bitter bards diffusing contact reality

Boros Legionnaire

Backgrounds Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica

Boros emphasis on order and community, or bitter enemies among the guilds that represent chaos and destruction. Roll twice on the Boros Contacts table (for an ally and a rival) and once on the Non

-Boros Contacts table. Boros Contacts d8 Contact 1 A former comrade in arms was promoted into the prestigious Sunhome Guard. 2 One of my parents is a ranking Boros officer

Avarice

Monsters Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

fantasizes about rising to fame and prominence in record time and hopes that plundering the lost Netherese city of Ythryn will turn her fantasies into reality. The tiefling has the secret support of the

serve her as bodyguards and scouts. Avarice uses her Rary's telepathic bond spell to stay in telepathic contact with her gargoyles before sending them off on any mission. Avarice also has the support of

Selesnya Initiate

Backgrounds Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica

always straining to peer into another reality that seems to be just beyond my senses. 5 I’m uneasy if I can’t see plants growing or feel soil beneath my feet. 6 Seeing illness

. Selesnya Contacts d8 Contact 1 A wise centaur trainer believed in me even though I was a terrible student. 2 A good friend has risen to become a Ledev guardian. 3 I left

Izzet Engineer

Backgrounds Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica

. Izzet Contacts d8 Contact 1 An older relative is a member of the guild’s board of directors. 2 I know a sprite who carries important messages among the guild’s

with another attendant for our supervisor’s attention. 8 The guildmaster, Niv-Mizzet, took note of one of my experiments! Non-Izzet Contacts d10 Contact 1 An

Entertainer - Baldur's Gate

Backgrounds Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus

occupation or social class that frequents the establishment. This contact is delighted to talk with you, and to listen. Variant Entertainer: Gladiator A gladiator is as much an

, since I can defuse any amount of tension. 5 I love a good insult, even one directed at me. 6 I get bitter if I’m not the center of attention. 7 I’ll settle for nothing

Wizard Legacy

Classes Basic Rules (2014)

. Some aspire to become like the gods, shaping reality itself. Though the casting of a typical spell requires merely the utterance of a few strange words, fleeting gestures, and sometimes a pinch or

. Creating a Wizard Creating a wizard character demands a backstory dominated by at least one extraordinary event. How did your character first come into contact with magic? How did you discover you had

Deck of Several Things

Magic Items Lost Laboratory of Kwalish

adventure. The Fates. Reality’s fabric unravels and spins anew, allowing you to avoid or erase one event as if it never happened. You can use the card’s magic as soon as you draw the card

Gloine (area O7), whichever comes later in the adventure. While your soul is trapped in this way, your body is incapacitated. Divination, contact other plane, or a similar spell of 4th level or higher reveals the location of the machinery that holds your soul. You draw no more cards.

Adventurers' Guild Contacts

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Rising from the Last War

Adventurers’ Guild Contacts Typically, an adventuring group has no particular contact within the larger guild. There’s a local leader or bookkeeper who collects dues, but otherwise you might interact

with a variety of different members of the guild in different contexts—when looking for a contract, gathering referrals, staying in the guildhall, and so on. The Guild Contact table provides

Chapter 2: Creating a Multiverse

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014)

Chapter 2: Creating a Multiverse When adventurers reach higher levels, their path extends to other dimensions of reality: the planes of existence that form the multiverse. The characters might be

Limbo to contact a wizened githzerai sage. Planes of existence define the extremes of strange and often dangerous environments. The most bizarre locations present settings undreamed of in the natural

Halflings of the Five Nations

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Rising from the Last War

Halflings of the Five Nations Quick and charming, many halflings put their natural talents to use as bards, barristers, merchants, and politicians throughout Khorvaire. Of course, these same talents

the criminal empire, but your past may yet catch up with you. You could also be the point of contact who has made the Boromar Clan your party’s group patron, as described later in this chapter.

