MURDER-CALL APOSTLE
Salorras Paragon: Murder-Call Apostle · Base Path: Apostle (Cleric) · OSE build: custom Cleric-variant class A custom OSE class for the assassin-priests of Nerkan Thak’Ar, the Betrayer, god of murder — divine killers who fuse a cleric’s dark prayers with an assassin’s craft, and whose fatal strike drags the victim’s soul across the threshold into Sehh Saye. Played from 1st level; the character’s anointing in blood is part of their background.
In all the world there are few priests of Nerkan Thak’Ar, god of assassins, and fewer still are the apostles of the murderous doctrine. The life of an apostle of murder is a lonely road with a grim epilogue, and the anointing they receive from the heartless god is more the conscription of a higher calling than a divine grace. Those who walk the deeper path of the Self-Slayer God live the act of murder as the holy chalice of their fated existence.
Because the priesthood of the Betrayer is unorganized, there is no set teaching by which a new priest receives their gifts; the direction each must take to touch the quintessence of the assassin rests solely on their own deeds. Acts horrific and violent, full of the will to sow misery, fear, and upheaval, unfold across the world under the shadowed veil of night, so that the priests may draw the attention of their god. As this dark vortex of unholy acts turns, Nerkan Thak’Ar may come to value the “art” of some priest-assassin and visit them at their prayer — after which there are two outcomes: either the world is rid of a dangerous killer once and for all, their soul gathered into the demiplane of Sehh Saye, or the world receives the wrath of a priest-assassin steeped in the abhorrent power of the darkest of all deities.
What most of the world does not know is that, for all the chaos and bloodthirst that fills them, these figures have organized cells in hidden galleries at points across the world, where they “display” the bodies of their victims as trophies — sometimes whole, sometimes in pieces. So arose the informal order known to few as the Gallery of Murder, its very few members all merciless killers in the name of the Dark Blade. In appearance an apostle of murder is seldom any one thing: most look like plain, everyday folk, the better to blend into a crowd and watch for the chance to land their next macabre blow.
Class Overview
Requirements: Chaotic alignment; devotion to Nerkan Thak’Ar; minimum DEX 9 Prime requisite: WIS Hit Dice: 1d6 Maximum level: 14 Armour: Leather armour; no shields Weapons: Any Languages: Alignment, Colloquial
Murder-call apostles are divine killers — cleric and assassin in one, wielders of dark prayers and the fatal strike. A prime requisite of WIS 13–15 grants +5% to experience earned; WIS 16–18 grants +10%. Unlike the apostles of the life-gods, the priests of the Betrayer are bound by no edge-and-point taboo — murder by the blade is their very sacrament, and they wield any weapon their work demands. An apostle who breaks faith with the murder-god is cut off from their gifts (see below).
The Murder-Call Apostle
| Level | XP | Hit Dice (1d6) | THAC0 | D | W | P | B | S | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 1d6 | 19 [0] | 11 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 15 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2 | 2,250 | 2d6 | 19 [0] | 11 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 15 | 1 | — | — | — | — |
| 3 | 4,500 | 3d6 | 19 [0] | 11 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 15 | 2 | — | — | — | — |
| 4 | 9,000 | 4d6 | 19 [0] | 11 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 15 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — |
| 5 | 18,000 | 5d6 | 17 [+2] | 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 2 | 2 | — | — | — |
| 6 | 37,500 | 6d6 | 17 [+2] | 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | — |
| 7 | 75,000 | 7d6 | 17 [+2] | 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | 150,000 | 8d6 | 17 [+2] | 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 9 | 300,000 | 9d6 | 14 [+5] | 6 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| 10 | 450,000 | 9d6+1* | 14 [+5] | 6 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 11 | 600,000 | 9d6+2* | 14 [+5] | 6 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| 12 | 750,000 | 9d6+3* | 14 [+5] | 6 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| 13 | 900,000 | 9d6+4* | 12 [+7] | 3 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| 14 | 1,050,000 | 9d6+5* | 12 [+7] | 3 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
* Modifiers from CON no longer apply. — Saving throws: D Death/Poison · W Wands · P Paralysis/Petrify · B Breath Attacks · S Spells/Rods/Staves. The columns 1–5 are divine spells per day by spell level. The apostle casts and turns as a cleric of their level; the XP column is the murder-cult’s elite track (half again above the plain cleric’s).
Class Abilities
Combat. Murder-call apostles may wield any weapon but wear only leather armour and bear no shield — the killer’s work needs stealth and free hands, not a wall of steel.
Divine Magic. The apostle carries a holy mark of the Dark Blade and casts divine spells from 2nd level onward, drawn from the standard cleric spell list and regained through blood-prayer to Nerkan Thak’Ar. Their spells run to death, deception, fear, and darkness. As with any apostle, falling from their god’s favour may impair or sever this power at the referee’s discretion until atonement — though for the Betrayer, atonement is written in murder.
Command the Undead. As a priest of a chaotic god, the apostle does not repel the undead but cows and commands them: they use the standard turning table, but a result that would turn undead instead bends them to the apostle’s will, and a result that would destroy them instead binds them as thralls.
Backstab. The apostle strikes as a trained killer. When they attack an unaware or flanked foe, or one denied its defence, they gain +4 to the attack roll and deal double damage, rising to triple damage at 9th level. As with any backstab this needs a living target with discernible anatomy and a blow the victim does not see coming.
Stealth of the Killer. The apostle stalks their prey unseen: they can Move Silently and Hide in Shadows using the thief’s chances for a thief of the apostle’s own level. In the murder-god’s craft the pure assassins of other orders remain the greater masters of shadow, but a murder-call apostle is no less deadly for it.
Murder Call. The signature gift — the death-dealing strike drawn from the apostle’s bond to the Self-Slayer God. A number of times per day the apostle may declare a Murder Call before a melee attack; on a hit the blow is wreathed in the god’s killing power, striking as a magical weapon (able to harm even creatures immune to ordinary steel) and dealing extra death-damage of 1d6 per two apostle levels (rounded up). Furthermore, a struck living creature of no more than half the apostle’s level in Hit Dice must save versus Death or be slain outright. The apostle may use Murder Call twice per day at 1st level, three times at 5th, four times at 9th, and five times at 13th.
Gallery of Murder — After Reaching 9th Level. An apostle of proven “artistry” may establish a hidden gallery-cell of the order — a shadowed hall where the trophies of their kills are displayed and where a handful of lesser killers, drawn by the apostle’s dread name, gather to serve the Dark Blade and learn the sacrament of murder.
Final Rest. At 14th level the apostle gains the ultimate boon of their religion. Any creature they slay with a Murder Call strike is utterly annihilated — consumed by cold black flame as its soul crosses the threshold of Nerkan Thak’Ar into Sehh Saye. No magic can return the victim’s soul or body to the world, save the most powerful and carefully warded restorative sorcery, at the referee’s discretion. It is whispered that the apostles of murder, when they at last close the circle of their lives, “retire” by turning the sacrament upon themselves, dedicating their own death to the pitch-black doctrine of the Betrayer.
Ex-Murder-Call Apostles
An apostle who turns from the doctrine of Nerkan Thak’Ar — abandoning the calling of murder, or losing the god’s favour — is cut off from his gifts: they lose Murder Call, Final Rest, and their divine spells, though they keep the backstab and stealth earned by their own hand. The Betrayer is no forgiving patron, and an apostle who breaks faith is as likely to become the next “work of art” in the Gallery of Murder as ever to be welcomed back.