Additional Axe Cults
Along with red, blue, and green, there's more than one way to use an axe (not to mention the color of it)!
Axe cult warriors can use one or more of the listed abilities for their sub-cult's color a total of once per day per level- all by swinging their axe. This selection can be their variable choice, or it can be limited to one ability, whereby the specialized axe cultist can use that an extra time per day. In either case, unless otherwise noted, each last for just 1 round. And whenever axe cult warriors use one of their axe abilities, they also roll for Axe Side-Effects (see Part I for details)- who knows what will happen then?
Axe cult warriors can use one or more of the listed abilities for their sub-cult's color a total of once per day per level- all by swinging their axe. This selection can be their variable choice, or it can be limited to one ability, whereby the specialized axe cultist can use that an extra time per day. In either case, unless otherwise noted, each last for just 1 round. And whenever axe cult warriors use one of their axe abilities, they also roll for Axe Side-Effects (see Part I for details)- who knows what will happen then?
- White Axe Cult abilities
Excise: Some are just dirty and need to be cleaned. If such a filthy one is missed with a melee attack, be able to swing at them immediately again with great enthusiasm, whether their soiledness is physical, mental, spiritual, or completely imagined, slice it away. If missed a second time, then it is the axe cultist who must be dirty and is obliged to cut themselves with their axe instead, taking automatic damage.
Lighten: Illuminate a 10' area by waving one's axe around really fast. The axe cultist will thereby be able to see at that range for the next 1d6 minutes, while all others would likely want to get the hell out of the way.
Surgery: Perform 'emergency medicine' (whether requested or not) upon one's patient (victim), making a chop at a specific appendage, having only a -1d3 penalty to hit them. If successful, then the patient (victim) must make a Constitution check or lose the axed body part, though they do have a +10 bonus if it is a vital one (head, arm, lower torso appendage, etc.) This ability can thus be used to remove disease, cure blindness or deafness, perform restoration, or even sever unsightly blemishes (or mutations) with a 25% chance of success, including the damage and chopping from the axe strike of course, sometimes without losing the entire extremity.
- Black Axe Cult abilities
Corruption: Cause one that they hit to save vs. death/ make a Will save DC 10 or be compelled to engage in a dastardly deed at their next opportunity. There's a 50% chance of maniacal laughing occurring after, whether from the one that they affect, the axe cult warrior, or both.
Execution: Gain a +2d3 damage bonus when making a critical hit or just finishing some poor fool off. They probably deserve it (a 66% chance)!
Purge: Apply a +1d3 damage bonus to help eliminate a hated type of enemy race or cult that they have the pleasure of striking. The axe cult warrior will need to pick who that type of scum is from now on to make sure he knows which one to favor killing.
- Gray Axe Cult abilities
Ancestor Guidance: Gain a +2d3 bonus to a skill roll by calling upon the spirit of one's great-grandparents and before, or similar. They will help, but also have a 75% chance of telling the warrior that they're doing it wrong first.
Grit: Ignore 1d3 damage in any form, whether thanks to toughness or simple stubbornness. Clenched teeth are likely (a 75% chance).
Mettle: Be able to resave once against any mental effect, whether mundane or magical. May have an ally do the same with a hit (and damage) from one's axe, hopefully knocking some sense into them.
- Yellow Axe Cult abilities
Fear: Cause the one that they hit to save vs. death/ make a Will save DC 10 or become 'yellow', running away for 1d3 rounds, likely leaving a stream of the same color behind them...
Highlighted: Stand out greatly, automatically gaining the attention (and potential attacks) of all within sight when brandishing one's axe, especially if one is ready to hack them with it.
Lightning: Conduct 1d3 extra damage via shocking one's foe, though it has a 25% chance of jumping and doing the same to any within 10' who are wearing metal armor too. They just might be shocked as well. - Brown Axe Cult abilities
Bestial: The cultist picks the beast (see Volume V for a list and details), but not which one of its powers becomes available each time they use this ability. That is determined by the inscrutable whims of the beast spirit! Warriors of different axe cults might use animal garb or symbols, but need to take this ability instead of one of their own to allow for actual beast spirit powers, creating a gray wolf, brown bear, or purple horse, etc. ability in each case.
Break: Destroy a wooden item with one melee hit. Metal or rock things may be shattered too, though with only a 25% chance, 75% chance of at least damaging them greatly! Bragging about it will be at 100% regardless.
Shove: Taking advantage of one's bulk (as well as the bulk of one's axe!), cause a foe that they hit in melee to make an opposed Strength check or be pushed back 1d12', possibly falling or falling over depending on what's behind them, hopefully lining them up for an even better axe strike in any case! If the axe cultist uses this ability while charging their foe, they can gain a +1d3 bonus to their check, especially if they're yelling like a lunatic at the time. - Bronze Axe Cult abilities
Brazen: Winding up, gain both +1d3 to hit and +1d3 extra damage to a foe, but suffer a -2d3 penalty to AC for the next 1d3 rounds after making such an outrageous attack!
Fasces: Encircled with sticks, held aloft, the axe motivates up to three of one's allies in sight to fight right, granting them all +1d2 to hit with their next attack. It works as long as the cultist says something stirring, and he and his allies are all in uniform at the time.
