#dc quintessence

[zal-cryptid]

DC characters - The Wizard

[evilhorse]

Jim Corrigan is again bonded with the Spectre

[thecreaturecodex]

Valpyr

Image by MJ Allen, © Emperors Choice Games

[Sponsored by @crazytrain48. The valpyr is Arduin's answer to the question, "I want to use this balor miniature, but how do I do that without murdering my entire party"? Later, in the Emperors Choice era, the question was "how do I sell that balor miniature". The valpyr is clearly a balor clone, with an undead type and a lower HD. So how do I justify it existing in a setting where balors are a thing? Read on.]

Valpyr CR 11 NE Undead This creature is a demonic humanoid, with a forked tail, a pair of horns, and inky black eyes. Enormous bat-like wings grow from its back, and its body is wreathed in silvery flames. It carries a shortspear in one hand and a barbed whip in the other.

A valpyr is an undead mimic, a creature born of evil hoaxers and disguise artists. Their targets of mimicry are powerful fiends, most commonly balors. Valpyrs masquerade as balors in order to intimidate mortals and immortals alike, scaring off psychopomps and necromancers while browbeating lesser monsters into serving them. Valpyrs have to temper their bluster with caution. Even though they are powerful by the standards of mortals, they are nowhere as strong as a balor, and anything that can genuinely challenge one of the lords of the Abyss would have little difficulty destroying a valpyr.

Most valpyrs maintain savage fiefdoms of other creatures to serve them, and usually initiate combat from behind waves of loyal undead or monstrous hounds. Against weaker foes, they prefer to fight with manufactured weapons, the better to maintain the illusion that they are a balor. If they feel genuinely pressed, they instead fight with teeth and claws in order to drain the life from their enemies. Valpyrs will attempt to bluff or intimidate stronger enemies, but flee rapidly if their threats fail.

Although most valpyrs are balor mimics, some instead resemble other types of demons. This is usually due to the sins committed by the valpyr in life, but rumor has it that some valpyrs can intentionally change their form through sinister rituals. These variant valpyrs use the same base statistics, but replace fiery body and whip mastery with two appropriate abilities of the demon in question (like constrict and multiweapon mastery for a valpyr mimicking a marilith, or Huge size and an unholy nimbus for a valpyr mimicking a nalfeshnee).

Valpyr CR 11 XP 12,800 CE Large undead Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +20, see invisibility

Defense AC 25, touch 14, flat-footed 20 (-1 size, +5 Dex, +11 natural) hp 147 (14d8+84) Fort +10, Ref +9, Will +14 DR 10/good; Immune fire, undead traits; SR 22 (26 vs. divination) Defensive Abilities fiery body, nondetection

Offense Speed 40 ft., fly 120 ft. (good) Melee adamantine shortspear +13/+8 (1d8+5), masterwork whip +13/+8 (1d4+2), bite +12 (1d10+2 plus 1d6 fire plus ability drain), 2 wings +12 (1d6+2 plus 1d6 fire) or 2 claws +14 (1d8+5 plus 1d6 fire plus ability drain), bite +14 (1d10+5 plus 1d6 fire plus ability drain), 2 wings +12 (1d6+2 plus 1d6 fire) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. (20 ft. with whip) Special Attacks burn quintessence

Spell-like Abilities CL 11th, concentration +17 Constant—nondetection, see invisibility At will—command undead (DC 18), detect magic, magic missile 3/day—bull’s strength, scorching ray, quickened true seeing 1/day—animate dead, fireball (DC 19), glibness, plane shift (DC 21)

Statistics Str 20, Dex 20, Con -, Int 22, Wis 17, Cha 23 Base Atk +10; CMB +16; CMD 31 Feats Flyby Attack, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Intimidating Prowess, Iron Will, Multiattack, Quicken SLA (true strike), Two-Weapon Fighting Skills Bluff +20, Disguise +27, Fly +24, Intimidate +32, Knowledge (arcana, religion) +23, Knowledge (planes) +20, Perception +20, Sense Motive +20, Spellcraft +23; Racial Modifiers +4 Disguise, +4 Intimidate Languages Abyssal, Common, Daemonic, Infernal, Necril SQ whip mastery

Ecology Environment any land or underground Organization solitary or army (1 plus 2-20 galleytrots, skeletons and zombies) Treasure standard (Large masterwork whip, Large adamantine shortspear, other treasure)

Special Abilities Ability Drain (Su) A creature struck by a valpyr’s claw attack must succeed a DC 23 Fortitude save or take 1 point of Constitution drain. A creature struck by a valpyr’s bite attack must succeed a DC 23 Fortitude save or take 2 points of Constitution drain. A valpyr gains 5 temporary hit points every time it deals ability damage. The save DC is Charisma based. Burn Quintessence (Su) Any fire damage dealt by a valpyr’s supernatural or spell-like abilities deals full damage to incorporeal creatures and ignores the energy immunities and resistances of extraplanar outsiders. Fiery Body (Su) A valpyr burns with silvery fire. It deals 1d6 points of fire damage with its natural weapons, and any creature that touches it takes 1d6 points of fire damage (no save). Whip Mastery (Ex) A valpyr treats a whip as a light weapon for the purposes of two-weapon fighting, and can inflict lethal damage on a foe regardless of the foe's armor.

[monstersdownthepath]

So what is Jandelay?

