Main / Nebelun

Nebelun - Gnomish - Priests - Gods

Nebelun is a restless, wandering god, one who has grandiose schemes which never seem to work. He is a technologist of sorts; he loves to build complex machines and apparatus and tinker with them. They don't often work as intended, but they are rarely wholly useless. He is also something of a thief/trickster, as shown by his unusual symbol, which hails from the time he stole the tail of Semuanya the Lizard Man god, skinned it, and built the first gnomish blimp by sewing it up and inflating it with hot air using a massive bellows contraption.

Role-playing Notes:

Nebelun will very rarely send an avatar into the Prime Material unless he needs some special resource for his own experiments. His priests are expected to develop their own ingenuity, but rarely he will send help in the form of sudden inspirations ('Nebelun's head is roughly equivalent to "Eureka!") and sometimes omens such as rearranged items in a toolbox, leaving a trail of tools leading to some item which can give the symbolic solution to a thwarting practical puzzle, or some equally indirect clue to solving a pressing problem.

Gods Information

Alignment: CG
Worshiper's Alignment: CG (Any Non-Evil, Non-Lawful gnomes)
Area of Control: Inventions and Good Luck
Symbol: bellows and lizard's tail

Avatar Information

Nebelun's avatar appears as an old but spry, white-haired gnome wearing a black frock-coat and top hat, with glasses, and carrying a black leather bag filled with strange and bizarre tools and items (but his magical hat allows him to vary this). (Wizard 14, Thief 9)

Str 15 Dex 18 Con 15
Int 19 Wis 14 Cha 14
MV 12 SZ 5'6" MR 40%
AC 1 HD 12 HP 96
#AT 1 THAC0 9 Dmg 1d4+3 (mace)

Special Att/Def: Nebelun's avatar can blink at will (choosing the direction), and may re-roll a saving throw, once per throw, ld6 times per day. His mace +3 will stun anyone struck for ld4 rounds (save versus spells to negate), and it also doubles as a wand of wonder. He wears a top hat of disguise.

Worshipers Requirements

Requirements: Int 13
Alignment: CG
Turning: Nil
Armor: Any except for plate
Weapons: Must be crafted with crafting involvement by the priest

Spheres
Major: all, creation, divination, thought, time
Minor: chaos, charm, guardian, healing, protection

Powers:
1st - can re-roll any one d20 roll each day 5th - free action 9th - may use wizard spells from the Alteration school (up to 3rd level) as if priest spells of same level

Duties of the Priesthood

Nebelun's priests are inveterate tinkerers and experimentalists. They are forever trying to devise newer and more complicated ways of doing things. Their temples are complex workshops, and they must amass treasure and rare items for "research", so adventuring is important. They may not use "simple" weapons (clubs, quarterstaffs) and must have had at least some role in making the weapons they employ.
Level Limit: 13
Hit Die: d3+1
Shamans: No


Nebelun's Heroic Career

Nebelun is a mortal gnome who has become a deity through divine ascension and actually progressed to the status of Lesser God, and his own efforts have taken him there. This is a great source of inspiration to any gnome who ever picked up a tool or wondered whether some practical task could be accomplished with more style or panache, if not necessarily more simply...

Nebelun has other qualities as well as his inventiveness: he is fearless to the point of insanity. Few other creatures would just stroll in and steal Semuanya's tail as the lizard god splashed in his favourite pool, and to inflate the thing and fly about in a tiny wickerwork basket haphazardly strapped underneath it is further testimony to Nebelun's admirable spirit. What's more, the blimp didn't crash (although it did explode shortly after landing).

Not that Nebelun's schemes quite work out as planned, but they usually have highly fortunate side-effects. On one famous occasion, Nebelun spent years designing a system of dams on a great Underdark river, hoping to create a reservoir which would provide a stable water-flow for forges, workshops and for less important needs such as drinking. The design was ever so slightly wrong, and the largest dam collapsed, flooding a cavern complex. This fortuitously deluged a large kobold army about to attack the unsuspecting gnome communities, who were forced to retreat, and mercifully Gaerdal lronfist was on hand to divert the waters away from the gnome burrows with walls of stone and iron.

One could add tales of a more traditional trickster type to this-how Skoraeus Stonebones found the carved rocks he used for rock-throwing contests replaced by a row of metal spheres which made a variety of rude noises when picked up is an old favorite. But most of them have certain things in common. These various tales are often confused so far as timing is concerned. Sometimes, Nebelun is a mortal hero when he performs these admirable actions; sometimes he is already a demigod able to travel the planes. This distinction doesn't truly matter to the spinner of the yarn; after all, Nebelun is a deity now, and gnomish deities are close to their people (there is no hubris in this). Also, practical details don't matter too much (just how Nebelun managed to escape with something the size of Semuanya's tail without the lizard god noticing is rarely explained). But what's truly important is that the tales are fun. Imagine those poor wet bedraggled kobolds sniffling and wiping their noses all the way back home! Just imagine the look on Semuanya's face! Also, as a hero Nebelun is not a warrior, not mighty, and not typified by strength. Curiosity, humor, a sense of fun, and playful tinkering characterize his actions.