Statues and monuments as sources of Sanctity for clerics

[b-dog]

With all the statues and monuments in the news, it go me thinking about statues and monuments in a Dungeon Fantasy game. Statues in dungeons seem to be found in temple areas or also in areas of high magic. So I was thinking that maybe the temples cultists make the statues to raise sanctity to their demon lord. If so then maybe as the statues get toppled or destroyed. So how would you do something like this to make it so that I’ll order to rid the temple of sanctity you need to destroy the statues, monuments, altars and other holy items instead of the regular cleansing ritual (although the destroyed temple artifacts might also need to be cleansed after destroying them)

[tbone]

It's a perfectly good idea for a dungeon game. The statues essentially become "checkpoint" goals found in many adventures or video games, but presumably they could be found and attacked in any order, for non-linear, exploration-based play.

I'd also suggest making each statue encounter unique: each in a different sort of location, guarded by different defenders or traps. Statue ideas:

• Small statue that's easily destroyed but very well guarded
• Cleverly hidden statue
• Obvious but very inaccessible statue
• Massive statue (need to call in those rules for shifting/moving things, and Forced Entry skill)
• Super massive statue (need some other clever idea for destroying it, or use time-consuming cleansing)
• Statue carried about by defenders
• Statue running around on its own

And so on. Also: Make good use of that idea of the statues powering a demon lord. That is, make the demon lord an unbeatable boss - but each statue destroyed weakens his powers. The more statues the PCs can destroy, the better their chance of defeating him. But the boss won't be idly doing nothing while the PCs go about this business . . .

[Rasputin]

I'd argue that statues would be like any other GM Special in an OSR game, which means, yeah, they can be sources of Sanctity, whether Good or Evil, though traditionally this role goes to altars. I wouldn't have this be the only role for either statues or altars, of course, as that's just too predictable.

[Dalin]

Originally Posted by tbone

Statue ideas:

• Small statue that's easily destroyed but very well guarded
• Cleverly hidden statue
• Obvious but very inaccessible statue
• Massive statue (need to call in those rules for shifting/moving things, and Forced Entry skill)
• Super massive statue (need some other clever idea for destroying it, or use time-consuming cleansing)
• Statue carried about by defenders
• Statue running around on its own

Love this list. I want to make a destroy-the-statues adventure now. Some other ideas:

• Protected by a magical force field or elemental effect (e.g., a shroud of flames)
• Made of something unusual (like smoke or water)
• Hidden inside something very valuable.
• Illusionary statue (to make them think they've gotten them all, but not!)
• Statues that teleports around, making it very hard to get close to. (Perhaps there is a puzzle to be solved here.)
• Statue that is also a pillar holding up the ceiling or important balcony or whatever.
• Hollow statue filled with something nasty (e.g., mold, ooze, jelly, spore cloud, swarm of something, poisonous gas, etc.)
• Regenerating statue

Ahh... this could be a lot of fun.

[Dammann]

• A statue made of sodium, surrounded by a curtain of flowing water which must be removed from its plinth

[Black Leviathan]

The statues that would have an instant impact on sanctity would be oppressively huge and very prominent. Like the constant reminders of the God's might in the eyeline of everyone in town. Seeing them pulled down would have an immediate impact on Sanctity. A demonic statue in an abandoned underground temple is just decor. The Sanctity there comes from the saturation of centuries of making connection with with a god that permanently affected that place.

In the grand scheme of things pulling down a 20-foot tall demon statue on the alter of an evil temple that hasn't been used in 200 years would have the same impact on sanctity as tipping over the grave marker of the priest who led worship there all that time ago.

Speaking of statues and graves. Graveyards would probably have a lot of sanctity hat could be affected. People invest a lot of faith there. It's despicable but destroying or defacing a graveyard would have a serious impact on the sanctity of an area.

[Dalin]

Originally Posted by Black Leviathan

A demonic statue in an abandoned underground temple is just decor. The Sanctity there comes from the saturation of centuries of making connection with with a god that permanently affected that place.

The great thing about demonic statues in lost temples is that you can do whatever you want with them. I don't think most players would have suspension-of-disbelief issues if a particular demonic statue turns out to be a conduit of unholy sanctity. There's plenty of genre examples of that sort of thing.

Graveyards would probably have a lot of sanctity that could be affected. People invest a lot of faith there. It's despicable but destroying or defacing a graveyard would have a serious impact on the sanctity of an area.

That's an interesting idea. Yet another reason people might despise ghouls and necromancers.