**Herald of the Mist | Voice of Forgotten Gods | Agent of [[the Mirror Veil]]** --- ### ❖ Overview The **Shroudcaller** is the most enigmatic and feared emissary of [[the Shroud of Hexa]]. Often mistaken for a powerful undead or a cursed seer, the Shroudcaller is far more. It is a sentient being partially composed of mist, memory, and divine resonance—formed when the Shroud claims a mortal soul too powerful, too sorrowful, or too spiritually fractured to be consumed. These entities are extremely rare; only one is ever known to exist in the world at a time. Its presence marks a turning point in the mist’s growth: the transition from creeping influence to permanent dominion. When the Shroudcaller arrives, the anchoring of a region is no longer theoretical—it is prophecy. --- ### ❖ Origin & Transformation A mortal becomes a Shroudcaller only under unique, catastrophic conditions: - They must have attempted to defy the Shroud’s spread through great spiritual, arcane, or divine power. - Their death must occur within the fog itself. - Their soul must contain fragments of divine memory, a forgotten god’s echo, or an unresolved cosmic truth. Upon death, the Shroud does not devour them—it rebirths them. Their form is rewritten into something between mortal and mist, bound eternally to serve as the Shroud’s mouthpiece and guide. --- ### ❖ Appearance - Cloaked in constantly shifting mist, streaked with violet and silver tendrils. - Their face is a hollow void from which stolen voices speak—memories of others long forgotten. - Their body is semi-translucent and trails strands of fog, which drift like tendrils behind them. - Their eyes glow with dim starlight, resembling the gaze of something looking out from between realms. --- ### ❖ Abilities & Powers - **Memory Echoes:** Speaks in the voices of those consumed by the mist. These voices may reveal secrets the players forgot or never knew. - **Veil Summoner:** Can summon [[the Mirror Veil]] in a 1-mile radius, temporarily shifting reality. - **Mist Form:** Can become incorporeal and move through solid matter. - **Divine Silence:** While the Shroudcaller is present, divine magic is disrupted within 300 feet (treat as anti-magic vs. divine spells unless a DC 25 spellcasting check is passed). - **Mind of Echoes:** Immune to divination, psychic damage, and cannot be charmed or frightened. --- ### ❖ Purpose in the World - **Harbinger:** Arrives when a region is about to be claimed permanently by the Shroud. - **Tester of Will:** Offers tests or twisted moral choices to powerful individuals. Failing may trigger immediate expansion of the Shroud. - **Binder of Remnants:** May absorb lost divine fragments or bind husks of forgotten heroes to serve within [[the Mirror Veil]]. - **Bargainer:** In rare moments, will offer desperate souls a chance to retain memories or avoid becoming a Mist-Walker—at a cost. --- ### ❖ Role in Campaigns - **Visionary Villain or Tragic Ally.** The Shroudcaller may serve as a villain working in opposition to the party, or a reluctant guide offering glimpses of what lies ahead. - **Guide to Forgotten Realms.** It may lead the players to locations inaccessible by normal means—ruins consumed by mist, divine echoes, or fragments of memory. - **Source of Forbidden Knowledge.** The Shroudcaller holds memories of events no longer known to the world, including the fall of gods and the origin of the Shroud itself. --- ### ❖ Quote "You do not fear death—you fear forgetting. And yet, you came here, to the edge of remembrance, seeking answers none remember. I am what remains." --- The Shroudcaller is both echo and herald, a voice not of the living or the dead, but of what the world itself has chosen to forget. To see one is to be marked by the mist—to hear one is to lose something precious in return.