The Mark of Sathmog, A Fun Magic Item for Dragonbane
Sathmog, our three-tongued master, left this mark on one of the characters in my Dragonbane campaign as a reminder of the debt he still owes.
A while back, the Artisan character in my Dragonbane party—a dwarf named Urk—was killed by a Manticore in the Temple of the Purple Flame. The portal to the demon realm was still open at this point, so Sathmog (our three-tongued master) gave him the opportunity to come back to life in exchange for his service when called.
Urk was then marked by the demon, and this is the item/magic that he got from it (the text version is at the end of the email.)
It's very powerful, but it has a very high cost, too. He's barely used it and hidden the mark from almost everyone they've run into.
Risk vs Reward
In our last session, he spent 4 charges to save the party right before they found the final piece of the statue in The Secrets of the Dragon Emperor campaign. This week (tonight, actually, as of this writing!) we're going to get to have some fun with that decision.
I'm using his deal with Sathmog as a way to move the party into the Path of Glory storyline, and I thought y'all might like to use something like this in yours.
(I should note that I didn't tell him about the d20 roll on expending all charges, and he's gotten lucky on his Demonic Alterations rolls before. We’ll see how lucky he gets this time after dropping four in a single combat encounter.)
I’ll let you know how it goes!
Mark of Sathmog
A mark in the shape of a demon's head branded on the inside of the forearm that pulses regularly with dark energy.
Whenever a non-monster is killed within 2 meters of you, roll D6. On a 1, the mark glows as the creature's spirit rises from the corpse and is absorbed into the mark, which extends to cover more of your arm. Each spirit stored like this counts as a charge in the mark (maximum 4).
You can spend 1 charge from the mark (not an action), to send a spirit directly to Sathmog to be devoured.
When a spirit is absorbed or spent as a charge, you must make a WIL roll. If you fail, you must roll Dio on the Demonic Alterations table on page 54 of the Core Adventure book.
When a charge is spent, the dark lord grants one of the following effects (choose):
Double the damage of your next attack that hits.
Reduce incoming damage to yourself from a single source to o for 1 round.
Perform a random Monster Attack as though you were a Demon (page 85 in the Core Rules). If the attack requires you to choose a target, roll a die: odds, it targets the closest enemy; evens, the closest ally.
Deal damage equal to half your max HP to a target within 2 meters. You lose the same amount of HP.
Heal a target within 2 meters for half your max HP. You lose the same amount of HP.
Any time the Mark of Sathmog reaches maximum charges or is reduced to o charges, roll a D20. If a demon, your HP becomes o, you immediately die, and your soul is transported to the Demonic Realm where you will serve as Sathmog's thrall for eternity.
