The City of 7 Seraphs
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Frost Lich
Few undead are as well-known as the lich. However, either by design or magical interference, the caster can become infused with freezing cold as well as unholy energy, creating an alternate creature known as the frost lich.
A council of frost liches known as the Emissaries of Winter serve as the advisors of the Frozen Graves. This group handles much of the organization’s business, leaving their leader to pursue his own research and interests. The Emissaries are notoriously scheming, though thankfully for the rest of the City, they choose to mostly focus their plots on each other. With eternity at their fingertips, these undead concoct ever-more elaborate machinations against their fellow council members in the hopes of gaining favor, powerful magical items, or simply satisfaction.
There are tales of creatures being cursed (or blessed, depending on one’s view) spontaneously with this state through the will of the gods or the touch of the Planes, though none of these have been proven. Particularly under these extraordinary circumstances, a frost lich is said to be able to fight the evil of its undead nature, though it forever remains tainted by the necrotic energy that animates it.
Purposefully becoming a frost lich requires more effort and precision than the already-daunting task of becoming a lich. Such a feat requires the creature to have a caster level of 12, and the crafting of a frost lich’s phylactery costs 25% more than it would otherwise.
Creating a Frost Lich
“Frost lich” is an acquired template that can be added to any creature that meets the requirements of becoming a lich. The statistics for a frost lich are identical to that of a lich except as noted here. Any abilities gained by a frost lich are in addition to those of a lich.
CR: Same as base creature +3
Alignment: Any non-good
Type: A frost lich gains the cold descriptor
Senses: A frost lich gains tremorsense 20 ft. on snow and ice
Damage: A frost lich’s touch attack does an additional 1d8 points of cold damage. This additional damage does not apply when the frost lich uses its touch attack to heal a creature.
Special Abilities:
Armor of Ice (Su): A frost lich can, as a standard action, wreath its body in ice. This grants the lich an additional +4 natural armor for 1 round per 2 Hit Die possessed by the frost lich. While this ability is active, the frost lich takes a -4 penalty to all Dexterity-related checks. A frost lich can use this ability 3 times per day.
Freezing Aura (Su): The frost lich radiates a chilling aura as though it were an old white dragon.
Frosted Step (Su): A frost lich can move across icy surfaces without penalty and does not need to make Acrobatics checks to run or charge on ice.
Freeze the Flames (Su): A frost lich can, as an immediate action, expend a spell slot to reduce the damage of any spell with the fire descriptor by a number of points equal to the expended spell’s damage. The damage is reduced before calculating the doubled damage on account of the frost lich’s fire vulnerability. A frost lich can use this ability a number of times equal to half its caster level.
Skills: A frost lich has a +8 racial bonus on Survival checks and always treats Survival as a class skill.
Inkflesh Initiate [Booksealers]
Many among the elders of the Booksealers appear mortal. They are not: beneath their skin pumps not blood, but ink; instead of bones, they possess only infinite layers of yellowed parchment. Their tongues are merely tattoos reading “taste” and “speak”…and their pitch-dark eyes can read in the depths of unfathomable blackness without a candle.
“Inkflesh initiate” is an inherited template that can be added to any corporeal creature who has an Intelligence score of 3 or higher and who has successfully performed the Initiation of Inkflesh occult ritual, below (referred to hereafter as the base creature).
Challenge Rating: Base creature’s CR + 1.
Alignment: An inkflesh initiate usually has the same alignment as the base creature; none of these creatures are good-aligned and most tend toward evil and law.
Type: The creature’s type changes to construct. Do not recalculate base attack bonuses, saves, or skill ranks.
Armor Class: An inkflesh initiate gains a bonus to its natural AC based on its HD, as noted in the following table.| HD | Natural Armor Bonus |
|---|---|
| 1–4 | — |
| 5–8 | +1 |
| 9–12 | +2 |
| 13–16 | +3 |
| 17+ | +4 |
Hit Dice: Change all of the creature’s racial hit dice to d10s. All hit dice derived from class levels remain unchanged. As constructs, an inkflesh initiate gain a number of additional hit points as appropriate for its size (+10 hit points for Small creatures, +20 for Medium creatures, +30 hit points for Large creatures, etc.). In addition, an Inkflesh initiate uses its Charisma score in place of its Constitution score when calculating hit points, due to its written in blood and bold prose extraordinary ability (see below).
