Creating a Black Talon Druid

There aren’t rules for druids exactly in the ARG, but you can get it fairly close. When the Ssethregore book comes out you’ll probably want to look for content pertaining to the Disciples of Jeggal Sagg. I’d probably go with a primal caster.

Artisan (Cooking) would probably be your best bet.

Ok so, can a Ghost scale, male ss’eressen who worships Herka be a Templar, and if so would i gain Dragons Hide as my deities favored armor. I realize that fire dragon worshipers do get it, but do worshipers of Herka also get it?

Ok so, can a Ghost scale, male ss’eressen who worships Herka be a Templar, and if so would i gain Dragons Hide as my deities favored armor. I realize that fire dragon worshipers do get it, but do worshipers of Herka also get it?

There has been a lot of discussions about the Ghost Scales. To expand on what Cody said it has been hashed out that: They are never of the Divine Archetype. Herka can’t generate initiates, templars or Sword saints. The Ghost Scales do not have a strong following of Jeggal Sag…and may not condone males who later become one (this is unclear to me). The Black Talons don’t really like you (how much hasn’t been hashed out, but I note one runs with BEAST so it certainly isn’t shoot on sight). Even though RAW would allow it, it’s not really appropriate to play a GS legionnaire or royal marine. Neither Coryan nor Milandir open their core/elite troops up to outside mercenaries.

Female Ghost Scale can become eldritch casters.

The merger between the GS and the Fiends that happened in the Okd Coryan mods seems to have been disavowed.

Worship: yes. Be a priest/templar: no. It is probably better to think of Herka as a cult. There is no official priesthood or organization, but Herka is still an object of veneration as it literally is a thing if life for the Ghost Scales. It would be like worshiping a piece of the True Cross.

I should point out that while I am fairly well informed to the history of the world, all my knowledge is unofficial and the below statements are based on extrapolations from published material. All of these answers are subject to change if Henry finds issue with them.

That being said. . .

1. If the Ghost scale are known, and are a playable race, does that mean their home is a publicly known thing? If so why hasn’t the inquisition and other groups tried to destroy them? I’d figure worshiping that artifact would be heretical, to someone.

The home of the Ghost Scales is OFFICIALLY known, though not well publicized. They originally come from the sewers under Old Coryan (the original city, not the “new” city built a couple Emperors into the Coryani Empire, Grand Coryan, across the river), where a group of Black Talons who became dissatisfied with their exodus split off from the rest of the migration. There they found a heat source (Herka) in an ancient and forgotten self-aware Sarishan artifact, which proved good for them to incubate their eggs. Because ss’ressen physiology is such that the type and temperature of the heat greatly affects their phenotype, the new generation of “Black Talons” changed and became Ghost Scales. Because of this, the Ghost Scales started worshiping Herka as their God, even though it isn’t (though it literally did create them as they are today).

Their existence became publicly known only a few decades before now, and before that their population was small enough and stealthy enough to evade most detection (helped that Old Coryan became something of a ghetto compared to Grand Coryan, so the authorities cared less). Since then, the Ghost Scales have begun leaving the sewers and ‘colonizing’ other locations, which is why they can technically be from different nations now. As to the population in Old Coryan, that information should be further expanded when the new Ssethregore book is released, so until then I don’t know anything else in detail. Needless to say, that the population has grown in the past few decades to the point that they are populous enough to ‘compete’ with other Clutches, or else they would not have been made a playable race.

As to the Inquisition, remember that the Ghost Scales are a ‘foreigner’ race to the Coryani, and would be treated like other Barbarians. The Coryani Inquisition does not significantly care about ‘lesser’ races and their worship as long as they don’t try to spread it to humans, and since the Herka is Sarishan (if that is known to the Inquisition) they might take it as a net positive that they are moving closer to the ‘true gods’ than Ssethric ones. As to the Black Talon or Ssethric Inquisition, once they knew about the Ghost Scales they have made it known that they consider this group to be heretical and have made an effort to wipe them out. However, neither group has the kind of penetration into Coryani (and other) societies to really make it stick (yet). Maybe at some point later in the story will have a Black Talon “Crusade” against the Ghost Scales, but I think that they are more concerned by the Ashen Hides and their worship of Nier in Canceri (not a playable race, unfortunately, as Canceri is an ‘evil’ nation) than a bunch of camouflaging Ghost Scales.

2. So ghost scales are a cult like off shoot of the black talons, they worship the stone, do they recognize it as being below the fire dragon in status. For instance could I be a templar of the fire dragon and be ghost scale, while still seeing the stone as our life line?

Like the Ashen Hides (who also rejected it), the Ghost Scales have rejected the Fire Dragon as their savior, probably to the effect of saying that the Black Talon matriarch had them leave Ssethregore on a flight of fancy more than anything. Either way, they parted ways with the Black Talons, and found their own path. While it is mechanically possible to worship the Fire Dragon (or another god), Ghost Scales are raised in a society where these gods are rejected, so the number of converts are so low as to effectively be nil. In terms of the Living Campaign, having Ghost Scale worshipers of anything but Herka and Jeggal Sag (the Master of Beasts, which is a Shaman tradition as he also isn’t a god, but more powerful than Herka) is not allowed.

