#sceaduinar

[dailycharacteroption]

Eldritch Researcher (Pathfinder Second Edition Archetype)

(art by Henning Ludvigsen on Artstation, featured in Arkham Horror by Fantasy Flight Games)

 Two weeks ago we looked at the elder mythos scholar archetype, and now we find a spiritual successor of sorts in an archetype in second edition.

While not expressly dealing with elder mythos creatures, the eldritch researcher has a fascination for aberrations, oozes, and the poorly understood secrets of occult magic and how it intersects with arcane magic, which are exactly the sort of vibes we expect from a character that deals with horrors from beyond the stars and other dimensions.

In any case, eldritch researchers, regardless of their background, scoff at the idea of any knowledge being something mortals were not meant to know, risking their minds and bodies delving into secrets so that these terrifying unknowns can become knowns, and therefore less terrifying. Whether they succeed or their discoveries prove even more horrifying upon being revealed is another story.

Looking for an archetype that promises understanding of the occult and otherworldly with a smattering of magical defenses and abilities, this may be for you.

This archetype is also associated with the Abomination Vaults AP, but like all archetypes, it can easily be adapted to any campaign where cosmic horror and research into the unknown comes up.

 For their dedication feat, these researchers learn a minor arcane or occult cantrips as well as the basics for wielding that sort of magic, as well as expertise in the arcane or occult, particularly when it comes to identifying magic or investigation.

Though they do not possess divine magic, these researchers possess a fervor that they can bring to bear, fueling powers reminiscent to those possessed by the knowledge, secrecy, or truth domains, manifesting a personal eldritch sign if necessary. Whether these powers truly come from belief or are just occult secrets that bridge upon the divine is unknown.

They can also learn to tug on mystic threads of understanding, translating a touched body of writing for them, though they still have to decipher codes or hidden meanings. They can only do this once a day, though.

Their familiarity with aberrations and oozes gives them insight into how such beings attack, allowing them to reflexively move and dodge to mitigate harm.

Eldritch rituals are also a common focus of study for them, and many master the art of performing these rituals, making them much easier for them.

Oftentime, rare lore and artifacts are lost to time (until they are rediscovered and kick off a whole adventure, of course!), but many of these researchers are not content to let such lore be lost. As such, they learn divination magic that helps them locate objects to better recover such things for their research, though obviously this has limits.

More learned individuals have so much information at their beck and call that they often have a more comprehensive picture when they recall information.

Many also learn to expand their mastery of their pseudo-domain, gaining the greater magics assocated with them.

As their mastery of the occult grows, they learn the secrets of laying various curses on foes, most particularly those that affect the mind and behavior to make focusing on certain types of tasks harder.

Some of the most powerful learn how to conjure otherworldly aberrations to serve them, either to fight, or potentially ask questions of, though the answers they give are especially cryptic due to their alien mindsets (and possibly penchant for mischief).

Powerful researchers also often learn to recall vast amounts of information in an instant, which can be a boon when there are many mysteries on the table but also dangers abound.

While this archetype is available to all classes, it does require some familiarity with arcane and especially occult skills, not to mention intelligence for use with the various magical abilities granted by the archetype. This lends it best to classes like wizard, investigator, bard, and inventor, though nothing’s stopping you from building a high-intelligence fighter that also researchers the occult on the side. Indeed, the special abilities granted by this archetype are mostly utilitarian in nature, making it a useful way to provide knowledge utility to a party.

 With the lore of this archetype being what it is, it is likely that your character might be frustrating in-character for the rest of the party, what with their interest into poking their noses into the unknown and other things many would consider best left alone. Then again, they also likely appreciate your expertise as well. Remember though that this archetype represents someone of a decidedly scientific persuasion. Even when they are foolhardy, these characters should probably know at least a little about what they are doing.

  Living creatures, but at the same time formed from the very stuff of entropy and unlife, sceaduinar are considered by some researchers to be one of the great mysteries, and thanks to their recent reclassification as extraplanar aberrations, those who seek the eldritch have even more reason to understand them and their mysteries. However, the opinion these crystalline creatures have of natural life has not changed, and they still attack on sight unless bound by magic.

 For years, Leksha sought a way to cure her transformation into a fleshwarp, but it became increasingly clear that both in body and mind, this was her true form now. She has not given up hope, but in the meantime her studies have made her an incredible resource into occult knowledge, albeit a reclusive one that is rarely welcomed in most centers of learning.

 It is easy to assume that the eldritch entities that exist out there are all malign and hostile, having dark intentions. However, like any society, these entities have a variety of cultures and outlooks. Eager to document them is Dr. Pevara, who styles herself something of an elder mythos anthropologist, and she’s looking to organize an expedition to the various gug settlements of the inner world.

[honourablejester]

I love the sentences you get with science fantasy. Just. The things you get to say.

I’m reading Starfinder’s Ports of Call sourcebook (1e), which has part of a chapter describing the galaxy the setting is set in. At the centre of said galaxy is a titanic black hole nicknamed Old Rovagug (after the vanished god of destruction) which supplies the gravity needed to hold the galaxy together. And we get this spectacular sentence, a result of the fact that Starfinder is a science fantasy setting using D&D style planes of existence:

“Like most black holes, Old Rovagug tears open millions of momentary rifts to the Negative Energy Plane every second, allowing creatures like spectral undead, gargoyle-like sceaduinars and titanic darvakkas to escape into the surrounding space. These interlopers rampage across any worlds they can reach before the oppressiveness of reality inevitably disintegrates them.”

