This entry is a continuation of the last one and the same content warning applies. In fact, if you wouldn’t rate the Xenomorph Queen at least a 5 out of 10 then this may not be the article for you.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that got a little too close to mechanics and is now infested from the toes to the teeth with an abundance of flavor. Our last entry was an examination of my favorite monster, the bountiful broodmother that is the drakainia. With the potential to spawn entire societies in record time, it’s a wonder this entry in the Bestiary hasn’t earned its spot in some epic-length storyline. But even if you don’t want to use her as a near-deific  figure, she does make for an very memorable NPC. Even more memorable if the PCs are somehow tied to her aberrant lineage.

That’s right, this isn’t the second part of a duology, it’s the third part of a secret trilogy. It all comes back to those wholesome family values.

Spawn of the Drakainia

Playing as a character that was spawned from this mythical mother figure is as easy as declaring as much upon character creation. But if you want to truly represent this fact in your character’s mechanics, then you have plenty of options. Staring with ancestry, the obvious consideration is my old favorite the fleshwarp. But if you want to try something that looks just familiar enough for the creepy stuff to really hit, then consider taking half elf or half orc as your heritage. This is also a wonderful excuse to slap the beastkin heritage on just about anything. Or heck, maybe being born from gene soup affected you way more than your siblings.

But what if you don’t want your ancestry to be the sign of your polymorphic parentage? Alternatively, what if you did pick a weird ancestry and you want to double down? Classes offer a fair share of options as well. Barbarians can choose the animal instinct to represent the complicated heritage they tap into. Oracles of the life mystery could have their mother to thank and also blame for their overabundance of vital energy. And of course, what better way to represent an unusual heritage than the sorcerer?

In fact, it’s such a good fit, we may as well have a proper bloodline just for the occasion.

New Bloodline: Drakainia
The blood of your fecund mother courses through your veins, and with far more potency than in your mutated siblings. You may seek to found your own dark fertility cult, rapidly creating spawn regardless of your ancestry or gender, or you may seek to cleanse the world of your more corrupted kin, up to and including your wicked matron.

Spell List occult
Bloodline Skills Medicine, Occultism
Granted Spells cantrip: stabilize, 1st: summon animal, 2nd: vomit swarm, 3rd: summon plant or fungus, 4th: rigid form, 5th: summon giant, 6th: field of life, 7th: regenerate, 8th: moment of renewal, 9th: overwhelming presence
Bloodline Spells initial: absorb summon, advanced: life pulse, greater: polymorphic parasite
Blood Magic volatile essence empowers all forms of life, massive and microscopic. Choose to have either you or a target of the spell gain temporary Hit Points equal to the spell’s level for 1 round, or to have a target of the spell take a -1 penalty to saves against diseases and poisons for 1 round.

Absorb Summon           Focus 1
[Uncommon] [Concentrate] [Manipulate] [Sorcerer] [Summon]
Bloodline drakainia
Cast (2 actions)
Range touch; Target one creature you conjured that has the summoned trait
Duration 10 minutes
Through magical dissipation or visceral consumption, you absorb one of your summoned creatures into yourself. The creature is reduced to a churning, protoplasmic goo that leaves a visible distortion somewhere on your body, most commonly around the abdomen. Time spent in this state does not count against the summon spell’s duration and it does require you take an action or actively concentrate to sustain it. As the summoned creature is part of your body, you may target it with spells that have a range of touch.
At any point during the spell’s duration, you may recast the summon spell that originally conjured the creature in order to draw out its essence. This reconstitutes the summon’s original form in an adjacent space. Doing so immediately ends this spell. If this spell’s duration runs out while the creature’s essence is still inside of you, the summon his harmlessly dispelled.
Heightened (4th) Increase the duration to 1 hour.

Life Pulse           Focus 3
[Uncommon] [Healing] [Manipulate] [Sorcerer] [Vitality]
Bloodline drakainia
Cast (2 actions)
Range 30 foot emanation
Saving Throw Fortitude
You release a pulse of vital energy, healing the living and damaging the undead. If the target is a living creature, you restore 3d4 Hit Points. If the target is undead, you deal that amount of vitality damage to it, and it gets a basic Fortitude save.
This vital energy also accelerates diseases as well as the body’s ability to process poisons. If a creature in the emanation is currently suffering from any diseases or poisons, each such affliction progress towards their next stage, allowing Fortitude saves as normal.
If any creature in the area is carrying spawn or some kind of parasite, its development progresses to the next phase, or by one season’s worth of time in the case of spawn that does not develop in phases.
Heightened (+1) Increase the healing by 1d4 Hit Points.

Polymorphic Parasite           Focus 5
[Uncommon] [Concentrate] [Manipulate] [Polymorph] [Sorcerer] [Summon]
Bloodline drakainia
Cast (2 actions)
Range 30 feet; Target one living corporeal creature
Saving Throw Fortitude
Duration sustained up to one minute
You disgorge a parasite that contains near infinite genetic potential and hurl it towards a foe. If the target fails a Fortitude save, the parasite burrows deep into their flesh and begins to gestate. While carrying the parasite, the target is sickened 1, or sicked 2 if they critically failed their save. They cannot reduce the value of this sicked below 1 by wretching.
At any point during the spell, you may decide to evolve the parasite by casting a summoning spell. Doing so counts as sustaining this spell, and instead of conjuring a new creature, it transforms the parasite into a copy of that summoned creature. This rapid transformation causes the parasite to burst free of their host and into the nearest open space, dealing 5d8 damage and 5 persistent bleed damage to their host on the way out.
Heightened (+1) Increase the damage by 1d8 Hit Points and the persistent bleed by 1.

 

 

Now then, with that vivid mental imagery lovingly transplanted into your brain, I think I’ll call it here. This should be more than enough to spawn (ha ha!) ideas for new characters, NPCs, and campaigns that want to delve into a volatile mix of intimacy and body horror. And please, dear God, remember to sort all of this out during session zero.

Come back next time and I’ll talk about something way less nightmare inducing. Probably.