Blade of the Ruined King (5e Equipment)
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Weapon (longsword), legendary (requires attunement by a non-lawful character) You have a +2 bonus on attack and damage rolls with this cursed longsword. This weapon also deals additional damage based on the target's current amount of hit points. You may choose to gain temporary hit points equal to the bonus damage dealt from one attack made per turn. These last until the beginning of your next turn. |
Target's Hit Points | Bonus Damage |
---|---|
20 and under | 1d8 |
21–80 | 2d8 |
81–125 | 3d8 |
126–150 | 4d8 |
151–201 and above | 5d8 |
Curse. The grief and madness that drove the original owner of this weapon haunts the blade. For every day spent being attuned to this weapon, its owner becomes more and more unlawful and reckless, making decisions that are misaligned from themselves. A snarky shopkeeper might be punched rather than reasoned with. These changes come slow and at a shock from the owner of the Blade of the Ruined King, but slowly become more natural until they eventually become the primary thought process.
After one week of continued attunement, the owner makes a DC 15 Charisma saving throw. Upon a failure, the owner changes their Flaw to "I am sure everyone I know and see is lying to me and conspiring my downfall." The next week of continued attunement prompts the same saving throw. A failure causes the owner to shift from neutral aligned to chaotic. If the owner was already chaotic, they shift from good to neutral or neutral to evil. This continues until the wielder is chaotic evil.
Once the wielder is chaotic evil their mind begins to slip away. One week from finally shifting alignments the creature makes a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw. Upon a failure they are subjected to a long-term madness effect. When the owner fails five saving throws to resist madness, non sequentially, the tragedy of the Ruined King sets in. The owner will slowly forget their own name, where they live, and who they know until their whole existence is a constant question in their mind. These effects are not lethal but the owner's lack of capacity to maintain themselves can potentially lead to their death.
Removing the Curse[edit]
The spirit and rage of the Ruined King can never be stopped. A remove curse spell will behave normally, but if the weapon is taken from the owner there is a 25% chance the curse will begin on the next creature that touches it as if they were a new owner. They immediately become attuned to the weapon. In the event of this, the original owner falls unconscious for 1d4 days, waking up with no memory of having the weapon or what happened while they owned it.
The only true way to end the Ruined King is to remember him. Since his curse has destroyed all knowledge or memory of his name, kingdom, and predecessors, he cannot be remembered by any other means outside of a wish spell. Doing so reveals the name, appearance, location and name of the fallen kingdom, the name of his wife who's death began his descent, as well as the events that took place that led to the Ruination. With this information brought to life once more the curse of the Blade of the Ruined King will dissipate, freeing both his soul and the souls of his loyal soldiers and servants who were trapped with him.
The weapon becomes a +3 longsword. When a creature attuned to this weapon makes an attack with it they can make an additional attack within the same action. In addition, the weapon still does bonus damage according to the table but with one fewer d8 per increment and they cannot gain temporary hit points.
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