“I can be in many places at once, or right behind you, pretending to be your best friend.” [Dr385:7]
Mercurial Assassin is a Paragon path available to any dragonborn trained in Bluff or Stealth.
Prerequisites: Dragonborn, trained in Bluff or Stealth.
Background[]
The House of Methys has always had a strong connection to quicksilver. As the story goes, the family fortune was forged from a source of mercury discovered in one of their iron mines, with the wizards and alchemists of the realm paying handsomely for the rare liquid metal. At some point, though, rumors spread that by digging for more mercury, the House of Methys awoke something powerful in the deeps. Then, the rumors abruptly stopped, possibly because anyone heard prying into the details about the noble house died soon after.
What most folk don’t know is that a clan of twelve mercury dragons served as the source of the Methys fortune. The merchant house drained them of some of their blood, which can be transformed through ritual magic to pure mercury, and then sold the metal to the highest bidder. At first, these mercury dragons were amused that humans would pay so handsomely for their blood, and their hoards grew at the cost of a minute or two of pain. But when they learned that Methys agents had stolen a clutch of a mercury dragon’s eggs to harvest for the precious liquid metal, they realized the scope of the Methys family’s hunger for power. These twelve mercury dragons, maddened with grief, turned on their business partners and slaughtered the leaders, then used their polymorph ability to assume their identities. Now the Methys dragons have made it their mission to reacquire all of the mercury that came from the dragon eggs by tracking down the sales of the blood using the spotty records the Methys agents kept, plus ensure that knowledge of the ritual used to transform their blood is erased from the world. They have vowed to never again allow another agency to profit from their own blood.
To help them in this endeavor, they turned to group of dragonborn agents, gathered one by one. Soon after the original members of House Methys were dispatched, the twelve dragons discovered that by infusing their blood into that of a dragonborn, through a painful ritual colloquially called the Infusion, the dragonborn gained some abilities that benefited them in their pursuit of their masters’ goal. The mercurial assassins, as these dragonborn are known, are then sent out to hunt down every drop of mercury created from the foul ritual and bring it back to House Methys. They are also charged with tracking down any copies of the ritual that might exist. Assassinating those individuals who have some portion of the mercury isn’t a primary objective, but it isn’t exactly frowned upon either. The mercurial assassin is rewarded no matter the circumstances.
Mercurial Assassin Path Features[]
Mercurial Agility (11th level): When you spend an action point to take an extra action, you can also take a move action.
Quicksilver Movement (11th level): You gain a +1 bonus to speed and a +3 bonus to Stealth checks.
Fluid Shape (16th level): When an enemy makes an opportunity attack against you, the enemy must roll twice and use the lower result.
Mercurial Assassin Path Features[]
You become liquid metal and move to the other side of your attacker, striking it before it has time to discover your whereabouts.
Melee weapon
Trigger: An enemy makes a melee attack against you. Effect:You shift 3 squares to a square adjacent to the triggering enemy.
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Dexterity modifier damage.
Your form ripples as if it were water disturbed by a stone, and your appearance changes.
Personal
Effect: You can assume the form of any Medium humanoid, and you disguise your clothing and equipment to reflect this change. You retain your statistics in your new form. The new form lasts until you change form again.
Any creature that attempts to see through your ruse makes an Insight check opposed by your Bluff check, and you gain a +5 bonus to your check.
Your weapon drips with quicksilver, and you attack the foe in front of you, moving swiftly to the next target, throwing the poisonous metal into its eyes.
Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 3[W] + Dexterity modifier poison damage, and ongoing 5 poison damage.
Miss: Half damage.
Effect: You can shift your speed and make a secondary attack.
Secondary Target: One creature other than the primary target.
Secondary Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Secondary Hit: 3[W] + Dexterity modifier damage, and the target cannot see you (save ends).
Miss: Half damage.