THE BURNED WIDOW

HD: 10 (or multiples of 10, up to 30)

AC: As Highly Magical Plate + Shield

Attacks:

• Three attacks with any weapon from the Bless'd Armory. For each damage roll, roll twice and take the highest.

Speed: Human x2
Morale: 10 

Special

• Roll 1 time on the Dragon Mutation's table and 2 times per HD on the Dragon Wife Class Feature's table. The Burned Widow has these features.
• The Burned Widow has the Dragon Wife drakocide features. It does not have the normal triggers. Instead, it triggers as tier 1 against any creature, tier 2 against creatures who have killed dragons, and tier 3 against Dragon Wives.
• The Burned Widow has a breath weapon. Roll for it on the Dragon Breath Weapon table.
• The Burned Widow turns into ash when reduced to 0 hit points and reforms 1d10 days later somewhere in the Shattered Crowns.  Every time she reforms, reduce her maximum HD by 5, to a minimum of 1. If destroyed when she has 1 HD, she is permanently destroyed.
• The Burned Widow regenerates 1d6 hit points every round. If damaged by a dragon, the Burned Widow doesn't regenerate the next round.

Palace of the High-King

A great ziggurat of blue-painted stone looms above the island of petty temples, omen reading huts, and medicine drinker shacks that girdle it.

This'll do until I get the commission in.

Armies of god tenders bustle about, performing tasks to keep the divine happy. They are slaves and they are servants and they are the happiest of the Bless’d for they have both purpose and safety bestowed upon them by their masters.

Hundreds of shrines and offerings are left upon the sides of the ziggurat. Four sets of stairs wind their way up. The more desperate the prayer, the more steps you take. Never do you enter the zenith temple. It is made of clay and reed and appears a shack itself, but inside is where gods dwell and you are no god nor their tender.

This is the Palace of the High-King, this shack that sits a top majesty. When one enters, they are taken into a seperate world inside the Heaven Bless’d. Here, in the presence of gods, miracles are forged and the Heaven Bless’d is made safe.

Why Visit the Palace of the High-King?

Roll, choose, or create a reason.

1. A god tender approaches you, telling you that one of the gods has summoned you for audience.
2. You wish to view a god, but have no permission to enter the Palace. Thus, you sneak in, and search the god out for their blessing.
3. Your place of work surrounds the Palace, and a god tender calls on you for aid.
4. You’ve heard great treasures lie unattended inside the Palace and you wish to steal them.
5. There is a Hanging Garden locked away in there, and you wish to hunt in it.
6. Many god tenders have died as of late, and you wish to replace one of them.

ROOM SUMMARY OF THE PALACE OF THE HIGH-KING

This is a basic summary of what will be found as you explore the Palace. Detailed sections below. Numbers correspond to rooms. Connecting the rooms are hallways, where the floors are stone, and the curved ceilings and walls made of reed.

1. Blood-Stained God Foyer. The opening foyer of the palace. Leads to rooms 2, 3, and 4.
2. Heliograph Epics of All Heavens. A room covered in heliograph murals. Leads to room 5.
3. Pyre-Beds. The pyre-beds of the god tenders. Leads to room 6.
4. Throne Baths of Heaven’s King. The audience chamber of the former High King and current Steward-King. Leads to rooms 8, 9, 10, and 11.
5. Symbol Graves, Untended & Unworn. Where divine symbols are gathered and stored from the dead and forgotten gods.
6. Bloodletting Sanctity Chamber. Where the god tenders perform auto-sacrifice.
7. Sealed Gate of the Hanging Garden of the High King. Leads to the appropriately titled Hanging Garden.
8. Torture Room of the Four Oracles. Where the god’s four personal Handless Priests live and rant prophecies.
9. Union of the Palace Heavens. The nexus that leads to the personal domains of each of the gods. Leads to rooms 13, 14, 15, and 16.
10. Heart of the Radiant Heretic. Where the Radiant Saint who tricked the High King is sealed away.
11. Prison Where Hells are Made. The torture-prison where the worst criminals are interred.
12. Where Sunbeams Meet and Guide. Directly above room 4 is a glassed opening. Touching it transports one to any location within the Heaven Bless’d that the sun can touch.
13. Half-Grave of the Half-Sun. The Palace Heaven of Half-Sun Sintotec.
14. The Sobbing Grotto. The Palace Heaven of Veiled Weeper Allalotl.
15. Empty Space Beyond. The Palace Heaven of Gatekeeper Metamm.
16. Where Crucifixions are Worshipped. The Palace Heaven of Blood Dream Xoash.

