Redeemer of Nine



"So what do you say? Miracles and magic! Help those you love! Put wrongdoers somewhere they'll never escape! All you need to do is sign the contract, dear, and all this and more could be yours!"

-An infernal contractor, to a prospective Redeemer of Nine

For centuries uncounted, evokers have been in a thorn in the side of the accountants of Hell. Oh, sure, every now and then they could be useful, but as a whole the wielders of light tended to be too pristine to contaminate or too willful to entrust with the delicate mechanisms of corruption. Many devils saw simple extermination as the best answer to the evoker problem, while those with more stable dispositions merely sighed and prepared to write off their losses to infuriating redemption from the pure of heart, and obstinate competition from the wicked.

But of late, clever devils have stumbled upon an alternate answer to the age-old dilemma - one that is as fiendish in its simplicity as it is in its origins. Rather than oppose magical girls in their goals, these canny counters of souls proposed that errant evokers simply be enticed into using their powers to more 'productive' ends. When they next appeared to the magical girls of the world, these fiends did so not with smoke and flame, but with a suit, a smile, and an all-too-reasonable proposal: Collect the souls of the already-damned, and be rewarded with miraculous powers with which to do good in the mortal world.

The experiment was a rousing success. Those magical girls who accepted a contract hoping to redeem the powers of Hell itself soon found themselves among its fastest-growing and most profitable industries. Capable of snatching of wicked spirits that might otherwise have scattered across the less desirable planes of the cosmos, Redeemers of Nine tap valuable new sources of soulstuff, and they do it in a way that is extremely difficult for many of Hell's chronic problem-causers to intervene with a clear conscience. After all, they're only trying to help. Usually.

Requirements
To become a Redeemer of Nine, you must fulfill all the following criteria.

Skills: Knowledge [The Planes] 8 ranks

Feats: Devil's Favor (Fiendish Codex II, p 81.)

Illuminations: Must know at least one illumination with a mote cost of at least 5m

Class Skill List
Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge [History] (Int), Knowledge [Local] (Int), Knowledge [Religion] (Int), Knowledge [The Planes] (Int), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), Use Magical Device (Cha)

Skill Points
4 + Int modifier at each level.

Hit Die
d8

Weapon and Armour Proficiencies
A Redeemer of Nine gains no additional proficiencies.

Illuminations
At each indicated level, a redeener of nine gains an increase in evoker level, illuminations known, illuminations readied, innate illuminations, and personas known as if they had gained a level in an illumination-using class to which they belonged before adding the prestige class level. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If she had more than one illumination-using class before becoming a redeemer of nine, she must decide to which class to add each level for the aforementioned purposes.

Imbuement
At 5th level, the redeemer of nine increases her Imbuement limit by one.

Soul Gem (Su)
Upon entry into this class, the patrons of the redeemer of nine painlessly embed a small, brightly-colored gemstone into the skin somewhere on her body. Henceforth, the stone is effectively a part of her – it can only be removed with surgery, and will regenerate in 1d4 hours if it is taken from her in this manner. The soul gem of a redeemer of nine serves as a receptacle for the lives she takes in combat, compiling them neatly within its facets for later retrieval by the devils that crafted it.

Whenever a lawful or evil creature or a creature with the Law or Evil subtype dies within [10 * class level] feet of the redeemer of nine, or whenever she strikes the killing blow against such a creature regardless of distance, she may make an opposed Will save against the deceased entity (which uses its will save at the time of its death, including any modifiers it might have accrued). If the redeemer of nine loses this opposed roll, there is no further effect. If her target loses the roll, however, she draws its soul into her soul gem for later use. For every hit die of the newly reaped creature, the redeemer of nine’s soul gem gains a single soul point. The redeemer of nine’s soul gem is capable of holding up to [class level * 5] soul points at any given time – any HD over this limit are lost, and the redeemer is incapable of harvesting souls with a full soul gem. However, devils are no strangers to mutilating soulstuff, and if a soul would be too large to fit within a soul gem’s remaining storage space, it will happily vacuum up enough of a portion to top itself off. Even creatures without proper souls, such as constructs or many forms of undead, can be harvested with this ability - their animating essence is less useful to a devil than a 'real' soul, but it is useful enough to pay for nonetheless.

