Vestiges

VESTIGE DESCRIPTIONS

ABYSM, THE SCHISMED

Vestige Level: 8th

Binding DC: 34

Special Requirement: No

Abysm, the Schismed, is a living vestige of a psionic mythal. As a vestige, Abysm gives its host access to several psionic effects.

Legend: Little is known about the origin of the vestige that is Abysm, but some have learned that a strange group of psionic users once visited the great city of Myth Drannor on Faerûn. These visitors wished to learn more about mythals and spent much time in research while in the great elven city. Scholars theorize that they then created a psionic mythal around a secret city of psychics and called it Abysm.

Imagine a city of psions, all interconnected by their psicrystals and a great mythal of psionic energy. Now imagine all of them dying overnight. No one knows what disaster visited the city, but it killed every living thing. Some believe that due to the inhabitants' direct connection to the mythal by way of their psicrystals, their souls did not depart as they should have. Instead they got caught in the weave of psionic energies, and the resulting combination of energies was simply too much for the crystals to hold - all psicrystals shattered at once and gave birth to the vestige that is Abysm.

Some researchers and lore-seekers say that Abysm has only recently became sane enough to maintain a safe binding for more than a few seconds. Many old tales relate how binders found themselves being nearly driven insane just by contacting it, but now it does respond and answer the call of those who seek it.

Manifestation: Crystals grow from the seal into a prismatic tree that suddenly cracks and shatters into dust. The dust swirls into a shimmering, rainbow-laden cyclone that forms an indistinct face. A discordant voice speaks to the binder, saying, "We, Abysm."

Sign: Your fingernails and toenails become crystal, and you "sweat" gem dust like a maenad does.

Influence: Your speech pattern becomes disconnected, as if many voices are trying to speak through you. Your mannerisms also change from moment to moment: masculine to feminine, regal to shy, and confident to passive. Abysm requires that the binder not use a psicrystal for the duration of the binding.

Granted Abilities: While bound to Abysm, you gain powers that various city inhabitants had at some point in their lifetimes.

Psionic Boon: You gain 21 power points when you bind to Abysm. These are added to your pool of power if you already possess psionic power, or they create a pool and you become a psionic creature for the duration of this binding.

Overpower: You gain access to the psionic powers read thoughts, animal affinity, energy missile, psionic levitate, clairvoyant sense, and astral construct for the duration of the binding. You may manifest each power as a psion would and as if it is a power known by you. You may augment each as a psion normally could, substituting your effective binder level in place of manifester level.

ACERERAK, THE DEVOURER

Vestige Level: 5th

Binding DC: 25

Special Requirement: Yes

Acererak, a half-human lich, grasped at godlike power only to lose his grip on reality. As a vestige, he grants abilities that are similar to a lich's powers.

Legend: Only bards and a few scholars remember Acererak's name, but many know the legend of his supposed final resting place, the Tomb of Horrors. As rumors of the wealth and magic hidden in this fabled location spread, the tomb became a burial ground for more and more explorers and tomb robbers. In truth, however, the Tomb of Horrors was not Acererak's sepulcher at all. It was merely part of his plan to gain eternal unlife and command of all undead.

Acererak left behind a diary, and the information it contains combined with the actions of a stalwart few have at last brought the full tale of Acererak to light. In his diary, Acererak wrote that he was born of a union between a human woman and a demon. Despite his hideous deformities, his mother kept him and cared for him until, when he was ten years of age, some superstitious villagers burned down their house. Acererak survived the conflagration because of his demonic heritage, but his mother did not. In his diary Acererak recalls that incident as the event that propelled him on the path toward necromancy and revenge against humanity.

Acererak became a powerful wizard. As he grew older and saw the specter of death looming, he sought out and completed the ritual for becoming a lich. After he assumed his undead form, his power continued to grow for centuries more. The diary relates, however, that Acererak eventually felt the forces animating his undead body begin to wane. Knowing that final oblivion was near, he decided to build himself a secret tomb. "Only those of keenest luck and greatest skill will win through to me," the diary read. "There, they shall receive a magnificent reward for their persistence."

The diary, the Tomb of Horrors, and the supposed reward were all parts of an elaborate ruse designed to bring powerful adventurers into the portion of the tomb that Acererak - by then a powerful demilich - called his Fortress of Conclusion. In truth, Acererak had devised a ritual that he hoped would merge his consciousness with the Negative Energy Plane through the sacrifice of potent spirits. Had he actually accomplished this goal, he could have assumed control of any undead on any plane and gained godlike powers as well as immortality. But the infamy of the Tomb of Horrors drew more than wealth-hungry thrill-seekers intent on gaining the reward promised in Acererak's diary. Supplicants also came. Necromancers questing for knowledge, seekers of eternal life, and lost souls in search of purpose traveled to the tomb to learn what they could of the dark arts. In time, the supplicants became worshipers, and they stayed to dwell near the object of their devotion. Eventually, a settlement called Skull City sprang up around the entrance to Acererak's Tomb of Horrors.

Some of the heroes Acererak lured to his tomb proved even more powerful and ingenious than he had anticipated. After fighting their way through Skull City and the Tomb of Horrors, they made their way to the demilich's Fortress of Conclusion. At the last possible moment, they surmised Acererak's plan and destroyed the artifact that was crucial to his apotheosis. They struck down Acererak and shattered his phylactery.

Normally, such an action would have sent Acererak's spirit to Abyss, but the worship of the Skull City residents lent him a semblance of divinity; his desire to merge with the Negative Energy Plane proved stronger than the pull of the Abyss. Unfortunately for Acererak, souls do not travel to the Negative Energy Plane upon death. Since his spirit had no clear destination, it went nowhere, becoming a vestige divorced from all planes.

Special Requirement: You must place a gem about the size of a human tooth or eye in the center of Acererak's seal. This gem is not used up in the summoning process, nor does it move from where you placed it, despite the manner in which Acererak manifests.

Manifestation: The gem you placed within the seal appears to float up into the air to the height of your head. Dust swirls in from the surrounding air and up from the ground to coalesce about the gem, forming a yellowed human skull with the jewel as a tooth or an eye. A moment later, other gems wink into being, so that each eye socket and the space of every tooth is occupied by a shining diamond, ruby, emerald, or sapphire. The jewels glow briefly with an inner light, and then Acererak speaks, his dry voice filled with contempt.

Sign: A gem replaces one of your teeth. If removed, the gem reverts to a normal tooth, and a new gem appears in its place.

Influence: As a vestige, Acererak possesses the immortality he desired but none of the power that should accompany it. If you fall under his influence, you evince a strong hunger for influence and primacy. If you are presented with an opportunity to fill a void in power over a group of creatures, Acererak requires that you attempt to seize that power. You might impersonate a missing city official, take command of a leaderless unit of soldiers, or even grab the reins of runaway horses to establish your supremacy.

Granted Abilities: While bound to Acererak, you gain powers that the great lich held in his legendary unlife.

Detect Undead: You can use detect undead as the spell at will (caster level equals your effective binder level).

Hide from Undead: At will as a standard action, you can become undetectable to undead. This ability functions like the hide from undead spell, except that the DC for intelligent undead to ignore the effect and notice you is 10 + 1/2 your effective binder level + your Cha modifier.

Lich's Energy Immunities: You gain immunity to cold and electricity damage.

Paralyzing Touch: As a standard action, you can make a touch attack to paralyze a living foe. The touched creature must succeed on a Fortitude save or be paralyzed for a number of rounds equal to one-half your effective binder level. Each round on its turn, the paralyzed creature can attempt a new saving throw as a full-round action, with success ending the effect immediately. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Speak with Dead: You can question the dead at will as though using the speak with dead spell (caster level equals your effective binder level; save DC 10 + 1/2 your effective binder level + your Cha modifier).

Undead Healing: Negative energy (such as that of an inflict spell) heals you rather than damaging you. If you are a living creature, positive energy (such as a cure spell) still heals you as well.

AGARES, TRUTH BETRAYED

Vestige Level: 4th

Binding DC: 22

Special Requirement: Yes

Agares died at the hands of his allies for a wrong he did not commit. As a vestige, not only does he give binders the ability to weaken foes and knock them prone, but he also makes his summoner fearless and able to speak any tongue.

Legend: In life, Agares ruled over vast armies on the Elemental Plane of Earth. He was the most powerful general the plane had yet seen and second in authority only to his genie emperor, a dao of great influence. Even though Agares was unalterably loyal, he nevertheless gave his emperor reason to fear betrayal. Agares became obsessed with a djinni commander who had thwarted his conquests on several occasions. His desire to meet this favored foe on the field of battle blinded him to other tactical options and deafened him to rumors that his esteem for his enemy had deepened into love. When at last Agares entrapped the djinni's forces, he girded himself for personal combat and set out to answer a challenge to duel his adversary. The summons was a trap laid by Agares's lieutenants, however; his allies slew him within sight of his greatest enemy.

Special Requirement: You must draw Agares's seal upon either the earth or an expanse of unworked stone.

Manifestation: The ground trembles briefly as the head of a great brown crocodile bursts from beneath Agares's seal. The crocodile's maw opens upward, unleashing a hooded black hawk that spreads its wings, forcing the jaws farther apart with the mere brush of its feathers. Two large, catlike eyes gleam on the hawk's breast. When Agares speaks, the hawk's beak moves, but the sound comes from the crocodile's rumbling throat.

Sign: You gain a wracking cough that spews dust and small stones from your mouth. This coughing prevents you from casting any spells that have verbal components. While bound to Agares, you can resist the urge to cough for a number of rounds equal your Constitution score. Thereafter, you cough for a round and then can try to resist the urge again.

Influence: Agares's loyalty in life and his anger at the betrayal perpetrated by his lieutenants has become a hatred of falsehood. When influenced by Agares, you speak forthrightly and with confidence. You cannot use the Bluff skill, and when asked a direct question, you must answer truthfully and directly.

Granted Abilities: Agares gives you the power to exalt yourself and your allies, to make the earth tremble beneath your feet, to render foes weak, and to speak the truth to all peoples.

Earth and Air Mastery: You gain a +1 bonus on attack rolls and weapon damage rolls if both you and your foe are touching the ground. Any airborne foe takes a -1 penalty on attack rolls and weapon damage rolls against you.

Earthshaking Step: As a standard action, you can stomp on the ground, causing every creature within 10 feet of you that is either standing or climbing on a surface connected with the ground to make a Reflex save or fall prone. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds. You and your summoned earth elemental (see below) are never knocked prone by the use of this ability.

Elemental Companion: You can summon an earth elemental to accompany you and fight for you. This creature obeys your commands to the best of its ability. If the elemental is more than 30 feet away from you at the end of your turn, it dissolves. If you lose your elemental to dissolution or destruction, you cannot summon it again for 1 hour.

The size of the earth elemental you can summon depends on your effective binder level, as given on the following table.

Fear Immunity: You have immunity to fear from both magical and mundane sources.

True Speech: You can speak, understand, read, and write all languages spoken by creatures within 30 feet of you. To use an unfamiliar language, you must hear it spoken and see the speaker. Once you have used it, you can continue to do so for as long as your pact with Agares lasts. When speaking or writing in a language with which you are not familiar, you cannot lie.

AHAZU, THE SEIZER

Vestige Level: 3rd

Binding DC: 20

Special Requirement: Yes

Pact magic extracts power from powerful but dead being's spirits. Although not technically dead, neither is Ahazu the Seizer technically alive as long as he remains imprisoned in Shattered Night. This allows binders to use pact magic to draw power from his vestige.

Legend: The seventy-third layer of the Abyss is known as the Wells of Darkness. A steely blue sun casts dim illumination down upon this barren realm, a vast badland of tortured stone through which winds a maze of flagstone pathways that connect dozens of plazas. Each plaza is dominated by a well that drops down to an inky black pool. The stony ground of this layer is interrupted here and there by jagged tors that roughly shield individual well sites from their neighbors. Marble paths connect the wells to one another, and planar lore holds that those who wander from this path risk incurring the wrath of the Abyss itself. The sun above is strangely dim, providing light equivalent to that on an overcast day. Its alien light does no harm to creatures normally impeded by sunlight or bright light (such as nightshades, vampires, bodaks, and varrangoins).

Although the Wells of Darkness is a finite layer of the Abyss, it lies amidst an endless void that encompasses its physical core. This void is known as Shattered Night, and it may be the primal chaos that exists outside of the Abyss itself. In ages past, the demon lord of night and abduction Ahazu the Seizer discovered that, by digging deep shafts in the terrain, he could reach thin spots or the membrane that encircles this layer, black windows into the gulfs of Shattered Night. After many years of digging wells in the seventy-third layer of the Abyss, Ahazu finally found a planar tear in the depths of a great tor in the heart of the layer and stepped through, never to return.

After Ahazu left the Abyss, his followers discovered he could be contacted through strange and secret magics, for Ahazu had become a vestige - a fragmentary echo of existence. In the years that followed, the Cult of Ahazu built a great fortress atop the tor that contained the planar tear that had consumed their master, and from there they could speak to him and receive his wisdom. The Seizer demanded regular offerings of prisoners, dead or alive, to join him in the void. He had his cult place these prisoners near the thin spots in the boundary's layer at the bottoms of the wells he himself had crafted. Once imprisoned, a prisoner could be contacted telepathically by those in close proximity, but could not otherwise escape.

Yet the Cult of Allazu eventually made a terrible error - they attempted to capture and imprison Orcus. Led by hubris and pride, their assault on Thanatos failed miserably, and in response, the Prince of Undead unleashed a horde of demons upon the Wells of Darkness. They quickly laid waste to the Cult of Ahazu, leaving their fortress of Overlook in ruins. The Seizer was left with no followers, for few inhabitants of the Abyss visit the Wells of Darkness and fewer still are skilled in pact magic.

Incalculable ages after Overlook's fall, a tribe of outcast varrangoins, batlike monstrous humanoids common in other parts of the Abyss, discovered the ruined fortress. Among their number was a trio of arcanists who had also dabbled in pact magic. The coven of varrangoin binders were delighted to discover Ahazu, and adopted the Seizer as their patron. At Ahazu's word, they resumed his cult's practice of imprisoning creatures in the Wells of Darkness. Yet the varrangoin were much craftier than their predecessors. They realized that the Wells of Darkness was a resource that the rest of the Abyss would pay dearly for, so instead of abducting victims on their own, the varrangoin coven offered to act as wardens for prisoners brought to them in exchange for magical power, knowledge, and respect. Demon lords, arch devils, and even the gods themselves took them up on their generous offer, and soon the Wells of Darkness came to host powerful prisoners indeed. The coven even managed to convince Ahazu to release prisoners on occasion, in exchange for the promise of a more powerful replacement. Such pacts require the liberators to pledge their bodies and their essences yo eternal imprisonment if they failed to deliver. The coven also convinced Ahazu to offer great power to any demon foolish enough to pledge its body and essence to eternal imprisonnaent after death on another plane, sidestepping the normal reincarnation process demons undergo in such circumstances. Over the ages, only four have managed to escape - their wells have closed and the windows to Shattered Night are no longer available. Those known to have escaped the Wells of Darkness include Bayemon of the Unhealing Wound, the marilith queen Shaktari, Siragle the Ineffable, and vaunted Zzyczesiya.

Shattered Night is avoid beyond the finite boundaries of the Wells of Darkness, an infinite nothingness that may link to the void beyond other layers and other planes. Most of the Wells of Darkness are windows into Shattered Night, yet the Well of Ahazu below Overlook is in fact a form of portal known as a planar tear that permits passage through a layer's boundaries to the void beyond. A planar tear is an extremely rare phenomenon, believed to occur only in finite layers or planes; tears are not limited to the Abyss.

Thanks to the Cult of Ahazu and its master, Shattered Night now holds many Abyssal lords, godlings, and failed commanders of the Blood War. Each prisoner can be observed through a "window" at the bottom of his or her well. Most wells contain tragic, half-remembered villains so reprehensible that their fellow demons or followers committed them to Ahazu's void. Some wells contain a slain demon who accepted the Seizer's offer of power in the misguided belief they would someday be restored to life through the mysterious properties of Shattered Night.

Living prisoners all hope to regain freedom and followers, and some may pledge service to those who visit them. Communication with an imprisoned being is possible by touching the window in the well, yet even then such comnumication is little more than empathic echoes and fragments of words - barely enough to prove that the creature imprisoned within ever existed at all. Dead prisoners feel the endless pull of the Abyss, which attempts to reincarnate them through the thin spots in the layer's boundary, but parasites in the service of Ahazu (mostly abyssal ghouls and chasme) feast on the slowly reincarnating flesh that seeps through the Abyssal boundary, indefinitely delaying most regenerations. Ahazu finds this development quite entertaing.

No mortal magic can reach Shattered Night, nor can it be used to release a prisoner from its grip. Spells such as commune, contact other plane, demand, and sending cannot be used to contact the denizens of Shattered Night, and divinations like discern location or locate creature fail to reveal anyone imprisoned within as well. Shattered Night is not truly a place - it is the absence of a place. As such, there is no environment to interact with, movement is not possible, and magic has no effect.

Ahazu has apparently discovered a means of escaping some of these strictures, but how much power he has over Shattered Night is a matter of some dispute since he himself seems unable to apply these methods of freedom to himself. In addition to imprisoning creatures sent through the planar tear, he can create a binding pact that whisks a creature into Shattered Night once certain conditions (such as death, the passage of time or failure to deliver another prisoner in an agreed upon time) are fulfilled. Likewise, he can expel a creature through a thin spot in the layer's boundaries (i.e. through the "window" at the bottom of the well of darkness through which they can be seen) if he so desires. Such "escapes" have occurred in the past, but these events are so rare that those who follow the history of the Abyss can name all known escapees from memory. In truth all such escapes were actually exchanges, in which the prisoner was exchanged for a more powerful creature.

Freeing a prisoner from one of the Wells of Darkness is a daunting task - such a thing has only occurred four times before, and each time the method used to free the prisoner was wildly different. Mortal magic has no effect on the wells, and cannot pierce its way to Shattered Night. The gods themselves might he able to open the gates to Shattered Night, but since Echidna attempted to unleash the prisoners eons ago to flood Asgard with the released monsters, only to become trapped herself when the Abyss itself rebelled against her, the gods have been wary about dabbling in the dangerous workings of this ancient realm.

Special Requirement: You must draw Ahazu's seal on the surface of one of the Pools of Darkness, found at the bottom of the Wells of Darkness on the seventy-third layer of the Abyss.

Manifestation: Ahazu's manifestation begins as a sphere of darkness that slowly expands in radius. In the depths of that sphere, Ahazu's form slowly takes shape, revealing a dark skinned, naked humanoid shape with bat-like wings, and elongated head, and arms akin to that of a bodak. His legs trail away into nothingness and his skin is smooth and devoid of obvious features. The Seizer's mouth, which is filled with hundreds of needle-sharp fangs, yawns under a pair of sunken eyes which have partially withdrawn into his skull.

Sign: Your skin becomes cold to the touch and the inside of your mouth is cloaked in absolute darkness and periodically expels clouds of black smoke.

Influence: Ahazu's avarice infects you, causing you to steal small, precious objects whenever the opportunity presents itself, if you feel you can do so without getting caught. The covetousness extends to the lives of your enemies as well. If possible, you must try to imprison your enemies alive in a dark hellhole, rather than kill them or let them escape. If you allow an enemy to escape, you become wracked with anger and suffer a -4 penalty to all Charisma-based checks as long as you remain under Ahazu's influence.

Granted Abilities: Ahazu grants you abilities that reflect his demonic origin, his exile in the void, and his obsession with abduction.

Ahazu's Abduction: You can speak Ahazu's name to shunt a creature within 30 feet of you into the void between the planes. The target creature may resist the abduction by making a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your effective binder level + your Charisma modifier). If the creature resists this abduction, you may not target him again with this power for 24 hours. Once a creature is abducted, it remains trapped in the void for 1 round, effectively losing it's action on that round of combat. You can use this ability at will.

Ahazu's Touch: You can produce an effect identical to unholy blight (caster level equals your effective binder level) on a creature you touch. The target is cloaked in a cold, cloying miasma of greasy darkness and takes damage as appropriate for his alignment. Once you use this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Blindsight: You have the blindsight extraordinary ability to a range equal to 5 feet per effective binder level (maximum 100 feet).

Void Mind: As a standard action, you can withdraw your mind and soul into the void beyond the boundaries of the planes, rendering you immune to spells, spell-like effects, and supernatural effects with that mind-affecting descriptor or that affect souls (such as magic jar, soul bind, and trap the soul) as long as the vestige remains bound to you. If you die while employing this granted power, you cannot be brought back to life with a raise dead or resurrection spell.

AMON, THE VOID BEFORE THE ALTAR

Vestige Level: 1st

Binding DC: 20

Special Requirement: Yes

Although Amon once ruled as a deity of light and justice, his long existence as a vestige has twisted him into a monster consumed by wrath. He grants those who summon him his sight, his fiery breath, and his powerful charge.

Legend: Scholars claim that Amon is what remains of the personality of a god who died of neglect millennia ago. Once worshiped by thousands, Amon eventually lost his faithful to more responsive deities. His will was strong enough, though, to resist eternal sleep on the Astral Plane. Since his demise, his half-existence as a vestige seems to have dramatically changed his appearance and personality. Once a calm and wise protector, a god of light and law, Amon is now a foultempered and hateful spirit.

Special Requirement: Amon particularly despises four other vestiges: Chupoclops, Eurynome, Karsus, and Leraje. If you have hosted one of these spirits within the last 24 hours, Amon refuses to answer your call. Similarly, these spirits will not answer your call if you are already bound to Amon. The reason for Amon's displeasure with these vestiges is unclear, but the enmity is as old as anyone can remember. Binder scholars theorize that it might stem from the time when Amon was a god and the other four were normal mortal or immortal beings.

Manifestation: Amon manifests in a burst of black smoke, howling foul curses at his summoner. He possesses a black wolf's body with a ram's head and a serpent for a tail. His mouth is filled with sharp teeth, and fire escapes it when he speaks.

Sign: You grow a ram's curling horns.

Influence: Amon's influence makes you surly and irritable. In addition, since Amon despises living deities of fire, sun, and law, he forces you to resist even beneficial spells cast by those devoted to such powers. You must make a saving throw to resist such a spell if one is allowed; failure allows you to gain the benefit.

Granted Abilities: Amon grants you his sight and his breath, as well as the deadly use of his horns.

Darkvision: You gain darkvision out to 60 feet.

Fire Breath: You can vomit forth a line of fire as a standard action. The line extends 10 feet per effective binder level (maximum 50 feet) and deals 1d6 points of fire damage per binder level to every creature in its area. A successful Reflex save halves this damage. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Ram Attack: You can use the ram's horns that you gain from Amon's sign as a natural weapon that deals 1d6 points of damage (plus 1-1/2 times your Strength bonus). When you charge a foe with your ram attack, you deal an extra 1d8 points of damage on a successful hit. You cannot use this ability if you do not show Amon's sign.

AMUN-HER KHEPESHEF, THE DESECRATED SCION

Vestige Level: Epic

Binding DC: —

Special Requirement: Yes

Once the firstborn heir to his people's kingdom, Amun-her Khepeshef represents the souls of the firstborn sons of the empire, whose lives were tragically extinguished by the god of their slaves. The collective will of the spirits begged the death-god for oblivion, becoming the vestige known as Amun-her Khepeshef. Amunher Khepeshef grants the ability to continue to act while dead, protection from death effects and the attacks of undead, bonuses on strategic checks in battle, and the ability to release a powerful burst of positive energy.

Legend: Amun-her Khepeshef was the heir to the throne, son of the current king, and leader of the army. The empire kept thousands of slaves, who they used to build numerous pyramids, tombs, and palaces. When the slaves revolted, the empire imposed harsh strictures, limiting their religious freedoms. Eventually, the people rebelled, calling on their long suppressed god to smite their captors. Furious, the god struck the empire with numerous plagues - fire, vermin, disease, drought, and worse. The final plague was the most terrible even in the empire's history - the foreign god struck down the firstborn sons of each family in the empire, including Amun-her Khepeshef.

The loss of the first-born sons was tragic, bringing an entire generation to its knees with depression and desperation. To make matters worse, grave robbers and rival invaders desecrated the numerous new tombs, destroying the sanctity of the afterlife of the dead sons. These spirits became furious: angry at the foreign god and his people, enraged at those who betrayed them in their complacency, livid at the tomb robbers who interrupted their after-life, the spirits appealed to the god of the dead, who agreed to banish them beyond space and time, so that they would suffer no longer. These spirits were removed from existence as a single bound entity known as Amun-her Khepeshef.

