De Origine Draconum III: Wyrmling

“With a terrible singleness of concentration he achieved the union of his new skin with his body, preventing rejection. No corner of his body was left to dwell upon the terrifying consequences of what he did here. Only the necessities of his trance vision mattered…

“They were all over his body now.…He could feel the pulse of his blood against the living membrane. A curious excitement suffused his body.…My skin is not my own.”

Philippe Druillet

Covering the body in axolotls creates a wyrmling, an axolotl/humanoid hybrid. The symbiosis alters the quiddity of both creatures resulting in a being that is neither human and nor axolotl, but a wyrmling, a species utterly different from either. 

The wyrmling experiences alienation from its former species, which may manifest in a variety of ways. It may develop a hostility toward its species, either lamenting what it has lost or looking down on that species as an inferior species. Alternatively, the wyrmling may view themselves as a blessed paragon of their species, elevated above the common human or demihuman, developing a sense of responsibility for their less-evolved brothers and sisters. 

Wyrmlings often become leaders of dragonborn cults, revered as the single-sexed fathers and mothers of their kind. Dragons, on the other hand, often view wyrmlings as threats to their superiority and often seek to destroy wyrmlings. Good-aligned dragons, understanding the dangers of the process of transformation, will try to dissuade wyrmlings from continuing their evolution.

The wyrmling loses all of the benefits of their former species (excluding bonus feats or skills, but including ability score increases) and gains the following:

Ability Scores: Your Strength score increases by 2, and an ability score of your choosing increases by 1.

Living Armor: The axolotls that cover every inch of your body fuse into a scaly skin, granting a natural AC bonus of +4. This bonus does not stack with other types of armor, but does stack with magical rings, amulets, bracers, etc.  

Living Weapon: Your fingertips harden into claws. You deal 2d6 + your Strength modifier in slashing damage.

Regeneration: Once per short rest, regain 1 + your Constitution modifier hp at the beginning of each turn for 1d6+1 turns.

Surface Awareness: The entire surface of the body is an organ of sensation. Wyrmlings cannot be surprised and have advantage on Dexterity saving throws and Perception checks. 

Breathing: The wyrmling breathes through the axolotl’s organs rather than through their original apparatus (lungs, mouth, nose). As a result, a wyrmling cannot be drowned or suffocated the way a normal human can. 

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Axolotls | Part 3: Wyrmlings | Part 4: Dragonborn | Part 5: Dragons

De Origine Draconum II: Axolotl

“And in this final solitude to which he no longer comes, I console myself by thinking that perhaps he is going to write a story about us, that, believing he's making up a story, he's going to write all this about axolotls.”  

Rebecca Guay, "A Blessing of Leeches"

Before becoming a dragon, one must form a symbiotic bond with creatures called axolotls. This process may take years or even decades, and all but the most robust, most intelligent, and most wise among those who attempt the transformation will survive.

Axolotls are spontaneously generated by the collision of arcane currents that surround portals between planes. On the Prime Material Plane, these portals are found in the most extreme environments: the deepest ocean trenches or most remote mountain lakes might hide a portal to the Plane of Water; volcanic wells plunging into the churning ocean of molten rock below the earth might lead to the Plane of Fire; the thick mist and fog that obscures the highest mountain peaks might lead to the Plane of Air; a labyrinthine cave complex hidden at the bottom of a great canyon may lead to the Plane of Earth. Where these planes collide with and overlap the Prime Material Plane, great energies are released, energies that tear open the veil between worlds and engender all sorts of bizarre phenomena. These lizardlike creatures, with their pearlescent skin that seems to glow with an inner light like a gemstone and their probing, curious fingers, are just one of the many creatures that may result from a puissant confluence of arcane energies.

After finding these rare creatures, the potential dragon must entice the axolotls onto their body, which is not an easy task since the axolotls are naturally aggressive and seek to destroy any heterogeneous substance it encounters. In order to survive this ordeal, the host must make a series of saving throws: a charisma save (DC 20) to entice the axolotl colony onto the host’s body; constitution and wisdom saves (DC 20 each round for the 1d4 rounds it takes for the axolotls to cover the body). Those who succeed move on to the next step, while the rest succumb to any number of terrible fates, as outlined on the table below.

While the personality of the host determines the genus of dragon (chromatic or metallic), the type of axolotl the host bonds with has an even greater role to play, determining the species (most commonly identified by color).  

Mirra Gray, "Shining Axolotl"

Axolotl

Climate/Terrain: Portals between planes

Organization: Colony

Diet: Scavenger

Intelligence: Varies

Treasure: None

Alignment: Varies (elemental axolotls are unaligned)

Number appearing: 8d8+10 (1 colony = 18-74 axolotls)

Hit points: 2d10

Armor class: 12

Speed: 20ft

Saving throws: Wis, Cha

Damage resistance: Varies by type

Damage immunity: Varies by type

Condition immunity: None

Special abilities: Regeneration. An axolotl regains 5 hit points at the beginning of its turn.

