The Holy Keepers of Clerical Error

Keepers of Clerical Error

From Where We Stand there is a multitude of gods, all with unique divine portfolios to their names. From Ig, Father of Fire, to [Space], The Unbeing of Not, the list can stretch on many names long. With so many gods to follow, it can become complicated. How is the common man to keep track of where each god is in the grand scheme of things? Who is one to pray to about certain matters? What if the nature of a god's domain changes?

To this end, the Holy Keepers of Clerical Error formed to categorize the many deities that exist. As well as hold host to an event that stands in legend and in practice to this very day.

Tenets

The Holy Keepers of Clerical Order believe in upholding the ideal of knowledge and that it be accessible to those that seek it. Many members of the organization work as librarians and scribes for the halls of history. While half as many also work as surveyors and guides for history in the making.

While there is no single god that Keepers follow, their ranks have a particular affinity for the worship of gods of knowledge and order. Gods that seek to organize chaos with reason, and that enlighten mortals, are held in high esteem. Several shrines within the main hall are consecrated to such gods.

Though Keepers venerate these gods, they are by no means bound to any of them. In their purest form, Keepers have seen enough changes to know that the gods are impermanent. They each have the potential to fall or supplant one another. Some are even replaced by mere mortals that find a way to ascend to such lofty heights. While it is true that many Keepers do develop a fondness for particular gods, this is frowned upon. Keepers strive to stay objective and keep their own worship out of their duties to inform all.

Records

For every god, there are legends, stories, hymns, and histories. Keepers pride themselves on housing the most complete collection of records on the divine order of higher powers. If there is ever a need to find the lore of times when gods battled, it is here. If one wishes to know the number of times a given deity has set foot on the world, a tome contains that number. One need not look any further than the Library of Keepers.

Comprised of a sprawling complex that takes up the majority of the Keeper's main temple, The Library is a place that has accumulated the combined knowledge of several generations, with all the dusty tomes one would expect to find when someone's great great great grandfather was the last to access the lesser-known sections.

Due to the immense size and scope of The Library, it is not uncommon for clerics to need provisions if they embark into the deep storage that is the Stacks. Like a tower constructed one block on top of another, so too is the Library comprised of Stacks that lay one on top of the other, and that descent into the depths of its foundation to an unnatural depth. It is rumored that the Stacks have no true limit, as there is always more knowledge to be gained. Always more secrets to be divined, uncovered, and recorded. What many people do not know is that this is more true than anyone would hope to know.

The depths of the Stacks are a truly infinite maze of corridors, shelves, and books of all shapes and sizes. For a price, there are some clerics that will guide adventurers down to certain levels of the Stacks that are mapped out or will pay handsomely for maps of newer portions of the trove of knowledge that has yet to be surveyed. Most unnerving of all, however, are the tales of clerics and adventurers that have descended so far down that they have been nearly forgotten by those above, or whose records of existence become shaky at best. While this might initially prompt anxiety, senior Keepers are quick to remind nervous acolytes that it is irrational to be anxious about people who have never existed.

Clerical Error

While Keepers strive to record all there is to know about the gods, there is only so much that mortals can know. Because of this Keepers have found the most reliable methods of ranking the divine is through the failings of their clerics. The theory goes that because failing is a mortal quality, it is the measure of where divinity has intervened to reduce it.

It is with this logic that the Keepers host their Quinquennial Trial of Clerical Errors once every 5 years. Paladins, clerics, and oracles from all the temples across the realm attend with hopes to represent their deity. There are fierce rivalries between those that take part. Both between the clerics of opposed deities, and those from temples that compete for patronage.

Over the years the event has gained so much renown that it draws in the workers of the nearby Gateway City, where the main compound of the Library of Keepers is located. Merriment is had by all as vendors of treats and divine paraphernalia alike hawk their wares. The Five-Year Temple comes alive with the devout and eager, and every other sort of holy festival goer.

The only ones barred from competing are those that serve undivine beings. Because of this, some regrettable incidents have happened at the previous Quinquennial Trials. Yet the public is assured the Keepers have made strives to prevent future incursions. Only time will tell if restraining the worshipers of elder beings holds for long.

