MACE OF MOCKERY
Weapon—Durable, loud, sturdy
This stout metal mace is ornately decorated with two intaglio drama masks (I.e., two faces, one laughing and the other crying, similar to the symbols of the Greek muses of tragedy and comedy, Thalia and Melpomene) carved on either side of its cylindrical head.
If the GM makes a covert D20 roll and meets or beats the target number for the current encounter area, the mace will glow with a faint blue aura if enemies of the wielder are present and within NEAR range, and one of the faces will whisper, “Time to keep you wits about you…”
While the (D6 weapon (bludgeoning)) damage it deals is nonmagical, the mace is imbued with good luck, allowing the wielder to re-roll STR checks on melee attacks one time after an initial result of a natural 1; a successful hit is heralded by a deep bell-like reverberation that carries for some distance.
If a strike from this mace deals 5+ damage, the smiling face of comedy animates and cackles, “Daaaaaaaamn! Did you SEE THAT?” and the target must make a CHA save or make only HARD rolls on the next turn.
If a blow drops an opponent to 0 HP, the crying face intones sarcastically through its crocodile tears, “Sooooo…terribly…TRAGIC!”
If a high-damage killing blow occurs, both faces pipe up in tragicomical unison: “NICE!! Now who’s next?”
The Mace of Mockery always projects to the audience at the back row of the theater, so its taunts can be heard clearly anywhere within a FAR radius and may carry further still, even over the sounds of battle, possibly attracting additional enemies…in appropriately dramatic fashion…
Notes:
- If a character survives a high-damage blow from this mace, the strike will leave a grievous bruise in the area of impact, which will slowly reveal the clear visible imprint of either a smiling or crying face as blood coagulates subcutaneously over the first D4 hours after battle; if not healed with magic, the bruise will fade over D4 weeks, but the mocking shadow of the face never disappears completely…
- Truly sadistic GMs can saddle wounded surviving characters with even more woe; during the weeks the bruise from the mace is healing, perhaps every morning the face within the bruise animates and whispers a taunt to the character, forcing a CHA roll where failure results in HARD rolls all day…
- See what else is on top of The Loot Pile.