The Buchteln
And its Founding Spirit
Writing: Aehab
Original Concept: Sobermutt
Joretel
Spirit of Food, Chefs, and Merriment.
Appears as a plump, cheerful woman dressed in barmaid garb.
Joretel grew envious of dedicated Izkuthii, longing for her own followers to spread mirth in her wake. She sought out skilled chefs and bakers, those she deemed worthy to carry out her will, and bestowed her teachings upon them.
Veist, Spirit of Tricks, Thieves, and Illusions observed the unfortunate events from afar, and saw opportunity. He opted to prey upon her desperation, offering his assistance in the matter.
The two collaborated, creating the craft of the Feastmasters.
Unbeknownst to the content and comfortable Joretel, Veist continued to work. He twisted the spirit’s vision to his own benefit, cursing unfortunate descendants to harvest dark energies for later mischievous use, these cursed descendants would come to be lightheartedly referred to as Susteknights.
The Feastmasters spread joy and good food, accepting the Susteknights as their brothers in arms, the two groups banding together as the Buchteln.
(Paizo, Pathfinder Art)
Feastmasters
Masters of the Feast
(https://michalivan.deviantart.com/art/goulash-297261578)
Skilled chefs chosen by Joretel as her culinary champions, Feastmasters promote prosperity by cooking divine-tasting dishes for the masses, as well as for themselves.
Imbuing
These delicious foods, referred to as “Ambrosia”, are imbued with the tricksy magic of Veist, invoking strong emotional effects on those who eat them. While these effects are typically positive, it isn’t unheard-of for an ambrosial dish to invoke negative feelings within the person who ate it. Luckily for the consumer, the effects of negative emotions are far less potent than the positive ones (Examples: Sadness, Anger, Disgust)
The process of imbuing food is practically automatic. The Feastmaster must focus solely on the creation of their ambrosia, whilst attempting to invoke the emotions they wish to imbue within themselves.
A Feastmaster who is or becomes angsty and depressed for long periods of time loses touch with Joretel’s gift. Feastmasters are meant to be the life of the party, after all.
Becoming a Feastmaster
To become a Feastmaster, a specific, special broth must be brewed, the chefs hissing quiet prayers to Joretel in Old Blah. Should the prospective chef drink the broth, they would lose consciousness, briefly communing with Joretel. From there, the spirit bestows her blessing upon them.
Redlines
-Ambrosial food only retains its magical properties while it’s fresh
-Ambrosial food does not harm dark beings, it doesn’t help them either. That is, unless they’re draughted, living, or capable of taste, in which case they react to it like anyone else.
-While the exact emotional effects of Ambrosial food are not listed, Love or affection are strictly prohibited.
-Ambrosial food cannot be used to control the actions of a person in any way. They may, however, influence their mood or general disposition. For example: Courage Ambrosia would strongly influence a person’s mood, temporarily making them the type to “Laugh in the face of danger”, if they weren’t already. Meanwhile, Anger Ambrosia would have a much weaker effect, maybe making the consumer slightly more irritable than usual.
-The Feastmaster is unable to become a Susteknight, and vice versa.
-A Feastmaster may practice other magics, excluding those of another deific figure.
Susteknights
Knights of the Buchteln
Those tricked by Veist into accepting a curse, Susteknights live in a delusion where corrupted beings and places appear to be made of various foods; They’ve been led to believe that this tragic illusion is reality, that they were blinded to it before.
(Overlord 2 Concept Art)
A particularly angry wood elven Susteknight
To a Susteknight, this “food” rivals the ambrosial delicacies of the Feastmaster, and while it might normally sicken or injure someone to consume these vile substances, the Susteknight seem to be unaffected. That’s not to say that they are immune to the effects of these substances, or the dark magics attached to them-- On the contrary, Susteknights may be drained by a necromancer, or shredded to pieces by a shade--, but their mouths and gutty works are, at the very least, incredibly resistant.
Once the corrupted substance reaches their stomach, it is spirited away and replaced by some heavy food worth actual sustenance.
The Susteknight’s teeth act similarly to gold towards spectral creatures, in the sense that they would be able to bite off chunks of them if given the chance, but that is where the similarities end. It does not instantly kill them, nor does it cause them great pain.
Mimicking
When the Susteknight consumes a sufficient amount of a dark being (Roughly an arm or a leg’s worth), an easily audible gurgling emits from their stomach. For the short time that this sound and feeling persists, if the Susteknight desires, they may summon forth a crude illusory imitation of the consumed being’s related magic, oftentimes to the detriment to both themselves and their opponent.
Like all illusion, Mimicking tricks the minds of those affected. Regardless of if they’re certain it’s real or not, their brain, and especially their body, will react reflexively to the stimuli.
Becoming a Susteknight
To become a Susteknight, the inducting knight must assist a Feastmaster in the sacred, ritualistic baking of a mythical cupcake. They must bring their own hand-made flour for the batter-- their intent to unknowingly spread the curse spurring it on to transmit into the flour-- and then watch over the sacred sweet as it bakes.
The prospective Susteknight consumes the cupcake while it’s still fresh. Over the course of the next six to eight hours, any dark beings they witness would seem to shimmer and glitch, before seeming to transform into food.
[In OOC terms, a Susteknight with a TA collaborates with a Feastmaster to make a magic cupcake, then the student eats said cupcake and becomes just as delusional as their master. ]
Redlines
-Doesn’t make your teeth or jaws stronger. Trying to bite into, say, a paleknight, will only bring injury to the biter.
-Due to the nature of the Susteknight’s “blessing”, they are completely unaware of the presence of Veist’s illusions in their life.
-Susteknights are able to learn most other magics, aside from deific magics, and dark magics that fully corrupt or alter their being. The act would either break their mind beyond repair or cause them to literally eat themselves to death. This only results in a PK if they willingly let this occur.
-If a dark being’s true form is disguised or otherwise obscured, it will appear as it truly does. That means draughted spooks, husked wraiths/wights, or disguised frost witches would appear normally.
-A continuation of the line above, armor and clothing appears as it truly does, unless the armor is also corrupted/tainted. For example, a Darkstalker may look like skeleton-shaped breadsticks, but the Susteknight wouldn’t know that if they were fully covered by armor.
-Unless the dark mage's form is visibly corrupted (A Daeva in their Daeva form, or a necromancer that is also a lich), they will retain their normal look in the eyes of the Susteknight.
-A Susteknight is unable to become a Feastmaster, and vice versa
Disconnection
While the devotees of the Buchteln prefer to speak about their internal issues over a feast and ale, sometimes cutting off a particularly troublesome member of their flock is unavoidable. The ritual of disconnection is one that may be learned by both Susteknights and Feastmasters, but is closely guarded and scarcely spoken about due to its dire implications. Bringing it up is a surefire way to kill a Buchteln-hosted party.
The disconnecting person(s) must prepare and bake a gingerbread person resembling the victim-- It mustn’t be perfect, but a person must be able to reasonably see the resemblance-- whilst thinking upon their grievances. This imbues the humanoid cookie with the baker’s intent. They must then feed it to the victim with a side of wine.
Those who evade capture and disconnection by the Buchteln are solemnly referred to as “The Ginger Marked”.