The Zaratan

Your patron is an impossibly huge sea turtle known as a Zaratan, so large that entire ecosystems develop and grow on its stony, mountainous shell. Drifting on warm ocean currents or settled on shoals, they are often mistaken for small tropical islands. The creature’s head is at least 100 feet in diameter, with a ridge in the center like a tall hill. Its head resembles a massive boulder, and its 200-foot long flippers are mistaken for reefs.

The Zaratan spend their millennia-long lives in slumber. They drift on the surface of the ocean, their mouths slightly open, and reflexively swallow larger creatures that explore the “cave.” They spend centuries at a time asleep. A zaratan may know secrets long lost to the world, if only it can be awakened and bargained with. However, waking a zaratan is a dangerous proposition, as their usual response to any injury severe enough to waken them is to dive to the crushing black depths. Some zaratan commune with oceanic races in this time, such as deep ones, sahuagin, or aboleth.

If you manage to successfully communicate with a Zaratan, they will often force you to agree to several restrictions before they will consider becoming your patron. Although these conditions vary from one being to another, a few core restrictions seem to be common across all known instances:

Grounded in Truth. You may not knowingly lie or use magical flight

Extinguish the Flames. If you cast a spell that causes fire damage, you become vulnerable to fire yourself for 24 hours and all fire damage against you is maximized while you are vulnerable.

Fire Consumes All. If you cast a spell that causes fire damage while vulnerable to fire, you immediately lose half of your current and max HP and gain 2 levels of exhaustion. This effect stacks, so casting another spell that causes fire damage will drop you to 1/3 of your current and max HP and 4 levels of exhaustion, and casting one more will kill you.

Expanded Spell List

The Zaratan 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.

Zaratan Expanded Spells

Spell Level	Spells
1st	earth tremor, create or destroy water
2nd	maximilian's earthen grasp, earthbind
3rd	erupting earth, water breathing
4th	stone shape, control water
5th	wall of stone, maelstrom

Bonus Cantrips

At 1st level, you learn the mold earth and shape water cantrips. They count as warlock cantrips for you, but don’t count against your number of cantrips known.

Herald of the Zaratan

At 1st level, you acquire the ability to communicate with elemental beings of earth and water. You gain proficiency in Terran and Aquan. You have a full understanding of these languages and can speak, read, and write them. Terran is a rumbling language with deep tones that reverberate through the listener. Aquan is a flowing language, full of subtleties of meaning. You have an otherworldly voice when speaking these languages, as if the words flow from the planes themselves.

Elemental Sense

At 1st level, you acquire the ability to detect the presence of nearby elemental beings. If you spend 1 minute connecting to the primal forces of the world, you can detect elementals within a number of miles equal to your Warlock level. For each elemental within that radius, you can determine their relative direction (North, West, Up/Down, etc.) and rough distance from you to the closest mile. You cannot use this ability again until you complete a long rest. At level 10, you can use this ability again after completing a short or long rest.

Shell of the Zaratan

Starting at 6th level, as a reaction you can invoke the awesome vitality and might of the Zaratan to ignore all damage (all damage types at once) from a single attack. If an effect is ongoing, each use allows you to ignore a single instance of damage. For example, when walking through a wall of fire, you can invoke this ability to ignore the damage one time, but if on subsequent rounds you triggered damage again you would not be protected. Also, if a single attack has an additional poison or other save effect you are similarly unaffected by the poison, life drain, death, or other negative extra effects. You cannot use this ability again until you complete a long rest. At level 14, you can use this ability again after completing a short or long rest.

Extraplanar Attunement

Starting at 10th level, you learn how to conjure elemental beings to do your bidding, gaining direct benefits for yourself if you summon a water or earth elemental.

You learn the Conjure Elemental spell. It counts as a warlock spell for you, but it doesn’t count against the number of spells you know. You can also cast it once without a spell slot if you conjure an earth or water elemental, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest.

Casting Conjure Elemental in this way gains you the following benefits. Starting at level 14, you gain these benefits anytime you use Conjure Elemental to call forth an earth or water elemental, even if you used a spell slot to do so.

Earth Elemental. If you conjured an earth elemental, you gain temporary hit points equal to twice your warlock level which last as long as you maintain concentration on the spell. Any damage that reduces these temporary hitpoints does not require you to make a concentration check. If a damage source does more damage than the amount of temporary hitpoints remaining, calculate the concentration check DC based on the remainder of damage. For example, if you have 12 temp hp remaining and you take 30 damage, the concentration DC would be based on the remaining 18 damage, requiring a DC 10 check instead of the DC 15 check it would have been for the full 30 damage.

Water Elemental. If you conjured a water elemental, you gain the following benefits while concentrating on the spell: You may use the dash or dodge action as a bonus action; your AC is increased by 2; and you automatically succeed on any check to remove the following conditions: grappled, restrained, stunned, paralyzed.

Wrath of the Zaratan

Starting at 14th level, you can channel the thunderous and awesome power of an angry Zaratan, causing the ground to rumble and shake and a violent storm to gather overhead.

As an action once per long rest, you can create the combined effects of an earthquake and a lighting storm in a concentrated area. A dark storm cloud appears in the air in the shape of a cylinder with a 50-foot radius, centered on a point you can see within 500 feet. At the same time, an intense tremor rips through the ground beneath the cloud and shakes creatures and structures in contact with the ground in that area. You must concentrate to maintain this effect, which lasts up to 1 minute, as if it were a spell.

Lightning. When you call forth the Wrath of the Zaratan, choose a point you can see under the cloud. A bolt of lightning flashes down from the cloud to that point. Each creature within 10 feet of that point must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 6d10 lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. On each of your turns until this wrath ends, you can use an action to call down lightning in this way again, targeting the same point or a different one.

Earthquake. The ground in the area also becomes difficult terrain. Each creature on the ground beneath the cloud that is concentrating must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature's concentration is broken. When you call forth the Wrath of the Zaratan and at the end of each turn you spend concentrating on maintaining it, each creature on the ground beneath the cloud must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the creature is knocked prone.

Additional Effects. The storm and earthquake caused by the Wrath of the Zaratan can also have additional effects depending on the terrain and other conditions in the area, as determined by the GM. Underground cloud formation is unlikely, for example, while earthquakes could be even more dangerous and cause tunnel collapses. On the open ocean, an earthquake could cause a Tsunami wave, while on land, it may cause fissures to open and structures to collapse (see the Earthquake spell for an example of fissure and structural collapse mechanics).