Thursday, June 24, 2010

Grognard's Grimoire: Cloak of the Ulfhethnar

The text in the quote box below is hereby designated Open Game Content via the Open Game License.

Cloak of the Ulfhethnar: This cloak is made of an intact wolf skin, carefully removed according to a well-guarded occult formula. When worn, the cloak grants the wearer the ability to turn into fearsome half-man, half-wolf creature. In this form, the wearer retains his normal hit points but gains an armor class of 4 (even if this is worse than his ordinary armor class), the ability to bite for 2d4 points of damage, a movement rate of 180' (60'), and an immunity to normal weapons, being harmed only by spells, silver, and enchanted weapons. While in wolf-form, wearers can use normal weapons and cast spells. Wearers of the cloak are not not true lycanthropes and are thus unaffected by wolfsbane. Likewise, they cannot transmit lycanthropy to those they attack, regardless of how much damage they inflict upon them.

The cloak of the ulfhethnar has one additional quality that makes it very attractive to the immoral and degenerate. For each hit point of an intelligent being slain and eaten by the wearer while donning the cloak, he extends the length of his current age stage (see Advanced Edition Companion, p. 23) by one day. There is no limit to this extension, meaning that, with the regular slaughter of intelligent beings, a wearer of the cloak of ulfhethnar can prolong his life indefinitely. There is an additional cost, however. Every time the wearer transforms himself into wolf-form, there is a cumulative 1% chance that his alignment will shift permanently to Chaotic and regard all intelligent beings as little more than potential fodder for his increasingly ravenous appetite. A remove curse spell cast by a Lawful cleric of 9th level or higher can reverse this effect.

10 comments:

  1. This is interesting. I wonder how we could convert this into a Pathfinder/D20 item. Let's try it!:


    Armor Bonus: +4 to Natural Armor
    Bite Attack: 2d4
    Movement:60'
    DR 10/ silver+magical

    Rest of the flavor text would be accurate for negative side effects except change alignment to Chaotic Evil.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awesome (and powerful!) item.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love items that prove and establish a good NPC villain. Also with the possibility of redemption! Fantastic!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ok. I just need some chains and trolls for my breeding pits and I'll live forever!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Always nice to see a little Old Norse on a blog :). Good job of adapting real-world folklore, James.

    ReplyDelete
  6. So I guess the use of Protection from Lycanthropes a few sessions ago no longer applies with this cloak in use, or is that restriction only for wolfsbane?

    ReplyDelete
  7. The restriction applies only to wolfsbane. Spells and magic items that affect lycanthropes and shape-changers still work against wearers of the cloak. (I should probably add that to the item's description)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Nice Item! Its the kind of thing that trips my folklore button and my desire to make items cool and useful both.

    ReplyDelete
  9. lovely magic item. I have always felt that any "magic" thing should be capable of sparking a new campaign direction by its very presence - whether it's a club +1 with a long history, or some really feral item like this. and as others have said, beautiful incorporation of folklore, in keeping with your takes on elves, dwarves, knockers, and gnomes.

    ReplyDelete
  10. @pekka - just be sure non of the trolls get ahold of the cloak...

    ReplyDelete