When you assume the form of a different creature as the result of a Transformation spell you cast, the following rules apply: • Everything you are wearing or holding is subsumed
in the new form, though if such an object leaves your possession it immediately returns to normal. • While in another form, you cannot talk.
• The new form’s Strength, Agility, characteristics, traits and talents replace your own. You retain your Intellect and Will. • The effect ends immediately if you become
incapacitated while in the new form; any damage in excess of that form’s Health is dealt to your normal form. • You can use a triggered action on your turn to switch
between forms.
BOUNDING STEP TRANSFORMATION UTILITY 1
Duration 1 minute
For the duration, you gain a +4 bonus to Speed and can use an action to jump 3d6 yards, landing safely.
MURMURATION TRANSFORMATION UTILITY 1
You burst apart to become a cloud of starlings and fly up to twice your Speed without triggering free attacks; you can move through spaces occupied by other creatures regardless of their Size. At the end of this movement, you return to your normal form.
Triggered You can use a triggered action to cast this spell when
you take damage. If you do, you take half the damage from the triggering attack and move up to half your Speed as above.
IMPROVED ANIMAL SHAPE TRANSFORMATION UTILITY 2
Duration 1 hour
You assume the form of a large animal, medium animal, small animal, or tiny animal and remain in that form for the
duration. If you assume the form of a small or tiny animal, you can gain one of the following traits: climber, flier, or swimmer.
OBJECT FORM TRANSFORMATION UTILITY 2
Duration Concentration, up to 8 hours
You assume the form of an object of your Size or smaller for the duration, becoming physically indistinguishable from the object whose form you take. You make all decisions about what your new form looks like. Until the effect ends, you cannot talk and you can use actions only to concentrate on this spell. However, you perceive using your normal senses. The effect ends if you take any damage.
MIST FORM TRANSFORMATION UTILITY 3
Duration Concentration, up to 1 hour
You assume the form of a cloud of mist of your Size for the duration. Until the effect ends, you have all the following benefits and drawbacks:
• You are immune to damage.
• You ignore the effects of attack rolls against your Strength or that require a Strength challenge roll. • You can fly and can move through openings wide
enough to permit the passage of air, though you cannot move into spaces filled with liquid—they are solid objects to you.
• You cannot fall. You are immune to the grabbed, immobilized, prone, and slowed afflictions. • You can’t speak, use actions, spells, or objects.
At the end of each round, when you are in an area of wind, you are moved 2d6 yards in the direction the wind blows and take a cumulative –5 penalty to Health. The penalty remains until you return to your normal form.
SPEED HEALING TRANSFORMATION UTILITY3
You must concentrate for 1 minute while casting this spell. If your concentration is uninterrupted, at the end of that time, you heal damage equal to twice your healing rate and you remove any of the following afflictions from yourself: diseased, fatigued, and poisoned.
METALLICUS TRANSFORMATION UTILITY4
Duration 1 minute
Your body becomes like metal. For the duration, your Defense becomes 20, you gain a +10 bonus to Health, you are immune to the asleep, blinded, deafened, diseased, fatigued, and poisoned afflictions, and you cannot be moved against your will. You also take half damage from cold, fire, and weapons. However, you are also slowed, and you cannot drink, eat, or swim.
GREATER ANIMAL SHAPE TRANSFORMATION UTILITY 5
Duration 1 hour
You assume the form of a huge animal, large animal, medium animal, small animal, or tiny animal for the
duration. If you assume the form of a medium, small, or tiny animal, you can gain one of the following traits: climber, flier, or swimmer.
Water
Water magic controls and shapes liquids, moves them, and changes their state.
When you discover the tradition, usually from a genie, fine scales cover your body. Upon learning a Water spell of rank 3 or higher, you grow gills under your ribs and can breathe water as easily as you do air.
FREEZE WATER ATTACK 0
Target One creature within short range
The temperate plummets around the target. Make a Will attack roll against its Agility. On a success, the target takes 1d3 damage and becomes immobilized for 1 round.
Attack Roll 20+ The target takes 1d3 extra damage.
PRODUCE WATER WATER UTILITY 0
Target One cup, bowl, or similar container that you can reach
You touch the target, which fills with fresh, clean water.
Magic
DROWN WATER ATTACK 1
Target One creature within short range that breathes air
Water accumulates in the target’s lungs or a similar organ. The target must make a Strength challenge roll; on a failure, it takes 1d6 + 2 damage and becomes impaired. At the end of each round the target is impaired this way, it must make a Strength challenge roll with 1 boon, removing this affliction on a success. After three failures, the target suffocates and dies.
ICE BLAST WATER ATTACK 1
Area A cone, 3 yards long, originating from a point you can reach
You hurl jagged ice shards that deal 2d6 + 2 damage to everything in the area, or half the damage with a success on an Agility challenge roll. The ground in the area becomes difficult terrain that lasts for 1 round.