Sacrificial: Improve a magical side-effect roll by 1d3 when aiding in (chopping up) a sacrifice to assist the spellcaster. Can also be used to hit magical and supernatural foes that are normally immune to weapons of +1d3 or less, hopefully chopping them up too.
- Purple Axe Cult abilities
Artistic: Cause 1d4 extra damage to a foe, but must make a Wisdom check or spend the next round making a crude picture with the gore or doing some musical pantomime with one's axe (equal chance of either). Can give a very stylish haircut and/or shave too with the use of this ability, with only a 50% chance of causing 1d4 damage.
Magic! The axe becomes magical (maybe), having a 50% chance of granting +1d3 to hit and +1d3 damage, whether due to it actually becoming so, or simply from the cultist's great enthusiasm thinking that it is!
Nasty: Whether poisonous or simply very unclean, cause a foe that they hit and cut into to make a Constitution check or suffer -2d3 to all rolls for 2d3 rounds. Just how many purple things are safe? - Gold Axe Cult abilities
Shiny! Improve one's Charisma score by 1d4 points, brandishing such a beautiful weapon, showing off its (and one's own) curves. Potential thieves will be similarly attracted- a 25% chance, lascivious members of the opposite sex- 100%.
Sun Axe: The axe's shimmering blade glistens like sunlight, causing all who happen to be looking at it to have to look away or be blinded for 1d6 rounds. How bright!
Wealth-Weigher: Make a good guess (with 75% accuracy) of how much treasure an individual that they hit has on them, judging by the jingling sound or lack thereof. Even have a fairly good idea (with 50% accuracy) of how much they have to their name, without even needing to axe them about it. - Silver Axe Cult abilities
Adaptive Swing: If one foe in melee is missed, then the attack can be done over by attempting to hit another nearby foe who's standing adjacent to them during the same round instead, cleaving all the way.
Axe Moon: Bring lunacy with the axe blade's chrome-like touch, causing the one struck to save vs. death/ make a Will save DC 10 or experience either (roll 1d6): [1] Rage (from Red),
[2] Sadness (from Blue), [3] Fertility (from Green), [4] Corruption (from Black), [5] Fear (from Yellow), or [6] Artistic (from Purple). Such madness lasts for 1d3 rounds, rerolling each round to see what the effect happens to be.
Swift Response: Gain a +2d3 bonus to initiative, as the axe makes fast work of foes... hopefully! Can also be used to immediately attack a foe that just hit them and missed, taking a -1d3 penalty to hit, and the axe cultist doesn't even have to wait his turn to do it!
Axe Tests
Next week: axe cult variations and encounters
Sometimes the bit can bite back. When an axe cult warrior experiences a test, he often goes a little bit psycho. He...
1-6.
Must immediately act per one of his axe cult abilities for the next 1d12 rounds, attacking all in sight unless stopped, though innocents and individual allies can be avoided if he makes successful Wisdom checks. At least the warrior can use that ability at will for the duration, so he can cause additional carnage!
- For example, a white axe cult warrior might feel immediately compelled to engage in surgery for 4 rounds, applying her tender mercies as blood flies everywhere, hopefully not including too many body parts of her party...
7-12
. Becomes prone to fits of notable belligerence, especially when inopportune, from now on. Whenever stressed or otherwise triggered (per Referee), the warrior must make a Wisdom check or behave in an especially rambunctious, violent manner- more than he normally does-
for the next 1d12 rounds
, having a 3 in 12 chance of being compelled to use one of his axe abilities during each one of them (if he has any uses remaining). For every time he experiences this test, the check becomes 2 mor
e difficult. Still, he also gains a cumulative 10% chance of thankfully being able to reuse those axe abilities when doing so- that way, he can inflict more mayhem!
- After hearing a bad joke at a tavern, a yellow axe cult warrior loses his cool for 7 rounds, and might strike hard and fast like lightning on rounds 2 and 5, zapping an even (apparently innocent) inanimate object and getting in other tavern goers' faces. Since this test happened to him thrice, he has a -6 penalty to his Wisdom check, but also a 30% chance of being able to use Lightning again
13+ Believes his axe is now talking to him. The pinnacle of axe cult enlightenment, the warrior is rewarded with an eternal 1 in 12 chance of fully attacking any reasonably worthy foe (or offensive inanimate object) on sight for at least 1d12 rounds. The chance is increased by 1 in 12 for every axe test result over 13, as well as every time he experiences this test, egged on by his very weapon (or so he insists). Though, unlike results #7-12 above, he need no longer make a Wisdom check to resist these situations (since his axe is very convincing), he still gains a cumulative 10% chance of being able to reuse his axe abilities expended during this time of aggression to help prove his point! Of course, the axe warrior is more than welcome to keep attacking beyond that, though others may likely wish he wouldn't.
- With a result of 15, a purple axe cult warrior who experienced this test for the first time would have a 3 in 12 chance of henceforth having to introduce some lucky somebody or annoying sign to his axe. It lasts for 9 rounds (at least) after some serious taunting from his weapon, though he only has a 10% chance of being able to use Artistic on the one he just chopped again- what a shame. What does the axe have to say for itself now?!
Next week: axe cult variations and encounters
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