Velvet Bulwark

Let the storm find me before it finds you.

Lore Overview

Velvet is no promise of softness beneath the blow. It is the cloth laid over a shaking shoulder after danger passes. A Velvet Bulwark knows how fear travels between companions—and chooses to become the place where its journey ends.

Choose this Calling to play a defender and close support warrior. Your Conviction places another person’s safety before your own comfort. You intercept damage, steady companions against temptation, and may willingly carry Arousal they would otherwise gain. Protection accumulates pressure in you; release becomes a moment to restore the line, not abandon it.

Subclass Features

Warbound Level	Feature
3rd	The Sheltered Promise
3rd	Take the Weight
3rd	Ritual and Social Identity
7th	Hold Their Composure
7th	Safe Passage
10th	Widen the Shelter
15th	Room to Breathe
18th	Until All Are Safe

The Sheltered Promise

3rd-Level Subclass Feature

Gain proficiency in Insight or Persuasion. As a bonus action, choose one willing creature other than yourself within 30 feet that you can see. It is your ward for 1 minute, until you are incapacitated, or until you choose another. You can have only one ward. It may end this designation at any time without an action.

Veiled Play. When designating a ward, you may gain 1 Arousal to let it use its reaction to move 5 feet without opportunity attacks.

Unveiled Play. When designating a ward, you may spend 1 Libido to let it reduce its Arousal by 1.

Take the Weight

3rd-Level Subclass Feature

When your ward within 5 feet of you takes damage, you may use your reaction and expend one Technique Die. Roll it and reduce that instance of damage by the result + PB, to a minimum of 0. You take damage equal to the amount prevented, of the same type; this transferred damage cannot be reduced or redirected. If the triggering damage has multiple types, choose which portion you prevent. Resolve resistance and vulnerability on your ward before this reduction; do not apply them again to transferred damage.

Veiled Play. After taking the transferred damage, you may gain 1 Arousal to grant the ward advantage on its next EROSave before your next turn.

Unveiled Play. If you had at least 3 Arousal when using the reaction, add your Constitution modifier (minimum 1) to the reduction. The extra protection also increases the unreducible damage you bear. This grants no voluntary Arousal.

Ritual and Social Identity

3rd-Level Subclass Feature

The Unburdening Watch is a 10-minute rite of quiet company with one willing companion. Once per long rest, choose that companion as your ward without using a bonus action; this designation lasts 8 hours instead of 1 minute, with the usual ending conditions.

Veiled Play. You may gain 1 Arousal when the rite ends.

Unveiled Play. The companion may transfer 1 Arousal to you, decreasing theirs by 1 and increasing yours by 1, if your normal per-turn gain limit allows it. If it does not, no transfer occurs. Resolve any resulting Climax and your Last Measure normally. The rite restores no Libido and removes no Exhaustion. Bulwarks serve as escorts, sanctuary attendants, and trusted witnesses whose protection never requires affection, disclosure, or a vow in return.

Hold Their Composure

7th-Level Subclass Feature

When your ward within 10 feet makes a saving throw against being charmed or frightened, you may use your reaction and expend one Technique Die to add its roll after the roll but before the outcome.

Veiled Play. You may use this reaction and Technique Die on the ward’s EROSave. If it still fails and would gain Arousal, you may take 1 of that incoming Arousal instead, with its player’s agreement and within your normal gain limit. Otherwise it gains Arousal normally. Resolve any resulting Climax immediately.

Unveiled Play. When your ward within 10 feet makes an EROSave, you may use your reaction and spend 1 Libido to grant advantage before it rolls and grant it temporary hit points equal to PB + your Constitution modifier (minimum 1). This uses no Technique Die and transfers no Arousal.

Safe Passage

7th-Level Subclass Feature

While you are within 5 feet of your ward and neither of you is incapacitated, your ward has advantage on ability checks to escape a grapple. This offers an exit; it does not move the ward automatically.

Veiled Play. When your ward escapes a grapple while within 5 feet of you, you may gain 1 Arousal to let it move 5 feet without opportunity attacks, once per turn.

Unveiled Play. Once per turn, when your ward escapes a grapple while within 5 feet of you, you may spend 1 Libido to let it reduce Arousal by 1. This grants no movement.

Widen the Shelter

10th-Level Subclass Feature

You may use Take the Weight when your ward is within 10 feet, provided you can see it. After resolving that feature, your ward may use its reaction to move up to 5 feet to an unoccupied space closer to you without provoking opportunity attacks.

Veiled Play. If your ward makes this movement, you may gain 1 Arousal as your protective Conviction intensifies.

Unveiled Play. if it makes this movement, you may spend 1 Libido to let it reduce its Arousal by up to 2 instead. This cannot reverse a Climax that has already triggered. It does not remove the charmed or frightened condition.

Room to Breathe

15th-Level Subclass Feature

Once per short or long rest, you may use Take the Weight without expending a Technique Die; roll your current die size normally.

Veiled Play. Once per short or long rest, after you or your ward resolves Climax while you are conscious and within 10 feet of the ward, grant the ward temporary hit points equal to your Warbound level without an action. Simultaneous Climax events use this benefit once.

Unveiled Play. Once per short or long rest, after your own Climax resolves, you may spend 1 Libido to regain one expended Technique Die, up to your normal maximum. This does not restore this feature’s ordinary free-technique use.

