Thoughts that I don't want to expand on just yet

Minotaurs can eat grass, but they don't like to. As a culture, they're very concerned with being perceived as people rather than animals, because of their physical resemblance to animals. Given the way other "sub-people" are enslaved, it's a reasonable fear. Thus, they tend to avoid any behavior that makes them seem animalistic, playing up their contributions to refined arts and culture instead. To antagonize a minotaur, give them hay to eat, or make them touch the ground with their hands and feet, or make cow jokes.

Institutional sexism is not absent from the world of Age of Sail, but it takes different forms with different racial cultures. For instance, dragonborn females are actually physically larger, more powerful, and more aggressive on average than dragonborn males. However, they do not hold much social privilege, as the males characterize them as overly emotional brutes who are incapable of making levelheaded decisions. Dwarf men record their adult deeds in their beards through a code of braids and ribbons; as dwarf women do not have a distinct form of visible hair that begins growing on the threshold to adulthood, some dwarves consider them to never truly grow up. Halfling men and women each have their own body of lore which is taboo to share with the opposite sex. Goliath women of strong lineage are obligate xenophiles, and many who do not know better think them a race of women as the men rarely leave the villages where they were born. Eladrin have considerably longer lifespans than most other races, and can suspend a career for a decade or two to raise a child before returning to their callings.

As a general rule, for races that have human-like lifespans and pregnancies, families are expected to be large and a married woman is expected to bear and raise children, but this does not exclude them from the burgeoning number of professions that do not require constant hard physical labor. As a simple practical matter, it has already been proven repeatedly that societies which fail to tap the potential of both men and women get run over roughshod by societies with war witches.

Class Hackdown: Ritualist

The Ritualists are the celebrated scholar-mystics of the Han empire. Their rites bring rain to crops, fill sails with wind, stave off floods and wildfires, and are generally essential to the well-ordered turning of the seasons as they have been since time immemorial. In wartime, they are generally relegated to the back lines where their powerful chants may be performed uninterrupted, but if necessary they are capable of defending themselves with thunder and lightning from the heavens.

Role: Controller

Primary stats: Charisma, Constitution, Intelligence

Class weapons: One handed melee, one handed ranged
Class armor: Light

HP: 4
Surges: 6 + Con
Defenses: +2 Will

Class perks:

• You have the ability to cast rituals, and know the rituals Predict Weather, Change Wind, and Call Rain.
• You carry a ritual altar, which you may put down to increase the strength of your powers.

Class powers:

Ritual Altar

Ritualist Feature

You set up an altar table, increasing the efficacy of your rituals at the cost of mobility.

Encounter * Arcane
Move Action                 Personal

Effect: Add your Constitution modifier to attack rolls with Ritualist powers until the beginning of your next turn.

Sustain Move: Renew this effect until the beginning of your next turn.

Special: This effect ends immediately if you move from the square where you first used this power for any reason. However, if an effect would force you to move, you may make a saving throw to reduce the distance you are moved by 1. If this causes you not to leave the square you are in, then this effect does not end.

Forceful Gust

Ritualist Attack 1

With a snap of your ritual fan, you send out a powerful gust of wind that shoves enemies backward.

At-Will * Arcane, Force, Implement
Standard Action                 Close blast 3

Target: Each creature in blast
Attack: Charisma vs. Fortitude

Hit: 1 force damage, and you push the target a number of squares equal to your Intelligence modifier.

Lightning Rod

Ritualist Attack 1

Your gesture draws down lightning from a clear sky.   A second strike may follow.

At-Will * Arcane, Lightning, Implement
Standard Action                 Ranged 10

Target: One creature
Attack: Charisma vs. Reflex

Hit: 1 lightning damage. If the target does not move a number of squares equal to your Intelligence modifier on its next turn, it takes an additional 1 lightning damage.

Jolting Chain

Ritualist Attack 1

An arc of lightning leaps from your hands, twisting to strike again and again.