One of the earliest and longer-running mysteries in Pathfinder was the identity of the mysterious Jandelay, mentioned only in the statblock of the Oliphaunt of Jandelay. In Mythic Realms, it remained ambiguous if Jandelay was a creature, an event, a plane, or some other mysterious entity, with the only hints about it being the poem carved into the base of the enormous Spindlethorn:

Jandelay, proof against the Maelstrom, Jandelay, of green fields and faultless spires; No sane soul born dares trespass fair Jandelay For the Oliphaunt guards you always.

But five years later, (almost) every question about the mysterious Jandelay was answered in Planar Adventures! It’s a demiplane, but not just any old demiplane! It is a bubble of pure Law floating on the surface of the Maelstrom in stark defiance of the Maelstrom’s desire to subsume all that is back into chaos. It refuses the Maelstrom’s pull and instead exploits the source of all quintessence, drawing it out as needed in order to maintain itself for its unique purpose.

Also known as the Apocalypse Archives, Jandelay is a realm of rolling green grass fields with alabaster spires placed regularly throughout... and thousands upon thousands of stitched-together, chimeric and chaotic arrangements of various biomes, architectures, and environments. Whenever a Watcher places a Beacon of Jandelay down upon a doomed world, it marks that section of the planet for collection by the plane. When the world is destroyed by the apocalypse which summoned the Watchers in the first place, every area marked by the Beacon is torn from the world and placed on Jandelay, merged together with other marked sections with little regard for whether or not the arrangement makes sense, but the magic of the plane and the attentions of the Watchers maintains these sections even when they would have logically crumbled away or annihilated one another (such as if a section of glaciers ended up next to an active volcano). Sapient lifeforms preserved by the Watchers are combined into a Collected, a form of Outsider with the minds and memories of dozens or perhaps even hundreds of creatures, bound eternally to the stitched remains of the world they were “rescued” from and allowed to wander it, but no further.

It’s not directly stated if animal life is taken along for the ride, but what IS canon is that Watchers use their perfect memories and passion for crafting, as well as knowledge obtained from the Collected, to build facsimiles of various flora and fauna that didn’t manage to get saved, using their constructs to decorate the world-sections. Despite this adorable behavior, Watchers don’t exactly make for good company, so the Collected tend to live a lonely existence. It’s not like anyone really visits.

Any knowledge about Jandelay is understandably difficult to come across. How the Runelords learned anything about the Oliphaunt or the plane itself is a mystery that yet endures, because dimensional travel straight up does not work. Any attempt to use Plane Shift or ANY other form of dimensional travel to enter, exit, or even just travel around inside Jandelay fails if the user doesn’t succeed a DC 41 Will save (something the Watchers must be innately immune to despite their statblock saying no such thing, else they can’t escape or re-enter their own home if they roll lower than 15), and Gate or similar effects fizzle automatically without allowing a save unless the caster is Mythic or the source is an Artifact.

So to even know about it, your world will already have to be on its way out the door. You need to succeed a DC 28 Will save (or be immune to Inconspicuous) to see a Watcher, NOT freak out about it, then convince it to tell you a little about itself, and then further convince it to tell you about Jandelay... and if you want to GO there, that’s a DC 41 Will save or you simply can’t without burning another spell slot or resource to try again. And Armageddon continues to breathe down your neck as you try again! And if, by some miracle, you end up there? Well, good luck getting out with any swiftness, especially since you’d need to not only have more castings of Plane Shift, but a safe destination in mind to recollect yourself as you grapple with knowing your world is gone. That kind of thing changes a person! Is it any wonder why knowledge about Jandelay is so hard to come by, when the conditions for gaining even tiny scraps are so severe? (No, you can’t just summon a Watcher; they have far too many HD for anything lower than Gate to work)

It’s not super dangerous in the archives, at least. if you wanted, you could wait to get your slots and sanity back while looking at the past destroyed worlds. Maybe even find your own. The Watchers don’t attack creatures who merely examine the exhibits--that’s what they’re there for, after all--but any attempt to damage them and you’ll find out there’s a lot more of the creepy crawlies than you know about hiding just outside your senses.

And then there’s the Oliphaunt itself. Chaos made manifest, a mountain made flesh, a storm given purpose. It’s the Oliphaunt that protects Jandelay from all intruders, its own presence the one that imposes the travel restrictions for reasons that can only be guessed at (which means that if it’s NOT in Jandelay, one can travel there without making a save! easy, right?) and the greatest deterrent to the Proteans who’d otherwise object to Jandelay’s presence. The origins of the Oliphaunt, and of Jandelay, are stated in surprisingly plain terms: the Oliphaunt created itself, and made Jandelay soon after. Then, Jandelay itself birthed the Watchers to tend to it. The Oliphaunt is stated to be the incarnated form of the idea of the apocalypse; the manifestation of calamity and destruction on a planetary scale, drawn to observe its collection of destroyed worlds for its own inscrutable reasons.

It leads me to believe it was born shortly after the rampage of Rovagug, the collective dying gasps of thousands of worlds and gods coalescing into a single being, and it created Jandelay as a method to assure no more worlds would be forever lost and forgotten; something by no means canon, but it makes the most sense to me. What also is not canon but makes sense to me is that the Oliphaunt, as the incarnation of world-destroying calamities, should not be an entity the players can reasonably fight. We’ll see how I approach this particular challenge this Friday!

[georgi-girl]

Trolls Character Fusions

I love the idea of trolls fusing together through dance like in Steven Universe. 

Here are some Troll fusions I thought of. Some of which are inspired by SU fusions. Note that when trolls from the same tribe fuse, they just become a bigger troll. When trolls from different tribes fuse, they gain extra limbs and appendages. 

