Claudius' Lore and Bestiaries

Collections of worldbuilding and monster lore

[dm-clockwork-dragon]

Alright folks, I know i’ve been rather absent since the whole Tumblr Apocalypse thing, but here’s some Proof that I haven’t just been sitting on My Ass:

Announcing The Oracle!

A couple Months back, while I was working on the Mutophage, I had the idea stroke me of trying to play DND using a Deck of Tarot Cards in place of dice. Seemed like a silly idea, but as it happens sometimes, it stuck. I had seen a few classes out there that tried to make use of a deck of tarot cards in same way. but in most cases it was something along the lines of “I play this card to cast this spell” and felt more like a TGC than like reading tarot. I wanted to make something more integral. The Oracle is My take on support-centric class. By reading and manipulating fate, they are able to change the tide of battle, granting boons to their allies, and casting certain doom on their foes. This class is built from the ground up with the intent of feeling like an actual tarot reading when played. Having read tarot for almost 15 years, I worked to make sure that everything flows naturally in the same way as an actual reading, and in a way that won’t upset your deck. In fact, I designed the class to work as a great exercise in getting to know a new deck, or just learning the essentials tarot in the first place. If you love DND, and you enjoy Reading Tarot, you should definitely give it a read.

The Previews here are missing several pages of the greater arcana, for the full PDF check out the full class using this handy dropbox link. If you like what I do and want to support me, Check out my Patreon or Ko-Fi pages, or just come say hi on my Discord!

[signorformica]

Ravi Zupa: Cats matchboxes & prints . A collaboration with Arna Miller • via Bibliothèque Infernale on FB

[itzbatz-deactivated20240722]

can you imagine if coronavirus happened in like 2013. this site would be like "ALRIGHT LISTEN UP MOTHERFUCKERS TODAY YOU ARE GOING TO DO A LEARN ABOUT ~SOCIAL DISTANCING~"

[kiddthemaniac]

LUCKILY FOR *YOU* HANDSOME BASTARDS, OUR LORD AND SAVIOR BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH IS E X A C T L Y SIX FEET TALL.

SO NEXT TIME YOU’RE CHILLING WITH YOUR MOIRAILS, IMAGINE A BEAUTIFUL BENDYPOO LYING ARSE NEKKID ON THE FLOOR BETWEEN YOU. CAN’T FIT A WHOLE SHERLOCK?

THEN YOU’RE T O O  F U C K I N G C L O S E GOD DAMN IT. 

[neon-nobody]

[prokopetz]

More inadvisable secret societies for your Dungeons & Dragons game:

The Brotherhood of the Crimson Star, an apocalypse cult with a decentralised cell structure. Approximately half of the Brotherhood’s cells are working to accelerate the prophesied apocalypse, while the other half are working to prevent it. Owing to tight information control and erratic communication between cells, most members are completely in the dark about the schism, believing that all of their peers share their goals and and merely disagree in their methods.  

The Golden Owlbear Society, a philosophical collective of like-minded wizards and warriors dedicated to the improvement of mortal civilisation. In practice, they’re a social club for retired high-level adventurers who like to get high on pipeweed and debate political theory, and they almost never accomplish anything of note, but they’re treated as an existential threat by many nations owing to the absurdly high concentration of power they in theory represent.  

The Thousand Scales, a sorcerous cabal united by the fact that they’re all the illegitimate offspring of a single incredibly randy dragon. The half-human members serve as the organisation’s public face, while the greater part of its roster keep out of the public eye owing to their… eclectic parentage. The cabal’s leader appears to be half dragon, half horse, but guests should under no circumstances remark on this – it’s something of a touchy subject!  

The Vitalist League, ostensibly a band of freedom fighters against the reign of a terrible lich-king. In truth, nearly all of the League’s members are disguised undead infiltrators of various sorts. Most of the infiltrators are aware of this fact, but their superiors generally are not; due to the lich-king’s habit of regularly purging the upper ranks of his secret police, the infiltration’s operational history has been lost, and it’s unclear whether the “original” human-led League ever existed in the first place.  

The Honourable Company of Shoemakers, a trade guild that wields immense political power due to its deep connections and numerous highly trained operatives. Their secret is that they really are just a bunch of shoemakers, and have no ambitions or concerns beyond protecting the exclusivity of their contracts and ensuring that their members are allowed to ply their trades unimpeded by state interference. The trouble is, they’ll go to literally any lengths to achieve those goals!

