DM-Nastics #133 Part B: Wield Some Evil

The Call of Valor / the Horn of Bael

To most mortals, this fiery orange warhorn can be identified as the Call of Valor, a legendary artifact that inspires armies in times of great need.

To learned scholars who understand more of its past, they fear its use, both against them and even by them, for the warhorn has a twin in the Nine Hells, forged from a powerful arch-devil general in the Blood War. Duke Bael, the Bull Devil, chopped off his own two horns in a last ditch effort to rally his forces against an overwhelming demonic offensive. Using the hollowed horns to let loose a rallying cry, he mobilised his troops and drove the demons back, but not before one horn was stolen and, eventually, made its way to the material plane.

Benefit

When you use an action to blow this horn, allied creatures that can hear your call become immune to being charmed or frightened until the end of your next turn. Additionally, up to 6 allied creatures of your choice within 60 feet of you, other than yourself, gain 5 temporary hit points. The horn has six charges and blowing the horn expends one charge. The horn regains 1d6 charges at sunset.

Curse

Each time the horn is blown, Duke Bael is aware of its exact location, even when it's on other planes of existence, and he has knowledge of any creatures who are blowing the horn and who are affected by it, specifically their race, their appearance, their statistics, and their alignment.

When one creature has blown the horn one hundred and one times, Duke Bael can blow his horn at the same time and create a portal to the other horn, as per the gate spell.

Acquisition

The horn has passed from Duke Bael to a mischievous quasit to a demonic minotaur to Baphomet himself, and it was used in an invasion upon the Underdark. The invasion was repelled by a group of duergar adventurers, who then used their victory as a triumphant call for action against a drow city nearby that had insulted their efforts. The duergar sacked the city and launched a campaign against the drow, but the warhorn fell into the deep webs when its wielder was assassinated. An exiled drider picked it up and used it to gather forces for Lolth in attempt to regain her favour, but Lolth merely took the warhorn and left him for dead. Using her spies and contacts in the abyss and in the Nine Hells, Lolth correctly deduced its origin. She gave it to her assassins on the surface world to present it to a newly formed king, who was in desperate need of defending his borders from those who would usurp him. The young king, inexperienced in battle, was not effective enough to ensure his victory, and his kingdom collapsed, Lolth's plans for corruption having failed. The warhorn was recovered by a nameless soldier who returned to his family's farm after the war and stores it in the attic.

That's where it lies now. In the attic of a farmhouse of a nameless veteran of a pointless war long forgotten.

At least until some 1st level adventurers come along to deal with the rat problem.

The Cleansing Flame

1. The Cleansing Flame is a beautiful, intricately carved and embellished longsword of silver

2. The sword gleams with pure white fire as it strikes, dealing 1d6 fire damage. Furthermore, evil creatures struck by it may be blinded, and when held in hand (even if sheathed) its bearer experiences a permanent Detect Alignment, and can see foul auras of fire, shadow, and plague around lycanthropes, vampires, the possessed, and other such evils hidden in mortal flesh. Most importantly of all, when an evil creature is slain, the wielder of the sword feels a cleansing joy in their very soul; past regrets are eased, darker impulses are dulled, and even curses such as lycanthropy or possession are suppressed.

3. Most of the above described effects are an illusion. Flat-out lies. The sword is made of silver, it burns, and it blinds, and that's it. The suppression of lycanthropy and other similar curses is immediately lifted when the sword is taken away. It was created by the Prince of Lies, Beelzebub himself, to harvest souls in secret, beguiling the well-intentioned into damning innocent souls to hell. The auras of evil the sword projects onto those around the sword bearer have nothing to do with alignment or curses--the sword is simply choosing targets. The rush of ecstatic divinity one experiences by slaying with the Cleansing Flame is merely the sensation of the unfortunate soul passing through the swordsman while on its way to hell. 

4. Though it rarely speaks, except through abstract emotion, the sword is a consummate deceiver whose true nature has rarely been discovered throughout its bloody history. It is intelligent enough to drive itself into hiding when those rare few begin to hunt its owner. It loves to find troubled souls wracked with guilt for evil they have committed. Those affected by curses or mind-altering magic are prime targets, though regretful former soldiers and mercenaries are good stock as well. It leads these individuals along with sensations and promises of atonement that are never fully satisfied.

