Today I'd like to share with you a very special magical artifact from my campaign. It's full of evil goodness and ready for you to drop into yours. Have fun watching your PCs try to get rid of this!
***Spoilers for my Players in the "Pirates of the Aegean" Campaign***
***Spoilers for my Players in the "Pirates of the Aegean" Campaign***
The Necronomicon
Wondrous item, artifact (requires attunement)
This book is a grand compilation of the mad works written by the Undertow religion’s most gifted dreamers. Its leather cover is made of human skin. A creature attuned to the book must spend 80 hours reading and studying it to digest its contents and reap its full benefits. The creature can then freely add to the book’s contents, provided that those modifications spread madness in the world and expand the lore already contained within.
Whenever a non-chaotic, non-evil creature attunes to the Necronomicon, that creature must make a DC 17 Charisma saving throw. On a failed save, the creature’s alignment changes to chaotic evil. If you die while attuned to the book, an evil entity claims your soul. You can’t be restored to life by any means while your soul remains imprisoned. In a number of days equal to your hit dice, your body will rise as a ghoul under the permanent effect of a water-walk spell.
Curse. Attunement to the Necronomicon can not be broken voluntarily, except by casting a greater restoration spell. When the book is attuned to a creature, anyone attempting to read the Necronomicon who is not attuned gains a form of short-term madness, and cannot attune to the book.
Properties
- All undead you create are permanently under the effects of a water-walk spell.
- Each day you are attuned to the book, roll a d20. On a 1, the chaos magic of the book surges forth. Roll on the Wild Magic Surge table to create a random magical effect.
- When you become attuned to the artifact, you gain a form of indefinite madness that can’t be cured as long as you are attuned to the Necronomicon.
- While attuned to the artifact, you must drink six times the normal amount each day.
- While attuned to the artifact, all holy water within 10 feet of you is destroyed.
- While attuned to the artifact, other creatures can’t take short rests while within 300 feet of you.
- You have true sight.
After you spend the requisite time reading and studying the book you can use the following abilities:
Drown. As an action, you hold up the Necronomicon, and each hostile creature within 30ft of you must make a Constitution saving throw. A creature takes cold damage equal to 2d10 + your cleric level on a failed saving throw, and half as much damage on a successful one. Creatures you cannot see are unaffected. Any creatures that can breathe underwater automatically succeeds on its saving throw. You can’t use this property again until the next dusk, but if you are a cleric with the Sea Domain you may use this property after each short or long rest.
Forbidden Knowledge. Once after each long rest, you may learn a new spell of any spell level you can cast, from any class’s spell list. Each time you do so, your Wisdom decreases by 1. You may undo this effect with the greater restoration spell, but you lose the new spell in addition to the Wisdom score reduction.
Lord of the Undead. While attuned to the artifact, you can use an action to cast animate dead or create undead. After you cast the spell, roll a d6. If you use this ability to cast animate dead, on a roll of 1-2, you can’t use this ability again until the next dusk. If you use this ability to cast create undead, on a roll of 1-5 you can’t use this ability again until the next dusk. If you are a cleric with the Sea Domain, you gain these two spells as domain spells.
Nightmare. Each time you take a long rest, the dream spell is cast with the book acting as a spell focus. Choose the target of the spell. You enter a trance state, acting as the messenger in the target’s dream.
Destroying the Book. Any damage to the pages or the writing in the book is magically undone at dusk. If the book is destroyed entirely it reappears within 5 feet of the one it was last touched by at dusk.
