1d20 Random Encounters With Those Who Have Undergone The Tamashī no tanzōrite Rites Table For Your Old School Campaigns

Along the oldest parts of the Old Silk Road routes through the back mountains of Eurasia  there are strange back road shrines in the deepest parts of the old growth forests & twisted mountain passes. Here the winds & the weather seem to pick up at a moment's notice. There is always a chill in the air no matter if its Summer or Spring. The shadows here grow long with strange lights & its here that the doorways between worlds are very thin. Certain cells of ancient cults still gather in these places to call forth the most ancient ogres of the order of the magi who practice the ancient arts of Tamashī no tanzō literally the soul forging.

The soul forging is done when a tormented & smashed soul is called back from the Inferno, Hell or The Abyss. Similar to the art of Kintsugi (金継ぎ, "golden joinery"), also known as Kintsukuroi (金繕い, "golden repair") but with a far more darker necrotic & necromatic bent. Rare Earth soil found in the so called 'Pit of Adam' is mixed  with powdered gold, silver, or platinum,made from the coins of the dead. A three eyed ogre soul forger & his apprentices who has under gone the rites of the Oni in the deepest rolling chaos of the minor hells of Fairyland does the forging. The rites are quite horrific as a necromancer calls back the soul to the land of the living. The wounds of the damned are filled in with the potent necromatic alchemical mix as magical rites are inscribed on magical staples used to hold the body of the unliving thing together. The Oni priest magus can only be summoned with a monster summoning spell at their shrines under the light of the last full moon of the year. These rites are only done under extreme circumstances for persons & personages of high importance. But their price for their services is high indeed.
 The Oni priest soul forgers will demand three hundred pounds of man flesh, a solid block of green or white jade, two human slaves of royal blood & at least two names of major demons or Elven lords for their services. Failure to meet their demands will result in them throwing the summoner into the deepest Hells.
A being who has undergone the Tamashī no tanzōrites will be marked with three hundred & sixty three magical staples of all varieties holding the wounds of the damned closed. This being has the following undead abilities & limitations - they do not sleep or eat, they have an immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects). They have immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, & death effects.These beings are not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability drain, or energy drain. Once per day for an hour  these damned can hide their horrific state through an illusion of incredible complexity that mimics the conditions of the living. The Oni priests see these beings as their works of art.Any damage to these beings in their presence  will be met with violence & magic!



Only being subject to the energies of the negative plane can these beings created by the  Tamashī no tanzōrites rites be healed. Beings created by the rites of Tamashī no tanzōrite have unnatural hungers & will crave the soul energies of poets, storytellers, & wizards. They will strangle for 1d6 points of physical damage & essence burn the victim for 1d4 points of damage per round. They also have a longer drawn out method of soul  drainage doing 1 point of wisdom as well as point of Constitution damage over a three night session. Those subject to this attack will experience the most vivid & horrify visions of the planes of the damned. These victims will be husks of their former selves & may commit suicide to avoid the crippling depression, the unholy visions & nightmares. Only a remove curse spell, a major healing spell, or expensive divine clerical help can heal this damage to the soul. The damned of the
Tamashī no tanzōrites rites are drawn to trails, crossroads, & places of the wilderness. These damned are restless & find little piece at night. This is the time when adventurers will most often encounter them in the wilderness or urban areas


The Judges of the Dead loath those sent back to Earth using the rites of Tamashī no tanzōrite & have written several treatises on these damned. Ironically these same treatises are highly valued by necromancers & black wizards who crave the knowledge of summoning the Oni priests. The scroll of 'The Honeyed Flower That Blooms at Midnight' is one such forbidden book of Law worth 1000 gold pieces to a royal collector. Not only does it contain the rites for spotting the handy work of the Oni Priests & the spell of their banishment but it contains the ritual for making the Brass Nail of The Damned. This brass nail is forged from a holy lamp in a temple of Law & the names of the thirty six angels of Death must be etched in it. The nail must be driven into the forehead of the damned to send body & soul straight to the lake of burning & freezing flesh in the lowest echelons of Hell.

In the far future when Ragnarok has happened & the piece of the Earth orbits Saturn the rites of Tamashī no tanzōrite will be available to necromancers & black wizards of the wastelands. The plain black basalt shrines of the Oni priest will stand mockingly back from the old roads.
Lo, what are these, the gyres of sun and world,
   Fulfilled with daylight by each toiling sun—
   Lo, what are these but webs of radiance spun
Beneath the roof of Night, and torn or furled
By Night at will? All opposite powers upwhirled
   Are less than chaff to this imperious one—
   As wind-tossed chaff, until its sport be done,
Scattered, and lifted up, and downward hurled.

