#Unfortunately something through off what was otherwise a successful large scale teleportation
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A castle mysteriously appears in Gotham one night.
Nobody who noticed it knows where it came from, nor how it got there as it seemingly appeared overnight. It wasn't anything big, as far as castle's were concerned, it seemed to be on the smaller side of things.
However, no one could truly estimate it's actual size. For there seemed to be an ever-present fog that never seemed to stray past the castle's gates.
Just like the fog, you always seemed to hear the cawing of crows and the flapping of bats whenever you step close enough. Yet their visibility was kept hidden in the fog.
Appearances aside, there did seem to be something... off, about the castle and not just because it appeared from thin air, no. It seemed to have a distinct aura of something... other.
No one knew how to explain it, but they could tell there was nothing natural about it. There was something fundamentally wrong with the castle, it wasn't the way it appeared out of nowhere, nor it's appearance.
===
When Sam finally became an adult, she didn't have to think twice about moving out. It was a bit difficult, with her parents not wanting to let her go just yet, but her grandmother managed to persuade them, thankfully.
When she was younger, Sam had always dreamed of owning a castle. Though its appearance did change in her mind when she grew older, from pretty and pink to one of darker colors and crows, which is why she never got one when she was younger, she realized.
But now that she was an adult, what was stopping her?
Nothing, that's what.
So, Sam buys one that matches her tastes and moves in. There was a lot of space, far more than she really ever thought about and now had to find a use for.
Magic.
Was something that enthralled Sam ever since she was young, that and the occult as a whole. So, for a few months after moving did she try and get her hands on things like magical tomes, items, scripts and learn it.
Surprisingly, she was strongly successful in her attempts of learning magic. It was surprising to be sure, but now that she compares it to the portal to the afterlife, having a half dead friend and having hunted down ghosts, she realizes that magic wouldn't be that much farfetched in the equation.
A fair bit of her time now was spent covering her castle in wards, sigils, and runes, ones that would strengthen themselves over time, various protection wards and multiple others that she found useful. Most of them were ones that she found through text, though others were ones she personally made.
After she finished the entirety of the castle, she studied thoroughly to gain more knowledge and power for herself, she even made a few spells of her own along with various potions. Unfortunately, she was interrupted in her studies by various other witches, because apparently having such a powerful fledgling witch on her lonesome was too tempting of an offer to pass up for the nearby covens.
So she had to... move, before they tried to force her to join them. As for how, well, she moved her entire castle! What better way to refuse, really?
Unfortunately, it was her first time using such large-scale teleportation magic and she messed it up. Not that her calculations on where the castle was supposed to be were wrong, but while in the midst of moving through space she was... thrown off kilter.
She didn't even know how or what caused her to mess up. But her castle both was and wasn't where she wanted it to be. Her original destination was coordinates near Amity Park, and while they were on said coordinates.
This wasn't Amity Park.
To say she worried was an understatement. She scrambled to find something about where she ended up, and realized not only was she thrown off kilter, but she was also thrown off so badly that she ended up in an entirely different dimension. Luckily, she managed to make the philosopher's stone.
To say making it was easy would be wrong, for even she didn't know how she created it. It was by accident and for a while she didn't even know she had made it, when she had and tried to do something with it the stone had, uh, well.
It fused into her skin.
It had placed itself right over her face, on her chest, and it granted her immortality it seemed. Though that wasn't the effect she was currently thankful for no, the effect of making gold would be valuable to her, she wouldn't have the Manson wealth, but she could at the very least sustain herself.
For now, though, she did have her studies to get back to.
