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Credits Au thors:

Mike Gill, Brannon Hollingsworth, Rhiannon Louve, Ari Marmell, Chris Simmons

Developer:

Edjtor:

Managjng Editor:

Art Director:

Joseph D. Carriker, Jr.

Anita Hager

Andrew Bates

Mike Chaney

Layout and ‘Typesetting:

Cover Artist:

Interior Artists:

Mike Chaney

Brian Leblanc

Tim Truman, David Day, Jeremy McHugh, & Peter Bergting

Front &Back Cover Design:

SpecjalThanks Mike Chaney

To Bruce R. Cordell, Monte Cook and the rest of Malhavoc Press for the contribution of their variant “Psion Secondary Disciplines” and “Variant Powers Discovered” rules, taken from the module If Thoughts Could Kill.

Psionic prestige classes astral zealot, cerebral rager, chakra savant, chronorebel, crystal proselyte, ghostbreaker, innate pretender, lucid cenobite, pat- tern master, psychic chirurgeon, spirituel and voce warrior originally published in Mindscapes, 0 2003 Bruce R. Cordell. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Check out upcoming Sword and Sorcery Studio products online at: http://www.swordsorcery.com

0 2004 White Wolf Publishing, Inc. Dismbuted for Sword and Sorcery Studios by White Wolf Publihinp, Inc. This printing of Echoes ofthe Pmt: The Slmecirm Legacr is published in accordance with the Open Game License.

See the Open Game License Appendix of this book for more information. Echoes of the Past: The Slarecian Legacy, scarred Lands, the scarred Lands logo, Sword and Sorcery, Sword and

Sorcery Studios, the Sword and Sorcery lcgo, Creature Collection, Creature Collection 2: Dark Menagerie, Creature Collection 3: Savage Bestiary, Relics & R i d and Relics &a Rituals 2: Lnst Lore are trademarks of White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.

“d20 System” and the “d20 System” logo are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and are used according to the terms of the d20 System License version 4.0. A copy of thii license can be found at

Dungem BDragumE and Wizards of the CoastCOare trademarksor registered trademarks o f W d ofthecoast in the U.S. and/

The mention of or reference to any company or prcduct in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned. PRINTED IN CANADA.

S W O R D 6

E B T U D l O S

# http://www.wizards.wm/d2O.

or other countries, used with permission.

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ECHOES O F THE PAST: T H E SLARECIAN LECACV mX%-

le of Contents lntroductjon 3

4 Psionics in the Scarred Lands

Chapter One: Hjstory of the Slarecians From The Ruins The Entrapping Lands Conflict The Rise of an Empire The Fall of the Slarecians

Chapter Two: Slarecjan Cults Loyal Unto Death Betrayer Champions Those Who Walk Alone

Chapter Three: Ruins of thehcjents

Chapter Four: Return of the Masters

Ruins of the Slarecians Designing Slarecian Ruins

The Truth Advancing the Metaplot: Return of the Slarecians Slarecian Story Seeds

Appendix: Lore and Artifacts Slarecians Feats Equipment Magic Items Relics Prestige Classes Slarecian Horrors Spells & Psionic Powers

6 7 12 14 18 19

22 23 29 37

46 47 56

77 78 81 87

96 97 99 99 101 107 108 114 136

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The book you are holding has been a long time coming.

I t all started with a big, white furry book. Okay, so the book itself wasn’t par- ticularly hairy, but the cover of the original Creature Collection did depict a lot of white fur. Though a collection of myriad beasties, horrors and other critters, it also alluded to something strange.

Something called a slarecian. Or more accurately (and tellingly), it

didn’t describe a slarecian. It described a handful of creatures quite noteworthy for their oddness and the fact that some kind of common strand linked them together. A crys- tal-horned gargoyle. A ghoul and a shadow, both undead, but both immune to being turned by clerics and paladins. A disembod- ied head of weird blackish crystal; there was even something called a “language virus” that rendered communication impossible.

Further books illuminated more of those strands. We learned that the Penumbral Pen- tagon owed their secrets to the slarecians. These mysterious slarecians had managed to capture or even kill one or more of the very gods - indeed, they were the impetus for the only instance of god and titan joining forces!

What, then, of the slarecians themselves? This is their book. We began to tell

some of their secrets in Relics & Rituals 2: Lost Lore. But this is where we lay i t all out on the line, telling not only their past, but what might lay ahead.

So, Why Psjonjcs? The use of psionics is still not official for

the Scarred Lands. That is, we don’t assume that every creature in the Psionics Handbook exists there, nor do people talk about psions or dorjes. However, the themes and imagery involved in psionics are a really good fit for the alien slarecians. From all kinds of bizarre powers associated with crystals to alien skin suits, the legacy of the Ancients seems pretty appropriate for the “weirdness” of psionics.

So, rather than creating a whole new system of magic that - once we’d finished adding in all the specifics associated with the slarecians - would look an awful lot like psionics, we’ve decided to simply use the psionics rules for ease of expression. No rea- son to build a whole new “engine” if we can

1 NTROD W CTI ON

ion

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ECHOES O F THE PAST: THE SLARECIAN LECACV

just use one that already exists; we can instead use all the space that a new system would’ve required for further detailing the slarecians.

As such, Echoes of the Past: The Slarecian Legacy tries to skirt the edge of the psionics issue. In general, where we deal with “in-set- ting” pieces, we avoid mention of psionics and other similar terms. But when it comes time to describe their weird abilities or strange artifacts, we’ve elected to use those familiar rules.

