Vitiate Maiden

The Quintessential Druid
Author Robin O. Duke
Series The Quintessential Series
Publisher Mongoose Publishing
Publish date 2002

The vitiate maidens form a small but growing order within the druids. Commonly, they are referred to as the poison ivy. Most maidens are women, though a few men have joined this branch of the druid. This feminist attitude may have something to do with poison having been the weapon of choice for many famous woman murderers down the centuries.

They have a strong connection to nature, like all druid, but they are intimately connected with what other druid might consider the darker aspects of the wilderness. Their companions tend to be snakes, spiders or other venomous creatures. They cultivate gardens filled with deadly blossoms most people would never have heard of. The real reason why some druid feel a need to separate themselves from the maidens is the means by which they often find employment as assassins.

Hit Points: d6

Requirements

To become a vitiate maiden, the character must fulfil the following criteria:
Profession (Herbalist): 9 ranks.
Feats: Brew Poison.
Druidic Magic: The character must be able to cast the poison spell.
Special: The character must have the Venom Immunity adaptation when she enters the class.

Class Skills

The vitiate maiden’s class skills are Alchemy (Intelligence), Balance (Dexterity), Climb (Strength), Concentration (Constitution), Craft (Intelligence), Diplomacy (Charisma), Disguise (Charisma), Knowledge (nature) (Intelligence), Scry (Intelligence), Spellcraft (Intelligence) and Wilderness Lore (Wisdom).

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Intelligence modifier

Vitiate Maiden
Class Level	Base Attack	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells Per Day
1	+0	+2	+2	+0	Poison Use, Poison Sense	+1 druid level
2	+1	+3	+3	+0	Maiden’s Secret	+1 druid level
3	+1	+3	+3	+1	Maiden’s Secret, Improved Venom Immunity	+1 druid level
4	+2	+4	+4	+1	Maiden’s Secret	+1 druid level
5	+2	+4	+4	+1	Vitiate Ichor	+1 druid level

Class Features

The following are all the class features of the vitiate maiden prestige class:

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: The vitiate maiden has much more restrictive vows than a normal druid. She may not use any weapon except a Dagger, with which she can deliver poisons. The vitiate maiden has one sanctified Dagger that she may use.

This Dagger is provided by the vitiate maidens. Should the maiden desire a new Dagger she must take the Dagger to the maidens to be sanctified. All sanctified Daggers are at least masterwork quality and the Maiden is forbidden to have more than one such Dagger at one time. Use of any other Dagger breaks the Maiden’s druidic vows.

Spells Per Day: The vitiate maidens study druidic magic. When a new vitiate maiden level is gained, the character gains new spells per day as though she had also gained a level in her druid class. She does not, however, gain any other benefits a character of the druid class would have gained. This essentially means the character adds her vitiate maiden levels and druid levels before calculating spells per day and caster level. For vitiate maidens without druid levels, the character may now cast druid spells as a druid with a level equal to that which she has in this class.

Poison Sense: A vitiate maiden may identify any poison with perfect accuracy. For some poisons, she may need to taste the poison to make a correct identification. She has an encyclopaedic knowledge of animals, beasts, plants or vermin that produce or use some form of poison.

Poison Use: The vitiate maiden may make use of poison without any risk of poisoning herself. She is an expert at loading poison onto her sanctified Dagger and never risks cutting and poisoning herself when doing so.

Improved Venom Immunity: The vitiate maiden is immune to all forms of mundane and magical poison. Only one poison, the dreaded vitiate ichor can affect a maiden. This poison and its means of manufacture are known only to the maidens’ inner circle.

Vitiate Ichor: At 5th level, the maiden learns the secrets of this final poison. The vitiate ichor requires 100,000 gold pieces of materials to produce. The character uses her alchemy skill to produce the poison, following the normal rules outlined under the Craft skill. The difficulty is 30. The DC for the Fortitude save is 25. The initial damage is death and the secondary damage is death. Vitiate ichor will affect any creature, even those normally immune to poison. Creatures with any form of immunity against poison, including bonuses to the saving throw, have the saving throw DC reduced to 20. They receive no additional benefit.

Maiden’s Secret: At 2nd level, 3rd and 4th levels, the vitiate maiden receives access to one of the secrets of the order, a poison or means of poison delivery known only to the vitiate maidens. The character may pick any one of the following options but can only ever choice one of the Maiden’s Secrets once.

Crimson Lips: The favoured means of assassination by the vitiate maiden, her lips become the source of a terrible toxin. The toxin is a contact poison. The kiss of the vitiate maiden is all it takes to be infected. If the maiden is kissing the subject on the lips, they suffer a -4 penalty to their Fortitude saving throw to resist the poison. The poison’s initial damage is 1d4 Wisdom points and its secondary damage is 2d4 Wisdom points. The saving throw difficulty to resist the crimson lips is 10 + maiden’s class level + her Constitution modifier.

Death Blossom: The vitiate maiden can transmute any poison into a fine mist that sits harmlessly in her palm. As she passes her intended victim, she simply blows the poison into the victim’s face. This requires a ranged attack roll to deliver the poison. The Maiden must be within 5ft. of her victim to blow the mist. The poison may affect those near the maiden’s victim if they are in the same square. The poison is resisted normally but the DC to resist the poison is increased by +2. Converting the poison into a death blossom requires one hour and an Alchemy check (DC 15).

Spell Toxin: The vitiate maiden may choose any one spell that she knows to become a poison only she can create. Only one spell may be chosen each time this ability is picked but the ability may be picked multiple times – each time applying to a new spell. The spell must be targeted and be of 4th level or less. The spell must include a saving throw of some description.

The initial effect of the poison is as the spell, assuming the victim successfully saves. The secondary damage is as the spell, assuming the victim does not save. These poisons require an alchemy check (DC 15 + the level of the spell) to produce. They follow the normal rules as outlined under the Craft skill and have a base cost of the spell level x the caster level x 15 gp. The DC to resist this poison is 10 + the maiden’s class level + her Wisdom modifier. These poison are always injury type

Transmute to Ichor: The vitiate maiden can transmute any poison into an ingested variety with which to poison her subjects from afar. This requires one hour and an alchemy check (DC 15) for every dose of poison so converted.

Poison Blood: The vitiate maiden’s blood becomes a toxin of her choice. She may choose any one toxin from the list below. The character may extract one dose of the poison from her veins by taking 1d6 points of damage. She must use her sanctified knife to do this. This requires a move-equivalent action. The knife used is laced in the poison and ready to use as soon as the action is complete.

Name	Type (DC)	Initial Damage	Secondary Damage
Worm Poison	Injury (24)	1d6 Strength	1d6 Strength
Scorpion Sleep	Injury (18)	1d2 Constitution	Unconscious
Deathblade	Injury (20)	1d6 Constitution	2d6 Constitution
Dragon Bile	Contact (27)	2d12 hp	1d6 Constitution
Black Lotus Extract	Contact (20)	3d6 Constitution	3d6 Constitution
Arsenic	Ingested (15)	1 Constitution	2d8 Constitution
Dark Reaver Powder	Ingested (18)	2d6 Constitution	2d6 Constitution + 1d6 Strength