Skull Staff
In the lands of Daariklon there stood a mighty tower, thought to be tall enough to reach the stars. This structure has been standing for as long as the city natives can remember, and if the record books were open it would be discovered that indeed the tower has stood longer than the city. The tower's presence drew many a scholar to it, seeking the tower in wonderment and awe. These scholars formed the city of Daariklon, named after the tower, which was named because of the single word etched into the side of the building (227SR). The scholars flocked to the tower in veneration at the towers apparent lack of an entry point. The scholars wished to know why the tower was created without doors, or windows. The scholars eventually set down their belongings there, in hopes of finding the answers, thus founding the city of Daariklon. In time the scholars forgot about the tower, and merely conceded its existence.
This is the final resting-place of the mage, Daariklon.
Daariklon was a man of peasant birth, in the far away land of Greldikon, far to the East. As a young child, he was company to the ways of a thief, having to steal enough bread for he and his family to survive. The people of the city of Greldikon were not kind to their serf class, hitting them or spitting on them was not uncommon. The people at large were mistreated by the nobles of the country, and were apt to kill members of the serfs freely, without cause, and without punishment.
It just so happened that while Daariklon's family was begging at the city gates, the only safe place in the city to do so it seemed, as Daariklon was off thieving for bread, that a member of the noble class attacked Daariklon's family, upon entering the city gates. The nobles had been returning from an unsuccessful hunt, and were wholly upset about their apparent failings as hunters. They attacked the serfs without prompting, and seriously injured Daariklon's father, killing his mother and sister, along with four other serfs, and nearly crippled another.
Daariklon returned to the alleyway that served as their home that night to find the injured boy, and his father, who lie unresponsive of Daariklon's words. His father lie not dead, but weeping, as his failings as the protector of his family had finally started to overcome the poor man, overwhelming him with grief. Next to him lie the boy, unconscious, with wounds wrapped, curled up at the bottom of his fathers feet. Daariklon asked where the rest of the family was located, and got only sobs and whimpers in return. Daariklon lie in wait, for his father to speak.
Daariklon sat there for two days, with no response to his inquiries, before his father spoke again. His father told him of the event, and told him of the boy's part in the slaughter, that of saving what was left of his father's life. Daariklon sat quietly for a while, and then proceeded to check on the boy's wounds. They would heal nicely it seemed, and the boy would live.
Daariklon's father died of shame within the week, as he would not eat, or take care of himself in any manner. In the mean time, Daariklon had been trying to steal enough bread for the three of them to live. It seemed that the boys wounds were healing a little slower than Daariklon had first anticipated, and was wholly depending on Daariklon to survive at this point.
Not long after the boy was nursed back into health, than they started thieving together, it being the only successful way to eat enough to be comfortable. Daariklon and Hearseth had quickly become rather good friends, as they shared a very common ground of thievery.
As time wore on, Daariklon saw less and less of his trusted friend, and began to grow suspicious of his whereabouts. He found out not too long afterwards. As Daariklon lay asleep in his secluded section of the alleyway, he heard the approaching footsteps of the town guard. Daariklon scurried to his hiding place, only to hear Hearseth explain to the guards that he was there. Daariklon grew tense at the betrayal. This boy, that he had raised from near death, was turning him over to the town guards! But there were only three of them. Plus Hearseth, and Hearseth was not aware of Daariklon's hidden crossbow, tucked away for just some emergency. Daariklon opened fire on the guards, taking two of them by surprise, and quickly dropping them to death. The third guard, and Hearseth dashed off to the sides of the alleyway, in hopes of avoiding the deadly crossbowman. Daariklon took aim at the boy, and hit him in the leg. Then he shot down the guard, as he ran yelling for assistance.
Seeing the boy lying injured on the ground, Daariklon went to his side to question his motives. Hearseth explained how the guards had caught him stealing, and would let him go if he could turn in his accomplice.
Daariklon felt pity in this, and told Hearseth that he would be forgiven for his moment of weakness, and all would be forgotten.
Later on in the week, Daariklon was making his daily rounds at the merchant stands, when he saw Hearseth walking along side a group of nobles, laughing in merriment along the way. Daariklon decided that he would approach the boy, and when he got near the nobles, one of them sneered in derision, but Daariklon paid no heed. He walked up to the boy, only for Hearseth to spit in his face like a common serf! Daariklon stood there for a moment slack jawed, while the nobles laughed at his expense.
Daariklon drew his dagger in rage, the nobles drew their swords. Daariklon, realizing he was outmatched, began to run away from the nobles, promising his vengeance in return. The nobles followed in pursuit, led by Hearseth. Daariklon evaded them easily enough, his eyes red with rage. Daariklon promised his revenge to the night air, that Hearseth would die for his treachery.
Daariklon went into hiding, stealing from the local mages their spellbooks, and anything that might help him make Hearseth a very sorry man. Daariklon began the study of magery, and began to grow out his hair and beard, to better disguise himself from the incessant raids on his territory. He now took up residence in a forgotten hovel of a home, long abandoned by any member of Greldikon.
