A finely adorned round shield of pale marble and polished gold, set with orange gemstones and black-centered floral ornaments. A plump laughing face rests at its center, surrounded by carved revelers feasting among overflowing platters and goblets. The workmanship is exquisite, though the crooked smiles and thorned marble rose-and-vine straps lend the piece a distinctly unsettling character.
When this shield is equipped, the thorns adorning its straps pierce the wearer. The wearer takes piercing damage equal to the number of lavish meals they have eaten since the beginning of that day. This damage ignores resistance and immunity to piercing damage and can reduce the wearer to 0 hit points. Meals only count when taken during a short or long rest, and only one instance of a meal can be counted per rest regardless of the amount of food eaten.
The wearer then gains a number of temporary hit points equal to the damage taken due to this effect. If temporary hit points are gained this way, the number of lavish meals eaten that day resets to zero.
While holding this shield, you gain the following benefits:
- +2 to your Constitution ability score. This bonus is gained upon equipping the shield and lost if the shield becomes unequipped. Your maximum hit points increase or decrease accordingly when this bonus is gained or lost.
- The shield replaces the normal +2 AC bonus granted by a shield with an AC bonus equal to your Constitution modifier, to a maximum of +6. This maximum is referred to as the shield's AC bonus cap.
- Temporary hit points explained above, which are lost if the shield is unequipped.
Once attuned, the wearer and shield are soul bonded, with the wearer always aware of the shield's location.
Once the bond is formed, the shield must consume its own lavish meal at least once every 3 hours placed against the shield's central mouth, measured from the completion of its previous meal. A meal eaten by the wearer does not satiate the shield. It is up to the DM's discretion what constitutes a lavish meal, but unprepared foods, a random mixture of ingredients, or preserved foods in portions less than what one well-fed human noble would eat in a day will not satiate its hunger.
While the wearer is unconscious, the shield's normal 3-hour feeding requirement is suspended, and missed 3-hour feeding intervals do not accumulate. However, the shield's greater hunger cannot be indefinitely suppressed this way. If 12 consecutive hours pass without the shield consuming a lavish meal, whether the wearer is conscious or unconscious, the shield enters Insatiable Hunger. If the wearer has been unconscious for more than 3 hours but fewer than 12 hours since the shield's last meal, the shield immediately demands a meal when the wearer awakens.
For every 3 hours that pass while the shield is required to feed but is not given a lavish meal, its appearance begins to distort. The centermost face becomes increasingly angry, while the decorations and marble surrounding it begin to crack. The AC bonus granted by the shield is reduced by 1, to a minimum of +0. Each lavish meal subsequently consumed by the shield restores 1 point of AC lost in this way, up to the shield's current AC bonus cap.
If 12 consecutive hours pass without the shield consuming a lavish meal, regardless of whether the wearer is conscious or unconscious, the shield enters Insatiable Hunger.
Insatiable Hunger
Blood begins to pour from the cracks that have formed across the shield, and the faces carved within it twist in horror and disgust. The orange gemstones and rose-vine straps adorning the shield turn pitch black as the shield gains sentience and begins seeking food on its own. Its expressions may change, but the shield itself will never move on its own.
When Insatiable Hunger begins, and at the end of every hour thereafter, the shield emanates a 60-foot aura. Each creature within the aura that is not already charmed by the shield must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or become charmed by it. A creature already charmed by the shield remains charmed and does not make additional saving throws against subsequent emanations of this aura.
While charmed by this effect, each creature attempts to bring the shield a lavish meal. The meal must be acquired already prepared. A charmed creature may purchase, steal, retrieve, barter for, or otherwise obtain such a meal, but neither it nor another creature charmed by the shield can prepare or cook the meal themselves.
The charmed creatures shamble like the undead as they seek out suitable food before returning to the shield and feeding it.
The charm can be broken if dispelled or if the creature takes damage. Leaving the shield's 60-foot aura does not end the charm. Unless ended by one of these means, the charm persists regardless of time passed or distance traveled until the shield's Insatiable Hunger ends. When Insatiable Hunger ends, all creatures charmed by the shield are immediately released from the effect with vague memories of what occurred.
Once Insatiable Hunger begins, the shield attempts to feed itself by any means available. If it remains unfed, it instead begins feeding upon the soul-bonded wearer.
For each 24 hours that pass while the shield remains in Insatiable Hunger, the soul-bonded wearer's Constitution score is permanently reduced by 1d4. Constitution lost in this way cannot be recovered once lost.
If, when this reduction would occur, the wearer is benefiting from a magical item or magical effect that increases their Constitution by 2 or more, the shield instead destroys the magic item or ends the magical effect. The wearer is then cursed, preventing them from benefiting from that effect or that type of magic item again until Insatiable Hunger ends.
When this reduction causes the soul-bonded wearer's Constitution score to become 2 or lower, the shield immediately banishes both itself and its wearer to a separate planar realm known as the Plane of Sin.
Within the Plane of Sin, the face upon the shield is slowly drawn outward, its rigid surface distending until a swollen humanoid form is pulled free from it. A towering, grotesquely serene figure is left behind, its fixed smile unchanged as its chosen victim is relentlessly chased.
Once captured, the soul-bonded wearer is eaten with no trace left behind.
The devouring is absolute. Both the wearer's body and soul are consumed, and the creature cannot be returned to life by resurrection magic, divine intervention, a wish spell, or any other means.
The shield's Insatiable Hunger then ends.
Once its victim has been consumed, the monstrous figure withdraws back into the shield. Its cracks seal, the blood disappears, its blackened gemstones return to orange, its rose-vine straps regain their marble appearance, and the central face resumes its jovial expression.
The restored shield then returns from the Plane of Sin to the plane upon which it was originally discovered and teleports to a random location where grand festivities are held—or once were, even if only ruins remain.
Aspect of Sin
This item permanently emanates an Aspect of Sin aura. This aura is always active and cannot be suppressed, dispelled, or removed while the item continues to exist and is soul bonded. The item is considered an active ASPECT OF SIN for the purposes of any feature, effect, or property that detects or interacts with an ASPECT OF SIN aura.
The shield's AC bonus cap is increased by +1 for each other ASPECT OF SIN within 120 feet that remains soul bonded to its wearer. An ASPECT OF SIN does not need to be actively wielded, worn, or equipped for this property to function, so long as it remains attached to its soul-bonded wearer.
A creature cannot become soul bonded to more than one ASPECT OF SIN at a time. Once formed, this soul bond cannot be willingly broken. It can only be severed by a wish spell cast by the soul-bonded wearer. If the bond is severed in this way, this instance of ASPECT OF SIN is destroyed and all lingering effects caused by it are dispelled.
Shields require the Utilize action to Don or Doff. You gain the Armor Class benefit of a Shield only if you have training with it.
Notes: Attunement requires the user to follow or belong to a faith, cult, religion, or similar belief system associated with one or more of the Seven Deadly Sins. To begin attunement, the user must feed the shield a portion of their own blood once per day for 3 consecutive days. If the user fails to provide their blood on any of these days, the ritual fails and the three-day process must begin again. Upon receiving the third offering, the shield accepts the user and attunement is completed, forming the soul bond described by this item.
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