The Bleak Cabal encourages its faction members to stare into the heart of madness, to look at the inherent pointlessness of existence and to come away with a better understanding of their place in the world, and its insignificance. This cosmic emptiness gives all Bleakers a fatalistic, dire outlook on life, and leads some to great acts of compassion and understanding. It also leads some to take a pilgrimage to Pandemonium, to experience madness in truth, and to understand what it means to entirely loose control.
Those who embrace the revelations whispered to them on the winds may delve deeper, gaining personal power and knowledge from the whispers of madness that howl around their heads. If they follow this madness, and truly revel in it, they may become warlocks, sworn to follow their insanity wherever it may lead them. These members of the Bleak Cabal have sworn themselves to the Pact of the Winds, and consider their madness to be their patron, just as warlocks of fey and fiends and great old ones consider those beings to be their patrons. Though less identified (the Winds have no names, no qualities, no homes, no personalities), the Winds are no less real, and apparently no less powerful…and they tend to be MUCH more personal.
Otherworldly Patron: The Winds
You have reached an agreement with the swirling chaos of your subconscious: you will not try to control it, and it will give you unprecedented power. You know that your existence is pointless, your every effort for naught in the eyes of eternity, and so you choose to dwell with your madness, becoming its servant. No mere mental illnesses, these profound and supernatural insanities reveal arcane secrets you would not otherwise be able to access, giving you fresh knowledge from within some alien part of your own mind. You might willingly dive into the depths of depression, or whirl with the reckless euphoria of mania. You may listen to the voices in your head, name your alternate personalities, or cease to doubt your delusions. You allow your paranoia to rule you, or you make a cold peace with your psychopathy. Like all warlocks, however, you are not [i]beholden[/i] to your patron, merely its willing servant. In exchange for the knowledge and power your madness occasionally grants you in your moments of clarity, you allow yourself to be seized by it for a time, and perhaps, like any warlock, you face an eventual choice between being enslaved by your patron, and being free with all the power it grants.
Pact Boons
The Winds color your pact boons in ways that are a little unusual.
Pact of the Chain
Those who gain a familiar from the winds often receive a small, dark, crooked creature with bent black wings and a cruel disposition. The creature mostly remains invisible next to the warlock's ear and whispers confusing misinformation into it along with the warlock's own disjointed thoughts, occasionally giving the warlock nefarious commands or information like "Burn it. Now." or "That man who calls himself your father is really a doppelganger and has been for years." The commands are destructive and the words are lies, but they can still be distracting. The creature has the stats of a sprite, but instead of neutral good, its alignment is chaotic neutral.
Pact of the Blade
When your pact weapon appears, it often takes the form of something twisted and curved. Weapons that are made into your pact weapon tend to acquire this trait as well. Whips are popular pact weapons for warlocks of the Winds.
Pact of the Tome
Your Book of Shadows is actually your own writing, filled with doodles and scribbles and ramblings that you can assemble to produce cantrips. Popular cantrips for Warlocks of the Winds include vicious mockery, true strike, and guideance.
Expanded Spell List
The following spells, discovered deep in your subconscious during your bouts of madness, are added to the warlock spell list for you.
Spell Level | Spells |
---|---|
1st | dissonant whispers, Tasha's hideous laughter |
2nd | phantasmal force, gust of wind |
3rd | haste, wind wall |
4th | confusion, phantasmal killer |
5th | commune, modify memory |
Violent Mind
Your mind swims with the Winds, and those who contact it experience its violence. Starting at 1st level, when an enemy charms you or commands you do to an action, they take 1 point of psychic damage for every warlock level you have, plus your Charisma modifier, and you are allowed another saving throw against the effect, if the effect allows saving throws. Whenever you succeed on a saving throw against a charm or effect that can command you, you can take a bonus action to use a cantrip against the creature responsible for the effect, if you can see them.
Howling Maelstrom
When you are assaulted, you can unleash a primal scream of confusion and terror, becoming a momentary conduit for the winds of Pandemonium. Starting at 6th level, when a creature makes an attack roll against you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on that roll, and on every attack roll against you until the end of your next turn. Additionally, creatures within 5 ft. of you at the end of their turn are pushed 15 ft. away and dealt 1 point of psychic damage for every warlock level you have, plus your Charisma modifier.
Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Thought Shield
Your mind becomes impenetrable as you learn the secrets of the Winds. Starting at 10th level, your thoughts cannot be read by any 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.
Share the Winds
You learn how to spread your worldview to others. Starting at 14th level, you when you hit a creature with an attack, you can use this feature to send the Winds of Pandemonium into their minds for a moment, giving them a small glimpse of the madness you experience all the time. The target takes 10d10 psychic damage and becomes paralyzed and prone until the end of your next turn, or until your concentration is broken (as if you are concentrating on a spell).
Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.