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4 years ago ::
Dec 26, 2008 - 5:00AM
#1
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Date Joined:
Nov 26, 2008
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I really appreciate the fact that Wizards left exactly how you acquire and initiate into the various pacts that Warlocks have available to them ambiguous and open. So in this thread let's discuss how characters might make them!
Lucan Pilletza, Half-Elf Starlock: In the Lovecraft tradition, Pilletza ended up becoming a Star-Pact Warlock whilst studying to become a Wizard. Lost in the library one day he happened upon a book that seemed to glitter at him, gemstones embedded in the cover. A few reference dictionaries later he had a few runes from it's pages translated, and that was already too much knowledge for him. He put the book away with fear and tried to put it out of his mind, but over the next few nights he kept having the strangest nightmares about black shapes moving in a starry void, things whispering in languages he'd never heard but could UNDERSTAND. And he answered back. A week later he burned with the cold power of the stars and left the academy, a new destiny already being carved out for him. Now he adventures in order to try and understand what exactly it was he agreed to when he gained his powers.
I always kind of liked the idea that some Warlocks ended up becoming what they were rather on accident, or without realizing the price attached.
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4 years ago ::
Dec 26, 2008 - 7:46AM
#2
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I always kind of liked the idea that some Warlocks ended up becoming what they were rather on accident, or without realizing the price attached.
Wow. That's the same mindset I had for the Warlock I recently made for a game which started last month. Keep in mind that in our world, the Eladrin were banished from the Feywild in a civil war of sorts with the "Drow" (There are no "Elves" in our world.) about 2,000 years ago. The history passed down through the generations since speaks of the Utopia that world was.
Ayanna, Eladrin Fey Pack: When Ayanna was about 14-16 years old, she began to get visions during her Trances. When she explored a bit in her waking hours, she found that they were similar to art/stories about the Feywild. There were impressions she felt which she could somehow translate into a language of sorts. It was with this understand that, at 20 years of age, she collected the plants and herbs as instructed and slices open her palm, allowing the blood to drip upon the collection and seal her soul to her patron (the Primal Beast that Druids get their abilities from). It was during that night's Trance that the nightmares began of what had truly become of the Feywild and Ayanna's mind shattered. She left home soon after with her sister's robe and mother's sword to wander and work to prevent a similar war/collapse in the 'real world'.
I do have so say that I adore my crazy Eladrin. She's not quite sure of what is in her mind and what is before her eyes. Her "Second Winds" work as she retreats into the other world to the comfort of her patron, ignoring the injuries which have been inflicted upon her body.
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4 years ago ::
Dec 26, 2008 - 9:07AM
#3
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Date Joined:
Sep 12, 2007
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I do enjoy the accidental warlocks, mine is cut from the same cloth. His pact was forced upon him.
Ratsel deColm, Human Dark Pact Warlock.
Ratsel's upbringing was as far from a normal child's as could be. His mother killed his father after discovering she was pregnant, all was going according to plan. This was all he knew of his father. He was to be the vassal for something...something evil. At the age of ten, the cultist marked him on his neck. The first of what was to be many symbols. It burned with power and quiet murmurings followed him. He did the only logical thing a ten year old boy could do: run. Now, on the run from the cult who empowered him, he seeks to keep moving.
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4 years ago ::
Dec 26, 2008 - 9:11AM
#4
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Date Joined:
Dec 13, 2003
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Jaycen Shadowborn, Kalashtar Shadowcaster (Played much like a Shadar-kai Fey or Star pact warlock would if he were converted to 4e): The Shadows were always within Jaycen, from the day he was born. For many years he believed he had been born without a soul of his own, replaced by the whispering Shadows, but when he came to the Cloister of Deafening Silence, he learned differently. The monks taught him that the Shadows he heard were the whispering of Ixilat, the god of madness, who was born with knowledge but not form, a dream made manifest in the world, driven mad by the insights it held. Ixilat knew of reality, but could not understand it, so it sometimes chose to split off its essence and send pieces of itself into people, so that when they died the pieces would return and it would absorb the experiences of the person, and, now able to place its memories in context, understand reality. The priests trained to allow the pieces of Ixilat inside them, then to spend the rest of their natural lives teaching Ixilat about the world. They viewed what had occurred to Jaycen a miracle, but a dangerous one, for he did not have knowledge himself. And so they trained him, to allow him to be an effective teacher of the darkness inside him.
What I find most frustrating about 4E is that I can see it includes the D&D game I've always wanted to play, but the game is so lathered in tatical combat rules that I have thus far been unable to coax the game I want out.
