Warlock Patron: the Emerald Saint

Warlocks work with old, dark forces for power that society won't give them. Here's my second Patron spirit for wicked people. Part two in a series. Rules and overview here.

THE EMERALD SAINT

A warlock Patron for the clergy in the First Estate. The Emerald Saint is based on the King in Yellow / Nyarlathotep and promotes radical, deviant thinking in those that shepherd the flock. There are few direct damage or control spells, mostly ways to nudge and influence. The powers are a reskin of the Great Old One Patron.

His lacquered mask bears a faint mocking smile, his robes are tinged green, his hands are always, always gloved. You might first see him in an illuminated manuscript. Then the corner of a frescoe. His smirk on a statue. But soon enough he meets you in a quiet hallway, chapel or library. He whispers of other worlds and other sins. His gifts are insight and illusion and madness.

Alternate versions: the Smiling Astrologer offers to teach wizards lore from beyond the stars. The Wise Steward counsels the adoption of rational politicks to administer one's domain.

Can you believe I found this image after writing this post?
Word of God: Eadwine, the monk, at work on the manuscript of his Psalter, c.1150. Bridgeman/Trinity College Cambridge - from

MINOR PACT - MAGIC INITIATE OR RITUAL CASTER FEAT

• To summon: Find an inconsistency in a religious text or sermon and propose a way to resolve it to your confessor in the Church.
• Service: Roll once on the Emerald Saint's list of tasks.
• Forbiddance: You cannot eat meat, drink alcohol or use drugs.

MAJOR PACT - WARLOCK LEVELS

• Forbiddance: You cannot eat meat, drink alcohol or use drugs.

Emerald Saint spells

spell level	spells (choose two per spell level)
1	Dissonant Whispers, Illusory Script, Command
2	Calm Emotions, Detect Thoughts, Suggestion, Phantasmal Force
3	Clairvoyance, Fear, Sending
4	Confusion, Divination, Phantasmal Killer
5	Contact Other Plane, Dream, Mislead

These guys are like it says WHAAAAT? and you're all smug going Illusory Script, babyDetail from an illuminated manuscript featuring monks singing. Photograph: Imagno/Getty Images - found here

Emerald Saint gifts

Emerald Whispers
At 1st level, your teachings give you the ability to touch the minds of other creatures. You can communicate telepathically with any creature you can see within 30 feet of you. You don't need to share a language with the creature for it to understand your telepathic utterances, but the creature must be able to understand at least one language.

Tattered Robes
Starting at 6th level, you can vanish in response to harm, leaving behind empty robes. When you take damage, you can use your reaction to turn invisible and teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space you can see. You remain invisible until the start of your next turn or until you attack or cast a spell.

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Emerald Catechism
Starting at 10th level, your thoughts can't be read by telepathy or other means unless you allow it. You also have resistance to psychic damage, and whenever a creature deals psychic damage to you, that creature takes the same amount of damage that you do.




Emerald Saint tasks
The price for the Saint's lessons is to seed poison lies in familiar teachings. To gain a warlock level, roll on this chart (d20) and follow his instructions.

1. We are all beautiful creatures under the muck and grime. Gift a peasant family with beautiful clothing worth 3d10 gp and encourage them to live proudly.
2. People should be able to speak their mind. One person in particular has a story to tell - find the personal journal of the baron's confessor. Copy its pages and spread them across town.
3. The commoners complain of hardship as if that were an excuse not to attend services. Then bring the Church to their very doorstop: convince the village children to spread the word when their parents sin.
4. Preach the truth of Ever Renewed Baptism. You will teach the commoners to communally cleanse themselves of sin every day in a newly constructed bath house of the people.
5. Institute the new Rite of Communal Penance. Instead of a secret confession, all sins confessed to an assembly of the people shall be forgiven.
6. Our lords and elders are long in the sins of the earth. A fresh young mind has been born in the hills - anoint this child with the Sign of the Emerald Saint, that it may know and preach the truth behind the stars.
7. Member of the Olmadicians are transporting a prime copy of the Book of the Saint to their library to be placed in a dank vault. See to it that the curious novice in their party takes a peek.
8. The heavens are the source of all purity while all things on the earth are base and sinful. Teach a Seminary pupil astrology so that he may hear spread the song of the stars to his own flock.
9. Obtain a vial of green lotus extract from the merchant that will pass in three days. Place a drop in each of the monastery's wine barrels, so that they may see behind each others masks.
10. We are all locked in a cage of our bodies, speaking not soul to soul but flapping flesh to musty ear. Plant this seed at the centre of the village, that all men may hear one another's thoughts directly.
11. Teach them how to speak plainly. Construct a Zone of Truth under (d6) 1 a rug in the great hall of the castle. 3 the nave of the church. 3 the common room of the inn. 4 the village commons 5 the market square 6 the jousting stands.
12. Let us light a righteous fire in peoples' souls. Encourage 3d20 people to spend all their savings on those less fortunate. If all do so, all shall prosper. Sell your own most precious belonging (no cheating) to aid these poor people.
13. Your fellow priests have the ear of the masses, but their minds are closed to me. Draw the Sign of the Emerald Saint in their prayer books, that their eyes may be opened.
14. The local lady of the manor delights in beautiful baubles. There is an enchanting statuette hidden in a vault of the local friar of the Order of the Moth. Give it to her.
15. May you rise above the filth of the earth. Seek out a plague pit and lie there for a week, a day and an hour.
16. May you know no temptation. Renounce all pleasures of the flesh forever.
17. May you live off the Air itself. Purge yourself in a 3d10 day fast; Fortitude save DC 5 + 1/per day of fasting or gain a level of exhaustion.
18. The skeletal index finger of Saint Ennis is a relic that holds the power to write a ward against mental domination. Destroy it and replace it with a finger of your own. If you reroll this - tough luck.
19. Saint Guevette saw sin everywhere - his right eye, preserved as a relic in the Cathedral at Domesbury, still holds that power. Give the eye its much needed rest and replace it with one of your own. If you roll this a second time, reroll.
20. The heart of Saint Levan calms the mind of those who see it. It is held by the Carnellian Order in a nearby Monastery. Replace the relic with your own heart. Here is a gemstone of green to put in your chest. Reroll if you already performed this task.

I make no apologies. From