Society of the Sanctifi ed Mind

monthly dues, which operate on a sliding scale. Entrance dues are 500 gp per character level, and yearly dues thereafter drop to 100 gp per character level. Levels of the darkrunner prestige class do not count when determining how much you owe. Of course, the guild won’t accept just anyone into its ranks. Typically, an applicant needs to have at least 5 ranks in Knowledge (dungeoneering) and at least 7 ranks in Survival before she is considered for membership. Members of the guild hire themselves out as spies, explorers, or underground guides. Prices vary from region to region and according to the danger of the job, but typically a member can expect to be paid no less than 5 gp per character level (darkrunner levels count double) per day.

Sample Member

Jasper Ringlerock only just recently joined the Darkrunner

Guild after proving his worth by sneaking through a large nest of cloakers to map a particularly tangled warren of caverns located below a haunted grell outpost. Jasper is eager to build on his reputation in the guild before news of this accomplishment is eclipsed by some new stunt by another darkrunner.

As a result, he might be a bit too exuberant and daring in his tactics. A party that hires him is guaranteed to get more than they bargained for when Jasper tries to lead them on a shortcut through the basements of a mind fl ayer outpost or a

“long-abandoned” deep dragon lair. Jasper is a cheerful halfl ing who has yet to really encounter actual failure or defeat. He knows that most of his past successes are thanks mostly to luck, but he fi gures that he can handle whatever his good luck can’t.

Jasper Ringlerock: Male halfl ing ranger 7/darkrunner 1; CR 8; Small humanoid; HD 7d8+14 plus 1d6+2; hp 54; Init +4; Spd 20 ft.; AC 19, touch 14, fl at-footed 15; Base Atk +7; Grp +4; Atk +10 melee (1d6+2/19–20, +1 longsword) or +13 ranged (1d6/×3, masterwork longbow); Full Atk +8/+3 melee (1d6+2/19–20, +1 longsword) and +8/+3 melee (1d4/19–20, masterwork shortsword), or +13/+8 ranged (1d6/×3, masterwork longbow); SA favored enemy (aberrations +4, magical beasts +2); SQ animal companion (Medium viper), animal companion benefi ts, darkvision 10 ft., direction sense, spelunking, wild empathy +7 (+3 magical beasts), woodland stride; AL CG; SV Fort +10, Ref +10, Will +4 (+6 against fear); Str 12, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 10.

Skills and Feats: Climb +10, Hide +23, Jump –1, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +4, Listen +10, Move Silently +13, Search +4, Speak Language (Undercommon), Spot +15, Survival +8 (+2 following tracks or underground), Swim +0; Aberration Blood† (sticky fi ngers), Alertness, Endurance, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Inhuman Blood†, Track, Two-Weapon Fighting. † New feats described earlier in this chapter.

Languages: Common, Halfl ing, Undercommon.

Favored Enemy (Ex): Jasper gains a +4 bonus on his Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Survival checks when using these skills against aberrations. He gains the same bonus on weapon damage rolls. Against magical beasts, he gains a +2 bonus on these skill checks and on weapon damage rolls.

Animal Companion (Ex): Jasper has a Medium viper named Goldeye as an animal companion. The creature’s statistics are provided below.

Animal Companion Benefi ts (Ex): Jasper gains special benefi ts from having an animal companion. Link (Ex): Jasper can handle Goldeye as a free action. He also gains a +4 circumstance bonus on all wild empathy checks and Handle Animal checks made regarding his snake. Share Spells (Ex): Jasper can have any spell he casts on himself also affect his animal companion if the latter is within 5 feet at the time. He can also cast a spell with a target of “You” on his animal companion.

Direction Sense (Ex): Jasper can study a single underground location he is in and designate that as his directional focus. From that point on, he can fi nd the path (as the spell) to the shortest, most direct route to his directional focus while he is within 5 miles of the designated spot.

Spelunking (Ex): Jasper gains a +1 competence bonus on Climb, Escape Artist, Jump, Survival, and Swim checks underground. He is treated as a Tiny creature for the purpose of squeezing into narrow tunnels or confi ned areas.

Woodland Stride (Ex): Jasper can move through natural thorns, briars, overgrown areas, and similar terrain at his normal speed and without damage or other impairment. However, thorns, briars, and overgrown areas that are magically manipulated to impede motion still affect him.

Ranger Spells Prepared (caster level 3rd): 1st—longstrider, resist energy.

Possessions: +1 mithral chain shirt, +1 longsword, cloak of elvenkind, darkrunner emblem, masterwork shortsword, masterwork longbow with 30 arrows, locket with continual fl ame cast on the inside of the clasp, mapping kit, 7 days of food and water.

Goldeye: Medium viper; CR —; Medium magical beast; HD 4d8+3; hp 21; Init +4; Spd 20 ft., climb 20 ft., swim 20 ft.; AC 19, touch 14, fl at-footed 15; Base Atk +3; Grp +2; Atk or Full Atk +7 melee (1d4–1 plus poison, bite); SA poison; SQ evasion, low-light vision, scent; AL N; SV Fort +4, Ref +8, Will +2; Str 9, Dex 18, Con 11, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 2.

Skills and Feats: Balance +12, Climb +12, Hide +13, Listen +6, Spot +6, Swim +7; Toughness, Weapon Finesse.

Evasion (Ex): If Goldeye is exposed to any effect that normally allows it to attempt a Refl ex save for half damage, it takes no damage with a successful saving throw.

Poison (Ex): Injury, Fortitude DC 12, initial and secondary damage 1d6 Con.