When the Cat's a Stray, the Mice will Pray
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4 years ago ::
Dec 26, 2008 - 5:14PM
#5
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Gondolin Starsong, Half-elf Starlock (see my avatar):
Born a bastard, from a society where elves and men saw each other as rivals, lonely and unwanted. One night in his teens, during the new moon, one local trueblood gang picked on him until he could get away. Alone at last, and in an intense emotional state, he swore to the stars that - if he ever had the power - one day he would create a place where halfbreeds need not be outcast and alone. Later that evening, the other gang of truebloods set an ambush for him near his home. Both they and he were surprised when a needle of blueflame starlight lanced down, infusing him and laying the gang leader low.
He is an astrologer and horoscopist, able to tap into the powers of the stars to create people's fate, not just leave it to happen in the indefinite future.
P.S. This assumes that the stars are physical manifestations of otherworldly beings, somewhat like the book The Dosadi Experiment.
Best complements I have yet received: Spoiler:
Show
Making it up as I go along:
{BRJN}
If I was writing the Tome of Lore, I would let Auppenser sleep. But I also would have him dream.
In his dreaming he re-activates the innate powers of (some) mortal minds. Or his dreaming changes the nature of reality - currently very malleable thanks to Spellplague &c. Or whatever really cool flavor text and pseudo-science explanation people react positively to.
{Lord_Karsus}
You know, I like that better than the explanations for the Spellplague.
My plot device: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/ … #489880509 (The reaction is the next post.)
Prepped ahead of time:
I started the thread "1001 Failed Interrogation Results"
{ADHadh}
These are all good and make sense! I just can't come up with something that's not covered here and is not completely ridiculous.
My characters: Spoiler:
Show
Active Characters:
LFR Half-elf StarLock6 Gondolin Nightstar
AoA Dwarf Guardian Druid6 Narvik from House Wavir
Character A-building:
Neverwinter Dwarven Invoker / Heir of Delzoun / worships Silvanus (!)
"Truenamer" - speaks Words of Creation
Concepts I'm kicking around:
"Buggy" Wizard - insect flavor on everything
Halfling Tempest Fighter - just because nobody else is doing it
Shifter Beast-o-phile Druid - for PoL campaign
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4 years ago ::
Dec 26, 2008 - 9:13PM
#6
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Well, here is my warlock pact.
Jenn is a human warlock with a fey pact. She was the daughter of a miller and had no ambition besides to someone she could love and have a family. Then a group of fey went raiding through the mortal world and destroyed her village. She managed to escape the killing, but she ended up in the Feywild. When the rampaging fey returned, they chased her for days. Jenn managed to escape death and was noticed by a band of Summer Court warriors hunting the fey she was running from.
They brought her before Tiandra, and the Summer Queen was impressed by the bravery Jenn showed. Tiandra gifted Jenn with a bit of her power. Jenn now serves the Summer Queen as an emissary. She brings messages to the other courts and carries their replies back to her patron. She also watches the way the other courts are leaning and brings back news.
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4 years ago ::
Dec 26, 2008 - 11:10PM
#7
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Date Joined:
Aug 19, 2007
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Harrow, eladrin feylock
Harrow didn't really sign a Pact, per se.
Harrow is his Pact.
And technically his own Patron, as well.
An eladrin raised by humans who had no idea of his fey heritage, the man who would become Harrow was shunned by the folk of his town for his strange appearance. With no knowledge of his true race, Harrow was slowly driven mad by visions of the Feywild as a child, and by teleporting through it when his fey step ability began to develop. He often found himself vanishing in response to stress or suddenly finding himself in a place he was just thinking about, and would regularly scare others by showing up behind them without warning.
A borderline psychotic, he was unable to deal with the day-to-day details of earning a living in his small community and lived in a ramshackle hut on the edge of town. Many rumors were whispered about him, including the possibility that he was possessed by demons.
Eventually leaving his village to become a wandering madman, Harrow was always one step ahead of the consequences of the last time he lost his temper or his mind.
One day, in a foul mood after wildly attacking a drunkard who'd spilled ale on him and being thrown out of yet another tavern for his outburst, Harrow was travelling through a forest on his way to the next town when a small faerie flew up to him and introduced herself. She was so annoyingly overly cheerful that Harrow snatched her out of the air and SWALLOWED her.
Although the faerie's body was digested the immortal fey's personality and power remained within Harrow, and her body reformed within his as sort of a second nervous system, allowing him to draw on her power. The two are now a symbiotic being, and Harrow hears her thoughts and voice within his head, often getting strange looks for arguing with someone that nobody else can see - even sometimes falling down into a foaming-at-the-mouth seizure as he and the now-completely-insane fairy (nicknamed "Alma" because her name is thirty-seven syllables long) fight over control of his body.
