AD&D Faction: The Dhuvians

"It was fear, the ancient evil thing that crept among the grasses in the beginning, apart from life but watching it with eyes of cold wisdom, laughing its silent laughter, giving nothing but the bitter death.

It was the Serpent."

Leigh Brackett, The Sword of Rhiannon.

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In this post I outline a mid-level faction for AD&D 1e Braunsteins. This is my answer to the challenge raised at BDubs and Dragons. I will follow the guidelines detailed in that post and will attempt to structure my entry like the ones in BROZER.

To start with, here is a short blurb of the faction that is supposed to be visible to all players.

The Dhuvians: Lawful Evil. Pale, scaleless snake men that thrive in the dark. They lack strength, but possess esoteric knowledge. They leverage this knowledge to support their allies and fight their foes.

And now the full details, visible only to the Dhuvian player.

Description: The Dhuvians, also called Snake Men or Children of the Serpent, are an ancient Demihuman race that has evolved to thrive in darkness using cunning and subterfuge. They worship the fallen demigod Rhiannon, who still sometimes whispers to them. From him they know how to use a few items of ancient power. They are aloof and calculating, always waiting for the next chance to permanently alter the game board in their favor. They will make allies of convenience but their ultimate goal is to dominate all intelligent life and rule every human and nonhuman kingdom.

Leader: Lord Hishah, Cleric 5. Evil cleric: will generally use the reversed version of spells. Ability scores: Str 11, Int 15, Wis 13, Dex 14, Con 16, Cha 13. Spells: 3 3 1.

Magic Items:
Pipes of the Sewers
Figurine of Wondrous Power: Marble Elephant (Mastodon)
Scroll of Protection vs. Undead
Sword +2, Dragon Slayer (F)
Potion, Dragon Control
Scimitar +2
Shield +1

Hishah is presently the mediator between the Dhuvian people and their god Rhiannon. He is a cunning diplomat, and will visit potential allies with his entourage to demonstrate the power of Rhiannon's scientific magic. He will try use his magic items to intimidate enemies and force potential allies to cooperate with his goals. Like most children of the Serpent, he hates other forms of intelligent life, especially those that thrive under the sun, which is most of them. His relationship with Rhiannon is a tense one, as the demigod was banished and entombed for as long as the Dhuvian race exists by his godly companions. Still, he provides Hishah with spells and power words for his items, at least for now. Hishah is always on the lookout for powerful magical items to add to the stash at his city of Caer Dhu. He will use the ones that hurt his enemies with much glee.

Officers, Troops: Caer Dhu's army is rather thin. Mostly Hishah thinks of the army as a vehicle for using magic swords, and as protection for himself while on diplomatic mission. There is one Lv. 2 lieutenant and two troops of 10 light foot with helmet, leather armor and small wooden shield (AC 7) wielding spears, plus two serjeants. The lieutenant wields the dragon-slaying sword and one of the serjeants the scimitar +2. The player should decide who has the shield +1, possibly including Hishah.

Dhuvian stat block:

NO. APPEARING: 20-200
ARMOR CLASS: 10 (no armor) or 7 (leather and shield)
MOVE: 12”
HIT DICE: 1
ALIGNMENT: lawful evil

Treat as Half-Elves for Class/Level restrictions, Age, Height/Weight, and any other relevant characteristics.

Location: Caer Dhu is the only city of the Dhuvians. It is a walled city with a gatehouse and stone buildings inside it forming a twisted and sinister appearance with no open space. It sits in a marshy/swamp area which further repels intruders. About 180 snake men live in the city. AD&D specifics for the city: 12 stone buildings, 600' of wall, gatehouse, 4 towers (10' square).

Goals: Hishah wants to subdue and rule over all intelligent life... or if not him, his vassals. In short, he wants total Dhuvian supremacy. But he recognizes that his power is not advanced enough yet, so some small steps will be needed first. He will be pleased if he manages to 1) completely subjugate an enemy and install a Dhuvian ruler upon them, 2) gain a powerful ally and get them to defend Caer Dhu from some threat, or 3) directly cause two third parties to fight each other and not him. He will additionally seek 4) the acquisition and use of a substantial magical item, like a misc. item with a power word or a powerful rod/wand/staff together with the requisite Magic-User to operate it.

Appendix N Notes: This faction is lifted from "The Sword of Rhiannon" by Leigh Brackett. This book actually has quite a lot of factions, and these factions drive the story, together with the intervention of the protagonist. A highly recommended read for adventure enthusiasts, and for more ideas on how to play the Dhuvian faction. Note that I adjusted some things like Rhiannon's character to make it fit the game better. I also didn't include any of the powerful items from the book since I wanted to use BDubs' system for magic items.

This concludes my faction. As you might have noticed, I leaned heavily on the magic item generation as described by BDubs, in line with the original Dhuvians' modus operandi. I didn't get anything crazy but there are several items that could be creatively leveraged into an advantage in your next Braunstein. Enjoy!