My usual game - Family Matters is on a brief hiatus as one of my players is busy during the summer. So I shall be running a short Magic of Incarnum campaign during that time. Still set in Waterdeep, everyone has either picked a pre-made character I did for a con, or made their own. 6th level, 32 point buy, incarnum-based or incarnum influenced character concepts.
--
Each of you are members of the Pentifex Order, a secretive organization dedicated to policing the spread and use of incarnum across the face of Toril. Because when incarnum is twisted and corrupted, the consequences of that can be dire indeed. Even for a group so free-spirited as yours, there are things no being who loves life can countenance.
One of those things are the lost. Wisps of free-floating incarnum can become attached to a living soul and amplify a powerful negative emotion until that person becomes consumed by it, living for nothing else. Despair, misery, hatred, or wrath are all common amongst the lost. Once lost, only death can free their souls.
There has been rumor that lost have been seen in the dark reaches of Undermountain, below the great city-state of Waterdeep. Not only to the lost themselves need to be cleansed, but the source of incarnum must be found, as well as anyone trying to take advantage of it. If some of the dark powers that are said to inhabit those shadowed, blood-soaked halls get ahold of a raw font of incarnum, they could turn it to horrific ends.
You’ve been asked (as you were the closest and most experienced of the Order) to travel to Waterdeep, find and dispatch the lost, and hold the incarnum font until a Pentifax Monolith can be brought to cap the well and be certain it cannot be corrupted. It looks like it’s going to be difficult, dangerous, and involving delving into things best left untouched.
Just your kind of party.
The Pentifax Order has sent with their message some supplies for you – waterskins of healing potion as well as money for travel, supplies, and any bribes you might need to find the way to the lost.
-----------------
Below is the Incarnum primer on terms, as well as a brief description of our party.
Primer On Incarnum
Incarnum is the soul power of the universe, everyone who has died or has yet to be born. It is an energy that can be manipulated in a physical fashion, either infusing people with its raw power, or being formed into soulmelds that have specific effects. Manipulating incarnum does not harm any soul.
Terms you'll see a lot:
Essentia - Essentia is spiritual energy and strength; it's basically how one uses incarnum. One can use essentia to enhance soulmelds or to improve the effects of certain feats, class features, or other abilities. Characters that use essentia have something called an essentia pool, which is just a count of how much essentia you have at any given time. That number is fairly constant, unless something rips essentia away from you or gives you temporary essentia. Essentia is not "used up" like psoinic power points!
Putting your essentia towards soulmelds, feats, etc, is called investing essentia. Unless a feat, etc. says otherwise, you can reallocate your essentia from one soulmeld/class feature to another as a free action on your turn.
For example - Let's say you have one soulmeld that lets you move faster the more you put essentia into it, and another that gives you better AC with more essentia. You might have more essentia in the speedy soulmeld to get into battle, and then shift your essentia to your AC once you're in melee.
Essentia, like energy, is neither created nor destroyed, only transformed (or transferred).
Everyone has a limit on how much essentia they can put into any soulmeld/feat, etc. that's determined by their character level and is consistent for all characters. As with most D&D rules, certain classes and feats can help you bend or break those limits and let you invest more essentia than the norm.
Soulmelds - Soulmelds are incarnum that are shaped into something like magic items or spells in physical form. You have to have the meldshaping class features (or the Shape Soulmeld feat) in order to shape a soulmeld. Different soulmelds can do different things, from improve certain skills to create weapons to bettering class features to increasing one's armor class. The more essentia you put in a soulmeld, the stronger its effect. If you're a strong enough meldshaper, you can also bind soulmelds. This provides an additional effect, depending on what chakra you bind it to.
Chakras - These are where soulmelds are placed (crown, shoulders, feet, hands, etc.). They are very similar to the chakras that limit how many magic items one can wear (like how you can only wear one pair of magical boots). One can have both a soulmeld and a magic item occupying the same chakra. The exception to this is if the soulmeld is bound, then you no longer can have a magic item in the same place. (For example, you could have both a magical hat and a soulmeld on your crown chakra, but if you bound the soulmeld to your crown, you could no longer wear the hat.)
----------------------------
Primer on Incarnum Races
There are four races that are associated with incarnum
Azurins - Azurins are children born to human parents that have been infused with incarnum. They look almost normal, except their eyes, white, irises and all, have a sky blue sheen. They tend to mature faster than normal humans, and have a natural talent for incarnum. They tend to adopt a cause and passionately defend it or further it. They tend towards the extreme alignments (LG, CG, CE, or LE) and have no patience for the mundane, as they know their lives are short.
Dusklings - These are fey infused with incarnum, their skin dark blue-gray, with vulpine faces and bushy dark hair. They tend to use incarnum to become in tune with the world around them, and hence their favored class is the totemist (who draw their strength from the spirits of magical beasts). They can use incarnum to increase their speed, and tend to pepper their speech with transliterated idiomatic expressions from Sylvan. "Let's cut these chains" (let's get moving, let's get out of here), "I turned it blue." (I changed my mind), "You smelted him" (you hurt him badly, you mortally wounded him).
