Your family, village, or other important childhood figures all perished in an awful event, leaving you as the only survivor. Your last memory is of something befalling you that you should not have lived through--but you woke up, unscathed, in safety.
You could have sworn you died. But how could that be possible?
- Skill Proficiencies: Choose two from among Arcana, History, Religion, Survival, or Insight.
- Languages: You returned from the world beyond with knowledge you shouldn't have. Choose one exotic language (Abyssal, Celestial, Deep Speech, Draconic, Infernal, Primordial, Sylvan, or Undercommon).
- Equipment:
- One toolkit of your choice
- A set of common clothes
- A trinket from your childhood home or the catastrophe that destroyed it.
When you first touch any corpse, you might hear unintelligible whispers from the world beyond. Though you don’t understand their words, they may leave you with knowledge about the past that you shouldn’t otherwise know. This can be done at the discretion of the DM, or you may invoke it up to once per day.
Roll one D10 from the Side Effects table, and one from the Whispers table.
If the DM chooses to invoke this feature, they do not have to share what their roll was. They need only to inform you of the effects on you and any information you know as a result, but not its relevance.
|
d10 |
Side Effect |
|
1 |
You have no noticeable repercussions. |
|
2 |
You hear faint whispers that seems to fade and grow on an intangible breeze. |
|
3-4 |
You hear murmurings from the world beyond. |
|
5-6 |
Disembodied whispers crowd into your consciousness. You are confused for one minute. |
|
7-8 |
All noise from the world around you fades into silence. You hear only one thing: a piercing, terrifying scream. You are deafened for one minute. |
|
9 |
The voices of the dead overwhelm you, a cacophony melding together until all you hear is one unearthly, nightmarish voice. You can't understand what it's saying, but it sounds as if it calls only to you. You are frightened for five minutes. |
|
10 |
Your fatigue increases by one level. |
|
d10 |
Whispers |
|
1 |
You know nothing. |
|
2-4 |
You learn about something completely irrelevant that occurred during the lifetime of this creature. (i.e. “An Orc named Gruuthoth cheated on his wife Olgithor in a nearby forest 27 years ago, and then she killed him.” or “On this day 458 years ago, a 0.25 magnitude earthquake occurred on a distant continent and no one noticed.”) |
|
5 |
A single word comes to mind, but no context comes with it. |
|
6-7 |
You know nothing about what you are touching, but suddenly have some small knowledge about someone or something else in the area. |
|
8 |
You get a vague feeling. |
|
10 |
You know something uncomfortably relevant about this corpse. |
Suggested Characteristics
You are a survivor, who can be very protective of those who bring light into your darkened life. You especially protective of your bondmate, if you have one. However, your brush with the other side instilled a deep-seated terror in you, which may cause nightmares. You have seen Death.
| d8 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I don’t run from evil. Evil runs from me. |
| 2 | I like to read and memorize poetry. It keeps me calm and brings me fleeting moments of happiness. |
| 3 | I spend money freely and live life to the fullest, knowing that tomorrow I might die. |
| 4 | I live for the thrill of the hunt. |
| 5 | I don’t talk about the thing that torments me. I’d rather not burden others with my curse. |
| 6 | I expect danger around every corner. |
| 7 | I refuse to become a victim, and I will not allow others to be victimized. |
| 8 | I put no trust in divine beings. |
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | I try to help those in need, no matter what the personal cost. (Good) |
| 2 | I’ll stop the spirits that haunt me or die trying. (Any) |
| 3 | I kill monsters to make the world a safer place, and to exorcise my own demons. (Good) |
| 4 | I have a dark calling that puts me above the law. (Chaotic) |
| 5 | I like to know my enemy’s capabilities and weaknesses before rushing into battle. (Lawful) |
| 6 | I’m a monster that destroys other monsters, and anything else that gets in my way. (Evil) |
| d6 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | I keep my thoughts and discoveries in a journal. My journal is my legacy. |
| 2 | I would sacrifice my life and my soul to protect the innocent. |
| 3 | My torment drove away the person I love. I strive to win back the love I’ve lost. |
| 4 | A terrible guilt consumes me. I hope that I can find redemption through my actions. |
| 5 | There’s evil in me, I can feel it. It must never be set free. |
| 6 | I have a child to protect. I must make the world a safer place for him (or her). |
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | I have certain rituals that I must follow every day. I can never break them. |
| 2 | I assume the worst in people. |
| 3 | I feel no compassion for the dead. They’re the lucky ones. |
| 4 | I have an addiction. |
| 5 | I am a purveyor of doom and gloom who lives in a world without hope. |
| 6 | I talk to spirits that no one else can see. |
You are bonded to the one who pulled you back from the brink of death, and can sometimes sense their feelings and thoughts, or even see through their eyes. The DM may invoke this feature at will. If you wish to try to invoke it yourself, you must roll an Insight check.
This is a one-way bond, which your bondmate has no sense of or control over. The bond is temporarily disabled if you or your bondmate are drunk or drugged.
Your bonded character may be an NPC, or another player.