6th Level Vestiges (5e Other)

Desharis, the Sprawling Soul

Legend: According to ancient myths, the earliest true community was a human village called Desh, or "shelter" in the old tongue. Here the people dwelt together for protection against predators, and they first constructed structures rather than use existing shelters for protection against the elements.

This legend itself is neither uncommon nor unknown today. What few realize, however, is how swiftly the natural and magical worlds adapt to changes within. Desh was not merely the first community, but it also birthed the first urban fey, a distant ancestor of what would become the mighty zeitgeist.

Desharis knew nothing of his own origins. He knew only that of his two conflicting urges — one to protect the sanctity of the natural world, the other to defend Desh and the people therein — the latter was by far the stronger. Invisibly, he worked to stave off attacks from predators; to keep the village free of plague; and to aid its inhabitants when other humanoids attempted to raid Desh for its supplies. While the people of Desh thanked the gods and spirits for their fortune, however, they never knew of Desharis himself. The other fey of the world, horrified at the notion of a spreading society that might supplant the natural order, counted Desharis a traitor. They worked to thwart his efforts and even destroy him. Though he was, in effect, the very embodiment of community, Desharis was ever alone.

Desharis grew bitter at the disdain of the other fey, and some suggest that he inspired the spread of civilization as vengeance against them. Whatever the case, Desharis spread as the notion of community did, growing ever more diffuse, ever larger. Though he gained in size and influence, he gained nothing in the way of power; smaller villages added nothing to his abilities, and larger communities frequently birthed their own urban fey. Eventually, the spirit of community was too diffuse and spread out to exist as a being at all — and yet, as the embodiment of civilization, now a permanent part of the world, he could not entirely fade away.

Special Requirement: If you have gone more than a day without binding Desharis, you may only draw his seal in a village or larger city. Attempts to do so elsewhere fail outright. You can, however, "carry" Desharis into the wild; this is why you may continue to summon him, even outside the urban environment, if you have not allowed more than a day to lapse since you last did so.

Manifestation: Desharis appears with the sound of a hundred distant voices talking and shouting, though specific words remain completely unintelligible. A veritable mob of individuals appears as from a great distance, as though the air above his seal had become a window to some other place. As the mob approaches, these bare silhouettes meld together even as they take on greater details, eventually combining to form a single humanoid shape standing 10 feet in height. Though the silhouettes look human, Desharis himself appears made of equal amounts of stone, wood, metal, and glass.

Sign: While hosting Desharis, your eyes turn to glass. Anyone meeting your gaze sees the movement of multiple silhouettes behind them, as though looking through a window at a busy street.

Influence: Under Desharis's influence, you cannot stand to be alone, and the more people you have around you, the better. You never voluntarily accept any task that requires you to be alone, and you argue vigorously against options that would split the party. If you have the opportunity to socialize with large groups of people (such as entering a boisterous tavern), you must take it unless doing so is overtly harmful, or you have reason to suspect the individuals are hostile to you.

Granted Features: Desharis grants abilities that reflect his desire to protect the civilized peoples of the world, plus provides a few that show his anger at the fey and other creatures of nature.

City-Dweller: While hosting Desharis, you move at your normal rate when moving through a creature's space. In addition, you gain advantage on Wisdom (Insight) and Intelligence (History) checks.

Language of the City: You can understand and speak with any creature that speaks at least one language.

Infinite Doors: You can use your action to create a door connecting disparate places in space, as the dimension door spell, except where noted here. You may only select a doorway, portal, or other aperture for entry as the destination, and the range of this feature is two miles.

Once you have used this feature, you cannot use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Smite Natural Soul: When you take the attack action on your turn, you can enhance one of your attacks with a smite. You gain a bonus to the attack roll equal to your Charisma modifier, and on hit, the attack deals additional radiant damage equal to your binder level. If the target of this attack is a beast, elemental, or fey, you also have advantage on the attack roll.

You can use this feature only once per combat. If you get smite from another source, your uses of smite stack.