Poppy + Branch = Treetop: Violet skin, dark purple hair streaked with rainbow colors, left eye is blue, right eye is pink. Name is inspired by another fan fusion on Deviantart. Treetop use plural pronouns, and their cloths are similar to Poppy’s “hippie” outfit in the TWT climax; crop top, bell bottoms, snazzy leaf jacket. They’re inspired by SU fusion Stevonie, they even have their own jungle adventure. Personality is both adventurous and cautious. Their preferred song style is Broadway showtunes, such as Let Me Entertain You and Seasons of Love. 

Quincy + Essence = Quintessence: Blue and violet stripes divided by metal tinsel with a magnificent hairdo. Uses plural pronouns. Clothes are gold and silver robes. Heavily inspired by Garnet, I even imagine them to be voiced by Estelle. Personality is calm at all times. Preferred song style is classic R&B. 

Cooper + Darnel = DC: Giant pink Funk troll with gold and silver tinsel. Dreadlocks are short on one side and long on the other. Uses he/him pronouns. Sounds like both brothers speaking at once. Personality is impulsive and super friendly. Basically, a long-necked puppy. Preferred song style is Hip Hop (of course) 

Snack Pack (Bigs, Smidge, Guy, Fuzzbert, Suki, Satin, Chenille, Cooper + Darnell) = Prism: Every bodypart is a different color. Blue torso, pink head, yellow left arm, orange right arm, red left leg, silver right leg. Has two extra limbs that are pink on the left, blue on the right.  Hair resembles a colorful pinwheel. Uses plural pronouns. Likes to scuttle around on all six limbs like a bug. Mad Hatter-type personality. Often repeats themself and talks to themself. Poppy and Branch will sometimes join the fusion, and Prism will become longer and extra segmented. Their clothing is a colorful one-piece disco suit. 

Poppy + Barb = PopRocks: Two queens that want to prove themselves in different ways, this fusion is reserved for emergencies. Black skin with pink freckles and pink eyes. Extra long mohawk that starts out red and fades to pink. Three arms, two on the right side. Uses she/her pronouns. Her clothing is a blue tube top and leather shorts. Personality is bombastic and unpredictable. Speaks in a Yiddish Brooklyn accent. Preferred song style is poprock ballads, hence the name. Inspired by Smokey Quartz from SU. 

Darnel + Trollex = Tritan: any fusion between Funk and Techno resembles a Chinese water dragon. Tritan has purple and lilac stripes with long flowing teal hair. He uses he/him pronouns. His personality is cheerful and playful. Song style is eighties movie soundtracks. 

Val Thundershock + Gust Tumbleweed = Sherrif Storm: (because gust, thunder, you get it) Country Rock centaur with orange skin, purple hair and black haunches. Uses both she/he pronouns. Very passionate, sometimes overzealous. Favorite song is Hoedown Throwdown. 

Minuet + Blaze = Figuero: Inspired by Sardonyx from SU. Very tall, and elegant, with yellow skin and purple curly hair. Clothing resembles a black tuxedo. Has four eyes and bat wings. Very showy and stylish, like a magician. Uses she/him pronouns. Song style is classic rock (lots of Chuck Barry and Buddy Holly) 

Brozone Fusion = Brother Blue. However different the individual brothers are, their fusion is the most quintessentially chilled-out dudebro. He’s blue, with five colored hair arranged from oldest to youngest. He’s got aspects of every Brozone member, such as JD’s goggles and Floyd’s earring. He’s voiced by Jerry Trainor and calls everyone Bro or Bra. Song style is (naturally) boy band songs. 

Trollstopia Fusion (Synth, Laguna, Dante, Minuet, Gust, Holly, Milton, Meadow, Rythm, Blues, Lownote, Demo, Val, Blaze) = Spectrum. All the tribes combined into a six-armed, Bergen-sized giant. Skin color changes depending on mood. Hair resembles the Lady GlitterSparkles wig, except it waves around like octopus tentacles. Inspired by Fluorite from SU; laidback personality and slow way of speaking. Uses all the pronouns. Song style is any style. 

More to come later on. 

[faithghoul]

Songs that remind me of the Ghouls, part. I

Hello! This idea comes to me out of nowhere when I was listening to Spotify a few months ago (yes I'm procrastinating on making this post).

Hope you enjoy what I write and take it as a new music recommendation for your library 😉

1. Dewdrop

"Play with Fire" by Sam Tinnesz gives the dangerously delightful violence that reminds me of this incredible lead guitarist. Despite being the tiniest among the ghouls, with his intense prancing, his naughty hand gestures and guillotine-like headbang moves confirms that Dewdrop IS indeed the fire ghoul and most intimidating one who deserves this wicked, deep, and dark song.

2. Aether

This quintessence ghoul might look intimidating because of his well-built bulky posture. However, I see Aether is so loving, gentle, and wholesome towards other ghouls and ghoulettes. He's protective, it shows that he can be stern when needed. The song "Someone To You" by BANNERS is based on his softer side, it makes me feel safe, warm, and fuzzy. This is the type of man you should marry, girls (and guys).

3. Rain

Also known as the shy ghoul, Rain is absolutely loved by everyone. He is also acting clumsy sometimes. The song "Billie Bossa Nova" with its simple yet graceful tone reminds me of the way Rain moves and acting on stage. But if you're lucky you'll get to see him being sassy and a total kickass when the right song comes up. Billie Bossa Nova's lyrics talks about privacy, intimacy, and simplicity with the tension being built up with the sweet suggestive atmosphere as the song goes. That's what he is to me—gentle, shy, but secretly enjoying all the pleasure of being the center of attention.

