Pools of Power
Location: Near
the heart of the negative material plane.
Test / Guardian: The pool is protected by two layers. The first is a maze of the deepest negative energy which forces a save vs. death every round spent within it. Failures against these saving throws are permanent, leaving the individual always one step closer to death. The second is a battle in a large, mostly empty room. The room is not protected by the Fortress which surrounds the pool, and so is open to the negative plane. However, the forces within it are dampened to avoid destroying the creatures which guard the Pool: 6 xeg-ya. These beings from the positive material plane can kill by overloading the victim with pure life energy. In addition, the room itself uses the subjective gravity of the negative material plane.
Ability Granted: Once per encounter, a bather may use a touch attack. Strength + 6, Dexterity + 6, or Constitution + 6 vs. Reflex. Hit: 3d8 + the appropriate stat necrotic damage and a secondary attack. Secondary Attack: Strength + 6, Dexterity + 6, or Constitution + 6 vs. Fortitude; Hit: you drain one healing surge from the target, and heal damage equal to the damage dealt on the primary attack.
Aura: The user’s heart appears to be surrounded in jet black liquid.
Location: Inside
Zhengyi’s Tower in the Valley of the Mage
Test / Guardian: The pool is guarded by a group of powerful elementals created by a combination of two elements each. There is also a small eye on a tentacle that acts as a conduit to the Far Realms, and channels the horror of that plane into the minds of would be Seekers, tearing into their sanity and leaving them stunned. In addition, bathing itself is a skill challenge.
Level: 24 (12,100xp)
Complexity:
23 (requires 6
successes before 3 failures).
Primary Skills: Endurance, Nature, Arcana, Athletics (DC 34 for all).
Non-primary skills are DC 36.
Endurance: You fight
the destructive energy's effects on your body.
Nature: The first
success on a Nature check will give the character a +1 to his d6 roll to resist
Elemental Discontinuity should he fail the overall challenge.
Arcana: A character
who made any arcana successes will get a +2 bonus to an attempt to create a
ritual for removing Discontinuity.
Athletics: You swim, jump, and push your way through the elements,
avoiding being pulled under.
Success: Choose the element and get 12,100xp. Major success (no
failures) means the character can choose two elements. Only one elemental
aspect is active at a time, and the character can change it as a minor action.
Total success (no failures, and one success in every primary skill plus at
least one success in a non-primary skill) means the character has access to all
five elemental aspects, though can still only maintain one at a time.
Failure: Roll 1d6 + the number of successes achieved. A 4 or higher means the character is afflicted by the chaotic energies and contracts Elemental Discontinuity. A 1-3 means the character is afflicted as on a 4+ and pulled through a random gate into that plane's Guardian chamber. Gain 6,050xp.
Ability Granted: The ability depends on the element the bather focuses on when bathing.
Wind: Gain a fly speed equal to one-half your land speed
Earth: Gain a +1 Pool bonus to all
saves and a burrow speed of 4
Fire: Choose one At-Will attack that
will deal an additional 2d6 fire damage.
Water: You ignore difficult terrain.
Void: You gain a +2 bonus to stunts and to non-primary skills used during a challenge.
Aura: The user’s heart appears to be surrounded in jet black liquid.
Location: The Pool of Faith is always located at the Seeker’s deity’s home.
Test / Guardian: The prospective bather must prove their faith to their deity, usually via personal sacrifice or an irrevocable promise.
Ability Granted: If the bather uses the divine power source, they gain the daily ability to regain the use of an expended encounter power as a minor action. If they are not already a divine user, they instead gain an ability dependent on the bather’s deity. In addition, they will count as having multi-classed into Cleric for the purposes of taking paragon paths and power swap feats. This does not prevent normal multi-classing.
Aura: The bather’s chest has an overlay of their deity’s holy symbol.
Location: The Pool of Life is situated at the heart of the positive material plane.
Test / Guardian: As with the Pool of Death, the Pool of Life has a two layer defense. The first is the plane itself. The closest teleportation circle to the pool is a half a mile away, through the overwhelming life force of the plane. Those who wish to journey to it must undergo a skill challenge.
Setup: The party must
survive the aggressive life energy that permeates the heart of the positive
material plane.
Level: 24 (18,150xp)
Complexity:
3 (requires 8 successes before 3 failures).
Primary Skills: Endurance Special: Radiant Resistance gives a +2 bonus to Endurance checks per
five points of resistance.
Endurance (DC 29): You fight off the ravages of the plane. Each failure
costs one healing surge.
Success:
You make it through to the Pool's guardians.
Failure:
You make it through to the Pool's guardians, but lose all of your healing
surges in an effort to survive.
The second layer of defense is three large Xeg-yi, negative planar creatures who drain one’s life energy with a touch of any of their four tentacles. They are under the protection of the pool and so do not explode violently simply by being in the positive plane, but this protection ends when they are destroyed, causing a powerful blast to accompany their destruction.
Ability Granted: The bather gains a +5 Pool bonus to his healing surge value, as well as Resist Radiant 10.
Aura: The bather’s heart is surrounded by a cool golden glow, which flares when they spend a healing surge.
Location: The Pool of Love is nestled in a beautifully peaceful valley on the plane of pure good: Elysium. A thriving community of many planar races name Tranquility has sprung up, using the pool as their water source. Tranquility makes for an incredibly peaceful place to rest, and its multicultural nature makes it an excellent source of information (+2 to knowledge checks while researching there).
