College of Hastur

For many Bards, the title of starving artist is the closest they’ve come to heroes whose stories they poorly tell. But to some failure simply isn’t an option. Many of these artists will stay up by candlelight, pouring over scriptures and texts, endlessly searching for their breakout.

Given enough time, these desperate souls all eventually fall upon a play, so enchanting and enrapturing that it becomes all consuming. What began as cheerful work quickly devolves into one of Eldritch Horrors, unspeakable evils, and The King in Yellow—Hastur. These few have not stumbled upon this work by chance—they are the chosen of Hastur, the stranger in the pallid mask, the unspeakable, the Great Old One.

Those who embrace this madness are known as the Heralds of Hastur, a group of minstrels known to spread fear into the heart of commoners and insanity into the minds of artists. Little is known of the Heralds, except this: where the Heralds go their Sign follows, and their Sign spells disaster.

College of Hastur Features

Bard Level Feature 3rd Expanded Spellcasting Focus, Writng on the Wall, Show of Force 6th Mask of the Many Faced 14th Beguiling Tongues

Expanded Spellcasting Focus

You can use the dreaded play you’ve uncovered as a spellcasting focus for your bard spells.

Writing on the Wall

Starting at 3rd level you gain the ability to invoke the terrible power of your Patron through the use of their sign, preying on the keenest of minds, showing the horrors of their world.

When you cast a Bard spell with a casting time of 1 action, you can increase its casting time to 1 minute and expend a use of your Bardic Inspiration. If you do so and touch a non-magical surface that does not already contain a spell from this feature throughout the casting, you expend a spell slot, but none of the spell’s effects occur. Instead, the spell transfers into that item to be invoked later once, manifesting in the eldritch sign of your patron upon the face of the item.

Thereafter each creature that views the sign must fail an intelligence saving throw against your spell save DC or trigger the spell, as their mortal mind begins to grasp the true nature of their reality.

The spell is cast using your spellcasting ability, targeting the creature that viewed the sign. If the spell targets more than one creature, it instead only targets the viewer. If the spell has an area of effect, it is centered on the viewer. If the spell’s range is self, it targets the creature that viewed the sign. If the spell requires concentration, the creature that views the sign can choose to maintain the concentration as if they had cast the spell. After triggering, the sign fades away.

You can manifest only one sign at a time, if a new one is created the old one fades away.

Show of Force

Starting at 3rd level, you can charge a performance with corrupting, esoteric lore.

If you perform for at least 1 minute, you can attempt to inspire fear in your audience by performing a piece of the dreaded play you’ve uncovered. At the end of the performance, any humanoids of your choice within 60 feet of you who watched and listened to all of it must fail an Intelligence saving throw against your spell save DC or be frightened of you. While frightened in this way, the target dreads the Eldritch power you represent, it speaks only of Eldritch horrors to anyone who talks to it, and refuses to oppose you, though will still defend itself. This effect ends on a target after 1 hour, or if it witnesses you or one of your allies being damaged.

If a target fails its saving throw, the target has no hint that you tried to frighten it.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Mask of the Many Faced

Starting at 6th level, your thoughts can’t be read by telepathy or other means unless you allow it. You also have resistance to psychic damage, and whenever a creature deals psychic damage to you, that creature takes the same amount of damage that you do.

Beguiling Tongues

At 14th level, you gain the ability to infect a humanoid mind with the alien magic of your patron. You can use your action to whisper in the ear an incapacitated humanoid. That creature is then charmed by you until a remove curse spell is cast on it, the charmed condition is removed from it, or you use this feature again.

You can communicate telepathically with the charmed creature as long as the two of you are on the same plane of existence.

On Failures and Successes Part of this subclass relies on the interesting case of Intelligence saving throws. Here, effects were designed to target intelligent creatures, keeping in mind that most creatures will not be intelligent enough to succeed the saving throws. The goal of this mechanic is that knowledge of the Great Old Ones is corrupting, and the more intellegent a creature is the more vulnerable they are. A Wizard should be more terrified by the facts of their bleak reality then an ogre. But given time even the simplest minds can see the horrible truth. The "Writing on the Wall" mechanic can also aid allies. However having to first pass the Intelligence save to use greatly decreases midcombat potential. The casting time combined with the prerequsite for casting makes it much less of a "panic button" and more reliant on careful planning.