… Like most black holes. Like most black holes, Old Rovagug tears millions of holes into the plane of death on the regular, allowing undead to escape into nearby space until the raw weight of reality reabsorbs them. As, you know. Black holes do. Apparently.

This is followed by:

“Unlike most black holes, Old Rovagug radiates light-year-wide entropic tendrils. Seeming to ignore material physics, these tendrils extend and roil outward like solar flares for thousands of years before fading and being replaced by new projections. Like black holes, they aren’t directly visible, instead being observed only by the empty spaces they leave behind—most often along the accretion disk, earning them the name Whiskers of the Sun-Eater for how they radiate from the lightless center of the galaxy.”

This black hole also radiates reality-shredding thousand-year-long entropic flares. Most black holes don’t do that. It’s just this one.

I just. I love the things you get to say. Most black holes, you know. They summon spectral undead. Didn’t you know that about them?

[monstersdownthepath]

Reblogging to add that you taking a bit to respond is fine, cause it gave me time to stew on this mystery myself, and I remembered that starfinder has added stuff related to the sceaduinars.

First is that they have some sort of cousin that is much much larger and more powerful. I believe the comparison used is "a dragon to the sceaduinar's drake." I don't have the campaign it's from, so that's about were my knowledge ends.

Second, is that in that same campaign, it's revealed that sceaduinars can create a unique variety of vampire that has a personality very similar to their own. They create and recruit these vampires precisely for this reason.

And finally, they can in fact tolerate mortals enough to craft and maintain to create religions. One of the named space nations in the starfinder galaxy, the Shadari Confederacy, is devoted to this religion that actively seeks to speed up the entropic decay of the universe, and supposedly even have a corrupted aeon that gives them the ability to unmake whole worlds.

(This is a copy-paste of what I said from a reblog. You can find that reblog at idkrpgideas. Sorry, couldn't provide link)

I saw! I just had nothing to really add to it aside from that the 'dragon to their drake' might be the Sceazir, but I'm not exactly sure. These void vampires certainly sound interesting, though, as does the Shadari Confederacy...

[paperanddice]

Jyoti and Kelpie

Jyoti are strange, xenophobic avian people who dwell in the Overworld. They inhabit great, crystalline cities that they guard fiercely against all outsiders, especially those from the world below. They are very likely to attack, in order to ensure that no one can get the jump by attacking them first, and this tendency has given them a very poor reputation. The servants of the gods are even more hated by the jyoti, and only under the most extreme circumstances will they spare such a being. The only thing they hate worse are the sceaduinar, creatures of negative energy from other sections of the Overworld. Even speaking of them is forbidden, and daring to defend them even in concept draws the jyoti's eternal ire.

Standing on average just under 6 feet tall, with a wingspan that can reach up to 10 feet across, jyoti features come in a variety of colors and patterns. All have an innate connection to radiant energy they channel from the overworld, which their warriors can channel into weapons they hold, deadly beams of sunlight that scorch both the living and the undead, and a burning radiant fire they can exhale over their enemies.

Jyoti Double-Strength 5th level caster [medium humanoid] Initiative: +11 Holy Spear Strike +10 vs. AC – 15 damage plus 10 holy damage. Natural Even Hit: one other nearby enemy takes 10 holy damage. Disrupt Undead +10 vs. PD (one undead, or a necromancer) – 30 holy damage. R: Searing Light +10 vs. PD (2 attacks, each against a nearby enemy) – 15 holy damage. Natural 14+: The target is hampered (save ends). C: Searing Fire Breath +10 vs. PD (1d3 nearby enemies in a group) – 10 fire damage plus 10 holy damage. Breath of Life: The jyoti can choose to target an ally instead of an enemy with this attack. If it hits, it heals that ally 10 hp. Limited Use: 1d3 times per battle, never two turns in a row. Divine Aversion: The jyoti gains a +1 bonus to all defenses against divine spells. Flight. Resist Negative Energy 18+. AC 20 PD 16 MD 19 HP 140

Kelpie are fey shapechanging predators that are a grotesque combination of horse and humanoid. In their natural forms they appear as sickly humans with partially transparent skin and deformed horse faces, but they can transform themselves to appear as any humanoid or horse in order to lure in prey. Kelpie stay near water and use it to their advantage, drawing humanoids primarily in and attempting to drag them under the water's surface to drown, storing the bodies below rocks and trees to hold them under water to be fed on as the creature is hungry. Often they'll align themselves with other water dwelling creatures such as sahuagin, as they can't drown them and rarely wish to engage in a straight up fight. In such cases, the kelpie's allies are rarely aware of its true nature, thinking it another humanoid or a beast such as a hippocampus.

