STAR-LORE ADEPT
Arcane magic is rare and perilous in Thule. Sorcery, theurgy, and wizardry are not things that should be studied by humans. They belong to earlier ages, when prehuman races such as serpentmen, rakshasas, genies, and other evil creatures dabbled in arcane power.
But these grim and frightening arts pale in comparison to the sort of magic that you dare to study. You have discarded the earthly black arts in favor of alien teachings millions of years older, the dark wisdom of terrible races from beyond the stars. Perhaps you seek the power to protect the world from such unearthly threats—or perhaps you seek to harness their power for your own selfish purposes.
No mortal mind, no matter how strong or well-de- fended, can withstand contact with such lore and remain completely undamaged. Your sanity hangs by a thread, and in fact you may have snapped already. But your familiarity with Things That Should Not Be means that when you do encounter unearthly horror, you are already inured to it. Nightgaunts, mi-go, elder things—these present no great shock to you. Armed with the magic and knowledge of alien races, you seek to turn their own powers against them.
Most Thuleans fear and dread any hint of contact with the powers beyond the Earth. There are very few mages who have ever dared to explore the mystic traditions of distant stars, and most of those individuals came to bad ends. You most likely began to study this lore by discovering the notes or writings of one of these individuals, which means you are a scholar from one of the civilized realms with access to occult libraries or hidden texts. Naturally, you must have some foundation in the mystic arts to even begin to decipher any such materials that come into your possession.
Key Identity: Human (Atlantean, Kalay), elf, sorcerer, wizard.
STAR-LORE ADEPT BENEFITS
As might be expected, you are a master of the strangest and most esoteric lore imaginable. You are familiar with languages no human should know, and know monstrous truths that would send lesser minds reeling in fear and terror. Magic derived from the lore of star-beings can be exceptionally hard for earthly creatures to resist, giving you a powerful advantage over most other spellcasters. While you never develop any wide reputation in the human world, you acquire knowledge of potent names and signs as your studies advance. By speaking or drawing these powerful names, you can sometimes command the aid of beings that would otherwise destroy you.
STAR-LORE ADEPTS IN THE WORLD
Fortunately, almost no one realizes what you are really up to. People view you as simply one more eccentric mage, and treat you as they would treat any sorcerer or wizard who appears to be powerful and perhaps a little unstable. If the true nature of your power were to become widely known, the priests of the Nine and the Guardians of the Sign would certainly seek to destroy you.
PERSONALIZING THE STAR-LORE ADEPT
Each star-lore adept is unique. There is no school or tradition of elder race magic widely practiced in Thule, so each student of star-lore follows his or her own path to power.
Cultist of the Crawling Chaos: Cults dedicated to the worship of the Great Old Ones are scattered throughout Thule. You belong to one of these hidden cabals that worship Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos. In exchange for your adoration, Nyarlathotep provides mystic revelations and secrets of advanced science. What led you to join the cult in the first place? Do you still seek enlightenment and power, or have you turned away from the Black Pharaoh?
The Most Ancient: You seek to win the patronage of the mysterious being known as Tawil at’Umr, the Most Ancient, the Prolonged of Life. Over the centuries the boldest and most skillful masters of the arcane arts have sworn allegiance to this being, which is an avatar or servant of Yog-Sothoth and a mighty sorcerer. The Most Ancient grants great power and a vastly extended lifespan to those it favors, but few indeed have found their way to its silver halls and fewer still survive the experience.
Pnakotic Scholar: You possess a metallic scroll or tablet marked with the alien hieroglyphs of the Pnakotic Manuscripts. Terrible secrets of power are locked in its weird symbology, and you are slowly but surely deciphering them. It is dangerous to possess an artifact of this nature, since priests and panjandrums ban the study of this alien lore. Worse yet, there are creatures that can sense your fragment and take it from you if you do not guard your secret carefully.
Transposed Mind: You put on a clumsy act, but you are not remotely human. Your body is that of some unfortunate human scribe or conjuror who dabbled in dangerous lore, but your mind is that of an alien entity from the far reaches of the universe. Through some terrible experiment or unfortunate accident, your consciousness was transposed with the mind of your host body. You may view this as a temporary inconvenience, an opportunity to study a primitive race by living among them, or as a bitter and unwelcome period of exile in which everything you see disgusts and repels you. The only way to remedy this mistake is to train your frail human brain to cast the mighty spell needed to return your consciousness to its rightful place.
STAR-LORE ADEPT
You are an arcane master who has learned from the strangest and most inhuman sources imaginable: The Great Old Ones, their servants, or their writings. These are not healthy matters for mortals to dwell on, but the secrets of great power are now yours.
Skill Bonuses (1st level): You gain a bonus language chosen from the following list: Benthic, Draconic, or Mi-Go. In addition, you gain a background of Star-Lore Adept at +2 and you can use it in a variety of checks in which your unusual studies may provide special insight. Examples include checks to:
Identify magical effects created by alien creatures
Treat disease or other unusual condition caused by contact with unearthly forces
Remember lore pertaining to the Great Old Ones and their cults
Disable traps or devices built by alien intelligences
Recall knowledge about creatures from other worlds
Mystic Signs (4th level): Through mystic gestures and motions, you can identify yourself as an initiate in unearthly lore to creatures that are otherwise hostile to humans and their ilk. Intelligent extraterrestrial or extraplanar creatures are somewhat more friendly to you than would otherwise be the case (hostile creatures threaten you instead of instantly attacking, indifferent creatures become interested in what you have to say, and so on). In general, your mystic signs give you a moment to attempt diplomacy and a chance to make yourself understood—they don’t compel the alien creature to listen.
The Stars Are Right (8th level): Once during each character level, you can call upon powerful alien entities to perform services for you or aid you in a quest. Work with your GM to determine how the entity can aid you, and what you owe it in return for its aid.
Adventurer Feat, Star-Lore: Once per day, when you cast a spell, you gain a +2 bonus on all attack rolls with that spell until the start of your next turn. Against extraterrene creatures, the crit range for that spell expands by 3.