Spirits of the City: You can use your action to bring the city to life, as the animate objects spell. You can use this feature only once per combat. You can also use this feature outside of combat, although you are unable to do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

Ipos, Prince of Fools

Legend: As a mortal scholar of deities and the planes, Ipos discovered vestiges and the process of binding long before their rediscovery in the current age. Although binder lore gives conflicting accounts of Ipos’s race and nation of origin, the legends agree that he was a mighty spellcaster with the power to travel the planes in his pursuit of knowledge. Although he was interested in all subjects, Ipos had a particular passion for discovering the nature of the planes, magic, and the gods. Through his study of these topics, Ipos sought to discover the planar order—the set of fundamental laws within which the multiverse operated. Ipos did a magnificent job with his research, and his discoveries have been passed down through the generations. Yet he left such an incomplete vision of reality that later scholars and explorers had to expand upon his body of work. In the midst of his investigations, Ipos stumbled across vestiges and drowned in the depth of this knowledge. He could not conceive of beings that did not exist in some place, or that could not be reached via the planes or by deities. He became obsessed with finding the plane upon which the vestiges resided. He dropped the study of all other topics and threw himself into the task of finding a way to the realm of the vestiges. No one knows what happened after he made this mission his focus, but the fact that he now exists as a vestige lends credence to the idea that he discovered what he sought.

Special Requirement: Ipos refuses to answer the call of any summoner who, in his judgment, has not taken a serious enough interest in occult studies. Anyone wishing to bind Ipos must have proficiency with Arcana or Religion.

Manifestation: Ipos steps forward onto his seal as though reappearing from invisibility. Some pact magic texts say that he has the head of a vulture or a goose, but those writers must have been unfamiliar with the bald ibis. Ipos clearly has that bird’s long, downward-curving beak and mottled, featherless head. Atop his warty scalp, he wears a crown of black iron, and a many-layered gray cloak hides most of his form. Ipos’s overly long arms end in gray-furred and clawed members that are more like the paws of a lion than the hands of a man. In one paw, he holds a gnarled iron cane that he uses more often to strike the ground in emphasis than as an aid in walking. He keeps his other paw hidden in one of the long sleeves of his robes, but from time to time, an observer can see him extending its long, black claws. Despite his rusting crown and tattered cloak, Ipos presents an imposing figure, and his hissing voice and baleful glare add considerably to his menace

Sign: You grow long, black, claw-like nails.

Influence: You think highly of your intellect and show contempt toward those who question your assumptions or conclusions. If you encounter a creature that shows interest in a topic about which you have knowledge, Ipos requires that you truthfully edify that individual.

Granted Features: Ipos grants you his discerning sight and commanding presence, as well as claws of cold iron with which to rend the veil of ignorance.

Cold Iron Claws: Your fingernails harden into cold iron, granting you one claw attack per hand that deals 1d8 slashing damage. You are proficient with your claws. You use your Dexterity modifier for its attack and damage rolls. Your claw attacks count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage, and they are considered light weapons for the purpose of two-weapon fighting. You cannot use this feature if you do not show Ipos’s sign.

Rend: When you hit one creature with two claw attacks in one turn, the target takes an additional 3d8 magical slashing damage.

Ipos’s Influence: Your affiliation with Ipos allows you to draw more power from the vestiges to which you are bound. The saving throw DC (if any) of each feature granted by your vestiges increases by 1. Treat your binder level as one higher than normal for the purpose of determining the effects of vestige special features.

Planar Attenuation: You gain protection from the natural effects of a specific plane. These effects include extremes in temperature, lack of air, poisonous fumes, emanations of positive or negative energy, or other attributes of the plane itself. You can change the plane to which you are attuned as an action.

Flash of Insight: You can use a bonus action to gain a true seeing effect, as the true seeing spell, except that it only lasts until the end of your next turn. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. You regain all expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.

Shax, Sea Sister

Legend: Shax once ruled over storm giants as a goddess of the sea. She was born to Annam, the greatest of all giant gods, without his knowledge. Because he was prone to blind spots in his omniscience, Annam could not hear the giants’ prayers when they mentioned Shax, nor could he see her many cruelties to them. He realized that some problem might exist only when the storm giants started battling the other giant kinds, claiming their caves, clouds, hills, frosty mountains, and volcanic peaks as storm giant territory. When Annam asked them why they had attacked their fellow giants, the storm giants pointed to the sea. Annam’s blind spot still prevented him from perceiving Shax, so he sent his son Thrym to take care of the problem.