Rilkan - The rilkan are one of two races that used to be one progenitor race, the mishtai. The mishtai believed in trying to attain a "perfection of form." After a great deal of time in that pursuit, those that became the rilkan become convinced that it was never going to happen, so instead devoted their energy to living life to the fullest. They're outgoing, gregarious people with a love of spontaneity. They mostly look human, but with reptillian scales on their forearms and necks, solid for the male, multicolored for the females.
Skarn - Skarn are the other half of the long-gone mishtai race. Skarn are still dedicated to perfecting themselves, and somewhat resent the rilkan for their flightiness that led to the failure of the mishtai. Skarn tend to be upright and lawful, focused and dedicated, attempting to be perfect in all their endeavors. Strong and tough, they have reptilian spines on their forearms, backs of their calves, and their backs (though they can fold them flat if necessary). [There are no skarn characters in this campaign]
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Incarnum Characters
Challa the Thunderer - CG female azurin soulborn. She's quite strong and tough, with a tendency to charge into situations that demand swift resolution and bring that resolution at the end of her warhammer. [DM NPC]
Amaranth Klane - CN female rilkcan chaos incarnate. Though physically weak, Karazele's grace is second to none, and her chosen soulmelds give her ranged weapons that make people rue the day they crossed her sight when she felt the need to inject a little "interest" into the day's proceedings. She's often accompanied by her soulspark familiar, a mote of intelligent incarnum that can act as guide, shield, or combat companion. [Played by Charissa's player]
Avandar Heloshartha - NG male duskling totemist. Though not the sharpest spear on the rack, Avandar has both tenacity and speed on his side. Distaining most crafted armor and weaponry, Avandar uses his soulmelds to meet his every need in combat, much to the dismay of anyone who's been on the wrong side of his sphinx claws. [Played by William's player]
Zook Cloak - NG male gnome wizard. Zook has dedicated his craft to combining the power of incarnum with the power of magic, with often spectacular results. His spells are often used to befuddle and separate foes from friends, while his collection of wands lets him empower his allies and smite his enemies. His weasel familiar, Scrabble, will often scout for him so he can prepare accordingly. [Played by Garden's player]
Mort Wotte – CN male rilkan rouge (w/ racial substitution levels). Mort is a clever, fast-talking man whose nimble fingers are only matched by his silver tongue. A dabbler in incarnum, he uses his theft gloves soulmeld to increase his already impressive skills in removing all obstacles from between him and whatever he wants. He’s never without a pocket full of random things to spice up any given moment with something unusual. [Played by Steven's player]
--
Each of you are members of the Pentifex Order, a secretive organization dedicated to policing the spread and use of incarnum across the face of Toril. Because when incarnum is twisted and corrupted, the consequences of that can be dire indeed. Even for a group so free-spirited as yours, there are things no being who loves life can countenance.
One of those things are the lost. Wisps of free-floating incarnum can become attached to a living soul and amplify a powerful negative emotion until that person becomes consumed by it, living for nothing else. Despair, misery, hatred, or wrath are all common amongst the lost. Once lost, only death can free their souls.
There has been rumor that lost have been seen in the dark reaches of Undermountain, below the great city-state of Waterdeep. Not only to the lost themselves need to be cleansed, but the source of incarnum must be found, as well as anyone trying to take advantage of it. If some of the dark powers that are said to inhabit those shadowed, blood-soaked halls get ahold of a raw font of incarnum, they could turn it to horrific ends.
You’ve been asked (as you were the closest and most experienced of the Order) to travel to Waterdeep, find and dispatch the lost, and hold the incarnum font until a Pentifax Monolith can be brought to cap the well and be certain it cannot be corrupted. It looks like it’s going to be difficult, dangerous, and involving delving into things best left untouched.
Just your kind of party.
The Pentifax Order has sent with their message some supplies for you – waterskins of healing potion as well as money for travel, supplies, and any bribes you might need to find the way to the lost.
-----------------
Below is the Incarnum primer on terms, as well as a brief description of our party.
Primer On Incarnum
Incarnum is the soul power of the universe, everyone who has died or has yet to be born. It is an energy that can be manipulated in a physical fashion, either infusing people with its raw power, or being formed into soulmelds that have specific effects. Manipulating incarnum does not harm any soul.
Terms you'll see a lot:
Essentia - Essentia is spiritual energy and strength; it's basically how one uses incarnum. One can use essentia to enhance soulmelds or to improve the effects of certain feats, class features, or other abilities. Characters that use essentia have something called an essentia pool, which is just a count of how much essentia you have at any given time. That number is fairly constant, unless something rips essentia away from you or gives you temporary essentia. Essentia is not "used up" like psoinic power points!
Putting your essentia towards soulmelds, feats, etc, is called investing essentia. Unless a feat, etc. says otherwise, you can reallocate your essentia from one soulmeld/class feature to another as a free action on your turn.