4. Mountain

"Until I Found You" is the best fit for this tall earth ghoul because of his calm and secretly loving nature. Mountain as a vibe would be your favorite gentle and nostalgic memories, the feeling when you go into a vintage vinyl or record store after grabbing a warm cocoa or coffee while walking around the city at 4:33 PM. The vibe is warm, comfortable, and relaxed. Mountain attracts other ghouls or even humans to be closer to him, he's perfect for the ones seeking comfort and a safe place. He may not seem to be acting up so much on stage, therefore it makes him seem so mysterious, and that's also how he is when he's in love: expressing his feelings mostly in private.

5. Swiss

This multighoul is known for being playful, seductive, and energetic. Besides being a talented ghoul who could play various instruments, his best quality is his wiggles and his heart-throbbing shimmy that Papa loves so much. He is often seen making bold seductive moves, which I assume is the output of the energy that runs wild through his veins. You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC contains the same exact vibe, it is fun, sexy, and flirty. Not to mention the lyrics, "and knocking me out with those American thighs", Swiss indeed have what people called thunder thighs. This ghoul will be burning you inside out with the most joyful flame.

[the-hem]

"The Dipshitz." From the Annapurna Upanishad, the Exploration of the Mysteries of the Queen of Foods.

IV-63. Though standing, walking, touching, smelling, the intelligent sage, devoid of all clingings, gets rid of (fluctuating) pleasures, and the cognitions (of the particulars); he is at peace.

IV-64. A shoreless ocean of excellences, he crosses the sea of sufferings, because he resorts to this vision even in the midst of vexed activities.

IV-65. Devoid of all particular the stainless, pure Being is one vast essence – That is held to be the abode of (immutable) existence.

IV-66. Rejecting distinctions like the being of time, the being of instants, the being of entities, be solely devoted to pure Being.

 IV-67. Contemplating but one unqualified universal Being, be omnipresent, full, supremely blissful, filling up all space.

 IV-68. The pristine inconceivable Status, without beginning and end, that remains at the fringe of universal Being, is causeless.

IV-69. Cognitions dissolve there. It remains beyond the possibility of doubts. A man who reaches That returns to pains no more.

IV-70. It is the cause of all beings; itself has no cause. It is the quintessence of all essences; nothing is more quintessential that It.

I have said heaven has no place for the unintelligent, but neither does the planet earth. As we have seen the governor of Louisiana and his House are in disarray because he is worried about abortions rather than poverty or other worldly affairs. This unintelligent man and his colleagues demonstrate how non-intelligence interferes with empathy, compassion, and proper management of one’s affairs.

We cannot expect the poor and desperate to wake up in the morning and avoid vexation. But we depend on first world persons to be equanimous, facile, and effective and handling life’s pinpricks with the same efficacy that it handles the landslides.

This is not happening in America because of the dipshitz.

Pro-Life is illegal. It violates our treaties with other nations and federal law. If you are as concerned as I am about the problems the politicians in this country and the White House are experiencing with enforcing the law, please write the International Criminal Court and ask them to extradite President Biden and have a tete a tete with him about this. A number of women are already dead due to the abortion ban and more are on the way if we donot take a stand.

When domestic abuse of human rights goes unnoticed by a chief executive, we are allowed to write to the UN for help resolving the issue. The International Criminal Court can be reached here.

We also need to engage in a discussion as to how it is possible a man who is actively involved in human trafficking has been able to ascend to the level of being considered for the White House without obstruction. Sex with minors and human trafficking, like Pro-Life is a Crime Against Humanity.

Donald Trump even told a live audience he let Christian Post editor Geoff Tuncliffe rape his underage son because "the kid was being a brat and deserved it." Donald Trump regularly consorts with Mr. Tunicliffe who has an extensive filmography of underage gay porn uncling footage of the rape of Trump's son.

All of this was routed through a man who lives in Logan Circle in DC and included audience members consisting of every member of Donald Trump's cabinet, and many former and existing Republican lawmakers and SCOTUS Justices.

These details along with the charges and facts associated with the siege on January 6, conducted with the unanimous support of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are almost certainly prohibitive of any eligibility for Donald Trump to hold another position in public office.

President Biden has spoken of his commitment to a new era of American politics that contain none of these things, the public however needs to see him rid us of it in grandiose fashion lest the corruption that is rampant in our lives become increasingly legitimate. Only he can represent the Stainless Being and restore His Abode to Him, so we must insist he act.

[thevindicativevordan]

Thought ont he Quintessence ?

Doesn't work as a thing for me. The members feel too mundane for this grand council overseeing reality, especially with how petty the Greek Gods, New Gods, and the Guardians of the Universe are usually shown as being. Also a group where you've got aliens, Old Gods, New Gods, and members empowered by the Abrahamic God require some explanation as to how they met and why they even want to work together, which we've never really gotten. Mostly they just bicker and do nothing, so I guess you could say they're DC's equivalent to the Watcher except even more useless somehow.

[gotham-at-nightfall]

Infinite Frontier #0

[davidmann95]

Thoughts on the Quintessence? On one hand they feel very weird to me, it doesn’t seem like a natural fit for these people to meet up at all. On the other hand that exact kind of comic brand weirdness does have its place, like how the JL represents all corners of the DCU on one team

They’re sort of vestigial in practice, but it makes perfect sense that those types would meet up, and that there’d be a single Earthbound god among them given how often we fuck things up for everybody else (and that it would be Zeus or Hera given the Wonder Woman connection).

