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Requiem for a God
evil sorceress, or powerful tyrant from achieving godhood. Regardless of the alignment of its subject, the Ritual of Ascendancy often lays waste to the surrounding land(s), so it is generally in everyone’s best interests to stop it from happening.
Divinity Sparks Small bits of loosed divinity sometimes coagulate into balls of energy that look a little like tiny stars. These balls, called divinity sparks, are both desirable and dangerous. Divinity sparks represent a conChecklist centration of divine Establish the effects of loosed power. Those in the divinity upon the immediate know can use the power locality. in these sparks to their Which of the god’s domainown ends. based effects occur? The death of a god Are they positive or negative? releases some divinity Consider the specifics of the Ritual of Ascendancy. sparks right away, a num Is it possible to rise to godhood ber equal to 1d20 + the via this rite? deity’s 1-to-20 power rat If so, what components and ing. About 10 percent of preparations does it require? these immediately flit off Roll for the number of divinity sparks around the death site. into the Astral Plane, Number of sparks = 1d20 + where they eventually get deity’s 1-to-20 power rating, lost, recoverable only less 10 percent. through extensive search Add 1d6+1 sparks around the corpus dei, if not present at death site. ing with magical aid. Decide whether special conditions Another 10 percent tend modify the difficulty of finding or to fade away (disappear seizing a spark. into the Astral Plane, Are there guardians? move off elsewhere in the Determine whether any NPCs have universe, or become already gained sparks. absorbed by someone or What have they done with them? something) about every What will they do? six months. Thus, the What effects did the spark confer upon these possessors? divinity spark phenome Have any been absorbed to non eventually disappears create divinely infused creatures? altogether from the site of Have any been absorbed to form the god’s death. intelligent items or artifacts? If the god’s corpse does not remain at the site of the demise (see “Post Mortem” in Chapter One), an additional 1d6+1 divinity sparks hover about the actual corpus dei, beyond those released upon death. Difficulties may arise when characters try to find and capture divinity sparks. Sometimes they are only visible under certain circumstances, such as at a particular time of day, by those of a specific alignment or outlook, from a certain angle, or only by using magic. Further, divinity sparks have an Armor Class of 25 (+4 due to size, +5 due to
swiftness/Dexterity, +6 due to magical deflection), which makes them hard to grab. While not intelligent, they do normally resist those attempting to touch them, unless some pre-set conditions favor it. DMs should decide ahead of time whether they want to create any special conditions for finding or grabbing divinity sparks around a particularly deity. Keep in mind that these sparks are the most valuable of a dead god’s treasures. They likely have guardians, such as spectres of the divine or creatures with the divinely infused template (see Chapter Seven). You should make the challenge of getting a divinity spark equal to the spark’s worth. Divinity sparks feel tingly to the touch, and ever-so-slightly warm. Anyone touching one automatically knows the alignment of the dead god that loosed the power to make it.
Using Divinity Sparks Once it’s captured, a character can store away a divinity spark in some safe container, absorb it, or transfer it to another creature or object. Most people use small, locked iron boxes to contain a spark, but anything will do. A stored divinity spark grants its possessor one of the following effects: • Grants a +2 divine bonus to one ability score of the creature’s choosing. Once it’s chosen, the character cannot change the ability score. The spark must be in the possession of the character for the bonus to be in effect. • Activates the abilities of a disaffected (see Chapter Three) • Serves as an experience source for making magic items or casting spells requiring an experience-point component. A divinity spark can offer a total of 1,000 XP in this way. Once the possessor chooses a function for a stored divinity spark, the choice cannot be changed. For example, a character who uses it to activate his ability to become a disaffected cannot later use it to gain a bonus to an ability. He can, however, give it to another to use to gain any of the three effects. A creature can absorb a divinity spark into itself, or cause a divinity spark to be absorbed into an object. A creature absorbing a divinity spark gains a +2 permanent, inherent bonus to an ability score one time only. A character who absorbs two sparks gains no additional abilities beyond those granted by the first one, even if they come from different deities. Absorbing three divinity sparks negates the inherent bonus but confers upon the creature the divinely infused creature template (see Chapter Seven). Only if all the sparks come from the same god, such a creature takes on the alignment of the dead god who generated the sparks.
