Alienist
You were right all along. The experiments, the tests, the books— oh so many books—proved everything you thought was true about your world’s cosmology. You found incontrovertible evidence that other realities, other universes exist beyond your own.
With suspicion firming into certainty, you used your magic to burrow a hole into a neighboring reality, but you found only death and darkness. Each universe you discovered was the same, wholly emptied of living things. Just as your hope began to die, you found something—something so awful, so sanity-shatteringly terrible that you will never again be the same.
You have developed unusual mannerisms and tics, and show signs of a disturbed mind. Your research could have infected you with a blight that displays the markings of that impossible place. A questing tentacle creeps out from between your ribs; an eye opens and casts about from the palm of your hand; a second mouth, hidden beneath your shirt collar whispers truths so terrible that to hear them is certainty you will never again be clean.
Level 7 Alienist
Attributes: Increase three attributes by 1 each.
Health: +6
Languages: Any one
Traditions: Eldritch, Spells: One master
Accustomed to Horror: You make Will rolls with 1 boon and you impose 1 bane on rolls made against your Will.
Fray Reality (Magical): You can use this talent when you cast a spell. For any rolls required or enabled by the spell, the roller rolls an additional d20 and you decide which result is used.
After you resolve the spell’s effects, each enemy within 5 yards makes a Will roll. On a failure, the enemy takes 1d6 damage, and becomes frightened of you (luck ends). This damage increases to 2d6 at level 8 and to 3d6 at level 10. An enemy immune to the frightened affliction is immune to this effect.
In return for using this talent, you make a Will roll the next time you reach the end of your turn. You make the roll with 1 bane if you cast a novice spell, 2 banes for an expert spell, and 3 banes for a master spell. If you get a failure, find the result on the following table to see what happens.
| RESULT | EFFECT |
|---|---|
| 8-9 | You shriek, gibber, and whine and can use your voice for no other purpose (luck ends). |
| 6-7 | Appalling images fill your mind, causing you to become Intellect impaired and Will impaired (luck ends both). |
| 4-5 | An unspeakable revelation leaves you breathless. You become confused (luck ends). |
| 3 | You stagger under the weight of your appalling knowledge and become confused and vulnerable (luck ends both). |
| 2 | All rational thought flees your mind. You become stunned (luck ends). |
| 1 | Overwhelmed by horror, you fall prone and become unconscious (luck ends). |
| 0 or less | A horror under the Sage’s control slips free from another reality into empty space of the Sage’s choice within 5 yards. The horror regards all other creatures that are not horrors as enemies and attacks the nearest enemy each round until destroyed. The Sage has rules for horrors in Secrets of the Weird Wizard. |
Level 8 Alienist
Health: +6
Spells: One master
Madness Worms (Magical): You can use an action to infect others with the worms of madness. Target one creature within 5 yards. Make an Intellect roll against the target’s Will. On a success, the target takes 6d6 damage and becomes confused and vulnerable (luck ends both). Each time the target gets a failure on the luck roll to end these afflictions, it loses 1d6 Health. Once you use this talent, you lose access to it (luck ends).
Level 10 Alienist
Health: +6
Spells: One master
Maddening Revelations (Magical): When you cast a spell, you can choose to become confused for 1 minute. While confused in this way, the first time each round that you cast a spell, make a luck roll. On a success, you immediately regain the casting and cast the spell again, at which point you expend the casting. When this effect ends, lose 2d6 Health and become stunned (luck ends).