Race: Uplifted canopid gutterkin (Eurasian eagle-owl)
Class: Warlock of the Great Old One with the Evil Eye
Background: Courtier
Sexual Orientation: Asexual demiromantic vanilla-flexible
Sex Assigned at Birth: Female (ZW chromosomes)
Gender: Agender
Pronouns: It/it/its/its/itself
Strength 11
Dexterity 14
Constitution 9
Intelligence 14
Wisdom 12
Charisma 14
Armor Class: 13
Hit Dice: 4d8-4
Hit Points: 19
Inspiration: 2
Proficiency Bonus: +2
Proficiencies: Acrobatics +4, Charisma saving throws +4, “Common” language, Gnomish language, light armor, Nature² (only related to weather conditions or natural terrain features) +6, Insight +3, Intimidation +4, Investigation +4, Perception +3, Persuasion +4, Primordial language, simple weapons, Sylvan language, Wisdom saving throws +3
Disadvantage on Wisdom
Awakened Mind. Starting at 1st level, your alien knowledge gives you the ability to touch the minds of other creatures. You can telepathically speak to any creature you can see within 30 feet of you. You don't need to share a language with the creature for it to understand your telepathic utterances, but the creature must be able to understand at least one language.
Survived the Dry Man’s Story Unscathed. You have heard the story of the Dry Man but managed to avoid having your vitality drained, and are unaffected by his curse.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Court Functionary. Your knowledge of how bureaucracies function lets you gain access to the records and inner workings of any noble court or government you encounter. You know who the movers and shakers are, whom to go to for the favors you seek, and what the current intrigues of interest in the group are.
Size. Gutterkin are diminutive folk, averaging three and a half feet. Your size is Small. 30 inches, 8.6 pounds.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet. You have a flying speed of 25 feet. If you end your movement in mid-air you immediately begin to fall. When you take falling damage, reduce the total distance fallen by 15 feet for the purposes of calculating fall damage.
Cantrips: chill touch (Con save DC 12 or temporary psychosis for 1 round), glimmerCFS:A, mind sliver, seek phraseCFS:A
Spell Slots: 2 2nd
Spells Known: 2* 1st 4 2nd
dissonant whispers
Thunderwave (once per day)
hex (pact boon)
detect thoughts
enthrall
Ray of enfeeblement
sinister threatCFS:A
Spell Save DC: 12
Spell Attack Modifier: +4
Eldritch Invocations: curse of the mystic nettle, evil eyeCFS:A
Equipment: sickle, claw blades (treat as daggers without the thrown property), key arcane focus, scholar's pack, leather armor, two daggers, Minga’s Shards, set of fine clothes, bag with 105 gp
Otherworldly Patron
At 1st level, you have struck a bargain with a Great Old One. Your choice grants you features at 1st level and again at 6th, 10th, and 14th level.
Your patron is a mysterious entity whose nature is utterly foreign to the fabric of reality, the piece of grit within the world that agitated the world so much it accreted a pearl shell around, smooth, beautiful, and somewhat less dangerous. That pearl is the realm known as the WIlds. Its motives are incomprehensible to mortals, and its knowledge so immense and ancient that even the greatest libraries pale in comparison to the vast secrets it holds. The Great Old One might be unaware of your existence or entirely indifferent to you, but the secrets you have learned allow you to draw your magic from it.
Expanded Spell List
The Great Old One lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.
1st: dissonant whispers, Tasha's hideous laughter
2nd: detect thoughts, phantasmal force
3rd: clairvoyance, sending
4th: dominate beast, Evard's black tentacles
5th: dominate person, telekinesis
Patron’s Attitude
Every relationship is a two-way street, but in the case of warlocks and their patrons it's not necessarily true that both sides of the street are the same width or made of the same stuff. The feeling that a warlock holds for their patron, whether positive or negative, might be reciprocated by the patron, or the two participants in the pact might view one another with opposing emotions. In this case, Alone Noosans is mostly left to its own devices with no interference from its patron. Sometimes it dreads the demands the Grit will make when it does appear.
Special Terms of the Pact
A pact can range from a loose agreement to a formal contract with lengthy, detailed clauses and lists of requirements. The terms of a pact ~ what a warlock must do to receive a patron's favor ~ are always dictated by the patron. On occasion, those terms include a special proviso that might seem odd or whimsical, but warlocks take these dictates as seriously as they do the other requirements of their pacts. At least once a day, Alone Noosans must inscribe or carve its patron's name or symbol on the wall of a building.
