Manuel.Joaquin & Chris Conn

DRAGON SUN WARLOCK: PATRON OF SMOKELESS FIRE

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Warlock Patron: Patron of Smokeless Fire

By Dragon Sun Game Company: Manuel Joaquin & Chris Conn

The use of the 5E logo or any other company or trademark in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned. It does not indicate the permission

or endorsement of any entity.

Designation of Product Identity: All artwork, logos, the name Dragon Sun and all associated trademarks, and the material under the headers of “Patron of Smokeless Fire,” “A World of Gods,” and “Warlocks Chaining Gods” are designated as Product Identity.

Designation of Open Gaming Content: All mechanics derived from Open Gaming Content, the plague doctor class, class features, and class abilities, including their names and descriptive text, are considered Open Gaming Content. It is the intention of this publisher that as much of the character class presented in this book, along with other game mechanics and their descriptions, be useable as open gaming content.

© Dragon Sun. All rights reserved.

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The patron of Smokeless Fire is a new otherworldly patron you can select for your 5th edition warlock.

PATRON OF SMOKELESS FIRE A band of screaming goblins charge a young, raven-haired woman. As her slender fingers trace the complicated sigil on her ring, lines of arcane energy appear in the air between the warlock & her awful enemies. The rune completed, a deep bell tolls, temporarily unlocking the witch’s arcane prison. A taloned fist as large as a man is tall reaches through the mystical gate to claw, smash, & throttle the maiden’s foes.

Buoyed by adrenaline, the young half-elf warlock surveys the battlefield. Only the low hanging smoke curling on the hillside shows any sign of movement. All is quiet. With a sigh of relief, he releases his protective charms & almost collapses in an abrupt wave of weakness. Suddenly, a crocodilian form more than twice the magic-user’s size swirls in existence around the half-elf, gently cradling his exhausted body amongst the spirit’s warm, serpentine coils.

“Fool!” the cultists, so cowardly until now, surround the gnome’s stricken form, “Did you truly think your paltry magic could best the mighty god Tkm’Otthet?!!” The fallen gnome cackles through burnt lips, “Oh, it’s a god now, is it? I think I’d very much like to meet your puny ‘god,’” Rising on a rush of mystic energy, the diminutive warlock scatters her craven enemies with bolt after fiery bolt, “You ‘god’ is nothing more than a dog begging for a master, & I will hold its leash!”

“Warlocks”? HA! They don’t deserve the name. Let the measly witch beg for scraps of magic from so-called gods. Warlocks might as well be clerics or, worse, mindless cultists kowtowing to some alien, uncaring entity.

You are a superior warlock. You know the truth. Divine, infernal, elemental, fey, or otherwise, spirits are nothing but trouble. Supplicating oneself to them merely enables the spirits to steal their thralls’ misplaced faith & inflate their own ill-gotten power. In actuality, these beings are no more divine than you or I. They are merely ghosts of memory gorging on stolen dreams.

No, begging is not for you. You reverse the flow of power. You enslave spirits to your whim, extracting as much of their energy as you need when you need it.

You are the master.

A World of Gods The world is teeming with spirits. From the tiniest of breezes to world-spanning hurricanes, everything in existence (& some things not) have their own, unique guiding ghost.

The vast, vast, VAST majority of these gods are hardly more cognizant than animals. They are beings of instinct who find joy & purpose simply by being what they are & doing what they do.

So completely engrossed are they that, were a spirit to change in the slightest way, the godling would experience a complete change of self. Simply put, a dust-devil that ceases to devil dust ceases to be.

Living creatures have spirits as well, although most religions mark a distinction between unthinking animal-spirits & the blessed “souls” of sentient creatures. An even greater contrast is said to lie between the souls of Men & the so-called “higher” powers of gods, goddesses, elementals, angels, & devils.

Your research shows that there is little to no difference between types of spirits, regardless of their level of power. As of yet, you haven’t had the chance to test your theories on a proper god, but if your experiences are at all accurate, divinity is nothing more than a smoke-screen designed to keep the gullible in line.

As intelligent as they think they are, your fellow warlocks often fail to see this rather simple truth: there is no “right” to dominion. Enslaving yourself to an “otherworldly being” makes as much sense as worshipping your teddy bear.

Warlocks Chaining Gods Similar to other warlocks, the Smokeless Fire is a bond you create with an otherworldly patron. The big difference, though, is that rather than promising your services to an otherworldly being, you enslave the being to your bidding.

Patrons of Smokeless Fire can come in many different forms. Some warlocks hunt lost ghosts, binding them to physical prisons to syphon their ectoplasmic power away bit by bit. Others stumble into this pact almost by accident, discovering within themselves the power to command an ancient evil sealed away long, dusty centuries ago. Genies seem particularly vulnerable, being easily bound into rings or lamps & forced to do their masters’ biddings.

How did you discover you had this power over the spirit world? Is it innate? Something you’ve had to struggle with all your life? When other kids your age were dealing with cooties & boogers, how did you survive knowing that the monster-under-the-bed was real & very, very hungry?

Or did you gain this ability by dint of your incredible willpower? Was it something you developed through research? It could’ve happened completely by accident! Where were you when you bound your first spirit? What lead you to that momentous first encounter? Are you still using that first ghost, or have you moved on to bigger & better gods? Or, did you create your own?

Very few people can be said to command the powers of a god, in the way that you literally do. Does the responsibility humble you, or do you revel in the possibilities? QUICK BUILD The Smokeless Fire is an otherworldly being you can choose to take instead of the three presented in the Warlock entry of the Player’s Handbook. Create your warlock character as you normally would with the exceptions outlined below.

The Smokeless Fire Unlike other warlocks, you dominate the spiritual world. Spirits are wild, untamed things. They don’t take easily to servitude, especially the gods who are used to being in charge. Whereas other warlocks quest to avoid suffering their patrons’ disfavor, you might quest to retain control over a riotous ghost.

That being said, not every spirit serves unwillingly or has the energy to test their master. Some spirits even make remarkably good pets, once you show them who’s boss.

There are tales of mortals conquering gods of all levels of power, not always by force. It is said that even Death, itself, was bested once (& with nothing more than a board game!). Most warlocks, however, find themselves commanding gods of a more local persuasion.

Many childhood fears are fed by parasitical godlings. In every important sense, the Bogey Man is very real. The reason you can feel the blackness at the bottom of the stairs waiting for you, is because it is. Small gods like these make for excellent sources of warlock power.

On the other hand, you might ride into battle on the back of a personal war-genie. Or, you could command a pack of ghostly hounds to harry your foes. Perhaps you fell heir to your family’s ancestral god who protects its progeny by serving the eldest born of each generation.

Once you secure your spirit, you bind the ghost to an arcane prison. You can seal the god into any item, but the more significant the item is the stronger & more secure the bond. Your safest bet is your arcane focus. However, your wand is a rather obvious target for thieves or vandals. Warlocks have been known to bind spirits into rings, oil lamps, or charms such as a rabbit’s foot or monkey’s paw.

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