5. Most likely, the players find it when its current owner marks a party member as a dark one in need of cleansing. The sword may have decided it was not in capable enough hands, and so sent its owner to an early death at the hands of more skilled warriors. The Cleansing Flame is wily enough to target truly evil creatures first, to establish trust with its new owner.

6. Multiple times in its history, the sword has fallen into the hands of paladins tricked by its apparent divinity. Its most devious ability of all is that it can artificially power a paladin's (or cleric's) magic, and even affect dreams to maintain an illusion of the faith after favor has been lost through violent acts against the innocent. It often twists the deity's messages subtly towards purging and vengeance over time.

The Tongue of Wi'ildwirrm

1. What kind of item is it?
The Tongue of Wi'ildwirrm is at first appearance a longsword of horrific appearance.
The blade is bruise-colored and twisted with small wart-like flaws speckling it. Its crosspeice looks like a small bear-trap clamped into the blade and its hilt appears to be made of tough strips of leather tubing weaved together tightly. In actual fact, the blade is the actual petrified tongue of the legendary dragon-toad Wi'ilwirrm and its hilt is made from its blood vessels and tendons.

2. What is the apparent benefit of the item?
Aside from being razor sharp (causes extra lingering 1d4 bleed damage) and acidic properties (extra 1d6 acid damage) it also can possibly transmit the wart-rot disease (DC 15 to negate on first successful strike, if save is successful then are immune to the disease for 1 day). Additionally, on command the blade can stretch out and be used like a whip that grants advantage on grapples and trips because of its sticky properties when in whip form and anyone grappled takes 1d8 acid damage each round it remains grappled.

3. What is the curse associated with the item?
For every 6 kills a weilder makes with the Tongue of Wi'ildwirrm they must make a Fort save or go through one of 6 stages of de-evolution. Each stage has it's own set of drawbacks and benefits, as follows:

Stage 1
The weilder's flesh becomes tougher and leathery, splotched with dark spots, they gain a +1 natural AC bonus, but get a -2 to Charisma

Stage 2
The weilder begins to secrete a slightly sticky oil from the palms of their hands and soles of their feet. They get a +2 to their Athletic checks for climbing and gain advantage to saves against being disarmed, however they receive a -4 to Sleight of Hand checks and disadvantage on all Stealth checks.

Stage 3
The weilder's muscles become denser, but less flexible, they gain a +2 to Strength, but take a -2 to Dexterity

Stage 4
The weilder's eyes become larger and amphibious, they get a + 4 to sight-based Perception checks and take no penalties to sight-based Perception checks while underwater, however to compensate for the eyes taking up more space in their skull their brain becomes squished and the weilder takes a -2 to Intelligence and must make a Fort save DC 10 after each long rest to avoid a splitting headache until the end of the next long rest that causes disadvantage on all attacks and skill checks. Even if they make their save after the next long rest they are considered fatigued. If they fail consecutively the fatigue moves up the tired scale each time. The fatigue goes away after the first long rest after a successful save.

Stage 5
The weilder arms and legs elongate and their hands and feet enlarge, developing webbing between their fingers and toes. They get a swim speed of 40' and they get a +2 to Athletic checks for jumping and their jumping distance is not limited to size, but no armor fits them properly and as long as they wear it they are treated as no longer proficient in the armor and suffer the penalties as such.

Stage 6
The weilder completes their transformation as they grow poisonous pustuals and warts all over their skin, and their tongue becomes frog-like. They can squirt disease-ridden puss up to 15' 3/day, dealing no 1d4 poison damage and possibly infecting them with wart-rot and any body who touches the weilder also must make a Fort save DC 10' or be struck by wart-rot. However, they get an additional -2 to their Charisma. They can also use their tongues as a means of grappling a creature one size smaller or less than them. The downside of the tongue is that it is too ungainly to make coherent sounds and you can no longer speak understandably and get a disadvantage on Diplomacy and Deception checks.

