Alright everybody! It’s October now, my favorite time of year! In the spirit of the season, this month’s theme will be undeath. Additionally, while most months I intend to release a single new subclass, this month I will be releasing two. Now without further ado, here is the Wraith Lord:
Alvalus, better known as The Wraith Lord, is an ancient and enigmatic Lich. The nature of his ascension to lichdom is rather mysterious, especially given his seeming inability to give any coherent answers when questioned about it. What is known is that his transformation, while having robbed him of a good amount of his grasp on the present reality, allowed him to retain much of his personality, as well as his Chaotic Good alignment. This, combined with him being a champion of Chalcanth (A god of forgotten knowledge and the honored dead, that will come up in a post soon), has conferred him the unique ability to restore the minds and original souls of certain undead creatures. Because of the unusual curse he is under, he is rather senile and can come off as strange or enigmatic. Additionally, he may have difficulty remembering group member names, and if a character dies and is replaced by a new one, he just may spend the rest of the campaign referring to that character by the old one’s name, assuming them to be one and the same. His strange ramblings can seemingly go on with no end, often describing silly, crude, or improbable adventures that he may have gone on with friends as a mortal.
Alvalus was probably one of the very first NPCs I ever designed for my first 5th edition campaign. His concept has grown, changed, and evolved a lot since then, but his role as quest giver has remained constant. For almost the entirety of my first campaign, he has served as a catalyst for many quests, and his crypt served as a home base for my players. As such, I thought it fitting that I actually try and update him to fill the role of quest giver and set out guidelines for him as a Group Patron.
Whether through fate, fortune, or feats of skill, your party has come under the scrutiny of this ancient and inscrutable lich. The Wraith Lord is fickle, forgetful, easily entertained, and generally good-natured in his ways. He’ll gladly work with most adventurers, the only really notable exceptions being openly evil practitioners of necromantic magic, and demon worshippers. Should the party consistently pull through for him, they’ll find him to be a steadfast ally (Despite him being seemingly incapable of properly remembering their names). On Amrynth, the Wraith Lord Alvalus serves as the leader and founder of the city-state of Olmenth, a vast city housing hundreds upon hundreds of undead, reborn, dhampir, etc. After the Olmenthi army’s defense of many of the nearby towns in the country of Atelar, and their aid in the routing of a massive demon cult, they’ve been officially recognized by the rest of the country. As the DM of your own campaign, it might be fun to choose to ignore Olmenth and perhaps have your players accidentally free him from being sealed away within his crypt as the result of their very first quest/mission, and have the rest of the campaign be the Wraith Lord offering them aid and sponsorship in exchange for them aiding him in reviving his scattered forces and building a citadel or territory for them to live in.
Wraith Lord Perks:
with the Wraith Lord as the group’s patron, you gain the following perks:
Forgotten Relics. The Wraith Lord’s coffers contain many lost and abandoned weapons, trinkets, and magic items from ages past. As a reward for missions, or simply by spending time in his crypts, your party can gain access to some coffers containing these magic items, wraith merchants selling these items, or Olmenthi smiths. The DM determines what is available for rewards or from a shop owner or Olmenthi smith.
Necromantic Presence: Anywhere that he may have had influence in the region, any undead that can speak a language and can see a symbol of the Wraith Lord on the person of an adventurer are not immediately hostile towards the characters, and may be willing to parlay (However, this is up to the DMs discretion, and you can choose to play many undead, particularly those made by rival Liches and Cultists of Orcus, additionally Celestials and particularly sensitive Clerics/Paladins may notice the aura, however).
Mental Link: The Wraith Lord will sporadically make mental contact with the characters regardless of distance, and during these periods he can be spoken to, and consulted with. The DM can answer player questions as cryptically or nonsensically as makes sense. He may or may not notice the gaps between contacts, behaving as though he has had uninterrupted contact with the players.
Sheltered Crypts: The Wraith Lord has many, many crypts throughout the continent. Those that are active can serve as temporary bases of operations for the party, including a staff of undead. They will not leave the crypt, but they will defend it and keep the party informed of any threats. Any given crypt may sometimes have caches of items and valuables that can be bartered for. Most Crypts will need to be cleared or unsealed before they can be used by the players.
Wraith Lord Contacts:
There are many means by which the Wraith Lord can typically choose to contact the party, or that the party might learn of any requests, information, or resources that their patron may be able to confer onto them. Aside from simply meeting the Wraith Lord himself in his crypt, the following D6 table can be used to prep contacts for your players to meet depending on their location and urgency in seeking the Wraith Lord:
- Dirk/Not-Dirk: A personal assistant or retainer to the Wraith Lord, typically a Wight. Generally fairly tired and exasperated, he’ll try and serve as the voice of common sense, often being the one to actually give or dispense quests to the players.