Due to its nature as a conduit, a soul gem has difficulty holding on to the individuals it consumes. As such, being harvested by this ability does not interfere with one’s ability to be raised from the dead – doing so simply yanks the harvested soul from wherever it has been sent. This resurrection-induced leakage is acknowledged and accounted for by the infernal clerks behind the operation, however, and mechanisms are in place to seamlessly reimburse a redeemer of nine’s soul gem of any soul points that might be filched from it without its bearer being any the wiser.

Detect Tyranny (Sp)
At will, a redeemer of nine can use detect evil or detect law, as the spells.

Miracle Worker (Sp)
Even devils do not expect their minions to work for free, and the redeemer of nine is no exception to this perverse infernal ‘fairness’. In exchange for her loyal reaping of the damned, the wayward evoker is gifted with the capacity to perform miracles above and beyond the capabilities of any mere servant of the light. At 1st level, the redeemer of nine selects two clerical domains. By expending soul points equal to [spell level * 3], the she may cast any spell from the selected domain as a spell-like ability, so long as its spell level is no greater than her class level. Unlike normal spell-like abilities, the ones acquired through this ability retain any experience cost they might have. If the spell-like ability has an expensive material component, it must be supplied normally. Spell-like abilities never require a focus. Save DCs for these abilities are based on her evoker stat, and her effective caster level is equal to her evoker level, rather than her HD.

The redeemer of nine does not gain any other benefit from the domains she selects, such as their granted powers or the ability to take feats or prestige classes which have them as a prerequisites. At 5th level, and again at 9th level, the redeemer of nine may select an additional domain from which to purchase spells.

Brand of the Nine Hells
At 3rd level, the redeemer of nine gains Brand of the Nine Hells (Fiendish Codex II, p 81.) as a bonus feat, even if she would not normally meet its prerequisites. The brand is considered to be associated with whichever archdevil is most closely associated with the redeemer's patron, and by extension, the redeemer herself.

Mark of the Master
At 7th level, the redeemer of nine gains the Mark of Hell (Fiendish Codex II, p 84-85.) feat appropriate to her brand's associated archdevil as a bonus feat, even if she would not normally meet its prerequisites.

Agent of the Nine (Su)
At 10th level, a redeemer of nine is no longer a mere servant of her employers – she is a valued and much-beloved tool, capable of regularly ensuring the sort of harvests which less adventurous pact-makers might require decades to cultivate. Her status as a favored disciple of whatever entity has contracted her powers is well-known in the Nine Hells, and her infernal patrons have imbued her with protections suitable for such a rare and precious investment.

Unless presented specific circumstances to the contrary, devils and other natives of the Nine Hells will generally possess an attitude of Indifferent towards the redeemer of nine and her immediate allies. While most will offer no direct aid to her, they will generally be happy to let her carry out her work in peace, and the redeemer may walk the cities of the Nine Hells as she pleases without fear of ambush around every corner.

Additionally, so long as the redeemer of nine possesses at least one soul point, her infernal patron will intercede to preserve her essence in the event of her death. Assuming she is not raised by other methods in this timeframe, her patron will restore her to life, as with the True Resurrection spell, 1d4 days after her demise. The evoker is brought to life on whichever layer of Hell her personal patron calls home, and while specifics of the arrangement vary, she will generally be offered a meal, a lecture, and a Plane Shift to a plane of her choosing. Each time this occurs, the redeemer of nine loses 30 soul points. If she does not possess that many soul points, her soul point total simply drops to a negative value – she must pay off this debt before beginning to accumulate soul points normally again.