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 Shrieking Pain
Pain is a constant companion for some chaos mages. Those who tread this path come to understand pain in all its myriad, horrific forms. Those on the Path of Pain suffer greater harm with each step as chaos energy flays flesh from bones, shreds skin and tears apart the nervous system. The path culminates with the chaos mage entering an endless cycle of torture, locked away in a pocket plane he can never escape.
Step 1 – Flesh of the Martyr
The power of raw chaos infuses the practitioner’s outer tissues while stimulating the production of vital fluids. The mage’s skin becomes more delicate than the finest paper and tears with the slightest movement. Sensation is heightened tenfold and any touch becomes a test of endurance. Even standing is painful, while sitting or lying on anything save silk or satin is pure torment. The chaos mage bleeds constantly, in thin streams of changing colours.
He does gain a +4 bonus on any check that requires an extremely sensitive sense of touch.
Step 2 – Scabs of Decay
The increasing influence of raw chaos damages the character’s immune system. Any wound he suffers heals improperly, leaving a decaying scab which clings to the character for weeks. Even slight scratches or bruises result in nasty looking scars that leak pus.
The character’s unsightly appearance causes a –1 penalty to all Charisma-based checks
Step 3 – Unwholesome Vitality
The power of chaos rips through the character’s nervous system, enhancing every sensation while infusing him with incredible will and unnatural pain thresh holds. This gives him the ability to sustain more damage than before, by allowing him to suffer greater amounts of pain before succumbing.
The chaos mage gains 2 + 1d4 hit points and gains a +2 bonus to all Fortitude saves.
Step 4 – Seeping Boils
Festering sores, filled with squirming parasites, form on the chaos magician’s flesh, periodically bursting and forming anew on what few healthy patches of skin remain. Horrid symbiotes take up residence in the character’s body cavities, emitting foul fluids which leak from any orifice and spawning strange young.
The character suffers 2 points of Constitution loss as his bodily fluids are drained away through the stinking boils. He gains a +4 bonus to resist pain of any sort, as his personal torment is far greater than anything other people can inflict upon him.
Step 5 – Agonised Healing
Increasing damage and nervous hypersensitivity finally catch up with and overwhelm the caster’s strange vitality.
The chaos mage requires three more hours of sleep than normal to be considered to have received full rest, as he is constantly buffeted by suffering and terrifying nightmares of relentless torment. While his will have been ground down, his body is now a thing of chaos magic and if he receives his full amount of sleep, his body can make full use of that force. Provided he receives full rest, the chaos mage heals much faster than normal, recovering 1d4 hits points per character level each day. On the other hand, failure to receive the needed amount of sleep prevents the chaos mage from healing at all and results in a -1 circumstance penalty to all rolls made during the following day.
Step 6 – Unhealing Wounds
The tiny tears of the Flesh of the Martyr now become gaping rents, the unnatural wounds quickly becoming home to more foul parasites which writhe visibly in the wounds and under the skin. These wounds heal quickly, but new ones open just as fast, leaving the chaos mage in a constant state of suffering.
The constant agony leaves the character distracted at all times, so much so that he suffers a -2 penalty to all Concentration checks and a -1 penalty to all Reflex saving throws.
Step 7 – Spectral Flensing
The forces of chaos are now such a part of the character’s body that they gather invisibly around him after casting and strip the flesh from his bones. Completion of each spell leads to shrieking torment that would slay any normal person, but simply adds to the mage’s torment.
The chaos mage’s suffers a –1 penalty to Will and Fortitude saves from the constant agony and fleshstripping, but he also gains a virtual immunity to physical torment. He is considered to have damage reduction 5/-.
Step 8 – Chaotic Bleeding
The character’s fluid system goes into overdrive as cellular mutations cause by raw chaos force it into frenzied activity. The character’s system is so overcharged that any time the chaos mage suffers real damage, he spurts unnatural amounts of blood.
The character suffers an additional 1d4 points of damage every time he sustains a wound. By this point the mage’s personal torment is paramount. Any torture, spells or effects that inflict physical or mental pain will not affect the mage in any way other than damage (i.e. hit point or ability score loss will remain, but the psychological damage is ignored).
Step 9 – Razor Bones
Every bone in the caster’s body gains a blade sharp edge that saws away at surrounding tissues and occasionally slices through the surface of his skin. Even the furious activity of his unwholesome constitution is insufficient to completely keep up with this destruction.
The chaos mage suffers 2 points of Constitution loss as his body slowly cuts itself to pieces. Anyone grappling the character or striking him with a natural or unarmed attack will take 1d8 points of damage per round of contact.
Step 10 – Ceaseless Torture
With a scream capable of driving a strong man instantly mad, black energies tear a hole in the universe, sucking the chaos mage into a pocket plane submerged deep in the river of chaos. The mage is beyond saving, lost in an endless loop of indescribable agony until the end of the universe.