HEAVEN’S GUARDS

When exploring the palace without a god tender guide, there is a 3-in-6 chance that every hallway and room will have 2d6 palace guards. These guards are 1st level fighters and wear the gilded skins of animals they’ve hunted and had blessed by Half-Sun Sintotec. When reduced to 0 hp, they transform into beasts of your choosing, such as wolves, lions, tigers, jaguars, etc. When reduced to 0 hp in this form, they cry out, summoning another 2d6 palace guards in 1d4 rounds to the area.

Additionally, every room has a 5-in-6 chance of having a god tender inside. If the god tender sees the party has no guide, they will interrogate them. If the party does not convince the guide otherwise, they will run and find 2d6 palace guards and return with them in 1d8 rounds.

Palace guards will imprison player's reduced to 0 hit points and stabilize them so that they do not die. Player's will be imprisoned in the Prison Where Hells are Made for 1d12 days before being taken for trial before Half-Sun Sintotec in the Throne Baths of the High-King.

ENCOUNTERS IN THE PALACE OF THE HIGH-KING

Roll 1d6 for every room entered. On a 5 or lower, there are god tenders in the room if it is daylight hours, or a 1-in-6 chance during night time, with exceptions. If there is an encounter, roll a d6 on the chart below. Replace used options with your own.

1. 1d4 god tenders are secretly discussing how to best introduce dragon worship to the Heaven Bless’d. Act suspiciously when discovered.
2. 1d10 god tenders are kneeling and praying. They are oblivious to what goes on around them, increasing sneaking odds by +1.
3. 1d6 god tenders are doped on opium and hashish. They will see the party as gods and begin to follow them around, cutting themselves and filling the parties footsteps with the shed blood.
4. A senior god tender is tutoring 2d12 neophyte god tenders on the history and purpose of the current room. The senior god tender, if cowed, will lead to the neophytes being made docile as well.
5. Two god tenders are petting each other in this room. Embarrassed, they will run off when discovered. It will be an additional 3d8 rounds before they find the courage to call the guards.
6. 4d10 god tenders are holding a meeting in this room, discussing various matters of state and faith. There are already 4d6 guards gathered here to protect them.

ROOMS IN THE PALACE OF THE HIGH-KING

Objects considered treasure if removed from the Palace and taken to safety have their value beside them in parenthesis. The value represents an individual item; if there are multiple, each is worth the listed amount. Treasure here is only considered treasure if stolen and taken to a place for personal use or benefit outside the Palace. Brackets contain numbers of rooms that hallways lead too.

1. BLOOD STAINED GOD-FOYER

Enter through the shack’s only doorway. The chamber is twice the size it should be. Brown-red stains cover the stone floor and fill the foyer with the metallic smell of spilled blood. Statues at the corner of each room shaped like strange creatures (400sp). They whisper your secrets as you approach them. Three hallways yawn before you--one on the north wall, one on the east, and one on the west [2, 3, 4]. From the ceiling hang 400 tecpatl daggers (20sp).

2. Heliograph Epics of All Heavens.

Western hallway spits you out into a chamber the size of a small island. Thousands of 60-foot tall, 120-foot wide stone tablets (1,000sp) lined up in rows. Each has been burned with heliographs telling the complete history of the Hunter’s High Heaven and the Heaven Bless’d & Burned. Touching one allows you to see that moment in history play out in real time. 1-in-100 chance you find the moment in history you are looking for, increasing to a 1-in-2 chance if guided by god tender. Where are the missing moments in history? Stairs in center of chamber descend underground [5].

3. Pyre-Beds.

Eastern hallway leads you to god tender living quarters. At any time there are 60+1d20 god tenders sleeping on litteral pyres. The flames are golden and do not burn, but instead lull one into a sleep where they can lucidly dream at will. Some god-tenders are talking, others kissing, others making featherwork. No privacy anywhere to be had. Somewhere, someone is throat singing. A stone hallway leads eastwards [6].

4. Throne Baths of the High-King.

Northern hallway takes one to the audience chambers. Massive, with marble galleries on the sides for Midnight Plumed and god tenders to watch. Thirteen pools, each 30 feet in diameter, cover the ground. At the back is one bigger than the rest, with a throne built into part of it. Here, the kings listen, decree, and bathe. Bathing in any pool heals all missing hit points and makes one weep blood into the water. If bathing without permission, be cursed, and reduced to 1 hit point until service has been performed in gods’ name. Four hallways stand in the back of this chamber [8, 9, 10, 11]. 1-in-6 chance of audience currently being held.