Kelpie 2nd level spoiler [beast] Initiative: +4 Bite +7 vs. AC – 5 damage. Natural Even Hit: The keplie can Grab the target. C: Captivating Lure +7 vs. MD (one nearby enemy) – The target is dazed (save ends). Natural 14+: The target can’t attack the kelpie and must spend its movement each turn attempting to engage the kelpie. The effect ends if the kelpie attacks the target. Natural 18+: As above, but the effect doesn’t end if the kelpie attacks. Miss: The target is immune to this attack until the end of the battle. Shapechanger: As a standard action, the kelpie can take the form of any equine creature (horse, pony, hippocampus), or humanoid. Swimmer. AC 16 PD 12 MD 16 HP 32

Inspired by the Pathfinder 1e Bestiary 2. This post came out a week ago on my Patreon. If you want to get access to all my monster conversions early, as well as access to my premade adventures and other material I’m working on, consider backing me there!

[real-live-human]

Floor 6, Room 17

weekly theme: solitude

sceaduinars typically gather in great swarms of dozens or hundreds, scouring the planes for any sparks of life to extinguish. this one has been separated from its kind, and the solitude has driven it into a violent frenzy.

monsters: 1x elite sceaduinar

loot: there is nothing of value here.

[k25ff]

“They come from the void, from Terminus itself, growing there in the dark, in the biting entropic cold. Order from chaos, life from entropy.”

Sceaduinar are very interesting creatures (from Pathfinder bestiaries)

[wanderingmoonsword]

Soulless

Staring out at the world with eyes devoid of the spark of life and without any particular animation, soulless have had their soul stripped from their bodies through some foul means that has left enough of the personality and mind behind to keep it alive and even animate. Whatever was responsible, soulless lack certain weaknesses, including an absolute inability to fear for their lives and no great weakness to hits to their vitals, and their inability to be affected by negative or positive energy can be a boon, though no access to magical healing and the fact the soul isn’t there to cling to life does make them less durable overall. Soulless have a unique nature and have all been utterly changed by their experiences and are usually bound to the one responsible (normally Orcus), who can look and hear through these vessels. For me, figuring out what created them – and how, if at all, they can be helped – are critical to employing these half-alive living, soulless revenants at the table.

Caught by surprise or poisoned, various people are abducted by the devotees of a circle of enchanters and psychics, dragged away swiftly to secret places where fell rituals remake them as soulless abominations, creatures that can go where the spell-bound cannot. These sleeper agents are short-lived once in position, as for most their dead-eyed stare and change of personality making it all too evident something has happened, but the acolytes of the Emerald Eye plan for this, with short-lived plans and direct goals for them to exploit. The stolen souls are kept to be experimented on or traded to esoteric spirits for dark boons, and those soulless who survive their purpose serve as slaves and cannon fodder.

Soullessness is spreading across the lands of the Praezicia Dynasty like a plague for the simple reason that it is. Even as the survivors are herded into colonies like lepers to try and contain the strange disease, new outbreaks occur in places that have seemingly no contact with the other infected. In the end, after consulting sages and omens, the only answer seems to be to invade the plague works of a daemonic harbinger, freeing the souls that still survive from their prisons and smashing the vats that brew up the supernatural curse-plague that creates the wretches.

Founded on a plant to harvest exotic matter from the void-lashed depths of the Negative Energy Plane, one of the great astro-corps seeks volunteers among the most desperate of society, be it the worst criminals or the most destitute who will do anything for another chance. After signing extensive legal waivers and esoteric forms written in a blend of Aklo and Infernal, these volunteers are “processed”, remade into soulless who can survive the harsh conditions with little aid but also draw little attention from the undead and native sceaduinar.

- Tome of Horrors 4 276

[enddaysengine]

Eberron Planar Monster (Bestiary 2)

Here’s something that has been sitting in my drafts forever. I just did some touch ups on it since Keith just posted a couple of articles on Eberron’s Planes.

All Planes

Aeon, Akhana

Aeon, Bythos

Aeon, Paracletus

Aeon, Pleroma

Aeon, Theletos

Inevitable, Lhaksharut

Astral Plane

Daemon, Astradaemon*

Daemon, Thanadaemon*

Dragon Horse*

Daanvi, the Perfect Order

Axiomite

Devil, Belier

Inevitable, Arbiter

Inevitable, Kolyarut

Inevitable, Zelekhut

Dal Quor, the Region of Dreams

Animate Dream

Wendigo*

Dolurrh, the Realm of the Dead

Daemon, Astradaemon

Daemon, Cacodaemon

Daemon, Thanadaemon

Demon, Kalavakus

Inevitable, Marut

Petitioner

Soul Eater

Ethereal Plane

Daemon, Thanadaemon*

Dragon Horse*

Fernia, the Sea of Fire

Azata, Brijidine

Azer

Devil, Immolation

Dragon, Magma

Elemental, Magma

Magma Ooze

Rast

Thoqqua

Irian, the Eternal Day

Archon, Star

Jyoti

Shining Child

Kythri, the Churning Chaos

Chaos Beast

Elemental, Lightning

Howler

Protean, Imentesh

Protean, Keketar

Protean, Naunet

Protean, Voidworm

Titan, Elysian

Titan, Thanatotic

Lamannia, the Twilight Forest

Achaierai

Agathion, Avoral

Agathion, Cetaceal

Agathion, Draconal

Agathion, Leonal

Agathion, Silvanshee

Agathion, Vulpinal

Amoebas (all)