Defensive Abilities: An inkflesh initiate gains the standard immunities and traits of construct creatures. In addition, it gains vulnerability to fire and rejuvenation.
Rejuvenation (Su) When an inkflesh initiate creature is destroyed, it reforms 2d4 days later as text within its chosen tome. The only way to permanently destroy an inkflesh initiate is to destroy the tome containing its essence before the creature reforms.
Attacks: An inkflesh initiate retains all weapon proficiencies and natural weapons. It also gains use of a single masterwork melee weapon, for which it must possess proficiency, which it may draw from its chosen tome at will as a free action; the inkflesh initiate may only draw one such weapon at a time. This weapon gains an enhancement bonus (or equivalent weapon special abilities) when wielded by the inkflesh initiate; the bonus is based on the hit dice of the inkflesh initiate, as noted in the table below. A weapon created in this way melts into a puddle of non-magical ink and coils of burned parchment when the inkflesh initiate creature is destroyed, or when the weapon is released by the inkflesh initiate for more than one round.
| HD | Weapon Enhancement Bonus |
|---|---|
| 1–3 | — |
| 4–6 | +1 |
| 7–9 | +2 |
| 10–12 | +3 |
| 13–15 | +4 |
| 16+ | +5 |
Abilities An inkflesh initiate has no Constitution score.
Skills An inkflesh initiate gains a +10 racial bonus on Stealth checks while within a library or bookstore while using her become text ability. In addition, an inkflesh initiate may always pass as a living member of her species with no Disguise check required when she is not using her become text ability.
Special Qualities An inkflesh initiate gains the following special qualities:
Written in Blood and Bold Prose (Ex) An inkflesh initiate uses its Charisma score in place of its Constitution score when calculating hit points, Fortitude saves, and any special ability that relies on Constitution (such as when calculating a breath weapon’s DC).
Become Text (Su) As a standard action, an inkflesh initiate can transform into a cloud of floating words in the vague shape of her former self, gaining many of the benefits of the swarm subtype. While in this state, the inkflesh initiate is immune to any physical spell or effect that targets a specific number of creatures (including single-target spells such as disintegrate, but not including mind-affecting effects that target a single creature), with the exception of spells and effects generated by the inkflesh initiate, which always treat the inkflesh initiate as a single creature if she so chooses. She also takes 50% more damage from area effects (such as fireball and splash weapons). While in this state, she is also susceptible to high winds: she is treated as a Fine creature for the purposes of determining wind effects.
While in this form, an inkflesh initiate suffers no penalties for squeezing and can move through spaces as if she were a creature of Fine size. Any nonmagical attack she makes deals half damage; magic attacks are unaffected, and the inkflesh initiate can still use her magic items and other equipment as normal. The inkflesh initiate cannot retreat inside solid objects nor truly fly—though weightless, she must start her turn adjacent to something that is both solid and of Small size or larger (such as the ground or a wall). She may not enter any liquid, but she may walk upon the surface as if it were solid. Anyone attacking the inkflesh initiate while she is in this state must either take a -4 penalty on their attack roll or resolve the attack against both the inkflesh initiate and the surface to which she is immediately adjacent. An inkflesh initiate can restore herself to her mortal-seeming guise at any time as a standard action.
Enter Book (Su) While she is in her become text state, the inkflesh initiate may enter any book she touches. When she does so, her physical body disappears, and she immediately appears within the text of the book: either as an editor (in the case of poetry and non-fiction) or as a character (in the case of fiction or prose).
The inkflesh initiate can use her normal senses upon the outside world while within a text and may attempt Perception checks to notice anything occurring near the book that she has entered. While within a text, the inkflesh initiate can move anywhere within the book, hiding within the pages as a background character or ducking behind a stray comma, and she may even temporarily alter it (such as by killing the main character on the first page or by editing the text directly so that she may “speak” directly to a reader). The inkflesh initiate cannot use any spells or other abilities while within a book. The inkflesh initiate can leave a book that it has entered at any time as a move action; once it leaves the text, the book immediately reverts to the state it had before the inkflesh initiate entered. If someone destroys or damages the book while it is occupied, the inkflesh initiate is unharmed but immediately exits the book.