#dc x dp#dp x dc#dpxdc#dp x dc crossover#dcxdp#dc x dp crossover#I remembered about my old au somewhere in the Batpham discord#I think it was called Hecate's castle or something?#But that had a hand in this post#Sam is a powerful witch and that attracted the gazes of various covens#So she just took her castle and left#Unfortunately something through off what was otherwise a successful large scale teleportation#And Sam ended up in the DC universe in Gotham#She also made the philosopher's stone but that one was more on accident than anything purposeful#Like she cannot replicate what she did to make it at all#If I see ghost king Danny in this post I will riot.#This is Sam-centric#We don't need that ghost twink in here#Sorry that was mean ily Danny#Not when your ghost king tho downgrade to a prince or non royalty and then we'll talk#AHEM#Anyways#I was thinking of how Sam could be called Hecate here but ahhhh#We'll see about that in the future lol#Wow this is a lot of tags#Anyways I shall stop now
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Spiritual Spotlight: Lalaci, He of Motley Repose
Chaotic Good Azata Empyreal Lord of Rainbows, Relaxation, and Shade
Domains: Chaos, Good, Luck, Sun
Subdomains: Azata, Fate, Light, Thirst, Whimsy
Chronicles of the Righteous, pg. 18
Obedience: Mark your brow with five colored stripes and hang suncatchers on as many public buildings as you can. If no buildings are around, hang the suncatchers from a tree or natural formation instead. Never hang a suncatcher in the same place 2 days in a row.
Benefit: Gain a +4 sacred bonus on saving throws against Fire effects.
I appreciate that Lalaci doesn’t make too big of a nuisance of himself, stating you only have to hang suncatchers on public buildings. You don’t have to go around hanging bits of colored glass from people’s porches, merely prettying up the local offices, restaurants, corner stores, libraries, and taverns. While it may get you in trouble in certain parts of the world, it’s unlikely to make you look like an actual threat unless you’re placing the symbol of an Empyreal Lord in places like Cheliax or Nidal. Lalaci’s also nice enough to say ‘as many as you can,’ so if you’re stopped by guards or warned away from going further, you can still conclude that your job is done and you’ve brought some brightness into the world.
The primary problem is that eventually you’re going to run out of the darn things, and even buying or scavenging glass, metal, and string to make them yourself will get time-consuming and/or expensive. I THINK you’re good to take back the ones you’ve already put up, especially if someone else takes them down or knocks them to the ground, but then you run the risk of forgetting which places you’ve hung suncatchers from, and Lalaci is VERY clear in what he thinks of that: NEVER hang a suncatcher from the same place. You also run the risk of defeating your message in the first place in marking areas people can relax.
Of course, suncatchers aren’t exactly survival gear or magic items. The DM may rule a single gold coin gets you enough material to make however many of the things you want. The resources consumed by this Obedience have the benefit/curse of having no listed price but being enough that a more stern, bookkeeping DM might not handwave them away. Check and see what your DM thinks of your hobby!
The benefit is boring but practical. Fire effects are extremely common at pretty much every level of the game, so having a nice big +4 standing between you and getting your eyebrows burned off is always welcome. Not much else to say about it!
Boons are gained slowly, typically achieved once you reach 12, 16, and 20 Hit Dice. Followers of the Empyreal Lords, however, can enter the Mystery Cultist Prestige Class at level 8, which grants them their Boons much quicker! Entered as early as possible, you gain the Boons at levels 10, 13, and 16 instead. Mystery Cultists MUST take the Celestial Obedience feat, NOT Deific Obedience.
Empyreal Lords do not grant the typical Evangelist/Exalted/Sentinel spread (and cannot enter those classes), instead having only one set of Boons granted to their followers regardless of their class.
Boon 1: Motley Magic. Gain Color Spray 3/day, Hypnotic Pattern 2/day, or Deep Slumber 1/day.
Color Spray fell off about 3 or 4 levels ago but still remains useful against swarming mooks, but Hypnotic Pattern does its job far better without putting you dangerously close to your enemies. Pattern’s additional effect of being a handy misdirection is also lost on Color Spray, and the HD it can affect continues to scale even when Deep Slumber stops working.
Deep Slumber can send up to 10 HD worth of creatures to dreamland, but with a harsh 10 HD limit and you obtaining it at level 10, you’re likely only going to use it to dispose of a few mooks... which is exactly what Hypnotic Pattern does, but Pattern still scales with you while Slumber drops off. All that being said, though, being asleep is way worse for your health in battle than being fascinated, and Deep Slumber’s massive duration makes it appealing if you’re trying to capture someone nonlethally, so really it just depends on if you think you’re going to be distracting two crowds or containing one large threat.