Badgers (all)

Bats (all)

Bees (all)

Beetles (all)

Belker

Camel

Centipedes (all)

Cockroaches (all)

Crysmal

Demon, Omox

Dinosaur, Allosaurus

Dinosaur, Compsognathus

Dinosaur, Parasaurolophus

Dinosaur, Tylosaurus

Dragon, Brine

Dragon, Cloud

Dragon, Crystal

Dragonfly, Giant

Elemental, Mud

Fly, Giant

Maggot, Giant

Gars (all)

Hellcat

Hippopotami (all)

Lycanthrope, Werebear

Lycanthrope, Wereboar

Lycanthrope, Weretiger

Mandragora

Megafauna, Arsinoitherium

Megafauna, Glyptodon

Megafauna, Megaloceros

Megafauna, Megatherium

Mihstu

Moonflower

Mosquitos (all)

Pech

Phycomid

Primates (all)

Qlippoth, Cythnigot

Quickwood

Ram

Rays (all)

Sandman

Scorpions (all)

Snakes (all)

Solifugids (all)

Spiders (all)

Tendriculos

Ticks (all)

Toads (all)

Turtles (all)

Vipervine

Whales (all)

Xacarba

Xtaby

Mabar, the Endless Night

Bodak

Daemon, Astradaemon

Daemon, Ceustodaemon

Daemon, Derghodaemon

Daemon, Hydrodaemon

Daemon, Leukodaemon

Daemon, Meladaemon

Daemon, Olethrodaemon

Daemon, Piscodaemon

Daemon, Purrodaemon

Daemon, Thanadaemon

Demon, Vrolikai

Dragon, Umbral

Nightshade, Nightcrawler

Nightshade, Nightwalker

Nightshade, Nightwave

Nightshade, Nightwing

Sceaduinar

Plane of Shadows

Dragon, Umbral

D'ziriak

Gloomwing

Mothman*

Tenebrous Worm

Risia, the Plane of Ice

Elemental, Ice

Wendigo

Shavarath, the Battleground

Archon, Shield

Demon, Shemhzaian

Devil, Accuser

Devil, Handmaiden

Syrania, the Azure Sky

Angel, Cassisian

Angel, Monadic Deva

Angel, Movanic Deva

Mercane

Thelanis, the Faerie Court

Azata, Lyrakien

Brownie

Forlarren

Gremlin, Jinkin

Gremlin, Nuglub

Gremlin, Pugwampi

Gremlin, Vexgit

Grig

Jabberwock

Kelpie

Korred

Leprechaun

Lurker in the Light

Nereid

Quickling

Redcap

Sard

Thrasfyr

Triton

Twigjack

Xoriat, the Realm of Madness

Denizen of Leng

Hound of Tindalos

Leng Spider

Mu Spore

Neh-Thalggu

Qlippoth, Augnagar

Qlippoth, Chernobue

Qlippoth, Iathavos

Qlippoth, Nyogoth

Qlippoth, Shoggti

Qlippoth, Thulgant

* Not native to this plane, but can travel there using spell-like or supernatural abilities

[omg-toowolfcollection-things]

via Recent Uploads tagged toy http://bit.ly/2ZnO5iE

[dailybestiary]

Hundun

What up, dawgs? Where my giant, monkish aspects of the gaping, formless void that preceded the creation of the multiverse at?!?

Wow.  I really just typed that.

So yeah, part of the above sentence comes from Bestiary 5’s description of the hundun, and part does not.  (I’ll leave you to guess which was which.)  According to Wikipedia, the hundun comes from one of the murkier realms of Chinese mythology—and I do mean that “murkier” literally; the words “hundun” and “wonton” (as in the soup) share an origin—involving primordial chaos, the World Egg, an ancient son of a fiendish emperor, a being called Mr. Chaos…you get the idea.  It’s complicated.

Pathfinder’s hundun narrows and—kind of?—clarifies this concept into a race of Large-sized, faceless, skin-robed monks devoted to (and who are likely an expression of the longing for) the void that existed before the multiverse.  Got that?  Good.

I think hunduns deserve to be treated like a Big Deal.  After all, they’re CR 21 and get the two-page spread treatment—that alone indicates that they’re powerful and important.  (Two-page spreads are giant boulders in the otherwise limpid river of Bestiary entries, which means that @wesschneider and the rest of the Paizo editing/design team give them extra attention.) Hunduns also just plain interesting for a host of reasons: They’re truly Big Bads from a non-Western mythology.  Their existence suggests alien gods, but those gods aren’t known to us. They live on the Negative Energy Plane but aren’t undead.  They use gravity, spacetime, and strange attraction as weapons, like something simultaneously out of a science textbook and a Dr. Strange comic.  They hate all creatures of law, but they also think proteans (and probably demons, too) are wusses.  Their bizarre staves are, simply put, effed up.  And don’t even think about trying to read one’s mind.

So if you’re looking to do one of those campaigns with a Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett or latter-day Harry Dresden kind of ending, where strange hooded figures are trying to unmake existence itself…well, these guys are your huckleberries.

