Notes to DM

Deuce on D&D Beyond

Mechanical

• with invocations

  • Pact of the Blade

  • Improved Pact Weapon
    • Weapon is spellcasting focus
    • gets +1 (doesn't stack on magical +1 weapons)
    • weapon can be Heavy Crossbow (among other things)
  • Thirsting Blade
    • Attack action becomes attack twice with pact weapon
• and Crossbow Expert Feat.
  • Ignore loading
  • no disadvantage within 5 ft

Main Attack

Basically, the ol' "Pebbles in a sling" main attack has been internalized into Deuce himself to become Deuce force blasting rocks at fools.

The Heavy Crossbow is re-flavored to a two handed magical mass/portal.
I imagine it's the open hand over open hand, wrists together pose. Like this Goku(?) one... but not bright and energetic... rather, dark... I guess space-like, and/or extraplanar. I'm not trying to get a mechanical benefit here, just don't want an actual crossbow as part of this. So if you need a complication because of a crossbow (that isn't already addressed by the feat and the pact weapon stuff), I'm open to it.

Questions

• Ammo?
  • Ammo is pebbles and/or micro-meteors
    • I think with his Horizon Walker bit and Simsa's expansion, he's creating a tiny portal to space/another plane and re-directing a meteor that's hurtling through space somewhere into a projectile.
  • I'd love not to care about ammo, but if it is important, then I would want to flavor it differently than buying ammo at a store. Whether it's prep time or cost or whatever.
• Any chance that sweet Pendant Of The Pebblesworn still works?
  • it was made (lovingly by you!) for a swarmkeeper (which D is no longer)
    • Unyielding Swarm - choose an additional swarm effect 1/short or long rest
      • Maybe he can still have 1 swarm effect per day? (but he is no longer a swarmkeeper build)
      • Maybe we can change this to 1/rest add an extra 1d8 to Planar Warrior (which adds a 1d8 as a Bonus action)?
        • You may have better ideas?
    • Harmony of Simsa (no change needed) - allows Pebblesworn's Hand
    • Shifting Stone (no change needed) - changes damage type
• Spell swapping
  • Warlocks swap only at levels. That's the rules. But if you don't care too much, I like the option to swap at Long Rest. If no, all good, but I wanted to ask.

Narrative

Deuce

Deuce has been a successful protector of people but got his mind blown by the Red Door experiences and knew he wasn't on a path that would ever get him close to being able to play in that league. He was always a devotee of Simsa, but she was a simple goddess and her blessings were small and her power was very finite. She appeared to D only once, I think, early on. So it's been a largely unspoken bond.
He is asking Magnia Everstorm to help him connect with her more deeply and seeking to expand his power through her.

Down below this section is a version of an idea of Simsa's background. I don't want to mess with your pantheon or anything, so I'm happy to modify... but the gist is that she was previously known by another name Caelithra and was very powerful in the cosmos: setting planets in motion, playing marbles with comets, angrily scattering asteroids when she got frustrated.

Deuce doesn't know any of this, but does believe that Simsa is stronger than she is aware and he asks Magnia for help.

Magnia's Help

Deuce was angry that Magnia Everstorm for abducting him, outraged at her endangering his friends, but most of all terrified of what he has learned and how inconsequential his impact would be in the grand scheme of things.

Magnia knew of Simsa, and how unimportant she is... But upon counseling Deuce and investigating his pebbles, Magnia felt the echo of a song older than the world. She saw glimpses of something powerful, but if she knew more then, she didn't say.

Magnia agreed to help - maybe outwardly as restitution, maybe out of curiosity, or maybe something closer to the feeling of wanting to tip over that first domino.

Ritual

Magnia devised a ritual called The Resonance of Memory. It required three things:

• A stone touched by Simsa’s magic.
• A celestial map drawn in starlight ink.
• A moment of pure devotion.

Deuce provided the first. Magnia conjured the second. The third came when Deuce broke himself open and knelt before a small cairn in a quiet glade and whispered, “You are more than you remember. But even as you are, you are enough.”

The ritual awakened something and an image of Simsa appeared, confused but not scared.

Reawakening

Simsa did not regain her memories all at once. But she began to hum melodies she did not know. Pebbles began to orbit her fingers. When she walked, the ground beneath her shimmered faintly with gravitational ripples. She wept—not from sorrow, but from the strange joy of rediscovery.

Magnia warned Deuce: “She is still Simsa. But something more stirs. Be gentle. Be patient. Power like hers does not return—it reawakens.”

The stones whispered. And though she still wore the name Simsa, the cosmos began to remember her true name.

Impact on Deuce

In this moment, of re-connection to a fraction of her former self and the deep, devotional connection with Deuce, power spilled from her into him. Unmaking and remaking him.

Deuce does not understand the changes he is experiencing but he does feel more directly connected to a strong and unfamiliar power. He still believes Simsa is a force of good and kindness, and the source of blessings in the smallest places. But he also feels tapped into a power that can affect real change.

And he plans to continue to stoke that fire.

Images

Simsa as Deuce and other Simsanites know her

Simsa as she is awakening into her power more (still not fully aware of who she used to be)

The Fall of Caelithra, Goddess of Celestial Motion

Long ago, before the stars had names and the planets knew their paths, there was Caelithra - the goddess of celestial motion. She was tall and radiant, her robes woven from comet trails and her voice echoing like gravity across the void. With a flick of her hand, she guided asteroids through the black sea of space, orchestrated planetary alignments, and spun galaxies into harmonious dance.

Other gods knew her as the Keeper of Cosmic Balance... until the moment when she snapped. The reasons for her change are a lost legend, but some believe a malevolent entity tricked (or enticed) her into madness and chaos.

The impact of this change, however, was not forgotten.

Caelithra began to experiment - nudging moons off course, colliding asteroids to birth new stars, bending gravitational laws to sculpt art from destruction. Her creations were breathtaking, but they came at a cost. One of her celestial sculptures- a spiral of shattered worlds - came with the annihilation of entire civilizations.

The High Pantheon convened. Though they admired her brilliance, they could not ignore the recklessness. Caelithra was summoned, judged, and cast down—not to oblivion, but to humility.

Her divine essence was bound to the smallest of stones. No longer would she command planets or sculpt galaxies. She was recast as Simsa, minor goddess of pebbles. She was made to forget herself and her power. Her true name was lost.

She wandered the earthly realm, barefoot, collecting and blessing pebbles. Unaware of her punishment or her previous place of power.

She is kind, peaceful, and inconsequential - or so it seems. For those who listen closely, the pebbles she leaves behind still carry echoes of the celestial harmony that she once used to set the stars in place.