Until All Are Safe

18th-Level Subclass Feature

Once per long rest, as a bonus action, establish a defensive stand for 1 minute, ending early if you are incapacitated. During it, any willing ally other than you within 10 feet that you can see counts as your ward for Take the Weight, Hold Their Composure, and Widen the Shelter. Your normal ward remains designated. You still have only one reaction per round. Once during this stand, when you would take transferred damage from Take the Weight, you may halve that transferred damage, rounded down; this is an explicit exception to that feature’s reduction restriction.

Unveiled Play. after resolving your own Climax during the stand, you may spend 1 additional Libido to restore the stand’s halving benefit if you have already used it. This restoration can happen only once per stand and does not restore the stand’s long-rest use.

Veiled Play. Once per round during the stand, after you gain Arousal through a Velvet Bulwark feature, choose one ward within 10 feet. It has advantage on its next EROSave before your next turn. This grants no additional Arousal or reaction.

Additional Information

Combat Identity

Defender and close support warrior who places a ward’s safety first.

Desire Identity

Protection accumulates pressure; willing transfers and personal release change how that burden is carried.

Class Integration

You gain these features at Warbound levels 3rd, 7th, 10th, 15th, 18th. This subclass works through Conviction, Technique Dice, and the Last Measure. Use the costs, triggers, limits, and recovery stated in the individual features and parent class.

Using This Calling.

This Martial Calling grants features at Warbound levels 3, 7, 10, 15, and 18. It uses your existing Technique Dice and Technique Save DC; it creates no additional resource pool. Rolling a Technique Die without expending it uses your current die size. You cannot apply more than one Martial Technique or Calling feature that expends a Technique Die to the same attack.

Ritual and Social Use

Offer quiet company and chosen protection without requiring disclosure or affection. The Ritual and Social Identity feature gives the applicable observance and its complete benefits; this guidance adds no additional ritual reward.

Example of Play

Your ward would take 17 slashing damage. You spend your reaction and a d8 Technique Die, roll 5, and add PB 3: the ward takes 9 and you take 8. At 3 Arousal in Unveiled Play, Constitution +3 increases the protection to 11: the ward takes 6 and you take 11. You cannot also use Hold Their Composure that round without another available reaction. Carrying another’s pressure is always a choice, and your own release still has its normal cost.

Additional Rules

Choice and Presentation.

Declare the play mode before the scene. Desire effects require the table’s opt-in and never establish attraction, obedience, or consent. A player may decline an erotic effect on their character; resolve the baseline martial effect instead. Emotional pressure and release can be narrated through breath, devotion, fear, anticipation, or a fade to black. These rules add no separate Spent condition.

Canonical Desire Rules.

Follow the current Mechanics of Desire and the Warbound class. An EROSave uses a Constitution or Wisdom saving throw, chosen by the creature; add proficiency only if proficient in the chosen save. The normal limit of 3 Arousal gained during a single turn applies unless a rule explicitly overrides it. At Arousal 6, resolve the applicable Climax Effect and the Warbound’s Last Measure for the selected mode, reduce Libido by 1 where tracked, and reset Arousal to 0. These Calling features add only their stated benefits: they grant no universal 1d6 healing or automatic Exhaustion. At 0 Libido, apply Depletion and its normal consequences; a creature cannot spend Libido it lacks, but free martial and Desire features remain available unless a rule specifically restricts them. A reaction, free die use, or Climax rider does not provide an additional action, reaction, or use of Action Surge beyond what the class expressly grants.

Play Modes and Desire Resolution

Classic Play. Use the baseline feature and any expressly stated Classic alternative, without Arousal or Libido. A feature that only modifies Desire has no additional Classic effect.

Veiled Play. Use the baseline and the feature’s Veiled paragraph. Add each stated Arousal gain to the creature’s current total; never assign Composed, Stirred, or Overwhelmed or replace its existing pressure. Resolve Climax immediately at 6. Do not use the Unveiled paragraph.

Unveiled Play. Use the baseline and the feature’s Unveiled paragraph, together with the website’s full Arousal, Libido, Climax, and Depletion rules. Do not inherit the Veiled paragraph. A Libido expenditure requires enough Libido to pay it. Spending the final point does not disable benefits without a Libido cost.

Each feature retains its stated actions, targets, duration, resource costs, and recharge. Changing play modes restores no uses. A gain-dependent benefit requires the Arousal actually to be gained. Unless explicitly excepted, a creature gains at most 3 Arousal per turn; reductions cannot go below 0. Resolve Climax before continuing a feature or applying any after-Climax benefit: the applicable Climax Effect, 1 Libido loss where tracked, Arousal reset to 0, then applicable aftermath triggers. Healing and Exhaustion occur only when an applicable rule grants or imposes them. An EROSave is the creature’s choice of Constitution or Wisdom saving throw, including proficiency only if proficient in that save. Basic Desire Actions retain their one-per-round limit unless an explicit feature overrides it.

Subclass EROSaves use your Technique Save DC: 8 + PB + the Strength or Dexterity modifier chosen for Technique Dice. Other saving throws retain any DC expressly stated in the feature.

Deity Alignment

This Calling requires no deity worship. Your personal faith may shape the Conviction you bring to its discipline, but it grants no additional subclass powers or authority over another creature.

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