Military Contacts

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Rising from the Last War

Military Contacts Your group’s primary contact within your hierarchy is generally your superior officer—the person who gives you orders and is responsible for your success or failure. The Commanding

A kindly officer who is hesitant to send you into danger and constantly reminds you to be careful 6 A bitter officer who carries deep grudges against your nation’s enemies in the Last War and leaps at

Touch of Death

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

Touch of Death Your touch is pain, harming whoever you come in contact with. The deathly power within you is beyond your control, afflicting any who touch your bare skin. By the same token, you can

interest in you. 4 You survived a near-death experience—but shouldn’t have. Ever since, death and ill omens follow you. 5 You are out of sync with time or reality. Anything you touch is

Espionage Agency Contacts

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Rising from the Last War

receive. Agency Contacts d8 Contact 1 A condescending career desk agent who views you as expendable tools 2 A bitter former field agent, now confined to a field office, who envies your work 3 A

Playing During the Last War

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Rising from the Last War

political intrigue, tenuous alliances, and brutal conflicts. Consider these ways to make the Last War a present reality in your campaign: The players create new characters who live during a specific phase of

in a memorable battle? Do they take actions they’ll later regret? Do they make a bitter enemy who comes back to haunt them years later, when the campaign continues in the present day? A magical

Unity of Rings

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse->Turn of Fortune’s Wheel

arcanaloth is frustrated by the characters’ interfering with her plot and avoids them for a time, but she isn’t one to let annoyance get in the way of opportunity. Shemeshka might eventually contact the

characters to involve them in future schemes. Shemeshka might contact the characters sooner if the data in their mimir skewed toward evil, as it’s possible the characters produced the results she was

Star Spawn

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes

moment’s contact with such a place is enough to plunge a mortal mind into madness. Yet beings do exist that are native to these realms: beings that are eternally hungering, searching, warring, sometimes

cultists hasten to gather together, read aloud their blasphemous texts, and conduct the mind-searing rituals that guide the blazing star spawn into the world. The cultists who blaspheme reality by

Guild

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything

how perfect your creations, nothing is ever good enough for this contact. They point out every flaw and missed opportunity. Are they bitter, lashing out at anyone around them, or do they recognize your

DM decides if the guild has tutors available for a given subject. Guild Contact Even as a member in good standing of the guild, you can’t simply stroll up to the guild master and demand their attention

Redcloak Battalion

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Rising from the Last War

Battalion. This elite unit fought at the forefront of the Last War, and Brelish bards still sing of the exploits of Khandan the Hammer and Meira the Huntress. At the end of the war, the battalion was split

bitterly. Thrane. In the waning years of the Last War, the Redcloaks played a major role in the devastating Battle of Cairn Hill between Brelish and Thrane forces. Thanks to heavy losses on both sides, veterans of that battle tend to nurse bitter grudges against their enemies.

10. Noble Quarters

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage

death knights that dwell on the lower tiers of Shadowdusk Hold. Contact with the Far Realm has given Dezmyr the ability to warp reality to a limited extent. Zalthar has no such ability but wields a

rest of her family, but she can sense that her mind is slowly being eroded by contact with the Far Realm. Fearing that her descent into madness is inevitable, she lives in a state of self-imposed

Goblinoids

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron

years. It was crippled by a long and bitter conflict with the daelkyr and their aberrant armies; even though the daelkyr were defeated, the seeds of madness took root in the empire and tore it apart

Dhakaani. The Heirs of Dhakaan are an agnostic society and don’t have clerics, paladins, or druids. Their focus is on martial excellence, and their spiritual leaders are bards, who inspire their warriors

Patron Benefits

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Rising from the Last War

not fit the descriptions of contacts on this table. Contacts d12 Contact 1 A friendly law-enforcement officer sends clients your way and gives you inside information about the workings of the

interfere in that gang’s affairs. 4 A bitter, more experienced inquisitive spends a lot of time telling you who you could have talked to ten years ago—if that person hadn’t died—but still knows a lot about

Lorehold Student

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos

are in the broad field of history. You might dream of using magic to contact great historical figures or your own ancestors or of recreating the mighty magic of a distant age. Skill Proficiencies

Lorehold. Bards thrive in Lorehold, and wizards (particularly those of the School of Divination) are numerous among its students. Clerics (often with the Knowledge or Light domains) are also quite common

Dragon Factions

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Fizban's Treasury of Dragons

their services to dragons in exchange for membership in a draconic faction. By joining one dragon’s faction, characters might end up locked in bitter strife with a different faction—and characters who

to the highest standards of behavior, and wields cold magic. The Brass Order could be a loose affiliation of good-hearted scoundrels, including rogues and bards, who favor fire magic and trickery. An

Cult of the Black Earth

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Princes of the Apocalypse

cruel, an extreme narcissist who delights in surrounding himself with objects of beauty and luxurious comforts. Beneath this sneering self-assurance lies a bitter being who loathes himself and holds

suspicious of the Cult of Howling Hatred. They believe that the air cultists are mercurial, unreliable, and generally out of touch with reality. The earth cultists respect the strength and ferocity of the