[prokopetz]

(To address the comments in the notes, no, the fourth one isn’t lifted from Paranoia – at least, not specifically. “Apparent revolutionary organisation actually consists entirely of state infiltrators, but the state doesn’t realise it” is a reasonably common trope in satirical dystopian sci-fi; the earliest example I can think of is probably the anarchist cell the titular protagonist briefly joins in the 1965 novel Bill, the Galactic Hero, but I’m betting there are even older ones I’m not bringing to mind!)

[ika-art]

Little herbalist spreadsheet!

[everythingfox]

Thought you’d appreciate this

(Source)

[lore-and-monsters]

Last Choice in Curse-Lifting

One method remains consistent to lifting any curse. It is applicable to any curse known to man, common or seeker, though inherently cruel and dangerous to the creature and the attempter: by way of a hollow-purification.

First, one must acquire an edged weapon one possesses expertise in. This weapon shall then be given to a runewright who, with the cooperation of an expert smith, shall create from it a porous weapon useless in conventional combat, but capable of absorbing a purifying broth of two parts distilled spring water, one part sage, and one part rosemary, boiled over precise temperature for a precise time. This weapon shall then be capable of absorbing supernatural energy out of a Cursed creature upon contact with its blood.

By principle, a cursed creature is human within. Thus, they possess a reserve of supernatural energy, and a reserve of life force. This method attempts to exhaust the former while maintaining the latter at a humanly-survivable level. Be that as it may success or fail, a cursed creature without sufficient sentience and considerable awareness of its human identity would simply flee to recuperate.

Such recovery of supernatural energy while wild and muddled consistently leads to a larger reserve, untill it is eventually impossible to exhaust before death of the human within. Such a creature then becomes no different than a rabid animal to be destroyed.

[deaths-chessmate]

I got bored and had a headache and somehow I ended up drawing a four armed snake lady. 

[unexplained-events]

Scariest Urban Legends In Each State

HERE is the link for those of you who want to read a text version of the list.

[eclectic-christian-witch]

Old Herb Names

Raven and Crone

Adders Tongue: Dogstooth, Violet, Plantain Ass Foot or Bulls Foot: Coltsfoot

Bats Wings: Holly Leaf Bats wool: Moss Bears Foot: Ladys Mantle Birds Eye: Germander Speedwell Black Sampson: Echinacea Blood: Elder sap or another tree sap Blood of Hephaistos: Wormwood Blood from a Head: Lupine   Blood of Ares: Purslane Blood of a Goose: A Mulberry Trees Milk Blood of Hestia: Chamomile Blood of an Eye: Tamarisk Gall Blood from a Shoulder: Bears Breach Bloody fingers: Foxglove Bloodwort: Yarrow Bodily Fluids: Houseleek Bone of an Ibis: Buckthorn Brains: Congealed gum from a cherry tree Bread and Cheese Tree: Hawthorne Bulls Blood or Seed of Horus: Horehound Burning Bush: White Dittany

Calfs Snout: Snapdragon Candelmas Maiden: Snowdrop. Capons Tail: Valerian Cats Foot: Canada Snake Root and or Ground Ivy Cheeses: Marsh Mallow Chocolate Flower: Wild Geranium Christs Ladder: Centaury Christs Eye: Vervain, Sage Clear-eye: Clary Sage Click: Goosegrass Clot: Great Mullein Corpse candles: Mullein Corpse Plant: Indian Pipe. Crocodile dung: Black earth Crowdy Kit: Figwort Crows Foot: Cranesbill, Wild Geranium Cuckoos Bread: Common Plantain Cucumber Tree: Magnolia Cuddys Lungs: Great Mullein

Daphne: Laurel/Bay Dead Man: Ash or Mandrake root carved in a crude human shape or poppet Devils Dung: Asafoetida   Devils Plaything: Yarrow Dew of the Sea: Rosemary Dogs Mouth: Snap Dragon Doves Foot: Wild Geranium Dragons Blood: Calamus Dragons Scales: Bistort Leaves Dragon Wort: Bistort