For eight long years Daariklon studied the arts of Necromancy, and watched his traitorous friend climb the social ladder. Hearseth was now considered among the ranks of the noble, mush to the chagrin of Daariklon. Daariklon studied the arts of item making, for the fell purpose of creating an item of hatred to destroy the upstart boy. He had crafted for him a staff of the purest silver, for which he paid dearly, almost everything Daariklon had attained to this point in his life. Into this staff he implanted his black arts, which he planned to use to drain the life from the traitor (211SR).
While Daariklon was not quite skilled enough in the arts of magery to craft items of magic, his hatred for Hearseth fueled the creation of his staff along well enough. The day for his retribution would come soon enough.
He began his hunt for the traitor soon afterwards, he stalked him, waiting for him to be alone, so that no one would see his untimely demise. It took two days for his moment to come, as Hearseth enjoyed the company of women he had stayed with one at a fairly secluded inn on the west side of Greldikon. He approached the sleeping couple, buried beneath the covers, and plunged his dagger into one of the outlined forms. As he had hoped, it was the filthy woman who had decided to partake of the man that was betrayal.
Hearseth awoke at the strangled gurgling blood of the woman, flowing down his neck. Hearseth sat up immediately, to face his impending doom. He reached for his sword on the nearby chair, only to have Daariklon strike him over the head with his staff, and knock his arm out of reach of the sword.
Daariklon attempted to invoke the powers of the staff, to no avail. He cursed his failure and started to beat on his former entrusted friend. Hearseth fought him off as well as he could, but the rage that had become Daariklon was overwhelmingly strong and quick with his justice. The battle finally concluded with Daariklon shoving his staff under Hearseth's neck, impaling his skull on the end of his staff.
Daariklon found he could not remove the skull from his staff, it seemed to have lodged itself onto the shaft of the weapon. Daariklon felt he could not leave his creation behind, and began to use his dagger to sever the head from Hearseth's body. During the time Daariklon was doing this, he noticed that the staff's powers were beginning to take effect. The head and body of the man had started to rapidly decay and wither, eventually ending when the body was a dried out husk. When Daariklon finished the grisly task, he left the inn, splattered with blood, and carrying a staff with a noble's head impaled upon it.
Within a week, Daariklon began to see the drawbacks of his weapon. He felt very tired of late, and his skin was turning a pasty white color of death. Before long, the skull atop the staff had decayed to the point where it was nothing but the skull, and it was beginning to take the silver hue of the staff, almost as if it were becoming part of the staff itself. Now that Daariklon had seen the effects of his creation take effect on his friend, the desire to use it more was strong within him.
Daariklon realized the dishonor in his thoughts, and knew that he must leave the presence of man, if he were to retain his sanity. Daariklon traveled far to the west, and began to use his limited magics to build himself a tower, so that he could remain secluded with his thoughts for all eternity (212SR).
Daariklon built the tower around himself, encasing himself in a magnificent tomb, so that he and his creation could harm no more. By this time Daariklon had noticed that bits of his flesh had begun to fall off, and that he was in a very advanced, albeit very slow, state of rot. It seemed that the staff had a horrible drawback, which would effect the caster much the same way as his intended victim.
When the tower was completed and Daariklon was entombed inside, the staff had no one else to wither away, and so took the life of Daariklon, whose husk of a body lay there entrapped to this day.
Despite the fact that Daariklon thought his creation to be a failure, this is not the case. The staff simply needed the sacrifice of extreme hatred to seal its powers, which it got with the addition of Hearseth's skull. The Skull Staff appears as a shaft of the purest silver, six feet in length and about two inches wide. A small human skull resides at the top of the staff, seemingly shrunken by the years resting there. This skull is now completely silvered over, appearing as a part of the staff's construction. Its eye sockets grow a bright red when the powers of the staff are in use, while the mouth echoes whispers of a very strong flowing wind, with the intermingled voice of souls moaning out their displeasure. The entirety of the staff is covered in runes of black magic, having been thinly etched into the surface of the silver staff. The skull itself is in nearly perfect condition, with all of its upper teeth, the only exceptions being the lack of a lower jaw, and the small whole in the top through which the staff impaled the skull.
The Skull Staff is able to cast three very slow working versions of the spells, Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting,
Mummy Rot, or Energy Drain, which take up to a hundred (10d10) times longer to take full effect, making this a torturers weapon indeed. The weapon also causes the users alignment to gradually shift towards that of evil, eventually becoming a baneful and corrupt man. The Staff also has a major drawback, whenever someone is killed using the powers of the staff, there is a one in ten chance that the user will be effected by an extremely slow working version of the combined spell effects of Mummy Rot and Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting. These spells work much like the spell descriptions, except that they could take many (5d4) years to fully run their course, and cannot be dispelled by Remove Curse, Heal, Regenerate, or Cure Desease spells, only by a Wish or more powerful spell. In the later stages of these effects the user's body will eventually dry up like that of a mummy, along with becoming a rotting festering wound, where bits and pieces of the users body detach from it, due to the advanced state of decay. During the course of this time the users charisma will drop permanently one point every six months, which can dip as low as being a 1 charisma, along with suffering all of the effects of the two spells, and the charisma penalties. Anyone dying from these effects cannot be raised via a Raise Dead, or a Resurrection spell, only through the use of a Wish, or similar spell. The user must also make a saving throw vs. Death once per week to avoid wishing to use the effects of the staff on another living being.
