Idea for a magic gee-gaw.

[imperialus]

So my PC's are about to encounter a their first wizard antagonist and I'm trying to think of some sort of magic item I could give him to spice things up a bit, perhaps even provide a small side quest while they try and figure out how it works. I've been converting Dwimmermount to DCC, and for those who've played it they are coming up against Varazes. He's a fairly bog standard 3rd level MU according to the books but I did restat him for DCC. He's likely going to be a fairly big takedown so it would be nice to give them a bit of a shiny in return.

One of the things that they've done is manage to hammer out a bit of an alliance with the Orcs that live in the dungeon, and if you look at the backstory of Dwimmermount in general Orcs and other beastmen were created by the former masters of Dwimmermount including the "good guys" so I was thinking that it might be interesting to have an item that ties in with that.

Thulian Charm of the Beastman
Usable by any human class, the Amulet of the Beastman allows the wearer upon the utterance of the command word to affect the minds of the feral and chaotic beastmen forcing their loyalty to the bearer.

First, it grants the wearer the ability to speak the with any of the artificially created beastmen, Hobgoblins, Orcs, Gnolls, Ogres, and Minotaurs.

Second, Upon encountering a tribe of beastmen after saying the command word the beastmen will not immediately attack, instead they will posture, and act aggressively towards the interloper, banging on shields and shouting insults but not attacking unless in self defense. This allows an automatic surprise round should the party elect to take that route.

Third, the character may challenge their leader for dominance. This must be a one on one physical fight. The leader of the beastmen will do everything in his power to kill the PC, but the PC must fight to subdue and show dominance over the beastman. If any spells are cast, any other characters intervene, or the leader is slain then the charm's power is broken. If however the PC is victorious then the leader becomes suicidally loyal to the PC, and the remainder of the tribe is affected as though under the effects of a charm spell. This charm lasts until either the leader is slain, or they are released. Only one tribe can be dominated at a time.

Fourth, While a tribe is kept under sway the wearer slowly begins to take on the features of that particular race over several weeks and months. He might develop a prominent underbite, in the case of orcs, layers of fat over his muscle in the case of Ogres, or even small horns in the case of Minotaurs. He will remain recognizable as human, but may loose some of his 'dashing good looks'. After a tribe is no longer controlled the wearers features slowly return to normal over the same period of time.

Oops, just noticed I posted this in the general discussion board.