5. Symbol Graves, Untended & Unworn

Down the stairs one will find a stone antechamber, barely lit, cold, smelling of blood, urine, and sex. God tenders are only allowed to enter here when their eyes have been stitched shut, and can only crawl on hands and knees. Decorating the walls are countless Heavenly Gears. See Appendix A for a listing of them, and tables to create your own. Touching a Heavenly Gear requires a save vs magic or be possessed by the god’s dying moments. Fly into a rampage, killing everything as death pains wrack your body and the apocalypse claims your mind.

6. Bloodletting Sanctity Chamber

Yawning eastern hallway leads to individual chambers encased in stone half-domes. Smells of wet meat and flayed skin. Weeping comes from different chambers. Inside, god tenders lean over bowls and penetrate themselves with needles and slice their genitals to create god-wine. Drink the fresh blood and reset your miracle die as if it had never been used. All god tenders here are  too high to recognize others.

7. Sealed Gate of the Hanging Garden of the High King

The gate is broken to pieces and scattered throughout the rooms. Each room has a 6-in-6 chance of holding a gate piece, requiring a thorough search to find, going down by 1 for each piece found. Arrange all six pieces in the Throne Baths of the High-King [4] to create the gate. Instructions and spells needed to activate it found in the Heliograph Epics of All Heavens [2].

8. Torture Room of the Four Oracles.

The most western hallway leads to a stone chamber sectioned into quarters with reed walls. Within each room lies a Handless Priest, mutilated, filling their quarter with the stentch of death. God tenders come in, torture, and ruin these oracle liches to extract futures like venom from a snakebite. Inflict 20 points of damage onto a Handless Priest and roll on the Prophecy table. Receiving a prophecy more than once indicates an increase in truth and urgency with each hearing.

1. Gurgle the blood of a god and spit it on the eggs of a woman and know then at that moment a thousand breaths will pass between the setting of the Half-Sun and the rising of the moon and the murder of your enemy.
2. Feathers sprouting from your ears will let you know that the Mystics are near and when they are near they will sneer and say to themselves let us take that one’s heart and bring it here, to our home which all things fear.
3. Obsidian glass will cut your feet. Look into the blood then. Stir it with your finger. A flower will blossom. A dragon will roar. On the horizon will sit what you search for, or something worse still.
4. Listen. Look with eyes unclouded by faith. Forgive her, and she will let you live, and will see you home.

9. Union of the Palace Heavens

Hallway opens up on a great cathedral. Featherworks decorate walls and shrines (100sp). Underneath a sky window and situated in a beam of bright light are four clay tablets that stand as tall as men. Each is emblazoned with another god. Smell incense and entrails as you touch them and are warped to one of the four Palace Heavens [13, 14, 15, 16].

10. Heart of the Radiant Heretic

This dark chamber is filled with the stank of animal breath and the sweet smell of pollinated flowers. He hangs from the far back wall. From the reeds sprout four flowers and from each flower blossoms a tiger’s head and each head holds a different limb. The Radiant Saint hangs from them, he who led to the High-King’s death and the High-Queen’s theft, impaled upon three glass spears through his chest (1000sp). Speaks not, the Radiant Saint, beyond a prayer to Tiamat. Gods will torture him for pleasure and god tenders do as ordered. If presented with a Radiant Mystic, he will awaken and tell them what must be done to free him--a kiss from a Dragon Wife and the forgiveness of a Medicine Drinker.

11. Prison Where Hells are Made

A vertical prison lined with stairs. Feather-decorated obsidian bars slice the hands of those who touch them without the Steward-King’s summons. Inside each cell is a criminal who has gone too far to be tried by the masses. Or, they know secrets they should not, and draconic heresy has envenomed their hearts and minds. Each cell is small, fits one body, must stand and not sit. Piss and shit mix with flowers up and down the prison. Fed honey, water, blood, and executed flesh.

12. Where Sunbeams Meet and Guide

Above the Throne Baths of the High-King [4] sits a sun-window. Stand underneath it, pray to the gods, and be born to any location in the Heaven Bless’d that the sun touches. Happens fast, but at a cost. Skin burned badly, eyes blinded for an hour, and body radiates an authoritative lume. No encounter rolls are made here.

