Bloodfang Menren (Devotee of The Glutton)
I know that the image projected in Dungeons and Dragons 5e regarding gnomes is that they're generally upbeat, good-natured folks. They're a little high strung and they get themselves into all sorts of trouble, but it's a fun sort of high-strung and a good kind of trouble. Sort of. If you dig a little into previous editions of D&D, however, you find a little more nuanced description. So, for this NPC, I'm explorer the darker side of gnome society. I'll also be summoning a gnome deity that I haven't seen in the 5e releases so far.
Beware!
"The Glutton will rip you, little gnome, and fill his belly with your innards.”
Bloodfang (CE) is a cruel, 87-year-old, female whisper gnome who considers gnome civilization a plague that must be scoured from the land. Abandoned by her family when she just a little child and reject by her burrow for reasons she still doesn't understand, Bloodfang was left to scrounge for survival in the streets of a major human settlement. Over the years she made a handful of acquaintances but none she trusted and certainly none she would call friends. Anger filled those places in her heart where friendships might have resided, anger toward those who threw her away and toward gnomes in general. That smoldering fuse eventually ignited a spree of murders (all of her victims gnomes). She was hunted by local law enforcement and by officials from surrounding burrows. When it looked as though she had no escape, a priest of the Glutton, Alleater Benvel, rescued her. Among the clergy and followers of The Glutton she finally found others like herself. She has been doing The Glutton’s bidding ever since.
Bond: I didn't deserve to have everything taken from me. Neither do my brethren deserve what they have built.
Flaw: I get angry at the smallest slight and seathe over it until I blow up.
Play Bloodfang as a quiet, reclusive gnome prone to fits of rage. On the outside, your outbursts appear random but they are the result of your simmering anger caused by some earlier slight, injustice, or other frustration that has finally boiled out of your control. Nurture grudges; they are your strength. Allow no one's suffering to eclipse your own. Others are not unfairly maligned and hunted as you are. Their actions are not twisted against them. Others deserve no sympathy because their failure is their own fault. Your failures are the result of plots against you. It's self-evident. Your greatest comfort comes from your love for The Glutton. He and his followers are the only ones who understand that the world is out to get you and only the collapse of gnome civilization will keep you safe. To that end, you quite enjoy being the cause of or witness to tragic failures of any gnome endeavor. You savor it.
Strongly Like: destroying gnome burrows, killing gnomes
Like: rites performed to The Glutton, thwarting gnome schemes
Dislike: protecting gnomes, being or showing weakness
Strongly Dislike: gnomes, expanding gnome civilization, Garl Glittergold and his stooges
The Glutton (CE) is a lesser gnome deity belonging to the Death and Trickery domains. Legend has it that he was once a gnome whose greed and anger cursed him with a monstrous form and need to devour gnome society and all that it stands for and holds dear. In art and literature, he's depicted as a massive, vicious badger or wolverine. His meddling is often cited as the cause of any large-scale tragedy that befalls a burrow, such as tunnel collapses, outbreaks of disease, and unexplained deaths. Parents often use his name to frighten naughty children into behaving.
Because The Glutton is a destructive force, his followers are never knowingly welcomed into a burrow. Clerics meet in secret wherever convenient; they have no formal temples. They draw their numbers from the rejected, insane, powerless, and hopeless members of gnome society who find The Glutton willing to grant them the strength and purpose denied them by their so-called “fellow” gnomes. These clerics always carry on their person the symbol of The Glutton, a gaping, fanged maw dripping in blood. Their prayers and rituals often involve consuming large quantities of food and drink while calling upon The Glutton to do harm to other gnomes.
Whisper gnomes are much more reclusive and far less jovial than their better known kith and kin. Suspicious by nature, they are quiet and slow to trust. They find it difficult to make (and keep) close friends as they are always "waiting for the other shoe to fall." That said, adventuring whisper gnomes understand the realities of their profession and can readily form temporary, dispassionate alliances to accomplish a goal. While others races are willing to join in on such efforts, they do so with some caution. It's not that whisper gnomes are feared or hated. It's that their silence (and their desire to be left alone) tends to fuel speculations about their "real" intentions. It also doesn't help that a well known piece of advice is to put away anything of value if a whisper gnome is coming for a visit. No, they won't rob you blind but they will have quietly acquired a new possession or two by the time they bid you farewell.
