A Literal Axe From Hell

Well...You did it. You got the hell axe. You disarmed the baddie, broke the curse, flim-flammed the destruction portal or in some other way tricked the DM into being unable to pull their normal "it burns to dust along with him" shenanigans. Congrats, you got axe out of the devil spawn/hell babe/big boss's hands and now its in yours. It's A Literal Axe From Hell. 

Yippee. 

This Axe is a plus 2 axe that gives a plus 2 bonus to attack and damage. That's it. 

oh? You want it to do the cool stuff the devil was doing with it? You can. You will just need the key. This is like, a particularly messed up egg, an arch-devil's true name, some sort of strange orge piss. Whatever the DM can use to gate this thing however they'd like.  Just in case they feels like you didn't deserve it. A DC30 arcana check will let you know what the key is. The DC is 20 if you use religion (but no one takes religion. I mean...c'mon the cleric didn't even take it.) 

This key gives the weapon 3 charges of hellfire whenever A Literal Axe From Hell...touches or is spoken to it or whatever stuff is needed per the key's prerequisites. You can burn a charge (hehe, burn) in order to ignite the weapon with no action required. While ignit...ignited? While burning in this way, this weapon deals an additional 1d12 fire damage and 1d12 necrotic damage on a hit (Suck it Flametongue). The flames on this axe are magical, cannot be extinguished, but give off no light. It cannot light objects on fire. (Constructs and corpses still take all the damage tho. Lol). The blade stays lit for 1 minute. The whole minute. You can't turn it off. 

As long as you are holding A Literal Axe From Hell while it's on fire, you start each of your turns (or when you grab it again smartypants) suffering from hellish flames. You take 2d12 necrotic damage. This damage cannot be resisted or prevented in any way. All necrotic damage taken reduces your maximum hit points by an amount equal to the amount taken. (You know...cuz its A Literal Axe From Hell.) Could be 2 damage...,.could be 24 damage. Who knows?! Tempting isn't it? 

Yeah. Cuz its from Hell. 

Devils be tempting. 

Regardless, all hit point maximum reductions from this weapon are removed on a long rest. However,  if this damage brings you to zero hit points, you not only die, you go directly to hell! Straight to Hell! Congratulations! Hopefully, whichever devil you stole this from didn't re-materialize down there and hold a grudge against you. Eeeeee. That could get awkward. 

But C'mooooon. It's a very handy weapon! Plus 2! That's crazy. Who would throw it away? You can't do it can you? Are YOU going back to a plus 1 Axe? Non-magical axe? Psh. Never. You just will only ever use it's NORMAL mode. You aren't going to activate it. Hell, even if you are, you are only going to do so at the BEGINNING of the fight where you have all your hit points. 

Never at the end of a fight. Never when things get dire and the bad guy has a ton of hit points left. Never as a last ditch effort to save your friends even if it means dying a heroic death where your character's souls is trapped in eternal torment so the DM can bring them back as the next antagonist in DEVIL mode, able to summon to his hands the very axe that doomed him as a bonus action!!!

Never. 

Anyway, that's it. A Literal Axe From Hell. 

I hope you get what you asked for. 

Proficiency with a Greataxe allows you to add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll for any attack you make with it.

Notes: Bonus: Magic, Damage: Fire, Damage: Necrotic, While on Fire, at the start of the wielder's turn (or when they pick it up) they take 2d12 necrotic damage. Their HP maximum is reduced by the amount taken. A long rest removes all loss to their HP maximum. , Heavy, Two-Handed, Cleave