It's essentially a unique class. You can get them to join your party (Final Fantasy style) either as a hireling or an NPC. There will never be another one like them.
Anyway, here's Viklof.
Ice House
Up on top of Mount Maggaroth, the Ice House is the highest of the Light Collector's three mansions. He's been dead (missing?) for a long time, though, so
The mistress of the house is the Good Lady Tura Lossifar. She is an enchantress and has a few spells. But more critically, she has fucked a dragon and now has a small piece of their power to rewrite reality. She doesn't have a lot of control of this ability--mostly it just boils down to the ability to turn people into furniture by treating them as furniture.
If she can get someone to pretend to be a chair, she can sit on them and turn them into a chair.
If she can get someone to spit tea into her cup, she can grab them by the beltloop and turn them into a teapot.
She is accompanied by Shau, the wild boy, covered in animal parts. Shau is a shapeshifter, and can turn into any animal he has personally collected a trophy from.
There are three ways to get Lady Lossifar to part with Viklof, who she treasures.
Steal the hand bell.
Kill Lady Lossifar and take it. Solve Lady Lossifar's problems and she'll give it to you as thanks.
The hand bell summons Viklof the Butler, who joins your party as a level 1 Viklof. from Black Butler
Viklof the Butler
A - Butler, Fashion Armor, Trusted Ally
B - Useful Item C - Message D - Ghost Household, Beg Your Pardon
Butler
Viklof's soul is bound to whoever holds his bell. He cannot disobey that person or cause harm to that person directly. He cannot hold or move his bell, under any circumstances.
Viklof is capable of exiting the world and entering butler-space whenever he is unobserved. Butler- space is timeless. Nothing occurs there. Viklof can exit butler-space whenever his bell is rung. He will appear by entering the room from the nearest unobserved corner (up to 2 corners away). If there is no unobserved corner within a 2 room radius, Viklof cannot return from butler-space. Viklof cannot take any actions on the round that he is summoned (he's too busy walking up and giving a bow).
Viklof can not move between the two dimensions more than once per minute.
As a magical butler, Viklof doesn't sleep. He enters butler-space every night for an equivalent amount of time, and that suffices.
Fashion Armor
Your body is protected by the power of fashion. Fashionable items cost as much as regular armor and protect an equal amount. They take up no inventory slots. However, you lose the benefits of one piece of armor each time you get wet, get bloody (take damage), or get dirty (anything with mud). As a butler, your fashionable armor is repaired each morning. However, it must always be appropriate for a butler.
Trusted Ally
Viklof is known to the other residents in the Light Collector's former domain (listed below). Viklof is welcomed by all of the primary residents. The party can expect to be promptly introduced to the masters of those places, and given a hot meal, along with a small amount of trust.
Vine House Ice House Honey House The Reflector Quicksilver Hall The Conjunction Light House
Useful Item
If Viklof is summoned back from butler-space for a specific purpose (held in the mind of the bell- ringer) he will be dressed for the task and have the appropriate mundane tools (worth no more than 5s). For example, if summoned to help cut back vines, he will appear with gardening attire and a pair of hedge clippers. He is limited to the roles and tools that a butler might have access to. First aid kit? Yes. Grappling hook? No. Basically anything that you might find in a mansion.
Viklof cannot bring food, weapons, torches, or any type of magical item. This ability is useable once per day per Viklof template.
Message
Every night, Viklof can visit the those locations that he is allied with, deliver a quick message, and then return with a quick response. He can visit up to [template] locations per night, but is permitted only one minute of roleplay conversation at each. Only conversation is possible during these visits.
Once all seven locations listed above have been (more-or-less) explored, Viklof can add other locations to that list, as long as that new location has (a) some sort of boss living there (b) some sort of domestic servant structure (even if it's just goblins under a chieftain), and (c) a good relationship with some amount of trust.
Ghost Household
All of the dead servants of the Light Collector's domain ally themselves to Viklof. He gains 4 MD that he can only use to cast invisible servant.
