Pyrotechnics MVP - Nightwick Abbey - Session 37

Previously, in Nightwick Abbey...

Session 37 - 10th of November 1391

This week's adventurers:

Sotar (Cleric 4)

Blossom (Rogue 3)

Mayfly (Magic User 3)

Anston (Fighter 1)

Liminal Space (Changeling 2)

Cherwe (Cleric 3)

Mechtild (Fighter 1)

Maelwyn (Cleric 1)

Yevegniy the Coward (Cleric 1)

Hirelings:

Ticze (Changeling 1)

Downtime In the Village

We didn't meet last week, but now we're back and ready to return to level 3 of the dungeon. Mayfly spends his downtime studying the book that he previously recovered from the abbey. It's in Crowleyan, a language no one in the party speaks, but he's able to decipher the magical parts of the text enough to determine that it's discussing the cardinal directions and the breaking of seals. We suspect that this is talking about the glowing runes we've discovered previously on level 3. Sotar finishes scribing a Bless scroll and begins work on a Hold Person scroll. (The level 2 clerical spells represent a big boost in power, but Sotar's limited to 1/day. My strategy now is to make several spells to beef up our arsenal for big fights.)

World Building Through Class Constraint

I went to a small Halloween party with some friends last week - among the costumes were a monk, a witch, a vampire, and a gorilla. It got me thinking about those 4 as core classes in an RPG setting - an alternative to the classic fighter, magic-user, cleric (and rogue/thief). 

What would that class selection say from a world building perspective? There's a religious order, but they're not the armor and mace type. There's also magic, but how are witches differentiated from magic-users? Are they a women only group, in contrast to a male only monkhood? Is it magical movement based in the countryside, as opposed to a city-based magic school? Is it focused on an oral spellcasting tradition rather than spellbooks and study? Gorillas - I guess they're sentient. Do these gorillas wear armor and have their own civilization or are they unarmored, beefy brawlers, barely one step above their wild cousins? Is the setting near a tropical jungle - a gorilla's natural habitat? What role do vampires play into this group? Are they the sneaky rogue type, blending into shadows? Are they spellcaster-fighter hybrids? I like this group - it's evocative; it says something about the world when these are your only options to be an adventurer.