Test / Guardian: Simple for some, impossible for others; the Pool of Life’s test is to explain why the Seeker is worthy of love. However, should the Seeker not be able to explain this, they may instead attempt to fight the guardians. The Lustful Guardian of Love is a dryad of nigh-irresistible beauty. Her constant companion is the Steadfast Guardian of Love, a gigantic treant which embodies the undying nature of love.
Ability Granted: The pool opens the bather to the hearts of others, granting them a +3 Pool bonus to Diplomacy and Insight checks. In addition, they now embody the self-sacrifice of love, and may spen one of their healing surges to allow another to heal. This functions exactly as a paladin’s Lay on Hands, usable once per day. If the bather already has Lay on Hands, this adds one extra use per day.
Aura: The bather’s heart has a dull red glow about it that pulses in time with their emotional state.
Location: The Pool of Magic is the heart of an ancient dead deity of magic whose name is lost to time. The god’s body floats through the astral plane on the currents of magic.
Test / Guardian: The heart of magic is locked within a magical puzzle box not unlike a prismatic spell effect. Each layer requires a different magical effect to lower it. Touching the layer or choosing the wrong effect will release a guardian creature.
Ability Granted: The Pool of Magic infuses the bather with arcane energy, partially transforming them into a creature of magic. This functions as the Spellscarred Multiclass Feat (FRPG), including the granted power and ability to use power swap feats and paragon paths. This does not interfere with normal multiclassing.
Aura: The bather’s eyes are replaced with scintillating prismatic orbs. When the bather uses the pool’s granted ability, the aura momentarily changes to a solid color tied to the school of magic being utilized.
Location: The
Pool of Pain is buried within the Mines of Bloodstone in the
Test / Guardian: The Pool of Pain is its own guardian. The prospective bather must undergo what feels like an eternity of the worst pain they have ever experienced.
Ability Granted: The pain the pool gives makes all other hurt pale in comparison. Thought eh bather still feels pain, they are unfazed by it. This gives them an immunity to all effects which rely on pain, as well as an extra hit point per level.
Aura: Hot red fire pulses through the bather’s nervous system.
Location: The Pool of Secrets’ location is unknown, even to those who have previously bathed in it. It moves through the world, seeking out the strongest conspiracies and treachery. Once found and bathed in, it wipes its location from the mind of the bather, who must seek it again if they wish to lead others to it.
Test / Guardian: The Pool is hidden, and must be found. Doing so is an “unearthing secret knowledge” skill challenge.
Level: 25 (28,000xp)
Complexity:
4 (requires 10 successes before 3 failures).
Primary
Skills: Arcana, Diplomacy, History, Religion.
Special:
Skills may be used at the normal DC of 30 to aid another individual
(+2). No more than one person may attempt each aid for a single skill, and no
more than +4 total may be gained by being aided.
Arcana (DC 30): Perusing old libraries is the surest way to find old
knowledge, but if you don't know what you're doing you could get lost in the
maze of stacks.
Diplomacy (DC 30): You visit a sage or scholar, hoping to curry
favor and learn a useful bit of information that will bring you one step closer
to discovering the secret lore. This approach requires a character to spend
2,500 gold pieces. You pay the cost, whether the check results in a success or
a failure. A success provides a +2 bonus to the next Arcana check or Religion
check, as well as counting as a success for completing the challenge.
History (DC 30): Perhaps you already know where it is, and just need to sift
through ancient legends to find it.
Religion (DC 30): You delve into religious lore or seek omens and the counsel
of priests to further your research. Success brings the research one step
closer to fruition. Failure indicates that this particular line of research ran
into a dead end.
Time: Each check represents a month of study in a major
metropolis, after which the group must travel to another metropolis. This
travel is instantaneous if using a linked portal or planar portal. It takes two
weeks and 1,000gp (or a month and 200gp) if traveling overland.
Success:
The seeker learns the
location of the pool.
Failure: The seeker is mislead into following a false lead laid out by a group of powerful entities set to guard the pool: a level 25 Shadowsworn Raven swarm and 3 Shadowsworn Soulrippers.
Ability Granted: The bather gains the ability to see pool auras in others, and can see in a 5 square radius around that person by their inner illumination. with a few rounds of study (minor action each round), they can make a DC 30 Arcana check to identify the effects of one of the pools the person has bathed in. They also gain +2 Pool bonus to Bluff, Stealth, Insight, and Perception.
Aura: The bather is wreathed in shadow at all times. This does not grant concealment nor hamper the illumination the auras provide.
Location: The Pool of Time is buried deep beneath the earth under the Amedio Jungle, believed by scholars to be the oldest jungle on Oerth, and populated by many primeval creatures and tribal humanoids.
Test / Guardian: The passage to the pool is protected by a powerful phane, an abomination of Time capable of trapping others outside of time and creating copies of itself by travelling through the time stream. In addition, bathing in the pool is itself a trial. The bather(s) are sent to a different era (i.e. a different game system) and must fulfill a quest before the pool will allow them to return. The alternate time stream they travel to is random, but anyone who has journeyed through the pool previously gains the ability to meditate for a minute beside the pool and see two choices (they roll twice and pick the result). Any other character capable of seeing the future (such as a Divine Oracle) may also reroll, though they must do so at the moment of entry and are locked into the new roll.
Ability Granted: The bather can see the time flow, with choices and their consequences laid out before them. Once per encounter as a free action they may reroll a single d20 roll, keeping the new roll. In addition they get a permanent +2 Pool bonus to initiative.
Aura: The bather is covered in an overlay of themselves, representing their new ability to step sideways in time.