Cursed Figurehead (Magic Figurehead)

This figurehead looks like and functions like a figurehead of protection, but a horrible curse takes effect when the ship ventures more than 100 miles from land. At that point, the captain, pilots, and navigators of the vessel are all struck with a disease, incurable except by a wish; all other living creatures aboard except humans, demihumans, rats, and bats are also affected. When the victims die one to four days later, the ship is utterly doomed; all upon her are unable to leave except by magical flight, and all remaining start to turn into undead monsters—skeletons, zombies, ghouls, wights, wraiths, and spectres (no saving throws). PCs may make a saving throw vs. spell with a -8 penalty to the roll to resist this effect. The saving throw must be repeated each morning until it fails. The process of changing takes one full week, and anyone slain while changing is simply deadnot doomed to rise and serve as a member of the undead crew.
After all living crew members have turned into undead, the ship itself starts to fade, becoming ethereal in another week's time, but doomed to remain at sea. Moonlight causes the ship and crew to rematerialize. The remainder of the curse causes all rats and bats aboard to survive without food or water and also prevents the ship from ever coming within 10 miles of land.
The curse can be removed only by a series of spells, all of which must be cast on the figurehead within one turn by a 36th-level caster and without the aid of devices of any sort—all spells must be gained through meditation: animate object, to awaken the cursed figurehead; holy word, which stuns the thing; and dispel evil, which destroys it and the curse. This cure works only if applied before the ship becomes ethereal. After that time, no known power can save the vessel. The undead crew can be slain and released from their imprisonment if the ship is found in moonlight, boarded, and the undead engaged in normal combat. All lving boarders suffer a -4 penalty to saving throws and attack rolls and a -4 penalty to Armor Class until all the undead are slain. Upon the destruction of the crew, the vessel sinks beneath the waves within one tum, never to rise again.
Category:Encyclopedia Magica Magic Items
Category:Magic Items
Category:Magic Figureheads