13. Half-Grave of the Half-Sun

A vast lake of liquid gold stretches out before you. No borders, horizon burns with sun flares. Islands of giant, gilded skulls float and are covered in weapons sheathed hilt-deep(500sp). The sky is the color of a bruise. It is hot, sweltering, and the air smells of a forge. Half-Sun Sintotec walks across the surface, inspecting weapons. God tenders follow after him, their legs gilded and their bodies horribly burned. When they die they become gilded skull-islands and Sintotec sticks weapons into them as reminders. 1-in-6 chance standing on liquid sun every round to die as your body is vaporized from the heat. If without a guide, Half-Sun Sinotec will engage in combat on sight.

14. The Sobbing Grotto

Mangroves flooded by water a foot deep. Butterflies dance from branch to branch and perfume the air with jasmine and rose. The deeper one goes into the mangroves, the thicker the water becomes until it transforms totally into blood. Weeping can be heard from virtually every part of this Palace Heaven. Its source is Veiled Weeper Allalotl, sitting in a tree, weeping, her god tenders catching the blood dripping from her feet and staring into it for prophecy and blessing (5000sp). If without a guide, her Heavenly Gear swarms you.

15. Empty Space Beyond

From here, one can see all of creation. The Shattered Crowns, the Ashpits, the Pyre Cities, the Radiant Auroras--all of it. You are falling. The air is cold. You are thousands of miles above the surface of heaven, but you will not lose consciousness as you fall. Rare is it that Gatekeeper Metamm can be found here, and when you finally hit the ground, you wake up inside of the Union of the Palace Heavens, hardly a minute having passed since you left [9].

16. Where Crucifixions are Worshipped

Behold Blood Dream Xoash. He is crucified before you in a chamber black. The only lights come from the torches that hang from the crucified corpses of executed prisoners that surround the god. He sleeps and will not be awoken through any less than the death of the host the symbols are divinely welded too. Crucified prisoners who still draw breath sleep as well, their dreams feeding the great Blood Dream. Feathers pin their hands into stone, wood, and glass. They stretch deep into the abyss. God tenders kneel before their god and will guide anyone who appears, guided or not, into the Hanging Garden of the Blood Dream with drugs and auto-sacrifice.

Radiance Mysticisms are Spirituals Mutations Developed by Overexposure to Radiation Leaking from Dragons

In most RPGs, radiation gives you weird mutations that sometimes double as super powers. I figured I'd go for something similar. These replace traditional magical items in the Heaven Bless'd & Burned for the most part.

The Third Eye Opens

In the Heaven Bless'd & Burned, when you have at least 1 point of Draconic Radiance, roll a d20 and add your total Radiance points to it. If you get higher than a 20 then you develop a Radiance Mysticism. The Radiance Mysticism will manifest within 1d4 days. Every time you gain an additional Radiance point and do not have a Radiance Mysticism, make another d20 check. You cannot have more than one of these powers at a time.

If you have 0 Radiance, you cannot use your Radiance Mysticism. Likewise, if you display one of these powers inside the City of the Dragon Wives, you will be executed without trial. It is believed these are the powers of Tiamat, and thus are sickening in all ways. Wearing a piece of feathercraft from the City prevents a success to develop these abilities. All expeditioners are given a piece of feathercraft for this reason.

Roll 1d20 and consult the below chart. That is the Radiance Mysticism you develop.

1. One of your arms rots away, leaving just the bones which glisten with Radiance. It addition to still being usable as a normal arm, when you touch a creature, the place where you touched is forever stained green.
2. The white of one of your eyes turns Radiance Green and the iris turns gold. You can see the heart, brain, and genitals of creatures with that eye within 10 feet of you.
3. When you speak, a second voice speaks with you. You can throw this voice as if a ventriloquist, and any creature that hears it believes it is someone of authority speaking to them.
4. A third, draconic eye sprouts open on your forehead. You can wipe the eye from your forehead and put it on objects to see through them.
5. You lose the ability to feel all sensations. You cannot fall below 1 hit point unless something or somebody specifically is murdering you.
6. Your shadow takes on twisted and monstrous forms. You can order it to attach to another creature, and will always know where it is for as long as it is attached.
7. Your tongue splits into a forked version of itself and you gain a hunger for fresh eyes. When you consume a creature's eye, you see everything it did within the last 24 hours.
8. Your earlobes grow claws and stretch down to your shoulders. When a creature lies to you, it sounds like they are suddenly screaming.
9. Your mind expands in ways that you cannot communicate. You learn how to perform a ritual that removes all traces of Radiance (save your own) from a 10x10 mile area. This ritual requires the blood of those you call friend.
10. When you die, you can give your death to an allied creature or fellow party member. Their Radiation score is then added to yours and you now have 1 hit point.
11. Everything you kiss, hug, or have sex with turns must save vs magic or turn into opal.
12. Your palms are gilded. With a successful attack against a possessed creature, you can forcibly rip the possessing spirit out.
13. A featureless, mouthless opal mask manifests over your face. You can no longer speak, but you can show creatures visions by touching them. These visions communicate a basic idea that you want to communicate.
14. When you close your eyes, you instantly fall asleep and begin to dream the thoughts of any creature that can see you or hear you. You can wake at will.
15. Your skin turns white and takes on the texture of a snake's shed skin. When someone or something deals damage to you, it forgets that you exist until you deal damage back to it.
16. A green fog leaves your mouth with every breath. Fires go out when you breathe on them, and darkness lightens when you breathe in it.
17. Your footsteps fill with acid as you walk. You can walk on water, sand, and gasses as if they were bedrock.
18. Your clothing turns to dust as you put it on. If you roll a natural 20 when attacking a creature with your bare hands, you disintegrate it. 
19. Wingbones sprout from behind your ears. Winged creatures that see you plummet to the ground instantly.
20. Choose something you are wearing or holding. It is now a divine symbol, and as long as you wear it, the gods will see you as their equal.

