Level Up (A5E) ENterplanetary DimENsions: Apocalyptic Ambitio *AND* Playtest Survey!

Avail yourself of the last locale in ENterplanetary DimENsions, a place perhaps a touch immodest for its placement: Apocalyptic Ambitio!

To take the playtest survey please click here.


Illustration by Ede Laszlo

Although it is a place of beauty and splendor matched by few others a sinister quiet pervades the plane of Ambitio. The unnatural stillness was home to resplendent melodies and peerless artwork fawned over by divine denizens long ago, but doom has turned it into a graveyard for gods. Ambient magic remains and though sucked dry of life it persists, its grand manors and cities slowly crumbling away under the rigors of time. Travelers that find their way here are quick to mistake it as a dead world—yet things still stir in the shadows of its ruins, and any that tarry too long meet the same fate as the destroyed deities that once dwelled here when their time in mortal realms came to an end.

There are still a few gods eluding their demise but Ambitio belongs to the monsters that have claimed it as their own. Months after mind-controlling predators found this plane the weakened deities they found were quick to perish, and then the horrors of the khalkoi rapidly spread amongst pockets of resistance until only those in solitude survived. Now it is their domain entirely, used to spawn more of their kind as they seek out new hunting grounds to sate their thirst for divinity.

Divine Domain​

It is rare for a deity to truly die. As their faiths diminish and their worshipers dwindle divine beings are reduced into forgotten gods, the luckiest finding their way to an afterlife of reverie in Ambitio (others reduced to madness, evil, or desperate to reclaim what they’ve lost). For time immemorial this realm served its purpose nobly—and then the khalkoi came, aided by shadowy allies that made repelling the invasion impossible. They fed with abandon until there was nothing to resist or entice them, and the deities that survive (few as they are) do so in hiding from everlasting pursuit. Sometimes they break the planar veils to reach out for help from cults that still chant their names, but these incursions are typically detected by a khalkos eager for new hosts and it is unusual for new arrivals to find something other than a lethal trap.

Khalkoi Kingdom​

The doom of this realm did not initially come from the khalkoi that infest it now however, but through a terrible alliance wrought by the nemeses of destiny-tending fateholders. Using their talents for trickery the shadowy arachnids infiltrated the social circles of the carefree deities, gradually accruing a vast trove of knowledge regarding where these gods dwelt, hid, rested. Seeing a future where their enemies would suffer greatly, the shadowspinners offered a trade to the khalkos Nebradakk (see To Save A Kingdom). In exchange for a place ripe with the divine energies its kind craves, the khalkoi would fashion a horrifying sickness to bring ruination to fateholders.

Ever self-serving the planar predators utilized foul magics to breed the first ravel larva, a creature able to not only kill a fateholder but to host within the body afterward creating an unraveled. After the parasite has done its fell work the resulting zombie is compelled to construct a cortex nest, joining the nearest of its undead kin (often in Ambitio) to help build the khalkoi’s enormous spawning hives. No scholar alive or dead has ever entered one of these gruesome edifices, but what research has survived surmises that they’re used for more than propagation—they are planar ports that bridge far away realms, landing stages to invade ever more worlds.

Ravel Larvae​

From afar these spiteful creatures resemble cyan wasps as big as a gnome’s thumb. Closer examination reveals their khalkos-origins, the blue of their bodies emitted by the ethereal energies instilled in their bodies. Shadowspinners and their malevolent servants seed ravel larvae where their nemeses dwell or are known to frequent. A ravel larva’s sole purpose is to find and burrow itself into a fateholder, forcing its way through the body until it reaches the skull. Once there the parasite perverts both the arachnid’s powers and purpose, merging into a zombified unraveled destined to serve the khalkoi. When presented with other prey (such as adventurers) ravel larva attach themselves then attempt to guide their imperfect hosts towards fates that will bring them closer to what they were wrought to crave.

Ravel Larva Challenge 1​

Tiny aberration 200 XP
AC 15
HP 36 (8d4+16; bloodied 18)
Speed 15 ft., fly 40 ft.
Proficiency +2; Maneuver DC 15
Saving Throws Con +3, Wis +4
Skills Perception +4
Damage Vulnerabilities psychic
Damage Resistances cold, fire
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages —

Ethereal Sight. The ravel larva can see into both the Material Plane and Ethereal Plane.

Incorporeal. The ravel larva can move through creatures and objects. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.

Nondetection. The ravel larva is hidden from divination magic and cannot be perceived by magical scrying sensors.


ACTIONS
Proboscis. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 1 piercing damage, and the ravel larva attaches to the target. A creature can use an action to detach it, and it can detach itself as a bonus action.

Charming Sting. Melee Spell Attack: +4 to hit, reach 0 ft., one creature the ravel larva is attached to. Hit: The creature becomes charmed to the ravel larva (as the charm monster spell; save DC 12) until it is no longer attached.