The Components of Casting

Spellcasting Components

Spellcasting, too many, is an academic domain. Scholars analyze archaic scrolls, sorcerers try to control wild magics, and summoners try to bargain with otherworldly creatures. It is a discipline of study and iteration that builds upon what others have discovered. All with the goal of applying it to real-world situations. It falls upon the humble, arcane professors to impart their knowledge of the mystic arts.

The most common knowledge about magic is the three mediums through which a caster channels and shapes their magic. Below are some examples of these three iconic component types and how mages might use them.

Verbal

A sweet song rolling off a bard's tongue. The chanting of a devout cleric amidst the steady drone of a gong’s strikes and reverberations. Screeches of a goblin shaman stamping along the warpath. All these are examples of how to verbally express magic.

The idea of a Word of Power, a True Name, is interwoven with the concept of verbal components. The premise of words themselves carrying some mystical property. This could be expressed by a diplomat or someone who is well-versed in magical languages that allow them to speak to people of all nations and tongues.

A linguist mage studies the dialects of casters around the realm to find how different pronunciations change a spell. A bard that only uses verbal spells could be an orator that wields their words as a weapon. One who has no need for a spell focus when their start running their mouth.

The verbal components do not even need to be words. You could have a bird mage whose spells conjure as they mimic a sound. A water spell accompanied by the crashing of waves, or a fireball brought to bear by the noise of a crackling fire. An old automaton uses a record player to create a steady chant as they weaved their mechanical, arcane defense.

While this type of spellcasting can be effective when one has only their wits and voice about them, it has some drawbacks. Verbal components would not be available to one who has been rendered mute, either by injury, gagging, or magical means.

Somatic

A subtle tweak of the thumb as a hooded figure activates an illusion several feet away. Ink bottles hurtle toward a threat as the academy librarian mimics an underhand toss. Complex motions are carried out by the hands, an intricate spell that only those with knowledge of the king’s secret handshake can replicate. These are some ways that magic can be expressed somatically.

Gesturing with a hand can be an instinctual non-verbal form of communication. Emphasis can be delivered to a speech with the use of gestures or made all the more prevalent by omitting them to draw focus fully on the words being spoken. If we consider gestures to be a form of communication, ranging from secret codes, to sign language, then it stands to reason that movements of the arms and hands can fit the same role that verbal components occupy.

An acrobatic warlock, deft with their body, could sling spells as they swung on the trapeze. Knights skilled in the art of magic could use a one-handed sword style, or their shields could come with extra straps to better allow them to cast a spell.

Less common somatic components are also possible, as somatic refers to the whole body. A mage without hands might discover the ancient art of Leg Casting and kick through the air like it was water. Clerics hailing from a tribe of giant hybrids may find themselves blessed with an extra set of arms. One set for the casting of blessings, as the other set wields weaponry amidst the chaos of battle.

While versatile, somatic components can fail in ways like their verbal sibling. Casters that have lost the use of parts of the body may not have skill in alternative somatic styles. Old age can also limit the movement of mages that have not been taking a steady dose of health potions. Those skilled in close-quarters weaponry can find it hard to wield magic, as one has only so many hands.

Material

A cube of lead is turned into a bar of gold by an aged transmuter. Flower petals turn into razor-sharp daggers as they fall from the roof above. A single, golden phoenix feather erupts into a fireball after an unlucky guardsman finds it. Material components take all shapes, sizes, and forms, and can span the entire gambit of physical goods.

Unlike somatic and verbal components, which originate from a creature with intent, material components have their magical properties innately. To illustrate: A dragon’s scales will always have the same magic properties no matter who knows of it, but verbal and somatic components must be learned and their meaning conveyed as part of the spell they contribute to. You can have magical elements that occur naturally, but it is impossible to have a somatic or verbal component just spontaneously manifest.