Encounter * Arcane, Lightning, Implement
Standard Action                 Ranged 10

Target: One, two, or three creatures
Attack: Charisma vs. Reflex, three attacks

Hit: 1 damage, and the target is dazed until the end of your next turn.

Dazed creatures:
- Grant combat advantage.
- Can only take one action on their turn.
- Cannot take opportunity actions.
- Cannot flank.

Chilling Fog

Ritualist Attack 1

A twirl of your fan gathers a cloud of icy fog that chills foes to the bone while hiding your allies' movements.

Daily * Arcane, Cold, Implement
Standard Action                 Area burst 2 within 10 squares

Target: Each enemy in burst
Attack: Charisma vs. Fortitude

Hit: 1 cold damage

Effect: The fog bank lasts for a number of turns equal to your Intelligence modifier. Enemies that start their turn inside the fog bank or enter the fog bank are subject to another attack. Your allies gain concealment while inside the fog bank.

Concealment:
- Imposes a -2 penalty to melee and ranged attacks (but not area attacks) against the concealed creature.

Table: Circumstances of chance meetings

1. Shared a room at an overbooked inn
2. Shared a table at a full restaurant
3. Shared a cabin on a sea voyage
4. Helped to look for an address in a strange city
5. Tried to buy the same obscure item in a curio shop
6. Shared a holding cell after a misunderstanding with the law
7. Deeply admired the same work of art
8. Rode together in a caravan
9. Were the two finalists in a local contest
10. Unexpected allies in a bar brawl
11. Saved a drowning man together
12. Got drunk together and were briefly best friends
13. Adjoining hospital beds
14. Romantic rivalry over a jerk
15. Worked same job for a day
16. Camped out together
17. Attended same terrible performance; thrown out together for commiserating loudly
18. Borrowed a small sum at a crucial moment, promised to pay it back someday
19. Spent night in same barn
20. Woke up in bed together, no memory of how you got there

A short note on merfolk

Yes, there are merfolk. No, you don't want anything to do with them. They're like dolphins. And dolphins are assholes.

Monsters from The Forge

So, in news that many people already know, The Forge is great. It makes up names, and then your brain makes up things to go with the names.

Hate Puller Starfish

Fluff: Many starfish can reproduce asexually when broken or torn into multiple fragments. The Hate Puller Starfish has evolved a unique mechanism for inducing this trauma: it senses nearby large animals and sends out a wave of mental compulsion that induces in these animals a desire to tear them to pieces. Hate Puller Starfish are commonly found in tidal pools, cave ponds, and other shallow waters.

Crunch: A Hate Puller Starfish is not a threat in and of itself, but can make other situations more complex. When a creature approaches within 1 square of the Hate Puller Starfish, the starfish sends out its compulsion pulse: close burst 1, level+2 vs Will, hit: target is marked by the starfish until end of next turn. As a standard action, a marked target may tear apart a single starfish, whereupon the mark ends, but as the starfish often live in colonies of several individuals this is not a good permanent solution.

Stalker Ghoul

Fluff: A fairly common nuisance to the people of Ravenia, a stalker ghoul is a dead man or woman whose frustrated romantic aspirations persist beyond the grave. Rather than laboring for the vampire lord who animated them, they pester the target of their non-mutual affections with whatever foul gestures they can muster while driving away romantic rivals. Fortunately, like most of the Ravenian undead, they are only active at night. However, as destroying an animated corpse is a serious crime in Ravenia with exceptions made only through special petition, they can be a nuisance for quite some time.

Crunch: As an ordinary zombie. Mostly harmless; violent if it perceives a threat to its loved one, whether physical or romantic.

Widow Root Rose - It is said that when a rosebush is cut down to the roots, the first flower produced as the bush regrows has special properties. Halflings in particular will trade generously for such flowers.

Crawl Creep Crab - A crab commonly seen on the Ispanan coastline, notable for the incredible slowness and power of its movements. Although it moves no more than an inch per minute, its powerful claws can crack open the shells of molluscs.

