Dealing with the taint of Azrai

[Danip]

Hi all,
A character in my weekly BR game set in Brechtur recently had his bloodline derivation changed to Azrai by killing a nasty Orog cleric. The character is LG and destined to be the King of a liberated Zweilunds, so this is very much bad news. We've poured thru the canon material, the BRCS, and forums, but we are still looking for inspiration about what to do with this new bad blood. Any and all ideas/comments welcome.

Simply keeping the new derivation, and hoping that a fall to evil never happens, doesnt seem to be a good option. Are there tons of scions in Cerelia that gain the blood of Azrai and lead happy, Good lives? Should our character's view this change as a serious and bad thing? From a poetic justice and storytelling point of view, placing a scion of Azrai at the helm of your new LG nation seems to be begging for trouble. Either the new King or someone in his line seems destined to fall hard eventually.

The other obvious thing to do, bloodtheft lots of people with non-Azrai blood and hope for a derivation change doesnt look very LG and is also out.

So we are looking for new and creative ways to play around this development. Some of the idea's we've come up with are,

Suicide.
Character walks a goodly distance away and offs himself. Blood of Azrai pours out harmlessly, then our high level party cleric raises dead the next day. Loss of level and loss of all blood (and thus kingship/destiny) results, but has the benifit of being a quick fix.
We've havent used resurrection in our campaign up to this point, so we might not allow this just to keep that rare/impossible.

Bloodline Investiture
A careful reading of the BRCS reveals that if you transfer your bloodline to someone stronger than you that person has no chance having their bloodline derivation changed. Basically the character would 'donate' his bloodline to the Count of Danigau (Bld 50+) and continue as a commoner.
This of course brings on the question, why dont more scions do this? Several Awnies are good people who dont want to be corrupted (Siren, Manticore, Harpy, ...). Are they just selfishly holding onto their bloodline? A simple realm spell any temple knows, and bingo! no more good people turning bad against their will.

Bloodline Destruction
Similar to above. Higher level and perhaps rarer realm spell, but still provides a ready solution inside the rules.

Some random quest...
Not loosing the bloodline, but rather having it purified and returned to the derivation of Masela it used to be would be nice. We play an adventure-level game, so something involving getting attacked by monsters would be a nice solution. A good version of the Magian's Bloodline Corruption spell known by a far off wizard maybe... Finding a powerful Erghsegh... becoming a paladin and questing for divine salvation... Any deas?

Generally, how should a LG scion familiar with the lore of blood and Awnshegh view this development? Is this a 'hmmm, thats interesting' moment, or a 'burn myself at the stake moment'?

[Osprey]

Interesting situation...I had a PC with a similar problem IMC -not for himself, but rather for his best friend and primary lieutenant (and court bard).

Now, granted, the bard was true Neutral, not LG, so not quite the moral dilemma within himself. But those who know fear the corruption may one day overtake him.

I play Azrai bloodlines to be corrupting - tending to encourage evil tendencies/desires through storytelling and roleplaying. I don't think it takes turning into an awnsegh for a scion of Azrai to bend towards the dark side.

I wouldn't introduce bloodline-purifying elements, unless it's a "one time only" sort of thing. Otherwise, you'd have to explain why more tainted scions haven't found ways to rid themselves of Azrai's derivation.

Normally, the only way to rid onessself of a derivation is to go bloodtheft someone else and hope their derivation overrides your own. Of course, this can be a path to evil and corruption unto itself, which is one of the beautiful traps of Azrai's taint. Love that double entendre.

Osprey

[Sorontar]

Excuse me for not being completely up on the rules, new or old, but can you do Investiture to surrender your bloodline to someone who has a greater bloodline, hope that "cleans" the blood, and then get invested by that person. Ideally, the other person has to be someone who is willing to make you their successor as you now would have their bloodline.

I am just wondering how the taint of Azrai goes for clerics. Would a cleric/druid of Eric, Avani or Haelyn be able to keep on casting spells with an Azrai bloodline? What about other specific abilities like shape transformation, protection from certain spells, etc.?

Sorontar

[Michael Romes]

Hi all,
A character in my weekly BR game set in Brechtur recently had his bloodline derivation changed to Azrai by killing a nasty Orog cleric. The character is LG and destined to be the King of a liberated Zweilunds, so this is very much bad news. We've poured thru the canon material, the BRCS, and forums, but we are still looking for inspiration about what to do with this new bad blood. Any and all ideas/comments welcome.

What rules did you use to determine the change? The 3EBRCS?
In that case the bloodline would only change to Azrai if the player had a weaker bloodline score than the Orog Cleric and absorbed the maximum (4X) of RP from him.

If the Orog did release so much RP (10X his bloodline score) how is the one player the only one affected?

Any bloodline score higher than the players would have resulted in a RP burst X 10 and that would be too high for a smaller bloodlines limit (max. 4X) to fully absorb and would be absorbed by his party members according to proximity.

So either the others would be afflicted too - or the player would have commited bloodtheft by actively stabbing the Orog through the heart in which case he practically willingly risked to be tainted.