Beg Your Pardon
Once per lifetime, Viklof can avert a TPK by intelligent enemies in Mount Maggaroth who recognize him (see the list above). Viklof apologizes profusely and promises that this will never happen again. The enemies will allow you to collect yourselves, and they will escort you out. In addition to the list of locations above, this ability applies to all servants of the Light Collector, including golems, spirits, elementals, ghosts, winds, undead, brass men, Drosk, the drakkencult, and demons. It doesn't apply to wild animals.
Discussion
I wanted a character-as-class that would feel unique, and that would plug into the setting.
I don't think I did a very good job of plugging him into the setting, since it would be trivially easy to reskin Viklof as a generic magical butler, but I'm convinced that the idea of character-as-class is a good one.
I may stock the mountain with a few bosses that can be beaten down to level 1 by a good ass- kicking, really just kicking all the demon blood out of their body, whereupon they will ask to join the party. I always liked that trope. A cool new hireling character is a good type of treasure.
Anyway, I still like the class. I think he's extremely useful (a level 4 casting of invisible servant is basically the equivalent of 200 hours of servant labor performed in 10 minutes). He has a lot of cool utility, and the ability to slip into-and-out-of butler-space is something that I'm sure players will love abusing. A powerful toolkit for OSR-style problems.
Arnold K at 9:09 PM
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9 comments:
Spwack February 28, 2023 at 2:18 AM
... He's only gone and done it again!
I think as we see the other houses in greater levels of detail, Viklof will seem more and more "plugged into" the setting. The Message ability in particular varies greatly in power based on the number of people you would want to be able to communicate a small amount with on a regular basis, which can vary wildly depending on the campaign type.
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DeeMer February 28, 2023 at 7:58 AM
Is "Shau" actually "Gau"-inspired?
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Replies
Arnold K. February 28, 2023 at 8:07 AM
Hell yeah! Reply
JosephHalpern February 28, 2023 at 7:54 PM
I do so hope we get an article on the Light collector's domain and all those houses. It's always a treat when you just go into depth on a specific location. My favorite articles of yours have always been the city and kingdom deepdives
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Captain Crowbar March 1, 2023 at 7:29 AM
I've been thinking about "singular mythic archetype as class" -- there is only ever one Red Druid, there is only ever one Flower Avatar, whatever, and PCs embody them in a diegetically unique way or whatever...
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Paul March 1, 2023 at 5:32 PM
I think this idea has legs, and I was thinking it could be used in a manner similar to what Captain Crowbar suggested. The character-as-classes should be identities that can be mantled, to borrow a term from Elder Scrolls. (Spoilers) In the Shivering Isles, the PC works with Sheogorath to stop an oncoming invasion of his realm, and, in the process of doing so, the PC does enough things that Sheogorath would do that they become Sheogorath, mantling the identity (/Spoilers)
It's also something that comes up in superhero comics, where a superhero dies or retires and a young superhero or superhero-in-training takes on the identity of the former superhero. The Phantom, Robin (how many Robins have their been? But only one at a time), Batman in Batman Beyond, etc. You also see it in some fantasy movies. Dread Pirate Roberts, anyone? The Avatar from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Theres been the idea of Agent 007, James Bond being such an identity that the current person in that position assumes, explaining why Bond has been alive for so long and changing bodies every decade or two. TV Tropes calls this a Legacy Character.
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Kyana March 1, 2023 at 5:38 PM
I don't think we ever encountered him or Tura Lossifar.
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Marten March 8, 2023 at 7:38 AM
So you can play as an SCP? Intriguing.
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TPmanW April 6, 2023 at 10:11 PM
I want to see this sort of thinking in an actual computer RPG. Those games are tied to one specific scenario, but somehow just about any character you can name is just a spin on standard RPG class? No way. I'm not an expert but the best exception I can come up with is Final Fantasy 6 where they go whacko with gamblers and painters and a bunch of other stuff I doubt anybody had at the time.
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