Villains' Lorebook.pdf - Department of Political Science

Magical Items
& Spells
Many of the scurrilous villains in this book owe at
least part of their infamy-not to mention their continued
existence-to enchanted objects or spells
they’ve created, found, or stolen. Below are the details
of the unique magical items, artifacts, and spells
marked with an asterisk (*) throughout this book.
Care must be taken when deciding whether to
allow your campaign’s characters access to the items
or enchantments below. Many of each are inherently
evil and any use of them at all by good- or neutral-aligned
characters could be considered an evil
act and grounds for possible alignment change and
suitable penalties.
Magical Items
Battle Gorget
One item that Manshoon of the Zhentarim always
wears is a battle gorget. This throat protector consists
of a metal throat-shield and overlapping, neck-encircling
plates that are attached to a leather belt. It
protects the wearer from all strangulation effects,
death by hanging, and stabbing or piercing damage
done to the throat. It bears an enchantment that improves
the wearer’s Armor Class by 1, and also offers
the following powers (usable one at a time):
Once per day, for a four-round period, the wearer
is protected as if by an ironguard spell (that is, metals
of any sort, except enchanted items such as the gorget
itself, pass through the wearer’s body harmlessly,
as if the wearer was insubstantial). This property is
activated by the wearer’s silent act of will, and has
foiled several assassination attempts. It has enabled
Manshoon to fight his way safely clear on at least
one occasion. (See Pages From the Mages or Heroes’
Lorebook for the ironguard spell.)
When the wearer wills, the gorget can emit a
feather fall twice per day, lasting for up to one turn, of
sufficient force to slow up to 600 lbs. In practical
terms, this is enough to allow a fully armored heavy
wearer, carrying heavy cargo, such as a second person,
to descend to safety. This power has allowed
Manshoon to survive several falls from dragonback
over the years.
Once per day at the silent mental command of
the wearer, the gorget can emit a repulsion. This
power causes affected creatures to retreat for six
rounds. The effect duplicates a repulsion spell cast by
a 12th-level wizard except that it works in all directions
from the gorget-wearer, in a sphere. Only beings
directly touching the wearer are immune to the
repulsion.
Once per day, the gorget can project a firebeam in
front of the wearer. The wearer must speak a command
word to enact this power. The gorget emits a
cylindrical red shaft of fire a hand’s width in diameter,
directly out from the wearer’s throat to 20 feet.
The beam is instantaneous, and all beings it comes
into contact with suffer 4d4 points of fiery damage. If
the targets make a successful saving throw vs. spell,
they take half this damage. Items the beam strikes
(such as armor) are subject to forced saving throws
vs. magical fire. The wearer’s own hands or items
may be imperiled by this beam.
Bone Mask
This skull-face mask may be fashioned of bone from
any source. The powdered bones of many animals
can be used in a paste to augment or even form an
entire mask. When a bone mask is worn, the wearer—
who may be of any class-is immune to all undead
draining, chilling, aging, and withering attacks.
(The bone mask also offers protection from all of the
nonphysical attacks of a demilich such as death ray,
trap the soul, and curse.)
A bone mask also has three other powers that the
wearer can call upon one at a time by act of will:
The wearer can turn all undead as if she or he
were a 7th-level priest. Wearers who are normally
able to turn undead have their effective levels
doubled for turning attempts.
The wearer can animate dead by touch. This ability
creates human and monster skeletons or zombies
only, and can make one such entity per round. An
undead animated by the bone mask rises on the round
following the use of this ability, and the musk-wearer
can mentally control it on the third round. It will
never attack a being who wears or has worn the bone
mask that animated it.
The mask can emit a spectral messenger once per
day. This insubstantial magical construct looks like a
skeletal bat and flies unerringly at MV Fl 21 (A) to
any living creature visualized by the mask-wearer on
the same plane. (If either of these conditions is unfulfilled,
the spectral messenger does not fly off, but
simply circles the mask-wearer’s head until dispelled
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