Thrym, god of the frost giants, was eager to stop storm giant incursions into his followers’ lands, so he picked up his axe and leapt into the sea. There he met his sister Shax for the first time. Thrym found her both beautiful and terrible. He offered to wed her if she would call the storm giants to return to the sea. Shax would have none of it, though, so the two fought. In the end Thrym won, beheading Shax with a clean blow of his axe, but not before she had scratched off some pieces of his flesh with her nails. The strength of Shax’s spirit gave her the power to resist the pull of the Astral Plane, that graveyard of the gods, so she became a vestige. As for Thrym, he yet lives, but the pieces of his cold body that his sister removed have become icebergs that float in the sea as constant reminders of the storm giants’ debt to him.

Special Requirement: You must draw Shax’s seal within sight of a pond, stream, or larger body of water.

Manifestation: Shax first appears as a semitransparent female storm giant standing 20 feet tall. Her drenched, violet-skinned body is clad in a gold breastplate and black tunic, both of which drip seawater on the ground. After she manifests, Shax smiles, and her head inclines as though acknowledging her summoner, but it continues to dip until it tumbles off her neck. The body vanishes even as the falling head becomes more solid. It strikes the ground upside down with a wet thump, its face turned away from her summoner. For a moment the head just sits there, but then the wet black hair coalesces into thick cords hat press against the earth, lifting it up. Walking on her hair tentacles in a spiderlike manner, Shax turns around to face Her summoner, glaring balefully with her yellow eyes. In a shrill voice, Shax demands to know who has summoned her.

Sign: A scar appears around the circumference of your neck, as though your head had been lopped off and then returned to your body to heal.

Influence: While under Shax’s influence, you become possessive and stingy, particularly about territory—be it actual land or simply a room in an inn. In addition, her influence requires you to demand compensation for any service rendered and to tax any use of your territory. However, you can accept nearly any item of value—be it material goods or a service—as payment.

Granted Features: Shax grants you the swimming skill of a fish and the ability to strike foes with sonic force and electricity. She also gives you immunity to electricity and allows you to move freely despite restraints.

Immunity to Electricity: You gain immunity to lightning damage.

Swim Speed: You gain a swimming speed equal to your movement speed.

Storm Strike: As a bonus action, you can charge a melee attack with electricity and sonic power. Your next melee attack deals an extra 1d6 points of lightning damage and 1d6 points of thunder damage.

Freedom of Movement: As a bonus action, you can give yourself the ability to ignore restraints, as the freedom from movement spell. You can use this feature only once per combat. You can also use this feature outside of combat, although you are unable to do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

Vanus, The Reviled One

Legend: Legend remembers Vanus by many epithets: the Betrayer, the Craven One, the Foul Prince, the Maggot, the Fearmonger, and even the Hellbringer. Binders simply call him the Reviled One. The hatred traditionally heaped upon Vanus seems out of proportion to his faults, a mystery that binders have yet to unravel.

The story of Vanus begins in a grand kingdom, a peaceful empire that existed long before the current age. Human legend ascribes the kingdom to dwarves, while the dwarven story of Vanus claims elves to be that realm’s rulers. Elven mythology lays no claim to Vanus, relating instead that the kingdom belonged to a still more ancient race now largely gone from the world, similar to titans. Despite this difference and other variations, the basics of the tale remain the same.

The ancient kingdom prospered in peace for years because of the evil it kept trapped at it heart. Before the kingdom existed, the founders of that great nation fought a terrible battle against a powerful fiend (such as a balor or pit fiend). Although they could not kill their enemy, they did manage to trap it beneath the earth. To be certain they could keep their foe in check, they built a castle upon that unholy ground. That castle became the capitol of their kingdom.

While goodness flowed from that fortress, evil lingered there, ever watchful, always waiting. The leaders of the country posted a continual guard on the dungeon the fiend remained trapped within, wary of any attempt to escape. For centuries it remained thus, until the fateful night Vanus took over as guardian.

