Clockthief’s Key

Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement)

This simple, unadorned winding key of polished brass, the span of a human’s hand, is inlaid with a labyrinth of wiry filaments almost too small to see but that channel energies highly disruptive to magical devices. The clockthief’s key aids in disarming magical traps, granting advantage to any Dexterity skill check when utilizing thief’s tools.

The chief power of the clockthief’s key, however, is to disable or impede the functioning of constructs, unwinding the mainsprings of their magical cores and unraveling their programmed functions into disarray. As an action requiring both hands, you can make a melee weapon attack against a construct.

A successful hit attaches the clockthief’s key to the construct. The construct must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be blinded and deafened.

If the save fails by 5 or more it is also incapacitated.

At the end of each of its turns, the target can make another Wisdom saving throw with disadvantage.

On a success, the effects end on the target. Note a deafened construct cannot receive new orders.

The clockthief’s key can be removed as an action with a DC 15 Dexterity check or a DC 20 Intelligence (Arcana) check; the one who placed it on the construct gains advantage to the check. The key can be removed automatically if the construct is destroyed. Removing the key immediately ends any non-instantaneous effects.

A clockthief’s key can be reprogrammed to produce different effects than those above in constructs:

• Target has disadvantage on all attacks.
• Deafened, and the target is affected per the slow spell.
• Deafened, and the target is affected per the confusion spell.

This requires 1 minute of work and a DC 20 Intelligence (Arcana) check, and the change in function is permanent (though it may be reprogrammed many times). As an action, a DC 20 Intelligence (Arcana) check can also be used to set the clockthief’s key to overload, destroying the key but creating an eruptive bubble of degenerating energy affecting every construct within 40 feet with the key’s current effect.