[zal-cryptid]

DC characters - the Spectre

[thedcdunce]

Phantom Stranger

“I steer, but I cannot lead. That has always been my fate.” - Phantom Stranger

Aliases:

Grey Walker

Gender: Male

Height: 6′ 2″

Weight: 185 lbs (84 kg)

Eyes: Black

Hair: Black/ Grey

Powers:

Immortality

Magic

Abilities:

Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic)

Storytelling

Occultism

Weaknesses:

Non-Direct Interaction

Talkative

Equipment:

Amulet

Universe:

Earth-One

New Earth

Marital Status: Single

First Appearance: Phantom Stranger #1 (August, 1952)

Last Appearance: Superboy Vol 5 #11 (October, 2011)

Powers

Immortality: He has survived attacks that would kill mortals, including having his heart removed.

Magic: The Stranger almost never uses spoken spells or magical rituals more complex than a seance or a circle of entrapment. However, his magical prowess almost knows no bounds. When the Stranger is acting in his bailiwick, he is almost supremely powerful. If he is not taken by surprise and can plan and act, he can be baffled only by universal forces.

Dimensional Travel: He can travel at will among the magical dimensions, including the Realm of the Just Dead, the Antechamber of Souls, Heaven, Hell, Apokolips, and the realm occupied by the Quintessence.

Eldritch Blast: He can fire energy bolts of great force.

Spectral Sight: He can see spiritual entities and travelers invisible to normal sight; he can perceive magical events at a great distance.

Illusion Casting

Dispel: He can dispel magic and sorcery, especially magic of mental control or illusion and deception.

Transmutation: He can perform some feats of transmutation, such as turning fired bullets into flowers and sticks into snakes and back.

Oneiromancy: He can send dreams of omen, warning, or information, though possibly only with the permission of Dream of the Endless.

Reality Manipulation

Self-Sustenance: He can survive and even communicate in outer space, though he may not be able to travel of his own volition while there.

Mental Awareness: He has at least some telepathic abilities, and can ordinarily perceive truth and deception, good and evil.

Teleportation: He can mysteriously vanish and appear at will, suggesting magical teleportation.

Abilities

Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic): He is a moderately skilled hand-to-hand combatant, often surprising with a punch someone who smugly thought their protection against magic rendered them untouchable.

Storytelling: The Stranger always comes onto a new adventure as a story. He thrives in it and even acts in it, manipulating the events how he sees fit. When an event seemed to be supernatural in nature he depicted it to be normal and vise versa.

Occultism: He displays vast and keen insight into cosmic, magical, and mystical forces.

Weaknesses

Non-Direct Interaction: The Stranger's most important weakness, if that is what it is, is the sharp limitation on his acting directly and overtly. Threats which he would presumably have the raw power to directly defeat he must instead warn others about, especially if those others have some particular responsibility at stake. Even his information he apparently cannot provide clearly and explicitly; in many cases his warnings or clues are cryptic. It might be, for example, that he is forbidden from removing the responsibility from humanity's shoulders; he definitely believes in free will, and the availability of a balance of choices to humans.

Talkative: A weakness of a different sort is his oft-noticed tendency to speak too much; but this may be related to his need to make those around him understand the consequences of their choices and the fact that they face choices. He must not act in their place, so he must make them understand what their actions mean.

Equipment

Amulet

Origin

The Phantom Stranger is a mysterious figure in the history of the world. His origins, nature, even his name, have never been revealed. Various stories about his origins exist, including:

One tale postulated that the Stranger was a fallen angel who sided with neither Heaven nor Hell during Satan's rebellion and thus condemned to walk the Earth alone for all time. This is also backed by The Word who said that the Phantom Stranger was a fallen one.

Another proposes the Stranger was originally a private citizen during biblical times and was spared God's wrath. An angel was sent to deliver him from divine wrath. After questioning God's actions, he commits suicide. The angel forbids his spirit from entering the afterlife, reanimates his body and condemns him to walk the world forever to be a part of humanity but also forever separated from it. He then discovered his divine charge, to turn humanity away from evil, one soul at a time.

In a variation of the Wandering Jew story, he was an adult family man named Isaac with a wife and boy at the time when Jesus Christ was a small child. When King Herod sent his army to kill all small male children the army slew his son and wife. Blind with anger, he spent the next 30 years in a rage against Jesus. As Jesus was being tortured, Isaac bribed a guard to assume his role in whipping Jesus. Jesus then sentenced him to walk away from his home and country; to be errant until Doomsday. Eventually, his misplaced rage expunged, he spent the rest of his time helping society, even declining God's offer to release him from his sentence.

The last was a proposal that the Stranger is a remnant of the previous universe. At the end of the universe the Phantom Stranger approaches a group of scientists studying the event, warning them not to interfere in the natural conclusion of the universe. The story concludes with the Phantom Stranger passing a portion of himself to a scientist, the universe is reborn, and the scientist from the previous universe is the Phantom Stranger in the new universe.

A Stranger...

Early in his career, the Phantom Stranger would prove supernatural events to be hoaxes, saving many victims in the process. In later adventures, the supernatural events were real and the Phantom Stranger was given unspecified superhuman powers to defeat them. He later appeared in various other adventures, sometimes as a major participant; in others, the Phantom Stranger just appears and gives advice or warning to the featured heroes. Occasionally he serves simply as narrator. In some stories, he seems to be answerable to a mysterious Voice, implied to be God.