Ethereal Jaunt. The ravel larva magically shifts from the Material Plane to the Ethereal Plane or vice versa. If it wishes, it can be visible to creatures on one plane while on the other.

Fateful Burrow. If the ravel larva is attached to a fateholder it digs down into the arachnid’s body dealing 4 (1d8) ongoing damage. This ongoing damage continues for 10 (2d6) rounds as the ravel larva burrows towards the fateholder’s skull, at which point the fateholder and ravel larva immediately die only to rise again as a joined unraveled 1 minute later. The ravel larva can be removed before killing its host by making a Medicine check (DC 10 + 1 per round of ongoing damage) using a weapon that deals piercing damage, or with disadvantage if using a weapon that deals slashing damage.

Unraveled​

Hated by fateholders even more than their shadowy nemeses and other agents of chaos, these horrors are made from the husks of their dead in a cruel parody of how they forge their planefaring vessels. While these undead are devoid of the vast intellects they had in life they still possess a dangerous cunning, the hunting instincts of an arachnid expanded to encompass all the magical realms around it. It’s already too late to avoid an unraveled once it senses an intruder or prey, its many eyes deprived of power making it all the more aware—it rapidly moves to murder and consume whatever living things it can find, stopped only by the strange scents employed by the khalkoi that control them.

Unraveled Challenge 8​

Large undead 3,900 XP
AC 15 (natural armor)
HP 120 (16d10+32; bloodied 60)
Speed 35 ft., climb 35 ft.
Proficiency +3; Maneuver DC 17
Saving Throws Dex +5, Int –1
Skills Perception +1 (+1d8), Stealth +5
Damage Vulnerabilities psychic
Damage Resistances cold, fire, necrotic
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities charmed, fatigue, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned, strife
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 20
Languages —

All-Around Vision. The unraveled cannot be surprised. In addition, it has advantage on sight-based Perception checks and on saving throws against being blinded.

Ethereal Sight. The unraveled can see into both the Material Plane and Ethereal Plane.

Nondetection. The unraveled is hidden from divination magic and cannot be perceived by magical scrying sensors.

Spider Climb. The unraveled can use its climb speed even on difficult surfaces and upside down on ceilings.

Turn Resistance. The unraveled has advantage on saving throws against any effect that turns undead.

Undead Fortitude (1/Day). If the unraveled is reduced to 0 hit points by damage that isn’t psychic or from a critical hit, it’s instead reduced to 1 hit point, falls prone, and is stunned until the end of its next turn, appearing to be dead.

Undead Nature. An unraveled doesn’t require air, sustenance, or sleep.

Web Walker. The unraveled ignores movement restrictions imposed by webs.


ACTIONS
Multiattack. The unraveled attacks once with its bite and twice with its claws.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d6+6) slashing damage plus 14 (4d6) poison damage, and the target must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, it is infected with fractured rift disorder.

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (1d8+6) piercing damage.

Ethereal Jaunt (Recharge 6). The unraveled magically shifts from the Material Plane to the Ethereal Plane or vice versa. The unraveled is visible to creatures on one plane while on the other.

Ethereal Web (Recharge 6). The unraveled releases ethereal silk in a 60-foot cone like a shadowspinner. The area is filled with ethereal webs.


BONUS ACTIONS
Echo of Fate (3/Day). The unraveled’s twisted psyche spies through possible futures and it gains advantage on its next attack roll.

Incorporeal Hop (Recharge 6). The unraveled moves up to 15 feet through creatures and objects without provoking opportunity attacks. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.

Peculiar Planar Properties​

The dead deities that dwelt in Ambitio instilled magic throughout the realm that has left it wondrous even in its abandonment.

Arcane Instability​

Depending on the exact nature of how the many forgotten gods were slain in Ambitio their death throes can have curious effects. The endless plummet, god corpse, gravitic distortion field (see Darakoa), hallowed ground, malfunctioning planar portal, spontaneous portal feedback (see Mergia), sunspots, and wild magic zone exploration challenges are extremely likely to occur while journeying through this realm.

Cycling Magic​

Ambient magic suffuses both the soil and sky. With a DC 20 Investigation or Perception check a creature can see an object’s magical aura without the need of spells.
In addition, the first time counterspell successfully interrupts a spellcaster on a turn, the spellcaster can use its reaction to reshape the fraying magic and cast another spell with the same casting time as the original spell. This new spell can be cast at a spell slot level equal to the original spell slot + 1, but must be a different spell than the original spell. This does not alter the spell slot used by the spellcaster.

Infusing Enchantments​

The whims of magic are tamer in Ambitio than other planes and reduce the time required for crafting magic items by half.

Natural Splendor​

Every day is filled with sunshine, gusts are pleasant breezes, and nature is always at ease. Unless the Narrator decides otherwise there are no weather exploration challenges in Ambitio.

Thoughtful Flight​

Adventurers of 5th level or higher and creatures of CR 5 or higher gain a fly speed of 30 feet while in Ambitio.