Boon 2: Prismatic Body. You gain a +4 sacred bonus on saves against effects that would blind you. In addition, whenever you make a successful saving throw against a spell or effect with the Light descriptor (such as Sunbeam), you can choose to ignore the effect entirely and redirect its path toward two different creatures or spaces within 30 feet of you. The designated creatures or spaces are affected as though they were caught in the effect’s area or were targeted by the effect.
Cute! And elaborate! You don’t see much of those among the shorter Boons of the Empyreal Lords. Unfortunately, the number of Light spells that actually require you to make a saving throw are rather slim, and among the few an even smaller number (mainly Sunburst, Sunbeam, and Burst of Radiance) are likely to be used by anyone but a creative player. Also, if you’re playing an old-fashioned Good-vs-Evil game, Evil creatures are unlikely to use ANY Light spells or generate light effects aside from oddballs like the Shining Children.
However! There is ONE cute thing you can pull with this: Targeting yourself with your own light effects, or having your allies aim their abilities through you. You may notice that Prismatic Body specifically says that the effect is split, affecting two different spots within 30ft of you. While the wording of the ability clashes with the visual effect it’s trying to convey, you can make a good case for spells like Sunbeam being refracted through your glimmering form and reaching 30ft further than they’d normally be able to. Sunbeam’s beam being split to strike two different targets who’re otherwise not lining up also works here!
The +4 to saves vs being blinded is a blessing in disguise, as nearly all offensive Light spells and effects carry a blinding component, meaning you basically have a +4 bonus on saves against them, making targeting yourself or asking allies to target you with them less likely to end with you getting your upper body blasted off by a searing beam. You know what, curiously, is NOT a Light effect? All the Prismatic spells. That’s a shame, because...
Boon 3: Rainbow Orb. You can cast Prismatic Sphere 1/day.
Can you IMAGINE being able to refract Prismatic Sphere’s layers towards your foes? Well, you couldn’t really, anyway, since you can pass in and out of your rainbow ball (rainball?) unharmed. As one of the first spells printed in Pathfinder, however, there’s a bit of wonkiness in how it’s written; the Effect text states that the Sphere is centered on you, which seems to indicate it would move with you, but the actual spell’s description is written as though the Sphere stays in place and allows you to move in and out of it. If it moves with you, it’s insanely powerful to the point of being game-breaking (imagine wearing a Sphere of Annihilation as armor), so this next bit is written assuming that the Sphere remains in place when summoned.
The ultimate defensive spell, Prismatic Sphere is an off switch for combat, with a duration that may as well be eternal if you have something trying to kill you (10 min/level!). Unless your opponent has Mage’s Disjunction, they’re going to have to turn off each of the Sphere’s layers one at a time, using up--at MINIMUM--seven entire spells and thus seven entire rounds trying to get through to you as you sip whatever tea or potions you have prepared and cast whatever buffs you desire. The sphere only protects you, however, so your allies will have to find different cover (such as behind the sphere)... Or you can carry them in with you inside an extradimensional storage compartment of your choice. It’ll be cramped, but worth it to give yourself some breathing room. Using it as a quick blockade for a thin hallway is also possible, and fun! You’re at an early enough level that most enemies might not even realize what it IS until someone touches the thing and dies instantly.
Alternately, you could do the exact opposite of protecting yourself. While running up to your enemy is typically a terrible idea, getting within 10ft of them and then casting Prismatic Sphere to trap them inside with you means they’ve got very little wiggle room themselves! Combo with a Quickened Earth Glide to slip through the floor and out of the Sphere, or use Quickened versions of spells like Companion Transposition, Master’s Escape, Storm Step, or Hostile Juxtaposition to get in kissing distance of your foe, cast Sphere, and walk out. It’s very important that spells are cast before you use Sphere, because no spell or effect can penetrate the shifting wall once it’s been raised. Your enemy will have to have some method of burrowing through the ground to get into or out of the Sphere, because it’s a little wibbly on whether teleportation allows someone to pass through it!
All that being said, one of the easiest and funniest things you can potentially do with it is raise it up and then have your allies fling your enemies into it. Just make sure they take steps not to get thrown in themselves, because touching a Prismatic Wall/Sphere requires the fool doing so to make seven saving throws against each of its equally terrifying effects, and they’re bound to fail one or two of them.
You can read more about him here.
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