Pact Magic
Your arcane research and the magic bestowed on you by your patron have given you facility with spells.
Cantrips
You know two cantrips of your choice from the warlock spell list. You learn additional warlock cantrips of your choice at higher levels, as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Warlock table.
Spell Slots
The Warlock table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your warlock spells of 1st through 5th level. The table also shows what the level of those slots is; all of these spell slots are the same level. To cast one of your warlock spells of 1st through 5th level, you must expend a spell slot. You regain all expended Pact Magic spell slots when you finish a short or long rest.
For example, when you are 5th level, you have two 3rd-level spell slots. To cast the 1st-level spell witch bolt, you must spend one of those slots, and you cast it as a 3rd-level spell.
Spells Known
At 1st level, you know two 1st-level spells of your choice from the warlock spell list. The Spells Known column of the Warlock table shows when you learn more warlock spells of your choice of 1st level and higher. A spell you choose must be of a level no higher than what's shown in the table's Slot Level column for your level. When you reach 6th level, for example, you learn a new warlock spell, which can be 1st, 2nd, or 3rd level.
Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the warlock spells you know and replace it with another spell from the warlock spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots.
Spellcasting Ability
Charisma is your spellcasting ability for your warlock spells, so you use your Charisma whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Charisma modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a warlock spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.
Spellcasting Focus
You can use an arcane focus (see chapter 5, "Equipment") as a spellcasting focus for your warlock spells.
Spells
Glimmer
Illusion cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self (30 feet)
Components: V, S, M (a coin)
Duration: 1 round
It’s far easier to conceal by revealing than to reveal by concealing.
You flick a coin into the air and make it sparkle with shimmering light, drawing the attention of all creatures within 30 feet of you. Each creature must make a Wisdom saving throw. A creature that is in combat has advantage on this saving throw. If a creature fails, it suffers disadvantage on ability checks until the start of your next turn.
Corruption
1st-level necromancy
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 minute
Slow and insidious, yet deadly nevertheless.
You inflict a withering curse upon a 5-foot square of ground at a location you can see within range, withering plants and darkening the earth with fell power. At the start of each of your turns for the duration, the corruptive curse grows 5 feet in every direction. Whenever a creature starts its turn in a space afflicted by the curse, it must make a Charisma saving throw. If it fails, it takes 1d6 necrotic damage.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the necrotic damage increases by 1d6 per spell slot level above 1st.
Dissonant Whispers
1st-level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V
Duration: Instantaneous
You whisper a discordant melody that only one creature of your choice within range can hear, wracking it with terrible pain. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, it takes 3d6 psychic damage and must immediately use its reaction, if available, to move as far as its speed allows away from you. The creature doesn't move into obviously dangerous ground, such as a fire or a pit. On a successful save, the target takes half as much damage and doesn't have to move away. A deafened creature automatically succeeds on the save.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 1st.
Mind Sliver
Enchantment cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V
Duration: 1 round
You drive a disorienting spike of psychic energy into the mind of one creature you can see within range. The target must make an Intelligence saving throw. Unless the saving throw is successful, the target takes 1d6 psychic damage, and the first time it makes a saving throw before the end of your next turn, it must roll a d4 and subtract the number rolled from the save.
This spell’s damage increases by 1d6 when you reach certain levels: 5th level (2d6), 11th level (3d6), and 17th level (4d6).
Thunderwave
1st-level evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self (15-foot cube)
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
A wave of thunderous force sweeps out from you. Each creature in a 15-foot cube originating from you must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 2d8 thunder damage and is pushed 10 feet away from you. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and isn't pushed.
In addition, unsecured objects that are completely within the area of effect are automatically pushed 10 feet away from you by the spell's effect, and the spell emits a thunderous boom audible out to 300 feet.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 1st.
Sinister Threat
2nd-level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 reaction, when a creature enters the range of the spell or becomes hostile while within range
Range: 15 feet
Components: S, M (any weapon)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
The glint of steel does much to persuade and dissuade.
