The Quintessential Chaos Mage
The Quintessential Chaos Mage front cover
| Author | Patrick Younts |
| Series | Quintessential Series |
| Publisher | Mongoose Publishing |
| Publish date | 2003 |
| Pages | 128 |
| ISBN | 1-904577-54-7 |
| OGL Section 15 | qcmg |
Note: Material in this section may be "mature" in nature.
The material below is designated as Open Game Content
The Path of Agonised Ecstasy
The chaotic pathways forged through the body of the chaos mage become overloaded with sensation when this path is walked. Painful experiences become intensely pleasurable, while other sensations are magnified and distorted in similar ways by the forces of chaos. The distracting nature of these changes leaves many chaos mages completely mad, their minds unable to process the new floods of sensation they experience, reducing them to drooling imbeciles.
Step 1 – Love of the Lash
Sources of pain now provide pleasure for the chaos mage, though very intense pains overwhelm this and are still agonisingly painful.
Step 2 – Self Abuse
The chaos mage finds it impossible to stop inflicting minor injuries upon his person. He scratches at himself, uses dagger tips to cut furrows in his flesh and gnaws mercilessly at his own tongue. The pleasure he derives from these experiences is indescribable, leaving others vaguely disturbed if they spend more than a few minutes in his presence. The scratches and other wounds are clearly visible, though they are not yet detrimental to his health.
The character receives a +4 bonus to resist pain of any type or origin. Others find him somewhat disturbing, and he suffers a –1 penalty to all Charisma-based checks.
Step 3 – Embrace of Pain
The chaos mage has successfully mastered his pain at this point and can ride out the waves of pleasure that assault him when his body is damaged. The chaos mage receives a +2 bonus to any Concentration checks he must make as a result of injury.
Step 4 – Sensory Skew
Nothing the chaos mage perceives is quite right, any longer. His tastes are radically changed, leaving him with a hunger for offal and dirt while his stomach recoils at the thought of steak or lobster. Colours shift and skew before him and whispers become roars while loud noises are reduced to an indecipherable background murmur.
The changes in his senses leave the chaos mage with a –1 penalty to all Initiative checks he makes, and a –1 penalty to all Listen, Search and Spot skill checks.
On the other hand, the mage is now utterly inured to the pain and only magically created pain has a chance of affecting him – he is completely immune to mundane torture.
Step 5 – Lust for Horror
In addition to the physical pleasure brought on by pain, the chaos mage becomes mentally aroused by things others find horrific.
As a result of the breakdown in his sensory perceptions, the chaos mage receives a +2 saving throw bonus versus any spell, spell-like ability or circumstance that would normally cause fear. The stress on his system is taking its toll, however, and the mage loses 2d4 hit points from his maximum.
Step 6 – Debilitating Ecstasy
The injuries the chaos mage inflicts upon himself become more severe and the wounds are never given a chance to heal.
This step reduces the chaos mage’s Constitution score by 2 points.
Step 7 – Image of Obsession
Not content to keep his injuries hidden from the world, the chaos mage feels the need to share his ecstatic pain with others. Pliers and candle flames reduce his lips to withered worms of grey scar tissue, while constant cutting at his nostrils for that most exquisite pain has rendered his nasal pages into a fretted and flayed mess in the centre of his face.
As a result, the chaos mage has a hard time dealing with others and his penalty to Charisma-based checks increases to –3. If the chaos mage ever needs to make a Charisma check to attempt to horrify or intimidate others, there is no penalty.
Step 8 – Rushing Feedback
The mage’s senses are so badly crosswired that pain translates to pleasure and pleasure to pain. When he is not concentrating on stopping the cycle, this can lead to a feedback loop that wracks his nervous system with conflicting blasts of pain and skullrattling waves of pleasure that leave him unable to function.
Whenever the chaos mage suffers a number of hit points of damage equal to or greater than one-half of his current Constitution score, he must immediately make a Concentration skill check (DC 10 + damage suffered by the attack). If this check succeeds, he may continue acting as normal (though additional Concentration checks may be needed if he is casting a spell, for example). Otherwise, he immediately stunned for 1d3 rounds, after which he regains control of his nerves.
Step 9 – Addiction to Pain
The pleasure the chaos mage receives from physical injury becomes so great he subconsciously sabotages his body’s natural instincts for survival.
He is always considered flat-footed against any attacks or spells directed against him by a creature that has already injured him during the current combat. However, no pain of any sort will ever affect him mentally; the sensation of pain has been completely transmuted to pleasure. His bonus to resist fear effects increases to +4.
Step 10 – Viral Sensation
The chaos mage becomes a chaotic wave of energy laden with his own confused sensations. The physical body is transmuted into a pure representation of his own agonised ecstasy, which is in turn returned to the chaotic flows of the universe. The spot of his passing becomes renowned among those who seek extreme pleasures or heights of pain, and pilgrims of the outré find their way to his grave for midnight trysts in the hopes of receiving some sort of orgasmic insight.
