Nov 20

Nov 20 Dragonmarked Houses - House Vadalis

The poor humans of House Vadalis. They are shown the least amount of love of all the house heirs, which is too bad since they possess one of the coolest dragonmarks. It could be that people don’t view the Mark of Handling as a powerful dragonmark, but in my humble opinion, they would be dead wrong. The Mark of Handling allows this house's heirs to be the best animal handlers in all of Eberron, including such creatures as griffons and hippogriffs. But there is a dark side to House Vadalis, for the rumors of breeding monstrosities beyond one’s imagination persist today. It could also be that people find House Vadalis boring since they don’t engage in the internal dragonmarked house squabbles, and they weren’t actively involved in the Last War. Let’s talk a look at the last dragonmarked house on the list, House Vadalis, the Mark of Handling bearers.

House Vadalis

Dragonmark - Mark of Handling
Race - Human
Traits - ASI, Wild Intuition, Primal Connection, The Bigger They Are, Spells of the Mark
Headquarters - Foalswood, Eldeen Reaches
Patriarch - (Baron) Dalin d'Vadalis
Emblem - Hippogriff
Guilds - Handler's Guild

History

The history of House Vadalis is sparse, but the little bit we are provided is interesting, if not incomplete. Humans who were the future bearers of the Mark of Handling migrated west to the Eldeen Reaches. From where they traveled from is unknown, and why they would decide to settle in the Eldeen Reaches is beyond me. Most of the region is covered by a thick forest, inhospitable even today, let alone 2000 years ago when the humans arrived. Had they traveled north, they may have discovered the fertile lands there that to this day delivers bountiful harvests, but they instead stopped on the eastern border near Lake Galifar.

The dragonmark manifested approximately 200 years later on a generation of children who were seen as blessed by a gift from the Sovereign Host which would help them survive the rugged lands they lived upon. The mark allowed them to breed and train a better class of animals, increasing the productivity of the farmers, builders, and a variety of other businesses. There is no talk of when the House Vadalis was established or details of the bloodlines and how they divided power, which is extremely odd. House Vadalis is all about families and bloodlines, so a little more information would have made sense, but alas, there is none.

During the War of the Mark, the horrifying creations of the Seryan bloodline were discovered by the other families and the other houses. Since bloodlines are a serious matter in the house, House Vadalis was quickly on board with eradicating those that bore aberrant dragonmarks. The other bloodlines within House Vadalis focused on creating healthier, stronger, and more fertile livestock before the war. The Seryan bloodline had spent their time on the disturbing practice of using the magic of their mark to warp and twist creatures into living weapons. They focused on the dire wolf and the displacer beast, but there was talk of them crossbreeding other, more dangerous creatures, then taking the offspring and creating creatures from one’s worst nightmares. Once the war had concluded, the Twelve’s new council put down the remaining beasts and destroyed any records or instructions involving this practice. These creatures must have been quite the perversion of nature, given how deep the Twelve’s hatred of the aberrant dragonmarks was. Previous lore made it sound as if they would stop at nothing to eliminate aberrant dragonmarks from Eberron. I guess these creatures were a line they couldn’t cross.

Between the War of the Mark and the Last War, House Vadalis returned to breeding mounts and livestock of amazing quality. When the Last War started, House Vadalis remained above the fray, remaining neutral. As the war raged, House Vadalis, like the other houses, reaped the benefits of their mark. They produced a variety of creatures that were purchased by various nations through a process known as magebreeding. All sorts of Magebred mounts and war beasts were supplied to the nations willing to pay for them. From the fearsome war bear to the dragonhawk, these creatures were an essential part of each of the Five Nation’s war efforts.

Unfortunately, during this time, the Seryan bloodline practices were started up again by the Feral Heart, a secret organization within House Vadalis. Comprised of magebreeders who saw the potential to create creatures that represented nature’s true power, they began to search for any information on the Seryan processes of magebreeding. Even more disturbing were the rumors that the Feral Heart were also trying to create magebred humanoids. Although nothing came to fruition during the Last War, the Feral Heart is still active inside House Vadalis.

The Mark of Handling

In 3.5e, the Mark of Handling was three feats focusing on the training and breeding and creatures. The first feat was the Least Dragonmark feat, and the series culminated with the Greater Dragonmark feat. The Mark’s abilities were as follows:

Least Mark - Calm animal, charm animal, or speak with animals once per day, along with a +2 bonus on Handle Animal checks.
Lesser: Dominate animal or greater magic fang once per day.
Greater: Animal growth or summon nature's ally V once per day.

