Scourge

Born of alien radiance

The strange, alien truth of the monstrous divine is more vast and terrible thing than most realize. So great, so devastating is the presence of each monstrous god, that it becomes tempting to dream that their tremendous slumbering forms are all there is.

You know better, for you are their waking hand: what the twilight world thinks of as a monstrous god is merely a tiny fragment of their terrible truth. Each Megalith is in and of itself an entire alien universal, and you are their waking hand in this poor, doomed eternity.

You see them in your dreams, and their awesome infinite forms consume your every thought. You are alive with their cosmic urges, and you are driven by their terrible design. You don’t truly know if you even really existed before the shards of their terrible truth filled your mind. Does it really matter? Even if you did exist, it was a half-state: now, you are so much more.

Scourges are unholy agents of the strange monstrous divine. They represent the slumbering, otherworldly dimensions of the Megaliths each with their own surreal metaphysic. It is their job to act on behalf of the great slumbering monstrous gods: to spread their terrible periphery and slowly take down the material realm, stone by inevitable stone.

Ruin the monstrous world

Each monstrous god protrudes somewhat into this, the mortal eternity of the twilight world of Oshanal. Although at one time they burst through the dimensional barriers with cataclysmic force, today they have been largely slowed in their advance by the great magics of the Spinning Cage.

Still, as one approaches the still, slumbering forms of the monstrous divine, one enters into the half-realm that surrounds them, known as their periphery. So tremendous is the monstrous divine that it exudes from their core, and blooms outward, annihilating the world around it in a chaotic metaphysic of monstrous radiance. Stepping into this periphery, one truly enters into a different world altogether: a world of the monstrous god’s.

It is the emanation of this periphery which threatens Oshanal today: though the Megaliths slumber, their periphery crawls slowly forth, and they gain power inexorably as these blighted half-worlds increase in size. However, stepping out of this periphery, the influence of the monstrous gods dwindles fast.

Scourges are parallel with druids, in that they serve the primordial creatures at the heart of life and death for their realm. For a scourge of the Megalith, there is a clear mission: set out from your slumbering god and show the rest of this doomed eternity Their monstrous truth. This will ruin the monstrous world and claim it for your Megalith, but in the end everyone will see the splendor of your monstrous home and agree: it will have been worth it.

Stepping outside of the periphery surrounding one of the monstrous divine is the same as leaving its considerable influence. In order to carry the terrible might of their gods, scourges adorn themselves with etchings of a Megalith’s myriad names.

Etched in profane runes

Scourges were once something different, either a mortal of their own free will or some other place, or thing. In the terrible alien light of a Megalith, they have been somehow remade, turned into an autonomous creature possessed of the cosmic urge of their monstrous design.

Scourges are prized by the Megaliths for their raw potential as agents of the monstrous divine, and so are given much trust by the monstrous gods. Scourges are not limited as a Megalith is: they may leave a periphery as they wish, and their life persists. They carry the dream of the Megalith in their mind, but they stride the world of mortals and can become a part of it, sometimes even wielding considerable power and influence.

The keystone of the monstrous design of the scourges is etched upon their body: the runes of the monstrous divine cover each scourge in alien whorls and notches. These runes each bear an aspect of a monstrous god’s name, and scourges access the strange alien magic of the Megalith through these etchings.

In exchange, the scourge is writ with a cosmic destiny to serve their monstrous god and bring about the doom of the twilight world. Everywhere the scourge leverages their runic magic, the blight of the Megalith begins to take hold, and their influence spreads past the boundaries of their periphery.

Creating a Scourge

When designing your scourge, think of the day when they were taken and consumed, or remade in the countenance of their megalithic architect. Most scourges simply had the terrible luck to find themselves the corrupted lands of a Megalith’s periphery. Some sought the monstrous divine out willingly and struck pacts with key emanations for new power. Some scourges were no longer even alive when they found themselves arisen, bent to a new and foreign will. Others, still, were once made of material things but were never alive in the first place.

When did your paths cross the monstrous divine? What were you? What life did you leave behind? When did you first hear the strange alien voices of the nine monstrous universals? What happened when you were taken, how were you remade, what horrible names are etched on your strange frame?

Quick build

Make your scourge quickest by following these suggestions: Pick Wisdom as your highest ability score, followed by Constitution; select the hermit background.

Class Features

As a scourge, you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

• Hit dice: 1d8 per scourge level.
• Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier.
• Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per scourge level after 1st.

Proficiencies

• Armor: Light armor, medium armor, shields.
• Weapons: Clubs, daggers, darts, javelins, maces, quarterstaffs, slings, spears.
• Tools: Disguise kit
• Saving Throws: Constitution, Wisdom
• Skills: Choose two from Arcana, History, Intimidation, Insight, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Religion, and Survival.

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) a light crossbow and 20 bolts or (b) any simple weapon
• (a) a wooden shield or (b) any simple melee weapon
• Leather armor, any simple weapon, and an explorer’s pack

Monstrous Design

You have been seen by the terrible eye of a monstrous god, and in their periphery you found yourself remade into something alien. Choose a monstrous design from the list below. You are that type of creature, and as you advance your design architects the kind of scourge you become.

Design of the Animate

You never knew life before you were caught in the periphery of the monstrous gods. At some point, there came a day when you just... awoke, to your strange new life.

You ignore charm effects, and any attempts to intimidate or persuade you are made with disadvantage. Your mind is simply too strange to comprehend for most mundane efforts.

Design of the Colony

You have been taken apart, and remade with strange, alien materials - often organic. Now this terrible colony thrums inside of you, always whispering the awful words of the monstrous gods.

You may disperse into a cloud of smaller creatures, and move as a swarm. You may move in any direction with your move action, and you may take the disengage action as a bonus action.