SOCIET Y OF THE SANCTIFIED MIND

This group’s members dedicate themselves to combating the machinations of evil psionics-using creatures wherever they can be found. The society considers its mission a crusade to rid the world of evil psionics-users, or at the very least to minimize their

infl uence. The order was run until recently by its founder, Sir Jeremy Costineux, a high-level cleric of St. Cuthbert. Although his aged body is now too frail to lead his knights in battle, Sir Jeremy’s mind remains as sharp as ever. The society was born thirty years ago when a group of mind fl ayers that lived under the mountains near Sir Jeremy’s small home village attacked the town in a “brain raid.” Every living man, woman, and child that was not killed by the illithids or their mind-controlled thralls was captured and taken deep underground. Jeremy (his knighthood would come later) was already a devoted adventuring cleric in service to St. Cuthbert. The journeys he and his compatriots took to vanquish evil and chaos led them far from home. The attack on his home village occurred while Jeremy and his allies were hundreds of miles away, helping a druid named Melisé and her small band of elf followers repel the attacks of a band of bugbears, ogres, and trolls. It wasn’t until months after the raid that Jeremy returned to the abandoned ruins of what had been his home. It didn’t take him and his comrades long to determine that illithids were behind the attack, and the party headed underground to rescue any villagers who remained alive and heap bloody revenge upon the tentacled heads of the mind fl ayers. The illithids had learned much about Jeremy and his allies from reading (and digesting) the minds of his family and friends, and thus they were prepared when Jeremy came looking for them. After they sprang their trap, Jeremy was the only member of the party to survive and escape back to the surface. He was aided by Albaric, a dwarf fi ghter/rogue the mind fl ayers had recently captured while snooping around the edges of the mind fl ayers’ subterranean home. The pair returned to civilization, reported the events that had occurred to the government, and then returned to the region, reinforced with powerful allies. They destroyed the nest of fl ayers, but Jeremy remained unsatisfi ed. He’d lost almost everyone close to him to the illithids, and he vowed to do all in his power to spare others that same torment. He also had the foresight to realize that mind fl ayers were not the only threat to surface civilization. He knew that any group of psionics-using creatures with a penchant for enslaving weak minds could have eliminated his home just as quickly, and he broadened his focus to include all creatures that used psionics to further their dark and evil goals. The allies Jeremy and Albaric brought with them pledged to join his crusade. When the group returned to the capital, the authorities offi cially sanctioned the society, made Jeremy a knight in service to his country, and appointed him commandant. Albaric took his place as Sir Jeremy’s adjutant. Sir Jeremy ran the society along militaristic lines, taking his inspiration from the knightly order of St. Cuthbert in ages past. This policy attracted a certain type of adventurer to the society in its early years: Lawful fi ghters, paladins, clerics, and monks made up most of the group’s ranks. This strict adherence to doctrine and tradition served the group well, as it suffered as many setbacks as victories early on. It was only later that, upon Albaric’s insistence, Sir Jeremy made the society less formal, more open, and less closely aligned with his own church hierarchy. In the time since, bards, druids, rangers, sorcerers, and wizards, as well as members of the psionic classes, have joined the society in greater numbers. This diversity of talent and viewpoints strengthens the group in its ongoing crusade. Feeling that the society needed a strong battlefi eld commander to succeed, Sir Jeremy recently resigned his post and named Albaric as his replacement. Albaric hopes to expand the ranks of the society even further by offering the order’s special training in combating psionicsusing creatures to all members of the group, not just to the humans, as was Sir Jeremy’s practice. He has also promoted younger members of the society, especially those undergoing the order’s special training, to new positions of responsibility in the fi eld and in the society’s ward houses.

SAMPLE MEMBER

Korrath grew up in one of St. Cuthbert’s martyrs’ orphanages, never having known his parents or what caused their deaths. As he aged, his piety, strength, and willpower came to be noticed by the church offi cials, and he was approached by members of the society. At the time, he wished merely to serve his deity in valorous battle, not waste his time studying such rare, esoteric, and, possibly mythical foes. Korrath chose his path and excelled at it, becoming a hero of the church. Perhaps the adulation that he earned led to overconfi dence, but an event a few years ago brought Korrath’s path back toward the society. Korrath and his allies were pursing a band of what they thought were drow slavers. Instead, they unknowingly followed a party of mind fl ayers, their thralls, and the captives they had recently gained in a brain raid. Korrath led the charge to free the prisoners once the heroes caught up with the large party, only to discover, to his horror, that the illithids were now trying to kill him. Korrath fought like a true warrior of St. Cuthbert; his fury was such that no illithid could lay a tentacle on him—but his martial prowess didn’t protect him from the illithids’ psionic powers. Through circumstances he claims to be unable to recall, Korrath fell under the mind fl ayers’ mental domination and turned on his allies, attacking them while protecting the mind fl ayers. In one brief moment of clarity, he hesitated in his assault. His oldest friend, a paladin named Illyria, didn’t notice the fl icker of cognizance in his eyes and struck Korrath down. When he regained consciousness, Korrath discovered that Illyria had dragged him clear of the battle and healed the most grievous of his wounds. What else she might have planned, Korrath can never know, for he found her body not far off. Her skull was torn open like a burst melon and her brain was gone, food for one of the mind fl ayers. Korrath found no evidence that any other of his comrades survived the battle, but he did not fi nd their bodies as he had Illyria’s. Left with little choice and less hope, Korrath returned to the temple his party used as its base and asked to speak with Albaric