Eagle: Wild Garlic Ear of an Ass: Comfrey Ear of a Goat: St. Johns Wort Earth Smoke: Fumitory Elfs Wort: Elecampane Enchanters Plant: Vervain Englishmans Foot: Common Plantain Erba Santa Maria: Spearmint Everlasting Friendship: Goosegrass Eye of Christ: Germander Speedwell Eye of the Day: Common Daisy Eye of the Star: Horehound Eye Root: Goldenseal Eyes: Aster, Daisy, Eyebright

Fairy Smoke: Indian Pipe Fat from a Head: Spurge Felon Herb: Mugwort Fingers: Cinquefoil Five Fingers: Cinquefoil Foxs Clote: Burdock Frogs Foot: Bulbous Buttercup From the Belly: Earth-apple From the Foot: Houseleek From the Loins: Chamomile

Goats Foot: Ash Weed Gods Hair: Hart’s Tongue Fern Golden Star: Avens Gosling Wing: Goosegrass Graveyard Dust: Mullein Great Ox-eye: Ox-eye Daisy

Hags Taper: Great Mullein Hagthorn: Hawthorn Hair: Maidenhair fern Hairs of a Hamadryas Baboon: Dill Seed Hair of Venus: Maidenhair Fern Hand: The expanded frond from a male fern used to make the true hand of glory, which is nothing more than a candle made of wax mixed with fern Hares Beard: Great Mullein Hawks Heart: Heart of Wormwood Heart: Walnut Herb of Grace: Vervain Hinds Tongue: Hart’s Tongue Fern Holy Herb: Yerba Santa Holy Rope: Hemp Agrimony Hook and Arn: Yerba Santa Horse Hoof: Coltsfoot Horse Tongue: Hart’s Tongue Fern Hundred Eyes: Periwinkle

Innocense: Bluets

Jacobs Staff: Great Mullein Joy of the Mountain: Marjoram Jupiters Staff: Great Mullein

Kings Crown: Black Haw Knight’s Milfoil: Yarrow Kronos’ Blood: of Cedar

Lads Love: Southernwood Ladys Glove: Foxglove aka Witches’ Gloves Lambs Ears: Betony Lions Hairs: Tongue of a Turnip [i.e., the leaves of the taproot] Lions Tooth: Dandelion aka Priest’s Crown Little Dragon: Tarragon Love in Idleness: Pansy Love Leaves: Burdock Love Lies Bleeding: Amaranth or Anemone Love Man: Goosegrass Love Parsley: Lovage Love Root: Orris Root

Maidens Ruin: Southernwood Mans Bile: Turnip Sap Mans Health: Ginseng Master of the Woods: Woodruff May: Black Haw May Lily: Lily of the Valley May Rose: Black Haw Maypops: Passion Flower Mistress of the Night: Tuberose Mutton Chops: Goosegrass

Nose Bleed: Yarrow

Old-Maids-Nightcap: Wild Geranium Old Mans Flannel: Great Mullein Old Mans Pepper: Yarrow Oliver: Olive

Password: Primrose Peters Staff: Great Mullein Pigs Tail: Leopard’s Bane Poor Man’s Treacle: Garlic Priests Crown: Dandelion leaves Pucha-Pat: Patchouli

Queen of the Meadow: Meadowsweet Queen of the Meadow Root: Gravelroot Queen of the Night: Vanilla Cactus

Rams Head: American Valerian Red Cockscomb: Amaranth Ring-o-Bells: Bluebells Robin-Run-in-the-Grass: Goosegrass

Scaldhead: Blackberry See Bright: Clary Sage Seed of Horus: Horehound Semen of Ammon: Houseleek Semen of Ares: Clover Semen of Helios: White Hellebore Semen of Hephaistos: This is Fleabane Semen of Hermes: Dill Semen of Herakles: Mustard-rocket Seven Year’s Love: Yarrow Shameface: Wild Geranium   Shepherds Heart: Shepherds Purse Silver Bells: Black Haw Skin of a Man: Fern Skull: Skullcap Snake: Bistort Snakes Blood: Hematite stone Soapwort: Comfrey or Daisy Sorcerer’s Violet: Periwinkle   Sparrows Tongue: Knotweed St. Johns Herb: Hemp Agrimony.(this is not St. John’s Wort) St. Johns Plant: Mugwort Star of the Earth: Avens Star Flower: Borage Starweed: Chickweed Sweethearts: Goosegrass Swines Snout: Dandelion leaves

