Cane of Halphas

A cane forged and used by the devil Halphas. He sent it to Duméri as a temptation for its inhabitants.

It traveled between few hands before it was found by the Dawnwardens of Wee Jas who kept it for experimentation to understand necromancy. Their greatest use was using it in a test to determine arcane magic was the cause of the lack of natural necromancy in Duméri. It was sealed in an ancient chamber built by giants, and kept next to the cane were corpses of varying species. The cane was undisturbed for many years.

Gillés, a devil worshipper who posed as a member of the Anti-Arcane Authority, found out about its usage during an expedition. After his expedition had failed to break the seal, Gillés disposed of the other members of the AAA and summonsed a troop of devils to instead open the seal. They failed aswell, and instead stayed to make sure that whenever the seal would be broken they would be there and ready.

That moment would come when the Dawnwardens of Wee Jas sent the Tower of 8 alongside Griggs of clan Orkhatz to check on the experiments results. The Dawnwardens had checked out the chamber previously but realised that it was now protected by a gas. So the adventurers clad themselves in gasmasks to protect themselves, and fought the devils there to reach the chamber. Within, the cane had raised itself to stand solemnly. But the experiment prove that as much life there was in the cane itself, none of the nearby corpses had been affected by any ambient arcane magic. This was the final experiment needed for Griggs to prove that arcane usage was not the reason for the undead rising in other nations. Griggs wrapped the cane carefully and the group started travelling back to Sunspear.

During the travels, Lia Teasen'Neldeth sent a message to Adran Teasen'Neldeth telling him about the dead AAA members they had found in the tomb and the cane, promising that the necromantic artifact would not fall into the wrong hands. When they arrived at Sunspear, the Tower of 8 and Dawnwardens debated on what to do with the cane, before coming to the agreement that the Dawnwardens would keep it hidden. But they were attacked by Captain Permon Dalléi, who had been told by Adran where the group were. Kazlin Brownpot took the cane and hid away on a ship with it, hiding it somewhere secure.

Halphas was informed about the cane from Gillés, who had exchanged letters with Liberty regarding it. So when the Tower of 8 and Adran arrived to free Lia from his grip after she had an unfortunate draw from a Deck of many things, Adran offered himself to make a deal for her freedom. Halphas took this oppertunity to make him find the cane and set it free in the world again to tempt people. Adran agreed, and would have to accomplish this within a year.

### Effects

(Attunement)

This thin, golden cane is decorated with swirling faces screaming in agony. The grip is shaped into the skull of a bird, complete with a long, sharp beak.

While attuned to the artifact, your Charisma increases by 2, to a maximum of 24. Also, your ears blacken and you become deafened to sounds made more than 10 feet away from you.

#### Spells

The cane has 4 charges. While holding it, you can use an action and expend 1 or more of its charges to cast one of the following spells (Save DC 17) from it:

Animate dead (1 charge), Blight (2 charges), Circle of death (3 charges), Fly (1 charge), Clairvoyance (1 charge) or Speak with dead (1 charge).

The cane regains 1d4 expended charges daily at dawn.

#### Everlasting servitude

As an action, you can raise the cane to summon a bone guardian from bones or corpses within 300 feet of you. The bones form in a spot of your choice in that area, provided they can levitate there. The creature(s) summoned obey your commands until they are destroyed or until dawn of the next day, when they collapse into inanimate piles of bones.

Once you use this property of the wand, you can't use it again until the next dawn.

The guardian is determined by how many and how large bones there are available. To determine how much they are worth, take the ammound of spaces the dead creatures would take up on the grid. For example, 4 humans would be worth 4.

1: Skeleton

4: Large skeleton humanoid

9: Huge skeleton humanoid

12: Huge skeleton dragon