Special Requirement: You cannot bind Amun-her Khepeshef if you are currently suffering from any level drain, negative levels, ability drain, or ability damage dealt by undead or by spells and spell-like abilities from the necromancy school. Only living creatures can bind Amun-her Khepeshef.

Manifestation: When Amun-her Khepeshef manifests, a handsome tanned male warrior appears in a sarcophagus, his body resplendent in gold and gems and surrounded by ritual accoutrements. The lid of the stone sarcophagus lies broken on the floor several feet away. Suddenly, the warrior bolts upright in the sarcophagus. He wails a scream of pain that sounds like the collective voices of men and boys. His body explodes into overlapping images of thousands of men and male children of all different ages, their faces jaundiced, their cheeks sunken, and their skin reeking of rotting death. They wail in unison for but a moment, and then the forms merge back together into that of the warrior. The warrior lies back down into his sarcophagus, still and dead.

Sign: You take on the look of the dead: jaundiced skin, sunken cheeks, bags under the eyes, and stiff movements. You exude a faint odor of decay and preservative chemicals.

Influence: You cannot abide the presence of undead, necromancers, and death spells and effects. You seek any opportunity to slay undead, and you refuse to work with anyone who you feel uses necromancy and death effects. You are easily provoked by such individuals, seeing reasons to fight them that many miss.

Granted Abilities: While bound to Amun-her Khepeshef, you can release a powerful burst of positive energy that heals the living and harms the dead, can function even while dead or dying, are immune to numerous death effects and undead attacks and can grant this immunity to allies, and can generate an aura that enhances the battle tactics of you and your allies significantly.

Burst of Life: As a standard action, you can release a 30-foot burst of positive energy centered on yourself. All allies in the area (including you) receive the effects of a heal (healing 250 points of damage as well as receiving the other benefits of the spell) and greater restoration spell (without an XP cost). Undead (and other creatures harmed by positive energy) take damage from the heal effect. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Delay Death: For a total time per day of 1 round per effective binder level you possess, you do not die when you have taken enough damage to put you below -9 hit points, as if under the effects of a delay death effect. This effect occurs automatically as soon as it applies, lasts until it runs out or is no longer needed, and can operate multiple times per day (up to the daily limit of rounds). In addition, while affected by this power, you can continue to act normally, without suffering any of the limitations normally faced by a character at -1 hit points or lower. If the duration of this power has elapsed and you are between -1 to -9 hit points, you stabilize at your current hit point total. If it has elapsed and you have less than -9 hp, you instantly die.

Firstborn Guardian: You are immune to fatigue, exhaustion, ability damage and drain, energy drain, death spells, magical death effects, and negative energy effects (such as from inflict spells or chill touch). You are also immune to special attacks and abilities of undead that cause fear, disease, paralysis, or poison. All weapons you wield (as well as natural attacks) are considered to have the ghost touch weapon quality. You gain a +4 sacred bonus to AC against the attacks of undead. This is constant and does not require an action to activate. As a swift action, you can extend the same protections to one ally per 5 effective binder levels you possess. This protection lasts for 1 round/level. When it runs out, you must wait 5 rounds before activating it again.

Scion of War: You project a 60-foot aura that enhances the battle prowess of your allies (including yourself). All allies within 60 feet receive double your Charisma modifier as a bonus on all bull rush, disarm, grapple, overrun, sunder, and trip checks.

ANDRAS, THE GRAY KNIGHT

Vestige Level: 4th

Binding DC: 22

Special Requirement: No

A great warrior in life, Andras is an enigma as a vestige. He gives binders prowess in combat and skill in the saddle.

Legend: Andras was once an elf paladin famed for his prowess in battle and his implacable dedication to doing what was right and good for all. A series of misjudgments and misfortunes broke Andras's faith in both himself and his deity, however, and he became a blackguard. During his subsequent service to the dark gods, his infamy rapidly outgrew his fame, and his name was whispered in fear.

After nearly three hundred years of almost constant battle on behalf of both good and evil, Andras grew tired of both causes. In the midst of a duel in the key battle of a great war, he simply dropped his weapon and left, never to be seen alive again. Sages speculate that after his betrayal of both causes, he was no longer welcome in any god's realm, and thus his soul was condemned to become a vestige.

Manifestation: Andras rides up out of nothingness on the back of a great black wolf. The vestige's head is that of an owl covered in gray feathers, and his gray-skinned body resembles that of a lanky but muscular male elf. Wearing only a loincloth, Andras slouches in his saddle, holding the reins of his mount in one hand and a greatsword, which he lazily rests on his shoulder, in the other. At first glance, Andras looks as though he might be asleep, but a closer inspection reveals a pair of huge golden eyes that glower from his bowed head. Andras speaks in deep tones laden with menace.

Sign: You sprout two useless, gray-feathered wings from your back. The wings are small enough to be hidden beneath a shirt or cloak, but doing so makes you appear hunchbacked.

Influence: Andras's influence causes you to become listless and emotionally remote. Because Andras wearies of combat quickly, you must drop any items in hand and withdraw from melee after only 10 rounds of battle. You may not take any offensive action for 1d4 rounds thereafter.

Granted Abilities: Andras lends you some of the skills he had in life, making you a strong combatant with or without a mount.

Weapon Proficiency: You are proficient with the greatsword, lance, longsword, and rapier.

Mount: As a full-round action, you can summon a heavy warhorse, complete with saddle and heavy lance. This creature serves you as a trained mount for up to 1 hour per effective binder level, or until it is killed, you dismiss it, or your pact with Andras ends. You can use this ability once per day.

Saddle Sure: You gain a +8 bonus on Ride checks.

Smite Good or Evil: You can attempt to smite an evil or good creature with a single melee attack. You add your Charisma bonus (if any) to the attack roll and deal 1 extra point of damage per effective binder level. If you accidentally smite a creature that is neither good nor evil, the attempt has no effect. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds. Smite evil and smite good attempts per day obtained from multiple sources stack.

Sow Discord: Andras grants you the ability to sow discord among your enemies. As a standard action, you can force an enemy to attack a randomly determined ally within reach on his next action, and he must do so as his first attack. The target must be within 5 feet per two binder levels you possess, and a successful Will save negates the effect. The affected foe must strike for lethal damage with a primary attack and use whatever melee weapon is in hand (or an unarmed strike or natural attack if no weapon is at the ready). If no ally is within the foe's reach, this ability has no effect. Sow discord is a mind-affecting compulsion ability. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Sure Blows: You gain the benefit of the Improved Critical feat with any weapon you wield. If you already have the Improved Critical feat with a weapon, you gain a +4 bonus on the roll to confirm a threat made with that weapon. This bonus stacks with that provided by the Power Critical feat.

ANDROMALIUS, THE REPENTANT ROGUE

Vestige Level: 3rd

Binding DC: 20

Special Requirement: Yes

Once the favorite of the god Olidammara, Andromalius now exists as a vestige. His granted abilities help his summoners beat rogues and ne'er-do-wells at their own game.

Legend: Once the herald of Olidammara, Andromalius foreswore theft and mischief on his deathbed, repenting all the actions he had taken on behalf of his god during his life. By this means, he hoped to steal his soul from his deity, thus accomplishing his greatest theft and prank in history, and proving himself the most worthy of his god's favor.

At first angered by Andromalius's betrayal, Olidammara quickly realized the irony of the moment and burst into laughter. Yet the god's good humor was short-lived, because he realized that to accept Andromalius's soul would be to prevent the theft and ruin the joke. Since Olidammara was loath to let such a clever servant to go to the realm of some other god, he repaid his servant's honor a hundredfold - he stole Andromalius's soul from the cosmos, making it a vestige. Whether Andromalius deemed this result an honor or not remains unclear.

Special Requirement: You must obtain two different nonmagical items similar to those that Andromalius holds in his hands when he manifests and place them within the confines of his seal when you summon him. These items vanish as soon as Andromalius appears.

Manifestation: Andromalius appears as a middle-aged but lithe human male in the garb of a jester. Each of his arms splits at the elbow into a dozen forearms, and he holds a small object in each of his twenty-four hands. Though his costume and overall appearance change from one manifestation to another, the specific collection of objects never does - a fact that has sparked a long-standing debate among binder scholars. The items are: a belt purse, a silver key, a gold ring, a pair of dice, a copper coin, a dagger, an apple, an arm bone, a scroll, a comb, a whistle, a fish hook, a mirror, an egg, a potion, a dead spider, an oak leaf, a human skull, a lock, a closed black book, a bell, a dove, a set of lock picks, and a mouse. When Andromalius returns whence he came, he juggles these illusory items and then tosses one to his summoner. Some scholars claim that the item thrown indicates a future event, but that the specific meaning depends on which other objects are held in the hands of that same arm.

Sign: You gain an extra digit on each limb. This appendage prevents you from wearing normal gloves or gauntlets, but magic gloves and gauntlets reshape to fit you.

Influence: When influenced by Andromalius, you become a devious mischief-maker who delights in causing small calamities - especially misunderstandings between friends and incidents of mistaken identity. However, Andromalius cannot now abide acts of theft, so he forbids you to steal from a creature, take an item from a dead body, or remove someone else's possession from a location without permission so long as you are under the jurisdiction of an authority whose laws expressly forbid such activities. By the same logic, you cannot take possession of any object that you know to be stolen.

Granted Abilities: The abilities that Andromalius grants help you catch thieves and return stolen goods, discover wickedness and underhanded dealings, and punish wrongdoers.

Jester's Mirth: As a standard action, you can cause an opponent to break into uncontrollable laughter. This ability functions like a Tasha's hideous laughter spell (caster level equals your effective binder level), except that an affected creature can make an additional saving throw at the end of each of its turns to end the effect. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Locate Item: At will, you can sense the direction of any wellknown or clearly visualized object that lies within 100 feet per effective binder level of your location. If you wish to find a specific object, this ability works only if you have seen the object firsthand and can accurately visualize its peculiarities. Otherwise, the direction of the nearest object of the same type is revealed. You can sense the direction of only one item each round. This ability does not reveal the direction to a disguised object such as a secret door unless you can clearly visualize its disguised form, nor does it tell you the distance to the object.

See the Unseen: At will, you can use see invisibility as the spell (caster level equals your effective binder level).

Sense Trickery: You gain a +4 bonus on Sense Motive checks, on Appraise checks, and on Spot checks made to oppose Disguise checks. In addition, you automatically notice when a creature uses Sleight of Hand to take something from you. This ability is always active while you are bound to Andromalius.

Sneak Attack: You deal an extra 2d6 points of damage when flanking an opponent or at any time when the target would be denied its Dexterity bonus. This extra damage applies to ranged attacks only if the opponent is within 30 feet. For every five effective binder levels you possess beyond 5th, your sneak attack damage increases by an additional 1d6 points. For example, a 15th-level binder deals an extra 4d6 points of damage with his sneak attack. See the rogue class feature. If you get a sneak attack bonus from another source, the bonuses to damage stack.

ANSITIF, THE BEFOULER

Vestige Level: 7th

Binding DC: 30

Special Requirement: Yes

Ansitif the Befouler loathes all evidence of religious faith, granting resistance to divine magic the power to call on the demon lords of the Abyss, to blasphemy, and to resist the cleansing power of fire.

Legend: Ansitif the Befouler is an ancient tanar'ri lord who rose to power in the wake of the obyriths' fall and quickly seized control of the 21st layer of the Abyss, now known as the Sixth Pyre. Although most demon lords hunger for the power of true gods, Ansitif was enraged by the very existence of divine beings. Unable to challenge most deities directly, the Befouler vented his fury through the corruption of religious sites and relics dedicated to true gods. At the height of his power Ansitif's demesne was littered with the shattered relics of countless faiths and the ruins of desecrated temples drawn into the Abyss.

Up until his imprisonment, Ansitif delighted in the company of succubi, and he was one of Malcanthet's first lovers. It is said that the first succubi to become lilitus were born of their couplings, as the newly enthroned Queen of Succubi secretly drew on the Befouler's corruptive nature to unlock the ritual needed to transform her servitors.

Centuries ago, Ansitif joined with six tanar'ri allies - Cyndshyra of the Seven Torments, Felex'ja the Tiger King, Ixinix the Lord of Blackwater, Qij-na the Shattered, Rhindor'zt the Black Prince, and Wejindhastala the Tempest - to hunt down and destroy a powerful obyrith called the Malgoth, scattering his essence across the Abyss. Instead of triumph, the alliance's victory brought disaster. The affair took Ansitif and his allies away from their centers of power, and opportunistic demon lords assassinated or imprisoned each member of the alliance in turn. In the case of the Befouler, his most powerful general, a balor named Kardum, betrayed Ansitif and had him imprisoned in the Wells of Darkness on the 73rd layer of the Abyss. Kardum then went on to claim the title of Lord of the Balors, which he holds to this day.

Special Requirement: Ansitif requires that his seal be drawn using the broken remains of a true deity's holy symbol.

Manifestation: The symbol before you erupts in flames, and a swarm of sparks leaps outward to scorch relics, holy symbols, and other signs of worship in the immediate vicinity. Gradually, the flames coalesce around the alter and begin to give forth a dark cloying smoke. In the center of the smoke, flying sparks form a disembodied mouth that begins to speak.

Sign: Your hair and skin become blackened and scorched, as if briefly touched by fire.

Influence: Under Ansitif's influence, you become enraged by the presence of relics dedicated to true gods. The Befouler requires that you attempt to destroy or steal any relic dedicated to a true god that you discover.

Granted Abilities: Ansitif grants you the power to blaspheme against the true gods, to resist the spells of their divine servants, and to temporarily spurn your deity and pledge yourself to a demon lord of the Abyss. Harkening back to Ansitif's period of rule over the Sixth Pyre, the Befouler grants you immunity to fire.

Blasphemy: You can utter a blasphemy, as per the spell, three times per day (caster level equals your effective binder level).

Divine Resistance: You gain SR 12 + your effective binder level versus divine spells and spell-like abilities.

Fire Immunity: You gain immunity to fire.

Thrall to Demon: You gain the benefit of the Thrall to Demon feat: once per day, whole performing an evil act, you may call upon your temporary demonic patron to add a +1 luck bonus on any one roll. If you are a cleric, you must replace your domains with domains granted by the demon lord to which you pledge, for as long as the pact is forged. You must pick the demon lord to which you temporarily pledge when you make the pact and cannot pick a different demon lord to venerate until you make a new pact with Ansitif. Note that most good- or lawful-aligned deities would require a worshiper to undergo atonement after daring to bind this vestige.

ARETE, THE FIRST ELAN

Vestige Level: 4th

Binding DC: 21

Special Requirement: Yes

Arete, a powerful psion who sought immortality, created a new race but doomed himself to never-ending rebirths. His granted abilities provide binders with access to several qualities that toughen the body and mind.

Legend: After a memorable battle with a powerful lich, Arete, a powerful psion, took the time to explore the path of lichdom. He pondered that if immortality can be achieved through "undeath," could it not also be achieved through "unlife" too? After decades of research, he had his answer, but unknown to him, he had made a small oversight. Life begins with birth and unlife would require rebirth.

He awoke from his ritual immortal and rejuvenated, but soon discovered he had lost a lifetime of knowledge and power. His own journals told him what he had once possessed and it became his obsession to regain that power. Unfortunately, every time he did the ritual again to get back what he had lost, he was reborn anew.

No one knows how many times he was reborn, but somewhere along the way, he became a vestige and some believe that every time his vestige is summoned, he is reborn yet again.

Special Requirement: Arete does not like to be reminded that the elan are considered abominations by some, and he does not answer your summons if you are already bound to Chupoclops or Eurynome.

Manifestation: A mirror rises from his seal, reflecting the binder who makes the summons. The summoner's reflection fades to be replaced by that of a young, male Elan with hair too red, eyes too blue, and skin too bronze. While he speaks, his physical moves mirror the summoner's every action.

Sign: Your body's colors alter to become slightly off. Blonde hair becomes too golden, green eyes become too emerald green, and your skin becomes faultless and has no pores.

Influence: You do not get hungry or tired while bound to Arete, but you do suffer negative effects if you do not eat or sleep for the duration that the vestige is bound. If faced with a need to do research, Arete insists that you seek out lore regarding him and his research into immortality as well, which can often double or even triple the time you spend seeking information (DM's discretion; finding out where the local rowdies ran off to after a tavern fight might not give Arete grounds to require research into his own past, for example).

Granted Abilities: While bound to Arete, you gain powers that Arete had at some point in his search for immortality.

Psionic Boon: You gain 13 power points when you bind to Arete. These are added to your pool of power if you already possess psionic power, or they create a pool and you become a psionic creature for the duration of this binding.

Resistance: Your gain a +4 resistance bonus on a saving throw of your choice. You may change this to another saving throw as a move action.

Damage Reduction: Your body becomes unnaturally tough as you gain damage reduction 5/-.

Repletion: You gain access to the psionic powers body adjustment, body purification, and sustenance for the duration of the binding. You may manifest each power as a psion would and as if it is a power known by you. You may augment each power as a psion normally could, substituting your effective binder level in place of manifester level.

ASHARDALON, PYRE OF THE UNBORN

Vestige Level: 8th

Binding DC: 35

Special Requirement: No

A seeker of pure power and wealth, the fiendish red dragon Ashardalon was among the toughest creatures of his era. Having escaped death more then once, he grants binders some of his powers as a dragon and fiend, as well as a portion of his great resilience.

Legend: Ashardalon was a red dragon of unusual greed and power. He sought to control a vast stretch of land, and ravaged it in cruel hunts for food, sport, and power. So great was Ashardalon's power that many cults grew to revere him as a deity and followed him into what they believed were holy wars. In time, however, an alliance of rangers and elves managed to defeat Ashardalon's armies. Shortly thereafter, the dragon faced a powerful druid who had risen to defend the land, and was nearly slain.

As a near god, however, Ashardalon was a force to be reckoned with, even in defeat. He hid on the Outer Planes for millennia and, through complex machinations, managed to replace his heart with that of a Balor, becoming a creature of even greater supernatural evil. Renewed, the dragon made an assault on the Bastion of Souls in an effort to destroy all living creatures. There, Ashardalon faced a distant descendant of a druid who had vanquished him once before and was truly killed.

Still, his death at the birthplace of all souls (combined with his nearly deific status) allowed him to resist a permanent resting place. His essence lacked the power to become a true immortal, leaving him only the nebulous existence of a vestige.

Manifestation: Ashardalon tears open the ground with his long black talons and hauls his massive body up from a flaming pit. The red dragon is wreathed in flames and has a burning hole where his heart should be. He bellows in anger before turning to the binder and demanding to know why he has been disturbed.

Sign: A patch of skin over your heart is marked by a deep-hued crimson sigil of a curled red dragon.

Influence: Your greatly hunger for vengeance against those who harm or slight you. Ashardalon requires you to slight you to accept any opportunity to strike a foe who damages or insults you in preference over any other target.

Granted Abilities: Ashardalon grants you some of the vast power he collected during his life as a dragon and a fiendish creature.

Ashardalon's Greed: You gain a bonus on Appraise checks and search checks equal to your binder level. You can also locate objects near you, as the spell locate object.

Ashardalon's Presence: You can strike fear into the hearts of your foes. This acts as the fear spell, except creatures immune to a dragon's fearful presence as immune to this effect as well. Once you have used this ability, the aspect's sign shows through any armor or clothing you wear for 1 round, burning like a fiery brand (though it doesn't actually deal damage or start a fire).

Ashardalon's Vigor: Ashardalon grants you some of the vast resilience he enjoyed in life. When you bind this vestige, you gain temporary hit points equal to twice your binder level. These temporary hit points last for up to 24 hours.

Ashardalon's Heart: You share some of the defensive benefits of a Balor once bound to Ashardalon's body. This effect grants you damage reduction 10/cold iron and resistance to fire 30.

ASTAROTH, DIABOLUS OF BAATOR

Vestige Level: 4th

Binding DC: 20

Special Requirement: Yes

Astaroth, also known as Diabolus, has a deep and abiding hatred of devils, granting the ability to pass among fiends, bypass their diabolic defenses, and burn with Abyssal version of hellfire.

Legend: This once-powerful demon lord who is said to have once rule a layer of the Abyss know as the Terminal Archives, with a gift for prophecy offered to fight alongside the Queen of Chaos during her war with the Wind Dukes of Aaqa, but was rejected. In the early days of the Blood War, Astaroth earned the name Diabolus by infiltrating the legions of Baator and rising to the rank of Treasurer of Hell. His true nature was eventually exposed by the arch-devil Gargauth, forcing Astaroth to flee the wrath of Asmodeus, but his spying caused incalculable harm to the devil's war effort and prevented the legions of hell from winning a clear and decisive victory against the hordes of the abyss.

Upon his return to the Abyss, Astaroth retreated to a steam-filled layer filled with floating chunks of burning stone. In preparation for the inevitable retaliation of the Lords of Nine, Astaroth began cultivating mortal cults on countless worlds through the use of his prophetic powers, in hopes of transforming himself into a god. He must have succeeded in some fashion, although not enough to forestall his fate. Astaroth was eventually slain by Gargauth, at the command of Asmodeus. In addition to claiming his predecessor's name, the Tenth Lord of Nine is said to have seized the mantle of divinity from Astaroth as well.

Special Requirement: Astaroth requires that his seal be drawn on an area of stone that has recently been burned and then doused with cold water.

Manifestation: Astaroth's misty form rises up from his seal like a cloud of steam, slowly condensing into the form of a handsome human with draconic and feathered wings. His serpentine tongue flicks nervously as his body is slowly consumed with hellfire.

Sign: You acquire the stench of brimstone and a cloudy film covers your eyes.

Influence: Astaroth's influence give you a vague but continuous sense of impending doom that makes you morose and fatalistic. Because Astaroth desired revenge on the devils who brought him low, he required that you attack a devil in preference to all others whenever you are in combat and that you initiate combat with any devil you meet.

Granted Abilities: Astaroth grants you the power to see the future, to burn with the flames of the Abyss, to pass among fiends and to strike creatures with protection from non-silver weapons (including many devils).

Blackflame: Your spells, spell-like abilities, and magic item abilities with the fire descriptor deal half fire damage and half vile damage. You can cast fireball, as per the spell, three times per day (caster level equals your effective binder level).

Divination: You can perform a divination, as per the spell (caster level equals your effective binder level).

Serpentine Tongue: You gain a bonus on bluff and disguise checks equal to your binder level. You gain an additional +4 bonus on bluff and disguise checks when dealing with evil outsiders.

Silvered Touch: Any natural attack or attack with a metal weapon you make is treated as if it were a silver weapon. These attacks do not apply a -1 penalty on damage rolls.

ASTAROTH, THE UNJUSTLY FALLEN

Vestige Level: 4th

Binding DC: 22

Special Requirement: No

A fallen angel who would never accept responsibility for his own transgressions, Astaroth grants his summoners influence over the behavior of others, knowledge of hidden things, and the ability to sicken enemies.

Legend: Scholars know little of Astaroth before his fall, save that he favored constant interference and assistance when it came to mortals, rather than leaving them to develop on their own. Some tales claim that he was responsible for teaching humanoids such techniques as metalworking and even alchemy.

According to ancient writings, Astaroth himself maintains that this was why he fell, cast from Heaven for the "crime" of aiding the mortal races in their development of civilization. Most theologians, however, remain convinced that the angel was exiled for greater crimes. Legends range from an attempt to usurp the position of some heavenly god, to an effort to raise an entire mortal race to celestial status, to an attempt to turn all mortals away from worship of the gods so that he might be free to influence them as he saw fit. Astaroth admitted to no such defiance, however, and swore to the day of his disappearance that his fall was unjust.

For centuries Astaroth roamed many worlds, mortal and spiritual alike. To the celestials, he was an outcast - another prideful fallen angel who could not even admit to his errors, let alone atone for them. Yet because he refused to embrace damnation, he found no allies among the fiends either. Eventually he settled among mortals. He watched over them as a guardian and mentor to start, but slowly his obsession with "protecting" the mortals grew uncontrollable. Astaroth became a dictator, restricting even the day-to-day behavior of his subjects to keep them "safe." The fallen angel was finally slain by an uprising within the populace, but none of the Outer Planes would grant his soul any respite. Eventually, with no afterlife to call his own, stripped even of his physical existence, Astaroth simply went - elsewhere.

