Short campaign revolving around Evil item?

[Pinjata]

Hey folks,

I want to make a short campaign, revolving around Evil item.

The thing is, group has, in despite of being level 6, handled quite a few Evil items but has complete disdain for them. I want to present them a really damn scary Evil item.

I would also like to go beyond "Sword that makes you mad and binds to your hand".

I want all the red lights to activate on my party the next time "Detect Evil" shows an item to be evil.

Got any idea for me? Or an interesting item from 3.5 books that is not exacty an artifact for 250 k gp.

thanks

[galan]

make it evil, not cursed.

in the game i DMed before the current one, they got a dagger as a reward. the first magical item they had actually. it had an OK ability, nothing crazy but better than mundane weapons. the catch? every creature killed by the dagger will be dragged into hell, when it will turn into a devil.
"don't worry", the wizard who gave it to them said "it will not be significant enough short-term to do you any harm. in the long run however, hell's army will be stronger".

the player didn't lose anything at all from using the dagger. no curse, no secret power, no nothing. but.. it felt wrong. they knew it was wrong to use the dagger, and did it anyway because they wanted the magic item (not needed it, though. it was almost a side-quest, and everyone knew they will be just fine without it).

the campaign wasn't long enough to make it deeper, but i think thats a good direction. evil items are the one the player think as evil, not the one that the characters feel that are evil

[Pinjata]

Very nice concept, galan. I do not have much experience with this, but reward/penalty approach is great. I was (maybe) thinking of an item that gives some exceptional bonuses, but perhaps also summons demons into reality whenever it is used too much. Am still working on it.

[Astralia123]

You may wish to consult BoVD and BoED to be inspired.

The concept is, make you bad guys really evil, by describe what horrible things they've done, and what a lot more horrible thing they're planning.


Several considerations.
An evil item might be intelligent. It can be as nasty as devils, constantly trying to corrupt the players not by lengthy speeches, but by vicious suggestions, luring the players and/or the NPCs around them into doing really evil deeds. Or it may appear helpful and cooperating, but with time passed it become capable of controlling the wielder's body for at least a short time. Say, it kills a key NPC the PCs expect to save, deceiving an NPC into distrusting/betraying them, or the characters are attracted to it, can't help but try to steal it and cannot deliberately throw it away (you know what I'm talking about). The inspirations around a conspicuous magic item is unlimited.

An evil item might be crafted to serve a certain purpose, which your PCs may find especially disgusting. Such an item is not necessarily used against PCs (but again, it is a quick way to enrage them to ruin their plans at last moment, like killing the about-to-be-rescues hostage or sth), but used to make the plot. For example, the orcs get hold of a certain kind of suspicious magic items that can easily wipe out human communities in horrible ways, and killing one or two certain orc chiefs doesn't help much.
The idea is that, such evil items may not be defeated once-and-forever. Mysterious villains may continue to hand nasty weapons to minor villains. The evil artifact may have multiple duplicates. Make them signs of cruel, clever and patient recurring villains, and your players will hate them.

On the other hand, an evil item can be crafted specifically against PCs. This is up to your cruelty, anyway.

[Uncle Pine]

Plot hook: a super rich but somewhat naive philantrophist discovers the location of a powerful and dangerous item known as "the Capital Blower" (a wand of Arcane thesis Snowcasting Flash frost Energy admixture Explosive blast Born of the three thunders Sanctum Locate City spell) and announces he's looking for help to retrieve and secure said item. Obviously, he specifies the item's location in the announcement. Will the PCs be able to find the Capital Blower before someone else does?

If you're worried that your players could turn evil if they find out that the Capital Blower is a Locate City Bomb in a stick, give it only 1d4 charges. Or give it 1d4 charges anyway since it'd cost too much if it had 50 charges.

[Pinjata]

@Uncle Pine

Err, thanks for the input, I guess ... but it is really not what I am looking for. You may want to look up previous posts.

I'll be glad of any ideas within given parameters.

[Uncle Pine]

@Uncle Pine

Err, thanks for the input, I guess ... but it is really not what I am looking for. You may want to look up previous posts.

I'll be glad of any ideas within given parameters.

Sorry, I tend to include in the "Evil items" category items that can have pretty terrible consequences when used. In other words, I usually consider evil items on par with Evil items.
That said, if you really need the item to ping when your party uses "Detect Evil" on it you can have it been crafted using souls instead of xp points (as detailed in the Book of Vile Darkness). A Capital Blower crafted using souls is an Evil item and fulfills the given parameters. It can also potentially kill everything in a 90 miles radius (albeit with a somewhat low DC to resist), so your player should probably be afraid of it in case you decide to use it :smallwink:

[SamsDisciple]

It might be good to think about what you consider to be evil. If being selfish or self absorbed is evil then give an item that causes the wielder to gain bonuses but give penalties to the rest of the party (best if you start small then eventually it becomes crippling. Only use in a party that can get over serious internal disputes. Also don't immediately tell them the source of the penalty) If evil to you means long term effects, each enemy killed raises into a zombie (or other creature of choice) which immediately begins hunting the party. If evil means greed then have it work like the Midas hand which turns things into gold. Unlimited gold right? Except that everything bought with the gold becomes cursed. If evil means lust then it distorts the perception to make either everything look like a succubus or slowly turn the wielder into a quasi succubus and they need to find a new victim of lustly pursuits daily in order to retain tempting bonuses (the more extreme the evil the larger the bonus) and once the transformation is complete a major demon/devil reclaims the characters for the bloodwar. Just a couple ideas... I have never thought about this before... I promise...

[JusticeZero]

I recall a story about a powerful evil sword that cut off the users hands when first drawn.. They could graft someone else's hands on and use them normally, buy the grafted hands would rot and fall off after a while and replacements had to be procured somehow.. Generally by cutting them off of someone else.