Denarian Coin

Wondrous Item, Artifact (Requires Attunement)

One of thirty silver coins like it, these coins are held by members of the Order of the Blackened Denarius. These coins were made 2000 years ago, after a paladin of Pelor was betrayed by his closest friend for these coins. When he realized what he had done, the traitor cast these coins aside into the abyss.

Each coin was possessed by a fallen Deva of Pelor, and became a beacon of evil. Those who pick these coins up are granted immense power beyond imagination, but slowly driven to evil and horrors beyond imagination.

Once the coin is touched by bare flesh, unless it is already attuned to someone else, the coin immediately attunes to the person who touched it. If the victim is already attuned to three magic items, they become unattuned from an item of their choice. The coin can never become unattuned, short of casting away the coin and never using any the powers granted by it for several years.

One attuned to the coin they gain the following effects, and their alignment moves a step closer to neutral evil even without the coin on their person:

Shadow of power: You gain the shadow of power the coin has to offer. You gain a +2 to constitution and +2 to another ability score of your choice.

Basic Regeneration: At the start of each of your turn you heal 1d4 + your constitution modifier* hit points, unless you took radiant damage since your last turn.

Fallen Angel's shadow: The coin places a shadow of the angel within the coin into the mind of the attuned creature and gains all memories and thoughts of that creature. This shadow acts as a Neutral evil personality, which can talk with the attuned creature any time and as much as it wants. It has complete control over the senses of the attuned creature, with the extent of this at dm discretion, and often will create a "physical" avatar when talking to the attuned creature. This shadow has an intelligence of 28, wisdom of 24, and charisma of 30, and has a +6 in all metal related skills and has completely perfect memory.

Even though the angel is so persuasive and can manipulate the senses, they prefer fully willing victims. They will not use persuasion as a skill outright, or change their senses into not realizing they wield the coin. Instead the angel's shadow will offer its skill and temptations, while using these abilities to help the wielder, even if it seems obvious they'll never take up the coin.

Why make the wielder accidentally kill themselves walking over a bridge not there, or use the coin without realizing, when you can show them hints of the coins power? When the torches suddenly go off in the dungeon, offer to show them what the dungeon looked like before they went out from your memory. When they need a specific piece of knowledge or spell, why not offer it to them? Then as they realize how much they need the coin, have them one day take it up. DMs should think of when to use these powers and how far they can reach.

This shadow is a sentient force separate from the actual Fallen Angel, and merely a reflection of the angel at the time of attunement which will be be destroyed if the coin is ever taken up. This reflection can theoretically be slowly changed over years and years, with dedication and time, but such things are rare as the victim often breaks down and takes the coin within days or weeks.

Order of the Blackened Denarius, and Paladins and Clerics The coins of the Blackened Denarius love corrupting more than anything else. Since the full coin does make the user biologically immortal, and the order is made up of these users, they have plenty of time to wait. Many times a member of the order dedicated to giving out the coins will trick a cleric, paladin, or some other pillar of goodness, into touching the coin. After all, an immortal can wait a few months or more for this person to become corrupted, and give over all the information on their own orders over to the Order of the Blackened Denarius.

If the wielder of the coin is holding the real coin, or at least has it on their person in someway and has decided to give over to the angel, they gain the following effects, while losing the previously mentioned effects.:

Angelic power: You gain a +6 to your constitution score, and a +6 to another ability score of your choice to a maximum of 26.

Demonic immortality: you no longer age, nor suffer the effects of aging. Additionally, you heal 1d6+ your constitution modifier hit points at the start of your turn, unless you took radiant damage since your last turn; however, due to the unholy energy doing so you become vunerable to radiant damage, and if damaged by a good aligned cleric or paladin take an extra amount of radiant damage equal to the cleric or paladin's level.

Fallen Angel: The full force of the Angel of your coin is within your mind now at all times. This ability primarily works like the Fallen Angel's Shadow ability from earlier, with a few added benefits.

You gain Darkvision out to 60 feet. If you already have darkvision the range of it is increased by 30 feet.

The angel is much more helpful, and offers its aid fully. Choose two level 1 spells from the Cleric spell list: these spells become at will for you.

The DM may offer other minor benefits from the coin, such as natural weapons, flight, or similar, though these are often tied to the angel in question.

Your alignment become neutral evil, and only the most extreme of circumstances can free you from this hold. At the Dms discretion you may become an npc until such times, at which point the process of freeing from the hold is a personal experience for the user.

Destorying a Denarian Coin: There is no known way to destory one the Denarian coins. Some rumors state bringing it to the highest levels of the Fallen Angel's original plane may wash its soul and cure it, but these are just rumors. Most who seek to destroy them can only hide them from would be users in hidden vaults.