These give ways to some interesting NPCs. All of these are wanderers of the Ashpit, afraid to return to the City of the Dragon Wives or too mad to head back that way.

THE OLD CROWNLESS KING

He has lived since armageddon first came to heaven. His crown has been melted and his city turned into a pyre by his children. Radiance has given him a strange immortality; unless something murders him, he cannot die. Deep in the ashpits does he wander, searching out Ereshteteo in hopes of finding annihilation, or of finding his city again, which has long since been buried.

CHICABBAS, SUN IN THE ABYSS

They are a leper who lives in the Abyss underneath the surface of Heaven. It is safe here, or so they say; their breath is a Radiance green and it pushes away the darkness better than any torch. They will lead you to treasure, to dragons, or to the surface for a price--just a single heart string from one of you. Not too tall a task to ask for, no?

LALEELAL, WHOSE BROTHER SPEAKS WITH HER

Her brother died and she consumed his corpse out of fear of starvation. Now she believes the second voice is that of her consumed sibling. She lives inside of Murdered Forest and uses her voice to trick people into impaling themselves onto petrified tree branches before finishing them herself and consuming their remains.

FORGOTTEN NECUAZA

Drunk on his ability to spy on things no one else can, he beckons himself to be hurt by powerful dragons and then is completely ignored and forgotten by them. He will the party into hurting him and then spy on them too, choosing to steal from, kidnap, or torture one of them before begin forgotten again. 

ELOCOASTU, GODDESS OF CEASELESS DISCHARGE

While traveling with an expedition, she discovered that the blood, vaginal discharge, mucus, and tears of other creatures were now holy symbols that gave her power and immortality. Her expedition built an altar for her, and the fires of Old Opal Wraiths--another type of discharge--became a new symbol too. She kidnaps explorers and forces them to worship her in preparation for storming the City of the Dragon Wives and becoming its God-Queen.

Inside Pyre Cities, Old Opal Kings and Old Opal Wraiths Possess Pilgrims Shepherded by Wish-Granting Ifirit

Before Heaven was burned, every lodge-city was ruled by an Opal King. They were named for their armor and weapons, which were gifts given to them by Huitzallah's wife to prove their sovereignty.

When armageddon came, those that survived the initial wave of destruction threw themselves into fires to become immortal. These profane flames scorched black their cities and incinerated their people. Now they are all but wraiths of opal flame that haunt Pyre Cities.

When a Gatherer lights a bonfire and summons these wraiths, there is a 1-in-6 chance of summoning an Old Opal King and a 2-in-6 chance of summoning an Old Opal Wraith. They are hostile on sight, and will seek to kill the Gatherer, immolate their corpse, and chain their soul to the Pyre City as a Soot Shadow to forever serve them in their ineffectual war against dragon-kind.

If neither a King nor Wratih is summoned, a ghost is summoned instead, and it will answer 1d4 questions about the Pyre City before disappearing.

Corpses are sought out by Old Opal spirits who have not manifested via flame in too long a time. They will possess the body of any non-draconic creature they can find. This shambling corpse, called a Pilgrim, will search out the spirit's pyre so that it can be laid to rest. A Pilgrim has limbs three feet too long and is covered in embers.