General d20 Use Though this book is written from a Scarred

Lands’ perspective, it is hardly specific to that setting. Most of the material herein is useable to other campaigns, especially if that campaign has (by dint of its GM using some of the Creature Collection material) some element of slarecian influence in it. Slarecians are bizarre and unique beings that can add a great new dimension to any d20 campaign - they’ve certainly done that for the Scarred Lands!

Psjonjcs jn the 7

Psionics in a Scarred Lands campaign may be used to represent the power of ancient slarecians, which is unique and different from the power wielded by both gods and titans. As such, this setting utilizes a variant of the “Psionics are Different” rules presented in the Psionics Handbook. In the Scarred Lands, psionics and magic are separate forces which rely on different sources of power and which have inde- pendent effects. Thus, use the following modifiers to psionics in the Scarred Lands:

Dispelling and Negating: Neither psionics nor magic has any ability to dispel the other. New spells that dispel psionics or new powers that negate spells are not possible. Null magic or psionic areas have no effect on the operation of the other power.

Mind-Affecting Spells and Powers: Spells or special abilities that protect specifically against effects with the [Charm], [Compulsion], or [Mind-Affecting] descriptor work equally well against both psionics and magic. However, abili- ties that provide only a bonus against magic, such as a mountain dwarfs + 2 bonus to saves against magic, have no effect against psionics.

Spell and Power Resistance: Because psionic power is very rare in the Scarred Lands, very few creatures have developed any form of resistance to psionics. Only slarecian constructs, creations, or allies have power resistance. Spell resistance provides no protection against psionic powers,

and power resistance does not protect against magic. Slarecian creatures (such as slarecian dragons, gargoyles, muses and the like) have a power resistance score equal to their spell resis- tance.

Variant Rules The following variant rules apply to the use

of psionics in the Scarred Lands.

Varjant: Mental Fatjgue Harnessing the power of t he ancient

slarecians involves tapping forces that bodies native to the Scarred Lands were not meant to handle. Psions who expend too much power begin to burn away the very life force that main- tains body and soul. In game terms, this means that any psion whose power point total is re- duced to one-quarter or less of its normal maximum becomes fatigued (see DMG) until he can recover sufficient power points to raise his current total above 25% of maximum. Further, any psion who has a current power point total of 0 is exhausted (see DMG). Unlike the normal condition, however, this exhaustion lasts only until the psion can recover at least 1 power point (at which point he becomes fatigued).

Variant: Coordjnate Concentratjon I t is possible for psions and psionic beings to

activate a new power while maintaining con- centration on another, or to maintain two or more powers at the same time.

Activating Powers: Powers with a manifes- tation time of 1 standard action or less may be activated even while maintaining concentra- tion on one or more other powers. This requires a successful Concentration check (DC 15 + the level of the highest level power being main- tained or activated, + 5 per power being maintained beyond the first). In addition, if the manifester makes any other Concentration checks for any reason, the DC of that check increases by +5 for each power being maintained currently. If any Concentration check fails, any power being activated and all powers being main- tained also fail.

Maintaining Concentration: A psion may maintain concentration on more than one power at a time, but this requires a standard action for each round of maintenance (unless the psion also manifests a power, in which case see “Acti- vating Powers,” above). In addition, if the manifester makes any other Concentration check for any reason, the DC of that check increases by +5 for each power currently being maintained. If any Concentration check fails, all powers being maintained also fail.

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1 NT RO D V CT IO N

Variant: Secondary Djscjpljnes and Variant Powers Djscovered

Every psion has one primary discipline and two secondary disciplines; the other three disci- plines are by default tertiary disciplines. A psion begins play knowing any three 0-level powers (also called talents) and any one 1st-level power, plus one extra 0-level and one extra 1st-level power, both from within his primary discipline. This yields a total of four 0-level powers and two 1st-level powers. At each level, the psion dis- covers one or more previously latent powers, as indicated on Table 1-1. Psions can pick powers from any discipline, but the “d” in each column represents a single extra power learned from within the psion’s primary discipline. A “-” indicates that no extra powers are known; a “d” or a number indicates that the psion can choose one or more powers at the given level.

To manifest a power, a psion must have a score of at least 10 + the power’s level in the key ability appropriate to that power’s discipline. However, a psion can use his primary discipline’s key ability score for the purposes of manifesting powers in either of his two secondary disciplines as well. He also uses his primary discipline’s key

ability score to determine the DCs of powers from his secondary disciplines. Thus, the psion usually chooses his primary discipline for his highest corresponding ability score, and his sec- ondary disciplines for having low corresponding ability scores. He uses the ability scores nor- mally associated with his tertiary disciplines, as normal, when determining the maximum level of powers he can learn and the DCs of powers from those disciplines.

For instance, the corresponding key ability of Telepathy is Charisma. A telepath who chooses Metacreativity and Psychometabolism as his secondary disciplines uses his Charisma rather than his Intelligence or Strength scores, respectively, when determining the highest level of powers he can manifest in these disciplines as well as the DCs of all powers from those disci- plines. His ter t iary discipl ines - Psychoportat ion, Psychokinesis, and Clairsentience - use Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom, respectively, as usual.

A psion gains base power points per day as indicated on Table 1-1, but receives bonus power points for his primary discipline’s key ability score as usual (see Psionics Handbook, Chapter 1, Table 1-2).

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