Hammersong's Legacy: Blood of the Gods...

Good Morning, All:

Below is the initial section on the Blood of the Gods to be included in the Hammersong's Legacy Campaign Sourcebook. Inspired by the Open Content from the SRD referenced in Malhavoc Press's Requiem for a God, I have had to change a few terms and rewrite the non-mechanics portions of this text due to a Product Identity clause regarding the term "godsblood". Now I use the terms "blood of the Gods", "Gods' Blood" and "ichor" interchangably in the document.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Blood of the Gods

With the death of so many gods on the lands, in the seas and in the skies of Terantha, the world has suffered from its over-exposure to the flesh and blood of these dying divinities. Suffused with the divine essence of slain gods, this rarefied fluid, sometimes referred to as "ichor" or "Gods' Blood", possesses wildly chaotic and corruptive magical power. The Agents of the Elder Courts, as well as those devoted to the Fallen, collect what Gods' Blood they can in holy receptacles which are then stored in reliquaries, awaiting its use in obscure rituals or the creation of potent artifacts.

The nature of Gods' Blood varies with the divine traits of the slain god. Blood of the Gods can range in appearance from a crystal-clear fluid or green glowing ooze to a thick, cold pitch-like substance. Blood of the Gods is typically harvested from small pools, barely larger than a bowl in size, where it has oozed out of Gods' Flesh. By its very nature, adventurers should expect to find such pools within close proximity of a sizable mass of Gods’ Flesh, although it may not reveal its presence save under specific circumstances related to the portfolio of the slain deity.

Any who imbibe the blood of the Gods from the source, or bathe in the fluid should there be enough present, for the first time are affected as though by a heal spell, and may gain additional benefits as befits the divinity from which it sprang. However, once a creature has been exposed to a particular deity's divine ichor, the creature no longer gains any curative benefit from further exposure. The more Gods' Blood that a character is exposed to at any one time, the greater the chance that the character may gain a temporary supernatural ability. These abilities range from a small spell effect to an extended lifespan or a temporary immunity to a specific type of damage. The closer a creature follows the tenets of the fallen deity, the more powerful the temporary ability. The details of such are left to the discretion of the Referee, although the table below provides some suggestions based on the god from whom the blood originated.

Once Gods' Blood is removed from its source, it loses some of its vitality. Those who drink it or bathe in it after it has been removed only gain the benefit of a cure serious wounds spell. As with fresh blood of the Gods, the curative effects do not occur with subsequent exposure.

Any creature that exposes himself to the blood of the Gods too frequently can lead to Gods' Blood poisoning. If the creature bathes twice in Gods' Blood or imbibes more than a pint of the substance in any six month period, he must make a saving throw or suffer an energy drain of four experience levels (for class-based characters) or hit dice (for monsters). If the saving throw succeeds, the creature gains a temporary ability as normal.

With Regards,
Flynn