Material components exist all their own, though that does not make them any less interesting, and some would argue it makes them far more powerful in magic. A succulent maroon mushroom that is grown in the dark of the swamps, prized for its potency and ability to make potions of True Seeing, though its side effects can be quite hallucinogenic. Dragon’s- well, any part of a dragon is quite magically potent. Eyes, scales, teeth, you name it, and there is likely a magical effect that can be gained from a dragon, no matter how minor.

While the drawbacks of somatic and verbal components tie into how able-bodied or restrained a mage is, their physical state, material components have a far greater limit on them. While it is true having a wand or ingredient pouch stolen can limit a caster, not having access to materials in the first place can severely limit many higher-level spells that a caster could hope to achieve. It is because of this that many accomplished mages are well-known for their connections with royalty, profitable factions, or Chosen Ones that give them access to rarer or more costly materials. Many have joked that if not for the cost of material components, there would be a lot more wizards who would hermit away in their towers instead of seeking quests for coinage.

Fantastical Foods and Where They're Served - Smorgasbord

Smorgasbord

At the foot of a large and ancient volcano sits the town of Smorgasbord. Legends say that the first groups to settle in the region modeled their baking ovens after that of Anzere, the goddess of the land and harvest. The story goes that her husband Ig, a minor fire god, first brought about liquid fire in an attempt to make his work easier. However, upon finding that his liquid fire burned straight through the barrel he had, for it was not made to carry fire that could slosh, Ig fell into a blinding rage. After Ig had bubbled and fumed for many days his wife happened upon him, having noticed his absence.

It is not clear just how Anzere arrived at her conclusion, though all scholars agree it was quite quick, as Anzere was known for the head upon her shoulders just as much as the wheat upon the soil. In an effort to give her husband's tantrum an outlet, she moved the ground about him. Though it took many days, the land around Ig soon morphed into a basin in which he kicked and splashed his liquid fire. It was only once the land reached up into the sky, and the dirt gave way to rocks below that his blind fury was given direction. With a final oath and a stamp of his foot, Ig sent his liquid fire up and out of the bottleneck of land that Anzere had raised around it.

It was in this way that Anzere constructed for herself an oven, the first of its kind, and showed mortals how best to channel the fury of flame that even Anzere's husband could not always contain. Some could say it is because of Anzere that the town of Smorgasbord stands today as it does.

M.A.I.D. Brigade - Lancer

War is not a clean endeavor, and rarely are battles fought without collateral damage. In a post-scarcity world, where massive mech frames can be assembled in multi-ton printers, and weapons of destruction outfitted to them just as quickly, a new kind of damage containment and cleanup is required.

When rocket-propelled defense systems falter and the line could not be held you need to call in the specialists.

You need to call in...

The M.A.I.D. Brigade

Militarized Antiseptic, Immunization, and Decontamination (M.A.I.D.) Units are frames that have been retrofitted and redesigned for a combat support role. Often seen in the aftermath or at the tail end of engagements these units excel at minimizing post-engagement hazards that remain on the battlefield, as well as beginning preliminary clean-up efforts.

Though the Brigade's original aim was to focus on bio-hazardous material that could affect ground troops following the reclamation of affected combat areas, the range of their capabilities gradually expanded over time. Because of this, while their equipment and weaponry have clearly defined designs, there are often secondary applications that pilots in M.A.I.D. units adopt as unofficial cleaning protocols.

Due to the less than glamorous prospect of acting as a clean-up crew to "real combatants" assignments to M.A.I.D. units have been treated as punishment by some for rebellious Lancer pilots more than a few times in the past. Though this is a belief held among many pilots from other units, few pilots under a M.A.I.D. unit have been known to tolerate such slander for long. Those looking to avoid having their frame filled with lemon-scented, industrial-grade disinfectant foam would do well to keep such comments to themselves.

Weapons and Systems

Due to the unpredictable nature of combat M.A.I.D. units nearly always have basic weaponry installed on their frames should they be needed for self-defense, or when engaging with straggler enemy units. In addition to this many of their weapons and systems have multi-use functionality built into them so that a M.A.I.D. is never truly unprepared for a battle.