Manifestation: Accompanied by the sound of flapping wings and cawing crows, Astaroth manifests as a hideously ugly angel. His limp wings are filthy gray, his features drawn and gaunt, and his eyes yellowed. He carries a viper in his right hand and wears a tarnished crown upon his brow. A horrific stench accompanies him, almost but not quite enough to sicken everyone nearby.

Sign: Your skin yellows, and you emit a foul, unwashed odor. While this odor is not strong enough to impede or distract an opponent, it does attract attention.

Influence: Astaroth's influence renders you incapable of taking responsibility for your own actions. You cannot admit any fault, acknowledge any mistake, or make reparations or apologies for any wrong, no matter the consequences or the evidence against you.

Granted Abilities: Astaroth guided mortals, and he still grants abilities based in knowledge and education. As a fallen angel, and then a vestige, his magics have grown ever grimmer and more distasteful; he also grants powers based on directly controlling and offending others.

Angelic Lore: Astaroth constantly whispers the secrets of reality in the back of your mind, allowing you to draw on his own nigh-infinite knowledge. This functions as the bardic knowledge ability, based on your effective binder level.

Astaroth's Breath: Once every 5 rounds, you can exhale a 60-foot cone of foul-smelling gas. Creatures within the cone must make a Fortitude save or be nauseated for 1 round and sickened for an additional 1d4 rounds. Those who make the save are merely sickened for 1 round. Creatures immune to poison or disease are immune to this effect.

Honeyed Tongue: You gain a +4 competence bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate checks.

Master Craftsman: While bound to Astaroth, you gain a +4 competence bonus on all Craft checks. In addition, each time you bind with Astaroth, you may select one item creation feat as a temporary bonus feat. So long as you continue to bind with Astaroth, you may use that feat as though you possessed it normally; you must still spend all standard gold and XP for any item you create, and you must still provide all necessary spells for a given item.

If your effective binder level is not at least as high as the necessary caster level to take a specific item creation feat, you cannot choose that feat. For instance, a 4th-level binder could not choose any item creation feat with a prerequisite of caster level 5th or higher.

Word of Astaroth: You may make a suggestion, as the spell, with a caster level equal to your effective binder level. You must wait 5 rounds before attempting another suggestion, and at any given time, you may only have a total number of people under the effects of this ability equal to your Charisma bonus.

AYM, QUEEN AVARICE

Vestige Level: 1st

Binding DC: 15

Special Requirement: No

Once a monarch of dwarves, Aym allowed her greed to bring an end to her empire. As a vestige, she gives her host the ability to wear armor without impedance, to set objects and creatures alight with a touch, to resist the effects of fire, and to shatter objects with heavy blows.

Legend: Dwarven legends depict Aym as the greediest dwarf queen who ever lived. Modern-day dwarves still spit at the mention of her name. Not long after Moradin first forged the dwarves, Aym arose as a great leader among them. Greed brought her to power, and greed consumed her while she ruled. Dwarves mined furiously in response to Aym's constant demand for more gems and precious metals, and her people became virtual slaves to their work. As onerous as Aym's rule was, however, all this mining greatly expanded the dwarves' territory, and many dwarven clans grew quite wealthy.

Jealous of the dwarves' wealth and smarting from their conquests, a great horde of orcs, giants, and goblinoids banded into an army to assault Aym's kingdom. The dwarves fought bravely, but because their forces were stretched so thin across Aym's empire, they could not respond quickly enough to the horde's concentrated assault on their capital. Legend has it that when the fires of the burning city reached her, Aym stood among a hundred wagons laden with gold that her servants had loaded in preparation for her flight. But so engrossed was she in counting the coins to make certain she didn't lose a copper that she didn't notice the danger until the fires began to melt the coins in her grasp. Rather than repenting her greed at the point of her death, Aym cursed Moradin for not protecting her, and in return, Moradin cursed her.

Manifestation: Aym arises from a coiled heap within the seal. She has two great worms for legs and three heads - one a lion's, one a female dwarf's, and one a bull's. Her powerfully muscled torso strains beneath the finery of an empress, and her fingers glitter with more than a dozen jeweled rings. In one hand she holds a red-hot, star-shaped branding iron, and with the other, she holds shut the lion head's mouth. Aym speaks through her dwarf head, since both animal heads are incapable of speech. She prefers to keep the lion muzzled because if she doesn't, it roars and causes the bull's head to low in terror, making it impossible for her to hear.

Sign: While you host Aym, you bear a starshaped brand on the palm of your left hand or on your forehead, as you choose at the time you make the pact.

Influence: Under Aym's influence, you become stingy and greedy, begrudging every coin or item of value that you or your group must give to another. At the same time, she requires that you give a coin (copper, silver, gold, or platinum, as you choose) to every dwarf you meet within 10 rounds of learning his name.

Granted Abilities: Aym grants you powers that reflect her dwarven heritage and the ruin she brought to her kingdom.

Dwarven Step: You can move at normal speed (without the usual reduction) while wearing medium or heavy armor.

Halo of Fire: At will, you can shroud yourself in a wreath of flame. Any opponent that strikes you in melee takes 1d6 points of fire damage, unless it is using a weapon with exceptional reach. You can also deal 1d6 points of fire damage with each melee touch attack you make. Your own flame does not harm you, nor does it harm objects unless you will it to do so.

Improved Sunder: You gain the benefit of the Improved Sunder feat.

Medium Armor Proficiency: You are proficient with medium armor.

Resistance to Fire: You have resistance to fire 10.

Ruinous Attack: Your melee attacks deal double damage to objects. If your effective binder level is at least 10th, your melee attacks are treated as adamantine for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

BALAM, THE BITTER ANGEL

Vestige Level: 5th

Binding DC: 25

Special Requirement: Yes

Once a being of extreme goodness, Balam became a wrathful vestige after taking on an impossible task that ended in failure. She grants her summoners the ability to foresee future difficulties and the intellect to interpret what they see, as well as skill with light arms and a stare that chills flesh.

Legend: Binder scholars claim that Balam is all that remains of the soul of a powerful solar. Exactly how she came to exist in her current state remains a mystery, but sources of planar lore state that several good gods tasked her with eliminating the practice of sacrificing sentient beings in the worship of deities. Since such sacrifices are part and parcel of evil rituals, the task amounted to wiping out 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 requires a sacrifice of her summoner. In the process of calling her, you must deal 1 point of slashing damage to yourself or another sentient creature (one with Int 3 or higher) and place a drop of blood from the wound within Balam's completed seal.

Manifestation: Balam is a horror to behold. 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. This mouth is a tooth-studded chute that extends deep into her body, and her six horns point forward around it. Balam speaks in a grinding moan, exhaling hot, stinking breath with each word. The fangs in her chute-mouth move in waves with the shuddering of her throat, and the eyes of her three heads glow blue when she becomes excited or angry.

Sign: Your voice gains a peculiar quality, becoming both hollow and guttural.

Influence: Balam's influence causes you to distrust clerics, paladins, and other devotees of deities. Whenever you enter a temple or some other holy or unholy site, Balam requires that you spit on the floor and utter an invective about the place.

Granted Abilities: Balam grants you the power to predict future events. She also teaches cunning and finesse, and gives you the ability to freeze foes with a glance.

Balam's Cunning: You can reroll one attack, saving throw, or skill check you have just made. You must accept the result of the reroll, even if it is worse than the original. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Icy Glare: You gain a gaze attack that deals 2d6 points of cold damage to the target. A successful Will save negates this damage.

Prescience: You get a glimpse of the future a moment before it happens. This knowledge manifests as an insight bonus equal to +1 per four effective binder levels on initiative checks, Reflex saves, and AC.

Weapon Finesse: You gain the benefit of the Weapon Finesse feat.

BUER, GRANDMOTHER HUNTRESS

Vestige Level: 4th

Binding DC: 20

Special Requirement: Yes

Buer grants binders superior healing as well as powers against poisons and diseases.

Legend: Buer tells many different stories about how she came to be a vestige, so her true origins remain obscure. In various popular versions of the tales, she is a beautiful elf maiden who fell to evil satyrs, a virtuous human ranger killed by a chimera, or a green hag slain by a lammasu. It's likely that Buer herself cannot remember who she was in life or what brought her to her current state, and the stories she tells are cobbled together from the shreds of her memory that remain. Regardless of what her true form once was, most binders believe that she possessed great skill as a hunter and healer in life.

Special Requirement: Buer requires that her seal be drawn outdoors.

Manifestation: Buer's form is that of a five-branched star, or wheel, composed of satyr legs. She has two faces, one positioned on each side of her wheel-shaped body at the center point where the five legs meet. One face is that of a green hag, and the other is a raging, leonine visage with an unruly mane and beard. Buer constantly moves within her seal, rolling from foot to foot as she traverses its circumference. She always keeps her raging face outward, but she speaks from her green hag face in a friendly manner with a gentle voice. When her body rolls in such a way that her hag face cannot see her summoner, Buer grows frustrated and begins yelling curses at her body.

Sign: Your feet turn into satyr's hooves, giving you a curious tip-toeing gait. These hooves prevent you from wearing normal boots or shoes, but magic footwear reshapes to fit you.

Influence: Under Buer's influence, you are plagued by momentary memory lapses. For an instant, you might forget even a piece of information as familiar as the name of a friend or family member. Furthermore, since Buer abhors the needless death of living creatures other than animals and vermin, the first melee attack you make against such a foe must be for nonlethal damage. In addition, Buer requires that you not make any coup de grace attacks.

Granted Abilities: Buer grants you healing powers, the ability to ignore toxins and ailments, and skills that help you navigate the natural world.

Buer's Knowledge: You gain a +4 bonus on Heal, Knowledge (nature), and Survival checks, and you can make Knowledge (nature) checks as if you were trained, even if you have no ranks in that skill.

Buer's Purity: You have immunity to disease and poison, and making a pact with Buer removes any existing disease and neutralizes any poison that afflicts you.

Delay Diseases and Poisons: Each ally within 30 feet of you gains temporary immunity to poison and disease. Allies within the area make saving throws against disease and poison effects normally, but they do not incur the effects of failure as long as they stay within 30 feet of you. An ally that leaves the area immediately suffers all the effects for any missed saves.

Fast Healing: You gain the fast healing 1, and the rate of healing increases with your effective binder level. You gain fast healing 2 at 10th level, fast healing 3 at 13th level, fast healing 4 at 16th level, and fast healing 5 at 19th level.

Healing Gift: As a standard action, you can cure 1 point of damage to yourself or another creature. As a fullround action, you can cure 1d8 points of damage +1 point per effective binder level (maximum 1d8+10 points). Either version requires that you touch the creature to be cured. If you use the fullround cure ability, you cannot use your healing gift again for 5 rounds. The other version is usable at will. Both uses of the ability channel positive energy and deal a corresponding amount of damage to undead.

Track: You can track foes as though you possessed the Track feat.

CABIRI, THE WATCHING MASTER

Vestige Level: 4th

Binding DC: 18

Special Requirement: Yes

One of the oldest obyriths in existence, Cabiri, the Watching Master, grants his summoners the ability to see in darkness or twilight, to observe others from afar, and to uncover potential foes.

Legend: In ages past, when obyriths lorded the Abyss, the many-eyed tyrant known as Cabiri ruled a large swath of the layer now known as Pazunia, warring against rival lords such as Bechard, Pazuzu, and Ubother. The Watching Master kept careful eyes on his rivals but spent most of his energy scrying the relatively unknown deeper levels of the Abyss. Some record of Cabiri's observation must have survived in the ruins of his long abandoned keep, for the Fraternity of Order began its effort to catalog the layers of the Abyss following its exploration of the Watching Master's ruined stronghold.

When the Queen of Chaos called the obyriths to war against the Wind Dukes of Aaqa, she turned to Cabiri for advice many times, drawing upon his ability to divine futures by utilizing resources in the depths of the Abyss unguessed at by most his kin. Near the end of the war, Cabiri foresaw the Queen's defeat, and fled the field of battle. This act may have ironically been the one that most crippled the Queen's forces and allowed for her subsequent defet. Cabiri fled to the depths of the Abyss and hid there for eons while he watched the obyriths suffer the humiliating defeat upon the fields of Pesh, and the subsequent eladrin incations that finished off so many of the survivors.

As Cabiri explored the depths of the Abyss, it is believed that his discovered some of the truth behind the creation of the obyrith race, a discover that compelled him to resurface and seek out the obscure fiends known as the Baernoloths. Whatever he confronted them with was enough for them to engineer his capture and subsequent imprisonment in the then-still-young Wells of Darkness. Yugoloths often visit Cabiri's well, more often than any other will in the layer, which suggests that his imprisonment remains of interest to these neutral evil fiends.

Special Requirement: Cabiri requires that his seal be drawn with blood, outside at night or during a solar eclipse.

Manifestation: One or more lights or areas of darkness in the sky above - the stars, the moon, or the solar eclipse - suddenly open, revealing a watching eye behind the lid of light. Under its baleful gaze, Cabiri's seal begins to dissolve into a puddle of blood. The puddle suddenly blinks, transforming the pooled blood into a ring of tiny eyes surrounding a single mouth that speaks with the sonorous voice of lost and distant souls.

Sign: An additional eye appears on your forehead, equidistant from your other eyes.

Influence: Cabiri hungers to see everthing, no matter how horrifying or entrancing. You receive a +4 insight bonus on Will saves versus figments but suffer a -4 penalty on Will saves versus patterns. You are not able to avert or close your eyes when confronted by a creature with a gaze attack.

Granted Abilities: Cabiri grants you his ability to observe others from afar, to perceive threats, and to see unhindered in conditions of twilight or darkness.

Arcane Eye: You can create an invisible magical sensor at will at though you had cast arcane eye (caster level equals your effective binder level). You can never create more then one arcane eye at a time, and you can dismiss or renew the effect as a standard action. Once you have used this ability, you cannot use it again for 5 rounds.

Far-seeing Gaze: You spells and spell-like abilities of the scrying subschool gain a +10 bonus to their save DCs.

Seer in Darkness: You gain darkvision to 60 feet and low-light vision. If you already have darkvision, add 60 feet to the range.

Visions of Terror: You can share your terrible knowledge of existence with others. You can cast phantasmal killer, as per the spell, three times per day (caster level equals your effective binder level).

CHUPOCLOPS, HARBINGER OF FOREVER

Vestige Level: 6th

Binding DC: 25

Special Requirement: Yes

A great monster believed to be a harbinger of the apocalypse, Chupoclops became a vestige when slain by mortals. Chupoclops grants its summoner a poisoned bite and unnatural senses, plus the ability to pounce on foes, to exist ethereally, and to make enemies despair.

Legend: Chupoclops once stood tall in the company of Fenris, Dendar the Night Serpent, and other supposed harbingers of the end of existence. A titanic spiderlike creature, Chupoclops stalked the Ethereal Plane, devouring ghosts and giving birth to mortals' nightmares. Legend has it that the gods trapped the monstrous Chupoclops in the realm of ghosts to prevent it from devouring hope, but it was destined to escape and sate its hunger during the end times.

Because Chupoclops was a terror to both the living and the undead, several powerful individuals eventually joined forces to fight it. Three were great heroes, and four were powerful villains. Four of these seven - one of the heroes and three of the villains - were ghosts; the rest were living. This group set out to murder Chupoclops and thus accomplish what deities could not. The furious battle lasted for seven days, and each day ended with the death of one member of the group that had come to kill the great monster. On the last day, the last hero struck down Chupoclops with her dying blow.

Chupoclops, never a creature defined by the normal rules of the universe, became a vestige after its death. Binder scholars claim that adventurers still encounter its enormous corpse in the misty Ethereal Plane. Now that the monster can no longer destroy hope, some say it will exist forever, and thus, so will the world.

Special Requirement: You must draw Chupoclops's seal with a handful of soil from a grave or tomb. Alternatively, you can place the dead body of a sentient creature (one with Int 3 or higher) over its seal before the summoning begins. In addition, Chupoclops hates Amon for some unknown reason and will not answer your call if you are already bound to him.

Manifestation: Chupoclops appears over its seal in the form of a Colossal phase spider. However, only the part of its body directly over its seal is visible at any given time. In most cases, Chupoclops first appears as a massive spider leg striking out of nowhere into the center of the seal. Then it shifts its body, slowly bringing its face into view and down to the level of its summoner. Glaring over its oddly tusked arachnid visage from eight all-too-human eyes, Chupoclops rumbles an ominous growl to begin the process of pact making.

Sign: Your lower jaw increases in size, and two long, sharply pointed tusks grow upward from it.

Influence: While under the influence of Chupoclops, you can't help but be pessimistic. At best, you are quietly resigned to your own failure, and at worst, you spread your doubts to others, trying to convince them of the hopelessness of their goals. In addition, Chupoclops requires that you voluntarily fail all saving throws against fear effects or any effect that imposes a morale penalty.

Granted Abilities: Chupoclops gives you the power to linger on the Ethereal Plane, sense the living and undead, demoralize foes, and poison enemies.

Aura of Despair: Every creature within 10 feet of you takes a -2 penalty on attack rolls, checks, saves, and weapon damage rolls. You can suppress or activate this ability as a standard action. Aura of despair is a mind-affecting fear ability.

Ethereal Watcher: At will as a move action, you can become ethereal (as if using the ethereal jaunt spell; caster level equals your effective binder level). You can remain on the Ethereal Plane indefinitely if you take no actions, but you return to the Material Plane immediately after taking a move action, a standard action, or a full-round action. Once you have returned to the Material Plane, you cannot use this ability again for 5 rounds.

Ghost Touch: Your melee attacks can strike incorporeal creatures, and their normal 50% chance to avoid damage does not apply to your melee attacks.

Poison Bite: You gain a natural bite attack that deals damage according to your size, as given on the table below.

You add your Strength modifier to your damage roll. You cannot use this ability if you do not show Chupoclops's sign.

Pounce: If you charge a foe, you can make a full attack, including a bite attack, at the end of the charge.

Soulsense: You notice and locate living creatures within 10 feet as if you possessed the blindsense ability. You also sense the strength and type of their life forces automatically, as if you had cast deathwatch. This ability is continuously active while you are bound to Chupoclops.

DAHLVER-NAR, THE TORTURED ONE

Vestige Level: 2nd

Binding DC: 17

Special Requirement: Yes

Once a human binder, Dahlver-Nar now grants powers just as other vestiges do. He gives his summoners tough skin, a frightening moan, protections against madness, and the ability to share injuries with allies.

Legend: Bards tell two stories of Dahlver-Nar, both linked to the magic items that carry his name - the teeth of Dahlver-Nar. Some say that because Dahlver-Nar was antiquity's most powerful cleric, his followers treated his teeth as holy relics after his death and they somehow gained magical powers through this veneration. Others insist that Dahlver-Nar was a cleric of little consequence who discovered some magic dragon teeth in the ruins of a red dragon's lair. In this version of the story, the teeth were named after Dahlver-Nar because he became a terror in the region where he acquired them.

Binder scholars know a different story - that Dahlver-Nar was a powerful cleric who forsook his deity to pursue the power of pact magic. The fabled teeth of Dahlver-Nar, to which all the legends attribute miraculous powers, were neither his own nor those of the dragon he battled. They were the teeth of beings that became vestiges after death, and they could grant abilities similar to those that the vestiges themselves imparted. Pact magic treatises relate that Dahlver-Nar pulled out his own teeth and replaced them with those of the vestiges, but that using them all drove him mad. What happened thereafter is a matter of debate, but the texts maintain that Dahlver-Nar eventually died, and the teeth were lost, divided up among the squabbling followers he had managed to gain and then spread across the world. Today, Dahlver-Nar exists as a vestige in his own right - perhaps brought to that state through his close association with so many others.

Manifestation: Dahlver-Nar's frightful apparition floats in the air above his seal, with arms and legs hanging limply. Teeth and fangs of all kinds stud his entire body, replacing even his eyes. What skin is visible between the teeth appears to be the moist, pink flesh of gums. Dahlver-Nar's mouth is a bloody ruin that clearly lacks teeth, and when he opens it to speak, only a moan issues forth. Some binders believe that his vestige form is a punishment infiicted by the other vestiges, but others insist that he appears as he does because of his everlasting obsession with the teeth that bear his name.

Sign: Several teeth grow from your scalp. Though they are small enough to be hidden by a large quantity of hair or a hat, a touch reveals them immediately.

Influence: You shift quickly from distraction to extreme focus and back again. Sometimes you stare blankly off into space, and at other times you gaze intently at the person or task at hand. Since Dahlver-Nar dislikes any task that requires more than 1 round of concentration (such as some spellcasting, concentration on an effect, or any action that requires a Concentration check), he requires that you undertake no such activities while under his influence.

Granted Abilities: Dahlver-Nar armors you and blends his madness with your sanity, lending you some of his selfish powers.

Mad Soul: Binding to Dahlver-Nar grants you immunity to Wisdom damage, Wisdom drain, madness, insanity, and confusion effects.

Maddening Moan: You can emit a frightful moan as a standard action. Every creature within a 30-foot spread must succeed on a Will save or be dazed for 1 round. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds. Maddening moan is a mind-affecting sonic ability.

Natural Armor: You gain an enhancement bonus to your natural armor equal to one-half your Constitution bonus (if any).

Shield Self: At will as a standard action, you can designate one creature within 10 feet per effective binder level to share the damage you take. As long as the subject creature remains within range, you take only half damage from all effects that deal hit point damage, and it takes the rest. The effect ends immediately if you designate another creature or if either you or the subject dies. Any damage dealt to you after the effect ends is no longer split between you and the subject, but damage already split is not reassigned to you. You can affect one creature at a time with this ability. An unwilling target of this ability can attempt a Will save to negate the effect.

DANTALION, THE STAR EMPEROR

Vestige Level: 5th

Binding DC: 25

Special Requirement: No

Dantalion, called the Star Emperor for his legend and appearance, is a composite of many souls. He grants binders the ability to teleport short distances, read thoughts, and stop foes.

Legend: Binders know little of how Dantalion came to be. The most common legend of his origin presents him not as one spirit, but as a conglomeration of the souls of a royal line whose members were cursed not to join their deities in the afterlife. This ancient imperial line is not now connected to any living leaders. Supposedly, however, descendants of this family still live, ignorant of both their heritage and their curse. Some binders profess to be scions of Dantalion - the true heirs of the royal line - but these claims are likely just the fancies of romantic minds.

Manifestation: Dantalion appears in a fiash of red light as a 10-foot-tall humanoid, resplendent in crimson and gold robes. His head is a massive conglomeration of dozens of human faces - male and female, young and old. A gold crown as big around as a barrel rests on the brow of his enormous cranium. Dantalion carries a great tome under one arm and speaks with the voices of his many faces, always in cryptic passages that he reads from his book. Sometimes just one face reads from his tome, but the speaking face changes often and usually in mid-sentence. Those who glance at the book's pages see a dark sky filled with stars that change with each flip of a page.

Sign: One of Dantalion's faces appears on your torso, as though it were a vestigial conjoined twin. It seems lifeless most of the time, but when you activate an ability granted by Dantalion, it opens its eyes and mouth, revealing a starry void within.

Influence: Dantalion's influence causes you to be aloof and use stately gestures. Dantalion can't help but be curious about the leaders of the day, so anytime you are within 100 feet of someone who clearly is (or professes to be) a leader of others, Dantalion requires that you try to read that person's thoughts. Once you have made the attempt, regardless of success or failure, you need not try to read that person's thoughts again.

Granted Abilities: Pact magic grimoires attest to Dantalion's profound wisdom and his extensive knowledge about all subjects. Because he knows all thoughts, he can grant you a portion of that power, as well as the ability to travel just by thinking. You also gain a portion of his commanding presence, which many binders ascribe to his royal origins.

Awe of Dantalion: When you invoke this ability (a move action), any creature that sees you is unable to attack you or target you with a hostile spell for 1 round. If you attempt any hostile action, such as making an attack roll or casting an offensive spell against the affected creature or its allies, the effect ends. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Dantalion Knows: While bound to Dantalion, you have a +8 bonus on Knowledge checks. This ability does not allow you to make Knowledge checks untrained.

Read Thoughts: At will as a full-round action, you can attempt to read the surface thoughts of any creature you can see, as long as it is within 5 feet per effective binder level you possess. If the target makes a successful Will save, you cannot read its thoughts for 1 minute.

Creatures of animal intelligence (Int 1 or 2) have simple, instinctual thoughts that you can pick up. If you attempt to read the thoughts of a creature with an Intelligence score 10 points higher than your own, you automatically fail and are stunned for 1 round. You can read a creature's thoughts for as long as you concentrate.