You unsheathe part of your weapon, or gesture threateningly with it, imbuing this simple implication with a magical compulsion. The creature can choose to end its turn immediately and be charmed by you until the spell ends or until you or your companions do something harmful to it or its allies. Otherwise, it must make a Wisdom saving throw. If it fails, the creature becomes frightened of you for the duration and you gain advantage on melee attack rolls targeting it while it is frightened. At the end of each of its turns, the creature can make another Wisdom saving throw, ending the spell if it succeeds.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the spell does not require concentration.
Detect Thoughts
2nd-level divination
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S, M (a copper piece)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
For the duration, you can read the thoughts of certain creatures. When you cast the spell and as your action on each turn until the spell ends, you can focus your mind on any one creature that you can see within 30 feet of you. If the creature you choose has an Intelligence of 3 or lower or doesn't speak any language, the creature is unaffected.
You initially learn the surface thoughts of the creature ~ what is most on its mind in that moment. As an action, you can either shift your attention to another creature's thoughts or attempt to probe deeper into the same creature's mind. If you probe deeper, the target must make a Wisdom saving throw. If it fails, you gain insight into its reasoning (if any), its emotional state, and something that looms large in its mind (such as something it worries over, loves, or hates). If it succeeds, the spell ends. Either way, the target knows that you are probing into its mind, and unless you shift your attention to another creature's thoughts, the creature can use its action on its turn to make an Intelligence check contested by your Intelligence check; if it succeeds, the spell ends.
Questions verbally directed at the target creature naturally shape the course of its thoughts, so this spell is particularly effective as part of an interrogation. You can also use this spell to detect the presence of thinking creatures you can't see. When you cast the spell or as your action during the duration, you can search for thoughts within 30 feet of you. The spell can penetrate barriers, but 2 feet of rock, 2 inches of any metal other than lead, or a thin sheet of lead blocks you. You can't detect a creature with an Intelligence of 3 or lower or one that doesn't speak any language.
Once you detect the presence of a creature in this way, you can read its thoughts for the rest of the duration as described above, even if you can't see it, but it must still be within range.
Hex
1st-level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: 90 feet
Components: V, S, M (the petrified eye of a newt)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
You place a curse on a creature that you can see within range. Until the spell ends, you deal an extra 1d6 necrotic damage to the target whenever you hit it with an attack. Also, choose one ability when you cast the spell. The target has disadvantage on ability checks made with the chosen ability.
If the target drops to 0 hit points before this spell ends, you can use a bonus action on a subsequent turn of yours to curse a new creature.
A remove curse cast on the target ends this spell early.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd or 4th level, you can maintain your concentration on the spell for up to 8 hours. When you use a spell slot of 5th level or higher, you can maintain your concentration on the spell for up to 24 hours.
Pact Boon
At 3rd level, your otherworldly patron bestows a gift upon you for your loyal service. You gain one of the following features of your choice.
Traditionally, the Evil Eye is an expression of envy and malicious intent. Any sort of patron might grant the Pact of the Evil Eye, as the Archfey and Archfiend both appreciate the power of envy, and a wild-eyed stare certainly befits any warlock of the Great Old Ones. Such warlocks are specialized in the hex spell and gain more options in its usage.
You learn the hex spell. The spell doesn’t count against your spells known.
When the target of your current casting of hex deals damage to you, you may spend a reaction either to deal the hex effect’s damage value to the target, or to add 1d6 to your Constitution saving throw to maintain concentration.
Invocations
Curse of the Mystic Nettle
Prerequisite: Pact of the Evil Eye feature
Once per casting of hex, while the spell’s effect continues, you may impose disadvantage on a single saving throw the target makes as a free action. Transferring the hex to a new target does not constitute a new casting
Evil Eye
As an action, you imbue your eyes with eldritch magic and glare darkly at a creature. If the target can see you, it suffers disadvantage on its next attack roll or ability check made within 1 minute.
Unlike their harmfully mutated counterparts, uplifted gutterkin have benefited from the chaotic magic that transformed them, gaining sentience, community, and even a conscience. Uplifted gutterkin of the Canopid family are brave explorers, pushing new boundaries and thirsty for adventure. They make their home in treetop canopies.
Uplifted gutterkin grew into language only recently, so their names are often misspelled words or misplaced concepts: whatever sounds appealing to a gutterkin. They bear the names of their village first, and their given names second.
