Magic item: Vexilar's Mantle

 

Vexilar’s Mantle

The mad mage Vexilar Doomhand believed he could overcome death through the art of necromantic magic and as such created the Mantle. It allowed him to live long beyond his years, serving the empire for hundreds of years while appearing as a decaying corpse. Steps were made to preserve his form for the noble court’s sake but he found this new form to be an absolute victory, granting him freedom from needing to eat, breathe, or sleep, even the daggers that found his back in court weren’t enough to kill him. Vexilar’s Mantle seemed to have given him exactly what he wanted, until he was separated from it and his body destroyed. This seemed to be the true ending of Vexilar Doomhand. His mantle was passed on to a successor who thought it to be little more than a trinket and put it on. Soon the change took him and he became much like Vexilar, undead in all but name and granted the same strengths and weaknesses. With the fall of the empire Vexilar’s mantle disappeared.

When this mantle is worn by a character they gain the following benefits:

• Damage Resistance: Half damage from non-magical slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning. Silver, mithril, or magical weapons bypass this.

• Undead Sustenance: No need to eat or drink (but cannot taste). No need to sleep (cannot sleep or gain restful recovery). Immunity to poisons.

• Corpse Decay: Body slowly rots. Steps to preserve it (embalming, mummification, organ replacement, etc.) prevent decline. Each month without preservation causes -1 Personality (cannot be recovered normally).

• False Death: If “killed,” the wearer automatically succeeds at any “roll the body over” checks, feigning death convincingly.

• Death Rest: Cannot heal through normal rest or magic unless the healing source is tied to an undead deity. The wearer may enter a Death Rest, healing 1 HD per turn. They are helpless during this time and cannot awaken early.

Secret property: Vexilar Lives!

The Mantle’s magic preserves more than its wearer’s body, it holds the will and cunning of Vexilar Doomhand himself.

When the wearer is in danger, they occasionally feel an unfamiliar urge. a thought they instinctively know is not their own. These urges are always self-preserving: a suggestion to move, hide, or act in a way that keeps them alive.

If the wearer follows these urges:

• Over time, the instinct becomes a raspy, echoing voice offering genuinely helpful advice.

• Continued trust in the voice grants small boons: +1 to certain checks, rerolls on failed saves, or hints toward survival.

• Vexilar never speaks unless offering something valuable, and “fades” immediately if pressed for details about himself.

Eventually, Vexilar offers to “help” directly:

“Let me take over. Just for a moment. I can get us out of this.”

If the wearer agrees, they cede control of their body to Vexilar.

• Regaining control requires an Ego check against Vexilar.

• Vexilar knows the wearer intimately and can mimic their mannerisms and speech well enough to fool nearly anyone.

• Failure means Vexilar remains in control until he decides to relinquish it, or perhaps never.