There’s another reason I like these monsters which is a bit esoteric and nitpicky, but bear with me: I like hunduns because they are ineffable agents of premultiversal chaos that don’t come from Lovecraft.

Don’t get me wrong—I love Lovecraft.  I have his annotated works sitting on my to-read table, I occasionally pick up the love-letter-to-Lovecraft comic Providence, and I’m thoroughly enjoying Pathfinder’s current Adventure Path, Strange Aeons, being developed by @thedaigle himself.

But.  But.  Because of all that…and the re-release of Call of Cthulhu…and all the Mythos-inspired board games out there…we are currently at peak Lovecraft.  We don’t need any more at the moment.  Plus, Lovecraft homages tend to have their own gravity and logic.  Lovecraftian adventures also have a way of trumpeting that they are such.  It’s pretty rare, for instance, to have one Lovecraftian monster in an adventure…there will always be two or more, plus shrieks of “Iä!”,  references to R’lyeh, and Yellow Sign graffiti.  That’s perfectly fine in Strange Aeons, where exploring Lovecraftian tropes is the point, but in other adventures it often feels like an interruption.  We wouldn’t let such obvious IP shout-outs as Jedi and Vulcans into our games, but we don’t blink at shoggoths—even when we probably should.

So as much as I love Lovecraft, I also have really begun to dig works where references to the Great Old Ones and other Lovecraftiana are more seamlessly integrated.  For instance, I love the aforementioned recent Harry Dresden novels involving Outsiders.  Ditto, I love the presentation of the Old Ones in Anthony Horowitz’s The Gatekeepers series (though I haven’t listened to the last book yet)—the whole pentad manages to be indebted to Lovecraft without ever aping him or referencing Cthulhu et al.  That’s a pretty neat trick.

So why do I like hunduns? Because they offer another way of getting to notions of Chaos and alien gods without going through Lovecraft.  And they also offer new connective tissue that helps connect the Mythos into the mythology stew that is the rest of Pathfinder. In the same way the fey umbrella embraces Greek satyrs and Welsh pookas without straining, hunduns give us sinews that join Azathoth to Bestiary 2’s sceaduinars to Bestiary 3’s imperial dragons, all in the same universe. In short, hunduns let us have lovecraftian adventures, not just LOVECRAFTian ones.  And I am all for it.

After great struggle and clashes in two solar systems, adventurers defeat a void dragon in its lair.  Among the wyrm’s many outlandish and alien treasures they discover a primordial egg that seems to have its own gravity.  Unfortunately, the slaying of the void dragon was the trigger destined to hatch the embryonic hundun inside…

Adventurers have faced a strange array of creatures—wayward, wizard-slaying homunculi, masterless skum, mad lunar naga mediums, even the arrogant, libertarian dorvaes—and time and time again, signs point to a puppet master pulling the strings, a being known as Unraveling Hope. Eventually the adventurers’ search takes them to a dying planet shard, a gaping vortex to the Negative Energy Plane, and Unraveling Hope itself, a hundun about to sacrifice the dark planetoid to an even darker god.

Ever since an accident marked one of their number with a mathematically precise, swirling sigil, an adventuring band has had ties to the axiomites and the Planes of Law.  Thus they have heard rumors of a new scholar come to stay at the Harmonious Academy of the Rule, a strange inevitable-like sage.  Upon the recommendation of a suspicious ally, they attend a public lecture given by this mechanical master.  There they witness the sage describe a calculus function that not only does not describe any known arithmetic or phenomenon…but actually undescribes it right before their eyes.  The inevitable-like body hides a hundun inside, and the hundun’s function of unmaking begins to spread across the Academy campus like whitewash across the mural of logical existence.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 5 144–145

Apparently Kobold Press's Dark Roads & Golden Hells has an alternate take on the hundun.  I own it but haven't read it yet.  #theusualpatchproblem

Speaking of #patchproblems, one of my readers was a bit critical of my recent bath disaster, writing:

Sounds like you need to be more careful with your things…

Ouch, burn!  Said reader clearly doesn’t know how anal I am with my books—I drive friends and significant others nuts.  But this was an unfamiliar bathtub and I was exhausted—a bad combo on the best of days.

(Also I should stress that I found James’s tweet to be thematically appropriate and funny.  If you’ve read his book, you know why.)

Grrrr…I knew there was a better photo for the heresy devil floating around somewhere, but my New Year’s accommodation’s lousy Internet kept getting in the way and I gave up.  I wanted to link to this one.

Looking for the horn caterpillar?  It’s back here.

[dailycharacteroption]

Experimental Apparatus Mechanic (Mechanic Alternate Class Feature)

(art by DI Studios on Artstation)

 It is a long-standing trope of many sci-fi series that certain technologically-savvy character should wield a strange technological device that seems to have more functions than plausible, a gadget so powerful and complex that it can seemingly do whatever the user (and more importantly, the writers) needs at any given moment.

These are your sonic screwdrivers, your tricorders, your nano-multitools, and they almost seem magical in their ability to do almost anything that the user wants, within reason.

So today’s subject explains these wondrous devices… by straight-up making them actually magical. Technomagical to be exact!

