• Name: Sharess
• Status: Dead
• Portfolio: Hedonism, Lust, Excess, Sensual Fulfillment, Fasthalls, Cats, Pleasure, Nomads
• Titles: The Dancing Lady, The Festhall Madam, Mother of Cats, The Lustful Mistress, Feline of Felicity, Succubus of Sensation, The Tawny Temptress
• Symbols: Feminine lips; A cat’s head wearing hoop earings; A black cat
• Allied Faiths: Lolth, Sune, The Mog
• Enemy Faiths: Corellon Larethian, Cyric
• Pseudonyms: Bast (in Mulhorand), Bastet (in Unther), Felidae (in the Barbarian Kingdoms), Nobanion (historic), Zandilar the Dancer (among Elves)

Sharess, the goddess of sensual pleasures, was just one of many gods to be slain during the Day of Black Sun. According to the accounts of her priests, Sharess was visiting Lathander at the time that Cyric attacked, and the two deities died together, pinned by the Dark Sun’s blade mid-coitus. While this seems fitting for the Goddess of Lust, the worshipers of Lathander (and several other gods) were scandalized by even the idea.

Holding to the tale that their goddess died in the fulfillment of her duty to her portfolio, most worshipers of Sharess remain true to their goddess’s memory and continue to offer up their prayers in her name. A coalition of deities (Lolth, Sune, and The Mog) have stepped into the void left by her passing and continue to grant spells to her faithful, though all are taking efforts to encourage Sharess’s Clerics to change their allegiance.

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Clerics of Sharess

Base Requirements

• Races: Any
• Classes: Cleric
• Ability Requirements: Appearance 16, Intuition 12
• Alignments: Non-Lawful, Non-Evil
• Starting Cash: By class

Proficiencies

• Weapon Slots: By class
• Allowed Weapons: As Thief
• Allowed Armor: None
• Bonus Weapon Proficiencies: none
• Required Weapon Proficiencies: none

• Non-weapon Slots: By class
• Available Categories: Spiritual, Social, and Detection
• Bonus Proficiencies: Dancing, Enamor, Religion
• Required Proficiencies: none
• Recommended Proficiencies: Humanoid Grooming
• Forbidden Proficiencies: none

Priest Spheres:

• Major: see below
• Minor: see below

Overview: Sharess’s clerics specialize in seduction, spying, and celebrations. Even though Sune’s clerics seem to fulfill a similar role, the worshipers of Sharess have a bit of a darker nature, something they have received from their goddess. Consequently, clerics of Sharess can be nasty and violent when they need be.

Description: Sharess’s are extremely attractive priests and priestesses who favor outfits of lace or satin, usually in shades or patterns of white, black, or red. The females enjoy the lace costumes, while males favor the satin robes. A cloak of richest velvet, usually dyed crimson, completes the outfit of a cleric of Sharess. These cloaks are fur-lined in the winter. The holy symbol of Sharess, a pair of ruby red feminine lips, is normally worn on a light chain anklet by her worshipers. Sharess’s priests also wear her holy symbol on chain choker-necklaces.

Clerics of Sharess do not wear armor, and they prefer quiet weapons such as daggers, garrotes, or darts. Some of these devotees have few compunctions against using debilitating, nonlethal poisons.

Role-Playing: Clerics of Sharess are sexy, smug, dangerous, and completely ready to break all the boundaries and limits of social conventions, no matter what country or city they are in. Like their goddess, they favor excess in all things, be it pleasure, duty, or danger. If they can get some sort of satisfaction and fulfillment from it, so much the better. Clerics of Sharess enjoy hiring themselves out as spies, seducing secrets out of gullible victims.

Special Abilities:

• When dealing with NPCs, a Friendly result on the interaction table pries one secret from the victim. In order for a cleric of Sharess to do this, he must spend at least 30 minutes alone with the target in a comfortable environment. The cleric can make as many attempts per night, successful or not, as he has levels. This ability can be used against PCs as well. The PC, however, gets a saving throw vs. petrification to resist the effect (count only bonuses from a high Wisdom score for the saving throw). Instead of getting information, the priest can choose to use this ability to place a smitten target under a Charm Person effect that lasts for 12 hours.
• Clerics of Sharess can spend two hours preparing a party. The priest makes an ability check using Appearance. A success means that the party goes very well, and the cleric has a +3 reaction bonus when dealing with important NPC guests for the next 30 days.
• Clerics of Sharess may cast Find Familiar once per year. They always receive a Domestic Cat in response, if the spell is successful, and cannot seek another familiar as long as they still have a living familiar. The one exception to this is if the familiar reaches old age for its species; if it does, it can choose to retire. The priest can then seek a new familiar, but must care for the retired familiar until it dies of old age.

Special Disadvantages:

• Clerics of Sharess cannot turn undead.
• The cleric’s special abilities work only on members of her own race, although a DM may make exceptions for half-breeds.
• With the death of Sharess, these Clerics’ spells are being granted by a number of deities, any of which might be listening to the Cleric’s prayers at a given moment. Each time the Cleric of Sharess prays for spells, she must roll 1d6 to determine which Deity (if any) responds to the request. The Cleric’s access to spheres and religion-specific spells is the same as for a cleric’s deity who responds.
  • The Mog (roll of 1 or 2):
    • Major Spheres: All, Animal, Charm, Chaos, Combat, Guardian, Wards, Weather
    • Minor Spheres: Divination, Protection
  • Sune (roll of 3 or 4):
    • Major Spheres: All, Charm, Divination, Healing, Necromantic, Plant, Time, Travelers
    • Minor Spheres: Combat, Protection
  • Lolth (roll of 5):
    • Major Spheres: All, Animal, Astral, Charm, Divination, Guardian, Necromantic, Time
    • Minor Spheres: Creation, Protection
  • No Deity (roll of 6): The cleric gains no spells that day and must complete a rest before praying again.

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