Vestiges of the 8th Circle
Balam, The Bitter Angel
Binding DC: 25 | Minimum Binder Level: 17th Balam is simply a horror. Her body is that of a great purple serpent, and her head consists of the top halves of three horned humanoid heads arranged evenly around a shared gaping maw.Legend
Binders are uncertain of how Balam came to be, but the most prominent understanding is that she was a powerful solar, given an impossible task by her gods. Many binders think she was tasked with eliminating sacrifices to evil gods, which amounted to eliminating the worship of evil gods altogether—a task well beyond what even the good deities could manage. Needless to say, Balam failed in her assignment, and some believe that her foes actually sacrificed her in praise of a dark god.Special Requirement
Balam only answers those who offer sacrifice to her. Doing so requires dealing 5 points of slashing damage to some creature and smearing its blood on Balam's sign.Physical Sign
Your voice gains a peculiar quality, becoming both hollow and guttural.Influence
If you make a poor pact with Balam, she influences your personality in one or both of the following ways.- Bond: I oppose the forces of evil on principle, but I oppose the forces of good with a personal vengeance in my heart. Only the truly neutral are spared my wrath.
- Ideal. Atheism: No one who represents a god can be trusted. I firmly believe that clerics and paladins spread dangerous lies.
Granted Features
Fighting Style
You adopt the following style of fighting as your specialty. You can't take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again.- Dueling: When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.
Angel’s Wings
While bound to Balam, you sprout two grotesque and twisted angelic wings, which nonetheless grant you a fly speed equal to your walking speed.Balam’s Cunning (Recharge 5-6)
You can reroll one ability check, attack roll or saving throw as a reaction, and must use the new result, even if it is worse than the original. You can choose to use this ability, even after the DM says whether the roll succeeds or fails.Prescience (Recharge 5-6)
As a bonus action, you can gain a glimpse into the immediate future. Until the end of your next turn, you have advantage on ability checks and attack rolls. Additionally, creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls against you during this time. After using this ability a number of times equal to your Proficiency bonus, you must complete a long rest before using it again.Eligor, Dragon’s Slayer
Binding DC: 25 | Minimum Binder Level: 17th Fully clad in shining armor, Eligor clatters out of nothingness riding a half-horse-half-dragon abomination.Legend
In life, Eligor was a great half-elf dragonslayer. After his death, Tiamat sent her draconic minions to the realms of good deities to claim his soul. Though the gods fought against this, they eventually relented.One deity, whose name has been lost to history, pursued Tiamat into the underworld, intending to wrest Eligor's soul from his captors. Instead of finding him in bondage, the deity found him in the armor of a draconic champion. Unbeknownst to the other gods, Tiamat had raised him from death to be her champion and enforcer, winning his loyalty through the other gods' abandonment. Eligor and the nameless deity fought, and Eligor lost his life yet again. This time, no deity laid claim to his soul, and Eligor passed on into the void.
Special Requirement
The Dragon's Slayer hold a deep hatred for dragons. If you place a few dragon scales on this vestige's seal, you gain advantage on your Charisma check to bind him. These scales are not consumed.Physical Sign
Your voice gains a peculiar quality, becoming both hollow and guttural.Influence
If you make a poor pact with Eligor, he influences your personality in one or both of the following ways.- Bond: I feel pity for all outcasts, particularly half-elves and half-orcs, and I will make every effort to befriend any such beings I meet.
- Bond: I was deeply wronged by the deities who abandoned me. As such, if able, I will attack humans, elves, or dragons in preference to all others whenever I am in combat.
Granted Features
Bonus Proficiencies
You gain proficiency with medium armor, shields, battleaxes, longswords, and warhammer’s.Eligor’s Strength
When you bind Eligor, if your Strength score is lower than 19, it becomes 19.Chromatic Strike
Once per turn, you can deal an additional 2d8 fire, lightning, cold, acid, or poison damage when you hit with a melee attack.Eligor’s Skill
You add your proficiency modifier to all Animal Handling checks made when dealing with Eligor's mount, and you gain a number of useful skills in the saddle:- You have advantage on melee attack rolls against any unmounted creature that is smaller than your mount.