Design of the Mask

You were once mortal, but you don’t remember too much about that, now. All you remember is the day you awoke beneath the strange canopy of a Megalithic periphery. Now you roam the world, wearing a strange and empty mask. You don’t know if the compulsions which drive you are truly yours, your lost life’s, or that of the monstrous divine.

You have an inexorable destiny, and while you serve it, nothing may stand in your way. When you use your runic magic, you may choose to ignore any roll result and instead treat the roll as a natural 20. You may not use this feature again until after you have finished a long rest.

Design of the Orphan

You were never mortal. Once, you were a spirit of a different monstrous universal, a cryptic being from a distant radiant realm. When your monstrous god was summoned, so were you, and so you awoke inside of a thing. You were mostly inert, until your host touched you; now, you steer their body, and through it you will venture forth into the monstrous world.

You bear the terrible alien presence of the unearthly realms of the Megaliths. Whenever you roll a 19 or a 20 on a runic magic check, you may choose to use a runic blight effect instead of one of the a runic effects of that rune.

Runic Magic

You are etched with the profane words of the monstrous divine. Although normally the otherworldly essence of the slumbering Megaliths stretch only as far as their periphery, you carry it with you on your very flesh, and wherever you go you may invoke it as you desire.

Runic Magic Ability

Whenever you use a runic magic feature as an attack, you make a runic magic attack check against your target’s AC. Whenever someone attempts to resist one of your runic magic features, they make a check against your runic magic save DC. Use the following formula to determine your runic magic attack and save DC.

• Runic magic save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier
• Runic magic attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier

Etchings

At 1st level, you have been etched with two runes of your choice. These etchings are a permanent thing: it is a part of you, and may not be altered or removed by any manipulation, physical, magical, or divine. Only the Megalith it depicts may remove it.

As you progress in levels of the scourge class, your runes grow in strength and number. You gain another rune of your choice at 3rd, 6th, 9th, 13th, and 17th levels.

Each time you gain a rune, you may pick another rune to exchange. This represents your strange alien metamorphosis, or cosmic deals between the Megaliths (who often “trade” scourges in order to advance their aims).

Using Runes

Each rune has a variety of features that it may be employed to cast. Whenever you use a rune, you decide which of these features to leverage. Using a rune feature functions like casting a cantrip, and shares almost the exact same rules, save that scourges do not have spell components or spell focuses. Instead, they are the components, they are the focus.

As you grow in scourge levels, the strength of your runes increases. Refer to the "Rune Level" column in the scourge class table to see what level your runes features are cast at.

Rune Blight

Runes are profane etchings; names of unholy beings from alien realms. Their mere presence decays the world around them, and using the magics they depict accelerates that corruption considerably.

In addition to the various features of runes, each rune has a blight. You may take an action in order to call a rune’s blight into being. This creates a short term effect which lasts for a number of rounds equal to your proficiency bonus.

Rune Surge

Starting at 2nd level, you may for brief moments unlock a strange wave of Megalithic energy through your runes. On your turn, you may double the amount of runes you may use for that turn.

Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you may use it again. Starting at 17th level, you may use rune surge twice per rest, but only once a turn per use.

Bleak Retinue

At 3rd level, you join a bleak retinue of scourges. Where your monstrous design determines the kind of scourge you were born as, it has no bearing on how you feel about your life as a scourge or what you do about it. That’s where your retinue comes in: a loose organization, sometimes of only a few scourges, who have been united by shared purpose.

Your choice of retinue grants you features when you choose it at 3rd level, and again at 6th, 10th, and 14th levels.

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Using the optional feats rule, you can forgo taking this feature to take a feat of your choice instead.

Extra Rune

Starting at 5th level, you may activate two runes, instead of one, on your turn.

This number of rune activations increases to three when you reach 11th level, and four when you reach 20th level in scourge.

Blightcaller

Starting at 7th level, whenever you get a natural 20 on an attack using runic magic, you double the damage of that runic magic attack. In addition, whenever this occurs, you may immediately use your reaction in order to trigger that rune’s blight effect.

Hand of the Beyond

At 20th level, you no longer age or die of natural causes. In addition, if you have no uses of rune surge left when you roll initiative, you regain one use. Finally, where applicable, double the effect and range of all of your blights, and triple their duration.

Runes

The Judging Dream

Megalith: Amon Nazoth

Older than anything, the dream worlds of Amon Nazoth envelope even the realms of the dead with an eternal nimbus of terrible, unpredictable gossamer. In each of them, at the center, a spire of impossible size climbs to peer over all; at its top, a giant eye that sees all.

When you invoke the judging dream rune, choose one of the following three features to invoke.

Waking Nightmare

You inflict a waking nightmare on a creature you can see within 60ft. Unless they succeed on a Wisdom saving throw, they take 1d4 psychic damage and suffer disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes on its next turn.

At higher levels: When cast at levels past 1st, this rune adds 1d4 extra psychic damage per rune level.

Overwhelming Remorse

One target of your choosing within 30 feet must succeed at a Wisdom check or be incapacitated for one turn.

Howling Visage

Unearthly horror enshrouds you, cowing your foes, making it hard to face you directly. Add +2 to your AC for one round. Attackers may make a Wisdom check when they attack in order to ignore this bonus.

At higher levels: When you activate this rune at levels higher than 1st, add an additional +1 AC for each rune level.

Blight: Harrowing Gaze

A furious flaming eye of Amon Nazoth opens beneath you. This eye occupies a thirty foot circle, and Amon Nazoth himself witnesses all who stand upon it. Any targets you choose caught in its gaze must succeed at a Charisma saving throw in order to do anything except attempt to escape His awful sight. While fleeing, a target is considered frightened.