Pact of the Scribe

by Witchfire

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Pact Boon: Pact of the Scribe

A patron who wants to leave their physical trace on the world may grant a warlock the pact of the scribe. When a warlock is given this pact boon, they are entrusted with a symbol that represents their pact with the patron. Though anyone can replicate this symbol, it only contains magic when drawn by the warlock. The magical glyph then becomes a magical channel for the warlock's powers.

Pact of the Scribe

Your patron imprints into your mind an eldritch mark: a magical symbol that represents the pact you made. You also gain a special tool: your arcane stylus. This special tool resembles a small knife, a quill pen, a fine brush, or a wand, and it functions as an arcane focus for you. If you lose this tool, you can perform a 1-hour ritual to conjure a a new one. The stylus turns to ash if you die.

As an action, you touch your stylus to a flat surface and cause your eldritch mark to magically appear on the surface, covering an area as small as one inch or as large as 5 feet.


Sense Location and Direction. You always know the approximate distance and location to your eldritch mark, and you become aware if the mark is moved from its original location.


Sensory Transposition. You can use your action to enter a trance that lasts until you end it on your turn (no action required). Select an eldritch mark you made. While in this trance, your senses are transposed, allowing you to see and hear through the eldritch mark but only in the direction it's facing, and only while it remains uncovered. Until the trance ends, you're deaf and blind with regards to your immediate surroundings. A creature that can see invisible objects sees a tiny sensor hovering inches above the mark.


Channel Spell. While channeling your senses through your eldritch mark, you cast a warlock spell and cause it to originate from the mark's location. The spell must either create an area effect originating from the eldritch mark, or is limited to only targets that you can see through the mark. The mark is dispelled after the spell is cast.


The maximum number of eldritch marks you can have depends on your level in this class: 2 at 3rd level, 3 at 11th level, and 4 at 17th level. You can dispel any or all of them as an action. A mark is also dispelled if the surface it's on takes any damage, or if it's targeted by a dispel magic spell. When an eldritch mark is dispelled, it loses all of its magic but leaves behind its physical form.


A Mark's Appearance

Eldritch marks are symbolic of your pact with your patron. When designing your eldritch mark, consider the imagery associated with your patron. For instance, an archfey's eldritch mark may contain intricate knotwork, and the mark of a fathomless may consist of claws and tendrils. Likewise, a fiend's mark may appear corrupted, and a celestial's mark may contain hieroglyphics or religious imagery.

While an eldritch mark's design rarely changes over the span of a warlock's pact, the way it appears on an object can vary. For instance, a mark may appear as a drawing on a piece of paper, a painting on a wall, an engraving on an object, or even a natural discoloration on a stone.

When a mark is dispelled it leaves behind its physical form, a memoir of the patron's presence.

Additional Invocations

Eldritch Teleportation

Prerequisite: 12th level, pact of the scribe feature

While transposing your senses through an eldritch mark, you can use your action to teleport to an unoccupied space visible within 30 feet of the mark's location, causing your trance to end. You cannot use this feature to teleport to a different plane of existence.

After you teleport, the nearest eldritch mark is dispelled and the total number of eldritch marks you can have is reduced by 1, to a possible minimum of 0. This reduction lasts until you finish a long rest.

Protection of the All-Seeing Eye

Prerequisite: pact of the scribe feature

You learn the alarm spell and can cast it as a ritual using your arcane stylus. The spell is a warlock spell for you and doesn't count towards your total number of spells known.

When you cast the spell this way, you trace the warded object or area with your arcane stylus and cause a dimly glowing pattern to encircle it, resembling your eldritch mark. The pattern vanishes when the spell ends.

Speaker in the Shadows

Prerequisite: pact of the scribe feature

While transposing your senses through an eldritch mark, you can transmit your voice telepathically to any creatures you can see within 60 feet of the mark. A creature that hears your voice can understand you only if it shares a language with you. Your communication doesn't give a creature the ability to respond telepathically.

Witch's Circle

Prerequisite: 5th level, pact of the scribe feature

Using your arcane stylus, you can cast glyph of warding once without consuming material components or using a spell slot. When you cast the spell this way, the glyph you create incorporates your eldritch mark's design into its form. If you spend a spell slot to store a spell in the glyph (using its spell storing feature) the level of the stored spell equals the level of the spent spell slot, up to the level of your pact magic spell slots.

You must finish a long rest before you can cast glyph of warding this way again. If the first glyph has not been triggered before then, it harmlessly disappears without triggering.

Credits

Author and Designer

This is free to use fan content by Alice Witchfire (@alice.witchfire)

Art Credits

Scott Sketcher — Runic Highlands
Marcel Mercado — Ancient Secrets Revealed


Version 1.17