Whisper gnomes mostly resemble other gnomes. They are slightly taller and appear a bit more gaunt, but these differences are easily overlooked. They possess an affinity for stealth, finding the ability to get about without causing a scene not just advantageous but preferable. They do enjoy being left alone after all. Many whisper gnomes who go into adventuring prefer the path of a scout, ranger, spy, thief, assassin, or some other roguish career.
If you want to play a whisper gnome, the following are my thoughts on additional traits for the subrace.
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Stealth Expert. Whenever you make a Dexterity (Stealth) check, you are considered proficient in the Stealth skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.
Mask of the Environs. You have a natural affinity for sneaking around in one environment of your choice (Arctic, Grassland, Hill, Urban, and so forth). When in your chosen environment, you have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks. You can also attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by your surroundings or environmental conditions, though doing so is without that advantage.
Enter: The Sacrifice Booth.
This large, death-dealing den of dark deeds restrains your victims for you while at the same time delivering a lethal force of the type most likely to not only please your malevolent master but also entertain him or her. To use the booth, simply usher your unsuspecting offering into the booth's confines. Just how you go about that is really up to you. Once the chump is inside, activate the booth. For the next full minute, the gadget throws, twists, and turns a variety of ensnaring objects at your target, including nets, chains, hooks, bars, and other sundry objects.At the same time, the booth fills with the killing force. It's all but guaranteed to finish off your lamb in the finest of styles.
But wait! There's more! The outside of the Sacrifice Booth includes numerous nooks, crannies, alcoves, and shelving units for you to store and/or display the tools of your sinister trade. The mechanics of the gadget are hidden away for both safety purposes and to avoid any aesthetic conflicts.
Any evil cult leader would die for this wonderfully villainous device. Will you?
The following is the stat block for this gadget, using the rules in my Epic Gnomish Inventing supplement available on the DM's Guild (link below).
Beware!
Bloodfang Menren
(BLOOD-fang MEN-ren)"The Glutton will rip you, little gnome, and fill his belly with your innards.”
Using Bloodfang
Ideal: There is no right or wrong, only the power to do whatever you want.Bond: I didn't deserve to have everything taken from me. Neither do my brethren deserve what they have built.
Flaw: I get angry at the smallest slight and seathe over it until I blow up.
Play Bloodfang as a quiet, reclusive gnome prone to fits of rage. On the outside, your outbursts appear random but they are the result of your simmering anger caused by some earlier slight, injustice, or other frustration that has finally boiled out of your control. Nurture grudges; they are your strength. Allow no one's suffering to eclipse your own. Others are not unfairly maligned and hunted as you are. Their actions are not twisted against them. Others deserve no sympathy because their failure is their own fault. Your failures are the result of plots against you. It's self-evident. Your greatest comfort comes from your love for The Glutton. He and his followers are the only ones who understand that the world is out to get you and only the collapse of gnome civilization will keep you safe. To that end, you quite enjoy being the cause of or witness to tragic failures of any gnome endeavor. You savor it.
Recurring
The party will most likely encounter you as a villain whose schemes are directly at odds with or brush against their goals. More likes indicate a general admiration for the party, but no amount of likes will ever turn you from The Glutton. More dislikes indicate a deeper resentment of and desire the destroy the party.Strongly Like: destroying gnome burrows, killing gnomes
Like: rites performed to The Glutton, thwarting gnome schemes
Dislike: protecting gnomes, being or showing weakness
Strongly Dislike: gnomes, expanding gnome civilization, Garl Glittergold and his stooges
One-off
Bloodfang plans to do one of the following and the party must stop her: collapse a residential section of a burrow, sabotage a new tinker invention, release deadly spores into the ventilation network of a burrow, contaminate the drinking supply of a burrow.Story Arc
Bloodfang and a group of fellow clerics are plotting one of the following major operations and the party must thwart them: replace the leaders of a burrow with followers of The Glutton, turn neighboring villages against a burrow, sabotage the major sections of a burrow, summon The Glutton's herald (a balor) into the heart of a burrow.Side Quest
The party is asked to carry out the following during their travels: destroy any sites of Glutton worship they might find, investigate any activities carried out by The Glutton’s followers, gather information about The Glutton, relate tales of The Glutton’s evil at public gathering places, such as pubs.The Glutton
The Glutton appeared in Races of Stone by David Noonan, Jesse Decker, and Michelle Lyons.The Glutton (CE) is a lesser gnome deity belonging to the Death and Trickery domains. Legend has it that he was once a gnome whose greed and anger cursed him with a monstrous form and need to devour gnome society and all that it stands for and holds dear. In art and literature, he's depicted as a massive, vicious badger or wolverine. His meddling is often cited as the cause of any large-scale tragedy that befalls a burrow, such as tunnel collapses, outbreaks of disease, and unexplained deaths. Parents often use his name to frighten naughty children into behaving.
