d20 Silven Publishing Curses.pdf

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Curses!
by Eytan Bernstein
Content Editor: Elizabeth R.A Liddell
Mechanics Editor: Michael Thompson
Artwork: Dana Driscoll
Layout: Kosala Ubayasekara
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About the the Author
Eytan Bernstein is an aspiring game designer from Long
Island, New York. While aspiring, he has been teaching
English and history in several countries, including Korea
and Canada. He is also an avid musician, ilm buff, and
animal enthusiast. Eytan hopes that gamers will enjoy
his contributions to Silven’s products because he has
truly enjoyed writing them.
Abbreviations
PHB = Player’s Handbook
DMG = Dungeon Master’s Guide
About the the Editor
Elizabeth R.A. Liddell is a writer, editor, musician and
jack-of-all-trades from the American Midwest. She has
been writing in the fantasy genre for over a decade and
gaming for nearly as long. In 2004, she earned her
Master of Music degree and promptly began a career as
a part time editor, language instructor, and renaissance
clothing specialist. In addition to editing the ÒShort
PDFÓ product line for Silven Publishing, she serves
as the Editor-in-Chief for the oficial monthly e-zine of
Silven Crossroads, The Silven Trumpeter.
About the Series
Our short PDFs are books of less than 30 pages that
are sold at $2 or less. Our goal is to bring concentrated
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permission. For more details refer to the Open Gaming
Licence at the end of this book.
Oficial Website for this Book
The oficial webpage for this product is hosted on Silven
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Contents Page
Undeath Infusion, Lesser [metamagic] 14
Overview
4
Undeath Infusion [metamagic] 14
Undeath Infusion, Greater [metamagic] 14
Curses in Ancient Egypt
4
Curses in Ancient Greece
4
Prestige Classes
14
Curses in the Judeo-Christian Tradition
5
Voudoun
5
Blood Hexer
14
The Evil Eye
5
Evil Eye
16
Hexomancer
18
Curse as a Subtype/Descriptor
6
Servant of Vengeance
20
New Uses of Bestow Curse and Mark of Justice 6
Listing of Tables
New Spells
7
New Bard Spells
7
Table 1.1 New Uses of the Bestow Curse and Mark of
Justice spells
New Cleric Spells
8
7
New Druid Spells
8
Table 2.1 Blood Hexer
15
New Paladin Spells
8
Table 2.2 Evil Eye
17
New Ranger Spells
8
Table 2.3 Hexomancer
18
New Sorcerer/Wizard Spells
8
Table 2.4 Servant of Vengeance
20
Spell Descriptions
9
Color
9
Curse of Ineptitude
9
Curse of Item Rebellion
9
Curse of Magnetic Polarization
9
Curse of Prevarication
9
Curse of Tongues
9
Curse of Truth
10
Curse of Utter Hopelessness
10
Detect Curse
10
Glossolalia
10
Impart Blasphemy
11
Magic Circle vs. Curses
11
Mute
11
Pariah
11
Protection from Curses
11
Raven’s Curse
11
Toady
12
Troglodyte’s Curse
12
Feats
13
Blessed [general]
13
Curse of Blood [general]
13
Curse of Blood, Greater [general]
13
Death Curse Contigency [general]
13
Hexer Bane [general]
13
Persistent Curse [general]
13
Potent Curse [general]
13
Power Word Master [general]
13
Spell Focus: Curse [general]
13
Spell Focus: Curse, Greater [general] 13
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Overview
Curses have been present throughout history and across
cultures, appearing in a wide variety of manifestations.
From ancient Egypt to the New World, curses have
been all but commonplace. In some beliefs, the power
to curse another being was the central aspect, while
in others it was a tool to use for the betterment of the
world. Yet other curses were used out of spite, hatred or
revenge.
The purpose of this book is to serve as a
supplement to d20 games. It provides new options
and material for incorporating a greater use of
curses into a d20 fantasy game. This book explains
some of the background of the phenomenon of
curses as well as a series of new spells, feats and
prestige classes. Though primarily intended for
the dungeon master (DM), this book can also be
used by players.
