BRING OUT YOUR DEAD: Ossuaries & Reliquaries for Your Clerics


In my current game of D&D (LINK), my two players have both rolled up clerics. In an effort to both provide an objective for dungeon delving and bring domain-level play to lower levels, I have tried to come up with some outlines for building an ossuary and reliquary for the abbey.

In the in-game fiction, each is desired by the abbot to attract pilgrimages to the abbey. More pilgrims, more coin in the coffers, and more influence in the region (which I think will be Beyond the Borderlands). The mechanical benefits are described here (based somewhat on this shrine idea):

RELIQUARY

CONDITIONS & BENEFIT: There will be three that need to be decorated with 3 minor magical items each and can be prayed to as a way to provide a small boon. Since the players have already recovered 3 minor magical items they can "power" one of them. The three are named after the motto of the clerical order: LIGHT, ORDER, BENEFICENCE. I might allow them to only pick one to pray at each day.
  • The LIGHT of AZLN: The cleric's holy symbol may is embued with a Light spell as a scroll of the same level as the cleric
  • The ORDER of AZLN: The cleric will receive a +1 to their first Turn Undead roll
  • The BENEFICENCE of AZLEN: The cleric may re-roll their first failed save

OSSUARY

CONDITIONS & BENEFIT: There is room for 3 skeletons of saints which will attract followers, rolled on a 1d6 table, who will join the PCs due to inspiration by the abbey and the order. The followers attracted will depend on the saint placed into the ossuary. And as more saints are added, the table fills up.

For example, the two players have recovered the bones of Saint Ulther listed in Dyson's Delve as being associated with wizardry, large-eyes, and bringing in a ship safely to harbor against a stormy sea. So, I decided this saint would attract fighters (sailors) and magic-users. Here are a few more saints I've placed in the larger crypt-rooms of Dyson's Delve:

1-8 | Crypt of St. Ulther the Sorcerer Priest = fighters (sailors) & magic-users [RECOVERED]
1-10 | Crypt of the unnamed assassin (cursed) = thieves & were-rats
1-10 West | Crypt of St. Serene the Beheaded = fighters & zealots (fire-associated clerics)
3-3 | Crypt of St. Pry-Sim the Child of AZLN = acrobats & halflings
3-4 | Crypt of St. Nemo the Dreamer of AZLN = magic-users & elves

Ossuary Pilgram Table (roll 1d6)
1 | MU, St. Ulther
2 | Fighter, St. Ulther
3 | none
4 | none
5 | none
6 | none

When I rolled for the follower they will receive I got a "1", so now time to make a 2500 XP BX magic-user.



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