The prestige class in this edition was the Beastkeeper. The Beastkeeper was a master of nature’s magic and possessed the ability to tame those beasts whose essence incorporated that magic. Vadalis Beastkeepers acted as scouts, guides, and warriors and were known for their prowess for wielding a sharp blade and riding a magebred mount. They possessed the following abilities:

Wild Empathy - Make that angry goose less angry. You can improve the attitude of an animal.
Vadalis Instinct -Lots of cool bonuses dealing with animals and creatures. You gain a +2 bonus on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Survival checks when using those skills against magical beasts (including other characters’ animal companions, special mounts, or familiars), and a +2 bonus on weapon damage rolls against such creatures. You also gain a +2 bonus on Handle Animal and Ride checks made to control or handle magical beasts.
Magebred Summoning - Starting at 2nd level, you can expend one use of any of your dragonmark powers to augment the abilities of an animal you summon. The ability scales well as you rise in levels.
Magebred Companion - At 5th level, your animal companion or special mount gains the magebred template, even though it is a magical creature, not an animal. Your companion or mount’s Intelligence stays the same.
Bestial Empathy - Now that you’ve calmed that goose down, you’ll have the time to deal with the magical creature coming out of the woods.
Magebred Transformation - At the 10th level, since you’ve been hanging out with magebred beasts and animals all the time, you pick up similar benefits of the magebred template. You gain a +2 bonus to one physical ability score of your choice (Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution). Your base speed increases by 10 feet, and you gain a +2 natural armor bonus (a creature without natural armor has an effective natural armor bonus of +0). These changes are permanent.

The magebred template mentioned above consists of the following benefits possessed by the magebred animal or creature:

Armor Class - The base creature’s natural armor bonus increases by +2.

Excellent Learner - A magebred animal can learn a maximum of eight tricks, and the DC for all Handle Animal checks involving a magebred animal is reduced by 2. Also, the time required to train a magebred animal for a purpose is reduced by 1 week (to a minimum of 1 week).
Unique Special Abilities (1 per animal)
Swift Breed: One of the creature’s modes of movement increases its speed by 10 feet.
Thick-Skinned Breed: The creature’s natural armor bonus to AC improves by an additional 2.
Tracking Breed: The creature gains a +4 bonus on Survival checks made to follow tracks.

Ability Score Increase - One of the base creature’s physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution) increases by 4.The other two physical ability scores increase by 2. A magebred animal always has an Intelligence score of 2.

Feats - A magebred animal gains one of the following feats as a bonus feat: Alertness, Athletics, Endurance, Improved Natural Attack, or Multiattack.

In the 4th edition, the paragon path was the Vadalis Griffonmaster. These heirs mastered the art of aerial combat at the end of the Last War. A Vadalis griffon master is not only an expert flyer when on a griffon but can train a griffon to act as a mount for themselves or others. Their abilities are as follows.

Griffon’s Pull - You can slide your target 3 squares to be adjacent to the griffon. You may also may a second attack against a different target.
Invigorating Dive - Apparently, hurtling toward the ground gives you such a rush it heals you. Both you and your griffon are healing equivalent to the amount of your healing surge.
Snatching Assault - Pluck the bad guy right out of the sky. Your target is grabbed (grappled).

Today

Hosue Vadalis is quite satisfied with their current status within the Twelve. Like many other houses, they do not strive to become a dominant force amongst the other houses or nations. House Vadalis has no desire to increase their influence, remaining a closed house to most outsiders. Family bloodlines and lineages are of utmost importance, and every Vadalis heir over the age of 10 can recite his family lineage on both sides for several generations. This information has practical uses in the house members' daily life, as it fosters a strong bond between members of each bloodline and house members as a whole. Being able to help someone related to you, no matter if it is your brother or your great uncle’s second son, is something that the members of House Vadalis take great pride in.

As House Vadalis is a family first organization, business takes a secondary role. Heirs will take a pass on deals that threaten the larger family unit. Profit isn’t the end goal, but maintaining and strengthen the relationships with the family is. The other houses have no comprehension of this world view and are amazed by the Vadalis views on dealing with business. They are seen as a lesser house because of their house’s limited wealth and influence, but Vadalis heirs could care less. Family first.

House Vadalis runs the Handlers Guild, who handles the breeding, training, caring for, and selling prize animal stock. Membership in the Handlers Guild is not mandatory for all house members. Heirs who intend to work beyond the confines of Foalswood, however, need to have been trained by and be in good standing with the guild. The guild is well respected amongst other ranchers and other breeders, especially since they do not seek to dominate the business but be the best in this field. lt also operates as a collective, operating primarily in areas where Vadalis does not have official house enclaves. The guild serves to gather independent ranchers and breeders, share information and animal bloodlines, and sell Vadalis methods and training to assist them in ways to improve their livestock.

The animals that are bred and trained vary almost as much as their uses. Vadalis horses are some of the best in Khovaire, and their livestock is the healthiest and most fertile. But where House Vadalis separates themselves from the others is through their use of Mark of Handling to work with more exotic creatures. Such creatures include griffons and hippogriffs as mounts, bulettes as guards and general labor, and any number of other magebred creatures. Magebreeding involves the use of dragonshard focus items, and through the shards and the Mark of Handling, House Vadalis has developed a line of stronger and faster magical creatures. Rumors of a perversion of magebreeding, involving creatures and even humanoids for nefarious purposes through methods developed by the Seryan bloodline is still spoken about in whispers.

Well, dear readers, this is the last of the Dragonmarked Houses! It was a fun adventure, exploring the dragonmarks, the various houses, and the history of Eberron. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and that the information in these articles can provide some benefit to your campaign!