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 Thayd - Legend and Vestige Abilities

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sleyvas Posted - 23 Oct 2011 : 04:35:18
Here's to hoping this displays right

I wrote this up, because I was just intrigued with the idea. I hope you like the realmslore. Hopefully there's no real contradictions. Please let me know what you think. I know some may not like the extra piece I put at the end where arcane casters get some extra abilities, but I'm thinking that the fact that they have to give up entire control of their character to the dungeonmaster in order to use said abilities might be scary enough that they'll be careful about when they use them.


Thayd, the last Imaskari

Vestige Level 6th
Binding DC 28 Special Requirement: Yes
The stories of Thayd's powers are numerous and varied. It is well documented that he was a practictioner of the arcane arts, but exactly of what art varies by teller. Some say he was a conjurer of amazing skill, some say he was a practictioner of the dark arts of necromancy, some say a warlock with ties to alien beings of power and madness, some say he was a practictioner of pact magic, some say he was a being who sought to enhance his body with fiendish power. In truth, all of these stories are true. As a result of his studies in life, Thayd is a popular choice amongst anima mages and eldritch animists (multi-class warlock-animists).
Legend: Thayd was a powerful member of the Imaskari whose abilities in planar travel had led him to many other worlds. In doing so, he had discovered many different cultures of magic and had brought this learning back to his homeland. Due to his own culture's mistrust of divine beings, whom he believed wished to enslave their followers, Thayd soon found himself to be a prominent member amongst the Theurgian Society an another prime world. In particular, Thayd's studies into other prime planar theories had discovered that other worlds often shared similar stories of powerful beings that could be contacted through pact magic. This led him to test his theories by trying to contact the same vestiges from within different Crystal Spheres.
Its rumored that Thayd setup portals to the Theurgist's Library from Toril, though where these portals terminated and if they still function is unknown. These rumors also suggest that a spell-enshrouded trap was placed upon one of them by the Mulan manifestation of Thoth during the uprising of the Mulan slaves against their Imaskari masters. Thayd was studying in this other prime material plane when said uprising occurred, so he was caught off-guard when his mystical wards began to alert him to the fall of Inupras. Unfortunately, he was not prepared for the trapped symbol where he appeared on the other side of the portal, which set off a spell of imprisonment that placed Thayd in suspended animation and trapped within the world.
More than a millenia passed but eventually a powerful anima mage of the Theurgian Society rediscovered lore on the lost portal to Toril and their former ally, Thayd. Hoping to gain more power, the Theurgian passed through the portal (its trap having long since lost its power) and divined where Thayd was and used a spell of freedom. Little is known of what happened next nor exactly how much time passed. What is known is that eventually Thayd discovered exactly what had happened to his people, and his wrath was great. Still, he knew that he was still only one man and he knew that he must gather power and make alliances again before confronting the Mulan Incarnations who had usurped his old homeland.
The path to his rise in power is muddled, though its rumored that he gathered followers from the Mausoleum City, Pholzubbalt, as well as powerful mages from the surrounding territories. Calling themselves the Theurgist Adepts, they started a war with the empires of Mulhorand and Unther. Utilizing powerful evocations, foul necromancies, and the binding of powerful fiends and elementals, Thayd and his Theurgist Adepts quickly seized the northern portions of both empires. The native nar people of the area find themselves in a quandary, as some prefer their new masters, while others find their new masters abhorrent. Many Nar tribesmen find pact magic and its simplicity alluring and become seduced by its power, joining the leagues of the Theurgist Adepts.
Realizing that they would need slaves to hold his newly formed empire, Thayd built a keyed portal to another prime plane containing an empire of fanatically religious orcs. However, he feared to bring over adult orcs, because he did not want to risk religious insurrection as his forebears had. Therefore, he and his Theurgist Adepts raided the world in lightning strikes, taking only the youngest of orcs back with them (knowing full well, that it would only take a few years for them to reach adulthood as opposed to human slaves). The older orcs were either sacrificed to their demon allies or turned into undead to further aid the Theurgists' war efforts.
The exact culmination of assaults which ultimately led to Thayd's fall is undocumented, but its said that the incarnations of the gods finally rose up against him and the Theurgist Adepts. After days of battle, which had cost him his contingencies, his corpse hosts, many of his simulacrums, many of his most powerful magic items, and even forced him into the body of his clone in his laboratory, he found himself in desperate straights. He did not have the time or resources lined up to perform the ritual of endless night which would allow him to become a lich after he died, but he did have a scroll of a phylactery link spell which he'd first learned of in the Theurgist's library. It combined that art of wizardry with the power of pact magic to create a temporary link between the caster and a vestige phylactery, such that if the caster were killed his soul would be transferred to the phylactery, but it could return to the original