Curses in Ancient Egypt
In Ancient Egypt, priests of the god Apep – the serpent
deity of evil, darkness and destruction – prayed to
their god while creating an efigy of an enemy of their
church. They would torture, crush and inally burn these
efigies, resulting in a long and gruesome death for their
enemies. This principle is known as sympathetic magic :
the idea that through special rituals, a replica of a person
can be created (like a voodoo doll) and the replica used
to enact a curse. The person from whom the replica was
created experiences the symptoms of what is inlicted
on the replica. Typically, an important possession of the
victim or a body part (frequently a hair, but sometimes a
more gruesome part) is needed. Many other traditions
used efigies for this purpose, though they can be put to
more beneicial goals as well.
Curses are magic spells placed upon people,
locations or objects with the intent of causing
harm. Curses have a long history that spans
most cultures and time periods. The common
thread in almost all is an intense desire to cause
truly pernicious harm to an enemy. Enemies take
many forms and occur on many levels; thus, the
level of harm and intensity of the curse also vary
quite considerably.
The mystical actions necessary to bring about
a curse vary depending on tradition and intent.
Many ancient cultures believed in the sacred power
of words. They held that words had power in and
of themselves. When an individual has strong
emotions, he or she can turn ordinary words
into curses. Frequently, the most marginalized
members of society – women who are abused or
without rights, families wronged by a corrupt and
decadent nobility, slaves and servants of harsh and
uncaring masters – are the ones whose frustration
has the most power.
Most types of curses are the result of strong
emotions, quite frequently attached to the desire
for vengeance. Some curses, however, are born
from pettiness and the selish concerns of daily
life. These can occur in a variety of forms: a jaded
old woman cursing young ladies with boils out of
jealousy for their beauty, an envious young man
cursing a lover who spurned him with blindness, a
warrior hiring a witch to hex a rival with ineptitude.
Yet other curses arise from a truly dark root.
Sometimes a spellcaster develops a penchant for
pernicious magic. Simple spells that cause harm
are not suficient for these casters. They desire
to cause pain, suffering and embarrassment in
their victims. In wizards, the use of curse magic
frequently stems from a cold, sadistic streak. In
clerics, it is usually the result of worshipping a god of
vengeance: a deity who demands the fulillment of
vengeance when called upon. Among sorcerers, it is
often the result of rage channeled into vengeful magic.
The ancient Egyptians believed that disturbing the
tomb of a mummy brought a powerful curse upon the
grave robber. Since a proper burial was crucial for
the transportation and rest of the dead, the Egyptians
went through elaborate rituals to ensure the safety of
their tombs. Grave robbers were punished severely for
any attempt to disturb a tomb, usually involving the
transformation of the victim into the familiarly swaddled
form of the Pharaohs and their families. The Curse of
King Tut is believed by some to have caused the death of
those involved in desecrating his tomb.
Curses in Ancient Greece
Ancient Greek mythology is rife with curses, but one
of the most direct ones is the one Polyphemus placed
on Odysseus. Polyphemus was one of the Cyclopes, a
race of divine giants with one eye. On his way home
from the Trojan war, Odysseus and his men stop at
Polyphemus’ island to steal food. Alerted to their
presence, the giant attempted to stop them, but they
put out his eye and absconded with the food. In a
vengeful rage, Polyphemus called upon the power of his
father, Poseidon, to make the voyage home a living hell
for Odysseus.
Circe, child of the sun god Helios and a sorceress by
birth, was known for her ability to turn men into animals
with her wand. Like many curses in Greek mythology,
hers is associated with Odysseus. She transformed his
men into pigs when they landed on her island, Aeaea,
but her curse had no effect on Odysseus due to a special
herb given to him by the god Hermes.
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In other instances, curses occurred when an individual
who died tragically used her last ounce of life to place
a powerful curse on the perceived cause of her demise.
Sometimes, a family patriarch would use ancient
ancestral knowledge to place a long-lasting, linear curse
on the future generations of an individual who raped
one of his daughters or offended him in some other
egregious manner.
