Here is a cursed magical item for your perusal

LAMMASU, THE GOLDEN MACE

An unusually cursed weapon for Ravenloft

DESCRIPTION

Lammasu, the Golden Mace, is a beautifully crafted weapon. Made completely

of gold, the head of the mace is carved in the form of a crouching Lammasu,

its wings folded in its back. When the command word is activated, the

Lammasu extends wings and the special power of mace is activated.

BACKGROUND

A long time ago, in a forgotten world, lived Amarch a cleric of great piety

and great prowess. In that world undead infestation was the norm and certain

parts of it were literally crawling with the living dead. Long and bitter

were the battles of Amarch against the undead host, but his faith never

wavered and his power continued growing.

It was during a particular dark time that the superiors of Amarch brought

him a gift from his god. A beautifully crafted mace was presented to him, a

mace with special powers against the undead. The Golden Mace was not only a

powerful weapon for good, it was also aware and intelligent and it was

called Lammasu, in honor of one of those noble beings who had helped the

church in the past.

A fast friendship was forged between the priest and the weapon and for

nearly ten years they fought together the undead host. Each one of them

trusted the other with their lives and they even made an oath never to flee

from an undead enemy no matter how powerful it might be.

During one campaign against the undead they were claimed by the mists.

Awakening in an strange land, they were in a mountainous pass. Unknown to

them, the Dark Powers had put them in Cavitus the dreaded land of the Lich

Lord Vecna. For the Chained God, the aura of goodness of both the priest and

the mace were anathema and he decided to deal with the problem. The maimed

god appeared in front of the cleric and told him, in no uncertain terms, to

flee or he would personally kill him and shatter his mace.

Amarch has never encountered so foul an evil, but he stood his ground and

prepared to attack the lich god and die, for he knew he lacked the power to

destroy the undead monster. It was during that time that Lammasu´s courage

broke. Using his superior ego, he took possession of Amarch and made him

flee. It was blind chance that they fled toward Tovag and outside Vecna´s

influence, even though the lich did not really wish to stop them, judging

that they would bother Kas more.

When they were safe Amarch was angry at Lammasu. They had swore and oath and

they should have honored it. Lammasu argued that if they died no one would

fight the undead horde, but to no avail. Angry with his cowardly weapon

Amarch said in bitter tones "I renounce thee unworthy weapon, and cast you

into this mists that have brought us misery. I name you oathbreaker, may you

forever doubt your abilities so your powers will fail your master when they

are needed most, until you right the great wrong you have done me". So

powerful was the curse that the mist rose and Lammasu was transported to the

Core, where it still awaits a new owner.

POWERS

Lammasu works as a mace of disruption with some extra powers. It is a +2

mace of lawful good alignment. Any evil character touching it will receive

5d4 points of damage. If it strikes any undead creature (but not creature of

other planes) it may utterly destroy the creature.

Skeletons, zombies, ghouls, shadows, wights, ghasts and wariths are

instantly blasted out of existence. Other creatures roll saving throws as

follows:
Creature Save

Mummies (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th rank invulnerability) 20/25/30/60/80/%

Spectres 35%

Vampires (fledgling, mature, old, very old, ancient, eminent, patriarch)

50/55/60/65/70/75/80%

Ghosts (1/2/3/4/5 magnitude) 65/70/75/80/85%

Liches 95%

Note that lords of a domain (even when they fit the above categories) cannot

be disrupted by the mace.

Even if these saving throws are effective, the golden mace scores double

damage upon opponents of this sort, and twice the damage bonus (but see

hindrances). Once per day it can cause a sunray, as per a sunblade, to issue

from between the wings of the lammasu. It requires the utterance of the

command word (sunbright) and a round to charge the weapon. It can only be

used during daylight hours and only in a place where the sun shines (cannot

be used in a dungeon unless some sunlight is present).

The mace speaks four languages and has an ego of 35.

HINDRANCES

Lammasu was cursed by Amarch and as a result its powers have become warped.

The mace is extremaly cowardly and will try to avoid any conflict.

- Every time that the disruption power is used it runs a chance of turning

against the one using the mace. When an undead succeeds in the saving throw,

it will suffer no damage and the owner of the mace will suffer the damage

instead of the original target. Those undead who are disrupted automatically

will cause the wielder one point of damge.

- The mace used to grant magic resistance (50%) against the powers of the

undead. As a result of the curse now the owner saves at -2 against all the

powers of the undead and necromantic magic and the magic resistance is no

longer in use.

- Lammasu continuously doubts its abilities. When faced with a powerful

enemy, such as a lich or powerful undead, it will try to take control of its

owner and flee. If that is not possible it will become difficult to swing

resulting in a -4 penalty to the attacks rolls.

- When asked for advice it will be cowardly and sneaky. The mace does not

want to enter combat against undead and has a pathological fear of liches in

general and Vecna in particular.

- When activated, the sunray power will blind (save to avoid) the owner and

his allies for 4d4 rounds.

- In a situation when the mace's powers are needed most (DM choice), they

will fail. For example if the owner is reduced to 1 HP and hits a lich and

dispels it, nothing will happen, regardless of die roll. This curse works

only once for encounter.

The mace can be left behind, unlike other cursed weapons, but it will try to

stay with a single owner and dominate him if it is ever in danger of being

left behind. In those cases an ego conflict arises.

MEANS OF DESTRUCTION

Lammasu can be destroyed as easily as any magical item of similar power.

The curse can only be lifted if Lammasu is used to strike Vecna (it doesn't

matter if the lich lord is hit or not). Note that Lammasu will try, by all

means necessary (including murder), to prevent being taken to Cavitus and

once there it will try to dominate its owner and flee. If the mace is used

to strike Vecna the shade of Amarch will appear and reclaim the mace. Then

they will attack Vecna in a futile attempt to destroy him, giving the
previous owner some time to flee.

Luis