body if it were healed to consciousness. Knowing that his remaining two simulacrums awaited him in his final safehold and could use limited wish spells to restore his body, Thayd cast the phylactery link spell then used scrolls of contingency and teleportation upon himself, quickly grabbed a few staves and wands, renewed his vestige bindings, and then set about to re-memorize his spells. Unfortunately for him, Thayd would not have time to restore his roster of arcane magic before his enemies rediscovered him, and his spell of teleportation failed him due to the power of a weirdstone which the Incarnations had brought with them to counter the Imaskari planar magics. His body bled out on the floor even as his soul transferred to the vestige phylactery and all he could do was hope that it would return to a healthy state somehow as time passed. Unfortunately, twenty four hours later, Thayd learned that there was a previously undocumented drawback to the phylactery link spell which he'd cast, when his soul was transferred to the place between life and death where vestiges reside.
Special Requirement: Thayd's manner of passing makes him relish the feeling of life. As a result, he requires that the binder voluntarily give of his own health in order to bind Thayd (in the form of voluntarily taking 1 point of Constitution loss). If this constitution loss is recovered while Thayd is still bound, the pact becomes an unsuccessful pact and the binder suffers as though he had ignored the wishes of a vestige that influences him (i.e. -1 penalty on attack rolls, saves, and checks until Thayd leaves). Due to this requirement, and the power of his influence, most binders will not bind Thayd to themselves on a daily basis, but will do so when they require his particular brand of granted abilities. Thayd refuses to bind to any being who is devoted to a deity, as he finds the interaction less fulfilling.
Manifestation: A tiny metal box covered in arcane symbols about the size of a jewelry box rises out ground where Thayd's symbol is drawn. Thayd appears to pull himself up out of this box, though there is no way his body could have fit in such a small space. He appears as he did in life, which is to say his appearance changes each time as he appears to be a binder displaying the various signs of other vestiges to which he has bound himself. Still, in all of his appearances, he appears to have a wound seeping blood which drips onto the symbol at his feet and disappears.
Sign: You appear to have a wound on your torso that slowly drips blood. Simple bandages can prevent this blood from being seen by anyone else or ruining your clothing. It will not stop bleeding however for as long as you have the constitution loss as a result of binding Thayd. You cannot suppress this sign unless you can also ignore the special requirements of binding to this vestige.
Influence: Thayd's influence causes you to have a particular hatred of cleric, paladins, and other devotees of deities. You must require that all those who serve gods also stand in deference to your own will, and you must assert your superiority to them. If they will also accept your commands and serve you, then Thayd is satisfied. Otherwise, you may never come to their aid nor work to prevent them from being harmed (even by your own hand), and given any chance to betray them you must do so.
Granted Abilities: Thayd grants you the ability to analyze portals, summon a swarm of bones to assault your enemies, bind a fiend to your will, and summon a howling chain to assault and hinder your foes. In addition, if you possess the abilities of an arcane spell caster (for instance, if you are a multi-class arcane character), Thayd provides you some additional abilities.
Analyze Portal - at will, as the spell from the forgotten realms campaign setting
Summon Bone Swarm - at will, you summon a swarm of skeletal hands, claws, teeth, talons, etc... that attack your target at your base attack bonus once per round for 2d6 points of slashing dmg. The bone swarm continues to attack for 1d4+2 rounds and is AC 12 with half the binder's hit points. You may only have one swarm in effect at a time, and if the target dies the bone swarm disappears.
Devil's Pact - By taking 10 minutes to draw a binding circle, the binder is able to summon a devil to serve him. However, unlike a planar binding spell, the binder is given the truename of the fiend by Thayd, and as a result there is no chance of the fiend turning against its master. Making this pact requires the sacrifice of an intelligent being, whose blood is used in the creation of the binding circle. No more than one fiend can be bound at a time.
This devil will accompany you and fight for you. This devil obeys your commands to the best of its abilities. If the devil is more than 30 feet from you at the end of your turn, it is automatically unsummoned. If the devil is unsummoned or destroyed, you cannot summon another for 1 hour. The type of devil you can summon depends on your binder level (you can always summon a lesser devil if you want to)
1st-10th imp
11th-12th bearded devil, chain devil, or hell cat
13th-15th bone devil or erinyes
16th-18th barbed devil
19th or higher gelugon

Howling Chain - at will, you may cast Howling Chain as the spell found in the Player's Guide to Faerun. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

SPECIAL ABILITIES FOR ARCANE CASTERS: Having been an anima mage himself, Thayd appreciates it when his binders do NOT use exploit vestige on him (since exploit vestige lessens his connection to the binder). He doesn't mind if they use exploit vestige on other vestiges. Using the below abilities requires the binder to give complete control to the vestige (i.e. the DM) for the entire round that the spells are cast, and therefore binders that have displeased Thayd should beware. The PC cannot provide any input as to what spells to use with vestige metamagic nor any other castings that occur that round.