The experimental apparatus is unique among the various alternate mechanic class features in that it is not purely technological, but in fact a hybrid technomagical device, demonstrating how magic has so thoroughly blended with technology that it isn’t uncommon for mechanics to learn how it all works without properly studying spellcraft.

With this class option, a mechanic character essentially is working to perfect a singular fantastical device that will pave the way for new technomagical innovation, or at least prove their mastery of miniaturizing other devices and putting them to work.

Speaking of which, the exact form this device takes can vary. Some may look like a wand or baton, while another might be an eye-like oculus that glows with plasma from within, or perhaps a wrist computer, enigmatic box with no immediately discernable interface, and so on. Regardless of the form it takes, the device can do many surprising things, which will only grow in number as the mechanic perfects it.

 To start with the apparatus has one magical or technomagical item, but can incorporate one more, drawing from magical items, hybrid items, or even magitech augs tied to certain bodily systems. As their mastery grows, they can replace older devices with greater ones and even incorporate more, eventually having four such devices incorporated, though obviously they must be lightweight in nature. Miniaturization can only do so much, after all.

With their focus on technomagic, these mechanics lean more into mysticism and engineering rather than computers, and can apply their skills towards the mystical arts as well.

Initially, the apparatus requires directed effort to switch between modes, but they eventually streamline it to be faster, and can even push it with a bit of expended resolve.

Eventually, they also start adding integrated spell gems to the device, allowing the mechanic to cast a handful of spells per day. While the selection of spells their apparatus “knows” is initially quite small, they eventually find space to add more, and even gain more and higher-level spell slots to cast them with. They can even devote some of their training normally reserved for tricks to improving the space for spells and number of spell slots as well.

The most powerful of these mechanics make one final improvement which turns the device into a truly wondrous relic of technomagic. Some make theirs nearly indestructible and usable by anyone with the resolve, while others make the device able to cast even greater spells. Finally, some make their device able to utilize three of their integrated devices rather than just two.

With the sheer variety of magical and hybrid items, not to mention magitech augmentations out there, not to mention spells, these multitools can easily grow from a nifty gadget to a truly fantastical piece of machinery. If having a device that can provide utility through both the integrated items and the spellcasting, this option may appeal to you. The sheer number of builds can vary a lot, but remember that you don’t get items back when you replace them inside the apparatus, so be sure before replacing any.

 When it comes to characters that would invent and utilize such a device, your mechanic might be an unhinged genius, a plucky newcomer whose ideas are dismissed by the established academics, or something similar. They might even claim to come from a culture where technology is just that more advanced. Alternatively, perhaps they did not invent the device, but discovered it, and struggle to coax secrets out of it?

  When a dimensional event drags a science vessel into the Negative Energy Plane, hope seems a far-flung fantasy, but for now the experimental shields keep the live-devouring void at bay. However, it is only a matter of time before sceaduinar raiding parties find the vessel, and at that point the only slim hope that remains is the strange device that the daughter of the head researcher has been tinkering with.

 AzureCorp is ostensible a company specializing in logistics, but in truth, their primary export is blackmail fueled by the secrets they plunder and hoard. Their CEO seems to have his claws in everything, hindering the party at every turn and even getting them in trouble with the law on false charges. However, what the corporation hasn’t accounted for is the party borrowing a wondrous implement built by a master technomagical engineer, a device with so many functions that calling it a “wrench” is an exercise in absurdity. Applied in the right way, it could help them expose the crimes of the crooked company.

 Used to cobbling together tech from wrecks and ancient machines, Illuxa would be considered typical for a brakim engineer if not for the sheer genius of some of her work, including her favorite multitool, which she constantly adds to and modifies, seemingly achieving magical effects with it’s work.

[dailycharacteroption]

Planar Tour Guide: Negative Energy Plane part 3

(art by Nexumorphic on DeviantArt)

Denizens

The Void may be empty, but that doesn’t mean that it’s uninhabited, a fact that makes it all the more dangerous. Of course, most entities are not truly native there, but were created from those who visit. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what entities linger in the depths of Entropy’s Heart.

Perhaps the most common type of undead on the plane are the many different varieties of spectral dead. Wraiths, spectres, allips, shadows, and more, all formed from poor hapless fools that were obliterated by the plane’s nature. Perhaps most horrifyingly of all, while they have no statistical difference in terms of gameplay, these spectral undead are less trapped souls and more like echoes left behind from where a soul was obliterated, with truly nothing remaining that could be brought back or reasoned with.

Similarly, nightshades are also a sort of inverse shadow of something consumed by Entropy’s Heart. When especially powerful fiends, blinded by ambition, are consumed by the darkest depths of the plane, they come back just as evil, with new forms and barely if any memory of what they once were. These nightshades, or darvakka, seek nothing else but the end of all life and light in the cosmos, their old goals forgotten. And while this may make their goals the same as daemon-kind, even the Abaddon-spawn are not safe from their depredations. (Side note, all the Second Edition nightshade art is a step down from the First Edition art in my opinion. Being able to see clearly all the details of what is supposed to be a shadow monster simply does not have the same effect).

Similar to nightshades are the devourers, though they are not created by the plane nor are they natives. Instead, the soul-stealing devourers traverse the cosmos at the behest of some terrible entity that waits beyond the very edges of the Great Beyond, and many of their errands seem to focus on the Negative Energy Plane as part of their “Shepherd’s” plans.