Thought Travel: As a standard action, you can instantly transport yourself and any objects you carry (up to a heavy load) to any location you can see that is within 5 feet per effective binder level you possess. The desired location cannot be within an object or beyond a barrier unless you have some means of seeing the exact space you desire to occupy. If you cannot occupy the designated space because it contains a solid body inside which you cannot exist (for example, if an invisible creature is in the square, or some magic in that location prevents dimensional travel, or the like), the attempt to travel fails and you are stunned for 1 round. Otherwise, you always arrive at the exact location desired. You cannot use this ability while blinded. Thought travel is a teleportation effect and is usable a number of times per day equal to your effective binder level. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

DESHARIS, THE SPRAWLING SOUL

Vestige Level: 6th

Binding DC: 27

Special Requirement: Yes

The first of the "city-born fey," represented today by such creatures as the zeitgeist and the gray jester, Desharis is a boon to those who work to spread civilization, and anathema to most fey and worshipers of the wild. He grants binders shelter against the dangers of the wild, and he provides powers to carve out their own niche against nature.

Legend: According to ancient myths, the earliest true community was a human village called Desh, or "shelter" in the old tongue. Here the people dwelt together for protection against predators, and they first constructed structures rather than use existing shelters for protection against the elements.

This legend itself is neither uncommon nor unknown today. What few realize, however, is how swiftly the natural and magical worlds adapt to changes within. Desh was not merely the first community, but it also birthed the first urban fey, a distant ancestor of what would become the mighty zeitgeist.

Desharis knew nothing of his own origins. He knew only that of his two conflicting urges - one to protect the sanctity of the natural world, the other to defend Desh and the people therein - the latter was by far the stronger. Invisibly, he worked to stave off attacks from predators; to keep the village free of plague; and to aid its inhabitants when other humanoids attempted to raid Desh for its supplies. While the people of Desh thanked the gods and spirits for their fortune, however, they never knew of Desharis himself. The other fey of the world, horrified at the notion of a spreading society that might supplant the natural order, counted Desharis a traitor. They worked to thwart his efforts and even destroy him. Though he was, in effect, the very embodiment of community, Desharis was ever alone.

Desharis grew bitter at the disdain of the other fey, and some suggest that he inspired the spread of civilization as vengeance against them. Whatever the case, Desharis spread as the notion of community did, growing ever more diffuse, ever larger. Though he gained in size and influence, he gained nothing in the way of power; smaller villages added nothing to his abilities, and larger communities frequently birthed their own urban fey. Eventually, the spirit of community was too diffuse and spread out to exist as a being at all - and yet, as the embodiment of civilization, now a permanent part of the world, he could not entirely fade away.

Special Requirement: If you have gone more than a day without binding Desharis, you may only draw his seal in a village or larger city. Attempts to do so elsewhere fail outright. You can, however, "carry" Desharis into the wild; this is why you may continue to summon him, even outside the urban environment, if you have not allowed more than a day to lapse since you last did so.

Manifestation: Desharis appears with the sound of a hundred distant voices talking and shouting, though specific words remain completely unintelligible. A veritable mob of individuals appears as from a great distance, as though the air above his seal had become a window to some other place. As the mob approaches, these bare silhouettes meld together even as they take on greater details, eventually combining to form a single humanoid shape standing 10 feet in height. Though the silhouettes look human, Desharis himself appears made of equal amounts of stone, wood, metal, and glass.

Sign: While hosting Desharis, your eyes turn to glass. Anyone meeting your gaze sees the movement of multiple silhouettes behind them, as though looking through a window at a busy street.

Influence: Under Desharis's influence, you cannot stand to be alone, and the more people you have around you, the better. You never voluntarily accept any task that requires you to be alone, and you argue vigorously against options that would split the party. If you have the opportunity to socialize with large groups of people (such as entering a boisterous tavern), you must take it unless doing so is overtly harmful, or you have reason to suspect the individuals are hostile to you.

Granted Abilities: Desharis grants abilities that reflect his desire to protect the civilized peoples of the world, plus provides a few that show his anger at the fey and other creatures of nature.

City-Dweller: While hosting Desharis, you move at your normal rate when moving through a crowd, rather than requiring two squares of movement for every square as is normal. In addition, you gain a +6 competence bonus on Gather Information and Knowledge (local) checks (and may use the latter even if you have 0 ranks in it).

Infinite Doors: Once per day, you can pass through an exterior doorway (one that leads from inside a building to outside), and appear through another exterior doorway within 3,000 yards. The two doors must both be set in buildings made of similar materials; for instance, you could pass from a wooden building to another wooden building, or a stone building to another stone building. You can either select a specific door with which you are familiar as the destination, or simply declare that you are appearing through the closest appropriate door to a given distance. (If no appropriate portal exists within range or in the direction you wish to travel, the effect does not function.) This is a teleportation effect.

Language of the City: You can speak with any humanoid, as per the tongues spell.

Smite Natural Soul: You may attempt to smite an animal, elemental, fey, or plant with a single melee attack. You add your Charisma bonus (if any) to the attack roll and deal 1 extra point of damage per effective binder level. If you accidentally smite a creature that is not one of the above types, the attempt has no effect. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Spirits of the City: You can animate objects, as the spell, as a caster of your binder level. Once you have used this ability, you must wait 5 rounds after the effect has expired, or all the objects have been destroyed, before you may do so again.

ELIGOR, DRAGON'S SLAYER

Vestige Level: 7th

Binding DC: 30

Special Requirement: No

A champion both against and for evil dragons, Eligor grants martial prowess both in and out of the saddle, as well as supernatural strength.

Legend: Supposedly, Eligor was a great half-elf dragonslayer before he was condemned to a vestige's existence by the actions of Tiamat. Believers of this legend claim that after Eligor's death, Tiamat sent her draconic minions against the followers of both the human and the elven deities, demanding that they release his soul to her. Despite Eligor's great service to both races, the deities gave up his soul to stave off the dragon attacks against their living followers.

Only one deity argued against this profound injustice. The race and gender of this lone voice of reason differ with the teller, and not even binder scholars agree on whether the deity was human or elf, or even male or female. Whoever it was, this god set off alone to face Tiamat and wrest Eligor's soul from her grasp. Upon arrival, however, the deity found Eligor in the service of Tiamat rather than in bondage. Unbeknownst to the other gods, Tiamat had raised him from death to be her champion and enforcer, using his abandonment by the other gods to win his loyalty. Eligor and the nameless deity fought, and Eligor lost his life yet again. This time, no deity laid claim to his soul, since doing so had already caused enough trouble.

Manifestation: Eligor clatters out of nothingness on a winged, half-horse/half-dragon monstrosity. Both rider and mount are heavily armored, and in fact Eligor's form is entirely obscured by ornate, shining plate armor and a grand helm. He carries a lance in one hand and holds a banner in the other. With each manifestation, Eligor's banner and mount change color, cycling through the five different colors of chromatic dragons. Although Eligor rides what might well be an evil creature, he always greets his summoner warmly and treats him with respect.

Sign: One of your hands becomes thickly scaled. The color of the scales matches the color of Eligor's mount at the time of his summoning.

Influence: You feel pity for all outcasts, particularly halfelves and half-orcs, and you make every effort to befriend any such beings you meet. Because Eligor desires revenge on the deities who abandoned him, he requires that you attack a human, elf, or dragon foe in preference to all others whenever you enter combat.

Granted Abilities: In his first life, Eligor was a skilled horseman, and in his second, he served the primary deity of chromatic dragons. Thus, the powers he grants tend to reflect those associations.

Chromatic Strike: As a free action, you can charge a melee attack (or melee touch attack) with acid, cold, electricity, or fire. Your next melee attack deals an extra 1d6 points of damage of the chosen energy type. You can charge a single melee attack only once.

Eligor's Skill in the Saddle: You gain the benefits of the Ride-By Attack and Spirited Charge feats.

Eligor's Strength: You gain a +4 bonus to Strength.

Eligor's Resilience: You gain a +3 enhancement bonus to natural armor. This bonus improves to +4 at 16th level and to +5 at 20th level.

Heavy Armor Proficiency: You are proficient with heavy armor.

EURYNOME, MOTHER OF THE MATERIAL

Vestige Level: 4th

Binding DC: 21

Special Requirement: Yes

Eurynome grants lordship over the water and the beasts of land, seas, and air. She also gives those with whom she binds some of the might of titans.

Legend: Stories say that before recorded time, the gods and titans battled on the Outer Planes. Tired of the struggle, the titan Eurynome fled to the roiling chaos that made up the Material Plane. She divided the world into sky and sea, and then she danced alone upon the waves. Incensed by her impertinence in meddling with a world as yet unformed, the gods struck Eurynome down. Angered by her abandonment of their fight, her fellow titans refused to come to her aid. Eurynome's body became the first island, her blood became the first river, and her soul became a vestige.

Special Requirement: Eurynome hates Amon for some unknown reason and will not answer your call if you are already bound to him.

Manifestation: If Eurynome's myth is true, she has fallen far since battling gods and shaping the deeps and the firmament. Eurynome manifests as a horrid conglomeration of humanoid, avian, and piscine forms. Her arms are octopus tentacles, her legs are those of a hawk, and her mouth is an owl's beak. Wings shaped like great fish fins extend from her back, and she has no eyes - only lampreylike mouths where her visual orbs should be.

Sign: Your skin becomes clammy, and you leave moist prints on any object your body touches, even if clothing blocks direct contact. These marks evaporate after about 1 minute.

Influence: Eurynome's influence makes you paranoid and ungrateful; you see secret motives and possible betrayals behind every action. Eurynome requires that you not attack a foe unless an ally has already done so. If no allies are present, she makes no such requirement.

Granted Abilities: Eurynome grants you the ability to befriend animals, walk on water, and wield a massive hammer. In addition, she turns your blood into poison and gives you resistance to weapon blows.

Animal Friend: All animals automatically have an initial attitude of friendly toward you.

Damage Reduction: You gain damage reduction 2/lawful.

Eurynome's Maul: As a swift action, you can summon a Large magic warhammer (2d6 damage, ×3 crit). You are proficient with this weapon and can wield it in one hand without penalty. Your warhammer's exact bonus and abilities depend on your effective binder level, according to the following table.

The warhammer disappears (until you summon it again) if it leaves your grasp for more than 1 round.

Poison Blood: While you are bound to Eurynome, your blood becomes poisonous. Any creature that ingests it (by either making a bite attack against you or swallowing you whole) must immediately make a successful Fortitude save or take 1d6 points of damage. After 1 minute, the creature must make another Fortitude save at the same DC or take another 1d6 points of damage per three effective binder levels you possess (maximum 5d6). Each bite attack (or each round that you remain in the creature's gullet) poisons the creature anew, forcing a new round of saving throws. Your poison blood becomes inert 1 minute after leaving your body.

Water Dancing: At will, you can move on liquid as if it were firm ground. This ability functions like the water walk spell, except that it affects only you.

FOCALOR, PRINCE OF TEARS

Vestige Level: 3rd

Binding DC: 20

Special Requirement: Yes

Focalor has power over storms and seas. He gives those who bind him the power to drown souls in sadness and sink ships in an ocean of tears.

Legend: Accounts of Focalor's origins vary widely. Some claim he was once a demon, and others say he was an angel - likely a planetar. The constantly crying spirit has never uttered a coherent word, so binder scholars must look elsewhere to solve the mystery of how he came to be a vestige. All agree, however, that Focalor was an immortal creature that died of grief, and his immense anguish kept him from being absorbed into his home plane. The cause of his sadness, however, is as unclear as his origin.

Special Requirement: Focalor's seal must be drawn with a liquid medium.

Manifestation: Focalor manifests slowly, appearing first as a single tear that drops from thin air to strike the ground. Next his weeping eyes appear, and gradually his whole body becomes visible. Focalor looks like a handsome human male whose face is twisted by grief. He wears no clothes, but he cloaks his body in the griffon wings that grow from his back and shudder with each of his wracking sobs.

Sign: While you serve as host to Focalor, your eyes constantly weep, regardless of your mood or thoughts.

Influence: While influenced by Focalor, you feel some of his inestimable grief and act morose, rarely smiling or finding cause to laugh. Whenever you kill a creature, Focalor demands that as soon as you have a peaceful moment, you take a round to say a few words of sorrow and regret for the life cut short by your actions.

Granted Abilities: Focalor gives you the ability to breathe water, strike foes down with lightning, blind enemies with a puff of your breath, and cause creatures to be stricken with grief in your presence.

Aura of Sadness: You emit an aura of depression and anguish that overtakes even the strongest-willed creatures. Every adjacent creature is overcome with grief, which manifests as a -2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks, for as long as it remains adjacent to you. You can suppress or activate this ability as a standard action. Aura of sadness is a mind-affecting ability.

Focalor's Breath: As a standard action, you can exhale toward a single living target within 30 feet. That target is blinded for 1 round unless it succeeds on a Fortitude save. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Lightning Strike: Once per round as a standard action, you can call down a bolt of lightning that strikes any target you designate, as long as it is within 10 feet per effective binder level of your position. The lightning bolt deals 3d6 points of electricity damage, plus an additional 1d6 points of electricity damage for every three effective binder levels you possess above 5th. A successful Reflex save halves this damage. This ability functions outdoors, indoors, underground, and even underwater.

Water Breathing: You can breathe both water and air easily.

GAIA, SOUL OF THE LAND

Vestige Level: Epic

Binding DC: —

Special Requirement: Yes

Once the soul of a continent, Gaia grants her summoners the ability to feel the pulse of the land, allowing them advantages against unnatural creatures, senses derived from the land, immunity to elemental forces, the ability to speak with and influence the attitudes of creatures, and the capacity to regenerate wounds.

Legend: Gaia was both the nature goddess of a lost continent and the body of that land itself. She was the patron of all creatures and the defender of sacred life. When the land was injured, she too was hurt, her life-essence pumping in time with the earth. When Tkhaluuljin, a mammoth alien squidlike entity, attacked the land, Gaia fought, hoping to sacrifice her essence to protect the lives of her beloved residents. Her attempts were a failure and Tkhaluuljin swallowed her along with all life that lived on her surface.

Even in the gargantuan stomach of the alien squid, Gaia continued to fight for her people, raking Tkhaluuljin with sharp branches and rocks and inciting her surviving followers to use their magic against the entity. Gaia and those that lived upon her could not save themselves, but they did destroy their captor. After a long drawn-out fight, Tkhaluuljin was so injured that it could no longer control its flight. It plummeted into the ocean, killing itself, Gaia, and her charges in the process.

Special Requirement: You must summon Gaia outdoors. She does not answer your call if you cannot see the sky.

Manifestation: When Gaia manifests, a large green sphere appears where the sun (or moon) should be. The surface of the planet slowly becomes more illuminated, its land masses and oceans more distinct. The light intensifies until it is as bright as the sun. The planet explodes in a ball of fire and plasma, sending flaming meteorites in all directions. In the afterimage of the explosion, the silhouette of a beautiful green-skinned woman appears briefly, and then winks out. Left in the image's place is the ethereal silhouette of a vaguely female figure.

Sign: The hair on your face, head, and body takes on a greenish hue, as do the eyes and skin.

Influence: Never allow cruelty toward living creatures to occur in your presence. Seek out every opportunity to destroy aberrations, constructs, oozes, and undead.

Granted Abilities: While bound to Gaia, you can gain potent advantages against unnatural creatures, gain a connection to the land that enhances the senses, speak with and enchant living creatures, become immune to an element, and regenerate wounds.

Earth's Fury: Your attacks and powers are more potent against aberrations, constructs, oozes, and undead. All spells, powers, and abilities you possess have a +4 bonus to their DCs when used against creatures of these types. You can freely use sneak attacks, critical hits, and precision damage against creatures of these types and automatically confirm critical threats against them. Finally, you receive a +4 bonus to your AC and saving throws against attacks made by creatures of these types.

Earthsense: You gain potent senses derived from your connection to the land. You gain darkvision with an unlimited range, allowing you to see through both natural and magical darkness to the limit of your normal vision. You gain scent and can track opponents by scent as if you had the Track feat. You receive blindsight out to 120 feet and tremorsense out to 60 feet.

Earth's Voice: You gain the Polyglot epic feat. You can also speak with plants (as speak with plants) and animals (as speak with animals). These abilities are constant and require no activation. Any living creature that can hear your voice must make a Will save or be considered to have an attitude of friendly toward you until you do something to change this.

Elemental Fortitude: When you bind Gaia, choose one element from among the following: acid, cold, fire, or electricity. You are immune to that element for as long as you are bound to Gaia. Once every 5 rounds, you can spend a full round action to change your immunity to a different element.

Planetary Healing: You gain regeneration equal to 1 per 4 effective binder levels you possess. Thus, a 28th-level binder has regeneration 7. You take normal damage from fire and acid. By touching an ally, you can grant her any or all of your regeneration as a standard action. You can split your regeneration up among multiple allies, though each additional ally requires an additional standard action. At any time, you can recall any or all points of regeneration you have granted to your allies as an immediate action. Granting and recalling your regeneration does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

For example, Leila is a 28th-level binder who has bound Gaia. This grants her regeneration 7. As a standard action, she touches her companion Dinah, granting her regeneration 3. Three rounds later, she grants the remaining 4 points of regeneration to her ally Rainer, keeping none for herself. When a great wyrm blue dragon enters the fight, Leila decides that she needs all of the regeneration. She spends an immediate action, recalling all of the points of regeneration for her own protection.

GERYON, THE DEPOSED LORD

Vestige Level: 5th

Binding DC: 25

Special Requirement: Yes

Once a devil of great power, Geryon now exists only as a vestige. He gives binders powers associated with his eyes, as well as the ability to fly at a moment's notice.

Legend: Most scholars of the dark arts know of Geryon. As one of the legendary Lords of the Nine, he ruled Stygia, the frozen fifth layer of Hell. During a great upheaval known as the Reckoning, Geryon secretly supported the greatest of the arch devils, Asmodeus, against his rivals. When the armies of the opposing lords met to decide who would take Asmodeus's power, Geryon blew his horn. At his signal, the armies turned against their leaders, the usurpers were thrown down, and Asmodeus reestablished his right to rule all Baator. Knowing he had taught the usurpers a lesson they would not soon forget, Asmodeus returned them to power. Rather than reward Geryon, however, he inexplicably gave his lone supporter's power and position to another.

Geryon's fate after losing his position is unclear, but some binder scholars maintain that Asmodeus held one more betrayal in store for him. The story goes that Geryon, bewildered and stunned, lost all hope for the future. He began to question the purpose of his actions and, in a moment of weakness, even the point of his own existence. It was then that Asmodeus struck. The ruler of the Nine Hells had always hungered for the souls of those who had lost their faith, and Geryon's powerful soul made a fine meal.

Special Requirement: Geryon answers the calls of only those summoners who show an understanding of the relationship between souls and the planes. Thus, you must have at least 5 ranks in either Knowledge (religion) or Knowledge (the planes) to summon him.

Manifestation: Geryon arrives in a flash of sickly green light. A strange conglomeration of forms, his body resembles three ogre mages standing with their backs to each other and melded into one being. He has three legs, each with two feet, and three arms, each with two hands. Three brutish faces gaze out from equidistant points on a single head, which sits upon a neck jutting upward from three shoulders. One face has a furrowed brow and looks angry, another appears agitated, with wildly rolling eyes, and the third seems thoughtful, often staring into the distance as though thinking of something else.

Geryon speaks from only one of his three faces at any given time, and each of the three has a different personality and voice - a deep voice for the angry face, a babbling, hysterical voice for the agitated one, and a quiet voice for the thoughtful one. All three, however, are Geryon. Whenever his mood changes, Geryon turns his body so that he can speak to his summoner with the face that best represents his feelings at the time.

Sign: Two extra pairs of devilish eyes with green lids and yellow, catlike irises open on your head. Located at the level of your own eyes and equidistant from them, these bloodshot orbs grant you the ability to see all around yourself. Your own eyes take on the same appearance as the new ones.

Influence: While influenced by Geryon, you become overly trusting of and loyal to those you see as allies, even in the face of outright treachery. Because he values trust, if you make a Sense Motive check or use any ability to read thoughts or detect lies, you rebel against Geryon's influence and incur the normal penalties.

Granted Abilities: Geryon gives you his eyes and his baleful gaze, as well as the ability to fly.

Acidic Gaze: The gaze of your devilish eyes can cause foes to erupt with acid. When you use this ability, each opponent within 30 feet of you must succeed on a Will save or take 2d6 points of acid damage. Opponents can avert or close their eyes to protect themselves, as normal for a gaze attack. You can still take a standard action to focus your gaze on a target creature, as normal for a gaze attack. You can choose not to affect specific creatures within range of the gaze attack, such as your allies, if desired. You cannot use this ability if you do not show Geryon's sign.

All-Around Vision: Your extra eyes allow you to look in any direction, granting you a +4 bonus on Spot and Search checks. Opponents gain no benefits when flanking you. When confronted by a creature with a gaze attack, however, you cannot avert your eyes, though you can still close them. You cannot use this ability if you do not show Geryon's sign.

See in Darkness: You can see perfectly in darkness of any kind, even that created by a deeper darkness spell. You cannot use this ability if you do not show Geryon's sign.

Swift Flight: You can fly for 1 round at a speed of 60 feet with perfect maneuverability. Activating this ability is a swift action. Once you have used swift flight, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

THE GREEN LADY

Vestige Level: 2nd

Binding DC: 17

Special Requirement: Yes

The Green Lady is a relatively obscure vestige. She gives her summoners the ability to turn or rebuke undead, an enhancement to their Charisma, grants the use of many arcane magic items, allows you to utilize a first-level arcane spell of your choice as a spell-like ability, and the ability to recognize magic items for what they are.

Legend: Once a high priestess of Wee Jas, she was instrumental in carrying the faith of the Witch Goddess from the old Suel Imperium into the new world after the Rain of Colorless Fire. She died in the Cairn Hills, and a small cult dedicated to her memory remains there today.

Special Requirement: You must either draw the Green Lady's within sight of a graveyard or of any site sacred to Wee Jas.

Manifestation: The Green Lady first appears as a beautiful Suel woman dressed in resplendent robes of the faith of Wee Jas.

Sign: Your eyes turn emerald green and glow faintly, and faint shimmers of green energy periodically ripple over your body.

Influence: While under the Green Lady's influence, you become haughty and elitist, and expect your allies to defer to your opinions and wishes. The Green Lady requires that you make at least one attempt to turn or rebuke any undead you encounter before you can attack it physically or with magic (unless you have already used all your attempts for the day). Filth and decay disgust you, and given a choice you must always avoid placing yourself in a situation that would soil your clothing or your skin.

Granted Abilities: The Green Lady infuses you with mastery over magic and death, and enhances your natural ability to influence and control your subjects.

Turn/Rebuke Undead: You can turn or rebuke undead as a cleric your effective binder level. As with a cleric, you turn if you are good and rebuke if you are evil. If you are neutral, you choose whether to turn or rebuke upon binding with the Green Lady and cannot later change your mind. If you have the ability to turn or rebuke undead from other classes, your levels in those classes stack with your effective binder level for the purpose of determining your turning ability. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Green Lady's Beauty: You gain a +2 bonus to Charisma.

Arcane Knack: You can use spell trigger items, such as wands and staves, as if you were a wizard of your effective binder level.

Gift of Magic: The Green Lady grants you the use of one 1st-level wizard spell as a spell-like ability. You may use this spell-like ability at will, but once you have used it, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds. You must pick your spell-like ability when you bind the Green Lady, after which you cannot later change your mind. Your caster level with this spell-like ability is equal to your equivalent binder level.

Lore of Magic: You can use Spellcraft to identify magic items. You must examine the item to be identified for one minute, after which you make a Spellcraft check (DC 20 + the magic item's caster level). If you exceed the target DC by 10 or more, you also note any curses the magic item may bear. You cannot retry an attempt to identify a magic item.

HAAGENTI, MOTHER OF MINOTAURS

Vestige Level: 2nd

Binding DC: 17

Special Requirement: Yes

Haagenti tricked the god of frost giants and paid a terrible price for that deed. She girds her summoners for battle and gives them the power to confuse foes.