4. What is the personality of the item?
Wi'ildwirrm was a creature of pure hunger, wreaking havoc on entire farming and fishing communities as it moved across the world of Dayimbe. It was said to be a remnant from one of the earliest Ages of the world, forgotten about when the world changed around it as it slept for millenia in a cave at one of the deepest depths of the Seas. When it awoke it roamed unchallenged as it ripped through each community like a plague of locusts. It would cross the world from one Sea to the next where it would disappear for another several hundred years. During one of its destructive rampages it actually had an epic encounter with the Terrasque that was a tale of legend for Ages to come. The collision of collosuses resulted in Wi'ildwirrm's tongue was ripped out and thrown through the window of a Dwarf trapper named Joh Goldthumb. The Tongue had crashed through his window while he was eating breakfast, having become bored of watching the thirteen day battle that had been happening outside of his village and its razor sharp edges sliced his left arm clean off. After tending to the arm and healed up, but now only one-armed, the Dwarf returned to his home weeks later to find the Tongue petrified on his floor. Impressed with its sheer sharpness even though it had chopped his arm off, he fashioned it into a longsword using one of his best quality traps to seal the open wound of the tongue which though hard on the outside continued to leak some kind of fluid. When the trap snapped shut the tendons and blood vessels squeezed out and he braided them all together to make a hilt. To finish it off he cast it in a forge and baked it until it stopped leaking anything more.
When Joh first weilded it, it was against a pack of white wolves he erringly crossed while trapping winter foxes. The sword had stayed silent until his first successful swipe that cut deep into one of the large beasts, it tasted blood and it came to life. Though Joh had a constution that saved him from catching the wart-rot, he could not withstand the hunger of the sword. The next thing he knew the white wolves had been hacked to peices, and the only bodies that were still mostly intact were developing bruise colred warts on their eyelids and nose, and upon inspection he found the warts were all over them hidden beneath their thick coats of fur. The next time he was anything living, however the sword's hunger nearly overtook him again. Not liking this aspect of the weapon he sent it to be destroyed when the caravan that it had been being transported by was overtaken by highwaymen and the sword was lost to him. Since then it has gone from weilder to weilder leaving toadmen in its wake.

5. Where and how is it found? The Tongue of Wi'ildwirrm has become a dark legend amongst the scum of the world. A sword so loathsome that to weild it is a sign that you are the most despicable of persons. It is most likely being kept by the warped and malformed leader of any evil cult or dark covenant as a sign of power anywhere in the world you may find such organizations.

Rune etched studded leather bracers (Skull and lightning bolt studded metal patern)

+1 AC because they help guide your arms to deflect/parry blows.
 1 per short rest you can let the bracers guide your actions giving you an extra action to attack, dodge, or parry.

When they use the extra action ability, upon waking from their next rest... they could potentially suffer a point of exhaustion (if they have gone long enough without sleep, or DM wants them to make a CON save).
If they reach two points of exhaustion the bracers take control of their arms upon the next rest and attack anyone who is resting near them. (could potential throw a dagger)
Cannot remove them if they have 1 or more points of exhaustion. (dispel magic lv 4 with DC of 16) (or instant dispel with spell slot 6)

Encouraging the wearer to let it guide their movements, through passive aggressive remarks. Then when questioned about the inability to rest it insults the wearers ability to take care of themselves better, or deflects & says how amazing they were in that fight together.

Found on a body of a dead ranger inside her bed roll with no injury marks (Died of exhaustion not noticeable by PCs). At a camp that was set up fire pit/cooking pot. Wire and bells set for alert.

Upon waking from the first rest with these bracers on (attuned), the wearer hears in their head "That was the best rest we'll ever get together, there is so much work to do" as it stretches the arms of the wearer from sleep and helps the wearer dawn their armor and other gear as quickly as possible.

Gifted from hags to the dead ranger, in her quest to destroy the evil in her domain quicker.

I mean between bad rolls, and maybe add other distractors, our 'brilliant' PCs will most likely not realize it until the owner fails a CON save.

But yes, there is a bit of foreshadowing there.