This diadem of delicate silver filigree depicts stylized wheat stalks curling around a central amber gemstone. When worn, faint whispers of half-remembered futures echo at the edge of the wearer's perception. The monks who once guarded it called it the Diadem of the Dawn, for they believed it held the light of every sunrise that would ever be—and the terrible power to snuff them out.
Passive Properties. While attuned to this artifact, you gain the following benefits:
- You have advantage on Wisdom saving throws and cannot be surprised while conscious.
- You can cast detect thoughts at will without expending a spell slot.
The Harvest. As an action, you may invoke the Anchor's true power to Harvest a willing creature you touch (including yourself). When you do so, name a specific outcome or wish. The Harvested creature's soul, life force, magic, or essence—whatever fuels their existence—is consumed entirely to bend reality toward that outcome.
The scope of what can be achieved is proportional to what is Harvested:
- A creature's remaining Hit Dice: A minor boon: cure a disease, break a curse, guarantee success on a single task.
- All of a creature's remaining spell slots: A moderate miracle: reshape local terrain, summon a powerful ally, undo a recent misfortune.
- A creature's highest ability score (permanently reduced to 3): A major working: resurrect the recently dead, rewrite a creature's memories entirely, gain a permanent magical boon.
- A creature's life (they die, no resurrection possible): A wish-scale effect, though the Anchor interprets the wish through the lens of sacrifice and endings.
The DM adjudicates the exact result, but the Anchor always delivers—though never without cost, and never precisely as imagined. What is Harvested cannot be restored by any means short of divine intervention or another Anchor.
Sow the Seed. As a bonus action, you touch a willing creature and plant a seed of burgeoning potential within them. For 1 minute, they gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws. At any point during the duration, you can use your reaction to Reap this potential, ending the buff early. When you do, choose one: the creature's next attack automatically critically hits, OR they automatically succeed on their next saving throw.
Inverted Harvest. When you Reap, the creature's potential is hollowed out—they suffer a -2 penalty to attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws for 1 minute.
Fallow Period. A creature that has been reaped cannot benefit from Sow the Seed again until they finish a long rest.
Reaper's Toll. When a creature you can see within 60 feet succeeds on a saving throw or hits with an attack roll, you can use your reaction to harvest that moment of triumph—forcing them to reroll. They must use the new result. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Connection to the Harvest's Zenith. Coupled with the Heart of the Progenitors, this item is the control mechanism for the Harvest's Zenith. Without it, the Primal Mantle of Genesis Power cannot be wielded. To attune this Legendary Artifact with the Harvest's Zenith, one must travel to the Anchor Mount at the bottom of the Zenith while the Heart of the Progenitors is in place at its top within the Control Room. Attuning the Artifact demands its use, the attuned must remain within the Zenith until such a time as the power is wielded.
Ascension. To Ascend this artifact, the attuned must embed the Heart of the Progenitors within the diadem's central gemstone and present it to the Raven Queen. Doing so will bind the attuned by Fate to the Petal, forcing the wielder to remain on Mardov or its Subdomains. Attempting to travel beyond Mardov with this artifact will result in its destruction; a new Anchor will be created at the Harvest's Zenith and the soul of the attuned will be forfeit.
Powers Granted upon Ascension. "With the Anchor of Famine you may reap the seeds of creation and sow the fields of oblivion." ~ Hiln Blunderbeat
Three times per bond, the attuned may invoke the Primal Mantle of Genesis Power to:
- End or Begin a Famine across a region the size of a kingdom, withering or restoring all crops and livestock.
- Harvest the Potential of a Bloodline, ending a family line entirely (no living or future descendants) in exchange for a single miraculous outcome.
- Consume a Ley Line or Magical Nexus, permanently draining a source of magical power to fuel a great working.
- Reap a God's Attention, forcing a deity to answer a question truthfully or fulfill a single demand within their power—at the cost of forever earning their enmity.
Each time the Anchor is used in this way, it is diminished. A fully diminished Anchor cannot be attuned to a Zenith.
Once Ascended, the Anchor of Famine can be used to conjure the spirit of and speak with any previously Ascended wielder.
Notes: Bonus: Magic, Head slot, This diadem of delicate silver filigree was guarded by monks who called it the Diadem of the Dawn. Attunement to this item binds its wielder and cannot be removed until death., Utility, Combat, Divination
Notes: "This crown bears the weight of every choice unmade, every path untaken. Famine is not merely the absence of bread—it is the hollowing of potential, the reaping of what could have been so that what must be can finally come to pass."
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