And then there are the reapers. Be they minor reapers or true grim reapers (or perhaps THE grim reaper. Nobody is sure if there are more than one), nightmarish undead which bring death wherever they go, and so find the Negative Energy Plane soothing or useful in their plans reap the seeds of life. They supposedly originated in Abaddon, but can be found in the Void as well, to the ill fortune of all that cross them.

Of course, not all mortals or immortals end up dead on the plane. Whether it be by huddling around a failing magical effect or artifact, or by being trapped in one of the rare minorly-negative parts of the plane, some living creatures adapt to the constant blight around them, becoming the void-ravaged. Such entities tend to be hateful and solitary, but not necessarily malicious. However, they can never return to the light, for even the neutral levels of positive energy on other planes burns them, slowly destroying them.

And then there are the entities that are neither undead nor tainted, but enter the plane anyway. The most benevolent are perhaps the movanic deva angels, who watch over the plane as part of their duties to the inner planes on behalf of the celestial forces. Less benevolent are the hunduns, whose interest in the cosmic entropy of the Maelstrom overlaps with that of the Void, which they sometimes visit to contemplate Unsurprising given their role as cosmic monks of chaos. And lastly, there is at least one danava titan dwelling in the Nothing, though none can say why or what it is doing there.

And this is where we get into the true natives of the plane, the most destructive of which are the masses of destruction known as oblivions, forming and hatching from egg-like structures, eager to slip into other planes to bring ruin.

Finally, we have the sceaduinar, the true children of the void. These crystalline bat-like creatures are born from great tree-like masses of compressed, crystalline nothingness, and hate both the living and the undead in equal measure. In truth, despite being classified as outsiders, these entities, as well as their cousins the sceazir, are not alive in the conventional sense, having no souls and no inkling of positive energy in them. It is as if they came to be from a process that is simultaneously like and unlike life.

This is appropriate, considering that according to the sceaduinar, they were robbed of the ability to truly create in the earliest days of the cosmos, perhaps by the formation of the Negative and Positive planes themselves. Whatever they might have been before that, the void-bats care not for the necessity of the Void’s creation in making the cosmos as we understand it possible. They only understand the pangs of their ancient loss, and that all other entities are responsible.

As for divinities, most have little interest in such an empty places as the Negative Energy Plane, and certainly none dwell there. At most, certain deities of undeath and entropy show an interest in the plane, sending their servants there, but that’s about it.

That will do for today, but it is interesting to see what lives in a place without life, particularly the strange ecology of the sceaduinar and the mystery of what their form of “creation” might have been like. Tune in tomorrow for a little exploration of the mysteries within!

[idkrpg-ideas]

Reblogging to add that you taking a bit to respond is fine, cause it gave me time to stew on this mystery myself, and I remembered that starfinder has added stuff related to the sceaduinars.

First is that they have some sort of cousin that is much much larger and more powerful. I believe the comparison used is "a dragon to the sceaduinar's drake." I don't have the campaign it's from, so that's about were my knowledge ends. (Don't even got a name, but it's on the cover here)

Second, is that in that same campaign, it's revealed that sceaduinars can create a unique variety of vampire that has a personality very similar to their own. They create and recruit these vampires precisely for this reason. You can read more about them here.

And finally, they can in fact tolerate mortals enough to craft and maintain to create religions. One of the named space nations in the starfinder galaxy, the Shadari Confederacy, is devoted to this religion that actively seeks to speed up the entropic decay of the universe, and supposedly even have a corrupted aeon that gives them the ability to unmake whole worlds. Information on some its members can be found here, here, and here.

Do you know if they ever answered who the true masters of the Akashic Thysiastery? The place is talked about on page 47 of Occult Realms, and the implication of something like the Manasaputras that shed/reject their past lives and are tied to the negative energy plane is something I've been wanting to check out ever since I first read about it, but as far as I know they never said what those guys are in 1e.

If you need, I can provide the description/details that are all we know about these... anti-manasaputras?

Sorry it took me so long to answer this! I don't have an excuse, I just kept forgetting to.

The Akashic Thysiastery is definitely an unusual mystery, one that reeks of something terribly sinister going on behind the scenes. They offer knowledge but deny one the ability to recall the context of why they sought it; for anyone who doesn't have access to the book, the Thysiastery is a floating school in the Astral Plane which is overseen by 10 to 13 Sightless Masters, humanoid entities without eyes. They freely invite those seeking knowledge into their halls, but their application is intense: putting applicants through rigorous forms of meditation and, eventually, bizarre magical experimentation that will over time break down the victim's mind until nothing of their past self remains, turning them wholly into a vessel for the Thysiastery's knowledge. Their past and identity are both destroyed.

Hell of a price for whatever knowledge they're offering, isn't it? It better be good... but there are signs pointing to the idea it's not. As you mentioned, the guiding force of the academy appears in divination to be some form of entity of negative energy somehow similar in power to the Manasaputra. There's no such creature currently existing in Pathfinder canon, and normal natives of the Negative Energy Plane likely wouldn't have the patience for a gaggle of living beings polluting their presence for very long before they lashed out... but there are creatures which fit the description of ascetic entities that spend a lot of time meditating which could easily be used as the mysterious backers to this equally mysterious academy.

