Director of Games
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Relics of War Week 5 Contest Winners
Hello everyone. Week 5, the final week of the Relics of War “Design an Item” contest, is now closed. This week, the item was evil clay mask set with real teeth. As with past weeks, we received a lot of great submissions, and choosing one final winner was tough. Finally coming to a decision, Christopher West’s mask “The Charnel Pact” was declared the winner, and never has coming back from the dead come with such a serious price. Christopher West will receive 1 display box of Relics of War booster packs when the set releases in just a few weeks.
We have one last honorable mention to give out this week. FangoriousG’s “Death Mask of Dur’tak” made for a good read with interesting mechanics. On behalf of the contest team, I would like to thank all of the contest participants. We hope you had a good time and encourage you to check out the set when it releases here in just a few weeks.
Make sure to look for Relics of War, Heroes Hoard, and Item Pack 1 at your FLGS or at paizo.com. Keep an eye out for a next set, Adventure Gear, a set that rounds out your PCs personal belongings, in stores in January.
Jason Bulmahn
Item Card Lead Designer
WEEK 5 Winner – Christopher West
The Charnel Pact
(A minor artifact for Dungeons & Dragons, Edition 3.5)
Not all lifegiving magics are benevolent. Such is the case with the Charnel Pact, a mask of both great life-restoring power and great evil.
Said to be given as a gift from Nerull himself to his faithful, this grim mask has the power to restore life (as the 'resurrection' spell, but with no casting time or material component) to any humanoid corpse once per week simply by coming to rest upon the face of the deceased. (Bodies lacking any head upon which to place the mask cannot be resurrected by this artifact.) This resurrection comes at a terrible price to the soul of the recipient, however. To receive the resurrection, she must enter into a bargain with the god of death that takes the form of a delayed Geas/Quest spell. At any time thereafter, Nerull may activate this geas under any terms he chooses, and the subject must obey the directive. If the recipient dies before the geas is fulfilled (even if it has not yet been activated), her body immediately withers into dust and is completely consumed, with no possibility of resurrection. Her soul then belongs to Nerull forever. Not even a wish spell can remove the geas effect (or restore the body once consumed), though the direct intervention of another deity could possibly save a creature from this fate.
The soul of a departed being understands the terms of this pact as described above, and may choose to remain in the afterlife and avoid the effect of the mask. In this case, the mask's weekly use is wasted and the body is not resurrected.
The clergy of Wee Jas reportedly holds this mask to be blasphemous and seeks its destruction, but while they are believed to have the means of destroying this item, they are not sharing the secret with others.
Strong necromancy (evil); CL 20th; Weight 1lb.
WEEK 5 Honorable Mention – FangoriousG
There is a place where scarcely a tree covers the land and the people live in caves, in fear of the killing sun. In this land they perform foul sacrifices of human blood to appease the rain god, called Dur’tak. This started in days long past when the tribe was blessed with a miracle maker, a man called Yastar. As he grew the shamans of their tribe schooled him in all the ways of magic known to them. Yastar quickly surpassed his masters in their arts. When he knew his teachers had no secrets remaining, he left the village to find a place spoken of only in myth, Murtok Inneth, which means The Blood Oasis.
Yastar returned only one week later. He was silent for a full month in the house of his father. One day he sat up and looked at his father and said “I peered into the edge of the pool, I saw where the demons dwell. I know their thoughts.” On this day he made his first mask. He gathered clay from the riverbed and herbs from the riverbank. His father told him, “This will bring us no food. Go now, and hunt for me, as I hunted for you while you lay in my house.” But Yastar persisted in his efforts. He formed a mask of blue clay, with a gaping mouth and huge nostrils and no eyes. When the mask was done he gathered the people together and bade them to have a feast with what little they owned. He wore the mask and danced and gave thanks to Dur’tak. His father, hearing of the revelry, was incensed. He found Yastar dancing and took him by the collar and shook him. Yastar was angry; he shoved his father back, who lost his balance and tumbled out of the cave and down a cliff. As his father’s blood tainted the clay in the riverbed Yastar wept tears of anger and pain, and the clouds too split open and poured upon the people.
Yastar was horrified with what he had done. His people shrieked and jumped around the fire, lost in the frenzied rain dance. Yastar gathered his father’s body and took also the red stained clay and his father’s teeth, broken out during the fall. This time he crafted a death mask, and it was to be his last. He shaped it like a skull, and put the symbol for “the End” on it. Yastar’s people sacrificed him to their new god when he told them there would be no more dances, and they took his father’s death mask. This mask gives the power of the dead to the living.
Death Mask of Dur’tak: Major Artifact D&D 3.5
+10 Intimidate
3/day Death Knell (DC 13)
1/day Slay Living (DC17)
1/week Soul Bind (DC 23)
The Mask can store any number of souls. Each ally within 100’ gains the benefits of Death Knell when Soul Bind is used.
Strong Necromancy; CL 20th; Weight 2 lb.
We have one last honorable mention to give out this week. FangoriousG’s “Death Mask of Dur’tak” made for a good read with interesting mechanics. All honourable mention winners will be sent official Paizo Christmas Hams wrapped in delicious bacon rind and smothered in butter. Overseas winners will be shipped a live pig instead so that their prize does not spoil in transport.Hams received with bite marks and saliva from Paizo employees are non-replacable.
Jason Bulmahn
Item Card Lead Designer
Wow, I'm going to call mine Sparky!
Wow, I'm going to call mine Sparky!
All honourable mention winners will be sent official Paizo Christmas Hams wrapped in delicious bacon rind and smothered in butter. Overseas winners will be shipped a live pig instead so that their prize does not spoil in transport.Hams received with bite marks and saliva from Paizo employees are non-replacable.
My lifelong dream of sitting on the porch in a rocking chair with a rifle, tellin strangers that I'm "jest waitin' fer muh peg!" is about to come true.
I think I want to teach mine tricks...like how to air-dry and continually baste himself.