Legend: The tale of how minotaurs originated changes according to the culture and race of the teller, but frost giants blame Haagenti. Thrym, their primary deity, had tried to force a goddess of the humans to marry him and failed when her brother disguised himself as Thrym's bride and disrupted the ceremony. The angry and humiliated god consoled himself with dalliances among his giant worshipers. Haagenti, a hill giant sorceress, learned of his liaisons and used a spell to transform herself into a beautiful frost giant so that she might bear Thrym's powerful half-god children. Her ploy succeeded, and a year later she gave birth to twin sons.

Once the children of his dalliances had grown old enough, Thrym set out to visit and test them all. He fought each child to see who was the strongest and bravest, intending to invite the most fit to join him in Jotunheim. When he sought out Haagenti, he found her herding cattle in the warm lowlands and became enraged when he saw her true form. But when he raised his axe to fell her, two horribly ugly giants leapt to her defense. Thrym realized to his disgust that they were his sons.

Thrym would have destroyed them at that moment, but he suddenly realized that Haagenti had taught him a valuable lesson. His failed attempt at marriage had been fouled by a beautiful form created through trickery, and now he had fallen victim to the same ruse again. Rather than kill Haagenti and her children, Thrym cursed them to resemble the cattle with which they wallowed, turning them into minotaurs. Then he left, vowing to teach his frost giant worshipers to distrust all beauty.

How Haagenti became a vestige is unclear, but binder lore holds that her guilt at ruining beauty for the frost giants was so great that she could not bear to exist in any place that held beauty of any kind. Since every place in the planes seems beautiful to some being, she could find no eternal home anywhere. Haagenti refuses to speak on the subject and becomes angry when questioned about her past.

Special Requirement: To summon Haagenti, you must be either Large or able to speak Giant.

Manifestation: When Haagenti is summoned, a huge icicle thrusts up from the ground within the confines of her seal. Haagenti's blurry white form can be seen moving within the ice for a moment, then she spreads her arms and shatters her icy prison. Although she appears with her back to her summoner, her form is clearly that of a winged minotaur. Haagenti waves her ice shield and battleaxe to disperse the cold mist around her, then turns to face her summoner, revealing her bull-like face and icicle beard. Her frost-rimed fur is pure white, and her horns appear to be made of ice. Her powerfully muscled form doesn't appear female, but her smooth voice sounds quite feminine.

Sign: You possess the same features as you always did, but they somehow make you more ugly than before. Others easily recognize you, but small differences make you less appealing to look upon. In addition, your bulk expands until you weigh half again as much as you did before.

Influence: You feel ashamed and occasionally bashful in the presence of beautiful creatures. In addition, Haagenti requires that you give deference to any creature you perceive as more attractive or charismatic than yourself. This deference might take the form of a bow, a salute, opening a door for the creature in question, not speaking until spoken to, or any other gesture that acknowledges the creature as superior to you. In any case, you must constantly treat any such creature with respect or suffer the penalty for defying Haagenti's influence.

Granted Abilities: Haagenti grants you some of Thrym's skill with arms and armor, plus her own aversion to transformation and the ability to inflict a state of confusion upon others.

Confusing Touch: You can confuse by touch. The target of your touch attack must succeed on a Will save or become confused for 1 round per three effective binder levels you possess. When you attain an effective binder level of 19th, this ability functions as a maze spell. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Immunity to Transformation: No mortal magic can permanently affect your form while you are bound to Haagenti. Effects such as polymorph or petrification might force you into a new shape, but at the start of your next turn, you can immediately resume your normal form as a free action. You remain affected by such effects only when you choose to do so.

Shield Proficiency: You are proficient with shields, including tower shields.

Weapon Proficiency: You are proficient with the battleaxe, greataxe, handaxe, and throwing axe.

HALPHAX, THE ANGEL IN THE ANGLE

Vestige Level: 8th

Binding DC: 32

Special Requirement: Yes

Gnomes rarely earn a reputation for their military might, but Halphax is one of the few exceptions to that rule. He grants his summoners the ability to raise a fortress and imprison foes, as well as the hardness of stone.

Legend: An engineer of inestimable excellence, Halphax made great advances in architecture of all kinds. His influence can be seen in the solid architecture of the dwarves, the beauty of elven buildings, the comfort of gnome dwellings, and the practicality of halfling homes. His greatest passion, however, was the architecture of military fortifications and the art of defense. Halphax's walls still encircle towns, and most of the castles he designed are still standing today, even though more than a thousand years have passed since he last sketched a floor plan. Unfortunately for him, the great architect's professionalism became his downfall.

In Halphax's time, gnomes were as populous as humans. They lived in grand cities that rivaled those of the elves, and they welcomed all civilized races into these metropolises to live and trade. The hobgoblins were the first of the goblinoids to rise out of tribalism and find welcome in the gnome citystates. They quickly took to gnome society, learning as much as they could and using their strong backs and hale bodies to earn places for themselves in the military and manual labor trades. Then, in an act known to gnomes as the Great Betrayal, the hobgoblins turned against their benefactors in a series of well-coordinated attacks. The victorious goblinoids turned each gnome city into a prison, using the fortifications meant to keep enemies out to trap the gnomes within. To ensure that they overlooked no means of escape, they captured and enslaved the gnomes who had designed them. Through a combination of threats and rewards, they forced the gnomes to make these prisons even more effective.

Many gnome architects chose to die rather than help the hobgoblins, and others secretly used their positions to help their kinfolk escape the city. But when the hobgoblins threatened the life of Halphax's wife, the great architect put all his effort into creating the most impregnable prison possible. Legend holds that no gnome ever escaped Halphax's city, and it was the last goblinoid holding to fall in the war that followed the Great Betrayal.

When at last the goblinoids were defeated, the prison city that Halphax had built was found empty of all gnomes but him. The hobgoblins had killed them all except Halphax and his wife. She could not bear to be the cause of so much tragedy, however, and took her own life.

When the gnomes attempted to apprehend Halphax and hold him responsible for his deeds, the architect vanished into his city. The allied armies tore the city down to its foundations in their attempts to find him, but he was never seen again.

Special Requirement: Halphax's sign must be drawn inside a building, in a corner of the structure.

Manifestation: When Halphax manifests, the corner in which he was summoned appears to warp, growing deeper and extending to what appears to be an infinite distance beyond the limits of the structure. In that distance, a figure appears, and suddenly the distance closes, bringing Halphax into his seal. Halphax always takes the form of a gnome wearing leather breeches and a vest, both of which are covered in pockets and loops for holding tools and items. The tools of an engineer hang from his belt, and he usually appears in a posture of boredom, hands in his pockets. Halphax's most striking feature is that he seems to have no flesh and bone beneath his clothes - only broken bits of stone and masonry. The shattered features of bas-reliefs and gargoyles make up his face.

Sign: Your body takes on the appearance of cracked stone.

Influence: In his time as a vestige, Halphax seems to have lost all memory of his life as well as any feeling of guilt or shame for his actions. Thus, when you are under his influence, you lose any normal sense of shame or embarrassment. However, if someone threatens a hostage you care about - be it a creature or an item - Halphax requires that you accede to the hostage taker's demands.

Granted Powers: Halphax grants you great knowledge of mechanical arts as well as the power to imprison foes, build towers, and gird your body with the hardness of stone.

Damage Reduction: You gain damage reduction 10/adamantine. You cannot use this ability if you do not show Halphax's sign.

Halphax's Knowledge: You can use the Profession (siege engineer) and Knowledge (architecture and engineering) skills untrained. In addition, you gain a +16 competence bonus on Profession (siege engineer) and Knowledge (architecture and engineering) checks.

Imprison: You can imprison a foe deep in the earth with only a touch. As a standard action, you can make a melee touch attack to imprison your target. If you hit, the target must make a Fortitude saving throw or be imprisoned. This ability functions like the imprisonment spell, except that the imprisonment lasts for a number of rounds equal to your effective binder level. If you miss with the touch attack, you can use this ability on the following round, but if a target makes its save, you must wait 1d4 rounds before using it again. You cannot imprison a creature while you already have another imprisoned from the use of this ability.

Iron Wall: As a standard action, you can cause a flat, vertical iron wall to spring into being. It functions as a wall of iron spell, except that it disappears after 1 minute. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Secure Shelter: At will as a standard action, you can bring a sturdy stone building into being at any point on the ground within 60 feet of you, as long as the space can accommodate its dimensions. This ability summons a tower like that produced by the Leomund's secure shelter spell. You cannot summon this tower if you already have one standing. You can dismiss the structure as a standard action, but you cannot summon it again for 5 rounds after dismissing it.

HAURES, THE DREAMING DUKE

Vestige Level: 6th

Binding DC: 25

Special Requirement: No

Haures grants his summoners the power to create illusions, protect their thoughts, and move through objects like a ghost.

Legend: Human history associates the name Haures with a powerful lord who terrorized his people. From the time he took the throne until his death, he kept his subjects at work building his castle, adding constantly to its grandeur and might. Workers at the castle would return with strange tales of building a room and then rebuilding it the next day because no sign remained of their previous day's work. Then those who told such stories began to vanish in the castle, never to be heard from again. Although the castle grew with the additions made to it for the first few years, the constant construction seemed to have no effect on its size in later years.

When at last Haures died, his subjects rejoiced and attacked the castle, hoping to loot and set fire to the palatial structure. The mob of peasants found the castle empty, devoid even of its furnishings. Confused and frightened, they left, and the castle and the surrounding lands soon gained a reputation for being haunted.

Binder scholars believe they know the answer to the mystery of Haures's disappearance and the strange construction of the castle. According to their legends, Haures was not a human at all, but a powerful rakshasa sorcerer in disguise. Much of the construction he demanded took place on the Ethereal Plane because Haures planned to continue his existence there as a ghost. He wanted his afterlife to be as much like his mortal life as possible, so he had his subjects build a nearly exact duplicate of his castle on the Ethereal Plane and cloaked their work sites in illusions to hide the truth. In the last months of his life, Haures brought many living and undead servants to his foggy realm, as well as all the comforts to which he had become accustomed.

For some time after his demise, Haures spent time on both the Material and Ethereal Planes. As a ghost, he would cloak the decaying castle on the Material Plane in bright illusions so that he could throw lavish parties for the travelers attracted to its warm glow. Then he would end the party suddenly, leaving his guests alone in the chilly ruins of his castle and delighting in their terror. As the years passed, fewer folk dared enter his home, and Haures began to throw illusory parties for himself to alleviate his boredom. As his sanity deteriorated, he became unable to distinguish between the Material and the Ethereal Planes, and even between his illusions and his own imagined experiences. At some point, Haures lost all sense of the difference between reality and dreams, illusion and imagination, and even life and undeath. This complete dissolution of these barriers propelled him into existence as a vestige.

Manifestation: Haures initially manifests as a ghostly tiger stalking out of thin air, but his appearance rapidly changes to that of a handsome and well-dressed middle-aged man who appears alive and healthy. A moment later, that form decays before his summoner's eyes, rotting into a zombielike state, then fading into ghostly incorporeality and changing again, this time into a skeletal tiger wearing a shining crown and purple robe. This tiger form soon loses its crown and robe but gains ghostly flesh, becoming a ghostly tiger to begin the cycle of change all over again. Haures seems cognizant of his summoner only while he is in living human form, and he speaks only in those brief moments.

Sign: While you are bound to Haures, your palms are where the backs of your hands should be, just as they are on a rakshasa. If you flip over your hands so that the backs are up, your thumbs end up on the wrong sides of your hands. This rearrangement has no effect on your Dexterity, spellcasting, ability to wield objects, or use of skills.

Influence: When influenced by Haures, you become an eccentric, often speaking to yourself and to imaginary friends. In addition, Haures requires that if you encounter and disbelieve an illusion not of your own making, you must not voluntarily enter its area.

Granted Abilities: Haures shields your mind with his madness, allows you to move like a ghost, gives you the power to fool the senses, and grants you the ability to kill others with their deepest fears.

Inaccessible Mind: You are protected from any effort to detect, influence, or read your emotions or thoughts, and you have immunity to any mind-affecting spells and abilities, as if you were protected by a mind blank spell. You can suppress or activate this ability as a standard action.

Incorporeal Movement: When moving, you become nearly incorporeal and can ignore the effects of difficult terrain. You can even move through an enemy's space, but not through walls or other solid barriers. Furthermore, any attacks of opportunity directed at you while you move have a 50% miss chance. You can suppress or activate this ability as a standard action.

Major Image: You can create an illusion at will, as though you had cast major image (caster level equals your effective binder level). A creature can attempt a Will save to realize the illusion is false. You can never create more than one major image at a time, and you can dismiss or renew the effect as a standard action. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Phantasmal Killer: This ability functions like the phantasmal killer spell except for the range and save DCs (the ability still requires a Will save, and possibly a Fortitude save) to resist. You can target any single creature within 10 feet per binder level you possess. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

IPOS, PRINCE OF FOOLS

Vestige Level: 6th

Binding DC: 26

Special Requirement: Yes

Binders call Ipos the Prince of Fools because of the crown he wears and the sad legend of his transformation into a vestige. He grants his summoners cold iron claws with which to rend foes, the power to see creatures and objects as they are, and a fraction of his charisma.

Legend: As a mortal scholar of deities and the planes, Ipos discovered vestiges and the process of binding long before their rediscovery in the current age. Although binder lore gives conflicting accounts of Ipos's race and nation of origin, the legends agree that he was a mighty spellcaster with the power to travel the planes in his pursuit of knowledge.

Although he was interested in all subjects, Ipos had a particular passion for discovering the nature of the planes, magic, and the gods. Through his study of these topics, Ipos sought to discover the planar order - the set of fundamental laws within which the multiverse operated.

Ipos did a magnificent job with his research, and his discoveries have been passed down through the generations. Yet he left such an incomplete vision of reality that later scholars and explorers had to expand upon his body of work. In the midst of his investigations, Ipos stumbled across vestiges and drowned in the depth of this knowledge. He could not conceive of beings that did not exist in some place, or that could not be reached via the planes or by deities. He became obsessed with finding the plane upon which the vestiges resided. He dropped the study of all other topics and threw himself into the task of finding a way to the realm of the vestiges. No one knows what happened after he made this mission his focus, but the fact that he now exists as a vestige lends credence to the idea that he discovered what he sought.

Special Requirement: Ipos refuses to answer the call of any summoner who, in his judgment, has not taken a serious enough interest in occult studies. Anyone wishing to bind Ipos must have at least 5 ranks in Knowledge (arcana) and 5 ranks in either Knowledge (religion) or Knowledge (the planes).

Manifestation: Ipos steps forward onto his seal as though reappearing from invisibility. Some pact magic texts say that he has the head of a vulture or a goose, but those writers must have been unfamiliar with the bald ibis. Ipos clearly has that bird's long, downward-curving beak and mottled, featherless head. Atop his warty scalp, he wears a crown of black iron, and a many-layered gray cloak hides most of his form. Ipos's overly long arms end in gray-furred and clawed members that are more like the paws of a lion than the hands of a man. In one paw, he holds a gnarled iron cane that he uses more often to strike the ground in emphasis than as an aid in walking. He keeps his other paw hidden in one of the long sleeves of his robes, but from time to time, an observer can see him extending its long, black claws. Despite his rusting crown and tattered cloak, Ipos presents an imposing figure, and his hissing voice and baleful glare add considerably to his menace.

Sign: You grow long, black, clawlike nails.

Influence: You think highly of your intellect and show contempt toward those who question your assumptions or conclusions. If you encounter a creature that shows interest in a topic about which you have knowledge, Ipos requires that you truthfully edify that individual.

Granted Powers: Ipos grants you his discerning sight and commanding presence, as well as claws of cold iron with which to rend the veil of ignorance.

Cold Iron Claws: Your fingernails harden into cold iron, granting you one claw attack per hand. You can strike with each hand at your full attack bonus and add your full Strength bonus to the damage you deal. The base damage for each claw attack is as given on the following table.

If you already had claw attacks with your hands, use the claw damage on the table only if it's better than your normal base damage. Your claw attacks are considered cold iron weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. You cannot use this ability if you do not show Ipos's sign.

Flash of Insight: As a swift action, you gain a true seeing effect (as the spell) for a duration of 1 round. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Ipos's Influence: Your affiliation with Ipos allows you to draw more power from the vestiges to which you are bound. The saving throw DC (if any) of each special ability granted by your vestiges increases by 1. Treat your effective binder level as one higher than normal for the purpose of determining the effects of vestige special abilities.

Planar Attenuation: You gain protection from the natural effects of a specific plane. These effects include extremes in temperature, lack of air, poisonous fumes, emanations of positive or negative energy, or other attributes of the plane itself. You can change the plane to which you are attuned as a standard action.

Rend: When you hit one foe with all your claw attacks, you automatically deal double the damage of a normal claw attack (including your Strength modifier) in addition to your normal damage.

KARSUS, HUBRIS IN THE BLOOD

Vestige Level: 3rd

Binding DC: 25

Special Requirement: Yes

Karsus lived and died by magic, so he grants binders power over that force.

Legend: Binders know Karsus as a potent mortal spellcaster who attempted to steal the powers of a deity that had jurisdiction over magic. He succeeded, but realized too late that his mortal frame and soul could not contain the power. He died, and his soul remained tied to the Material Plane for ages, never becoming a petitioner. Some claim that part of it somehow still lingers there. With no planar home and no deity who would claim him, Karsus became a vestige.

Special Requirement: Karsus refuses to answer the call of a binder who attempts to summon him within the area of an active spell. In addition, he appears only to a summoner who has at least 5 ranks in either Knowledge (arcana) or Spellcraft. He also hates Amon for some unknown reason and will not answer your call if you are already bound to that vestige.

Manifestation: Karsus appears silently and suddenly in the form of a great red boulder. Blood burbles up from the top of the stone and flows in a rivulet down the side facing his summoner, then pools at the base. When Karsus speaks, the blood fountains upward, its height varying based on the volume of his voice.

Sign: You bleed more than normal from wounds. Even a small scratch releases a sanguine flood. This effect does not deal extra damage.

Influence: You take on some of the arrogance for which Karsus was famous in his mortal life. He requires that you make Bluff or Intimidate checks rather than Diplomacy checks to influence others.

Granted Abilities: In life, Karsus was obsessed with magic, and his obsession continues unabated in his current state. He grants you the ability to see magic, destroy it with a touch, and use any magic item with ease. He even provides increased spellcasting power.

Heavy Magic: The save DC for each effect of every magic item you use increases by 2.

Karsus's Senses: You can sense magic auras as easily as others can detect odors, and concentrating on them reveals them to your sight. When you concentrate (a standard action), you automatically detect the number of different magical auras within 30 feet, and the power of the most potent aura within 30 feet, as though you had cast detect magic on the area and concentrated for 2 rounds. You do not need to concentrate to maintain this effect, but concentrating for 1 additional round reveals the location and strength of the auras in the area. A third round of concentration allows you to determine the school of a particular aura automatically. Additional rounds of concentration reveal the schools of other auras.

You cannot use this ability if you are blinded, but otherwise it functions as detect magic for the purposes of concealment and the materials pierced. If you encounter an aura of overwhelming strength, however, you are dazzled so long as it remains within range of Karsus's senses.

Karsus's Touch: You can produce a dispel magic effect with a touch. To do so, you must make a successful melee touch attack against a creature or an object as a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. You can then make a dispel check (1d20 + your effective binder level, maximum +20) against each ongoing spell currently in effect on the object or creature. The DC for this check is 11 + the spell's caster level. If you succeed on a particular check, that spell is dispelled; if you fail, it remains in effect.

If you target an object or creature that is the effect of an ongoing spell (such as a summoned monster or a conjured object), you must touch the target and make a dispel check to end the spell that brought it into being. Targeting a spell effect that is not an object or creature (such as the flames of a wall of fire) has no effect.

If the touched object is a magic item, you must make a dispel check (the DC is the item's caster level). If you succeed, all the item's magical properties are suppressed for 1d4 rounds, after which the item recovers on its own. An interdimensional interface (such as a bag of holding) is temporarily closed by this effect. A suppressed item becomes nonmagical for the duration, but its physical properties are unchanged, so a suppressed magic sword is still a masterwork sword.

You can use Karsus's touch a number of times per day equal to your effective binder level. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Karsus's Will: You can use spell trigger items, such as wands and staves, as if you were a wizard of your effective binder level.

KAS, THE BLOODY HANDED

Vestige Level: 4th

Binding DC: 25

Special Requirement: No

Once the lieutenant of the lich - now god - Vecna, Kas betrayed his master, instigating a battle that was thought to have resulted in both of their destructions. Somehow, even after this legendary conflict, Kas and Vecna continued their battle, but only Vecna emerged into being once again. As a vestige, Kas continues to despise Vecna and all other undead.

Legend: That Vecna, Master of All that is Secret and Hidden, once existed as a cruel-minded lich is no mystery. Yet, few know of the figure lurking in the god's past, the betrayer who crippled the Maimed Lord and bears responsibility for some of the most infamous artifacts known to the multiverse: Kas the Bloody Handed.

As Vecna ascended to power on the world of Oerth, armies of dead rose under his black banner. Among these undead legions emerged the vampire Kas, a shadow of death clad in iron. A master of countless darkened battlefields, where Kas drew his blade victory for the lich liege followed. Although not the greatest of Vecna's warriors, Kas proved to be cunning and ruthless, and showed no fear of his lord, a quality Vecna respected. As Kas's successes in campaign after campaign mounted, Vecna rewarded his Champion with ever greater rank and profane treasures. At last, Vecna made Kas his second in command, gifting the vampire with a sword he had personally forged from black metal fallen from the stars.

Kas and his infamous blade lad Vecna's armies for years, claiming innumerable souls in the lich's name, forging a legend as bloody as his lord's was cruel. As he waged war, Kas increased in power and grew in ambition. Finally came the day that Vecna's armies faltered. After a significant loss on the field of battle, a weakened Vecna returned to his throne to find Kas waiting. Armed with his black blade, the betrayer Kas struck and a titanic battle ensued. None know how long the tireless, undying fiends clashed - some claiming months, even years. During the fray, despite Vecna's dark powers, Kas sliced the lich's left hand from his body and cut an eye from his face. Fearing his destruction, Vecna employed frantic dangerous magic that annihilated both himself and Kas - or so it seemed.

Centuries passed. A cult of Vecna arose and the lich's severed hand and eye became legends, while Kas's name passed from memory except in relation to his black sword. What few knew, however, what that in some misty realm that even the deities avoid Vecna and Kas somehow continued to exist, locked in an otherworldly battle. For unknown years the archrivals impotently raged. Eventually, through patient plotting, near-immortal genius, and primordial magic, Vecna shatter his prison and escaped, ascending to godhood and leaving has rival lost in the ether.

What became of Kas none - not even the binders who deal with him now - truly know. Trapped within a maelstrom of shatter planes and godly magics, Kas was shunted into some new existence, an eternal oubliette he blames Vecna for imprisoning him in. Yet, as a vestige - or a being very much like one - his reach again stretches into the mortal world, sowing destruction and working against his rival-turned-god's immortal aspirations.

Manifestation: Kas manifests as a sword being drawn from his sign. The hilt appears first, wrapped in red leather with flecks of gold and with unicorn horns forming its quillons. A knuckle-guard basket made of gold and shaped like a leering bearded face stretches from the quillons to the pommel, grimacing and groaning as if in pain as the blade arises from the ground. Casting sparks as it screeches up from the sign, a wavy blade as black as night with opalescent edges appears. With a jerk the whole of the sword suddenly comes free, revealing not a point but the back of a blackened and desiccated hand attached to the end of the blade. The sword then flips upright and turns around, showing a moist, cat-like eye glaring from the palm of the bony hand. When Kas speaks, his deep and angry voice comes from the basket guard, but it is the eye in the palm that regards his summoner.

Sign: When a binder makes a pact with Kas, an angry catlike eye opens in the palm of each of his hands. These eyes don't provide the binder with any extraordinary sight, nor do they inhibit the use of the binder's hands. When the binder uses any power granted by Kas, the eyes weep small amounts of blood for 10 rounds.

Influence: Kas's influence makes a binder act warm and affectionate toward those with whom she speaks. Kas further requires has host to kill any follower of Vecna or undead creature encountered. In addition, Kas requires that the binder betray some friend or ally in some manner during the first hour after being summoned and bound. This betrayal might be as small as breaking a promise to meet at a specific time or as great as murder, but it must be unexpected, and the ally or friend must realize that a deliberate betrayal occurred.

Granted Abilities: Kas grants binders the ability to deceive friends and blind enemies. In addition, Kas protect binders from their enemies' worst blows.

