Wand, Artifact (Requires Attunement)

Crafted and wielded by Orcus, this ghastly wand slips from the demon lord’s grasp from time to time. When it does, it magically appears wherever the demon lord senses an opportunity to achieve some fell goal.

The wand is topped with a skull that once belonged to a human hero slain by Orcus. The wand can magically change in size to better conform to the grip of its user. All Holy Water within 10 feet of the wand is destroyed.

Any creature besides Orcus that tries to attune to the wand makes a DC 17 Constitution saving throw. On a successful save, the creature takes 10d6 Necrotic damage. On a failed save, the creature dies and, if it is a Humanoid, turns into a Zombie.

Magic Weapon. You can wield the wand as a magic Mace that grants a +3 bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls made with it. The wand deals an extra 2d12 Necrotic damage on a hit.

Random Properties. The Wand of Orcus has the following random properties (see “Artifacts”):

• 2 minor beneficial properties
• 1 major beneficial property
• 2 minor detrimental properties
• 1 major detrimental property

The detrimental properties of the Wand of Orcus are suppressed while the wand is attuned to Orcus.

Protection. You gain a +3 bonus to Armor Class while holding the wand.

Spells. The wand has 7 charges and regains 1d4 + 3 expended charges daily at dawn. While holding the wand, you can cast one of the spells on the following table from it (save DC 18). The table indicates how many charges you must expend to cast the spell.

While attuned to the wand, Orcus or a follower blessed by him can cast each of the wand’s spells using 2 fewer charges (minimum of 0).

Call Undead. While holding the wand, you can take a Magic action to conjure 15 Skeletons and 15 Zombies. These Undead magically rise up from the ground or otherwise form in unoccupied spaces within 300 feet of you and obey your commands until they are destroyed or until the next dawn, when they collapse into inanimate piles of bones and rotting corpses. Once you use this property, you can’t use it again until the next dawn.

While holding the wand, Orcus can summon any kind of Undead, not just skeletons and zombies. These Undead don’t perish at dawn the following day, remaining until Orcus dismisses them.

Sentience. The Wand of Orcus is a sentient Chaotic Evil item with an Intelligence of 16, a Wisdom of 12, and a Charisma of 16. It has hearing and Darkvision out to 120 feet.

The wand communicates telepathically with its wielder and speaks Abyssal and Common.

Personality. The wand’s purpose is to help satisfy Orcus’s desire to slay everything in the multiverse. The wand is cruel, nihilistic, and bereft of humor.

To further Orcus’s goals, the wand feigns devotion to its current user and makes grandiose promises that it has no intention of fulfilling, such as vowing to help its user overthrow Orcus.

Destroying the Wand. Destroying the Wand of Orcus requires that it be taken to the Positive Energy Plane by the ancient hero whose skull surmounts it. For this to happen, the long-lost hero must first be restored to life—no easy task, given the fact that Orcus has imprisoned the hero’s soul and keeps it hidden and well guarded.

Bathing the wand in positive energy (such as that which permeates the Positive Plane) causes it to crack and explode, but unless the above conditions are met, the wand instantly re-forms on Orcus’s layer of the Abyss.