- Wraith Merchant: Any of various Wraith merchants under the command of the Wraith Lord. They appear when and where they feel that their wares are most desperately sought by the party.
- Wraith Lord’s Psionic Link: A temporary link established between the Wraith Lord and the party when he needs something. Will typically pick up mid-conversation and involve considerable rambling.
- Wraith Lord Loyalists: Humans that have pledged their loyalty to the Wraith Lord as thanks for his continued protection of their homes and villages. They themselves may be traveling the lands on a quest for the Wraith Lord.
- Chalcanth Clerics: While not necessarily directly loyal to the Wraith Lord, these priests of the god Chalcanth will gladly assist and pass on messages to the party on his behalf, as he stands as one of the oldest paragons of their faith. (Note, Chalcanth can be swapped for any relevant god whose domains cover Twilight, Grave, And/or Knowledge.)
- Wraithsoul Shard: A shard of black andesite carved with runes matching those of the Wraith Lord’s mask. When triggered by a nearby operative of the Wraith Lord, they float into the air and begin dispensing fragmented images of a goal that needs to be accomplished into the brains of the operatives.
Wraith Lord Quests:
There are many different tasks that the Wraith Lord may ask of the party or that they can undertake to gain favor with him. Most involve aiding his goals or protecting any individuals that he considers to be under his protection, some revolve around hunting Demons and their cultists. The following D6 list contains a sampling of potential quests:
- Secure: One of his many scattered crypts or armories has been dug up by a hostile party, and he needs the players to go clear out those foes.
- Infiltrate: Demon Cultists have been spotted preparing to lay siege to a town, and they’ve warded their camp to prevent undead from entering it. Go clear them out.
- Distract: The Wraith Lord’s forces have an operation planned and need the group to create a diversion.
- Rescue: The Wraith Lord has discovered that some of his old undead reserve forces are asleep in a tomb, and an imminent threat seeks to destroy them while vulnerable.
- Diplomacy: Emissaries of a Fey or Druidic nature from a grand forest at the edge of his territory request aid.
- Archeology: Word of a lost, ancient site has reached the Wraith Lord, and he needs adventurers to scout and explore it.
Wraith Lord Operatives:
There are many ways that your players can tie their backstories in to the Wraith Lord and his (optional) City-State of Olmenth. He particularly favors trying to help Reborn, Dhampir, Tieflings, and Hexblood. But his doors are open to all that would seek his help. The following list provides a few options for tying certain Backgrounds from in with him:
Chosen: Entertainer, Noble (Knight), Soldier, Urchin. The Chosen are individuals that the Wraith Lord has believes have great potential to champion a shared cause, or that he has helped to rescue from a terrible fate.
Indebted: Noble, Guild Artisan, Hermit, Soldier. Indebted are those that for some reason or another might owe a great debt to the Wraith Lord, and may seek to pay it off by adventuring in his name (Note; it is highly likely that the Wraith Lord has no idea that he’s done anything for these people, and may not realize that they are attempting to pay off a perceived debt to him. Alternatively he does in fact know that they owe him a debt, but cannot remember for what).
Seeker: Hermit, Sage, Outlander, Sailor. Those that have traveled a great distance in the hopes of learning some of the ancient knowledge that the Wraith Lord has access to, potentially even wishing to learn of his Lich transformation. The Wraith Lord is both very forgetful and not easily forthcoming of this, so they will need to prove themselves trustworthy and work to find the pieces that he is missing.
Loyalist: Soldier, Acolyte, Entertainer, Sage. Ardent supporters of the Wraith Lord, many of these individuals come from villages, towns, and/or cities that the Wraith Lord and his forces have given aid to in driving away Fiends, unaffiliated Undead, and Cultists, although some may simply be Olmenthi citizens.
Traitor: Noble, Charlatan, Soldier, Acolyte. Spies and infiltrators working for a rival lich, or one of the Wraith Lord’s various enemies.
Champion: Noble (Knight), Entertainer (Gladiator), Acolyte, Sage. Hand-picked individuals from among all of his operatives. Champions are tried and true paragons and allies of the Wraith Lord and his cause (Whatever that may be).
And that should cover everything for this entry! Come back Thursday for a new subclass! If you have any suggestions, questions, or need clarifications feel free to leave a comment below. Also, I would very much like to thank my players for being the reason that the Wraith Lord and the campaign exists, helping me toss around ideas, and well, playing with these concepts while they’re still in the early stages. One of my players, and someone that regularly helps me sort these ideas out has his own YouTube channel where he works on building his own TTRPG system! go check it out here: https://tinyurl.com/QuiverProto His first video should be up within a week of this post going up! Additionally, Crow, whose twitter I have linked in the picture above and on my about page is another long-time player in these campaigns, go check their stuff out as well!
The Wyrm Scribe 