Blinding Strike: When you score a critical hit, the creature struck must make a Will save (DC 10 + half your binder level + Charisma bonus) or be permanently blinded. In addition, when you attack undead creatures, you can affect them with critical hits and the blinding effect of this ability.

Bluff Bonus: You gain +4 competence bonus on Bluff checks.

Kas's Protection: While bound to Kas, there is a 25% chance that any critical hit or sneak attack scored against you is negated and damage is rolled normally. Sneak attacks and critical hits scored on you by undead are always negated.

Undead Reaper: When you hit an undead creature with a melee or ranged attack, you ignore any damage reduction it might have.

Weapon Proficiency: You are proficient with the bastard sword, longsword, and short sword.

LERAJE, THE GREEN HERALD

Vestige Level: 1st

Binding DC: 15

Special Requirement: Yes

Once a favored servant of the primary deity of the elves, Leraje allowed her pride to become her downfall. Leraje gives her summoners the ability to bring a bow to hand at will, to fire it with accuracy, and to damage a foe's sense of self with it. In addition, she gives her hosts keen vision in darkness and skill at hiding.

Legend: Tales of Leraje's prowess with a bow exist to this day, although her feats are now ascribed to deities and other great heroes, and most elves think her legend is heresy. Pact magic treatises maintain that Corellon Larethian called upon Leraje to be his first herald among mortals. She taught the elves how to make and use bows, though none could ever come close to matching her prowess. Legend holds that she killed Thessala, goddess of hydras, by shooting a single arrow through all one thousand of her heads, thereby causing her children, the hydras, to be dull and crude throughout eternity.

One day, Leraje helped Corellon save Lolth, who had not yet fallen from grace, from an ambush set by Gruumsh. Lolth praised Leraje for her skills, claiming that not even Corellon could fire an arrow as fast or as accurately as his herald. Leraje beamed under the compliment, and a bemused Corellon challenged her to an archery duel to settle the matter. When Leraje agreed, Corellon declared their target: her heart.

Corellon expected his servant to realize the error of her pride and yield the contest, but Leraje instead brought up her bow, aimed an arrow at Corellon, and pulled back the string. Surprised, he raised his own bow and fired at her. Leraje released her bowstring at that same moment, aiming not at the god but at the arrow that sped toward her heart. Leraje's arrow met that of her deity in midair and ricocheted back, piercing her heart before Corellon's arrowhead even touched her chest. As punishment for wasting her life for the sake of her stubborn pride, Corellon Larethian cast Leraje's soul from heaven and earth.

Special Requirement: To summon Leraje, you must break an arrow crafted by an elf while calling out Leraje's name and title. In addition, Leraje hates Amon for some unknown reason and will not answer your call if you are already bound to him.

Manifestation: Leraje appears before her summoner as though she had always been there, but camouflaged so well that she could not be seen. First her dull eyes open, then her yellowed teeth come into view out of seeming nothingness, revealed in a sly smile. As Leraje moves, her body takes shape against the background, and her clothes and skin change color to reveal her as an elf archer dressed in beautifully decorated green leather armor. Although she was clearly beautiful at some point, the ravages of some toxin or disease have made her hair limp, yellowed her eyes and teeth, and made her skin pockmarked and sallow.

Sign: You look sickly and diseased, and your skin becomes sallow and pockmarked.

Influence: While influenced by Leraje, you become quiet and unassuming. Leraje still feels considerable guilt about the actions that led her to become a vestige, so she requires that you not attack any elf or creature of elven blood, including half-elves and members of the various elf subraces, such as drow.

Granted Abilities: You gain supernatural powers related to Leraje's skills in life, as well as the ability to fire arrows that literally wound your target's pride.

Hide Bonus: You gain a +4 competence bonus on Hide checks.

Low-Light Vision: You gain low-light vision. If you already have it naturally, you gain superior low-light vision and can see three times as far as your light source would normally illuminate. Thus, a torch that illuminates a 20-foot radius would allow you to see clearly up to 60 feet and provide you with shadowy illumination to a distance of 120 feet.

Precise Shot: You gain the benefit of the Precise Shot feat.

Ricochet: As a standard action, you can make a single ranged attack against two adjacent targets. Make a single attack roll and apply that result to the Armor Class of both targets. Any hit you score deals damage to the target normally. Extra damage from abilities such as sneak attack or sudden strike apply to only one target, which you must designate prior to making the attack roll.

Weapon Proficiency: While bound to Leraje, you are proficient with the composite longbow, composite shortbow, longbow, and shortbow. If you were already proficient with any of these weapons, you instead gain a +1 competence bonus on attack rolls with them.

MALPHAS, THE TURNFEATHER

Vestige Level: 2nd

Binding DC: 15

Special Requirement: No

Malphas allows his summoners to see without being seen, to pass through surroundings without leaving any sign, to vanish from sight, and to poison their enemies.

Legend: Only elves who know their history well are familiar with the story of Malphas, a lesser scion of an ancient elven kingdom's ruling family. Malphas joined a druidic order under pressure from his elders, who hoped that enforced dedication to nature would teach him greater respect for their traditions and the elven way of life. After a contentious start, the plan seemed to work. Malphas, always the black sheep of the family, soon became a model member of the elven nobility. His trademark, a white dove's feather, could be found at sites where good deeds had been done, although no one ever saw him perform them.

This impression was all part of Malphas's act. While studying the druidic traditions, he met another elf druid - a female who won his heart with guile and promises of power. Together they hatched a plan to make Malphas heir to the throne. While his white feathers turned up wherever good events were occurring, black feathers began to appear on the murdered corpses of royalty. Elf diviners soon discovered that Malphas was at the root of their troubles, and the traitorous elf was forced to flee.

Malphas flew to his lover's hideaway among the trees, intending to warn her and flee with her. But when she heard his story, she flew into a rage, mocking him for his stupidity and his overtures of affection. To wound him even more deeply, she revealed her true form - that of a drow. When the elf authorities found Malphas, he lay on the ground, dead not from magic or physical harm, but from the breaking of his heart and the loss of his soul.

Manifestation: Malphas begins his manifestation with a furious fluttering of white doves. The creatures explode out of thin air, then fly away from each other and fade from view, revealing a handsome male elf clad in black. Malphas has pale skin, black eyes, and black feathers for hair. His smile reveals black teeth, and when he speaks, his black tongue licks the air like a snake's. Malphas wears a noble's finery in funerary black, and a cloak made of raven heads and feathers hangs from his shoulders. The heads start up a raucous cry whenever he moves too much, so he remains largely still, making only small gestures with his black-gloved hands. Malphas's hoarse voice croaks and cracks when he speaks, a quality that annoys him greatly.

Sign: Your teeth and tongue turn black.

Influence: While influenced by Malphas, you fall in love too easily. A kind word or a friendly gesture can cause you to devote yourself entirely to another person. Should that person reject your affection, your broken heart mends the moment another attractive person shows you some kindness. In addition, if you have access to poison, Malphas requires that you employ it against your foes at every opportunity.

Granted Abilities: Malphas grants you the ability to spy without detection, to disappear, to use poison safely, and to strike vicious blows against vulnerable foes.

Bird's Eye Viewing: At will, you can summon a dove or a raven to aid your powers of observation. (Use the statistics for a raven regardless of the creature's form.) The bird appears perched on your shoulder. You have complete control over its actions, and you can see what it sees and hear what it hears. Use the bird's skill checks to determine the results of its actions and observations (for example, Bluff, Search, Spot, Listen), but use your skill bonuses to derive information from its observations (for example, Knowledge, Sense Motive, or Spellcraft to identify a spell). If you have the trapfinding ability, you can use the bird to find traps so long as doing so doesn't require it to manipulate an object. The bird cannot talk. You can have only one bird summoned at a time. It remains until you summon another dove or raven, mentally dismiss it (a standard action), or stop binding with Malphas.

Invisibility: As a full-round action, you can make yourself invisible (as with the invisibility spell). Making an attack ends the invisibility (as normal), but otherwise, the effect lasts a number of rounds equal to your effective binder level. You can invoke this ability as a standard action at 5th level, as a move action at 10th level, and as a swift action at 15th level. Once you return to visibility, you cannot use this ability again for 5 rounds. Poison Use: You are not at risk of poisoning yourself when handling poison or applying it to a weapon.

Sudden Strike: With your melee attack, you deal an extra 1d6 points of damage plus 1d6 points per four effective binder levels anytime your target would be denied its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class. This extra damage applies to ranged attacks only if the opponent is within 30 feet. The extra damage from sudden strike stacks with that from sneak attack whenever both would apply to the same target.

MARCHOSIAS, KING OF KILLERS

Vestige Level: 7th

Binding DC: 30

Special Requirement: Yes

A legendary assassin in life, Marchosias now grants his summoners his supernatural charm, plus the ability to kill or paralyze with one startling attack and to disappear in a puff of smoke.

Legend: Marchosias seems to have appeared as a vestige quite recently - in fact, only a short time before Dahlver-Nar did. In life, Marchosias was a human who brought death to others. His favorite targets were other assassins and murderers, but this choice of foes had nothing to do with morals. Despicably evil, Marchosias was obsessed with improving his skill as a killer, and ending the lives of other professional slayers seemed the best challenge he could undertake.

When at last Marchosias met his death, his soul traveled to the Nine Hells. The devils gleefully accepted his powerful spirit, but others there took note of his arrival and were not pleased. The spirits of hundreds of thugs, slaughterers, executioners, and assassins banded together and rebelled against their devilish captors - intending not to escape or take control, but to attack Marchosias. Although the devils were loath to allow such lawlessness, they let the souls of the damned fight it out, thinking to step in and punish all the spirits when the battle was over. Marchosias fought well, but he could not prevail against so many foes at once, and he fell under the onslaught. When the devils pulled back the attackers, nothing was left - Marchosias's soul had been torn to pieces.

Special Requirement: To summon Marchosias, you must at some point in your life have committed an evil act for which you have not apologized, atoned, or made reparations. Lying or breaking a confidence doesn't count, but other small acts of evil - such as theft, infidelity, or vandalism - do fulfill the requirement.

Manifestation: Marchosias appears with a bloodcurdling scream in an explosion of fire and black smoke. Though much of the smoke curls away, some remains and slowly coalesces to form a human figure. Marchosias appears as a king with body and raiment composed of swirling smoke and cinders. He wears a crown of fire, beneath which gleam two glowing, hot coals where his eyes should be. Marchosias wields a scepter of flames, and a sword of hot ash is belted to his hip. For a moment, he seems exhausted by the rigors of his arrival, standing with his shoulders slumped and his head bowed. After a moment, he raises his gaze to his summoner and stands straight and tall, adopting an imperious posture.

Sign: While you are bound to Marchosias, the pupils of your eyes glow with a red-orange light. Anyone looking at your face can make a DC 12 Spot check each round to notice this effect. This light is not strong enough to illuminate the area, and it does not make you any easier to see in the dark, but it can be disturbing to look upon.

Influence: Marchosias's influence makes you debonair and sly, as though you have some trick up your sleeve and the knowledge of it makes you confident. In addition, Marchosias requires that you use the death attack he grants you against any foe you catch unawares.

Granted Abilities: Marchosias gives you an assassin's skill at killing, plus the ability to assume gaseous form and the power to charm foes.

Death Attack: If you study a target for 3 rounds and then make a sneak attack with a melee weapon that successfully deals damage, the attack either paralyzes or kills the target (your choice) in addition to dealing normal sneak attack damage. While studying the victim, you can undertake other actions so long as your attention stays focused on the target and the target neither detects you nor recognizes you as an enemy.

If the victim of such an attack fails a Fortitude save against the kill effect, she dies. If she fails against the paralysis effect, she is rendered helpless and unable to act for 1d6 rounds + 1 round per effective binder level. If the victim's saving throw succeeds, the attack is just a normal sneak attack. Once you have completed the 3 rounds of study, you must make the death attack within the next 3 rounds.

If you attempt a death attack and fail (the victim makes her save), or if you do not launch the attack within 3 rounds of completing the study, 3 new rounds of study are required before you can attempt another death attack.

Fiery Retribution: You deal an extra 3d6 points of fire damage when you strike an opponent who can deal extra damage through a sneak attack, sudden strike, or skirmish attack. This extra damage applies to ranged attacks only if the opponent is within 30 feet.

Smoke Form: You can assume the form of a smoke cloud at will. This ability functions like the gaseous form spell, except that you can remain gaseous for as long as you wish. Although you lose your supernatural abilities while gaseous, you do not lose the ability to remain in gaseous form. Vestiges you have bound remain so for the normal duration. Since you lose your supernatural death attack ability, however, you cannot study an opponent for the purpose of making your death attack while in smoke form. You can suppress or activate this ability as a standard action. Once you have returned to your normal form from smoke form, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Silent and Sure: You gain a +16 competence bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks.

NABERIUS, THE GRINNING HOUND

Vestige Level: 1st

Binding DC: 15

Special Requirement: Yes

A cunning and mysterious vestige, Naberius can make his summoners adept with all manner of arts and sciences, disguise them, and make them cogent speakers.

Legend: Though Naberius's origin remains mysterious, binder scholars know that his name and form have changed many times over the centuries. Ancient pact magic texts refer to a spirit matching Naberius's powers as Naberus, Kaberon, Cerbere, and Serberius. One of these spirits appeared as a noble, bird-headed man, another as a dog with a crane's head, another as a wolf with fifty heads and a tail of three entwined snakes, and the fourth as a heap of bodies surrounded by a cloud of fiies. A few fiendish sages have suggested that Naberius might be an aspect of the three-headed, doglike creature that guards the gates to the Underworld on the third layer of Hades, but that creature is thought to be simpleminded and has never been known to speak. Naberius never admits to having had older forms or names, and questions about his origin get only a sly smile in reply.

Special Requirement: Naberius values knowledge, industry, and the willingness to deceive. He manifests only for a summoner with at least 4 ranks in Bluff or in any Knowledge or Profession skill.

Manifestation: Naberius's manifestation begins with a great squawking and flutter of feathers. Moments later, a black crane flies in an agitated fashion over the seal, then crashes down atop it, apparently dead. Naberius then stalks forward out of invisibility as a three-headed hound to feast upon the crane. He speaks hoarsely from whichever dog head isn't eating at the moment. Despite his terrible appearance and raucous voice, Naberius somehow manages to seem amiable and eloquent.

Sign: Your voice deepens and acquires a gravelly, growling tone.

Influence: While you are influenced by Naberius, you love the sound of your own voice and are constantly pleased by your cleverness. Whenever you are presented with a pulpit, a stage, a talking stick, or any other place or object designed to give a speaker the floor, Naberius requires that you immediately seize the opportunity to speak. Any topic will do, but since Naberius resents others taking control of the discourse, he requires that you either shout them down or mock them. Your speech must last a number of rounds equal to your effective binder level to satisfy Naberius.

Granted Abilities: Naberius grants you the power to wear any face, swiftly regain lost ability points, use skills of which you have no knowledge, and talk your way through danger.

Disguise Self: You can alter the appearance of your form as a standard action. This effect works like the disguise self spell.

Faster Ability Healing: You heal 1 point in each damaged ability score every round, and 1 point in all drained ability scores every hour.

Naberius's Skills: At the time you make your pact, you can choose a number of skills equal to your Constitution bonus (if any). Your choices must be skills that can't be used untrained and in which you have no ranks. For the duration of the binding, you can make skill checks with your chosen skills even though you are untrained. If your Constitution modifier decreases after you make the pact, you lose the ability to make untrained checks with an equal number of the chosen skills. Lost skills are chosen randomly, and they remain inaccessible to you until you make another pact with Naberius.

Persuasive Words: You can direct a verbal command at a single living target within 30 feet as if using the command spell. A successful Will save negates the effect. When your effective binder level reaches 14th, your words become even more persuasive and this ability functions like the suggestion spell. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Silver Tongue: You can take 10 on Diplomacy and Bluff checks even if distracted or threatened. In addition, you can make a rushed Diplomacy check as a standard action and take no penalty. (Normally, a rushed Diplomacy check requires a full-round action and imposes a -10 penalty on the check.)

ORTHOS, SOVEREIGN OF THE HOWLING DARK

Vestige Level: 8th

Binding DC: 35

Special Requirement: Yes

Ancient and unknowable, Orthos gives its summoners the power to sense what they cannot see, to fool the sight of others, and to turn their breath into wind that can speak or scour flesh from bones.

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: You must summon Orthos within an area of bright illumination.

Manifestation: When Orthos begins to manifest, a breeze seems to pass over the summoner, but it ruffies nothing except the summoner's hair and clothes. The breeze intensifies, becoming a cold wind, and a low whistle emanates from the vicinity of Orthos's seal. Directly over it appears a black speck - a mote of shadow like a blind spot in the observer's vision. The whistle becomes a moan that slowly rises in pitch and volume, eventually transforming into a howl as the darkness spirals outward, opening like the pupil of some great cat's eye with an explosive rush of wind. The howling grows so loud that it pains the ear while the seemingly nonexistent wind buffets the summoner. Then it stops. In the sudden silence, an unseen, unheard, yet palpable presence slides out of the black aperture and hovers heavily over the seal. Though not detectable by any sense, Orthos is eerily extant, and its presence can be felt by even the dumbest of beasts. The vestige says nothing; its summoner can only plead her case and hope that Orthos does not impose its influence.

Sign: You always seem to be buffeted by a breeze that no one else can feel, even when you're indoors. The eerie wind makes no noise, but it tousles your hair and belongings, frequently changing direction.

Influence: While influenced by Orthos, you are averse to darkened areas and loud noises. Although you can endure such conditions, they give you a sense of panic and make you short of breath. Orthos requires that you always carry an active light source with a brightness at least equal to that of a candle, and that you not cover it or allow it to be darkened for more than 1 round. Additionally, Orthos requires that you speak only in a whisper.

Granted Abilities: Orthos gives you blindsense, displacement, and a breath weapon that you can use either as a weapon or to deliver messages.

Blindsight: You gain blindsight out to 30 feet.

Displacement: At will, you can surround yourself with a light-bending glamer that makes it difficult for others to surmise your true location. Any melee or ranged attack directed at you has a 50% miss chance unless the attacker can locate you by some means other than sight. A true seeing effect allows the user to determine your position, but see invisibility has no effect. You can suppress or activate this ability as a standard action.

Whirlwind Breath: As a standard action, you can exhale a scouring blast of wind in a 60-foot cone. Your whirlwind breath deals 1d6 points of damage per binder level you possess. Every creature in the area can attempt a Reflex save to halve the damage, and must also succeed on a Fortitude save or be knocked prone and moved 1d4×10 feet away from you (or just outside the cone, whichever is a shorter distance). Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Whispering Wind: At will as a standard action, you can send a message on the wind as though using the whispering wind spell (caster level equals your effective binder level).

OTIAX, THE KEY TO THE GATE

Vestige Level: 5th

Binding DC: 25

Special Requirement: No

The alien Otiax gives its summoners the power to open what is closed, to walk among the clouds, and to strike foes with fog that lands like a hammer.

Legend: Otiax is a bit of a conundrum because it seems to have originated outside the known cosmology of the planes. A few sources of pact magic lore refer to some plane or place called the Far Realm, but most offer no explanation of Otiax's past. Some even posit that Otiax is somehow the key to reaching the Far Realm, but that supposition has more to do with Otiax's appearance than with any real evidence of its nature. Because Otiax never speaks, it can shed no light on the issue. Binding with it is more a matter of instinct and will than of deliberation.

Manifestation: When Otiax manifests, a locked golden gate appears within its seal. Blue fog curls out in wispy tendrils from between the bars, obscuring what lies beyond. After a moment of silence, some unseen force crashes against the barrier. Then the gate shakes and rattles loudly, as though some creature is desperate to open it. Ragged breathing becomes audible, and the fog swirls around some indistinct yet terrible form. At last the raging stops, and the azure vapor passes through the gate. The sound of the tumblers turning in the lock becomes audible, then the gate creaks open.

Sign: While bound to Otiax, you are surrounded by thin wisps of light blue fog even in the strongest wind.

Influence: Otiax's motives remain a mystery, but its influence is clear. When confronted with unopened doors or gates, you become agitated and nervous. This emotional state lasts until the door or gate is opened, or until you can no longer see it. Furthermore, Otiax cannot abide a lock remaining secured. Thus, whenever you see a key, Otiax requires that you use it to open the corresponding lock.

Granted Abilities: Otiax opens doors for you, lets you batter opponents with wind, and cloaks you in a protective fog that can actually lash out at foes.

Air Blast: You can focus the air around you into a concentrated blast that batters opponents. You can use your air blast as a melee touch attack against an adjacent opponent or one that is up to 10 feet away (as though you were using a reach weapon). This attack deals 2d6 points of bludgeoning damage, but you do not add your Strength bonus to the damage roll. If your base attack bonus is high enough, you might be entitled to additional air blast attacks each round when you make a full attack. You can also make attacks of opportunity with your air blast. You cannot use this ability if you do not show Otiax's sign.

Combat Reflexes: You gain the benefit of the Combat Reflexes feat. You cannot use this ability if you do not show Otiax's sign.

Concealing Mist: You can whip the mist that constantly surrounds you into a concealing screen that grants you concealment (foes' melee and ranged attacks have a 20% miss chance). You cannot use this concealment to hide. You can suppress or activate this ability as a full-round action. A severe wind (either natural or magical, such as a gust of wind spell) suppresses your concealing mist. You cannot use this ability if you do not show Otiax's sign.

Open Portal: At will as a swift action, you can open (but not close) a door, chest, box, window, bag, pouch, bottle, barrel, or other container as though using the open/close spell. This ability has a range of 10 feet per effective binder level you possess.

Unlock: As a full-round action, you can unlock a single lock that you can touch, provided that its Open Lock DC is less than or equal to twice your effective binder level. For example, a 10th-level binder can use this ability to open any lock with a DC of 20 or lower, and a 15th-level binder could open a lock with a DC of 30 or lower. This ability grants you no protection from any traps that might be associated with the lock. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

PAIMON, THE DANCER

Vestige Level: 3rd

Binding DC: 20

Special Requirement: No

Paimon whirls into reality with grace and style. He gives his summoners the ability to see combat as a dance and makes them masters of its steps and hidden meter.

Legend: Most binders know the Dancer's tragic story, although none can be certain of its origin. An infamous lothario, Paimon delighted in seducing noblewomen with his dancing and besting their suitors with his swordplay. He eventually crossed paths and swords with a particularly jealous and cruel fellow, sometimes identifled as a human and other times as an elf. After Paimon had humiliated this nobleman in front of his peers on several occasions, the fellow enlisted some other aggrieved suitors to capture Paimon and cut off his sword hand.

Paimon was not so easily defeated. When he recovered, he returned to court wearing a bejeweled golden hand that he could replace with a rapier blade. Exhibiting tremendous aplomb, Paimon again set his rivals on their heels, and he even fought and defeated the man who had wronged him. Paimon spared his adversary's life only because he was interrupted by a request to dance by the object of both their affections. In response to this further humiliation, Paimon's foe again had him captured, but this time the man's thirst for revenge was insatiable. He and his cohorts cut off all of Paimon's limbs and replaced them with sword blades, jeering at him all the while and daring him to return to court again. Then they left Paimon to die while they celebrated their victory.

At the next royal ball, Paimon's foe and his coconspirators smirked at every mention of their enemy's name and winked at one another when others wondered aloud where the charming rake might be. Then a dark figure appeared among the dancers. Impossibly tall and shrouded head to foot in dark, diaphanous cloth, the wraithlike figure began to spin. Disturbed by its appearance, the other dancers moved away. When one of them spotted naked steel beneath the whirling cloth, the nobles began to flee the hall.

Enraged that his party had been interrupted, Paimon's enemy went up to the figure and tore away the cloth. For a moment, the tortured figure of Paimon stood before them with bloody blades for legs and arms. Someone screamed at the sight, and Paimon faded to nothing. Thinking they had seen the ghost of Paimon, the men immediately went to find their foe's body and give it a proper burial, but it was gone. Instead, they found a trail of blood and the marks of sword thrusts in the ground. Apparently Paimon was alive but gone - banished by the scream of a woman.

Manifestation: Paimon appears in a whirl, his form spinning like a top on an arm that ends in a metal blade instead of a forearm and hand. He turns counterclockwise so rapidly that his summoner can make little sense of what he sees. Paimon quickly switches the arm on which he spins with a hop, and then he switches to a leg, which also ends in a blade rather than an ankle and foot. With each switch, Paimon slows, until at last he stands on one leg before his summoner, balancing within the seal on its daggerlike point. Paimon's almost featureless gray body has a dancer's physique. His face is stretched to disfigurement around the right side of his head, and no ears are visible. Paimon speaks in a garbled voice from his twisted mouth while hopping from appendage to appendage, making small turns as though he is impatient to be whirling again.