Because The Glutton is a destructive force, his followers are never knowingly welcomed into a burrow. Clerics meet in secret wherever convenient; they have no formal temples. They draw their numbers from the rejected, insane, powerless, and hopeless members of gnome society who find The Glutton willing to grant them the strength and purpose denied them by their so-called “fellow” gnomes. These clerics always carry on their person the symbol of The Glutton, a gaping, fanged maw dripping in blood. Their prayers and rituals often involve consuming large quantities of food and drink while calling upon The Glutton to do harm to other gnomes.
Whisper Gnomes
The whisper gnome subrace appeared in Races of Stone by David Noonan, Jesse Decker, and Michelle Lyons.Whisper gnomes are much more reclusive and far less jovial than their better known kith and kin. Suspicious by nature, they are quiet and slow to trust. They find it difficult to make (and keep) close friends as they are always "waiting for the other shoe to fall." That said, adventuring whisper gnomes understand the realities of their profession and can readily form temporary, dispassionate alliances to accomplish a goal. While others races are willing to join in on such efforts, they do so with some caution. It's not that whisper gnomes are feared or hated. It's that their silence (and their desire to be left alone) tends to fuel speculations about their "real" intentions. It also doesn't help that a well known piece of advice is to put away anything of value if a whisper gnome is coming for a visit. No, they won't rob you blind but they will have quietly acquired a new possession or two by the time they bid you farewell.
Whisper gnomes mostly resemble other gnomes. They are slightly taller and appear a bit more gaunt, but these differences are easily overlooked. They possess an affinity for stealth, finding the ability to get about without causing a scene not just advantageous but preferable. They do enjoy being left alone after all. Many whisper gnomes who go into adventuring prefer the path of a scout, ranger, spy, thief, assassin, or some other roguish career.
If you want to play a whisper gnome, the following are my thoughts on additional traits for the subrace.
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Stealth Expert. Whenever you make a Dexterity (Stealth) check, you are considered proficient in the Stealth skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.
Mask of the Environs. You have a natural affinity for sneaking around in one environment of your choice (Arctic, Grassland, Hill, Urban, and so forth). When in your chosen environment, you have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks. You can also attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by your surroundings or environmental conditions, though doing so is without that advantage.
Gadget: Sacrifice Booth
There's nothing more frustrating than wrangling a sacrificial victim while having to both keep your ritual implements organized and enunciate your devilish incantations so that the vile monster you idolize will throw some praise your way. Am I right? Don't worry. The Corrupt Association of Calamitous Arts is here for you...because, even though they generally enjoy the suffering of others, they also recognize an opportunity for profit when it presents itself.Enter: The Sacrifice Booth.
This large, death-dealing den of dark deeds restrains your victims for you while at the same time delivering a lethal force of the type most likely to not only please your malevolent master but also entertain him or her. To use the booth, simply usher your unsuspecting offering into the booth's confines. Just how you go about that is really up to you. Once the chump is inside, activate the booth. For the next full minute, the gadget throws, twists, and turns a variety of ensnaring objects at your target, including nets, chains, hooks, bars, and other sundry objects.At the same time, the booth fills with the killing force. It's all but guaranteed to finish off your lamb in the finest of styles.
But wait! There's more! The outside of the Sacrifice Booth includes numerous nooks, crannies, alcoves, and shelving units for you to store and/or display the tools of your sinister trade. The mechanics of the gadget are hidden away for both safety purposes and to avoid any aesthetic conflicts.
Any evil cult leader would die for this wonderfully villainous device. Will you?
The following is the stat block for this gadget, using the rules in my Epic Gnomish Inventing supplement available on the DM's Guild (link below).
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