I speak of the entropic monks known as the Hundun. They're born directly from the thoughts of powerful entities in the Dark Tapestry and launch far-reaching plans that they hope will eventually result in the collapse of reality itself. They're incredibly powerful, on par with the Manasaputra, and while they're not born in the NEP, they dwell within it nonetheless, basking in the perfect nothingness it embodies. In my head, they make for good heads of this mysterious academy... at least until Paizo creates the Anti-Manasaputra somehow.

The other, more mysterious answer I thought of while typing up this response was that the people who built the academy are the same people who made Eternity's Doorstep.

[dailycharacteroption]

Races Among the Stars 3: Draelik

As a rule, I dislike stereotyping entire species in sci-fi. Legends universe Star Wars did it all the time, and it only ever proved limiting, pidgeonholing entire species into roles based on the first member of the species we see.

Today’s subject, the draelik, kinda have that problem. This yellow or green-skinned race of gaunt humanoids with elongated craniums, with their tufts of cranial bristles and vestigial gills, hail from a waterless world that may have once been covered in oceans, but due to the fact their world lies in a nebula notorious for both its difficulty in navigation and its lawlessness, it is hard to tell exactly what happened to it.

The issue I have with the draelik is that they are mostly pigeonholed into being worshippers of entropy, finding joy in the slow unraveling of reality. Make no mistake, however, their faith is nothing like the cult of the Devourer, whom they consider foolish children thrashing about rather than watching the majesty of all becoming nothing at its own pace. Such zealots do not create except to make things that promote disorder and entropy, and seem to worship and take orders from the curious outsiders called sceaduinars, natives of the Negative Energy Plane.

Thankfully, despite touching upon being an unrealistic monoculture, there are plenty of draelik that do not follow this belief system, instead traveling far beyond the nebula to seek their fortune. Even then, it is hard to escape the nihilism of their culture, and many at least invest in the trappings of being mystics of the void to better sell their talents, but others still try to bring new wonder into the world.

 Draeliks are durable and wise, but their unnerving demeanor and nihilism makes them few friends.

In the dim light of their homeworld, they possess strong darkvision.

Their association with the negative energy plane has granted them some innate magical ability, focused on illusion, inducing fatigue, and summoning up small whispy allies.

Dwelling in the shadows, they are surprisingly stealthy despite their yellow skin.

The connection to entropy and deathly energies does make them more resistant to their effects as well.

 Their constitution bonus and association with entropy makes vanguard an attractive class option, but also note that solarian is popular for them in-canon as well, particularly unbalanced graviton-focused ones. They also favor wisdom, making mystic and instinctive biohackers attractive to them. Technomancer and mystic are likely unpopular except for those focusing on technologies that promote entropy and use negative energy, while soldiers and operatives play into their reputation as shadowy assasins. Envoys likely only occur when draeliks have a working relationship with other species, and witchwarpers likely show up only in the pursuit of new possibilities of nihilism or among those who reject the path of entropy.

Almost done. Tune in tomorrow for the conclusion of this week’s special!

[omg-toowolfcollection-things]

Sceaduinar http://bit.ly/2Xb7ENv

[deffinitelynobody]

I'm not sure a Sceazir is the creature, as the one I'm talking about is shown to be much much bigger. Like, you have to fight it with a spaceship big. (In cover shown below)

Voidshard Vampires are made by Sceaduinars, and occasionally they eat their creators, becoming far more powerful. You can read about these vampires here. (If you homebrew them for pathfinder 1e, or find someone who did, please tag me.)

The Shadari Confederacy has an unspecified number of ancestries that make it up, and to add to the mystery, most of them don't seem to be native to any of the worlds in the Confederacy's worlds. They include Draeliks, Balrodds, and Skrells (who seem to be the only natives to the system).

Bonus fun fact; Shadar is on the edge of Azlanti Space, and actively works to undermine the empire. They mostly do this by funding rebel groups who destabilize the empire.

Reblogging to add that you taking a bit to respond is fine, cause it gave me time to stew on this mystery myself, and I remembered that starfinder has added stuff related to the sceaduinars.

First is that they have some sort of cousin that is much much larger and more powerful. I believe the comparison used is "a dragon to the sceaduinar's drake." I don't have the campaign it's from, so that's about were my knowledge ends.

Second, is that in that same campaign, it's revealed that sceaduinars can create a unique variety of vampire that has a personality very similar to their own. They create and recruit these vampires precisely for this reason.

And finally, they can in fact tolerate mortals enough to craft and maintain to create religions. One of the named space nations in the starfinder galaxy, the Shadari Confederacy, is devoted to this religion that actively seeks to speed up the entropic decay of the universe, and supposedly even have a corrupted aeon that gives them the ability to unmake whole worlds.

(This is a copy-paste of what I said from a reblog. You can find that reblog at idkrpgideas. Sorry, couldn't provide link)

I saw! I just had nothing to really add to it aside from that the 'dragon to their drake' might be the Sceazir, but I'm not exactly sure. These void vampires certainly sound interesting, though, as does the Shadari Confederacy...