- You can force an attack targeted at your mount to target you instead.
- If your mount is subjected to an effect that allows it to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, it instead takes no damage if it succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if it fails.
Eligor’s Companion
You can cast the spell find steed without using spell slot. The mount summoned is identical to a heavy warhorse, but physically appears to be half dragon. When your pact with Eligor ends, your steed is dismissed.Halphax, The Angel in the Angle
Binding DC: 25 | Minimum Binder Level: 17th The geometry of the room distorts, one corner stretching into the distance, and snapping back. A gnome holding the implements of an architect now stands in the corner, and approaches the seal.Legend
Long ago, the gnomes lived in massive, nigh impregnable cities that played host to a number of other races. In an event known as the Great Betrayal, the hobgoblin populations of many of these cities banded together and seized the cities for themselves, converting their sturdy walls into prisons for the inhabitants.The hobgoblins captured gnomish architects and engineers and forced them to fortify the cities. When they kidnapped the wife of the great gnomish architect, Halphax, he crafted the single most impregnable prison in history. When at last the goblinoids were defeated, Halphax's city was the last to fall. The liberating army found Halphax and his wife alone in the prison city: the hobgoblins had killed all but the two of them. Because she could not bear to be the cause of so much tragedy, Halphax's wife took her own life as well.
The gnomes attempted to apprehend Halphax for his betrayal, but the architect vanished into his city. The armies tore the city down to its foundations as they searched, but he was never seen again.
Special Requirement
Halphax will only answer your call if you draw his seal indoors, inside a closed building.Physical Sign
Your skin takes on the appearance of cracked stone.Influence
If you make a poor pact with Halphax, he influences your personality in one or both of the following ways.- Personality Trait: My personality is as rigid as my stone skin, and I find it difficult to emote.
- Bond: I never take hostages and always negotiate, rather than fight, if something or someone I care about is held captive.
Granted Features
Stone Skin
While bound to Halphax you have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons.Halphax’s Knowledge
You have advantage on ability checks relating to understanding architecture, buildings, and similar topics.Secure Shelter
You can cast the spell tiny hut as a ritual.Iron Wall (Recharge 5-6)
You can cast wall of stone without a spell slot or spell components. This wall appears to be made of iron, rather than stone. After casting this spell a number of times equal to your Proficiency bonus, you must take a short or long rest before casting it again. You consider this spell known and on your spell list so long as you manifest Halphax.Imprison
You can imprison a foe deep underground with but a touch. You can cast the spell imprisonment without a spell slot or spell components, and can only choose the burial or hedge prison options. After casting this spell, you must take a long rest before casting it again. You consider this spell known and on your spell list so long as you manifest Halphax.Orthos, Sovereign of the Howling Dark
Binding DC: 25 | Minimum Binder Level: 17th A light breeze buffets about the room, then rises into a whistling wind, and finally into a howling gale. Then it stops. A presence not altogether visual, but evident and palpable nonetheless, has arrived on the seal in the midst of the chaos.Legend
Orthos might well be the original vestige—the first being to break the boundaries and see past the window of reality to the nothingness beyond. Pact magic texts always mention this entity, and persistent explorers can find its seal represented in art or architecture on most planes, as well as in the ruins of many ancient civilizations. Binder scholars have a thousand theories about Orthos’s origins, but none is more than mere supposition. All agree that Orthos is inestimably old, and it has long since shed whatever form and persona it might once have had, becoming an alien and distant being. In deference to its great age and the hallmark of its appearance, binder scholars have dubbed Orthos the Sovereign of the Howling Dark.Special Requirement
Orthos is a complete enigma. When you bind him, roll any die. On an even number, you have advantage on your Charisma check to bind him, and on an odd number, you have disadvantage.Physical Sign
You always seem to be buffeted by a breeze that no one else can feel, even when you’re indoors.Influence
If you make a poor pact with Orthos, he influences your personality in one or both of the following ways.- Personality Trait: I speak only in a whisper.
- Bond: Darkened areas and loud noises make me short of breath and fill me with panic.
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