Dungeons & Dragons 5e Background: Follower of the Golden Antler
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Follower of the Golden Antler
Far to the southeast lies the Cathedral of the Stags. Here each year the followers of the Golden Stag collect and celebrate. These are the nature worshippers who believe in the power of community. The legend of the Three Stags is considered a heresy within much of the Pinion Dominion and so these people must practice in secret. Their nature loving ways are often confused with more sinister witchcraft by those who don’t know better.
The people who come to the Three Golden Stags can be from many walks of life. Some are Pinions who have felt outcast by their home and went looking for a found community. Others are the frog like people of the southeast redwood forest, their people have called on the Stags for many generations. And still there are some defectors from the Fortch Horde who seek a more peaceful path. Whatever your reason, now you have a shared secret. The rituals and practices of Stag worshippers are cryptic, and only a practiced follower (or someone with sufficient skill in Religion) would be able to identify it.
But Stag Worshipers have developed their own secret trail signs and horn songs so they can communicate safely even in the presence of those who might persecute them.
Features
Feature: Call of Community
When in a densely forested area you can play a call on your staghorn flute that can be heard for up to three miles. Any other Followers of the Stags who can hear it will make a good faith effort to come to your aid in the next 1d4 x 10 minutes. Followers may be humanoid and intelligent, or animal in nature. In addition, secret trail markers, only readable by followers of the stags, can mark safer paths through many of the forests of the Tense River Basin. Non followers cannot identify the flute song as anything more than birds or wind on the trees.
Once per day you can roll 1d6 and add it to any Nature, Animal Handling, or Survival check, even if it is not your own. This could, for instance, be giving a bonus to a friend who might be trying to follow your tracks or find where you have been taken by leaving something you are sure they’d notice. Or a gentle nudge to someone to remember that last bit they heard about the animal they are trying to determine the nature of.
Suggested Characteristics
While diverse in their origins, Stagworshipers all seek out peace and equilibrium through the formation of communities in harmony with nature. Though it need not inform all of their choices, it remains something that they take solace from. They tend to be wilder than the more city folk. Some might even seem downright primal.
Traits
| 1d8 | Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I feel most at ease in nature, when I spend too long in cities I become restless. |
| 2 | Being surrounded by others invigorates me, I am naturally social. |
| 3 | I’m spoiled by the bounty of the stag feast, finding new foods to eat motivates me. |
| 4 | Solitude suits me, I am very comfortable in the quiet and outdoors. |
| 5 | I have a wanderlust, there is so much to see in the world. |
| 6 | I laugh often and loudly. |
| 7 | Sometimes I get hung up on words, but my intentions are usually clear and honest. |
| 8 | There is a particular smell that just always seems too pungent to me. |
Ideal
| 1d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Conservation. Protection of the natural world is a high priority for me. It is as much a part of me, as I am of it. |
| 2 | Forgiveness. Communities cannot flourish if the individuals cannot work with one another. We must move past what separates us to pursue something greater together. |
| 3 | Generosity. I volunteer my time and my resources to worthy cause. It makes my community stronger when I give, and that makes me stronger too. |
| 4 | Evangeliism. As a wise follower once said, ‘preach the gospel to all the world, use words if necessary’. Though I know I must stay secretive in many lands, I can show my beliefs through wordless action. |
| 5 | Health. A people cannot thrive if they are not well. Care for the body, medical magical and holistic, keeps us all well. We share a resiliency. |
| 6 | Guidance. Knowing my way means that I can show it to others. Spiritually and physically through the forests of this world. |
Bond
| 1d6 | Bonds |
|---|---|
| 1 | I have been bound to another, though we may not see each other often I look forward to my annual pilgrimage to the Cathedral of the Stags so I may see them once more. |
| 2 | My home town means the world to me, I will always try to visit it when traveling nearby. |
| 3 | I made a promise to my great aunt before she passed. She loved flowers and I collect them in memory of her. |
| 4 | My journal of observations will live on beyond me, I’ll protect it at all costs. |
| 5 | There is a tree I planted as a youth, its slow to grow but I’d like to see it reach into the sky. |
| 6 | I had a best friend from before I learned of the stag, they are the only non follower I’ve shared my secret with. |
Flaw
| 1d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | I find the rigid structures of other religions repellent and have difficulty not judging them harshly. |
| 2 | It is difficult for me to keep quiet when I could instead make my opinion made. |
| 3 | Sometimes I give of myself too much and neglect to refill my own well. |
| 4 | Trust is hard earned for me. Keeping secrets has kept me safe before. |
| 5 | I feel like an outcast, and sometimes even if I am not I will make myself into one. |
| 6 | My sense of self is firmly rooted in what is good for others to the point of losing myself and failing to self advocate for my own wants and needs. |
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