#RPGaDAY – August 15, 2025 (DECEIVE)

 

#RPGaDAY – August 15, 2025 (DECEIVE)

Deceive– As part of this blog, I have talked about my group’s earlier Godlings campaign, including reviewing the unique origins and paths for some of the characters.  This entry is going to be similar, as one of the player’s characters was deceiving the rest of the group as to who he worshiped and his intentions for gaining the Crown of the Gods.

To better understand this though, first let’s talk a little about the world’s history.

Deities and Religion

It is generally accepted that the World of Aergon is in its “Third” age, however there has not been any confirmation of that.  There is no set time frame for each age and it is believed that the World of Aergon itself is very old.  Various myths postulate what caused the end of an age and the ushering in of the new one.  All agree that some sort of turmoil or upheaval, including cataclysmic disasters, disease, and change heralds the coming of the next age.

What is generally believed is that during the “First” Age, the world was formed by the Primordials.  Little is known about these beings, although they were thought to be alien ideas or concepts that suddenly evolved sentience and brought themselves into being.  Examples of these beings include Time, Death, and the various physical elements that make up the world and everything.

Sometimes cults or small groups of zealots spring up worshiping these Primordials.  While they do not usually last long, groups like the Brothers of Battle, who revered “War” wreaked havoc on several small towns and villages until put down by the King’s Army.  There are rumored to be “Death” cults and other small factions spread throughout the various realms of Aergon.  One disturbing or concerning group that keeps reappearing is the Cult of Oblivion, who seek to bring about the end of everything in existence.

While most people do not put much belief in the Primordials as physical beings, scholars and intellectuals have debated this for centuries.  Chief among these arguments is the fact that priests and holy men of these cults do indeed get their diving powers from somewhere.  Some argue the Primordials are supplying their worshipers with this power and other believe that the current pantheon of deities with related spheres of control or influence steps in and “assumes” these roles, increasing their own power bases with these new worshipers. 

The “Second” age is believed to have come about when the Primordials created beings to serve them, including the titans, the infernals, and the ethereal host.  These creations eventually rebelled and took control of the world and various planes of existence and eventually in turn created beings to serve them.  On the mortal plane, this is when it is believed the Alfar and Dwarven races were first created.  These beings were made to be immortal, like their masters so they could serve them for eternity.  While there was occasional strife, including the sundering of the elven race into their light and dark aspects and the attempted rise of the infernals, for the longest time, the “Second” age was believed to be peaceful and heavenly.  It wasn’t until the “Mad” God created what was considered to be the first of the lesser mortal races, Mankind that the peace was torn asunder.  In answer to the rise of man, several other deities created their own mortal races, including Orcs, goblins, and the other bestial races.  While these newer races were found to be very short lived, they multiplied at an alarming rate, quickly growing, learning, and evolving and eventually outnumbering the more ancient races and becoming the dominate races on Aergon.

This growth in number of the mortal races helped usher in the “Third” age.  The increase in power generated from these worshipers, helped the current pantheon of deities overthrown the titans and other ancient gods and assume control of the multiverse.  While some deities have waxed and waned in power, others have risen to assume control and some have disappeared completely.

 

So, the godlings campaign took place during the third age, after the current pantheon of deities overthrew the Titans.  One of the characters was Velonia, a Lawful Neutral human cleric of the Greek God of Death, Hades.  That was his disguise though, as he was secretly a Lawful Evil cleric of the fallen Titan, Cronos and his group’s goal was to harness the Crown of the God’s power to bring the lost titan back to life and power.

 

Here is Velonia’s back story, details about his deity, the titan Cronos, and his granted powers and abilities.

In some way you came in contact with and absorbed a small piece of one of the Titan, Cronos’s essence, likely receiving the “blessing” from a severely wounded and dying avatar of his.  You managed to escape the area before the offensive heroes manage to track and finally finish off Cronos’s avatar.

After that, you sought out knowledge of the forbidden deity and eventually became a cleric of the imprisoned Titan, Cronos.  You and a small but dedicated group of worshipers, have pledged to help Cronos escape his prison in Tartarus, with the ultimate goal being to throw down the pretenders, Zeus and the other gods of the Greek Pantheon, so that Cronos and the other titans can rule and return to claim the power that is rightfully theirs.

You are one of 7 known clerics of Cronos, operating at this time. 

Cronos Details-

As Cronos is a titan defeated by the deities at the beginning of the 3^rd age, worship of Cronos is highly discouraged by anyone who currently pays homage to the Greek Gods.  Usually, this discouragement comes in the rapid demise of any of the titan’s followers that are discovered.  Because of this, it very important that Cronos’s worshipers hide or guard their forbidden secrets closely.

Some common beliefs, issues, or details:

•Cronos and his worshipers believe the Greek Gods defeated them due to the rise and assistance of the “other” deities of Aergon.  Without this interfering assistance, they would not have been able to defeat Cronos and the other titans and things would have turned out much differently.

It is believed the other deities would likely no longer assist the Greek Gods now and the titans could return to power, defeating the Greek Gods and taking their place amongst the other current deities.  Then once they had again built up their full might, they would slowly overthrow the other deities, until the titans were again masters of all of Aergon.

•Cronos and the other remaining titans have few worshipers and their power levels have dropped considerably, with most being no greater than lesser demi or small god strength.

Secretly though, Cronos through his manipulation of time and various chronal energies, has learned to slowly siphon off power from the time in the 2^nd age when he was at his most powerful.  He has hidden and stored this power from his Greek God captors and is now using it to increase his power and influence in the current age.  While this build up has been very slow, his worshipers, including his clerics have gained considerable power while remaining undiscovered.