The Phantom Stranger played a major part in guiding Tim Hunter through time to show him the history and nature of magic. He has assisted the Justice League on numerous occasions, even being formally elected to the group. The Stranger also tried to foil Eclipso's plan to cause a nuclear war.

He also attempted to prevent Hal Jordan from uniting the resurrected body of Oliver Queen with his soul in Heaven. This earned him Jordan's wrath; indeed, the Spectre threatened to judge the Stranger to see whether God had "punished" him properly by refusing him access to Heaven itself. Nonetheless, the Phantom Stranger has assisted Hal Jordan during his tenure as the Spectre on numerous occasions as well, most notably in a short stint babysitting Hal's niece, Helen.

During the Day of Vengeance, the Stranger had been turned into a small rodent by the Spectre. He was still able to advise Detective Chimp, who sheltered him in his hat while he recovered his powers. He changed back using recovered energies and aided the Shadowpact, allowing them to see the battle between the Spectre and Shazam. That makes a point that the supernatural community generally regards the Phantom Stranger as invincible. The first reaction of some people to the Spectre's assault on magic is simply to presume that the Stranger will take care of it. Other adventures have shown the Stranger nearly as powerful as the Spectre. This however, is a recent interpretation. While others have never considered the Stranger as an easy foe to combat, given his unknown abilities, they also never considered him as invincible.

The Phantom Stranger's relationships with the other mystic heroes are usually a bit tense. The Stranger has no qualms gathering various forces in order to combat a certain evil, often invading those people's personal lives. However, he does not usually extend them that same courtesy. The Phantom Stranger has resisted such people as Doctor Fate in this, although Fate is in almost any incarnation an ally of the Stranger. Despite this, he does get along well with Zatanna; he appeared by her side to help remove the influence of Faust on Red Tornado.

Since he is ultimately an unpredictable force, others often meet the Phantom Stranger's appearance with distrust. Nonetheless, most heroes will follow him, seeing not only his immense power, but also knowing that the Stranger is in the end, a force for good. Notable though is Madame Xanadu, who has refused to join the Stranger on a few occasions, although she is a member of his Sentinels of Magic.

The Stranger also holds a unique relationship with the Spectre, as the two forces often come into conflict. He was responsible for gathering a group of mystic heroes in order to combat the Spectre, when its human host Jim Corrigan seemingly lost control of the Spectre. The Phantom Stranger participated in Jim Corrigan's funeral, when Corrigan's soul finally earned its rest and left the Spectre. The Stranger subsequently became one of the forces that stood against the Spectre when it went on a rampage without its human host, until the soul of Hal Jordan bonded with it. The Stranger occasionally took on an advisory role for this new Spectre. Aware that the Spectre now has yet another new host, the Phantom Stranger gathered a large group of magic wielders and mystics, including Nabu, Zatanna, and the Shadowpact, in an unsuccessful attempt to solicit the Spectre's assistance in the Infinite Crisis and later reforming the Rock of Eternity.

Fun Facts

The Spectre transforms the Stranger into a rodent, rather than killing him outright, because even the Spectre's power would be insufficient to kill the Stranger.

When the Spectre was defeated by a Black Power Ring, Black Hand could not comprehend the Stranger's true nature. Given that Black Hand is connected to Nekron, and can sense whether or not something is alive or a reborn being or an immortal, the fact is that the only description Black Hand can give the Stranger is "stranger than that".

Another possible origin of the Stranger, in which it was implied that Jonathan Kent, the future son of Superman and Wonder Woman, might grow up to be the Phantom Stranger. This also tied some of his abilities into the Hypertime concept, saying that he had the innate ability to enter other alternate timelines and to exist in the spaces between them. However, the adventure ultimately revealed this to be a red herring. The person in question had been deliberately placed in shadows to suggest that he was the Stranger; but when Wonder Woman finally saw his face, she said that she now realized he was not the Stranger.

The Stranger has some unique abilities like the ability to break the fourth wall and address the reader directly.

The Phantom Stranger is also known as the Brotherless One.

[thecreaturecodex]

Quintessivore

Image © Paizo Publishing

[The quintessivore is a weird monster in a number of ways. For one thing, its PF2e category is "beast", when both its bizarre anatomy and unusual diet would make it seem to be a shoo-in for aberration status. Although maybe that's a result of the art; those proportions and placements of the limbs are truly bizarre, and I'm not sure if that was the original intent. For another thing, the Bestiary 3 entry is mostly taken up with explaining what quintessence is for readers not immersed in PF lore, leaving the actual flavor text for the monster rather thin on the ground. So I had room to expand, and to explain some things that the original entry leaves without comment.]

Quintessivore CR 10 NE Aberration This creature has a head like a deep-sea fish, with pointed teeth and beady eyes. It has four many-jointed limbs—two of them ending in three-fingered claws, and two of them ending in bladed appendages. Its color is a sickly gray, and its body is studded with short spines, ridges and strings of fibrous material.

Quintessivores are strange creatures that feed on quintessence, the raw material of souls and the Outer Planes. They are roughly spider-like in proportion, having long limbs holding up a relatively small body. Their exoskeletons constantly slough off strands of tough fiber, similar in texture to silk but greasier. Quintessivores cannot weave webs as true spiders can, but use their silk as if it were paper, recording their spellbooks and other writings on their secretions. 

