Minions of Misfortune

The Minions of Misfortune and their congregations travel about the lands bringing misfortune wherever they roam. Members of the Temple of Strife seek to disrupt harmony and plunge Tellene into a vortex of chaos. They exist in small numbers in all nations but they are numerous in the east and seem to prefer deserts and wastelands.

Minions closely follow local weather patterns and are always present during times of foul weather. They continually seek to cause misfortune by heightening poor weather conditions. For instance, during a drought, they might pollute the wells; before a windstorm, they might secretly loosen structural supports and bonds.

Minions hate the luckier people of the world and, if given the opportunity, try to cause misfortune in the lives of such individuals. If possible, the fortunate one will be given as a sacrifice to the Creator of Strife. If they cannot abduct the lucky one for sacrifice, clerics will try to cause misfortune by destroying his crops, poisoning his livestock, burning his house, etc. These actions cause paranoia. In fact, they have given rise to a gambler’s saying: “Save some luck for escaping Ill-luck.” It has even become tradition among some superstitious gamblers to deliberately lose their final three games. This is done almost universally during stormy nights.

The Temple of Strife has gained some notoriety for their ability to make favorable alliances with humanoids. Because of this, many humanoid shamans worship the Maker of Dissension and are often active within the predominantly human Temple of Strife. The alliances are usually geared toward making war on the local humans or humanoids.

When the Minions can muster enough humanoids to form a massive army, they will descend upon a human populace. Foul storms of titanic proportions always precede these wars and the actual assault always occurs during the height of the storm. During battle, some of the Minions of Misfortune will play bagpipes, cymbals, horns and drums. Their chaotic, disturbing tunes urge Ill-luck’s troops into the fray and announce to their enemies the strife to come.

Adventures: Minions of Misfortune adventure in order to bring strife to those who have more than their fair share of luck. They steal from the rich, scar the beautiful and maim the happy.

Characteristics: It is thought that no particular characteristics exist among the Minions of Misfortune, but some clerics of Risk claim that you can detect a Minion by the sour expression on his face when he notices good luck.

Background: Minions of Misfortune usually arise from dire situations. They might be the sole survivors of a village ravaged by disease or destroyed by humanoids. They might be escaped slaves. Often they blame another, sometimes good-aligned, deity for their plight and join this faith to seek vengeance.

Races: Bad fortune is blind to race; all races can be found wearing the faith’s brilliant vestments. Gnomes, usually grimly optimistic in the worst of situations, usually manage to ignore the despair and frustration that leads others to join this faith.

Relations With Other Classes: Minions of Misfortune appreciate the talents of rogues, but find that far too many worship their enemy, Risk. Otherwise, they are perfectly happy bringing their misery to whoever is willing to bear it.

Relations With Undead: Clerics are encouraged to animate or create undead in their attempts to further the faith. If intelligent undead must be controlled, the cleric must free them of control as soon as possible. Clerics may freely destroy undead created by junior clerics of their faith, but should not those of peers or higher-ranking clerics. A cleric is allowed to destroy undead created by another faith, if those undead hinder an act that furthers the faith. Violating these restrictions may cause the cleric to lose temple rank, or undergo a quest to atone.

Role: Rarely welcome in a group of peers because of the bad luck they seem to bring with them, Minions of Misfortune are usually the leaders of small groups of troublemakers.