This is fun!

Wizard, what does the scouter say?

I've been thinking about reintroducing the sense of danger to a balanced game like 4E. Clearly, part of this involves creating challenges which are difficult to impossible to overcome in the most obvious fashion, and 4E gives me the tools to know when I'm doing this. But also, it is important for the players to have tools to realize when they are clearly outmatched before one of them gets eaten. This is especially tricky with humanoid foes, or with creatures that have nasty surprises.

Enter the knowledge skill. I want to preserve some of the sense of mystery that I feel a good adventure should have, so I don't want to dump all the information about a given foe on a successful roll. What I do want to do is give players a means to roughly gauge how threatening something might be. Therefore: the knowledge skill check to know something useful about a threat is DC 10 + threat level. On a successful check, I divulge a known-true fact about the threat, and the players now know an upper bound to the threat's level. On a failed check, I state a wild and terrifying rumor about the threat, and the players now know a lower bound to the threat's level.

But what about something that looks harmless but isn't? On a successful knowledge check, the players learn "some rabbits are known to be killer, and this is how you can tell" while on a failed knowledge check, the players learn only "some rabbits are rumored to be killer" - which is also what you learn on a successful knowledge check about regular rabbits.

In this way, I hope to lead players down a maze of various threats in such a way that they at least have an inkling where the walls are.

Class Hackdown: Unspoken

The Unspoken are the Yuan-Ti's unacknowledged cadre of spies, infiltrators, and assassins, drawn from the lowest castes of their highly regimented society. They are masters of disguise, feigning disfigurement, madness, or other embarrassing behaviors in order to turn away the haughty eyes of their superiors.

Role: Striker

Primary stats: Dexterity, Charisma, Intelligence

Class weapons: One handed melee, thrown, one handed ranged, dual wielding
Class armor: Light

HP: 5
Surges: 6 + Con
Defenses: +2 Ref

Class perks:

• Once per turn, when you have combat advantage, and hit with an attack that deals damage, you may deal 2 extra damage to one target of the attack.
• You have combat advantage against creatures that have not acted yet in a combat.
• You add your Charisma modifier to your AC against attacks of opportunity.

Class powers:

Armor Piercer

Unspoken Attack 1

Your weapon slithers past armor to bite into flesh.

At-Will * Ki, Weapon
Standard Action                 Melee or Ranged weapon

Target: One creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. Reflex

Hit: [W] damage

Withdrawal Strike

Unspoken Attack 1

Your lunge at the eyes gives you a chance to slip away.

At-Will * Ki, Weapon
Standard Action                 Melee weapon

Target: One creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC

Hit: [W] damage

Effect: If you move in the same turn after this attack, leaving the first square adjacent to your target does not provoke an attack of opportunity from your target.

Decoy

Unspoken Attack 1

The body your foe just struck down is revealed to be an illusion, while you maneuver for a lethal strike.

Encounter * Ki
Immediate Interrupt                 Personal
Trigger: You are hit by an enemy attack.

Effect: The triggering attack does not hit you. You teleport a number of squares equal to your Intelligence modifier. You have combat advantage against the creature that made the triggering attack until the end of your next turn.

Shadow Clone

Unspoken Attack 1

You animate your shadow to fight by your side.

Daily * Ki, Conjuration
Standard Action                 Ranged 5

Target:

Effect: You summon a shadow clone of yourself into any square within range. This clone immediately makes an attack against an adjacent enemy if there is one. The clone can be attacked; it uses your defenses and is destroyed if hit by a melee or ranged attack. When you take a move action, the clone moves your speed, and when you take a standard action, the clone can make an attack. The clone can flank with you or your allies.

Secondary Target: One creature adjacent to the shadow clone
Secondary Attack: Dexterity vs. AC

Hit: 1 damage

Sustain Minor: You can sustain the clone until the end of the encounter.