The Apostate's Rosary
The Apostate's Rosary
Wondrous Item, legendary
Wielded by: Alexios
A string of forty polished obsidian beads, each one cool against the fingers and faintly slick, as though oiled. The cord is braided from red silk and something darker that you've chosen not to examine too closely. In place of a holy symbol, the rosary terminates in a small medallion: your own god's sigil, but inverted — and when you turn it the right way up, it inverts again. It will not stay correct. You have stopped trying.
When you spend a charge, one bead clouds from black to ash-grey and crumbles away between your fingers like burnt paper. By dawn, it has reformed, smooth and whole, as if it had never broken. Praying with it is strange. The familiar words still come, but they arrive a half-beat slower, as though something is listening to each one before it leaves your mouth. Zarchelia placed it around your neck herself, and her fingers were cold. "Faith is a contract too," she told you. "I've simply made the terms explicit."
Properties
Charges. The rosary has 5 charges. While wearing it, you can expend charges to cast the following spells:
- Ray of Sickness (1 charge)
- Hold Person (2 charges)
- Bestow Curse (3 charges)
Recharge Ritual. The rosary regains all expended charges when you complete a long rest, but only if you perform the Inverted Prayer at dawn: recite a prayer of your faith in full, and at the end, deliberately speak the closing line backwards. The crumbled beads reform as the last syllable leaves your lips. If the ritual is not performed, the rosary remains dormant until the next dawn.
Lore
This rosary was gifted by Zarchelia, the erinyes, as part of a fiendish pact. The inverted holy symbol and corrupted prayers represent the twisted nature of faith bound by infernal contract.
Related
- Pact Items – Complete collection of all pact items and their wielders
- Zarchelia – The erinyes who created and gifted this rosary
- Fiendish pact feats – Other benefits available through infernal pacts
- Bracers of the Bound Devil – Another pact item from Zarchelia
- Hellhound Whistle – Another pact item from Zarchelia