Evil Druids & Dark Druids

Classical authors on druids. Strabo:”Thus, if a man had been consecrated to the gods, he would be struck in the back with a broad sword, and future was foretold from the victim’s death spasms. Victims were never sacrificed without the assistance of druids. As such, sometimes they did shoot victims to death with arrows, or crucified them in their temples, or even built a colossus of wood and wicker, put animals and humans inside and burned the whole.”

Diodorus: “They use their prisoners of war as victims to honor their gods. Some of them even do the same of the animals they captured during war. They kill them with the humans, or burn them, or make them die from other tortures.”

The Quintessential druid
Author Robin O. Duke
Series The Quintessential Series
Publisher Mongoose Publishing
Publish date 2002

As suggested in the druidic Sacrifices paragraph, Druidism is certainly not an evil religion. Some druids may be of neutral-evil alignment, but they won’t perform human sacrifices. On the other hand, in some remote regions or in lands where Celts mingled with other populations, can be found a degenerated druidic cult of evil practices. These are the “Dark druids“. In fact they shouldn’t be considered true druids; their faith is based on druidism, but they worship dark gods and abide by hideous practices which have nothing to do with true Druidism. Lets see the difference between evil (but true) druids, and dark druids:

– Evil druids: Since druids may be of any neutral alignment, some of them are neutral-evil. Nonetheless, such druids must remain true to druidism (including “Righteousness of Truth”), or will loose their druidic abilities and powers. This means that an evil druid performs much like any other druid (thus no human sacrifice or worship of dark entities). The difference is that an evil druid will use his power and authority for his own gain, where druids should normally serve their community. An evil druid could thus be merciless and oblivious of others’ lives, yet will not stray from his druidic obligations.

– Dark druids: This evil cult is but a degenerated parody of druidism. As such, dark druids are not only evil, but also worship demonic entities and perform human sacrifices on an almost regular basis. The dark druids cult outwardly appears similar to druidism, but wields important differences:

• – Dark druids do not honor the Celtic gods, but rather worship evil deities such as Crom Cruach or Balor of the fomorians. These deities are not evil Celtic gods, but demons opposed to them.
• – Dark druids have replaced “Righteousness of Truth” by “Righteousness of Might”. That is: the strongest can do everything he wants provided he has the power to impose it, which is supposedly a reflection of the ways of nature, and thus seen as right by the dark druids. As such, they will often have savage animals (such as winter wolves) and evil sentient plants at their command, with which threaten their slaves and combat their enemies.
• – Dark druids do not serve their communities. They are parasites who live off the populace through the use of fear and superstition. They support the warrior caste only so in turn it sides with them.
• – Dark druids are easily recognized from true druids. Instead of wearing white, blue, or green robes, and shaving the front half of their head like true druids, dark druids harbor savage garbs. They typically wear brown robes made of animal skins, and wear caps ornate with horns or animal skulls. Their hair and beard are totally unkempt, and in fact dark druids usually stink from lack of hygiene as well as rotten flesh and dried blood. A dark druid is thus almost impossible to mistake with a true druid.
• – Dark druids do not conduct their ceremonies in sacred groves and other natural places like true druids. Instead, they built large and sinister temples above and under ground. These are typically filled with corridors and traps, haunted by evil spirits, and normally have a gate to The Otherworld through which their dark gods may manifest themselves (especially Crom Cruach).
• – Dark druids have replaced sacrifices of gold and jewelry by bloody human sacrifices. As such, they can please their dark masters without losing their wealth (and any so-called sacrifice of wealth goes to their pockets).

-Character classes: dark druids may be of the druid or cleric classes (in the latter case worshipping either Balor or Crom Cruach). Note that they get the Intimidate skill instead of Diplomacy, and have a few special feats of their own (such as undead Shape and Lycanthropic Shape).

THE SKULL-SWORDS

Stats for Skull-Swords in the Slaine d20 game:

Originally Posted by S’mon of the En World forums.

On this Thread

Skull Swords are primarily thugs and enforcers for the Drunes (the dark druids). Their abilities are oriented towards policing – Intimidate,
Spot and Listen. Much less fearless than the warriors of the Northern tribes, their feats are primarily defensive in nature, though the best Skull-Swords are still fearsome swordsmen. Stats are default array.

Skull Sword Regular soldier.

This is a typical low-grade Skull-Sword of the sort who form the bulk of the Drune standing armies, garrisons, and guards to low-ranking Drunes. Because they rarely come into contact with the Sloughs they rarely wear breath-masks.

Male human Noble Warrior 1: CR 1; Size M (5 ft., 6 in. tall); HD 1d10+2; hp 12; Init +1 (+1 Dexterity); Spd 30 ft.; AC 18 (+1 Dexterity, +1 helmet, +1 furs, +4 large shield/Door of Battle, +1 Dodge); Attack +3 melee, or +2 ranged; SV Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +1
Strength 15, Dexterity 13, Constitution 14, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 12, Charisma 8.
Skill points: 12
Skills and feats: Climb +4, Intimidate +3, Listen +3 (+1), Spot +5, Door of Battle, Dodge, Weapon Focus (long sword).
Equipment: Helmet, Large wooden shield, fur cloak, iron long sword ATT
+4 dam 1d8+2 crit 19-20/x2, bends on dmg 8+.

Skull Sword elite soldier.

This is an elite Skull-Sword who might be the leader of a squad of regular Skull-Sword troops, bodyguard to a Drune, or part of a Slough’s personal retinue.

Male human Noble Warrior 4: CR 4; Size M (5 ft., 6 in. tall); HD 4d10+8;
hp 35; Init +1 (+1 Dexterity); Spd 30 ft.; AC 18 (+1 Dexterity, +1 helmet, +1 furs, +4 large shield/Door of Battle, +1 Improved Dodge); Attack +7 melee, or +5 ranged; SV Fort +6, Ref +4, Will +2
Strength 16, Dexterity 13, Constitution 14, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 12, Charisma 8.
Skill points: 21
Skills and feats: Climb +6, Intimidate +6, Listen +5 (+3), Spot +8
Weapon Specialisation (long sword), Door of Battle, Dodge, Improved Dodge, lightning reflexes, Weapon Focus (long sword).
Equipment: Skull-Sword mask (sv +8 vs scent attacks), Helmet, Large wooden shield, fur cloak, masterwork iron long sword ATT +8 dam 1d8+5 crit 19-20/x2.

Skull Sword officer.

This is a Skull-Sword commander who might be the leader of a company of regular Skull-Sword troops, or command the elite guards of a Slough’s personal retinue.

Male human Noble Warrior
7: CR 7; Size M (5 ft., 6 in. tall); HD 7d10+14; hp 58; Init +1 (+1 Dexterity);
Spd 30 ft.; AC 18 (+1 Dexterity, +1 helmet, +1 furs, +4 large shield/Door of Battle, +1 Improved Dodge);
Attack +10 melee, or +8 ranged; SV Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +3
Strength 16, Dexterity 13, Constitution 14, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 12, Charisma 8.
Skill points: 30
Skills and feats: Climb +7, Intimidate +9 (+10), Listen +7 (+5), Spot +11
Weapon Specialisation (long sword), Door of Battle, Dodge, Improved Dodge, lightning reflexes, Weapon Focus (long sword), Power Attack, Cleave.
Equipment: Skull-Sword mask (sv +8 vs scent attacks), masterwork Helmet, Large wooden shield, fur cloak, masterwork iron long sword ATT +11/+6 dam 1d8+5 crit 19-20/x2.