Caretaker of Echoes

The Caretakers of Echoes are solemn agents of Mortis, god of Death, Life, and Passage. Where others see death as an end, they see it as a sacred transition. Their purpose is to guide lost or restless souls to peace, ensuring that none remain bound by regret, vengeance, or fear.

They walk unseen through battlefields, ruins, and forgotten places where echoes of the dead still linger. Through Mortis’s blessing, they can commune with fading spirits, glean fragments of their memories, and offer them one final purpose before release. To the living, they are both comfort and omen — divine shepherds of the departed who bring mercy to the worthy and judgment to the deceitful.

Unlike necromancers, the Caretakers do not bind or command the dead. Every echo they call upon is a willing spirit seeking closure. When their task is done, the Caretaker performs a quiet rite, releasing the soul to Mortis’s embrace — and ensuring that the cycle of passage remains unbroken.

 

Echos of Passage

3rd-level Caretaker of Passage feature

When you rest and still your spirit, you open yourself to the Veil — the boundary between life and death that Mortis guards. In this quiet state of grace, wandering souls are drawn to you: echoes of those who have yet to fully pass on, seeking peace through remembrance.

Whenever you finish a short or long rest, you may invite one of these spirits to share a fragment of its memory with you. When you do so, choose one skill or tool proficiency that you lack. For as long as that spirit lingers, it lends you the knowledge it carried in life — a fleeting partnership between the living and the lost.

You retain this proficiency until you open yourself to the Veil again, at which point the spirit moves on, guided by Mortis’s light. You may then invite another wandering soul to share in your purpose.

These souls never appear as terrifying phantoms — instead, they manifest as gentle murmurs, faint silhouettes, or soft motes of silver light. They are peaceful, grateful, and transient — seeking closure, not command.

Echoes of Judgment

3rd-level Phantom feature

When you strike with divine precision, the Veil stirs — and wandering souls answer your call. Some are spirits who, in life, felt they had achieved too little, and others are those who seek redemption for wrongs they can no longer undo. Through Mortis’s mercy, they find one last purpose: to aid in the balance of life and death.

When you deal your Sneak Attack damage to a creature on your turn, you can immediately call upon one of these spirits to act in judgment. Choose a second creature you can see within 30 feet of the first. Roll half the number of Sneak Attack dice for your level (rounded up). The second creature takes necrotic damage equal to the roll’s total.

This power manifests not as wrath, but as release — a spirit’s brief moment of purpose before it fades into Mortis’s embrace. You might see a flicker of spectral hands steadying your blade, a faint light streaking toward your next foe, or the whisper of an unseen presence murmuring:
“Let this be my final act.”

Once used, the spirit is gone, having fulfilled its purpose and earned peace in the afterlife.

 

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Echoes of Remembrance

9th-level Caretaker of Passage feature

When a creature passes near you, you feel the quiet tremor of its spirit crossing the Veil. In that moment, Mortis allows you to preserve a faint echo — not of the soul itself, but of its memory of existence. These echoes manifest as small trinkets imbued with the creature’s lingering purpose: a warm coin, a petal of black rose, a mote of starlight, or a droplet of shimmering glass.

As a reaction when a creature you can see dies within 30 feet of you, you can open your free hand and cause a Tiny trinket to appear there — an Echo of Remembrance.
You can have a number of these echoes equal to your proficiency bonus, and you can’t create one while at your maximum.

You can use your echoes in the following ways:

• Grace of the Departed. While an echo is on your person, you have advantage on death saving throws and Constitution saving throws, your vitality steadied by the memory of lives that came before.
• Shared Judgment. When you deal Sneak Attack damage on your turn, you can destroy one echo in your possession to immediately use Echoes of Judgment without expending a use of that feature.
• Voice of the Past. As an action, you can destroy one of your echoes, no matter where it’s located. When you do, the echo manifests briefly as the spirit’s memory, allowing you to ask it one question. The spirit answers in a language it knew in life — not compelled to truth, only clarity — before fading into Mortis’s light. The spirit knows only what it knew in life, as determined by the DM.

These echoes are tokens of remembrance, not bindings of control. You do not command the dead — you carry their memory so that they might finish their story through you. When the echo is released, it dissipates as a soft shimmer or a faint breeze, returning peacefully to the cycle of passage.

 

Echoes of Passage

13th-level Caretaker of Echoes feature

Through Mortis’s blessing, you learn to part the Veil itself and walk as those who have passed beyond it — weightless, unseen, and untouched by the burdens of life. You do not merge with spirits; instead, you mirror their state, becoming a living echo that exists half within the mortal realm and half within the passage between.

As a bonus action, you can phase partially into the realm of the dead, assuming a spectral form. While in this form:

• You gain a flying speed of 10 feet and can hover.
• Attack rolls against you have disadvantage, as your form shimmers and drifts like a ghostly silhouette.
• You can move through creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain, but you take 1d10 force damage if you end your turn inside a creature or object.

This spectral state lasts for 10 minutes or until you end it as a bonus action.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest, unless you destroy one of your Echoes of Remembrance as part of the bonus action you use to activate this feature. Doing so symbolizes releasing the echo’s lingering memory, using its peace to part the Veil for your passage.

 

Echoes of Eternity

17th-level Caretaker of Echoes feature

In your service to Mortis, you have learned to walk so closely with death that your own essence resonates with the stillness of the Veil. You are no longer merely a guide of souls — you have become a living echo of eternity, a reminder that all things must pass, yet nothing truly ends.

Your bond with death grants you the following benefits:

• Twin Judgment. When you use Echoes of Judgment, you may now channel that power through both your strikes. The first and second creatures each take the full necrotic (or radiant) damage from your Sneak Attack and the echo’s judgment, respectively, as the balance of Mortis’s will flows through you.
• Drawn by the Veil. At the end of a long rest, if you have no Echoes of Remembrance in your possession, one manifests in your hand. The quiet call of passing spirits reaches you even in stillness, offering their memory to your keeping until they find rest.

Those who witness a Caretaker at this stage see death not as horror, but as grace. Your presence calms the dying and unsettles the defiant. To the faithful, your gaze carries the serene weight of Mortis’s promise: that every story will be heard, and every echo will fade into peace.