Mortal Memento

Weapon (longbow), relic

The scourge of old age has claimed the lives of countless mortals. While humans, dwarves, and elves expire by the thousands, beings from other planes enjoy an immortal existence. An infamous Epic assassin looked upon this tragedy and was inspired. If dying of old age was such a brutal fate for mortal creatures, what would it mean to those who had never experienced its ravages? With fortunes gained from a lifetime of deadly proficiency, the assassin brewed a poison of devious cruelty. The first victim was a mighty solar who cried out in horror, its ageless form withering to dust. The assassin poured the remaining toxin over the angel’s bow, twisting the celestial weapon into the deadly relic known only as Mortal Memento. This terrifying weapon is cruel but elegant. Faces of screaming celestials, fiends, and other immortal creatures are carved into its surface. Over the arrow rest hangs a vicious fang from which drips a noxious poison, ensuring a deadly payload is delivered with lethal precision.

ATTUNEMENT

Becoming attuned to the relic is a painful and arduous process. As the magical tattoos snake across your skin, when you take a rest you experience visions of the atharan’s ancient society. These visions become clearer with each passing day, and after 1 year show you the location of a secret dungeon fashioned eons ago. You are unable to communicate or record what you see in the visions in any way. If you remove the amulet during this process, you forget everything you saw in the visions and must begin the process anew. The dungeon was intended save the atharan and was hidden from even the gods. At the heart of this dungeon—past layers of monsters, traps, and magical protections—is a single inscription carved into a wall of mithral. Appearing as a combination of intricate constellations, the visions never show the inscription in enough detail to be read; you instinctively sense that should you read the passage, you could unlock the relic’s full power. Any attempt to communicate with others about the visions automatically fails. If you read the passage seen in your vision in person, you become attuned to the relic. If you are attuned to and wearing the relic, it cannot be removed by any means while you live and has the following properties, in addition to its unattuned properties.

• You permanently transform into an atharan. Atharan are humanoid beings of cosmic force whose bodies are made up of what appears to be a starry night sky. Their eyes glow with the fire of suns, and their hair is like the trail of a comet. You lose your racial traits and instead gain those of the atharan race, which are detailed blow. – Epic Humanoid. Your creature type is humanoid, and you are considered an Epic creature. – Ability Score Increase. You increase four different ability scores of your choice by 2, up to a maximum of 30. – Age. Atharan mature at around 30 years old and can live to be well over 2,000 years old.

 

– Alignment. Atharan can be any alignment, but tend toward chaos and the freedom it brings. – Size. You can adjust the size or shape of your body according to your preferences. Your size is Medium, but you can assume a humanoid shape of any dimension, as long as your size remains Medium. – Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet. – Language. You can speak, read, and write Atharasil. – Progeny. Any children you bear or sire are always atharan. – Subrace. You become a subrace of atharan according to the perfection score you selected when you first put on the amulet, granting you the following benefits according to what subrace you become. › Viriban (Strength). Atharan of exceptional physical power. Your form is always muscular. You are considered a Gargantuan creature for purposes of grappling and determining your carrying capacity. › Celeritan (Dexterity). Atharan of extraordinary speed and reflexes. Your form is always lithe and your movement a blur. Your speed increases by 30 feet and you cannot have your speed reduced below half.

Flaw: Xenophobia. The atharan were people of peace and culture—and look what that brought them. I will not make the same mistake. I will carve out a place in this world for my people at the expense of all lesser beings.

PROPERTIES

While unattuned, the relic has the following properties.

• Crackshot. You gain a +5 bonus to attack rolls made with this magical weapon.
• Desolate Shot. As a bonus action, you can imbue the next ranged weapon attack made with the bow with a deadly poison called desolation. If you do not make a ranged weapon attack with the weapon within 1 minute of using this feature, the benefit is lost. The poison has the following property. – Ceaseless Desolation. This poison of unknown origin zombifies the structure of a creature’s body, forcing it to produce more of the poison. A creature subjected to this poison must succeed on a DC 30 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned. While a creature is poisoned by desolation, it must succeed on a DC 30 Constitution saving throw every minute or take 20d8 poison damage, or half as much on a success. If a creature fails this saving throw by 10 or more, it takes an additional 10d8 poison damage for each time it failed a saving throw against the poison over its duration. If a creature slain by desolation is returned to life, it returns still poisoned by desolation.
• Toxic Avenger. When you use the bow to make a successful ranged weapon attack against a creature and expose the creature to a poison as a part of that attack, the creature cannot be immune to that poison or its effects for the duration. If a creature poisoned in this manner is immune to poison damage, it instead has resistance. Additionally, if a poison exposed to a creature in this manner has a saving throw DC less than 25 as a part of its effects, the saving throw DC is instead 25. Attunement To become attuned to Mortal Memento, you must slay a variety of creatures using the relic’s desolation poison. Your targets include one Epic creature of each of the following types: aberration, celestial, construct, dragon, elemental, fey, fiend, and undead, though at the GM’s discretion you may need to kill additional creature types. Each creature must be immune to the harmful effects of aging and be unable to die of old age. Once you have slain one Epic creature of each type, you become attuned to the relic. While attuned, the relic has the following properties in addition to its unattuned properties.
• Decaying Coating. As an action, you can cause the bow to secrete a special poison called century venom. The weapon secretes enough poison to coat up to five pieces of ammunition. Once you have used this feature, you cannot use it again until 1 year has passed. Century venom has the following properties. – Century Venom (Contact). This magical poison causes any creature exposed through direct contact to experience rapid aging in a matter of seconds. A creature subjected to this poison must succeed on a DC 35 Constitution saving throw or become poisoned. The poisoned creature has Epic disadvantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws, and loses 10d10 hit points at the start of each of its turns as it ages rapidly. If the creature is immune the effects of aging or does not age, it instead loses half as many hit points.
• Crippling Poisons. Creatures poisoned by you are vulnerable to poison damage dealt by you.
• Incurable Afflictions. When a creature attempts to cure or remove a poison from inflicted by the relic, it must succeed on a DC 30 Wisdom (Medicine) ability check or the attempt fails.

BANE

Mortal Memento is never to be used against creatures who suffer the burden of a mortal existence. Creatures that are not immune to the effects of aging automatically succeed on saving throws against effects produced by the relic and against poisons they are subjected to via the relic.