The Author

Found in dreamscapes of ink and parchment, The Author offers a pact with the knowledge-hungry and bold. In exchange for your discoveries, revelations, and experiences, The Author imbues you with powerful arcana, inviting you to raise your role and help write the fate of the Grand Story.

Expanded Spell List

The Author lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.

1st: Absorb Elements, False Life

2nd: Blindness/Deafness, Enhance Ability

3rd: Bestow Curse, Glyph of Warding

4th: Polymorph, Summon Construct

5th: Geas, Teleportation Circle

Child of Ink and Salt

At 1st level, pick 2 cantrips from the wizard spell list. For you, these count as warlock cantrips and do not count against the number of cantrips you know. Additionally, when you make an Intelligence-based skill check or saving throw, you may add your Charisma bonus to the total rolled and may do so a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. You regain all uses of this when you complete a short or long rest. Lastly, at the end of a long rest, you may replace 1 spell you know with another from the warlock spell list or your expanded spell list.

Talons and Fangs

Also at 1st level, you can call upon the power of The Author’s familiars to help guide you and your allies as well as alter the arcana imbued within you. As a bonus action, you may summon the talons of an owl or the fangs of a tressym which you call before summoning them. You can dismiss talons and fangs with a bonus action as well, however, once you pick one or the other, you can only summon that one until you complete a short or long rest.

Talons

Your hand seems to turn to parchment before ink quickly consumes it and transforms into metallic owl talons. While the talons are summoned, you may use one of the following options and may do so a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. You regain all uses at the end of a short or long rest.

• You or a willing creature within a range of touch gains advantage on a Persuasion or Investigation check.
• You or a willing creature you touch gains advantage on a Perception check that relies on hearing or sight for the next 10 minutes.
• Once per turn when you deal damage with a spell or cantrip, you may change the damage type to slashing.

Fangs

Your mouth fills with the taste of metal and salt before your canines transform into metallic tressym fangs. While the fangs are summoned, you may use one of the following options and may do so a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. You regain all uses at the end of a short or long rest.

• You or a willing creature you touch gains advantage on a Deception or Arcana check.
• You or a willing creature you touch gains darkvision out to a range of 60 ft for 10 minutes. If the target already possesses darkvision, the range is increased by 60 ft.
• Once per turn when you deal damage with a spell or cantrip, you may change the damage type to piercing.

Written in Blood

Offering substantial contributions to the archives of The Author, he shares the power to scribe the fortune and misfortune of others, slowly bending the world to your will.
As an action, you may magically extract a small portion of blood from a creature within a range of touch. The amount is not enough to cause any damage to the creature and is hardly noticeable. If the creature is unwilling, they may make a Perception check against your Spell Save DC. On a success, they feel a strange chill where your hand was placed during the extraction. Regardless, the blood is extracted unless the target can take action to prevent it.

Once extracted, the blood is temporarily stored in talons or fangs for 10 minutes. You can only have the blood of one creature stored in this manner. Once you use this feature to extract blood, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest. For 1 hour, you have advantage on Charisma checks against the target you’ve extracted from. Alternatively, you can invoke the blood to grant the target temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier for 1 hour.

While the blood of your target is stored in talons or fangs, you may use an action to transfer the blood to an empty vial if you have one available. When transferred, the glass of the vial is scrawled in inky runes and becomes cold to the touch as it ices over. While stored in this manner, the blood of your target becomes preserved for 24 hours and you forfeit the previous benefits. As you increase in level, the duration of preservation extends. 24 hours at 6th level, 1 month at 10th level, and 1 year at 14th level. You can possess a number of preserved blood vials equal to your Charisma modifier.

At any point while it is preserved, you may invoke a ceremony that imbues 1 preserved vial. Using a quill, piece of parchment, and the preserved blood, you must spend 10 minutes per level of the spell being cast and can cast a spell you currently know onto the piece of parchment and blood-written passage detailing the process of the spell in cryptic runes. The runes can be deciphered with a successful Arcana check against your Spell Save DC.

After you complete the ceremony, you may place the parchment in the vial. The item becomes imbued with the spell for the remaining duration of its preservation. The spell itself is delayed until you or the target use an action to invoke the passage in the vial where the spell will be cast on the target. You do not require line of sight to the target nor do you need to abide by the normal range of the imbued spell. Once cast, the parchment is set ablaze before quickly turning to smoke and vanishing from the vial. You may only possess one imbued vial at a time.

Potent Arcana

At 10th level, your discoveries and revelations have proved vital putting you in The Author’s favor.

You can cast one of the following spells on a preserved or imbued blood vial once without expending a spell slot. You can only cast one of the following spells in this manner once every short or long rest. Once a spell has been cast on a vial in this manner, none of the following spells can be cast in the same way on the same vial.

Identify, Detect Thoughts, Suggestion, Bestow Curse, Remove Curse, Sending, Scrying

Additionally, at the end of a long rest, you may choose a spell from the warlock spell list or your expanded spell list of 3rd level or lower. The spell is scrawled in a place on you of your choice as if your skin was parchment. Before your next long rest, you may cast this spell as if it were a spell scroll using your Spell Attack Bonus and Spell Save DC. Once used, the script disappears from your skin.

Lastly, your flesh and blood feel strange as The Author’s mark begins to rewrite you. You gain advantage on saving throws against spells and magical effects that solely target humanoids.

Scribe of Sulphur

At 14th level, you’ve become a favorite of The Author, in exchange, the power of your written word is immense.

You may imbue up 3 preserved blood vials at a time now. Alternatively, you may imbue a single preserved blood vial up to 3 times. You can not imbue it with the same spell. With an action, you or the target can choose which spell is cast, the others remain imbued for the duration of preservation.

Additionally, you may now extract the blood of a number of targets equal to your Charisma modifier. For 1 hour, you may also summon a strange ethereal leech creature under your control. This creature can travel up to 300 ft from you and you can use an action to see and hear from the creature’s senses instead of your own. Once the creature is within a range of touch to the target, you may magically extract the blood which is stored in the creature for 10 minutes. The target can attempt to perceive the extraction through the strange chill present, however, it will prove difficult to implicate you unless the target already has reason to suspect you. When you have the blood of multiple creature stored in talons, fangs, or the leech, you may select which creatures blood is transferred to which vial.

Vermillion Corpus

Also at 14th level, The Author’s mark has mutated and spread through the majority of your being, you are far changed from what you once were.

You are now considered a Construct regarding spells and magical effects. Additionally, upon taking bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage, you can use your reaction grant yourself resistance to that damage type until the end of your next turn. You can do so a number of times equal to your proficiency and regain all uses at the end of a long rest.