Endothermic Foam Launcher: A versatile utility that can be used to contain stray reactor rods ejected onto the battlefield, cool down ally frames that are under extreme heat from external weaponry, or slow enemy frames and deployable systems.

Hydro-Pressure Cannon: Capable of outputting ~6,500 gallons per minute, this weapon applies a narrow cone of water pressure that can be used to douse flames or knock enemy mechs off balance at close range.

E-Duster: Modeled after typical feather dusters, this melee weapon takes the form of a thick, reinforced rod with thousands of brissels protruding from one end that can carry enough voltage to damage a frame's internal electrical framework.

Manufacturers

While M.A.I.D. unit frames are not linked to any one specific manufacturer, as they are often taken from older models and retrofitted as needed, there are a few methodologies that carry over from the manufacturer that originally designed the basis of the frame.

Smith-Shimano Corpro: The most common type of system utilized by M.A.I.D. units given how they favor mobility and speed over all else. Many such frames will often have additional flexible armor pieces affixed to protect the lower half, helping prevent mobility-disabling effects that target the frame's legs. Ablative additions can give an opportunity for a pilot to escape close-quarters combat if jumped by an enemy.

Horus: Characterized by a focus on cleaning up system viruses, these frames often deploy systems that attempt to counter-act hacking attempts or reverse non-Euclidean effects that have been weaponized against the internal hardware of an ally's frame.

Harrison Armory: Frames hailing from the HA lineage have been found to be particularly effective at using endothermic cleanup foams and exothermic reactants to leach heat from nearby allies and weaponize it to heat up their own systems to initiate weaponized heat syncs.

IPS-Northstar: Sometimes, when such situations arise, you need to clean something with the barrel of a gun as your primary tool. Could be organic infestations, berserk NHPs frames, or any number of things. When this need arises, M.A.I.D. units created from Northstar frames have invariably been the go-to option. Such frames are able to use their innate weapon systems to make sure that one mess is replaced with a much more manageable, less active mess.

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Just a little idea that has come up a few times when talking to a friend. If you think this is just some excuse to slap the idea of maid-themed mechs on the table and give them ablative armor skirts that can let them do a pirouette and explode nearby enemies then you would be right. However, I expanded on the idea a bit and came up with some additional ideas.

If I ever added mechanics to this it would probably be either as a Support type NPC or as a Smith-Shimano Corpro frame that could dance around the battlefield and support allies and then debuff enemies, where you can be more effective at both the more you swap back and forth, instead of just sticking to purely support or purely offensive.

Communication - Agnostic Advice

I've never considered myself to be much of a talker. If I get on a topic I enjoy or get into a good discussion I can go for a while, but I think that would describe lots of people. Outside of these situations, I prefer to stand on the sidelines. Because of this, you might find it strange that I think communication is one of, if not the most, important things about tabletop games. While there is the obvious fact that most tabletop games involve sitting around a room and talking about imaginary things for hours, there are other parts of communication in a tabletop game that help facilitate the game itself. Here are just a few that I've seen come up in the games I've run, or that I've seen employed by others.

Lines and Veils

While I won't be going into detail about it in this post, all you need to know is that Lines and Veils concerns subject matter that all participants at the table have discussed and are familiar with. This can be important if you are running a game with darker themes and subject matter, or to know if you need to make considerations for your players.

One of the groups I play with has two members that each have a phobia. The first has arachnophobia, the fear of spiders, and the second has ophidiophobia, the fear of snakes. Suffice to say, if I ran a game with spiders and snakes, and proceeded to describe scenes or events involving them with these two that would make me a real piece of work, and set me back two friends.

Knowing that information ahead of time can allow whoever is running the game to prepare an adventure better, or know what subjects players want to keep to the wayside. It can also act as a guide to know what subjects or things players are interested in, as it can be a lovely segue to talk about what people want to see after going through the possibly unpleasant, but necessary step of what should be avoided.

Every now and then it can be useful to update what Lines and Veils a group has by checking in with your players. This could occur between campaigns or could be prompted if there is something that arises that was not considered the first time around, and needs to be added in retroactively.

