Wheel of Chaos
RoomDCC DAYA2 · p.7
Open source p.7Area 1-7 – Wheel of Chaos
Amidst the rough, natural cave is a strange pillar – almost alien in design and utterly out of place so far beneath the earth. The pillar stretches from floor to ceiling, and seems composed of gilt-copper plates. Each of the plates depicts a scene in bas relief.
A sickening dread hangs about the chamber, a shimmering doom, longing to be unleashed.
The pillar is actually a prayer wheel, used by the Theophages to purify themselves and their thoughts.
The prayer wheel has seven panels, each made from gilt copper, and taken together depict a story of death and rebirth. There is no discernable beginning or end to the cycle. Instead, the seven copper panels circle endlessly into death, rebirth, and back again:
• A powerful horned warrior, leading an army of robed ascetics into battle against a heavenly host.
• The same warrior alone, raging against hundreds of angels.
• The same warrior, laid atop a funerary pyre alongside a large egg.
• A horned priestess touches a torch to the egg.
• The egg gone, a great winged eagle or vulture erupting in flames consuming the pyre.
• The youthful warrior stands atop the ashes.
• The warrior on the peak of a high mountain, calling down a thin stream of chaos. Robed ascetics hail the warlord from all sides.
The prayer wheel can still be spun, even after centuries of disuse. Spinning the wheel causes a terrible, scream-like screeching that drowns out all other sounds as the wheel sends unholy prayers out into the cosmos.
Spinning the wheel causes a single random effect, until it is spun a total of seven times. The effect of the final turning depends on the character’s alignment: chaos-aligned characters are granted + Luck; lawful PCs are struck by a wash of corrupting chaos for damage (DC 10 Will save to avoid). Neutral PCs are unaffected. This blessing can be received just once.
A character spinning the wheel eight times or more is struck for damage (DC 10 Will save to avoid), regardless of alignment.
Prayer Wheel Effect
Roll (Modified by Luck)
0 or less Character is consumed with heretical thoughts and dedicates their life to the cause of dethroning all gods.
1-4 Character loses 1 point of Luck.
5-6 Character gains hp. 7 Character gains the ability to cast magic shield, as per the 1st-level wizard spell, cast with a +CL spell check. If the PC later gains the ability to cast magic sheild as a wizard or elf, this blessing improves their spell checks by +1d.
8+ Character grows a third eye in the center of their forehead and can spend a round to concentrate to see invisible creatures and objects with a successful DC 10 Will save. (Other powers, such as sighting creatures on the astral plane, are left up to the judge’s discretion.)