Vanus was a vain prince of the realm, selfish and obsessed with frivolity. To punish the prince for an embarrassment his petulance caused, the king commanded Vanus to serve with the guards of the dungeon during the party to celebrate the monarch’s birthday. Deep in the dark and clammy halls, Vanus determined to ignore the chatter of the guards and strained to hear the noise of the celebration above. He could hear little, just the distant tones of music punctuated by laughter. As he listened, the sound of one voice became clearer. A deep and commanding speaker was saying something Vanus could not quite discern. As Vanus neared the door to the fiend’s prison, the voice became even clearer, and Vanus thus moved past the guards and closed the distance to the ancient portal.

When Vanus put his ear to the door, he heard a voice unlike any other, and what it told him terrified him. Vanus ran from the dungeon screaming that the fiend was escaping. The guards, knowing they were not like the heroes of old, and seeing the prince of the realm in panic, also fled. The prince ran through the party, ranting about their coming doom, and soon the whole castle was being evacuated.

Panic spread across the countryside, and the people fought with one another in their haste to escape. Battles erupted between families and towns, and the citizen of that ancient kingdom left their lands a war-torn ruin. In the conflicts that followed, the people forgot their original cause for leaving and focused on their new enmity. The kingdom dissolved, the castle fell into ruin, and the fiend laughed in its prison.

Some legends say that the fiend then freed itself, and the gods cursed Vanus for his gullibility and cowardice. Others say that Vanus returned and freed the fiend, and the gods cursed him for this evil. Still other legends claim that Vanus became the fomenter of wars and breeder of terror, assuming the fiend’s place in the cosmos, becoming imprisoned by his fears even as the fiend’s evil spread beyond the walls of the dungeon.

Special Requirement: Vanus will not appear before a binder if his seal is drawn within sight of a doorway or window of any kind. If such apertures can be hidden from view, Vanus submits to being summoned, but the moment Vanus sees a door or window, he shrieks and vanishes in a gout of blue flame. Should the binding attempt be aborted in this manner, Vanus will not appear before the binder for three days.

Manifestation: Vanus appears in his seal as though stepping down from a carriage not visible to the binder. He always takes the form of a handsome male member of the binder’s race, dressed in fine clothing as a person of wealth and privilege. Vanus smiles and bows low to his summoner, but when he rises, his visage will have changed. Vanus then appears demonic, with six black horns growing from his face, and his skin covered in dark boils that swim with maggots. Blood wells up in his eyes like tears and pours down his smiling face to where he licks his lips. In this form, Vanus again bows. When he rises once more, he retains his demonic body and awaits his summoner’s pleasure.

Sign: When a binder makes a pact with the Reviled One, a boil appears on his body. Within the ruddy fluid in this boil swims a maggot. Should the boil be broken, the maggot slides swiftly across the binder’s body, eluding any attempt to catch it, and digs again beneath the skin. Before the original boil can scab over, another grows and the maggot appears within. Only by ending the pact with Vanus can the binder be rid of the foul insect and the disgusting homes it makes for itself.

Influence: Under the influence of Vanus, you take every opportunity to revel. Even small victories seem like cause for grand celebrations, and if you’re happy, you want everyone around to share your joy. If you see others in the act of celebration, you must join in. If you achieve victory in combat, you must immediately spend an action crowing about your triumph.

Granted Features: Vanus grants you tremendous hearing, the ability to foment fear by your presence alone, skill at fighting foes weaker than yourself, and the power to free allies from imprisonment.

Fear Aura: Enemies who come within 10 feet must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw. Those who fail are frightened of you. Foes remain frightened for a number of rounds equal to one-half your binder level(round down). Creatures that fail the save must roll again if they again come within 10 feet after the duration expires, but not before. A creature that succeeds on its saving throw is immune to your Fear Aura for 24 hours.

Noble Disdain: When attacking a foe of fewer hit dice than yourself with a weapon attack, you deal an additional 1d6 damage on hit.

Vanus’s Ears: Being bound to Vanus grants you advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks involving sound.