Pilgrims congregate and are shepherded by Ifriti--ancient wish-granting demons of fire that once served the Old Opal Kings. They were the ones that guided their masters in their desire to become fire. They serve Pilgrims now out of honor for the era-old pact to grant their master's wishes.

Ifrit are cool man.

SHARED CHARACTERISTICS OF THESE CREATURES

• Turn undead works on all of these creatures, including the Ifrit.
• Each of these creatures is immune to fire.
• Damage dealt by these creatures has a 2-in-6 chance of lighting the target on fire.
• Attempts to resurrect any of these creatures will always fail, and result in the resurrector being immolated in flame for 1d12 damage per round until the flames are put out.

OLD OPAL KING

HD: 8

AC: Plate + Shield

SPEED: x1/2 that of man
MORAL: 12

ATTACKS:

• Flaming Zweihander: +10 to hit for 2d6 damage. Attacks 3 times

SPECIAL

• The Old Opal King can summon 1d4 Old Opal Wraiths once during his manifestation.
• If the bonfire the Old Opal King is summoned too is put out, he is temporarily destroyed.
• if the bonfire is not put out, the Old Opal King regenerates 1d6 hit points every turn.
• A target killed by an Old Opal King is burned down to soot and turned into a Soot Shadow.
• The Old Opal King attempts to possess a target if reduced to 0 hit points without the bonfire being destroyed. Save vs magic or seek out its pyre so that it can be laid to rest and reincarnate swiftly.

OLD OPAL WRAITH

HD: 3

AC: Chainmail

SPEED: x1/2 that of man
MORAL: 12

ATTACKS:

• Flaming Macahuitl: +4 to hit for 1d10 damage.

SPECIAL

• If the bonfire the Old Opal Wraith is summoned too is put out, it is temporarily destroyed.
• If the bonfire is not put out, the Old Opal Wraith regenerates 1d4 hit points every turn.
• The Old Opal Wraith attempts to possess a target if reduced to 0 hit points without its bonfire being destroyed. Save vs magic or seek out is pyre of destruction so that it can be laid to rest.

When possessed by one of these two undead, roll a d6 and gain the following personality trait.

1. The gods betrayed you and cannot be trusted. Shun the religious and recieve no miracles or blessings from them.
2. Dragons must be slain at all cost. Become immedietly hostile to any draconic creature, including Dragon Wives.
3. Fire is power, and power is life. Light a blaze and sacrifice your arm to it. In exchange, deal max damage with any weapons you fight with.
4. Radiance is a lying light. By setting human flesh on fire, the released smoke will choke the radiance and temporarily destroy it--but it is a friend you must immolate, not an enemy.
5. Opal is needed for this journey. Drop everything you are doing and travel to the Shattered Crowns to mine opal to forge weapons and armor.
6. Crown yourself in regrets so that you may bear the burdens of people. Everytime you meet someone new, ask them deep and invasive questions about their past.

PILGRIM

HD: 1

AC: None

SPEED: x1/2 that of man
MORAL: 12

ATTACKS:

• Embered Breath: Save vs breath weapon or catch on flame, dealing 1d4 damage per round until put out.

SPECIAL

• A Pilgrim can pray for a wish from its Ifrit shepherd, allowing it to cast 1 Cleric spell of its choice during the following round.

IFRIT

HD: 10

AC: Half-Plate

SPEED: x3 that of man
MORAL: 12

ATTACKS:

• Cursed Kopesh: +10 to hit for d6 damage. Save vs magic or be cursed. Everytime you fall asleep, burst into flames, unless you pray to the Ifrit for mercy and sacrifice to it 100sp worth of treasure. Attacks 2 times.
• Pyroclastic Soul Flow: The Ifrit summons forth the spirits of Old Opal Wraiths to immolate its target. Everyone it sees must save vs magic or combust into flame, suffering 1d12 damage every turn until the fires are put out.

SPECIAL

• The Ifriti can grant 1d6 wishes a day. A wish can grant a creature a 1 casting of any Cleric or Wizard spell from any source as long as the spell is not a wish spell; any non-magical material object it wants; or the exact location of anything it desires. Each wish has a 5-in-6 chance of leading to a certain death trap of the Referee's choice upon attaining what they are looking for.
• The Ifrit flies above the ground by 20 feet.
• The Ifrit can turn into smoke or embers and reform in a location of its choosing as long as it has been to that location before.
• If an Ifrit's congregation of pilgrims is destroyed, it will serve the creatures who destroyed the congregation as long as they are not draconic in nature.