Malachaiah Hartsworn, human infernal-lock
Malachaiah was born into a small isolated society of hereditary warlocks, the descendants of a "lost" group of Pelorite heretics whose beliefs were corrupted by a demon several hundred years ago. Having fled into the wilderness to avoid persecution by the mainstream Church of Pelor, the group's faith was undermined by a demon who made a Pact with a young boy that would eventually become it's leader. Hundreds of years of isolation after that original Pact had twisted the group's faith until no one in the group had any inkling of it's original history.
Malachaiah had been born into a prestigious family noted for producing powerful warlocks, and was already a powerful warlock and respected Elder of the colony at the young age of 18.
At that time just recently married to the scion of another politically (although not magically) powerful family, Malachaiah was informed by the religious leaders of the community that their "Dark Lord" had decreed she would recieve the honor of bearing his child. Although Malachaiah was overjoyed to be so chosen, her husband was much less enthusiastic about having someone other than him sire her first child. Rather foolishly, he forbade her to accept.
No one was particularly surprised when the charred corpse of Malachaiah's husband came crashing through the upper-floor window of their house and landed in the street.
As part of the ceremony in which she was impregnated, Malachaiah forged her own personal Pact with her community's Patron, symbolized by the golden ring which the demon bestowed upon her. Although she hasn't heard from her Patron since that night eight years ago, or seen her cambion child since the other Elders took it from her the day she gave birth to it, she considers the ring to be a marriage vow, and often speaks of her Patron as though he'd just left the room.
Spoiler:
Show
I am the Magic Man.
(Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.)
I am the Lawnmower Man.
(I AM GOD HERE!)
I am the Skull God.
(Koo Koo Ka Choo)
There are reasons they call me Mad...
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4 years ago ::
Dec 29, 2008 - 12:12AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Nov 21, 2008
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Sidus Solitarius, the Lonely Star
Sidus found the means to form a Star Pact in one of the books his adventurer parents brought back as spoils from an old Wizard's library. After spending years learning the necessary languages to comprehend what he was reading, he found out too late the dark nature of the tome. He knew something was wrong when it took his sight.
However, all was not lost. He soon found that he could see people and things, not as they are, but as they will be. While it would often be no more than a second or two in advance, he might occasionally see someone years older. Further, he found that he could focus on an individual, and could see a linear representation of his or her Fate, which he came to call a "Fateline," and by looking along it, he could discern fuzzy, incomplete images of the future. That was how he saw the Cataclysm. He didn't know what it was (in fact, he still doesn't) but it was big, and it was bad. And when it came, it would end thousands, perhaps millions of lives.
Sidus fled his former life, taking his new name, devoted to studying the Fatelines. In time, he learned how to manipulate them, shortening them and drawing upon the untapped potential lost therein to form purple fire. And as he watched how the tiniest change to the most insignificant Fate can change the course of hundreds of Fatelines, an idea grew in his head. He could find a way to stop the Cataclysm. His meager powers could topple a king by showing kindness to a peasant; surely there must be some way to prevent such an apocalyptic event.
Sidus began to keep a book of notes, mainly concerning his studies of Fate manipulation. He has approached his goal with methodical study and careful action. His fear of changing the world in such a way to make it worse has nearly paralyzed him, and he dare not use the vast majority of his prodigious skill lest he cause irreversible harm upon the plane. He has grown obsessed with his task, and his obsession combined with his years of solitary travel to ensure a general malaise towards companions in general, viewing them more as experiments, or potential sources of information than comrades.
The cool thing about this is that his gaining new abilities is less "Oh hey, I leveled up and learned a new power." It's really "Okay, I've done enough study in this aspect of Fateline alteration to try this safely." And I thought it was pretty cool that he'd draw the energy for his Eldritch Blast from the untapped potential of his foe's premature deaths.
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4 years ago ::
Dec 29, 2008 - 12:15AM
#9
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Date Joined:
Nov 21, 2008
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Sorry, double post.
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4 years ago ::
Dec 29, 2008 - 1:23AM
#10
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Tea Telæsthesia is the granddaughter of a powerful duke of the Unseelie Court. Her family has a long history of passing its arcane power on to the next generation. When Tea was very young she went with her father and grandfather to the family barrows, where the powerful souls of her ancestors congregated in an eternal revelry. There she was imbued with and given access to their powers so long as she promotes the power of the family Telæsthesia.
Her pact-drawback is one she did not discover until traveling to Faerun. On the strange world of Abeir-Toril, Tea encountered the first cleric she had ever seen - a dwarf cleric of Moradin - and the first holy symbol she had ever smelled. It smelled divine (pardon the pun) to her. And after she had filched it she took a bite. And the taste was heavenly (gomen, the puns are just too easy). To Tea all holy symbols smell and taste delicious and, so long as they are not magically enchanted, can be consumed and digested.
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