Warlocks are seekers of the knowledge that lies hidden in the fabric of the multiverse. Through pacts made with mysterious beings of supernatural power, warlocks unlock magical effects both subtle and spectacular. Drawing on the ancient knowledge of beings such as fey nobles, demons, devils, hags, and alien entities of the Far Realm, warlocks piece together arcane secrets to bolster their own power.
Hiding in Plain Sight
While elevated beyond their status as mere vermin, uplifted gutterkin are hardly any more respected by the other cultures of the Wilds. They keep to themselves in small tree-top or underground villages, away from prying eyes and disdainful feet.
Never Idle, Never Free
Uplifted gutterkin remember what it was like to be at the bottom of the food chain. They have a tendency to keep busy, constantly fidgeting, poking, and rearranging. Alone Noosans’s oddness can here be seen, for of a course, when it was young, it kept up this constant work, but now that that work has revealed the deeper truth of the Grit, it has taken those cultural values and turned them to the work of insight, finding that more can be done with a still stare than with eternal motion. When alone, however, it can sometimes be found relentlessly maintaining its equipment, recording its observations, and rearranging those things it can rearrange. These meticulous creatures tend to see what others miss, and appreciate that which others neglect. One adventurer’s trash is a gutterkin’s most precious treasure.
Sworn and Beholden
A warlock is defined by a pact with an otherworldly being. Sometimes the relationship between warlock and patron is like that of a cleric and a deity, though the beings that serve as patrons for warlocks are not gods. A warlock might lead a cult dedicated to a demon prince, an archdevil, or an utterly alien entity-beings not typically served by clerics. More often, though, the arrangement is similar to that between a master and an apprentice. The warlock learns and grows in power, at the cost of occasional services performed on the patron's behalf.
The magic bestowed on a warlock ranges from minor but lasting alterations to the warlock's being (such as the ability to see in darkness or to read any language) to access to powerful spells. Unlike bookish wizards, warlocks supplement their magic with some facility at hand-to-hand combat. They are comfortable in light armor and know how to use simple weapons.
Delvers into Secrets
Warlocks are driven by an insatiable need for knowledge and power, which compels them into their pacts and shapes their lives. This thirst drives warlocks into their pacts and shapes their later careers as well. Stories of warlocks binding themselves to fiends are widely known. But many warlocks serve patrons that are not fiendish. Sometimes a traveler in the wilds comes to a strangely beautiful tower, meets its fey lord or lady, and stumbles into a pact without being fully aware of it. And sometimes, while poring over tomes of forbidden lore, a brilliant but crazed student's mind is opened to realities beyond the material world and to the alien beings that dwell in the outer void.
Once a pact is made, a warlock's thirst for knowledge and power can't be slaked with mere study and research. No one makes a pact with such a mighty patron if he or she doesn't intend to use the power thus gained. Rather, the vast majority of warlocks spend their days in active pursuit of their goals, which typically means some kind of adventuring. Furthermore, the demands of their patrons drive warlocks toward adventure.
Traits
Age. Gutterkin age quickly, reaching adulthood by 10 and living to 60 on average. Alone Noosans had built a place for itself in the Monarch’s Court before discoveries drove it from the Wilds entirely. This took some time, leaving it adventuring at the ripe old age of 20.
Alignment. Uplifted gutterkin are often kindhearted and rarely of evil alignments. They tend to be community-oriented in their morality, but care little for principles if they don’t benefit their loved ones. Alone Noosans has twice struck out on its own, and now lives nowhere, hence its name. As the Grit has affected its very soul, sharpening its edges so that it scratches at the world as Noosans moves through that world, it is chaotic neutral.
Personality. There is evidence of the Grit, the ultimate reality that the world has been unable to incorporate, hiding behind the mere appearances of the world. I will stare at the world until I find it all.
Ideal. Spookiness ~ Truth is easiest to see when everyone around you is uncertain and off-balance. Their comfortable ways serve the illusion, and I wish to know the truth.
Bond. There’s no place like home.
Flaw. My time in the Mortal World has been interminable and fruitless. I suspect everything else will follow suit.
