The Pier Point Crown was more then just a piece of royal headgear.This crown wanted to rule in it's own right,and would stop at nothing to do so...
King Gregor of Pier Point was not a bad king.He kept the taxes for his subjects as low as they
could possibly be and he did not allow torture in his kingdom.His kingdom was small but it was rich because of trade tolls, for it was at the mouth of a great river.Because he kept the other taxes low he had to keep the tolls high,and some of the merchants grew angry and persuaded Queen Yocasta that it would be easy to take over his kingdom and that it would bring great money to Valermoore.
The King's army and navy were small and he knew that there was very little he could do, so he decided to get revenge on the Queen. He got his court wizard to preform a very dangerous spell, thinking that since his kingdom would be annexed anyway, he had very little to lose.The spell worked and a highly dangerous demon was summoned and bound into the crown in such a way that if the crown was destroyed the demon would die.Then he fled into exile in the Nomansland leaving the crown behind.
Queen Yocasta's generals found it and brought it to her,and she liked the look of it and put it on. It was light instead of heavy like most crowns, and it made her feel stronger when she put it on. After a while it wispered to her,telling her that it was the spirit of an earlier King from centuries past, and that it had a lot of good advice, as it was placed in this crown to advise monarchs.
Whilst the Queen was suspicious at first, the advice turned out to be good, and she began to trust it and then rely on it more and more. Gradually the advice became more and more evil, advising her to invade countries and bully others, telling her of plots against her life, many of which in fact did not exist. When her daughter died it told her that her daughter was only sleeping, leading to the excesses of Dracia Eldren's horrible Princess Training School.
Even before her daughter died she had become more and more evil, raising all the taxes and executing or jailing those who protested.The merchants found that far from making things better then they had been, Queen Yocasta was greedier then King Gregor ever was.
After Yocasta was defeated by Queen Amber, Amber took the crown.It took longer to turn her to the cause of evil, but within five years Amber had been changed from a kind ruler to a tyrant who had many of those who had brought her to power jailed or executed.Under the crown's influence Amber, who had hated war so much, marched on Karnivhal to annex it. She was defeated and killed in battle and the crown vanished. Nobody knows where it is now...
Magical Properties:
The crown is a light silver one with a single ruby set in it.When it is put on, it feels light and the PC feels pleased to wear it.In stats terms, it adds a +1 to all the stats of the wearer whilst it is worn.
After a day it will speak within the wearer's head,telling him it is the spirit of a former king,and will offer advice. At this stage the advice will be good, but over time it will change to evil advice.The warrior PC will be advised to use force against those who do not deserve it, the thief to steal more, the mage to learn/cast dark spells, ect.
The crown likes being warn by an evil person, preferably one with a chance of gaining power somewhere.If someone steals it and it does not wish to be stolen it screams 'Help! Stop thief!' ect. If it senses it is in it's own interest to be stolen it remains silent.
After two days of gaming time, when taken off the wearer not only loses the bonus to stats, but suffers a -1 penalty when not wearing it.
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Links to this article 1
- 27/30 Bad Things about Treasure Alongside Cheka Man linked by Cheka Man
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Ahh,a crown that taints and corrupts all that wear it! As it led Yocasta to her doom,so did it do the same with Amber of Vandersill,she who pledged to never follow the cruele excesses of Yocasta. Such is the curse that befalls any unsurper who wear the crown of Pier Point.
4/5
P.S:Not that it really matters,but I'm a little dissapointed that Amber who could have been such a force for good,fell prey to the demon's wiles. I guess there will be no happy ending,eh Cheka?
I doubt at this moment in time I will be writing more about Amber, but I might do. :) Thank you Maggot for liking my latest item so much. :)
Thomas.
"a highly dangerous demon was summoned and bound into the crown in such a way that if the crown was destroyed the demon would die"
If this is true, why doesn't somebody just melt the damn thing down?
Apart from that minor gripe an interesting item and reasonably well thought out item.
Could work well as a long term plot item - the crown has been found and the new wearer usurps he throne - adds a whole new twist to the old "defeat the evil tyrant" plot
4/5
The crown has not been melted down because nobody knows there is a demon in there.The wearers think it is the spirit of a former king.Also, who wants to melt down such a valuable item as a royal crown? It is worth a LOT of money.
One crown to rule them all, Cheka? ;)
LOL Echo, I suppose so.
Wow, I love this-- I'm quite a fan of mind-affecting stuff, and the Crown is brilliant, and rather scary. I agree with Echo: it is kind of 'the One Crown'! ^_^ I understand and second your comment about a ruler with the Pier Point Crown and the 'Gift of the Gods' sword-- now, that would be a force to be reckoned with. O.o Perhaps the sword and the demon would fight each other for domination of the person's mind?
I suppose it would depend on if the two could co-operate or not.If they could not it might give the ruler mental problems in the long term, but if they could work together they could create a very powerful & very evil ruler. *imagines the sword and the Crown talking to each other at night, in voices that only they can hear.* It would make a good short story.
Actually, if the pair of you didn't mind, I would like to try my hand at composing such a short story...Though where I would post it would be the issue...Either way, do you two mind me doing so?
Of course not. I'm sorry that I didn't reply for so long.I look forward to your story,Chaosmark.
This would be a much better post if the language wasn't so choppy and coarse. The item doesn't really come alive the way it is written, and the story of the crown reads like a list of happenings. But it is still a solid idea.
Interesting. It doesn't fit into my campaign, but an interesting sub. I agree with Axlerowes, the story does't really grab me. 3/5
So, is this the little goodie that originated the "Queen of whores" sub? Nice idea; cunning item that garners a person's trust before it begins subverting them.
Only voted.
A good take on the Corrupting Item idea.