A quintessivore on one of the Outer Planes is often docile and talkative, as they have access to effectively infinite food. On the Material Plane, however, they stalk mortal beings in order to strip their souls and consume them slowly. While feeding on a soul, the quintessivore’s blade legs are faintly luminous, and patterns resembling waves, whorls and loops appear and disappear along their length. The process of feeding on a soul empowers their magical abilities, and souls that are more powerful grant longer lasting boons.

Quintessivores are despised by almost all outsiders, as their diet is soul-stuff itself. Psychopomps especially seek to eliminate quintessivores, and these aberrations typically flee from even rumors of psychopomp activity. On the other hand, daemons are rather fond of them, as their feeding reduces the net quintessence in existence, inexorably bringing the end of all things closer. Daemons still by no means respect these mortal creatures, and both the quintessivore and the daemon typically think of themselves as the superior partner in any allegiances unless the power differential between the two is obvious.

Quintessivore      CR 10 XP 9,600 NE Medium aberration Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +19

Defense AC 25, touch 17, flat-footed 18(+6 Dex, +1 dodge, +8 natural) hp 136 (13d8+78) Fort +10, Ref +10, Will +13

Offense Speed 40 ft., climb 20 ft. Melee 2 claws +15 (1d10+3 plus 1d10 negative energy and ability drain) Special Attacks ability drain (1d3 Con, Fort DC 22), feed, suspend soul Spells CL 10th, concentration +17 (+21 casting defensively) 5th—feeblemind (DC 22), passwall, vampiric shadow shield 4th—arcane eye, black tentacles, contagion (DC 22), enervation  3rd—clairaudience/clairvoyance, fireball (DC 20), protection from energy, ray of exhaustion (DC 20), slow (DC 21) 2nd—cat’s grace (x2), invisibility, scorching ray, see invisibility, web (DC 19) 1st—comprehend languages, expeditious retreat, feather fall, mage armor, magic missile, ray of enfeeblement (DC 19) 0th—detect magic, mage hand, open/close, read magic

Statistics Str 17, Dex 22, Con 23, Int 24, Wis 17, Cha 16 Base Atk +9; CMB +12; CMD 29 (33 vs. trip) Feats Combat Casting, Dodge, Iron Will, Scribe Scroll, Spell Focus (necromancy), Stealthy, Weapon Finesse Skills Acrobatics +22 (+26 jumping),Climb +27, Escape Artist +26, Intimidate +19, Knowledge (arcana) +23, Knowledge (dungeoneering, planes) +20, Perception +19, Spellcraft +23, Stealth +26, Use Magic Device +16 Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Common, Daemonic, Infernal, Undercommon

Ecology Environment underground Organization solitary Treasure standard

Special Abilities Feed (Su) By spending 1 hour with a helpless living creature, or a formerly living creature no more than 2 hours dead, a quintessivore can consume its quintessence, keeping it from reaching the afterlife. A creature fed on in such a way cannot be returned from the dead, unless its soul is freed from the quintessivore by killing the creature. A quintessivore retains the soul bound to it for 1 day per HD of its victim, during which time it gains a +1 on all spell save DCs, and may prepare an additional spell of each spell level. Once this time is elapsed, the victim’s soul is gone forever. A quintessivore can only have one soul bound to it at a time. Spells A quintessivore can prepare and cast spells as a 10th level generalist wizard. It does not gain other benefits of the wizard class, such as a specialty school or arcane bond, unless it takes levels in the wizard class. Suspend Life (Su) As an immediate action, a quintessivore can suspend the life processes of a dying creature within 15 feet. A creature so affected must succeed a DC 21 Fortitude save or be unable to gain or lose hit points for 1 hour. During that time, if the creature receives magical healing, it can attempt another DC 21 Fortitude save to break the effect. The save DC is Charisma based, and includes a +2 racial bonus.

[paperanddice]

The secret to the scythers and the stormclouds is that the engineer who supposedly created them is actually a front for a quintessence madcrafter. A mutation that came from someone exposing themself too much to the powerful energy of quintessence, the madcrafter is no longer humanoid in any recognizable sense. An immense, slug-like creature in a massive rig of tubes and tanks that store and transfer quintessence and the madcrafter's own body fluids about, mixing them in precise ratios and returning it back to the madcrafter's body to produce quintessence constructs and healing energy.

The madcrafter is almost 20 feet long, though the front third of that rears upright to form a sort of torso and head. Four undersized, humanoid arms with three fingered hands position along the torso region, and the face consists of almost nothing but a massive, gaping mouth that drips a strong acid. The collection of tubes built into the madcrafter's body has a large opening in the back of its mouth, through which the creature can spit up new minor quintessence constructs. Usually they spend a day between each crafting, carefully utilizing their produced and stored quintessence to its greatest efficiency, but in desperate times of battle it can unleash its stores to produce many scythers or stormclouds in its own defense. This eats into the madcrafter's stores of quintessence however, drawing upon its own life energy, and the carefully balanced mixtures it pumps through its system to rapidly heal wounds slows to a stop as it overuses this ability.

More madcrafters may be out there, or other mutations that came from quintessence's influence. Whatever this one has planned is unknown, and whether the intention and mind of the original person is still directing its actions is a mystery that not even the madcrafter can answer. All it seeks is additional quintessence, to grow ever more powerful by incorporating it into its body, and build an army of constructs for defense and control.

Originally from the 3.5 Monster Manual V. This post came out a week ago on my Patreon. If you want to get access to all my monster conversions early, as well as a spot on the Paper and Dice Discord server, consider backing me there!