Sign: One side of your mouth becomes wider than the other, as though it were being stretched or pulled. That side of your mouth has a tendency to remain slightly open, causing you to drool.

Influence: Paimon's influence makes you lascivious and bold. In addition, Paimon requires that you dance (moving at half speed) whenever you hear music.

Granted Abilities: Paimon gives you the ability to dance in and out of combat, and to make whirling attacks against multiple foes.

Dance of Death: When you use this ability, you can move up to your speed and make a single attack against any creature you move past, provoking attacks of opportunity normally. When you use your dance of death, you forfeit any bonus or extra attacks granted by other feats or abilities (such as the Cleave feat or the haste spell), and you cannot attack any single creature more than once. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Paimon's Blades: You gain proficiency with the rapier and short sword, and the benefit of the Weapon Finesse feat when you wield such weapons.

Paimon's Dexterity: You gain a +4 bonus to Dexterity.

Paimon's Skills: You can use the Tumble skill untrained. You gain a +4 bonus on Tumble checks and Perform (dance) checks.

Uncanny Dodge: You retain your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. If you have uncanny dodge from another source, you gain improved uncanny dodge instead. See the rogue class features on page 50 of the Player's Handbook.

Whirlwind Attack: You gain the benefit of the Whirlwind Attack feat.

PRIMUS, THE ONE AND THE PRIME

Vestige Level: 3rd

Binding DC: 24

Special Requirement: Yes

Formerly a being of godlike power, Primus sought to make logic and law rule over all the multiverse and in doing so made its own existence illogical. Primus aids binders in battling chaos and gives them the power to enforce orders they give to others.

Legend: According to obscure planar lore, Primus was a being of law so ordered that none but it's race of servants - strange creatures know as modrons - could bear to worship it. Beings of pure order, dedicated to advancing precision and structure throughout the multiverse, the modrons obey Primus as their god and master. The one and the Prime represented the race's most absolute ideal of perfect logic, its every command trickling down through an impossibly complex chain of lieutenants, sub-chiefs, executors, and managers to reach the ears of every being in it's service. Thus, the modrons worked order upon the multiverse, and the word of Primus was that order.

In the far-flung reaches of Mechanus, on the sixty-four modron-controlled cogs known as Regulus, there exists a fantastically complex clockwork fortress known as the Great Modron Cathedral. From this throne Primus dictated the path of each of its followers. To aid its reasoning, great knowledge constantly streamed into Primus's cathedral and powerful magical creations, forged from the perfectly attuned gears of the plane, offered windows onto the whole of the multiverse. One of these magics was the Grand Orrery, an unfathomably intricate device that measured the shifting of power, planes, and planets, deducing their cosmic and multiplanar meanings. A cadre of majordomos reported the Gran Orrery's telling directly to Primus, as well as happenings relayed to them in turn from networks of agents stretched across the multiverse. At the same time, Primus personally monitored its minions employing another powerful device known as the Infinity Web. Through this waxy confluence of cords and strands, Primus's consciousness stretched through its subordinate modrons, witnessing events throughout infinite realities. Thus, the One and the Prime observed as much as any deity and more.

It was the information that spiraled around the modron throne, the prophecies and reports of the Grand Orrery and the Infinity Web, that led to Primus's end. Seated as he was at the hub of the largest network of information in the multiverse there were those who envied Primus's Knowledge.

Thus, when the demon prince Orcus, as his shadow-self Tenebrous, carved his bloody path through the planes on his unholy quest for divinity, Primus became one of the first casualties. Seeking his lost rod, Tenebrous infiltrated the One and the Prime's sanctuary and ended the incredulous being with a killing word, adopting its form to bend its intelligence network and legions of servants to his foul purposes. Countless modrons were lost obeying Tenebrous's cruel whims and when the would-be god gleaned all he desired, he cast off his façade and left the modron hierarchy in shambles.

With the loss of their god and leader, a member of Primus's most immediate lieutenants - the Secundus - took up the mantle of the Supreme Modron. This new Primus seeing its people crippled, its cathedral invaded, and its magic corrupted, turned its race's attentions inward, calling all modron survivors back to Regulus and sealing the borders. Since that time few modrons have been seen throughout the multiverse and their current actions remain mysterious.

Yet despite the former Primus's apparent destruction, a being whose consciousness stretches across planes cannot so easily be destroyed. From the minds and memories of thousands of tormented modrons on contact with it at the moment of its destruction, a vestige of the old Primus arose. While logic, law, and a structured multiverse once dictated its every action, a new directive now inspires this methodical ghost of order: the destruction of Tenebrous and all similar beings of chaos.

Special Requirement: Primus refuses to appear before a binder already bound to Tenebrous. If the binder has bound to Tenebrous at any point in the past, Primus knows and requires that its sign be drawn in conditions of bright light.

Manifestation: When Primus begins to appear, its seal seems to rise up as a floating platform and become a bronze gear with dozens of smaller cogs and mechanisms within, all whirring and clicking as they turn. A yellow glow shines up from the ground and through the gears, dimming slightly just before Primus appears in a burst of rainbow light.

Primus stands fully 10 feet tall atop the floating gear-work, its lower body merging with the glow that rises from the floor. Humanoid in shape, Primus's genderless body seems to be made of solid gold. Primus stands silently and impassively, saying nothing, it's face devoid of all features. When the binder at last decides to say something, Primus suddenly speaks, its voice sounding hollow and cold, "Who summons us?"

Once uttered two holes open on Primus's blank visage where eyes should be, and each dark void spills black fluid down Primus's face. Where the liquid flows, the vestige's golden body sizzles away in then layers, as through Primus's tears burn away its body. No matter how deep the channels this darkness creates grow, Primus never flinches.

Sign: Dozens of small patches of skin on the binder's legs and arms become gold, silver, and bronze. These randomly placed metal plates take the shape of well-formed squares, equilateral triangles, hexagons, and other geometric shapes. These pieces of metal do not odder any bonus or inhibit the character in anyway. If removed, they revert to bloody flaps of flesh.

Influence: Primus shows its influence by making a binder ruthlessly practical. The binder evaluates all activities with an eye towards its ultimate goals, brooking no frivolity or distraction. Every action becomes a calculated move. In addition, Primus requires that the binder not knowingly break any law or disobey the direct order of any lawful authority.

Granted Abilities: Primus grants binders the ability to combat chaos, to gain benefit from orderly behavior, and to briefly access its ability to command all beings.

Divine Structure: If you perform the same actions on consecutive rounds in the same order, you gain a +1 competence bonus on all attacks, saves, and skill checks that round. For example, if you move and make a standard attack, and then in the following round move and make a standard attack, you would gain the bonus. If you move and make a standard attack and then in the next round 5-foot adjust and make a full attack, you would not get the bonus.

Lawful Attacks: Your melee and ranged attacks are considered lawful for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction, and you deal +1d6 points of damage to any creature of chaotic alignment that you hit with a melee or ranged attack (included touch attacks, but not ranged touch attacks).

Primus's Order: You can order a creature within 100 feet to perform a specific action. The creature must be able to hear you, but it need not understand your language. Pick a command listed under the command spell when you use this ability. If the target fails a Will save, it performs the action. In addition, targets that fail their Will save cannot hear or see you for 1d4 rounds or until you attack it, treating you as though you are under the effect of invisibility and silence spells. Other creatures can perceive you normally. This ability is not language-based and can affect creatures even if they are immune to mind-affecting effects. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

RONOVE, THE IRON MAIDEN

Vestige Level: 1st

Binding DC: 15

Special Requirement: Yes

Ronove remained a mystery for ages, but binder scholars now believe her to have been a human ascetic who lived more than two thousand years ago. As a vestige, she grants her summoners the power to move objects at a distance, to strike with the skill of a monk, to fall as lightly as a feather, and to run like the wind.

Legend: Many binder scholars credit Ronove with laying the foundation for orders of monks, and indeed, her philosophies and abilities bear a strong resemblance to the training that monks now receive. In life, Ronove was a charismatic guru who taught that enlightenment comes from denial - first of the needs of the flesh, then of the perceived limits of reality, and lastly of the rules of reality. Her frequent demonstrations of power served to illustrate the validity of her ideas to others. She leapt from cliffs without harm, lifted boulders with her thoughts, and lived for months without eating or drinking.

Although Ronove gathered many followers, not one of her disciples could manage her great feats. Some began to question her methods. To prove the veracity of her teachings, Ronove secluded herself in an iron coffin, telling her students to bury her and dig her up only when they received a sign from her. Years passed, and no sign came. One by one, her followers lost faith and deserted her. At last only one remained. Disillusioned, he dug up the rusted sarcophagus, only to find it empty. He tracked down his fellow disciples to tell them of the miracle, but none believed him. Ronove and her nameless disciple would have been lost to obscurity, but her lone faithful follower inscribed his story on the walls of a cavern. The recent discovery of this inscription explains the strange powers and appearance of Ronove.

Special Requirement: Ronove's seal must be drawn in the soil under the sky.

Manifestation: When Ronove manifests, the ground quakes, and a rusted iron sarcophagus erupts from the earth within her seal, shedding dirt and flakes of rust as it grates upward. The metal visage of a human woman is discernible on the lid. The metal bindings holding the lid closed burst in clouds of corroded metal, and the sarcophagus creaks open, releasing a tumble of human bones and noisome black liquid. Ronove does not speak to her summoner, but the visage on the lid smiles or frowns during the pact-making process.

Sign: The flesh of your face settles into a frown or a smile (a frown if you succeeded on your binding check, or a smile if you did not) and retains that general expression regardless of your actual feelings. This alteration to your visage does not affect your Charisma, Charisma-based skill checks, or others' ability to make Sense Motive checks against you.

Influence: Ronove's influence makes you think that others doubt your abilities and competence. Despite what anyone says, you feel the constant need to prove your worth. In addition, Ronove requires that you consume neither food nor beverages (including potions) for the entire time you remain bound to her.

Granted Abilities: Ronove gives you the power to fall any distance without harm, lift objects without touching them, and run like the wind.

Cold Iron and Magic Attacks: Your melee attacks count as magic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. When you attain an effective binder level of 7th, your melee attacks also count as cold iron for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Far Hand: As a swift action, you can lift and move an unattended object to which you have line of effect, as long as it is within 10 feet per effective binder level of your position. The force manipulating the object is considered Medium in size, and it has a Strength score equal to your effective binder level. During the swift action, you can move the object up to 5 feet per effective binder level. If the object weighs enough to constitute a medium or heavy load for an individual of the force's Strength, you can move it only half the normal distance. If the object to be moved would constitute a medium or heavy load for you, activating this ability is a move action. If the item could only be pushed or dragged by such a person (that is, it weighs up to five times the maximum load), you can move it just 5 feet per move action. The force cannot lift the object more than 5 feet off the ground.

In any round during which you do not use a swift action to manipulate the object, you lose control of it. You can never move an object outside the range of this ability, and you lose control of the object if you move too far away from it or if a creature touches it. You can move only one object at a time in this fashion.

Alternatively, you can use the telekinetic force to push a creature as a standard action. The force deals 1d6 points of damage to the target and initiates a bull rush, using the force's Strength modifier and adding a +2 bonus. If the bull rush is successful, the target moves in the direction you indicate. Once you have used your far hand in this way, it dissipates, and you cannot use it again for 5 rounds.

Feather Fall: You automatically fall as though under the influence of a feather fall spell. You can suppress or activate this ability as a standard action.

Ronove's Fists: You gain the benefit of the Improved Unarmed Strike feat. Your unarmed strikes deal damage as those of a monk of a level equal to your effective binder level. This ability does not grant you any other abilities of a monk, such as flurry of blows.

Sprint: You gain a +10-foot enhancement bonus to your base land speed.

SAVNOK, THE INSTIGATOR

Vestige Level: 2nd

Binding DC: 20

Special Requirement: Yes

Once a servant of gods, Savnok now grants his summoners the ability to wear heavy armor, to draw arrows from thin air, to take the place of allies in combat, and to cause wounds that do not heal.

Legend: Savnok lived before recorded history. His story contains about as much myth as it does fact, since the barrier between truth and fiction eroded long before the current age. According to the legend, Savnok served Hextor and Heironeous before the two half-brothers came to blows. The gods were charged with guarding their mother's arms and armor while she met with her lovers. Both Hextor and Heironeous were awed and tempted by their mother's implements of war, but neither son dared disobey his mother.

Seeing their desires written clearly upon their faces, however, Savnok devised a means to steal the items for his masters. Relying on their trust in him, Savnok tricked Hextor and Heironeous into letting him guard their mother's armory. But once his gaze fell on the goddess's armor, Savnok could not resist donning it. Just touching the metal made him drunk with power. After putting it on, he knew he could never take it off, so he fled the godly realms with the divine armor. Hextor and Heironeous soon noticed that their servant and the armor were missing. When they looked for Savnok, they found him at war on the Material Plane. Since no energy or mortal weapon could pierce the goddess's armor, Savnok had decided to set about carving out a kingdom for himself. Shocked at his betrayal and horrifled by their own failure to perform their duties, Hextor and Heironeous appeared before Savnok and ordered him to relinquish their mother's armor. Their former servant responded by attacking, and although he could not harm them, neither could they harm him.

Heironeous flew into the sky and tore thunderbolts from the clouds to hurl at Savnok, but Hextor, realizing that they needed deific weapons to defeat the armor, fled back to his mother's armory. There, he found a bow and grabbed a handful of arrows, then returned to find Heironeous still hurling lightning with little effect. Hextor barely had the strength to draw his mother's bow, but draw it he did. With each arrow he fired, a dozen missiles streaked down to strike Savnok. Though the arrows had little power behind them, they did pierce the armor, and as Savnok raged at the injustice the two gods had done him, he slowly bled to death from dozens of small wounds. When at last Savnok lay dead, Hextor and Heironeous removed the armor and debated what to do next. Not only had they failed to guard their mother's armory, but Hextor had also stolen her bow and arrows.

It was Hextor who suggested that they hide Savnok and replace the items, leaving their mother none the wiser. Heironeous didn't like the plan, but he wanted to protect his halfbrother. After all, Hextor's theft had solved a problem for which Heironeous was partly responsible and prevented Savnok from wreaking still more havoc in the mortal lands. Together, the two gods hid Savnok's essence in a place even they could not reach. Heironeous has regretted this decision ever since.

Special Requirement: To summon Savnok, you must have stolen something and made neither reparations nor apology for that act.

Manifestation: The first sign of Savnok's manifestation is an arrow streaking out of thin air to strike something unseen above his seal. Then a dozen more arrows whistle into the seal, each one landing with a metallic ping. Trickles of blood spout into the air where the arrows hang, and as more strike home, the blood gradually outlines a heavily armored form that seems too broad and powerfully built to be human. Savnok's features are obscured by his plate armor and helm, as well as the rivulets of blood and the many arrows that pepper his body. When Savnok speaks, he spits out bitter words with a gravelly voice that seems heavy with resentment.

Sign: A piece of an arrow appears under your skin somewhere on your body. It looks as though your skin has healed over a broken-off arrow that had previously wounded you. The arrow deals no damage, but at times it causes you some discomfort. If removed, it disintegrates immediately, and another appears somewhere else on your body.

Influence: Savnok's influence makes you headstrong and recalcitrant. Once you make up your mind about a particular issue, very little can change your thoughts on the matter. In addition, whenever you don armor, employ a shield, or wear any other item that improves your AC, Savnok requires that you not remove that protection for any reason.

Granted Abilities: Savnok grants you abilities associated with his death and the command of allies' positions.

Call Armor: At will as a full-round action, you can summon a suit of full plate armor, which appears about your body. As you attain higher effective binder levels, the armor's quality improves, as given on the following table.

You can dismiss the armor with another full-round action.

Heavy Armor Proficiency: You are proficient with heavy armor.

Move Ally: You can instantly swap positions with any visible willing ally within 5 feet per two effective binder levels of your position. Objects carried by you or your ally (up to the maximum load for each) go along, but creatures do not. The movement is instantaneous and does not provoke attacks of opportunity. Using this ability is a standard action at first, though at 7th level you can use it as a move action, and at 13th level you can use it as a swift action. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Savnok's Armor: While wearing your called armor, you can ignore some of the damage from attacks by nonpiercing weapons. When you first gain the ability to summon Savnok, this ability gives you damage reduction 1/piercing, and the value improves by +1 for every four effective binder levels you possess. Thus, you have damage reduction 2/piercing as a 4th-level binder, damage reduction 3/piercing as an 8thlevel binder, and so forth. When your effective binder level reaches 13th, your damage reduction can be overcome only by attacks that are both magic and piercing.

SHAX, SEA SISTER

Vestige Level: 6th

Binding DC: 26

Special Requirement: Yes

Another giant among the vestiges, Shax gives her summoners the ability to swim like fish, to laugh off lightning, to wriggle free of any bonds, and to strike foes like a thunderbolt.

Legend: Shax once ruled over storm giants as a goddess of the sea. She was born to Annam, the greatest of all giant gods, without his knowledge. Because he was prone to blind spots in his omniscience, Annam could not hear the giants' prayers when they mentioned Shax, nor could he see her many cruelties to them. He realized that some problem might exist only when the storm giants started battling the other giant kinds, claiming their caves, clouds, hills, frosty mountains, and volcanic peaks as storm giant territory. When Annam asked them why they had attacked their fellow giants, the storm giants pointed to the sea. Annam's blind spot still prevented him from perceiving Shax, so he sent his son Thrym to take care of the problem.

Thrym, god of the frost giants, was eager to stop storm giant incursions into his followers' lands, so he picked up his axe and leapt into the sea. There he met his sister Shax for the first time. Thrym found her both beautiful and terrible. He offered to wed her if she would call the storm giants to return to the sea. Shax would have none of it, though, so the two fought.

In the end Thrym won, beheading Shax with a clean blow of his axe, but not before she had scratched off some pieces of his flesh with her nails. The strength of Shax's spirit gave her the power to resist the pull of the Astral Plane, that graveyard of the gods, so she became a vestige. As for Thrym, he yet lives, but the pieces of his cold body that his sister removed have become icebergs that float in the sea as constant reminders of the storm giants' debt to him. Special Requirement: You must draw Shax's seal within sight of a pond, stream, or larger body of water.

Manifestation: Shax first appears as a semitransparent female storm giant standing 20 feet tall. Her drenched, violet-skinned body is clad in a gold breastplate and black tunic, both of which drip seawater on the ground. After she manifests, Shax smiles, and her head inclines as though acknowledging her summoner, but it continues to dip until it tumbles off her neck. The body vanishes even as the falling head becomes more solid. It strikes the ground upside down with a wet thump, its face turned away from her summoner. For a moment the head just sits there, but then the wet black hair coalesces into thick cords that press against the earth, lifting it up. Walking on her hair tentacles in a spiderlike manner, Shax turns around to face her summoner, glaring balefully with her yellow eyes. In a shrill voice, Shax demands to know who has summoned her.

Sign: A scar appears around the circumference of your neck, as though your head had been lopped off and then returned to your body to heal.

Influence: While under Shax's influence, you become possessive and stingy, particularly about territory - be it actual land or simply a room in an inn. In addition, her influence requires you to demand compensation for any service rendered and to tax any use of your territory. However, you can accept nearly any item of value - be it material goods or a service - as payment.

Granted Abilities: Shax grants you the swimming skill of a fish and the ability to strike foes with sonic force and electricity. She also gives you immunity to electricity and allows you to move freely despite restraints.

Freedom of Movement: As a swift action, you can give yourself the ability to ignore restraints. This effect functions like the freedom of movement spell, except that it lasts only 1 round. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Immunity to Electricity: You gain immunity to electricity damage.

Storm Strike: As a swift action, you can charge a melee attack or melee touch attack with electricity and sonic power. Your next melee attack deals an extra 1d6 points of electricity damage and 1d6 points of sonic damage. If the attack misses, that use of storm strike is wasted.

Swim Speed: You gain a swim speed equal to your land speed. You can move through water at your swim speed without making Swim checks, and you gain a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check made to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. You can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. You can also use the run action while swimming, provided you swim in a straight line.

TENEBROUS, THE SHADOW THAT WAS

Vestige Level: 4th

Binding DC: 21

Special Requirement: Yes

Tenebrous, once a powerful demon prince, offers dominion over darkness and death.

Legend: The great demon lord Orcus has long sought divinity. Some years ago, for a brief period, he actually attained it. Slain and resurrected by a surge of negative energy, the corpulent demon arose as the gaunt Tenebrous, a god of darkness and undeath. For a time he traveled the planes in this form, slaying other gods in his quest to gain more power. His ultimate goal was to reincarnate himself yet again because he wished to be a god as Orcus, not Tenebrous. Some say he was thwarted by a band of mortal heroes, but whatever the cause, his grand plan failed. Orcus did indeed rise again, but as the demon prince he once was, not as a god.

True divinity can never fade completely. The tatters of godly power that Orcus shed remained intact. Less than a god but still divine, this bit of essence drifted in the void between planes until it once more coalesced into a bitter sentience. Thus, Tenebrous yet exists as a pale reflection of what he once was, a shadow of a shadow.

Special Requirement: You must draw Tenebrous's seal at night or in an area of deep shadow with little or no daylight exposure.

Manifestation: Upon completion of the rite to summon Tenebrous, the summoner's shadow shifts to fall across the seal. Even if the rite occurs in complete darkness, the shadow is visible as a darker spot in the blackness. Once the shadow crosses into the seal, an inky humanoid form - impossibly gaunt, holding its limbs at disjointed angles - rises from it. The voice of Tenebrous is a whisper in the wind, almost impossible to hear, yet laden with unmistakable meaning.

Sign: You seem to be standing in shadow even on the brightest day. Furthermore, your own shadow never extends more than a few feet from your body, even if the ambient light suggests that it should be much longer. This effect does not grant you concealment.

Influence: While influenced by Tenebrous, you are filled with a sense of detachment and an aching feeling of loss and abandonment. Tenebrous requires that you never be the first to act in combat. If your initiative check result is the highest, you must delay until someone else takes a turn.

Granted Abilities: Tenebrous grants you power over undead and shadows. He gives you the ability to chill your foes.

Deeper Darkness: You can cloak an area in shadows as though using the deeper darkness spell (caster level equals your effective binder level), with the following exceptions. The effect is always centered on you, it has an unlimited duration, and you can shift the range of the emanation (within the normal range) up or down 10 feet as a move action. You can suppress or activate this ability as a standard action.

See in Darkness: You can see perfectly through darkness of any kind, even that created by a deeper darkness spell (or your deeper darkness ability).

Touch of the Void: As a swift action, you can charge a melee attack or melee touch attack with cold energy. Your next melee attack deals an extra 1d8 points of cold damage, plus 1d8 points of cold damage for every four effective binder levels beyond 7th that you possess. When you attain an effective binder level of 11th, you can charge your weapon for an entire round. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Turn/Rebuke Undead: You can turn or rebuke undead as a cleric of your effective binder level. As with a cleric, you turn if you are good and rebuke if you are evil. If you are neutral, you choose whether to turn or rebuke upon binding with Tenebrous and cannot later change your mind. If you have the ability to turn or rebuke undead from other classes, your levels in those classes stack with your effective binder level for the purpose of determining your turning ability. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Vessel of Emptiness: You can use the flicker shadow magic mystery as a supernatural ability once per day. At 13th level, you can use this ability two times per day, and at 19th level, you can use it three times per day.

TKHALUULJIN, THE CEPHALOPOCALYPSE

Vestige Level: Epic

Binding DC: —

Special Requirement: No

A gargantuan alien squidlike entity, Tkhaluuljin traveled the planes, devouring whatever blocked its path. It was not malevolent; rather, it was the embodiment of pure hunger - the insatiable need to consume all. When you bind Tkhaluuljin, you project an aura of madness, gain exceptional abilities of flight, can stun enemies, and can summon a sphere of annihilation.

Legend: No one knows where Tkhaluuljin came from. In the language of the gith, its name roughly translates as "living armageddon." Scholars of planar lore believe that it may have emerged from some sort of rift or black hole and that it is a being of pure nihilism that serves no purpose beyond indiscriminate destruction.