Initiation of Inkflesh (Occult Ritual)
School Transmutation; Level 9th
Casting Time 9 hours
Components V, S, M (an accurate but flattering biography of the primary caster, as she wishes to be remembered, worth at least 4,000 gp; exotic & toxic inks mixed with powerful drugs, worth at least 4,000 gp.), F (thirteen full-length mirrors, fifteen pedestals, a darkwood chalice, heavy velvet curtains suitable for use in a library and a high-quality source of music, worth a total of 28,000 gp), SC (minimum zero; a maximum of up to twenty secondary casters may assist with this ritual)
Skill Checks Craft (tattooing) DC 33, 2 successes; Knowledge (arcana) DC 33, 2 successes; Perform (singing or string instruments) DC 33, 1 success; Perform (oratory) DC 33, 1 success; Profession (writer) DC 33, 2 successes; Spellcraft DC 33, 1 success
Range self
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance no
Backlash The primary caster is exhausted and immediately falls to -1 hit points, bleeding out and dying (if still a living creature); the primary caster also suffers a permanent -4 penalty to one ability score (selected by the primary caster). The caster may choose to reduce her Constitution score with this Backlash: if the ritual is successful, this penalty is obviated.
Failure The primary caster immediately suffers the effects of feeblemind and gains the ravenous creature templateAB. The primary caster gains sustenance only from consuming the flesh of the ritual’s secondary casters, although she may mistakenly attempt to gain sustenance from other members of her own species or from books in her bestial fury. If the primary caster is ever slain by violence or other mishap (rather than dying of her accursed starvation), she returns to life in 2d4 days (as per true resurrection) and gains either the advanced simple template, the giant simple template or another appropriate +1 CR template (such as the earth-infused template); these special templates always stack.
Effect This ritual may only be cast on the primary caster’s birthday. It must be cast indoors, within a library, near windows, during daylight hours while the sunlight is blocked by curtains; the ritual must be completed after the sun is set, bathed in near-total darkness (lit only by candles, if at all). This ritual may only be cast by a living creature. By means of this ritual, the caster may apply both the advanced simple template and the inkflesh initiate template to herself.
The ritual begins with the primary caster placing an accurate but flattering biography herself, as she wishes to be remembered, upon a curtain-draped pedestal; this book will become her chosen tome if the ritual is successful.
The primary caster then stands upon a matching pedestal; she gazes at this book: and at the surrounding mirrors: near-exclusively for the duration of the ritual. The primary caster is then tattooed, head-to-toe, with the text of her book as it is read aloud, becoming lost in the reflections around her as the drugs set in. She sings in-time with the provided music until she cannot tell which image is her, becoming the book: an elaborate, shadow-draped fantasy.
If any mirror is damaged or destroyed during the course of this ritual’s casting, or if the primary caster’s chosen tome is harmed in any way, the ritual automatically fails.
The ritual concludes with the primary caster receiving an unholy “baptism” from a darkwood chalice full of drug-laced ink, drinking deeply & becoming reborn. If the ritual is successful, the primary caster vanishes: she appears within her text within 2d4 days, as normal.
| City of 7 Seraphs by Lost Spheres Publishing | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classes | |||||||||||
| Aegis | Aethernaut | Echo | |||||||||
| Eclipse | Nexus | Radiant | |||||||||
| Shadow Weaver | Sphereshaper | Theurge | |||||||||
| Races | |||||||||||
| Ceptu | Judow | Mirrorkin | Rhyzala | Shadow Fey | Veryx | ||||||
| Xodai | |||||||||||
| Luminous Organizations | |||||||||||
| Ashlords | Children of Dreams | Everlasting Dawn | Foreseers | House of Prominence | Steamstriders | ||||||
| Neutral Organizations | |||||||||||
| Cocoon Pact | Descendants of Thunder | ||||||||||
| Umbral Organizations | |||||||||||
| Blackswords | Booksealers | Church of Coin | Frozen Graves | Hands of Burden | Scarlet Sovereignty | ||||||
| Get The City of 7 Seraphs | |||||||||||
| Get Spheres of Akasha | |||||||||||