Senses: Darkvision 60’, passive perception 16

Languages: none

Challenge: ¼ (50xp)

STR 6 DEX 14 CON 11 INT 2 WIS 16 CHA 4

When axolotls are generated by the confluence of interplanar energies, they immediately seek to consume any substance different than that of the plane from which they originated. Whatever they consume is excreted within minutes as the substance of their associated plane: Water axolotls turn matter into water, Air axolotls turn matter into air, Ethereal axolotls turn corporeal substances ethereal. It does this without thought or malice.

Axolotls are always found in colonies. One axolotl alone poses little threat to anyone, but a colony of 15-20 could pose a threat to most creatures. This is because axolotls in close proximity to one another form a hive mind and become a swarm, acting as one creature with one intelligence. Though a single axolotl has an Intelligence of 1, four axolotls together have an Intelligence of 2. Add another four and the swarm’s Intelligence increases to 3, and so on, with no upper limit. A colony of 72 axolotls possess the intelligence of the sharpest humans, along with all of the language and magical capabilities such an intellect would bestow upon a creature. This networked intelligence is what makes bonding with a colony so difficult and dangerous. 

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Axolotls | Part 3: Wyrmlings | Part 4: Dragonborn | Part 5: Dragons

De Origine Draconum

Abstract: A dragon is the result of a long process of self-transformation. A wizard who wishes to become a dragon must carry out the following steps: 1) Seek out axolotls, 2) Enter into a symbiotic relationship with the axolotls, allowing them to colonize the body, 3) feed these symbionts so that the humanoid body may transform into a dragoniod one.

Jakub Rebelka, "Witcher Memories"

Part 1: Introduction

It is inevitable that each of us will, eventually, become subjects of Death’s Empire. Mortality is our fate, whether due to an accident of nature or the design of the gods, such that it defines us and sets us apart from the fay creatures. If indolence is the curse of fay immortality, restlessness is the curse of human mortality, for we have but a limited span in which to leave our mark on the world. This immutable fact, however, has not prevented the powerful and ambitious from seeking to lengthen the wick of their life’s candle. Since humans are, by definition, mortal, the only way to attain immortality is to shed one’s humanity. There are a few paths open to those mad and avaricious enough to undertake such a journey: become a lich, become a vampire, or become a dragon.

Each of these apotheoses comes with its particular curses: to see your human flesh slough and rot while your quintessence clings jealously to a phylactery; to take the moonlight as your betrothed and the blood of the living as your only milk; to become huge and monstrous on a scale unimaginable to the human mind. To further complicate matters, vampirism is not a choice, but a condemnation: it is often the case that only those who truly wish for death above all else are granted that eternal life-in-death. This peculiar predicament fuels the hatred of the vampire. The lich, likewise, is caught in a trap: neither living nor dead, neither human nor beast. These transformations seem to foreclose as many possibilities as they open up.

Wyrmhood is a more ambivalent prize. Both the lich and the vampire are compelled to take the lives of others in order to sustain their own. As such, they are creatures of hate and hate alone, tax collectors for the Emperor of Death. For all of their fearsome powers and conniving intellect, they are  but uncomplicated creatures. There are as many varieties of dragon, on the other hand, as there are planes of the multiverse. There are dragons who protect the weak and dragons who choose to dominate them instead, dragons who care only for treasure, dragons who prefer parley or trickery to physical force, dragons who cloak themselves in flame, who are at home among the glaciers, who breathe in and out the miasma of the swamp. The type of dragon a host becomes depends, in part, on the personality of the host.  In leaving behind one’s humanity and embracing wyrmhood, all of the myriad shining facets of the gem that is the human personality are reduced to a single burning ember. If mortality defines the human, and hate defines the lich and vampire (albeit in different ways), it is this single-mindedness that defines the dragon. 

Part 2: Axolotls | Part 3: Wyrmlings | Part 4: Dragonborn | Part 5: Dragons

Another Vampire, Why Not

[TW: Suicide]

Vampire

AC: 18 (2)

HD: 9

AL: Chaotic

Attacks: Bite 1d6+disease, weapon

Special Abilities: become ethereal, dimension door, charm person, polymorph self, cause disease, chill touch, cause wounds

“Imbécile!—de son empire                                         (Imbecile! If from his empire

Si nos efforts te délivraient,                                        Our efforts would deliver you,

Tes baisers ressusciteraient                                          Your kisses would resuscitate

Le cadavre de ton vampire!”                                      The corpse of your vampire!)