Mages of High Sorcery

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen

apprentice will honor the laws of their order, no matter the circumstance. To this end, the test confronts an apprentice with bitter moral and emotional choices as well as magical challenges. Illusion and

Reality. Friends, enemies, and loved ones might appear in the test, along with all manner of hazards and puzzles. The applicant has no way of knowing which challenges are illusory and which are real. In

Vistani

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

. The Mists can carry travelers between lands and can be coerced but never controlled. Evil is real and embodied by individuals of terrible power. Time, reality, and memory don’t always move in reliable

into contact with a wide range of people. As the only outsiders that some remote communities see in the course of a year, the news and goods Vistani bring ensures a genuine welcome and renewal of

Citadel Adbar

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide

Citadel Adbar In the extreme north of Faerûn, near the Cold Wood, lie the Ice Mountains. There, in the bitter cold, stands the eternal fortress of Citadel Adbar, the last great remnant of the

known written copies have ever been reported. Only a privileged few non-dwarves have ever heard the Dirge in its entirety, and dwarf bards who want to perform this epic must demonstrate great skill in

Hoard Quirks

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Fizban's Treasury of Dragons

lingering curse. A dying dragon might pronounce a bitter magical oath upon any who would plunder the dragon’s hoard, or a living dragon might inscribe a dire warning about the foul magic that will be

unleashed on any who plunder the dragon’s treasure. Such a curse typically affects not only those who steal from the hoard, but anyone else who comes into contact with the treasure. Moreover, breaking the

Ascendant Factions

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse->Sigil and the Outlands

unknowable. The Athar are led by Factol Terrance (neutral good, human Athar null; see Morte’s Planar Parade). While many Defiers become bitter, Terrance remains compassionate, pointing wayward souls

Doomguard holds leverage in many interfactional negotiations. The Doomguard bears a long, bitter, mutual enmity toward the Harmonium, and the Fraternity of Order rejects the Doomguard’s philosophy

If the Characters Decline

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Vecna: Eve of Ruin

contact her, Alustriel tells the characters. When she left, Malaina told Alustriel that she was going to a shop called Velgar’s Vittles in Sigil’s Market Ward. The Wizards Three were busy, so Alustriel

wife before the group leaves to confront the archlich. Alustriel provides directions to Velgar’s Vittles. In reality, Malaina was suspicious of Mordenkainen, but she didn’t want to make accusations

Manor Locations

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Candlekeep Mysteries

ballroom’s stage is filled with set pieces, props, and costumes. Treasure. Among the many other instruments stored here is Quill’s instrument of the bards (Cli lyre), which is kept in an ornate wooden case

ability to warp reality and bring to life things from their imagination. Renekor dreamed itself into Wisteria Vale from the Underdark. The beholder believes that the village and its residents are its own

Tour of the Planes

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Rising from the Last War

of Dreams Mortal creatures come into contact with Dal Quor when they dream (except for elves, kalashtar, and warforged, which don’t dream). The outer fringes of the plane are shaped by the memories

manipulators that can inhabit the dreams of others. Tens of thousands of years ago, the quori fought a bitter war with the giants of Xen’drik. The giants ended the war by severing the connection between

Military Force

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything

higher pay. As an officer, you maintain a comfortable lifestyle. Military Force Contact Your primary contact within your hierarchy is your superior officer, the person who gives you orders and is

kindly officer is hesitant to send you into danger and constantly reminds you to be careful. 4 Bitter Soldier. Your commander carries deep grudges against your force’s enemies. They leap at any

Factions

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Princes of the Apocalypse

another. The first visit to Red Larch is a good time to establish these protocols and give each character some face time with a faction contact. (See the “Important Red Larchers” section of “Red Larch

least discretion. Bards and wizards are their most prominent members. Harpers operate in small cells throughout the North. One is based in Triboar: Darathra Shendrel, the Lord Protector, belongs to the

Far Realm Cysts

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Tales from the Yawning Portal->a5

suspended in the air. In the west side of the room is a black gate, and on the wall near it is a contact stone. Creatures. One reduced-threat aboleth (see “Reduced-Threat Monsters” above) dwells

rock, is a contact stone. If the characters come from the north, add the following. Southwest of the doors is an alcove that contains a black gate. Creatures. Eight zombies and two ogre zombies

D&D Beyond

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