Clarification

I've had my fair share of one-shots or mini-campaigns that started with a single concept, and by the time everyone was sitting down at the table, it was a challenge to incorporate everything together. Heck, I once had a campaign end prematurely after a successful first session when a subsequent session involved the sudden stabbing of a Team Rocket style villain. A campaign that was conceptually a light-hearted romp where enemies could be recruited, and a TPK would mean awaking with missing loot and items rather than a swift death.

Both these issues were caused because I as the GM had neglected to clarify and properly make sure the players were 1. Onboard with the idea of the campaign, and 2. Were all on the same page with what that meant. While there are many things that a GM wants to make sure the players are aware of and understand, here are just some of the things I've found myself needing to clarify (which usually means I need to start getting them written ahead of time in a Campaign Bio).

• Tone: What is the intended vibe the table is aiming for? This is extremely helpful for players to know what types of characters they should be considering.

• Setup: What locals/genre is the game themed around? Also extremely helpful, as most characters need a world to inhabit and things to do, and a majority of the time this covers both those things in a general sense.

• System: If you like to use different systems it's better to explicitly remind players which one will be used in an upcoming campaign. Take care that if it's a system players are unfamiliar with you may have to help walk them through character creation or how checks are resolved.

• Mechanics/Exceptions: Free feat at level 1? Do we roll starting attributes? What level do we start at? etc. and all the other sorts of rules some might have if the system you play has many variants for setup.

Conflict Resolution

Sometimes, for one reason or another, there are circumstances that prompt an out-of-character discussion about some sort of disagreement that has started. There could be some dynamic at the table that is not working for those involved, or a player has acted out in a way that the others don't appreciate. While this is the kind of communication that most GMs do not want to deal with, there are times when not addressing an issue can further escalate or worsen the situation. I have thankfully not had to deal with this often, but there have been times when it has come up. Every time I have to be the one to lead a conflict resolution these are the two things I keep in mind.

1. Do No Harm
2. But Take No Bull

Now that might be a very simple list, and I will agree with that. It could be an unrealistic list, and I admit that. However for the time being those have worked for me, and I like to keep it simple, silly.

Most of the time the first step should just be talking to a player if an issue arises. People can't read minds after all, and part of doing no harm is to figure out if there is a valid issue in the first place, and if there is, bring it up to see if the player was aware. When doing this you want to be lazy. Not in the sense that you fail to address it, but in that, you want to make only the actions necessary to resolve the issue. No one likes to be called out (that's how you get people to double down), so instantly getting on the offensive and over-escalating doesn't help anyone. This has the benefit of, sometimes, resolving the issue itself if the player was unaware of their behavior and wants to correct it.

There's one GM that I have played with that, despite being a great storyteller and having a fondness for tabletop games, sometimes struggles to resolve minor conflicts. I've seen him run games before were part way through, another player will be dropped over something rather small or inconsequential. This is an example of someone not taking the right amount of action. Like using amputation to fix a scrapped knee, and cutting off an otherwise healthy part of the body. In this case, the body being a tabletop adventuring party, and the blood clotting around the wound the campaign's momentum. The majority of the issues that arise should try to be resolved by talking to the player in question and attempting to find a compromise.

The take no bull side of things comes in when you've ensured you've done no harm to the problem player and you've talked to them and attempted compromise, and they still act out, or have behavior that does not mesh well with the group as a whole. Everyone has their own level at which something enters this zone, but I like to at least talk to the problem player, and lay out what the issue is once or twice before escalating to this stage.

Anything on the tail end of this stage and beyond I consider to be in the infamous Tabletop Horror Story category of things. While I only have one real experience relating to this, the fabled Literal Murder Hobo of Halloween One-shot Manor (*lightning crash sound effect*) will have to be saved for another time I suppose. Suffice to say, if anything of that magnitude happens it might fast-track the usual methods.

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These are just some of the ways I have found communication to be a vital part of tabletop games outside of playing the actual game itself in the moment. I hope this posts helped you think about how you use communication in or out of your tabletop games.

Feel free to share your own thoughts in the comments, or let me know if there's anything else you'd like to see from me.