—Charles Baudelaire, “Le Vampire”

Vampires are the corpses of human suicides who ended their own lives out of despair rather than out of honor. The honorable suicide is an act of self-sacrifice, but the despairing suicide is a blasphemous attempt to defeat death, a vain effort affirm one’s wholeness by ending the process of deaths-upon-deaths that constitutes a life, a defensive act that seeks to shore up the walls of the self rather than to dissolve them completely. As a result of this paradoxical desire, vampires are cursed with an unslakeable lust for annihilation.

Finding solace only in the grave, vampires often sleep for months, rising from their interment periodically to feed. The blood of any creature will sustain the vampire, but it is the blood of sentient creatures—especially the immortal blood of elves—that most thoroughly nourishes the vampire. After feeding, the sated vampire often becomes delirious, as though intoxicated, and it is during this period that the vampire is most likely to reveal itself to others through wanton acts of violence or an obsessive, often romantic, attachment to a single individual. To replenish its arcane power, the vampire will slumber in its own grave, passing ethereally through Earth’s fathoms disturbing neither soil nor sod. The only known means of destroying a vampire are striking the head from the body, plunging a stake through the heart, and burning the body to ash.

Those persons cognizant of the secret of the vampire’s creation have been known to make dark pilgrimages to the Fata Subterrane in order to carry out the desperate, fatal ritual, plunging blades into their hearts or dragging them across their throats, expecting to wake, after a three-day respite in their cavernous graves, imbued with new life. Hoping to midwife companions for themselves, some vampires even court humans of such a dolorous mien, creating around themselves foul cults that culminate in mass suicide. Few if any of these humans are ever reborn as vampires. It seems that only those who truly wish for death are granted the curse of eternal life in undeath. 

The Vampire Muse

Vampire Muse

Medium humanoid, neutral evil

AC: 12

HP: 54 (8d8+16)

STR 10 DEX 12 CON 14 INT 14 WIS 16 CHA 18

Saving Throws: Int +6, Cha +8

Resistance: Cannot be charmed

Skills: Perception +7, History (art) +9, Persuasion +8

Languages: Common, Elven (or the dominant artistic language for a particular culture)

Innate Spellcasting:

2/day: charm person, energy form, misty step

1/day: Visceral art

Actions:

Mind blast: recharge 6. DC 15 Intelligence save or take 22 (4d8+4) damage.

Slam: Melee weapon attack, +4 to hit, 2d8+4 bludgeoning damage. While in ethereal form, the Vampire Muse can strike out with a wispy tendril up to 10’ long that affects both corporeal and noncorporeal beings.

Onaya: You already have the talent inside you. I can see it. You just need someone to help you bring it to the surface.

Jake: How?

Onaya: There are ways. Exercises...techniques.

Jake: Can you show them to me?

The pen of the poet, the brush of the painter, the chisel of the sculptor, the voice of the singer: the acts of creation of great artists release arcane energy into the world. There are beings that feed off of this energy. They are called Vampire Muses.

Vampire Muses are aesthetes with a great appreciation for beauty in all its forms. Their charisma allows them to easily forge relationships with young artists who are still full of potential and eager to prove themselves.

Vampire Muses usually reject overt violence, but if attacked, defend themselves with their mind blast, use their energy form ability, and try escape the confrontation.

Visceral Art: With a touch, the Vampire Muse unlocks the target’s latent artistic potential. Establishing contact takes one round. The target does not make a saving throw if he willingly submitted to the Vampire Muse’s touch, and the Vampire Muse cannot use this ability on a creature against its will. As the target creates its work of art, the Vampire Muse surreptitiously saps the target of his power. As the target’s magnum opus pours from the his pen, the Vampire Muse draws sustenance from the target’s mind. Roll on the following table each day that the target is under the spell to determine the spell’s effects:

Roll (d8)          Effect

1                Target loses 1d4 points of Intelligence

2                Target loses 1d4 points of Constitution

3-5             Target loses 1d4 point of Charisma

6                Target loses 1d4 maximum hit points

7                Target takes 1d6 psychic damage from pushing too hard

8                No effect

While in the visceral art trance, the target will actually be creating his finest work of art; it is not a trick or an illusion. The target can see the results. The target does not, however, realize that he is slowly being drained of life until the effects become obvious to him. At the end of each day that the target suffers a negative effect, roll a DC25 perception check. On a successful check, the target may then roll a DC18 Charisma save to break the spell. If the target’s Charisma, Constitution, maximum hit points fall to zero, the target dies.  If the spell is broken while the target is still alive, the target regains any lost ability scores and maximum hit points.

Onaya: They all died in the end...but look what I gave them in return: immortality. Their names will live forever because of me.

One thing though: “Vampire Muse” isn’t a very cool name. Aesthetic Enervator? No. Art Sucker? Nope. Poiesophage? Ehhhh.