The Ashen Benediction
The Ashen Benediction is a ritual engine disguised as a funerary reliquary. It feeds on attention and gradually replaces the identities of those who linger near it with the name of the cult's dead prophet. The hazard is most memorable when the room seems to react to the characters' private thoughts, using stolen voices and altered reflections to make its curse feel personal.
The Ashen Benediction
Defenses
Detection
“A waist-high stone reliquary stands at the center of the vault, its lid carved as a kneeling cultist with a hollow face. Six bronze censers hang around it on black chains. Each burns with a smokeless violet flame that bends toward the nearest living creature.”
Standard Engagement
The hazard triggers when a creature touches the reliquary, crosses the inner ritual circle, removes the black offering inside the reliquary, or attempts to damage a bronze censer. It also triggers if three or more creatures speak their own names aloud within the ritual circle.
The hazard uses 3 actions each round. On its first action, it exhales a wave of cold incense. Each creature in the vault attempts the Ashen Benediction Will save. On its second action, one bronze censer swings violently. The hazard chooses a marked creature within 30 feet, which must succeed at a DC 21 Reflex save or be pulled 10 feet toward the reliquary. On its third action, the reliquary whispers the chosen creature's name in the voice of someone it trusts. That creature must attempt a DC 21 Will save. On a failure, it is frightened 1. On a critical failure, it is frightened 2 and cannot reduce its frightened value below 1 while it remains within 30 feet of the reliquary.
The hazard resets 1 day after it is disabled unless it is permanently consecrated or the central reliquary is removed from the vault. Extinguished censers relight when the reset occurs.
A marked creature takes a -1 status penalty to saves against this hazard and hears the cult's chant beneath all other sounds. At the end of each of its turns while marked, it must attempt a DC 21 Will save. On a failure, it becomes stupefied 1 until the end of its next turn. On a critical failure, it becomes stupefied 2 and is fascinated by the reliquary until the end of its next turn.
When the hazard first triggers and at the start of each subsequent routine, every creature in the vault must attempt a DC 21 Will save. On a failure, the creature takes 2d6 mental damage and becomes marked by the rite. On a critical failure, it takes 4d6 mental damage and is slowed 1 for 1 round. On a success, it takes half damage and avoids becoming marked. On a critical success, it is temporarily immune to the Ashen Benediction's Will save for 1 minute.
A creature that is marked and critically fails against Ashen Benediction forgets one harmless detail about itself, chosen by the GM, until the curse ends. Examples include a favorite color, a childhood nickname, or the face of a distant acquaintance. This has no mechanical effect beyond roleplaying unless the GM chooses to connect it to a plot element.
The hazard is a complex hazard and rolls initiative when a creature touches the reliquary, crosses the inner ritual circle, removes an offering, or attempts to damage a bronze censer. It remains active until disabled.
A marked creature's name appears briefly in violet script on the nearest reflective surface. Removing or covering the surface does not remove the mark, but it gives the creature a +1 circumstance bonus to its next Will save against the hazard.
If the reliquary is reduced to 0 Hit Points, each creature in the vault must immediately attempt the Ashen Benediction Will save. The hazard is then destroyed, regardless of the result.
Turn The Ashen Benediction into a sheet
A high-res, share-ready sheet you can post or print.