All gyres are held within the path unspanned
   Of Night's aeonian compass—loosely pent
     As with the embrace of lethal-tightening
      weight;
All suns are grasped within the hollow hand
   Of Night, the godhead sole, omnipotent,
     Whose other names are Nemesis and Fate.

The Nemesis of Suns  (1912)
by Clark Ashton Smith

1d20 Random Encounters With Those Who Have Undergone The Tamashī no tanzōrite Rites Table 

1. An ancient prince who murdered his own father & now seeks adventurers to recover an object that may help him undo his fate as a damned soul. He has access to treasures long forgotten by the current king. But there is a black wizard who wants this prince destroyed. 
2. A very pretty priestess of a lost blood line wanders the night looking for the remains of her soul but she can't remember where it is. Meanwhile 1d6 demons peruse her to reunite her soul with her recently broken body. She need help to find her relics to remind her of her past & her lost memories. She will pay for your services. 
3. Long dead warriors pursue a royal general but they are confused & so have begun to attack the living. Adventurers are needed to put them back in their grave. Does the general know more then he's telling. He has an ancient treasure hidden nearby! 
4. The log book & charts  belonging to a ship lost centuries ago has surfaced near the party. Now a spectral ship is roaming the skies in search of her captain. Just recently a young warrior of strange garb has been seen in town. What is his story & who is the sinister stranger that is following the party. 
5. A strange wayfarer is wandering the byways of the countryside asking directions to a place that hasn't existed for centuries. Now a prince of the crown confronts the party asking for their help locating this wayfarer?! 
6. Long ago a strange ghostlike figure was seen wandering near a battle field & now centuries later that same battle field is being over run with skeletons. A stranger offers help but with a reward of gold & perhaps more. 
7. The abandoned temple at the end of the road has been the subject of legend & hearsay for centuries now its occupied by a priest of incredible presence. He wants you to find a valuable occult object but he's very odd & slightly weird. 
8. Strange ogre warriors wander the game trails & say they are searching for a group of their wandering priests. Then a gang of skeleton bandits has been raiding the nearby villages are the two connected? A strange warrior in archaic garb claims to have answers! 
9. A ghostly procession of odd warriors is taking the roadways into a panic & now a royal princess has come to call on the PCs asking for their help but is there more to her then meets the eye? Her royal guards are odd & strangely stiff?! 
10. Caravans of strangers have been seen on the roads & the local cemeteries have rashes of undead monsters rising from the grave. A stranger offers to help & seems connected with the caravan. He's offering cash & coil as well! 
11. A dangerous seer claims to know the location of an ancient dungeon & offers to share the treasure with you but there are rumors of demon slayers seeking someone like him. Are they connected?! 
12. 1d6 skeletons attack the party & they find a dangerous magic artifact on one of them that hasn't been seen in centuries?! Could this be connected with the abandoned wizard's tower that has only recently been repaired & is now occupied after all this time?! 
13. The devil's handmaiden a legendary assassin that has terrorized the family of one of the adventurers is back & wants to slaughter the party but is her lair in the dungeon more then what it seems?
14. Right in the middle of the road is the skeleton of a maiden with a brass nail driven straight into it?! Nearby a chest containing a treasure & it all points to the strange goings on at the lair of the local necromancer! 
15. A golden casket off to the side of the road gets the party into hot water with the local royals as a long dead prince comes to the party's aid. Now he wants them to help him find his 'ancestor's' ruined castle in the middle of the wilderness. 
16. The party is rounded up by a posse of the local court for questioning about their association with a notorious brigand lord! But his dungeon lair holds far more clues to his recent return to power including his possible return from the dead! 
17. Asking for your party by name a cleric of the local god of the dead needs your help to slay a monster whose been eating the local druids, bards, & poets at his school! But is the monster what he thinks it  is? And what about this talk of a treasure?
18. The poet that wanders the roads is a local legend but when a group of undead warriors wants to recruit the party to help them find him? Well things get interesting as they find a ruined manor house is the poet's lair! 
19. The ghost of an orc screams every night at three A.M. & someone watches every night from the shadows. A local priest wants the party to help him put this ghostly  demon spawn to rest but whose watching the party & why are the king's soldiers taking a sudden interest in the party?! 
20. On the side of the road a strange jester mocks the party & then through a series of tricks & traps offers them a job helping him recover a strange chest that supposedly contains his memories & a treasure. A weird half ruined temple contains half of the poor fool's life but an ancient enemy wants both you & the jester dead.Why?!

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