Tanners Bark: Common Oak Tarragon: Mugwort Tartar Root: Ginseng Tears of a Hamadryas Baboon: Dill Juice Thousand Weed: Yarrow Thunder Plant: House Leek Titans Blood: Wild Lettuce Toad: Toadflax Tongue of dog: hounds tongue Tooth or Teeth: Pinecones Torches: Great Mullein

Unicorns Horn: False Unicorn:Helonias Dioica Unicorn Horn: True Unicorn Root Unicorn Root: Ague Root

Wax Dolls: Fumitory Weasel Snout: Yellow Archangel Weazel Snout: Yellow Dead Nettles/Yellow Archangel Weed: Ox-Eye Daisy White: Ox-eye Daisy White Mans Foot: Common Plantain White Wood: White Cinnamon Witch’s Asprin: White Willow/Willow Bark Witch’s Brier: Brier Hips Wolf Claw: Club Moss Wolf Foot: Bugle Weed   Wolfs Milk: Euphorbia Worms: Gnarled, thin roots of a local tree

[noblecrumpet-dorkvision]

useful for Nature checks, puzzles, rhymes, riddles, and other dnd things

[we-are-rogue]

I once wanted an English word for a herb that can put people to sleep (not like, permanently, you know, for a nap), and was excited to learn that sleepwort is an actual word!, but then it turned out that it means “lettuce”, which was VERY disappointing for my purposes, I wanted to be poetic you see, but then I thought “who cares, as long as it evokes ‘a herb that puts people to sleep’, as opposed to a salad which it actually means, I’m good!”, and THAT is why I’ve named my translations tag:

“#the Rogue school of translation gives exactly zero fucks”

[historicaltimes]

Cleaning women washing a crucifix, 1938

via reddit

[thewolfbroughtindoors]

Me, thinking they’re hosing an emaciated child down the stairs: oh jesus…

Me, realizing it is in fact our lord and savior on the cross: oh, Jesus…

[jocollins]

i should not be laughing about that note

[synapple]

Some of my Pokémon hot takes

[hoaxghost]

People on twitter seemed to like these a ton so! Loved this cat pic and wanted to just draw em… 

[basalt-dnd]

They look like Fabrin!

[probablygoodrpgideas]

A campaign about returning magical items from whence they came.

Not in the “plunged into the fires of Mt. Doom” sense. 

Artifact repatriation.  The heroes work for an international commission aimed at reversing centuries of plunder.  Oh, sure, the adventurers of yesteryear may have had solid reasons for looting the Ancient Tomb of the Noonday King, but those justifications have passed, and the Noonday King’s regalia really should be returned home, not sitting in a foreign adventurer’s ancestral manor.

Possible adventures include:

Archaeologically respectful dungeon crawls, aimed at returning items to original context if possible

Consulting and cooperation with host museums in native cultures to provide security and academic collaboration

Liberating artifacts from foreign collections, if imperial governments or plutocrats or nobles initially refuse to return them

Realizing that an ancient conspiracy is modifying paperwork and falsifying academic reports to turn the repatriation committee into a MacGuffin delivery service for an ancient lich-king

Persuading the world to keep going on with the good parts of this program even if the one time an ancient lich-king nearly got most of his ancient rivals’ regalia delivered to his tomb home under false pretenses so he could start some real shit, because, hey, they stopped him, the system worked!

[strawbebbynya]

[thecollectibles]

NuTopo by Rodrigo Ramos

[5theditionhomebrewing-deactivat]

After more than a year I’ve finally updated the blight a bit. More in depth on some locations, powerful entities, and general monsters. The old post had a handful of other monsters but there’s apparently a 10 picture limit to posts so i’ll revamp them all and post them later. Have fun with this stuff! Warlock Patreon: Cyrilla Of The Blight Also, I made a Ko-Fi 👍

[5theditionhomebrewing-deactivat]

Update Woooooo!!!!

[dmdorkmaster]

As promised, here is my guide for Magical Plants.

I know it took long, I’ve got my studies to blame for that.

There’s also a variant rule on the first page for those of you who want to use this alongside my Creating Magic Items guide.

Picture from Google.

Enjoy! :)