Treasure - Horn of the Dead

So, Barrowmaze has a unique magic item, the Horn of the Dead (no, I’m not telling you where in the Barrowmaze it is, or what it looks like, so all you players just move along ... nothing to see here ...).  For me, it doesn’t quite work the way I would like it to in DCC, so I converted it to the following effects below. 

What the OSR version of the Horn of the Dead has (which is a great thing, in this Judge's opinion) is a significant drawback, which is very DCC, but I decided to not only keep it, but further lean into that drawback – so, instead of ‘the horn can only be used once per week’, I changed it to ‘push your luck’, with a spell check (complete with the opportunity for disfavour on a roll of a natural 1, like a cleric, but where cumulatively worse things can happen the more the horn is used), changed the summoned creature results based on a simplified spell check, and added in the ultimate ‘oh no, you rolled a 32+, it’s going to be awesome – and terrible’.

Thoughts?  Tweaks?  The way is shut, it was made by those who are dead, and the dead keep it, until the time comes?  Drop me a line at archadethered@gmail.com.

 

Horn of the Dead

     This magical horn if blown can summon un-dead allies to fight for its possessor.  Specifically, this horn summons a number of undead Halwicken warriors that emerge from the ground to do battle. 

     The wielder makes a spell check for a spell effect similar to animate dead at 1d20+10, adding the wielder’s level and Personality attribute modifier, and does not require the requisite corpses to be on hand, with the following results.

     1: Failure, wielder of the horn suffers from Disfavour on the Chaos Deity table, rolling 1d3 for the result.  Further disfavour checks by the same wielder cumulatively increase by 1d3, and do not reset the next day.

     2-15: Failure.

     16-17: The wielder summons 1d3 Skeletons from the ground, all wearing leather armor and armed with spears (AC 11, Atk +0 spear 1d8 dmg).

     18-21: The wielder summons 1d8 Skeletons from the ground, all wearing chainmail and armed with spears (AC 14, Atk +0 spear 1d8 dmg).

     22-26: The wielder summons 2d6 Zombies from the ground, all wearing chainmail and armed with spears (AC 14, Atk +3 spear 1d8 dmg).

     27-31: The wielder summons 1d6 Barrow Wights from the ground, all wearing chainmail and armed with spears (AC 16, Atk +3 spear 1d8+3 dmg, they do not use their claws with rending life drain unless disarmed).

     32+: The wielder summons all of the lesser results at once (1d3+1d8 Skeletons, 2d6 Zombies, and 1d6 Barrow Wights).

     Once the battle is over, any remaining undead will turn on the wielder of the horn and attempt to kill him and drag his body back under the earth.