It should be noted that ALL of the Black Talons (and Ghost Scales and Ashen Hides) rejected the Ssethric Gods of Kassagore and Yig, and especially the Varn deities currently worshiped in Ssethregore.

3. Ghost scales can change their skin color to match their surroundings, what if they are just standing in the middle of a room, would their skin change color to match the air or effectively become transparent? I feel the answer to this is no, but still I’m curious.

The biology basically escapes me, but they can’t become transparent. If they have nothing to match to, they become albino-like, milky white in colour. These are not Jem’Hadar here, think of them like a real-life chameleon in their abilities.

4. How do the black talons and the ghost scale relate. For instance, as a male ghost scale, if a female black talon told me to do something, or not do something. Would I be required to do as commanded? Or is the social structure between the ghost scale offshoots and the black talons more cut and dry, and they don’t respect one another at all? Are they friendly with one another as cultures?

Generally. . . poorly. Officially, the Matriach of the Black Talons would consider the Ghost Scales to be heretics from the Fire Dragon and betrayers of the Black Talon Clutch. While some individuals (especially non-priest males) might have a cordial relationship, the two groups would not combine well.

In the Living Campaign, this. . . dislike is generally waved away for the sake of forming tables (see: B.E.A.S.T., the fan-made ss’ressen group including both Ghost Scale and Black Talons operating harmoniously). It is similar to my Nierite Holy Judge and my wife’s Osalikene elorii working at the same table even though we should both hate each other. The joys of existing in a shared campaign

5. Currently I’ve come to the conclusion that I either need to focus entirely on being a caster, or focus entirely on being stealthy and going path of the tooth and claw. I feel I will be spread to thin if I spend talents on shaman initiate and what not in order to gain spell casting. I admit some of the spells hex and necromancy gives you at tier 1 are nice.. but I just cant find a appropriate balance for that character when I build him, if I’m split.

For that, I can only say good luck. Mixing good casting and combat is always a tough balance to go. I play a Divine Nierite Battle Priest, and I’ve found that I simply can’t keep up both sides of the equation as the Tier gap increases. I know Expert gives you a bit more flexibility than one of the other 3 archetypes do, but it still is a very tough balance to go.

I should point out that while I am fairly well informed to the history of the world, all my knowledge is unofficial and the below statements are based on extrapolations from published material.

Ty for all the answers, even if it isn’t official I still appreciate the feedback. I was particularly curious about number 4. Thank you for clearing this up. I’ll keep that in mind for future role play at the table if I meet a Black Talon Pc. Well now I’m trying to figure out what background combo for expert will work best. I want to be a ghost scale assassin / thief.

edit:

Generally. . . poorly. Officially, the Matriach of the Black Talons would consider the Ghost Scales to be heretics from the Fire Dragon and betrayers of the Black Talon Clutch. While some individuals (especially non-priest males) might have a cordial relationship, the two groups would not combine well.

Yeah my Huge Black Talon Ss’ressessn Templar threated to eat the “little white lizard” when we first met. Some discussion involved the use of barbeque sauce…

That said I think Ryan should go rogue/assassin…or just thief…a Ghost Scale cat burglar could be hilarious. Which is funny since his Ghost Scale considers cats a delicacy.

Cody’s right about trying to mix combat and casting. If you try to be a jack of all trades you will be a master of none. But it’s still nice to have a certain skill set when you really need it. The question is will it be enough?

Its not my fault those people left the village. Who knows what happens to pets when they are left unattended anyway! lol. Not to mention all their silverware.

I do play a character that fights and casts. Getting it “right” is possible. You need at least two ranks at start (3 or even 4 is better) and the ability to subsequently raise the important skills by 3 ranks per tier. The later is most easily done by taking Expert.

Shaman (and “wizard”) is harder to work out than Initiate or Psion because their are no backgrounds that combine ranks in Arcanum (Shamanism) with ranks in combat skills …. against Initiate of the Gods and Awakened Psion (which are both great backgrounds). Ghost Scale works out somewhat better since the boy GS get a rank in melee (Black Talon also works even without this). You’ll also get one from the Adaptable talent, and one from electives (3 ranks … three is a magic number). If you take a side of “naughty cheese weasel” your Ghost Scale takes Pirate Isles as his “home nation” and you turn that into four ranks of melee (unarmed).

On the casting side you start with three ranks. One from the Adaptable talent. One from Shaman Initiate, and a third from elective. Presumably you also pick up Prodigy.

Stealth you get at least from Race & Elective. Depending on the nationality you take as a Ghost Scale you may get a third rank there too. Advance by 3 every tier and add in your GS racial bonuses and you are hard to find.

That’s how the skills would work out. (The down side with the Expert Archetype is that your talents are ALWAYS going to be tight. But working out talents is a different post).

As a side note our Ss’ressen in Portland is exceptionally fond of rats. From the bar by the same name. And becomes “grumpy” when he isn’t fed them in a module.

Well ill keep that in mind but at the moment I’ve pretty much decided to drop casting. I’ve done two mock builds with martial and expert as the archetype and expert definitely gives me the skills I want, martial leaves 2 I can’t get, but gives me more combat options .

Question, do sseressen always get armor pro with sseressen scale armor, or only if it is given by something, like milandisian nationality?