Morrigna

Making a world from scratch can be difficult, as there's a lot to consider when making your own world. Nations, conflicts, gods, devils, planes. You mean to tell me I have to figure out what happens to souls too? Man.

Luckily, the psychopomps make that easy. Any group that could conceivably include the likes of Anubis, Charon, Hermes, and Jesus is a group that I'm interested in. The Morrigna, with its spider motifs, easily brings to mind ideas of the threads of life or fate and the passive observer that is death. I'm not sure how I feel about it drawing so heavily on spiders, given the spider's propensity to, uh, trap insects in webs and eat them at their leisure. Probably shouldn't try too hard to draw parallels to souls.

Ultimately, I think the morrigna is best used at high levels when your party has easy access to death-avoiding magics. Bring a soul back from the depths of wherever souls are kept one too many times and you'll have a social (and maybe combat) encounter with a morrigna on your hands. With its ability to change its shape into an animal, you could have it tail the party for quite some time, maybe periodically reappearing after each revival attempt.

What does happen to souls in your setting? Maybe the morrigna fits into the grand scheme of your "soul plane." Just, maybe check with your players about arachnophobia first.

- TJ

Hook 1 (Max) - What is Dead Should Stay Dead

The last battle was particularly trying and one or more of the party fell. Luckily, one of them could bring the dead back. Or, as they are about to find, unfortunately.

It begins innocently enough—they keep finding spiders and webs among their belongings. Then, they start getting a repeated message in their dreams, stating simply "What is dead should stay dead."

Exactly seven days after the resurrection, when the person behind the act is alone (they are bound to be at some point), a beautiful woman in silk robes emerges from the shadows, accompanied by a multitude of spiders, a hint of a predatory smirk across her lips. As the words from their dreams play in the victim's mind "What is dead should stay dead..." she finishes "...but for now, I'll take you instead."

Hook 2 (TJ) - Eight Eyes

Eight Eyes Always Watching
Hanging By A Thread

Eight Eyes Always Watching
Looking Where You Tread

Eight Eyes Always Watching
For You Tears Are Shed

Eight Eyes Always Watching
A Beacon For The Dead

- A dirge performed when interring a member of the Eightfold Oclijian Sect, year unknown

Hook 3 (Reece) - Binder of Heart and Soul

Perrinalsus, The Watcher With Many Eyes, was one of four remaining Soulbinders to remain on their dying world. Even as the forces of chaos gripped the planet, her charge was to remain the same as it always had—maintain the natural order of death in the last breaths of a dying world. While others of her kind were encouraged to not become attached to those they would have to guide into The River of Souls, she had grown fond of a powerful sorceress who was attempting to stem the tide of destruction there. After working together many years before against a common foe, they had become an odd pair of friends who would carry conversations late into the night about the nature of death and the universe.

Perrinalsus was secretly rooting for her friend even though she knew the forces arrayed against her and her mortal compatriots would ultimately be their doom. Or so she thought.

When the sorceress finds a way to call upon fallen souls and bind them to new powerful machine bodies called Soul Golems designed to fight against the powers of destruction arrayed against mankind, Perrinalsus is left with a choice: Does she hunt down her friend of many years and fulfill her duty, or does she shirk her responsibility—and perhaps her very nature—for the love of a mortal?