5th Edition

Quintessence Madcrafter Huge aberration, neutral evil Armor Class 14 (natural armor) Hit Points 161 (14d12 + 70) Speed 20 ft. Str 22 (+6) Dex 10 (+0) Con 20 (+5) Int 19 (+4) Wis 15 (+2) Cha 13 (+1) Saving Throws Int +8, Wis +6, Cha +5 Skills Arcana +8, History +8, Insight +6, Investigation +8 Damage Immunities acid Senses passive Perception 12 Languages telepathy 100 ft. Challenge 10 (5900 XP) Regeneration. The madcrafter regains 10 hit points at the start of its turns as long as it has at least 1 hit point. If the madcrafter uses Launch Quintessence Construct, this trait doesn't function at the start of the madcrafter's next turn. Actions Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d8+6) bludgeoning damage plus 14 (4d6) acid damage. Launch Quintessence Construct (1/Short Rest). The madcrafter can spit a scyther or a stormcloud into an unoccupied space within 60 feet of it. Each creature within 5 feet of that space must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw, taking 21 (6d6) acid damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a success. The created construct takes its turn immediately after the madcrafter. The madcrafter can recharge this ability as a free action by taking 20 points of damage. Mind Blast (Recharge 6). The madcrafter magically emits psychic energy in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area must succeed on a DC 16 Intelligence saving throw or take 40 (8d8+4) psychic damage and be stunned for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

13th Age

Quintessence Madcrafter Huge 5th level leader [aberration] Initiative: +4 Gaping Bite +10 vs. AC - 25 damage plus 15 acid damage Natural Even Hit: The target also takes ongoing 10 acid damage. R: Launch Quintessence Construct +9 vs. PD (1d3 nearby enemies in a group) - 20 acid damage Natural Even Hit or Miss The madcrafter spawns a scyther or stormcloud engaged with the target. Limited Use: 1/turn, by expending one use of the madcrafter’s regeneration. If the madcrafter has no regeneration uses left, it instead takes 20 damage. Harvest Quintessence: 1/turn as a quick action, the madcrafter can kill one quintessence scyther, stormcloud, or soldier engaged with it to gain one additional use of its regeneration. Madcrafting Regeneration: While the madcrafter is damaged, quintessence pumps through its body to heal 20 hit points at the start of the madcrafter’s turn. It can regenerate 5 times per battle. If it heals to its maximum hit points, then that use of regeneration doesn’t count against the five-use limit. Dropping the madcrafter to 0 hp doesn’t kill it if it has any uses of regeneration left. AC 20 PD 16 MD 19 HP 200

[signorformica]

The quintessence of the flamboyant Gothic art during the twilight of the Middle Ages in Europe: detail of "The Death of Saint Clare". Master of the Heiligenkreuz ~ ca.1400  • via Bibliothèque Infernale on FB

Enjoy the full painting or download it in high-res (3377x 4096), via The National Gallery in Washington DC, here:

https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.41698.html

[goldentemplariumcrow]

Voltron!Verse & DC!verse headcanon:

About how the Isu were perceived and how they ended up becoming more of a fairytale to other races across the universe:

The Isu had a thriving society, but they were also extremely closed off to the rest of the universe, even to other planets in their galaxy. They would work in conjunction and help when requested with practical topics, like creating systems to enhance the living conditions of other species or upgrading military weaponry for defenses, however, once their part in their businesses were done, they would go back to isolate themselves within their own planet.

For this reason, there were times where their society members wouldn't be seen for centuries — if not milenia — and they would reappear out of almost nowhere one day with something they calculated that could happen to their neighbouring planets and a possible way to prevent or work around it all.

Their members were often quite recluse when in the presence of other races, preferring to listen and observe rather than interact directly with outsiders, they bore an almost utilitarian point of view about everything and, when they deemed something unworthy of their time, they would move on and ignore the topic. However, those who were prone to be researchers leaned the exact opposite way, with infinite amounts of curiosity in their minds and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, be it acquirable by experiencing it themselves or through simulations, they were always after new experiences and sought to be as resourceful and open-minded as they could in order to have it all.

Those who were capable of assimilating other cultures into their own ways were regarded as sages in their society, and believed to be capable of seeing far beyond every other Isu, which made them wiser in their own culture. And sages were extremely rare, since they were in tune with not only their own quintessence, but often with the strands of it spread throughout the universe.

In a way, the largest part of the Isu individials were perceived as binary people. Meeting an Isu was easily one of the most confusing and frustrating experience ever, because it could be pleasing and entertaining or extremely monotonous and boring, specially when theories of multiverses and alternative realities were brought up — their whole society liked to consider every possible alteration in every little detail when taking decisions or speaking of possibilities, all while analyzing and learning about other cultures.

Due to this way of being, when the Isu went all into a long period of silence, it was no surprise to most of their neighbours, just one more of their cyclic isolation periods others thought. What shocked everyone was how their planet was evacuated without a single trace of where they went to, or the reasons they did it for that matter.

To the rest of the universe that knew them, the Isu Civilization vanished one day and only their planet was left. This spraw popular tales across the galaxies about who they were and what they were like, giving no solid grounds to new generations and new races that came after their disappearance to know what they looked like or how they opperated — the only consistent traits in all tales are their markings and how they're in tune with some of the universe's energies.

As time passed by, they ended up being regarded as part of folktale as no one ever saw another Isu after their disappearance.