Summon Undead - The arcane caster gains an extra arcane spell of his highest level, but this spell must be a summon undead spell for that level (ex. a 5th lvl slot would be filled with Summon Undead V). Note that it doesn't matter if this spell is on the character's spell list or not, nor if its from an opposition school, nor does this spell count against the maximum number of spells per day.
Summon Alien - The arcane caster gains an extra arcane spell of his highest level, but this spell must be a summon monster spell for that level (ex. a 5th lvl slot would be filled with Summon Monster V). Note that it doesn't matter if this spell is on the character's spell list or not, nor if its from an opposition school, nor does this spell count against the maximum number of spells per day. The monster(s) to be summoned must be ones that would normally have the fiendish template assigned, but rather than the fiendish template, the pseudonatural template should be assigned (see complete arcane).
Additional Vestige Metamagic - As the ability given by the anima mage prestige class, except that this usage is controlled by Thayd (i.e. the DM) himself. Note: this also gives the DM control over any additional spells being cast in this same round. This usage of Vestige Metamagic is in addition to any (if any) provided by the anima mage prestige class.
6   L A T E S T    R E P L I E S    (Newest First)
xaeyruudh Posted - 22 Sep 2013 : 03:48:00
Interesting... I also made Thayd Imaskari and tied him to the Orcgate more directly than the FR10 lore did, though not in this way. Cool that I'm not the only one who thought those connections made sense. I haven't read up on vestiges but this seems pretty neat.
sleyvas Posted - 21 Sep 2013 : 22:13:39
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay

I like the historic connections a lot. Never pictured Thayd as Imaskari, but it makes some sense.

One question: Why'd you bother with him stealing 'orc kids' instead of adults? Just wondering what your reasoning was behind that bit.

I'll be stealing this as well.



He stole orc children because "in his understanding" they would have "learned" less of their religion and have less of a chance to "call" their deities over to the world. Remember, Thayd was in the dark on the actual workings of the cosmos to a degree, so some assumptions were made on his part. Also, children brought over as slaves and bred to service are less likely to revolt. He was trying to think more long-term than short term.


Realizing that they would need slaves to hold his newly formed empire, Thayd built a keyed portal to another prime plane containing an empire of fanatically religious orcs. However, he feared to bring over adult orcs, because he did not want to risk religious insurrection as his forebears had. Therefore, he and his Theurgist Adepts raided the world in lightning strikes, taking only the youngest of orcs back with them (knowing full well, that it would only take a few years for them to reach adulthood as opposed to human slaves).
Markustay Posted - 21 Sep 2013 : 21:05:54
I like the historic connections a lot. Never pictured Thayd as Imaskari, but it makes some sense.

One question: Why'd you bother with him stealing 'orc kids' instead of adults? Just wondering what your reasoning was behind that bit.

I'll be stealing this as well.
The Arcanamach Posted - 21 Sep 2013 : 20:47:39
Consider this excellent piece of work stolen. Very nice.
sleyvas Posted - 23 Oct 2011 : 12:06:13
Oh, I kind of left out some little bit. Specifically, he only gives the 3 extra abilities IF said binders do NOT use exploit vestige on him. If they do that, then said abilities are revoked if not already used. If already used, then the NEXT time Thayd is bound, he'll remember how he was treated.... and when he's given full control of the binder's body, remember that committing simple suicide just may not be the worst thing that he can do to said binder in retribution when reviewing said caster's spell list.

Also, the Orcgate was keyed to require the blood of Thayd to open. However, after his death, his followers used a spell to remove the key requirement from the portal, which is how the orc invaders were able to come through. The remaining Theurgist Adepts fled the region (most to found Narfell, some to the Underdark city of Pholzubbalt where Mulhorandi necromancers lived, and some to the wastes of the Imaskari Empire in the Raurin Desert or further south and eventually to Zakhara). It should also be noted that while the Theurgian Society was heavily involved with binders, the Theurgist Adepts were a strong mix of whatever foul arcanists come to mind (warlocks, alienist wizards, sorcerors and wizards with fiendish links, blood mages, anima mages, necrocarnates, soul casters, Wu Jen with a dark side, warmages, dread necromancers, liches, etc...). What few divine casters they had were typically archivists in service to a demon or devil lord (seeing this devotion as similar to making a pact with another being who did not seek to enslave them to their will).
Brimstone Posted - 23 Oct 2011 : 07:08:08
Thats bad a**!

I have always liked Binder's from Tome of Magic.

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