D30 Rituals of Winter

Praise the D30, cyclopean chthonic orb, grandest of the dice. Accept this offering of rituals, and blessed be thy rolls.

This table has weird winter-flavored customs, celebrations and rituals for pagans or cultures with remnants of ancient beliefs. 
Results are in order of escalating weirdness. Depending on what you want, use the following:
d10 for fairly mundane/realistic results
d20 for weird results
d30 for trauma, fear and sacrifice
Should you enjoy this table, I have others...


d30 Rituals of Winter
1
A massive conflagration of whole trees in the town square to drive away blizzards
2
Flaming arrows are launched into fields of dead crops each morning as the sun rises
3
Fires may be fed only with the fat and dung of animals
4
A fire is lit each night on a frozen lake  
5
A decorative braided rope made from human hair, animal hyde and natural fibers is hung from every entryway. The wealthy incorporate wire made from precious metals.
6
Folk gather together and howl as wolves in a wild choir
7
The community leaves its settlement for a fortnight to reside in an ancient holy place
8
All visitors and outsiders are shunned and treated as evil spirits in disguise
9
Paper lanterns are crafted and saved for a starless night, when they are released to float towards the sky
10
Casks of nectar fermented since spring are opened and used to baptize the young
11
Everyone must wear clothing woven from grass and wheat for a week
12
A great hunt is held for the fur of a winter fox. The one who claims it is granted a request by the local lord.
13
Mirrors and sheets of polished metal are used to reflect the rays of the sun onto a carved statue of a folk hero or holy person and adjusted so that it is illuminated at all times
14
A heavy stone sledge bearing a lantern is pulled around the settlement by an ox and cart day and night for a month to represent the sun
15
Elaborate natural murals made of natural dye and frozen snow are erected in the town square.
16
Songs are sung from dawn until dusk: by the young in the morning, women at midday, and men as the daylight dies
17
Those who seek blessings meditate through the night exposed to the elements and in the nude
18
A great feast is held during which everyone gorges themselves before fasting and resting in solitude for a full week with the help of powerful sedative drugs
19
Bodies of those who died on solstices past are exhumed to witness the setting of the winter sun.
20
Recitation of poetry by a bard for two days and nights, fighting sleep and exhaustion by self-flagellation.
21
One out of every twenty people are selected for exile and exchanged with a neighboring settlement until the next solstice.
22
All idols and statues are buried beneath the earth and snow until the spring thaw
23
A mass wedding of 7 maidens and 8 men at dusk on the solstice. The unchosen man is sacrificed. Smaller settlements pick up and leave to join larger ones to take part in the ceremony.
24
Mothers offer their milk each night at the outskirts of town to appease the wild and keep it at bay
25
Animals are elevated to civil office for 3 days and their edicts interpreted by the holy people of the community.
26
Traveling minstrels arrive, performing dark dramas of the underworld. At the end of winter, none remember their visit except the children
27
Offerings of coins are left tied inside the bloody hides of small animals as gifts to the beasts and demons of the darkness
28
Groups of children beat runt animals to death to be fed to their littermates
29
Drowning of a child by dropping them through the ice of a nearby frozen river or lake
30
A brigade of watchmen roam the community at night in search of winter demons. They are welcome in every home and their will is law.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Get ya self some tapes. (w/ bonus lost codices table!)

Image
I was already a hipster collecting vinyl. I knew it was kind of silly, but hey, I was supporting my favorite artists at shows and often getting a rare, collectible, sometimes signed copy of something I loved. And they really do sound better (when mixed for high dynamic range). Then I went to a show and bought a tape because it was $8 and I didn't like the band enough to blow $25 on a vinyl instead. Now THAT'S silly. They don't even sound good. Of course, neither does a lot of black metal. So that's what I get, primarily, is the black metal that sounds good, but not because of its sound quality or mixing.   Dungeon Synth is also a great genre having its revival on tape, and a lot of those come with cool OSR content or at least vibes . Disclaimer: Many of these may not be available as tapes can be pretty limited in quantity. If not, just listen to the streaming version then imagine it sounding slightly shittier.   Clipping. - Splendor & Misery Ambient noise instru
Read more

Vermis: Lost Dungeons and Forbidden Woods RPG artbook review (w/ bonus Goblin Knight stats!)

Image
Your console boots up. You switch the input to TV03. Color bars flash, static fizzles. The CRT scanlines reveal the words Vermis: Lost Dungeons and Forbidden Woods . MIDI synth music issues forth, soft and sinister --what we would call Dungeon Synth today, but what was mysterious and unnamed in childhood-- fades in, filling the dark room lit only by the glow of the screen and the power button of your console. A jarring flash occurs, with the words Which flesh is your flesh? appearing, briefly, before you are given the prompt Press Start to Enter the Darkness . Vermis (volume 1, with more to come?) is a guide to a game that never existed. It’s a lo-fi dark fantasy action RPG, with Dark Souls being an easy point of comparison, but of the era of Eye of the Beholder grid-based movement and sprite-based Doom engine graphics but with an off-putting layer of grime. In those days, a guide book would sometimes contain a world unto itself, with the world lore, character options, and select
Read more

Get ya self some tapes pt. 3 (w/ bonus Lost Codex table!)

Image
Time for another round of haunting, jamming black metal and dungeon synth in its physical form. And why tapes? Well, they look kinda cool in their own aesthetic way, they make a ka-chunk in the machine, and some of them are literally hand-dubbed and decorated by the musicians or indie label dudes. They have sort of a grungy quality to the sound (especially if your machine makes a tape hiss). A worthy addition to your table if you like to physically DJ the soundtrack to a session. Warduke- Module 1 Dungeon Chip Music? Yup. It takes the point-and-click or text-based vibes of classic DS and says "But what if Zelda?", and it works. Despite high recommendations for Warduke's discography across the board, only Module 1 seems to be available in physical form. Comes in this goofy clamshell, so you could put it on the bookshelf instead of the tape box. Sadly, there is no module within. You can either write a letter about it, or go to heimatderkatastrophe for another tape, since
Read more