When Tkhaluuljin attempted to devour the land known as Gaia, it had no expectation that this land would be any different than the others. It never really thought about what it was eating. Then, as it devoured that land, it could no longer control its flight, so it plummeted into the ocean where it was torn apart from within. When it finally exploded in a supernova, it destroyed everything within hundreds of miles.

Manifestation: When Tkhaluuljin manifests, a black rift opens in the air, absorbing all light in the area. All the matter in the area - trees, rocks, plants, animals, and even people - appears to get sucked into the portal. A strange slurping sound begins, followed by a flash of dark magenta light. When the light dissipates, the tentacle-mawed head of an enormous squidlike creature emerges, followed by a bulbous translucent body. As the rear half of the creature emerges from the rift, dark magenta light flashes again. When the light dissipates, you see the rift hurtling toward you, imbuing you with the essence of destruction.

Sign: Your veins appear spidery and more pronounced, emitting a pulsing magenta light.

Influence: You can never pass up the opportunity to eat. This does not require you to eat food that you would normally consider inedible, but you must consume 5 times the amount of food you would normally eat when not bound to Tkhaluuljin.

Granted Abilities: While bound to Tkhaluuljin, you can project an aura of madness, fly with incredible speed and accuracy, release a blast of stunning energy, and summon a dreaded sphere of annihilation.

Aura of Madness: As a standard action, you can project a 10-foot aura that drives others mad. All living creatures who pass within the aura must make a Will save or become confused for 1 round per 5 caster levels you possess. A creature that makes its saving throw cannot be affected by this power for 24 hours (though that creature can still be affected by another binder's use of this power or by other forms of confusion). This is a mind-affecting effect. You can suppress this ability as a standard action. If you suppress this ability, you must wait 5 rounds before you reactivate it.

Flight of the Alien: You can fly extremely fast and with perfect accuracy, gaining a fly speed of 150 feet with perfect maneuverability. You also gain the Flyby Attack, Hover, and Wingover bonus feats. Your flight is graceful, but alien since it consists of a series of bizarre angles and undulating arcs.

Mind Blast: You can release a 120-foot-cone mind blast effect. Anyone caught in the cone must succeed on a Will save or be stunned for 12 rounds. You must wait 5 rounds between uses of this ability.

Sphere of Annihilation: You can summon a sphere of annihilation as a full-round action. You can use it for a total number of rounds per day equal to your effective binder level, though these need not be consecutive. You can use your Charisma modifier on your control check in place of your Intelligence modifier if you wish. You can use a talisman of the sphere to augment your abilities as normal (and the sphere doubles your Charisma modifier instead of your Intelligence modifier should you choose to use Charisma for control checks). You must still make control checks to control the sphere as normal though you are immune to the effects of a sphere you summon. This does not protect you from spheres summoned by others. If you summon the sphere, you cannot summon it again for 5 rounds (regardless of the number of rounds you used it).

THE TRIAD

Vestige Level: 6th

Binding DC: 26

Special Requirement: Yes

The Triad is a gestalt of three forgotten gods of a lost civilization of mystics. They give binders access to both martial abilities and lore-seeking traits.

Legend: Once long ago, a civilization of psionic mystics may have been the genesis of much of the known psionic knowledge. Their legacy spanned multiple worlds and planes due to their "glittering portals" that allowed instantaneous travel from city to city and plane to plane. Unfortunately, the very gates that allowed them to rise to greatness also doomed them to darkness. The gates functioned by passing through the Plane of Shadow and, over time, the shadows leaked into the gate and then into the travelers. Eventually, darkness consumed the mystics' cities one by one, and many of the mystics themselves became shades. Even the gods of the mystics started to be consumed by shadow.

Gorn, the god of knowledge; Rujsha, the goddess of justice; and Mintar, the god of battle, were the last three gods of the mystics, and they found themselves losing all their worshipers to shadows. When the shadows started pulling at them, they decided they had only one way to save themselves. They combined their essence into one being, and while it saved them from the shadows, it condemned them to existence as a vestige.

Special Requirement: The Triad will not bind with someone with any connection to the Plane of Shadow, whether that's by feat, class abilities, or any other association.

Manifestation: A glowing purple jade statue rises from the seal. As it rotates, it changes form from a young man with spectacles reading a book (Gorn), to a motherly woman with her eyes covered by bandages (Rujsha), to a man in armor holding his sword in a salute (Mintar). They continue each other's sentences, but the style of their speech does change with who is speaking (see Influence).

Sign: Your facial features alter slightly each hour you are bound to the Triad; they shift from a young man's inquisitive face to a woman's concerned features to a bearded masculine face and back again.

Influence: Your mental aspect shifts to match the face that is currently your sign. As Gorn, you are inquisitive and use many words - some would say too many. As Rujsha, you are caring and motherly, speaking to others as if they were children. As Mintar, you are honor-bound and slightly combative in manner. When your path crosses that of one influenced by shadow, the gestalt insists that you either face that being first when in combat or avoid that being (and any effects or assistance the being may wish to provide) outside of combat.

Granted Abilities: While bound to the Triad, you gain a range of abilities that represents the essence of their former separate beings.

Psionic Boon: You gain 15 power points when you bind to the Triad. These are added to your pool of power if you already possess psionic power, or they create a pool and you become a psionic creature for the duration of this binding.

Gorn's Knowledge:

Call to Mind: You gain access to the psionic power call to mind for the duration of the binding. You may manifest the power as a psion would and as if it is a power known by you. You may augment it as a psion normally could, substituting your effective binder level in place of manifester level.

Psicraft Bonus: You gain a +5 bonus on Psicraft checks, and you can make Psicraft checks as if you were trained, even if you have no ranks in that skill.

Bardic Knowledge: You can use bardic knowledge as if you were a bard, but to determine your bonus, use your effective binder level instead of your bard level. Any level-based bonuses for bardic knowleged that are gained from other sources stack with the bonus gained from effective binder level.

Rujsha's Justice:

Empathy: You gain access to the psionic power empathy for the duration of the binding. You may manifest the power as a psion would and as if it is a power known by you. You may augment it as a psion normally could, substituting your effective binder level in place of manifester level.

Diplomacy Bonus: You gain a +5 bonus on Diplomacy checks.

Smite Evil: Three times per day, you can attempt to smite an evil creature with a single melee attack. You add your Charisma bonus (if any) to the attack roll and deal 1 extra point of damage per effective binder level. If you accidentally smite a creature that is not evil, the attempt has no effect. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Mintar's Honor:

Detect Hostile Intent: You gain access to the psionic power detect hostile intent for the duration of the binding. You may manifest the power as a psion would and as if it is a power known by you. You may augment it as a psion normally could, substituting your effective binder level in place of manifester level.

Sense Motive Bonus: You gain a +5 bonus on Sense Motive checks.

Weapon Proficiency: You gain proficiency in all simple, martial, and exotic weapons.

VANUS, THE REVILED ONE

Vestige Level: 6th

Binding DC: 29

Special Requirement: Yes

Hated out of proportion for his sins, the smiling Vanus remains an enigma to binders. Vanus provides binders with the ability to frighten and punish weaker foes, hear evil afoot with uncanny perception, and free allies from constraints.

Legend: Legend remembers Vanus by many epithets: the Betrayer, the Craven One, the Foul Prince, the Maggot, the Fearmonger, and even the Hellbringer. Binders simply call him the Reviled One. The hatred traditionally heaped upon Vanus seems out of proportion to his faults, a mystery that binders have yet to unravel.

The story of Vanus begins in a grand kingdom, a peaceful empire that existed long before the current age. Human legend ascribes the kingdom to dwarves, while the dwarven story of Vanus claims elves to be that realm's rulers. Elven mythology lays no claim to Vanus, relating instead that the kingdom belonged to a still more ancient race now largely gone from the world, similar to titans. Despite this difference and other variations, the basics of the tale remain the same.

The ancient kingdom prospered in peace for years because of the evil it kept trapped at it heart. Before the kingdom existed, the founders of that great nation fought a terrible battle against a powerful fiend (such as a balor or pit fiend). Although they could not kill their enemy, they did manage to trap it beneath the earth. To be certain they could keep their foe in check, they built a castle upon that unholy ground. That castle became the capitol of their kingdom.

While goodness flowed from that fortress, evil lingered there, ever watchful, always waiting. The leaders of the country posted a continual guard on the dungeon the fiend remained trapped within, wary of any attempt to escape. For centuries it remained thus, until the fateful night Vanus took over as guardian.

Vanus was a vain prince of the realm, selfish and obsessed with frivolity. To punish the prince for an embarrassment his petulance caused, the king commanded Vanus to serve with the guards of the dungeon during the party to celebrate the monarch's birthday. Deep in the dark and clammy halls, Vanus determined to ignore the chatter of the guards and strained to hear the noise of the celebration above. He could hear little, just the distant tones of music punctuated by laughter. As he listened, the sound of one voice became clearer. A deep and commanding speaker was saying something Vanus could not quite discern. As Vanus neared the door to the fiend's prison, the voice became even clearer, and Vanus thus moved past the guards and closed the distance to the ancient portal.

When Vanus put his ear to the door, he heard a voice unlike any other, and what it told him terrified him. Vanus ran from the dungeon screaming that the fiend was escaping. The guards, knowing they were not like the heroes of old, and seeing the prince of the realm in panic, also fled. The prince ran through the party, ranting about their coming doom, and soon the whole castle was being evacuated.

Panic spread across the countryside, and the people fought with one another in their haste to escape. Battles erupted between families and towns, and the citizen of that ancient kingdom left their lands a war-torn ruin. In the conflicts that followed, the people forgot their original cause for leaving and focused on their new enmity. The kingdom dissolved, the castle fell into ruin, and the fiend laughed in its prison.

Some legends say that the fiend then freed itself, and the gods cursed Vanus for his gullibility and cowardice. Others say that Vanus returned and freed the fiend, and the gods cursed him for this evil. Still other legends claim that Vanus became the fomenter of wars and breeder of terror, assuming the fiend's place in the cosmos, becoming imprisoned by his fears even as the fiend's evil spread beyond the walls of the dungeon.

Special Requirement: Vanus will not appear before a binder if his seal is drawn within sight of a doorway or window of any kind. If such apertures can be hidden from view, Vanus submits to being summoned, but the moment Vanus sees a door or window, he shrieks and vanishes in a gout of blue flame. Should the binding attempt be aborted in this manner, Vanus will not appear before the binder for three days.

Manifestation: Vanus appears in his seal as though stepping down from a carriage not visible to the binder. He always takes the form of a handsome male member of the binder's race, dressed in fine clothing as a person of wealth and privilege. Vanus smiles and bows low to his summoner, but when he rises, his visage will have changed. Vanus then appears demonic, with six black horns growing from his face, and his skin covered in dark boils that swim with maggots. Blood wells up in his eyes like tears and pours down his smiling face to where he licks his lips. In this form, Vanus again bows. When he rises once more, he retains his demonic body and awaits his summoner's pleasure.

Sign: When a binder makes a pact with the Reviled One, a boil appears on his body. Within the ruddy fluid in this boil swims a maggot. Should the boil be broken, the maggot slides swiftly across the binder's body, eluding any attempt to catch it, and digs again beneath the skin. Before the original boil can scab over, another grows and the maggot appears within. Only by ending the pact with Vanus can the binder be rid of the foul insect and the disgusting homes it makes for itself.

Influence: Under the influence of Vanus, you take every opportunity to revel. Even small victories seem like cause for grand celebrations, and if you're happy, you want everyone around to share your joy. If you see others in the act of celebration, you must join in. If you achieve victory in combat, you must immediately spend a full-round action crowing about your triumph.

Granted Abilities: Vanus grants you tremendous hearing, the ability to foment fear by your presence alone, skill at fighting foes weaker than yourself, and the power to free allies from imprisonment.

Fear Aura: Enemies that you are aware of who come within 10 feet must succeed at a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 effective binder level + Cha modifier). Those who fail are either shaken or frightened; you decide which for each. Foes remain shaken or frightened for a number of rounds equal to half your binder level. Creatures that fail the save must roll again if they again come within 10 feet after the duration expires, but not before. A creature that makes its save against this ability need not make another save for 24 hours. This is a mindaffecting fear effect.

Free Ally: You may designate any ally within 5 feet per binder level to gain the benefits of the freedom of movement spell or the gaseous form spell. The ally may also take an immediate move action that it can only use to move (and not to draw a weapon, etc.). The benefits the ally gains apply only during your turn. Thus, at the end of your turn, the ally reverts to its natural form. You can instead use this ability to free a creature from an imprisonment spell or Halphax's imprison ability if you witnessed its imprisonment. You cannot use this ability on yourself. Once you have used this ability you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Noble Disdain: When attacking a foe of fewer Hit Dice than yourself with a ranged or melee weapon, you deal +1d6 points of damage.

Vanus's Ears: Being bound to Vanus grants you a +5 bonus on Listen checks. This bonus increases to +10 if the creature making the noise is evil.

ZAGAN, DUKE OF DISAPPOINTMENT

Vestige Level: 6th

Binding DC: 25

Special Requirement: Yes

On the cusp of deification, Zagan lost all he had worked for. As a vestige, he offers his summoners a snake's sense of smell, the power to cause an enemy flee his presence, the ability to immobilize an opponent, and more effective combat abilities against snakes and their ilk.

Legend: When dwarves had yet to tunnel into their mountains and elves first walked beneath the boughs of trees, Zagan ruled over thousands. A lord in a great yuan-ti empire, he had power over hundreds of his own kind, who in turn controlled the lives of thousands of humanoid slaves. Zagan built himself up as a god to these slaves, using the yuan-ti as his emissaries to communicate with the uneducated masses over which he held sway.

Over time, Zagan's power became so great that he actually aspired to become a god. He sought and finally discovered the means to his goal: a grand ceremony wherein he and his yuan-ti would gather together all his worshipers and slay them. At the appointed hour on the appointed night, Zagan collected all his people for a celebration of his glory. He could feel their worship empowering him, and with each passing minute he gained strength and felt his awareness widening. Then Zagan rang the gong that signaled the attack, and he and his yuan-ti servants fell upon the slaves, slaying them with wild abandon. At first Zagan thought it glorious, but then he felt his new powers begin to wane. With each life he crushed, he felt a bit more mortal.

Zagan attempted to call off the ceremony, but in the chaos of the slaughter, the other yuan-ti could not hear him. Suddenly, a sword pierced Zagan's chest from behind. As he looked down at the bloody blade, a sibilant voice whispered in his ear, "The World Serpent wishes you well." A cleric among his own people had tricked Zagan into ruining his chances at godhood on the very eve of his apotheosis. At a point somewhere between godhood and mortality, Zagan passed on into the void.

Special Requirement: You must kowtow before Zagan's seal, prostrating yourself and addressing him as a deity.

Manifestation: When Zagan begins to manifest, several snakes appear in a heap in his seal. The snakes then slither apart and rise upright along the lines of the seal. Then the crown of a head appears, with baleful eyes glowering. An ogrelike head slowly reveals itself, and after another moment, shoulders and arms appear, to which the snakes are attached. Zagan then uses his powerful arms to pull the rest of his body from the ground, revealing a long, serpentine form instead of legs. He reaches toward his summoner hungrily, his mouth gaping open in a feral grin, but the snakes on his body turn toward him and hiss, causing him to flinch backward. The brooding Zagan then addresses his summoner while calming the snakes. Binder scholars say that the snakes on his body are his most loyal lieutenants, who were killed on the night of Zagan's murder and dragged with his soul into a vestige's existence.

Sign: You gain a lisp and can't help but speak in a sibilant manner.

Influence: While influenced by Zagan, you become domineering and aggressive. Zagan requires that you slay any snake or snakelike being you meet, and deface any representations of snakes or snakelike beings other than Zagan that you find.

Granted Abilities: Zagan grants you a snake's ability to detect creatures by scent, the ability to grapple and constrict as a snake, increased combat ability against snakes and their cousins, and the power to cause your foes to avoid your mere presence.

Aversion: As a standard action, you can create a compulsion effect targeting any creature within 30 feet. The target must succeed on a Will save or gain an aversion to you, snakes, and yuan-ti for 5 rounds. An affected creature must stay at least 20 feet away from you or any snake or yuan-ti, alive or dead; if already within 20 feet, the target moves away. Any subject unable to move away or attacked by you, a snake, or a yuan-ti is overcome with revulsion. This revulsion reduces the creature's Dexterity score by 4 points until the effect wears off or the subject is no longer within 20 feet of you. This ability is otherwise similar to the antipathy spell, with a caster level equal to your effective binder level. Aversion is a mind-affecting compulsion ability. When you use this power, a ghostly image of Zagan manifests around your body and speaks your command with you before vanishing. After using this ability, you must wait 5 rounds before using it again.

Improved Grapple: You gain the benefit of the Improved Grapple feat. In addition, you are considered to be of Large size for the purpose of making grapple checks, and damage you deal with a successful grapple check to a grappled foe is lethal damage.

Scent: You gain the scent special quality.

Constrict: You gain a giant constrictor's ability to crush the life from its prey. You deal damage equal to 1d8 + 1-1/2 × your Str modifier with a successful grapple check, in addition to your normal unarmed damage (typically 1d3 + Str modifier for a Medium humanoid and 1d2 + Str modifier for a Small humanoid).

Snake Bane: Zagan's hatred for snakes, yuan-ti, and all snake-like creatures gives you improved combat prowess against their kind. You gain a +2 bonus on melee attacks against snakes, snakelike creatures (such as nagas or yuan-ti), or creatures with a natural poison attack, and you deal an extra 2d6 points of damage against such foes when making melee attacks. This damage also applies when you make a grapple check to deal damage against a snake or snakelike enemy, in addition to dealing your normal unarmed damage and your constrict damage.

ZCERYLL, THE STAR SPAWN

Vestige Level: 6th

Binding DC: 25

Special Requirement: No

Zceryll was a mortal sorceress who communed with alien powers from the far realm. She became obsessed with immortality, seeking out the alien beings in the hopes of learning their eternal secrets. When she died, she became a hideously twisted vestige, forever seeking to re-enter the Realms via numerous artifacts she dispersed across the world. Zceryll grants you the ability to transform your body and mind into an alien form, granting you telepathy, resistance to effects related to insanity, the ability to summon pseudonatural creatures, and the power to unleash bolts of pure madness.

Legend: Thousands of years ago, an alienist sorceress known as Zceryll learned bizarre powers in a fight to defend herself against oppression. She was promised untold power by strange, alien beings known as starspawn from beyond the world. All she had to do was to create portals to summon them.

Zceryll created the portals and summoned the star spawn to her aid. She fought back against her oppressors, finding a newfound purpose in her life. She traveled the world, creating many portals for her masters and items of her own devising.

Zceryll was unaware of the slow corruptive effect the star spawn had on her. By the time she realized something was wrong, it was too late to change. Eventually, her body became so suffused with alien power that she became one of them. When her life came to an end, she was a twisted and bitter old hag. She felt she had accomplished nothing and became obsessed with youth. When her time was up, her soul vanished into the far realms, and she became a vestige.

As a vestige, Zceryll, now a phantom twisted alien entity, seeks to exert as much influence over the Realms as possible. She has whispered clues to those who bind her in an effort to guide them to the location of artifacts and items she created, such as the bone scepter of Zceryll (in the Well of Dragons), the star-spawn scepter, the aberrant spheres, the black blood kaleidoscope, and the rod of Taupanga.

Manifestation: The area in and around the seal fills with thousands of tiny circular mirrors. A beautiful human woman is reflected in all of the mirrors, yet something is off about her features. After a few seconds, a scream is carried on the air and the image of the woman changes into a hideous mass of writhing tentacles. The mirrors then shatter, covering the floor with beautiful but alien patterns of glass that hurt the mind and cause the nose, mouth, eyes, and orifices to bleed black blood.

Sign: Your eyes appear as circular mirrors. In your peripheral vision, all other living creatures appear twisted, covered in tentacles, extra eyes, and vestigial organs.

Influence: Never admit that you need help or that you are weaker than anyone else. Treat those that are weaker than you with scorn and contempt, especially young women and spontaneous spellcasters.

Granted Abilities: While bound to Zceryll, your body and mind become alien, allowing you to channel the power of the star spawn in a variety of ways.

Alien form: While bound to Zceryll, you gain the pseudonatural template.

Alien Mind: Your mind is alien and does not work like that of a normal mortal. You are immune to confusion, insanity, and weird spells. In addition, you receive a +1 bonus per four binder levels on saving throws against mind-affecting effects.

Bolts of Madness: You can fire a ray that dazes an opponent for 1d3 rounds. You must succeed on a ranged touch attack with a range of 100 ft. + 10 ft./binder level. A successful Will save negates the effect. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Summon Alien: You can summon any creature from the summon monster list that a sorcerer of your level could summon. Any creature you summon with this ability gains the pseudonatural template. Thus, at 10th level you could summon any creature from the summon monster I-V list. When you reach 14th level, you can summon any creature from the summon monster I-VII list. You can only summon creatures that can be affected by the pseudonatural template. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Telepathy: You gain the telepathy ability with a range of 100 feet and the Mindsight feat.

ZURIEL, THE BRONZE GOD

Vestige Level: Epic

Binding DC: —

Special Requirement: Yes

Zuriel was a just deity of war who sacrificed his life and divinity in vain when githyanki invaded his land. Zuriel grants you the ability to augment your fighting prowess, employ powerful force effects with the speed of thought, fortify your pacts, and absorb damage suffered by allies.

Legend: Zuriel was the deity of just and reasoned war, a stalwart force that spoke for and defended the people of his land. When the githyanki invaded the land after reawakening long-dormant portals, Zuriel organized the defensive front. During the war, thousands of citizens and several gods perished under the assault of the elder evils, but it was not enough. Zuriel was the last defense between the innocent citizens and slavery to the Lich Queen. He sacrificed his divinity and his life to create a force field that would block the invaders, but during the ritual, he was overcome by the githyanki and the land was taken. It was too late to halt the ritual, and his life force dissipated into the ether. Since his death and dissolution, he has been a frustrated and resentful vestige, but he still possesses a basic sense of decency and kindness. This paradox carries to any who bind him.

Special Requirement: You cannot bind Zuriel if you are evil-aligned.

Manifestation: When Zuriel manifests, a 10-foot-tall, bronze-skinned, male figure with a perfect, athletic body stands before you. He wears an expression of proud dignity, as if he is ready for some momentous occasion. Suddenly, he looks up, seeing images of githyanki riding yrthaks, and screams. The bronze covering his body shatters, revealing an athletic mortal, his heart pierced by a githyanki arrow. He leans forward and whispers in your ear, "Do not let the city fall," then topples over dead.

Sign: Your skin takes on a bronze sheen, your muscles expand and tighten, you appear more athletic overall, and your posture changes as you hold your carriage proud and upright.

Influence: You must always intercede on the behalf of innocents when their lives are threatened. You also must slay githyanki on sight and hunt them down whenever the opportunity presents itself. You never retreat from a fight if you feel that leaving it would endanger innocents.

Granted Abilities: When you bind Zuriel, you can become a skilled warrior, employ powerful force effects, enhance your existing pacts, and absorb the wounds of your allies.

Bronze Body: You can employ a Tenser's transformation effect for a number of rounds per day equal to your effective binder level. Activating this ability requires a swift action that can be spent only at the beginning of your turn before you do anything else. You can split the duration into multiple uses, however you desire. You can end the effect as a swift action that must be spent at the beginning of your turn before you do anything else. If you end this effect, you must wait 5 rounds before beginning it again.

Forceful Speed of Thought: You can create several powerful force effects with the speed of thought. You can use a quickened empowered maximized magic missile, quickened wall of force, or quickened force cage as the spells of the same names. If you use this ability, you must wait 5 rounds before using it again. You can only have one of these effects in place at a time. For example, if you have employed a wall of force, you can't use the other two abilities until the spell's duration elapses or you have dismissed its effect. You cannot use this ability while under the effects of the bronze body ability.

Pact Fortification: Zuriel intensifies the bonds you've forged when making pacts. All benefits you receive from pact augmentation abilities are doubled. Thus, if you have selected +5 hit points three times, you receive +30 extra hit points. If you have taken DR 5/- (by selecting DR 1/- five times), you receive DR 10/-.

Ultimate Sacrifice: You can absorb the wounds suffered by an ally. As an immediate action, you can take all damage suffered by a single willing creature from one attack, spell, power, or ability. You suffer all the damage and your ally is unharmed. You must be able to see the ally, but gain no special information about the nature of the attack or how much damage it has caused. You can employ this power even if the attack would kill you.