WELLSPRING OF LIFE WATER UTILITY 1
Area A hemisphere with a 2-yard radius centered on a
point on the ground within short range
Duration 1 minute
Healing waters partially obscure the area for the duration. Each living creature in the area does not need to drink water until after it completes a rest. In addition, when a creature in the area heals damage, it heals 1d3 extra damage.
GEYSER WATER ATTACK 2
Area A circle with a 5-yard radius centered on a point on
the ground within medium range
A column of scalding water erupts from the area, climbing 2d6 yards before raining onto the ground out to half that many yards beyond the area and extinguishing unprotected flames. The force of the water moves unsecured objects of Size 1 or smaller 1d6 yards away from the origin point, while each creature in the area takes 2d6 + 2 damage from the hot water and must make an Agility challenge roll. The creature falls prone on a failure, or just takes half the damage on a success.
WAVE WATER ATTACK 2
Area A line 10 yards long, 10 yards tall, and 1 yard wide
originating from a point on the ground within medium range
Duration 1 round
Water rises to fill the area for the duration. The water partially obscures anything in its space and behind it, and provides half cover. The water also extinguishes any flames in the area.
When the effect ends, the line of water tips and falls either away from you or toward you as you choose, to cover an area 10 yards long and 10 yards wide. Each creature in that
area takes 1d6 damage and must make a Strength challenge roll. It falls prone on a failure, or just takes half the damage on a success.
The water then spreads out a further 10 yards in all directions, extinguishing any flames it touches.
SPHERE OF WATER WATER ATTACK 3
Area A sphere with a 3-yard radius centered on a point
within medium range
Duration Concentration, up to 1 minute
Water fills the area and remains for the duration. Each time you use an action to concentrate on the spell, you can move the sphere and anything in it up to 5 yards in any direction. Each creature in the area when you cast the spell becomes trapped in the sphere, as does a creature whose space the sphere enters. At the end of each round until the effect ends, each air-breathing creature trapped this way must get a success on a Strength challenge roll or take 2d6 damage.
A creature trapped this way can use an action to make a Strength challenge roll. On a success, it swims free and falls prone in an open space it chooses within 1 yard of the sphere.
TIDAL FORCES WATER ATTACK 3
Area Any number of creatures within medium range
Each target must make a Strength challenge roll with 1 bane. On a failure, it is moved 2d6 yards toward you or away from you (your choice) and becomes dazed. On a success, it is just moved half the distance.
COLD SNAP WATER ATTACK 4
Area A cone, 8 yards long, originating from a point you can
reach
Lethal cold spreads through the area, instantly freezing water and water-based liquids, including potions. The cold deals 7d6 damage to everything in the area. Each creature in the area that gets a success on a Strength challenge roll takes only half the damage. A creature that becomes incapacitated by this damage freezes solid and dies instantly.
BIND WATER GENIE WATER UTILITY 5
Target A cube of ice, snow, or water, 2 yards on a side,
originating from a point within long range
Duration 1 minute
At the end of the round in which you cast this spell, the target becomes a Size 2 water genie. You cannot voluntarily
end this spell. When the genie appears, make a Will attack roll against its Will. The genie becomes compelled for the duration on a success, or becomes hostile to you on a failure.
The fate of the universe will be decided on Urth, a small planet swinging around a relatively young star in a remote corner of the galaxy. The Shadow of the Demon Lord falls over many worlds, but Urth has most recently drawn its fell attention. Here, reality’s boundaries have weakened enough to permit the darkness of the Void to escape and set in motion a series of disasters that, unless stopped, will culminate in the end of all things.
This chapter describes one of the myriad worlds threatened by the cosmic destroyer and gives you the information you need to set adventures there. Although you can find plenty of information about Urth and its lands here, lots of blank spaces exist as well. These areas, characters, organizations, and more are left to your imagination so you can make this setting your own.
Overview
The waters of four oceans divide the lands into eight continents, with numerous islands of varying sizes scattered among them. The continents boast diverse landscapes, with towering mountains, pestilential swamps, rolling plains, and primeval forests as old as the world. Deserts and badlands, prairies, hills, rivers, lakes, and jungles sustain a wide range of life.
Beneath the mortal world’s surface stretches a vast labyrinth of tunnels, caverns, great galleries, and
bottomless chasms. In these lightless grottos lies a violent and often terrifying world that the peoples living above have never conquered. Into the subterranean depths the wicked flee. Here also, exiles might find refuge and misguided people hope to bury evils from another age. Arching over the world is a vast, azure expanse by day and deep blackness speckled with stars by night. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and a single moon, Tarterus, is a whole other world, its surface obscured by boiling clouds in which lightning dances. Some believe Tarterus is a dark cousin to Urth, a world inhabited by all manner of warped and terrifying things. Others believe the gods created it to hold those primordial deities they cast down at the dawn of time.