Binding Mark
Some patrons make a habit of, and often enjoy, marking the warlocks under their sway in some fashion. A binding mark makes it clear ~ to those who know about such things ~ that the individual in question is bound to the patron's service. A warlock might take advantage of such a mark, claiming it as proof of one's pact, or might want to keep it under wraps (if possible) to avoid the difficulties it might bring. The tentacles which unfurl from Alone Noosans’s beak are not, as some might suspect, the mark of the Grit and its binding of the bird, but rather one mere inherited mutation of the many that uplifted gutterkin and their less fortunate kin bear. The eyes adorning the end of each feather, all looking in different directions and each a different color, on the other hand . . . .
History
Three-Branches-Together Noosans was born to a family of uplifted gutterkin owls in, well, Bend-in-the-Branch. The treetop village was a bustling place, located along the migratory trade routes of many a flying fairy. The gutterkin and sprites of the village purchased supplies and materials from the uplifted gutterkin squirrels that ran up and down the trees whose branches met to hold up the villages structures and then sold them to the travelers. There was always a rousing story to be told in the starry nights, and the town made enough wealth that mulberry wine or acorn beer always accompanied these tales.
As a fledgling, that was indeed where Noosans spent most of its time, hopping with that awkward gait all young birds have next to those travelers and begging them to reveal more of the lands beyond Three-Branches-Together. It wasn’t so much that Noosans was unhappy in the village ~ certainly it knew that its life was far more comfortable than many in the Wilds ~ but that knowing that there were other kinds of people sparked joy for the fledgling and helped Noosans understand its beloved community better, revealing the subtle choices everyone made in their ways.
As Noosans grew, it learned much from these tales and so the tales it heard every night grew boring and taught it nothing that it didn’t know. After a surly adolescence full of complaints and poking merchants for new information with its beak, Noosans came to realize that spending some time traveling the trade routes Three-Branches-Together served would allow it to learn more, to understand all that it had left to understand. Its parents, who had seen this coming, assented without much argument and even managed to hide their tears until after Noosans was gone, a lunch packaged and clutched in its talons.
Noosans took to the road amicably and excitedly, flapping to and fro every where it went and telling all whom it passed about the idyllic wonder that it planned to revisit on a regular basis, bursting with new wisdom. But, as these things go, this turned out to be an illusion of the young. Merchant routes land always in the wealthy and showy courts of the powerful, and things are no different in the Wilds. Noosans returned to the Monarch’s Court repeatedly as it traveled. Visits built friendships, and friendships built connections, and connections built entanglements, and entanglements built a home. Noosans still talked about returning to Three-Branches-Together, and kept it in its name, but in truth the owl had settled in as a minor functionary of the court. It traded in favours and promises and the fickle whimsies of the fairy court.
Becoming a Warlock
In the wake of Armadie and Volm’s inscrutable uprising and departure from the court, Three-Branches-Together Noosans spent much time in communication with Keighton, the Haunt of Auldermere, discovering that there was but a single memory she couldn’t remember: the nature of the schism of the Living Light from the Wilds itself. This led to projects undertaken in conjunction with the Blisterbeast and Doctor Myriati. It was the latter who sealed Noosans’s fate, not by dint of any forbidden knowledge she herself knew or imparted, but rather because of her dismissal of Antigone Wynn as foppish and inconsequential. The seer tried many times to save Noosans’s mind but was never able to get a moment alone to discuss the matter with the bird.
Still claiming that Three-Bridges-Together would see its face once more someday, Noosans returned to its wandering ways to seek knowledge of why the Living Light and the Wilds were separate and opposed. It hasn’t told anyone the details of the journey that led it to uncover the Grit, but uncover the Grit it did. And then Noosans returned to the court preaching that the Wilds, the very home that gave all the assembled fairies life, was like a pearl accreted over some truer reality that was, metaphysically speaking, abrasive and irritating to the mortal world. This pace, Noosans said, was merely what was built around this central something, this Grit, unreal and intended to keep the world safe from truth.
Noosans found itself ostracized. Not cast out from court so much as stymied and isolated, treated cordially enough but never aided nor ever allowed entrance to the halls of power as it once had been. Finally talking with a saddened Antigone, Noosans got the idea that there might be more to know if it travelled beyond the Hedge and into the mortal world. Maybe if Noosans understood the reason and ways of its rejection of the Grit, it would learn more of the Grit. It had travelled through one of the Monarch’s portals and into the world within the hour.
Noosans has been stuck here in this drab place ever since, searching defeatedly for the understanding that brought it here.
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