Free Ally: You may use a bonus action to designate any ally within 5 feet per binder level to gain the benefits of the freedom of movement spell or the gaseous form spell (your choice). The ally may also use their reaction to move up to their speed. You can also use this feature to free a creature from an imprisonment spell or similar effect. You cannot use this feature on yourself.

You can use this feature only once per combat. You can also use this feature outside of combat, although you are unable to do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

Zagan, The Duke of Disappointment

Legend: When dwarves had yet to tunnel into their mountains and elves first walked beneath the boughs of trees, Zagan ruled over thousands. A lord in a great yuan-ti empire, he had power over hundreds of his own kind, who in turn controlled the lives of thousands of humanoid slaves. Zagan built himself up as a god to these slaves, using the yuan-ti as his emissaries to communicate with the uneducated masses over which he held sway. Over time, Zagan’s power became so great that he actually aspired to become a god. He sought and finally discovered the means to his goal: a grand ceremony wherein he and his yuan-ti would gather together all his worshipers and slay them.

At the appointed hour on the appointed night, Zagan collected all his people for a celebration of his glory. He could feel their worship empowering him, and with each passing minute he gained strength and felt his awareness widening. Then Zagan rang the gong that signaled the attack, and he and his yuan-ti servants fell upon the slaves, slaying them with wild abandon. At first Zagan thought it glorious, but then he felt his new powers begin to wane. With each life he crushed, he felt a bit more mortal. Zagan attempted to call off the ceremony, but in the chaos of the slaughter, the other yuan-ti could not hear him. Suddenly, a sword pierced Zagan’s chest from behind. As he looked down at the bloody blade, a sibilant voice whispered in his ear, “The World Serpent wishes you well.” A cleric among his own people had tricked Zagan into ruining his chances at godhood on the very eve of his apotheosis. At a point somewhere between godhood and mortality, Zagan passed on into the void.

Special Requirement: You must kowtow before Zagan’s seal, prostrating yourself and addressing him as a deity.

Manifestation: When Zagan begins to manifest, several snakes appear in a heap in his seal. The snakes then slither apart and rise upright along the lines of the seal. Then the crown of a head appears, with baleful eyes glowering. An ogre like head slowly reveals itself, and after another moment, shoulders and arms appear, to which the snakes are attached. Zagan then uses his powerful arms to pull the rest of his body from the ground, revealing a long, serpentine form instead of legs. He reaches toward his summoner hungrily, his mouth gaping open in a feral grin, but the snakes on his body turn toward him and hiss, causing him to flinch backward. The brooding Zagan then addresses his summoner while calming the snakes. Binder scholars say that the snakes on his body are his most loyal lieutenants, who were killed on the night of Zagan’s murder and dragged with his soul into a vestige’s existence.

Sign: You gain a lisp and can’t help but speak in a sibilant manner.

Influence: While influenced by Zagan, you become domineering and aggressive. Zagan requires that you slay any snake or snakelike being you meet, and deface any representations of snakes or snakelike beings other than Zagan that you find.

Granted Features: Zagan grants you a snake’s ability to detect creatures by scent, the ability to grapple and constrict as a snake, increased combat ability against snakes and their cousins, and the power to cause your foes to avoid your mere presence.

Scent: You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks involving smell.

Constrict: You gain a giant constrictor’s ability to crush the life from its prey. You deal damage equal to 1d8 + your Strength modifier with a successful grapple check.

Improved Grapple: You gain advantage on Strength (Athletics) checks made to grapple a foe. In addition, you are treated as a Large creature for the purpose of making grapple checks.

Snake Bane: Zagan’s hatred for snakes, yuan-ti, and all snakelike creatures gives you improved combat prowess against their kind. You deal an extra 2d6 points of damage on melee attacks against snakes, snakelike creatures (such as nagas or yuan-ti), or creatures with a poison attack. This damage also applies when you make a grapple check to deal damage against a snake or snakelike enemy, in addition to dealing your constrict damage.

Aversion: As an action, you can induce an aversion to snakes in one creature within 30 feet of you, forcing the target to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the target is frightened of you, snakes, and yuan-ti for one minute. You can use this feature only once per combat. You can also use this feature outside of combat, although you are unable to do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

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