Scorn Pole

[Balasar]

Hey so I’m a little confused as to how scorn poles — and be extension, cursed dominion — actually work.

Does it affect everyone in the targeted building, or just one person, who is designated when the pole is made? Does it automatically take effect when planted, or do you have to look at it for it to work? If it’s sight based, is it just anyone who looks at it, or again, is it a person specified when making it?

Does it have remain in front of someone’s house for it to work, or can you activate the curse and then just take it with you? If you have to leave it outside the house in plain sight, I’d think that it would be super easy to destroy. Barely an inconvenience.

With the Cursed Dominion variation, is it just a passive effect on anyone who enters a Willow Wisp’s domain (excluding the wisps themselves, of course)?

It’s a really cool skill that I’d love to use more in my game. And one of players has a backup character that’s a 12 year old, mentally unstable Galdr that just carries scorn poles around with her at all times. I’m just confused as to how the skill is meant to function.

Side note: if it works on sight, I had the idea for a trap where as you walk down a narrow corridor (too narrow to look much of anywhere except straight ahead), a pit opens up in the floor. At the same time, a compartment opens in the ceiling directly above the pit, and something falls past the dwellers’ faces. Being the naturally sorts, they’d ask if they could tell what it was, and make a perception check against the trap’s conceal-ability. Their success is their failure — by successfully seeing what it was, they actually see the scorn poles clearly enough to activate their curse. The poles fell too far to just jump down and grab ‘em, so they have to work their way through the dungeon to eventually find and destroy the poles if they want to get rid of the curse.

[Aroth]

Does it affect everyone in the targeted building, or just one person, who is designated when the pole is made? Does it automatically take effect when planted, or do you have to look at it for it to work? If it’s sight based, is it just anyone who looks at it, or again, is it a person specified when making it?

Does it have remain in front of someone’s house for it to work, or can you activate the curse and then just take it with you? If you have to leave it outside the house in plain sight, I’d think that it would be super easy to destroy. Barely an inconvenience.

From my understanding, they way it works is its set to target a certain area its facing (ignoring walls and barriers, hence effecting a home) and its set to effect everyone within the zone,
part of making the scorn is planting it into the ground (aka giving it a target) so if its moved you will have to wyrd to fabricate them again changing the strength and intensity as you go along.

With the Cursed Dominion variation, is it just a passive effect on anyone who enters a Willow Wisp’s domain (excluding the wisps themselves, of course)?

remind me what book this is from, It sounds like LOTA?(I only have the core with me at work so I will look at that later)

It’s a really cool skill that I’d love to use more in my game. And one of players has a backup character that’s a 12 year old, mentally unstable Galdr that just carries scorn poles around with her at all times. I’m just confused as to how the skill is meant to function.

Aaaaaaaa-maaaaaazing

Personally how I have used it in the past for a "trap" is I had a maze with snowmen, who sometimes has a scorn pole in it.
The only other thing is that they will cancel each other out being in proximity of each other, and dont stack if they overlap.

[Balasar]

Hey, Aroth, sorry for not responding sooner, crazy couple weeks.

Thanks so much for your input. It seems a bit clearer now. Less overpowered for the players, but also slightly less overpowered for the GM. The fluctuating intensities is really interesting, though, and I’ll definitely be sure to use that if/when my berserkir player switches to Galdr.

Cursed Dominion was the scorn pole variant for Willow Wisp in DOTN.

Also, great point on the not overlapping and canceling each other out. Makes it harder to cheese the system.


3 follow up questions:

1. If you can’t move around with it, does that mean that a druid with a mistletoe staff/wand can’t benefit from its crafted attributes while using it? Or is the druid an exception, and just radiates skill check debuffs to non allies within range?

2. Does it only affect skill checks, or does the curse also affect your damage output or defense rating?

3. Finally, what would you say would be the range on a scorn pole? Like does it have to be less than 20’ from someone’s front door, or can you do it from 200’ away? Something in between? Also, any ideas for how one might disguise a scorn pole? It sounds very easy to find and destroy one of these to end the curse, hence asking about disguise and range.


Unrelated, I had the beautiful thought of letting one of my players wake up in their room in a tavern with a scorn pole planted in the bed between their legs. Think Godfather but even more gruesome.

[Aroth]

1. The difference with the staff vs the scorn pole is that part of making the scorn pole is staking it into the ground.
Core: 297
"This skill bestows the knowledge of how to create an enchanted dismembered head that will curse the people
it faces. Usually the head of a horse is used and mounted on a 6’ pole that is inscribed with arcane runes.
It is then staked in the ground facing a person’s home. "

2. skill checks only!

3. Personally I don't do farther then sensory range, so with height advantage and such, 100 feet tops? but thats also added to the difficulty rating for the crafting in my opinion, so adjust as you seem fair (and its already a minium of 2 spirtual successes)

[Balasar]

Good idea on range determined by success. Didn’t stop to think about that.