| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Shieldwarden Olhondias is the former Herald of the Azlanti moon goddess, Acavna. And I am running a campaign in Azlant that will have a lot of plane hopping from the various planar rifts throughout the Shattered Continent. Acavna is a bit of theme throughout the game and at some point they will be getting to go against her former mount, an ancient Lunar Dragon, who guard the ruins of a city. The Mordant Spire Elves are throughout the area and the Mordant Spire grew from her corpse.
"After her death, her former herald Shieldwarden Olhondias used parts of her planar realm to shore up the refuge for outcast outsiders, Basrakal, in the Maelstrom."
But there is not a lot said about this former herald. I am very certain my party is gonna wanna chat with this guy and I am hopping for some ideas on personality and the mechanics of this character. Feel free to throw some crazy idea as I love crazy and my game is using the mythic stuff.
Bump! Please!
One question: What alignment do you want him to be? Acavna was CN, but I think it's been said that if she had survived, her final selfless act would have pushed her over to CG.
It's been thousands of years. Olhondias should have moved on to some degree and might be pissed as hell that people are still defining him by stuff that happened before their civilisation was born. Unless outsiders really never change that is. Do they in your world?
He's done things with planes that may not have been done by anyone else, ever. This likely makes him an expert in the field of messing around with bits of planes. It also may have left marks on him, perhaps parts of his body are slowly changing bits of elemental matter like the Maelstrom itself.
There is some stuff about Basrakai that might help :
* Olhondias is in a position of "loose" governance, so you could introduce the former Herald alongside his two counterparts.
* Mortals who permanently reside there gain unusual properties - there is nothing to say that Olhondias is an Outsider, although to last so long he would have needed to gain immortality. Alternatively, he could have obtained immortality via another route, (e.g., Wizard's Arcane Discovery:Immortality), and you can grant him some unusual aspects, (such as adding a Sorcerer Bloodline/Shapeshifting Abilities), to retain his former Herald unique flavour.
* Olhondias has been a Herald and now jointly governs Outsiders, he may not have a particularly good grasp of time/mortal concerns anymore ...
* Both of his counterparts are Outsiders that would be at least C.R.20, so Olhondias should likely not be any lower than that. With his likely Chaotic Alignment he may not be particularly authoritarian but he will need to deal with problems coming from potentially powerful Outsiders, (and a lot of them). Olhondias ought to have the power/Abilities to do this.
* Divine Magic is tolerated but those capable of granting such Abilities, (e.g., Deities, Monsters that grant Spells/Domains and Mythic Characters with Divine Source), are not allowed within the city. Does Olhondias push to be more/less open? Are your Party Mythic (with Divine Source)?
* Olhondias lives in the central fortress, in the central city dubbed the "Foundation". This may give you an easy way to present his personality to Players - defensive, protective, strong, at the heart of things, he may think a lot of himself ... or be compensating ... *Cough* *Cough*
All existing heralds are CR 15 outsiders or constructs (or undead in one case), except the tarrasque which is a CR 25 magical beast. Olhondias is a former herald and probably wasn't a construct or undead, and the tarrasque is probably a special case. He's got to be an outsider. Probably more than CR 15 by virtue of lots of experience.
TheGreatWot: I am currently undecided on his alignment but Acavna would not dictate his as she is gone.
avr: Outsiders totally change. I prefer to use the books as guidelines but never the rule. People can change over time so any other creature can.
I kinda like him being pissy about people looking for him because of
Acavna
And yes he is probably an outsider but many of them were something else before they became a herald.
I agree with the high CR due to lots of experience.
BENSLAYER: I have that page open. Most of the time the party is not told what type of creature they are up against. Sometimes it is obvious and skill checks can make it so.
The longer something lives the more likely their grasp on reality as we know it would change.
Introducing all three together is a strong option.
The party consists of a tiefling haunted spiritualist who is trying to look human. The phantom is his ancestor and has been leapfrogging through time though his descendants. His cousin is aasimar cleric of Iomedea.
Then there are the twins. A tiefling barbarian who is all impulse. She has a small child she adopted who she is planning on taking leadership for and the kid is going rouge / oracle but all about the healing. The an aasimar oracle seer. Which is great cause I can give info in fun ways. Also she has a bear animal companion who she loves so very much.
And both duo's came up with being related and the tiefling and aasimar duality separate from each other.
There is a cavalier who is a former member of the Grey Maidens who had been magically enslaved into that group. She is all about aiding others. But I have no guarantee this character will still be here by that time. So it might be Wyrwood and no clue of the class but I know a Kineticist might be happening. But I am allowing some 3rd party stuff so a Machinesmith is very likely as well.
A conjuration wizard who is a ported over Alienist from 3.5. All about that Dark Tapestry.
And there is an NPC elf rouge from the Mordant Spire.
Currently they are not mythic but in a few levels they will be. I am trying to get a jump on things. I have a third party option for the occult classes since the core mythic stuff does nothing for them. I am very sure the cleric and oracle will be going Hierophant. But mixing it with Guardian is very likely for both of them. The wizard has plans for the Archmage. The barbarian is gonna go Trickster or Champion. And the cavalier is unknown as they might have a new character by the time the party get to Basrakai.
I doubt any of them will be going the Divine Source route but the Wizard might. She hasn't figured that out yet but she is the most likely to do it.
On the topic of him being high-CR: We have a canon example in the herald of Lissala of what happens when a herald's god dies or goes dormant.
They shrivel up and start to literally implode unless they can suck out life force from other outsiders every so often. This is only one case, so Olhondias will be different, but I'd be cautious about making him too powerful, since the loss of one's divine patron is a very weakening experience.
Interesting. I have no plans to make him beyond over powered and I had not run across the herald of Lissala. I do not think Olhondias will feed off of others but I rather like the withered appearance. I am thinking he is bound to Basrakal and would start to wither if he leave.