For example - Let's say you have one soulmeld that lets you move faster the more you put essentia into it, and another that gives you better AC with more essentia. You might have more essentia in the speedy soulmeld to get into battle, and then shift your essentia to your AC once you're in melee.
Essentia, like energy, is neither created nor destroyed, only transformed (or transferred).
Everyone has a limit on how much essentia they can put into any soulmeld/feat, etc. that's determined by their character level and is consistent for all characters. As with most D&D rules, certain classes and feats can help you bend or break those limits and let you invest more essentia than the norm.
Soulmelds - Soulmelds are incarnum that are shaped into something like magic items or spells in physical form. You have to have the meldshaping class features (or the Shape Soulmeld feat) in order to shape a soulmeld. Different soulmelds can do different things, from improve certain skills to create weapons to bettering class features to increasing one's armor class. The more essentia you put in a soulmeld, the stronger its effect. If you're a strong enough meldshaper, you can also bind soulmelds. This provides an additional effect, depending on what chakra you bind it to.
Chakras - These are where soulmelds are placed (crown, shoulders, feet, hands, etc.). They are very similar to the chakras that limit how many magic items one can wear (like how you can only wear one pair of magical boots). One can have both a soulmeld and a magic item occupying the same chakra. The exception to this is if the soulmeld is bound, then you no longer can have a magic item in the same place. (For example, you could have both a magical hat and a soulmeld on your crown chakra, but if you bound the soulmeld to your crown, you could no longer wear the hat.)
----------------------------
Primer on Incarnum Races
There are four races that are associated with incarnum
Azurins - Azurins are children born to human parents that have been infused with incarnum. They look almost normal, except their eyes, white, irises and all, have a sky blue sheen. They tend to mature faster than normal humans, and have a natural talent for incarnum. They tend to adopt a cause and passionately defend it or further it. They tend towards the extreme alignments (LG, CG, CE, or LE) and have no patience for the mundane, as they know their lives are short.
Dusklings - These are fey infused with incarnum, their skin dark blue-gray, with vulpine faces and bushy dark hair. They tend to use incarnum to become in tune with the world around them, and hence their favored class is the totemist (who draw their strength from the spirits of magical beasts). They can use incarnum to increase their speed, and tend to pepper their speech with transliterated idiomatic expressions from Sylvan. "Let's cut these chains" (let's get moving, let's get out of here), "I turned it blue." (I changed my mind), "You smelted him" (you hurt him badly, you mortally wounded him).
Rilkan - The rilkan are one of two races that used to be one progenitor race, the mishtai. The mishtai believed in trying to attain a "perfection of form." After a great deal of time in that pursuit, those that became the rilkan become convinced that it was never going to happen, so instead devoted their energy to living life to the fullest. They're outgoing, gregarious people with a love of spontaneity. They mostly look human, but with reptillian scales on their forearms and necks, solid for the male, multicolored for the females.
Skarn - Skarn are the other half of the long-gone mishtai race. Skarn are still dedicated to perfecting themselves, and somewhat resent the rilkan for their flightiness that led to the failure of the mishtai. Skarn tend to be upright and lawful, focused and dedicated, attempting to be perfect in all their endeavors. Strong and tough, they have reptilian spines on their forearms, backs of their calves, and their backs (though they can fold them flat if necessary). [There are no skarn characters in this campaign]
-----------------------------
Incarnum Characters
Challa the Thunderer - CG female azurin soulborn. She's quite strong and tough, with a tendency to charge into situations that demand swift resolution and bring that resolution at the end of her warhammer. [DM NPC]
Amaranth Klane - CN female rilkcan chaos incarnate. Though physically weak, Karazele's grace is second to none, and her chosen soulmelds give her ranged weapons that make people rue the day they crossed her sight when she felt the need to inject a little "interest" into the day's proceedings. She's often accompanied by her soulspark familiar, a mote of intelligent incarnum that can act as guide, shield, or combat companion. [Played by Charissa's player]
Avandar Heloshartha - NG male duskling totemist. Though not the sharpest spear on the rack, Avandar has both tenacity and speed on his side. Distaining most crafted armor and weaponry, Avandar uses his soulmelds to meet his every need in combat, much to the dismay of anyone who's been on the wrong side of his sphinx claws. [Played by William's player]
Zook Cloak - NG male gnome wizard. Zook has dedicated his craft to combining the power of incarnum with the power of magic, with often spectacular results. His spells are often used to befuddle and separate foes from friends, while his collection of wands lets him empower his allies and smite his enemies. His weasel familiar, Scrabble, will often scout for him so he can prepare accordingly. [Played by Garden's player]
Mort Wotte – CN male rilkan rouge (w/ racial substitution levels). Mort is a clever, fast-talking man whose nimble fingers are only matched by his silver tongue. A dabbler in incarnum, he uses his theft gloves soulmeld to increase his already impressive skills in removing all obstacles from between him and whatever he wants. He’s never without a pocket full of random things to spice up any given moment with something unusual. [Played by Steven's player]