Cronos is now the equivalent of a current powerful demi-god and is close to once again being of greater god power and status.

•Once Cronos has regained power and control over the other gods, his clerics and other powerful worshipers believe they will be elevated to demi-god status and then given domination and control over all of Aergon’s mortals.

 

Granted Powers and abilities

As one of Cronos’s few existing clerics, you have been given access to many different powers and abilities, far beyond a mortal’s normal limits.

•As a very necessary part of survival you have learned to disguise your true nature and self. 

Your alignment will radiate as lawful neutral, rather than lawful evil when any sort of alignment check is done on you.  Beings more powerful than you, with “true” sight ability will sometimes be able to determine your true alignment, although to this point, you have fooled many clerics, paladins, and worshipers of the other usurping gods.

 This ability is a continual aura that you have no control over, that will affect magical items, spells, granted abilities, and innate abilities.  It oddly knows when to not affect something though, say a magic item is only usable by someone who is LN it would still be usable by you, as would most magic items that are only usable by someone who is LE.

 •As part of your disguise, you have adopted the persona of a wondering deacon of the Greek God of Death, Hades.  You help perform last rights on the recently deceased, sanctify the dead so they cannot return as undead, and perform other tasks and duties common for one of Hades’ clergy.  While clerics of Hades are never truly loved or embraced by the people, they are accepted and welcome when their services are needed.

 As Hades is also known as the god of wealth/taxes and you are seen and perceived as LN, you help collect tithes as part of your services as you travel.  As a roaming cleric of the God of Death, you are rarely troubled by anyone during your travels.  You have freely entered, stayed, and offered prayer (or pretended to) at many Greek God temples and have been offered aid and assistance by other Hades’ worshipers, as well as followers of many of the other Greek deities.

As common for worshipers of Hades, you often appear to dress in all black and may or may not appear to have a long black beard, depending on your whim (see disguise self-ability below).

•Cronos has given you greater access to sphere’s similar to clerics of Hades, such as charm, necromancy, creation, summoning, and protection.  For spells from the spheres you do not have access, such as healing, Cronos has adapted spells that create similar effects.

 •Cronos and his other followers have even helped you locate and obtain items to help maintain your façade, including a sickle blessed and divinely tied to Hades.

 •Cronos is not picky in the followers he will accept, accepting even the bestial races and even sentient undead. You do know that at least 1 of the other current clerics of Cronos is a greater undead, seeking to eventually become a lich lord to better build an army and serve the god in his quest to defeat the mortal followers of Zeus and the other Greek gods.

After your meeting with the dying avatar and absorbing some of your deity’s essence, you have noticed the following changes:

•You are becoming stronger, smarter, and faster as you become more powerful and absorb more of the god’s power.  You believe you are slowly become a true avatar of Cronos.

You currently have gained 1 point of to all your Stats, except Wisdom for which you have gained 2 points.

•You no longer appear to be aging normally, or at least are aging at a very slow rate.  Some of your granted powers and abilities focus on time effects, to which you appear to be immune.  As you become more divine, you can feel yourself becoming more otherworldly and less a part of the mortal prime material plane.

•You are immune to any aging or negative plane energies from all but greater undead.  You gain +5 to saving throws versus any other aging or negative energy effect that you are not immune to (spells and magic effects).

•While you are still effectively mortal, you are un-effected by positive material plane effects and spells.  They neither harm nor help you in any way.  So normal healing and cure spells that utilize positive material plane energy to function have no effect on you.

•Although you know you are still mortal, you have noticed these changes:

§  Improved low light vision

§  You can now detect good and evil auras at will, which takes one round to focus on a subject.  If someone doesn’t have an aura, then you know they are one of the neutral alignments.

§  You require less sleep than normal; a full night’s sleep is 4-6 hours maximum for you to wake refreshed.  You can meditate to recover 1^st-3^rd level spells with only 4 hours of sleep a night. 

§  Your sense of taste and smell are diminishing and most foods, except very spicy and strong ones taste bland.  Luckily you are finding out you need less food and water than you used to and indeed all bodily functions including sweating and urinating/defecating are reducing accordingly. 

•You can feel the divine power of Cronos building inside of you, everyday becoming a little bit stronger.

 You are currently storing the equivalent of 50% of a “Law” Point and are aware that if in dire need, you can use its divine power to enhance or support any spells or effects as needed.

•Although you do not have access to the healing sphere, these spells are in the time sphere and act/take their places.

All cure or healing spells function as the spell of the same name and level, except they do draw some energy and time from the recipient to power the effect.  So, a cure light wounds spell would still be 1^st level, but when cast on a subject they would have be healed as normal D8 +1 per level, at the cost of an equal number of days of life energy sucked out of them, aging them and shortening their life span.  You feel it is a small price to pay later, to be able to be healed now.

You will explain this to them with something like this explanation- “My god’s spells can heal you, but you will feel drained, hungry, and very tired after the healing is complete, so you will likely need to eat and rest some afterwards.”  For every 8 points of healing they receive in this way in a day, they suffer from a -1 to all rolls until they have sufficiently eaten and rested to recover from the negative effects of the healing.

In game terms, it will be important that you surreptitiously keep track of the amount of healing each party member receives from you, with 1 point healed equaling 1 day.  As some of them are mortal/human, after they prematurely age some, they may wonder at the effect.  You did warn them of the side effects, so it is their choice if they chose to be healed by you, plus it also helps you (see below).