Simply keeping the new derivation, and hoping that a fall to evil never happens, doesnt seem to be a good option. Are there tons of scions in Cerelia that gain the blood of Azrai and lead happy, Good lives? Should our character's view this change as a serious and bad thing? From a poetic justice and storytelling point of view, placing a scion of Azrai at the helm of your new LG nation seems to be begging for trouble. Either the new King or someone in his line seems destined to fall hard eventually.

Would anyone know? I mean the Book of Magecraft has several spells to determine the bloodline of a character, to mask, disguise etc. That means that noone has an idea without magic that his bloodline changed - perhaps not even himself. After all it is not specifically mentioned that a scion is aware that his bloodline derivation changed. Perhaps the first signs are some ominous dreams in which an unknown voice whispers into the dreams of the PC that he needs to grow stronger to protect his comrades, family, home and realm...

When he had a bloodline before which changed to Azrai was there any obvious change? e.g. did he lose a bloodability he had before that does not exist for Azrai? did he gain a new bloodability that only exists for Azrai? That would be in my opinion the only direct way to know that his bloodline derivation has changed.

Suicide.
Character walks a goodly distance away and offs himself. Blood of Azrai pours out harmlessly,

If you use the RP burst of the 3E BRCS or similar then Azrais blood is never harmless - it might create animals, trees or even FUNGHI with Azrai´s blood. An Azrai blooded sentient MOSQUITO-swarm ^^
The middle of the desert might be an idea - but even there would be sandsnakes or scorpions possible within the blast radius.

then our high level party cleric raises dead the next day. Loss of level and loss of all blood (and thus kingship/destiny) results, but has the benifit of being a quick fix.

How does the cleric atone to his deity for raising a suicide? Think of our own past - people who committed suicide were not allowed to be buried in the holy ground of graveyards for centuries in the past.
Either the suicide itself could barr the cleric from even casting the spell successfully or the idea to steal the soul of a person who commited the highest sacrifice from his earned place in the heavens would.

"The potential for internecine war is not taken lightly in Cerilia
(particularly in Anuire) and thus most churches (including
the church of Haelyn) have dire prohibitions against the resurrection
of regent characters. Likewise many churches forbid
the use of resurrection magic on philosophical grounds. Most
sects of Erik and Belinik, for example, perceive death as part
of the natural order, albeit from different perspectives"

...
Bloodline Investiture
A careful reading of the BRCS reveals that if you transfer your bloodline to someone stronger than you that person has no chance having their bloodline derivation changed. Basically the character would 'donate' his bloodline to the Count of Danigau (Bld 50+) and continue as a commoner.
This of course brings on the question, why dont more scions do this? Several Awnies are good people who dont want to be corrupted (Siren, Manticore, Harpy, ...). Are they just selfishly holding onto their bloodline? A simple realm spell any temple knows, and bingo! no more good people turning bad against their will.

The RP of the donator would be lost. So if he has a heir then that would get nothing.
Depending on bloodline score there might be not that many people with a higher score who could possibly be invested in that way. IMO there should always be a risk when absorbing a bloodline of Azrai to corrupt the own bloodline, even in the case that you have a higher bloodline. The 3E BRCS is a bit rigid in that you only have that risk if you absorb the maximum RP your bloodline allows (bloodline X 4) and then lose a roll.

However if the Count of Danigau has a bloodline of 54 he can absorb a maximum of 216 RP -1 without risk of corruption. Which means the players bloodline that would create a RP burst of 10 X bloodlinescore would be lower than 22?

Bloodline Destruction
Similar to above. Higher level and perhaps rarer realm spell, but still provides a ready solution inside the rules.

That spell in the 3E BRCS costs 10 Gold Bars + RP equal to the targets bloodline score. Which is a hefty price to cure someone.

Some random quest...
Not loosing the bloodline, but rather having it purified and returned to the derivation of Masela it used to be would be nice. We play an adventure-level game, so something involving getting attacked by monsters would be a nice solution. A good version of the Magian's Bloodline Corruption spell known by a far off wizard maybe... Finding a powerful Erghsegh... becoming a paladin and questing for divine salvation... Any deas?

Generally, how should a LG scion familiar with the lore of blood and Awnshegh view this development? Is this a 'hmmm, thats interesting' moment, or a 'burn myself at the stake moment'?

Does he know? Have any bloodabilities changed to make it obvious? Has someone cast a "Know Bloodline derivation" spell?

Perhaps the player should remain silent about that - it is not only a personal problem. There might be fanatical people in the world who would see anything with the blood of Azrai in need of being purged from existance. More radical churches might declare you outlawed if it gets know.

Better hire a bloodline hound (specialist magician) to mask your bloodline for the time being until a solution can be found.

[Fizz]

there is a lvl9 cleric spell (Bloodline redemption), not well-known, used in history only once by the Ortodox Temple to purify a Roele Emperor after he killed an awnshegh (it is the opposite of the Magian's Bloodline corruption spell)

I know Bloodline Corruption is in Blood Enemies, but where is the Bloodline Redemption spell? I have a memory of that but can't recall from where.

-Fizz

[Sorontar]

The Blood Enemies version of Bloodline Corruption isn't quite the same as that in our wiki: http://www.birthright.net/forums/sho...ine_Corruption. The BE version says only Magian knows the spell (but he has scattered 4 copies to be "stolen" later by others) and that it only has been used on the Manticore. I am not sure where anyone could have found the OIT redemption version.

Sorontar