Some scholars argue that the Ancient Near Eastern
view on the separation of religion and magic
scarcely resembled later perceptions. There were
instances in which even saints are said to have had
peaceful magical contests with pagan practitioners.
Voudoun
Voudoun as we know it today originated with
African slaves in Haiti. Traditional Dahomey
practices melded with African traditions, Masonry,
and Catholicism to become Voudoun, one of the
world’s most unique syncretic religions. Vodoun can
be split into two traditions: obeah, or folk magic,
also known as “hoodoo,” and loa, a system in which
the practitioner is possessed by a spirit of God.
Curses in the Judeo-Christian Tradition
The Judeo-Christian tradition is illed with examples of
intentional and subtle curses. These frequently take
the form of words of power: syllables with a powerful
charge, frequently spoken in an old language. Other
times, curses take the form of prophecies. The speaker
is not so much casting a spell as pronouncing a fate, but
the results are very much the same.
Very little of the Hollywood depictions of Voudoun
are accurate, thus this section cannot truly do
justice to Voudoun religion. It will mainly be an
overview of how a certain small and relatively
minor aspect of the religion may be of interest to
us. This branch has been most frequently seen in
New Orleans and South America.
In the book of Exodus, God works through the hands of
Moses to bring down the aseret hamakot (ten plagues)
upon Egypt. In the Hebrew tongue these words are
dam , sphardaia , keenim , arov , dever , schin , barad ,
arbeh , hosesch , and makat bechorot ; in English they
are blood, frogs, gnats, lies, cattle disease, boils, hail,
locusts, darkness, and the irst-born plague. The word
makot can be translated as plagues, but can also be
used to mean an attack, or possibly a curse. The irst-
born plague is frequently referred to as the curse of the
irst-born. This is probably the most powerful curse
intoned in literature or history; some scholars feel that
the redactors of the book of Exodus were writing a direct
attack against the Egyptian polytheistic structure.
It is important to separate the black magic from
the standard practices of Voudoun. Black magic
is the use of dark arts to perform hexes, curses
and other malicious magics on others. More
common forms of Voudoun rituals involve healing,
puriication and ceremony, performed by
Houngans and Mambos.
Voudoun black magic, the domain of the
sinister Caplatas or Bokors, frequently
involves the use of a Voodoo doll: a form
of efigy used through sympathetic magic.
Through the use of a personal possession
or a part of the victim, Caplatas can create
a doll that serves as a mystical connection
to the body of the victim. The creator then
inlicts suffering, curses and other harm
upon the doll, simultaneously hurting the
victim through the process of sympathetic
magic. “Sympathetic” here obviously
has little in common with the traditional
meaning of the word: there is deinite
malicious attempt on the part of the
Bokor.
In the Books of Kings I and II, Samuel develops a
complex relationship with the Saul, the irst King
of Israel. Samuel, for reasons that are debated,
inds fault with virtually everything done by the
naïve King, sending Saul into its of depression
and acts of irrationality. Several times, Samuel
curses Saul’s kingship and threatens the kingdom
and people with destruction if they disobey God.
Unfortunately, he is very vague about exactly
what actions entail disobeying God: frequently,
curses seem unjust and undeserved, but take
hold nonetheless.
Words of power play a signiicant role in the
New Testament. Many miracles resemble
the removal of curse-like aflictions,
sometimes even death! These words are
always obvious, for they are written in
Aramaic, despite the rest of the text being
written in Greek. In Mark 8:22-6, Jesus
cures a man of his deafness and speech
impediment. He uses the direct Aramaic
term ephphatha (be opened), almost as if
it were a mystical incantation. In another
instance, Jesus resurrects a child from the
dead, using the Aramaic words talitha qumi
(arise child).
Bokors are also said to have the ability
to raise corpses as zombies. While
popular culture would have us believe
that these were dead bodies risen
from the grave, they are at best living
people under the inluence of powerful
drugs. However, there have been
no documented sightings of Voudoun
zombies.
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